Page 2 of Spanish Marriage Solution

She’d put the feeling behind her, ignored it. Buried it so far down inside her that she could pretend it had never been there in the first place. Easy enough when he and Emily had lived in Andalusia, in the ancient Castellano hacienda. Alice and Edward had seen them only once a year at Christmas.

Alice had become adept at hiding her feelings. At never letting even a hint of what she felt for him show. Yet every time she was anywhere near him, she’d feel that same gut punch, that pull, like a magnet drawing her to him. And perhaps the worst thing about it was that there had been times when she’d catch his eye, and she’d see something glowing in the depths, something that made her think that he felt the same way. But she’d ignored that too, since, even if he did feel the same way, they had both been married.

Out in the corral, Sebastián looked away from her, said something to Tomas and turned his attention back to the horse.

Tomas walked back out of the corral, shutting the gate behind him and coming over to where Alice stood. She was getting sticky with sweat, her suit rumpled and far too constricting.

‘Señora Smith,’ Tomas said in heavily accented English. He must be new, because she didn’t know him and she’d got to know most of Sebastián’s employees over the years. ‘Su Excelencia is busy. But you may wait in the hacienda until he is able to speak with you.’

A thread of anger wound through her. She was hot, sweaty, and jet-lagged and the longer she waited to talk to him about Diego, the harder it was going to be. Because of course nothing about having to deal with Sebastián was ever easy.

It wasn’t that she didn’t talk to him. She did. But only when it was impossible to do otherwise, and even then their conversations were short, stilted, and awkward. He was polite to her, but cold and distant, so she tried to avoid him when she could, and when she couldn’t, she treated him with icy formality. For a while she’d even entertained the hope that Emily might not notice that her sister and her husband didn’t get on.

A false hope.

Emily had soon decided that since it was clear Alice and Sebastián didn’t like each other, they needed to be forced into proximity so they could learn to ‘get along’.

It had been excruciating and eventually Alice had had to tell Emily to stop. Yes, maybe they didn’t much like each other, but they were adults and could handle a bit of dislike without burning things to the ground.

Emily didn’t need to know that for Alice the opposite was true.

Alice stared at the tall figure in the corral, but he didn’t look back again.

Did he know why she was here? Was that why he’d ordered her to wait in the hacienda? Had Emily told him that Diego wasn’t his? Had he known that she was having an affair with Edward before the car accident? Had it been as much of a shock to him as it had to her?

She really should do what he’d said and go back inside the hacienda to wait. She was hot and tired, and it would be better to have this discussion in the cool of the house.

Then again, since she’d started her investment company, she’d become unaccustomed to waiting for men to speak first. Being proactive and taking charge before they even knew they were dealing with a woman was always the best approach. Never let it enter their heads that she was female. That way, by the time they realised who they were talking with, it was too late.

Being female in the world of finance was problematic to say the least. Then again, she’d spent a lot of time trying hard not to be female, which would make dealing with Sebastián a lot less of a problem.

She’d had years of practice at hiding the way she felt about him, at hiding her own feelings, full stop, and that was how she’d go about negotiating this particular situation. She’d tell him logically, calmly, that Emily had sent her a letter about Diego, and that her sister wanted Alice to bring him up should anything happen to her. That was why she was here. To take her nephew back home to New Zealand where he belonged.

And there was nothing Sebastián could do about it.

End of story.

Sebastián tried to focus on Halcón, the stallion, but it was difficult.

He could still feel the hard shock of Alice’s unexpected presence echoing through him, and it was proving complicated to get control of himself. Much harder than it should have been, especially after all the years of practice.

He’d learned the art of control early, since his father wouldn’t stand for anything less than total self-mastery, and it had come in useful when all his plans, all his dreams for the future, had come crashing down following Emily’s death. Then again, he was used to life’s body blows.

Meeting Alice for the first time had been one of them.

He hadn’t known who she was right away. She’d been standing on the deck at Emily’s parents’ house, with the views out over the blue water, smiling at something Emily’s father had said. Her hair had tumbled over her shoulders in glossy waves, black as a raven’s wing, and while her features didn’t have Emily’s petite, precise beauty, there was something about their arrangement that caught his attention. A strong face, animated and expressive. Not typically beautiful but captivating all the same. Winged black eyebrows, a strong, decisive nose, and a long, sensual mouth. She had skin the colour of dark honey, and when her deep brown eyes had met his, he’d felt a tectonic shift inside him. As if the earth had moved on its axis, changing gravity, changing the seasons, changing the very air he breathed.

Then Emily had introduced them and he’d understood, without a shadow of a doubt, that the worst had happened: he’d married the wrong sister.

Halcón dropped his head and nudged at Sebastián’s hand, questing for another treat, but Sebastián wasn’t paying attention. He didn’t need to turn around to know that Alice hadn’t gone back into the hacienda as he’d told her to, and he could feel her watching him, the way he’d always been able to feel it. Even now it still had the power to steal his breath, the way it had done for the past five years.

But he’d made a vow to himself, the day he’d met her, that he’d ignore the change to his life’s axis. That he wouldn’t let mere physical attraction—because surely that was all it was—affect him in any way.

It was meaningless. She was meaningless. She was his sister-in-law and that was all. He’d already married the woman he intended to spend his life with. He’d made vows to her, promises he’d keep until his dying breath. The Dukes of Aveira the Castellanos, as his father had often told him, had honour in their blood, and, because he was not truly a Castellano, he must learn how to be honourable. And he had learned. It wasn’t a lesson he’d ever forget.

So when he heard her say his name, in the low, husky voice that seemed to stroke over his skin and take hold of something inside him, he didn’t turn immediately. He directed his attention to the horse, gripping the lead rein and stepping in close.

‘Sebastián,’ Alice said again. ‘I need to talk to you. It’s important.’

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