Alejandro stumbled to a halt as her blue eyes collided with his. Shock, fury, and lust blazed to life at once, roaring up inside him like an inferno. One word echoed through his brain. Mine.
He closed the distance between them and yanked Rebecca from his father’s lecherous fingers. He barely registered the gasps around them as she stumbled into him. He caught her around the waist, steadying her. His fingertips brushed the warm silky skin of her exposed back. Inexplicable fury coursed through him and he aimed it at the easiest target.
“Attempting to buy another hotel with your body, Rebecca?” he grated, as much to mask the force of his desire as to hurt her for making him want her like this. Without reason. Without sense.
She jerked away from him, her expression caving. “You bastard!” she whispered fiercely.
“Alejandro, you will apologize to the lady,” his father said, disapproval drawing his brows together in sharp slashes. “Your mother would be ashamed.”
Before Alejandro could speak, Rebecca turned to his father and smiled. The corners of her mouth wavered. “Thank you, Señor Ramirez, but it’s not necessary. Your son and I are old enemies, I’m afraid. We hurl words like daggers.”
“But this is no way to treat one’s guest,” Juan insisted. “My son was not raised this way, señorita. I apologize for his rudeness.”
She refused to look at him as she spoke to his father. “I’m afraid we do not like each other very much, señor. I bring out the worst in him.”
His father looked aghast. “Alejandro, how is this possible? This lady is so charming, so lovely—”
“As are all ladies to you, Father.” Maldito sea, the old reprobate was unbelievable. “I think Mother is near the bar. Since it is your anniversary, perhaps you should ask her for a dance.”
Juan looked as if he would argue, but he finally nodded. “Sí, you are correct. Dear lady.” He took Rebecca’s hand and kissed it. “I hope you will enjoy yourself at our party tonight. We shall see you at our table for the toast, yes?”
“Gracias,” Rebecca said. “I would be honored.”
The band began to play a new song as Juan walked away. Before Rebecca could escape, Alejandro pulled her into his arms. The people who’d stopped to listen began to mingle again.
“Don’t touch me,” she said. “Just let me go and I’ll leave.”
“You won’t.” He drew her in close, fitting her against his body. She felt good against him. Smelled good. He concentrated on tempering his body’s reaction to her. “The night is far from over.”
Her palms rested on his chest, but she refused to meet his eyes. Instead, she studied his shirtfront. “I get it, Alejandro. You wanted to humiliate me by bringing me. Now that you’ve succeeded, just let me go. I’ve had enough.”
He hadn’t brought her for that reason, but there was no sense denying it. She would not believe him. What could he tell her anyway? That he’d brought her with him because he’d had an impulse to do so?
“How did you end up dancing with my father?”
Her lashes lifted and he was momentarily stunned by the sheen of moisture in her eyes. Had he made her cry? He didn’t like that notion, even if he told himself it didn’t matter. That he shouldn’t care.
She blinked and looked away again. “He looks like you. I introduced myself and asked where I could find you. He said he would take me to you, but we ended up here.”
He didn’t doubt it for a moment. His father could not resist a beautiful woman.
“But of course,” she continued with a half-choked laugh, “I realized that I could implement my diabolical plan to sleep my way to another hotel. I was just about to claim my victim when you intervened. I’m sure I could have gotten several hotels out of him, assuming he owns a single one.”
Alejandro blew out a breath. For once he was wrong about her. But just this once. “I should not have said that.”
She didn’t look at him. “You shouldn’t have, but you’d do it again in a heartbeat. You insist on believing the worst about me.”
It was true. Part of him always wanted to stomp on her spirit. He wanted to grind her beneath his heels, make her feel every moment of every day how wrong she’d been to steal from him. She’d forced him into a choice he should have never made, would never have made if she hadn’t left and ripped away whatever happiness he’d felt with her. He hated her.
And yet he was drawn to her. Could still feel sympathy for her. It was a paradox he didn’t understand. “We will not talk about this any longer,” he declared. He didn’t want to think too deeply about his feelings. He wanted to savor her body. No feelings, no past. Just heat and passion and the sweetness of release.
Her laugh was bitter. “No, of course not. God forbid that you might actually be forced to rethink your opinion of me. I wasn’t seducing your father, but naturally the same can’t be said of how far I will go with you, right? And you’ll allow nothing to contradict that opinion, so we won’t even discuss it.”
“What could you possibly say to change my mind?” he bit out. “There is nothing you can say, no proof you can offer, that changes what you did to me.”
Her throat moved as she swallowed. “No, I can’t prove my innocence,” she said softly, her voice heavy with emotion.
People began to clap politely. It took a moment before Alejandro realized the music had stopped. But he and Rebecca were still locked tightly together, their gazes tangled. Hers was sad, beseeching. Disappointed?
He stepped back as if she were a live wire, forced his hands to his sides. “You cannot prove it because you are guilty, Rebecca. Cease trying to make me doubt what I know to be true. It will
