Page 30 of Her Spanish Scandal

Gui cursed under his breath, crossing to Kara. “I hope you discarded both items.”

“I did send them back,” Kara said. “But I really can’t continue to let this lie. I need to know the entire story.”

“What do you want to know?” he asked her, reaching for his dress shirt. He drew it on and buttoned it quickly. He reached for the collar stays that Vincent left on his counter and put them into his shirt before drawing on his tie.

“I guess I want to know everything. From the beginning. Katie said she was the love of your life and she broke your heart.”

Gui hated talking about Elvira. It meant remembering that time in his life when he was a bit out of control. When he’d been young and impetuous and ruled by passion and not logic.

It wasn’t that he was totally logical now, but he was in better control of his temper. And he’d never be as all-or-nothing now as he’d been back then.

“Elvira and I met the summer after I finished at university. Tristan, Christos and I were taking a gap year.”

“Isn’t that a bit late?”

“Yes, but we’d decided that the normal rules didn’t apply to us. It was actually our second gap year. We did the traditional one between prep school and university as well.”

“How did you meet her?”

“I met her in Stockholm. We were there for three months, and she and I had a passionate affair. When it was time to move on, I went with my friends. Elvira followed me and two weeks later we moved to Madrid together. She had a villa that had been left to her by her grandfather. And I was on the outs with my father at the time, so we lived there.

“We lived together for three months before I got restless and joined Tristan and Christos in Milan. Elvira married Juan after I left. That’s it. Not much of a story.”

“What were you restless about?” Kara asked. And Gui realized that was the real treasure to Kara. That she seemed to always be able to look deep into the heart of a person. Not just listen to the surface story but dig beyond. No one had ever paid attention to what he said the way she did when it came to personal stuff.

“I was thinking about marrying her, but I was young and had to be sure.”

“Oh, Gui.”

“Don’t pity me. I came back to Madrid, unsure if she was the woman for me. And finding her married to Juan convinced me she wasn’t.”

Kara wasn’t sure what she’d expected from Gui, but this story wasn’t it. She’d expected…She had no idea. There was more to the story. There had to be, but her heart broke thinking of him coming back to marry Elvira and finding her with another man. Married to someone else.

“I don’t pity you.”

She almost pitied Elvira, because it was clear from the story that the other woman had had no idea where she’d stood with Gui. Something that Kara herself felt. Gui wasn’t one of those men who spoke freely about his emotions.

He wanted her. She knew that from how often he made love to her. But she thought relationships should be about more than sex. They should include long conversations and romantic gestures. They should include…well, the other things that Gui did.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m trying to figure you out.”

“With me, you get what you see,” he said, taking his dinner jacket and donning it.

“There is so much more to you than meets the eye, Guillermo. You just don’t let anyone see more.”

He didn’t respond, holding his hand out to her. “Come here.”

“Why?”

“I want to see how we look together.”

She shook her head. “Not yet. I want to finish our discussion.”

“It is finished, Kara. Elvira thought she could manipulate me into marrying her. I refused, she married someone else, and that’s the end of it. I’m Catholic. Do you know what that means?”

“That you have a special dispensation from the Pope to miss church?” she asked in a teasing tone, because she hadn’t seen him go to church once since they’d met unless she counted Tristan’s wedding.