Page 14 of Claiming His Baby At The Altar

His gaze fell back on her. ‘Yes. We both have selfish fathers.’

There was little of Flora’s life Ramos didn’t already know. He’d been an intrinsic part of it for many years.

‘What was your mother like?’ she asked. For obvious reasons—the obvious being that she’d spent more than half her life actively avoiding conversation with him—she knew little about his childhood and home life apart from the things Justin had mentioned. She knew his mother had died of sepsis when he was ten, the only story Justin had ever related to her about Ramos that had made her heart pang for him.

‘Bossy.’ His mouth made a swirling motion. ‘Very bossy. And very good at getting her own way. Like a sensei. She would make me put my toys away or straighten my clothes just by looking at me.’

She smiled. ‘My mum could be like that too. With Justin. Not me. I always put my toys away.’ Flora’s mum had more than made up for her useless father.

‘I remember,’ he said drily. ‘You were always such a serious child.’

‘Not always.’

‘Always when I saw you. And disapproving of me too—I would walk into a room and your little nose would go in the air.’

He was more perceptive than she’d credited. Ramos was so staggeringly arrogant she’d assumed he’d never noticed her hostility.

‘I thought you were a bad influence on Justin,’ she admitted.

A shadow immediately fell on his face. ‘No one can be a bad influence on him,’ he denied tautly.

‘You were.’

‘No.’

‘He was always trying to impress you.’

He shrugged. ‘Most people try to impress me.’ The shadow lifted and a smile played on his lips. ‘You are one of the rare exceptions.’

Unsure whether he was complimenting her or not, unsure whether she wanted it to be a compliment or not, she cautiously asked, ‘Where is he?’

‘Hillier? Probably celebrating his reprieve in a hotel bar with a woman or two on his arm.’

She ignored the slight on her brother’s morals. They were traits he’d picked up from this man, but, with her body and emotions softened from her newborn baby, not something she wanted to think about right then.

‘So he is free?’

‘That was the deal.’ An edge had come into his voice. ‘Hillier gets away with stealing from me and can resume his life as if nothing happened.’

‘Hardly. His life is ruined.’

His eyes turned cold. ‘He has no one to blame but himself.’

‘He knows that.’ She swallowed. ‘He’s desperate to make amends with you.’

‘He could start by repaying the million euros he stole from me but seeing as he stole from my casino to repay debts incurred at my rival’s casino, I will never see that money again.’

‘He was in over his head and not in his right mind,’ she reminded him quietly. ‘You know how badly Mum’s death affected him.’

He knew too how close and protective her brother had been of his mother and sister, the self-proclaimed man of the house since the age of seven when their mum had kicked their dad out. All those weekends Ramos spent in the Hillier family home were because his party animal best mate needed to satisfy himself the females in his family were well.

Justin might have hidden the depths of his despair at her death from Ramos, but Ramos knew all about it because Flora had explained most of it to him the night she’d turned up at his home.

He’d heard her out. His expression had been inscrutable as she’d explained how Justin had developed a gambling addiction and how the owners of the casino he’d been secretly going to had continually extended his credit until he owed them a few grand shy of a million euros. The dark swirling in Ramos’s eyes had convinced her she was getting through to him, but she’d never had the chance to lay everything out because the dark swirling had intensified and...

And she didn’t want to remember what happened next. It had been madness. Heavenly madness.

Jaw clenched, Ramos tilted his head back and fixed his gaze on the ceiling. When he eventually spoke it was through teeth that were clearly gritted together. ‘My mother died when I was a child. I didn’t use that as an excuse to lie and cheat and steal, and I cannot believe that your mother would accept her death as an excuse for Hillier to do all that to me.’

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