Before she could blast him again, he brushed against her as her mother and sister walked in. He promised he’d be back in answer to their new invitation, then took his leave. The women saw him to the door and stood there until he drove away.
Isabella remained in the background. He was sure she was killing him a dozen horrific ways in her mind.
The stimulation of her murderous intentions only lasted a few blocks before reality all came crashing over him again.
He should heed her warning, should walk away. He’d seen her, he’d had her, and after he made sure she stayed away from Rose, he should disappear from her life again.
It shouldn’t matter he felt he’d suffocate if he didn’t have more of her. It shouldn’t matter she’d had his son. A boy who provoked a thousand unknown stirrings inside him. For what would he do with those aberrant feelings?
She hadn’t told him she’d had his son, seemed bound on never letting him know. Even without knowing what he really was, she knew she mustn’t let him near a boy that age.
And she was absolutely right.
For the past seven years he hadn’t known Mauricio existed, and Mauricio hadn’t known he did.
He would keep it that way.
Six
After Richard left, her mother and sister pounced on her with questions. Isabella expended every drop of ingenuity she possessed into dodging them and validating none of their suspicions.
Those ranged from his being a suitor she wouldn’t let close for reasons they couldn’t imagine—since as did every woman on earth, they thought him a god and/or a godsend—to the truth. Her mother was the one whose eyes contained the suspicion...the hope, that he was Mauri’s biological father.
She held it together until she was in her room, prepared for bed, then collapsed on it in a mass of tremors.
So much had happened so fast in that exhilarating, nauseating and terrifying roller coaster since he’d exploded into her life last night. Now his incursion had reached inside her home and within inches of the secret she’d thought safe forever. And it scared her out of her wits.
And that was before she considered that confounding evening he’d spent with them. Every second he’d spent charming her family like the snake he’d admitted he’d been labeled as, she’d felt a breath away from screaming with aggravation and swooning with dread. At the torture’s end, she might have stood her ground, and Richard might have walked away, but she didn’t think it would end that simply. He hadn’t given his word he’d leave her family alone in his pursuit of her. And nothing involving Richard was without long-term repercussions. She was now terrified what his next blow would be and how he’d deal it.
At least she seemed to have steered him away from any suspicion he might have had about Mauri. His age alone must have been a red flag, and she’d gone light-headed holding her breath, expecting the worst. After all the suspense, he’d only made a passing comment and had taken her claim that Mauri was adopted without batting a lid.
But...maybe this very reaction indicated she was overreacting. Maybe even telling him the truth about Mauri would be the best way to end his infiltration of her life.
A man like him, who lived separate from humanity, without connections, who only cared about having the world at his feet, would probably be appalled at the news he’d fathered a son. His lack of curiosity, or the one that had been satisfied by a mere word, indicated that her assessment was probably correct.
Furthermore, this inexplicable visit itself might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Maybe seeing her in her domestic milieu as a mother, especially to his biological son, would be a too-banal dose of reality, spoiling the fantasy of the wild affair he’d been planning to have with the mysterious femme fatale he seemed to think her. Maybe it would all douse his passion and make him walk away now, not later.
That sounded plausible. There was no way he would involve himself with her now that he’d seen her “tribe.” Spending time with her family had probably been a quaint novelty to him, a field experiment in how the other half lived to add to his arsenal of analyzing human beings, to better devise strategies to control and milk them for all they were worth. But there was no way he’d want to repeat it.
He’d only said he would to punish her because she’d dared challenge him. But once he was satisfied he’d made her sweat it out long enough, he’d let her know he never intended an encore.
Once she came to this conclusion, exhaustion, emotional and physical, descended on her like a giant mallet. She had no idea when sleep claimed her.
* * *
She woke up feeling as if she’d been in a maelstrom.