Filthy Rich Revenge: A Filthy Rich Billionaires Book - Lynn Raye Harris Page 0,63

marriage of convenience to him. She also wanted to understand why he’d married his first wife since he claimed not to have loved her.

Something he’d said once tickled her mind. “You told me the night of the anniversary party that your father wanted to chase me away five years ago. If he cared who you married then, why not now?”

Alejandro sighed. “It wasn’t you specifically, Rebecca. He wanted me to marry my brother’s fiancée.”

“I don’t understand.”

“My father arranged a marriage for my brother. It was a matter of family honor to him. When Roberto died, it fell to me to keep the agreement.”

“Your brother died before you met me. If you were to marry her in his place, then you were already engaged.”

Tears pricked her eyes. Stupid hormones. This was old news. Nothing to cry over now.

Alejandro’s brows slashed down. “No. I had no intentions of marrying her, in spite of my father.”

“But you did anyway. Did the sheets even get cold before she moved in?”

“You left me, Rebecca.”

She lifted her chin and met him dead in the eye. “It took me almost a year to see someone else. Yet you were married and expecting a baby by then.”

It was hard to admit the truth, but why hide it any longer? He acted like he was the one who was wronged. What about her? She wanted him to know how difficult it had been for her.

His look was intense, curious. “You did not take a new lover? Why should I believe this?”

Of course, he would question her.

“You can believe what you want, Alejandro.” She lowered her eyes, toyed with a hula girl charm on her bracelet. “I’ve never been the sort of woman who falls into bed with whomever strikes my fancy. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but I always had to be so careful. My life wasn’t like other girls my age. Not in any way.”

Alejandro stared at the top of her head. All this talk about marriage was closing a vise around his neck. He had every intention of marrying her, of binding her to him so he had legal rights to his child, but the thought of doing so always made anger burn low in his gut. He would marry her, but he didn’t have to enjoy the prospect. Sometimes he wondered if he’d been expertly maneuvered into it. He tried not to consider that possibility very often.

But what was this about being careful who she slept with? Her attention was firmly fixed on the gold bracelet she wore. He wanted to reach out, clasp her arm, and make her look at him. But he did not.

“What do you mean, querida?”

“My father. Layton International.” She never looked up. “He liked to test me.”

He thought back to how upset she’d gotten when he’d told her he’d had her investigated. Was this the root cause of her anger? “Did your father have you watched?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

He thought that if Jackson Layton were alive right now, he’d throttle the man. “All the time?”

Her head snapped up. Tears glinted in her eyes. Something tightened in his chest. He reached up to rub absently at the spot, then realized what he was doing and dropped his hand again.

“He might have. I don’t really know any longer.” She lay her head back against the seat, closed her eyes. He found himself thinking how fragile she looked. She’d been almost a shadow of herself when he’d seen her in New York last week. Since returning to Spain, he’d put Señora Flores to work feeding her. She had more color in her cheeks, and she was starting to fill out a little bit. Soon, she would be big with his child. The thought made him irrationally possessive.

“Why would he do this to you?”

She took a deep breath, let it out again. “Because I was a girl, Alejandro. He wanted a son to leave the business to.” She looked at him. “He thought I would be weak, that I would lose my head over a man. Because that’s what women do, naturally.”

“Not you,” he said and meant it. One of the things he’d always been impressed with was her sense of the hotel business. They’d spent hours talking about every aspect of the business when he was still new to it. And after he’d taken her company, he’d watched her in the boardroom, reviewed her management of Layton International, and realized who’d really steered the company into a freefall. The only weak Layton was