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He came to stand beside her and she glanced at him. ‘Not bad...? A slight understatement.’
He turned to face her. ‘This will be your world too when we’re married.’
Leonora balked a bit at that. Somehow she hadn’t fully absorbed that aspect. She would be Señora Cruz y Torres.
Suddenly she felt conscious of her very worn suit. It was designer, but practically vintage at this stage, one she wheeled out when she had to look smart. And she’d wanted to look smart today. Professional. Because essentially this was just a business agreement, right?
It might be for Gabriel, but her thumping heart said something else.
A moment of panic made her turn to him. ‘Gabriel, I know you think I’m suitable, but really—’
He put a finger to her mouth, stopping her words. He said, ‘You’re going to be absolutely fine. Trust me.’
He took his hand away.
Leonora swallowed. ‘I just don’t want to let you down.’
He shook his head. ‘You won’t.’
There was a taut moment when she thought he was going to pull her close and kiss her, but then there was a knock on the door and she looked around to see a series of officious-looking men and women enter. She was glad of the interruption. She didn’t want Gabriel to see how needy she’d felt just then, for reassurance.
The prenup.
She calmed herself and took a seat at Gabriel’s desk, where he’d pulled out a chair. She’d looked over the agreement herself at home, when Gabriel had emailed it to her, and s
he had no issues with it. It was exceedingly generous, actually, with provisions set out for her family and Matías in the event of their divorce. Essentially, he was promising to look after them for their lifetimes.
After she’d signed the agreement, and the legal staff had left, Leonora put down her pen and looked at Gabriel. She felt ridiculously emotional to think that this man, who really barely knew her, was making such a commitment to her family.
‘Thank you—you’ve been very generous.’
He shrugged. ‘Your family will become my family, Leo.’
She shook her head, ‘But you haven’t even met Matías.’
He paused for a beat and then said, ‘So take me to meet him.’
Leonora’s heart tripped. ‘Now?’
‘Why not?’ He glanced at his watch. ‘I can cancel my afternoon meetings—they’re not a priority.’
Leonora put in a call to Matías’s school. They had no problem with visitors that afternoon, so after some lunch in Gabriel’s office they left the city in one of his sleek cars.
They were walking down the corridor, about to meet Matías in the common room area of his school, when suddenly Leonora stopped and said, ‘Wait.’
Gabriel looked at her. ‘What is it?’
Leonora was suddenly aware of the magnitude of introducing this man to Matías. ‘You need to be gentle with him. He can be nervous with strangers and especially protective of me.’
Something crossed Gabriel’s face. ‘I have a younger sister. I know that’s very different, and Estella doesn’t have a learning difficulty, but I do know what it’s like to worry...’
Leonora couldn’t quite compute that Gabriel Torres was here, reassuring her about her own brother. ‘Okay.’
She needn’t have worried. Within mere minutes Matías was in thrall to Gabriel in a way she could only sympathise with. Staring at him as if he was a god.
It made Leonora’s heart twist, because she’d witnessed so many people over the years shunning her brother because he was different. Gabriel seemed to have no such issue, and was talking to Matías as if he was any other young man of eighteen.
They were having an in-depth conversation about football and it turned out they both supported the same team—much to Matías’s ecstatic excitement. When Gabriel offered to take Matías to a match some time, the young man—almost equalling Gabriel in height—launched himself at Gabriel, hugging him tightly.
