Page 177 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘It’s everything.’ He regarded her with that shameless arrogance. ‘In a family like mine marriage is rarely about love. It’s about assets and heirs and continuity of control. Some of our property is held in trusts because it is always better for assets to remain within the family. Most of the wider family are happy to let me remain in charge and do all the work as long as they get their quarterly dividends. But there are always some who’ll never have enough. Cristina will never have enough.’ He drew breath. ‘So the pressure will continue on poor Jose Ramon to marry—if not your sister then someone else because if he beats me up the aisle then he could gain control of one particular property portfolio.’

‘So this is really all a fight within your own family.’

Which meant to some extent he was still to blame for this situation. Which was good because she felt safer being angry with him.

‘There are warring family factions in every generation, no?’ He shrugged negligently. ‘Dysfunction is often the norm.’

‘In ridiculously wealthy dynasties, perhaps. I wouldn’t really know.’ But that wasn’t quite true. Her family was dysfunctional. They didn’t have the assets and heirs but they certainly had the control issue. ‘So what are you going to do?’

‘Well, I am seriously considering your proposal.’

‘My...’ She stared at him fixedly as a rush of adrenaline deafened her again.‘What?’

‘Marriage is the one thing both our families want. Perhaps we should give it to them.’

‘I was speakingfacetiously.’ Yet the raw attraction burgeoning inside begged to differ.

‘Were you?’ He moved closer to her again.

This was bad. When he was close her brain failed and her body burned.

‘How disappointing,’ he added softly. ‘Let’s revisit it as a realistic prospect to solve our respective problems.’

‘Ourproblems?’ Breathless, she retreated a step. ‘Sounds like this is aboutyourproblems which I definitely don’t need to be part of.’ She took another step back. ‘I should go—’

‘Stop.’ He grabbed her hand. ‘Stay. Sit.’

It wasn’t his words that stopped her, but the jolt at his touch. Not an electrical current but a shot of pure desire—instantly followed by rage. She desperately hauled back her composure. ‘I am not a dog you can command,’ she snapped.

He paused. ‘Please.’

‘Not much better.’

He smiled. She was immune to the charm of it.Immune. She was not being dictated to by any man ever again.

‘An apology might go a little way to salvaging the situation,’ she muttered.

He cocked his head as he studied her thoughtfully. Right. This man apologised to no one. He didn’t admit mistakes. Too arrogant to believe he even made any. And this was fast becoming too much about her and her increasingly uncontrollable insane reaction to someone she knew would be so wrong for her.

She needed to get out of here. She would figure out an alternative solution. She would break Ashleigh out of there and bring her back to London, find another job to support them both. It would be hard, but they could survive on their own together. But Juan Ramon Fernandez still had hold of her hand and somehow without her noticing he’d stepped closer again and all she could focus on was his finely tailored dinner jacket and her itchy-fingered desire to discover the heat of him beneath the starched white shirt.

‘May I offer something even better,’ he said smoothly. ‘It’s getting late. It’s been a stressful evening. I get hungry when stressed. Do you? Stay and have dinner. We’ll talk. Swap family horror stories—’

‘And come up with an actuallypracticalsolution?’ she interrupted.

For Ashleigh—only for Ashleigh—would she even consider this. She would ignore his charming and courteous side, stay on task, and she would never let him railroad her into anything as ridiculous as marriage.

‘Precisely. I can help your sister. And you.’ He gazed down at her. ‘I have a couple of calls I need to make. Would you like a moment to freshen up while I do? Piotr will take you—’

‘To the guest suite,’ she muttered dryly. She was not thinking about his comment about her staying inhisroom. That had been way too much.

He smiled, unabashed. ‘What do you say—will you stay?’

Awareness of danger feathered across her skin but the fact was she was short on time and ideas. And as he seemingly didn’t want his cousin and Ashleigh’s marriage either, she needed all the help she could get to stop it. Plus she didn’t want to show any kind of weakness in front of him. Running away would only reveal how much he got to her. His supposed interest in her stupid proposal was little more than a joke, but even if he was serious he’d have a change of heart once he knew more about the reputation she’d cultivated in the months after she’d run out on her marriage, when she was trying to force Callum into finally accepting their separation. But once Ramon got beyond the marriage idea, perhaps they could work together. She was wary of his power, but if he were on her side, then she maybe could use it.

‘I’ll stay for dinner,’ she said haughtily. ‘But only so we can sort out this situation to my satisfaction.’

‘Perfect,’ he muttered soothingly and released her hand.

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