One Night, Two Secrets

Scarlet couldn’t help but think that maybe he hadn’t worried about lying to her because of who she was. Because she was the kind of person who’d lived her life going from one scandal to the next. She had a reputation. So lying to her hadn’t worried him.

She hoped that wasn’t the case.

But then she’d learned that hoping was a waste of time. She’d hoped her dad would stop marrying younger women and actually be a parent to her and Tara. She’d hoped that Tara would stop using and get clean. Now she was hoping that Alejandro Velasquez was a decent guy...

Alec had grown up playing polo with his brothers. The Velasquez family had been horse breeders for generations, and Alec’s dad had been playing on a team with Tio Jose and their cousins since they were children. So riding was second nature to Alec. His four-player team generally consisted of Alec, Mo, their eldest brother, Diego, and the youngest Velasquez, Inigo, with either Malcolm Ferris—Mo’s best friend—or their dad often subbing for Inigo, who was gone a lot of the time on the Formula 1 circuit. Technically Inigo wasn’t supposed to play when he was home because of insurance concerns, but the Velasquez men had a problem with following the rules.

Diego was always number one—the goal striker. He’d always had a good eye for hitting goals, so it made sense for him to play in that position. Alec and Mauricio traded off being number two, the forward, and number three, the pivotal player who switches between offense and defense. Then number four protected the goal. Malcolm was really good at that position and since they’d grown up playing with him, he knew everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.

But when the third chukka ended, Alec knew his brothers and Malcolm weren’t pleased with his performance. It didn’t help that they were playing against Bart and his friends, who’d all played polo professionally at some point in their lives.

Alec hung back from the others trying to search out Scarlet in the crowd. He finally spotted her standing with Zaria and laughing at something Bart’s sister had said. Scarlet’s head was thrown back and he felt a jolt of lust just seeing her happiness.

“You’re not going to be in a state to even talk to her if you don’t get your head in the game,” Mo said, coming over to him.

His twin was known for his hot temper, but since he and Hadley had gotten engaged, Mauricio hadn’t been giving in to it as often. For a while after Hadley and Mo had broken up he’d been getting into fights with everyone in town and drinking way too much. It had been Mo’s way of dealing with losing Hadley while not having to admit he’d pushed her away.

“I’m trying,” Alec said. “I wasn’t expecting to see her today. Why is she here? And how am I going to make up for lying about being you?” he asked his twin. She’d thrown him and he wasn’t used to being caught off guard. Part of the reason he was so successful was that he could usually envision all the possibilities in a situation. But this was completely out of left field. He’d done some research on Scarlet—she was known for moving forward and rarely going back to anything or anyone.

Mo sighed. “Dude, I have no clue but winning the game would probably go a long way to impressing her.”

Alec knew the outcome of this match didn’t matter to her at all. “I think that would make you happy, not her.”

“Maybe your right... But damn, you’re in trouble now.”

“What?” he asked, glancing over at Scarlet and noticing that his sister, who was almost six months pregnant, and his mom had joined the group Scarlet was in.

Oh crap. That was all he needed: Bianca and his mom over there talking to her. “I wonder if Dad wants to play for me for a minute.”

“No. Don’t do it. There’s nothing you can say to make anything better. Plus, Dad hasn’t played in a couple of weeks and he’s taking care of Benito,” Mo said, referring to their little nephew. “Come on, time to finish the match.”

Alec’s performance was as crappy in the last two chukkas as it had been in the first four. He gave his twin a wide berth when they were in the locker room, showering and changing. He wasn’t looking forward to joining his family, who were up on the second-floor balcony of the main barn area. When Diego and Alec had started designing and developing the polo grounds, they’d known they wanted a place for the family to hang out after matches. In fact, Diego was hiring an event manager to run the space as it had become popular with many of the townspeople in Cole’s Hill.

When he left the locker room, he went to the barn instead of up to the balcony where everyone was waiting, including Scarlet O’Malley. He wished he had his laptop with him but instead he leaned against Dusty his polo pony’s stall, took out his phone, pulled up the internet and deployed the search algorithm that he’d developed to find all imprints left by a person on the web. It wouldn’t help him in time for the brunch he was having with Scarlet and his family, but afterward he’d have a better idea of who she was and why she was here.

One night in her bed had whetted his appetite for her but he’d resigned himself to never seeing her or touching her again. There was just too much explaining to do, so he’d figured that she’d just be one of those women he thought about wistfully from afar. But now she was back and he wanted her, as badly as he had the first time he’d kissed her.

Dusty lifted his head and looked toward the barn entrance. Alec turned and saw Scarlet walking through the doors toward him. He took a deep breath as he pocketed his smartphone.

“Hello.”

“Hi, Alejandro. I was waiting for you upstairs,” she said.

“Sorry. I wanted to apologize to Dusty for my poor playing today,” he said.

She tipped her head to the side and studied him. She didn’t say anything, just crossed her arms over her chest and waited.

“What?”

“Nothing. But now I know what you look like when you lie.”

He straightened away from the stall and walked toward her. “No, you don’t. That’s the truth.”

“Are you sure? Because you have the exact same look on your face as you did when you introduced yourself to me as Mauricio.”

Three (#u1e48e6fc-5813-53e6-8dd1-82b42f607bd4)

He stood there in the middle of the stables looking more at home than he’d been at the gala in Houston. She wondered if she was glimpsing the real man now. But then how would she know? Since they’d been introduced, he’d done nothing but lie to her.

“I’m sorry I lied to you, Scarlet,” he said. “If there had been a chance to tell you the truth I would have, but I got carried away and the last thing on my mind once we got to your hotel room was explaining the rather complicated fact that I had helped my twin out by pretending to be him.”

As close as he stood to her she couldn’t help but inhale the spicy, outdoorsy aftershave he wore. She closed her eyes. The scent wasn’t unpleasant, but she was pregnant and it bothered her the slightest bit.

Damn.

If she got sick in front of him, she was going to throw the biggest, ugliest fit anyone had ever witnessed. She needed the advantage here. She wanted to find out what kind of man he was before she told him about the baby.

She took a few steps back and turned toward the horse stalls that held the polo ponies. She didn’t mind horses but hadn’t really ever been a great rider. Tara had been the rider in their family. And since their father always insisted on making a competition of everything the two of them had done, they’d quickly decided not to pursue the same passions.

The queasiness subsided as soon as she stepped away from him.

She turned to look back at him over her shoulder. She’d left her sunglasses on when she’d entered the stables and now it was hard to see him. The lenses were very dark, and she couldn’t make out his expression.

Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. She skimmed her gaze down his body. He wore a pair of white jeans with a black belt that emphasized his narrow waist and the strength of his legs. He also wore a light-colored button-down shirt and gray blazer. She wished he appeared unkempt or wrinkled. But instead he looked like the sophisticated man she’d thought him to be.

“So you’re a tech guy?” she asked.

One side of his mouth lifted in a sort of half smile. “You could say that.”

“I just did,” she quipped. Something she’d learned from a lifetime of dealing with her father—a man she’d never understood and still didn’t really know—was to always stay on her toes.

“Touché.”

“What do you do?” she asked.

“I’ll be happy to tell you about it over brunch,” he said. “Should we go and join the rest of my family?”

“Not yet,” she said. “I want to know more about you, Alejandro.”

“Fair enough. I want to know more about you as well, Scarlet. I want to know the woman behind the headlines.”

She shook her head. No one knew that woman... Well, maybe Tara had, but she was dead. And Billie and Siobahn saw what she wanted them to see. She had never felt comfortable letting someone all the way in. She doubted this man who’d lied to her when they’d first met would be the one.

“That’s not how it’s going to work,” she said. “It’s not a tit-for-tat thing. You lied about who you are. I didn’t.”

He came over and reached out, taking her hand in his. When he lifted it to his mouth and kissed it, a shiver went up her arm and awareness spread throughout her body. Here was a reaction she could understand. Lust. Pure and simple.

“I did lie. I’m incredibly sorry about that. If I could do it over, I would have told you who I was right away. But everything else about that night was me. I wasn’t acting like Mo. He’s much duller than I am.”