The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife Read Free Page A

couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact was that all he could think about was the swift, brief glimpse he had had of her taut, rounded behind in the sexily tight black skirt as she’d swung away from him, the sway of her hips as she’d moved. He felt hard and hot and hungry and thinking clearly was the last thing he was capable of doing.
    ‘Oh, I wanted it—but not that badly! Not badly enough to want to tie myself to you!’
    He’d caught her on the raw there, he noted with grimsatisfaction. She’d actually flinched, the slim, elegantly manicured fingers resting on the back of the chair tightening convulsively, digging into the burgundy leather. The satisfaction of seeing her react with something more than scorn pulled at his darkest feelings and a terrible imp of malice urged him to score another hit while he could.
    ‘I’ve no thought of marrying any time soon. Why should I want to tie myself down when there are hundreds of beautiful women all over Catalonia and beyond? And even if I was, I do have some pride. I would much prefer to choose my own bride than marry someone I had to be bribed to wed.’
    ‘Well don’t worry—you won’t even get the chance!’
    He didn’t mince his words, did he? Estrella fought a sharp little battle with herself to hide the sting of his barbed attack, refusing to let the tears threaten, even though they pricked hard at the backs of her eyes. She’d wept enough in the past over men who weren’t worth it—one man in particular. And after being emotionally savaged by an expert like Carlos, petty insults like this were a piece of cake.
    Or at least they should have been. But somehow this man’s knife thrusts got under her skin, scoring brutal wounds along her soul.
    ‘I wouldn’t marry you if my life and the future of mankind depended on it!’ she flung at him. ‘If you were to ask me—’
    ‘Which I won’t.’
    ‘If you were to ask me,’ Estrella persisted through gritted teeth, ‘I’d throw the words right back in your face and love every second of it.’
    ‘Well, enjoy the feeling of imagining it,’ Ramón tossed back. ‘Because, believe me, that’s as close as you’ll ever get to doing it. I’ve no intention of putting my head in a noose just so that you can pull it tight around my throat, even if you are the sexiest thing on two legs I’ve seen in a long, long time.’

CHAPTER TWO
    T HE sexiest thing on two legs…
    Estrella couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had Ramón really said—?
    A warm, intoxicating sense of pleasure flooded her veins, making her head swim with sudden and purely feminine delight. In spite of herself she couldn’t stop a swift, tiny smile from tugging at the corners of her lips. It was brief as a heartbeat; there and gone in a second. But he caught it and his black brows twitched together in an even harsher frown.
    ‘Oh, you liked that did you,’ he drawled cynically. ‘You liked the thought that I find you sexy? Well, don’t think that you can use it to your advantage. I’m not so desperate that I would want Carlos Perea’s cast-offs—even if they do come with a substantial bribe of the TV company in the form of a dowry. I’d want much more than that.’
    ‘Well, you could have had more.’
    This time Estrella’s brief, tight smile had none of the fleeting warmth and delight of just moments before.
    ‘If you’d played your cards right, my father would have settled anything on you. Everything you wanted—right down to the castle and the title that goes with it. If you’d given him a grandson, his gratitude would have known no bounds.’
    The look that crossed his stunning face puzzled her. As did the momentary pause before he came back at her. She’d said something that had hit home to him—but what? She barely had time to formulate the question before his expression changed again, the cold-eyed sneer coming back with a vengeance.
    ‘Thanks, but no, thanks,’ he drawled. ‘Even with the added