Page 3 of Her Spanish Scandal

With her long, thick black hair, olive skin and exotic eyes, Elvira looked like a Mediterranean sex goddess as she sat at the center of a table surrounded by her crowd of admirers. Gui would like to think he wasn’t one of them, but he refused to lie to himself and Elvira had always been his weakness.

The fact that he’d resisted her charms since she’d married his old friend Juan was something he prided himself on, but he did still lust after her. And as a Catholic, he knew that sin in thought was just as bad as sin in the flesh.

Rumors had always abounded about him and Elvira, despite the fact that he’d tried to keep his distance. There was something about her that drew his attention, and his interest never went unnoticed by the tabloids.

Gui glanced around the reception, which was being held at the most fashionable hotel in Manhattan. In a while he’d be stepping up to give the toast to Sheri and Tristan, and he should be concentrating on that. Instead, he was fixated on a woman—Elvira. He’d been obsessed with her since he was eighteen.

“See something you like?”

He glanced over at Christos, who’d come up next to him and was handing him a glass of champagne. Christos had recently married as well. And though the institution had always been one Gui dreaded, he had to admit that his friend looked happier than he had in years. In fact, if pressed, Gui would be forced to say that marriage had changed Christos for the better.

“Yes.”

“Which one?” Christos asked.

Gui knew better than to admit he’d been watching Elvira, so he skimmed the crowd and spotted Kara deMontaine.

“Um…tall, thick curly hair…” he said.

“Ah, the younger deMontaine girl. Kerri?”

“Kara. Do you know her?”

“Not well. I do know Rina fairly well. She’s very protective of the girl.”

“Really?”

“Yes. She tore someone to shreds once for a comment they made about her.”

Gui said nothing, just took a sip of his drink, pretending he was unable to take his eyes off Kara. Her hair was thick and black, and it curled around her face like a Botticelli angel’s. She was tall, at least five-ten. And her figure was full. Her curves were generous, but she could never be called fat. He’d been sincere when he’d complimented her. She wasn’t a classically beautiful woman like Elvira, and she’d never draw men to her the way that his ex-lover did, but there was an innocence about Kara that was refreshing.

“Gui?”

“Hmm?” Gui tried not to dwell on the fact that he actually was having trouble taking his eyes off Kara.

“You okay?” Christos asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be? Weddings are a single man’s best friend.” The band was playing a lively number. And he was going to find a single woman to go home with him tonight. Not Elvira. And not an innocent like Kara.

“No reason,” Christos said.

“You are being vague. What’s up?” It wasn’t like Christos to beat around the bush.

“Ava thinks you are…”

“What?” he asked, distracted. “What are you getting at?”

“Ah, hell, I feel stupid even saying it.”

“Just say it.”

“She thinks that with Tristan and I both married, you’re going to feel isolated.”

Gui smiled. Ava Niarchos was a deeply caring and compassionate woman. And she worried over Christos’s friends as if they were her own. She’d told him at Tristan’s engagement party that she wanted him and Tristan settled down, so that Christos, Tristan and he could raise families together.

But in all honesty, that wasn’t a lifestyle that Gui wanted. “I’m not isolated. You and Tristan are my mates and that’s not going to change because you’re married.”

Christos rubbed the back of his neck. “I told you⁠—”