tremor through her blood like a shockwave through a millpond. She could feel the tiny ripples moving over her flesh like the spread of a shiver.
His gaze drifted to her mouth, lingering there for a pulsing beat before re-engaging with her gaze with a zap she felt deep in her core. ‘I’ll give you twenty-four hours to make up your mind. After that the offer is off the table and a new one will take its place.’
Teddy worked hard to keep her expression masked. What other offer would he present to her? Dared she ask? His coal-black eyes were locked on hers in a silent challenge that made the air vibrate with soundless waves of antagonism. The back of her neck prickled as every tiny hair stood to attention like soldiers under the threat of enemy fire. She drew in a breath but the space inside her chest felt cramped, as if her ribcage was slowly but surely shrinking back against her spine. ‘You seem assured I will eventually capitulate to your wishes, Señor Valquez. Again, I would hate to unnecessarily damage your ego but I will not be told what to do.’
His slant of a smile ignited a satirical glint in his eyes. ‘It’s your call, Miss Marlstone. Today it’s a marriage on paper. This time tomorrow it will be the real deal.’ He handed her a business card with his contact details on it. ‘Let me know which you decide.’
Teddy took the card because she didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t get her voice to work. Couldn’t get her brain to think. Couldn’t stop her body from feeling hot all over from the smouldering burn of his gaze.
Was he serious? Was he prepared to go that far? To make it a real marriage in every sense of the word?
To her?
Why would he do that? Why would he want that? Why would he want her? Or was he game playing, to see how far he could push her?
Teddy watched as he strode out of the door. Listened to him speak curtly with Henry, the butler, on his way out. Heard the front door click shut on his exit. Heard the roar of his powerful engine and the spin of his tyres on the gravel of the driveway as he sped away, throwing up a shower of stones that hit the side of the house like a spray of bullets.
She closed her hand over the business card and felt the edges bite into the flesh of her palm. It was a chilling reminder that in any further skirmish with him she would have to be better prepared. Armoured up. Invincible.
And she only had twenty-four hours in which to do it....
* * *
‘If you ask me, I think you’d be crazy not to marry him,’ Audrey, the long-time housekeeper said as she poked a blue delphinium into the arrangement she was making in the kitchen. ‘After all, what’s going to happen to all of our jobs if this place is handed over to your layabout cousin? He won’t keep Henry on at his age, not to mention me.’ She gave a little sniff as she picked up another bloom. ‘He’ll want some big-breasted young floozy to flounce around the place with a feather duster in her hand before she dives into his bed.’
Teddy chewed at her lip. She hadn’t got as far as thinking about the loyal Marlstone staff. They were a team. A family. Her family. Audrey Taylor was sixty-eight and had run the household ever since Teddy’s mother had left. She had fulfilled so many roles in Teddy’s life: nanny, friend, confidante, wise counsel and mentor.
Seventy-four-year-old Henry Buckington had worked for her father’s father before her parents were married. He was part of the furniture. The place wouldn’t be the same without his stolid presence.
Then there was Stan and Myles Harris, the father and son team who managed the garden and the rest of the estate.
Audrey was right. Teddy’s cousin would bring in his own staff, not keep the ones who had served her and her father so loyally for so long. They would be cast out and left to flounder.
But could she marry a man she didn’t know to save them? A man she didn’t even like? A man she detested for his cocksure arrogance?
Alejandro Valquez expected her to say yes. Any other woman would have said yes ten times over. That’s what was so galling. He expected her to feel grateful that he was so magnanimously offering his hand in marriage.
A paper marriage.
How insulting was that? Could he make it any more obvious he thought her a deformed freak? Of course he would offer her a paper marriage. What else? He wouldn’t want her in his bed...not that she wanted to be in his bed or anything. A girl might have the odd erotic fantasy, which was perfectly natural, but it didn’t mean anything. It wasn’t as if she was hankering after a red-hot affair with him just because he was so staggeringly handsome...but still.
‘Did you know Dad had written his will like this?’
Audrey snipped off the end of the stalk of the flower she was holding. ‘I suspected he might.’
Teddy frowned. ‘You did? Why?’ Why didn’t you think to mention it during the last five months while I nursed him and stupidly fooled myself into believing he cared about me?
The housekeeper put down the secateurs and gave Teddy a direct look. ‘You don’t need me to tell you your father was a stubborn old goat who thought his way was the only way. I expect he was worried about you being left on your own. This is a big estate for a young woman to run without a husband by her side.’
‘So he engineered one for me? Do you know how...how insulting that is?’ Teddy folded her arms. ‘I can find my own husband, thanks very much.’
Audrey’s gaze had a wise old owl look about it. ‘You’d better get a wriggle on, lass. You’re not getting any younger.’
‘For God’s sake, I’m only twenty-six.’
Four years until she was thirty. Was that the sound of ticking she could hear? When she was a little girl she thought she would be married with a baby by now. As a little girl she had dressed up in her mother’s exquisite wedding gown and veil and tottered around in her high heels pretending to be a princess bride, dreaming of the day when she would become one for real. How far had life taken her away from her hopes and dreams? Her riding accident when she was ten had changed everything. She had gone from being normal to disabled. To being on the outside of everything. The odd one out. The poor little lame girl. The girl no one wanted on their team.
The girl no one wanted unless they could be bribed or bought.
‘Yes, but you haven’t been on a date since you came home from art school.’ Audrey picked up the secateurs and another bloom. Snip. Snip. Snip.
Teddy pressed her lips together. ‘I’m not good at dating.’
Audrey cocked her head as she studied the floral arrangement. ‘You don’t try, that’s why.’
Teddy frowned again. ‘I’m not a party girl. I never have been. I hate small talk. I’d rather paint or read a book.’
‘Alejandro Valquez has plenty of friends. Maybe he can lend you some.’
‘Oh, yes, I can just imagine me becoming chummy with all his pretty pin-up girls.’ She narrowed her gaze at the housekeeper. ‘Anyway, why are you so for this crazy scheme?’
Audrey gave her a pragmatic look. ‘I don’t want you to lose your home and this is the only way you can keep it. Your father was old-fashioned and set in his ways. He wanted to see you settled. He wanted you
