Spanish Marriage Solution

Chapter One

ALICESMITHCOULD pinpoint the exact second her life was ruined.

It was the moment she met her brother-in-law.

Five years later and nothing had changed.

Sebastián Castellano, Tenth Duke of Aveira, was still as mesmerisingly beautiful as he had been when Emily had first brought him back to Auckland to show her new husband off to the family. And even now, after all those years and with Emily only two months dead, Alice still felt the same gut punch that she’d always felt every time she was in his presence.

The last time she’d seen him had been at Emily’s funeral, in Auckland, and he’d flown all the way from Spain to attend. He hadn’t spoken to Alice. He hadn’t spoken at all. He’d sat in the back of the church and by the time everyone had filed past the casket and placed on top of it the sprigs of fern frond that Alice had organised, he’d gone.

He’d barely been in the country a day.

Alice’s husband Edward’s funeral had been the day after, but Alice hadn’t been expecting Sebastián to attend that. Why would he? The whole reason Emily and Edward were dead was because they’d both been in the same car that had plunged off the side of a mountain in Switzerland.

Turned out that Emily hadn’t been having some ‘me time’ in Greece as she’d told everyone. She’d been in Switzerland, having an affair with Edward.

Not that the affair was relevant now. The only thing that mattered, or at least the only thing that mattered to Alice, was Diego, Emily’s four-month-old son.

Who was not, as it turned out, Sebastián’s.

No, he was Edward’s. Edward and her sister’s, and he was why she was here in Seville, after a nightmare forty-eight-hour journey from Auckland, involving three plane changes and an excruciatingly expensive taxi to the Castellano family’s estate, a hacienda, nestled at the base of some rather impressive mountains.

She felt slightly sick with jet lag and the hot, dusty air didn’t help, but she took a fortifying breath and shaded her eyes from the intense heat of the midday Spanish sun. She was sweating in the dark suit she’d foolishly decided to wear for the trip and the nerves that had got worse and worse the closer she came to the Castellano estate were now wreaking havoc in her gut.

Sebastián was a difficult man and confronting him wasn’t going to be easy, especially about this. But it had to be done. Her nephew was more important to her than anything and she was here to bring him home, back to New Zealand where he belonged.

Ahead of her was the large wooden corral she remembered from previous trips to the Castellano hacienda. The Castellanos had been breeding Andalusian horses for centuries and were currently the lead supplier of Andalusians in the world. Their bloodlines were highly sought after, used for dressage, showjumping and other competitions, and Sebastián was a world-renowned talent as a breeder and trainer.

Alice had always loved visiting the stables whenever she’d come to Spain, which had been every Christmas after Emily had married Sebastián. He’d covered travel expenses for the Smiths and her and Emily’s parents while they’d been alive, which had been very generous of him. However, the only part of those visits that Alice had enjoyed was seeing the horses. She’d been a horse girl once when she’d been small, and a part of her still thrilled at the sight the magnificent animals. Emily, on the other hand, had been afraid of them.

Emily certainly wouldn’t have liked the magnificent, glossy black stallion currently trotting around the perimeter of the corral on a lead rope. The rope was held by a figure standing in the middle of the dusty corral circle, watching as the horse paced around him.

He was exceptionally tall, dwarfing even Alice, who was five nine in her bare feet, his shoulders wide and muscular. He had the long, lean shape of an athlete, the plain black T-shirt and dusty jeans he wore only emphasising his magnificent physique.

His raven-black hair was as glossy as the horse’s coat and even though his face was slightly turned away from her, she didn’t need to see it to remember him. That face haunted her dreams. The precisely carved features of an aristocrat: high cheekbones, straight nose, and a firm hard mouth. Eyes of dark, smoky gold.

She hadn’t told him she was coming. She hadn’t wanted him to know why she was here, not until they were face to face. This wasn’t the kind of conversation you could have over the phone, and especially not with him. Emily’s letter was in her handbag, creased and stained with tears, but Alice needed to show it to him. It was proof of what her sister had wanted in case she ended up having a fight on her hands. She hoped not. She hoped that Sebastián, scion of an ancient dukedom whose history and business dealt in ancient bloodlines, wouldn’t want to bring up the child of an affair his wife had had with another man.

He was proud, so Emily had often said, and proud of his family line, so Alice couldn’t imagine him welcoming Diego. Perhaps he’d even be glad she was here to take the child off his hands.

When she’d arrived, Lucia, the housekeeper who managed the huge white stucco hacienda that was the Castellano estate, had greeted her like a long-lost daughter and had told her that ‘Se?or Sebastián’ was in the stables looking over a new purchase. Lucia had tried to get Alice to sit down and have something cooling to drink, but Alice had insisted on seeing Sebastián immediately. She wanted to get this over and done with as soon as possible, so Lucia had got Tomas, the stable manager, to bring her to Sebastián.

Which was why she was now standing here in the baking sun, watching said ‘new purchase’, the beautiful horse, come to a stop directly in front of Sebastián. He pulled something out of his pocket, an apple, and held it out in his palm. The stallion dropped his head, soft mouth closing around the fruit, eating it directly from Sebastián’s hand.

It was oddly mesmerising to watching Sebastián reach out and stroke the horse’s soft nose. He had a magic touch with the animals, Emily had once told her, pulling a face as she did so. In fact, he’d seemed to like the horses more than he did her, which was a regular complaint from Emily. Alice hadn’t taken any notice, which in retrospect had been a mistake. She’d thought it was Emily being dramatic and annoyed at not having attention twenty-four-seven, but apparently it hadn’t been.

The stable manager opened the corral gate and went in, going over to where Sebastián stood. There was a brief conversation in rapid Spanish before Sebastián’s head turned sharply in Alice’s direction.

And as it always did whenever he looked at her, all the air escaped her lungs, and her heart began to race.

It happened every single time.

She hated it.

She’d first met him five years earlier, after his and Emily’s whirlwind wedding. They’d come out to New Zealand to meet the in-laws, and it had happened then too, as they’d stood awkwardly on her parents’ deck overlooking Waitemata Harbour. The moment his golden eyes had met hers, she’d felt an almost visceral impact. The gut punch of fierce physical attraction, and more than that, for her at least. She hadn’t been able to put into words the nature of the emotion that had coursed through her, only that somehow a fire in her had responded to a fire in him, recognising a kindred spirit.

She had no idea why. She didn’t know him, had never met him before that day. It was just something about him that had reached inside her and closed its fingers around her heart. But she’d been married to Edward and he’d just married Emily and so there had been nothing to be done about it.

She’d put the feeling behind her, ignored it. Buried it so far down inside her that she could pretend it had never been there in the first place. Easy enough when he and Emily had lived in Andalusia, in the ancient Castellano hacienda. Alice and Edward had seen them only once a year at Christmas.

Alice had become adept at hiding her feelings. At never letting even a hint of what she felt for him show. Yet every time she was anywhere near him, she’d feel that same gut punch, that pull, like a magnet drawing her to him. And perhaps the worst thing about it was that there had been times when she’d catch his eye, and she’d see something glowing in the depths, something that made her think that he felt the same way. But she’d ignored that too, since, even if he did feel the same way, they had both been married.

Out in the corral, Sebastián looked away from her, said something to Tomas and turned his attention back to the horse.

Tomas walked back out of the corral, shutting the gate behind him and coming over to where Alice stood. She was getting sticky with sweat, her suit rumpled and far too constricting.

‘Se?ora Smith,’ Tomas said in heavily accented English. He must be new, because she didn’t know him and she’d got to know most of Sebastián’s employees over the years. ‘Su Excelencia is busy. But you may wait in the hacienda until he is able to speak with you.’

A thread of anger wound through her. She was hot, sweaty, and jet-lagged and the longer she waited to talk to him about Diego, the harder it was going to be. Because of course nothing about having to deal with Sebastián was ever easy.

It wasn’t that she didn’t talk to him. She did. But only when it was impossible to do otherwise, and even then their conversations were short, stilted, and awkward. He was polite to her, but cold and distant, so she tried to avoid him when she could, and when she couldn’t, she treated him with icy formality. For a while she’d even entertained the hope that Emily might not notice that her sister and her husband didn’t get on.

A false hope.

Emily had soon decided that since it was clear Alice and Sebastián didn’t like each other, they needed to be forced into proximity so they could learn to ‘get along’.

It had been excruciating and eventually Alice had had to tell Emily to stop. Yes, maybe they didn’t much like each other, but they were adults and could handle a bit of dislike without burning things to the ground.

Emily didn’t need to know that for Alice the opposite was true.

Alice stared at the tall figure in the corral, but he didn’t look back again.

Did he know why she was here? Was that why he’d ordered her to wait in the hacienda? Had Emily told him that Diego wasn’t his? Had he known that she was having an affair with Edward before the car accident? Had it been as much of a shock to him as it had to her?

She really should do what he’d said and go back inside the hacienda to wait. She was hot and tired, and it would be better to have this discussion in the cool of the house.

Then again, since she’d started her investment company, she’d become unaccustomed to waiting for men to speak first. Being proactive and taking charge before they even knew they were dealing with a woman was always the best approach. Never let it enter their heads that she was female. That way, by the time they realised who they were talking with, it was too late.

Being female in the world of finance was problematic to say the least. Then again, she’d spent a lot of time trying hard not to be female, which would make dealing with Sebastián a lot less of a problem.

She’d had years of practice at hiding the way she felt about him, at hiding her own feelings, full stop, and that was how she’d go about negotiating this particular situation. She’d tell him logically, calmly, that Emily had sent her a letter about Diego, and that her sister wanted Alice to bring him up should anything happen to her. That was why she was here. To take her nephew back home to New Zealand where he belonged.

And there was nothing Sebastián could do about it.

End of story.

Sebastián tried to focus on Halcón, the stallion, but it was difficult.

He could still feel the hard shock of Alice’s unexpected presence echoing through him, and it was proving complicated to get control of himself. Much harder than it should have been, especially after all the years of practice.

He’d learned the art of control early, since his father wouldn’t stand for anything less than total self-mastery, and it had come in useful when all his plans, all his dreams for the future, had come crashing down following Emily’s death. Then again, he was used to life’s body blows.

Meeting Alice for the first time had been one of them.

He hadn’t known who she was right away. She’d been standing on the deck at Emily’s parents’ house, with the views out over the blue water, smiling at something Emily’s father had said. Her hair had tumbled over her shoulders in glossy waves, black as a raven’s wing, and while her features didn’t have Emily’s petite, precise beauty, there was something about their arrangement that caught his attention. A strong face, animated and expressive. Not typically beautiful but captivating all the same. Winged black eyebrows, a strong, decisive nose, and a long, sensual mouth. She had skin the colour of dark honey, and when her deep brown eyes had met his, he’d felt a tectonic shift inside him. As if the earth had moved on its axis, changing gravity, changing the seasons, changing the very air he breathed.

Then Emily had introduced them and he’d understood, without a shadow of a doubt, that the worst had happened: he’d married the wrong sister.

Halcón dropped his head and nudged at Sebastián’s hand, questing for another treat, but Sebastián wasn’t paying attention. He didn’t need to turn around to know that Alice hadn’t gone back into the hacienda as he’d told her to, and he could feel her watching him, the way he’d always been able to feel it. Even now it still had the power to steal his breath, the way it had done for the past five years.

But he’d made a vow to himself, the day he’d met her, that he’d ignore the change to his life’s axis. That he wouldn’t let mere physical attraction—because surely that was all it was—affect him in any way.

It was meaningless. She was meaningless. She was his sister-in-law and that was all. He’d already married the woman he intended to spend his life with. He’d made vows to her, promises he’d keep until his dying breath. The Dukes of Aveira the Castellanos, as his father had often told him, had honour in their blood, and, because he was not truly a Castellano, he must learn how to be honourable. And he had learned. It wasn’t a lesson he’d ever forget.

So when he heard her say his name, in the low, husky voice that seemed to stroke over his skin and take hold of something inside him, he didn’t turn immediately. He directed his attention to the horse, gripping the lead rein and stepping in close.

‘Sebastián,’ Alice said again. ‘I need to talk to you. It’s important.’

Of course it would be important. She hadn’t flown all the way from New Zealand to arrive unannounced at the Castellano hacienda for nothing, and he suspected he knew the reason she was here. Diego. There wouldn’t be anything else that would bring her halfway around the world to his doorstep.

Not even you?

Before he’d met Emily, he’d had many lovers. He was experienced with women. He knew when a woman wanted him, and Alice had wanted him. He’d seen the flare in her dark eyes the moment their gazes had connected. That had made it imperative that he never let slip his own feelings and, so far, he never had.

So no, she wouldn’t be here for him, but even if she were, he wouldn’t do anything about it. The fact that their spouses had been cheating with each other only made his own determination not to even stronger.

‘As I told Tomas, I’m busy,’ he said curtly. ‘Go into the hacienda. Lucia will give you coffee. I’ll be another half-hour.’ Without waiting for a response, he gripped Halcón’s mane and pulled himself up onto the stallion’s back with the casual ease of long practice.

Halcón shifted beneath him, dancing sideways as Sebastián’s weight settled.

You know why she’s here and yet you think the horse is more important?

Oh, the horse was important. New blood for the stables that were descended from the warhorses of old, that the ancient dukes had once ridden into battle on. But nothing was more important than Diego. His son. And he was Sebastián’s son, no matter what the DNA tests said. He’d been with Emily when she’d given birth and he’d been the first to hold him. The first to look down into his face, and he’d felt the same shift then that he’d felt when he’d met Alice, as if nothing would ever be the same again.

He hadn’t thought Alice would know the secret of Diego’s parentage, but somehow she’d found out, and while her visit wasn’t entirely unexpected, it definitely wasn’t welcome. He needed time. Time to decide what he was going to do about it, about her, and he was going to do something. Nobody was taking Diego from him. Nobody.

Sebastián controlled the stallion effortlessly with his knees and laid a hand on the side of the animal’s neck. Halcón settled, but Sebastián could still feel the tension in the horse’s massive body. A spirited beast, which was good. He liked it when a horse had fire. Not so he could break it—to break an animal’s spirit was a tragedy—but to channel it, enhance it.

‘I don’t want coffee,’ Alice said. ‘I need to talk to you. Now.’

There was a note of cool authority in her voice, very different from the warmth that had once infused every word. He’d noticed that the warmth had vanished not long after she’d set up her investment company, the same time he’d noticed that the passionate spark that had drawn him so intensely the day they’d met had died. He hadn’t wanted to notice, of course, but he had all the same. Some inner light in her had been extinguished and she’d become cool and hard all over, like a field of golden sunflowers slowly being covered with ice.

He didn’t know what had happened and he hadn’t asked. He never spoke of her with Emily and Emily had learned by then never to bring up the subject of her sister.

Grief and regret twisted in his heart at the thought of his wife, as it had been doing since she’d died, but he thrust away both emotions. He’d failed Emily and he knew it, but he would not fail Diego. Not ever.

Ignoring Alice, he urged the horse into a trot around the corral, assessing its pace. Eventually she would get tired of waiting and do what he’d said. After all, it was hot out here and she must be jet-lagged.

Except she didn’t leave.

She stood outside the corral and leaned over the fence posts, watching him. Making it very obvious that she wasn’t going to move.

Emily had never come to the stables. She’d been afraid of the horses, which should have been a red flag, but he’d refused to see it. She had been petite and delicate, and even though she’d acted more fragile than she actually was, he’d enjoyed being cast in the role of her protector. That was what he’d been born for, to protect, like the dukes of old.

But Alice had never been afraid of the horses. Every time she and Edward had visited, she’d come to the stables at some point and watch his stable hands. It had been distracting. Eventually he’d had to tell her, curtly, that the stables were out of bounds to visitors.

It seemed she hadn’t remembered that fact.

‘I can stand here all day,’ Alice said as he trotted past her for the second time. ‘You can’t just ignore me, Sebastián.’

Of course he could. He could do anything he wanted. He was a duke. Still, he was simply being petty now and, more than that, trying to put off the inevitable moment when he’d have to stop and look into her dark eyes. Feel that same kick of desire deep inside him, the same tug of recognition. Knowing that this time there was nothing to stop him from taking what he wanted. What they both wanted...

But that was impossible. Edward and Emily might be gone, he might be a widower and Alice a widow, but there was too much between them now. Too many promises he’d made that he couldn’t put aside for the sake of mere sex.

Avoiding her was cowardice and he was nota coward.

After the second circuit, he finally drew Halcón up in front of her. He didn’t dismount, instead looking down at her where she stood just outside the corral fence, dressed in a rumpled black suit and fitted white shirt. Her wealth of glossy black hair had been contained in a severe ponytail, not a wisp out of place, and it left her face looking naked. There were dark circles under her eyes, new lines of grief around her mouth.

He couldn’t forget that while he’d lost his wife, Edward had meant nothing to him. Yet Alice had lost, not only her husband, but also her sister.

Except that made no difference to the punch of emotion that hit him the moment her gaze met his, the restless, aching want that pulled at him.

There were reasons he didn’t speak to her. Reasons he tried never to be in the same room as her, and he’d thought he’d managed to kill the want over the years, but it had never got any easier.

It wasn’t easy now, yet he managed to force away the familiar surge of need, steeling himself to meet her level gaze.

Despite her obvious weariness, she didn’t seem to have any problems with looking at him, so perhaps she didn’t feel it any more. He hoped so. It would make this a lot less complicated.

‘I didn’t think half an hour was too much to ask,’ he said coolly. ‘You’d be more comfortable inside.’

‘Probably.’ There was a determined cast to her chin now and she lifted it, as if he’d challenged her. ‘But this can’t wait.’

Halcón shifted again, as if picking up on his disquiet, but he put his hand on the horse’s neck once more and the stallion settled. He stared at Alice, recognising abruptly something he hadn’t seen in her in far too long—a spark.

It was bright, burning and fierce. But, as he already knew, it wasn’t for him.

‘You’re here for Diego.’ He didn’t make it a question and there wasn’t much point pussyfooting around the subject.

Her eyes widened, a ripple of surprise crossing her face. ‘How did you—?’

‘There’s no other reason for you to be here, Alice.’

Slowly, she pushed herself away from the corral fence and straightened, the expression on her face almost imperious. ‘No,’ she said. ‘No, you’re right. There is no other reason for me to be here.’

He could feel the layers to that statement, but it wasn’t worth trying to read deeper into what she was saying. He wouldn’t be doing anything about it now, that was for certain, and he wasn’t interested in doing so anyway.

‘So what?’ he demanded. ‘What about Diego?’

Her dark eyes met his head-on. ‘Emily’s lawyers sent me a letter. He’s not your son, Sebastián. She wanted me to look after him. So that’s why I’m here. I’m here to take him home.’