‘But if you wanted to marry her—if you loved her …’
‘Love?’
It was a sharp, cynical laugh, one that was so cold and mocking that it made Alexa flinch back against the wall, away from its savagery.
‘I don’t believe in love. Never have. Never will.’
‘Then why were you going to marry Natalie?’
This time his eyes narrowed so sharply that they were just glinting slits in his face, a dark frown drawing his black brows together. Alexa suddenly had the uncomfortable feeling that she was like some small, defenceless butterfly, laid out on a microscope slide, ready for dissection.
‘It was what your sister wanted. She wanted it and it suited me. There was nothing like love involved.’
‘You were going to marry my sister just.’ Alexa began angrily but then the words faded from her tongue as she fully registered the impact of the second thing he had said. ‘No … she wouldn’t!’
She shook her head so violently that another few strands of her hair escaped from the pins securing them in ornate curls on her scalp and flew out around her head.
‘Why so indignant, belleza?’ Santos questioned softly. ‘Surely you knew?’
‘Well, yes …’
Natalie had admitted that she didn’t love Santos, and now he had made it plain that he hadn’t loved her either—so what had her sister been planning to be? Merely a trophy wife? Was even el brigante capable of such cold-blooded machinations?
Santos caught hold of her chin in hard fingers and held it, stilling her uneasy movement. The way he tilted her face up to his forced her to look deep into his eyes. Locking with the darkened gaze that burned down into hers.
‘Why does that shock you so much? Many people marry for convenience—for dynastic reasons.’
‘Older families, maybe—in other countries. Or people who need the money. But not people like you—you don’t …’
Horrified, she caught herself up sharply, almost biting down on her tongue in her haste to have the foolish, revealing words silenced. What was she thinking of? What had she come so very close to saying—and so giving herself away?
‘People like me don’t what?’ Santos asked, the very softness of the question revealing just how dangerous it really was. ‘What were you about to say, Alexa—hmm?’
‘Well—you don’t need any money, do you? You’re rolling in the stuff—disgustingly so.’
That made those heavy, arched brows shoot up in a way that made her stomach twist uncomfortably. She knew she had spoken rashly, over-emphatically, but she had been trying to conceal the true path her thoughts were following, which was that a man like Santos, someone who was so stunningly good-looking, so wealthy, so successful, would never need to buy a wife or to enter into any sort of a marriage of convenience. He would only have to crook his little finger and women would be lining up outside his door.
And would she be one of them? Her mind skittered away from even considering that question, never mind answering it. It was just too risky to what little was left of her composure.
‘Disgustingly?’ Santos echoed, an odd note creeping into his voice. ‘You don’t approve of my wealth?’
‘Not when you use it to take over other people’s lives.’
‘Your sister was not “taken over …”’
Folding his arms across his broad chest, Santos leaned back against the wall and subjected her to a slow, sweeping survey, the narrowed eyes moving from the top of her head right down to where her feet still ached inside the tight, elegant shoes. Lingering for a second, his gaze then swept swiftly back up to her face and the flame in his eyes was not one of appreciation but a cold, burning anger that made her flinch deep inside.
‘She knew very well what she was going to get out of it.’
And perhaps, at first, that had seemed enough, Alexa acknowledged. Thinking back over the way that Natalie had looked, the things she’d said, she had to admit that Nat had been excited by the idea of marrying Santos—at least at the beginning. She’d loved being seen on his arm, appearing in all the gossip magazines. It was only later, when she’d met this new man, that things had changed.
‘And what about you? What did you get out of it?’
‘I wanted a wife. Legal heirs to inherit all I’ve worked for.’
‘There are other ways …’
This time the flashing glance that seared over her practically sizzled with contempt. She couldn’t have said anything more stupid, anything he would believe in less, his expression said.
‘If you’re thinking love and romance and happily ever after then forget it. I told you, I don’t believe in love.’