“That bastard. What is this Davy’s last name?”
“Seriously? If he’s a bastard, what are you?”
Baz winced, but he caught her gaze with his deep brown one, sending some kind of message she could not interpret. “I wasn’t looking for dirt.”
“No, you were just looking for malleability. I don’t know how you can claim to have had no intention of hurting me. You’d have to be an emotionless monster not to know that doing the same thing to me as Davy, the enterprising reporter, would more than hurt. It would devastate.”
“I didn’t know about him.”
“But you did know that you engineered our meeting with the express purpose of convincing me not to do the interview. Then you...” Randi had to take several deep breaths before she could collect her thoughts and emotions. “You decided to use sex as a weapon against me just like he did.”
“Not like him. I wasn’t trying to get a juicy story.”
“No, just manipulate me with my body’s reaction to you.” With her heart, not that she believed he would understand how deep it had gone for her so quickly.
She wasn’t even sure Baz believed in romantic love. The way he talked about his father’s marriages indicated a real cynicism toward the concept.
“I did plan to use sex to get you to trust me,” he admitted, like it pained him to do so. “I needed you to listen with an open mind when I told you why doing the interview would be a mistake.”
“Don’t pretend you had a single concern about me and how the interview would impact me when you settled on your plan to seduce me.”
He frowned, his dark brows drawing together. “But how it would impact you matters to me now, very much.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you?”
“I would like it very much if you did.”
“I don’t know if I can.” She wasn’t being stubborn. Her heart hurt, every second of every day since she’d discovered his deceit. “When I realized who and what Davy was, I was humiliated. And hurt. But nothing in even the same universe to what I felt the moment I realized you were Carl Madison’s brother, that everything between us had been part of an agenda.”
“I cannot change why we met, but I will prove to you that we are too good together to walk away from each other over it. That your feelings do indeed matter to me.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Leave that to me. I am an excellent problem-solver.”
“I’m a problem you have to solve?”
“The situation between us is the problem. You are the most passionate, engaging, beautiful woman I have ever met.”
“Now I know you are lying. I am no supermodel.”
“Good. I would not be nearly as attracted to you if you were, no matter how charming your personality.”
Oh, goodness. She was going to fall right back into this man’s bed if she didn’t watch herself. “Do you have any romantic comedies for that expensive media system in the living room?”
“That expensive media system has access to several movie-streaming services. I am sure you can find whatever movie you would prefer.”
“Okay, then.”
“Bien, I am glad to please.”
He surprised her by sitting with her to watch French Kiss.
“I can’t believe you’ve never seen this one. It’s a classic.”
“I admit I watch movies rarely and never romantic ones.”
“I love them. I want to believe in happy beginnings.”
“I thought the term was happy ending?”
“An ending implies that’s all there is, but the couple getting together is only the beginning of the adventure.”
“Perhaps if my father understood that, he would not have married so many times.”
“Some people think relationships shouldn’t take any work.”
“You do not agree?”
“Of course not. Every relationship requires effort, whether it’s with a friend, a sister, a parent, a coworker. Why would maintaining emotional connection with your partner be any different?”
* * *
Basilio cut his connection to the conference call. He needed to get back to Spain. The big question was, could he convince Miranda to accompany him?
For a woman whose only committed relationship had crashed and burned five years earlier, she had insights that put his father’s attitudes to shame. Basilio respected and loved his father, but Miranda’s words had resonated with him. He knew that when things got tough or even mildly challenging in his marriages, his father started looking elsewhere.
The idea that the wedding was just the beginning of the journey, not the end, was the antithesis of how Basilio had grown up. But he liked it.
If he was to marry, it would be to a woman who felt as Miranda did.
For that to even be a possibility, he had to convince her that he would not hurt her again.
And to do that, he needed to take her to Spain, to introduce her to his world and show her that she fit in it.
* * *
“I can’t leave right now. You know we’re in the middle of opening a second Kayla’s for Kids facility.” Randi had returned to Baz’s condo again that evening to a similar setting to the night before.
The table was once again set beautifully, this time a gorgeous oversize bouquet of richly colored fall blooms in the center of the table.
Who had he asked to discover that while Randi did not have a favorite flower, she preferred those of the season?
“My executive assistant has found someone eminently qualified to fill in for you.”
“What? You can’t just bring in a temp to do something like this.”
“She is not a temp. She is, in fact, a woman with a great deal of experience with facilities of this kind. She will work on not only bringing in new funding, but also getting the second facility up and running.”
“You’re trying to make me obsolete with my sister’s charity?”
“No.” He looked genuinely offended. “What kind of man do you think I am? No, do not answer that, cariña. I want you with me in Spain.”
“You make it sound like we’re in a relationsh
ip and you’re trying to keep me with you.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“We are not in a relationship.” They weren’t. Whatever they had ended when she found out he was just using her.
The memory of him saying they could make a baby when she told him she wasn’t pregnant assailed her. With another guy, that would have been a throwaway comment. Or sarcasm at the very least.
Not Basilio Perez, though.
But then what did she know about him? She’d thought he was a random billionaire she’d run into on the sidewalk, that there was no way he could have an agenda. That he was a safe lover, if temporary.
None of that had turned out to be true.
“Will you come to Spain?”
“Do I really have a choice?”
“We always have a choice.”
“This whole staying together for the next two weeks is ridiculous.”
“But you agreed to it.”
“I’m not going anywhere unless Kayla agrees to this replacement you found for me. And I’m not going to spend my time there on vacation. You’ll need to make sure I can stay available via phone, video calls and my email.”
“Despite what you clearly think of me, I am not a man of the Dark Ages. We have all the modern technologies in our home.”
“We? Our?”
“My father lives in my hacienda when he is in Madrid.”
“Is he there now?” she asked suspiciously.
“No, in fact. He is visiting his latest fiancée’s family in Monaco.”
“She’s not Spanish?”
“Why should this surprise you? Certainly you’ve worked out by now that Carlos and Gracia’s mother is American.”
“And your mother?”
“From Catalonia.”
“That makes sense. You are very Spanish.”
“What does that mean?”
“No one would mistake you for an Englishman, despite that being the accent you speak with using this language.”
“I would imagine not.”
She shook her head. She wasn’t even sure what she meant. It was just a feeling, but it wasn’t like she had a lot of experience with the nuances between European cultures.
* * *
Surprisingly, Kayla had no trouble with Randi taking off for Spain in the middle of the new facility setup. “This woman Baz’s executive assistant found for us has experience neither one of us has. She’ll be a great resource.”