“Hello.”
“Hi, Alejandro. I was waiting for you upstairs,” she said.
“Sorry. I wanted to apologize to Dusty for my poor playing today,” he said.
She tipped her head to the side and studied him. She didn’t say anything, just crossed her arms over her chest and waited.
“What?”
“Nothing. But now I know what you look like when you lie.”
He straightened away from the stall and walked toward her. “No, you don’t. That’s the truth.”
“Are you sure? Because you have the exact same look on your face as you did when you introduced yourself to me as Mauricio.”
Chapter Three
He stood there in the middle of the stables looking more at home than he’d been at the gala in Houston. She wondered if she was glimpsing the real man now. But then how would she know? Since they’d been introduced, he’d done nothing but lie to her.
“I’m sorry I lied to you, Scarlet,” he said. “If there had been a chance to tell you the truth I would have, but I got carried away and the last thing on my mind once we got to your hotel room was explaining the rather complicated fact that I had helped my twin out by pretending to be him.”
As close as he stood to her she couldn’t help but inhale the spicy, outdoorsy aftershave he wore. She closed her eyes. The scent wasn’t unpleasant, but she was pregnant and it bothered her the slightest bit.
Damn.
If she got sick in front of him, she was going to throw the biggest, ugliest fit anyone had ever witnessed. She needed the advantage here. She wanted to find out what kind of man he was before she told him about the baby.
She took a few steps back and turned toward the horsestalls that held the polo ponies. She didn’t mind horses but hadn’t really ever been a great rider. Tara had been the rider in their family. And since their father always insisted on making a competition of everything the two of them had done, they’d quickly decided not to pursue the same passions.
The queasiness subsided as soon as she stepped away from him.
She turned to look back at him over her shoulder. She’d left her sunglasses on when she’d entered the stables and now it was hard to see him. The lenses were very dark, and she couldn’t make out his expression.
Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. She skimmed her gaze down his body. He wore a pair of white jeans with a black belt that emphasized his narrow waist and the strength of his legs. He also wore a light-colored button-down shirt and gray blazer. She wished he appeared unkempt or wrinkled. But instead he looked like the sophisticated man she’d thought him to be.
“So you’re a tech guy?” she asked.
One side of his mouth lifted in a sort of half smile. “You could say that.”
“I just did,” she quipped. Something she’d learned from a lifetime of dealing with her father—a man she’d never understood and still didn’t really know—was to always stay on her toes.
“Touché.”
“What do you do?” she asked.
“I’ll be happy to tell you about it over brunch,” he said. “Should we go and join the rest of my family?”
“Not yet,” she said. “I want to know more about you, Alejandro.”
“Fair enough. I want to know more about you as well, Scarlet. I want to know the woman behind the headlines.”
She shook her head. No one knew that woman... Well,maybe Tara had, but she was dead. And Billie and Siobahn saw what she wanted them to see. She had never felt comfortable letting someone all the way in. She doubted this man who’d lied to her when they’d first met would be the one.
“That’s not how it’s going to work,” she said. “It’s not a tit-for-tat thing. You lied about who you are. I didn’t.”
He came over and reached out, taking her hand in his. When he lifted it to his mouth and kissed it, a shiver went up her arm and awareness spread throughout her body. Here was a reaction she could understand. Lust. Pure and simple.
“I did lie. I’m incredibly sorry about that. If I could do it over, I would have told you who I was right away. But everything else about that night was me. I wasn’t acting like Mo. He’s much duller than I am.”