Page 49 of An Inconvenient Marriage
“Zach.”Shit, would she stop saying my name like that?“Can we talk? Last night—”
“Was a mistake.” The words were out before I could stop them. And for reasons unknown to me, I immediately wanted to take them back. Especially when she couldn’t keep the hurt from flashing over her face.
Go to her. Take that beautiful face in your hands and kiss her until she forgets. Sure, you can’t promise her forever, but dammit, you can promise to make her feel good. To make both of you feel good.
Now was not the damn time for my conscience to grow a fucking voice. But shit, I couldn’t deny wanting to do just that. Even more when Natalie lifted her arms and hugged herself.
“A mistake,” she mumbled, repeating my words. “Right.” Slowly nodding, she squeezed her eyes shut and turned her back to me.
Somehow, that just made the churning inside my gut even worse.
I wanted to understand why hurting her made me feel the way it did. I wasn’t a heartless man. I hadn’t stepped on anyone to get to where I was, but that didn’t mean I was an emotional person either.
If my words were harsh or caused anyone pain, my immediate reaction had never been to take them back. And yet when it came to Natalie, all I wanted to do was take back the awful things that caused her pain.
And it had to stop.
“Listen,” I said. “I have meeting after meeting today and tomorrow. These things tend to run well into the night, and it would be extremely unfair of me to leave you here on your own. That’s why I called Pedro earlier this morning. He’ll be here shortly to take you back to the Castilla.”
She spun around then, a mixture of sadness and fury burning in her beautiful blue eyes. “You regret touching me so much you’re sending me away?”
No, mi diosa, it’s the exact opposite. I’m sending you away because all I want to do is touch you.
Sucking in a breath through my nose, I clenched my jaw and forced those words to stay inside. Because if she knew, she’d have too much power over me. And even though I desperately wanted to chain her to my bed and have my wicked way with her, I still didn’t trust her completely.
And it wasn’t just because she was the offspring of the one man I hated the most. She was hiding something, and until I knew what, I had to keep my guard up—as difficult as that may be with her looking good enough to eat.
“The least you can do is be honest with me.” Natalie unfolded her arms and pushed a few strands behind her ear. “I think I deserve that much.”
Trying to act nonchalant, I shoved my hands inside the pockets of my slacks and shrugged. “Maybe you should do a little less thinking, then.”
“You’re an asshole.” She put some fire into her tone.
It would have been believable if I hadn’t noticed how shiny her eyes turned or how her bottom lip trembled.
She wasn’t wrong. I was an asshole. A fucking huge one, too. Because instead of saying anything, instead of doing the right damn thing, I turned and walked out of the suite. And hoped like hell it really boiled down to “out of sight, out of mind.”
I should have known better.
The first half of my meeting was a complete disaster. I couldn’t concentrate on anything but the damn expression on Natalie’s face. More than once I’d pulled out my phone to dial her number but luckily caught myself before I went through with it.
By the time the second financial meeting rolled around, I finally gave in and sent a text to Pedro to find out if he’d picked up Natalie. My frustration only grew when all he sent back was “Si, senor.”
I wanted more than that. Wanted to know if she’d had something to eat. If she was comfortable. But most of all, I wanted to know if she still had that broken look on her beautiful face.
In the end, I didn’t ask any of that.
Which only added to my already foul mood. And when I walked into the restaurant to meet Javier for lunch, I was more than ready to drown my sorry emotions in a bottle of wine.
Good thing Javier was late. I swallowed down two glasses of Rioja Gran Reserva before he finally showed up.
He’d attempted to hide his identity with large sunglasses and a baseball cap tugged low over his eyes.
Not that it helped. As he walked through the crowd toward our table, I noticed more than a few people point to him and murmur. I couldn’t imagine living like that. Even the few magazine interviews I’d given in to had taken a lot of convincing from the companies.
How Javier stayed in the spotlight and keep his sanity was one hell of a mystery to me.
“No Natalie today?” my brother said when he reached me. Pulling off the cap and sunglasses, he set them on the table.
