Free Acapulco Nights by K. J. Gillenwater Page B

half-turned his face toward me. “I see.” He brushed imaginary lint off his jacket sleeve.
    I needed to stop being such a coward. “It was my fiancé.”
    He turned to face me, his eyes dark and empty. “Your fiancé? So,” he gestured to the crumpled sheets on the bed, “what was that all about?”
    He had every right to be confused. I knew when Joaquin came into the bedroom James waited for me back home. He did not. He only knew his long-lost wife had returned. How could I blame him for picking up where we left off?  I should have known better. I should have backed off immediately. In fact, I should have left him out in the hall.
    I sunk, defeated, onto the bed pulling my bathrobe more tightly around me. “I’m not sure.”
    “You’re not sure?” Joaquin growled. “I want to make love to a wife I haven’t seen in twelve years.”
    I cringed at those words. Those few lust-filled moments in bed had been shameful. That hadn’t been like me at all.
    He paced the room. “When we were having dinner last night, you never said anything to me about another man. Nothing.”
    “I know, and I should have.”
    “ Ay Dios , you should have,” he muttered. “You were mine , querida . When did you decide to give your heart away to someone else?”
    “I know it doesn’t make much sense to you. I had to leave. I had to go home. I left because my father died.” The memory of my father’s death now fresh in my mind. “My mother was a wreck, she could barely function. I couldn’t bury my father and leave her there all alone.”
    “But why didn’t you call or answer my letters?” he persisted. “Why didn’t you tell me how to get in touch with you? Why you were gone? I would have understood. I would have come for you.”
    “No, you wouldn’t have,” I whispered, hiding my face in my hands. I couldn’t handle the wave of emotions. Things I had wanted to forget bubbled to the surface.
    “I wouldn’t have? Who are you to decide what I might have done? You never gave me the chance!”
    I looked up at him from my spot on the bed. “Your mother was so unhappy with me. It never would have worked. Can’t you see that?”
    “And when did you decide this? Before or after you met your new fiancé?” He returned to his pacing.
    “Oh, Joaquin, that’s not fair.”
    “Not fair? What would be fair, Suzie? You pledging yourself to me for eternity in front of a judge and then leaving me, taking off as if I didn’t exist? How do you think I felt, Suzie? How do you think I still feel?” He stopped, and stood in front of me, arms crossed.
    “I don’t know, Joaquin. I have no idea how you feel.”
    “So, exactly why are you here? What do you want from me?”
    “What we had, Joaquin, what we had all those years ago—those days are long past. You know that, I know that.” I took a deep breath. “I’ve found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. But I need a divorce. That’s why I’m here.”
    For a long moment neither one of us spoke.
    “It didn’t seem to me that everything is in the past.” He nodded his head toward the bed. “Can you honestly tell me you feel nothing for me now? Nothing but fond memories? Is that all?” He leaned against the bureau behind him, his muscular body masked under the suit jacket.
    I let go of a ragged sigh. “That was a mistake. I just missed James is all. I lost my head for a minute. We have to forget it ever happened.”
    “ We have to forget? Oh, no, you have to forget, Suzie, or you will drive yourself mad, won’t you? Wondering if it’s me you love or this James.”
    “I love James.”
    “Yes, so you told me. You may have forgotten, but I remember it.”
    “That’s not fair Joaquin. Those days are long behind us.”
    “If they are so long behind us, then why did you kiss me like that? Why did you let me touch you?”
    I pulled my robe a little bit tighter around my thighs, feeling naked under his penetrating gaze.
    Joaquin smirked at me then, as if