Beneath the shadowed brim of his hat, Luis frowned. What did she think had happened? They’d had sex. She had been unfulfilled and uptight and crying out for some kind of affection. And he had given it to her. He had set her free. His mouth hardened. That had been the deal.
He looked at her, at the zingy new orange and cerise bikini which moulded itself to her magnificent curves. She’d left her hair loose, the way he liked it, and her skin had now turned a deep, caramel colour. He’d done her a favour. And he would do her an even bigger one by setting her free.
‘I don’t think it will be a problem,’ he said coolly. ‘In fact, I’m planning on leaving almost as soon as we get back to England. I have a number of global projects which will keep me occupied for most of the winter. We’ll hardly see one another, probably not until the spring.’
‘Oh. Oh, right.’
There was no disguising her shock or her disappointment. He could see she was doing her best to smile, but he knew enough about women to realise that behind her dark glasses those iced-tea eyes would be blinking away the first prick of tears. Because he made women cry, didn’t he? That was something else he was good at. He made them long for something he was incapable of giving them. He felt a twist of something which felt like regret, but it was gone in an instant.
‘And you’ll soon be going off to med school, won’t you? You’re going to be a doctor. The best doctor in the world.’
Carly was about to tell him that it would be at least a year before she could afford to do that. Because even with the bonus he was paying her, she still needed to pay her rent and feed herself through six long years of study. For someone who hadn’t done any formal education for such a long time, she wanted to give one hundred per cent of herself to her course and not distract herself with part-time jobs.
Until she realised the implications of what he was saying, and all the practical considerations about her future slipped from her mind. She realised what was happening and suddenly she felt sick. Luis was ending it. Now. As clinically as he was able to remove her clothes, he was now taking a scalpel to their relationship. He intended going off round the world and when he returned, they would act as if nothing had happened.
Because nothing had.
They’d had sex, that was all. All it was ever intended to be. Only a fool would imagine that the act of making love would make someone fall in love.
And she was that fool, wasn’t she? That fool who had started looking at him with a warm glow in her heart and stupid little fantasies building in her mind.
She swallowed.
She was only that fool if she let
herself be.
Quietly, she closed the pages of her book. ‘That’s right,’ she said, hoping her face didn’t betray the pain in her heart. ‘I will. The best doctor in the world,’ she repeated.
He glanced over at her. ‘And what was the second thing?’
She stared at him. ‘The second thing?’
‘You said you had a couple of things you wanted to talk to me about.’
Had she? Carly blinked and then remembered. In the parallel universe of a few minutes ago when there had still been hope in her heart, she had been about to tackle a few home truths. She had wanted to tell him something she thought he needed to hear, but now she thanked heaven that his words had stopped her in time.
Dimly, she registered the sound of an approaching car in the distance, then the slamming of a door and the clatter of heels. But the momentary intrusion was dwarfed by the cold and tearing pain inside her. There was no going back—or going forward. She and Luis were finished. It was over.
She stared into his face. ‘It doesn’t matter now,’ she said, just as Simone began to walk out from the back of the villa, closely followed by someone with long blonde hair and a tiny denim skirt. Someone who looked oddly familiar but who really shouldn’t be here.
Carly blinked. It was weird. Like seeing a double-decker bus in the middle of the desert. They were both things you recognised, just that one of them was in the wrong place.
Simone’s face was expressionless as she looked at Carly. ‘Your sister has arrived.’
‘My sister?’ said Carly in confusion, as the blonde in the miniskirt came clattering towards them.
CHAPTER TEN
CARLY SAT BOLT UPRIGHT. ‘Bella?’ she said, her voice rising in surprise. ‘What...what on earth are you doing here?’ But deep down, she knew. The reason was fairly obvious and lying sprawled on a sunbed which her sister was now standing beside as she slanted him the widest smile in her repertoire.
‘Well.’ Bella pushed a spill of platinum hair away from her tanned face. ‘You told me you were here in Cap Ferrat and I happened to be in the area—’
‘What are you doing in the area?’ asked Carly, but Bella was shooting her a furious don’t-ask-me-any-awkward-questions type of look and years of deferring to her sister’s wishes was a hard habit to break, especially when you were already feeling emotionally wobbly. She forced a smile. ‘Luis, I’d like you to meet my sister, Bella. Bella, this is Luis Martinez, who is—’
‘Ex-champion motor-racer of the world,’ purred Bella. ‘Yes, I know.’
‘Oh, that was a long time ago,’ said Luis smoothly. ‘Nice to meet you, Bella.’