Modern Romance Collection: November 2017 Books 5 - 8. Annie West
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my half-brother.’ He paused, letting the information sink in whilst he pushed his suspicion that there was something else, some other reason for her compliance, to the back of his mind.
‘For now, that means acting as if we are preparing to unite in marriage, that we at least like each other. I have no wish for the board to pick up on any reluctance from either of us. They must not question that the debt will be settled in full, however that might be.’
‘All this to save your business.’ She shook her head in disbelief and it grated on him that she thought his motives for demanding the marriage appear to take place were purely selfish.
‘And to save your father from ruin as well as safeguard our much-wanted state of being single.’
‘Do you really expect me to believe that?’
‘Sí, querida, I do.’ The words he’d just spoken weren’t lost on him. They were words he’d no intention of saying to any woman.
* * *
Lydia looked at Raul as he sat quietly, their little spat over. Around them the noise of the evening increased and a party atmosphere prevailed. The night was still young but she didn’t have time to think of parties and fun. She had to find his brother and the turn of conversation, however fiery, had showed just how she could do that.
‘I need to talk to your mother. She must know something.’ That got his attention.
His dark eyes held hers and he looked up at her, then back out to the now busy plaza, ablaze with Christmas lights. Around them the place was full of laughter and voices, the sounds echoing up around them, making everything seem surreal. She looked at the firm set of his jaw, the fierce profile, and knew she’d touched a nerve. A very raw nerve.
‘I have no wish to involve my mother in this.’ Finally, he turned back to face her and she could see the coldness in his eyes. ‘She knows nothing of the terms of the will and that is exactly how it will stay.’
‘It may be that she has the initial lead which will help with this. After all, she was married to your father. She must know something of what happened.’
‘Why do you say that?’ His icy voice was full of disdain but she pushed on regardless. She had no intention of ending up married to this man in three weeks’ time. By Christmas she’d be back in London and if it meant upsetting him and his mother was the only way out of it then that was exactly what she would do.
‘Women usually know. I have also worked out, from the small amount of information you have given me, that you and your brother must have been born within months of each other.’ She ploughed on, regardless of the deepening anger on his face. This wasn’t a time for sentimental feelings of guilt. This was a time to save herself from a marriage she had no wish to make.
‘Which is exactly why I have no wish to drag her into it. Imagine how it must have felt to be a new mother and know your husband was sleeping with another woman, that you’d provided the much-needed heir and were now surplus to requirements.’
Her temper boiled at the thought of the man who’d done that to his wife, Raul’s mother, and then a flash of sympathy for Raul himself. Had he too grown up knowing he was merely the heir required and not the son much wanted? Was that why he was so hard, so cold and unreachable?
She pushed it aside. ‘We have no other option, Raul, so when you have decided which way to proceed, perhaps you will be good enough to let me know.’ She stood up and began to walk away, aware of him behind her, tossing notes onto their table and following her.
She didn’t wait. She walked into the plaza, wanting only to get away from him.
‘I am not accustomed to women walking away from me,’ he stated harshly as he caught up with her. Did he expect her to bend to his wishes, do his bidding exactly as he wanted? No, she would never do that. She’d seen her own mother do it and then seen her leave, unable to tolerate the bullying regime any longer; she hadn’t even cared that she was leaving behind her daughter. It had been her grandmother who’d looked after her from then on.
She stopped to look up at Raul, an uncomfortable thought settling over her. For the first time in her life she wondered if she too should have been the required heir or even the much-sought-after son. Had she been a disappointment and let-down to both her parents when she’d arrived? A daughter neither of them had wanted?
Suddenly her childhood made so much more sense. Bitterness swept over her and she responded, lashing out at the man who’d brought such a realisation about.
‘Well you are about to find out what it’s like. I’m not staying here whilst you dither about just who you want to help with finding your brother. It seems to me you would rather marry than find him. What are you afraid of, Raul? Sharing your inheritance?’
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her close against him, looking directly into her eyes. For a brief moment she thought she saw desire combined with the anger her words had induced. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest, his closeness invading every sense in her body as drops of rain began to unceremoniously fall.
He didn’t care about the rain, or that they were quickly getting wet, instead he looked into her eyes, his breath as hard and fast as hers. Did he feel that powerful attraction too? The same attraction she was fighting? She couldn’t allow him to know what he did to her.
‘Let me go,’ she demanded fiercely, wanting only to hide the spark of something very close to desire that had leapt to life inside her, despite the dousing by the rain.
She couldn’t break eye contact as the rain began to fall harder; locals and tourists alike sought refuge inside the buildings of the plaza, but she couldn’t move. It was as if he’d cast a spell, fixed her to the spot. She couldn’t walk away, didn’t want to move.
He let her hand go, but remained so very close, looming over her like a matador, and to her horror she still couldn’t move, couldn’t back away from him. Around them the plaza had emptied, the noise of the pre-Christmas parties replaced by the constant thud of rain onto the now soaked bricks and cobbles of the plaza. She could feel him so very close, feel the heat of his body, smell his masculine scent. For goodness’ sake, she could even taste his kiss, taste what it would be like to have his lips pressed against hers.
Her hair was beginning to stick to her head, her jacket to her skin. She began to shiver, but she wasn’t cold. Far more powerful sensations were racing round her body. Raul pulled off his jacket, his eyes locked on hers all the time as he placed it round her shoulders. It made it worse. She could smell him around her, feel his heat caressing her, and as the rain quickly soaked him his shirt became tantalisingly transparent, serving only to heighten his strength and masculinity—not to mention her barely veiled desire to be kissed by him.
Before she knew what she was doing or had time to think of the implications of such actions, she’d moved closer still. It was all the invitation he’d needed and within seconds she was in his arms, her own wrapped around his neck as his lips, hard and demanding, claimed hers. Her wet body clung to his, the sensation of being against him so wildly sensual as the rain continued to fall on them that she couldn’t help the sigh of pleasure escaping.
His husky whisper in Spanish only added to the electrifying moment and she couldn’t stop herself pressing closer still, feeling every hard contour of his body against hers.
Then sense prevailed. What was she doing? Kissing the one man she shouldn’t kiss. Her enemy. What was the matter with her?
‘That,’ she breathed heavily as she pulled back from him and out of his arms, the rain still pounding down around them. ‘That was not part of our deal.’
‘Yet you can’t maintain you didn’t want me to kiss you, can you, querida?’
She shook her head as he continued. ‘In fact, it was you who started it, you who moved towards me. What is a man meant to do when a woman like you kisses him? Stand there and not move?’
‘I am not your querida.’ She hurled the words at him, glaring accusingly