Indiscretion (55 page)

I cannot tell you any more at the moment, as the details are too complicated for a letter, but we will just have to wait and pray for him. My aunt is, of course, more worried than she will admit. But you know how Tía is. She keeps saying: ‘Where there is love, there is pain.' She talks about you often.

Heart racing, Alexandra turned the page and quickly read the rest.

We have had a reconciliation, Tía and me. As soon as I found out about this dreadful accident with Salvador, I went back to El Pavón. Perhaps that helped bring us together. Also, Enrique and I are now married and we're expecting a child next spring.

Apparently, the
Duquesa
had finally given them her blessing. At least that was one piece of happy news. Alexandra went on to read, with some surprise, that Mercedes had been married off last year, shortly after Alexandra's departure, to a young man from one of Andalucía's oldest aristocratic families. It seemed he had admired her from afar for quite some time. Alexandra reflected wryly that her father would probably be relieved, although she couldn't help but smile when she read Esmeralda's somewhat gleeful description of Doña Eugenia. Despite the fact that the marriage suited her stepmother's snobbish standards, the reality that her precious daughter would no longer be the grand lady of El Pavón had definitely put her nose out of joint.

As for Fernando Lopez, it turned out that he had completely disappeared after the gypsy horse fair and had not been seen since. Even though she was no longer at El Pavón, and was now respectably married, Esmeralda wrote that she was nonetheless highly relieved that the steward had gone.

Alexandra finished the letter and sat gazing across the lake. Part of her wanted to leave for Spain right then, that night, no matter what the consequences. There was no mention of Doña Isabel in Esmeralda's letter, or of Salvador's engagement, and Alexandra wasn't sure she could bear the hurt and humiliation she would feel if the
Marquesa
were there, as his wife, nursing him … But, if the man she loved was fighting for his life, then where else could she possibly be? She closed her eyes tightly as her heart gave a dreadful shudder … so many months had gone by and who knows what might have happened by now? Salvador could be no better or, worse still, fate may have dictated a more tragic path.

Alexandra looked up at the darkening sky. Rising up from the stone seat, she pushed the envelope into the pocket of her dress. She had been out for such a long time now that Aunt Geraldine would be fretting.

Night was falling — a clear, crisp, near-summer night with no moon, although myriad stars twinkled in the navy-blue sky above. The cool air was bracing. Alexandra pulled her Spanish shawl more tightly around her and quickened her pace.

But then she froze. The figure of a man was silhouetted against the sky, at the top of the hill ahead. He was coming towards her. At first she couldn't make him out but all of a sudden she felt a pang of shock.
It can't be!
She drew in a startled breath and a lump formed in her throat, tears rushing to her eyes. She would recognize that figure instantly, wherever she was, until the end of time. Rooted to the spot, transfixed, like a statue, her heart raced furiously as she watched the tall, elegant, magnificent form of the man she loved draw closer.

‘Salvador,' she whispered.
Salvador is here? How is that possible?
A hundred questions rushed through her mind, causing every nerve ending to pulsate with heightened awareness.

It seemed a lifetime before he finally reached her, stopping a few paces away. Gazing at each other, a silence hung between them.

‘What are you doing here?' she managed to croak eventually, the sound choking in her throat.

Seconds passed and then Salvador reached out to take her hand but she shied away nervously, her eyes wide with alarm.

His eyes bored into hers. ‘I had to see you.'

Alexandra's hand moved, trembling, to her side, where the letter lay in her pocket. ‘Esmeralda … I've just received a letter from her … she told me that you've been in hospital … that you nearly died, but not why or how.' She tried her hardest to keep her voice steady. ‘Are you all right? How could you have kept that from me?' she whispered. They stared at each other again. Alexandra didn't dare to reach out and touch him; she was too afraid of him standing there, so alive, in front of her.

‘I'm completely recovered, as you can see.'

‘But what happened? Esmeralda said you were in a coma …'

‘Let's not talk about that now,
niña
.'

‘But—'

‘I've come to bring you home to El Pavón.' His voice shook a little.

She willed her hands to steady themselves. Salvador was alive and well. Astonishment and relief warred with that part of her still bruised and bleeding inside. He refused to explain, and now such a declaration? Alexandra's head was reeling.
What was happening? What was he playing at?

‘If this is a new game, Salvador, I don't have the stomach for it any more …'

But he silenced her by placing two fingers on her lips, and she flinched as though the mere contact of his touch burned her.

He looked disconcerted. ‘
Niña
,' he whispered, ‘I'm not here to cause you pain but to beg your forgiveness.'

Alexandra tensed, still on her guard, trying to regain her composure. Her mind scrabbled numbly for an explanation for his sudden presence here. Surely her grandmother, the
Duquesa
, had sent him on this mission? She would not have approved the union between her nephew and Doña Isabel; she needed an ally at El Pavón, someone she could trust to help her with the administration
of the hacienda. Perhaps Salvador's accident had made the dowager renew her matchmaking hopes.

‘How did you know I was down here?' she demanded, ignoring his humble words.

‘Your aunt told me you were probably by the lake and gave me directions. She was worried, and said you'd been on edge all day.'

‘I see.' Alexandra nodded. If ever she was to protect herself against the pain this man represented, she needed to hold all her strength together now. ‘To return to the main reason for your visit,' she added abruptly, forcing herself to be blunt as she ignored the frantic pounding of her heart. ‘El Pavón isn't my home. Grantley Hall is where I belong and I never want to leave the house where I grew up.'

At this he moved closer to her, his dark blue eyes dwelling on her face anxiously. He drew a deep breath. ‘Alexandra, will you let me explain? There's no need for you to be alarmed, really,' he said soothingly.

In the pale glimmerings of dusk, she could make out his familiar features. Salvador looked tired, a bit haggard. He was thinner, hollow-eyed, his cheekbones more prominent, and the furrow across his brow seemed to Alexandra deeper than she remembered. He had aged a little too, making him somehow even more attractive. During these last months, he must have had a terrible ordeal. Suddenly her heart swelled with love and she wanted to reach out to comfort him. Only pride and a new sense of self-preservation kept her from throwing herself into his arms and forgetting all the pain, the anxiety and the hurt that had been her life since that night in Granada. Yet, he had made his decision, which involved a future with Doña Isabel, his first love. Did he now want to pull Alexandra back into his world to flaunt his new union in front of her? No matter how much she yearned to take away his suffering, or how desperately she wanted to know the truth about him and Doña Isabel, something inside her was too afraid to let him speak.

She braced herself, her chin now defiantly tilted, though the effort was almost undermined by her shaking. ‘The time for explanations
has passed,' she noted, hearing the sharpness in her voice. Inside, she hated herself for letting her pride interfere and make her turn away from him so cruelly after all he'd been through, but the sickening fear that crushed her was too strong to fight.

‘I'm glad you're recovered, even though your justifications don't seem to extend to telling me what happened. However, you're a married man now. I wish you and Doña Isabel a very happy life together. I know my grandmother sent you, and you can tell her I'm not leaving,' she continued, moving past him and starting to make her way back to the house. ‘This is my decision and—'

Quick as a flash, halting her tirade, Salvador caught hold of her wrist, and whisked her round, forcing her to face him. His glare collided with hers. ‘I'm not married,
niña
. I could never marry anybody but you. I love you,
querida
, I love you more than life itself.'

Salvador's eyes burned into Alexandra's. Caught by their fire, she gave a soundless cry as, in the next second, he pulled her against him, crushing her feverishly in his arms. As his head slanted down hungrily towards her mouth, never, for an instant, did she sway or resist. The all-consuming, powerful longing was rekindled, as the thrilling surge of incandescent passion exploded between them. Closing her eyes, she wound her arms tightly about his neck.

‘
Mi tierno amor, mi dulce amor
,' he kept whispering as his lips went to her eyelids, her cheeks, her neck, her chest, in softness. His trembling hands were now unfastening the buttons of her top. She didn't resist, instead letting them delve inside her shirt, cupping her breasts, his fingers caressing her, tugging and rolling at the tips until they became hard little peaks. His mouth slid to her throat. The world swirled around Alexandra and she gave a thrilled sigh when his tongue flicked out and eagerly explored the inside of her open blouse. Sensually it probed, lapping the small hollow between her breasts, until they swelled against his hard and ravenous mouth. Wild warmth flooded her whole body, pulsating almost unbearably between her thighs.

And now, sensing the overwhelming power of Alexandra's need, Salvador wrapped his arms around her body and with a firmer grip drew her tightly to him, whispering her name again and again. ‘
Hemos perdido tanto tiempo mi amor, mi querido amor
, we have wasted so much time, my love, my dear love.' Alexandra's head fell back and his mouth found hers once more; hot, hungry and demanding, he was savagely devouring her lips. ‘
Sólo tú serás mi esposa y mi hijos tienen
, only you will be my wife and bear my children,' he murmured passionately between feverish kisses.

Now, he drew his hand down the column of her spine. The darker side of his desire seemed to hold sway and then, bending her over his arm, Salvador lowered Alexandra to the ground. The extent of his love and how much he wanted her was evident in the power of his virility pressing urgently against her and she arched, seeking the heat of his arousal. Now her whole body ached and burned for him. Her breasts were in full view, beautifully tightened under the cool air of night, the pink soft aureoles puckering into excited peaks.

His palms ran over her expertly, and she was lost to everything but his kisses and caresses. Moisture flooded her most secret part as his hand slid beneath her skirt. Then, murmuring erotic words of desire, Salvador's fingers snaked up the inside of Alexandra's silken thighs. He found her damp and swollen need and her breath sucked in with delight as he delved deep into her scalding heat. She parted her thighs against his sensuous touch, moaning helplessly as his fingers stroked and encircled the core of her desire. He kept up that rhythmic caress, gradually increasing the pressure, encouraged by her gasping sighs which rose in strength as craving seared through her. Alexandra wanted this moment never to end. Fine tremors raked her body as she cried out her love for him and all the while he stroked her with a single-minded purpose, building up her arousal until she exploded in an agony of pleasure.

Shifting gently away from her, he tilted her chin up, his gaze boring intently into the green pools of her eyes, still dazed by the
overwhelming ecstasy her body had never experienced before. Salvador smiled and reached out tenderly to brush a few wisps of hair that had come away from her chignon.

‘
Ti amo mi dulce e inocente paloma
, I love you my sweet, innocent dove. I think I have since the first time I glimpsed you in Puerto de Santa María,' he said softly. ‘I know there's an awful lot of explaining to do and I promise that I will answer all your questions. Be patient with me,
niña,
' his voice pleaded openly, astonishing her. His hands tightened on her face in a gently demanding spasm, those blue-grey eyes possessive. ‘These past few months I've been to hell and back at the thought of losing you. I felt guilty about all you'd been through because of me,' he added earnestly. ‘I can't tell you how much I regretted Isabel's interference that night in Granada. I've wasted so much time, but it's all come right now, believe me,
mi amor
, and I've made this trip to clear everything up between us. Come home to El Pavón. I want you to be my wife.' He was talking in a rush, his eyes never leaving hers as they darkened to blue.

He raised her hand and kissed it. ‘
Decir que usted me perdonará
, please tell me that you'll forgive me, and that you will share your life with a humble man who'll spend his trying to make you happy?'

A few seconds elapsed before his words infiltrated the haze that clouded Alexandra's mind. Though still trembling, she smiled softly, unable to speak as she felt her heart soar with happiness. The expression on her face was more eloquent than words. He had come for her finally, as she had always hoped. This time it was real; her dream had come true. The impulsive little voice inside that had never left her but had been muted for so long was now shouting out loudly with delight. Her eyes welled up with tears of relief and love for this man she knew no other could replace, and she nodded her consent.

Salvador pulled her tightly against him and kissed her hair. She could feel his chest rising and falling rapidly. ‘
Es usted muy seguro, mi corazón?
Are you very sure, my heart? Spain is a long way from England and there will be times when you'll miss your family and friends.'