Cinderella's Christmas Secret - Sharon Kendrick Page 0,55

lusted after, she probably could have accepted it. If he’d kept it coldly businesslike from the beginning, then perhaps she wouldn’t have built up all those fantasies in her head. But he hadn’t and that had given her imagination a free rein. No wonder she thought she’d seen a look of triumph on his face when he’d asked if they could announce the pregnancy. He was probably rubbing his hands with glee at the thought of all that new power.

She picked up her phone, turning it over and over in her hand before finally tapping her fingers over the keypad. It took longer than it should have done but that was because her hands were trembling so much. She kept the message short—because, really, it all boiled down to one simple fact whichever way you looked at it.

Maximo...

A tear dripped onto the back of her hand and, impatiently, she shook it away before continuing to type.

Being back in Devon has given me a bit of time to reflect on things and I just don’t think it’s going to work out between us.

Her finger hovered as she battled between the desire to put as much distance between them as possible and the knowledge that she needed to act like a grown-up.

If you like we can talk in a couple of days. Hollie.

She didn’t put any kisses, and that drove home the realisation that there had never been any of the stuff which defined most normal love affairs. No letters or texts of undying devotion. Just sex and a baby and a big diamond ring. She thought about the turrets and towers of Kastelloes and the thick snow which had trapped them there. She remembered how grateful she had been to that inclement weather, because it had brought her into Maximo’s arms. She’d been blown away by her Spanish lover, and hopeful when he’d opened up his heart to her. The world had felt tinged with magic, when all the time...

All the time he had been using their marriage as a way of getting his hands on the family business.

What a trusting fool she had been.

Well, not any more.

She had once told Maximo that she could do all this on her own and she would—with or without his financial assistance. Because anything would be preferable to a lifetime of deceit.

She tugged the heavy ring from her finger and it clattered as she put it on the table and then, letting out a shuddered breath, she laid her face against her cradled arms and wept.

CHAPTER TWELVE

A THIN DRIZZLE of rain coated the windscreen in a slimy film as the car turned into the wintry English road. Maximo eased his foot off the accelerator, bringing the powerful vehicle almost to a halt so that it crept along at a snail’s pace. He stared fixedly ahead, not caring if he was wasting time. Because he needed time to work out what he was going to do. To assemble his whirling thoughts into some sort of order before he saw Hollie.

To say what?

He still didn’t know.

He thought about the bald little message he had received from her.

I just don’t think it’s going to work out between us...

He had been taken aback by the dark surge of pain which had flooded through him.

He had wanted to lift the phone and demand to know what had made her write it, but something made him change his mind—though he didn’t stop to think what that might be. Instead, he sought a solution in action, because that was how he operated. He had ordered his jet to be made ready and within hours had flown into Exeter airport, planning his movements with the precision of a cat burglar.

Unobserved, he had watched Hollie leave the office and a wave of relief had swamped him as he’d seen her familiar figure walking towards the bus stop. And although every part of him had ached to drive up and tell her to get in the car, he’d resisted the powerful temptation to do so, because he didn’t want any kind of confrontation or public spectacle. He didn’t want to run the risk of her refusing to travel with him.

He had seen the chill wind blowing at her hair, but the tresses were no longer unfettered and free as he liked them. They had been tamed beneath a hat he’d never seen her wear before, and the coat she was huddling into was not one of the items he had bought her, but a