because of him. She had to get a grip on herself. He couldn’t know that she found him attractive. Instinctively, she knew that would be dangerous.
‘Why should I care about what your board of directors think?’ He’d tricked her, kept this part of the terms from her until she arrived in Madrid.
‘I have until the end of December to sort this matter and in order to save thousands of jobs from being put under scrutiny or worse. There is one final clause and that is if I don’t find my brother or marry you, the company will be sold. It is essential that I am seen to be dealing with the debt. It is not, after all, a small debt. I’m sure even you would agree on that.’
‘And if I agree to this fake engagement?’ Again she challenged him.
‘You will be helping not only yourself and your father, but many hundreds of ordinary families who depend on their continued employment.’
Lydia sighed. She knew when to give in gracefully. How hard could it be to pretend to be engaged to this man? All she had to do was find his brother and then this nightmare, which was getting worse by the minute, would be over.
Raul spoke again, adding to her worries. ‘And if you fail to find my brother we will have already begun the process of organising our marriage, which will have to take place on Christmas Eve.’
‘You’ve got it all planned, haven’t you?’ A Christmas wedding? The thought sent panic racing through her like a torrent of flood water. She had no wish to be a married woman. She’d seen how hopeless her dreams of love and happiness were. Now Raul was reinforcing how futile those dreams were.
‘I am always prepared for all eventualities.’
Why did that sound so threatening? She looked up at him, his dark eyes piercing into hers, and not a trace of anything other than seriousness was on his handsome face, nothing to soften the severity of his hard expression.
For the briefest of moments, she considered walking out. This was her father’s mess and he could sort it. But she knew he never would and when it all went wrong Raul would be back, only then she would have nothing to bargain with. Not if he’d already found his brother. On top of that she could almost hear her grandmother, urging her to be strong, to get through this, as she’d always done when the fear of boarding school had been her only worry in life.
It was now or not at all and she’d do it for her grandmother’s sake. Not Raul’s, not hers and most definitely not her father’s.
‘I don’t doubt that at all.’ She lifted her chin defiantly, pulling herself up as a new inner strength surged through her. She’d sort this and get this man out of her life. ‘But why did your father set this up?’
‘To force me to accept his other son or do the one thing I have always said I wouldn’t do—get married.’
‘Would he really do that?’
‘He would. So what is it to be, Lydia? Do we have a deal?’
She wanted to ask him how he could talk of marriage in such a detached way, but instead she took his lead and walked over to the desk, picked up the pen, and with one last angry and defiant look at him she signed the paper. ‘We have a deal, Mr Valdez. I will be your fake fiancée—but only for one month.’
LYDIA SAT AT her desk, her gaze fixed on the view of Madrid as the December sun set across the city, her mind wandering through the ever-increasing questions about the deal she’d struck with Raul. She twisted the large diamond engagement ring on her finger, still shocked to find it there despite having worn it for over a week.
The first ten days of the fake engagement was over and she was closer to a marriage she didn’t want but would have to go through with, unless she came up with something to do with Maximiliano Valdez. She’d gone down so many dead ends this week and wasn’t any closer to discovering the whereabouts of Raul’s brother, or even the name he used, because she was certain it wasn’t Valdez. She sighed, momentarily feeling beaten. She had to come up with something soon. It was only a matter of time before Raul demanded to know what she’d found out.
‘Is your work boring you, Lydia?’ Raul’s deep and accented voice penetrated her thoughts and she swivelled round in her chair, turning her back on the view and her questions.
He leant casually against the door frame, his arms folded and an expression of expectancy on his face. How could he look so commanding and yet so attractive at the same time?
‘I was thinking.’ She tried to block that mutinous train of thought. She didn’t want to think about this man like that. She mustn’t.
‘And are you any closer to the answer, to finding my brother?’ He seemed to loom over her, his height darkening the light and airy office and, even worse than that, her heart was thudding. Was it panic that she hadn’t yet got any real leads as to where his brother might be or because he was so close and she was excruciatingly aware of him?
His brows flicked up in question when she didn’t respond, his eyes, so very dark, fixing her to the spot. ‘Anything?’
‘No.’ She didn’t want to elaborate on it, all too aware that now she had just over two weeks before he could demand that she became his wife and settle the debts her father had recklessly created. If she didn’t find his brother, she had no other way of paying even a part of what was owed. She might have her own business, but it was still in its infancy and would never be in the league of Raul’s high-earning business—or her father’s debt.
He inhaled deeply, as if he was holding back on saying something, and strode to stand at the window, his arms folded defensively across his broad chest. She watched him as the silent seconds ticked by, drawn to the width of his shoulders and the shirt that strained over his muscled arms. Strong and safe arms.
She blinked in shock. Where had that come from? She looked down at her desk, making a show of stacking papers tidily, anything other than look at this virile specimen of masculinity that threatened everything she thought she was.
‘Then I am afraid we have to put in motion our alternative option.’ The coolness of his voice sent a shock of fear through her as if she’d just dipped her toes into the cold seas around England.
‘What alternative option?’ Had she missed something?
He turned to look at her, that dark and yet strangely sexy look in his eyes, and she felt the simmer of attraction build. Damn the man. Did he know what he was doing? Was he deliberately trying to disarm her?
‘To go ahead with the marriage.’ His voice held a note of determination despite the calm, soft tone.
‘But there are three more weeks yet.’ She knew she sounded panicked, but she couldn’t help it. Quickly she tried to regain her inner strength, her ability to come somewhere close to matching this man’s power.
‘Sí, that is true, but, as far as your father’s debt is concerned, we have to be seen to be preparing for marriage in order to make the repayment of that debt.’
‘By who?’ she fired back at him angrily.
He moved to her desk, placed his palms on it and leant towards her. ‘By
