The Forgotten Gallo Bride

He hadn’t looked angered as much as guarded. He hadn’t wanted to ask her that question. What had he been wary of? Her answering yes?

Why would that have been a problem? Because he hadn’t remembered her?

If he’d asked ‘have we met?’ she wouldn’t have lied. But she’d hidden behind semantics. Now she registered that there was more than an arrogant aloofness to him, there was a barrier. He was locked away. She remembered Jasper’s agitation and insistence that Tomas was still suffering since that accident. Her own hurt pride had blinded her to the obvious.

She knew Tomas had carried Jasper to safety seconds before the car had exploded—that had been well documented in the press. It had been reported that Tomas had been thrown to the ground with his leg shredded. And his head?

He didn’t welcome guests, didn’t want intrusion. Why? Because he didn’t want to talk about anyone, or himself?

She feared there was a very good reason for that and she was furious with Jasper for not telling her the truth. What else hadn’t he told her?

‘What are you doing in here?’

She jumped at the furious demand and almost dropped the tray she was carrying. Turning, she saw Tomas had come up behind her. The iciness in his eyes was impenetrable. He was livid.

Her blood quickened. ‘Looking for you.’

But the plush carpet had masked his footfall.

‘You do not come up here. Ever,’ he snapped.

Zara’s anger flared—a mixture of guilt and outrage. He was rude and arrogant and she didn’t care how much of a hard time he’d had, there was no need to be so vile to someone. She’d been spoken to like that too many times in her life and she no longer stood for it. Ever. ‘No wonder you can’t keep staff when you speak to them like that.’

He visibly recoiled and then blinked. ‘The Kilpatricks have been loyal to me all this last year. They’re only away this weekend to attend a family celebration.’

She gaped at him for a second. ‘That wasn’t what I was told.’

‘And what were you told exactly?’ He stepped forward and grasped her shoulders. ‘And by whom?’

‘I told you. Jasper. He said you’d been left without any staff. That you needed someone for a week or so.’

‘How do you know him?’

‘I told you that already too. He helped me out a while back.’

‘Helped you out?’

She threw him a look as she heard the insinuation in his tone. ‘He’s old enough to be my father.’

‘That doesn’t stop many women. He’s very wealthy—’

‘You just can’t stop insulting me, can you?’ She glared at him. ‘I’m here to help you, because your friend asked me to come. If you have an issue with it, take it up with him.’

‘I intend to.’

Biting her lip, she glanced at the wall again. She couldn’t help it. And the thing was, she had taken Tomas’s money.

But that was partly why she was here. To make amends and show her gratitude. Only now did she realise just how impossible that might be.

‘Don’t ask,’ he said shortly as he followed the line of her sight to the picture-strewn walls.

‘I wasn’t going to.’

Because now she thought she understood. Her anger melted as her heart broke for him. She was so very sorry. ‘This part of the house is cosy.’

‘I’ve put the heating on in your room.’ His expression became remote and he released her to step away. ‘And in the kitchen. It should be better in a few more minutes. The whole house temperature is controlled to protect the art and furnishings that are in storage. I’m not into wasting resources.’

Tomas watched as Zara nodded and placed the tray she was carrying onto a nearby low table. She lifted up one of the mugs. He refused to be tempted but he could smell the chocolate. He hadn’t had chocolate in a long, long time.

But when she turned back, Tomas read pity in her eyes and it infuriated him. ‘Still think I can’t cope alone?’ he asked bitterly.

‘I don’t think that,’ she said briefly. ‘Jasper was the one worrying. He said you’re likely to work so hard you’d forget to eat. That you won’t bother taking the time to cook yourself something decent. And it’s not like you can get a pizza delivery tonight.’

For some reason the thought of Jasper talking about him with her got right under his skin. His right-hand man had always had affairs with beautiful women. Young and old. But with Zara? It didn’t gel. And it hadn’t happened. She didn’t need to tell him again.

Now her small smile returned and it mollified him.

‘So here you are,’ he muttered. Like a temptress.

‘Would you like some hot chocolate?’ She held out the mug to him. ‘That’s why I came up here.’

Slowly he shook his head. ‘I don’t eat sugar.’

‘You’re diabetic?’ She frowned and clasped the mug back close to her with her other hand. ‘Any other dietary requirement I should know about?’

‘I’m not diabetic. I simply prefer not to eat too much sugar.’ He wanted to get back to peak physical health.

‘Maybe you should, it might sweeten you up,’ she mumbled as she turned away about to return downstairs.

‘What was that?’ Her attitude took him by surprise. She was like a little spitting kitten with not very sharp claws but she wasn’t afraid to give him a swipe.

‘No sugar. Got it.’ She turned back and smiled brightly at him. That dimple appeared.

Her small show of fearlessness amused him. He almost smiled back.

‘It’s not good for my recovery,’ he explained reluctantly, because he didn’t want her to walk away just yet. That smile was bewitching.

A small frown pleated her brow as she looked him over—but her checking for his recovery took a twist. Her expression changed and a dazed look entered her eyes, colour ran up under her cheeks. Tomas tensed at her undeniable sensual awareness of him and he couldn’t resist another assessment of his own.

She’d taken off that almost useless rain jacket, revealing she wore only a thin T-shirt underneath. The curves in those jeans were not girlish in any way; frankly they were generous. The sneakers didn’t help her in the height department at all and when he’d held her from him just before he’d felt the slenderness of her shoulders. The sheer femininity of her made him catch his breath. It had taken every ounce of will to refrain from sliding his hand to her narrow waist and pulling her flush against him. He ached to feel those soft curves against him.

Hell, he’d turned into a pervert in two minutes flat.

She gulped at the hot chocolate as if she needed to do something with herself. He watched as she swallowed it back. The scent of the warm liquid assailed his senses. It was the first time in ages he’d regarded food as anything other than fuel. He looked at the speck of creamy milk left on her lip and his mouth watered.

‘Are you sure you don’t want some?’ Her eyes were wide and her voice a mere whisper.

Any other woman and he’d have thought it was a come-on, but the candour in those eyes spoke volumes.

He ought to tell her that she’d left a bit of chocolate milky foam on her lip, but he wasn’t going to. Too much of a cliché. He would not notice. He was well practised at eliminating extraneous thoughts from his mind. All that mattered was his work and rebuilding his company into something better than before the accident that had almost destroyed him.

No one would ever know how bad his injuries had been or the degree to which he’d suffered. The public perception of him—the belief in his knowledge and skill—needed to be unshakeable. Because he was his company.

No one could ever know the truth. He could never allow himself to be that exposed.

As he silently regarded her, her pupils grew and that sweet colour deepened in her cheeks as she realised the double entendre she’d inadvertently uttered. She caught her lip with her teeth. And then—to his surprise—she smiled again.

Grimly he stared at her, unable to speak. He wanted to kiss her—taste that smile and the sweetness deep inside her.

‘Tomas?’ Her voice was the thinnest of whispers now and uncertainty had stolen into her expression as she looked into his face.

No, she wasn’t one of Jasper’s ladies of pleasure. She was too confused by this undeniable electricity that arced whenever they so much as glanced at each other. But she couldn’t help the way she looked at him or hide the hazy desire evident in her eyes and in the way her breathing quickened the nearer he got to her.

She was as thrown as he. Only Tomas was a master of hiding everything now.

But the temptation was almost too great.

‘I’ll get your bag from the car,’ he said abruptly.

‘I’ll go tidy the kitchen.’ She turned and all but ran from him.

He watched her go.

No, he wasn’t doing anything about this sexual attraction no matter how intense. He didn’t have the time or the desire to fool around. And he couldn’t risk exposure.

Except all he could think about were her curves. And her mouth. And the irrepressible sparkles in her eyes. She was like a sensual pixie specially sent to torment him.

Damn Jasper.

CHAPTER THREE

‘You can’t sleep?’

ZARA WAS STILL trembling when she made her way to the kitchen. She’d been so overwhelmed by the desire to kiss him, she’d almost leaned into him. But she’d mistaken that look in his eyes, because he’d then looked so forbidding. She’d almost humiliated herself all over again.

She fished her phone out of her bag, frowning at the low number of battery bars. She needed to charge it soon. Before anything, though, she needed to talk to Jasper.

She hit him with it the second he answered. ‘Why didn’t you tell me the truth?’

‘Zara?’

At his sharp reply her bravado faded. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about Tomas?’

There was a pause. ‘What did he say when he saw you?’

‘He has no idea who I am.’

‘He didn’t recognise you?’ Jasper’s disappointment was more than audible; she felt it echoing over the ether.

‘Why did you tell me his staff had walked out on him?’ she asked plaintively. ‘You lied to me. You set me up.’

‘I thought it might work,’ he answered a touch belligerently. ‘It was my last—’

‘What might work?’

‘That he’d see you again and...’

She waited. Then she guessed anyway. ‘You hoped he’d remember me.’

‘Zara.’

‘That’s what you meant, isn’t it? When you said he had injuries, you meant his memory. Because there isn’t anything else. He’s very...fit.’ She drew in a shuddering breath and leaned against the kitchen counter. ‘I’m right, aren’t I? He’s lost his memory.’ She waited for his reply. ‘Jasper?’

‘I can’t tell you. I promised him.’

‘I’m different.’ She wasn’t just anyone. She’d been the man’s wife.

‘No. Not even you,’ Jasper muttered, sounding older than his years. ‘He saved my life too, you know.’

‘Jasper—’

‘He needs help.’ Jasper suddenly interrupted her. ‘He’s not left that house all year. All he does is work—’

‘He doesn’t need my help. He needs professional help.’ She wasn’t a professional anything. She blinked back the tears as she whispered, ‘I’m not the right person. He deserves better than this.’ He deserved better than her.

Jasper had been wrong in setting them both up like this. He’d lied to Tomas and made her an accessory. She hated that.

The phone cut out a couple of times and she guessed someone else was trying to phone Jasper, but he ignored it.

She thought of that lonely gallery up there with Tomas’s life in pictures and articles on the wall. The notes he had and what must be a desperate attempt to make sense of it all. ‘Can he remember anything?’

‘I can’t talk about it, Zara. I promised him I wouldn’t. But he’s lost so much. You can see how isolated he is. I thought if he just saw you...’

But she’d been nothing in Tomas’s life—only a moment, a whimsy. She hadn’t truly touched him or made any lasting impression on him. He’d turned her world upside down, then walked away without so much as a backwards glance. All done in a little over a day.

She’d meant nothing to him.

‘I can’t stay here,’ she said. Jasper had trapped her in a situation she’d never have agreed to had she known the truth.

‘You must,’ Jasper said firmly. ‘It will take a couple of days until I get there. Work as his housekeeper. I can get him to agree to that.’

‘No—’

‘You can’t leave, Zara.’ He overrode her.

‘Why not?’

There was a hesitation, then a sigh. ‘Because you’re still married to him.’

‘What?’ Every muscle in her body weakened and she almost dropped the phone. ‘What?’

‘You’re still married. The annulment was never processed. I’m sorry.’

She was still married to Tomas? Goosebumps skittled over her skin. She drew in a breath so jagged it seemed to slice her lungs. ‘How is that possible?’ she whispered.

‘After the accident, I was so distracted it slipped my mind.’

‘But the paperwork... I signed—’ She broke off, too stunned to speak.

‘It burned in the car. We were in hospital for weeks. Tomas was there for months. Then I was concerned about him—protecting him.’

She’d read in the newspaper about the car accident in France less than a week after their crazy wedding. She’d felt sick at the time as she’d learned how Tomas had fought to get Jasper free of the wreckage before the car had exploded. But they’d both survived the accident and the blast and, according to the reports, both were going to be fine. There’d been little about the man in his bio on his business website. Other online searches had been business related and largely fruitless.

Not long after that that she’d forced herself to stop searching for information on him. She couldn’t turn into some sad obsessive. She’d had to forget him to move forward with her life. But her repayment plan had always burned in the background. In the long term she’d aimed to track him down, successful, a whole new woman. With the money plus interest to return to him. She’d wanted to impress him with her transformation and her success.

She’d never do that now.

‘No one knows?’ She turned and stared at the dark window but she could see nothing but her own pale face in the glass.

‘No one knows anything about you. Only his medical team know about...’

She felt the ground had been cut out from under her. All this time they’d been married? And all these months he’d been so hurt?

‘You’re coming here now, aren’t you? Please,’ she begged. She couldn’t handle this alone. ‘He has to know,’ she said, her old anxiety rushing to the fore. She should go in there right now and tell him, but she couldn’t do it. More than that, he wouldn’t believe her. She had no proof. He’d think she was crazy. And she wouldn’t blame him. ‘Please, you have to tell him...’

She didn’t want to do more harm than good. She didn’t want to make anything worse for him. And she didn’t want him to know how weak she’d been.

Truth?

She was still weak. And she was still half in love with him.

She heard the series of interruptions signalling Jasper was getting another call, but again he ignored it.

‘We both owe him, Zara.’

She closed her eyes against the emotional manipulation. So many times that had been used against her. But this time was different. Because this time she did owe.

Tomas. Everything.

‘I know,’ she said softly.

‘Stay until I get there.’

‘Yes,’ she agreed. Defeated.

‘Is that Jasper you’re talking to?’

She jumped at the question that cracked across the room like a bullwhip. Tomas stood in the kitchen doorway, looking furious, his own mobile phone in his hand. How long had he been standing there? What had he heard?

Then it hit her. She was staring at her husband.

‘Zara?’

She didn’t answer Jasper’s sharp query because in two steps Tomas was across the room and had snatched the phone from her limp fingers.

‘Never ignore my calls,’ he said furiously into her phone to Jasper, not taking his eyes off her.

She heard Jasper’s immediate reply. She hadn’t got that apologetic deferential tone from him. The grim look on Tomas’s face deepened as Jasper muttered something else she couldn’t hear because now her mind whirled at the implication of Jasper’s words.

She was still married to Tomas. She was his wife. She quivered as a frisson of intimacy that she had no right to feel skittered down her spine.

She’d always been too aware of him, too attracted, too ready to say yes.

Now she was here in this huge house alone with him and while he might have no clue about the truth, that didn’t mean he wasn’t totally, utterly in control.

And she wasn’t. Not of herself. Not of those stupid yearnings she’d felt when he—and only he—was near. She’d been too isolated. Too inexperienced. Too insecure.

She licked her lips nervously as she watched his anger flare at Jasper.

At totally the wrong moment that one precious memory slipped its leash to torment her.

* * *

‘You can’t sleep?’

She shook her head, feeling her colour mount because he’d found her awake and alone at two in the morning, pacing the corridor outside her hotel room like an undead wraith unable to rest. She stopped outside her door, her bare toes curling into the carpet, and half hoped he’d just pass by and leave her to her own agony.

She had the most massive crush on him. How could she not? He was gorgeous and kind and mesmerising. And he’d helped her.

She knew the crush was mostly gratitude—she was confusing desire with appreciation. Their wedding that afternoon wasn’t real in any way. He’d said it would be annulled in a couple of days once she was safely back in England. So this awareness of him could just die a death.

‘And you’re a bit scared?’ Tomas asked with a gentle smile. ‘I remember when I left Italy with nothing but the clothes I was wearing, I was scared, but it was an adventure.’

Her surprise grew; he’d become this successful from absolutely nothing? ‘How did you make it?’

‘Hard work. Determination.’ He shrugged as he stepped closer until he was right in front of her. ‘You have skills, you have more resources than you know. You’re going to be fine.’ He tilted her chin and looked into her eyes with a small smile. ‘And your uncle was wrong, you know. You’re very attractive.’

His lips brushed hers in the lightest gesture of support—and finality.

She screwed her eyes shut, her humiliation total. Her first ever kiss had come from her first lethal crush, and it had been born of compassion.

‘Please don’t pity me,’ she muttered, then forced herself to look at him. ‘I am going to be fine.’ She echoed his words, drawing strength from them. Determined to believe they would be the truth.

His eyes were only millimetres from hers, bottomless, unreadable, so beautiful and for a timeless moment all she could do was drown in them.

‘I know,’ he answered, his voice suddenly roughened.

And to her surprise, he quickly bent and brushed his lips over hers ever so lightly again. Without volition she parted her lips, lifting her chin so the sweet contact lingered just for a fraction longer. She closed her eyes to hold onto the magic. And then everything changed.

He was back, his mouth moving over hers more firmly. Then more so again. She quivered, stifling a gasp when his tongue slid between her teeth, searching out her secrets. It felt foreign, but it felt so good as he stroked her that she simply leaned into him.

She heard a low growl in the back of his throat as his arms came around her. He kissed her again. She opened more for him; she couldn’t not. And she sought the same knowledge, darting her tongue to tangle with his, to push past and explore him. A wave of emotion rose in her, tearing apart the veneer of fear and releasing an intense desire that had never before been roused. It was so raw and new she had no hope of either containing or controlling it. Instinctively she knew that her response inflamed him too—the kiss grew more passionate. She wound her arms around his neck, curling her fingers in the hair at the back of his neck. Her action bringing her body into full contact with his—her breasts pressed against his hard chest. Spasms of awareness shot from her taut nipples to the depths of her most private parts. It was shocking and delightful all at once and she simply didn’t know what to do other than press closer and closer still.

This wasn’t gratitude. This wasn’t anything as easy as that. This was a desperate meeting of two spirits that had suddenly curled together and couldn’t be forced apart. She moaned as that fire inside built to an unbearable temperature. She needed something more...

But all of a sudden he wrenched his lips from hers. She gasped in disappointment, but then clamped her mouth shut as embarrassment crashed down on her.

There was an unreadable expression in his eyes as he pulled her arms from where she’d wound them round his neck. She had to lean back against the wall for support as he put three feet of distance between them.

Oh, Lord, she’d been clinging to him. She closed her eyes tightly to hide from him. She wanted to apologise but she couldn’t. She was trembling too much to summon coherent speech.

She heard the sound of her hotel-room door opening and she opened her eyes in a flash. But he’d stepped back from it and wasn’t looking at her as he crisply ordered her to bed.

‘You’d better try to sleep now, you have a long journey tomorrow.’

Alone.

* * *

As if she could ever sleep after that. Her husband had kissed her—meaning nothing but a little comfort—but she’d succumbed so totally, tumbling into a heady fantasy of fate.

That fantasy had been hers alone. He’d almost wordlessly walked away, unable to even look at her. And her humiliation was complete all over again.

She closed her eyes briefly now to force the burning memory back into its padlocked box. And she bit down on her lip to stop that pulse of desire tormenting her.

Not now. Not ever.

He’d never been hers in that way. And now he never could be.

* * *

Tomas gripped Zara’s phone, his annoyance burning brighter as he looked at how pale she now was. What had Jasper been saying to her?

There was an almost beseeching look in her sea-green eyes, as if she was wordlessly asking for something. Asking for—

He didn’t want to know what it was. He could never give her it anyway.

He had nothing to give anyone.

But now he had a woman before him looking so damnably beautiful. And alone. Looking as if she needed comfort. And contact. And—

He turned on his heel and stalked out of the kitchen.

‘Leave your playgirls in London,’ he growled in a low voice. ‘I have too much to do for this distraction.’

‘You always have too much to do and not all distractions are bad,’ Jasper tried to joke.

But Tomas wasn’t in the mood. ‘Why did you send her to me?’ he barked as he braved the rain to get her bag from the car. The car was cheap and not in the best condition and he was surprised it had got her here safely. Her bag wasn’t heavy; she obviously hadn’t planned to stay long.

‘Because you shouldn’t be alone for weeks at a time.’

Tomas snorted. Being alone was exactly how he liked it. As it was he hadn’t been going to be alone for long enough. ‘The Kilpatricks will be back next week.’

‘You don’t exactly let them into your life.’

Tomas paused. How did Jasper know that? Did he get them to report to him? He was livid at the intrusion—well-intentioned or not. ‘Don’t interfere, Jasper. Work is all that matters.’

‘Haven’t you proved that already?’ Jasper argued quietly. ‘The company is more successful now than it ever has been. No one can believe the way you’ve pushed it on this last year...isn’t it time you had a break and took care of other aspects of your life?’

‘There are no other aspects,’ Tomas snapped. ‘And there never have been. You know it as well as I.’ That was how he liked it and wanted it. ‘I pay you for your legal advice and nothing more. If you want me to keep paying you, then I suggest you stick to the books.’