The Most Expensive Lie of All

by Michelle Conder

  Because while Cruz might have shown her the best night of her life, it didn’t change the reality of why she was even here.

  ‘Forget the deal,’ he’d all but snarled.

  Last night she had. This morning it was impossible to do so in the cold light of day.

  Or course last night she had been in the grip of a wonderful sense of feminine power with Cruz that could easily become addictive if she let it. A smile curved her lips, only to fade away just as quickly. Cruz had freed her from years of feeling as if there was something wrong with her and she’d be forever indebted to him for that. He was also trying to buy her home out from under her, and that was like a sore that wouldn’t heal. If she stayed today it would be for the wrong reasons. It would be because she was hoping for more from him. Something she didn’t want from any man. Did she?

  Aspen groaned. How could she even think about staying longer under the shade of such conflicting emotions?

  The simple answer was that she couldn’t. And dwelling on it wasn’t going to make it any different.

  Decision made, she spun on her heel and went to pack her suitcase.

  * * *

  Cruz looked up, annoyed, as his PA opened the door to his meeting. It was taking him all that he had to concentrate as it was, without yet another irritating interruption.

  ‘What is it, Maria?’

  He frowned as he heard Aspen’s hasty, ‘It’s okay...don’t interrupt...’ in the background.

  Maria glanced over her shoulder. ‘Ah, Señorita Carmichael wishes to speak with you.’

  ‘Send her in.’

  Aspen materialised in the doorway and Cruz saw her suitcase by the side of the door.

  He frowned harder. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘I can see you’re busy.’ She threw a quick glance around the room at his executive team. ‘It can wait.’

  ‘No, it can’t.’ He pinned her with a hard look, unaccountably agitated as he registered her intention to leave him. ‘Is something wrong?’

  ‘No, no. I just came to say goodbye. I didn’t want to leave without letting you know I was going.’

  ‘I thought you had decided to stay?’

  She swallowed. ‘Our deal was concluded this morning and—’

  Cruz swore. ‘I thought I’d already told you to forget the deal. It’s not relevant. I’m not going to buy Ocean Haven any more. It’s yours free and clear.’

  A myriad of emotions crossed her lovely face, not completely unlike the morning when he had first told her that he was going to challenge her for The Farm.

  Disbelief, shock, wariness, a tentative joy...

  Three days ago he wouldn’t have conceived of giving up something he wanted as much as he had wanted Ocean Haven, but a lot had changed in three days. He’d found out the truth about the night he’d left The Farm and he’d made love to Aspen. Held her in his arms all night. Woken with her still in his arms in the morning. When he looked at her he felt things he’d never felt for any woman before her. Feelings he was still unable to categorize.

  ‘Really?’ She took a hesitant step towards him. ‘You’re serious? It’s mine?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said gruffly, wondering why it was that he couldn’t look at her without wanting to strip her clothes off.

  ‘Oh, Cruz...’

  She looked as if she might cry, and just when he was about to back away she gave a gurgle of laughter and rushed over to him, jumping up to wind her arms around his neck. Instinctively Cruz grasped the backs of her thighs, and it seemed completely natural to raise her legs and lock them around his hips.

  In an instant the chemistry between them ignited and he filled his hands with her taut curves as he sought to steady them both.

  ‘Thank you, thank you... This means so much to me. You have no idea.’

  Before he could formulate a sane response she leant forward and kissed him, her silky tongue sneaking out to wrap around his. Cruz held in a groan and took charge of the kiss. This was what he’d wanted from the minute he’d woken up this morning.

  Then he’d held himself back. Now, with her honeyed taste on his tongue, he didn’t bother. Her mouth was the greatest aphrodisiac he’d ever known.

  She moved her hips and Cruz pressed himself more snugly against the seam of her jeans. She murmured something and he almost ignored it, but the words ‘We’re not alone...’ and ‘Everyone is watching...’ somehow permeated his addled brain.

  He glanced around at his stunned executive team. She was right. Not one of them had looked away and he couldn’t say he blamed them. He was just as shocked that he’d forgotten they were still in the room as they were at seeing him with a woman locked in his arms.

  He released a careful breath.

  ‘Excuse me, everyone. I’m going to have to adjourn this meeting. Again.’

  He held Aspen as still as a statue until the door snicked closed. Then he devoured her, pulling at her clothes and unzipping his jeans. He shoved aside the laptop on the mahogany table and laid her down. Her shirt was open around her and her breasts were heaving against the delicate cups of her plain white bra. She looked wild and wanton, her hair spilling out of the French braid she had secured it in. His hands skimmed her, claimed her, and she arched up off the table towards him.

  ‘That door isn’t locked,’ she got out between gasps of pleasure.

  ‘No one will come through it unless they want to start looking for a new job.’

  ‘This is...’

  ‘Madness?’ His hands felt clumsy as he yanked her jeans down her legs. ‘You need to start wearing skirts more,’ he complained.

  She let out a husky laugh, and then her breath hitched as he ripped her panties aside and parted her legs. She was already slick and ready and he growled his appreciation.

  ‘I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I want you.’

  He ducked his head down and bathed her silky wetness with his tongue. Her legs fell further apart and he saw her watching him as he licked and sucked on her sweetness. The picture of his dark head nestled between her creamy thighs nearly unmanned him, and when he felt her inner walls start to tremble with her imminent release he rose up and pulled her towards the edge of the table.

  ‘Not without me, mi gatita. I want to feel you come around me.’

  Quickly applying a condom, Cruz hooked her legs over his forearms and drove into her. Her gasp was raw and shocked and, given everything she had revealed to him last night, he tried to check himself.

  ‘No, don’t stop. Please.’

  Her hands clutched his forearms, urging him closer, and Cruz closed his eyes and pumped himself into her, grazing her clitoris with his thumb to maximise her pleasure. She came hard and fast at exactly the moment he did. Pleasure turned him inside out. The world might have ended at that moment and he wouldn’t have had a clue.

  CHAPTER TEN

  ‘YOU DO MISS IT.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Playing polo.’

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Aspen smiled up at Cruz. ‘The wistful look on your face right now, perhaps.’

  They were leaning on the fence post of one of the stable yards, watching the grooms and riders put the finishing touches to their horses before the main tournament got under way.

  ‘I’m assessing the state of the horses.’

  Aspen cocked her head and studied his profile, shadowed from the sun by a baseball cap. His hair curled sexily at the sides. ‘Why did you give it up?’

  He turned his head, his black eyes piercing. ‘Money.’

  ‘Ah. I’m sensing there’s a theme here.’ She laughed.

  ‘No theme,’ Cruz growled without heat. ‘I didn’t have much when I left Ocean Haven and I knew that polo wasn’t going to give me what
I needed.’

  Aspen nodded. ‘Money gives you the security that Ocean Haven gives me, but it’s our loss. Watching you play polo was like watching poetry in motion.’

  He looked at her strangely and then gave her a small smile. ‘Those days are long gone now. And, while I did miss it, my life is full enough as it is. By the way...’ His tone turned serious. ‘Anderson is here. He was injured last month in Argentina so he wasn’t expected to turn up. I told him to keep away from you.’

  Aspen reeled. So it had been Chad she had glimpsed last night in the hotel foyer. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She hadn’t seen him in years, and while she really didn’t want to she didn’t want Cruz feeling as if he had to defend her just because she had unexpectedly opened up to him.

  ‘You don’t have to fight my battles for me, Cruz.’

  He shook his head as if he knew better and tapped the tip of her nose affectionately. ‘Somebody has to.’ He took off his cap and fitted it to her head. ‘You need a hat if you’re going to stay out in the sun, mi gatita. Excuse me for a minute.’

  He headed off inside the stable, his long stride and two-metre frame seeming to strike sparks in the air as he moved. Aspen tried to feel annoyed at his high-handedness, but after last night and then this morning on his conference table it was hard to stay irritated with him over anything. It had been so long since she had felt this good.

  So long since she had just enjoyed herself without the pressure of work and bills getting in the way.

  So long since she had felt the freedom of truly being in charge of her own destiny.

  And it was exhilarating. She grinned to herself. Almost—but not quite—as exhilarating as feeling Cruz move inside her body. She smiled again. Almost as exhilarating as feeling his mouth on her breasts, between her legs.

  As soon as she had that thought liquid heat turned her insides soft and her smile widened, because now that she recognised the sensation she could actually feel herself growing moist. She glanced around surreptitiously, just to make sure no one else could see that she was turning herself on.

  Her newly awakened desire was like a runaway train. And while part of her knew she should probably try and put the brakes on it, another part of her wanted to roll around in it like a cat in the sun.

  Mi gatita. His kitten.

  Aspen rolled her eyes. She shouldn’t get so much joy out of the pet name but she did.

  Her cell phone beeped an incoming message and she snatched it out of her pocket, hoping it was her uncle returning her call. Earlier she had left an excited message on his answering machine, informing him that she had raised the money they had agreed upon for her to buy The Farm. She wondered if he had got it yet and whether he was surprised, wishing she could have told him in person. Unfortunately a trip to England was not in the cards for her in the next twenty-five hours. Although, seventy-two hours ago she would have said a trip to Mexico wasn’t, either.

  Checking her phone, she saw it was just Donny, informing her that he’d organised for Matty, one of the local teenagers who attended her riding school, to relieve him for the day. Aspen quickly texted back to tell him to have a great day off with his family.

  Family...

  That sounded so nice.

  ‘Catch.’

  Cruz’s voice broke her reverie and Aspen looked up just in time to grab the bundle of clothes he had tossed at her and to see a smirk on his handsome face. ‘What’s this?’

  ‘You’re my new groom. How soon can you change?’

  Aspen didn’t miss a beat. ‘Five minutes.’

  ‘See Luis over there?’ Cruz pointed with his free hand towards the players’ area.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Meet me there in two.’

  Aspen felt deliriously happy. She reached out and grabbed his arm as he made to walk past, a thrill of excitement racing through her. ‘You’re really going to play?’

  He paused, cocked his head. ‘You wanted to see poetry in motion, didn’t you?’

  Aspen shook her head, smiling at his cockiness.

  It was dangerous to feel this much happiness because of a pair of jeans and a shirt, but it wasn’t that. It was the man.

  She’d fallen in love with him, she realised with a sinking feeling.

  He must have sensed her regard because he turned and met her gaze.

  ‘One minute left,’ he drawled.

  Totally in love, she thought, and she had no idea what to do about it.

  * * *

  He was in love.

  The thought gripped him by the throat in the middle of the game just as he was about to make a nearside forehand shot and he nearly fell off his horse and landed on his behind. Fortunately years of training and a horse that could play blind saw him come out of the offensive strike still in the saddle.

  He pulled up and let one of his team members carry the ball to the goalposts.

  He couldn’t be in love with her. It was impossible. He didn’t want to be in love with anyone. Not yet. It wasn’t part of his plan.

  Surely it was just the exhilaration of being out on the polo field again that was sending weird magnetic pulses to his brain? The sense of fun he hadn’t felt in far too long?

  He glanced towards the players’ area and his eyes effortlessly zeroed in on Aspen standing beside one of his players. She wore his Rodriquez Polo cap and her flyaway blond curls billowed out at the sides. She’d put on his team colours and she looked curvy and edible as she clapped her hands wildly.

  The horn went, signalling the end of the game, and Cruz trotted towards her almost hesitantly.

  Unaware of his thoughts, she beamed up at him. ‘You are such a show-off. Congratulations on the win.’

  He returned her smile. She was gorgeous. Gorgeous and smart and funny and hot-headed. And, yes, he was in love with her.

  Other players thumped him on the back and congratulated him and he could hear the commentators waxing lyrical about his statistics and his comeback—not that this was a comeback, more a hiatus in his normal working life—but he wasn’t really paying attention to anything other than Aspen.

  He hadn’t had any idea that he was falling in love with her but now that he had acknowledged it, it made perfect sense. Probably he had always loved her.

  And he couldn’t wait to tell her because last night and earlier, when he should have been concentrating on work, she had looked at him in such a way that he was confident she felt the same as he did.

  Not that he would tell her here. He’d do it in private. Maybe over an elaborate dinner. He smiled, already anticipating the moment.

  Aspen took Bandit’s reins and he dismounted. ‘That last goal was simply brilliant.’

  ‘I thought so.’

  He readjusted his helmet and Aspen automatically pushed some of his hair out of his eyes. ‘You need a haircut,’ she admonished.

  He stilled, his gaze holding hers. ‘I have something I need to tell you.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Not here.’ He shook his head. ‘I promised Ricardo I’d check in with the Chinese delegation I have apparently neglected all day. How about we meet back in the suite in thirty minutes?’

  ‘This sounds serious.’

  ‘It is. Here, let me take Bandit back to the stables for Luis to get her cleaned up.’ He mounted and reached down for the mallet Aspen was holding for him. Instead of taking it he gripped her elbow, raised her onto her toes and kissed her soundly. ‘Very serious.’

  Aspen watched Cruz canter back towards the stables, her fingers pressed to her throbbing lips.

  ‘Now, that was really touching.’

  Aspen swung around at the sound of a mocking voice behind her. For a moment all she could do was stare blankly, her mind frozen as if she’d just been zapped.


  ‘Chad,’ she finally managed to croak out.

  His smile was charming and boyish. ‘One and the same, babe, one and the same.’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  HOPING CHAD WAS just an apparition, Aspen blinked rapidly and then gave a sharp gasp as her vision cleared and she saw him properly. ‘What happened to your eye?’

  He fingered the puffy purple skin of his eye socket. ‘I ran into your boyfriend. Didn’t he tell you?’

  Yes, he had, but he’d neglected to say that he’d done anything but talk to him. A warm glow spread through Aspen’s torso. As much as she abhorred violence, the fact that Cruz had reacted on her behalf did make her feel good. Special.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Do you care?’ he sneered.

  ‘Of course.’ Memories flooded in, preventing her from saying anything else. The unexpectedness of seeing him causing her heart to beat heavily in her chest.

  He stood before her, the typical urban male, with his designer haircut, stubble and trendy sportswear. She knew it took him hours to achieve that casually dishevelled appearance, and that he’d always hated the fact that she didn’t pay more attention to her own appearance.

  ‘Can’t you straighten your hair sometimes? It’s a mess.’

  ‘I didn’t expect to see you so far from Ocean Haven.’

  His words snapped her attention back to him and slowly she started breathing properly again.

  ‘I’m...here on...business.’ She stumbled over the words and furtively looked around for Cruz. Then she felt angry with herself. She was no longer the naïve eighteen-year-old girl who had mistaken friendship for love and had thought that wealth was synonymous with decency. She didn’t need Cruz to protect her. She didn’t need any man to do that.

  ‘Some digs,’ Chad continued, looking back at the hotel. ‘The stable boy has come a long way.’

  ‘What do you want, Chad?’

  ‘To say hello.’

  ‘Well, now you’ve said it, so...’

  ‘What?’ He held his hands wide as if in surprise. ‘That’s all you’re going to say?’