CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER ONE
‘Before you go…’
Caitlin looked up from where she was busy trying to make sense of her desk, which looked as though a bomb had hit it. There were papers here, there and everywhere; two empty mugs, which she should have taken to the kitchen hours ago; three cute little pots with cuttings that Edith from accounts had given her; and her computer, which was demanding attention. She slammed shut the lid and looked at her boss who had sauntered out of his vast adjoining office and was now lounging indolently by her desk.
He’d caught her by surprise and her heart flipped over. The damned man always had that effect on her, even though she’d been working for him for over two years. He was pure, sinful, alpha-male perfection: six-two, dark hair, deep, dark eyes, lush lashes most women would have killed for and imperious features lovingly honed to perfection.
‘Please don’t tell me you’ve got something that needs to be done yesterday, boss.’
‘Since when do you refer to me as “boss”?’
‘Since I think that you’re about to tell me that I’ve got to do overtime because something urgent’s cropped up. I have to rescue Benji from the sitter.’
‘He’s a dog. He can wait an extra hour.’
‘Angie might have plans.’
‘Didn’t you once tell me that all her plans revolved around her doggy day-care business? Or has her social life taken off since then? I can’t wait to find out.’
Caitlin shot him a frustrated look from under her lashes and began doing something and nothing to sort out her desk because he was making her jittery, standing there and looking at her with lazy amusement.
He had no idea how much he rattled her sometimes because they worked so well together. They were at ease with one another, and so in tune that she could almost predict what jobs he was going to give her and when. Over the time they had worked together, he had given her more and more responsibility and had upped her pay accordingly in a cunning move that made it nearly impossible even to think about quitting.
Not that that thought had once crossed her mind, however much she occasionally railed against the pointless crush she had on him. A crush was a crush was a crush—manageable and, in a weird way, secretly thrilling. Plus, the work was everything she could ever have hoped for—challenging, stimulating, demanding and varied. She listened to friends drone on about how much they hated their jobs and was guiltily aware that it was impossible to join in the chorus.
‘Well.’ Caitlin gave up. ‘What is it you want me to do?’
‘Follow me into my office.’
‘Should I bring my tablet? What files do I need to access?’
‘No files,’ Javier threw over his shoulder as he strolled back into his office, leaving her to gape at him with a puzzled frown.
Her boss lived and breathed work. He played hard, and she should know, because she usually ended up making all the candle-lit, romantic dinner-for-two bookings for him, along with all the theatre and opera tickets and expensive gifts of jewellery and perfume.
But, within the walls of his office, all that mattered to him was his work. When he issued a summons, it was always because some new deal had landed on his desk and he needed her to start working on it earlier than yesterday and faster than the speed of light. So what was going on now? She didn’t know and not knowing made her uneasy.
She texted Angie about Benji and hurriedly followed him into his office, which was four times the size of hers and equipped with everything from a long, uncomfortable but very expensive sofa against one wall, to a drinks cabinet that housed any and every drink any client could possibly fancy after a long night hammering out a deal. The drinks cabinet was to ensure they were relaxed, he had once told her with a grin, and the uncomfortable sofa was to make sure they didn’t outstay their welcome.
Through the bank of glass behind his oversized desk, guests had a bird’s eye view of most of London. It was really magnificent. Caitlin never tired of looking down at the city and all the people, tiny and purposeful, scurrying through the streets. From where she had started in life, she’d reached heights she’d never thought she’d ever reach, and she always remembered never to take that for granted. This commanding view of the city from his magnificent office was a daily reminder of how far she’d come.
Right now, Javier had swung behind his desk and was waiting for her to close the door, which she did, before sitting on her usual leather chair slightly to the side. Her hands felt empty, because she was never in here without her trusty laptop or tablet.
‘Well?’ she ventured into the unnerving silence.
‘I have something to discuss with you, Caitlin, that’s of a somewhat…personal nature…’
Caitlin stilled. A rush of apprehension washed through her and suddenly she was catapulted through time, away from the happy-go-lucky, twenty-four-year-old woman and straight back to the kid in care who’d always known that discussions of a personal nature were never going to be pleasant. No family had come to adopt her. She’d had to understand that she had come late to foster care and that many people favoured a baby or toddler over an eight-year-old child. Maybe someday soon, she’d hoped, but times had been tough, and many people had found it difficult to make a conscious decision to add an extra mouth to their weekly budget.
She’d had to stop pretending to be Catarina. Her name was Caitlin—plain old Caitlin. There’d been no point getting above herself. And was it true that she’d busily concocted fairy stories about herself? Had told the younger ones that she was just going to be there for a short while because her family was abroad at the moment? She’d known she had to live in the real world .
‘What’s wrong?’
Caitlin surfaced with a jolt from her trip down memory lane, but she had whitened, and her blue eyes were huge as she stared at Javier in silence for a few seconds.
‘Nothing,’ she muttered.
‘You’re as white as a sheet. What do you think I’m going to say? Do you think I’ve brought you in here to sack you?’
‘Have you?’
‘God, Caitlin, what the hell would give you that impression?’
Caitlin lowered her eyes and clasped her hands on her lap. When she next looked up, it was to find that he had swerved round the desk and was now towering over her with a look of concern on his face. He dragged a chair across and sat down so close to her that she could breathe in whatever aftershave he was wearing.
‘I…’ She faltered. This man knew nothing about her, not really. No one could have known her better whilst knowing her less. He had no idea that she had been through the care system. Why would he? Why would the personal details of her life interest him? She was a great worker and that was the main thing.
‘You look as though you’re about to faint.’
‘I… I suppose I jumped to the wrong conclusion…’ she mumbled in a rushed undertone. ‘You know, it’s not like you to summon me into your office for anything other than work.’
When she looked into his deep, dark eyes she could see flecks of amber. Up close and personal like this, she couldn’t escape the haughty beauty of his face, the bronzed column of his neck contrasting starkly with the pristine white of his shirt. Nor could she avoid the glimpse of hair on his chest because he had undone the top two buttons of the shirt.
She averted her eyes hurriedly.
‘That’s true,’ Javier admitted. ‘But, rest assured, I have no intention of sacking you. No, I asked you in here because…a situation has arisen and I need to know how you feel about taking on…er…some additional responsibilities.’
‘I feel fine about that,’ Caitlin said promptly, relieved that her darkest fears had been dismissed, although she was curious as to why taking on ‘additional responsibilities’ required a chat in his office after work hours. Couldn’t he just have given her a list of the clients he wanted her to add to her portfolio? She would almost certainly know what to do because she’d been at ground zero with several of them when it had come to putting the basics of several deals in place.
‘Who do you want me to take over? If it requires much overtime…’
‘These particular responsibilities will undoubtedly require a fair amount of overtime.’
‘In that case, I’ll have to make arrangements for Benji, and please don’t say that he’s just a dog. He gets very upset when I’m away from him for too long.’
‘He’s just a dog.’ Javier grinned.
‘When I left him for a week four months ago to go on holiday, it took him ages before he forgave me,’ Caitlin murmured as she hived off on a tangent. ‘Tail between his legs, doleful expression, barely looking at his food…’
‘I’d never have guessed, judging from the dog I saw when you made up for lost time by bringing him into work for a fortnight. He seemed perfectly fine, making friends with every single person on the floor, and chewing his way through the Wilson Partners paperwork which you’d left on the table in my office.’
‘I could never thank you enough for allowing me to bring him in, Javier.’ She meant that as well. Javier could be a stern taskmaster but he could also be oddly thoughtful and empathetic. She thought of the way her tiny little mutt had clamped his teeth into his expensive trousers, and winced. He hadn’t uttered a word of complaint. ‘I might have to do the same if I have to work overtime here and can’t get cover for him.’
‘I re-read your CV and saw that you have some basic grasp of Spanish, as well as law and accounting courses you did before you joined me.’
Caitlin frowned at the change of topic. She thought back to her days studying Spanish, loving what she’d learnt at school, finding the language so wonderful and romantic. At the age of fourteen, she’d whiled away many a happy hour daydreaming about being a swooning, Spanish princess with trailing dark locks and soulful dark eyes—as opposed to a plump, blue-eyed blonde with ridiculously untamed hair who’d been placed into foster care because her mother had died from a drugs overdose and who didn’t have a clue where her father was, or even who he was.
She’d actually thought about going to university to study Spanish, but in the end hadn’t been able to bear the thought of not earning money for years on end. She’d done night courses in basic law and accounting. She’d dabbled in Spanish because it appealed to her whimsical heart.
‘I can speak a little,’ she told him cautiously. ‘My week in Barcelona with Jannah and Ivy was good. I thought I’d forgotten how to speak it, but I picked it up again pretty quickly. I’m not saying I’m going to be able to understand loads of technical stuff, though.’
‘You won’t have to.’
‘What client are we talking about?’
* * *
Javier raked his fingers through his hair and shot her a wary look. Accustomed to exerting control over all aspects of his life, he’d lost sleep thinking about the chain of events now awaiting him. A chain of events that had come ahead of schedule, and would be dealt with, but which would certainly change things up considerably in his life.
Strangely, he’d also lost sleep when he’d thought about asking his PA to take on duties that went beyond the call of what comprised her working duty. He appreciated her probably more than she thought, although her frequent huge pay rises should have given her a clue. She was keen, obliging and never balked at taking on extra responsibilities. The last thing he wanted was to put her in a position where she might feel uncomfortable with what would now be asked.
His lack of immediate response instantly made Caitlin suspicious. She narrowed her eyes and looked at him in silence.
‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ he eventually said, glancing at his watch. ‘The reason I called you in here is to try and explain what this job will entail before…er…Isabella arrives.’
Again, he felt that sickening lurch as plans made crystallised into shape, form and substance. It was one thing to lay the groundwork but quite another when that groundwork finally came to fruition and he then had to take action. And it made no difference that the action had been considered well in advance.
It also made no difference that this was the right and only course of action in more ways than one. He’d fancied himself in charge of the situation and yet, as he gazed briefly into Caitlin’s cornflower-blue eyes, he had the oddest temptation to let go of his control and succumb to a vulnerability he hadn’t had since he’d been a kid, wrapped up in the trauma of his mother’s premature death. He had a sudden urge to open up . Crazy. He was a guy who always relied on his head and never on emotional responses—never. He shut his mind off from memories of a time when he’d seen first hand where raw emotional responses could get a person. He refocused.
‘Isabella? What’s her surname? I don’t remember any Isabellas on your client list.’
‘“Client” might not be quite the word I would use to describe her.’
‘Javier, this is driving me crazy. What are you trying to say?’
‘Isabella is going to be my wife, Caitlin, and your job will be to show her the ropes here in London, because this will be where we will be living.’
* * *
Caitlin’s mouth dropped open and she stared at her boss with huge, incredulous eyes. Since when was he engaged to be married? The whereabouts of his last girlfriend might not be known, but what was known was the fact that her departure from the scene had only happened a little over a month ago! How fast a worker was he?
‘You’re getting married ?’
‘I understand that you might be a little surprised…’
‘It’s none of my business how you conduct your private life, Javier, but your last girlfriend—I forget her name—was around only a matter of weeks ago! An engagement now does seem a little hasty. Unless…’
‘Unless?’
‘Unless,’ Caitlin said quietly, as her heart constricted and her stupid girlish fantasies about her boss began to dissipate like mist on a summer day, ‘you were in love with Sylvie and have now decided to rush headlong into a committed relationship in an attempt to recover from a broken heart.’
‘I would stay away from trying to analyse my personal life, Caitlin,’ Javier said gently. ‘But, just for the record, I was far from being in love with Sylvie. Also, I thought you couldn’t remember her name?’
‘It came back to me.’
* * *
Their eyes met and Javier held her stare for a few seconds as he tried to organise his thoughts into something that would make sense to her before Isabella arrived, which she would do in roughly half an hour. He could see her utter bewilderment and was surprised at how much it affected him. He’d become used to her easy-going predictability. Was she shocked, disappointed?
He realised he wanted to see neither of those on her face. Caitlin was by far and away the best PA he had ever had, and that included his previous one—a tough-as-nails battle-axe who had inconsiderately decided to emigrate to Seattle to be closer to her grandchildren. She was attuned to him in ways that he occasionally still found a little startling. Not only was she highly competent at what she did, but she was intuitive. She could pick up the nuances of what people said, and arrive at conclusions about what they thought, which was very handy when it came to reading the direction of many deals that hung in the balance.
Javier lived life in the fast lane and having Caitlin by his side was a blessing he had become accustomed to over the months and years. Not only did he manage his family’s vast business concerns, but he also ran his own highly successful hedge fund, and a specialised acquisitions team that sourced promising tech startups and bought them. It paid to have someone who worked to his incredibly high standards and was always willing to put in overtime.
The fact that she was sunny-natured, that she countered his ferocious drive with humour and that she could tease the stress out of him were benefits he was often barely aware of her bringing to the table. Was that why her questioning, puzzled gaze twisted something inside him?
For all that she knew about the superficial aspects of his private life, they kept their respective distance when it came to anything really personal. He knew when she went on holiday, and the broad strokes of what she did at the weekend, but he didn’t know what she thought about anything that wasn’t to do with work. She’d never mentioned a boyfriend, so he assumed that there wasn’t one on the scene, but had there been? Was she looking for love or just interested in furthering her career? Was she even into guys?
She knew who he dated, and when he broke up, but nothing about what he felt about any of those women he dated and broke up with. She certainly would have been caught on the back foot at the revelation that had just been tossed at her. He belatedly thought about what she had said, about his last girlfriend and the fiancée he had now pulled out of the hat.
‘This isn’t a rebound situation,’ he said with discomfort at the intensely personal suggestion coming from someone who had never commented on his life before. ‘I’ve known Isabella since I was a kid. Our families go back a very, very long way, and for some time now it’s been a given that we would marry and join our families’ two powerful Spanish houses. It works for both of us.’
‘She’s a childhood sweetheart?’
‘I wouldn’t exactly put it that way,’ Javier admitted. ‘At the risk of destroying whatever romantic notions you may have of love and fairy-tale endings, our marriage will primarily be a business deal, and a highly successful one at that. Her family run a prestigious string of international hotels which will slot in nicely with the leisure side of my family’s business interests. There are benefits for Isabella, marrying me, and for me there are likewise advantages.’ He paused, on the cusp of saying more, but then retreated from the temptation.
That speculative remark about rushing headlong into a committed relationship in an attempt to recover from a broken heart… For the first time, Javier wondered about the deeper places in his PA that he had never glimpsed. Was she into love and marriage? Was there a boyfriend in the background, someone she’d never mentioned? Maybe there was a string of boyfriends. Maybe his PA was a dutiful employee by day and a pole dancer by night.
Dark eyes rested on her for a few seconds, taking in the unruly vanilla-blonde hair, curly, fly-away and currently restrained by a large glittery butterfly clip that wasn’t doing the job it was paid to do because escaping tendrils of fair hair framed her heart-shaped face. Her wide, blue eyes somehow managed to look smart and oddly innocent at the same time. She might not be head-turning glamorous, but there was something about her that got under the skin. Was it the fact that she looked as though she was always ready to smile, to laugh, to tease? The impression that there was a whole lot more there than met the eye?
He knew there was. He knew how sharp she was, how expert at reading situations and how fast her brain worked when it came to solving problems. The fact that she revealed little about herself, that she ran deeper than she chose to put on the table, said a lot.
He went for leggy brunettes who were as transparent as glass: soothing after-work enjoyment, women who didn’t challenge him intellectually and who knew from the get-go that he wasn’t in it for the long haul.
He lowered his eyes and dismissed suddenly intrusive thoughts about the woman staring at him in silence, the woman with thoughts he wanted to know and who was distracting him from the reason she was in his office in the first place.
He picked up the thread of the conversation. ‘Like I said, Isabella speaks reasonable English, but she would benefit from your help in showing her around London in preparation for our wedding. Taking her to various shops…showing her how life works in the city… The fact that you speak Spanish will help matters.’
‘You want me to be a tour guide?’
‘In a manner of speaking. Arrangements for our marriage have been a little more rushed than might have been expected, so you may also have to pick up the slack on that front as well.’
‘Pick up the slack on that front?’
‘I’ve compiled a guest list—close friends and family. At a later date, something bigger will be held in Madrid for business associates in both companies, and all our relatives over there, but for the moment I expect the event to be attended by no more than fifty people.’
‘When is all this supposed to happen?’ Caitlin asked faintly.
‘In a month.’
‘A month? That’s impossible.’
‘There’s no such thing as impossible, not when money is no object.’
‘Any halfway decent venue might disagree with you on that, Javier. Nice places get booked up sometimes years in advance. Can I ask what the big rush is?’
Javier hesitated, but of course she would be curious, and she had every right to be.
Isabella… That was a story with so many twists and complications, and he knew that he would have to avoid touching upon most of them. Beautiful Isabella, his close friend from childhood, and the secret she carried about her sexuality. He was the only person who knew that she was gay. She’d always been too scared to confide in anyone, despite his encouragement over the years. She was an only child from a deeply traditional family and, like him, she had lost her mother when she’d been young. How could she ever confide her secret to her father? So she’d kept it to herself. And he was free, single and disengaged, playing the field but knowing that he would have to settle down before his thirty-fifth birthday.
An eccentric clause in the family inheritance would only release two beautiful vineyards into his safekeeping if he married as stipulated. Javier wanted those vineyards. He could remember playing there as a child, when his mother had still been alive. He could remember the sound of her laughter and the look in her eyes as she’d stooped and held a fat grape in her hand and told him how it became wine. He longed for those vineyards for the memories far more than for their potential for huge profit.
Years ago, he and Isabella had shaken hands on their marriage of convenience. He would get his wife and she would get the useful cover she felt she needed. They liked each other. What could go wrong? Those were details he would keep to himself. In truth, Isabella’s story was not his to share.
Now the time had come, for reasons neither of them had expected, and he needed his PA to fulfil duties way out of her orbit. Isabella was an only child, without a mother figure to navigate this rushed marriage with her. She needed to be here, because this was where she would be living; and, whilst her English was perfectly passable, she needed someone to metaphorically hold her hand while she was in London, at least for a few weeks, until she found her feet. He didn’t have the time to devote to hand-holding and he couldn’t think of a single woman he knew who could do the job without being a liability in the process.
‘Isabella’s father has had a major health scare,’ he began heavily, and this was certainly the one thing he could tell her. ‘Problems with his heart. He’s not out of the woods yet. Isabella has been called in to take charge of the entire show in his absence, to make decisions she isn’t yet entirely confident making. She’s an only child, and of course there are people to guide and advise, but the buck stops with her. Even though she’s been geared to head the company, she’s not quite there with the experience.
‘Aside from that…and whatever her credentials…the business world can sometimes be an unfairly chauvinistic place, and as it stands shareholders are beginning to get the jitters at the thought that things might not be as under control as they would like. At the moment, the word is out that Alfonso is making hearty progress, but alas, that is far from the case, and it’ll just be a matter of time before the market responds to the uncertainty and the share prices plummet.’
‘Which is where you come in,’ Caitlin murmured.
Javier looked at her with appreciation, seeing that she had grasped the situation without him having to explain further, but he did anyway.
‘Which is where I come in.’ He wondered how he hadn’t noticed before just what a good listener she was. Smart as a tack, yes… Talkative, yes… Upbeat in a way he personally found baffling, yes… But, when it came to listening, she was making it strangely easy for him to expand an explanation she hadn’t asked for, and made him feel almost regretful about the confidences he had no intention of sharing.
‘Like I said, this union between us has taken shape over a number of years. We’ve both been free to do our own thing, knowing that our destinies would eventually be entwined. It’s something…eh…something that suits us both in equal measure. Lots of reasons, but let’s just say that it’s not only because it might be desirable to merge our powerful interests.
‘The fact is that our grandfathers go way back. They were two friends who founded their own fledgling companies with the unspoken agreement that they would always be there for one another—blood brothers, so to speak. An antiquated concept in this day and age, I guess, but a powerful one back then, and that’s something that’s run true through the generations. There was an occasion decades ago when my family’s empire ran into huge problems, and Isabella’s family stuck to their word and bailed us out. Now the time has come for the favour to be repaid, hence a wedding a little earlier than either of us had predicted. We marry, and I will steady the ship until things settle into place. It’s nothing that hadn’t already been on the cards, although it’s now been accelerated.’
‘It all sounds very…sensible.’
‘Excellent description.’
‘But what about love?’
‘What about it?’
‘Don’t either of you want…believe…?’
Javier made a sweeping gesture with his hand and smiled crookedly. ‘We have an understanding. So, moving on, you’ll naturally be compensated for taking on these additional responsibilities.’
‘Wouldn’t your…er…fiancée rather you took on the job of showing her around and making sure she settles in okay and finds her feet?’
‘Of course, I’ll do the best I can, but I have three deals on the go, so my time is going to be limited, and I think she’ll quite enjoy having another woman with her. I’ll be honest, there are quite a few things on the list I can’t say I’ll be that interested in doing.’
‘Really? Such as?’
‘Shopping for wedding paraphernalia… Sorting out the venue, the food, the décor…’
‘Right…pretty much everything, if I’m reading this correctly?’
‘You’ll have to take some time off work during the day to attend to certain things, I imagine, so I’ve made sure to get Tricia Bell on standby to cover for you.’
‘As long as I have a job to return to,’ Caitlin returned lightly.
But she didn’t look away when he raised his eyebrows and said with genuine sincerity, ‘No one can replace you, Caitlin. She’ll be on loan and then routines will be re-established as soon as the wedding is out of the way.’
He tapped into his phone and pushed it across to her. ‘I have in mind financial compensation along these lines. Let me know what you think. No need to say anything now, because Isabella will be here momentarily. Go away and think about the package and then we can talk tomorrow.’
His phone buzzed, then he spoke rapidly in Spanish and vaulted to his feet.
‘Stay here.’ He looked at her as she half-rose to her feet. ‘I’m going to get Isabella to meet you.’ He smiled. ‘Don’t be apprehensive. I know this is a little out of the ordinary, but look on it as something of an unexpected break from routine. One that will be financially very rewarding for you. Isabella is a lovely woman. You’ll like her.’
* * *
Caitlin watched him vanish through the door and remained where she was in a state of numb shock.
What had just happened? Had she just hallucinated this whole bizarre episode? Her boss was getting married, as cool as a cucumber as the world order collapsed around her. Was she due to blink and wake up any time soon?
No such luck. She dialled Angie about Benji and told her to hang on to him overnight, if she could, because she wasn’t sure when she could collect him—emergency at work, blah, blah, blah…
Her mind was reeling from a series of revelations she certainly hadn’t expected. Her boss…married in a month? A fiancée she’d never known existed? A union sealed with consent from both of them over the years? Had she suddenly been transported to a parallel universe?
No. The bottom line was that she just didn’t know her boss half as well as she thought she had because she’d always assumed that he was predictable when it came to women. They came and they went. She booked restaurants and theatre tickets, and then bought elaborate bouquets of flowers when their time was up. None lasted. She’d never thought anything of it, and had happily and guiltily nurtured her secret crush on the guy who was unattainable—the player who would never settle down.
But he was settling down now, and had always planned to settle down with a woman who made sense in his life—a woman chosen from his part of the world, with the sort of wealth and power that matched his. An aristocrat of Spanish descent just like Javier.
Suddenly her innocent crush felt like a mortifying lack of judgement. What on earth had she been playing at? Had she subconsciously thought that there could be something between them, once he’d finally grown bored with his revolving door of gorgeous catwalk models?
She was twenty-four years old; it was time to grow up and get past the one disastrous relationship she had had three years ago. Time to forget the trust she had placed in a guy who had cheated on her with not just one girl, but four, and counting. He had made big promises in the hope of getting her into bed, and she had believed that he was so strong and so devoted, to have resisted the temptation to push her into sex. In fact, there had been no need for him to do anything of the sort, because he had had his needs met behind her back.
Why had he bothered to stay with her? Because he’d wanted to see what it would feel like to sleep with a virgin? Because she’d done all his coursework for him on one of the courses they’d been doing together? Because she’d been useful, adoring, convenient and happy to do all his boring chores when asked, from ironing his shirts to keeping his cat when he was on holiday with his buddies?
She’d so longed for the safety of a committed relationship after a life in care that she had pinned her hopes on a guy who had been the last thing from safe . She’d broken up with Andy and had filled the vacancy with a guy who had been safe because she could never have him: her beautiful boss. Who was about to be married.
It hurt, and she was angry with herself for hurting, and angry for not quite knowing why it hurt like it did when it was nothing but a harmless crush. Maybe it was the thought of getting back into the dating scene—a place she had never really been to, if she was honest with herself. She had lots of friends and did things in groups. Andy had been a juvenile mistake, but it had reminded her that fairy tales weren’t for people like her—girls who had taken hard knocks in their lives and had had to wake up to harsh reality when they’d still been kids. She could dream, and dream she did, but she was pragmatic enough to know the difference between dreams and real life. Real life was waiting out there for her and, in the meantime, dreams were all about her boss.
Lost in her thoughts, musing on her stupid crush and wondering whether there was some rogue gene in her that inclined her towards pointless fantasising, she was only aware of Javier returning when she heard the soft whisper of the outside door being pushed open.
She half-rose as he entered the office with his hand gently propelling a tall, elegant woman ahead of him. Caitlin’s mouth dropped open and she managed to make it to her feet with her hand outstretched, even though she was gaping. Her wildly colourful summer dress didn’t make her feel cheerful and filled with the joys of a balmy June evening. It made her feel like a cheap, tacky toy from a charity shop. She self-consciously tugged it down as the tall brunette walked towards her with a broad, friendly smile, hand reaching out to take hers.
Isabella… There wasn’t a woman on earth who could have looked better with Javier than the one standing in front of her. The models he dated were all stunning, but the woman now reaching out a hand to her was exceptional. Not only was she beautiful but her proud, finely chiselled features were stamped with that veneer of the aristocrat. She was as bronzed as Javier, her eyes as dark as his, and her hair was cropped short, framing a face that could easily withstand the severity of the cut.
Introductions were made and Caitlin heard herself mutter the usual pleasantries.
They really cared about one another. It was there in the softness in his eyes when he looked at his bride-to-be, and in the smiling trust on her face when she gazed back at him.
Caitlin felt the pang of jealousy and swallowed hard. This was who Javier de Sanchez was destined to marry: someone as stunning, as elevated socially, as Spanish as he was. The last fragments of her idiotic, escapist crush fell away and she forced a smile back at Isabella.
She was probably in her late twenties, perhaps early thirties, and Javier had been right—she was an easy woman to like. Her smile was warm and genuine, reaching her eyes. The hug she gave her now was spontaneous and generous.
‘Javier has told me much about you.’
‘All good, I hope!’ Caitlin exclaimed.
‘Of course! You speak some Spanish?’
‘I can struggle by at a push.’ She smiled as Isabella leant down and pulled her into a conspiratorial, girlish huddle.
‘Is good, because this man of mine is not interested in the shopping, and there will be a lot of that to do, I am thinking.’
Caitlin glanced at Javier and shrivelled inside just a little bit more at the warm indulgence on his face.
Isabella began listing off the various things that they could do together: finding flowers for the wedding; a venue; the food. Her brow had knitted, as though she’d been trying to think of what else could be added to the tally… She said the invitations were all in such a hurry because of…
At this point she faltered and looked to Javier for support, then relaxed when he said something very fast in Spanish, the tail-end of which Caitlin managed to grasp, which was that he’d explained about her father.
‘Will he be able to attend the…er…big day?’ she asked politely. ‘Your father?’
He wouldn’t. It was regrettable but, however, needs must. He insisted on the marriage going ahead without his attendance. There would be some relatives there holding the fort, and of course there would be a big event in due course when he was back on his feet.
In the meantime, Isabella was here to acclimatise to life in London, and would travel back to Madrid every weekend to visit her father.
Caitlin could tell that, however much Javier had told her that this was a business arrangement, a marriage of convenience, it was also a love match. She could see it in their easy familiarity and in the way they looked at one another. The thought of arranging their wedding made her insides knot and she ventured to ask whether a professional might not do a better job.
‘Out of the question,’ Javier told her as he rested his hand gently on Isabella’s back, urging her to the door with Caitlin trailing behind them. He glanced over his shoulder. ‘I want the personal touch.’
‘As do I,’ Isabella agreed, glancing back with a shy smile.
‘I trust you,’ Javier told Caitlin, pausing at the door so that both women could brush past him. ‘I know you’ll do a good job, but it’s more than that.’
He paused and Caitlin tried to stamp out the flutter of crazy, utterly inappropriate awareness that swept through her as their eyes met. With her silly crush truly dead and buried, surely there was no room for physical awareness of the guy?
‘Oh, yes?’ she just about managed.
‘Isabella knows no one in London, do you, Isabella? So we’re both hoping that you’re more than someone who’s around for a few weeks to help with the wedding. We’re both hoping that you might become…a friend.’