Harlequin Presents: Once Upon A Temptation June 2020--Box Set 1 of 2
of her. Not today. Depression and exhaustion had her feeling like the walking dead, but she couldn’t blame all her sleep deprivation on Locke. A gnawing insecurity had been keeping her awake since London. A harrowing sadness she couldn’t seem to shake.Javiero had left while she’d been sleeping and they’d barely spoken since. She had texted him to let him know she’d arrived back in Spain safely. They’d managed an abbreviated call yesterday, with Locke fussing throughout. She hadn’t had much to say anyway. She was still very sensitive over the awkward dinner with her sister, and their torrid lovemaking and her newly identified feelings.
Should she have told him she loved him? In the moment, being physically close with him had been an expression of everything in her heart. Since then she hadn’t been able to read his mood, and her own had descended into despondency.
It didn’t help that Ellie hadn’t answered any of her texts. She’d had to hear from her mother that Ellie had arrived home safely. For some reason Scarlett was the one feeling horribly guilty and ashamed over the way things had gone with her sister. And then there was the brief call from her mother that had ended in a plea for money. Her mother had to pay some legal bills for her father to work toward his early release.
Scarlett’s stress level was already through the roof, which was affecting her work. Now she was worrying about her mother, and being here with Paloma without Javiero’s buffering presence was awful. She felt like a guest who had long overstayed her welcome.
All of it made every footstep feel as though she had anchors tied to them and was walking through freshly poured cement.
“Here she is now,” she heard Paloma say.
“Pardon?” She jerked out of her fog as she passed the archway into the lounge.
“Javiero would like to speak to you.” He was on a video call on his mother’s tablet.
“Oh. Hello.” Her heart gave a dip and roll, but her shy smile died before it formed as she took in his distracted frown.
“I was telling Mother that things have gone sideways.” He gave a terse nod toward someone off camera. “I’ll be here the rest of the week.”
“Oh.” And this was how she was being informed? Second to his mother, called onto the carpet so Paloma could look down on her from her seated position, her expression a mix of superiority and boredom?
“That’s unfortunate.” Scarlett met his gaze in the tablet, trying to hide her disquiet with an unbothered smile. Words like I miss you tangled on her tongue and she bit them back. Her love was too new to reveal for the first time like this, in front of his mother.
Given Javiero’s seeming indifference, she wasn’t sure there would be a good time. He didn’t look receptive at all. The skinless feeling she’d been suffering made her feel positively translucent. Tumescent. Tender and sensitive and throbbing painfully.
“Perhaps try me later and we’ll chat properly,” she suggested.
“With the time difference, you’ll be in bed. No, not that one,” he said impatiently to someone off-screen. “I have to go.”
“Of course,” she murmured as Paloma took back the tablet and ended the call with, “Cuídate bien.”
Scarlett hovered a moment, turning her ring, not sure she could endure more of this tension with Paloma. Maybe this was the opportunity she’d been looking for to defuse it?
“May I have a seat and speak with you about something?” she asked.
Paloma lifted her gaze from the tablet as she set it aside, regarded her a moment, then assented with a tiny nod at the chair.
Scarlett lowered into it, trying to find the woman she used to be when she had been Niko’s emissary. That had been such a different dynamic, though. Her only priority then had been to advance Niko’s interests. It had been easy not to care too deeply whether Paloma liked her. Now, however, every action she took had to be bounced off a mirror to see how it reflected on Javiero. Paloma had asked her yesterday how long she intended Locke to remain illegitimate, and loved to report on how much sleep she had lost due to Locke’s fussy nights.
Scarlett couldn’t go on like this, not with so many other concerns drowning her. This animosity with Paloma was choking her. If she was going to seriously consider Javiero’s proposal, she needed to lift some of the pall off her relationship with her future mother-in-law. She had to find a way to make this villa feel more like her own home, as well as her husband’s and son’s.
“Yes?” Paloma was exactly as frosty as she’d always been, making sure Scarlett knew her patience was razor thin.
“In the past,” Scarlett began carefully. “It was always important to Niko that he be seen as treating his sons and their mothers equally.”
“Yes, I know,” Paloma cut in icily. “I was his wife, yet I received as little consideration as his mistress. It was galling.”
And thirty-three years later, she still clung tightly to her grudge.
“Well, in the spirit of Niko’s wishes, I thought it fair to inform you…” Scarlett licked her lips. “I’m not sure if you were aware of all the details in the will. For instance, Kiara and I are each entitled to an allowance.”
“I’m sure, as trustee, that was something that was very important to you.”
“It was something Niko stipulated so we could raise his grandchildren in the standard of living he enjoyed.” Scarlett’s own patience was eroding.
Paloma’s brows went up at Scarlett’s impertinence.
Scarlett scraped herself back under control. “Since Val is supporting Kiara, she doesn’t need her allowance. She made an arrangement with Evelina to use her allowance to purchase an estate Evelina may use for her lifetime and which will ultimately benefit Aurelia.”
Paloma’s sour expression didn’t change. “I don’t understand why you think I have an interest in those people and how they conduct their financial affairs.”
“Well, I thought it was a sensible compromise. I know you feel what