Mistress to the Mediterranean Male: The Mediterranean Millionaire's Reluctant Mistress / The Mediterranean Billionaire's Secret Baby / Mediterranean Boss, Convenient Mistress

‘Yes, a long time, darling,’ Brynne confirmed huskily.

‘Brynne …?’

She turned to look at Alejandro as he spoke softly to her from the doorway.

They made a desolate picture, Alejandro acknowledged even as he crossed the room to where they sat, both so emotionally wounded by this almost incomprehensible death of Joanna and Tom. ‘I heard the breaking of glass and your shout of “Michael”,’ he explained huskily even as he sat down on the bed beside Brynne. ‘I—’

‘Daddy!’ Michael had turned from his aunt’s arms to launch himself into Alejandro’s.

Alejandro felt emotion grip his own throat as he held Michael tightly to him, the little boy’s arms clinging so pathetically about his neck.

‘It is okay, Michael,’ he soothed as he stroked that silky dark hair so like his own. ‘Aunty Brynne and I will not leave you. You are not alone, Michael,’ he assured him firmly. ‘I promise you will never be alone.’

He was a man who chose to keep himself separate from emotion, having decided long ago that it was better that way. But Michael’s pain was such that it was impossible to remain unaffected. This was his son. His son! And Michael needed him in a way that no one else ever had.

He was filled with such a tidal wave of love that he found it almost impossible to speak, talking softly in Spanish when he finally found his voice again, reassuring his son of his love for him even as he stroked and held him close.

Not able to speak fluent Spanish, Brynne had no idea what Alejandro was murmuring to Michael, but it only needed one look at the softened arrogance of his face, and to hear the husky emotion in his voice, to know that it was something very personal, something totally private between father and son.

Feeling like an intruder on that emotion, she got quietly to her feet to walk over to the window. Michael had been so brave these last two months, so self-contained, that the release, when it had come, had been heart-shattering.

And when it had come, it had been Alejandro he had turned to for comfort …

She was glad.

For Michael’s sake.

But mainly for Alejandro’s.

He was a man who held himself so aloof from emotion, even knowing of Michael’s existence, bringing him here, not seeming to have shaken Alejandro’s well-ordered life too much. But she had seen love in Alejandro’s eyes a few minutes ago, and knew that Michael’s despair had finally broken through the barrier Alejandro seemed to have placed around his own heart.

Seeing Michael and Alejandro together like this, recognizing the affection, and now love, that was blossoming between the two of them, she could feel the trail of her own tears as they fell hotly down her cheeks.

‘He has fallen asleep,’ Alejandro murmured softly behind her a few minutes later. ‘No doubt exhausted from the release of emotion,’ he added huskily as he made his son comfortable on the bed before turning to look at Brynne. ‘You and I need to talk,’ he bit out grimly as he moved to the door, pointedly holding it open for her to precede him out of the room.

Brynne shot him a nervous glance as she reached his side, not at all sure of him in this mood, the tenderness he had shown towards Michael a few minutes ago having completely disappeared behind a hard mask.

Brynne swallowed hard. ‘Perhaps one of us should stay with Michael—’

‘You can come back and sit with him in a few minutes,’ Alejandro assured her harshly. ‘For now you and I have a conversation to finish. Not downstairs,’ he instructed tautly as she moved in that direction. ‘In here, where we cannot be overheard,’ he added determinedly as he pushed open a door farther down the hallway.

‘In here’ was a room Brynne had never been in before, a huge, sunny room with double French doors leading out onto a large balcony, decorated in muted golds and browns, and dominated by a huge four-poster bed with gauzy drapes that could be pulled at night for complete privacy.

Alejandro’s bedroom …

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ALEJANDRO saw the look of panic on Brynne’s face as she realized he had brought her to his bedroom, his mouth twisting in derision. ‘I am hardly in the mood for seduction at this moment!’ He moved to the French doors, throwing them open to breathe in the clean, gentle breeze. He needed the fresh air to help him calm down. That scene with Michael had disturbed him.

‘Michael overheard part of our conversation earlier,’ Brynne told him unnecessarily.

They should have been more careful, of course, had once again allowed the antagonism that existed between them to spill out unchecked.

Brynne looked pale, her freckles once again standing out against the whiteness of her skin. Her darkly shadowed eyes showed that she was as disturbed by the incident as he was.

Unless finding herself in his bedroom had caused that …?

He gave an impatient shake of his head. ‘The distress just caused to Michael has surely shown you that this habit you have of attacking me concerning my past relationship with Joanna has got to stop!’

Brynne gasped. ‘You’re blaming me—’

‘We are both to blame,’ Alejandro acknowledged harshly. ‘You, for making accusations, judgements, you have no right to make. Me, because I felt the need to defend those judgements.’ His eyes glinted angrily. ‘My past relationship with Joanna is not your concern—’

‘No, I just have to help pick up the pieces seven years later!’ Brynne scorned, feeling stung by his words.

She accepted they had been wrong to argue like that in a place where Michael could overhear them. But she didn’t accept the argument had been her fault. Alejandro was the one who had reacted to a perfectly innocent remark—

‘Is that your only interest, Brynne?’ Alejandro challenged, as he looked down his chiselled nose at her. ‘Or is it that you feel some—personal curiosity, concerning my relationship with Joanna all those years ago?’ he added softly.

Brynne felt the colour warm her cheeks. ‘What are you implying now?’

His mouth twisted, there was o humor in his tone. ‘There is a saying in your country, is there not, something about people in glass houses should not throw stones …?’

Brynne stared at him blankly for several long seconds, and then her eyes widened as his meaning became clear. ‘If you’re talking about what happened between us last night—’

‘That is exactly what I am talking about, Brynne,’ he sneered. ‘How do you think that would have ended if we had not been interrupted in the way that we were?’

She had tortured herself with those very same thoughts alone in her bedroom last night …

‘Is that why you did it, to prove—’

‘We did it, Brynne,’ Alejandro cut in harshly. ‘I kissed you—certainly not to prove anything!—but once I had kissed you you were a willing participant to what happened next,’ he reminded her coldly. ‘So,’ he clipped. ‘What do you think would have happened?’ he persisted.

‘If your girlfriend hadn’t arrived, you mean—’

‘Oh, no,’ Alejandro cut in softly. ‘I am not going to allow you to antagonize me into changing the subject in that way.’ He crossed the room to stand just in front of her.

Making Brynne all too aware of him, the heat of his body, that all-male smell, the leashed power that could be released at any second.

She avoided that compelling silver gaze as she moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘I like to think—’

‘No, Brynne!’ Alejandro grasped her arms and shook her slightly. ‘No thinking. No wishing. No imagining.’ He shook her again. ‘Tell me what you think would have happened after I had touched you here.’ One of his hands moved to caress lightly across her breast before returning to grasp her arm. ‘Kissed you here.’ He held her gaze as his head lowered. His lips and tongue grazed lightly across her hardened nipple beneath her cotton top.

‘Stop it!’ Brynne struggled to pull away from him but was held tight by the strength of his hands on her arms.

‘What if we had not stopped—for whatever reason—when we did, Brynne?’ he repeated softly. ‘What do you think would have happened next?’

She didn’t need to think—she knew what would have happened!