Weird. This thing between them was strange. Good, but definitely strange. She now re
alized that her mom’s inability to fall for another guy had as much to do with her fear of what would happen when Amber was discovered for who she really was as her great love for Len Taylor.
“It is all good,” Sandor added, completing the round of approval for her new job.
She’d been a little stunned at first that no one had demurred when she’d said she didn’t want to be a model anymore. Then she’d latched onto the fact from a couple of things her mom and sister had said that they blamed her career in part for her near death experience from self-enforced starvation.
They blamed Miguel, too, and the stress of learning she’d been kidnapped as a baby. Her mom still felt guilty, no matter what Amber said. She hated that, but she couldn’t admit the truth. That her inability to eat was her own fault…she was the one who had killed her baby.
She couldn’t admit that to them, though.
If she allowed herself to feel, the grief and guilt would overwhelm her.
Ellie was looking at her worriedly again and she realized she’d let her façade of contentment slip. She was pulling it back into place, trying to project warm friendliness in her eyes when the doorbell rang. Seconds later her dad’s housekeeper led Miguel Menendez into the room.
He looked haggard. Dark circles under his eyes, thinner than she’d last seen him and his complexion was almost sallow with stress and fatigue. Even so, he was the most gorgeous thing her eyes had ever set on.
Shouldn’t she hate the sight of him? But she didn’t…only the feelings trying to break through her self-imposed barrier.
He ignored everyone else in the room and focused entirely on her. “Querida,we need to talk.”
The world went dark around the edges. She swayed.
He lurched toward her, his arms stretched out and he swore. In Chinese. Like the first time he cursed around her.
For some reason that was more than she could take and the blackness descended like a welcome blanket.
When she opened her eyes, he was there.
“Go away.”
“No.”
She glared, a surge of anger going through her. “I don’t want to see you.”
“Yes, you do. I screwed up. I need to fix it. We need each other.”
She sat up and realized she was on her bed. On top of the covers, not beneath them. “I don’t need you. Go away!”
A gasp from beside her had her head swerving. Her sister was next to her on the bed; Sandor stood beside her, his hand on her shoulder. Her mom stood just behind Miguel, looking as shocked as Amber felt. Like the first time she’d seen him, her dad was comforting her mom. It was sweet, but she wished they’d all go away. Not just Miguel.
All of them.
She didn’t need Miguel. She didn’t. She didn’t want to need anyone. She didn’t deserve to. She hadn’t been there for the tiny being who had needed her and no one else. She’d let that newly formed person down.
Pain clogged her throat and she realized she was swallowing back tears. This wasn’t right. She couldn’t feel. She didn’t want to.
“Go away, Miguel, please—” Her voice broke and she had to breathe deeply to keep the tears at bay.
“I am not going anywhere.”
“That is not for you to say. This is my home and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you stay here and upset my daughter.”
Miguel didn’t look shocked at that revealing speech. He didn’t look impacted by it at all. His eyes never left her face. “You are mine, Amber, and I am yours.”
“No.” She shook her head, frantic for him to leave. “I can’t be yours. Not anymore.”
“That’s it.” Her dad’s hand landed on Miguel’s shoulder and her Catalan ex-lover tensed as if ready for battle.