Stand-In Bride's Seduction

“If I didn’t know you loved me already, mi hermano, you’d pay for that remark,” Rey bantered in return, saving Rina from making comment.

“And what about the vineyard? I can’t imagine that you don’t have some thoughts on that,” Benedict joined the discussion for the first time.

Rina noticed he looked pale, with faint lines of strain around his eyes. Walking with a cane, he’d moved stiffly across the room before, and his sigh of relief as he’d lowered himself into the deep button back leather chair next to hers hadn’t escaped her ears.

She looked to Rey, who nodded. “Go on, tell him your ideas. I warn you though, he won’t be a pushover like this one,” he gestured toward Alex who snorted in mock disgust.

She fought to control the smile on her face. Being here, being around the brothers and Loren, not to mention the old man who’d been avidly listening to his grandsons and interjecting his own opinions from time to time, was a delight. There was a deep love and respect between all of them. She could well imagine how the family code had come about with them as living examples.

Rey crossed the room to pour a glass of one of Benedict’s finest wines and brought it over to her.

“Could you bring the bottle over, also?” Rina asked before turning back to Benedict. When he did, she turned the label to face him and pointed at it with the tip of one finger. “I think the starting point for the wine is to have a sense of unity with the del Castillo brand. It’s something you need to consider across the business entities. At your offices, at your homes, I’m constantly reminded of your family crest. Honor. Truth. Love. But I don’t see that anywhere in your marketing, for the resort or for the wine.”

By the time a maid came to call them into dinner, Rina had expounded on her ideas for not only revamping the wine bottle labels, but for an entire new del Castillo look. Her ideas had been met with shrewd observation and many questions but she knew from the tingle in her toes that she had captured them with her ideas. The knowledge was exhilarating but tempered with a pang of regret that she wouldn’t be here to see them through once Sara returned.

Rey watched her from across the room and tried to ignore the sense of pride he had in her as she caught the attention of everyone else. Caught it and held it in her palm as she spoke with a passion he recognized all too easily. She might have tried to pretend a lack of knowledge on publicity and development issues in the office, but here, with a private audience, the real Sarina truly glowed.

She was animated as she spoke, and he felt every cell in his body tune into her energy. More than that, she fit in with the dynamic that was the del Castillo family. Strange that a cuckoo in the nest should appear to suit him so much better than the sister he had actually asked to marry him. Would Sara have eased into tonight’s conversation as easily? he wondered. He had to answer in the affirmative. She was urbane and well practiced in social mores. She would have fit in as easily—but not as well. He could see that his brothers and Abuelo were already completely under Sarina’s spell, not just because of her intelligence and insight, but because of the care and consideration she showed them all. Sara lacked the heart of her sister.

A heart he had become increasingly intrigued by.

Before the idea could flower and develop into something more, he reminded himself of the sham the sisters were conducting. No one did such a thing, in his knowledge anyway, without an ulterior motive. Usually a financial ulterior motive. He had to keep his wits about him and his emotions very firmly in check. Eventually he’d get the truth from Sarina, he was sure of it.

Abuelo insisted on escorting her into the dining room, and Rey was forced to acquiesce. But as he watched the long column of her spine as she walked slowly in front of him, he couldn’t help but feel the familiar strands of anger pull at him. She was not just taking him for a ride, she was hurting them all. Loren, with her trust and eagerness to form a close friendship with another del Castillo bride. Abuelo, with his fear of the governess’s curse and his hopes for his grandsons and the family line to extend into perpetuity. Even Benedict and Alex seemed to have opened their hearts to the woman who was supposedly his forever.