Blanca was the human rights lawyer sister. Beth liked her very much, but had found her a little too earnest. She’d much preferred Carlota’s company, Carlota being of a similar age and temperament to Beth. The two young women had delighted in ganging up on Xavi and teasing him mercilessly, teasing he’d always taken in the spirit it was given. The two women had kept in touch over the years, meeting up if Carlota was in Spain when Beth visited her grandfather and when Carlota visited England. By unspoken agreement, Carlota’s bastard brother was never mentioned.
‘She moved to Brussels a few months ago but uses home as her base whenever she’s in the country.’
There was a tap on the dining room door, and then Salma came in with a tray of coffee, followed by three men and two women in suits: lawyers who most definitely did not concern themselves with human rights.
Their presence allowed Beth to compose herself properly, push aside all the memories assaulting her and shake off the tendrils of tension the mention of Salamanca had unfurled between her and Xavi.
Getting to her feet, she shook the lawyers’ hands then positioned herself at the table facing Xavi, figuring she’d rather have him in her eye line than sit beside him and suffer his nearness.
It was a decision she soon regretted. The lawyers had given her folios and a heap of paperwork on the workings of the Rosbel Group so she could refamiliarise herself with it all, but instead of diving into the shareholder information, her eyes kept seeking Xavi.
The more she looked at him, the more her pulses kept racing into a canter and the more she was forced to concede just how well his longer, floppier haircut and trim beard suited him. How much sexier they made him, giving him an almost piratical edge.
Really, she should be glad she still found him so sexy, as it would make it easier to play the game of marriage until she took everything from him. Beth had tried to fake desire a few times in the years without him, but it had always ended in such a hopeless mess, she’d lost the will to even try.
He ended the call he was on and smiled triumphantly. ‘Two weeks on Saturday.’
Sixteen days? She came within a whisker of gulping. ‘At the Almudena?’
His triumph grew. ‘I told you they would fit us in.’
‘Fityouin,’ she commented drily. Her throat felt as dry as her tone. Plans for a wedding that twenty-four hours ago hadn’t even been a thing were suddenly steamrolling ahead. Beth had suggested the Almudena Cathedral on a whim, an impossible challenge for Xavi to fail at, never expecting they’d be able to fit them in on such short notice.
She’d forgotten the sheer clout Xavi held in Spanish society, a clout that could only have grown in their eight years apart.
‘You will courier your birth certificate and the other documents we spoke of?’ one of the lawyers asked.
She smiled brightly. ‘It will be my top priority.’
One of the lawyers who’d disappeared into Xavi’s office returned with an armful of documents.
Soon, everything that needed to be signed was signed, hands were shaken and the small army of lawyers bustled out. Beth had politely declined the offer of lunch with the excuse—a truthful one this time—of having a plane to catch.
‘I’ll drive you to the airport,’ Xavi said once she’d arranged for Salma to stay on and care for Diego until they returned from their honeymoon.
‘I’m sure you must need to get to work, so don’t worry about that. I can get a taxi.’
‘I insist.’
She managed not to clench her jaw. She’d be marrying him in sixteen days. She needed to learn how to cope with being alone with him. ‘Thank you.’
The summer sun was high in the late-morning air when they stepped outside. Protecting her eyes with her shades, Beth strode to the convertible car that had to cost more than her grandparents’ house.
It was incredible to believe that soon she would have the money to buy her grandparents and her father a swanky new home each and make the equivalent dent in her bank account as buying herself a new jumper currently made in it.
‘Still don’t like being driven around?’ she asked lightly once she’d strapped herself in and Xavi had lowered the roof, something for which she was grateful as it meant she didn’t have to breathe in such heavy doses of his gorgeous scent. His scent was something else she hated him for. Why couldn’t he smell like a sewer?
He put his shades on and grinned. ‘No, I still don’t like being driven around, but the relentlessness of my schedule means I’m reliant on my driver more than I would wish to be.’
‘The downside of being the boss?’
‘The perks make up for it.’
‘And what are the perks?’
‘Not being answerable to anyone.’ He pulled out and joined the crawling traffic. ‘As we’re talking of jobs, what do you intend to do about yours?’
‘I’ll have to resign. It’s too hands-on for remote working, plus it would be weird to stay when I’m going to be a major shareholder of the Rosbel Group. We consider loads of your brands to be our rivals.’
