Like Beth’s mother, Xavi’s father had been an only child. Xavi’s sisters had never had any interest in the business, one growing up to be an archaeologist, the other a human rights lawyer.
As a child, he’d happily imagined himself working with his father, whom he’d hero-worshipped. His father would take over the running of the Rosbel Group, and then one day, Xavi would step into his father’s shoes.
He’d had no idea fate had such a cruel trick planned for his family.
‘I know I ended things abruptly with you,’ he continued, ‘but I saw it like ripping off a plaster—once I knew I had to end it, I knew it was better to make a clean break.’
Pressing her crystal glass to her breasts, she arched an eyebrow. ‘Better for whom?’
He would not look at her breasts. ‘For both of us. I was too young for marriage back then. We both were. Hell, I was twenty-four and fresh from six years of back-to-back university degrees, and you’d only just turned nineteen. What were we thinking, talking about marriage and children when we were barely adults ourselves?’
‘I completely agree.’
‘You do?’
‘Absolutely. I was young and foolish and believed in love at first sight, whereas what we had, if we’re thinking logically, was more of an instant lust thing than love.’ She gave another smile. ‘If it meant what we both believed it to mean while we were living it, neither of us would have moved on so quickly.’
‘For sure.’ He would not allow himself to remember the sensation of his heart ripping when he’d seen a post of Beth beaming widely with her cheek pressed to another man’s at a New Year’s Eve party months after he’d ended their relationship. ‘And now we both have eight years more experience of life and the world at large. We’re ready to take that step now. You’re the only woman I’ve ever trusted—what I said about sharks and chancers circling you comes from experience. You’re the only woman I’ve been with that I had complete certainty was with me for me and not for my money and connections, and you can have that same trust and certainty with me. We were good together, Beth, and there is no reason to suppose we can’t be good together again, and this time we’re old enough and mature enough to make it work.’
There was a flash in the green eyes that had been studying him so intently. ‘You say all that about trust…if it wasn’t for the shares now being mine, would you be asking me to marry you?’
He returned the intensity of the stare. ‘I’ve never stopped caring about you.’
‘That isn’t what I asked.’
‘I know, but if I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be suggesting it. I couldn’t marry someone I feel nothing for. I’m ready for marriage now and ready for children, and who better to do all that with than the other half of the Rosbel Group? Marry me and you will have the confidence that your fortune is safe because I will only ever do what’s best for the business, and I will keep you safe, too, and always act in your best interests. It is a perfectly logical move for both of us… Unless you are already in a relationship you haven’t gone public with?’
Her pretty little nose lifted into the air. ‘I’m not officially attached to anyone at the moment if that’s what you mean.’
His heart thumped at this confirmation. ‘And neither am I.’
She took a step closer to him and lifted her chin, the clear eyes ringed with sweeping, thickly mascaraed lashes studying him even harder. ‘I always assumed you would end up with Ellen.’
His head reared back in surprise. ‘I wouldn’t marry that bunny boiler.’
Ellen had been a part of Xavi’s old social circle, a hanger-on who’d wormed her way into his group of friends during his years studying in England. She’d been the most predatory woman he’d ever had the misfortune to know. She’d made no bones about her attraction to Xavi—an attraction in no way reciprocated—and when Beth had come on the scene had been so snide and nasty to her that he’d taken to avoiding gatherings she’d be at to protect Beth from her.
‘So she didn’t finally lure you into her bed after we split?’
For the first time in their exchange, he hesitated before answering, remembering the time Ellen had sent him unsolicited nude selfies with the message:Look what you’re missing out on. Up to that point, Beth had felt quite sorry for her, arguing that she must be lonely and insecure to be so bitchy and behave so outrageously. One look at those pictures and the message, and she’d wanted to storm to Ellen’s home and rip her hair out. ‘No.’
There was another flickering in the green depths, her lips making the faintest of twitches. ‘Okay,’ she eventually said, tilting her head as she drained the last of her whisky. ‘I’ll think about marrying you.’
‘You will consider it seriously?’
‘Yes.’ She stretched her arm to put her empty glass on the cabinet. ‘But before I start thinking about it, I think we need to establish something first.’
‘Which is?’
‘This.’ Without any warning, she’d closed the gap between them, risen onto her toes to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him closer, and then her soft lips captured his.
Since Xavi had been given the news of Raul’s death, his thoughts had been consumed twofold: with retaining his control of the business and with the certain knowledge that he would be seeing Beth again. It wasn’t until he’d woken that morning, though, that the two strains of his thoughts had converged and the big picture had made itself clear.
Everything he’d told her of his reasoning for marriage had been the truth. The biggest truth was that the Rosbel Group washisand he would do anything to protect it and protect his control of it, and so he’d concentrated all his energies on what he needed to say, instinct telling him this was his one shot at getting Beth’s agreement, and clamped down on all the physical reactions being in her presence had unleashed. He’d suppressed the zing flowing through his veins, blocked his senses to the heady scent of her perfume, refused to allow his mind to strip her naked or remember the weight of her breasts in his hands…
One press of her lips to his, and the eight years they’d spent apart melted away along with all thoughts of the Rosbel Group.
There was no hesitation in her kiss. Her fingers scraped through his hair and her tongue slipped into his mouth, and then she was devouring him with a hungry boldness that sent his senses reeling under a blizzard of sensation.
