Page 52 of Midnight Surrender to the Spaniard

He tried to be himself, as he usually would be—curt, rude, nothing his problem. But the old him would not have given a damn that Emily’s friend was feeling awkward in her clothes...

‘Listen,’ he said to his sister. ‘I don’t want Alejandro and Emily worrying about her. They have enough going on right now.’

‘Okay.’

‘So be nice and...I don’t know...involve alcohol or something...’

He ended the call, annoyed at Carmen. He thought of Anna, feeling awkward in the boutiques and salons with his difficult sister.Heshould be the one doing this...

But she’d upped the demands, his cynical mind reminded him. A holiday!

She had looked him in the eye and asked for more.

And he had said no.

Jerez was a couple of hours away, and when he arrived there was a serious amount of work waiting, given neither he nor Alejandro had been in for the past two days.

Good—he could immerse himself in that, he thought.

Only he found himself staring out of the window as his PA filled him in on everything she’d rescheduled.

And then Alejandro’s PA came in and told him of the commitments in his brother’s diary...

‘The next three months?’ she checked. ‘Or will he be back sooner?’

‘I don’t know,’ Sebastián said honestly.

He took a breath and looked out of the window. The blue sky seemed so vivid, he thought.

Somehow he got through a meeting, then another, and another, but finally he went up to the rooftop terrace. His engagement photos had been taken there. They’d toasted the gorgeous sunset with their own sherry, of course, for the camera’s sake, but he’d frowned when Ella had taken a sip.

‘You’re having a baby,’ he’d reminded her, in his usual blunt way.

He’d stood up here, getting those photos done, feeling impatient to get back to work.

Now, when there was work to be done, he was impatient to follow that blue sky all the way back to Puerto Banús.

He could not take a holiday now—and it wasn’t just the impossible timing of it.

She wanted more from him. And although Sebastián was used to that, the conflict he felt now was because he found himself wanting to give more, despite his brain telling him not to...found himself talking to her more and revealing things he never shared with anybody.

And now here he sat, watching the sun starting to dip, wanting more.

Six nights...

They were already down to five now—four if he left it until tomorrow. Then there was the family party he was planning for Saturday, so that took it down to three. He liked the safety of that low number, the expiry date written in permanent ink...

Carmen messaged, conceding:

She’s actually nice.We had a great day.

He didn’t respond, because usually he wouldn’t care that Emily’s friend had had a great day.

Yet he did.

He did care.

Then the phone went again, and it was Anna.

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