Sexy, yes. Sensual. Beautiful. But it wasn’t just her beauty that drew him in. It was her strength, the gentle nature she hid from all but the privileged few who got to see her commitment and loyalty.
When they’d gazed at the abbey, standing almost in the exact spot he remembered first viewing those ancient walls with his mother, a sense of rightness had settled over him. Just as Calandra had envisioned taking their child to the top of the Eiffel Tower, he saw himself standing with his son or daughter in the midst of the lavender, their tiny hand engulfed in his grasp.
That vision had included Calandra by his side. Where she was meant to be.
So he’d done what he’d been pushing her to do all week—he’d opened up. Told her everything. Either she could accept him, all of him, or she couldn’t.
Yes, she’d initiated sex. She’d responded with even more wild abandon, more passion than he had ever dreamed of.
But for the first time, sex wasn’t enough. He needed her to trust him, to believe him capable of managing whatever life they were going to forge together as much as she believed in his ability to makeLa Reinaa success.
He distracted himself from his tumultuous thoughts by tugging his phone out of his pocket and checking his email. An update that one of the new ships was on track to be completed next month, pending a final inspection. Another about how the news of the impending new ship had spread and seventy-two percent of their cargo space had been booked in the past twenty-four hours alone, with more calls coming in.
All excellent news. More positives he could bring to the meeting and the vote on Saturday. Already he’d received emails congratulating him from three of the seven board members. Just one more on his side and he’d be clear.
So why could he not focus? Why, when everything he wanted was within reach, was he so distracted?
Distracted by the woman out on the balcony who had worked her way into his heart long ago and he was only just now realizing it? He’d been falling for her for years. It had taken a night of incredible, mind-blowing, soul-searing sex and an unexpected child to make him realize that how he felt about her went far deeper than casual attraction.
Yet still she held back.
Calandra opened her eyes, not seeing him in the shadows beyond the door. She stood and slowly moved to the edge of the balcony, her back to him. Drawn like a moth to a flame, he stood and walked out onto the balcony, his eyes fixed on her. Her shoulders tensed with every step he took.
She didn’t look back at him, just kept her eyes trained on the lavender fields laid out below them. The setting sun bathed the fields in a golden light that made the flowers glow like violet fire.
One of the most romantic places he’d ever been. His hand started to come up, to slide around Calandra’s waist and pull her against him, savor the warmth of her body. A natural reaction to being in such a relaxed setting with an attractive woman by his side.
The urge to press a kiss to her hair, to slide his hand around and let it rest over the gentle swell of her stomach, was unnatural.
Without Alejandro Cabrera, international playboy extraordinaire, he didn’t know who to be. But every time he thought about Calandra, not as an employee or business partner, but as a woman, as the mother of his child, he saw whom he wanted to become.
Calandra closed her eyes and leaned back into Alejandro’s embrace. She forced herself to breathe as she felt the warmth of his body kiss her skin.
“I remember as a child I was afraid of heights.” She let her hands settle over his and opened her eyes, savoring the incredible landscape before her. “I’m so glad I overcame that.”
“I won’t let you fall.”
Too late. I’ve already fallen.
His words made her want to melt. For years, she’d been the one to keep Johanna safe. Aunt Norine had been a wonderful guardian, but her age, coupled with her health, had made Calandra the one who ensured Johanna got off to school in the morning, who helped with cleaning and other chores around the house. She’d been in charge ever since she was seven and Mother had stopped getting out of bed. It had gotten lonely, leading all the time. But she’d gotten used to it.
Until now. Until now when this man cradled her in his arms like she was the most delicate of treasures. When the slightest touch seared her skin.
When he’d opened his heart to her.
“I told you that my father was larger than life. He also had a proclivity for living to the fullest. At least that’s how he’d termed it.”
Words she’d never thought she’d express bubbled up inside her, threatened to suffocate her as they piled up in her throat. She’d kept everything inside for so long. People had labeled her stuck-up and bitchy when she kept her distance. Gradually, she came to think of herself as such. Cold, calculating, unsympathetic. Once in a while she experienced a flash of emotion. But she kept to herself because she didn’t know how to handle them, how to be anything but detached. Detached was safe. Detached was bulletproof.
Detached was lonely. And the more time she spent around Alejandro, the more she suspected she had done herself a great disservice living so distantly from other human beings.
As if he sensed the dark place she’d slipped into, he pressed a kiss to her cheek.
Strength.He gave her strength.
“I don’t know when my mother found out he was cheating. I do know that around the time I turned seven, she started to fade. Didn’t come down as often to meals, didn’t go out on family drives. My father also started spending more and more time away. I would get up in the morning, bring tea to my mother and beg her to drink something. She eventually would, but I usually had to cry to get her to.” She blinked hard. “I remember the first magazine one of the girls brought in. A photo of Dad getting out of a car in Bora Bora, a young lady in the front seat with him, his secretary. He had his hand up, like he was trying to cover up the camera lens.”
She could still see the woman in her mind’s eyes, the tiny red dress, the sky-high heels.