He doesn’t want me.
She had to accept that.
It made her chest grow tight, though. Her throat ached. She ducked under the water to hide how she was tearing up. She stayed there, diving deep and crawling along the bottom until her lungs were about to burst, only coming to the surface when she reached the stairs.
“Pah!” She stood and wiped the water from her eyes.
Cinnia had come to her feet and was saying hello to someone.
Henri had returned with a striking blond man in tailored dark gray pants and a collared T-shirt that hugged the fit muscles of his shoulders and revealed his tanned gorgeous biceps.
The newcomer glared at her from his familiar, laser blue eyes. “Should you be swimming?”
Suddenly dizzy, Trella panted, “Hola, cariño. I missed you, too.”
* * *
Xavier was distantly aware of Henri retreating with his wife, but if the woman had a name, he had already forgotten it. His entire focus was eaten up by the way Trella rose from the water like Venus herself.
Water sluiced down her body, washing away the grinding aggravation that had propelled him here. He had needed to see her without understanding why. He might have labeled it homesickness if that wasn’t such a juvenile emotion and he was in Elazar, not a part of Spain he’d never seen before.
But he’d come here with single-minded determination and when he’d finally clapped eyes on her, she’d been on the bottom of the pool, trying to give him a heart attack all over again.
All his concern, pining and every other thought in his head drained away, however, as she walked toward him.
Coming here was a mistake. He saw that as clearly as he saw she wore a red bikini, the triangles of fabric tied off at her hips and between her breasts. She had been quite comely with the weight of a baby distending her middle, always turning herself out stylishly, even when she’d been in the hospital.
Keeping his mind off sex while she’d been in a delicate condition had been, if not easy, at least quickly forestalled by worst-case scenarios. He had told himself any attraction he still felt was a byproduct of his not having had sex since they’d made the baby sleeping in the cot to his left. Maybe the two kisses they’d shared had ambushed his memory when it was least convenient. Definitely, he relived their night in Paris far too often.
It all added up to an obsession he should have put behind him by now.
He hadn’t.
Her approach coiled him tight. He hadn’t seen her naked since Paris and her hourglass figure was as spectacular as his libido recalled. Better. Glittering droplets sparkled on her golden skin and her breasts were positively voluptuous, swaying as she padded toward him, bare feet slapping the tile.
His mouth watered. A distinctly male pulse tugged behind the fly of his pants. He had to resist a telltale swallow and consciously regulated his breathing. The animal, that restless beast that had been scratching and digging inside him, howled as she drew near, wanting to leap on her. Reunite.
“What are you—?” She was squeezing water from her hair, but as she met his gaze, her eyes widened in reaction, pupils exploding like fireworks. Her breath caught, expanding her chest and drawing his attention to her nipples, already sharp from the chill, but poking even harder under his gaze.
“Wh-what are you doing here?” Her hand went to a nearby chair back as if she needed to steady herself.
He was acting directly against his responsibilities, despite the rationalizations he’d concocted. Angry with himself for the hunger clawing through him, he searched his brain for the reasons that underpinned his arrival.
“I’m taking you to Madrid. You’ll stay with me there.”
Her shoulders fell. “You don’t trust me?”
That wasn’t it, but he didn’t want to admit—even to himself—that he hadn’t been able to wait three more nights to see them. Not just his son. Her.
He found his gaze straying to the curve of her hips and the dip of her navel and forced his attention to drag across to the infant in a pale green onesie. The strangest yank in his chest had him stooping to pick up the boy.
The sleeping baby gave a small start of surprise, fingers splaying, then relaxed into a warm ball against the hollow of Xavier’s shoulder. He felt heavier. Sturdier.
“He’s growing.”
“He is.” She wrapped a towel around her middle, hands shaking. “Xavier, I swear I wasn’t trying to avoid coming back. The wedding is a rushed thing. Izzy’s father has been ill. It’s a big deal for him to be able to walk her down the aisle so they’re indulging him. It’s also the only chance for the bunch of us to be together for the foreseeable future. That’s why I need to be there.”