A door closed down the hall and they went silent as Ramon's firm steps approached. She pasted on the same composed smile she would use to introduce him to the rabid hounds of the press.
"Henri." Etienne greeted Ramon with a deferential nod. He waved at the elevator she'd been holding, inviting Ramon to enter ahead of him.
"Ramon," he amended as he stepped into the car.
"Of course," Etienne said, visibly flustered as he came in last and pressed the button for the bottom floor. "The memo didn't specify." He sent a malevolent look at Isidora. "I didn't realize you were here. I suppose your brother is still in Spain with-"
"Bernardo never had a problem telling us apart," Ramon interjected. "And neither does Isidora. It's a quality we appreciate in those closest to us. Don't ever gossip about my family again. I have no qualms about letting you go for that."
It wasn't working. After a brief ripple of flashes and murmurs over his announcement, the callouts quickly turned to Trella.
"Can you confirm the pregnancy?"
"When is she due?"
"Who is the father?"
"Ladies and gentlemen, please confine your questions to today's topic." Isidora leaned her fragrant hair under his nose so the microphone picked up her well-modulated voice. "Ramon is retiring from racing to free up his time to restructure the company. These are details that will be of interest to your financial and market readers as well as the sports fans."
Such a smooth, unruffled command as she stayed on message, just like her father. As competent as she was, however, Etienne was right. She lacked experience. She didn't have Ramon's well-honed skill for manipulating the press-techniques he had learned from her father under the worst possible tutelage.
"Cuánto lo siento," Bernardo had said fifteen years ago, pleading for Angelique's forgiveness while Ramon had held her small, sweaty palm in his equally clammy hand.
The police thought a public plea for help would urge people to come forward with tips that could rescue their sister from her kidnappers.
"Emotions move people, Angelique," Bernardo had said. "I don't mean to cause you more pain. Lo siento mucho. I know you're frightened and hurting, but please don't try to hide your tears. People need to see how you are feeling. This is what makes it stick in their minds and moves them to act the way we need them to. Lo lamento mucho. I wish I didn't have to ask this of you, but I need you to reveal your heart to the camera."
It had been a disgusting thing to ask of a nine-year-old girl. Using her terror and anguish had bordered on exploitation. Their father hadn't been able to watch, too filled with self-contempt at putting his shy, sensitive daughter through such an ordeal when she was already so traumatized. But they had been desperate, all of them.
Their father had held their weeping mother in the other room while Henri stood beside the camera, so Angelique could look at him as she pleaded for Trella's return. Henri had worn the same ravaged expression that Ramon had felt upon his own face.
They had all developed a deep, deep hatred of the public attention that had never been invited and had turned their family into a target in the first place.
After Trella was rescued, and they were trying to move on with their lives, they had all found different ways of coping with the continued attention. Henri stonewalled at every opportunity. Angelique accepted and ignored. Trella had retreated to seclusion, becoming an elusive unicorn who had gone several years without being photographed.
Ramon preferred to play them at their own game. He didn't care what was printed about him. It amused him when the facts were wrong, especially when those "facts" came from him. One of his fellow racers had gleefully exchanged a volley of insults with him for several weeks earlier this summer, to take the pressure off Cinnia as she floundered under the weight of two babies and more attention than anyone should have to suffer-especially if they hadn't become inured to it the way the rest of his family had.
Now another baby was on the way. Ramon would quietly strangle his sister at some point for getting herself into that situation, but that was a job for another day.
Today's task was to protect that unborn Sauveterre. And Trella. Despite the progress she had made in the last year, she was still very fragile. She had barely survived her kidnapping. The critical press that had dogged her for years after had made every effort to finish her off. Ramon was very cognizant that a renewal of that harsh focus could give her a setback.
"Is it true that Trella watched some of your races last year, by pretending she was Angelique?"
Yes, and that was a can of worms that needed to stay closed. Ramon had to bring the focus back to him. Leaving racing wasn't doing the job. The dry topic of restructuring a corporation was certainly not holding anyone's attention.
Emotions move people. Reveal your heart to the camera...
His mind raced to find and evaluate options, quickly discovering the line he would have to follow if he wanted to stay in front of the pack.
"The truth is, I've discovered something for which I feel more passion than racing," he announced in a firm voice. "Hard to believe, is it not? Racing has been my life for over a decade, but with my brother so happily married and starting his family, I find I can't wait to enjoy the same. I'm deeply in love and...well-"
He moved around Isidora so he was no longer behind the podium and sank to one knee beside her.
A massive gasp went through the crowd.
The bombardment of flashes and clicks increased, but the shouting of questions ceased. An eerie expectancy characterized that wordless explosion of repeated shutter clicks and flashes. The lights strobed against her skin as he looked up to Isidora's incredulous expression.
She paled as comprehension dawned. Her eyes showed white around her gray irises. One hand came to her mouth and she might have said, "Don't you dare."
"Lo siento, mi amor," Ramon said with loud pride over the mechanical clicks and pops. "I cannot sneak around any longer, trying to keep this quiet. I love you too much."
He couldn't recall ever saying those words to anyone except his mother and siblings. It felt strange, pulling disturbingly at that inner door he kept so firmly closed. The push-pull gave his voice the appropriate amount of unsteadiness as he continued.
"You said if I quit racing, you would marry me. So, mi corazón. Now will you make me the happiest man on earth? Our fathers would approve, you know they would." He added the last as a reminder of where her loyalty should lie.
He had to give it to her. She had studied well under Bernardo. Her eyes filled with glossy tears and she didn't try to hide them. Her fingers against her lips trembled. Her other hand was cold when he took it in his, her fingers lax with shock.
The white fingers against her mouth curled into a fist.
"Was that yes?" He pretended he had heard a response no one else could and leaped to his feet. As he crushed her to his front, he played up the joyful act as he exclaimed, "She said yes!"
Then he dug his fingers into her hair, tipped back her head and kissed her.
She stiffened. Her breasts crushed into his chest as she sucked in a shocked breath.
He closed his grip on her more firmly, subtly, but implacably. Do this, he urged, but even he had his limits when it came to cold-bloodedly achieving his goals. Rather than force the kiss upon her, he brought all his sensual skill to bear and persuaded her to accept it.
Oh, this rat wasn't content to threaten her job or break her heart. He had to knock her self-esteem into smithereens. He rocked his mouth across her lips in exactly the way she had fantasized all through her teen years. Confident, hungry, enticing. Like he loved her.
Exactly as he'd just said he did.
She couldn't let his declaration affect her. It was a lie. She wanted to scratch his eyes out for playing with her like this.
Her own eyes stung, as if they'd been scraped raw behind her eyelids, but her self-control checked out. The besotted girl who had fallen in love so long ago came running out of her room, where she'd been crying into a pillow for five years. She threw herself into Isidora's body, heart singing with joy. She offered her mouth and drank up the sweet sensations that washed over her as Ramon acted, finally, like he wanted her.
Everywhere they touched, her skin bloomed with heat. Her bones turned pliant and the betrayal of his putting her on the spot like this evaporated. Her, the girl who had crushed so hard on a boy who was too old for her, the girl who had been ignored, rejected, then brutally passed over for her mother, the girl who had dealt with those horrible feelings of treachery and rebuff... She kissed him back.
She wasn't terribly experienced and that was his fault, too. These were the arms she had wanted from the first. These were the lips. This was the man.