Claimed for the De Carrillo Twins

For a second Cruz thought he might be hallucinating...even though she wasn’t wearing the same clothes as that night... Past and present were meshing painfully right now. Mocking him with the brief illusory fantasy that perhaps there could be such a thing as a second chance.

He stood up as she came in and shut the door behind her.

Her voice was husky. ‘I’m sorry. I slept far later than I wanted to.’

On automatic pilot, Cruz asked, ‘Are you hungry? Do you want to eat?’

She shook her head and smiled, but it was tight. ‘No, thanks—no appetite.’

A bleakness filled Cruz. No doubt she just wanted to sort this out and be gone. Back to the life he’d snatched out of her hands.

* * *

‘Please, sit down.’

Again, so polite. Trinity came in and sat down. The weight of their history in this room was oppressive. She’d told a white lie about sleeping—she hadn’t slept a wink all afternoon, was too churned up. She’d spent most of her time pacing up and down.

After an initial acute sense of loss that she wasn’t pregnant she’d felt a sense of resolve fill her. She wasn’t going to give up without a fight. She knew Cruz had an innate sense of honour and decency, so even if that was all she had to work with she would.

Cruz sat down. His shirt was open at the top and his shirtsleeves were rolled up.

‘You said that part of the deal with Rio was that he would pay for you to do a degree?’

Trinity blinked, taken by surprise that he’d remembered that. ‘Yes, he did.’

‘Do you still want to do it?’

She felt as if she was in an interview. ‘Well, I haven’t had much time to think about it lately, but yes...at some point I

think I’d like to.’

Cruz nodded. ‘I’ll make sure you get a chance to do your degree, Trinity, wherever you want to do it.’

‘Cruz...’ She trailed off, bewildered. ‘I presumed we were going to talk about what happens next—not my further education and career options.’

His voice was harsh. ‘That is what happens next. You get to get on with your life—the life you would have had if you hadn’t had the misfortune to meet me and my brother.’

He stood up then, and walked to the window which overlooked the park. It was still light outside—just.

Trinity stood up too, anger starting to sizzle. ‘You do not get to do this, Cruz—blame yourself for what happened. Even Rio can’t be apportioned blame either...not really.’

She came around the desk and stood a few feet away from him.

‘I was just as much to blame. I shouldn’t have been so hurt after what had happened between us that I spilled my guts to Rio with the slightest encouragement. You might not have handled it very well, but you didn’t take any liberty I wasn’t willing to give. It was the most thrilling moment of my life up to that point.’

Cruz turned around. Trinity saw his gaze drop and widen, and colour darken his cheeks. She didn’t have to look down to know that her cardigan had fallen open, revealing her flimsy vest top and braless breasts underneath. She could feel her nipples peak under his gaze, and her heart thumped hard. She couldn’t deny that she’d hoped to provoke a reaction from him.

‘And there’s this, Cruz.’ She gestured between them, where tension crackled. ‘This hasn’t gone away...has it?’

His gaze rose and his jaw clenched. ‘It’s not about that any more. It’s about you getting a divorce and moving on.’

Divorce.

Trinity’s heart started thumping. She pulled the cardigan around herself again, feeling exposed. ‘I told you before that I won’t abandon Matty and Sancho—that hasn’t changed.’

Cruz’s voice was tight. ‘The fact that you stepped in and protected and nurtured my nephews went above and beyond the call of duty.’

Trinity felt even more exposed now. ‘I told you—I explained why—’