Enamored by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

you.”
    Juana opened the door, hesitating. “My grandmother will not say so, but Diego has called. He will be home tomorrow. I thought you might like to know.”
    She was gone then, as quickly as she’d come. Melissa looked around the neat room she’d been given, with its dark antique furnishings. It wasn’t by any means the master bedroom, and she wondered if Diego would even keep up the pretense of being married to her by sleeping in the same room. Somehow she doubted it. It would be just as well that way, because she didn’t want him to know about the baby. Not until she could tell how well he was adapting to married life.
    She barely slept, wondering how it would be to see him again. She overslept the next morning and for once was untroubled by nausea. She went down the hall and there he was, sitting at the head of the table. The whole family was together for breakfast for once.
    Her heart jumped at just the sight of him. He was wearing a lightweight white tropical suit that suited his dark coloring, but he looked worn and tired. He glanced up as she entered the room, and she wished she hadn’t worn the soft gray crepe dress. It had seemed appropriate at the time, but now she felt overdressed. Juana was wearing a simple calico skirt and a white blouse, and the
señora
had on a sedate dark dress.
    Diego’s eyes went from Melissa’s blond hair in its neat chignon to her high-heeled shoes in one lightning-fast, not-very-interested glance. He acknowledged her with cool formality. “Señora Laremos. Are you well?”
    She wanted to throw things. Nothing had changed, that was obvious. He still blamed her. Hated her. She was carrying his child, she was almost certain of it, but how could she tell him?
    She went to the table and sat down gingerly, as far away from the others as she could without being too obvious. “Welcome home,
señor,
” she said in a subdued tone. She hardly had any spirit left. The weeks of avoidance and cold courtesy and hostility had left their mark on her. She was pale and quiet, and something stirred in Diego as he looked at her. Then he banked down the memories. She’d trapped him. He couldn’t afford to let himself forget that. First Sheila, then Melissa. The Sterlings had dealt two bitter blows to the Laremos honor. How could he even think of forgiving her?
    Still, he thought, she looked unwell. Her body was thinner than he remembered, and she had a peculiar lack of interest in the world around her.
    Señora Laremos also noticed these things about her unwanted houseguest but she forced herself not to bend. The girl was a curse, like her mother before her. She could never forgive Melissa for trapping Diego in such a scandalous way, so that even the servants whispered about the manner in which the two of them had been found.
    “We have had our meal,” the
señora
said with forced courtesy, “but Carisa will bring something for you if you wish, Melissa.”
    “I don’t want anything except coffee, thank you,
señora.
” She reached for the silver coffeepot with a hand that trembled despite all her efforts to control it. Juana bit her lip and turned her eyes away. And Diego saw his sister’s reaction with a troubled conscience. For Juana to be so affected, the weeks he’d been away must have been difficult ones. He glanced at the
señora
and wondered what Melissa had endured. His only thought had been to get away from the forced intimacy with his new wife. Now he began to wonder about the treatment she’d received from his family and was shocked to realize that it was only an echo of his own coldness.
    “You are thinner,” Diego said unexpectedly. “Is your appetite not good?”
    She lifted dull, uninterested eyes. “It suffices,
señor,”
she replied. She sipped coffee and kept her gaze on her cup. It was easier than trying to look at him.
    He hated the guilt that swept over him. The situation was her fault. She’d baited a trap that he’d fallen headlong into. So why should he