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“Would it change anything?” Elena whispered in a choked voice. “Do you have to ask if there was anything real between us? Grayson, it is not in me to play the whore. I could not have…” Elena paused, looking for a word.

“Seduced me?” Grayson supplied.

She exhaled heavily, “yes, seduced you without feeling anything for you. I didn’t mean to fall in love with you but I was lost before any of this began, before I’d heard the rumors.” Was she convincing him? She searched his face for signs but there were none.

“When you were washed up on the beach, you grabbed my hand and held onto it with all the strength you possessed. You wouldn’t let go. Then, when you started to slip away, you squeezed my hand one more time and I couldn’t bear the thought of you not opening those eyes.” Elena’s tears started again, running slowly down her cheeks.

“That’s why you were in bed with me?”

“I didn’t know what else to do! I just wanted to give you my heat.” The words poured out in a rush, her courage returning. This was her chance, her only chance. “Then you woke up and you were more than I dared hope for.”

“A memory-less man waiting to be filled with your stories?”

“No, don’t play the cynic, Grayson, it wasn’t all like that. You were strong and sincere in a way Alejandro never was. Our marriage was arranged and when I turned out to be barren Alejandro ignored me except for the most basic of courtesies. But you cared for me. You showed me every regard. That day in the chapel when you promised me so many things, I knew I’d lost my heart to you.

“Grayson, my affection for you, my passion for you—was never feigned. You are the husband of my heart, no matter what you choose to do. You have my confession and my life is entirely in your hands.” She reached up and kissed his cheek. “You need time alone, Grayson. We’ll talk in the morning.”

Grayson watched her go and took a chair near the fire. When he’d looked out over the harbor that afternoon and seen the ship arrive, he’d not guessed it carried such a life changing passenger. Patrick Flaherty had completely destroyed his little paradise. Only it had never been real.

Now it made sense why the pieces of his life hadn’t fit seamlessly but why he had felt comfortable in the role of a gentleman landowner. He was the heir to an English viscount with a small holding. But he wasn’t, never had been, a Spanish pazo owner. No wonder the stallion had been so skittish. The horse had known the truth.

When he’d first heard the news of his identity and guessed the deceit Elena had perpetrated, he’d been fearful of who else had been implicated. Had there been a wife? Children? For a moment when it had all been fresh, he’d feared the cinnamon-haired girl in his dreams had been his wife. He knew he loved her but not with the passion Elena woke in him. As his memories became more sorted, he’d realized the girl was his cousin, Julia. It explained her presence in his dreams. The others had been his brothers.

Now he had the answers to so many of the questions that had plagued him, even to the estrangement between Elena and Alejandro. He was starting to think ignorance was bliss.

Grayson laughed out loud to the empty room. For months he’d been cursing his lack of knowledge and now part of him wished for his ignorant paradise back. Pictures of his life with Elena flashed through his mind: Elena lying in bed with him, her hair spilling across his chest, Elena dancing in his arms tonight, Elena crying out in passion as they made love.

She had saved him in more ways than giving him back his physical life. She’d connected to his very soul and there was no way he’d survive letting her go. Grayson pushed out of the chair. His decision was made.