A Deal with Alejandro

by Maya Blake

  She repeated his name because she couldn’t form any other words. And because beneath her, his flesh thickened against her thigh each time she said his name. Power, feminine and wicked, surged through her. For a moment, she was ashamed of it, certain it was similar to that which her mother had honed and wielded for as long as Elise could remember.

  ‘I hope you’re not trying to induce a different form of mind-alteration by thinking about anything else but what’s happening in this bed right now?’ Alejandro growled.

  Elise shook herself free of the intrusive thoughts. ‘No. I wouldn’t dare.’

  Alejandro lifted an eyebrow. ‘You and I both know you would. You’ve been daring me since the day we met.’

  ‘Okay, maybe I would, but I want you more than I want to risk you stopping what you’re doing. So I surrender.’

  His eyes flared for a single, gripping moment. Reaching across, he plucked a condom from the table. His gaze still trapping hers, he slid it on, positioned her in place and gripped her waist.

  ‘Time for your next lesson. And, Elise?’

  ‘Yes?’ she gasped, her senses already on fire as his powerful erection probed her core.

  He entered her in one smooth thrust, his teeth clenched on a guttural groan. Only when he was fully seated inside her did he continue.

  ‘You will not hold back.’

  * * *

  Those five words set the bar for the next few weeks as Alejandro and Gael took the financial world by storm. With a specially selected team, they crisscrossed the globe, setting up satellite offices and factories and vetting other conglomerates who vied to be affiliated with the newly formed Atlas Group that comprised SNV, Toredo and Ishikawa Corporation.

  In her role as his PR consultant, Elise was never far from his side during the day. And Alejandro’s inexhaustible demands ensured she was even closer to him at night.

  The ride was undeniably thrilling, the sex even more so.

  But in her rare quiet moments, she couldn’t silence the hopeful voice that questioned whether this could ever be more than just sex.

  Alejandro didn’t show signs of tiring of it, which initially helped her to talk herself into believing that what they had was enough.

  But with the slow passage of the weeks, and the stark realisation that their working relationship was winding down, fear had taken hold.

  There had been no further mention of Kyoto, Alejandro finding effective ways of silencing her whenever she attempted to explain. And she...she’d taken the coward’s way out, protecting her heart for a little longer whenever she let him kiss away the subject of why she’d kissed Jason.

  His avoidance tactic had bled into the subject of his family. The few times Gael had mentioned Spain, Alejandro had tensed and changed the subject.

  To say he was still aggressively opposed to tackling his past was an understatement.

  Which was why she ground to a halt after entering the study of the Kensington mansion they’d rented for their week-long stay in London.

  The brothers glared at each other across the large George V desk, the strewn papers indicating tempers had been fraying for a while.

  ‘Umm...should I leave you two alone? I came to inform you that dinner with the Finance Minister is set for tonight, but I can go over the details later if you want?’

  Alejandro’s gaze locked on her for a studying minute. Rounding the desk, he shut the door and slid his arm around her waist.

  His features remained pinched but his flashed smile was genuine. ‘No, stay. My brother suffers from selective memory. Perhaps you should hear this, too, so I have a witness down the road the next time he feels like laying into me.’

  Gael grimaced, but there was a whisper of apprehension in his expression as he eyed his brother. ‘I’m just trying to get a picture of what it was like for you.’

  ‘What good would it do to rehash everything?’

  Gael shrugged. ‘Maybe none. But if those three weeks I spent looking for my mother were anything like you claim yours were—’

  ‘You think those three weeks were hell? I lived like that from the moment I was born until the day I walked away. Count yourself lucky you only got to spend a limited amount of time with our father, Gael. When he wasn’t playing away, he taunted my mother with the possibility of it. When he did stray, she tortured herself and everyone around her with her desperate unhappiness.’

  Elise’s breath punched out in desperate sympathy.

  Shock glinted in Gael’s eyes. ‘Madre de Dios.’

  Alejandro walked her over to the grouping of sofas set before a roaring fire in the oak-panelled room and pulled Elise down next to him. Gael joined them, settling on the opposite sofa.

  November in London was picturesque and quintessentially autumnal, with a light drizzle hitting the giant Victorian windows. But as much as she wanted to stand at the window and absorb everything British, staying at Alejandro’s side as he allowed his rigid facade to crack for a moment was the only place she wanted to be.

  ‘If ever there were two people more unsuited to each other, it was them. I used to go to bed at night praying they would tell me in the morning that they were divorcing.’ A rough laugh barked from his throat. The sound tore at Elise. Leaning closer, she placed a hand on his chest. After a moment, he absently covered hers with his.

  ‘While children around the world wished upon stars that their parents would stay together through thick and thin, I yearned for the opposite. Both sets of my grandparents were dead, my remaining relatives were spread far and wide, but I didn’t give a damn where I ended up. All I wanted was for the hell I lived in to be over.’

  ‘Alejandro, you can’t hate yourself for wishing for a better life. None of us can.’

  He blinked, several emotions drifting through his eyes. ‘What about hating one’s own parents? Is that allowed?’

  ‘Sí, it’s allowed,’ Gael uttered grimly.

  Elise sensed he was going through his own issues regarding his parentage, but her only focus right then was Alejandro.

  ‘The only person who can truly judge you is you. You’re also the only one who can determine how the past influences you. You told me that, remember?’

  He shook his head, his smile tinged with sadness. ‘It’s not the same, amante.’

  She lifted her eyebrow. ‘Isn’t it?’

  His eyes darkened. ‘I won’t be drawn into a debate, Elise. Not on this.’ The warning was clear. His mind was made up about the subject. But he caught his brother’s gaze from across the table. ‘I admit, I made you into a villain, too, in that hellish reality, Gael. Back then, I believed you and your mother contributed to the problem.’ He shook his head. ‘But only one person is to blame for this. And it’s not you.’ His voice was solemn, his gaze as beseeching as an inherently proud and autocratic man could achieve.

  Emotion rippled across Gael’s face. He swallowed hard. Nodded silent acceptance. Then he surged to his feet and gathered up a sheaf of documents. ‘I’ll go through these before our meeting with the minister,’ he said gruffly, then left the room.

  ‘My father had wanted a son, someone he could pass on his well-honed cut-throat business skills to. Did I tell you that?’ She spoke into the silence several minutes later.

  Alejandro’s chest rose and fell in a mildly frustrated manner. ‘Elise...’

  ‘My mother told me when I was twelve or thirteen and was refusing to wear some dress she’d bought me. I was a mistake my father convinced her to keep so he could pass on the family legacy. She’d refused to have any more children who would interrupt her career in prestige acquisition. They wanted a son and they got me instead. A daughter with ideals so far removed from theirs, I once heard them wonder out loud whether I was really their child.’

  ‘Dios,’ he swore under his breath.

  ‘You’re not the only one who wished for different parents. But what you feel in here—’ she tapped his chest and the strong heart beating beneath it ‘—won’t go away if you don’t
confront it.’

  Green eyes pierced hers, probing. Suddenly afraid he would see too much, she dropped her gaze.

  ‘Come here, Elise.’

  Since she was already sitting pretty darn close, she wondered what he meant. He resolved her confusion by picking her up and settling her in his lap. His fingers removed the clasp in her hair and let the heavy tresses cascade around her face.

  After pulling her into a long kiss, he set her back. ‘Gracias,’ he murmured.

  ‘What for?’

  His expression grew brooding, introspective. ‘I will know soon enough. But thank you,’ he repeated.

  Her heart lurched at the depth of emotion behind the words. And even though she told herself it was futile to read anything into it, she found herself smiling.

  ‘Okay.’

  Emotion of a different, specific nature entered his eyes. His hand tightened at her waist as he devoured her smile. ‘Feel like relocating upstairs for an hour or two before this meeting?’ he rasped.

  Her nod brought him to his feet. He didn’t release her, instead walked out of the study and up to their bedroom with her locked in his arms.

  And as he made love to her with a fevered, almost spiritual need, Elise wondered why she’d ever thought she could feel anything other than soul-searing love for this man.

  * * *

  Alejandro stilled in the act of securing his cufflink.

  ‘Repeat that, if you please.’

  Elise groaned and rolled her eyes, but it gratified him to see apprehension in her eyes. She was wise to be apprehensive. Because the words she’d just spoken threatened to rip a gaping hole somewhere in the region of his heart. He knew it couldn’t be the actual organ that was affected, because that wasn’t what they were dealing with here. Hearts and flowers and gentle words weren’t part of their deal. Despite the decision he’d come to in the week since the study incident, those softer things would never feature in his life.

  Nevertheless, a hole threatened. A deep black hole where emotions like desolation, despair, pain resided.

  ‘Don’t be upset, Alejandro. I made a promise. I have to keep it.’

  He felt the ground beneath him shift. It was infinitesimal, but it registered. ‘A promise?’

  She sighed. ‘Yes, you know those occasions where you pledge something and then you have to honour it?’

  ‘I know the definition,’ he murmured. ‘I was very much aware of the existence of promises as a child but sadly I never got to experience anyone either making or keeping one.’

  She paused in the act of tying the strings of a wraparound dress around her waist.

  ‘I’m sorry, Alejandro.’ Soft compassion blazed from her eyes and warmed him. Everything inside him strained to be closer to that sensation. To lose himself in it and let it wash away the cold loneliness that had been a part of him for so long he didn’t remember a time when it hadn’t existed.

  ‘De nada,’ he responded, aware his voice was gruff. Flicking his cuffs, he attempted to thread the links through again. Realising his hands shook, he slammed the studs on the dressing table. ‘I’m still waiting for an explanation.’

  ‘It’s my grandmother’s birthday this weekend. I always spend it with her. She expects me to be there.’

  Alejandro noticed he was rubbing a precise spot on his chest where his heart thudded dully and transferred his fingers to the equally insistent throb at his temple. He had to tread carefully. He knew that. The last thing he wanted was to be drawn into an argument with Elise. But... ‘She’s in Hawaii, correct?’

  She nodded warily.

  ‘And I...’ He searched for words that wouldn’t make him feel so raw...so exposed. In the end the words poured out regardless. ‘I need you here,’ he rasped.

  She crossed the dressing room and stopped in front of him. Her hand slid up his chest to curl around his nape. ‘I’m sorry I can’t come with you to Seville. But you were always going to make this final journey on your own anyway.’

  His jaw clenched. ‘Sí, but not while you were on the other side of the world!’

  ‘Alejandro—’

  He whirled away from her, unable to stand having her in front of him and knowing it was only for a short time. Striding through the bedroom, he stepped out onto the warm terrace.

  On the horizon, the sun was setting over the hills just outside Barcelona. During one of their recent and increasingly frequent talks, Gael had spoken of his estate outside Barcelona and the neighbouring property that had just come on the market.

  Alejandro had bought the fifty-thousand-acre estate, sight unseen. When Gael had thrown in the offer of his architect and interior designer, Alejandro had agreed.

  His first visit to his property three days ago had been a pleasant surprise, especially when Elise had seemed to love the estate, too.

  The whitewashed villa was vast, with staggered floors on three levels, each with a wraparound terrace that overlooked a private beach. It was a house that had a potential to be a home.

  From a personal standpoint, it had been a place to pause and regroup before taking the final step back in time.

  Because as Elise had counselled, he had to revisit the past in order to move on. Some aspects of his childhood had left scars he was certain would never heal, but he needed to find out if other building blocks he’d thought were eroded were in fact merely shrouded with bitterness.

  Things like love and trust...

  Alejandro knew he most likely wouldn’t find those two components in his childhood home, but perhaps freeing himself from other entanglements would open his eyes to new experiences.

  New emotions?

  But how could he see his way to finding answers when Elise was leaving? Dios. He rubbed at his chest when he sensed her behind him.

  ‘We’re going to be late to the dinner with the vintner.’

  ‘We’re not going.’

  She sighed. ‘Why not?’

  He turned and leaned against the terrace wall, his back to the view. Right now the only view he was interested in was the one before him. ‘Because he’s another fat cat hoping to get fatter by riding on Atlas’s coattails. He can wait one more day. Whereas you...’ He stalked to where she stood, her stunning face glowing in the evening light.

  ‘Yes...me?’ she invited huskily.

  He wrapped his hands loosely around her throat, sliding his thumbs under her chin to tilt her face up to his. ‘You are making me extremely unhappy with your impending departure,’ he said.

  Her breath hitched and her arms slid around his waist. ‘And you mean to punish me?’ she asked.

  Alejandro was marginally satisfied with the raw anticipation on her face. She wanted him with almost as much intensity as he craved her. It wasn’t anywhere near enough, but that would have to sustain him in her absence.

  ‘Yes, I do.’ He pulled on the ties to her dress none too gently, and tugged the material from her body, leaving her clad in scraps of black lace. Alejandro wasn’t worried about exposing her to unwelcome eyes. The position of the terrace guaranteed them complete privacy. As he stepped back his knees nearly buckled at her beauty. ‘Your punishment will be very specific, guapa. And very, very thorough.’

  He dispensed with foreplay, his need soul-wrenchingly acute. He left her only to locate a condom. When he returned, he placed her on her knees, dispensed of his clothes, and took her hard and fast. Groans turned to earthy demands, moans to cries of ecstasy. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Alejandro acknowledged that he would never get enough of her.

  Hours later, he tucked her close, his fingers teasing through her hair as sweat cooled on their bodies.

  She had given back as good as he dished out, but he knew the depth of his lovemaking tonight had worn her out. Her soft breathing told him she was almost asleep. A part of him wanted to keep the status quo. But a greater part of him felt the need to relax the reins of his control for her, even if it made him vulnerable.

  ‘I’d never experienced jealousy before I met you
. Now I’m jealous of every single moment you’ll spend away from me.’

  A soft gasp broke from her. ‘Alejandro.’

  ‘How long?’ he grated. He kept his gaze fixed on the ceiling, absurdly unwilling to risk looking into her eyes in that moment.

  ‘Three days. Four at the most.’

  He swallowed hard. ‘Take my plane.’

  ‘What? No, you need it—’

  ‘Gael arrives tomorrow. He’ll no doubt resume his efforts to remain a pain in my backside. He can fly me down to Seville on Saturday.’

  ‘I—’

  He captured a handful of silky hair. ‘Say “thank you, Alejandro.”’

  ‘Thank you, Oh, Bossy One.’

  He kissed her, because the time had long since passed when he could resist her. As passion whipped high and fierce again, Alejandro wondered if it was past time to stop trying to save his heart from bigger, riskier things, as well.

  * * *

  He ended up catching a commercial flight to Seville when Gael got caught up in an emergency. The mundane nature of it all helped keep his mind off the impending visit. And off the sheer intensity with which he missed Elise.

  There were more satellite factories to set up and contracts to negotiate with new businesses, but from the start there’d been an unspoken agreement between them that this affair would only last for the duration of her contract with him.

  Which meant that she would be gone in a few weeks. Or it had been that way. Until he’d woken this morning with a physical pain in his chest from missing her.

  Alejandro didn’t have anything to compare these emotions to, but whatever he felt for her, he knew he wasn’t ready to walk away. And their goodbye in his plane two days ago had given him hope that she felt the same way.

  All he had to do was lay a few ghosts to rest—

  ‘Andro.’

  He stopped in his tracks. The voice. The name. Dios, it dragged him back to a place he suddenly doubted he wanted to go.

  Slowly he turned to his left. And exhaled at the sight of his father.

  A tumult of emotions tore through him, cracking open places he’d thought were sealed for ever. ‘Papá.’

  Tomas Aguilar held out his hand. Alejandro hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and took it.