The Real Romero(53)

                He hadn’t known about how she felt about her background. Orphaned as a kid and brought up by her grandmother, yet never looking back and blaming an unfortunate past. Still believing in the power of love even though abandonment issues should have made her wary and cynical, disinclined ever to trust anyone to get too close. Still ever-hopeful, the eternal optimist.

                He had known women who had been blessed with the best life could offer and still managed to moan and complain about nothing in particular.

                ‘Bit soon for the cracks to be showing, wouldn’t you agree?’

                At the top of the landing, the maid turned right and they both followed, Lucas breaking off to say something to the maid in rapid-fire Spanish that had her laughing. Their cases had been brought up whilst they had been in the sitting room.

                ‘Your mother’s really lovely,’ Milly admitted. ‘It’s going to be a shame when she has to face up to the fact that you’re so obnoxious that no one in their right mind would ever put up with you.’

                Lucas looked down to see whether she was joking, but her expression was thoughtful and earnest.

                ‘There are times when I can’t actually believe that I’m hearing what you say correctly.’

                Milly stopped and looked at him with a little frown. ‘Do you have any idea how arrogant you were when you led me to believe that you were someone you weren’t? I may only have been the chalet girl, but you just didn’t see why you should be honest with me. For a start, you assumed that I was the sort of low life who would be out to see what I could get if I knew you were rich, and then you just didn’t give a damn if you weren’t honest. You didn’t care about my feelings at all. I know you had one bad experience with a gold-digger but that’s no excuse to just assume that everyone falls into the same category, guilty until proved innocent.’

                ‘How did your feelings have anything to do with...anything at all?’

                ‘You barely apologised for having duped me,’ Milly told him flatly.

                Where had that come from? Lucas, frustrated, raked his fingers through his hair and stared at her, lost for words.

                ‘You just assumed that it was okay because you can do what you want to do without bothering to consider other people.’

                ‘Is this conversation going anywhere?’ he questioned in a driven voice. He glared at the maid, who seemed to be suppressing a smirk.

                ‘I’m projecting...’

                ‘You’re what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

                ‘I’m projecting ahead to when you mother sadly discovers what a selfish, self-centred guy you’ve turned out to be.’

                ‘I’m guessing she’s probably wised up to those traits a while ago,’ Lucas said drily, eyebrows raised. ‘And, while we’re on the subject of scrupulous honesty and caring about the feelings of others, have you mentioned to your grandmother what’s going on in this part of the world?’

                Milly flushed. ‘I didn’t see any point in worrying her by going into details.’ It wasn’t as though this was going to be a long-term situation. Two weeks—three, absolute max—he had told her when she had agreed to his plan. In those weeks, even if a dramatic break-up hadn’t been staged, they should have covered the important phase of their fairy-tale romance revealing shaky foundations.

                In those couple of weeks, he had privately thought, his mother would put to bed all ideas of trying to see him settled with the woman of her dreams. She would kill off notions of fairy-tale romances insofar as they pertained to him and she would resign herself to cheerful acceptance that what he wanted out of life, emotionally, was a far cry from what she thought would do him good.