She’d read the headlines this morning, seen the picture of happiness Raul and Max had portrayed to the world through the lens of the press. They were pleased to have found each other and would move forwards together in a business they had both inherited as well as continue with their own businesses. It all looked too good to be true and she wondered how much of it was indeed true. How much of it was yet more business deals struck, more acting the part for the media or board of directors?
Was Max as hard and mercenary as Raul? Judging by what she’d seen just a few days ago, the stand-off she’d left in full swing, she suspected they were very alike. They were both hard and emotionless men who would stop at nothing to get what they wanted.
The door of the salon opened, bringing with it the noise of traffic from Knightsbridge and a rush of crisp, cold air. She didn’t turn immediately, but continued with her task of ensuring the party dresses were displayed to their full potential, giving the customer a moment or two to browse. A few moments later, she pinned on a smile she was far from feeling and turned to greet her customer.
That smile froze on her lips as she took in Raul, standing in all his male magnificence in the centre of her boutique, watching her with narrowed eyes. What did he want now? Hadn’t he hurt her enough already?
‘I have nothing to say to you, Raul.’ She glared at him, daring him to stay, daring him to try and say anything to her. She’d cried so much already and had been totally weakened by his cold words as she’d tried to explain what had happened. She’d been on the brink of telling him that she’d never do such a thing to the man she loved, but, thankfully, his curt remark had cut that off midsentence, reminding her how foolhardy she’d been.
At least she hadn’t been given the chance to tell him how she really felt, that she loved him and all she’d done had been out of love for him.
‘But I have much to say to you, Lydia.’ He didn’t move; like a matador preparing for the fight, he stood firm, his strong maleness so out of place amidst the sparkle of the dresses.
‘Nothing I want to hear.’ She turned her back on him and picked up a gold sequined top, hoping he would turn and leave. She closed her eyes against the pain as she heard his steady footsteps. He was leaving. So much for wanting to speak to her.
She listened, shock coursing through her as the bolt slid on the door of the shop and then the blind rolled slowly and purposefully down. What was he doing? She whirled round, still clutching the gold top, her fingers crushing the sequins as she pressed them hard around the padded hanger.
The self-satisfied expression on his face intensified her anger and as his brows rose in that familiar and very alluring way, her heart thumped wildly. Why did he have to look so sexy, so completely gorgeous?
‘The boutique is not closed.’ She fired the words at him, infusing them with anger, desperate to sound firm and as in control as he appeared to be.
‘It is very much closed. At least until I have said what I came to say.’ He moved towards her and she watched, unable to take in what was happening or why he was here.
‘My assistant will be back very soon.’
‘She can wait.’ The curt reply was as sharp as it was hard, but she glared at him, meeting the challenge that was very definitely in his eyes head-on.
‘Very well. Say your piece and then leave. I have no wish to prolong this any longer than is needed.’ She tried to make her voice portray how uninterested she was to hear what he had to say, but her last words wavered, giving away the turmoil of emotions she now had rushing through her. But then Raul was the steeliest and most unemotional man she had ever met and she doubted he’d pick up on her minefield of emotions.
His brows rose and the flicker of a smile pulled at his lips so briefly she thought she’d imagined it. He moved closer. ‘I know that you didn’t sell the story.’
Relief flooded her, but it was short-lived and she couldn’t smile at him, didn’t want to take his harshly delivered statement as an apology. ‘So after everything you said to me in front of your brother, you think you can just turn up and say you’d made a mistake without a word of apology?’
‘I have just said I was wrong.’ His eyes hardened with the glitter of anger as he spoke. Well, he wasn’t the only one who was angry.
‘But you can’t say you are sorry, can you, Raul?’ She challenged him, pushed him to feel something. ‘You can’t say it because you don’t feel it. You are so cold, so emotionless.’
‘Being so emotionless, as you say, is what has made me so successful.’ The retort sparked back at her and she glared at him. ‘But if it makes you happy, then I am sorry. I now know you did not sell the story.’
She wanted more than that. Wanted to hear him say he couldn’t live without her, that he should never have sent her away—that he loved her. She wanted him to feel something for her.
‘And how did you come to this conclusion?’ The terse words slipped easily from her lips. She was finally getting her emotions under control, managing to hide them away, and discussing the story was safer than anything else right now.
‘The source was revealed to me.’ He paused, as if waiting for her to say something, to respond, and she wasn’t going to disappoint him. ‘My father had enlisted the help of a close friend, a member of the board, but he proved to be as corrupt as my father and his silence has now been assured with a hefty payment.’
* * *
‘Of course. Power and wealth can buy you just about anything, can’t it?’ Lydia’s words, spoken in perfect Spanish, cracked harder than any whip as they lashed at him. But she was right—and she despised him for it. Pain slashed through him, cutting deeper than a sword. He’d never known anything like it. To hear such an accusation from the woman he loved—and in his own language.
‘Not always.’ He tried to gentle his emotions, to remember why he was here in the first place. Another war of words with Lydia wouldn’t achieve anything other than to push her further out of his reach. The exact opposite of what he wanted.
‘Ah, so there is something the mighty Raul Valdez wants that money can’t buy.’ The sarcasm of her words stung the wound his pain had opened and he gritted his teeth against it and the truth of her words.
‘Yes.’ The word sounded feral, even to him, and the lift of her delicate brows made it clear she thought so too. Hell. Why couldn’t he just tell her? Why couldn’t he say the words? Tell her that he wanted her—loved her? Had he been so void of emotion for so long that he could no longer say what he felt? This was harder than any deal he’d ever won or lost, but, whatever happened, he couldn’t lose, not now. ‘There is something I very much want.’
Her eyes narrowed and she put the gold top back on the rail, averting her gaze and deliberately taking her time. When she looked back at him her expression was as neutral as the day he’d first seen her in the restaurant in London. She gave nothing away as once again she spoke in Spanish, reminding him of that dinner party, punishing him for his hurtful remark. ‘And what has this to do with me?’
He moved towards her and her eyes widened, blinking rapidly a few times, but she didn’t step away, didn’t break eye contact. ‘It is you I want, Lydia.’
He’d said it. He’d actually admitted that he wanted someone, needed someone. For the first time in his life, after years of hiding his heart, hiding his emotions, he’d told the woman he loved, the woman he wanted, just how he felt.
‘No.’ Lydia glared at him, angry sparks in her eyes, deepening the green of them, making them so intense that he couldn’t help but look into them. He saw pain behind the anger. Pain he’d caused. But there was something else.
‘No?’ Incredulity at the show of emotions in her eyes almost made saying anything impossible. ‘What do you mean, “No”?’
‘I mean I have no intention of having any more to do with you. I was a fool to think we ever had any kind of future and even more of a fool to think that...’ The passion of her outburst, again in Spanish, surprised him, as did the sudden faltering
of her words. It was the only hint that his mother had been right, that this woman did feel something for him and was as good at hiding that as he was.
‘To think what, Lydia?’ he jumped in quickly, not wanting that small opening to pass by. It might be the only chance to find out how this woman truly felt, to find out if she had the same feelings for him as he had for her.
‘That you cared about me.’ She marched past him, her shoulder brushing against his upper arm she moved so quickly. He heard the blind being pulled roughly up, heard the bolt being slid back into place and as he turned to her he saw her wrench open the door. ‘But I was wrong.’
‘Is that why you lodged the deeds of most of the properties with your solicitor, putting them all into my name?’ He watched her as she lifted her chin, mutinous defiance filling her body as she stood there by the open boutique door, angry green eyes blazing at him.
‘I honour my debts.’ Defiance sparked like flint on stone in every word she said, starting a fire of emotions. ‘Fully.’
‘And your promises?’ He raised his voice as he fought against the noise of the London traffic. ‘Do you honour those too?’
‘Of course I do. Now please go. Leave.’
He took a few steps to her, getting so close he could smell her perfume, the same as she’d worn at the party. Memories of the dance leapt to life in his mind, hotly followed by those of that passionate night when she’d been his.
‘Leave. Go,’ she said in Spanish, the words hard and cruel, twisting the knife in his heart. The finality of the words too much, but he couldn’t go.
He took her hand from the door, his eyes locked with hers. ‘You made a promise to me, Lydia. You were my fiancée.’
‘That wasn’t a promise.’ Her voice was barely a whisper as she looked up at him, her eyes searching his. Was she looking for the same emotion in his that he was searching for in hers? Love. ‘That was nothing more than a deal—or blackmail.’
‘And if it became something more?’ Tentatively he asked, ignoring the laughter from a couple passing by the shop, his attention firmly fixed on the woman he loved.
‘It could never be more, Raul. You can’t give yourself or your heart. You made that very clear. We had an affair, nothing more, but it’s over.’
She shut the boutique door, the traffic noise dimming as she glared accusingly at him. She was right. He couldn’t give his heart, couldn’t allow himself to feel any soft emotions and definitely not love. But that had been before she’d turned his world upside down, shaking his heart into life.
Lydia turned from him, taking his silence as agreement, but as she walked away he knew he couldn’t leave it there, couldn’t give up.
‘I was wrong.’ He strode after her, wanting to reach for her, wanting to force her to look at him, to listen to him.
She stood very still, her back to him, and the seconds ticked by as he waited. Finally, she turned and looked up at him, weariness in her eyes. ‘So was I.’
He was losing. The one battle in his life he had to win and he knew he was losing it—losing her. He had to say the words he’d never said to anyone. It was the only hope he had of making her understand. ‘I was wrong, Lydia.’
He paused and looked into those lovely green eyes, saw her blink quickly, as if tears threatened. ‘I was wrong because I love you, Lydia.’
* * *
Lydia looked at the man she loved, a man she’d thought incapable of saying those words to her. But saying them wasn’t meaning them. ‘It’s too late.’
She wanted to walk away, wanted to avoid the power of those devilishly sexy eyes, but she couldn’t. All she could do was stand there and look up at him.
He shook his head. ‘No, Lydia. It’s not too late. I’ve been a fool, yes, but it’s not too late.’
‘I’m sorry I messed everything up just before your brother arrived, but most of all I’m sorry that my father ever got us into this mess.’
‘I’m not. I’ve found my brother and the woman I love. The woman I want to be my wife.’
He was offering her everything she wanted, everything she’d dreamed of, but this was Raul Valdez, billionaire businessman who got anything he wanted by fair means or foul. She stepped back from him, away from the temptation of his potent masculinity, away from the need to feel his lips on hers just one more time. Not that once more would ever be enough, not when she loved him so completely.
A shaky laugh slipped from her. ‘That’s not possible. We can’t.’
‘We can,’ he said and moved towards her, so close now that she could smell the freshness of his morning shower. Gently he reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand and she fought the urge to lean into the caress, to believe what he was saying was real.
‘I’ve paid my debts, Raul. The contract no longer stands.’ She lifted her chin and glared at him, desperately trying to ignore the heat of his touch on her face.
‘To hell with the contract.’
‘How can you say that when the debt instigated such a deal with me? If I hadn’t been able to find your brother, I dread to think how things would be now.’
‘The passion and desire between us was inevitable, Lydia. As was the conclusion.’
How could he say that so soon after saying she was the woman he loved? It was all just words for him, words to get what he wanted, when money couldn’t achieve that.
Before she could say anything his lips claimed hers in a hot, searing kiss that set light to every part of her body. Her limbs weakened and her lips softened as she kissed him back as if her life depended on it as he pulled her close. She loved this man, so why couldn’t she believe him? So much had happened between them in the short time they’d known each other, but could a man who’d openly condemned love really love her?
She pushed against him, breaking the kiss with such force that he was forced to let her go and she stepped quickly back. ‘My father’s debts are settled, not by the funds for finding Max, but by those properties my father hid in my name. They are now yours, to do with as you please. You have everything you wanted, Raul, and I have lost just about everything. Just go.’
She turned from him, the sting of tears in her eyes, and she swallowed down the need to give into them. Raul’s gentle touch on her arm was the last thing she’d expected after the dominating way he’d entered the shop and then claimed that kiss. She pinched the bridge of her nose, willing the tears to stay where they were.
‘That’s where you are wrong, Lydia. If I have lost you, I have lost everything.’ Slowly he turned her to face him and she looked up at him, into eyes that no longer held the defensive glare. This was the real Raul, the man who, for whatever reason, feared love.
‘I’m sorry, Raul, I can’t love a man who doesn’t know how to love, how to open his heart to the most natural emotion in the world.’
‘Can you give such a man a chance?’ The slight waver to the deep accented timbre of his voice told her so much. It also lit the small flame of hope within her.
‘You told me love was not for you. How can things have changed?’ His touch on her arm seared her skin through her clothes and she longed to walk into his embrace, to accept love on his terms, but it wasn’t enough.
‘My mother knows we are in love.’ He spoke softly, sending the conversation in a different direction and her mind into a spin of questions.
‘That’s because we acted the part—’
He cut her words off. ‘She saw love beneath that, Lydia. My love for you and yours for me.’
She shook her head. ‘No, that’s not possible.’
‘And Max. He saw it too.’
‘You spoke of our deal to your brother?’ She hadn’t asked anything about that meeting, the humiliation of being sent from the room like a scolded child still very raw.
‘He made it very clear I’d been too hard on you—and I was. He also told me I had much to settle with you and I’m guessing he knows that first hand, from the exchange I witnessed between him and his wife.’
; ‘His wife? The lovely redhead waiting in the foyer?’
Raul nodded. ‘And soon to be the mother of his child, but that is not important now. I have been a fool, Lydia, hiding from your love, trying to deny that I felt the same for you, seeing it as a weakness. But all that has changed.’
‘It has?’ The whisper her voice had become held so much hope that her heart ached.
‘I’ve changed and it is because of you. I’d give up all my wealth, my father’s inheritance, everything if it meant I could have you in my life, as my wife. I love you, Lydia.’
‘I don’t need anything else but your love, Raul.’ He stroked his fingers down her cheek as she spoke and she closed her eyes against the sensation. When she opened them his eyes were so full of love that she wondered how they could ever have been so cold and hard. ‘I love you, Raul.’
This time the kiss was gentle and loving, leaving her in no doubt that his words were far more than that. They were real, as real as their love for one another. She trembled as he took her in his arms, holding her to him so that she could hear the beat of his heart. Right here was all she’d ever wanted.
‘Just one more thing.’ Raul’s voice was filled with emotion as he spoke and moved her from him so he could look at her.
‘What is it?’ Lydia looked up at him to see a smile of love on his lips and she had to resist the urge to kiss him again.
‘With all the upheaval of finding Max and then losing you, I haven’t cancelled our wedding.’
‘But that’s just days away.’ Was he suggesting they get married as planned on Christmas Eve in Madrid? If he was, she knew exactly what her answer would be. She didn’t need a big fancy day.
‘What do you think? Should we get married?’ he teased her with soft words of Spanish.
‘I can’t think of anything better.’ She smiled and then as his lips claimed hers allowed herself to slip into the bliss of his kiss, briefly at least. There was one more small matter to settle. ‘There is one condition.’
‘Which is?’ His eyes narrowed in suspicion, but this time the smile on his lips proved he was teasing her.
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