Compromised into a Scandalous Marriage by Lydia San Andres

Author:Lydia San Andres
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-04-27T18:26:37+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The following day found Sebastian riding into town again, this time to speak with his bank manager about Paulina’s suggestion and to put in another order for the metal tracks he was having laid through the sugarcane fields to more easily transport the cane to the mill once it had been cut. It was an expensive proposition but one that would relieve the cane cutters of a great deal of labor.

He had never shared his saddle before riding to and from town with Paulina the day before, but he found himself missing the space she’d occupied on the leather seat. On the way back to Villa Consuelo in the falling dark the day before, she had drowsily relaxed against his chest, her head pleasantly heavy on his shoulder. What was it she had said at the restaurant? That she could get used to it?

Well, so could he.

The notion wasn’t nearly as alarming as it should have been, and Sebastian paused to consider why. He’d enjoyed her company more than he’d expected. Maybe he had also been lonely. Maybe he, too, had needed a friend. Secure in his control of himself, and in no danger of letting himself be seduced, he had allowed himself to see her for who she truly was—a remarkably interesting woman.

And a damn desirable one.

Nor for the first time, Sebastian thought about Antonio Despradel’s reasons for forcing them into marriage. It wasn’t like it would have been so difficult to find Paulina a husband by conventional means. She was everything a man could want—everything Sebastian would have wanted, if his circumstances had been different.

Who wouldn’t want to wake up every morning to the sight of those luminous eyes?

Or that round bottom pressed against—

Sebastian swore out loud, to the consternation of the two sparrows perched on a fence post, which took immediate flight.

Paulina had far more to offer than her beauty, of course. She was brave and intelligent and more skillful with a hammer than he could have imagined.

Sebastian had awoken that morning with every intention of fixing the shaky stool, only to find that the leg that had wobbled like a loose tooth was now perfectly solid. On it was a note, pinned down by a rock. It read, My apologies for taking liberties, but I couldn’t let the stool claim another victim.

Then he’d gone to find the spout for the water barrel, and of course Paulina had taken care of that as well. She’d even managed to scrub away some of the rust that had accumulated on the metal in the months the spout had been lying among Sebastian’s tools.

And damn if it hadn’t felt like a weight off his shoulders. A weight he hadn’t realized he was carrying until it had been lifted.

Sebastian sighed. He didn’t like intrigue, and he wasn’t particularly good at it—not just that; it made his head ache. He said as much to Dilia when he stopped by the pink house after his errands, a heat-induced headache pounding behind his eyes.

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