A Mistress, a Scandal, a Ring

He strode inside and scaled the stairs two at a time. If her things were still here—

‘Xavier.’

His heart stopped. He turned and she stared up at him from the bottom of the stairs. Relief surged—so powerful he gripped the iron balustrade to keep himself from swaying.

He flew back down, ready to gather her into his arms, to tell her what he needed to tell her, but she stopped him with a palm on his chest.

‘There’s someone here,’ she said. ‘Someone I’ve brought to meet you.’

Before he could speak she walked into the living room, leaving him no choice but to follow. Her hair was caught in a ponytail and she wore the wraparound skirt she’d worn that day he’d practically kidnapped her outside her hostel. He wanted to loosen her hair, pull the ties on her skirt—

‘Xavier—’ She cleared her throat. ‘This is Luis Garcia. Luis is your uncle...’ She paused, and her smile wobbled a bit. ‘Your biological uncle.’

His gaze snapped to the man rising to his feet and a sensation he’d never experienced before punched through his chest. Luis Garcia was tall, broad-shouldered, and distinguished-looking in a suit, and as he came forward with his hand outstretched Xav, for the first time in his life, looked into the face of someone whose features were strikingly like his own.

* * *

‘I’ll leave you two to talk,’ Jordan murmured, and retreated from the room.

Her trembling legs carried her all the way to Xavier’s bedroom, where she sank onto the end of the bed. She pressed her hand to the base of her throat.

Had she done the right thing?

Only time would tell.

Tears of bittersweet joy stung her eyes. After their awful parting this morning, the look on Xavier’s face when he’d seen her just now and his unmistakable eagerness to take her in his arms had sent her heart soaring. But she’d had to remind herself that his desire to make peace didn’t mean anything had changed.

She drifted onto the balcony and stayed there for a long time, until eventually she saw Xavier and Luis emerge into the sunlight below.

They shook hands, and there seemed to be some kind of camaraderie between them, and then Luis drove away.

Xavier must have sensed her gaze. He turned and looked up and their eyes locked, but she couldn’t tell anything from his expression. Then he came inside and she waited for him in the bedroom, knowing he would come to her.

As soon as he walked in he folded her in his arms, and she almost sobbed it felt so good.

He spoke against her hair. ‘Thank you.’

She could have stayed there for ever, tucked against his warm, strong body, but she eased away. ‘He told you everything?’

He nodded, compressing his lips for a moment, as though he didn’t trust himself to speak, and her heart swelled to see him so moved.

Tomás Garcia had not been a criminal. An innocent bystander, caught up in a vicious armed robbery, he’d stepped into harm’s way to protect a female store worker. He had died a hero.

‘He never knew Camila was pregnant,’ she said. ‘His parents kept them apart.’

‘Sí.’

Their gazes fused, and she felt as if her insides were filling with molten silver.

‘Stay, Jordan.’

The quiet plea catapulted her back to that first night when she’d tried to leave and he’d implored her to stay. How could so much have changed in two weeks? How could she have changed so much?

She opened her mouth but he surged forward, and suddenly his mouth was on hers.

For a second she stiffened, expecting his kiss to be searing and fierce, an explicit, forceful reminder of their explosive chemistry. But it was something else. Something deeply intimate and tender. Something that melted her from the inside out and made her tummy flutter with hope.

His hands framed her face, anchoring her as he raised his head.