The Man Behind The Mask (From Rags To Riches) Read online

  ‘I didn’t mean to disbelieve you back at the restaurant… You should know by now how much I care about you, or I wouldn’t even be here.’ Stepping out onto the balcony, she hugged her slender arms over her chest. ‘But I do want to know about your marriage, Eduardo. How can I stay if there are secrets between us?’

  ‘You are perfectly right.’ His mouth com pressed a little. ‘There should be no secrets between us. The truth is that before she died Eliana and I had talked about divorce.’

  Smoothing his hand over his mildly aching hip, but disregarding his walking cane, Eduardo moved a little closer to Marianne. The scent of Tipuana trees and the baked heat of the day floated on the air between them, even as the gentlest breeze lifted some strands of her hair.

  ‘We had been married for ten years, and inevitably during that time we both changed quite a lot. My father had a coffee plantation, which I inherited when I was twenty-six and sold when I was twenty-seven. That was when Eliana and I got married. Managing the plantation didn’t interest me, but photography did—so I pursued it as my career and was fortunate enough to make a name for myself. I had inherited a great deal of money from my father’s estate, besides the money from selling the plantation, and I was making a very good living from my photography.

  ‘Eliana had become a famous soap star, and she loved the good life…parties, fast cars, holidays abroad, haute couture clothes… To cut a long story short, she was becoming increasingly materialistic and ego-driven. Whilst I…’ he paused to give Marianne a self-deprecating shrug ‘…I was becoming more aware of my responsibility as custodian of the great wealth I had at my disposal, and more interested in discovering how best I could help those less fortunate than myself.

  ‘Eliana grew unhappy at the amount of time I spent in that pursuit rather than attending tedious celebrity parties, or going on holiday after holiday, or accompanying her to the fashion hotspots of the world to see the catwalk shows that she loved… The tension and the rows between us worsened daily, until finally I could take no more. I asked her for a divorce and she agreed.’

  Reaching the next part of his story—the part he had the heaviest regret about—Eduardo paused to rub his chest, feeling it tighten un com fort ably. He saw Marianne’s gaze narrow with concern.

  ‘Are you all right?’ she asked.

  ‘I am fine. I will finish telling you everything. I was at home one night at our estate in the country when she came back from a ball she’d attended—hosted by some aristo she’d met at a fashion show—and that night she was like the Eliana I’d known years back, when we first met. She was happy and—and suddenly affection ate towards me, and told me she wanted to talk about a reconciliation.’

  Feeling himself colour, Eduardo nevertheless did not flinch from continuing.

  ‘The inevitable happened. We spent the night together. But the following day when I was back at work I realised that I had not really wanted it to happen at all…that it had been a moment of weakness I was not proud of. I still wanted a divorce. I rang Eliana and told her the decision I had made. To my surprise she accepted it, telling me that she too thought it had been a mistake. The estate was vast enough for us to share residency without constantly bumping into each other, and so we agreed that was what we would do until the divorce came through.

  ‘Just over a month and a half after that I remembered her birthday was coming up—our relationship had become much more amicable since we’d agreed to divorce—and I asked her what she would like as a gift. She reminded me there was a sports car she had been badgering me to buy her for a while. Some mutual friends were throwing her a birthday party and asked if I would come too…for old times sake. I agreed, and unfortunately that same night—that was when the accident occurred.

  ‘There is something else I have to tell you…’ He paused. ‘When an autopsy was done on Eliana it was discovered that she was pregnant. Was the baby mine, or that aristo’s? She’d once intimated she had been having an affair with him but I will never know.’ Swallowing down his sadness, then sensing some of the tension in him disperse now that his story was almost over, Eduardo risked a smile. ‘You know the rest…and now I have told you everything. Every word I have said is the truth…as God is my witness.’

  ‘Eduardo?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘I have to ask you this. If your wife had lived and given birth to her baby…would you have stayed married to her?’

  It was a question Eduardo had reflected on many, many times since the accident. And he would give an honest answer to this woman he now knew without a shadow of a doubt was the woman he loved with all his heart and could not bear to be without.

  ‘No, Marianne…I would not. If the baby had been mine, he or she would have brought me nothing but joy, I am certain, but if it had been another man’s he might have wanted to take responsibility, and Eliana might have wanted that. I always yearned to be a father, and I adore children. To have had my own son or daughter would have been—’ he swallowed hard ‘—would have made everything else in my life pale into insignificance. But my marriage to the child’s mother would definitely not have survived. We would have divorced, as we had planned, and come to some amicable arrangement about custody if the child had been mine. I am both positive and realistic about that.’

  Marianne breathed out…slowly. Not a single doubt remained in her entire being that Eduardo had told her the truth. There was simply too much good in him for deceit. She only had to remember how he had reached out to her—some unknown girl singing on the street—and offered her a job and a home, even when he might have preferred to lose himself in pain and grief instead and ignore the rest of the human race.

  ‘Thank you,’ she told him quietly, her tongue briefly moistening her lips. She furnished him with a smile. ‘Thank you for telling me the truth.’

  ‘There is something I need to ask you now,’ he said.

  ‘What is it?’ At the grave expression on his face, Marianne’s heart thumped.

  ‘Did you love your husband very much?’

  The question took her aback, but she wanted to give him an honest answer.

  ‘He was a kind, good man—like you, Eduardo… And he was there for me at a time when I was des per ate for a friend. So, yes…I did love him—but only as a friend…not as a woman truly loves a man. Not as I have come to love you.’

  Now the man in front of her wore a look that was part joy, part disbelief, Seeing clearly that he didn’t reject her, she felt hope and hap pi ness surge into her heart.

  ‘Say that again.’

  And suddenly he was standing right in front of her, his light blue eyes transfixing her with their burning magnetism, his hands resting possessively at the sides of her waist, his breath skimming her face and making her skin tingle deliciously.

  ‘I love you.’

  ‘I can hardly believe it. But, seeing as you have just said the words to me, with a look in your eyes that tells me it must be true, I have no choice but to believe you! But how—how can you love me, Marianne? I am hardly a young woman’s dream, with my bad temper and the way I can some times shut down and retreat into myself. I will probably drive you crazy when we are married, but I—’

  Marianne’s hands tightened against the biceps that flexed instantaneously and strongly at her touch. ‘Married?’

  ‘That is what I said. Will you marry me, Marianne? I certainly do not want you as my companion or my house keeper for good! No…’ His voice was filled with teasing warmth. ‘Even though you could fill both those roles with ease I want you as my wife—my wife and the mother of my children.’

  ‘I want that too, Eduardo, and it thrills me to hear you say it—but I can’t help but think you’re getting a poor bargain.’

  ‘How so?’ He frowned in concern.

  ‘Well…I have no job, no money, hardly any pos sessions. I come from a dysfunctional family, and I’m not remotely interested in fashion, fast cars, or—’

  ‘Or?’ A dark blond eyebrow was raised in
gently mocking amusement.

  ‘Or football!’ Marianne concluded, her teeth nibbling anxiously at her lip.

  ‘Why football?’

  ‘Need you ask? We’re in Brazil, Eduardo! It’s the nation’s favourite game, isn’t it? Even I know that!’

  ‘Listen…if you ever say even I in that self-deprecating tone again—as if you’re not an extremely bright, intelligent and perceptive woman—then I’ll just have to spank you to knock some sense into you!’

  ‘You wouldn’t!’

  ‘Want to try me?’

  ‘Seriously, though… Maybe I used to talk about myself in a self-deprecating way…my mother leaving when I was fourteen, and my father being the way he was and eventually leaving too definitely had a bearing on my self-esteem… But back then I didn’t really know who I was or what I was capable of. I didn’t even know what I wanted in life. No…that’s not totally true.’

  Meeting his gaze with an unwavering stare, Marianne grimaced.

  ‘All I’ve ever really wanted is to be loved, Eduardo. Yes…to be loved and not left alone by the people I give my heart to. But now I know that I have to think well of myself too—not keep blaming myself when things don’t work out. I want you to know that I’m not looking for anyone to “complete” me any more. What I want is someone who’ll be a true partner in life…someone who is there for me in good times and bad—as I will be there for him.’ She grinned. ‘Perhaps you’re not getting such a bad bargain after all, now that I come to think of it!’

  As he cupped his hands on either side of her face Eduardo’s heart was in his eyes, and his glance lovingly swept over Marianne’s animated features.

  ‘All I know is that I am a lucky, lucky man to have found you, my angel. Trust me when I tell you I will do everything in my power to ensure you will not be left alone or unloved ever again, so long as I am with you.’

  ‘I tell you what…’ Drawing nearer, Marianne fingered the buttons on his shirt front. ‘If you ever hear me put myself down in the future…you could always try kissing me instead of spanking me.’

  ‘You can be sure I will give your suggestion full and proper consideration, Miss Lockwood.’

  Chuckling softly, then bending his head—his heart racing with joy—Eduardo kissed his lovely wife-to-be until even the stunning white sweep of Ipanema Beach and the powerful Atlantic Ocean ceased to exist…such was their complete fascination, devotion and love for each other…

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7928-9

  THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK

  Previously published in the U.K. under the title BRAZILIAN BOSS, VIRGIN HOUSEKEEPER

  First North American Publication 2011

  Copyright © 2009 by Maggie Cox

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