Page 6 of Her Spanish Scandal

He stiffened and his features tightened, but she didn’t know him well enough to really read his reaction. “Si, Elvira.”

“Introduce me to your lovely friend,” the woman named Elvira said.

Kara heard the criticism in the other woman’s voice. That note that said, why are you dancing with this pudgy girl instead of me? It was a tone that Kara had heard often enough over the years.

“Countess Elvira de Castillo y Perez, meet Kara deMontaine. Kara, this is the Countess Elvira.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Kara said, curtsying to the older woman.

“Aren’t you a sweet child,” the countess said. “Run along and play with your friends. I’d like a word with Guillermo.”

Kara started to step away but Gui’s hand tightened on her arm. “Kara is my fiancée, Elvira. Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of her.”

Chapter Two

Kara smiled politely but inside her mind was reeling. What the hell was Gui thinking? She started to speak but he bent to her and brushed his lips over hers.

She parted hers in surprise and felt the brush of his tongue against hers. Then it was gone. “I’m sorry, Elvira, we don’t have time to chat. I promised this dance to Kara.”

Gui danced her away from the other woman. And she just stared up at him, for the first time in her life completely unsure of what to do next.

“Um…”

“Don’t say anything just yet. Dance with me and look up at me the way a woman in love would.”

“And how is that?”

“With adoration, of course.”

She had to smile at him. And he leaned down to once again touch his mouth to hers. She opened her mouth this time, hoping to taste him again. That first kiss had been too quick, too brief, and it left her wanting more of him.

He angled his head and his tongue touched hers. She breathed into his mouth and felt the contact of his lips and tongue on hers all the way to her core. Chills raced down her body, making her breasts feel fuller and her nipples harden.

She pulled back from him and held tightly on to his shoulders, having the very real feeling that she was in way over her head. This was different than asking a cute guy to dance…this was passion.

Something that had always been lacking in her life.

“Gui…”

“Kara. You have the most kissable lips.”

She shook her head. Her mouth tingled. Tingled! She wanted to touch her lips but knew she’d give away just how inexperienced she was to him.

“Trust me,” he said, bending down to take her mouth one more time. She shivered in his arms. She knew the music changed, because the couples around them seemed to be moving, but time stood still for her as she stood there with Gui. As she felt the warmth of his big body next to hers. The way he wrapped his arms around her waist and let his hands drift lower to cup her buttocks and draw her more fully into his body.

She melted against him. For the first time she felt like one of those delicate girls she’d always envied. In Gui’s arms she wasn’t too big. She didn’t tower over him. And when he touched her, his hands were strong and sure.

She pulled back, afraid that she was losing her perspective, and looked up into his warm hazel eyes. But they weren’t the same light brown-green they’d been earlier. Now they were stormy with a bit of gray moving in around the rims of his irises.

“Your eyes,” she said, raising one hand to trace his eyebrow.

“What about them?”

“They’re changing color.”

He quirked an eyebrow, the one she wasn’t touching, at her.

“They were this light earth tone…like a spring lake…earlier, but now there’s more gray in them…like the Northern Atlantic Ocean.”