Page 5 of Spanish Marriage Solution

Alice blinked, her nausea still churning, but she’d be damned if she looked weak and sick in front of him, so she reached for the anger instead. The anger that had been burning in her for months now, an anger she’d forced aside because her sister and her husband were dead and being angry with them wouldn’t bring them back or change things. Except it might help her now.

She drew herself up to her full height, the way she did at work when men were trying to tell her how things worked. When they were trying to explain the world of finance to her, despite the fact that she knew it far better than they ever could.

‘No,’ she said icily. ‘His place is with me. His aunt. By blood.’ She held Sebastián’s proud golden stare. ‘If I have to get lawyers involved, believe me, I have no problem with that.’

The stallion shifted restlessly and Sebastián once again dropped a hand to absently stroke its glossy black coat. And despite herself, despite everything, Alice found her gaze drawn to that large, strong hand. White scars dotted the olive skin of his long fingers, evidence of a man who worked hard in an intensely physical job, no matter the wealth and power of his position.

She’d tried never to fantasise about him. Tried never to imagine that hand on her skin, stroking her as he stroked that horse, because she’d been married and she’d loved her husband. But sometimes, especially in the years after she’d lost the baby, before Edward had pulled away from her so completely, she’d found herself dreaming of Sebastián’s hands on her body, and that hard mouth on hers. She’d always wake up with an aching sense of loss and suffocating guilt.

She still felt that guilt, another thread of pain to add to her grief at losing Emily, even though her sister had been having an affair with her husband. It was just all so complicated and fraught that she had no idea why she would even be looking at Sebastián’s hand when she had so many other things to deal with. And even if the situation had been different, she had no idea what Sebastián felt about her. She never had. Nothing, judging from the expression on his arrogant face. It was clear that he wasn’t going to give an inch.

‘Do that,’ he said. ‘I also have lawyers. And they have been protecting Castellano interests for centuries. Diego is mine, Alice. And I keep what is mine.’

‘Like you kept Emily?’ It was a stupid thing to say, and she knew it as soon as the words were out of her mouth. She’d let her anger get the better of her, and that had never been a good thing. If he was going to be difficult about Diego then she needed to get him on her side, not the opposite.

His handsome features hardened even further. ‘There is nothing for you here, Alice. Go home.’ Then, before she could say anything else, he turned the horse away and set off on another circuit, urging the stallion into an easy canter.

Alice’s heart thumped loudly in her ears, sweat trickling down her back, and, much to her horror, she felt tears prickling the backs of her eyes. She must be more tired than she’d thought if she was letting her emotions get to her like this.

Gritting her teeth, she blinked the tears away.

Tears were Emily’s trick and one her sister had used often to get her way. Acting weak and fragile, looking like a victim to get attention. It had always worked, too, but Alice had learned early on that it was impossible trying to compete with her beautiful, feminine sister, and so she hadn’t.

Instead she’d kept her emotions locked down, hidden away, becoming stoic and staunchly practical. And what had been a cause of pain in childhood became an asset in the corporate world. No one could ever accuse Alice Smith of being overly emotional.

She stood there a moment, getting herself under control.

She’d given herself a week in Spain, thinking that bringing Diego home would be a simple matter, and she still had time. Her lawyer threat hadn’t been an idle one—there were some she could call on—but she knew that if Sebastián chose to be difficult about this, then fighting him was going to be hard. She didn’t have the resources he did, plus she was unfamiliar with the Spanish legal system. Still, she’d be damned if she went home like a good little dog with her tail between her legs.

She’d already lost one child. She wasn’t going to lose another.

He expected her to leave, which meant her only response was to stay. She certainly wasn’t going to go without at least seeing her nephew and surely Sebastián couldn’t deny her that. Perhaps, if she stayed a couple of days, she might even be able to convince him to change his mind about her taking Diego back to New Zealand.

He is not going to change his mind. He’s not going to give that child up and you know it.

Alice took a silent, steadying breath, gazing at Sebastián as he rode another circuit.

Emily hadn’t confided much of her marital issues to Alice—now Alice knew about Edward, she could see why—but she had told her that Sebastián could be arrogant and cold, and that he was exceptionally strong-willed. Difficult, Emily had once said, but since he was also amazing in bed—something Alice really didn’t want to know—she forgave him his difficulties.

Well, Alice had caught a glimpse of that arrogance and coldness just now, also a ruthlessness she hadn’t expected. Though, perhaps she should have. Perhaps she should have called him first instead of thinking this would be better dealt with face to face. If she’d called, she would have known he was going to be difficult and had a backup plan prepared.

Too late for that now. His tone had been hard, as had those aristocratic features, and there was no give in those deceptively hot golden eyes. He wasn’t going to budge.

In which case you’re going to need to be persuasive, aren’t you?

Alice dragged her gaze away from him, turning plans over in her head. She wasn’t leaving Spain without Diego, that was the bottom line. Her parents had passed away three years earlier—her mother to cancer and her father to a heart attack—which made Diego her only flesh and blood. And even apart from that, Emily had been very clear in her letter that she wanted Alice to look after her son. Especially now he’d been orphaned.

Sebastián was no relation and he was a hard, proud man. There was no softness in him, no warmth. He treated his horses better than he did people, and she didn’t want Diego growing up with a father figure like that.

Children needed love and support and she had all of that to give. After all, she was never going to have a child herself, in which case Diego would be hers.

So getting Sebastián to change his mind might not be easy, but she wasn’t going to leave without trying. Her nephew deserved that.

Alice didn’t look back again. She turned from the corral and strode along the path through the gardens that led from the stables to the hacienda.

The house was massive, of whitewashed stone and a red-tiled roof, with many terraces and a central courtyard surrounded by colonnades shaded by lush grape vines and brilliant bougainvillea. Green lawns surrounded the house and gardens featuring banks of lavender, along with orange and olive trees and fountains. Out at the back of the house was the lavish pool area that Emily used to live in during the long hot summers, or so she’d told Alice. Alice hadn’t been here in summer. She and Edward had only visited in winter, when there was snow on the ground and the hacienda’s thick walls would hold in the warmth from the huge fireplace in the central living area.

She loved the estate, though she never let Emily or Edward know how much. She’d even tried to deny it to herself as well, because she didn’t want to love anything of Sebastián’s. Didn’t want any ammunition that would fuel fantasies of how much better suited she was to living here than Emily.

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