Page 4 of Her Spanish Scandal

“Amigo, it’s okay. I understand. Tell Ava thank you for worrying about me.”

“She’d worry less if the rumors about you and Elvira would go away.”

“She’s worried about Elvira?” he asked, wondering how Ava had even heard the other woman’s name. Probably the tabloids, which were Sheri’s favorite vice. Sheri and Ava had become close.

Christos shrugged.

“I am not interested in married women. You know I take vows seriously.”

“Indeed. So why are you looking at her when you think no one will notice?”

“I’m not.”

“Juan is watching you like he’s going to confront you.”

“Where is he?”

“The bar.”

Juan couldn’t handle his liquor. He’d been asked to leave events at the Spanish Court before. Gui’s sister-in-law, Dulcinea, the Enfanta, was worried about Juan, who was her first cousin.

“I’m not looking at Elvira more than I am any other woman.”

“Gui—”

“Christos, I’ve never interfered in your personal life.”

Christos snorted. “So when you showed up on Mykonos to meet Ava before our wedding, that wasn’t interfering?” Gui shrugged, and Christos laughed. “I’ll leave it be. Just watch your back.”

Gui nodded and walked away from Christos, trying to remember that his life was a happy one. He wasn’t like Tristan, who’d mourned the death of his first love for too long before meeting Sheri, or like Christos, who had felt betrayed by the woman he loved before they worked out their differences.

He was a bachelor. He liked the lifestyle and the women. He’d learned long ago that a man with passions like his was better suited to short-term relationships.

The one woman he’d opened his heart to had married out of spite to make him jealous, and Gui had learned the hard way that love wasn’t all hearts and flowers. Love was also painful and vindictive.

He glanced at the bar, catching Juan’s glare. He needed to do something. Anything that would make Juan believe that he wasn’t still attracted to Elvira. It didn’t help matters that at some point, Elvira would seek him out. She always did. And he always waited for her.

“Care to dance?”

Kara had a light buzz going from all the pomegranate martinis she’d drunk. She was surrounded by her friends and really enjoying herself. And those were good enough reasons for asking Gui to dance.

Those, and the fact that her friend Courtney had been certain that Kara didn’t know him. Didn’t really know the gorgeous and most sought-after bachelor in the room.

“Pardon?”

She cleared her throat. Man, if he turned her down, she was going to die. “I asked you to dance.”

“Dance?”

“Unless there is something official you should be doing.”

“I have a few moments. Enough time to dance with a beautiful woman.” He smiled at her, his expression very charming. “It would be my pleasure to dance with you.”

She flushed as a totally inappropriate thought drifted through her mind. Then she shook her head and led him to the dance floor and her group of friends. “Do you know everyone?”

He shook his head. “Hello, ladies.”

Kara introduced him to Emily, Katie and Courtney. They were her best friends and some of the only people she was truly comfortable around.