plans were she was determined to drive the conversation the way she wanted, to find out just what the future held for her and her family. Was she really clear of debt? The one question she wouldn’t ask was what the future held for them—as a couple.
‘What are you going to do—about Max?’ The question slipped from her as she lay in bed, casually trailing a finger across the fine cotton sheets.
He looked at her as he tossed aside the towel and put his clothes on, the blue shirt only highlighting the jet black of his hair. He was avoiding answering her. Was he hoping he could rid himself of Max in the same way he intended to rid himself of her?
He stood tall and proud, defiance coming off him in waves, and she knew without any doubt that it was most certainly not what he wanted. ‘I will welcome Max into my life and the family business.’
‘Because of loyalty to your father?’ She pulled the sheet against her. Such a discussion needed modesty.
‘No.’ He finished dressing and looked at her, his gaze sweeping over her, and her skin burned as if she were completely naked to his gaze. There was desire in his eyes, but also something else, something unfathomable, something very cold. ‘Out of necessity.’
The barb of his statement hit her hard and although it was powerful it at least confirmed that she and the man she’d become temporarily engaged to would soon go their separate ways. It was exactly the deal she’d made with herself as she’d given in to the temptation of desire and had truly become his lover.
‘The lesser of two evils?’ She taunted him, needing to counteract the pain she felt. Pain that came from feeling deeply for this man—far too deeply. ‘Either welcome a brother or a wife.’
‘Sí, querida. To prove I am not the heartless man my father assumed I was. He thought I’d find marriage preferable to bringing my brother into my life.’
Was he running from the truth now as she was? And what was his truth? With a heavy heart she knew it would not be that he had fallen in love with her, that he wanted more than this passionate weekend. She realised she was decidedly underdressed and vulnerability shivered over her as once again his gaze lingered on her.
‘So I am free to go?’ She dared to ask, dared to bring their lovers’ weekend crashing down around her.
His brows rose and he crossed the room towards her, his height dominating the entire room, and even though she was covered only in a sheet she looked defiantly back at him. He sat on the bed next to her, reached out and stroked the backs of his fingers across her cheek in a moment so tender, so out of place, she had to blink back the urge to cry.
‘But you don’t want to go now, do you, querida? Not when the passion still burns so hotly between us. You want to stay, to sleep in my bed and be the woman I desire.’
His seductive words stoked the slumbering fire of desire to life once more and she knew she was lost, that whatever she’d promised herself about not falling for him, she would never be able to keep it.
‘What I want is for you to come back to bed,’ she teased as she smiled up at him.
He moved towards her, his kiss so light, so very loving she could almost believe it was real. ‘How can I resist such a seductress?’
THE PASSION THAT had ignited between them as they’d danced at the party two nights ago still flowed through Raul. A concept he was far from familiar with and, even though he wanted Lydia, he’d suggested they take a walk, as most people in Madrid did on a Sunday afternoon. She looked as if she belonged here, strolling with the locals, her long legs encased in white jeans and boots, the collar of her black faux suede jacket fanning out her hair around her. He had to do something to cool things down.
Tomorrow he would be stepping out of this strangeness he’d fallen into and back into his real life. He’d be in London to meet his brother. A thought that brought happiness and annoyance in equal measures.
‘Have you spoken to your father?’ he asked and her step faltered beside him as they entered Retiro Park; the trees bare of leaves but bathed in the winter sun, it still looked inviting. He’d spent many hours here, first as a young boy and then a man. Sometimes he’d had the company of a woman, but it had never been to avoid the lure of taking one to his bed yet again.
‘No. That is a conversation for another day. What about you? Have you said anything to your mother yet?’ He glanced at her as she successfully turned the tables on him and a spark of admiration shot through him. Lydia was more than a match for him. He liked that. Not that it changed a thing. Tomorrow it would end. It was what they’d planned—what they wanted.
‘I think it will be better to tell her when I have met my brother, seen what kind of man he is. I insist on protecting her from this as much as possible.’ As he spoke she took his arm and moved closer to him and to the outside world they looked no different from any other couple in love strolling through the park.
It wasn’t what he wanted. Love and other such ill-fated emotions weakened even the strongest man and, combined with the desire he had for Lydia, Raul sensed that it would be all-consuming—and lethal. No, it was not something he wanted or needed in his life.
‘I admire that in you.’ She spoke softly and he looked down at her, to see she was watching him. The distance he was hoping to create between them slipped away as she smiled, openly and honestly. Hell, he wanted to kiss her.
A fierce fire leapt to life within him, filling his whole body with something he didn’t want, something he couldn’t deal with. He’d known desire before, many times, but never like this. Could it be he’d crossed the boundary and was straying into a place he had no intention of being?
He focused his mind on the conversation, ignoring the undertones of something much more devastating. ‘That I care for my mother? The woman who raised me, protecting me from the true knowledge of my father’s secret life?’
Saying it aloud to Lydia brought it all home to him. How much his mother must have suffered because of the man she’d married, not out of love, but out of duty and honour to her family.
He saw it all differently. He could hear again Lydia proudly telling him she had no intention of marrying him. All it did was back up the relief that she’d fulfilled her part of the deal and had found Max, unlocking the funds to clear the debt, funds that he strongly suspected his father had thought would never be unlocked.
‘But that is not wrong, Raul.’ She looked at him, a strange and powerful expression in her lovely green eyes. If he didn’t know how fiercely she opposed the idea of marriage and how she agreed on his philosophy of love, he could be fooled into thinking she was in love. With him.
‘Wrong or not, it is not up for discussion.’ He held her gaze for a second longer, then turned to walk on. They were drawing attention, he realised. ‘Let us walk.’
She fell quickly into step beside him, her black boots making a gentle sound on the path, and feeling her body against his as they walked felt so right, so natural. For the briefest of moments, he wondered why he didn’t want this closeness, this total commitment.
Because it will never last and pain will follow it.
He could still clearly remember just what such pain
