The Spanish Aristocrat's Woman by Katherine Garbera Page A

came back to Madrid, unsure if she was the woman for me. And finding her married to Juan convinced me she wasn’t.”

    Kara wasn’t sure what she’d expected from Gui, but this story wasn’t it. She’d expected…She had no idea. There was more to the story. There had to be, but her heart broke thinking of him coming back to marry Elvira and finding her with another man. Married to someone else.
    “I don’t pity you.”
    She almost pitied Elvira, because it was clear from the story that the other woman had had no idea where she’d stood with Gui. Something that Kara herself felt. Gui wasn’t one of those men who spoke freely about his emotions.
    He wanted her. She knew that from how often he made love to her. But she thought relationships should be about more than sex. They should include long conversations and romantic gestures. They should include…well, the other things that Gui did.
    “Why are you looking at me like that?”
    “I’m trying to figure you out.”
    “With me, you get what you see,” he said, taking his dinner jacket and donning it.
    “There is so much more to you than meets the eye, Guillermo. You just don’t let anyone see more.”
    He didn’t respond, holding his hand out to her. “Come here.”
    “Why?”
    “I want to see how we look together.”
    She shook her head. “Not yet. I want to finish our discussion.”
    “It is finished, Kara. Elvira thought she could manipulate me into marrying her. I refused, she married someone else, and that’s the end of it. I’m Catholic. Do you know what that means?”
    “That you have a special dispensation from the Pope to miss church?” she asked in a teasing tone, because she hadn’t seen him go to church once since they’d met unless she counted Tristan’s wedding.
    “Very funny. No, it means that I take the bonds of marriage very seriously. Elvira knew this about me.”
    “I know it, too,” she said, remembering the conversation they’d had that first morning after they’d made love.
    “Indeed you do,” he said, coming over to her and holding out his hand. She put her left hand in his, saw the large sapphire-cut diamond-and-platinum engagement ring he’d given her. No matter what Elvira wanted, Kara was the one who was engaged to Gui and she didn’t intend to let him go.
    What she intended, she realized as she rose to her feet and let him slip his arms around her, was to teach him to love her. And there was only one way to do that. She had to stop holding herself back. She had to be the woman she really was. The woman she’d been afraid to let him see because she was different from the other women of their social set.
    Days of shopping and lunching weren’t enough for her. And after spending time with Anika and Arcelia today, she had a hunch that Gui would be able to accept that other part of her.
    She’d been feeling so lucky that he wanted her to marry him that she’d been hiding herself, not wanting to rock the boat. And that wasn’t who she was.
    “You’re looking very fierce, bebe. ”
    “Sorry. I just realized something important.”
    “That Elvira is ancient history and you have nothing to worry about when it comes to her?”
    She shook her head. “She still wants you.”
    Gui didn’t deny it. “We look good together.”
    She looked at them in the mirror. Gui was a big man, tall and muscular and, standing next to him, she didn’t look too big the way she did with men who were her height. Even though she wore heels, he still was taller than she was. He wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her back against his body, resting his chin on her shoulder.
    For a split second she saw that fairy-tale couple. Gui filled the bill of handsome prince easily and for once she felt like she was the princess.
    He kissed the base of her neck and she sighed, tipping her head back and looking up at him.
    “What do you want, querida? ”
    “You,” she said. “You’ve been too busy since we got here.”
    “I have been.