A Price Worth Paying(29)

‘You’re not planning on telling her our arrangement is only temporary, then?’

‘Why would I do that?’

‘Why wouldn’t you, if you cared anything for this woman who claims to be the next best thing to your fiancėe? Unless, of course, you don’t care anything for her. Then again, given you’re the man who bought the dress she had reserved for another woman to wear to the same party and then stood back to watch the fireworks, I’d conclude you don’t care much for her at all. I’d even be willing to conclude you don’t even like her.’

He looked around, checking to make sure they were not overheard, before dipping his head and continuing in a low voice that rumbled over her skin. ‘Let’s just say Ezmerelda is not my idea of a happily ever after, whatever our respective mothers may have concocted during their regular coffee mornings.’

She shrugged the stroke of voice on skin away. ‘So you really played me for a fool. You didn’t really need the vines to seal this deal at all, did you?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘That whole “What’s in it for me?” argument of yours was a crock all along. My proposal was just what you needed to get Ezmerelda off your back.’

‘I am quite capable of dealing with Ezmerelda with or without your intervention.’

‘But marrying me does provide you with a handy out. She can’t marry you if you’ve already got a wife. I bet you’re hoping she’s got her talons in someone else before our marriage is over.’

‘I admit there may have been an element of that in my deliberations.’

‘So I didn’t have to sign over the vines at all. There was already plenty in it for you.’

‘But you did sign them over.’

‘But if I’d known about Ezmerelda—’

‘That’s just it,’ he said, downing the rest of his glass and placing it on the tray of a passing waiter. ‘You didn’t.’

She turned away, feeling as if she’d been duped. Worse, she felt used. She’d thought they’d negotiated a deal when he’d held all the cards to begin with. Felipe had told her to watch him and he was right. Alesander was as ruthless as they came.

And it didn’t matter to know that her future waited for her half a world away. A vineyard halfway up a mountain in northern Spain was no good to her as it was, but she could have sold it. Alesander would have bought it, even if it was overgrown and neglected. She could have got something for it. Instead she’d practically given it to him and now she’d be going home as penniless as when she’d arrived.

‘Cheer up,’ he said. ‘You don’t look like you’re having fun.’

‘Oh, I am,’ she lied. ‘I’m having immense fun debating when to confide to my new best friend that all is not lost, that maybe things aren’t as dire as they seem and that she may well still get her man, slightly used but none the worse for wear. But do I tell her before the wedding, or after?’

He bristled. She saw it in the flex of his shoulders and the set of a jaw that had gone from smug to stiff in a heartbeat. ‘You wouldn’t dare risk the news getting out and getting back to Felipe.’

‘You’re right, I wouldn’t. But it was so worth the look on your face to say it.’

‘You have a strange sense of humour, Miss Hamilton.’

‘Miss Hamilton? We are formal, aren’t we? I suspect I must have made you angry for some reason.’

‘On the contrary, but you do have a habit of taking me by surprise at times.’

‘Do I? That’s actually a good thing, isn’t it? It would be awful being stuck together for even ten minutes if we bored each other senseless.’

Oh, there was no chance of that, he thought.

‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘I won’t have to tell Ezmerelda anything, because you’re going to tell her that you’re getting married and to someone else first.’

‘What?’

‘Before you make any public announcement of our impending marriage, you will take Ezmerelda aside and let her know that we are getting married. And I don’t care what you think of her or what kind of person she might be, she deserves to hear it from you first. She deserves that much consideration at least.’

Now he was angry. He looked down at her coldly. He wasn’t used to being told what to do, let alone by a pint-sized woman who without her spiky heels barely came up to his shoulder. But, worst of all, he supposed she might actually be right. The last thing they needed when he made the announcement was a scene.