Ten
Susannah lay in Amado’s arms, their breathing the only sound in the still air after they made love.
Made love.
Such a common expression. Could you actually bring love into the world by having hot sex? Maybe you could. Something stirred in her heart, painful and difficult to name.
Probably because this was a kind of love that was inappropriate and should never have happened. A passion born of simple lust. The kind of thing she’d been raised to stay away from, and thought herself smart enough to avoid.
A love with no future.
Susannah had a weird sense of being on the edge of a precipice, looking down over the stunning view, admiring it and enjoying its beauty, knowing all the while that at any minute she could plunge into the abyss.
Amado’s chest swelled with a deep breath, shifting her weight. “I’ll drive you back to the house.”
“Okay.” Her heart stung at the thought of separating from him. She wanted this magic moment to last a little bit longer.
But she couldn’t even protest and say that she wanted to see more of the winemaking operations. Not with any conviction. She’d already proved to both herself and Amado that all thoughts of work and business crumbled in the face of her disturbing hunger for him.
She wasn’t even that embarrassed by it. There wasn’t anything she could do about it, so what was the point? Would something be gained by denying them both these moments of pleasure? It was too late for them to ever have a crisp business relationship or a casual platonic friendship. If their relationship was going to be messy, then why couldn’t it be hot and rough and affectionate, too?
Though, of course it would have been better if they never did any of this in the first place.
Amado’s arms closed tightly around her. Squeezed her in an embrace that was almost painful in its intensity. “What’s going on in that dangerous brain of yours?”
She hesitated. Was there any harm in telling him the truth? He must surely feel the same way. “I was just wishing that we never slept together.”
His eyes narrowed.
“It would have made things so much easier if we never got started, don’t you think?”
His muscles tightened. “I dare say.”
The air around them seemed to cool. He squeezed out from under her and leaped off the sofa.
Goose bumps rose on her skin, deprived of his warmth.
He grabbed his pants off the floor and shoved them on. “Let’s go. I don’t want to waste any more of your valuable time.”
She eased herself into a sitting position. Wrapped her arms around her suddenly chilled body.
But she didn’t regret her honesty. She didn’t want to become the kind of person who only told someone what they wanted to hear. “I don’t think it’s a waste of time. It’s beautiful when we…” make love. She couldn’t bring herself to say it. “It’s just that the desire doesn’t go away. It comes back stronger each time.”
Amado paused in buckling his belt. He stared at her.
“Am I being too frank?”
“No.” He frowned, then a gleam of humor entered his eyes. “Yes, maybe. But I like that about you. I’m tired of people who say things they don’t mean, so better that you speak the truth.” He stepped toward her and cupped her face in his hands. “Even if it might get you into trouble.”
A flame of gladness lit in her heart. He understood that she couldn’t lie just to make things easier. And she didn’t mind being in trouble, at least not this kind.
How crazy was that?
He pressed a hot kiss to her lips, which sent a hot shimmer of arousal surging through her. Maybe she was better off when she didn’t know she was capable of these kinds of feelings.
He stepped back and continued dressing. She couldn’t help watching. Admiring the muscled lines of his body. Of course she desired him. He was heart-stoppingly handsome, smart, hardworking…
He tucked in his shirt and turned to her. Spoke gruffly. “I’m going to check on our newest Chardonnay vines. You coming?”
He’d asked rather rudely, as if her presence would be an intrusion. But his eyes gleamed with…hope. He was too proud to let her know that he felt—at least a little bit—the same way she did.
Her chest expanded. “I’d love to.”
Her smart suit was rather crumpled as it had somehow ended up underneath the sofa. Amado didn’t seem to notice and luckily there was no one around as they exited the building.
“Where’s your car?” She looked around.
“There.” A nod of his head indicated a black horse standing tied to a wood fence under a shady arbor. “Don’t worry. I’ll give you a leg up.”
Icy nails of fear raked down her back. “Oh, no. I couldn’t. I’ve never ridden before. And I’m not dressed for it.”
He snorted. “The horse doesn’t care what you’re wearing. I’ll lead you. You’ll be very comfortable. Estrella is gentle and calm.”
Susannah glanced around to see if there would be any other witnesses to her untimely death.
“Seriously, don’t be nervous. She’s used to carrying guests who can’t ride.”
“Did you bring her here for me?”
He shrugged. “I thought you should see more of the estate. You haven’t explored the vineyards themselves, yet. And I didn’t want you to ruin your nice shoes.” Humor twinkled in his eyes.
A smile tugged at her mouth. Amado never ceased to surprise her. Even when he’d shown up, curt and brusque, ready to argue with her over labels, he’d fully intended to take her out for a ride to show her his estate. The realization made her heart do a weird little leap.
Okay, now she had to get on the horse.
She put her foot in Amado’s sturdy hand, and swung her leg over the saddle. She felt awkward perched up in the air.
“What about my car?” she wondered aloud.
“Don’t worry about it.” Amado looked straight ahead, guiding the horse with its reins in one hand. Although she couldn’t see, she could tell he was smiling. “It won’t go anywhere.”
He turned. “Are you comfortable?”
“Yes.” She wasn’t entirely lying. As they plodded along the dirt road back toward the house and barn, she started to relax and move with the rolling motion of the horse’s back.
She couldn’t help enjoying Amado’s smile of approval. How pathetic was this? Once again it was painfully obvious she’d do anything he asked her to. And he knew it.
He guided the horse over to the side of the road as a car came by. Susannah hoped details of her pony ride wouldn’t be broadcast around the estate by dinnertime.
When the car slowed, and the window rolled down, she was surprised to see Clara. “Hello, Amado.”
His shoulders stiffened as he murmured a polite greeting.
“I made some of your favorite pastries.” Clara glanced at Susannah. “And some for you, too, Susannah. I’m grateful that you came to visit me today.”
Amado jerked a glance back at Susannah. She swallowed. “Thank you. I’m sure I’ll enjoy them.”
Clara glanced at how Amado was leading Susannah on the horse, and a mysterious smile came over her face. “I can see you’re both busy so I’ll leave them at the house for you.”
“Fine.” Amado remained rigid as Clara drove away.
Susannah couldn’t stop a satisfied smile from appearing. It cheered her to see Clara venture back to Amado’s domain. “I think she’s calming down a bit. If only your dad would…”
“I don’t want to talk about them.” He turned sharply off the road and led the horse right through what looked like a vegetable garden, then a rather rough pasture, and up into the rows of vines.
Susannah stayed quiet as Amado marched along the rows, the horse’s head at his shoulder. Lush green shoots and leaves reminded her it was summer down here, even as everything was busy freezing solid in New York.
“You’re looking more relaxed up there. Want to take the reins? She won’t go an
ywhere.”
She shook her head. “You must think I’m ridiculous. I suppose you were galloping around when you were three.”
He smiled. “I was. But everyone’s different and I don’t want to push you. Let me help you down.”
He held the horse while she slid ungracefully off it. Then, bending at the waist, he examined the dusty green leaves of a young grape vine. He held the leaf between his thumb and finger, tender and careful as he was…with her.
She could tell he’d be a great father himself, one day. Encouraging his children to explore and to follow their dreams, and supporting them when they didn’t have the strength to do it all on their own.
She realized she’d let out an audible sigh, because Amado turned to look at her. She tried to cover up. “It’s so beautiful here. I can see why you never want to travel.”
“On a purely practical level, it’s an excellent terroir.” He lifted a brow.
“It is.” The terroir—or the specific vineyard location including climate, soil, altitude and sun exposure—was what gave each wine its unique character and flavor. “And you’ve found a way to capture the magic of this place in your wines. You’re lucky that Ignacio gave you free rein to experiment and to put the land to your own uses.”
He frowned. “He’s lucky I chose to. The land had been overgrazed. You can’t follow tradition forever and hope for the best.” His jaw set in a hard line.
“You’re so angry with him. He loves you and he just wanted the best for you.”
“How do you know? Is that why he drove away my Valentina?”
Susannah’s heart clenched at this mention of the mysterious Valentina. She remembered the name from his angry confrontation with Ignacio.
Obviously Valentina meant more to Amado than any other woman. “Was she your fiancée?”
He stared at the rocky horizon. “A long time ago.” He turned to look at her. “She taught me to dance. And a lot of other things I didn’t know before. We wanted to marry but Ignacio forbade it. He said she was unsuitable.”
Disgust darkened his voice. “Yes, her family wasn’t rich. She was born out of wedlock and her mother raised her alone. But who cares? As you said, that kind of thing doesn’t matter anymore. I wasn’t looking for a rich wife to support me.” He blew out a disgusted breath. “Now that I know more, I think they refused to let me marry at that time because they didn’t want someone to go hunting for my birth certificate and find out I wasn’t who they said I was.”
A chill trickled down Susannah’s spine. “So, Ignacio made her leave?”
“I wanted us to leave together. To move somewhere else and make a new start.” He looked over the vines, growing lush with new leaves. “She wouldn’t hear of me leaving Tierra de Oro. She wouldn’t let me because she knew how much this place meant to me. So one night, she went away. She had no family here, no one at all, except me. I tried to follow her, but she turned me away. Told me to go home, where I belonged.”
She could hear the emotion in his voice, fresh as if it had happened yesterday.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Ignacio should be sorry. Valentina and I loved each other, but that meant nothing to him. All he cared about was keeping his stupid secret. Preserving the family honor.” He snorted. “What kind of honor is it that chooses lies over the truth?”
“Do you think he forced her to leave?”
Amado nodded slowly. “Once she was gone and the crisis was over, they must have realized this would always be a problem, so they had someone forge a new birth certificate. I have a copy of it at the house, listing Ignacio and Clara as my father and mother. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t believe your crazy story when you first showed up here.”
“Wow.”
“See? The deception goes deep. For the last ten years, they’ve been begging me to marry. To continue the legacy.” Fresh pain glittered in his dark eyes. “A legacy of deception. Maybe I should have left here long ago to stay with the woman I loved. But Ignacio deprived me of even that choice.”
His face was taut with emotion. In spite of herself, she couldn’t help wishing he had the same strong feelings for her.
Ridiculous! They were both adults. Older, wiser and far too sensible for a grand passion.
Weren’t they? So why did a powerful sensation unfold inside her every time he looked at her?
“And you haven’t been in love since?” The moment the question left her lips, she cursed herself. What business was it of hers to pry into his love life?
“No.”
His curt answer cut deep. Of course he doesn’t love you! Stop fishing for compliments. Or whatever it is you’re doing.
She forced a casual laugh. “I guess you just keep yourself busy having affairs with foreign visitors.”
Amado’s eyes narrowed. “Yes.”
His answer fell like a crushing blow to the chest. She’d done it again. Asked a question hoping for a specific answer, and had it come back to smack her down instead.
She managed to keep her composure despite the ache of sadness creeping over her. “The buds are forming.”
Amado took one of the tight furls between his thumb and finger. “Yes, this will be their first year in production.”
“Soon they’ll be ready to make more liquid gold from Tierra de Oro.” She forced a casual smile.
Amado shot her a crooked smile. “We should work that into our PR.”
“I suspect Hardcastle Enterprises can help you with that.” Phew. Back to business. Much better than talking about who Amado did or didn’t love.
But funny how she just spoke about her employer in the third person. She would normally have said “we” will help you.
Her stomach tightened at the prospect of Tarrant Hardcastle getting his fingers in Amado’s carefully tended family business. He was Amado’s biological father, but still…
“How do you feel about selling your wines through Hardcastle?”
He stroked the horse’s neck. “I like it. I’m ready for change. I think it’s time to take Tierra De Oro to the next level.”
She nodded. Shoved down the rush of misgivings that rose through her. “Great.”
Back at the house, she picked up the phone and called New York. Amado was keen to do business with Hardcastle, and it was her job to make it happen, regardless of her personal feelings. She managed to describe her progress in convincing Amado to update the bodega’s image.
“Marvelous!” Tarrant’s exuberance reverberated down the phone line. “I’ll have Dino come up with some sketches. Perhaps we can have them printed by next week. Make sure none of their old labels go on any more bottles.”
Susannah winced. All she’d done was sketch the idea verbally, and Tarrant was ready to take it to the presses.
But that’s how things worked at Hardcastle Enterprises. No doubt why he’d been so successful, too. No time wasted pussyfooting around and trying to make everyone else happy, when only one person counted: Tarrant.
She cleared her throat. “So, how many cases do you want me to bring over? Last year they produced about four thousand, and this year should be more, as long as the harvest goes well.”
Silence. “Buy them all.”
“What?”
“All. Every case. Every single bottle. And no fussing about consignments and percentages. We’ll buy them outright at the price he agrees to.”
Susannah’s mouth dropped open. Tarrant wanted Amado to write his own ticket.
But he also wanted him to be completely in Hardcastle Enterprises’ pocket.
“He has existing customers. An established distribution network here in South America.”
And a father—or grandfather—who hates your guts. What would happen if this sparked a head-to-head confrontation between Amado and Ignacio over control of the estate?
A dismissive snort echoed through the earpiece. “We’ll put Tierra de Oro vineyard on the map. Next year he’ll be able to charge double or triple for each bottle. Tierra de Oro
will be minting money and I don’t think he’ll have any complaints.”
Susannah winced. She could see Tarrant’s perspective. No doubt he liked the idea of being the benevolent father he hadn’t bothered to be earlier.
As a business arrangement though, it was patronizing and she wasn’t even sure Amado would agree. He was clearly proud of the customer base he’d developed over the last decade. He’d traveled around, handselling the wine, case by case, to restaurants and hotels, building warm personal relationships with many of his customers. The stories he’d told her had made her fall even more in love with him.
Her thoughts screeched to a halt.
She was not in love with him. It was one thing to have that thought during the bedazzlement of lovemaking, quite another to have it in the scorching light of day. Especially since he’d come right out and affirmed that she was just another tourist, to him.
Her heart squeezed.
“Susannah? You still there?”
“Um, okay. I’ll talk to him.”
“Based on your impressive performance so far, I’m sure you’ll convince him.”
Eleven
Susannah felt like a sneak for going behind Amado’s back. She even crept through the vegetable gardens and around the pastures, to avoid being seen on the road.
Amado might not care about her, but she cared about him. She also cared about Tierra de Oro and the people who worked there. She couldn’t risk encouraging Amado into a deal that might somehow destroy the whole vineyard.
Ignacio was behind their steel-and-glass house, pruning geraniums in some clay pots on the patio. Clara spotted her through a window and waved.
A rush of relief rose through Susannah as she saw them together in the same space. Well, almost. Hopefully their relationship was on the road to repair.
Ignacio was a big man, stocky and well-built. Dressed in a finely checked shirt with khaki pants and leather boots, he looked every bit the gentleman rancher he was.
She moved as close as she dared and cleared her throat. He swung around and saw her.
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