Chapter 2 #2
He didn’t let himself dwell on the sweetness he felt toward her. It was unlike anything he’d felt for any woman. With Elvira, he felt passion and jealousy. And he doted on his sisters, but this affection—and passion—that he felt for Kara seemed so different.
He had no idea what it meant. He’d used her as a weapon in his private war with Elvira. To show the other woman that she no longer had the power to make him insanely jealous. Which had led to this current insanity.
“Gui?”
“Hmm?”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
She shrugged. “Never mind. Are we going to talk here?”
“No. But we aren’t moving until you acknowledge that you are an attractive woman.”
Kara had never had any man watch her the way Gui did, as if he were starving and she was the only thing that looked good.
A part of her—okay, all of her—wanted to believe him when he said she was beautiful.
But the only man to ever really make her believe he thought she was more than a big girl was her father.
And that was because she felt confident that he loved her.
Now she was standing in an open and public place and this very attractive man was leaning over her, wanting her to accept…that she was more than she knew she was.
She could lie and say whatever he wanted—but she would never do that.
“I can’t say something I don’t believe,” she said at last, knowing that much about herself.
Usually she had no trouble dismissing men’s insincere flattery.
But with Gui…what would be the reason to lie to her?
He didn’t need her fortune or her connections.
From the rumors she’d heard about him, his fortune far exceeded her own.
And he was the brother-in-law of the Enfanta—his older brother was married to the royal princess of Spain.
“Why don’t you believe me?” he asked, stroking a finger down the side of her face.
She shrugged. Surely he didn’t want her to point out in detail every thing that was wrong with her. She’d probably start crying, and she’d already cried once in front of him.
“Suffice it to say, I’m into truth in a big way.”
“Maybe it’s because I am not American, but I do not understand your meaning.”
She wasn’t going to explain. She did have some pride, and telling this man about the insecurities she’d always carried with her wasn’t something she wanted to do.
Figuring out this engagement problem was something else. Rina wasn’t going to settle for evasions or half-truths. And Kara couldn’t lie to Rina anyway.
“Guillermo?”
“Yes, querida?”
She still didn’t like hearing that endearment from him. It was one he used without thought. And true, they barely knew each other, but she didn’t want to be one of a crowd to him.
Oh no, she was already falling for him.
“You are frowning. Have I said something to offend you?”
She tried to move away from him but he had positioned his body in such a way that she was trapped. Caught between him and the wall, but to a larger extent caught between who she’d always been and who she wished she could be.
That was the real danger. Gui made her feel that she wasn’t the overweight heiress she’d always been. Instead, she felt like a woman. A feminine and attractive woman, wanted by a very sexy man.
“Tell me.”
She became flustered and unsure of what to say to him. She really didn’t want to be one of the faceless masses of women who flocked around him, but at the same time, she was leery of saying the wrong thing and driving him away.
Oh, man. She had it bad. A little masculine attention, and she was turning into one of those silly airheads that she and her friends usually disdained.
“Kara, I’m waiting.”
God, he was arrogant and bossy. She wanted to pretend it bothered her, but a part of her liked the way he demanded things from her.
Demanded that she tell him what she felt as if he really cared about what was going on inside her head.
Even his caresses felt like demands, and not in a bad way at all.
“As I said before, I don’t like being called by a generic endearment. Something you call every woman.”
His eyes blazed into hers. “Then I won’t call you that anymore.”
“Count de Cuaron, I’d like a word with you.”
Gui stiffened and Kara looked over his shoulder to see a man of Spanish descent coming toward them. Gui cursed under his breath and turned.
“Not now, Juan.”
“Yes, now.” Juan’s accent was much heavier than Gui’s, and Kara could almost feel the animosity coming off of him in waves.
Gui blocked her body with his own. He said something in Spanish in a very low voice. She couldn’t make out all the words, but she did hear the name Elvira. All the good feelings she’d had in his arms evaporated.
She’d never really paid much attention to the European social set apart from whatever affected Rina. But now she wished she had. Because it was clear that whatever was between Gui and Elvira hadn’t sprung up yesterday but had been lingering for a long time.
Juan, whoever he was, was clearly in the middle between Gui and the other woman.
She could handle the humiliation of telling her sister she wasn’t really engaged to Gui. But she couldn’t handle being used. And it was clear to her that, whatever was going on with Gui, he’d had entirely selfish reasons for making that ridiculous comment about them being engaged.
No matter what she looked like or what she’d always believed about herself, Kara had always had one thing that was hers and hers alone. And that was confidence that she deserved better than to be used either for her money or her station, or, in this case, because she was convenient.
While his attention was on the other man, she ducked under Gui’s arm and started to walk away.