Her throat ached with denials. But what was the point? Though her mother couldn’t say definitively whether or not she’d told Rebecca’s father about the aborted affair, it was still Jackson Layton’s threat to take his business elsewhere that cost Alejandro the deal he’d worked hard to procure. Like it or not, the Laytons were responsible.
But she could defend her motives without hesitation. “You haven’t proven anything to me, Alejandro. My only plan when I came to the Villa de Música was to see the restoration. I didn’t plan to meet you, and I certainly didn’t plan to fall in love with you. It would have been so much easier if I’d never met you.”
Five long years and she’d never really succeeded in forgetting him. Before he’d summoned her to Madrid, she could still blissfully deceive herself that the years had done their work. But she hadn’t forgotten after all, and every day she spent with him only made the memories more painful.
“Yes, it is hard to look a man in the eye before you cut him down,” he said, glancing at his watch. “I have no time for this now, but be assured I have no need to lie. It matters not whether you believe me.”
“Then why did you say it?” she asked, her throat tight. What if he was telling her the truth? What if she’d been as mistaken about his engagement as he was about her motives?
He shrugged. “Because I am tired of your self-righteousness.”
Rebecca blinked. “Self-righteous?” Who was he kidding? He was the most self-righteous man on the planet. She snatched up the folder she’d been working on. She couldn’t deal with this right now. She needed time alone, time to think. “I’m going inside now. Have a nice time.”
Alejandro caught her arm as she turned away. “You’re coming with me.”
“What? Where?” she stammered. He was wearing a tuxedo, not a casual pair of trousers and a shirt. Wherever he was going, she couldn’t show up in a tank top and wispy skirt. “I have work to do. I can’t go with you.”
“This is not a request, Rebecca. You will come. Now.”
“I don’t have anything suitable to wear,” she said, thrusting her chin up and stating the obvious. Or the not so obvious if the way he looked at her was any indication.
“There is a boutique in the hotel. You will buy a dress. Now come, we are out of time.”
“But Alejandro, really—”
“Need I remind you I am the one in control here?” he ground out, slamming the door on her protest. “You have no choice, Rebecca.”
She gripped her briefcase, her knuckles whitening. She had an urge to close her eyes and count to a hundred before speaking, the way her mother used to make her do when she was upset and crying over something. It worked to calm her down when she was ten, though it also made her feel unimportant and unloved.
Ah, but you are unloved. This man does not love you. He never did. Never could and never will.
She concentrated on his cold, handsome features. Not that she wanted him to love her now. No, that desire was in the past. This man was nothing like the Alejandro she’d once loved.
But he’s still there. Inside.
She closed the door firmly on such thoughts. “Very well,” she said as coolly as she could manage given the erratic beating of her heart. “If you will allow me to drop these things in my room?”
His nod was brief. Arrogant and sure. She itched to smack him. Instead, she put her things away and returned to join him beside the limousine waiting out front. He held the door open for her, then followed her inside. A moment later, they were whisked through the darkening streets of Madrid.
“We’re going where?” Rebecca’s heart climbed into her throat, thrumming in panic. His parents’ anniversary party? But why? She closed her eyes and swallowed. Oh God. She’d never met his parents, had in fact no idea what his relationship with them was like. He’d spoken of a brother and sister, she remembered that much. His brother had died tragically only a few months before she’d met Alejandro. He’d never talked of it, and she hadn’t asked because their relationship had been so new.
But would his parents know who she was? That she was the woman he’d been sleeping with while he was engaged to someone else? How could she possibly show up at their special party tonight and hold her head up?
Alejandro glanced up from his phone, his expression showing he hadn’t missed the note of alarm threading through her voice. “The party is a grand affair, Rebecca. No one will notice another guest. Besides, I am the one paying for it.”
It was true she’d envisioned some sort of small, lavish dinner party instead of a grand affair, but the idea of several hundred people at this event did nothing to quell her uneasiness. His parents would still be there and if she were with Alejandro, she’d have to meet them. Perhaps that was his plan. “Mom, Dad, meet Rebecca Layton, the bitch who stole my deal and tried to ruin me five years ago.”
But that wasn’t the source of her deepest anxiety. No, if she were brutally honest with herself, most of her unease was brought on by the proximity of the man sitting across from her. His legs sprawled casually to either side of hers. Long lashes shadowed his eyes as he concentrated on the screen in his hands. His tanned fingers moved quickly as he typed, and she remembered how they’d moved over her body. Slowly, deliberately, with soft strokes that had driven her mad.
He’d talked of tasting her earlier. She’d thought of almost nothing else since. She’d also thought of the day she’d left him. Had it been a mistake to leave without confronting him?
Memories of long ago crashed into her
