leaned in, his lips just a breath away from hers. “What did I tell you about issuing challenges?”
“I …” She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his mouth, couldn’t stop herself from leaning in just slightly …
He withdrew suddenly and began to walk, as though nothing had just passed between them. As though she wasn’t about to melt into a puddle of satisfied longing in the grassy field. “It’s just a short walk through the grass. The villa is just through the grove.” He pointed to the knot of olive trees that were directly in front of them.
They came through the brush and into a landscaped clearing with stone paths and beautifully kept gardens. A large circular fountain was at the center of the courtyard, and beyond it was the three-story villa with cream stucco walls and Spanish-tile roofing.
“It’s gorgeous!” She couldn’t help but think that Selena must have loved it here. It was idyllic. There were no roads, no city noises of any kind; just broad expanses of azure sky and acres of virgin land. It was the perfect escape for a couple who were desperately in love and wanted nothing more than to spend all of their time devoted only to each other. Talking, laughing, exploring, making love.
“Selena never came here.”
It was as if he could read her mind sometimes, and given the recent tenor of her thoughts, that was a disquieting notion indeed.
She turned her head sharply and he laughed. “You wear your thoughts pretty openly. You looked sad. Although I can never understand why you feel so much for my late wife.”
A deep sadness filled her and she felt tears sting her eyes. “It’s just that … I have all that she wanted. It feels wrong somehow that I’m here with you. With the baby you both wanted. I’m the wrong woman.”
He took her hand and led her to a stone bench. He sat and pulled her down gently, bringing her close to the heat of his body, her thigh touching his. “Cara, I don’t know what the future would have held for Selena and me if she had lived. None of us can know that. But I don’t think of this baby as belonging to Selena. This is our baby. Yours and mine.”
She gave him a watery smile. “I appreciate that.”
“I cannot regret it, Alison. I can’t regret that you’re carrying my baby, our baby. It is a dream I never thought to see realized, a child of my own. You have given that hope back to me and I can only be grateful for the mix-up at the lab now. Without it, I would not have this chance.”
He put his hand over her stomach. He did that a lot now, and she had come to enjoy the gentle pressure of his touch, the tingling warmth that the contact always brought. She couldn’t regret it, either. There was no way she could. She cared for Maximo, respected him. She was very glad that her baby would have him for a father.
He turned his focus from her and onto the house. “I started building the villa before her death. She was very unhappy with the location and refused to visit it. I had hoped it would be our family home. But she preferred the city.”
“I’m sorry you lost her.”
He shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand. “I lost her long before she died.”
Again she caught that glimmer of sadness in his otherwise composed expression. And she wanted to fix it with a ferocity that shocked and scared her. “I know you were going through a hard time, but I’m sure she loved you, Max.”
“She was unhappy. Being a princess demanded much more of her than she’d anticipated it would.”
“But she had you.”
“Sometimes. My position has always demanded that I travel a lot. Selena didn’t want to be dragged around on business trips. She wanted someone to entertain her. Someone to be with her. Take care of her. She did not suffer from that same independent streak that you do,” he said, the ghost of a smile touching his lips. “I can’t fault her for that. I can’t fault her for being unhappy.”
Alison couldn’t understand how Selena could have been unhappy with Maximo. There was something about him that just made her want to be with him. She liked his smell, the comforting heat of his body as he sat next to her on the bench. The way he touched her belly, so gently, reverently. Being with him made her feel secure. Happy. Cared for in a way she couldn’t remember ever being cared for.
The realization was enough to shock her into standing from the bench. She was starting to need him too much. Even without sex and romance he was burrowing under her skin. Yes, Maximo was a good man, but he was also an arrogant autocrat who expected her to just fall in line and do exactly as he said. When he said marriage was the only option he expected her to see it his way, and when he said they were going on an early honeymoon she’d found herself on a plane within five minutes of his edict.
It was far too easy to forget all of that when he turned on his charm and flashed that sexy smile at her. But she wasn’t going to let herself do that anymore. It was too dangerous.
“I’m hot. I want to go inside,” she said.
Maximo didn’t know what had caused the dramatic shift in Alison’s mood. She had been sweet one moment, not resisting his attempts to touch her, and then she had gone stiff and jumped as far away from him as she could manage in one movement.
He wanted her. He had been totally honest about his intention to seduce her, and he did intend to. He was going to make this advanced honeymoon a honeymoon in the most basic sense of the word. He ached for her every night as he lay in his empty bed, images of her fiery hair spread around her head as he laid her back onto his pillows. That gorgeous mouth parted on a sigh as he sank into her willing body …
His need for her was so strong, so intense that his entire body ached with it. Desire on this level was a madness he’d never before experienced. And it was an ideal scenario for it. Alison did not want love, but he knew she felt the same kind of lust for him that he felt for her. Lust he could handle. Love was not on the agenda.
This feeling, this overwhelming passion, was about as far removed from love as anything he could think of. But then, Alison was as far removed from Selena as one woman could possibly be from another. And for that he was grateful. Alison was fiery, independent. When she was angry with him, as she seemed to be, inexplicably, at the moment, she let him know.
Selena had been so delicate. She had needed him, needed his protection, his support. He had failed at that. Failed spectacularly. In the end she’d withdrawn from him completely and he’d had no way to reach her, no way to stanch the flow of grief that had seemed to flow endlessly inside of her.
At least with Alison it would be different. He wouldn’t be caught in that same, endless hell his first marriage had been in the end. She wouldn’t cling to him, expect him to solve all of her problems then blame him for everything that seemed to go wrong.
Guilt struck him low and fast. Yes, Selena had been difficult at times, but hadn’t it been his job to slay her dragons? Even if there had been more dragons in her life than there were in most people’s, that was irrelevant. She had been his wife. It had been his job to make her happy. He had failed.
But with Alison at least he could stay out of those murky waters. Alison didn’t want a real marriage relationship and neither did he. They had that in common. And, whether she wanted to admit it or not, they also shared an attraction.
He stood and moved to follow her into the villa, banishing all thoughts of his first marriage as he watched the gentle sway of Alison’s hips as she walked ahead of him.
Oh, yes, he was going to enjoy the seduction of his fiancée very much.
Maximo was in his private office, giving Alison a chance to sleep off the afternoon’s stress. She was tired. She needed to rest. That was the refrain he kept replaying in his mind, when his body was demanding that he find her immediately and commence with his seduction plan.
He’d been trying to concentrate on work, trying not to focus on the woman sleeping down the hall. But it was a useless endeavor. His