“He’s not finalizing anything!”
“The contract exists, Alyssa. I’m afraid there’s little I can do.”
“You can change it. Research it. Find precedents we can use to break it. I’ll do the same. Damn it, I had a year of law school. I know there’s not a contract written that can’t be broken. How come you don’t know that, too?”
“Read the contract,” Thaddeus had repeated wearily.
So she’d read it. And the more she’d read, the more she’d seen just how cleverly the Reyes’s lawyers had been in their use of language and tort law.
The contract seemed unassailable.
She’d sent Prince Felix a letter, demanding he forget the stipulation. She hadn’t received an answer. She’d figured that meant the Spanish prince would not be dissuaded from coming to the ranch. Why? Was it to try to hold her to the contract terms? Did he actually think he could do that? Most of all, why would he be willing to marry a woman he had never seen?
The only thing that made sense was that Lucas Reyes was the human equivalent of a toad.
Squat. Bloated, with constant drool falling from fleshy lips. Ugly enough to frighten small children. Or tall. Skinny as a scarecrow, with ears that stood out from his head. After a couple of days, she’d decided he probably had warts, too.
And then she and Bebé had come within an inch of riding down a stranger. A tall, dark-haired, hot-eyed, gorgeous stranger…
The Spanish prince. And he had no idea who she was, or the real reason he was here. He honestly thought he’d come to look at a mare.
In reality, he’d come to look at her. Breeding stock, according to Aloysius.
Hadn’t he always described her in the terms horsemen used when talking about mares? It started when she turned sixteen. She had, he’d said, good bloodlines. Good conformation. She’d make someone a good wife. Someone with money, who could infuse life back into the ranch was what he’d meant, though nobody dared say it.
A couple of months later, Aloysius had sent her east to boarding school, then college. She’d come home when her mother took ill, went east again after her death—and returned for the last time when Aloysius was dying. An act of human decency, because it had seemed the right thing to do.
Now here she was, staring at the stud she was supposed to be bred to.
The man who’d bought her from Aloysius.
So much for human decency.
Okay. Lucas Reyes hadn’t bought her. He hadn’t even known about the deal. Whatever. It was still humiliating and once she knew his identity, thanks to George, she’d phoned Thaddeus and demanded he drive over and handle things. She would stand by and listen, but Thaddeus would do the talking.
Wrong.
Thaddeus had taken the coward’s way out. He’d tiptoed up to the truth, then lurched away from it so that she was stuck with the job. She’d have to explain why he was here to Lucas Reyes. It was horrible and demeaning and…
And, just look at the man. Look at His Mightiness. His jaw was trying its best to defy gravity.
He was—what was the word? Nonplussed. Alyssa wanted to laugh. His Mightiness, the Prince of NonPlussed. It didn’t even the score. She was still humiliated but at least he was completely bewildered.
How nice. How well-deserved.
He’d done a fine job of bewildering her this afternoon. Invading her space, forcing a confrontation…
Kissing her as if it was his right—but he probably thought it was. He was a prince, born to wealth and power and, okay, good looks.
Why not be honest?
Lucas Reyes was gorgeous.
Black hair. Hazel eyes. Strong jaw. A little dent in his nose that only heightened his sexiness.
He must have broken it sometime in the past.
A riding accident? Or an accident with a woman? It was nice to think some woman had given the prince her best shot.