The Spanish Billionaire's Hired Bride by Rachel Lyndhurst Page A

back. “And we’re running late.”
    “I get the message, big guy,” Bjorn said cockily, and reached out to run a fingertip over Helen’s shoulder. “You know where I am if, well, y’know …”
    Helen felt Ricardo’s tension make her own body stiffen. “Everything’s fine,” she said firmly. “See you around.”
    “You won’t ,” Ricardo muttered as they watched him stride off down an alleyway. “Not if I have anything to do with it anyway.”
    “You don’t own me, Almanza.”
    “You’re my wife and we have a business deal. Associating with people like that is beneath someone of your standing now.”
    “What?”
    Ricardo ignored the disbelief that must have been obvious on her face. “If you want beer and curry I will buy it for you, you don’t need that hippy.”
    “Are you a tiny bit drunk?”
    Ricardo sniffed and looked around them for a moment. “A little. We were having a good time before he turned up.”
    “Then stop sulking.” She giggled at his jealous outburst. “Buy me a kebab from somewhere, will you. I’m starving!”
    …
    Ricardo watched as Helen wrapped both her hands around a meat-stuffed pita bread and sank her teeth hungrily into it. He’d never seen a woman do anything like that before. Food had always been a neat and tidy, finger - picking, delicate - morsel-nibbling affair. She was fascinating. She was so completely different from any female he had ever known. He looked down at his own extra large gyro and took the plunge.
    “You’ve got sauce on your chin,” she mumbled after swallowing a mouthful. She reached across to wipe it off with the tip of her finger. “And you could do with a shave.”
    “Thanks. And this is an experience,” he said as he peered into the bread-wrapped tangle of salad and chilies .
    Her bare feet dangled like a child’s over the harbor’s edge where they’d settled to eat. “It’s like a different world down here in the dark. I can hardly hear the clubs and crowds now.”
    “Hmm.” Ricardo tugged at a long thread of onion and grimaced. “Security won’t let the rabble into the marina, people like dodgy Bjorn. Berth holders only.”
    “You took an instant dislike to him, didn’t you?” She offered him a pickled chili, but he wrinkled his nose with disgust. “Anyone would think you were jealous. As well as being an abysmal snob.”
    “I bet he takes drugs,” Ricardo said, un f a z ed as he stared out to sea.
    “Oh honestly…”
    “Did you sleep with him?”
    “What?”
    “You heard.”
    “None of your business.”
    “I’m your husband, so it’s definitely my business.”
    “You’re my sham husband, don’t forget.” She twisted the paper kebab wrapper. “But for what it’s worth we’re just friends. No sex, just good times and digging for broken pottery.”
    “He wants to sleep with you.”
    Her laughter tinkled in the night air. “That’s not going to happen.”
    “Good.”
    “That’s not going to happen with anyone right now.”
    “Half an hour ago things were different. As I recall, Mrs . Almanza, you were on the verge of dragging me off to your student flat to make love amongst the cockroaches.”
    “I was not!” She laughed again and her cheeks flushed pink in the blue-white light of the moon.
    “Liar,” he said and handed her the crumpled remains of his kebab. “Want to finish this?”
    “Is that supposed to be a love offering? Caveman style. Me feed you, me take you back to me, um, cave?”
    She really was intriguing. Unpredictable. “If you want it to be.” His voice was soft as he took her by the hand and kissed her salty fingertips. “Garlic and mint. You are a divine creature.” She giggled and he felt a wave of pleasure wash over him.
    “I’m tempted,” she said quietly and his stomach flipped as she stared up at him with serious green eyes. “Tempted to say yes, but—”
    “But what?”
    “It would complicate things between us.”
    “It needn’t. Just wild, consensual sex