Page 31 of Her Spanish Scandal

“Very funny. No, it means that I take the bonds of marriage very seriously. Elvira knew this about me.”

“I know it, too,” she said, remembering the conversation they’d had that first morning after they’d made love.

“Indeed you do,” he said, coming over to her and holding out his hand. She put her left hand in his, saw the large sapphire-cut diamond-and-platinum engagement ring he’d given her. No matter what Elvira wanted, Kara was the one who was engaged to Gui and she didn’t intend to let him go.

What she intended, she realized as she rose to her feet and let him slip his arms around her, was to teach him to love her. And there was only one way to do that. She had to stop holding herself back. She had to be the woman she really was. The woman she’d been afraid to let him see because she was different from the other women of their social set.

Days of shopping and lunching weren’t enough for her. And after spending time with Anika and Arcelia today, she had a hunch that Gui would be able to accept that other part of her.

She’d been feeling so lucky that he wanted her to marry him that she’d been hiding herself, not wanting to rock the boat. And that wasn’t who she was.

“You’re looking very fierce, bebe.”

“Sorry. I just realized something important.”

“That Elvira is ancient history and you have nothing to worry about when it comes to her?”

She shook her head. “She still wants you.”

Gui didn’t deny it. “We look good together.”

She looked at them in the mirror. Gui was a big man, tall and muscular and, standing next to him, she didn’t look too big the way she did with men who were her height. Even though she wore heels, he still was taller than she was. He wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her back against his body, resting his chin on her shoulder.

For a split second she saw that fairy-tale couple. Gui filled the bill of handsome prince easily and for once she felt like she was the princess.

He kissed the base of her neck and she sighed, tipping her head back and looking up at him.

“What do you want, querida?”

“You,” she said. “You’ve been too busy since we got here.”

“I have been. I want you, too,” he said, sliding his hand down to her tummy and pressing her back against his groin. She felt his erection nudge her lower back.

She shivered delicately and shifted against him. “But there’s no time now.”

“There’s always time for making love to my fiancée.”

She turned in his arms, rising up on her toes to kiss him. His mouth opened over hers and she felt that knot of uncertainty that had been in her stomach since her lunch with Gui’s sisters start to melt.

Many couples met in ways that were unconventional, and Lord knows that people married for reasons nowhere near as sensible as hers and Gui’s. And they had passion. The kind of passion she’d always believed was only found in movies or romance novels.

He sucked her lower lip between his teeth and she moaned in her throat. God she wanted this man. He leaned down to whisper in explicit terms what he wanted to do with her.

She flushed at the words, a pulse of pure pleasure going through her body. She arched against him.

“Yes, Gui. Take me like that.”

He smiled down at her and then lifted her in his arms and carried her into his bedroom. He made love to her on the edge of the bed, thrusting deeply into her body and joining them so deeply that it was easy for her to believe that they’d never be apart. He called her name when he came, and as her own climax washed over her, she clung tightly to his shoulders, held him to her and vowed that she’d never let him go. That she’d find the way to ensure that together they’d have the happiness that she’d always felt was waiting for her with the right man.

With this man, she thought.

Chapter Eight

The house of the Enfanta Isabella and Alonzo was big and impressive, exactly what one would expect of the residence of the heiress to the throne. It was far and away the most impressive private home she’d seen, and she’d visited many.

Kara was a little intimidated as they pulled up in front of the house and a doorman came to open her door. She fumbled to open her purse and Gui waved the liveried man off. Though she’d met heads of state and spent her entire life around the privileged set, this was different. She was meeting Gui’s family, really meeting them for the first time. And this party was in her and Gui’s honor. Her first official function as his fiancée. Oh. My. God. She took a deep breath but it didn’t help. Neither did the second or third one she tried.

“What’s the matter, mi dulce?”