Tears threatened, lodging in her throat, a ball of pain she couldn’t swallow. Damn it, she had to stop thinking about this. About him.
Rebecca slipped her robe off and tossed it onto a chaise. A second later, her camisole and panties followed and she hurried down the steps before she could change her mind. She needed a distraction from her chaotic thoughts. Cool water on her naked body would definitely take her mind off Alejandro. Goosebumps rose on her skin the lower she sank into the water. Though the air was warm, the pool was slightly cooler than she’d expected after dipping her toe in. She almost turned around and went back, but she forged on until she could sink onto the lowest step.
Water lapped at her nipples and she sucked in her breath as they budded tight. It’d been so long since anyone had touched them. She ran her hands up her torso, her heart thudding, and softly pinched the peaks of her nipples between her thumbs and forefingers. Muted lightning streaked through her body at the contact. Perhaps she should go back to bed and take care of her own needs. A good orgasm would definitely help her face Alejandro again. Maybe then his dark good looks wouldn’t affect her as much.
A sound from the direction of the arbor sent her heart into her throat. She craned her neck, her heart shooting into overdrive. Did Madrid have wild animals inside the city limits? Did burglars dare to rob someone as wealthy and powerful as Alejandro?
Had someone seen her touching herself?
She should run into the house, but she was frozen in place. Besides, what if it was nothing? She strained to hear any odd noises against the backdrop of ordinary night sounds, but the blood was so loud in her ears she couldn’t separate any single sound from the others.
Until something scraped.
“Who’s there?” she asked, and immediately felt ridiculous. An animal wouldn’t answer and neither would an intruder.
She stared hard at the arbor, her heart skipping a beat as a shape unfolded itself from the darkness, growing bigger as the light caressed its shadow. A lifetime later it resolved into the shape of a man.
A tall man with dark hair and the body of a god, dressed in jeans and a dark T-shirt. Her heart went out to him, and her body flamed with embarrassment at the knowledge of what she’d been doing. Had he seen?
“You are enjoying yourself, no?”
Rebecca pulled her knees to her chin, trying to make herself smaller. “You scared me half to death, Alejandro. How long have you been there?”
“Long enough.”
“You could have announced yourself.”
And maybe saved her the embarrassment sizzling through her since she’d have never disrobed if she’d known he was there. It didn’t matter he’d seen her naked in the past, that he’d probably kissed every inch of her skin and shown her things no man ever had. He’d no doubt watched her the whole time she’d stripped. Then he’d watched her fondling her breasts. If she could melt into the tiles and disappear, she would.
“I’d like you to go,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster. Please, please go.
His smirk told her he would do nothing of the sort. He settled into a chair, crossing one leg casually. An arm draped over the side, fingers rubbing back and forth against the chair’s edge. “Why would I want to leave, Señorita Layton? It is my house, is it not? And I was here first.”
Oh, God. He had seen.
“Then I’ll leave. Would you hand me my robe, please?”
“No.”
Frustration hummed inside her. “Alejandro, please. What is the point in this?”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you uncomfortable?”
“I think you know the answer.”
“Then perhaps that is the point.”
Rebecca swallowed. “I’m sorry I looked at the photos. I didn’t know it would upset you.”
He made a rough noise. “You may apologize, but this does not explain why you thought it acceptable to go through my things in the first place. Looking for information you could use against me, Rebecca? Something you could sell to the press, perhaps? I assure you that you will not find anything.”
“What? No!” She hugged herself tighter. It was disconcerting to argue with him while she sat on the pool steps without a stitch of clothing. He lounged in the chair so casually, like there weren’t oceans of pain between them. She had a sudden urge to be completely truthful with him, to try and bridge the gap somehow. “I want a chance to redeem Layton International. If you would let me repurchase the stock, I’d be grateful. I’m not trying to hurt your business. I only want my company back.”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “How grateful?”
She couldn’t tell by his tone how he meant the question. Was he baiting her? Making fun of her? Heat prickled her nerve endings. “Um, well, I think we could work out some profit sharing. Perhaps even a partnership or two?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he got to his feet, tugged at the waist of his T-shirt with one hand. A moment later, it fell to the tile deck. Rebecca’s pulse skipped. “What are you doing?”
“Considering your proposal.” He unsnapped his jeans, shrugged them down his lean hips in a graceful movement that had her blood pounding in her ears. When he stood at the edge of the pool in nothing but his briefs, Rebecca had to remind herself to breathe. Her mouth went dry at the sight of all that hard muscle and tan skin.
Dear heaven, she’d often remembered, at the most inopportune moments, what his body felt like pressed to hers, how his cock moved inside her. The sensual drag of his erection as he slid out and in, faster and faster, making her moan.
She’d called her ex-boyfriend Alejandro once during sex. No wonder she’d been alone for the past year and a half. What man wanted to be compared to a ghost from the past?
“Wh-what proposal? What are you talking about?” And why did her head feel as if it were stuffed with cotton?
“How grateful would you be, querida?”
She cast her mind back over the conversation, tried to piece together what, exactly, he meant. And then her brain shut down and her jaw slipped open as the last of Alejandro’s clothing fell away.
Alejandro swam toward her, idly wondering if she would shoot up the steps and into the house. If she did, then perhaps she wasn’t as calculating as he thought. Perhaps she hadn’t really known he was beneath the arbor, watching her.
He half hoped she would run. It’d be nice to think she wasn’t trying to use him this once, especially when his memories were so raw. After she’d left him in his office, he went for a walk on the grounds. Then he sat under the arbor and hoped his mind would quiet. It hadn’t.
When she’d appeared, stealing through the night like a wraith, he’d watched her curiously. And then she’d dropped her clothes like the calculating female she was.
Like it or not, her strip tease had made him harder than the stone beneath his feet. Which was no doubt her intention. She’d played at asking him to leave, but he hadn’t bought her act. The truth emerged when she said she’d be grateful if he would sell her Layton International.
It was all a game to her. A chessboard where she would do whatever she had to do to regain her precious company.
She didn’t move as he stopped in front of her. He was both disappointed and pleased. He hadn’t intended to touch her ever again, but that was before he’d watched her strip down and caress herself.