Carmen laughed. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Elise had heard enough. She started to step into the room, but on impulse, she let the robe fall to the floor. One thing she knew about Alejandro was that he was physically attracted to her.
She had on a lacy white demi-cup bra that exposed the top halves of her breasts. Her matching panties curved across her—thanks to frequent gym visits—very firm derriere.
Loudly, she flung the door open. “Carmen!” she said as she strode across the room to the closet, not looking at the two people standing on the other side. “Which of your clothes should I wear? Everything is either too big or too short for me. Your jeans wouldn’t reach to my calves. It’s a curse having such long legs.” Elise pulled out the smallest skirt and held it in front of her in a way that exposed her tight stomach. The upper half of her was nearly bare.
Turning, she saw Carmen and Alejandro staring at her. Carmen’s frown was so deep she could plant wheat between the furrows. Alejandro was looking at her in stunned silence.
Was there anything more gratifying than seeing a beautiful man dumbstruck by desire? Elise had never seen it on her husband’s face. And Alejandro had always kept himself under control. She’d seen twinges in his eyes but never this down and dirty look of lust.
“Oh!” Elise said, trying to sound innocent. “Sorry. I didn’t know anyone else was here. You must be Alejandro.” She pronounced it as Alex-andro. “Did I say that right?”
She held the skirt up in a way that it covered nothing as she went forward to hold out her other hand to him to shake.
He just stared at her.
“Is he okay?” Elise said in a false whisper, and realized she was channeling Tara.
Carmen was still frowning. “He doesn’t speak English and he doesn’t greet naked women.”
“Oh
.” Elise pulled the skirt to her, but covered very little of her well-toned body. “I. Am. So. Sorry.” She spoke slowly and very loudly. “Welcome. To. A-mer-ee-ca.” She was almost shouting. Elise looked at Carmen and whispered, “I’ll just be a minute, then we can go.” She gave another glance at Alejandro, as though to say it was too bad he wasn’t a fully functioning human being, then she walked back to the closet—with the skirt in front of her, exposing her entire back half to their view.
With a warm smile at the two of them, Elise grabbed a handful of Carmen’s clothes, and disappeared into the bathroom.
“I’m a dead man,” Alejandro said, and collapsed into a chair.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Thanks to Alejandro, it was easy getting out of the hotel unnoticed. Outside the suite was a pretty young woman with a cleaning cart. Smiling, he told her in Spanish that Elise was the runaway bride everyone was looking for, and she needed a disguise. He unnecessarily added that the two of them were eloping. The young woman smiled back, her eyes dreamy with romance, and unlocked a closet that held a maid’s uniform.
Alejandro motioned for Elise to put it on, then stood outside the door while she changed. When she came out, he frowned. The uniform was for a much shorter woman so it exposed a lot of her legs.
However, as they rode the elevator down, no one so much as looked at either of them. He had on dirty jeans, an old T-shirt, and a baseball cap, while she was dressed as a maid. They were anonymous to the world.
When they reached the bottom, he led her through the kitchen. A lot of the staff knew she was the missing bride, but they didn’t tell. But then, Alejandro kept saying that they were in love and she was leaving her heartless gringo ex-fiancé to live with him in Mexico.
Elise didn’t speak, pretended she didn’t know what was being said, and stayed close to Alejandro as he led her outside.
They hurried through the parking lot to his truck and when she saw it, she couldn’t help a laugh. She’d forgotten that it was big and black. Was it the source of her black horse fantasy?
Alejandro looked at her in question, silently asking why she was laughing.
Elise waved her hand. It didn’t matter. When she got into the truck the short skirt rode up so high she may as well have been wearing just her underpants. She started to pick up a shirt that was jammed behind the seat and cover herself, but when Alejandro kept glancing at her bare legs, she didn’t.
As he started the engine, she realized that she needed to get him on her side. Carmen had lied about her—or rather, she’d repeated what Kent had said, so Elise wanted to counterbalance that.
First, she needed to see if Alejandro was going to keep up his lie about not speaking English. Turning, she looked at him. He was even more beautiful than she remembered. Cut cheekbones; black, black hair; whiskers that she longed to touch.
“I’m Elise,” she said, then waited for him to introduce himself. But he didn’t. He acted as though he didn’t know what she’d said.
She had to look out the side window for a moment. Maybe their friendship hadn’t happened yet, but damn! To flat-out lie was a low blow.
She took a breath. “I know you don’t know what I’m saying, but I need to talk to someone. Sorry, but you’re it. First of all, I apologize about the Welcome to A-mer-ee-ca. I got that from West Side Story. I was really angry at Carmen and I guess I took it out on you. And I also apologize for running around in my underwear but I wanted to make your sister angry.” She smiled. “I think I succeeded.”
There was no reaction from him. “Okay, where do I begin? I only recently found out that your sister and my—” She hesitated. Not her husband. Not yet. “That my fiancé and your sister are a couple. I knew Kent wasn’t madly, passionately in love with me, but I thought he would be. I’ve been after him—kind of like a boy band groupie—since I was a kid. I really believed I could make him love me.”