She grimaced. ‘Well, we’ve done the tourist thing, the business thing. We’ve made a mockery of family. What shall we do next?’
His gaze dropped to her mouth, but he didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. The look on his face told its own unfolding story, morphing from chillingly forbidding to stark raving hunger.
One hand snagged her waist. The heat in his eyes was back, full force. ‘Sex, Elise. Let’s do sex. And don’t give me the excuse about our working relationship or you not wanting me. We can make this work. The day after we first kissed, you walked back into my office and carried on working even though my behaviour was less than exemplary. You didn’t throw a tantrum or give me the cold shoulder like most women I know would’ve done. I have no doubt that whatever happens between us in the bedroom, it will not get in the way of your job.’
She tried to speak past the sudden clamouring of her senses. Tried to think. ‘Wow. I sound like a robot.’
His mouth quirked, but his gaze didn’t lose one ounce of intensity. ‘If you were, you’d be the sexiest one ever created.’
Laughter barked from her, which he joined in with for a few seconds, before the sexual gravity of the moment rendered them both silent.
‘I want you, Elise. You might not wish to reciprocate the statement right now, but let’s agree to table it for discussion after Kenzo Ishikawa’s birthday party tomorrow, sí?’
The past few days had been leading to this. Somewhere along the line, she’d decided to take the chance. But now he was laying out terms so starkly, her senses shrieked a primal warning. ‘Alejandro, I don’t know...’
‘Come on now, we’ve tried to pretend this isn’t happening, but it is. You can’t keep running from it and I don’t intend to fail the challenge and pleasure of getting you into my bed. You have twenty-four hours to yield to me. And, Elise?’
‘Yes?’ she murmured despite her spinning thoughts.
‘I don’t intend to lose this one.’
A hard kiss preceded his exit.
Elise dropped into the chair, her stunned senses trying to grapple with what had just happened.
Alejandro had dropped a giant morsel of his past in her lap. Then segued into a demand for sex. She stared at the door through which he’d disappeared. Was the instigation of the subject of sex a way to distract her from his emotional revelations?
If so, it’d worked a treat.
Skirting past the momentous subject of sex with Alejandro, she replayed his childhood story instead.
She’d thought her childhood had been horrendous with the early realisation that her parents had what amounted to an open marriage, their vows shoved into the background in the interest of accumulating financial gain. For the greater part, Elise had been handed over to the care of nannies and housekeepers while her parents pursued their single-minded interests. It hadn’t been until she hit puberty that things had changed for the worse.
Alejandro’s experiences had been worse, because the infidelity had come from one side, with pain heaped on his mother while he’d been caught in the middle.
She might not have heard Gael’s side, or know the full story, but what little she knew explained the brief glimpses of bleakness and loneliness she sometimes saw in Alejandro’s eyes.
Her heart squeezed in sympathy and despite telling herself that softening her feelings for him might be a dangerous path to take, she still found herself mourning long into the evening and into the night for the harrowing childhood he must have suffered.
As for the subject of sex, she continued to push it to the back of her mind whenever it sparked its heady temptation. She knew not confronting it wouldn’t make it go away—she’d seen a determined Alejandro in action, after all—but all the same, she held it at bay, in the hope that morning would bring the clarity she needed.
SHE WAS STILL set on resisting him.
Alejandro knew this from the small frown knotting her brow. She wouldn’t succeed. Having Elise Jameson in his bed had swept beyond a lustful, persistent want, into a primeval need. One he didn’t intend to deny himself.
The subject of her virginity—if it was true—unsettled him somewhat. Then again, everything about Elise was turning out to be uncharted territory for him.
She got under his skin in the most disturbing way, but not enough for him to step back from the clamouring desire raging through his blood. Perhaps, once he’d had her, she would cease to have this peculiar power over him.
He would have her.
But for now he had other matters to deal with.
‘My grandmother received your flowers,’ Elise said. Her frown momentarily disappeared, a hint of the smile that toyed with his breathing when in full bloom curving her lightly glossed lips. ‘She called when I was getting dressed. She wanted to thank you. She says to tell you they’re the most beautiful flowers she’s ever received.’
His own mouth curved. ‘She was the perfect absent hostess and she ensured our invitation to Kenzo Ishikawa’s birthday party. It was the least I could do.’
Her smile widened. ‘She did say you owe her big, though. And that she might call in her chips when you least expect it.’
‘I look forwarding to meeting her one day. She sounds formidable.’
Pride propelled her nod. ‘She’s one of the strongest people I know. She’s the product of a Pearl Harbour love story that almost didn’t happen.’ Her smile slipped a little. ‘Her childhood was rough. When it was her turn to become a mother, she tried to shield my mother as much as possible. She believes she overcompensated by spoiling my mother, which is why...’ She shook her head and stopped.
Alejandro reached for her hand. It was an unfamiliar offer of comfort, and yet it felt right. ‘You reminded me that the apple sometimes does fall far enough from the tree to seek its own roots and light. Your mother may have been spoilt as a child, but I doubt the grandmother who encouraged you to follow your dreams also encouraged your mother to take the particular path she’s taken. I bet they disagree on a few things?’
‘They disagree on everything! They fought constantly about the way she was bringing me up. My grandmother couldn’t bear it any longer, which is why she moved back to Hawaii. Surprisingly, they have a better relationship now they’re thousands of miles apart.’
‘Distance provides clarity. Sometimes.’
She eyed him, and Alejandro knew what was coming. ‘Did it do that for you?’ she asked.
Surprisingly, her question didn’t grate on him. Although the chafing layer of disquiet closely resembling guilt and regret that had manifested when Gael visited him in his office intensified.
He shifted in his seat. ‘It taught me that I never wanted to be in that situation. I’ve seen the wedding pictures. I’ve heard the stories of how they met. My parents married believing they were happy. For some reason, that changed very soon afterwards. They took pleasure in hurting one another until they were locked so fully into their macabre roles they couldn’t see anything or anyone else, not even their son. I knew very early, I wanted nothing to do with that level of emotional turbulence.’
She looked pensive. ‘True compatibility in any relationship is hard to find, I know, but just because that happened to them doesn’t mean it’ll happen to you.’
‘It didn’t just happen to me. It happened to Gael. It happened to his mother. It happened to everyone my parents came into contact with. The Aguilar brain may