‘So you did the decent thing.’ Admitting that was so hard and Faith gave a painful smile and let go of his arm. ‘I thought you were marrying me because we had a good relationship,’ she admitted. ‘Silly me, hmm?’ She tried to keep her tone light but the pain cracked her voice and she heard him inhale sharply.
‘We did have a good relationship,’ he snapped impatiently. ‘We still do.’
‘In the bedroom,’ she said dryly and he frowned.
‘That isn’t true. We talk. You’re a very intelligent woman and you have an opinion on everything.’
‘We didn’t talk about feelings,’ Faith muttered. ‘And especially we didn’t talk about your feelings that I was pregnant. So I’m apologising for that. I’m sorry if this marriage wasn’t what you wanted and I’m sorry I didn’t stop you doing the decent thing.’
‘Nothing you said or did would have stopped me marrying you,’ Raul delivered in a forceful tone. ‘So you can tick that problem off your list of things to talk about.’
‘Maybe not when I was pregnant, but if I hadn’t been pregnant or if I had told you I’d lost the baby before the wedding—’ She broke off and he cursed softly, his dark eyes glinting with naked exasperation.
‘Last night we were happy! Now you’re upset and for no reason! This is why I don’t like talking endlessly about issues that can’t be changed.’
‘Was it Sofia?’ The question burst from her and she put a hand on his arm. ‘Something must have made you feel this way. Was she the reason that you never wanted marriage or children? Did she hurt you?’
He shut down like a nuclear reactor in an emergency. Nothing was going to escape.
‘We’re married, Faith,’ he said coldly. ‘Leave it at that.’
And he turned and walked into the Beach House, the set of his shoulders warning her not to follow.
CHAPTER TEN
FAITH curled up on one of the white sofas in the Beach House, horribly conscious of Raul’s absence and furious with herself for her lack of tact.
Why had she pushed him?
After their conversation—the conversation that she’d forced—he’d changed into a sleek dark suit, apparently cut to display every single one of his assets, and announced that he had business in Buenos Aires.
And she hadn’t seen him since. Now she deeply regretted having brought the subject up. She should never have asked him why he didn’t want babies and marriage and most particularly she should not have mentioned Sofia’s name.
Wishing desperately that she could wind the clock back, Faith took a sip of water.
At some stage Maria had brought her some lunch, but she didn’t feel like eating. Her stomach was churning and she felt horribly sick but she knew it was just nerves.
She was totally on edge and unable to relax. She’d tried to understand him and in the process she’d driven him away and now she didn’t know how to solve the new problem she’d created. He was very upset, she knew that much. When Raul was cornered, he fought and when he couldn’t fight, he retreated.
It reminded her of the day she’d told him about the baby. He’d immediately proposed, bought her a ring and then proceeded to absent himself on business. At the time she’d just assumed that was normal for him—after all he was a staggeringly successful billionaire with a corporation to run—but now she knew him better she could see that he’d been doing an entirely different sort of running. The sort that left a problem far behind.
And she wasn’t much better, was she?
Hadn’t she done exactly the same on their wedding day? True, he’d made a grossly insensitive remark but she wished now that she’d stood her ground and forced him to talk about it.
Yes, she’d been devastated about the baby but running hadn’t helped.
They were both as bad as each other.
Except that she wasn’t running any more. Nor was she going to try and push him to talk to her.
She was handling him all wrong, she could see that now. The more she pushed, the more he resisted. Somehow she needed to persuade him to come to her.
She stared at the food on her plate, deep in thought, her mind once again drifting back to the comment Sofia had made about Raul being like a difficult stallion. In a way she was right. There were similarities. Raul was aggressively masculine, assertive and dominant. And the way to handle that sort of personality was with gentleness and patience. There was no way she was going to force a man like Raul to tell her anything he didn’t want to.
She had to earn his trust.
He hated talking about emotions, so she’d stop doing that.