Maisey Yates - Redeemed By His Stolen Bride / Crowning His Convenient Princess

But perhaps he had finally met someone with whom he could envisage embarking on the next phase of his life. He wasn’t such a fool as to equate physical innocence with honesty, but there was something special and unique about Leonora Flores de la Vega.

She was stunningly beautiful, and she oozed elegance and class in spite of the fact that she was all but penniless. They had the most insane chemistry Gabriel had ever experienced with a woman.

And clearly, if she’d been prepared to marry Lazaro Sanchez, she was in the market for marriage.

The thought of her with that man made Gabriel’s hands clench into fists. His expression in the mirror turned hard.

Sanchez had obviously been ready to make a lifelong commitment in a bid to garner respect. Perhaps it was a sign that Gabriel finally needed to deal with something he’d been pushing away for a long time. Saying a curt Not yet whenever another advisor tentatively mentioned the notion of settling down.

But maybe ‘not yet’ had become now.

Leonora Flores de la Vega was perfect on every level for what he envisaged in a marriage. He had never been so old-fashioned as to have expected a virginal wife, but he couldn’t deny that her innocence appealed to a deeply masculine part of him. As did the knowledge that she hadn’t slept with Sanchez.

She was from their world. She knew how these marriages worked. And after last night he didn’t have to worry about compatibility.

Last night he hadn’t seduced Leonora for any other reason than because he wanted her. Sanchez had been the last person on his mind. But now…

He relished the perfection of timing and serendipity. And the opportunity to show Lazaro Sanchez in a very comprehensive way that a woman like Leonora Flores de la Vega was out of his league.

For ever.

When Leonora arrived back at the castillo after driving Matías back to his school, she found her mother waiting for her, looking pale and agitated.

‘What is it? Is it Papá?’

Leonora always had the fear that something would set her father off again. Something like this—his daughter getting jilted in public by her fiancé.

Her mother shook her head. ‘No, nothing like that. Papá is having a nap. You got a phone call…from Gabriel Torres. He wants you to call him back.’

Her mother was handing her a note with a number on it before Leonora could fully register it. It had been two days since that cataclysmic night. Two days of feeling alternately shocked and shamed and giddy at what had happened. And two days of the knowledge sinking in that of course Gabriel wasn’t going to be chasing her down.

Except now butterflies exploded in her belly. Along with a far more carnal tug of awareness. And the man wasn’t even here.

She looked at the number. A cell phone number.

Her mother gripped her arm. ‘Oh, Leo— Gabriel Torres . You must have made an impression.’

Leonora’s face burned and she avoided her mother’s eye. She’d been vague about Gabriel’s involvement the other night, making it sound as if he’d just offered her a place to hide out. But she knew he’d offered her so much more. And delivered.

She scrabbled for something to say. ‘Mamá, I’m sure he’s getting in touch for something quite boring. Let me go and call him back.’

Her mother shooed her off, two bright pink spots in her cheeks, making her look girlish for her fifty-four years.

Leonora’s insides cramped as she went into the castle’s office, the administrative centre where they took bookings for tours. Tours that were falling increasingly in numbers because people inevitably wanted to experience something more exciting than just walking around a dusty medieval castle full of antiques and scary-looking portraits of long-dead ancestors and a tired and wilted walled garden.

Her family’s dependence on her sat heavily on her shoulders today. She’d just had a painful conversation at Matías’s school about overdue fees.

She sat down at the desk and put the piece of paper in front of her. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and keyed in his number. For an age she sat there, a little paralysed at the thought of hearing that deep rumble of a voice again.

Then, before she could lose her nerve, she pressed the key and after a second heard the long ring tone.

The call was picked up almost immediately with an impatient, brusque tone. ‘Si?’

She almost cut off the connection, he sounded so forbidding, and then his tone changed and he said sharply, ‘Leonora, is that you?’

She gulped. ‘Yes, it’s me.’

‘Thank you for calling me back.’

She thought she detected a dry tone in his voice. She didn’t imagine he had many women doing a disappearing act on him.

‘I’m sorry for…for leaving the way I did the other morning…but I felt it was for the best.’

‘For who? You? Or me…?’

Leonora squirmed in the chair. ‘Both of us… It was—’

She stopped. She’d been about to say just a moment out of time , but that sounded far too whimsical.

‘It was just one night.’

‘An incredible night.’

His voice was low and it seemed to rumble down the phone and across Leonora’s skin. Her mouth went dry and her palms got clammy just thinking about it.

Then he said, ‘I’d like to take you out for dinner.’

Leonora pushed aside the X-rated memories. ‘Dinner?’

‘Yes…’ He sounded amused.

‘When?’

‘Tonight. I’ll pick you up at seven.’

‘I…’

‘Do you have plans, Leonora?’

Was it her imagination or was there a mocking tone in his voice now? Of course she didn’t have plans—other than the endless worrying about what was to become of them.

She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. ‘No, I don’t have plans this evening.’

He became brisk again. ‘Good. I’ll see you at seven.’

BY ALMOST SEVEN that evening Leonora was a bag of nerves at the thought of seeing Gabriel again after sharing such intimacies, and also wondering what he wanted. A repeat of that night? Or was he just intrigued because she wasn’t like his usual lovers?

The thought had slid into her mind over the past couple of days…wondering if he’d noticed her innocence. But he hadn’t said anything. And certainly any pain had been fleeting.

She tensed when she heard the low purr of a powerful engine and crunching gravel, not remotely ready to see the man again.

Liar .

She went to the window and peeked out, feeling like a coward. She watched him step out of a low-slung sports car—a different one from the other night. This was black.

He was dressed semi-casually, in dark trousers and a lighter toned long-sleeved top. She could imagine the material was expensive, the way it moulded to the muscles of his chest as he came around the car.

He looked stern. Austere. But then she remembered how he’d smiled wickedly. Sexily. Her insides spasmed.

She was about to go into the hall to answer the door when he rang the bell, but just then she heard quick footsteps cross the marbled hall and cursed silently. Her mother. Seizing on the opportunity to meet the man who had been Leonora’s knight in shining armour the other night.

Her mother’s disapproval of Lazaro Sanchez’s behaviour, as compared to the gallant actions of one of their own, had spoken volumes about what she’d really thought of Leonora’s first fiancé. And yet, Leonora thought cynically, her mother would have been only too happy to have Lazaro’s money paying off their debts and restoring their reputation.