Page 8 of Just for the Holidays
“It’s just been so long since I saw you happy, Gael. You two together, it’s my Christmas miracle.” Veronica let her out of the embrace but kept her hand firmly in Perla’s, like she couldn’t stand to let this moment slip away.
“Mami,” Gael groaned, his gaze fixed in the far distance like there was something there he desperately wanted to reach—probably his patience. “This is not what you think. Perla and I—”
He paused, his mouth in a hard line. And things between them hadn’t been over so long Perla couldn’t see that Gael was trying to get himself under control. His mother would see it, too, but Veronica waited him out. Like if she gave him enough time he’d realize she was right about what she’d seen.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Gael looked at Perla and then at his mother, his eyes boring in on whatever he saw on the older woman’s face. His expression was unreadable. He walked over to them, focused on his mother, and Perla braced herself for when he would finally put all this to rest. When he let his mother know she’d misread the situation.
But instead, he reached for Perla, and with a fake smile tugging up his lips, he opened his gorgeous mouth and lied his face off.
Five
Perla was stiff as a board in his arms, and he couldn’t blame her. He’d just told his mother that they were back together. He didn’t dare look down at his fake significant other, because she was probably ready to murder him. And hehad beenintending to come clean, but when he saw the tears of joy in his mother’s eyes, he hadn’t been able to do it. This was the happiest he’d seen her since she got really sick last year. She’d been giddy to find them necking in the study, and he would be damned if he took that from this woman after the hell she’d been through.
“We just didn’t want to tell you until I was back home. You know how it is, better to give the news in person.” He lied to the woman who brought him into the world as he put an arm around the woman who was most likely plotting how to take him out of it, if the murder noises Perla was making were any indication.
“Of course I understand! This kind of news is best given in person!” his mother exclaimed with a knowing wink as she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek, and then moved in to give another hug to Perla, who was looking a little pale. “You wanted to have Perlita here when you told us. Querida,” his mother said, turning to his supposed girlfriend, who so far had not uttered a single word. “I’m so glad we get you for a little visit, but can you stay a little longer?”
That request seemed to finally snap Perla out of her shock. “I have to catch my flight, Veronica. I can’t stay very long.”
The frown on Gael’s mother’s face was the one that usually came before emotional extortion a la Latin mom ensued. “Ay pero, just for a little bit. We want to see you, too, and this muchacho has kept you all to himself since you got here. I knew you couldn’t really be here for work. It’s Christmas! And since you can’t be with us for Nochebuena we have to get some quality time with you.” Her eyes widened as if she’d just had a great idea. “We just made alcapurrias this morning. I can fry some up for you! You used to love them.”
Gael could tell that she was about to throw in the towel, and who could blame her? Veronica Montez could always wield a hard bargain with her culinary offerings.
“I still do,” Perla said, admitting defeat.
“Great!” His mother was giddy. “Just give me ten minutes, okay?” Without waiting for an answer, his mother flew out of the room completely unaware of the fiasco currently unfolding.
“You areunbelievable,” Perla accused as she stepped out from under his arm.
“What’s so unbelievable about me not wanting to break my mother’s heart during the holidays?” Gael knew he was being an unreasonable bastard, but in the past few minutes, keeping this lie going had turned into his one mission in life. “Not that this is your problem, but she almost died, Perla. I managed to keep it out of the tabloids but that one surgery she had ended up being like five surgeries, and after the last one we didn’t think she’d walk again. This is the first time I’ve seen her really smile in almost six months.” Perla’s face crumpled at that, and he saw when his words began to edge out her annoyance at him. “I know I don’t have any right to ask you for this, but it’s going to be an hour maybe two of pretending we’re seeing each other.”
“I don’t like lies,” she protested weakly, her gaze on the door his mother had practically skipped out of earlier.
“I know.” He rubbed his face hard with the palm of his hand. “This is a lot to ask. But you’ll be out of here and on the way to the airport after lunch,” he reminded her. “After the holidays and once things have calmed down a bit, I’ll tell her that we couldn’t make the long-distance thing work.”
“I don’t know, Gael,” she said nervously. He was aware this was not a small concession. He also knew Perla had made the trip over here for a reason. He had something she wanted, something she’d been willing to do despite their history and the baggage she’d be dragging back to the surface, and he was enough of a bastard to use it.
“I’ll take the role,” he offered, before he could talk himself out of it. He had to suppress a smile at the way she perked up. If she had antennae they’d be twitching on top of her head. Yeah, people saw Perla Sambrano, the pampered rich girl, and they had no idea there was a driven, fierce perfectionist under all that. Perla liked to be good at things, and she liked to make the people she loved proud of her; she liked to make them happy. If her sister wanted this, Perla would do whatever it took to deliver it.
“You’ll commit knowing virtually nothing about the terms of the project in exchange for me pretending that we’re dating for the duration of a meal?” She sounded irritated, which made his dick pulse in his sweats. She was so sexy like this, with that hint of bloodthirst in her eyes.
“You informed me earlier that all I needed to know was that I’d be a fool not to be a part of this project.”
“True.” She flashed a little smart-ass grin at that, and he almost scooped her clear off the floor and kissed her senseless, but the priority was his mother. He had to stay on task.
“You know I’d do anything for my mother, Perla. I realize you don’t think much of me.” He put both his hands up in a conciliatory gesture when her gray eyes narrowed to slits. “You have good reason to hate me, but I at least hope you could remember that.”
“I don’t hate—” She started to protest, but whatever she saw in his expression made her close her mouth.
She turned her face up to him. He towered over her by almost a foot, which meant that she had to turn her head almost ninety degrees to face him and something primitive in him reveled in that.
“I go out there and pretend we’re dating, have lunch with your family, then leave and you will play Francisco Rios in our series?” she asked.
Gael nodded, his arms crossed on his chest to curb the insane urge to pull her to him.
“And you break the news to her afterward. I won’t be expected to pretend later, and you won’t make me the bad guy in any of this.”
“Correct,” he confirmed through gritted teeth, and he wanted to rip out the swarm of bees that had taken residence in his chest. Blood rushed to his ears as he waited for her answer.
