a place of ghosts and demons for him. And she imagined that he was on a quest for redemption.
“And Diego...”
“I believe one of the more commonly held rumors. Which is that his wife caught him out in an affair and killed herself as a result.”
“He must feel...awful.”
“I don’t know that he possesses the capacity,” Matías said. “He’s a vain, selfish man. And while I don’t believe he would ever physically harm someone...he does it every day by living only to please himself.”
They made the rest of the drive in silence, and when the limo pulled up to the front of the well-lit hotel, the previous conversation from the car temporarily fled her mind as she felt a growing sense of nerves over what lay ahead.
Shallow, trivial in many ways in light of all that Matías had told her. But she was only human, a human who was about to be put on display in a room full of people, and then put on display yet again in the papers. Online. The world over. Not because of any interest in her, but because of the interest in Matías and the entire Navarro family.
Matías exited the car and she stayed in her seat, her eyes fixed upon the entry doors that were standing open, people filtering in and out wearing all manner of evening finery. Long gowns glittering beneath the spotlights.
She saw a beautiful blonde make her way down the stairs, a formfitting gown highlighting her voluptuous figure, her hair left loose and blowing in the warm evening breeze.
For the first time in quite a while, Camilla missed her hair. Wondered if Matías would find her more beautiful if she hadn’t cut it all off.
Then she frowned. She wasn’t supposed to care what Matías thought. This wasn’t about him. It was a business deal. She was the one who had said that. The one who had shaken hands with him as though they were in a board room. As though they had not been sitting in his family library, he coping with the betrayal of a fiancée, and she dressed as a boy.
The limousine door opened and Matías stood there, looming over her, tall, dark and perfectly dressed.
The sight of him took her breath away, and she was reminded why it was so difficult for her to keep the nature of the arrangement straight in her mind.
Because he was beautiful. So very beautiful and it didn’t matter that she was not a lovely enough woman to catch his attention. At least, it didn’t matter to her body.
It was shameful. The fact that she was not immune to him. That she would like to be disdainful of all his egotistical assertions that all women fell at his feet the moment they set eyes on him.
But she could not be disdainful because she was not immune in the least. And she was perilously close to falling at his feet.
So don’t.
She held on to that stern, internal admonishment as she reached out to take hold of his hand. She lifted her chin, meeting his gaze, doing her best to appear confident.
Mercifully, she was wearing flat shoes, the nature of her long dress making heels unnecessary. They had an elegant, pointed toe and glittered gold just like her gown, and were easy to walk in.
With each step they took toward the ballroom her stomach tied itself in a slightly tighter knot.
She took a breath and imagined that instead of approaching a ballroom, she was approaching a barn. That all she would have to do was wrangle a two-ton animal, rather than dance before an audience of people who would be judging her, assessing her value.
She found that settling.
Horses were her confidence.
This was not.
And so she reminded herself who she was. That she could outride anyone here. That she possessed skills they could not possibly imagine. That she might, in fact, have a misstep tonight, but it would not change the fact that when it came to doing what she loved, no one could best her.
Somehow, that helped. Somehow, it infused her with a sense of confidence she had not known she could find here.
These men, these women, might well be the rulers of this domain, and she most certainly was not. But she had dominion over what she loved. And once she had completed this ruse with Matías, no one would ever be able to take it from her again.
She could withstand anything in order to ensure that. Anything at all.
She found herself holding her head higher, carrying her shoulders a bit straighter.
Matías put his hand low on her back and ushered her inside, and she felt that touch like lightning. She turned to look at him, her heart racing. No man had ever made her feel like this before. And a moment ago it had made her feel ashamed. It had made her feel as though she was simply one of the scores of women who had fallen prey to his charms before.
An inadequate one, at that. One who could not measure up in terms of beauty or grace.
But none of the other women that he had ever been with before would have matched her for horsemanship. Of that, she was confident.
And perhaps, a man would not find that to be an asset in a lover.
Just thinking the word made her stomach turn over.
Perhaps he would not. She was strong, she was athletic. She knew what her body could do, knew how to test the limits of her physical abilities when it came to doing ranch work.
She would be more than able to do the same in bed with a man.
Her face grew hot, her throat tight and prickly.
That burst of confidence had pushed her mind into strange territory. Or perhaps it was that hand on her body. Perhaps it was simply prolonged exposure to him. Perhaps it was everything. All the changes that had occurred in her life over the past few months.
And perhaps more than anything that time spent dressed as a boy and working at his rancho.
Being so aware of the fact that she was a woman when no one saw her that way. Being so aware that she was a woman when she could not behave like one.
And now she was thrust into this. The spotlight where her beauty, her femininity, was being highlighted in a way it never had been before. Where she was experiencing forced proximity with a man in a way that she had never done before.
Perhaps that was why her thoughts had gone to lovers and bedrooms.
She didn’t want them to go there again.
She simply had to get through the night.
Then tomorrow she would focus on getting through that day. And the next. And the wedding day. And all the days after that until this ended and she got what she truly desired. Which was not Matías, but the ownership of the family rancho. The horses.
She simply had to keep sight of that end goal. That was all.
Matías swept her inside the beautiful, glittering hotel, and she marveled at the surroundings. The marble pillars, the glittering chandelier at the center of
