The Christmas Marriage Rescue (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 4)

He cursed in Spanish and then turned to find Jake watching him. His eyes narrowed with accusation. ‘Did you put her in a cab?’

‘Why?’ Jake’s tone was cool. ‘Are you going to punch me again?’

‘No.’ Alessandro ran a hand over the back of his neck. ‘Providing you don’t kiss her again. Ever.’

‘I thought it might wake you up.’ Jake rubbed a hand over his bruised jaw. ‘I think it worked.’

Alessandro shot him an incredulous look. ‘I think you like to live dangerously. I wanted to kill you with my bare hands.’

‘I hoped it would be enough to galvanise you into action and show her what you felt about her, but, judging from the tears on her face when I got her the taxi, you didn’t succeed.’

‘Tears?’ Alessandro digested that unwelcome piece of news and inhaled sharply. ‘Christy never cries.’

‘Well, she was crying just now,’ Jake said flatly, his gaze steady as he looked at his friend. ‘What did you do to her?’

A tinge of colour touched Alessandro’s hard cheekbones. ‘I made love to her,’ he growled finally, ‘which seemed like the right thing to do at the time.’

Jake studied him. ‘Judging from the mark on your cheek, I’m guessing it wasn’t.’

‘Women are totally incomprehensible.’

‘Are they?’ Jake met his gaze head on, ignoring the snow settling on his white shirt. ‘Christy doesn’t believe you love her any more, Al.’

‘She doesn’t think I love her?’ Alessandro’s voice rang with exasperation. ‘She’s the one who left the family home, taking the children with her.’

‘She expected you to follow her.’

Alessandro stared at him blankly. ‘You’re wrong. If she’d wanted me to follow her, why did she leave in the first place? And if that was true, why didn’t she just come back straight away? It doesn’t make sense.’

‘That’s because you’re looking at it from a man’s point of view. She was waiting for a sign that you still cared. She didn’t think you loved her any more.’

Alessandro gritted his teeth. ‘If that’s true, making love to her should have proved otherwise. But she’s just hit me and left in a taxi.’

Jake sighed. ‘I think your timing might have been a bit out. If you’d made your move at any point before I’d kissed her, you’d probably be snuggled up together now, with this whole nightmarish episode behind you.’

Alessandro’s eyes darkened ominously. ‘I do not want to be reminded that you kissed my wife, Blackwell.’

‘You’re the one she wants,’ Jake said calmly, ‘but you’re making such a mess of it you’re going to lose her if you’re not careful.’

Lose her?

Lose Christy?

Faced with that unthinkable possibility, Alessandro felt helpless for the first time in his life. ‘What do I do?’ His voice was hoarse. ‘What do I do to convince her that I love her?’

‘Try telling her.’

‘She won’t believe me after tonight.’

‘Then show her,’ Jake said quietly. ‘Show her that you love her, Al, but do it fast.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

INSUFFERABLE, arrogant, miserable, vile, arrogant rat. Christy flung clothes into the suitcase, her face streaked with tears as she lengthened her list of possible adjectives to apply to Alessandro.

And as for herself—she gave a growl of exasperation and flung a skirt violently into the case. Then she sat on the edge of the bed and buried her face in her hands with a groan of humiliation and self-disgust.

Did she have no self-control?