THE INFORMATION RAUL’S mother had handed to her had been a shock, but exactly what she needed. For the last five days Lydia had kept it to herself as she’d completed her search. Now she was finally ready to tell Raul, but with the anniversary party only a few hours away she didn’t know if it was the right time. She should be elated, overjoyed that the fake engagement they had entered into was not going to end with an alarmingly real two-year marriage, but the thought of coldly delivering all she now knew and walking away didn’t feel right.

What was the matter with her? Two weeks ago she would have willingly hurled abuse at the hard and tough exterior that was Raul Valdez. At first, her intention had been to find out where his brother was, then deliver the information coldly. She’d wanted to make him feel as insignificant as he’d made her feel all those years ago when they’d first met. That evening had haunted her ever since, making her squirm with embarrassment each time she recalled it. Despite her desire to make him feel as insignificant, it wasn’t what she wanted to do now.

Something had changed. She’d glimpsed briefly beneath that hardness and seen a very different man. The kind of man who warmed her heart and made it skip a beat. The kind of man she found attractive and she was sure that this time he was not as indifferent to her as he had once been. Not if that kiss in the rain was anything to go by.

‘It is time to leave.’ Raul’s firm tone dragged her from her thoughts, making her instantly question if she truly had seen a different man from the powerful and controlled man who stood before her, resplendent in his tuxedo.

He looked devastatingly handsome, pulling her already stretched nerves tighter as she fought to conceal the effect he had on her. The black tuxedo hugged his body, fitting him to perfection and highlighting his strength, and the white of his shirt emphasised the olive tones of his skin. But it was his face that really made her heart flutter. The sultry and very sexy expression in his eyes, the slight curve of a smile on his lips and the raised brows as he slowly took in every detail of her silver dress filled her with excitement.

‘We should talk.’ She tried to concentrate, to focus on the here and now, but nerves skittered round her. Why did she feel so nervous? It wasn’t as if tonight were a real date. She stepped towards him, trying to still the thud of her heart and be herself, but something had changed and that something had happened as she’d kissed him in the rain. Since then everything had been different. She’d been trying to ignore it but as she looked up at him she knew she couldn’t any longer—didn’t want to.

‘Not now.’ His incredibly sexy voice filled with control and command, but she had to tell him. She didn’t want any more hidden secrets.

‘But there are things—’

‘Later.’ He cut across her appeal. The determination in that word and the hard, feral look he gave her almost silenced her, but he needed to know what she’d found out. She couldn’t keep it from him. It wasn’t just because it meant they no longer had to continue with the charade of their engagement. It was something else, something much deeper, something she’d never expected to find. She pushed the thought aside. She would be totally out of her depth with this man if she indulged in such notions. Whatever it was between them it was merely lust. A strong sexual attraction. Nothing more.

‘No, we must talk, now, before we go to the party.’ She hated that she sounded so pleading but, now that she knew for sure the truth about his brother, he had to know. Not that it changed anything for her, but it would definitely change things for Raul.

‘Lydia, we are already late. We leave now. After all, we have to convince everyone our engagement is real, do we not?’

‘B-but...’ she stammered over the word, unable to believe how she’d ever imagined a hidden vulnerable side to him.

‘Now, Lydia. I have timed our arrival to maximum effect. Whatever you have to say can wait.’

‘Very well, let’s go.’ She picked up her small silver clutch bag, which matched the glitz of the stunning dress she’d bought that afternoon. She should have been ecstatic to find such a dress and the contact she’d made with the designer for her own boutiques, but the contents of the envelope had been weighing heavily on her mind. They still were.

Raul’s silence as they drove through the busy streets of Madrid to one of the most prestigious hotels was difficult to say the least. He’d made it clear he didn’t want to talk of anything, that arriving with maximum impact and creating a couple newly engaged was all he cared about.

Now, as she entered the large room, tables adorned with silver decorations in celebration of the couple’s anniversary, Raul changed. He smiled and became very attentive. He placed his hand in the small of her back, partly touching her skin due to the backless design of the dress, and she caught her breath as a frisson of awareness raced up her spine.

She turned to look up at him and the smile of satisfaction that lingered on his lips only heightened that awareness. For the briefest of moments, his dark gaze locked with hers, desire surging through the normal granite hardness.

‘A very convincing act, querida.’ His voice was deep and so very sexy that she couldn’t break that eye contact even though she wanted to. ‘Now it must be continued as we greet our hosts.’

Raul guided her through the glamorous guests and she was aware of the curious glances cast their way. Either Raul was such a playboy that nobody expected him to settle to marriage or she was very different from the kind of woman he usually had at his side. Whatever it was, she was far from comfortable.

She put on a smile as he introduced her in Spanish to a couple whose love for one another was more than obvious. The tall and elegant woman, named Estela, smiled at her and spoke in Spanish.

‘She said you are very beautiful, an English rose.’ Raul’s voice broke through her thoughts, sounding so very different from the harshness he usually adopted. All part of the show, she reminded herself.

Lydia looked at the woman and replied in Spanish, ‘Thank you and congratulations.’

‘Your Spanish is excellent,’ Estela replied with a smile and a quick glance at Raul, as if she knew what Lydia was doing.

Beside her she could feel the shockwaves coming off Raul. That dinner party, when he’d made her feel so low, so useless, was now being paid back. He said nothing and when she turned to smile at him she knew he was furious.

‘You make a very handsome couple,’ Estela’s husband added, defusing the charged atmosphere slightly as he put his arm around his wife’s shoulders and pulled her close. ‘Your father knew what he was doing, Raul.’

Lydia’s gaze held Raul’s, but he was stoically calm, not a trace of emotion of any kind. Just how much did the board know of their arrangement? And if they knew it all, why was there any need to act the part of lovers?

As if sensing her annoyance and her questions, Raul called over a passing waiter and handed a flute of champagne to her, then his hosts and finally took one himself.

‘A toast,’ he said in Spanish. ‘To love. Long may it last.’

Lydia raised her glass towards the couple and joined in the toast, then took a sip of the sparkling liquid, but nearly choked on the bubbles as Raul added one more toast.

‘And to the English rose who will very soon be my wife.’ He looked at her and the sexy rise of his brows threw a challenge at her, daring her to disagree.

Estela spoke again, her excitement clear. ‘I’m looking forward to your wedding, to seeing two people so right for each other joined in marriage.’

Two people so right for each other? Was that really how they looked? How could that be when there were so many secrets between them? So much anger?

* * *

Raul was furious. Lydia spoke Spanish—fluently? She’d been living with him for over two weeks and had not uttered a word in his language. What else was she hiding? Her ability to act a part was as good as her ability to conceal the truth.

For the last hour Raul had enjoyed having Lydia close at his side as she portrayed a woman happily engaged to him, leaving nobody in any doubt that, whilst their marriage was one that began in the boardroom of Banco de Torrez, it would definitely be continued in the bedroom.

It went against everything he believed in to admit it, but it had also stirred something within him, something deeper than merely lust or desire for a beautiful woman. It was as if they were drawn together by a connection as yet undiscovered—or was he being irrational, wanting things his childhood had shown to be impossible?

He watched her laugh with other guests, standing back to admire the sexy dress that clung like a sparkling waterfall to her body, making him want to stand beneath the cool water until he drowned. She looked amazing and there wasn’t a man in the room who hadn’t drunk in her beauty tonight. Her back was slightly turned to him and the daring backless dress gave him a view of soft creamy skin that he wanted to kiss and taste. Hell, he wanted a lot more than just to kiss her.

‘When were you going to tell me you spoke Spanish?’ he demanded as she turned to him, his annoyance at what she did to him increasing.

‘You didn’t ask,’ she replied, reverting to English with a smile.

‘Come.’ The word snapped from him as he avoided being drawn in by her and dragged his thoughts back on track and away from what he would do to her if they were alone. From the way her eyes widened in surprise he had startled her with the ferocity of that one word. ‘We will dance, show the cream of Madrid’s society that we are uniting in marriage for more than financial gain.’

‘Lie to them, you mean.’ Her words were soft, her delicate accent sweet and her smile seductive, but the spark of anger in her eyes belied all she was trying to portray.

‘I want to show them that we are attracted to one another. I do not think that is a lie, querida.’ He couldn’t resist taunting her with that word.

As Raul put his arms around Lydia, pulling her close against his body, a jolt of sizzling awareness sparked through him. Just what was it about this woman that made him react so acutely to her?

Her perfume invaded his senses, the sweet floral fragrance a stark contrast to the untouchable image she created in her clinging silk gown.

‘What was it you wanted to tell me earlier? What other secrets have you kept from me?’ He recalled her insistence at telling him something and now he was so pleased he’d waited. Whatever it was it would give him something to think of instead of focusing on the way the curves of her body moved against his as they danced. It was exquisite and torturous at the same time. Every move she made increased his awareness of her. Soon he wouldn’t be able to ignore it, wouldn’t be able to use conversation to hide what he truly wanted—Lydia.

‘I don’t think now is the time—or place.’ Her eyes, so very green, met his, but he could clearly see her anxiety within them. What was she keeping from him? A trickle of icy unease slipped down his spine.

‘I disagree, querida.’

She moved against him, chasing away that unease, and if his voice held a note of wavering control, it was much more to do with the woman in his arms than the words she spoke.

She tensed, her gaze firmly fixed on his, the spark of defiance stirring within those green depths. ‘Not here, not like this.’

‘Like what? Like lovers?’ He knew without a doubt that she was fighting the same attraction that was hurtling through him, roughly snuffing out the unease that had dared to surface. Right at this moment, as they stood there among the party guests, the outcome of the evening was almost inevitable, but he couldn’t let desire cloud his mind, distract him from what he must do.

‘I need to talk to you.’

‘Only talk?’ he teased, enjoying the blush that swept over her face and the way she continued to dance, as if to mask the growing and very insistent attraction. ‘Are you sure about that?’

She frowned, with confusion or annoyance, he wasn’t sure. ‘I need to talk to you about your brother.’

His brother? Now she had his attention. ‘Then talk.’

‘As you wish.’ She’d adopted that sexy, haughty voice that seemed to beg him to take her in his arms and kiss her, but her chosen topic halted such thoughts—for now.

‘Tell me.’

‘When we saw your mother, she gave me an envelope as we left.’

Finally, she was going to tell him what that exchange with his mother had been all about. He’d known something had been said, known she was keeping something from him, but he’d blanked it all out, unwilling to deal with the truth, not because he wanted to go ahead with the marriage, but because he wasn’t ready to look the past in the eye. Now he couldn’t put it off any longer.

‘And?’

‘And it contained the information I needed to find your brother. Reports from a private investigator she’d hired.’

‘She knew all along?’ Raul couldn’t hold back the shock from his voice.

‘Yes, which means your worry of hurting her is unfounded. She was trying to protect you.’

‘And have you found him?’

This was what he’d hoped for ever since he’d embarked on the bizarre deal with the delectable Miss Carter-Wilson. It also meant that contract would very soon be ended—as would the need to keep her close. But the past was bearing down on him.

Lydia looked at him and he sensed she was holding something back. Eventually she spoke. ‘I have, yes.’

‘And he is here in Madrid?’

‘I believe he is living in London at the moment.’

‘Then we shall go to London.’

‘No. You will go to London. There is no need for me to be part of this any more.’ She looked at him, her green eyes wide and round with shock.

‘Sí, querida. Our deal will not be complete until I have met my brother.’

The spark of fury burned in her eyes and those so very kissable lips became a firm angry line.

‘That’s not very fair. To change the terms of our agreement like that, Raul.’

‘Our agreement is to find my brother or get married. Only seeing through one of those options will unlock the funds to clear your father’s debt. This is, after all, what it’s all about. Your father’s debt.’

‘You really are quite mercenary, aren’t you?’

‘Are you only just realising this?’ He couldn’t keep the amusement from his voice. Her directness was refreshing. Nobody had ever dared to tell him that.

‘Unfortunately, yes, and that’s a mistake I will now pay for.’

‘We will fly to London together and once I have met my brother your part of the deal will be honoured and your father’s debts will be cleared.’

‘And if your brother has no wish to meet you, to be part of the family business?’

Right now this all seemed too real and Raul couldn’t think past the fact that Max had been found.

‘Then your father’s debts will be called in immediately and at the moment I only know of one other way for you to clear them.’

* * *

Lydia glared angrily at him. How could she have felt sorry for him? She’d let her guard down, allowed his charm to defuse her anger and hostility.

‘Do you know anything about your brother?’ She needed to gain the upper hand, to control the way this was going.

‘Only that he shares my father’s name.’ Raul glowered at her. Had she touched a raw nerve? What would he say when she told him all she’d discovered? And more to the point, how did she tell him?

‘But he had not used his surname.’

‘So, he has shunned the Valdez name.’ Raul’s voice sounded firm and full of irritation. ‘When exactly was my baby brother born?’

‘He isn’t your baby brother, Raul.’ All the sympathy she’d felt for him as she’d read the contents of the envelope rushed back at her and she looked into his handsome face, watching the colour drain away beneath the olive tones of his skin.

Raul merely looked at her, the shock on his face clear.

‘He is older than you, Raul.’ She could still feel the pain his mother must have felt, the hard underlining in black pen of Max’s birth date giving away so much. ‘That is probably why your father set this whole thing up. To ensure you find his heir.’

‘How much older?’ Shock echoed in Raul’s voice.

‘Four months.’

She had been so stunned by it all, by the revelations that Raul maybe wasn’t the heir to his father’s fortune, she hadn’t been able to tell him. She’d spent the last few days checking it all out and now she knew for sure that footballer legend turned entrepreneur after a bad car accident, Maximiliano Martinez, was his brother. Two powerful and wealthy men. It was going to be some showdown when they met.

Raul pulled her closer and she gasped, the sudden movement in complete contrast to the anger shining brightly in his eyes, but she moulded herself against him, the attraction she felt too strong to ignore, as was the need to salve his obvious pain.

‘What are you doing?’ The words flew spontaneously from her when his hand pressed against her lower back, forcing her so close it was almost intimate—too intimate.

‘Dancing with you.’

She wanted that more than anything else right now, but deep down she didn’t trust herself. The intimate way he held her, the deep, desire-filled look in his eyes lured her and she couldn’t allow it to happen even though she wanted it—wanted him.

Olete lõpetanud tasuta lõigu lugemise. Kas soovite edasi lugeda?