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‘Oh, please,’ Estelle responded, determined not to let him see her fear. ‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Very well.’ Raúl nodded. ‘It will be a small wedding, but traditional. The press will go wild—they have been waiting a long time for me to marry—but we will not let them know we are married till after.’
They had been talking for hours; every detail from wardrobe allowance to hair and make-up had been discussed.
Estelle had insisted she could choose her own clothes.
‘I have a reputation to think of,’ had been Raúl’s tart response.
Estelle was entitled to one week every month to come back to the UK and visit her family for the duration of the contract.
‘I am sure we will both need the space,’ had been Raúl’s explanation. ‘I am not used to having someone permanently around.’
There was now an extremely uncomfortable conversation—for Estelle, in any case—about the regularity of sex, and also about birth control and health checks. Raúl didn’t appear in the least bit fazed.
‘In the event of a pregnancy—’ the lawyer started.
Raúl was quick to interrupt. Only now did he seem concerned by the subject matter being discussed. ‘There is to be no pregnancy.’ There was a low menace to his voice. ‘I don’t think my bride-to-be would be foolish enough to try and trap me in that way.’
‘It still needs to be addressed.’ The lawyer was very calm.
‘I have no intention of getting pregnant.’ Estelle gave a small nervous laugh, truly horrified at the prospect. She had seen the stress Cecelia had placed on Andrew and Amanda, and they were head over heels in love.
‘You might change your mind,’ Raúl said, for he trusted no one. ‘You might decide that you like the lifestyle and don’t want to give it up.’ He looked to his lawyer. ‘We need to make contingency plans.’
‘Absolutely,’ the lawyer said.
It could not be made clearer that this was all business.
Estelle sat as with clinical detachment he ensured that he would provide for any child they might have on the condition that the child resided in Spain.
If she moved back to England, Estelle would have to fight against his might just to make the rent.
‘I think that covers it,’ the lawyer said.
‘Not quite.’ Estelle cleared her throat. ‘I’d like us to agree that we won’t sleep with each other till after the wedding.’
‘There’s no need for quaint.’
‘I’ve agreed to all your terms.’ She looked coolly at him. It was the only way for this to work. If he knew she was a virgin this meeting would close now. ‘You can surely agree to one of mine? I’d like some time off before I start working.’ She watched his jaw tighten slightly as she made it clear that this was work.
‘Very well.’ Raúl did not like to be told that sleeping with him would be a chore. ‘You may well change your mind.’
‘I shan’t.’
‘You will be flown in a couple of days before the wedding. I will be on my yacht, partying as grooms do before their marriage. You shall have the apartment to yourself.’ He had no intention of holding hands and playing coy for a week. He waited for her nod and then turned to his lawyer. ‘Draft it.’
They waited in a sumptuous lounge as the lawyer got to work, but Estelle couldn’t relax.
‘You are tense.’
‘It’s not every day you get offered a million dollars.’ She could at least be honest about that. ‘Nor move to Marbella…’
‘You will love it,’ Raúl said. ‘The night-life is fantastic…’
He just didn’t know her at all, Estelle realised yet again.
‘How did your parents die?’ Raúl asked, watching as her shoulders stiffened. ‘My family are bound to ask.’
‘In a car accident,’ Estelle said, turning to him. ‘The same as your mother.’
He opened his mouth to speak and then changed his mind.
‘I just hope everyone believes us,’ Estelle said.
‘Why wouldn’t they? Even when we divorce we’ll maintain the lie. You understand the confidentiality clause?’ Raúl checked. ‘No one is ever to know that this is a marriage of convenience only.’
‘No one will ever hear it from me,’ she assured him. The prospect of being found out was abhorrent to Estelle. ‘Just a whirlwind romance and a marriage that didn’t work out.’
‘Good,’ Raúl said. ‘And, Estelle—even if we do get on…even if you do like—’
‘Don’t worry, Raúl,’ she interrupted. ‘I’m not going to be falling in love with you.’ She gave him a tight smile. ‘I’ll be out of your life, as per the contract.’
CHAPTER NINE (#ue4fb7f4b-f225-5bd8-ad39-f5f44306e235)
RAÚL HAD BEEN RIGHT.
Estelle stood on the balcony of his luxurious apartment, looking out at the marina, on the morning of her wedding day, and was, as Raúl had predicted, utterly and completely overwhelmed.
She had arrived in Marbella two days ago and had barely stopped for air since. Stepping into this vast apartment, she had fully glimpsed his wealth. Every room bar the movie screening room was angled to take in the stunning view of the Mediterranean, and every whim was catered for from Jacuzzi to sauna. There was a whole new wardrobe waiting for her too. The only thing lacking was that the kitchen cupboards and fridge were empty.
‘Call Sol’s if you don’t want to go out,’ Raúl had said. ‘They will bring whatever you want straight over.’
The only vaguely familiar thing had been the photo of them both, taken at Donald’s wedding, beautifully framed and on a wall. But even that had been dealt with by Raúl. It had been manipulated so that her make-up was softer, her cleavage less revealing.
It had been a sharp reminder that he thought her a tart.
Raúl knew the woman he wanted to marry, and it wasn’t the woman he had met, so there had been trips to a beauty salon for hair treatments and make-up lessons.
‘I don’t need make-up lessons,’ Estelle had said.
‘Oh, baby, you do,’ had been his response. ‘Subtle is best.’
Constantly she had to remind herself to be the woman he thought he had met. A woman who acted as if delighted by her new designer wardrobe, who didn’t mind at all when he told her to wear factor fifty-plus because he liked her pale skin.
But it wasn’t that which concerned Estelle this morning as she looked out at the glittering sea and the luxurious yachts, wondering which one was Raúl’s.
Tonight she would be on his yacht.
This night they would be sharing a bed.
Estelle wasn’t sure if she was more terrified of losing her virginity, or of him finding out that she had never slept with anyone before.
Maybe he wouldn’t notice, she thought helplessly. But she knew she didn’t have a hope of delivering to his bed the sexually experienced woman that Raúl was expecting. Last night, before heading off with his sponsors for his final night as a single man, Raúl had kissed her slowly and deeply. The message his tongue had delivered had been an explicit one.
‘Why do you make me wait?’
Tonight he would find out why.
‘You have a phone call.’ Rosa, his housekeeper, brought the phone up to the balcony. It was Amanda on the line.
‘How are you doing?’ Amanda asked.
‘I’m petrified.’ It was nice to be honest.
‘All brides are,’ Amanda said. ‘But Raúl will take good care of you.’
He had utterly and completely charmed Amanda, but had not quite won over Andrew.
‘I am not letting her go again.’ He had looked Andrew straight in the eye as he said it. ‘If I move Estelle to Spain I want to make a proper commitment. That is why she will come to be my wife.’
So easily he had lied.
Estelle knew she must remember that fact.
‘How did the dress turn out?’ Amanda asked.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Estelle said. ‘Even better than I imagined it would be.’
It was the only thing Estelle had been allowed to organise. It had all be done online and by phone, and the final adjustments made when she had arrived.
‘How is Cecelia?’ Estelle asked, desperate for news of her niece.
‘She’s still asleep.’
It was nine a.m. in Spain, which meant it was eight a.m. in the UK. Cecelia had always been an early riser. More and more she slept these days, though Amanda always did her best to be upbeat.
‘I’m going to dress her up for the wedding and take a photo and send it. Even if we can’t be there today, know that we’re thinking of you.’
‘I know.’
‘And I’m not your sister, but I do think of you as one.’
‘Thank you,’ Estelle said, her eyes welling up. ‘I think of you as a sister too.’
They weren’t idle words; many hours had been spent in hospital waiting rooms this past year.
‘Is that the door?’ Amanda asked.
‘Yes. Don’t worry, someone else will get it.’
‘Do you have a butler?’
‘No!’ Estelle laughed, swallowing down her tears. ‘Just Raúl’s housekeeper. Though it’s going to start to get busy soon, with the hairdresser…’ She turned around as she heard her name being called, and Estelle’s jaw dropped as she saw her brother coming through the door.
‘Andrew!’
‘Is that where he’s got to?’ Amanda laughed, and then she was serious. ‘I’m so sorry that I couldn’t be with you today—I’d have given anything. But with Cecelia…’
‘Thank you,’ Estelle said, and promptly burst into tears, all her pent-up nerves released.
‘I think she’s pleased to see me,’ Andrew said, taking the phone and chatting to Amanda briefly before hanging up.
‘I can’t believe you’re here,’ Estelle admitted.
‘Raúl said he thought you might need someone today, and of course I wanted to give you away. If anything happens with Cecelia he’s assured me I’ll be able to get straight back.’
She couldn’t believe that Raúl would do this for her. Until now she hadn’t fully realised how terrifying today was, how real it felt.
Raúl had.
‘When did you get in?’
‘Last night,’ Andrew said. ‘We went to Sol’s.’
‘You were out with Raúl?’
‘He certainly knows how to party.’ Andrew smiled. ‘I’d forgotten how.’
Even if she was doing all this for her brother and his wife, of the many benefits of marrying Raúl, this was one Estelle had not even considered—that her brother, who was still having trouble accepting the diagnosis that he would never walk again, who had, apart from job interviews and hospital appointments, become almost reclusive, would fly not just to Spain but so far out of his comfort zone.
It was a huge and important step, and it was thanks to Raúl that he was here.
‘I’ve got something for you.’
Estelle bit her lip, hoping they hadn’t spent money they didn’t have on a gift for a wedding that wasn’t real.
‘Remember these?’ Andrew said as she opened the box. ‘These’ were small diamond studs that had belonged to her mother. ‘Dad bought them for her for their wedding day.’
She had never felt more of a fraud.
‘Enough tears,’ Andrew said. ‘Let’s get this wedding underway.’
* * *
Raúl was rarely nervous, but as he stood at the altar and waited for Estelle, to his own surprise, he was.
His father had almost bought their story, and Raul’s future with the company was secure, but instead of a gloating satisfaction that his plans were falling into place today he thought only of the reasons he had had to go to these lengths.
