Modern Romance January Books 1-4. Кейт Хьюит

she responded, trembling in his arms now.

      “A woman. Not a boy. And not a girl.”

      “No,” she said.

      “You want the horses. You want to train them.”

      “I need them,” she insisted, “and they need me. You know that you can’t handle Fuego without me. You know it. You have seen him, and you have seen what happens when others try to work with him. You’re going to have that fool Fernando ride him?”

      “Of course not. He was fired directly after what happened yesterday.”

      “You know that I’m the only one who can work with him right now.”

      “It is so important to you? Because if I don’t manage to defeat my brother then all of this goes to him. Including your horses. That isn’t what you want, is it?”

      “No,” she said.

      “You have deceived me,” he said, leaning closer to her, relishing the moment when she shrank away from him. Because dammit all, someone should be afraid of his wrath. His brother certainly should be, but the fool wasn’t here.

      “I’m sorry. It had nothing to do with you. Or rather, it did. If you would only hire women...”

      “I have one use for a woman in my life at the moment. And now I wonder if you and I have a common enough purpose that you might serve me well.”

      She shrank back, her expression one of confusion. “I don’t understand.”

      “I think you do.” He released his hold on her and took a step back. “It is convenient, in many ways. As a boy you only served one purpose. But as a woman you can serve many. What is your name?” He felt a smile curve his lips. “Your real name.”

      “Camilla,” she said. “Camilla Alvarez.”

      Camilla Alvarez. Of course. He’d heard about her, though he’d never met her. A spirited horsewoman said to have a near supernatural way with the animals, just as her father had.

      A fine match for a man like him, in many ways. Though he had no intentions now of making a permanent arrangement. And yet...that did not negate his need for a bride.

      He needed one, and he needed her quickly.

      Camilla, it turned out, needed something, too.

      That mutual need could be his salvation.

      Holding the horses hostage didn’t bother him in the least. He needed to gain control of the family rancho, of the family fortune. Diego had kidnapped his fiancée, and there was no way in hell Matías was going to allow his brother to win.

      His path was clear. And the solution to his problem was standing before him, delivered to him at just the appropriate moment.

      “Well, Camilla Alvarez. If you want your horses, then I expect something in return. If you wish to remain here, if you wish to train Fuego, then you will be my wife.”

       CHAPTER SIX

      CAMILLA WAS IN a state of shock. One that superseded the previous shocked state that had accompanied being kicked by the horse.

      Because somehow in the last moment her entire ruse had unraveled around her, one thread at a time. And not only had Matías discovered her identity, but he had also asked her to be his wife. His wife.

      She, Camilla Alvarez, who had not done so much as kiss a man, who had never been held so close to a man as she was being held by Matías now—in anger, rather than in passion—was being proposed to by that same angry man.

      “I don’t understand...”

      “I need a wife,” he said, his voice hard as rock. “My brother has acquired a wife, and if I do not then the entirety of this estate goes to him. You are one with a stake in this, as well. Because the horses will go to him. You don’t want that. Trust me. You think he’s going to keep you on? You think he’s going to care about the well-being of your beloved animals? Murderer or not, Diego is not a man given to caring.”

      “Not forever,” she said. “I mean, I won’t be your wife forever.”

      He shrugged. “Of course, there will be no reason for the marriage to be more than paper. But it must be legal. My grandfather will not live forever, and once ownership has been established, once everything has been settled, then you may have your divorce.”

      “An annulment,” she said, “surely.”

      “No.” He waved a hand decisively. “There will be nothing that shall call into question the validity of the union. I shall not take any chances of Diego contesting this in court. I put nothing past him, as I already stated. He stole my fiancée. He would think nothing of challenging the legality of this union, as he cannot take more than one wife. Otherwise, I feel he would steal you, as well.”

      Camilla felt edgy, unsettled, a raft of emotion and heat careening through her. “How would he set about stealing me?”

      “I assume via seduction,” Matías said. “As I assume this is what he did with Liliana, who had an extreme aversion to sharing my bed, and this makes it all the clearer.”

      Those words tangled up in her brain. “Liliana didn’t...”

      “I was not sleeping with her. Does that matter to you?”

      “No,” she said, shaking her head. “Only that you intended your marriage with her to be real. To be lasting, I mean. So, naturally I assumed...”

      “Liliana presented herself as being quite the sheltered virgin,” he said, his voice dripping with disdain. “She said she did not know me well enough.”

      “Oh.”

      “I suspect, however, that the real issue was that she had given herself to my brother already.”

      “Or,” Camilla said softly, “she really might have been taken, and he could have been forcing her to say those things.”

      “I suppose that’s possible,” he said. “But either way, I do not have the time to wait and find out. I have two weeks to marry. And if I engage in some kind of public national search for a wife, no doubt I will find one. However, I’m not sure my grandfather will find it compelling.”

      “But he’ll appreciate your brother stooping to kidnapping and subterfuge?”

      Matías chuckled. “Because that is Diego’s way. He’s the gambler. The black sheep. I...I am the good one, and I suspect my grandfather would like to see me accomplish his task while sticking to my personal code of honor. More to the point, I imagine he would find it amusing if I could not. Which is why I would have him believe this relationship is real.”

      “You have no trouble violating your code of honor so long as nobody knows?”

      “Am I forcing you, Camilla?” he asked, her name dripping with disdain. “I believe that rather than force, what I have done is offer you a mutually beneficial deal. You want the horses, you want to be able to stay here and train them, and I will allow it, as long as you help me in this. I must be able to maintain control of the rancho in order for it to be so. I must be able to maintain control of my business. If Diego takes over the family assets in their entirety, then it is possible he will end up with a stake in the company I built myself. I will not allow that. However, if we are able to split the assets, then we can draw up an agreement that keeps him out of it. That means that half is mine. I feel very much that Diego wants to win more than he actually wants to control anything that happens here at the rancho. I, on the other hand, care very deeply about it. I am the one who has spent years here. I am the one who has cultivated a relationship with the animals, with the land. I should think that you of all people would understand that.”

      She