Bleakly, he stared at a brilliant hibiscus that bloomed riotously in the Florida sun. He’d made a misstep. A bad one. But the situation could be rectified. It would be rectified. For a brief moment, he had broken his own personal code. He’d forgotten his responsibilities. He’d let personal desires outweigh the import of his position as head of the delegation.
But it wouldn’t happen again.
He braced himself to return to the ICU waiting room, barely able to tolerate the idea of Maria and Gabriel being chummy. But when he walked in, Gabriel and both Rafes were deep in conversation on one side of the room. Juan Carlos had apparently gone downstairs for something to eat. Bella and Maria had their heads together, their expressions grave.
Alex took a chair that wasn’t close to anybody and pulled out his phone to check messages. He managed to concentrate for five minutes before stealing a glance at Maria. She was wearing the same skirt and top she’d had on when she came to his room. The same ones from their beach walk.
But all he could see was her naked body stretched out beneath his...her beautiful eyes laughing up at him.
When a nurse entered the waiting area, the anxiety level in the room went up half a dozen degrees. The woman spoke quietly to Rafael III. Then the head of the Montoro family looked at Maria and crooked a finger.
Maria stood, a puzzled expression on her face. “What’s wrong?”
Rafael had aged a decade during this crisis, his face gray with fatigue and worry. “My aunt would like to speak with you.”
“I don’t understand. Why me?”
“I don’t know. But she’s in a fragile state, and if she wants to talk to you, you will go to her.”
The firm tone brooked no opposition.
Maria’s panicked expression was genuine. “I’d like someone to go with me.”
“I’ll go,” Alex said.
Maria’s look of relief should have been gratifying, but he could scarcely bear to walk by her side.
The room was only steps away. The nurse halted them before going in. “She’s somewhat agitated. But she said it was important.”
Alex and Maria nodded.
When they opened the door, Alex lowered his voice and whispered in Maria’s ear. “I’ll be here with you, but I’ll stay out of her line of sight. I don’t want to upset her if she wants to be alone with you.”
Maria’s lips trembled. “This makes no sense.”
He touched her elbow. “Just go.”
Maria approached the bed slowly. “Mrs. Salazar. I’m here. It’s Maria.”
The old woman was too weak to lift her head, but she smiled. “Thank you for coming, my dear.”
“Is there something I can do for you?”
Isabella’s skin was sallow and her eyes were sunken. But her smile was a semblance of its original beauty. “I need you to tell me the truth. Is my great-nephew going to accept the crown?”
Maria shot Alex a glance, and he saw her swallow. “Well, ma’am, I believe he’s still thinking about it.”
“You had dinner with the children. All of them except Juan Carlos. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
Alex wanted to smile at the thought of the Montoros being referred to as children, but he listened to hear what Isabella would say next.
The matriarch was physically weak, but her formidable spirit survived intact. “Why are they so reluctant to accept their birthright?”
Maria bit her lip, her hand reaching out to clasp one of Isabella’s. “You should know that they love you very much. And they respect your opinions and wishes. But what you’re asking them to do is huge. They were born in this country. They’re citizens of the United States. They have business interests and friends and a whole life here.”
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you,” she said with the faintest of twinkles in her eyes. “I knew you wouldn’t sugarcoat the truth.”
“I’m not saying they won’t decide to reclaim the monarchy. I honestly don’t know. But for this whole situation to work...both personally and politically, it’s my belief that Rafael will have to embrace the throne wholeheartedly or not at all.”
The room fell silent. Alex frowned, wishing Maria had been more conciliatory with a patient at death’s door.
Isabella squeezed Maria’s hand. “I understand what you’re telling me. I let my enthusiasm run amok, I think.”
“Your feelings are understandable. You were born in Alma. You actually lived there. And your life was torn apart and rebuilt. Everyone values your experience. If it’s any consolation, all of them are taking this very, very seriously. The decision may or may not fall the way you’re hoping, but I can promise you this...Rafe will do the right thing. He’s decent and thoughtful and well aware of the choice being offered.”
“But the right thing may not be the throne.” Isabella’s lips twisted in a wry half smile.
“No, ma’am.”
Alex stared at the monitors, waiting for them to go berserk as the elderly woman’s blood pressure shot up or down or she flatlined. Maria had just crushed Isabella’s dreams.
But the miraculous happened. Nothing changed. At least, not for the worse. Isabella reached out with a trembling hand and found the button that operated the hydraulics of the bed. Adjusting the mattress until she was partially sitting up, she lifted Maria’s hand, kissed it and released her.
“You may go now. Please ask all of my family to come in and see me.”
In the hall, Maria slumped against the wall, her face pale. She stared at Alex. “Don’t make me do that again.”
“No one forced you to go in there.”
“It’s not like I had a choice, and you know it.”
He followed her around the corner and found the Montoros waiting anxiously. Maria grimaced. “She wants to see all of you.”
When the room emptied, only Alex and Maria remained. He stared at the floor, his hands in his pockets. After a moment’s reflection, he retrieved his room key and handed it to her. “Why don’t you go on back? I can deal with things here.”
“You’re angry.”
He shrugged. “Not angry. Maybe a little surprised. I saw you with Gabriel in the garden, Maria. And I understand why you hesitated when I mentioned continuing our fling.”
She winced at the last word, her eyes wide with distress. “I swear to you, Alex, there’s nothing going on between Gabriel and me.”
“It’s possible you honestly believe that. But I saw the way you two acted with each other, the body language. My personal feelings don’t enter into this. If Gabriel has feelings for you, then I, as the head of the delegation, owe it to my country to step out of the way.”
Color flushed her cheeks. “So now you’re pimping me out for national security? That’s insulting and horrible.”
“Don’t overreact. We can both be mature about this. You and I had a fun weekend. But we’re in the midst of a crisis. It’s very clear to me that you have a connection with Gabriel—and with the whole family, for that matter. They trust you. So we’ll use that to our advantage.”
Maria looked at him with naked hurt. “How can you be so cold?”
He stared at her, the ice in his soul freezing every opportunity to back away from this precipice. “It’s my job, Maria. And the job comes first. It always has.”
Thirteen
Maria shut down, her world in ashes. In the cab on the way back to the hotel, she sat without moving, her hands clasped in her lap. Up the elevator, down the hall to Alex’s suite. She had to force herself to insert the key card and go inside.
The rooms carried the faint scent of sex and Alex’s aftershave mingled with Maria’s light perfume. She couldn’t even look at the bed. Stoically, she cleared the bathroom of all her paraphernalia. After that, she rounded up her other personal bel
ongings and stuffed them in the tote she had packed with such excitement on Friday evening.
She made it back to her room before breaking down completely. Sobbing so hard she almost made herself ill, she curled up in a ball on the bed and wondered how she could have thrown herself headlong into such a colossal mistake.
Sleeping with the boss? What a cliché. What a wretched, stupid thing to do. Now, not only was her personal life in ruins, there was a good chance she might have to quit her job. She couldn’t face seeing Alex every day at the Department of Commerce. Not knowing what he thought of her.
At the very least, he believed her to be a liar. Far worse than that was the fact he had turned his back on a relationship she thought was incredibly close and special. He’d brushed it aside as if it meant nothing...no more than a blip on the radar.
She’d heard people say that men could have sex without involving their emotions. But she’d never understood exactly what that meant. Now the truth was painfully clear. Alex, either intentionally or as a result of his wide experience with women, had convinced her that what happened in his suite this weekend was the stuff of romantic fantasy.
Fireworks and rainbows and happily-ever-afters. Realizing she had been so painfully naive was both humiliating and heartbreaking. Alex was willing to pass her off to Gabriel like an unwanted pet. No harm, no foul. Whatever was best for business.
She wanted to hate him for his callousness, and she did. But in the end, Alex was simply being Alex.
Suddenly, she couldn’t bear the thought of him knocking on her door to ask something about the proposal or anything else. She called down to the front desk and requested a change of rooms, making up an excuse as to why she wanted to be in the completely opposite wing of the large hotel that encompassed two adjoining buildings connected by a skywalk.
A polite bellman showed up and helped her move her things. It wasn’t much of a chore. She had packed light to come to the US. The only extras were a variety of small packages...souvenirs she had purchased for her mother and a few friends.
In the new room, she felt safer, but no less distraught. Changing into the yoga pants and loose cotton top that she had taken with her to Alex’s suite, she grimaced. She had envisioned relaxing with him in those simple clothes, maybe watching TV together. Instead, he had kept her naked almost the entire weekend.
Doggedly, she brushed her hair and fixed it in the usual ponytail before donning a baseball cap she wore for jogging to keep the hair out of her eyes. Hopefully, in the casual clothes and the hat no one would recognize her, even if she ran into anyone she knew...which was unlikely.
The members of the delegation were all staying in the other building. The Montoros would either be at the hospital or back in Coral Gables.
She wanted to leave her cell phone behind when she went out. But the tenets of responsibility were too deeply ingrained. This wasn’t a vacation. She was here to work. Thus, she had to be available if needed.
For hours, she walked the streets of Miami. South Beach was eclectic and colorful and sophisticated, with its art galleries and restaurants and unique gift shops. Towering high-rises accommodated a wide range of businesses as well as pricey condos. It would be a nice place to live.
At five o’clock, she realized she hadn’t eaten lunch. The fabulous smells emanating from a funky Cuban restaurant drew her inside. Fried plantains and shredded beef over rice filled her stomach, but nothing could fix the aching void in her chest.
She felt more solitary than the time long ago when she had been eight or nine and had to come home from school to an empty house. Those were bleak days. Her mother had worked almost constantly. Maria had learned to do homework on her own, to fix light meals on her own and sometimes even to put herself to bed.
The feeling now was much the same. Fear, dread, desperate loneliness. The only thing different was instead of missing her mother, who was the single touchstone for a child living a chaotic existence, Maria was now a grown woman with a broken heart.
She had told Alex if the weekend was all they had, it would be enough. But she’d been fooling herself. She wanted more. So much more...because despite her best intentions, she had fallen in love with him. It hadn’t begun in Miami. She’d been headed in that direction for months, maybe years.
Beneath the hot Florida sun, the truth of her feelings for him had blossomed. For one bright, shining moment, she’d thought he felt it, too. But she had confused sex with caring. Alex was a business associate, the head of the delegation, the boss.
And Maria was nothing but a woman who should have known better.
She was sitting on a bench people-watching when her phone vibrated, signaling a text message.
Where the hell are you?
She could practically feel his anger and frustration.
Your key is at the front desk. Is there anything I need to do for the presentation tomorrow morning? she asked. She wouldn’t jump to his bidding without a very good reason.
The document is perfect. I asked where you are.
She waited a long time. Maybe an entire minute. Then grimacing, she composed her answer: I’ll see you at nine in the morning.
* * *
Alex stared at his phone in shock, his jaw slack with astonishment. Never in all the years he’d known her had Maria ever behaved like this. She’d been at his beck and call, always willing to work late or to go the extra mile. Time and again he had seen her clean up a shoddy project left behind by someone else. She was driven and intelligent and utterly dependable.
But tonight he didn’t even know where she was.
He had gone to her room after dinner, hoping to make things easier between them. But a strange man opened the door when Alex knocked. Alex had backed away with an apology and then examined the number on the door a second time thinking he had made a mistake.
The mistake, however, was far more complex than forgetting a room number. He’d let himself get involved with a coworker. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t her direct supervisor anymore. He and Maria were in Alma on a critically important mission. Personal relationships were inappropriate at best, for the very reason that they made things complicated.
After his anger had cooled somewhat in the wake of their confrontation at the hospital, he felt he owed Maria an apology. It wasn’t fair to hold her accountable for her feelings if she really was falling for Gabriel Montoro. The man was charismatic, fun-loving and part of a family who had the potential to change Alma for the better over the coming decades.
Grinding his teeth, Alex tossed the phone on the bed and raked both hands through his hair. If he could have come up with even the flimsiest of pretexts to contact Maria again, he would have. But everything was in order for tomorrow’s meeting.
Where was she, damn it? He paced the room, trying to ignore the fact that her image appeared everywhere he looked. Like a hologram taunting him with faux reality, she lingered in his bed, on his sofa, in his shower.
Had she gone to Gabriel? Was she with him even now?
Alex forced himself to consider the possibility, confronting it head-on. The pain almost brought him to his knees. How could he let her go? How could he stand by for the good of his country and watch Gabriel Montoro woo her and wed her?
Maria was his. He had touched her, made love to her, shuddered in her arms as she pleasured him.
He dropped down on the bed, his head in his hands. How had he made such a mess of his life?
* * *
In the hotel conference room the following morning, Alex greeted the members of the committee as they arrived. Maria was conspicuously absent. Once everyone was seated, he passed out the copies of the finished proposal. Excited chatter rose and fell around the table as heads bent to scan the pages he’d had copied at the nearest office-supply store.
Just as Alex stepped behind the portable podium to b
egin going over the points of the document— section by section—the door opened once again, and Maria slipped into the room with a muttered apology. Her silky blond hair had been tamed into a sleek chignon. She wore a fashionable but relatively conservative navy suit with a pale pink camisole beneath.
Alex’s heart stopped entirely and then lurched into motion, his hands damp as they gripped the edge of the wood. “We saved you a seat,” he said, trying for friendly humor and failing miserably.
Maria shot him an inscrutable glance and moved toward the opposite end of the table. Normally, she sat near him in case he needed to confer about details or procedure. Today they were as far apart as possible.
Her skin was pale, her eyes underscored with shadows. Had she slept any more than he had?
The men and women around the table barely noticed her arrival. Interest and excitement ran high knowing that today’s meeting put them one step closer to officially courting the Montoros.
Alex forced himself to concentrate. This was not the moment to fumble, not with so much at stake. He spoke calmly and clearly, knowing his audience included some of the finest minds Alma had to offer. The Department of State was represented, as were Treasury and Internal Affairs. Combining the business interests of the Montoros with the economy of Alma would require finesse and vision.
It was clear by the end of the first hour that his team was impressed and pleased with the carefully crafted proposal. With the addition of a few footnotes and corrections here and there, the group voted unanimously to approve the document and move on to the next phase...making an official offer to Rafe Montoro IV to return to Alma and accept the throne.
During a short break when Alex had hoped to speak with Maria, his cell phone rang. After a brief conversation, he gathered his papers and reconvened his group. “That was Rafael Montoro on the phone, our potential head of state. He and the entire family had planned to be present tomorrow, as you know, in this very room, to hear what we have to say. But with his aunt in the hospital, they are understandably reluctant to leave her side.”
Minding Her Boss's Business Page 13
