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Again, she nodded, her expression thoughtful. ‘I have an investment company, you know that. I don’t want to give it up.’
‘I would never ask you to. Could you work remotely?’
‘Yes, I think I could do something like that.’ She paused. ‘What about the rest?’
He didn’t need to ask what she was talking about. ‘You’ll live with me at the hacienda. You can have your own room if you want the space and you can live your own life however you choose. But at night you will sleep with me, yes? I won’t have a sexless marriage, Alice. And I will be the only man you sleep with.’
This time a flicker of her temper glinted in her eyes. ‘You say that like I’m immediately going to go out and sleep with lots of men.’
And he could feel it growing inside him, a certain electric excitement at the thought of having her. Of finally having her. In his bed, in his house, in his life. Of having her whenever he wanted her, no need to hide, no need to control himself either. Sure, it was about sex, but he’d also appreciate getting to know her a bit more in a way he hadn’t been able to before. She was such a passionate spirit. He couldn’t wait to match wits with her. And anyway, shouldn’t he know the woman who would be Diego’s mother and his wife?
Are you sure that’s a good idea? This has the potential to become something more if you’re not careful.
No, it wouldn’t. Because he was careful. He’d always kept his heart guarded and that wouldn’t change just because she was in his bed.
‘You’d better not,’ he murmured, unable to resist teasing her. ‘I could get quite unhappy if you did.’
Some of the anger in her eyes eased as she caught his tone, the tension around her mouth relaxing. ‘Seriously, though. Have you really thought this through? What if we get to the point where we’re not attracted to each other any more?’
He squeezed her a little, making her gasp and shiver. ‘It’s lasted for five years so far. I can’t see it getting less any time soon.’
She slipped her hands into his open shirt, sliding her fingers over the bare skin of his chest. ‘Perhaps it won’t be as exciting if we no longer have to worry about other people.’
He knew what she was doing. She was trying to find excuses, voicing her fears. ‘What are you worried about?’ he asked. ‘That I’ll stop wanting you?’
Her stroking fingers paused, her gaze flickering away. ‘It happens.’
It did and it had happened to both of them.
‘This is about Edward, isn’t it?’ he asked.
She shifted restlessly, her hands dropping from his chest, but he caught them before they did, pressing her palms to his skin and holding them there.
‘Tell me,’ he said, because he was tired of not knowing, tired of her being such a mystery to him when all he wanted to know was more. ‘Remember, it happened to me also.’
She sighed. ‘Yes, it’s Edward. After I lost the baby he...withdrew from me. And we...we didn’t...’ She stopped, a thread of pain in her voice. ‘He didn’t want me any more.’
Gently, Sebastián reached for a lock of her silky black hair and tucked it behind her ear. ‘I can’t tell you what was missing for Edward, but I can tell you that the fault wasn’t with you. I have wanted you for five years, Alice. And like I said, I don’t see that changing any time soon.’
Colour bloomed in her pretty olive skin, deepening the post-orgasmic flush already there, and he watched it, mesmerised. ‘They were childhood sweethearts,’ she said softly. ‘He and Emily. We were all friends at school and I was in love with him for years as a teenager. I never thought he’d choose me. But for some reason, after high school he did, and I was so...happy. Except... I suppose I was always his second choice. He never fully moved on from her, did he?’
Sebastián had been aware of Emily and Edward’s history, but he’d never suspected that Emily still had feelings for Edward. It was only after the accident that he’d realised.
‘Did you love him?’ he asked, unable to stop the flicker of a jealousy he shouldn’t be feeling, not when he wasn’t in love with Alice, and Edward was dead and gone.
‘I thought I did,’ she said. ‘He didn’t love me, though, that was clear.’
That had hurt her deeply, he could see it in her eyes, and of course it must.
‘He was an idiot,’ Sebastián said bluntly, because she had to know that was the case. ‘And if he didn’t see or appreciate what he had in you then he didn’t deserve you, either.’
‘He was always very respectful, very gentle. He was nice to me, so I don’t—’
‘Nice?’ he demanded, oddly angry for reasons he couldn’t have explained. ‘If he wasn’t at your feet worshipping you or spending all night feasting on your body because he couldn’t get enough, then he was a fool. If the best you can say about him is that he was nice to you, then your marriage was doomed from the start.’
Alice’s eyes widened, shock flickering in them, before that gave way to the familiar glitter of sparks. Her mouth opened, but he found himself saying, before she could, ‘Don’t defend him. If all he could give you was half-hearted caring and gentleness and niceness, then he shouldn’t have married you. I have no respect for a man who squandered what he had.’
Says the man who did the same with his own wife.
