The Spanish Consultant (Westerling)

‘Yes. You were to blame too, for believing him.’ She turned to face him and her eyes were sad. ‘He played you like a master, Jago. He did what he does with everyone. He looked for your weakness and then he moved in for the kill.’

Disconcerted and not used to the feeling, Jago stiffened. ‘And what was my weakness?’

‘Your pride,’ she said simply. ‘You are, by nature, proud and possessive and my father knew that the one thing that would drive you away from me was finding me with another man. So he made it happen.’

There was an uncomfortable silence while Jago digested her words. ‘You’re saying that he somehow manufactured these photographs?’ He waved a lean brown hand across his desk. ‘That they aren’t really you?’

‘Oh, yes, they’re me.’ Katy walked back to the desk and picked up the photograph at the top of the pack. ‘Good, aren’t they? They were taken in a studio in North London when I was modelling. One of the teenage mags wanted some shots to illustrate an article they were doing on safe sex. Aiden and I were supposed to look as though we were in love. Funnily enough, I was more relaxed than I would normally have been because I was in love.’ Her eyes lifted to his and there was more than a hint of accusation in her clear blue gaze. ‘I was in love with you, Jago.’

Modelling photographs?

Jago was struggling hard to get a grip on the facts. It hadn’t even occurred to him that the photos could have been part of her modelling life.

No. They couldn’t be.

Shielding his emotions from her, he glanced at the one on the top of the pile, noticing for the first time all the hallmarks of a professional photographer.

Feeling as though he’d just taken a cold shower, he suppressed a groan. How had he managed to miss that possibility? But he knew the answer, of course. He’d been so furiously angry at what he’d seen as her betrayal that he’d reacted with raw, naked emotion. Had he employed some of the intellect in his possession he might have reached a different conclusion.

But Katy’s father had been completely correct in his reading of his character. He’d gambled on the fact that Jago’s Spanish pride would prevent him from wanting to contact her again. And the gamble had paid off. He’d walked into the sunset and left her.

He stilled, unable to grasp the fact that he could have made such a colossal misjudgement. ‘You never slept with him?’

‘No. He’s also gay.’

Her tone was flat and Jago tensed, struggling with the appalling reality of having been thoroughly manipulated. ‘I thought

—’

‘I can see what you thought. Please, don’t spell it out any further. I find your suppositions totally offensive.’ She gathered up the photographs and he reached out and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from leaving.

‘Wait.’ His fingers tightened. ‘If you suspected that your father was responsible, why didn’t you come after me?’

She looked at him sadly. ‘Because I believed in you. I never knew what made you leave, but I guessed that my father was behind it and for months I held onto this childish dream that our love would prove stronger than my father had anticipated and that you’d come back and at least talk to me. But you never did.’

He flinched at that but his fingers tightened on her wrists. He needed answers. ‘Why would your father do that to you? To us?’

‘Surely that’s obvious. He didn’t want us together.’ She lifted her eyes to his. ‘He found out and he wanted to end it so he bided his time until he found the most effective way. I warned you that we should keep our relationship a secret, but you insisted that you wouldn’t creep around.’

Jago’s broad shoulders tensed. ‘I wasn’t afraid of your father.’

‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘But I was. And I was the one left to deal with him after you walked off, Jago. My father didn’t know that you had no intention of committing to anyone. For some unfathomable reason he thought you were serious about me and that was the last thing he wanted.’

Jago almost groaned aloud. He had been serious.

And he’d made the fatal mistake of telling her father.

Understanding just what had caused her father to take such dramatic steps, Jago ran a hand over his face, lost for words for the first time in his life.

Katy watched him for a long moment and then, with a final pitying look, she tugged her wrist away from his grip, picked up the photographs and left the room without a backward glance.

‘Oh, my God.’ Libby stared at the photographs in horror. ‘Dad gave him these? Well, no wonder the guy walked out. They’re very incriminating.’

‘I can’t believe you just said that!’ Katy stared at her in disbelief. ‘You’re supposed to be on my side.’

‘Oh, come on, Katy!’ Libby held one of the photographs up and shook her head. ‘For crying out loud, you’re naked in bed with a man and you’re laughing.’

‘So? I always liked Aiden,’ Katy mumbled, and Libby shook her head.