The Spanish Aristocrat's Woman (6 page)

“Good morning,
mi dulce.
Did you sleep well?”

She glanced to the sitting area to the left of the bed and found Gui on her chaise longue, a breakfast tray with coffee and scones next to him, the
New York Times
neatly folded on his lap.

She gulped. And tried to find words. She’d been so in control in her den…Ha. She hadn’t been in control for a single moment since she’d met Gui.

“I slept fine,” she said.

“Coffee?”

“That would be nice.”

“Cream or sugar?”

“Just cream,” she said, then wrapped the sheets around her body and leaned back against the headboard. The two men she’d had as lovers before Gui had never spent the night, and frankly she had absolutely no idea what to do with him this morning.

He brought her a cup of coffee with a saucer. When she reached for it, he held it just out of her reach.

“May I please have the coffee?”

He handed it to her and sat on the bed. He was so close that she worried about her morning breath. Then she worried about her hair, which often resembled Medusa’s snakes first thing in the morning. Then she wondered if she had a crease in her face from the pillowcase.

She set her coffee mug down on the nightstand. “I need a minute in the…” What did they call the bathroom in Spain? In the UK it was the toilet or water closet and she was making a complete mess of this when all she wanted was for everything to be perfect.

“Of course. Where is your robe? I’ll bring it to you.”

“Hanging in my closet on a hook to the right, but, um…you don’t have to go get it.”

“Forgive me,” he said with a slight bow. “I’d much rather see you naked.”

She blushed. Seriously blushed. “The robe would be very nice.”

He chuckled as he walked away. Last night, when he’d made love to her, she’d forgotten her body issues, but this morning they were all back. She leaned over the edge of her bed, trying to catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror over her dressing table. Her hair was as bad as she’d feared. Repeated pats wouldn’t make it stay down.

“My lady,” Gui said as he returned.

She stopped messing with her hair and tried to smile at him, but it had to look strained. She took the robe he held out to her and drew it on while trying to keep the covers in place.

She finally had it wrapped around her and got out of the bed. As soon as she did Gui drew her into his arms and kissed her.

She forgot about the fact that she had morning breath and Medusa hair. She wrapped her arms around his lean waist and rested against him for a moment. She knew this was an illusion, that they weren’t a couple in the throes of falling in love, but for this one moment she wanted to pretend they were.

“We didn’t make any decisions last night,” she said when he drew back.

“Go take care of your business and then we will talk.”

“I’m not sure that talking is going to help us.”

“Trust me, it will. Our engagement is on Page Six of the
Post.
At this point I think we need to decide how we are going to handle it.”

“Are we engaged?” she asked. She still wasn’t sure after last night. He’d held her close, slept with her all through the night, waking her twice to make love to her again. Each time she’d welcomed him into her body—and, she admitted to herself, into her heart.

She’d wanted to wrap her legs and arms around him the last time and keep him there forever. Because when Gui made love to her, she forgot all the insecurities that dogged her the rest of the time.

“What are you thinking?”

“Um…nothing.”

He shook his head. “Your eyes are so expressive,
bebe.
Do you know that?”

She shook her head.

“Well, they are.”

“What do you think you see in my eyes?” she asked.

“Passion. Do you want me again, Kara?” he asked, drawing his finger along the edge of her robe.

She shivered under his touch. Of course she wanted him. And his touching her only brought the passion in her to the fore. She leaned toward him, going up on her tiptoes to meet his mouth as it came down toward hers.

He tasted of minty toothpaste and coffee. His tongue tangled with hers and then stroked into her mouth with long languid kisses.

His arms came around her, drawing her more securely into the curves of his body. She held on to his shoulders and knew that, whatever was happening between them, they were definitely still going to be lovers.

The bedroom door opened with a loud bang. “Kara—”

Gui took his time finishing the kiss even though Kara tried to pull free as she recognized her sister’s voice.

“Good morning, Rina,” Gui said. He hugged Kara close and dropped two more kisses on her mouth. “Go,
mi dulce.
I will entertain your sister until you come back.”

Kara hesitated for a second, but seeing the shocked look on Rina’s face made up her mind. She needed to brush her teeth and hair before she took on Rina
and
Gui. And she had a feeling she was going to need more than one cup of coffee to deal with the world this morning.

“I’m her fiancé, Rina. Where else would I be?”

“Don’t mess with me. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but if you think for one minute that I’m going to let you use Kara in the game you’re playing with Elvira—”

“Kara has nothing to do with Elvira.” Gui cut her off. His original announcement might have been made in reaction to Elvira’s presence at Tristan’s reception, but the situation no longer had anything to do with his old lover.

He’d never sleep with Kara just to prove something to Elvira. He’d seen firsthand how out of control that kind of situation could become. And he wasn’t interested in seeing Kara hurt.

“It doesn’t look that way to me, or to the rest of polite society.”

“I don’t care what the world thinks.”

“Well,
I
do. Kara has spent her entire life avoiding the spotlight. She doesn’t deserve to be thrust into it because of your indiscretion.”

“What exactly are you objecting to? Your sister is my fiancée.”

“I’m objecting to the fact that she has no ring. That I haven’t heard the first word about you from my sister’s lips. And finally, I’m objecting because I don’t trust you, Guillermo.”

Gui tamped down on his temper as he listened to Rina going on about how he needed to realize that Kara wasn’t alone or vulnerable. He heard the snick of the bathroom door and turned to see Kara standing there. She was dressed in a long skirt and a slim-fitting sweater. She had her hair pulled back at the base of her neck and he noticed she’d put on makeup.

“Rina, I’m not twelve anymore. You don’t have to rush to my rescue and fight my battles.”

“Indeed, she doesn’t. I’m here to fight them for you now,” Gui said, because he wanted Rina to realize that she’d been replaced in Kara’s life. Did he really want to be responsible for this woman’s happiness? A quick glance at her left him confused. He wanted her. Marrying her would give him what he wanted and needed to stay a peer with his best friends. But to be honest, he’d never had to worry about anyone save himself, and he liked it that way.

“Really, Count? Because I had a very interesting conversation this morning with Count Juan, and he assures me that you were sniffing around Elvira just last week. So when exactly did you become engaged to my sister?”

“Rina, back off. We need a minute and then we’ll meet you downstairs in the breakfast room. Please ask Cynthia to prepare my usual breakfast.”

Rina looked like she didn’t want to leave, but Kara stood her ground and Gui found a new respect for her. She might seem to be a soft, sweet girl, but there was a core of inner strength to her.

“Fine. But I don’t have all day. I’m due at the club for tennis in little over an hour.”

“Understood. We’ll be right down.”

Rina left the room, closing the door firmly behind her. Kara crossed to her coffee cup and took a long sip. “Is there anything else I should know about you and Elvira before we go downstairs?”

“There is nothing between Elvira and me, and there hasn’t been in over ten years.”

“Are you pining for her?”

“No. And I’ve told you I won’t discuss her with you.”

Kara nodded. “Okay. Then I have only one more question for you.”

“Go ahead.”

She took another sip of her coffee and then crossed the room to put her cup and saucer on the tray before looking at him again.

“Do you want to marry me?”

He considered it one more time, because he knew that once he committed himself to Kara, he’d have given his word, and his word was one thing he prided himself on keeping.

“Yes,” he said at last. “I do want to marry you, Kara. I think we’d make a good match, and we have passion between us. There’s little more that any couple can ask for.”

She bit her lower lip. “What about love?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but she laughed before he could.

“That’s right, you don’t believe in romantic love. Well I’m a bit of a silly girl at times, Gui, and I do believe in it. So I’m going to have to ask you one more question.”

“Go ahead.”

“If you marry me, will you be true to our marriage vows? Because the one thing I can’t stand is infidelity. If you fall in love with someone else, I’d expect you to come to me and tell me.”

“What would you do if that happened?” he asked, knowing it wouldn’t, because he had never felt even the slightest twinge of love for a woman. Passion, lust, fiery temper, obsession, sure, but love? Never.

“I would be upset, of course, but we’d divorce and I’d give you leave to pursue the woman you loved,” she said at last.

He nodded, understanding what she was asking him. He’d never been in a monogamous relationship before, and he had no idea how long it would appeal to him. But his brother had made a success of his marriage, as had his father and uncles. There was no reason why he couldn’t, as well.

“If I fall in love with someone else, I’ll expect you to do the same.”

He shook his head. “No. You will not fall in love with anyone else.”

“Gui—”

“This isn’t open for negotiation, Kara. You will not look at another man or flirt with another man. Once you have committed yourself to me, you will be true to that bond.”

“Yet there is a chance you might not be?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Highly doubtful,
mi dulce.
But I’ve never contented myself with only one woman before…”

“Gui, you’re not doing a good job of convincing me to marry you.”

“I believe you already have decided to, and we are just ironing out the details now.”

Vincent, Gui’s secretary/butler, was accompanying them, as was Cynthia, Kara’s assistant, who always traveled with her. Gui was busy at his desk on one side of the plane, answering e-mails and talking on the phone.

Kara tried to relax but she couldn’t. All of her friends thought that Gui was the most romantic man they’d ever met, and to some extent Kara agreed with them, because she was the one basking in his attention. But there was another part of her that knew he was acting like a loving man to spin the gossip about them.

The Countess Elvira had done her best to spread some negative stories about Gui. Almost every day, another story appeared somewhere either in print or on the Web. Kara, who rarely found herself in any society article, was now being actively courted by TMZ. com and
Hello!
magazine.

She had promised Katie that, if she suddenly decided to be interviewed about her playboy fiancé, she’d give her an exclusive. But Kara wasn’t interested in talking to anyone about Gui. Most articles about the two of them focused on their whirlwind courtship and the fact that Count Gui, as the press referred to him, was so enamored of her, he was demanding they be married in two weeks’ time.

Which was precisely the truth. She and Rina were exhausting every resource they had to pull off a wedding so quickly. Even her father, who normally was nothing but reserved, commented that she’d waited long enough to find a man but that the wait seemed to have paid off.

She felt like a perfect fool. A fraud, really. She’d agreed to every demand that Gui had. The only thing she’d insisted on was that he couldn’t look outside their marriage as long as they were happy together. Gui had finally consented when she’d flat-out refused to promise to not look at another man if he could look at any woman he wanted to.

She rubbed the back of her neck and pretended to look through the design book that the Sabina family had secured for her. It was filled with exclusive, one-of-a-kind wedding dresses that were worthy of a wedding of her fortune and Gui’s. Cynthia brought over a stack of newspaper clippings and articles that mentioned her. One glaring headline made her want to toss them all in the trash bin.

The Spanish Aristocrat’s Woman.

For God’s sake, why did they insist on labeling her instead of using her name?

She skimmed the rest of the article and saw that it was full of inaccuracies, especially when it mentioned how she’d stolen him from his longtime lover…Elvira.

There was a photo of Elvira and her husband. She looked beautiful as always, and poor Juan looked angry and ready to deck the photographer. She wasn’t sure what was between Elvira, Juan and Gui. He still wouldn’t talk to her about it.

And she was trying to convince herself that she was okay with that. But the more articles she read that mentioned her new part in that old triangle, the more convinced she was that she needed to know what had happened between them all.

“You look tense,” Gui said as he came up to her. “Turn toward the bulkhead,
bebe,
and I’ll massage your shoulders.”

She did what he asked and felt his big, warm hands on her shoulders. He massaged her with deep sure strokes. Her body responded instantly to his touch. She’d become accustomed to him touching and arousing her and then making love to her.

She knew she wasn’t the most attractive woman in the world, but Gui didn’t seem to realize that. He was enthralled with her and her body and made love to her often. At least three times a day. She’d never had this much sex before. Her thighs ached and her breasts felt fuller than they had been before he’d become her lover.

He leaned over her, reading the article on the top of the pile.

“Juan needs to control his temper.”

“Why is he so angry all the time?”

Gui pressed a kiss to the spot where her neck and shoulder met. “I’m not sure.”

“Gui?”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t lie to me about this. If you don’t want to say why, then just say that.”

“What makes you think I’m lying?” he asked.

She turned in the seat so they were facing each other. “Your voice slips a little lower than usual when you aren’t telling the entire truth.”

He quirked one eyebrow at her. “I hadn’t realized you’d picked up on that.”

“Well, we’ve spent the last few days with each other 24/7. I think I’m getting to know you very intimately.”

“Indeed you are, Kara. And I’m getting to know you intimately as well.”

She shook her head, because she knew this tone, too. His voice only dropped this low when he wanted to have sex. “What do you know about me?”

He leaned down close, speaking directly into her ear. “I know that when I talk to you like this, you shiver for me. And your body starts to ready itself for mine.

“I know that when I kiss you right here—” he dropped a warm kiss behind her ear, making her squirm in her seat as wetness pooled between her legs “—you get wet.”

“Gui—”

He tipped her head back and kissed her lingeringly, lifting his head only after they were both breathing heavily. “I know that you match my passions perfectly.”

And she knew he was talking only about sex, but a part of her believed she matched his passions in other ways, too.

It was a start.