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on hand for exercising her temper. Because she didn’t believe in wasting anything, she only broke plates that the kids at the shelter could use to make mosaic birdbaths.
    “Kara.”
    “Damn.”
    “Damn? You don’t strike me as a woman who curses.”
    “Count Guillermo, tonight I am.”
    He chuckled. “Long one?”
    “Yes. Funny how a rumored engagement to a very eligible bachelor can do that to a girl.”
    “May I give you a lift home?”
    “Do you have a car?”
    “Indeed.”
    “That’d be lovely. I was going to take a cab.”
    “Then allow me.”
    “I will. It’s the least you can do for your fiancée. ”
    “If my fiancée wasn’t so stubborn—”
    “I’m not stubborn. I just know my mind.”
    “Stubborn,” he said under his breath.
    “The same could be said of you.”
    “To be honest, it has been,” he said.
    She almost smiled at him, because this was the first moment when she saw him as more than a sexy man. She saw the real man beneath the aristocratic title and charm.
    “Where’s your car?”
    “I sent Vincent to get it.”
    She nodded. “I guess he delivered my message.”
    “Yes, he did. Why wouldn’t you come upstairs to see me?”
    “Because I’m American and I prefer to be asked by the man who wants to see me and not his servant.”
    “Vincent is more than a servant. He’s a friend and trusted advisor.”
    “My mistake.”
    “How could you ever doubt your appeal to the opposite sex?” he asked.
    “Easily,” she said. “I’m usually very shy around men. But somehow, knowing you are my…whatever, has loosened my tongue. Either that, or all the martinis I had earlier. I wonder if I’ve had too much to drink?”
    “You haven’t.”
    “How do you know?” she asked. She doubted he’d been paying much attention to her all night long.
    “A man likes to think he knows his own fiancée.”
    “Yeah, but I’m not really—”
    “Not really what?”
    Kara heard the haughty feminine voice with that sexy Spanish accent and knew that Countess Elvira was there behind them. She put her hand on Gui’s forearm and glanced back at the other woman.
    She wanted to tell the woman to mind her own business. And Kara was sure she saw something in the other woman’s eyes that indicated she knew the truth. Somehow Elvira knew that she and Gui weren’t really engaged.
    “I’m not really tired,” Kara said at last.
    Gui wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her back against his body, dropping a kiss along the side of her neck. “We’ll think of something to do when we get back to your place.”
    Any other woman would have looked away, but not Elvira. Kara knew, because she saw the flush of anger in the other woman when she opened her own eyes.
    “Gui is an excellent lover, isn’t he?”
    Kara felt the blush that climbed up her neck and face. She traveled on the very outer edges of this sophisticated crowd, but she wasn’t jaded. She never had been.
    “Leave her alone, Elvira.”
    “ Querido, have your tastes changed so drastically?”
    “Not at all,” he said.
    “Then how can you be with…”
    “She’s the woman I’ve been waiting for, Elvira. A woman worth marrying.”
    Gui led her away from the other woman and out the front door where Vincent had a Rolls-Royce waiting for them. They climbed in the backseat without saying a word, but Kara’s mind was busy with the thought that there were worse pains than embarrassment, and if she didn’t watch herself around Gui, she might end up with a broken heart.

    The apartment that Gui kept in Manhattan was on Park Avenue and overlooked Central Park. He’d had it for years and had always thought that he had the best there was in the city, but Kara’s place was lovely. There was something very fresh and American about her decor and the feeling he got when he stepped over the threshold.
    She put her handbag on a table in the foyer before leading the way into a well-appointed den. There were floor-to-ceiling bookcases along