Under the Spaniard's Lock and Key. Kim Lawrence

first time.

      The breath left his body as Rafael froze, feeling as if someone had just landed a punch in his solar plexus.

      ‘Over there…I think she’s trying to cross the road. You see her?’

      ‘I see her.’

      ‘Now that is what this party lacked—a few pretty faces to look at.’

      ‘Not pretty,’ Rafael contradicted.

      His elderly relative looked outraged. ‘Not pretty? What is wrong with you? Don’t tell me you like your women like sticks. A woman should be soft and—’

      ‘Beautiful,’ Rafael corrected, cutting across his great-uncle’s list of womanly attributes.

      As his brain emerged from its temporary paralysis his eyes remained trained on the slim figure, but it was not the brunette’s face or her indisputably womanly figure that held his stunned gaze.

      He glanced briefly at his great-uncle, who played the forgetful old man card when it suited him but was anything but; the last thing Rafael needed at this moment was Fernando to realise why the girl looked familiar to him.

      He was surprised he hadn’t already.

      The sooner he got him safely away from this potentially explosive scene, the better.

      Rafael dragged his eyes off the brunette. Still aware of her in the periphery of his vision, and aware he was not the only one aware of her—this was a woman accustomed to male attention—he offered his great-uncle a supportive arm, nodding to the driver who held the door open as Fernando took his place in the car.

      The car moved off and Rafael was able to focus all his attention on the brunette.

      She was obviously heading for the hotel. If she walked in now he could imagine the reaction and there were photographers to record the moment for posterity and every tabloid on the planet!

      An illegitimate love child reunited with her mother while the unsuspecting husband and social elite looked on. My God, the girl had to have engineered the moment for maximum embarrassment—not that her motivation or her feelings were what he needed to concentrate on now, he told himself, blocking out this line of speculation.

      This was about damage limitation. Let Angelina have this day at least before disaster in the shape of this girl arrived.

      He couldn’t let her go into the hotel.

      So how did he stop her?

      He found himself wistfully contemplating a less civilised and much simpler age when he could have simply slung her over his shoulder.

      This not being an option, he had to repress his natural instincts and opt for more subtle methods. As he sifted through the possibilities he was very aware that no matter what action he chose, he could not give this situation a happy outcome.

      The story had everything: sex, money and a beautiful woman—or in this case two!

      If she walked through those doors now he could imagine the reaction to that face and tomorrow’s headlines. He couldn’t allow it to happen.

      Rafael tried to narrow his focus to the here and now. It was a struggle: he had a mind wired to asking why…where; a question mark was a challenge to him.

      As he walked towards the road his mind was working fast as he sifted through the possibilities. What was she doing here?

      Coincidence did not even make it to the list.

      Rafael did not believe in coincidence any more than he believed in the Easter bunny or the general decency of his fellow man…or in this case woman. He did believe in protecting the people he cared about.

      His silver grey eyes narrowed. The brunette, her hair and other things bouncing gently, had begun crossing the road towards the hotel entrance, confirming all his worst suspicions.

      He felt something kick low in his stomach—anger, he told himself—as he watched the gentle sway of her hips in the tight jeans she wore.

      Of course there were decent and genuinely good people—people like Angelina. He liked to think he was not without the odd scruple, but this woman was not one of life’s innocents.

      It always amazed Rafael how that vulnerable minority managed to get through life with their ideals and their lives intact while most people were out for what they could get regardless of the people they trampled over in their pursuit of whatever ambition drove them.

      What was driving Angelina’s daughter?

      Greed, revenge…possibly a combination?

      A child genuinely wishing to discover a parent would hardly choose a public occasion to do so.

      Then as he watched she stepped off the pavement. Dios, he might not have to worry about scandal—the girl was a traffic statistic waiting to happen!

      It was pure luck that she reached his side of the road before disaster struck—or almost. He watched as she jumped in response to the blast of a scooter horn as it whizzed past her, lost her footing and began to fall back into the moving traffic.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      MAGGIE lifted her head, a smile of gratitude ready to thank the person who had leant a steadying hand and pulled her onto the safety of the pavement.

      ‘Thank you…’ The words and the smile died a death as she found herself looking into the lean face of her saviour.

      The sound of the traffic retreated somewhere into the recesses of her shell-shocked brain. She was looking into the dark face of the most beautiful man she had ever seen or even imagined.

      She was too startled to disguise her reaction. Maggie’s gaze travelled in wide-eyed appreciation over his strongly sculpted features.

      This was not a face anyone would forget in a hurry.

      As a child Maggie remembered wondering what her mum had meant when she spoke of someone’s ‘beautiful bones.’

      He was what she meant.

      The genetic gene pool had been very generous to this tall Spaniard, who had been gifted cheekbones sharp enough to cut yourself on, a strong aquiline nose and a firm, angular jaw.

      His unlined brow was broad and intelligent and he possessed the most striking eyes she had ever seen—pale icy grey, almost silver, the striking colour intensified by the dark ring around the iris, they were fringed by incredibly long spiky lashes that were as dark as his strongly delineated ebony brows.

      But it was his mouth that Maggie couldn’t take her eyes off. Was it the hint of cruelty she saw in the sensual curve of his sculpted lips that tugged so strongly at her senses and made the aura he projected so overtly sensual and masculine?

       Close your mouth, Maggie, you’re drooling.

      In an effort to respond to the ironic voice in her head, she gave herself a mental shake.

      It didn’t help. Her head remained a swirl of impressions and her nerve endings continued to thrum, sending shivers across the surface of her overheated skin.

      She’d had too much sun, Maggie decided, shading her eyes as she struggled to find an explanation for being struck dumb and foolish at the same moment—an explanation that did not involve being in the presence of a six-feet-four black-haired Mediterranean male who looked like a fallen angel who worked out!

      The fine lines around his marvellous eyes deepened as he looked down with concern into her face.

      ‘Are you all right? There is someone you’d like me to call, perhaps?’

      Oh, my God, even his voice was sexy! Deep and slightly gravelly, his cultured voice contained a faint and attractive foreign inflection.

      ‘I…I…’ She gulped, then he smiled and she thought, Wow!

      Get a grip,