Page 47 of Her Spanish Scandal

And he couldn’t give her that. He could buy her sports cars and jewelry, but emotions were harder for him. Especially after a day like today, when he realized how painful it was to really care about anyone outside his family.

But one thing he did know was that he didn’t want to lose Kara. It was funny that up until this moment he hadn’t realized how important she was to him. But compared to Elvira…Well, there was no comparison.

“Are you comfortable in this room?”

“Yes. Thank you for letting me come here tonight. I’ll be out of your hair in the morning.”

“Where will you go?”

“Back to my home. My sister will be there first thing. I have to start planning the service for Juan…”

She teared up again and he reached out and hugged her to his side. She was too small in his arms. She didn’t fit him perfectly, the way that Kara did. And he realized that he was impatient to say good-night to Elvira because he wanted—no, needed—to get back to Kara.

Kara fit him like a glove. Not just during sex, which was important, of course, but also in his life. She softened his rough edges and made him a better man.

And he was ready to start acting like that better man. Like a man that she’d be proud to have at her side. And he owed her a real apology for his remarks earlier. He knew better than to lose his temper. He always said things he regretted. He should never have done it with her.

Kara was the most important thing in his life. How could he not have realized it before?

A few minutes later, he left Elvira and went upstairs to Kara’s room. He opened the door and found the room dark and quiet.

“Kara?”

He heard her quiet breaths. Thinking she was sleeping, he closed the door and went into his own room, promising himself he’d make up for his surly behavior first thing in the morning.

Running away wasn’t really her style, but when Kara saw the news clips of Gui and Elvira leaving her house, soon after her conversation with Gui, she knew she couldn’t stay in Madrid. It wasn’t enough to just get out of Gui’s home. She had to leave the country.

She knew that Gui had only been comforting the other woman, but she could imagine the unkind comparisons between her and Elvira before they even started. And she had enough issues with the way she looked to endure days of unrelenting media comparisons. So she’d made a few calls, packed an overnight bag and asked Vincent to call her a car. She also left a note for Gui, telling him she would see him sometime after Juan’s funeral. Perhaps it was petty of her, but she didn’t think she could bear watching him take care of Elvira during the funeral and pretend all was well.

She took a cab from the house in the early hours of dawn. The sun was just coming up over the horizon when she reached the airport. She had a ticket to Monte Negro, where she had ordered a yacht several months ago. She would pick it up and then take her time sailing back to Spain. She needed to be alone where she could let her guard down and try to figure out what was going on in her life.

Could she really marry the man she loved when that man didn’t love her? A man who could always have women who were prettier and skinnier than she was on his arm?

And was she going to be the confident woman who had stood in front of her lover on the balcony wearing nothing but moonlight, or was she going to revert to the woman she’d always been, that shy and insecure girl who thought that she’d never have a chance to walk down the aisle as a bride in a pretty white dress?

Yet Gui made her feel like she was beautiful and sexy. Not in a way that the entire world recognized, but in a way that happened only between a man and a woman who were meant for one another.

She felt tears sting the back of her eyes. That made her mad. Why didn’t he see how perfect they were for each other? They could have a marriage based on feelings so much deeper than the superficial arrangements so many in their social set found acceptable.

Why couldn’t he acknowledge what he felt for her?

Her cell phone rang and she glanced at the caller ID before answering. “Hello, Rina.”

“Kara, where are you? Gui is frantic. He’s been calling everyone we know.”

She felt stupid now. She’d ignored Gui’s calls because she hadn’t wanted to talk to him. Hadn’t wanted to hear him tell her again that she was jealous of Elvira.

“I’m at the airport. I needed to get away for a few days. Yesterday was so long, and Gui is dealing with a bunch of stuff.”

“Kara?”

“Yes?”

“What the hell is going on with you? I thought you loved Gui. That you were determined to marry him. Isn’t that what you told me?”

“Yes it is. But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything, baby sister. You can’t run away the first time he doesn’t act like your knight in shining armor. You aren’t living in a fairy tale, Kara. This is real life. It’s messy and it doesn’t follow a script.”