Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
There is something to be said for a woman who forms an opinion of a ruthless bastard, promises herself she’ll keep it strictly business, and then breaks her own rule.
I still didn’t know whether allowing this day alone with Titus to happen was a good thing or a terrible one, because it went against everything I told myself after my ex—who ran in circles with men exactly like Titus—screwed me over.
But just like the other night, Titus had once again proven my internal comparisons between him and my ex wrong.
My ex would never willingly eat at a casual restaurant, and he sure as hell wouldn’t dress down just to spend the day with me on a public beach—not even when we first started dating, and he was doing everything in his power to win me over.
So, experiencing a man like Titus, who was a lifetime wealthier than my ex, doing it? Honestly, it was beyond me. Not only that, but the man even helped his chefs make our lunch… or should I say the chefs helped him.
I didn’t even believe men like that existed, let alone a man like Titus Hawk willingly stepping outside everything he was accustomed to just to spend the day at the beach with me.
It certainly wasn’t an unrealistic expectation for a man to put effort and thoughtfulness into making an impression, but for men who ran in Titus’s circles, it wasn’t just a rarity…
in my experience, that shit was unheard of.
And that was exactly why I finally let my guard down and decided to enjoy the day with him instead of staying guarded and making it a difficult date.
“I must know how you do it, Catalina,” he said.
I glanced up, loving the way my name rolled off his tongue in his sexy Spanish accent.
Yep. This is how women ruined their lives.
To make matters even more distracting, somewhere between digging through the ice chest for bottled water and casually stealing chips off my plate, Titus had removed the shirt that had concealed a body I was entirely unprepared for.
Holy hell.
The man looked less like a billionaire luxury hotel owner and more like someone women invented after too much cheap wine and loneliness.
Broad shoulders. Golden skin. Defined abs disappearing beneath low-rise boardshorts.
God help me.
Dangerous. That was the only word for him now. Not because of his wealth and power, but because Titus Hawk looked like the kind of man capable of ruining a woman’s entire life while calmly asking if she wanted another bottle of water.
I swear to God, only in Spain were gods like these created.
“You still with me?” he said, his youthful expression one I could easily fall in love with.
“Mm,” I said, pretending to drink my water and not drool. “How do I do what?” I said, reaching for a grape.
“Perform on such a grand scale for elites who insist it will never be good enough?”
I shrugged, looking out at the water. “Who knows?” I looked back at him. “How do you do it? Run empires and all, and go to the beach like it’s any other day?”
He smiled at me and adjusted his Ray Bans.
“The running empires thing is most likely just inherited from my father,” he chuckled.
“The whole beach thing is taking more effort to make it seem as if it’s any other day.
” He tossed his empty sandwich bag back into the cooler.
“But I believe I was the one asking the questions.”
“Right,” I answered. “I honestly don’t know.
My mother was a perfectionist. Nothing was out of place in her kitchen, and no plate left her sight without some elaborate design.
I watched her and the rest of the family’s staff constantly solve endless problems, each time coming up with the quickest, cleverest solutions while keeping to impossibly high standards.
Then there were many events,” I smirked at him, knowing he would understand this part intimately.
“I overheard negotiations and watched how elites behaved, and I quickly learned to anticipate the needs of the ultra-wealthy before they became requests. I guess I just understood luxury without ever belonging to it.”
“And it makes a lot more sense now why you are the way you are and why you are highly sought after as well,” he replied. “If you don’t mind me asking, who was the family she worked for?”
“My mother, Isabella, worked for the Valdéz family outside Madrid.”
For several seconds, Titus said absolutely nothing. Then I watched as he dragged one hand across the back of his neck and looked out toward the water like he was piecing something together in his head.
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered under his breath.
“Do you know them?” I asked, initially surprised, before remembering that if there was a powerful family in any neighborhood, all the others knew about them. “Well, of course you probably do.”
He looked back at me. “Catalina, the Valdéz family isn’t just some wealthy family in Spain.”
I frowned slightly. “I mean… I know they’re wealthy.”
His laugh was low, almost disbelieving. “Wealthy?” He shook his head. “The Valdéz family owned parts of European luxury hospitality before most people even grasped what that market would become.”
“Really?”
“Yes, the Valdéz family built power differently from families like mine,” he explained calmly. “Old European money. Political connections. Quiet influence.” His eyes held mine. “The kind of people who could destroy business deals at dinner parties without ever raising their voices.”
Holy shit.
I blinked. “You know them personally?”
A slow smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. “My father hated them.”
“Hated?” I repeated.
“Without a doubt,” Titus chuckled softly. “My father, Herbert Hawk, spent years trying to expand Hawk Enterprise across parts of Spain and Southern Europe. The Valdéz family blocked several acquisitions.”
I stared at him. “Oh damn.”
“They embarrassed him publicly once,” he continued. “It cost him an expansion deal he’d spent years building.” His smile deepened. “I don’t think he ever emotionally recovered from it.”
I laughed before I could stop myself.
“You find this amusing?” he asked with an amused expression.
“A little,” I admitted.
“Trust me, my father didn’t.”
I looked back out toward the ocean, suddenly seeing pieces of my childhood in a different light.
The massive estates and the endless private dinners. The politicians and businessmen constantly surrounding the family. I’d grown up around that and never fully grasped the level of power attached to it.
“That’s insane,” I said quietly.
“No,” Titus answered calmly beside me. “What’s insane is that the daughter of the woman who worked for the Valdéz family somehow ended up completely unimpressed by me.”
I looked up at him just as the wind pushed through his dark hair.
“Well, if it helps,” I said with a smile, “I am impressed by this side of you.”
He grinned. “That is good to know,” he answered. “How interesting. You and I grew up in the same world, around the same people, and somehow—”
“Never met?” I laughed. “I’m sure we did. You were probably some spoiled brat running through the villa because the nanny wanted you to take a nap.”
He chuckled as if I’d just called out a truth. “No,” he answered. “My father never allowed us boys to attend those events until we were in college, so we likely never met. I was referring to the fact that we grew up nearly the same way but turned out to be wildly different people.”
“That’s the damn truth,” I said, trying to keep the mood light and genuinely liking this side of the man. “So, I have a question for you.”
He looked over at me. “Anything.”
“Okay,” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re a man who appears to have it all and who lives a truly fortunate life.”
“Yes. However, it didn’t stem from a lack of effort or from showy material things…” His voice seemed softer and smoother now.
“So in all of that, for the man who has it all,” I said in a silly, dramatic way that made him chuckle quietly.
“I wouldn’t say I have it all,” he tried to playfully say back, “but I do have everything that money can buy.”
“And having all that,” I acknowledged, “what makes you truly happy?”
He stopped for a moment, relaxed further back in his chair, and looked out at the waves rolling in as if they held his answer.
“Happiness is an interesting emotion,” he said. “Before my father decided my brothers and I could no longer spend our summers in the south of Spain with my mother’s family, I think those were the days when I truly felt happy.”
“How old were you?” I paused when he glanced back at me, and I couldn’t tell what the hell he was thinking. “When you weren’t allowed to go anymore?”
“Sixteen. My brothers were fourteen and twelve.” He glanced back out to the ocean. “One day, we’re playing in the surf, and the next thing we knew, our lives revolved around schooling, meetings, investor dinners, image, discipline, and structure.”
“So, the last time you were happy was when you were a teenager?” I said in absolute shock.
“No,” he smiled at me in a lazy, sexy way. “It was a few nights ago when a woman who once hated my presence took me to a fish shack,” he chuckled. “And then, of course, wanted to spend the day casually with me.”
I couldn’t help but feel awful that it seemed his life had been nothing but business and domination since he was sixteen. Shit. He was learning ledgers while I was just hoping I would pass my driver’s license test.
“I’ve silenced you with my pathetic life,” he chuckled.
“I wouldn’t call it pathetic,” I answered. “I do feel sad for you, though.”
“What is the saying? Never feel sorry for a man who owns a plane?” he said with a laugh. “Don’t waste your time pitying men like me, preciosa. By the time we feel lonely, we’ve already become dangerous enough to survive it.”
“You say things like that so confidently that it makes me wonder how long you believed them,” I said, arching my eyebrow at him.
“Am I wrong? Do you pity us upper elites who find joy in the less emotional things in life?”