The Buenos Aires Marriage Deal Read Free Page A

wonderful. ‘A sight for sore eyes’, as her mum would say. And he’d hardly changed at all—though his stature seemed more imposing than ever. His physique was still leanly muscular, and underneath the sublimely tailored clothes he wore no doubt still in tip-top, enviable condition. And with that arrestingly gorgeous face Pascual Dominguez was not the kind of man who appeared on a girl’s radar every day. At least not where Briana came from.
    Right from the start she had been smitten, and in no time at all had found herself blissfully and madly in love with him. When she’d discovered that he felt the same way about her she had hardly been able to believe her luck. But that had been five years ago—five years in which she’d had to come to terms with being a single mother, because Pascual had no clue that he had fathered a child with her when she left. Not a day went by when the dreadful guilt of that reality didn’t weigh her down…
    When he still didn’t speak, but continued to stare at her as if not knowing whether to shake her senseless or verbally rip into her until her ears rang, Briana twisted the suddenly chilled fingers of her slim hands together and glanced back at the ornate little table where she had put down the tray she had brought. ‘Shall I pour you some coffee?’
    ‘Forget the damn coffee! What do you think you’re playing at?’
    His bitter, chastising tone shocked her blood to ice. ‘I’m not playing at anything. This situation is as unexpected and shocking for me as it is for you.’
    ‘But you did play me for a fool—didn’t you Briana?’ His dark eyes narrowed furiously beneath their long-lashed hooded lids. ‘I still find it hard to believe you did what you did…even after all this time!’
    ‘It was never my intention to make you feel like a fool.’
    Feeling her lips tremble, Briana desperately sought to hold it together—not to break down in front of him and confess all. What would it serve to fully explain now why she had left him? Five years had passed by. He hadn’t wanted to listen to her then, so why should he listen now? Anyway…right then she was hardly prepared or willing to rake over old coals and engage in a row—which was no doubt what would happen. As for Adán’s existence—she couldn’t tell him about that just yet. She needed more time…
    ‘I’m really sorry things turned out the way they did, but perhaps it was for the best?’
    It was a stupid thing to say, and it sounded totally banal.
    ‘For the best? ’
    The words reverberated round the room on a savage breath, and Briana registered the emotion Pascual was feeling like a punch. Confusion, anger, frustration…it was all there.
    Scraping his fingers agitatedly through silken layers of rich dark hair, he moved his head from side to side, staring at her hard. ‘I can get over being made a fool of in front of my friends and family, but what I cannot come to terms with or forgive is that you gave me no indication that your professed feelings for me could be broken off so easily. Or that you would leave without even giving me a chance to hear why from your own lips instead of reading it in some cold, unemotional letter! You must be a consummate actress, Briana…You seemed happy and in love and I believed you. What an idiot I was!’

CHAPTER TWO
    H IS heart was thundering as hard and as fast as any express train. It was difficult to take in the fact that the woman he had once loved, who had so callously deserted him mere days before their wedding, was standing there in front of him.
    Pascual discovered that his memory of her had not served him as well as he’d thought. In the flesh Briana Douglas was far more beautiful than any mental picture he could call up. Right then she reminded him of an exotic intense port wine, and even though he deplored what she had done he still wanted to drink in every inch of her until he was intoxicated. She had always had a figure to make his pulse race, and in the