Page 11 of Her Spanish Scandal

“A man who has to resort to this type of action to keep a woman by his side isn’t much of a man.”

He pulled her off balance and into his arms, dropping her wrist as his mouth came down on hers, a hard slash that established his dominance over her.

Immediately he lessened the intensity of the kiss, wanting to show her that he didn’t need to use force to keep a woman by his side. As soon as he did she softened against him. Her arms went around his waist and she tipped her head to the side, giving him greater access to her mouth.

She sighed when he pulled back and Gui looked down at her. She was different from any other woman he’d kissed. As all women essentially were, but this time with Kara—she was really different. Her tongue moistened her lips. She opened her eyes, her gaze meeting his, and he forgot that he’d been proving a point. All he wanted to do was taste her again. Tease them both into forgetting that they were essentially strangers.

He lowered his head and touched the tip of her tongue with his. She drew his lower lip between her tongue and teeth and suckled on him.

He groaned deep in his throat. She clung to him, and he felt the passion rising in her body. He tamped down on his own urges, reaching deep to control the need to savage her mouth and then take her against the wall.

“Gui?” she asked, her voice low and dreamy.

“Hmm?” How easily he could claim this woman as his. There was a vulnerability in her eyes that he could exploit, and with another woman he might not hesitate to do it, to use her in his private war with Elvira. Although that’s what he’d done earlier, when he’d announced their engagement, now his intentions were changing.

He saw beyond a pawn in the game that had gone on too long to the woman here in his arms. A woman that he knew he didn’t want to hurt. He rubbed his thumb over her full lower lip, tracing it lightly until she shivered delicately in his arms and smiled at him.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

And it was there in her eyes and in her voice. That vulnerability that made him want to tell her to protect herself. To never allow him or any other man to see how easily her barriers could be swept aside. But saying that would—what?

Would it be crueler to pretend to be a gentleman as he usually did or to just show her the bastard he really was? Because despite his royal pedigree and his much lauded charm, he was at heart a man who lived for his own pleasure.

“Proving that I don’t have to use brute force to keep you by my side.”

“Oh, was that what you were doing?” she asked, a smile flirting around her lips.

“Mmm hmm. What did you think it was?”

“I thought it was an act to distract Juan.”

He inhaled sharply. “I’m not following.”

“Yes, you are,” she said, neatly stepping away from him. “You just didn’t think that I’d figure out what this attention of yours was all about.”

“It’s about attraction, of course. You are muy hermoso.”

She tipped her head to the side. “But that’s not why you danced with me earlier or kissed me now.”

He didn’t like that she thought she knew what made him tick. “Why do you believe I did those things?”

“To make another woman jealous.”

He started to speak but she shook her head.

“I’m not sure I want to be used, especially when you are not being up front about it.”

“I apologize.”

“You helped me out earlier. I suppose it’s the least I can do for you now.”

“What is?”

“Well, making that woman jealous…though to be honest, you probably should have picked someone more on par with her. She really is a world-class beauty.”

Kara knew she’d been right about why Gui had come on to her. Despite the fact that the man could make her forget her name when he kissed her, she was determined not to be stupid where he was concerned.

“Kara.” He said her name in that smooth Spanish accent of his and she wanted to pretend that whatever he said was the truth. But men like Guillermo de Cuaron didn’t fall instantly for women like her.