Enticed by His Forgotten Lover(31)

True to his word, he’d given the order to suspend groundbreaking. It hadn’t taken long for her cell phone to start ringing. Rupert had been first, congratulating her on keeping Rafael de Luca in line. Bryony had rolled her eyes and bitten her tongue. As if anyone could leash Rafael de Luca. No, whatever reason he had for agreeing to postpone construction, it hadn’t been because she’d asked him to.

Her pride had already taken enough of a beating. She wasn’t going to beg him.

Then Silas had called to confirm that construction had indeed been halted and then expressed his concern that the workers were now on the island with nothing to do for the next however many days. He worried about the implications. As if Bryony had any experience with enforcing the law.

Still, she had to remember that a lot of people counted on her to keep things running smoothly. It was what she did. Never mind that her life was in shambles. She didn’t offer any guarantees about keeping her own affairs straight.

When Rafael arrived, he didn’t say anything. He took the keys from her and guided her around to the passenger side.

When he got in, she eyed him sideways. “Everything okay?”

“Fine.”

He started the engine and drove over the bumpy dirt path back to the main road and then accelerated.

“Feel like some breakfast?”

It sounded like he grunted in return, but she couldn’t be sure. Still, he hadn’t said no, so she took it as an affirmative.

“I’ll make your favorite.”

He glanced sideways at her. “My favorite?”

“Eggs Benedict.”

“Yeah, it is,” he mumbled. “I guess I told you that before.”

“Uh-huh.”

Clearly he wasn’t in a talkative mood. He looked downright surly. She was more of a morning person, but Mamaw wasn’t, and she often told Bryony she was too cheerful for her own good before noon. Mamaw didn’t have any compunction about telling her to shut up and go away, but Bryony guessed Rafael was too polite to do the same.

Funny, but she hadn’t noticed him being particularly grumpy in the mornings before, but then more often than not, they’d slept late after a night of making love.

Just the memory of them waking in bed, wrapped around each other, had her cheeks warming and a tingle snaking through her body.

She missed those nights. And the mornings. Most of the time she’d cooked for them both, but at least twice, Rafael had risen while she still slept and brought her breakfast in bed.

So instead of saying anything further, she reached over and took his hand, squeezing it before lacing her fingers through his.

He looked surprised by the gesture, but he didn’t make any effort to extricate his hand from hers. “Thank you.”

He cocked his head.

“For doing that. It means a lot not just to me, but also to the people on this island.”

He looked uncomfortable. “You need to understand that this is only a temporary solution. I can’t suspend operations indefinitely. There are a lot of people counting on me. They’ve trusted me with their money. My partners are heavily invested with me. This is… This is huge for us.”

“But you understand I would have never sold you the land if you hadn’t given me your promise,” she said. “The result would be the same. It’s not as though I sold you the land under false pretenses.”

Rafael sighed but then squeezed her hand. “For now let’s not talk about it. There’s no simple solution to all this whether I regain my memory or not.”

For the first time she weighed his position in the matter. If all he’d said were true, then it couldn’t have been easy for him to call off the operation.

Regardless of whether he’d lied to her before, he’d done the honorable thing now and it was costing him dearly.

She leaned over and brushed her lips across his cheek. “I realize this isn’t easy, but we all appreciate it. I’ve already gotten calls from the mayor and the sheriff. I’m sure there will be more before the day is out. You can expect to be courted by the locals while you’re here. They’ll want to present their case.”

“Are they angry with you?” he asked. “The mayor didn’t seem pleased with you last night. Do they all blame you?”

She blew out her breath. “They think I’m young and gullible. Some of them blame that and not me directly. They’re too busy feeling sorry for me for being taken by a suave, debonair man. Others put the blame solely on my shoulders, as they should.”

Rafael’s face grew stormy. “It’s your land. You can’t allow others to guilt you into keeping it just because they don’t want their way of life to change.”