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‘Me.’
There—she’d said it. And now she had she wanted to bolt like a frightened animal. He didn’t say a word. Not a trace of emotion could be seen on his face. Silence hung between them, and a tension so taut she thought it was going to snap with a crack at any moment.
* * *
Shock rocked through Santos as he listened to her ridiculous proposition. It was the last thing he’d expected to hear, but then her reputation should have given him forewarning. She already had one marriage behind her—one that had made her a very wealthy woman indeed. And if rumour was to be believed it had not been a love-match.
‘Why, exactly, would I wish to get married? And to you, of all women?’
His voice was hard, his accent suddenly more pronounced. He sounded dangerous.
Briefly Santos saw pain flash across her face, saw the curling of her manicured fingers and wished the words unsaid. Marriage was the one thing he wanted to avoid at all costs, but even though his legal team were working on a solution he had to consider the option. If he wanted to save his business, and the last five years of hard work since his father had first become ill, he might actually have to take a wife. So wouldn’t this woman, who had so willingly walked into the lion’s den, be the perfect choice? Costly, maybe, if her track record was anything to go by, but he could deal with that.
‘It wouldn’t be a marriage in the true sense of the word.’
Her words, spoken with conviction, dragged his attention back to her face.
‘And what is that?’
‘A marriage for love, of course—like the one your brother and my sister wish to make. A commitment for life.’ Her words flowed freely, and once again he thought he heard a spark of passion.
Suspiciously he looked at her as he sat back again in his chair. ‘You are not looking for love, Ms Henshaw?’
‘Not at all, Mr Ramirez. I only want my sister’s happiness. I will do anything to achieve that. Once they are married we can annul our marriage and go separate ways.
Santos considered this wild suggestion more seriously. Would it hurt to go along with it for now—to have another option if his legal team were unable to sort out an alternative?
‘And you would want what, exactly, from this marriage?’ His mind raced. On a business level it made perfect sense. He would finally have the security of inheriting the business he’d built up and would have done his duty by his brother, freeing Carlo of obligations he had little or no interest in.
‘I want nothing from you other than our names on a marriage certificate. Once that is done we need not see each other. We just apply for an annulment.’
Her voice had hardened and his past rushed back at him. He saw the teenager who had hardly grieved for his controlling mother. Felt the pain as his father eventually remarried and moved on with a loving and kind woman whom Santos had resented. A woman who had changed his father, almost taking him away from his firstborn with the power of her love.
‘I find that hard to believe. You must want something.’ Experience had taught him that. Everyone wanted something. Everyone had a price.
‘Nothing more than I’ve already stated.’
Her cool, calm words sounded believable.
Santos thought of the conditions of the will and gritted his teeth against the memory of the day he’d realised what his manipulative father had done. It seemed this attractive woman knew a lot about the will, but she didn’t know it all. She hadn’t mentioned the other conditions that he would have to meet before finally inheriting. It wasn’t as simple as marriage.
‘I require more than that. My wife, when I take one, will be a wife in every sense of the word.’
Did she really think he was going to accept her proposition meekly, without attaching his own conditions? If he had to get married he’d rather do it for business than become as vulnerable as his father had after his second marriage. There was also the matter that he was a hot-blooded male and this woman had stirred his blood the second she’d walked proudly into his office.
Santos watched as realisation dawned on her pretty face, followed by defeat. But he said nothing more. To do so now would be to show his hand. He would never give away the fact that he actually saw her proposition as a serious option—his back-up plan.
