The Valquez Bride

Audrey shrugged. ‘Why don’t you ask him when you call him?’

Teddy folded her arms again. ‘I’m not calling him.’

‘You have to call him to give him your answer.’

‘My answer is no.’

Audrey let out a long whoosh of a sigh, her hunched shoulders going down with it. ‘I guess I’d better start packing my things...’

‘Oh, no you don’t.’ Teddy unfolded her arms to waggle a finger at her. ‘Don’t you go emotionally blackmailing me because it won’t work.’ Much.

Teddy hated the thought of her staff losing their home and their source of income. Their security. Their sense of purpose. It was giving her an ulcer just thinking about it. What would they do? Where would they go? What would happen to them? They weren’t the sort of people who could sit around and do nothing. They loved working at Marlstone Manor. It kept them active and mentally stimulated.

Could she do what was necessary to rescue them? Could she marry a man in order to keep her family home secure? Could she make that sacrifice for the sake of the only people she thought of as family?

It was only for six months.

It was a paper marriage.

The time would be up before she knew it. It wasn’t as if she had to move to Argentina with him. He wouldn’t want the inconvenience of a wife living under his roof while he partied all night with his lady friends. Oh, no. He would want her safely ensconced back here in England. Out of sight, out of mind.

‘You can’t fight this, Teddy. You can’t fight him.’

‘Are you talking about Dad or Alejandro?’

Audrey gave her a speaking look. ‘Both.’

* * *

‘You’re not seriously thinking of going through with it?’ Luiz said when he called Alejandro.

‘I want that land.’

‘Heck of a way to go about it,’ Luiz drawled. ‘I thought you said you were never going to darken the doorstep of a church ever—’

‘Yeah, well, this is different.’

Alejandro had thought it through from every angle. He would suffer the short-term marriage because it would achieve his long-term goal. It was a matter of honour. The land was Valquez land his forebears had owned for generations. Clark Marlstone had swindled Alejandro’s father at a low point in his life and it was up to him to get it back.

To bring about justice.

So what if he had to marry the enemy’s daughter to do it? It wasn’t as if he were really marrying her. It would be a civil ceremony. He would not stand in a church and make promises he had no intention of keeping. He would continue to live his life the way he wanted to live it.

Teddy Marlstone would get what she wanted at the end.

So would he.

‘It’s only for six months,’ he said. ‘After that, I’ll have the marriage annulled. By then we’ll both have what we want.’ Too easy.

‘What’s she like?’

Alejandro frowned as he thought of Teddy’s marked limp. Had that had something to do with her father’s machinations? Clark Marlstone was marrying her off because she was maimed? That was despicable but then it was just the sort of thing a man like that would do. What sort of relationship had she had with her father? Had she been close to him? All he knew about her family background was her parents had divorced when she was young and her father had been given custody after a protracted battle in the courts. Her mother had died of an accidental prescription drug overdose a few months later, which might or might not have been suicide.

‘She has a limp.’

‘Let’s hope her looks make up for that. Is she hot?’

Trust his younger brother to be so shallow. Luiz was a serial model dater. If a woman hadn’t been on a catwalk he wasn’t interested. Alejandro thought he was a little picky over his partners but Luiz took it to a whole new level. No woman with a university degree need apply. Luiz didn’t want intelligent conversation. He didn’t stay with a woman long enough to engage her in one. He changed partners as quickly as he changed horses in a polo match. Not that he could talk.

‘She has the sort of looks that grow on you.’

‘So why would her old man set her up like this?’

‘Her father is playing games from beyond the grave,’ Alejandro said. ‘He knew how much I wanted that land, and he also knew I did nothing to quell the rumours about him acquiring it less than honourably. In fact, I actively fuelled them. And since it’s common knowledge I would never consider marriage again, this is his way of paying me back.’

‘What’s she like?’

Alejandro pictured that small defiant figure with her piercing gaze and tightly set mouth. Her strength of will was admirable. Not many people stood up to him. Not many people had the courage to do so. Her intransigence fascinated him because he couldn’t think of a woman of his acquaintance who wouldn’t rush him off to the nearest marriage celebrant to secure the deal. Why was she so against the union? Was it him or was it marriage in general? Or was she, too, playing a game? Was she secretly delighted her father had selected him as her husband? Was she pretending to be aghast at the thought while privately she was congratulating herself on securing a prize catch?

‘She’s...interesting.’

Luiz gave a chuckle. ‘That’s not a word I’ve heard you use to describe a woman before. When do I get to meet her?’

‘Soon.’

I have to convince her to marry me first.

* * *

Teddy stood at one of the library windows chewing her fingernails back to her shoulders in panic. Alejandro’s low-slung sports car growled up the driveway and parked in front of the house like a black panther waiting to pounce. She watched as he got out from behind the wheel with the athletic ease of a man who was in superb physical condition.

She melted back against the velvet drape of the curtain in case he saw her spying on him. He was dressed in dark denim jeans and a white casual cotton shirt that made his olive-toned skin look all the more gloriously tanned. The sleeves were rolled back past his strong wrists, revealing dark curly hairs that continued to the backs of his hands with a sprinkling over his long fingers. He had a silver designer watch on his left wrist and he was wearing aviator sunglasses, adding to the air of command and control that was so damnably attractive. He was a man who was used to getting his own way. He got it in the boardroom. He got it in the bedroom.

Teddy had looked at the situation from every angle. She had consulted several lawyers and they had all said much the same thing. It would be a costly exercise getting her father’s will overturned and even then she might not be successful. And it could take years. She couldn’t afford to spend money she didn’t have, or at least not that sort of money. If she agreed to follow the terms of the will, in six months she would be in full possession of Marlstone Manor. There would be no money worries, no sleepless nights panicking about finding the funds for the expensive upkeep of the stately mansion and grounds. She could concentrate on her art as well as provide a secure home for her loyal and loving staff.

But the thing that had decided her over all others was a phone call from her second cousin. Hugo had made his intentions clear. Marlstone Manor would be sold as soon as he took possession. He wanted the money. The house meant nothing to him. The staff meant even less.

Teddy figured a short-term marriage to Alejandro Valquez was the smaller price to pay. Being married to an attractive man who would not make any unnecessary demands on her because he said it was to be a paper marriage.

And you believed him? a voice inside her head asked.

Of course she did. Why wouldn’t she? She wasn’t the type of girl he would go for. His last girlfriend had been close to six foot tall with a willowy figure and waist-length blonde hair. And long legs, both in excellent working order.

Teddy pulled in a breath that caught at her throat as Alejandro’s firm purposeful footsteps sounded along the corridor. She had to get her mask in place. It wouldn’t do to show how unnerved she was about the arrangement she was about to enter into with him. She had to put her ice maiden face on. Assemble her features into the cool impassive face that told everyone she didn’t give a damn what they thought of her gait. She straightened her spine, put her shoulders back. Gripped her walking stick with a hand that was clammy. Nerves scraped at her stomach like scrabbling mice feet as the footsteps came closer. Her heart felt as if it was beating in her oesophagus as the door was pushed open and Alejandro came striding into the room. The room seemed to shrink as he brought in the scent of the outdoors—citrus and wood and danger.

His eyes did a lazy head to toe sweep of her figure before he greeted her with a nod. ‘Miss Marlstone.’

Teddy’s chin came up. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t like the way he mocked her with that glittering look in his pitch-black gaze. She had decided against dressing shabbily. But she hadn’t pulled out her best outfit, either. She’d settled for simple and casual—not much different from what he was wearing. Jeans and a cotton shirt, but she had draped a sweater across her shoulders because, in spite of the Indian summer they were experiencing, the late September weather was occasionally unpredictable. She hadn’t bothered with make-up because she rarely wore it. But now, with him looking at her with that indolent gaze, she wished she had layered it on with a trowel to disguise the traitorous blush she could feel crawling over her cheeks. ‘Señor Valquez.’

A corner of his mouth twitched as if he found her stiff formality amusing. ‘Am I to believe you’ve agreed to become my wife?’

She sent him a glowering look. ‘Your paper wife.’

‘Ah, yes.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘You’re in under the time limit. Just.’

Something inside Teddy’s stomach dropped. ‘You surely wouldn’t expect me to agree to anything else? We’re all but strangers.’

His crooked smile was knee-weakening. ‘You don’t normally sleep with strangers?’

‘Certainly not.’ She wished she hadn’t sounded quite so priggish. ‘I mean...I like to get to know someone first. To see if we’re...erm...compatible.’

‘How many lovers have you had?’

Teddy’s eyes flared. ‘I beg your pardon?’

His eyes held hers. Dark. Probing. Intelligent. ‘Lovers. How many?’

She gave him an arch look. ‘How many have you had?’

The glint in his eyes made her stomach slip again. ‘Too many to count.’

Teddy could feel her blush burning across her cheeks like a spreading flame. Her mind was suddenly full of images of him with his beautiful bedmates, writhing and cavorting in passion, their perfect bodies in the throes of ecstasy. No hint of awkwardness or shame.

Her one and only sexual encounter had left her embarrassed and ashamed. She blamed herself for not recognising the way she had been set up. She should have known better. Men were all about the physical. They were turned on by the visual. It was how they were wired. How could she have thought Ross Jenner would be different? He had befriended her in her last year at art school and then betrayed her. He had boasted to his mates on social media about how he had done the deed with the girl no one else wanted. He had won a dare to sleep with her. He had been paid to do it. The memory of it still sat like a cold hard stone in her belly.

Teddy moved away from the heat of Alejandro’s dark gaze to the desk where Henry had set out a drinks tray. The one thing she could do on automatic pilot was to be a polite hostess, even if it made her grind her teeth to powdered chalk. ‘Would you care for a drink?’

‘Whisky. No ice.’

She poured the whisky into a crystal tumbler and silently handed it to him, careful not to come into contact with his fingers. She kept her gaze out of reach of his, staring at the button of his shirt as if it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.

He was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen. He dominated the room like a giant in a doll’s house. So tall her neck ached from keeping eye contact. So self-assured and so impossibly gorgeous her breath was having trouble moving in and out of her lungs.

He smelt delicious. The tang of his lemon and lime aftershave teased her nostrils, making her think of sun-drenched lemon groves.

And sex.

Teddy leaned on her stick as she turned to fix herself a drink. Since when did she think of sex? Hot, sweaty sex. Animal sex. Not with some weedy geek at art school who had won a bet.

Sex with a full-blooded man in his prime.

‘I would like us to be married as soon as possible.’

Her left hand shook as she poured a shot of brandy into a glass. ‘We have a month before the deadline.’

‘No point stalling. The sooner we marry, the sooner we end it.’

His comment shouldn’t have made her feel resentful. It shouldn’t have felt like an insult. She didn’t want to be married to him any longer than she had to. She would have said the same to him if she’d got in first. It was damned annoying she hadn’t. ‘Indeed.’ She gave him a gelid look. ‘I couldn’t have expressed it better myself.’

He moved to the windows to look at the view. ‘Nice place you have here. Have you lived here long?’

‘All my life.’

He turned and looked at her but because the sunlight was behind him his expression was masked by shadow. ‘You do realise you’ll have to come to Argentina with me.’ He didn’t pose it as a question but as a statement of fact.

Teddy gripped the crystal glass so tightly she thought it might explode in her hand. He wanted her to go with him? To live with him? She hadn’t planned on going anywhere. A paper marriage was just a signed piece of paper. She didn’t have to live with him. She just had to be married to him.

Didn’t she?

‘Surely that’s not necessary?’

‘You have a strange notion of what constitutes a marriage, Miss Marlstone.’

‘But you said it was to be a marriage on paper.’ She gripped the glass a little tighter. ‘We don’t have to live together. Lots of couples spend time apart, especially when they both have important careers.’

‘I’m not leaving anything open to speculation.’

‘But I have commitments here.’

‘Cancel them.’

Teddy’s back stiffened. ‘Why don’t you cancel yours?’

He had the audacity to chuckle at her suggestion. ‘I run a multimillion dollar business. I have staff who depend on me for their wages. I need to be on site to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. Your work is transportable, isn’t it?’

She gave him an intractable look. ‘Yes, but I prefer to work here. I have my studio here.’

‘I can give you a room at my villa. In fact, you can have a whole floor. Think of it as a working holiday, all expenses paid.’

Teddy pursed her lips in thought. It was only six months and she’d always wanted to visit Argentina. The sense of adventure appealed but living with a man she didn’t know—didn’t even like—was more than a little disquieting.

‘Be assured I will make no demands on you.’

The words dropped into the silence, making her feel as if he had the power to read her mind. Somehow that was even more disquieting than sharing a house with him for six months.

But then the feminine part of her felt another sense of pique. Did he have to make it so obvious he found her so physically repulsive?

She knew she wasn’t in-your-face beautiful. She had always been a little on the plain side. It was another thing her father had been so bitterly disappointed about in her. Not only hadn’t she been born a boy, she’d had the looks to compensate for the missing Y chromosome.

‘What will you tell your friends and family about our...situation?’

‘My brother knows the truth and, of course, our legal team, but that’s where it stops. I want everyone else to believe it’s a genuine love match. It goes without saying that I would like you to refrain from speaking to the press.’

Teddy wished he’d step out of the shadows so she could see his face. Was he mocking her again? Surely he didn’t think anyone would believe a man like him would fall for a girl like her? They would laugh at the suggestion. What was his motivation? Was this about his broken engagement? She had seen the press articles online about his fiancée jilting him on the day of the wedding. It would be a difficult thing for any man to face but having it splashed all over the media would have made it so much worse. Had he decided it was time to show he had moved on, so to speak? Ten years was a long time to nurse a broken heart. But had it been his heart or his pride that had taken the greatest hit?

‘Are you the type of man to fall in love so quickly?’

He made a sound that was part snort, part laugh. ‘I might have been once.’

Teddy pinned down her lower lip with her teeth. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for the idealistic young man he must have been back then.

He stepped away from the windows and came over to the tray of drinks on the desk, pouring himself another couple of fingers of whisky. She watched as he held the glass up to his lips, watched the strong tanned column of his throat as he tossed the contents back and swallowed. He had a frown between his brows that suddenly made him seem far older than his thirty-four years. Was he thinking of his fiancée? Of the love he had lost? It would have been a terrible shock to find the woman he loved had changed her mind, only to hook up with a much older and much richer man the week after. Was he thinking of the pain the public break-up had caused him?

Teddy found it hard to imagine him falling in love with someone. He didn’t seem the type. He was too hard-nosed and cynical. Too determined on having his way to give or compromise in a relationship. He was a playboy. A player, not a stayer. He changed partners as if they were disposable items. He had throwaway relationships that meant nothing to him other than a bit of temporary entertainment. She couldn’t imagine him wanting to settle down and bring up a family. He didn’t seem the type of man to be content with one woman. Not while he had a smorgasbord of beauties to feast on.

‘What about you, Miss Marlstone?’ The frown suddenly relaxed as his cynical smile returned. ‘Are you the type of woman to impulsively fall in love?’

‘No.’

He studied her for a long moment. ‘You sound very assured.’

‘That’s because I am.’

‘Have you ever been in love?’

‘No.’

The amused glint was back in his dark eyes. ‘So how do you know you won’t do so quickly or impulsively?’

Teddy felt the heat of his gaze all over her body. What was it about this man that made her think of sex all the time? It was crazy. It was totally out of character. It was as if he could set her on fire with a look. She became aware of her breasts behind the sensible white cotton of her bra, aware of her inner core that flickered on and off like a faulty light switch. When she quickly moistened her dry lips a rush of sensation flowed through her as she imagined what it would feel like to have his mouth pressed to hers. To have his tongue search for hers, to play with it, tease it and provoke it into a firestorm of passion. To have his arms gather her close, to have him crush her against his strong, powerful body.

To feel.

‘I’m not the impulsive type.’

His mouth tilted a little further in that fallen angel’s smile that wreaked such havoc on her equilibrium. She felt dizzy from being in his presence, from being so close to him she could smell the danger he represented. It was like an exotic potion wafting in the atmosphere.

She was breathing it in—breathing him in.

‘No?’

She suppressed a tiny shudder. ‘No.’

His eyes roved over her face, lingering for a moment on her mouth. When he reconnected his gaze with hers the frown was back between his brows. ‘I should warn you about the press. They can be ferocious. I’ll do my best to protect you, but there will be times when you’ll just have to ignore what they say.’

Teddy wondered if he was concerned about her or himself. Why would he care what the press said about her? Once the six months was up she would be out of his life. He wouldn’t have to spare her another thought. It would be his reputation he would be most concerned about. What would the press make of his choice of bride? Would comparisons be made? Of course they would and she would be found lacking in every way imaginable. ‘I hope I don’t cause you any unnecessary embarrassment.’

His frown deepened the trench between his eyes. ‘In what way?’

She forced herself to hold his gaze without flinching. Could he see how much it pained her to be thought so undesirable? So unattractive her father had to go to such ridiculous—insulting—lengths to secure a husband for her? It was so demeaning to be handed over like a parcel no one wanted. It confirmed every fear she had harboured about herself since her mother had left when she was seven. She wasn’t good enough, pretty enough. Lovable enough. ‘I’m nothing like your last choice of bride.’

He was still looking at her with a frowning expression. ‘So?’

‘So they’ll wonder what you see in me.’

Something passed over his features, a tiny flicker of an emotion she couldn’t quite identify. ‘It’s not your limp that was the first thing I noticed about you. It’s that chip on your shoulder.’

Teddy sent him a hardened look. ‘Why wouldn’t I have a chip on my shoulder? Men like you and your brother make it easy to be cynical. You only date women who look perfect. You don’t even notice women like me.’

He stood looking at her for a long moment. She wished she hadn’t spoken. She wished she hadn’t exposed her insecurities. She wished she didn’t feel so inadequate. If she had poise and sophistication she would marry him without a qualm. Most women would snatch at the chance to be linked to him for six minutes, let alone six months. He was the ultimate prize—rich and handsome and charming.

But he was someone else’s prize. Not hers. Girls like her didn’t get the prize. They didn’t get the guy. They didn’t get the fairy tale. They didn’t even get the poisoned apple or the big bad wolf. They were left alone.

‘There will be legal paperwork to see to before we are married,’ he said as if the tense moment had not occurred. ‘A celebrant will perform the ceremony in private. I don’t want any press around. We will announce our marriage as a fait accompli.’

‘What if I want a big white wedding with all the trimmings?’ She only asked it to get under his skin and it worked.

The tic in his jaw was visible for a beat or two. ‘Do you?’

Yes. Teddy thought of her mother’s dress and veil wrapped in layers of blue tissue paper in the camphor chest in the attic. How many times had she climbed those stairs when no one was around and opened that chest to touch the French lace and the voluminous veil? Breathing in the faint trace of her mother’s perfume that somehow, after all these years, still lingered on the fabric, like dreams that weren’t yet ready to be discarded.

Teddy closed the lid on her dreams, the metaphorical slam of it feeling like a bang against her heart. ‘No, but I’m just say—’

‘Many couples save themselves the time and effort and expense of a wedding by eloping. The goal is to get married. Not to entertain a crowd of people you’ve never met or barely know and will likely never see again.’

She couldn’t quite let it go. ‘That’s not what you thought ten years ago.’

His eyes held hers in a heated lock that made the back of her neck prickle. ‘My people will speak to your people.’ He gave her a brisk nod. ‘Buenas tardes.’

CHAPTER THREE

A COUPLE OF DAYS later Alejandro frowned as he clicked on a news link on his phone. There was a photograph of Teddy and a separate one of him with the caption: For Love or Money? Argentinian Playboy Desperate for Cash? The short piece was damning in every way imaginable. It speculated on their relationship, hinting at a soon-to-be-conducted private wedding. It questioned his motives for the alliance. It made him look like every type of cad intent on marrying an heiress for her fortune. There was no mention of Teddy’s motives. The journalist failed to mention that Alejandro had ten times the wealth of Teddy’s father. His business brand would be damaged. It was one thing being seen as a party-loving playboy but quite another to be labelled a cash-strapped cad. Shareholders would pull their funds out of the company. It would destabilise everything to have investors shifting their interests right now.