LITMIR.BIZ

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the United States.”

      “There are similarities, but it’s a different system. The regional governments are responsible for education, health, social services, culture, urban and rural development and, in some places, policing. But contrary to the States, Spain is described as a decentralized country, with central government spending estimated at less than twenty percent.” And he was damned if he knew why he was telling her all that, now of all times.

      She chewed her lower lip that was once again the color of deep pink rose petals. His lips tingled with the memory of those lips, plucking at them, bathing them with intoxicating heat and moistness. “I knew some of that, but not as clearly as you’ve put it.”

      He exhaled his aggravation at the disintegration of his sense and self-control. “Pardon the lesson. My fascination with the differences between the two systems comes from having both citizenships.”

      “So you acquired the American citizenship?”

      “Actually, I was born in the States, and acquired my Spanish citizenship after I earned my medical degree. Long story.”

      “But you have an accent.”

      He blinked his surprise at the implication of her words, something he’d never suspected. “I spent my first eight years in an exclusively Spanish-speaking community in the States and learned English only from then on. But I was under the impression I’d totally lost the accent.”

      “Oh, no, you haven’t. And I hope you never lose it. It’s gorgeous.”

      Everything inside him surged. This was something else he’d never considered. What she’d do to him if, instead of hostility, admiration and invitation spread on her face, invaded her body, if instead of bristling at the sight of him, she looked at him as if she’d like nothing more than to feast on him. As she was now.

      What was going on here? How had memory loss changed her character and attitude so diametrically? Did that point to more neurological damage than he’d feared? Or was this what she was really like, what her reaction to him would have been if not for the events that had messed up their whole situation?

      “So …what’s your name? What’s mine, too, apart from Cybele?”

      “You’re Cybele Wilkinson. I’m Rodrigo.” “Just …Rodrigo?”

      She used to call him Dr. Valderrama, and in situations requiring informality she’d avoided calling him anything at all. But now she pressed back into her pillows, let his name melt on her tongue as if it were the darkest, richest chocolate. He felt her contented purr cascade down his body, caress his aching hardness….

      This was unbelievable. That she could do this to him now. Or at all. It was worse than unbelievable. It was unacceptable.

      He shredded his response. “Rodrigo Edmundo Arrellano i Bazán Valderrama i de Urquiza.”

      Her eyes widened a fraction more with each surname. Then a huff that bordered on a giggle escaped her. “I did ask.”

      His lips twisted. “That’s an excerpt of my names, actually. I can rattle off over forty more surnames.”

      She giggled for real this time. “That’s a family tree going back to the Spanish Inquisition.”

      “The Catalan, and the Spanish in general, take family trees very seriously. Because both maternal and paternal ancestors are mentioned, each name makes such a list. The Catalan also put i or and between surnames.”

      “And do I have more than the measly Wilkinson?”

      “All I know is that your father’s name was Cedric.”

      “Was? H-he’s dead?”

      “Since you were six or seven, I believe.”

      She seemed to have trouble swallowing again. He had to fist his hands against the need to rush to her side again.

      His heart still hammered in protest against his restraint when she finally whispered, “Do I have a mother? A family?”

      “Your mother remarried and you have four half siblings. Three brothers and one sister. They all live in New York City.”

      “D-do they know what happened to me?”

      “I did inform them. Yesterday.” He hadn’t even thought of doing so until his head nurse had stressed the necessity of alerting her next of kin. For the seventh time. He hadn’t even registered the six previous times she had mentioned it. He waited for her next logical question. If they were on their way here to claim responsibility for her.

      His gut tightened. Even with all he had against her, not the least of which was the reaction she wrenched from him, he hated to have to answer that question. To do so, he’d have to tell her that her family’s response to her danger had been so offhand, he’d ended the phone call with her mother on a barked, “Don’t bother explaining your situation to me, Mrs. Doherty. I’m sure you’d be of more use at your husband’s business dinner than you would be at Cybele’s bedside.”

      But her next question did not follow a logical progression. Just as this whole conversation, which she’d steered, hadn’t. “So …what happened to me?”

      And this was a question he wanted to avoid as fiercely.

      No way to do that now that she’d asked so directly. He exhaled. “You were in a plane crash.”

      A gasp tore out of her. “I just knew I was in an accident, that I wasn’t attacked or anything, but I thought it was an MVA or something. But …a plane crash?” She seemed to struggle with air that had gone thick, lodging in her lungs. He rocked on his heels with the effort not to rush to her with an oxygen mask and soothing hands. “Were there many injured o-or worse?”

      Dios. She really remembered nothing. And he was the one who had to tell her. Everything. “It was a small plane. Seated four. There were only …two onboard this time.”

      “Me and the pilot? I might not remember anything, but I just know I can’t fly a plane, small or otherwise.”

      This was getting worse and worse. He didn’t want to answer her. He didn’t want to relive the three days before she’d woken up, that had gouged their scars in his psyche and soul.

      He could pretend he had a surgery, escape her interrogation.

      He couldn’t. Escape. Stop himself from answering her. “He was flying the plane, yes.” “Is—is he okay, too?”

      Rodrigo gritted his teeth against the blast of pain that detonated behind his sternum. “He’s dead.”

      “Oh, God ….” Her tears brimmed again and he couldn’t help himself anymore. He closed the distance he’d put between them, stilled the tremors of her hand with both of his. “D-did he die on impact?”

      He debated telling her that he had. He could see survivor’s guilt mushrooming in her eyes. What purpose did it serve to tell her the truth but make her more miserable?

      But then he always told his patients the truth. Sooner or later that always proved the best course of action.

      He inhaled. “He died on the table after a six-hour surgery.”

      During those hours, he’d wrestled with death, gaining an inch to lose two to its macabre pull, knowing that it would win the tug-of-war. But what had wrecked his sanity had been knowing that while he fought this losing battle, Cybele had been lying in his ER tended to by others.

      Guilt had eaten through him. Triage had dictated he take care of her first, the one likely to survive. But he couldn’t have let Mel go without a fight. It had been an impossible choice. Emotionally, professionally, morally. He’d gone mad thinking she’d die or suffer irreversible damage because he’d made the wrong one.

      Then he’d lost the fight for Mel’s life among colleagues’ proclamations that it had been a miracle he’d even kept him alive for hours

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