CHAPTER TEN

“Ouch, ¡joder! That’s too tight!”

Lola’s high-pitched complaint made Santiago roll his eyes for the hundredth time. “What’s the matter now, munéquita?”

Lola’s eyes, wide and feral, slowly shifted from her dress to the man lounging lazily at the balcony’s edge.

“What’s the matter?” she repeated with a raised eyebrow. “Even a blind man would see how uncomfortable this entire setup is on me. I can barely breathe in this corset. Why do I even need one? I think I’m quite skinny enough.”

The lady standing next to Lola offered a sweet smile. “It is how the dress was designed, señorita. The goal is to give women the confidence they need by bringing out the beauty in their body, no matter their size.”

Lola shifted her gaze to the lady—who’d introduced herself as Esmeralda—and smiled back, albeit falsely. “Yeah, I doubt that’s going to work in this case. Can we get it off, please?”

“Most certainly,” Esmeralda quickly replied, though Lola could hear a twinge of disappointment in her thin voice. She couldn’t blame the lady, though. She would’ve been frustrated as well. So far, they’d gone through nine different expensive dresses, with Lola casually dropping complaints about each of them. As Esmeralda opened the box containing the last dress, Lola silently prayed that tenth time should be the charm.

“This is the last from our collection,” Esmeralda said as she held it up. “Hopefully it meets your expectations.”

Lola didn’t realize she was holding her breath until she exhaled moments later. The black dress hanging from Esmeralda’s fingers had small stones all over the smooth fabric, causing it to resemble a galaxy of stars glittering against the darkness of outer space. It had a fitted sleeve for one arm, as well as a diamond-shaped opening for cleavage display. Best of all, it was shorter than the rest, most likely an inch or two above the knee.

Lola smiled at the outfit. The tenth time was a charm.

“Do you want to try it on?” Esmeralda asked.

“There’s no time for that.” Santiago was suddenly on his feet, draining the last of his fruit punch. “Just leave it with the rest. She’ll make her pick when the time comes. Tell Mr. de la Fonté that his work is appreciated, even though it was on such short notice.”

“Si, señor.” As Esmeralda nodded and began to gather her things to leave, Lola turned to Santiago with wide eyes.

“Diego de la Fonté? The renowned fashion icon and founder of Bold Beauty?”

Santiago smirked. “You make him sound like a god. He’s more of a jerk, I promise you.”

That didn’t help Lola calm down. “You got one of the most popular names in the fashion world to design a bunch of dresses for me and I’m supposed to be casual about it?”

Santiago raised his hands in mock surrender. “That’s your decision, munéquita. Personally, I don’t see the big deal here.”

Lola rolled her eyes with a groan. “Of course you wouldn’t! You and Mr. de la Fonté belong in the same social class, several light years above most people. Of course you wouldn’t understand how exciting this is for me.”

“Well, I guess you’re right,” Santiago responded with a small shrug. “When you’re at the top for so long, little things barely move you. Opportunities that would excite others become a normal affair for you. You begin to wonder if you’re devoid of feelings, if you’re still… human.”

“Huh.” Lola’s brows narrowed. “That was pretty deep. Even for you.”

Santiago chuckled softly. “I’m rich, Lola. Not shallow. Besides, you’re not the only one who’s wearing a €500,000 outfit designed by Diego tonight. My tuxedo got delivered today as well.”

“Oh,” Lola said quietly as she massaged her temples. She wanted to pretend like she didn’t hear him, but the fact that she was going to wear a dress worth half a million euros made her brain ricochet within her cranium. “Why are we even… what event are we attending again?”

“Oh, it’s quite the occasion,” Santiago began as he took a step closer. “An exquisite dinner party of a potential investor, and I should be thinking about closing an important deal with the sucker. But my priorities are elsewhere.”

Lola frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Are you forgetting, amor?” It’ll be our first appearance in public together. As a couple.”

“Oh,” Lola said again. “A fake couple, you mean. Is that why you spent that much on getting us matching outfits?”

Santiago smiled as he wore a jacket over his white T-shirt. “The sooner you understand that spending ‘that much’ can never be a problem for me, the better. Now, come on. We’re going shopping.”

Lola’s head swiveled as her eyes followed Santiago’s movement. “And where are we going? I thought we had everything delivered already.”

“Not yet,” Santiago casually flung the words off his shoulder as he began his descent downstairs. “There’s still a key ingredient missing.”

About twenty minutes later, Lola frowned in confusion when Santiago stopped the car in front of a hangar. “I thought you said we were going shopping.”

“We are,” he replied briskly as he got out of the driver seat and made his way towards the open entrance of the large building. Lola quickly followed suit, still puzzled.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but this looks nothing like any shopping mall I’ve seen before.” Lola paused suddenly. “Wait a minute. We’re buying planes?”

“What?” Santiago stopped as well and turned around with an amused look.

Lola shrugged nervously. “I don’t know. You said we were going shopping. Now we’re in an enormous hangar with four luxurious planes. Don’t blame me for me logical train of thought.”

Santiago stayed quiet for a second. Then he flashed one of those annoyingly attractive grins of his. “We’re not buying planes, munéquita. I already own all four of them. And when I did we were going shopping, I didn’t mean here in Madrid. Or Spain, for that matter.”

As Lola stared blankly at him, processing his words like a faulty computer, a male head completely covered with snow-white hair poked out of the doorway of the plane closest to them. “¡Buenos días, señor!”

Santiago suddenly wore a straight face as he spun around on his heel. “Valdez. Buenos dias. Are we ready for take off?”

“In a few minutes, sir. The last round of maintenance checks are almost complete.”

“Very well, then. Carry on.”

Santiago turned to Lola, who was still too stunned to speak, and gently nudged her forward with a hand on her lower back. “I hope you’re not scared of heights, munéquita. And if you are, the champagne on board would help.”