Excerpt of Blackmailed into Marriage by Lucy Monroe

"YOU are Rosalia Chavez-Torres."

Lia turned at the deep, masculine voice and found her line of vision blocked by a well-honed male torso clothed in formal black and white. He was standing much too close. She could smell his expensive cologne and powerful energy radiated off him in imposing waves. She took a quick, jerky step backward only to run into a small table that prevented further retreat.

She tilted her head back so her gaze could travel up to the man's face and the breath rushed from her chest.

This man did not belong in a room filled with civilized businessmen.

Oh, he was dressed as the others in a hand-tailored tuxedo that fit his tall, muscular body perfectly. However his eyes burned with a vibrant intensity lacking in the other men in the room. Even her grandfather's presence paled beside this man.

She was absolutely certain he was not old money, nor did she recognize him as a member of the Spanish nobility her grandfather counted among his cronies. She was pretty sure she had met all the eligible men of her age in that circle six years ago…before she'd turned her back on a world she hadn't wanted to belong to. She didn't know who he was, but he'd been watching her all evening and it did strange things to her equilibrium. Impossible things she had long ago decided she was not destined to feel.

All of this ran through her mind in the short silent moments after she turned around. Still, his eyes asked why she had not yet responded.

Giving herself a mental shake, she stuck her hand out and said, "Lia Kennedy, actually. And you are?"

"Damian Marquez. You are Benedicto's granddaughter, are you not?" His fingers closed around hers, the heat in them warming hers.

"Yes."

His hands weren't those of a man who had never labored. They were rougher, like Toby's hands had been. Only her husband had been a classic laid-back beta male. Damian exuded an aura of power and hardness that made her already chilled body shiver convulsively.

"You are cold?"

"The air-conditioning…" She let her voice trail off, knowing the AC had nothing to do with it.

Neither did he really. She'd been cold from the inside out since the doctor told her about the hole in her daughter's heart. Returning to Spain and a grandfather who disapproved of all her life's choices had done nothing to warm her.

"We could step onto the terrace. It is still quite warm outside."

She shrugged. Why not? Her grandfather wasn't going to listen to her plea about Kaylee with all these other people around and the prospect of escape was too good to pass up. She hadn't been to his villa on the eastern coast of Spain since Christmas and hadn't been expected until the holiday rolled around next year.

The curiosity of the other dinner guests had been pressing in on her since she walked into the drawing room just as dinner was announced an hour and a half ago. Once dinner had ended and the guests started to mingle, it had become almost unbearable in her current fragile state. If the other guests weren't asking subtly worded questions trying to draw out the reason for her unexpected visit, they were watching her and whispering behind their hands about the too independent granddaughter who was such a disappointment to the old man.

Taking her acquiescence for granted, Damian took her arm and led her through a set of French doors at one end of the long drawing room.

He had been right. The night air was warmer than the chilled interior of the house.

She breathed deeply, enjoying the sensation of heated air caressing her body and filling her lungs. She'd been cold for so long. "This is much better, thank you."

"Most Americans prefer the air-conditioning, but then you grew up here."

"Actually I was raised in the States until I was fifteen." The year her father had died.

The Conde Benedicto Chavez-Torres had insisted Maria- Amelia return to Spain to live with her teenage daughter and Lia's mother had moved across the ocean without a single protest. Sunk in grief over the loss of her husband, she had not noticed how miserable her daughter was in their new home.

She had rejected every concern Lia had voiced, telling her daughter she needed to learn to live with the Spanish side of her nature. Lia hadn't wanted to live in the rarified atmosphere of the wealthy Spanish nobility. She had simply wanted to go home, a request denied time and again by her grandfather.

It should have been no surprise to anyone when she'd eloped with her high school sweetheart at the age of eighteen. Despite the fact their relationship had been long distance for the better part of three years, Toby had expressed more loving understanding toward Lia than either her mother or her grandfather had over those same three years. Yet, both Maria and Benedicto had been furiously shocked by Lia's marriage.

Her grandfather had immediately disinherited her and then been appalled when his action had done nothing to bring her crawling back to Spain. Nothing had done that, not his disapproval, nor her mother's tears and not even Toby's death. Kaylee's illness was another matter.

Lia would do anything for her daughter. Anything at all.

Ignoring the pain her thoughts caused, she added, "I make my home in New Mexico now. It's hot and I like it."

"I see." His dark gaze fixed on her meditatively. "I live in New York. It is hot in the summers, but the winters are very cold."

"Poor you. I would hate to live anywhere with a real winter."

"Perhaps you could learn to like it."

"I don't think so."

He didn't reply immediately and she got the distinct impression he was sizing her up. "Your grandfather said you do not visit Spain very often. I doubt it is the air- conditioning keeping you away."

"My daughter and I come at Christmas every year," she said defensively, not knowing why she should feel the need to defend herself, but feeling it all the same.

"Surely you could come more frequently?"

"Frequent travel doesn't fit into my budget."

"Benedicto would pay for you to come."

She shrugged. No doubt, but then she would have to spend yet more time listening to his lectures about moving to Spain and her mother's more subtle guilt trips. No thank you.