‘Only because I couldn’t bear the thought of not holding you in my arms, sweetheart—and because I knew that, the next morning, I would ask you to become my wife.’
‘Yes.’ Her heart felt like a piece of ice lying cold within her breast. ‘I heard you tell that to Linda.’
‘Of course I told it to Linda,’ he said impatiently. ‘I know you think she’s a spoiled brat——’
‘Hah!’
‘Perhaps she is—but she’s also an unhappy young woman. Don’t turn away from me, querida,’ he said, clasping her face in his hand. ‘Listen with your heart this time, imagine her not as she is now but as a little girl, eager for the love of a father—and having Felix turn away her every childish gesture of affection.’
‘So, she turned to you instead,’ Arden said coldly.
‘Yes, she did.’ His hand held her firmly, so she couldn’t look away from him. ‘And I loved her as she loved me, Arden, as brother and sister. I promised her I would always take care of her, that I would never abandon her.’
‘This is all interesting, Conor, but it has nothing to do with me. I’m not going to tumble back into bed with you, I’m not going to give you El Corazon—’
‘Dammit,’ he said gruffly, ‘haven’t you heard a word I said? I don’t want the ranch.’
‘You’ve always wanted it!’
‘Once, perhaps. But you made me see the truth: that I only wanted it to avenge my father.’ His hand slipped to the nape of her neck, his fingers burrowing into her hair. ‘I realised that, the day of the fiesta.’
‘That’s easy to say now, Conor, but why didn’t you tell me it then?’
‘I was going to, at breakfast.’ He drew a deep breath. ‘I was going to tell you that I loved you with all my heart and ask you to marry me.’ He leaned his forehead against hers. ‘But I suspected you wouldn’t believe me—unless we found a way to deal with El Corazon.’
Arden ran the tip of her tongue across her lips. Her heart was batting against her ribs, her pulse was racing—but why should she believe anything this man said? He was a liar, a fraud, he was everything she despised...
No, no, he wasn’t. A little sob rose in her throat and she clamped her lips together to smother it. Who was she kidding? Conor was everything she loved and would always love, and if he had come here to break her heart again...
‘You’re right,’ she said, her eyes fixed to his. ‘I wouldn’t have believed you.’
Conor nodded. ‘Exactly. So I found the perfect solution. I would donate the ranch to the same group I’d threatened Felix with when he’d wanted to sell the cloud forest—Friends of the Forest.’
Arden’s eyes widened. ‘What?’
‘I don’t need El Corazon, Arden. What I told you is true: I made more money than my uncle ever did, once I’d figured out that growing bananas and shipping them, along with raising coffee and sugar and cattle on my own finca in Venezuela, was a lot more profitable than spending my life in a sulk. In fact, for the last few years, it’s been my money that’s kept El Corazon from going under. Felix had made some poor decisions and investments.’
‘He never told me that,’ she said, surprised. ‘He only said you’d been interfering...’
Conor sighed. ‘I don’t think he ever really let himself acknowledge the truth. He was too proud and too stubborn—traits that run in the family, I’m afraid.’ He smiled and clasped her face in his hands. ‘The day of the fiesta, I knew, without question, that you weren’t after money, that you never had been, that you were the kindest, sweetest woman a man could ever be lucky enough to find.’
Tears rose in Arden’s eyes. ‘But—but I thought... I heard you agree with Linda, that I was a fortune hunter—’
‘No!’ Conor shook his head angrily. ‘No, querida, you could never have heard me say such a thing, because I knew it wasn’t true. I can’t deny that Linda believed those things of you, but I told her that you were the most important thing in my life, that she couldn’t begin to understand how much I wanted you.’
A sob broke from Arden’s lips. ‘Oh, Conor,’ she whispered, ‘when I heard the things she said—when I thought you were agreeing with her—I wanted to die.’
He lifted her face to him. ‘Then you do love me,’ he said, triumph shining in his eyes.
She sighed. ‘Of course I love you. I thought—I thought you’d used me, I thought...’ She shook her head. ‘I misjudged you so badly,’ she said brokenly. ‘All I could think of was—was how you’d hurt me—’
‘—and, to protect yourself, you wanted to hurt me in return.’ Conor gathered her close in his arms and brought her head to his chest. She closed her eyes and listened to the wonderful, steady beat of his heart.
‘I’m sorry, mi amor,’ he said softly. ‘I should never have doubted you. I should have realised you could never be the woman you tried so hard to make me think you were.’
She smiled tremulously, put her arms around his neck, and leaned back in his embrace.
‘Will you miss El Corazon, do you think?’