Cinderella's Christmas Secret - Sharon Kendrick Page 0,23
she wished she’d remembered to bring gloves with her. Her coat felt inadequately thin and the breath leaving her mouth was coming out in big, white puffs. She was just beginning to wonder if anyone was at home when the door of the castle opened with a creak and she turned to see Maximo standing before her, his powerful frame outlined by its arching wooden frame. Hollie felt her stomach somersault and silently cursed—but what could she do about her instinctive reaction? Despite everything which had happened between them, she obviously hadn’t acquired any immunity to him. And no wonder. Dressed in his habitual black, he looked as if he had arrived from another age. As if he were thoroughly at home in this windswept citadel, high on a hill. A conquistador, Janette had once called him and, with all that powerful and brooding darkness he exuded, didn’t her boss have a point?
‘Hollie,’ he said. His rich Spanish accent filtered over her skin like velvet but there was a frown creasing his brow. ‘This is a...surprise.’
And obviously an unwelcome one, judging by his acid tone. ‘I have some papers for you to sign,’ she said, instantly on the defensive, determined to ensure he understood she was there because she had to be and not because she wanted to be. ‘Also...’ flushing, she bent to retrieve the large white box from the doorstep, which she held towards him ‘...Janette wanted you to have this.’
‘What is it?’ he questioned, eying the box warily.
A few random snowflakes fluttered onto her cheeks and she shuffled from one foot to the other, feeling acutely embarrassed by the cold lack of welcome in his eyes. Suddenly she understood the expression about wishing the ground would open up and swallow you. ‘It’s a cake.’
‘A cake?’ he echoed.
‘We wanted to...well, it was Janette’s idea, actually. She wanted to celebrate the sale of Kastelloes and so she asked me to bake you a cake.’
‘And does she ask you to do this for all your purchasers?’ he questioned silkily as he took the box from her. ‘Or should I be flattered?’
Something about the sarcastic way he said it made Hollie’s temper suddenly erupt. She had tried doing this in a polite and professional manner yet he still seemed so full of himself. So full of arrogant provocation and mockery. Did he think she’d concocted some kind of flimsy excuse just in order to see him? She wasn’t that desperate. ‘Christmas is supposed to be a time for giving, isn’t it?’ she retorted. ‘Perhaps that was one of the reasons she asked me to do it. And you don’t have to eat it, you know,’ she added. ‘You can always feed it to the birds. I’m sure they’d appreciate something to line their stomachs in this cold weather.’
‘I’m sure they would,’ he said. As if on cue, a flurry of snow came cascading down from the straining sky, straight onto her sleek head, and Maximo reluctantly acknowledged the growing tension inside him.
He had come to this ancient castle specifically to escape Christmas, because it was a festival he avoided wherever possible. It provided the ideal bolt-hole and he’d planned to spend a few days there before he had the building razed to the ground. He hadn’t imagined that anybody would come near him and he hadn’t wanted them to. Yet now Hollie Walker had turned up, reminding him of his harsh new reality. Forcing him to acknowledge the child growing in her belly—a fact which was complicated by the realisation that he would like nothing better than to take her into his arms and kiss her again. To strip her of her drab clothing and reveal the luscious body which lay beneath. To lose himself in her sweetness as he had done on that rain-lashed night.
His mouth twisted, because what would be the point of that? He was not going to be a part of her life, or her child’s. He had given her the details of his lawyer, so she could be in no doubt that he would be more than generous. Because providing financially for Hollie and her baby was something he could do. The only thing he could do. A child needed love and he did not know how to give love. His heart was damaged—his emotions shredded. He had accepted that a long time ago.
So why not just sign the damned papers, enthuse over the damned cake and then send her on her way, no matter how