The Twelve-Month Marriage Deal by Margaret Mayo Page A

Your skin is soft and beautiful, your lips are flushed with that just-kissed look and your eyes—well, they’re shining like stars. I think I’d like you in this state permanently.’
    ‘You look very pleased with yourself, too, Señor Marquez,’ she answered primly. ‘Like the cat who’s stolen the cream. Or should I say the stud who’s found his perfect mate?’
    ‘Mmm, I like that. My perfect mate. Is that you, Elena?’ he asked softly.
    ‘It’s what I shall endeavour to be for the duration of our marriage,’ she replied, her chin suddenly high, some of the softness going out of her eyes.
    It had been the wrong question to ask, the wrong answer he’d been given. He wanted Elena to feel that their lovemaking was something to be enjoyed, not endured. He wanted her to enjoy it so much that she wanted more from him. He did not want her to think of it as a duty.
    But perhaps she didn’t. She had virtually invited him to make love earlier and it certainly hadn’t felt like duty when they were in the throes of passion. He had beencertain that Elena’s pleasure was as great as his. So why the caustic comment?
    ‘Do you have a boyfriend back in the States?’ The words came out of nowhere. Why it had occurred to him to ask her now he didn’t know.
    ‘Of course not,’ she answered swiftly, with a further flash of her magnificent eyes. ‘How could I have gone through with this if I had? Do you think a boyfriend, a fiancé even, would have put up with me marrying someone else purely to save my parents’ bank? Besides I’ve had no time for serious boyfriends.’
    ‘Do you hate me for taking you away from your work?’
    Another flash of her eyes. ‘I’m not doing it for you, I’m doing it for my parents. And I don’t really think we should be having this sort of a conversation when we don’t have a stitch on.’
    ‘You could wear me,’ he growled, feeling himself harden all over again.
    ‘You’re getting very greedy, señor,’ she returned smartly. ‘I think we should get dressed and go indoors and behave like two decent adults.’
    ‘Decent? When I’m in your company, my sweet Elena? You tempt a man beyond decency.’ She was the most tempting woman he had ever met or was likely to meet. This whole affair had started out because he wanted her body, but he had discovered that there was more to Elena than he had first thought. Inside that head of hers was a keen brain and the combination was lethal.
    Elena sprang to her feet and began pulling on her clothes. ‘I’m merely doing the job I was asked to do.’ Not for anything was she going to tell him that sheenjoyed their lovemaking far more than she had ever expected. That it went a long way to making up for the fact that she’d had to put her life on hold.
    Her words, however, were like waving a red rag to a bull.
    ‘Elena!’ There was power behind his voice and a sudden hardness in his eyes. ‘I don’t want you to feel like that. I want you to come to me willingly—or not at all.’ He jumped up too and dragged on his trousers and shirt before storming off into the house.
    What would have been his response, wondered Elena, if she’d said that she would settle for the not at all ? His answer didn’t take much working out. Nevertheless it was true—she was doing a job. Did she have to ruin things, though, by dropping it into the conversation? Or was it herself she had been reminding? Elena sighed deeply. It was proving far too easy to get carried away into believing that their marriage was for real.
    And she could not afford to do that. This was a contract. Nothing more, nothing less.
    Vidal kept asking himself what was wrong. Why had he gone off the deep end when Elena had said something that was perfectly true? The answer was simple. Because it reminded him that theirs wasn’t a real marriage. And he didn’t want reminding.
    The fact that he had insisted on her marrying him in the first place no longer sat easily on his shoulders. It