A Spanish Engagement (7 page)

He sounded like her boss José, when he was closing a deal. Only this wasn’t business, this was playing with people’s emotions, and Carrie felt more than a twinge of misgiving. ‘I don’t understand. Why do you need a fiancée?’

‘My father has found out Manuel is leaving. And the timing couldn’t be worse. He’s started talking about going back into the office, says he will go back as soon as they discharge him from the hospital on Monday.’ Max stopped the car at some traffic lights and drummed his
fingertips on the steering wheel. ‘I’ve told him not to worry, that I will take over, but he’s stubbornly refusing to accept the offer. He says that I haven’t got the passion for the land. That if I had I would have settled down with a nice girl and raised a family.’ He glanced across at Carrie with a look of grim concern in his eyes. ‘The specialist has told my mother that if he goes back to the pressures of work his health will diminish rapidly. She’s worried sick…we all are.’

The traffic lights changed. ‘Which way to your apartment?’ Max asked, ignoring the blare of horns behind them as he paused.

‘You need to turn left at the next junction.’ She watched as he manoeuvred through the busy lanes of cars. ‘So you think if you introduce me as your fiancée that your father will feel better about handing things over to you?’

‘It will prove to him that I’m serious about taking over. Which I am, incidentally.’ Max glanced over at her. ‘But having you on side will help convince him of that; it will buy some time, stop him fretting.’

‘Yes, but it’s just a pretence, Max.’ She shook her head. ‘How will your father feel when you tell him a little while later that our fake engagement is off?’

‘I suppose he’ll feel the same as Carmel and Bob will,’ Max said. ‘But he’ll just have to get over it. These things happen. Relationships fail. We just have to deal with it and move on.’

Carrie glanced over at him, noting the hard edge, the quiet inevitability to those words. Max Santos was obviously a realist; he’d weighed up the pros and cons in a coolly businesslike way and had decided that the end justified the means. She wondered if it was his high-flying
job that had given him that forceful edge, or something else—something more personal from his past.

‘Which is why I suggest we just keep up the pretence for as long as we can…’ Max continued crisply. ‘That way we are buying time and, I know it’s a cliché, but time is a healer. In that space my father can rest, and Carmel and Bob can come to terms with Tony’s death and this change of circumstances.’

Carrie didn’t say anything for a moment. What he had said made a kind of sense. Seeing how Carmel and Bob had relaxed around Max today had made everything seem normal and under control, and for a while the lifting of tension had been a blissful relief.

‘It almost sounds practical when you put it like that,’ she murmured.

‘I think it is practical,’ Max said firmly. ‘We are both single, and neither of us wants a heavy commitment. This arrangement could work perfectly. Unless, of course, you have a boyfriend somewhere in the background who is going to kick up a fuss.’

‘No, there is no boyfriend,’ Carrie said quietly.

‘So no skeletons are going to fall out of closets, then?’ he persisted. ‘It’s just that Carmel mentioned over lunch that Tony had told her you were dating someone in the office.’

He glanced over and noticed how her skin suddenly flushed with colour. She pointed up ahead to a road that led off the main thoroughfare. ‘I live down there,’ she told him stiffly.

Max turned into her road and followed her directions to pull the car up outside a tall, narrow townhouse with an ornate terrazzo entrance.

He turned off the engine and then turned to look at her. ‘So are you seeing someone at work?’

Her blue eyes darkened angrily. ‘My private life is my business,’ she muttered. ‘Nobody has the right to pry. Not Carmel. Not you—’

‘Carrie, if we are going to go through with this arrangement we both need to know where we stand.’ He cut across her with firm determination. ‘Unless, of course, you’ve changed your mind and you want to ring Carmel and Bob, tell them the truth.’

The prospect filled Carrie with a cold, clammy, sick feeling. She glanced over into the back seat of the car. Molly was fast asleep, her head resting against Mojo’s. She remembered how scared the little girl had been in the hotel foyer. How she had clung to her trembling and sobbing. Carrie was the only familiar figure in her life at the moment. Molly needed her. ‘No, I don’t want to change my mind.’ She glanced back at Max. ‘Yes, I was seeing someone at work—my boss José. But he couldn’t accept the fact that Molly has to come first in my life now, and things have changed.’

‘Changed as in the affair has ended?’

Max’s dark eyes seemed to be raking into her very soul.

She nodded.

Max watched her, sensed how much she hated letting him inside her life even this much. It was as if she was scared of opening up to him, as if she had big orange traffic cones around her saying, You can only come so far with me. I’m my own person.

Then she lifted her chin and fixed him with that confident ‘I’m in charge’ look that he recognised from their business lunch. ‘So what about you?’ she asked crisply. ‘Why are you asking
me
to pose as your fiancée? There must be a million women you could ask. You could even propose to someone for real, settle down.’

‘I decided to do that once before.’ His voice softened
suddenly. ‘I was engaged. Everything was in place for our wedding, but…’ He shrugged. ‘It just didn’t work out.’

There was a hint of wistfulness in his tone for a moment, a serious look in his dark eyes that made her wonder what had happened between him and his ex-fiancée. And she remembered his stark words earlier.
‘Relationships fail. We just have to deal with it and move on.’

Did Max have regrets about the past?

Before she could ask him anything he switched briskly back to a practical tone. ‘So, you see, I think it’s best that I stick to a more businesslike arrangement this time.’

The blunt statement made Carrie think he probably did have regrets. That, like her, he had decided it was better to be single.

‘I suppose this kind of agreement has its pluses,’ she said hesitantly. ‘Neither of us will get hurt.’

‘Exactly. It’s the perfect deal,’ Max agreed. ‘I’m helping you out; you’re helping me. It’s a sensible arrangement. With no strings.’

Something about the way he emphasised the last point, in a brisk, pragmatic tone, grated on her. ‘Yes, okay, Max, I get the point,’ she said coolly. ‘And you have no need to worry on that score, I can assure you. I’m not going to get carried away by the pretence. I have absolutely no wish to get married again.’

‘So, as I said before, it’s the perfect arrangement,’ Max said lightly. His gaze moved from the fire in her blue eyes to the gentle curve of her lips. ‘But of course we will have to be convincing in our parts.’

She looked at him warily. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that people will expect us to act like lovers. Not as business partners.’

Hastily she looked away from him, the softly spoken words sending all kinds of alarm bells ringing inside her.
‘As long as we are civil with each other. And say the right things when needed—like today—I think that will be enough…’

Max reached out suddenly and put a hand under her chin, tipping her face up so that she was forced to look at him. The gentle contact sent her emotions into complete chaos. ‘I think people will expect a little more than that,’ he said huskily.

‘A little more in what way?’ she murmured. She could feel her heart drumming against her chest so powerfully that it made her feel dizzy.

His eyes moved to the softness of her lips again and suddenly Carrie felt the emotional temperature between them spiral out of control.

He moved closer and she knew he was going to kiss her. Her instincts were telling her to move back and yet she couldn’t. She was held by a force that was much more powerful than anything her mind was telling her; this was almost primal, it was so overwhelming.

As he moved closer the scent of his cologne crept into her senses, warm and clean and somehow extremely provocative. His fingertips traced the side of her face, sending shivery little messages of desire shooting through to her very nerve-endings. Then his lips moved to capture hers.

The touch was electric. At first the kiss was gentle, provocatively teasing. She responded uncertainly, trying with all her strength to fight the dark forces that were urging her to move closer, that were whispering encouraging little words deep inside about how wonderful this felt. Then his lips became more demanding; they plundered hers with a hunger that sent the last semblance of rationality flying from her mind. She wanted this. Wanted it to go on and on. And she responded heatedly, her body rejoicing as she felt his arms closing around her, pulling
her even closer. The kiss was mind-blowing and devastating. Exciting beyond belief.

A sound from the back seat of the car made them pull apart hurriedly. Carrie glanced around. Molly was still asleep; she had just rearranged herself so that her head was resting on the window of the door.

‘She’s okay.’ Max was the first to speak.

‘Yes…’ Carrie glanced back at him and the memory of that kiss seemed to dance in the air between them like some kind of taunt. She felt mortified. What the hell had just happened?

He smiled at her gently. ‘Well, looks like we won’t have too much difficulty playing the part of lovers after all,’ he said teasingly.

Carrie swallowed hard. ‘I’d better go, Max. Molly needs her bed.’ As she got out of the car Max followed her.

‘I’ll carry her in for you,’ he offered as she looked across at him questioningly. ‘That way maybe you can get her down without waking her.’

She hesitated for a second and then nodded. At least if Molly had a sleep now it would give her time to gather herself together and think about the direction that her life was suddenly veering off in.

Carrie watched as he opened the back door of the car and then reached gently across to unfasten the sleeping child from the safety belt. Molly stirred but she didn’t wake up.

Opening her handbag, Carrie found her front-door keys and led the way through the door and then up the mosaic-tiled stairway towards her apartment on the first floor.

She unlocked it and then moved down her hall and into the small bedroom that was Molly’s.

‘Thank you,’ she said as she watched Max put her down into the bed.

‘That’s all right,’ Max said. ‘She’s a lovely little girl—reminds me of my sister’s child, Belle.’

‘I didn’t know you had a sister.’ Carrie turned to adjust the blinds so that the room was in semi-darkness.

‘Yes, Victoria—you met her children the other day at my house. Belle and Emilio.’

‘I thought they were your estate manager’s children? Oh, I see,’ Carrie said suddenly as comprehension dawned. ‘Manuel is your brother-in-law as well as Estate Manager?’

‘Former Estate Manager, as it turns out,’ Max said wryly. ‘But, yes, Manuel is my brother-in-law. We’ve a lot to find out about each other now that we are getting engaged, don’t you think?’ he added softly. ‘A lot of catching up.’

Carrie knew he was speaking in a low tone so as not to wake Molly, but the husky undertone sent flutters of awareness shooting through her. And the half-light of the room seemed suddenly disturbingly personal. She found herself thinking about that kiss in the car. The level of passion that had sprung between them from nowhere had been shockingly intense; her body was still reeling from it.

Irritated by the reaction, she reminded herself sharply that a few minutes before he had kissed her he had been emphasising the fact that this was just a business deal. So any passion that had flared between them was in her imagination. It was just a kiss, no big deal.

‘How about dinner tomorrow night?’ he asked.

Carrie remembered he had asked her the same question when she had bumped into him at the reception desk at the hotel this morning. And she had refused him. Firstly
because she hadn’t wanted Molly’s grandparents to think she worked and was away from Molly in the evenings. And secondly because she wanted to keep her dealings with Max strictly within the safety confines of business. But both those reasons no longer held up.

‘Well, I suppose we do still need to talk about work anyway,’ she said cautiously, trying to sound practical. ‘You were saying something this morning about some queries you had about the advertising contract?’

‘Yes, I was…’ Max sounded dryly amused, as if her returning to the subject of work half irritated him. ‘So, shall I pick you up tomorrow night? Say about seven-thirty?’

‘I’ll have to check with Carmel and Bob to see if they have any plans for Molly…’

‘Why don’t you ask them to babysit?’ Max suggested. ‘They might like to do that, and we could go to a restaurant nearby—that way we can return here quickly if there is any problem.’

‘Okay, I’ll ask them,’ she found herself agreeing. Dinner with Max did sound appealing. There was a part of her that wanted to know him better. A part that was fascinated by him. She wondered if it was the same kind of fascination that children sometimes felt with fire. ‘And we can discuss business,’ she added again firmly. ‘I’ll bring a copy of the contract and we can go through it.’

‘I’m sure Carmel and Bob would be very interested to see you going out with your fiancé for the evening with your briefcase,’ Max said firmly. ‘For once, Carrie, leave work at home.’ The sentence was more like a command than a request. ‘We’re going out tomorrow on a date. Any talk about work can be dealt with in the first twenty minutes.’

‘But I thought you were anxious to get the contract
rolling…’ Carrie found that she was talking to herself. Max had turned and left the room.

Hurriedly she followed him towards the front door.

‘Max, I…’

‘I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven-thirty,’ he said. ‘See you then.’ He reached and touched her face. It was just a gentle caress, as if he was satisfied that he had got his own way, yet it set her skin on fire.