“You said I did you a favor, Jacqueline. Explain what you mean by that,” Diego instructed with lethal cool.          Playing for time, Jacqueline dragged in a ragged breath.“You’re an intelligent man, Diego. Can’t you guess?”          Hard dark golden eyes rested on her with uncompromising force.“Answer my question, por favor. (Spanish for ‘if you will’ or ‘please’).”“If you insist...”          Jacqueline lifted and dropped her slim shoulders, attempting to strike a casual note while she frantically plumbed her imagination for a suitable explanation. She was totally terrified that Diego would guess why he had found it so easy to get her into bed. He couldn’t know she was in love with him.  &ld

          Diego put a powerful arm to Jacqueline’s spine to urge her in the direction of the exit. She was almost there before it occurred to her that she could hardly leave without telling his cousin, Lilia. Although the two women hadn’t known each other long, they got on so well that Jacqueline already thought of Lilia as a close friend. “I have to tell Lilia that I’m going…” “Absolutely. You can call my cousin from the limo. I’m positive she’ll understand.” “No, that wouldn’t be right. She has been so good to me. Just give me two minutes, Diego. Please,” Jacqueline pleaded.        She freed herself from his grip and hurried back to the table where Lilia was seated. “Sorry, but I have to go…” “I thought so. I saw Diego arriving,” the elegant brunette acknowledged wryly.           Jacqueline gave her a relieved smile,

          She shot him a shocked look.“Of course, not… I’ve been behaving myself too!”          Diego breathed again.“I should’ve flown back and sorted this out more than a week ago.”“There’s a right time for everything. Maybe, at that time, you weren’t ready.”          He was still not sure that he was ready for the enormous complexity that had disrupted his once smooth and calm existence. He hadn’t chosen the situation, but now at least, he felt in control of it again.          With a sly grin on his lips, Diego surveyed Jacqueline with unashamed masculine possessiveness. He couldn’t comprehend how he had ever dismissed her as only very pretty.    &nbs

          Diego dug his cellphone back into his pocket. He felt slightly nauseous. Was it his Abuela? Doña Jacintha had been pronounced fighting fit at a recent examination. But a couple of weeks earlier, Diego had allowed Alejandro to run a full battery of tests, including DNA, on his little niece.           What the hell was happening that his friend couldn’t tell him on the phone? Maybe the tests showed something wrong with Azura? Was she ill? But why had it taken so long for Alejandro to approach him with the result?           Jacqueline didn’t even know about half those tests. Having arranged to take Azura to Alejandro for a vaccination that had been overdue, Jacqueline had come down with a twenty-four-hour virus that had confined her to bed and it had been Diego who had taken the baby instead.    

          For hours and hours, she sat on the cold mosaic tiled floor and hugged her knees, and stared into space. Her heart was broken beyond repair. It was all over. Her crazy romantic hopes, her living for today and not worrying about tomorrow, their marriage. All over.          Suddenly, Diego was willing to believe that she was a lying cheat, a greedy, money-grabbing gold-digger. She knew he wasn’t and never going to be in love with her, but she had had no idea just how fragile their understanding was.          And now their relationship already seemed as imaginary and flimsy as a child’s soap bubble and she felt terrified as if she were waking up in a living nightmare. In the shortest instant possible, Diego had taken her love and her pride and even her faith in him and destroyed the whole lot. As if it meant nothing… As if she w