The Spanish Aristocrat's Woman Read Free

was truly comfortable around.
    “This is Count…Gui. I’m sorry I don’t remember your entire title.”
    He smiled at that. “I’m Count Guillermo de Cuaron y Bautista de la Cruz. But please, just Gui.”
    He bowed and the girls all dropped into low curtsies as they’d been taught long ago. Gui smiled at them and Katie giggled.
    The music changed from lively to a slow ballad. Kara started edging her way off the dance floor but Gui stopped her with his hand on her arm.
    “I believe you asked me to dance.”
    “Yes,” she said.
    He drew her back toward the center of the dance floor and into his arms. Even in her heels he was taller than she was. He smoothed his hands down her back, resting them just above the curve of her hips.
    He was a good dancer, which made sense. He owned several nightclubs and had probably spent a fair amount of time frequenting the trendy nightspots. Each with a different woman.
    She sighed. Why had her thoughts turned to that?
    “What are you thinking?”
    She shook her head. There weren’t enough martinis in this room to get her to admit what she’d been thinking. “Nothing.”
    “You sighed.”
    “I did.”
    “So…”
    “Gui?”
    “Yes, Kara.”
    “Stop being charming.”
    He laughed and lifted his head. “I can’t. It’s a curse of mine.”
    “And you use it very well.”
    “You say that as if it were a bad thing.”
    “Well, it makes you seem like the kind of man who always knows the right thing to say.”
    “Fake?” he asked.
    She bit her lower lip. “Yes. Fake. I mean, you say things to me that sound like you really care, but you hardly know me.”
    “Perhaps you’re easier to care about than you think.”
    She shook her head. “I know I’m not. No man ever sees me as anything other than an heiress.”
    “Then they aren’t really looking at you,” Guillermo said.
    Kara felt something shift inside her as she looked at Gui. He drew her even more closely to him until her breasts brushed his chest and her head rested on his shoulder.
    She feared this was a martini-induced dream, but it felt incredibly real to her and she wanted it to last for a little while longer. Tomorrow she could go back to being the pudgy heiress. Tonight, she wanted to revel in the feeling of being a fairy-tale princess with her count.
    “Guillermo, querido? ”
    The voice was low and husky and very feminine. And there was a hint of possessiveness in that voice as its owner spoke to Gui.
    He stiffened and his features tightened, but she didn’t know him well enough to really read his reaction. “ Si, Elvira.”
    “Introduce me to your lovely friend,” the woman named Elvira said.
    Kara heard the criticism in the other woman’s voice. That note that said, why are you dancing with this pudgy girl instead of me? It was a tone that Kara had heard often enough over the years.
    “Countess Elvira de Castillo y Perez, meet Kara deMontaine. Kara, this is the Countess Elvira.”
    “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Kara said, curtsying to the older woman.
    “Aren’t you a sweet child,” the countess said. “Run along and play with your friends. I’d like a word with Guillermo.”
    Kara started to step away but Gui’s hand tightened on her arm. “Kara is my fiancée, Elvira. Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of her.”

Two
    K ara smiled politely but inside her mind was reeling. What the hell was Gui thinking? She started to speak but he bent to her and brushed his lips over hers.
    She parted hers in surprise and felt the brush of his tongue against hers. Then it was gone. “I’m sorry, Elvira, we don’t have time to chat. I promised this dance to Kara.”
    Gui danced her away from the other woman. And she just stared up at him, for the first time in her life completely unsure of what to do next.
    “Um…”
    “Don’t say anything just yet. Dance with me and look up at me the way a woman in love would.”
    “And how is that?”
    “With adoration, of