Thumbing his sharp black stubble as he regarded her through narrowed eyes, Alejandro observed, ‘You were staggering with shock only minutes ago, so go to bed and give yourself chance to recover.’
Her fantasies about the Gypsy King and the innocent chef were truly misguided, Sadie reasoned as Alejandro took her by the arm to steer her towards Marissa’s caravan. He had zero tolerance, and while she found his decisive nature attractive, it put him firmly in the ‘Don’t go there’ category. She couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t make a few more blunders before her work was finished in the mountains, and she could only prove a disappointment to such a connoisseur of women.
And she had more sense, Sadie reassured herself as Alejandro, having handed her over to Marissa, returned to his group of friends and slipped easily into conversation, as if nothing unusual had occurred on the tranquil, starry night.
CHAPTER SEVEN
MARISSA WAS MORE than happy for Sadie to spend the night in her caravan and was careful not to ask questions unless Sadie offered the information...such as why she had disappeared in the middle of the party.
‘I went exploring and got myself into a spot of bother. Luckily, your brother found me before I took the shortcut to the village.’
‘Over the cliff?’ Marissa’s hand shot to her mouth. ‘Never wander around here in the dark. I know it all looks so homey and safe, but that’s only because the camp is located on a plateau. There are dangers all around. If you stray far, any one of us could get into trouble.’
‘Don’t I know it,’ Sadie agreed as she sipped her late-night drink of hot milk, which Marissa had insisted would help her to sleep.
‘Did my brother upset you?’ Marissa asked as she plonked herself down on the narrow twin bed next to Sadie’s. ‘Is that why you left?’
‘No. I managed this all by myself,’ Sadie admitted, pulling a face. ‘I was just lucky that Alejandro realised I was heading into trouble, and decided to follow me—’
‘Wait a minute...didn’t my brother find you on the trail the first time around? Weren’t you hooked onto a tree? This is becoming a dangerous habit, and one you must break. He might not always be around to save you.’
‘I don’t expect him to be around. I should think he’s had enough of me by now.’
Marissa laughed. ‘I’ve known Alejandro all his life, and if he spends any time with you at all, he’s interested.’
‘I think he tolerates me, and then only barely,’ Sadie admitted.
‘Well, next time, let me show you around. I would have liked to join you.’
‘In jumping over a cliff?’ Sadie suggested wryly. They both laughed, and then she added, ‘And as for your brother? He’s a lot more than I could handle.’
‘Would you like to? Handle him, I mean,’ Marissa teased.
When they had finished laughing, Marissa gutsily, and Sadie pretending she was taking all this in her stride, Marissa insisted, ‘You do like him. You’re just not ready to admit it yet...maybe not even to yourself.’
‘Are you trying to set me up with him?’
‘Me?’ Marissa widened her eyes. ‘Whatever makes you think that?’
‘The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming?’ Sadie suggested with a grin.
‘So, I like you,’ Marissa admitted with a smile and a shrug. ‘What are you going to do about it?’
‘You like me, and your way of showing this is to throw me in your brother’s path?’
‘He’s not so bad. Don’t believe everything you hear about him. And from what you say, you threw yourself in his path. As for my feelings on the subject?’ Marissa pulled a comic face. ‘Alejandro needs bringing into line, and you’re the best hope I’ve got.’
Sadie couldn’t pretend she wasn’t thrilled to have Marissa’s approval, but she had to tell her the truth. ‘I’m not sure I’m qualified. My experience of men is practically nil.’
‘Yes, you are,’ Marissa insisted with more force than Sadie expected. ‘You’re a gutsy woman who knows exactly what’s going on.’
‘I wish—’
‘Don’t tell me you can’t see what’s happening between you and Alejandro,’ Marissa insisted. ‘If you walk away from him now, you might regret it for the rest of your life.’
Sadie sighed and shook her head. ‘How can you know that?’
Flicking her hair back, Marissa fixed an intent stare on Sadie’s face. ‘Forget what you think you know about our people reading tarot cards, tea leaves and crystal balls, because nothing on this earth can ever come close to a woman’s intuition.’
* * *
The night after rescuing Sadie felt like the longest night of his life. He was up at dawn to go riding, and when he cantered back into camp and saw Sadie with some of the older members of the community gathered around her, he reined in, transfixed. She looked so fresh and natural, friendly and warm, as if nothing untoward had happened last night to rattle her professional persona. She was as adept at switching between professional and personal as he was.
Having watched for a while, he sprang down from the saddle. Not once had she glanced across, and a very primal part of him wanted her as acutely conscious of him as he was of her. He led his horse over to the group, where he discovered they were sharing family recipes. How long would that take? After a restless night, staring out of his caravan window at stars that seemed close enough to grab hold of, he was impatient to be alone with Sadie.
‘Good morning,’ Sadie said politely, glancing up at last.
A happy chorus of ‘Buenos días, Don Alegon,’ chimed out from people he loved, all of whom he acknowledged warmly, while wanting Sadie to stop what she was doing and pay attention to him. But that would not be Sadie, and he admired her dedication even when it led to delay. Just as she had in the kitchen of El Gato Feroz, she was concentrating on the current situation, which, in this case, included the people around her. If she included him in the discussion, it was in the same interested and informative manner that she spoke to everyone else. He couldn’t help but smile inwardly as he watched and waited. What he had really wanted when he arrived back from his ride, he conceded, was for Sadie to rush over and throw her arms around him. What she did was pass around a tray of freshly baked lemon cakes for everyone to try.
‘These magdalenas are good,’ he commented.
‘Top-quality ingredients and careful preparation,’ Sadie informed him in her no-nonsense cook’s voice.
‘Preparation is vital to any task,’ he replied straight-faced.
He saw by a flicker in her eyes that she knew exactly what he was talking about, but she continued on with her class unfazed.
‘Each and every dish deserves to be developed to its full potential,’ she told the group surrounding her, but her gaze lingered on him. ‘Don’t you agree, Don Alegon?’
‘Absolutely,’ he said.
The staring standoff lasted a few moments more, and then she carried on, until eventually the class ended and her students drifted away.
‘You seem to have made yourself at home here,’ he remarked.
‘I can’t help myself. I love it here. Apart from El Gato Feroz, I’ve never truly felt that I belonged.’
‘And before that?’
‘Before that, I was like tumbleweed, going wherever life took me. A fairly restricted life as a child should have warned me that life on a super-yacht wasn’t for me, but I tried it, and it was there that I did my first professional cooking, so no experience is ever truly wasted. I love the freedom here, and I love the open-mindedness of the people.’ Her shoulders lifted and fell as she admitted, ‘I’m happy.’
‘And you seem to have made quite an impression,’ he observed, seeing the knots of people chatting together and shooting admiring glances at Sadie.
‘I just love to share,’ she said, ‘and so do your people. I really enjoy my work, and I enjoy learning
from them.’
He couldn’t imagine Sadie ever being selfish with her knowledge. Her natural warmth wouldn’t allow it.
‘Sadie?’ he prompted when she felt silent.
‘I haven’t always been able to share,’ she admitted. ‘When I lived at home my opinions were considered worthless.’
‘So you kept it all in, and saved it for us,’ he said gently. He could see from her face this was going too fast, and that she hadn’t meant to mention her childhood, so he backed off. ‘Have you eaten anything yet?’
‘No,’ she admitted. ‘Have you?’
‘I’m about to... I hope,’ he prompted.
‘Ah,’ she said, smiling, ‘that was a hint. I’ll feed you,’ she offered, with a wide-eyed innocent assurance that made his groin tighten to the point of pain. He, to his ultimate discredit, could think of nothing but Sadie, stripped of her chef’s jacket and jeans, under him.
She got busy and had soon prepared two delicious plates of food. This was a very different woman from the woman he’d danced with last night. There was no shining hair flying free, or alluring clothes to tease his senses. Right now, Sadie Montgomery was the consummate professional, with severely scraped-back hair and a jacket so stiff it could stand on its own. He admired her for her dedication, and the sheer hard work it had taken to reach such a high standard in her chosen profession, but he missed wild Sadie more.
‘You know what they say about all work and no play,’ he commented when he’d finished every scrap on his plate.
She stared at him levelly as she collected up his plate with hers. ‘Success?’
Huffing a laugh, he conceded the point with a nod.
‘What are you suggesting?’ she asked as he helped her clear up.
‘That I introduce you to this area properly, so there are no more exciting incidents in the middle of the night.’
‘There won’t be another,’ she assured him, holding his stare. Then suddenly, and apparently for no reason he could fathom, she relented. ‘D’you know? I’d like that. Thank you. Give me ten minutes to change out of these clothes.’
‘Five,’ he countered.
It amused him to see her eyes flash a warning, as if to say, Don’t push your luck, mister. But her inner feelings gave her away and her cheeks flushed red, as if spending time with him wasn’t entirely unappealing. Let your hair down, Sadie, he thought as she hurried away.
She joined Alejandro at the pony lines where he was busy saddling up two horses for them to ride out on. ‘Thank you for offering to show me around,’ she said, her tone formal to counter the fact that her entire being was reacting wildly to the sight of Alejandro with muscles flexing in his powerful forearms as he checked the girth on her horse.
‘You’re not my employee now,’ he said, straightening up, ‘so no need to thank me. This is your free time, and you can do as you like. I know you’re interested in this very different way of life. It was the same for my father, so that’s something I’m sensitive to, and can help you with.’
Alejandro’s brooding expression made Sadie’s heart beat even faster. She tried to concentrate on the actual, like the fact that his concern for her had drawn parallel lines above his strong nose on his ridiculously handsome face, but that only made her want him more. Then her gaze wandered to his eyes, only to find him watching her intently. To distract herself she made a fuss of the nearest horse.
‘My father loved the mountains,’ he went on, as he lowered her stirrups and indicated it was time to mount up. ‘From his first day at the flamenco camp he was in love with everything here. It was so different from Madrid, he told me years later.’
‘I know what he means, and you do too.’
‘And I know that you love horses,’ Alejandro commented as she scratched beneath the chin of her friendly bay gelding in a quick getting-to-know-you session before she mounted up.
‘Riding was always my passion,’ she admitted, ‘though I don’t get much chance now.’ One of the few things Sadie remembered with pleasure about her childhood was her trips to the riding stables, where the horses showed more interest in her than her parents ever had. ‘Will we be going anywhere where I can collect some more recipes?’ she asked, conscious of Alejandro’s stare hot on her face.
‘No,’ he said bluntly. ‘This is time off for you. What there will be is a chance for you to pull away from work.’
‘Will you do the same?’ she countered.
He paused a long moment and then said, ‘Yes.’
‘Then, I will too,’ she agreed.
The look they shared trickled through her senses like warm honey on a crumpet sweetening everything it touched. ‘I only hope I can keep up with you,’ she said, taking a look at the black stallion Alejandro was tacking up.
‘Going on past experience, I’ve no doubt you will,’ he told her dryly with a quick glance her way. Springing lightly into the saddle, he led the way.
Quite a few people waved them off as they left the camp. There would be comment but no unkind gossip, Sadie suspected. Everyone was too warm for that. And, nothing ventured, nothing gained, she decided, so whatever Alejandro’s motive in asking her to join him on the ride, she was up for it, and keen to see more of the magnificent mountains he called home.
‘You’re a really good rider,’ he said, having tested her at a slow pace, and then speeding up to a safe, collected canter.
‘This is fabulous,’ Sadie called out as she urged her horse on. ‘I never thought I’d get this chance, and I’m loving every minute of it.’
The scenery was stunning, and they had progressed to a gallop across the flat carpet of green, surrounded by mountains with previously hidden lakes revealing themselves in all their glittering splendour. The air was clean and sharp with the tang of ice and history, and the temperature was mild and comfortable for riding. Keeping a safe seat on a horse had all come back to her, and the bay gelding Alejandro had chosen for her to ride was kind and responsive to Sadie’s smallest command.
And Alejandro?
He looked amazing. He was so easy in the saddle and rode as if he were sitting in an armchair. Totally stunning in just a casual shirt with the sleeves rolled back, and another pair of old jeans that had definitely seen better days, he could seriously derail a woman’s life. If she allowed him to, Sadie reasoned. So, relax. It wasn’t going to happen. She had a career she loved, and a life in Madrid.
‘Still okay?’ he asked, turning to stare at her as he slowed the pace.
‘Loving it,’ she confirmed with a smile. There was a companionship in riding together that couldn’t be explained. It was something about the union between animal and human that healed the soul, she decided.
Eventually, he reined in a few yards in front of a rocky trail. ‘I want to make sure you feel confident before we tackle the more testing part of this ride.’
Alejandro was the only testing part of this ride, she thought. ‘I’m sure I’ll be fine if we take it slowly.’
They stared at each other briefly. ‘Take it at your own pace,’ he said. ‘If you’re not happy, I’ll stop. I’ll ride ahead and you follow me.’
‘Okay, on this one occasion,’ she teased.
Turning, Alejandro flashed a smile that warmed her through, and then they were climbing steadily up the mountain, which gave her chance to appreciate a rear view that was as good as his front. He looked far more like a swarthy brigand, seated astride his snorting stallion, than a Spanish grandee on a well-schooled Arabian steed.
There was plenty more to distract her as their horses picked a cautious route up the trail. Dragging greedily on the crisp mountain air, she soaked in the incredible view around her, and in front of her, where the man with the powerful back, and shoulders wide enough to hoist an ox, was controlling his wilful stallion with the lightest touch of his long, lean legs. El Duque had never looked more satanically lust-worthy
than he did in the saddle, surrounded by the mountains he loved. Wherever this trail led, she would embrace each new experience with the same enthusiasm she felt for everything else.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THEY VISITED SEVERAL outlying villages, where he introduced Sadie around but avoided mentioning where she worked, or the food for which she was famous. He was serious about keeping her mind off her work. In the last place they stopped, two elderly ladies insisted on preparing a picnic for them, as if they were lovers on a day out rather than virtual strangers who would like to know each other better, and who lost no opportunity to engage in banter and challenge.
The ground was flat around the village, and he set a brisk pace when they left. ‘Keep up,’ he called over his shoulder.
‘Or else?’ Sadie countered with a laugh that was swept away by the wind.
‘You’ll be left behind,’ he warned, though he doubted Sadie’s competitive spirit would allow that to happen.
‘So there you are,’ he yelled as she rode alongside. ‘Not bad.’
‘Praise coming from you?’ she yelled back.
‘I must be getting careless,’ he confessed with a laugh.
Her enjoyment of riding was obvious. He could tell she felt free, and, like him, Sadie’s concerns faded in the mountains. Those concerns would have to be dealt with eventually, but for now, with their horses straining every muscle to gallop flat out, they were on fire with the thrill of the race, and all other considerations would have to wait.
Eventually, he stopped on the banks of a fast-moving river. ‘You kept up,’ he commented dryly as she dismounted.
‘And you didn’t fall off,’ she countered with a cheeky smile. ‘What if I’d fallen off? Would you have noticed?’
‘Apart from the earth tremors?’ he queried.
‘Your gallantry does you credit,’ she shot back as she ran up the stirrups.
‘Do you need wrapping in cotton wool? You never gave me that impression.’
A Scandalous Midnight in Madrid Page 7
