"Then that's a pity!" he answered, without the slightest trace of remorse. “But try to see where I'm coming from. My father came with a very beautiful woman whom he did not fully know but then he was able to entrust his whole life. Not only that, he came from a very distant place, in another country and my father agreed to watch over and take care of him until he was completely healed. In fact, there are enough nurses qualified to take care of him in this country. So, tell me, if we reverse our situation, won't you at least doubt it?”
"No." she replied warmly. “Before I jump to unworthy conclusions or before I judge her professionalism. I will ask this stranger to show me her profile and if I am not satisfied with the information she provided, I will call her previous employers to verify if the documents she presented are true.”
“Well, there is no need for many explanations. Your point is well taken and that being the case, I am ready to put aside my speculation and let’s stop talking about this and let’s just enjoy this very fine champagne. I picked it up from my father’s cellar. It's embarrassing if we just spoil it.”
She plunked her glass on the table so abruptly that its contents surged over the rim with an indignation that almost matched her own. “If you think I’m about to share a drink with you, or we can eat together, think again! I would rather be hungry.”
She stood up, acting quickly to leave, but she had only taken two steps towards the door before he caught up with her and slammed it closed with the flat of his hand. "I regret that, because I am worried about my father's condition, I have offended you," he said calmly. "Trust me, I take no pleasure in having done so."
"Really?" She shot it with an evil look. “You could have fooled me. I'm not used to being treated like a criminal.”
He shrugged. "If I insulted you, I apologize, but I'd better make a mistake in being careful."
"Meaning what, exactly?"
"That my father was previously targeted by people only interested in taking advantage of him."
"He may not trust other people very easily if he feels safer in his relationship with you."
"Possibly not, but ours has never been a typical father and son relationship."
“I understand what you mean, but I suggest the time’s come for you to bury your differences and stop butting heads. All he needs is your concern.”
"I'm not here right now, if I don't care."
"Would you die if you told him that?"
An accented sound released him from the suppressed laughter. "No, but he might be shocked when he hears me say that and could be the cause of his death."
What is between these two that they remain apart from each other, she wondered. Do you two know how painful it is to wait so long but it’s too late to say to each other “I love you?” because I know. Often even though I don’t want to remember, I’ve witnessed the grief and regret that tears families apart because time ran out on them before they could have said the things they should have said.”
He looked out the window at the other end of the room in the garden with the strange plants in bloom. “We’re not other people,” he said.
"You are not immortal either." She hesitated, conflicted once again as to just how much she could say, then decided to go ahead and reveal what she knew, because she wasn’t sure if she would be able to survive if she didn’t do that.
“Look, Chris, your father will definitely kill me for what I’m going to tell you, but your father isn't just fighting because of his broken hips. His heart is not in good condition either.”
“I’m not surprised. He got that because of a few years of smoking and hard living, but no matter what his doctor said he still wasn’t able to change his habit. He’s a stubborn old goat.”
She knew that thing was true. Rocco left Vancouver General at his own discretion even though it was against the doctors’ advice and insisted that he wanted to fly back to the Philippines, simply because he didn’t want to be constantly monitored by nursing staff. ‘They don’t let a man breathe,’ he complained, when Lara spoke to him to stop him from traveling. ‘I’ll come out with a cold corpse if I stay here any longer.’
“Well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Chris. You know what this family’s problem is? You are both stubborn.”
He swung round and watched her from the other side of the vast room; a critical look that seemed like a sharp arrow to pierce her. He probed too deeply beneath the surface. Saw things she was not yet ready to accept to herself. "Perhaps before you start leaping to unwarranted conclusions," he said, approaching her like a hunter preparing to kill a captive, "you should also hear my side of the story."
"You're not my patient, just your father," she said, she backed away and she was almost out of breath at the determined gleam in his eye.
“But isn’t modern medicine all about the holistic approach — curing the spirit in order to heal the body, and whatnot? And isn't that what you've been fighting for since you came here?”
"I suppose so, yes."
“How are you going to do that, if you can only solve half? Beyond this point, what will you lose if you let me fill that vacancy?”
'My soul, and everything I am,' she thought, full of intense concern unless she could remove herself from the shroud of attraction that gave her the fear that might envelop her being, human destiny, by Christian Imperial would take control of her life, and possibly never to regain it again. Although she may run away like a frightened rabbit straying from his habitat like exploiting Rocco. So, she stood her ground, put aside the wrong thoughts from her thoughts and said with deceptive calm, "Absolutely nothing."
"Really?" he leaned over her, the voice dropping another half octave and latched his fingers around her wrist. "Then why do you seem so scared?"
She swallowed and ran her tongue over her dry lip. “I’m not,” she said.
She was lying. The evidence was present in her confused look, in her racing pulse, very easily and unobtrusively detected when he took her wrist. And he intended to find out why, because despite his thoughts he would remain unaffected by whatever he discovered when he went to the airport, the sight of the old man, so brittle and somehow diminished, he seemed to be struck by a hammer in his heart. They only spent a little time together, for a long time nothing else was done but to argue and nothing was agreed upon. But Rocco was still his father, and Chris would be damned before he’d let someone take him to the cleaners.Oh, she was full of reasonable anger for saying that she was not a selfless angel of mercy as she portrays as she is. After all, he didn't expect it. But he also saw how she was able to bring herself closer to Rocco; how successful she was in taking its affection. His father was not the demonstrative type of man, and at least not as far as Chris remember
She put down the bread she was holding and stared at him. "I beg your pardon?"“By what standards do you judge a prospective husband?”She reached for her glass and drank as she pondered what to answer to his question. "He must be a decent and respectable man," she finally declared."Tall, dark and handsome, too?""Not necessarily." She shrugged again, causing her clothes to lift slightly and expose the beautiful curve of her breasts.He wished he hadn’t seen that fascinating. "Rich and successful, is that so?"“At least, he must earn enough to support us. When we have children, I want to be at home to take care of them.”"If you had to choose just one quality of your ideal man, what would it be?""The one who knows how to love," she said dreamily, her brown eyes widened, and a sharp smile flashed on her lips. While outside, a strong wind was blowing on the pine trees. "I want love more than anythi
She probably weighed no more than fifty-four kilograms in his eighty-five, but what was lacking in size, was more than recoverable in spirit. He had no doubt that she was given knowledge of the anatomy of the man, beyond the ability to cause serious bodily injury. Which should hinder him. Instead the thought of repelling her left him so suddenly and painfully aroused that, for the first time, he questioned the wisdom of his plan of attack. She should have been at his mercy, not in any other way, but for now, she remained utterly indifferent to his charms. On the other hand, he is not with her.Aida just came back to serve chicken breast and ziti stuffed with spinach, a welcome diversion, allowing him to fight his bad submission hormones and redirect his energy to more productive channels. "Why did you allow my father to force you into allowing him to travel, when he clearly didn't fit on it?" he asked casually, once they were alone again.&l
Except for setting aside an hour a day to polish your halo! Struggling to hide his skepticism, Chris said, "All the work and no play seems unfair. We'll see what we can do to change that."A sudden influx of wind moved through the French doors, making her jump. "The thing being here is enough change. If the weather had cleared up, I'm sure Rocco wouldn't have upset me with the extraordinary day off to see the sights."“Count on both,” he said, acknowledging the opportunity when it showed up. "And I’m dedicating myself to act as tour guide.""That’s nice of you, Chris."No, no, he might have told her. Because whatever her motives, his were anything but pure. And because he meant it when he said he wasn’t a good person.They passed the leftover food in idle conversation, only interrupted by repeated bursts of rain on the windows, but before serving the coffee, she was about to run out of thing
Lara had been kissed before, many times, but always. with some part of her brain able to rate the experience objectively: too slobbery, too bland, too aggressive, too many teeth, too much heavy breathing, not enough tenderness. More often than not, kissing, she'd concluded, was a vastly overrated prelude to romance. Until Christian Imperial came on the scene, that was, and filled her with a single blow.Except "blow" was no more the right word to define his effect on her than "kiss" adequately described his action. What he did with his mouth transcended the ordinary and surpassed the divine. Cool and firm, it yet seared her with its heat. Though undemanding, it somehow stripped her of everything-her independence, her focus, her moral compass, even her sense of survival.Apart from one rash, distinctly forgettable experience, she'd chosen to remain celibate because sex for its own sake held no appeal, and she'd never come close to being in lo
She looked out at the flowers in brilliant bloom, at the peacocks strutting across the lawns, the blue arc of the sky and the stunning turquoise sea. Soon the rainy season would come to Vancouver, it's chilly southeasterly gales stripping the trees of leaves. People would be scurrying about under a forest of umbrellas where, just few weeks before, they'd been lying on the beaches taking in the last of summer's sunshine. "No," she said. "I'm happy to be here.""Good. Then you have no excuse for wanting to leave early."She thought not, either, until the beginning of her second week there, when Chris reappeared as suddenly as he'd left."So, this is where you're hiding," he said, coming upon her as she sat reading in a wicker love seat on the patio. "I've been looking everywhere for you."Though startled, she managed to hang on to her composure enough to meet his glance coolly and reply with commendabl
Aware her emotions swam dangerously close to the surface, she gave herself a mental shake, sat a little straighter in her seat and firmly changed the subject. "Thank you, but it all happened a long time ago, and we're here to talk about you, not me. So, tell me, Chris, exactly what frightened you off after that impulsive kiss last week? And please don't say you were too busy checking the main fuse box to find the cause of the power failure, because Ruben already told me you left after receiving a phone call. Had you forgotten you had a previous date, or was I so inept compared to the other women you know that you couldn't wait to escape me?""Neither," he said. "I had to go to work.""You work?""Well, yes, Lara," he said, laughing. "Don't most men my age?""Yes, but you don't seem the corporate type.""I'm not.""And it was the middle of the night."&
It felt good to hold a woman whose curves hadn't been ravaged by malnutrition. Whose bones, though delicate and fine, were not so brittle that he was afraid they'd break at his touch. Whose breasts hadn't withered from bearing too many children she hadn't been able to nourish properly. Who didn't shrink in fear when a man touched her. Who smelled of flowers, not poverty. "Stop it," he said, inhaling the sweet fragrance of her hair. "Stop what?" "Thinking. I can hear your brain working overtime." "Well, I can't help wondering—" He pulled her closer, enough for her warmth to melt the block of ice he carried inside and make him whole again. Whenever he returned from a particularly harrowing assignment, a woman's soothing voice and generous, vital body always helped erase the hopeless misery he never got used to witnessing; the wasted lives, the terror, the shocking evidenc