As soon as Afonso stopped the truck in front of the garage, Catarina jumped out and ran to the house.
“Catarina!” he called after her, but she didn’t slow down.
She was furious with him. Her anger burned so hot she wanted to slap him.
Instead of driving straight home after getting the truck out of the ditch, Afonso had driven to Sete Fontes to file a police report. She’d tried telling him she didn’t want to talk to the policeman on duty, but Afonso didn’t listen to her, and they’d spent over an hour in a hot, cramped room while the village cop, clearly due for retirement, had typed their statements with only two fingers. The water bottles the policeman had given them were lukewarm, and the bathrooms hadn’t been updated since the eighties, if not before.
But worse than all that was the chance of being recognized by the village people who’d seen them enter and exit the building. What if some of them had taken pictures?
Catarina ran up the staircase with Afonso right behind her.
“Catarina, wait.” He caught up to her at the landing. “Please. I just want to talk to you.”
She whirled around to him. “Why, Afonso? Why do you want to talk to me?” She crossed her arms.
“I just want to tell you—”
“Why should I listen to you? You didn’t let me tell you anything back in Sete Fontes.” Her voice rose, and she took a breath. “You wouldn’t listen to me.”
“I’m sorry, but we had to stay until the report was done. I know it was inconvenient and you were tired—”
Catarina took a step forward. “Tired? Do you think this is about me being tired?”
“You said the bathrooms were—”
“I can’t be seen in public. Why can’t you understand that?”
“This is the first time I’m hearing about it.” He passed a hand through his hair. “You haven’t told me anything, Catarina. Why don’t you want Matias to know you’re here? I’ve been trying to understand you, and you won’t let me be your friend. How am I supposed to know what you need if you won’t talk to me?”
“You’re so stubborn, you know that?” Catarina clenched her fists.
Afonso stepped closer to her. “Now I’m stubborn? Because I care about your safety?” His voice lowered. “Or because I care about you?”
His words made her pause, and she looked at the man in front of her. “Why would you care about my safety?” She didn’t dare repeat his last question. How could he care about her?
“Did you not hear a word I said?” He made a sound, almost a growl, deep with frustration and something else she couldn’t begin to guess.
Afonso shot his arm behind her neck and pulled her close, his other hand splayed against her back, firm and possessive.
Catarina gasped, and his mouth landed on hers—fast, hot, insistent. She grabbed his upper arms and opened her lips to him, giving back with the same resolve.
Afonso was kissing her. He was kissing her.
She lost track of time as silent stars exploded within her, around her, inside her. All the stars she never knew could come from only a kiss. Afonso brought her closer still, and his kiss evolved into something deeper and sweeter. Catarina held on to him, wishing the closeness could last forever.
At last they broke the kiss, gasping for air. Afonso’s hands slipped around her waist and he rested his forehead against hers. “Catarina…”
Afonso had kissed her, and she’d kissed him back with fierceness and heat. How could she call that a kiss? It was so much more. Was this the beginning of a relationship that had never even crossed her mind?
Catarina pulled away, unable to deal with all the emotions she saw mirrored in Afonso’s eyes. “Can we talk later, please?”
Afonso nodded, and she took refuge in her room.
* * *
He’d kissed her.
After dreaming and daydreaming and fantasizing about kissing Catarina, after promising himself he’d never give in to it, Afonso had kissed her.
And not just any kind of kiss. For a moment, he’d let go of his control and drunk her in, tasted her as if he meant so much more with that kiss.
And it scared him that he did. He’d wanted her that much. He still did.
He was halfway to falling in love with Catarina Romano, and he didn’t even know how it had happened. How could he have let his guard down?
He was the biggest idiot he’d ever heard of.
Afonso watched her, the click of the lock echoing through the empty hallway. The message could not be any more clear: she didn’t want him. Why would she?
She was still mourning her husband, and Afonso had taken a kiss without asking.
He turned and went back outside, where he’d left the truck running and the doors still open.
Senhor Francisco approached and gestured to the Ford. “I turned the engine off.”
Afonso nodded. “Obrigado, Senhor Francisco.” Afonso pulled the key from the ignition and went to the back of the truck.
Senhor Francisco met him and started pulling out the supplies from the other side. “Everything okay?” He tipped his chin toward the manor house.
Afonso gave him a tight smile. “Yeah, it’ll be okay.” Nothing was okay, but what else could he say?
They worked side by side until they’d stacked the supplies in the barn, and Afonso placed all his misspent energy into the mindless task.
When he was done, he turned to the older man. “Some people from my past might be coming around.” As much as he didn’t want to alarm the Silvas, he had to warn them about the situation.
Senhor Francisco leaned against the open barn door. “Would this be a good thing?”
Afonso shook his head. “No, this would not be a good thing.”
“What do they look like?”
“A woman in her early thirties. She might have a man with her. I saw them driving a passenger van, but they could be driving something else too. She’s pretty, with dark blonde hair, and she can talk you into anything.”
“You say that from experience?”
“That I do, unfortunately.” If only he could turn back time and undo his mistakes.
Senhor Francisco nodded. “A pretty snake.”
“The worst kind.”
“I’ll have to tell my wife.”
“Please do.”
Afonso took the ATV and rode the perimeter of the property, making sure nothing else had happened since his last inspection. He drove out to the main gate and checked the wall and the fence from the outside.
When he reached the top of the road, he stopped to watch the late sun graze Sete Fontes as the day waned before him. Up here, peace and solitude were a possibility, something he could easily attain if he stopped caring about everything else.
Afonso had wished for Sunset Manor to be an island away from his former life and from the reality of the rest of the world, but islands were not fortresses, and a pretend life wasn’t much of a life at all. Sunset Manor had been Plan A, the regroup-and-start-over plan. But he should have learned by now that plans didn’t work, and unwittingly a Plan B had taken over, the fall-in-love-and-mess-everything-up plan. Did he dare think Catarina might be his Plan C?
He could still feel Catarina’s lips on his, the way she’d trembled under his touch. He unclenched his hands and blew out a breath.
He’d been mad at her for calling him stubborn when she was the stubborn one. After all the promises he’d made himself to keep away, it hadn’t taken much to give in.
How was he going to forget that kiss and pretend it hadn’t happened?
How could he begin to convince Catarina she could trust him?
On the way back to the barn, he stopped at the linden tree where they’d sat before.
Afonso looked up to Catarina’s bedroom and thought he saw her retreat away from view.
Gaining her trust was going to take a lot more than a conversation, especially when she didn’t want to talk to him.
He looked back to the tree. It did have the perfect branch for a swing.