sardonic brow. ‘You think?’
Was he serious? Lucy refused to let him see that his threat had scared her. ‘I think you’re a total bastard.’
‘Not illegal last time I researched the subject.’ He gave a nasty smile. ‘Unlike horse stealing.’
‘I wasn’t stealing your horse, I was just … riding him.’
‘Why?’
She blinked, struggling after the fact to explain even to herself the impulse that had made her take the horse out. ‘Why not?’ She shrugged.
‘So this is a case of anything Lucy sees and wants Lucy has to have even if it belongs to someone else?’ Didn’t she understand that a person could not have anything they wanted? There were rules, like the unwritten one that said a man did not muscle in on his brother’s girlfriend—did it count when you’d be saving your brother from a terrible fate? Did the unwritten rule stand when the brother in question didn’t possess your own ability to keep your sexual appetites and your emotions separate from a terrible fate?
Lucy saw where he was going with this. ‘Ramon doesn’t belong to anyone else, even though you went out of your way to make it seem like he does.’
Santiago’s scowl deepened. He had thrown Carmella, with her crush on Ramon, into the mix hoping she would offer a distraction with her youth and innocence. He was ready toadmit that his plan had failed miserably and he felt guilty for using the kid.
‘But Denis Mulville did.’ What chance would any wife have if Lucy Fitzgerald decided she wanted a man?
At the name Lucy’s face lost any colour it had regained. The condemnation on his face was nothing new. She had seen similar expressions on the faces of virtually everyone she met four years ago, and some of those faces had belonged to people she had considered friends.
At the centre of a storm of ill will Lucy had felt every cruel word and jeer until she had taught herself not to care about the opinion of others. People could and would think what they liked, but so long as she knew the truth that was all that mattered … at least in theory.
Reality meant that there had still been nights when she had cried herself to sleep and days when she had longed to put her side of the story, but she had maintained her dignified silence even after the gagging order was lifted.
Not once had she yelled at one of her accusers—’I never slept with the man. He was a creep!’
As she did now, ironically to someone whose good opinion meant nothing to her, someone who dismissed her words with a contemptuous shrug.
There was a chance, Santiago thought, that she told the literal truth—a man who got her in bed would not be likely to fall asleep!
‘How did you justify breaking up a family?’ A hissing sound of disgust issued from between his clenched teeth as he dragged a hand through his ebony hair. ‘Do you tell yourself that he wouldn’t look at you if he had a happy marriage? That there wouldn’t have been an affair if the marriage hadn’t been in trouble to begin with—isn’t that what the other woman always says?’
‘You tell me! You seem the expert on the subject.’
She broke off, wincing as she experienced a stomach cramp a lot sharper than any of the previous ones. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. If she threw up in front of this man the humiliation factor would be off the scale.
Lucy lifted her head, breathing through the pain.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing!’ she snapped.
The beads of perspiration that had broken out over the pale skin of her brow suggested otherwise.
‘I know I shouldn’t have taken the horse, but I was waiting for Ramon and Santana obviously needed exercise and you hadn’t bothered to exercise him …’
‘So this is my fault?’
The note of fake comprehension caused the spots of dark colour on her pale cheeks to deepen. ‘No, but—’
‘But you,’ he cut back in a hard voice, ‘saw an opportunity of scoring points because I warned you off—’
‘No!’
‘Then I
Was he serious? Lucy refused to let him see that his threat had scared her. ‘I think you’re a total bastard.’
‘Not illegal last time I researched the subject.’ He gave a nasty smile. ‘Unlike horse stealing.’
‘I wasn’t stealing your horse, I was just … riding him.’
‘Why?’
She blinked, struggling after the fact to explain even to herself the impulse that had made her take the horse out. ‘Why not?’ She shrugged.
‘So this is a case of anything Lucy sees and wants Lucy has to have even if it belongs to someone else?’ Didn’t she understand that a person could not have anything they wanted? There were rules, like the unwritten one that said a man did not muscle in on his brother’s girlfriend—did it count when you’d be saving your brother from a terrible fate? Did the unwritten rule stand when the brother in question didn’t possess your own ability to keep your sexual appetites and your emotions separate from a terrible fate?
Lucy saw where he was going with this. ‘Ramon doesn’t belong to anyone else, even though you went out of your way to make it seem like he does.’
Santiago’s scowl deepened. He had thrown Carmella, with her crush on Ramon, into the mix hoping she would offer a distraction with her youth and innocence. He was ready toadmit that his plan had failed miserably and he felt guilty for using the kid.
‘But Denis Mulville did.’ What chance would any wife have if Lucy Fitzgerald decided she wanted a man?
At the name Lucy’s face lost any colour it had regained. The condemnation on his face was nothing new. She had seen similar expressions on the faces of virtually everyone she met four years ago, and some of those faces had belonged to people she had considered friends.
At the centre of a storm of ill will Lucy had felt every cruel word and jeer until she had taught herself not to care about the opinion of others. People could and would think what they liked, but so long as she knew the truth that was all that mattered … at least in theory.
Reality meant that there had still been nights when she had cried herself to sleep and days when she had longed to put her side of the story, but she had maintained her dignified silence even after the gagging order was lifted.
Not once had she yelled at one of her accusers—’I never slept with the man. He was a creep!’
As she did now, ironically to someone whose good opinion meant nothing to her, someone who dismissed her words with a contemptuous shrug.
There was a chance, Santiago thought, that she told the literal truth—a man who got her in bed would not be likely to fall asleep!
‘How did you justify breaking up a family?’ A hissing sound of disgust issued from between his clenched teeth as he dragged a hand through his ebony hair. ‘Do you tell yourself that he wouldn’t look at you if he had a happy marriage? That there wouldn’t have been an affair if the marriage hadn’t been in trouble to begin with—isn’t that what the other woman always says?’
‘You tell me! You seem the expert on the subject.’
She broke off, wincing as she experienced a stomach cramp a lot sharper than any of the previous ones. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. If she threw up in front of this man the humiliation factor would be off the scale.
Lucy lifted her head, breathing through the pain.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing!’ she snapped.
The beads of perspiration that had broken out over the pale skin of her brow suggested otherwise.
‘I know I shouldn’t have taken the horse, but I was waiting for Ramon and Santana obviously needed exercise and you hadn’t bothered to exercise him …’
‘So this is my fault?’
The note of fake comprehension caused the spots of dark colour on her pale cheeks to deepen. ‘No, but—’
‘But you,’ he cut back in a hard voice, ‘saw an opportunity of scoring points because I warned you off—’
‘No!’
‘Then I
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