Blood in the Valencian Soil (Secrets of Spain) by Caroline Angus Baker Read Free Book Online Page B

she would be sick. She sat curled up in her seat with her head against the window. The view out across the plains of Castile-La Mancha, with the fields of sun-scorched earth stretched out before her, but she couldn’t even open her eyes. She wanted to bawl, cry out the agony of what she had just done. Her eyes were wet under her huge dark sunglasses, and she didn’t dare move a muscle, or the droplets would pour down her face. She could barely move her muscles anyway. Her body ached, awakened when Cayetano had made love to her. She must have held on to him tight with all four limbs, because every time she moved, everything burned in pain. She throbbed from the inside out from what they had done, whether that was from the physical act that they had committed – twice – or from the guilt. She had slept with a man who she didn’t know. A few cheeky glances and a few flirty lines and she was on her back. Luna wanted to wake up this morning and feel good about herself. She had overcome a massive hurdle in moving on after the death of her husband, but she had thrown herself away on a mistake. Luna wasn’t cut out for this; she wanted to love someone. Sure, when she lay in bed at night she wanted a man there, but a physical partner wasn’t enough for her. Since there was no man for her anymore, a sexual substitute didn’t suit at all. She felt conflicted in so many ways. Cayetano had asked for her phone number, and she had given it to him, but she didn’t expect to hear from him. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear from him, but if she gave out her number it meant that she could fool herself and think that they had just had more than a cheap one-night stand. None of this made any sense. Last night it had seemed like a great idea. To have him close made her feel alive again. She had woken up to another world. A world where she wasn’t miserable, and that only brought on more guilt. Her husband was dead. You shouldn’t get over that and be happy. This man, this Cayetano, was dangerous. He had brought feelings she didn’t know she wanted to have bubbling to the surface.
    ‘Have you ever wanted to be seduced?’ ‘Many times’. Many times? How could you say something that ridiculous? Sure you think it, you don’t say it! In one night, Luna had ruined what had been a private adult life. The only man that had ever laid a hand on her was her husband, and now she had let herself be used. God, it had felt good. Caught up in the bed sheets, the way her legs felt weak when he opened them, the throbbing that pounded its way through her veins as he took her. The way his lips bit at hers as his hands ran over her naked body. The way he growled when she had placed her hands inside his firm thighs to touch him. She had done that.
     
    Luna took a deep breath and unlocked the door to her apartment, eager to see her family. What had happened in Madrid could stay there. She needed to go into her apartment and back into her life. The moment she stepped through the door she saw her gorgeous redheaded sons run from the living room into the entrance way with enormous smiles.
    “Mummy, you’re back!” Enzo squealed, and wrapped his little arms around one leg. Enzo was her soft, gentle one, the sweet soul, a total angel.
    “We missed you,” Giacomo said. “You’re home early. Did you bring us presents?” Giacomo was the boss of the two boys, so he thought. He had begun to develop a personality much like Fabrizio’s, which amused his mother.
    “I did ,” she said, and they moved into the living room, where she unzipped her case to pull out the puzzles she had brought them, to more squeals of delight. “Where’s Darren?” she asked them. He should have been with the boys.
    “He’s in the shower,” Enzo said, without looking up from where he had sat at the table with his puzzle. “He said he would be quick.”
    “I will go and see if he’s out,” she said and ran her hand through Giacomo’s curly red hair. “Can you boys