Page 68 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

Dared she listen to her heart and pursue this...just a little?

She took out her phone, afraid of the pitter-patter of her heart as she composed her text.

Now I won’t feel like La Princesa y el Guisante

She didn’t have time to look up the translation for him because the hungry troops were already coming through the door, so she closed her eyes and hit ‘send’.

Don’t let me like you too much, she thought. Or rather, she amended, because it was already way too late for that,Don’t let it show...

It had been a long day in the office...

Elias hadn’t been deliberately avoiding Carmen. God knew there was a mountain of work for him to do in the real world. And yet he’d found himself distracted in a boardroom in Century Park, and instead of arguing with his father about the latest project he’d asked his PA to sort out new mattresses for the lodge.

And now, while it should feel good to be home, as he stroked Homer’s soft nose he could hear laughter coming from the summer kitchen, and he felt an unfamiliar thump of loneliness in his chest...

He glanced at his messages as he walked to the ranch and stilled when he saw her name.

He had to look up the translation.

The Princess and the Pea...

Pouring himself a drink, he replied.

What did you make for dinner tonight?

He awaited her response.

Albondigas. Spanish meatballs in a flavourful tomato and red wine sauce with crusty herb bread...

He adored how badly she lied...how she practically recited the restaurant’s own menu. He knew it was an expensive restaurant that did not normally do deliveries like this.

He wanted to type,Who are you, Carmen?

No, he wanted to head over there and pull up a chair, laugh with them all into the night...

And then bring her back to his bed.

He glanced at his occasional table and the array of pictures there. There was one he would prefer to smash, or turn to the wall, but his family dropped in now and then, and the housekeeper might talk...

He looked at the photograph of his brother, so proud of his radiant bride, and his face hardened.

Thatwas the reason why he should not go over to the lodge and join in.

Thatwas why he should not text Carmen back.

He would never give someone the keys that would let them destroy his family.

Identifying his twin’s body had been a life lesson he had not wanted.

But only immediate family could do it.

‘I can’t,’ Seraphina had said.

His father, grey and shaking as he held his wife’s hand, had whispered, ‘I’ll go.’

He’d tried to stand, but his strength had failed him, evidence of the toll taken on him by the death of his son.

‘I’ll go,’ Elias had said, knowing it would be something his father would never get over. ‘I’ll do it.’

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