The Valquez Bride. Melanie Milburne

Was it him or was it marriage in general? Or was she, too, playing a game? Was she secretly delighted her father had selected him as her husband? Was she pretending to be aghast at the thought while privately she was congratulating herself on securing a prize catch?

      ‘She’s...interesting.’

      Luiz gave a chuckle. ‘That’s not a word I’ve heard you use to describe a woman before. When do I get to meet her?’

      ‘Soon.’

      I have to convince her to marry me first.

      * * *

      Teddy stood at one of the library windows chewing her fingernails back to her shoulders in panic. Alejandro’s low-slung sports car growled up the driveway and parked in front of the house like a black panther waiting to pounce. She watched as he got out from behind the wheel with the athletic ease of a man who was in superb physical condition.

      She melted back against the velvet drape of the curtain in case he saw her spying on him. He was dressed in dark denim jeans and a white casual cotton shirt that made his olive-toned skin look all the more gloriously tanned. The sleeves were rolled back past his strong wrists, revealing dark curly hairs that continued to the backs of his hands with a sprinkling over his long fingers. He had a silver designer watch on his left wrist and he was wearing aviator sunglasses, adding to the air of command and control that was so damnably attractive. He was a man who was used to getting his own way. He got it in the boardroom. He got it in the bedroom.

      Teddy had looked at the situation from every angle. She had consulted several lawyers and they had all said much the same thing. It would be a costly exercise getting her father’s will overturned and even then she might not be successful. And it could take years. She couldn’t afford to spend money she didn’t have, or at least not that sort of money. If she agreed to follow the terms of the will, in six months she would be in full possession of Marlstone Manor. There would be no money worries, no sleepless nights panicking about finding the funds for the expensive upkeep of the stately mansion and grounds. She could concentrate on her art as well as provide a secure home for her loyal and loving staff.

      But the thing that had decided her over all others was a phone call from her second cousin. Hugo had made his intentions clear. Marlstone Manor would be sold as soon as he took possession. He wanted the money. The house meant nothing to him. The staff meant even less.

      Teddy figured a short-term marriage to Alejandro Valquez was the smaller price to pay. Being married to an attractive man who would not make any unnecessary demands on her because he said it was to be a paper marriage.

      And you believed him? a voice inside her head asked.

      Of course she did. Why wouldn’t she? She wasn’t the type of girl he would go for. His last girlfriend had been close to six foot tall with a willowy figure and waist-length blonde hair. And long legs, both in excellent working order.

      Teddy pulled in a breath that caught at her throat as Alejandro’s firm purposeful footsteps sounded along the corridor. She had to get her mask in place. It wouldn’t do to show how unnerved she was about the arrangement she was about to enter into with him. She had to put her ice maiden face on. Assemble her features into the cool impassive face that told everyone she didn’t give a damn what they thought of her gait. She straightened her spine, put her shoulders back. Gripped her walking stick with a hand that was clammy. Nerves scraped at her stomach like scrabbling mice feet as the footsteps came closer. Her heart felt as if it was beating in her oesophagus as the door was pushed open and Alejandro came striding into the room. The room seemed to shrink as he brought in the scent of the outdoors—citrus and wood and danger.

      His eyes did a lazy head to toe sweep of her figure before he greeted her with a nod. ‘Miss Marlstone.’

      Teddy’s chin came up. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t like the way he mocked her with that glittering look in his pitch-black gaze. She had decided against dressing shabbily. But she hadn’t pulled out her best outfit, either. She’d settled for simple and casual—not much different from what he was wearing. Jeans and a cotton shirt, but she had draped a sweater across her shoulders because, in spite of the Indian summer they were experiencing, the late September weather was occasionally unpredictable. She hadn’t bothered with make-up because she rarely wore it. But now, with him looking at her with that indolent gaze, she wished she had layered it on with a trowel to disguise the traitorous blush she could feel crawling over her cheeks. ‘Señor Valquez.’

      A corner of his mouth twitched as if he found her stiff formality amusing. ‘Am I to believe you’ve agreed to become my wife?’

      She sent him a glowering look. ‘Your paper wife.’

      ‘Ah, yes.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘You’re in under the time limit. Just.’

      Something inside Teddy’s stomach dropped. ‘You surely wouldn’t expect me to agree to anything else? We’re all but strangers.’

      His crooked smile was knee-weakening. ‘You don’t normally sleep with strangers?’

      ‘Certainly not.’ She wished she hadn’t sounded quite so priggish. ‘I mean...I like to get to know someone first. To see if we’re...erm...compatible.’

      ‘How many lovers have you had?’

      Teddy’s eyes flared. ‘I beg your pardon?’

      His eyes held hers. Dark. Probing. Intelligent. ‘Lovers. How many?’

      She gave him an arch look. ‘How many have you had?’

      The glint in his eyes made her stomach slip again. ‘Too many to count.’

      Teddy could feel her blush burning across her cheeks like a spreading flame. Her mind was suddenly full of images of him with his beautiful bedmates, writhing and cavorting in passion, their perfect bodies in the throes of ecstasy. No hint of awkwardness or shame.

      Her one and only sexual encounter had left her embarrassed and ashamed. She blamed herself for not recognising the way she had been set up. She should have known better. Men were all about the physical. They were turned on by the visual. It was how they were wired. How could she have thought Ross Jenner would be different? He had befriended her in her last year at art school and then betrayed her. He had boasted to his mates on social media about how he had done the deed with the girl no one else wanted. He had won a dare to sleep with her. He had been paid to do it. The memory of it still sat like a cold hard stone in her belly.

      Teddy moved away from the heat of Alejandro’s dark gaze to the desk where Henry had set out a drinks tray. The one thing she could do on automatic pilot was to be a polite hostess, even if it made her grind her teeth to powdered chalk. ‘Would you care for a drink?’

      ‘Whisky. No ice.’

      She poured the whisky into a crystal tumbler and silently handed it to him, careful not to come into contact with his fingers. She kept her gaze out of reach of his, staring at the button of his shirt as if it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.

      He was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen. He dominated the room like a giant in a doll’s house. So tall her neck ached from keeping eye contact. So self-assured and so impossibly gorgeous her breath was having trouble moving in and out of her lungs.

      He smelt delicious. The tang of his lemon and lime aftershave teased her nostrils, making her think of sun-drenched lemon groves.

      And sex.

      Teddy leaned on her stick as she turned to fix herself a drink. Since when did she think of sex? Hot, sweaty sex. Animal sex. Not with some weedy geek at art school who had won a bet.

      Sex with a full-blooded man in his prime.

      ‘I would like us to be married as soon as possible.’

      Her left hand shook as she poured a shot of brandy into a glass. ‘We have a month before the deadline.’

      ‘No point stalling. The sooner we marry, the sooner we end it.’

      His