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

‘I am one of several guests invited for dinner this evening at the home of Antonia’s father, yes,’ he bit out impatiently.

‘Ah …’ she murmured speculatively, enjoying seeing this usually perfectly controlled man at a disadvantage for a change.

Alejandro scowled darkly. ‘You really are the most—unsettling, of women!’

Brynne smiled. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

‘I would not,’ he snarled, his accent becoming more pronounced in his obvious displeasure. ‘So far I have not found being with you a restful experience!’

Her smile turned to a chuckle. ‘I believe that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Alejandro!’

She was infuriating, Alejandro acknowledged, not for the first time. Infuriating, outspoken, and far too familiar.

But at the same time he also knew that he had never found a moment’s boredom in this woman’s company, either …

For a man who had been soured towards love years ago, his relationships since that time only having ever been on a physical level, it wasn’t just unsettling to realize this, it was extremely disturbing!

He shook his head. ‘I really do have to go and make some calls. What now?’ he questioned in frustration as he saw Brynne’s disapproving expression.

She shrugged. ‘I was merely wondering if you ever intended to spend any time with Michael?’

Alejandro’s frown darkened to a scowl. ‘I have just finished having lunch with both of you.’

‘Eating together and actually spending time together are two totally different things,’ Brynne dismissed evenly.

He drew in a controlling breath. No one, absolutely no one, ever questioned him in this way!

‘Tell me, Brynne,’ he said tersely, ‘have you ever been present at the taming of a wild stallion?’

Brynne gave him a puzzled glance. ‘I can’t say that I have.’

He nodded abruptly. ‘Then if you had you would know that it takes patience. That first you have to let the stallion slowly become accustomed to your presence, to the sound of your voice. Once you have done that, you can begin to touch the stallion as you talk to it. Again this takes time. But once he accepts these things it is time to put on the saddle and bit. Only to put it on, you understand. It will take many more days before you can actually attempt to get up into the saddle. If you try to go too fast, to force these things, then you will break the animal rather than tame it.’

Brynne stared at him incredulously. ‘Are you trying to tell me that you’re treating getting to know Michael the same as taming a wild stallion?’ she gasped disbelievingly.

He shrugged those broad shoulders. ‘It is a tried and tested method.’

‘You—you—’ Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright with temper as she stood up to face him. ‘Is that how you tame a woman too, Alejandro?’ she challenged in disgust. ‘Do you talk softly to them? Touch them? Caress them? Before taking them to your bed?’ She was breathing hard in her agitation.

His jaw was tightly clenched, his pale grey eyes cold with anger as he glared down at her. ‘You have no right—’

‘I have every right if that’s really the way you think you’re going to get close to Michael!’ she replied. ‘You’re incredible, do you know that?’ She gave a disbelieving shake of her head. ‘Absolutely incredible, if you think you can treat the emotions of a vulnerable little boy as lightly as you would the taming of a wild stallion!’

A nerve pulsed in that tightly clenched jaw. ‘And you, Brynne, have never even tried to understand how difficult this situation is for me—’

‘Forgive me, Alejandro,’ she came back sarcastically. ‘But you really aren’t my first priority!’

‘As well as Miguel,’ Alejandro finished angrily. ‘In fact, I believe you take delight in thinking the worst of me!’ he snapped.

‘I would think badly of any man who evaded his responsibilities for six years!’ she retorted.

His eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘So now we come to the true reason for your obvious contempt for me!’

‘I’ve never even tried to pretend I feel anything else!’ Brynne scorned.

He looked at her icily. ‘You have no knowledge of what happened between Joanna and myself seven years ago!’

‘I know enough,’ Brynne assured him scathingly. ‘Joanna didn’t even trust you enough to tell you of her pregnancy, let alone try to include you in it!’

Alejandro’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to control his own temper, and tell himself that Brynne spoke out of ignorance rather than fact. She judged him on what she thought she knew rather than on what had actually happened seven years ago.

It didn’t work, his anger not abating in the slightest. ‘I advise you not to make judgements on something you do not understand,’ he told her coldly.

‘Oh, I understand you only too well, Alejandro,’ Brynne assured him with a disgusted toss of her head, blue eyes glittering. ‘You’re cold. You’re aloof. And your all-knowing arrogance is just unbelievable!’

He continued to look at her in frustration for several long seconds, his jaw clamped tightly together as he debated whether he wanted to verbally tear Brynne apart, or just pull her into his arms and kiss her until she was senseless.

The latter emotion won!

He reached out to pull her slender body into his and felt the softness of her skin against his own as he held her tightly against him and took possession of the sensuous curve of her lips.

The kiss was so unexpected, so fiercely hot, that Brynne had no chance to do anything other than respond.

It was like drowning! Every part of her seemed to melt into Alejandro, her hands moving up as she clung to the broad width of his shoulders.

And then Alejandro was pushing her away from him, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw when he turned back from ensuring that Michael hadn’t seen the exchange. He hadn’t.

‘I have to go,’ he finally muttered determinedly before turning on his heel and striding purposefully back to the villa, his back and shoulders rigid.

Brynne watched him go, very much aware of the fact that, instead of repulsing Alejandro’s kisses, the ache in her body told her she actually regretted that they had ended so soon …!

CHAPTER SIX

BRYNNE shifted on the bed as she tried to find a comfortable position in which to fall asleep.

Something she had been trying to do for the last hour, feeling too restless to settle down to read the book she had brought away with her, and Alejandro not having returned from his evening out yet.

She had been so angry with him this afternoon, then so surprised and aroused as he had kissed her.

In fact, she had been so distracted, so disturbed, that she had felt relieved when Maria had come out and offered to take Michael for a walk to the village with her.

But the result was that Brynne had been so worn out from puzzling over that kiss, her head so full of the things she should have said to Alejandro and hadn’t, that she had eventually fallen into a deep sleep as she had continued to lay on the lounger beside the pool.

Only to wake up an hour later to find her back sunburnt because she had been too agitated earlier to remember to put any oil on it before falling asleep.

Brynne got impatiently out of the bed, the after-sun she had managed to put on her shoulders earlier, and partway up her back, doing absolutely nothing to alleviate the heat or the stinging sensation that continued to keep her from sleeping.

She opened the French doors to stroll out onto the balcony, hearing the distant clanging of a bell around the neck of a goat or sheep, and the clicking sound of the cicadas.