The Spaniard's Woman - Contemporary Romance (11 page)

Restlessly, she picked at the food on her plate while she thought back to what he’d said earlier. What would Gabriel think if he really knew the truth, that he was the only man she had ever slept with? Rhianna knew perfectly well that she would be considered a sexual novice by anyone’s standards. It would have been laughably ironic that he should believe her to be some kind of professional mistress when the truth was almost exactly the opposite. Rhianna closed her eyes briefly; this whole situation would have been funny if it didn’t hurt so much.

Three years ago she had left Spain to forge a new life for herself and her child. And she had succeeded, working hard to establish a stable, if unexciting, existence. Until Gabriel had stormed back into her life and the intense passion that she had believed she would never experience again had swept her up again and
that
had been her undoing.

If she was to make any headway with Gabriel, she had to find a way to convince him that her motives were pure, even if her responses to him were not. No easy job when it seemed he had developed a deep distrust of women in the years they had been apart.

Her introspection was interrupted by Dylan who was tugging at her skirt impatiently. ‘Mommy, I need to go to the toilet.’ Rhianna half rose to her feet but Gabriel waved a hand at her before holding it out to his son. ‘What is your mama thinking, hey?’ he demanded. ‘This is obviously a man’s job,
mi
hijo
.’

Rhianna hesitated for a moment, but settled back down on her chair. That was something else she supposed she would have to get used to. For three years she had been doing everything for Dylan but with his father now on the scene, some tasks would suddenly be shared between them. Gabriel seemed more than willing to be a hands on kind of father which was surprising because, while Spanish men were heavily into families, some chores were left strictly in the domain of the women. A Spanish father taught his son to be a man. He usually left the less palatable jobs to the mother. Despite her mixed feelings about Gabriel, Rhianna was pleased that he had decided to deal with the more mundane aspects of fatherhood. It could only help to foster the relationship that was quickly burgeoning between father and son.

She sighed, leaning back in the chair and tried to enjoy the feel of the early morning sunlight on her shoulders, willing some of the tension to leave her body. She still had to meet Senora Ortega, an ordeal she would have preferred to do without today. But the Ortegas were the reason she and Dylan were here and there was no escaping it. Before her, the Mediterranean stretching out endlessly, impossibly blue in the clear morning light. Rhianna stared at the water and tried not to think about what lay ahead.

‘It is a beautiful day, is it not
Senorina
?’ The voice shook her free from her reverie. Rhianna turned her head and discovered a young man standing several feet away, smiling at her.

‘Very beautiful,’ Rhianna agreed, giving him a small smile in return. That was one thing she had forgotten about Spain. A solitary woman was fair game for any stray man who happened to be passing by. Flirting was practically a national sport.

‘You are not from Spain, so much is obvious. You are a visitor to Barcelona?’ His expression was openly admiring.

‘I am,’ Rhianna agreed wryly, wondering where Gabriel and Dylan were. She didn’t want to talk to strange young men, no matter how personable they might be. In her time in Spain, Rhianna had grown used to the blatant interest of the opposite sex who had seemed to find her fair skin and silvery hair to be extraordinarily interesting but she had never been truly comfortable with it.

‘My name is Carlos Santiago. I cannot tell you how delighted I am to meet you.’

Rhianna opened her mouth to reply but before she could say a word, a deep voice spoke with cool assurance behind her. ‘Then do not bother to do so. It would be a pity to waste any more of your breath.’

Carlos’ expression suddenly became wary. Rhianna felt a hand close on her shoulder, warm and unmistakably possessive and she winced inwardly. Gabriel had never been very happy when men approached her. ‘
Mis apologias
,’ Carlos murmured, inclining his head to Rhianna. ‘I will be on my way. But I trust that you have a very pleasant stay in Barcelona. And if you are interested in an excellent meal,’ he added with an irrepressible smile, ‘I work in a little cafe called the
La Gallina Roja
.’

‘Adios
, Senor Santiago,’ Gabriel said grimly.

Rhianna offered him a quick smile. ‘Have a pleasant day.’

He gave her a brilliant smile. ‘
Gracias senorita hermoso
. And you as well.’

Rhianna turned her head and looked up at Gabriel, who was watching Carlos Santiago walk away, expression forbidding. It was at times like this that she felt the yawning gap in their cultures. In the past she had found his possessive attitude to be rather endearing, a sign of his feelings for her. Now she was a whole lot wiser and anger stirred inside her. Gabriel Ortega had absolutely no right to dictate who she did or didn’t talk to. Dylan came around to climb up into his mother’s lap and she kissed his forehead. ‘Are we ready to go, then?’

‘Uh-huh. Who was that man?’

‘A stranger,’ Gabriel snapped, before she could reply. He scowled down at her. ‘You should not talk to men you do not know.’

‘Which would cover any man in Spain,’ Rhianna returned coolly. She stood up, lifting Dylan with her as she rose. Automatically, Gabriel reached out and took him from her and they began to walk back towards the hotel.

‘He was flirting with you,’ Gabriel said, after a moment. It was obvious that the brief encounter had soured his mood.

Rhianna’s lips tightened. This was ridiculous. ‘He’s Spanish. All Spanish men seem to think that foreign women are easy.’ The unspoken implication was that he was well and truly in this category. ‘Surely you’re not surprised that he tried to chat me up?’ she added bitterly.

Gabriel shot her a dark look. ‘I do not want you to speak to strange men.’

‘I’ll try to keep that in mind,’ Rhianna snapped and they spent the rest of the walk back to the hotel in grim silence.

After settling the hotel bill, Gabriel had their bags loaded into the trunk of the flame red convertible he had hired for the journey. Rhianna eyed the car - which had a child restraint in the back - and raised an eyebrow. Gabriel might have embraced fatherhood with a passion but it was obvious he wasn’t about to invest in a traditional family wagon any time soon.

It took a little time to weave through the crowded streets of Barcelona and break free of the city but when they did, they stayed on the coast road. Despite the fact that Rhianna had seen it all before she was still awed by the beauty of the countryside. After an hour or so, Dylan fell asleep in his seat, overcome by fresh air and all the unfamiliar activity. Rhianna had remained silent for most of the drive, preoccupied with the knowledge that Gabriel had brought her to Spain under false pretenses. Time after time her thoughts went back to what he’d said about her relationship with Grady back in the hotel and the implications that went with that conversation.

At lease when we were together before, he never thought I was out for whatever I could get
, she reflected bleakly,
and yet now, I feel like I have to defend every move I’ve ever made in the past three and a half years
... The knowledge frustrated her.

Determinedly, she pushed these thoughts aside for the moment and looked ahead to her forthcoming meeting with Gabriel’s mother.

When they had been together, Gabriel had occasionally mentioned his family but Rhianna hadn’t liked to ask questions, worried that he would think that she being nosy. She’d actually believed that in time, Gabriel would take her home to meet them but no invitation had ever been forthcoming. She could remember quite clearly her one Christmas in Spain, a very lonely affair, which she’d spent at their villa, waiting for Gabriel who had been fulfilling his family obligations. He had come to her that night but it had been so late that she’d fallen asleep on the sofa, waking only when he’d carried her to bed.

Now she was finally going to meet the family that she had wondered about but the circumstances were very different than she had originally envisioned they’d be. She was not looking forward to what lay ahead and yet she knew, by virtue of the fact that these people were her son’s new family, that this meeting was inevitable. Rhianna might have allowed herself to indulge in a few pleasant fantasies that Isobel Ortega would be the warmly maternal type who would be delighted to take an unworldly young woman under her wing, but she feared the reality would be very different. Perhaps she had picked up more from Gabriel in the past than she had realized, but Rhianna suspected that Isobel Ortega would be formidable.

They stopped for coffee in one of the towns that sat high above the ocean below and Gabriel carried two cups out to the car so that Rhianna could stay close to the still sleeping Dylan. He’d pulled the nose of the car close to the barrier of the carpark and she perched on the hood, resting her feet on the iron railing and watching the blue water below. There was a light breeze coming in off the ocean and it was pleasantly warm. Gabriel handed her a coffee then sat beside her.

‘You have been very quiet.’ he observed.

‘I’ve been thinking about your family. About your mother. I’ve been wondering how she’s going to react to my sudden appearance.’

Gabriel arched an eyebrow. ‘And why would you wonder such a thing?’

Rhianna made a face, knowing perfectly well that he was genuinely puzzled by her uncertainty. Gabriel would find her concerns to be incomprehensible. As the only son of a wealthy, influential family he would have been the center of attention since he was born, quite sure of his place in the scheme of things. Not for him the uncertainty of life without anybody to call his own. One of the few things that Rhianna
did
know was that his father had died when he was seventeen and from that day forward he had shouldered the responsibilities of his family, taking on the position as head of his household and running the affairs of the Ortegas. With a background like that, how could he possible understand that Rhianna might dread the forthcoming meeting? Especially when, three years ago, he had made the decision that she wasn’t suitable to joined the ranks of his illustrious family. ‘Tell me about them,’ she said abruptly. ‘Tell me about your family.’

Gabriel stared at her for a moment longer, then turned to gaze at the view. He was wearing sunglasses and they acted as a shield for his thoughts. After a minute or so, he shrugged. ‘What is there to tell? I live with my mother and my sister, Liani. She is twenty-two and has just finished university,’ he gave her a quick glance. ‘Is this the kind of thing you wish to know?’

‘It’s a start I suppose. How did they react when you told them about Dylan?’

‘My mother was delighted,’ he replied, but there was a sudden, underlying tension in his voice that told her there had probably been a great deal more to that conversation than he was prepared to tell her.

‘Really?’ Rhianna said skeptically. ‘And did she ask about me?’

‘Of course she did.’ Gabriel continued to stare across the water.

Rhianna shifted restlessly. ‘Well? What did you say?’

‘I told her that you were my business,’ he said flatly. ‘You worry for nothing, Rhianna. My mother is pleased to hear that I have a son. She took Ana’s death badly. She wanted grandchildren, somebody to carry the name of the Ortega’s on. And now,’ he added, voice dry, ‘now she has one.’

Rhianna remained silent, wondering if the lack of a grandson to carry on the family name was the only reason Isobel Ortega regretted the loss of her daughter-in-law. This was the first time that Gabriel had said his wife’s name since he had told her of Ana’s death back in Sydney. After the way he had reacted, she hadn’t liked to bring the subject up again. But now, when they were fast approaching his home, the need for information outweighed the need for delicacy. ‘How did Ana die, Gabriel?’

Gabriel’s long fingers tightened around the cup he was holding. He was silent for so long that Rhianna was beginning to think he wouldn’t answer her and the silence continued, growing more uncomfortable by the minute. Finally, just when she was about to say something, anything that would break the sudden tension, he spoke, voice harsh. ‘A car accident on the road outside of Mazarron. She was undoubtedly driving too fast and she lost control of the car.’

Rhianna winced. Ana Ortega had had a tragic ending. The pain of her death must have hurt Gabriel badly because there was no disguising the raw edge to his voice. She wondered what the woman had done that had moved him to declare that all women were liars, out for what they could get. ‘I’m sorry. Had you been married long?’

‘Twelve months.’ Gabriel said briefly, rising to his feet. Apparently that particular conversation was over. He couldn’t have been more obvious if he’d posted warning signs declaring the subject off limits. ‘Come; it is time we were moving on.’

Rhianna hesitated. The restless noise of the ocean below was soothing and she knew a sudden reluctance to climb back in the car and continue on with their journey to
Castillo Por El Mar
, or the Castle By The Sea, as it was called. In fact, what she really wanted to do was to ask Gabriel to turn the car around and take Dylan and herself back to Barcelona. He would refuse to do so, of course and she felt a sense of entrapment, held captive by her own lack of resources. It really did seem that she and Dylan were completely in Gabriel’s hands, at least for the moment. Even though she had enough money to survive in a foreign country, she had no transport, no connections and no friends here. If she was desperate for a friendly voice she knew she could always call Grady - indeed, he had made that perfectly clear before she’d left - but what was he supposed to do back in Sydney?