“You think far too much.” Naldo softened his grip. His gleaming black eyes met hers and he pushed a stray strand of hair off her forehead. “Too much thinking can confuse you. Sometimes you just have to act.”
“It’s all so sudden. One minute you’re desperate to get rid of me, throwing money at me and trying to make me disappear. Now you want me to stay? It doesn’t make sense.”
She still couldn’t get over the nagging suspicion that this was all part of his plan to reclaim the land and the jewels.
“Trust me, I’ve done everything in my power to make myself see sense.” Naldo tilted his proud head. “I’ve told myself time and again that it’s better for the family and the estate if you leave. I know that. As heir to the estate I should settle down into a ‘sensible’ marriage. But I don’t want to, I want you.”
The passion in his words tugged at something deep inside her. But the words themselves stung like a hard slap.
She was right.
He would never marry her.
It didn’t even occur to him that she might be offended by him saying it out loud. Obviously the idea was so impossible that it didn’t even bear consideration.
She pulled out of his arms and flew across the room, her breath coming in gulps. She took a deep breath. Common sense for her was taking what he offered. Four million dollars. As Isabela had said, the offer might not last.
Naldo looked at her steadily. “If you like, you could still live in the cottage. I know it means a lot to you.”
His words made her bite her lip. The offer was a big sacrifice for him. Tongues would wag like crazy. The boss visiting the servants’ quarters in time-honored tradition. But the prospect of being able to live here among the groves, in Paradiso, quickened her pulse.
And if he could make the rash step of giving in to his lust for her, maybe one day he might take an even rasher step…
But what if he didn’t?
What if he used her the way two men had used her mother? Without ever promising marriage, or any commitment beyond an evening of pleasure.
It would break her heart.
“I think you should leave now.” She said it softly. She didn’t want him to leave at all. She wanted him to stay, forever. To hold her in his arms and promise her all those things that hadn’t even crossed his mind. That probably never would.
Naldo reached into his back pocket. “Here’s the revised contract. Just so you know I mean what I say.” He placed the slim envelope on the table.
He parted with a brief kiss that left her lips humming and her mind spinning. She sank into a chair at the kitchen table as his engine purred down the drive.
She could have it all. More money than she could have imagined, Naldo, and glorious days living here in the most beautiful place on earth.
But for how long?
The cottage and the land were a place to call home. Should she take cold cash for a gift her mother might have wanted her to cherish and protect for a lifetime?
And what about the recipes? Perhaps she should investigate what legal rights she might be able to secure in her mother’s name?
No. Her mom created those recipes for the estate, the place she loved and the people she loved. She must have been thrilled to contribute to their prosperity in such a tangible way.
She picked up the beautiful book and leafed through the pages that shone with love and care. The delicate line drawings revealed such a different side to the gruff landowner she remembered, the man who’d made her mother happy.
And now that she thought about it, maybe her mother had tried to tell her about her late-in-life love. Snatches of fond conversation, chivalrous visits from “the boss,” the new grove of trees, a new light in her mom’s eyes…
And dismissive teenaged put-downs from Anna’s own lips. The voice of insecurity and unease drawing a sharp line between her tiny family and the mighty De Leons who employed them.
Her mother had decided to keep quiet about the love of her life, perhaps not wanting her own relationship, which began as adultery, held up to the harsh light of Anna’s exacting standards.
She bit her knuckle hard, trying not to cry. All or nothing, that’s you, Anna. You have to have it all, or you don’t want any of it. She was no different from Naldo. Wanting everything black and white, with no gray areas.
She wanted marriage, a lifetime of love, a real family where her children had a mother and a father.
Her mom was probably right to keep quiet about her affair with Robert De Leon. She would have poked and prodded and pried. She would have asked, “Why won’t he marry you?” She wouldn’t have understood.
She could understand now, though, after the dismal failure of her own marriage.
True love is not so easy to find.
Her mom must have accepted that Robert De Leon would never marry her. She must have woven that acceptance into the fabric of her life with the quiet strength she’d used to weather so much adversity.
She stood and closed the book.
Could she do the same thing with Naldo? Learn to accept that life wasn’t black and white, all or nothing? Love this proud and demanding man, even though he would likely never want to make her his wife and partner?
Could she? She bit her lip hard. Probably not.
Anna came back from town with groceries to cook herself a real dinner. She’d pulled the van up close to the house, with the plan to unpack her belongings from it tomorrow.
She was about to sit down to a salad of chicken, Asian noodles, and fresh orange segments from the Summer’s Shadow grove, when she heard a car pull up outside. A glance out the window curdled her appetite.
Isabela.
She was up and at the door before Isabela had a chance to knock. “I’m just sitting down to dinner. What is it?”
Isabela didn’t remove her dark glasses despite the setting sun. “Naldo told me you still haven’t sold to him.” Anna heard emotion in her voice and wondered if it was real or fake. “What are you trying to do? Don’t you know that every day you stay here prolongs the scandal?”
“You’ve got some nerve talking about scandal when you planted that story in the paper.” Anna stepped through the doorway, intentionally crowding the chiffon-clad diva.
“I thought I could convince Naldo to sell. That whispers and rumors would make him want to leave. I never intended for them to know that my brother was fooling around with the cook’s daughter. Obviously neither you nor he has any shame. What if the European paparazzi gets hold of this?”
Her voice shook. Her big, black glasses hid her eyes, and Anna could only guess at the fury behind the reflective surface.
She couldn’t help laughing. “You are kidding! Why on earth would the European paparazzi care about what’s going on in a sleepy little Florida town?
“I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand.” Isabela’s lips puckered into a moue of distaste. “The De Leons are one of the oldest families in Europe, and everything we do is of interest.”
In your dreams. Anna crossed her arms and congratulated herself on holding her tongue.
“I have a name in the arts,” Isabela spat. Chiffon ruffles fluttered as she gestured with a plump pale hand. “I’ll be a laughingstock.”
Anna choked back the laughter bubbling up inside her. No sense insulting Naldo’s sister if she could help it. She was his family after all and Naldo was big on family. “I hardly see how, but perhaps you should go back to Paris immediately and try to save your reputation. If you don’t mind, I have dinner to eat.”
“Listen to me.” Finally the glasses came off. Beady black eyes seized Anna’s attention. “If you don’t leave, now, you’ll destroy Naldo the way your mother destroyed our family. You’re casting some kind of sick spell over him, just like your mother did with our father. He’s lost all sense of propriety! You’ve brought nothing but scandal and dishonor to the family since you arrived. Take the money-or don’t take it if you’re too proud and stubborn to admit you need it-but leave before you cause any more damage.”
She turned on her stacked heels and flounced across the unmowed lawn to her car.
