There, his name was out in the open. The thing that had come between them, broken them apart, had been acknowledged at last.
‘You can take it that I’m talking about whoever you want, whatever you want! But seeing as last night you were the one who was so insistent that I never mention that man’s name again so that we could let the memory fade, don’t you think it’s rather hypocritical of you to bring him into the conversation again at the first opportunity?’
His answer was a fierce, savage glare, one that turned his eyes molten gold with fury, but she told herself to ignore it.
‘After all, you were the one who invited your ex-mistress along on what was supposed to be a private party in that hotel.’
‘Catalina invited herself along,’ Luis snapped. ‘What did you expect me to do? Tell the hotel she wasn’t allowed to book in? I thought she’d be company for you.’
‘And I wouldn’t have needed company if you’d not taken yourself off to London. I was miserable. I had a cold and it was my birthday.’
She wasn’t going to admit how much the presence of the lovely Catalina had disturbed her. Beside the Spanish woman’s sultry beauty, she had felt pale, wan and insignificant.
‘So you made my life hell as a result. Tell me, do you enjoy dragging up the worst moments of our past together? Are you determined to drive me away all over again?’
‘On the contrary, I think that you’d better make your mind up, Luis. Either you want to talk this out, or you want to keep quiet. You can’t have it both ways. The next few days are going to be difficult enough…’
‘The next few days…’ Luis echoed, pouncing on the words like a hunter on its prey. ‘Does that mean that you’re coming with me?’
Had he actually doubted it? Isabelle found that hard to believe. But there was a rough edge to his voice, a disturbing shadow in his eyes that spoke of something very different from the unshakeable self-confidence and arrogant authority he usually displayed.
‘Did you give me any choice?’ she parried, green eyes flashing defiance as she met that predator’s stare head-on. ‘I thought it was a royal command and I had no chance of doing anything else.’
Abruptly his expression changed, the shadow in his eyes growing darker, deeper.
‘Not a command, querida,’ he said gruffly. ‘A request. One you could grant or refuse as it pleased you. If you come, I want you willing. I want you by my side as my wife…’
‘And this will be the real marriage you promised me?’
She could har
dly get the words out, they meant so much to her.
‘How could it be anything else?’ He looked astonished that she should even ask the question. ‘You will share my life and my bed. We will be husband and wife in every sense of the word.’
Isabelle’s face broke into a wide, brilliant smile of delight, her eyes glowing like emerald fire.
‘Then, in that case, I’ll come with you,’ she said, and when he held out his hand she put hers into it without hesitation.
That smile was in Luis’s mind now as he watched her face at the moment that she took in her first sight of his family home. It was one thing knowing that he lived in a castle, quite another being faced by this magnificent hill-top building, parts of which dated back to the sixteenth century.
Built in a warm honey-coloured stone, the castle was approached through gardens of orange groves, oleander and olive trees, beyond which stretched meadows and woodlands. And close by the main courtyard was an aromatic herb garden that scented the air softly.
Luis had stopped the car at the foot of the drive, suggested that they get out and walk from here, sending the chauffeur on ahead with their luggage.
‘It’s the best way to see the castle,’ he told Isabelle. ‘And besides, I need to talk to you. There are some things you need to know.’
Isabelle agreed without hesitation. The whole place was so unlike anything she had ever seen in her life that she needed time to adjust, to take in the reality of it. Perhaps if she walked up to it slowly, then she might be able to believe it.
‘This is where you live?’ She looked positively awestruck.
‘It’s where my parents live. I have my own villa some miles south of here. But my mother and father would never forgive me if I didn’t bring you to the family home for their first meeting with you.’
If he was honest, he had never really thought that this day would ever actually happen. Even as he’d knocked on the door of her flat this morning, he had wondered if she would refuse to come with him. He hadn’t known if she would welcome him or shut the door right in his face.
And the worrying thing had been how much that had disturbed him. He had found his pulse rate quickening as he’d approached her flat. The hand that he had raised to knock had been unnervingly unsteady.
Seeing her again last night had revived all the hunger, the passion he had once felt for Isabelle, and he had known that he had to have her back in his life, whatever it took. He didn’t care if she felt anything for him or not. She was the only woman who had ever made him feel this way, and right now that was enough.