The Spaniard's Pleasure: The Spaniard's Pregnancy Proposal / At the Spaniard's Convenience / Taken: the Spaniard's Virgin

‘I asked someone.’

Fleur buried her face in her hands and groaned.

This got worse!

There was no chance at all that no one had recognised him. Antonio Rochas changed his hairstyle and it was national news!

Occasionally the private life of staff intruded into the workplace and it became the subject of speculation amongst her colleagues and the student population. The idea of being the subject of staff-room gossip made Fleur feel nauseous.

‘You knew that I did not want Tamara to know about Finch. You knew my wishes, but you decided to ignore them. Why would you do that? Other than this natural desire you appear to have to flaunt my authority?’

Fleur’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re saying this is about me answering Tamara’s questions.’ Actually she knew it wasn’t. It was clear to Fleur that this was about establishing some ground rules. This was about her stepping over some invisible line that women he wanted to sleep with were not allowed within fifty feet of.

She’d already been in one unequal relationship. A shiver ran down her spine when she thought about how close she’d come to walking into another.

‘Your authority!’ she choked. ‘You don’t have any—not over me, anyway. I’m quite capable of making my own judgements. You’re not my father!’

‘No, but I am Tamara’s.’

‘And she has my sympathy!’ Fleur flared.

He flinched.

‘I do not pretend to be a perfect father,’ he retorted grimly.

‘You don’t have to be perfect…but maybe you do? Perhaps that’s your problem. You want to be the best at everything?’

Antonio’s lips curled as he looked down into her wide-spaced golden eyes. ‘I am not interested in your psychobabble theories. I have no idea what your motivation was when you told Tamara about her father. But I can guess—’

‘You’re her father.’

The soft interruption made Antonio pause, but his tone had not softened when he broke the taut silence. ‘A fact you decided to ignore when you went against my express wishes,’ he reminded her.

‘I can see how it might seem that way to someone as autocratic as you,’ Fleur conceded.

‘I am not autocratic!’

This blast drew an audible giggle from the corridor outside. Fleur grimaced and stifled a groan of horror; the walls in the building were paper-thin. A fact she really ought to have kept in mind before taking part in a slanging match.

‘Will you lower your voice?’ she begged in a hushed undertone. ‘I’m not trying to deny I told Tamara that the no-contact situation wasn’t your idea. But when she came to me she already knew. She’s not stupid; she had worked it out. What was I meant to do? Lie when she asked me?’ Even as she spoke she knew that he wasn’t hearing a word she was saying.

‘I have to tell you, if this was your way of ingratiating yourself—’

The furrows on her smooth brow deepened. ‘Ingratiate? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

One dark brow lifted. ‘No?’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘Then let me spell it out. You create a problem and then step in to heal it. ‘

Fleur blinked, totally bewildered by the angry assertion. ‘Why on earth would I do that?’

‘To use the influence you appear to wield over my daughter to worm your way into my life…make yourself indispensable—’

Her jaw dropped in shock. ‘Your life!’ she echoed in a stunned voice. ‘What are you talking about?’

Antonio ignored her bewildered question. ‘You pretend you care about her.’ And he had not just let her into their lives, he had actively nourished the connection.

A flash of angry colour travelled up Fleur’s neck until her pale cheeks grew hot. ‘I do care about her.’

‘You sound sincere, but then sincerity is your forte, isn’t it, Fleur? Sincere and sweet and a great listener…’ And he had fallen for it all, the phoney concern, the caring eyes, he thought, his lips curling into a grim smile of self-disgust. And how, how had he forgotten that women always wanted something, they always had an agenda? Maybe it was because he hadn’t been thinking with his head, but areas much farther south!

‘You think I used Tamara because I wanted…I wanted to be part of your life? You think I want to be part of your magic circle?’ She swallowed and loosed a low-pitched, ironic laugh. Well, at least she knew what he thought of her.

‘You think this is funny?’

‘Funny! My God, if I’m ever as cynical as you I hope someone puts me out of my misery. I knew you thought a lot of yourself, but even for you this must be a new high. I hate to blow your lovely conspiracy theory sky-high, but I really don’t go home at night and think about how to get myself a billionaire. People generally don’t.’

Antonio, who had been the target for unscrupulous and often inventive campaigns over the years, raised a brow and said sardonically, ‘You don’t think so?’

‘Oh, poor you!’ she drawled with insincere sympathy. ‘I suppose you have to fight them off with a stick. Do you work on the theory that every woman you meet wants your body…or is it your bank account, not your integrity, you’re worried about preserving? Oh, yes, I’d love a chunk of your money because I can see how damned happy it makes you.’

An expression of total astonishment chased across his patrician features. ‘You are trying to tell me you feel sorry for me?’

‘No, I save my pity for people who deserve it.’

The biting retort made his jaw tighten another notch. ‘And money means nothing to you, I suppose.’

Fleur considered the jeering question seriously. ‘Of course it does. It’s nice to feel secure and have nice things sometimes, but all money does—or at least the amount you have—is complicate things. Women do want other things, you know. We’re not all grasping sluts. Some of us can manage without millions in the bank and haven’t even had sex for two years…’ She stopped, all expression blanking from her face as the awful words hung in the air.

She’d have given anything to have retrieved them, but she couldn’t. They were out there doing all manner of damage to her self-esteem, not to mention her moral authority.

I did not say that. Please tell me I did not say that, she prayed silently.

But of course she had. The mother and grandfather of all Freudian slips and it was all hers. This was a situation where damage limitation was the best she could hope for.

‘Two years is a long time.’

Tell me about it, she thought, maintaining a tight-lipped silence in the face of his glittery-eyed scrutiny.

‘So you don’t want my money, just my body.’

Fleur cast him a look of intense dislike. ‘That was a figure of speech…’

‘No, that was a cry from the heart.’

‘My heart has nothing to do with this.’