Hot Latin Men 1-5 Omnibus

by Delaney Diamond

  “I completely understand,” Jonas said. “I’m excited that Estação Central is finally going to be finished. I can’t wait to see the final product.”

  “As promised, you’ll be one of the first to take a look.”

  Jonas smiled. Now she understood the excitement. Renaldo had promised him a priority viewing of the complex. More manipulations.

  “Meu coração,” Renaldo said to her, lifting his arm in the direction of the door for her to precede him, the tender endearment falling easily from his lips. But he didn’t mean it.

  “Jonas, it was nice working with you.” Sabrina could barely contain her frustration at having to fall in with Renaldo’s wishes once more.

  “Likewise.” Jonas hadn’t stopped smiling.

  Sabrina stormed out of the office and retrieved her purse. After she delivered the report she’d been working on to Jonas’s secretary, she followed her husband to the elevator.

  A chauffeured limousine waited for them in front of the building. Even though Renaldo had a car, he liked to make use of a driver. The convenience allowed him to get work done while in transit. She’d grown accustomed to it, too—one of the benefits of being married to a wealthy man—but she’d had to take taxis ever since their split.

  She slid all the way across the seat to the other side and crossed her arms, staring blindly out the window. They rode in silence for a while.

  “How long have you known where I work?” she asked.

  “Since we signed the contracts.”

  Sabrina turned to look at him. “How? I used my maiden name.”

  “It was very easy,” Renaldo explained, reclining against the soft leather. “I told you I’d keep an eye on you, didn’t I?”

  Sabrina unfolded her arms as understanding dawned. Surely he wouldn’t stoop so low. “Are you having me followed?”

  Chapter Seven

  Renaldo raised an eyebrow. “Of course I’m having you followed. Do you think I would make the mistake of trusting you again?”

  Sabrina shook with anger. “How dare you! You have no right.”

  “I have every right. I told you I would keep an eye on you, and I meant it.”

  “I didn’t know you meant hiring someone to watch my every move.”

  “I won’t have this deal fall apart because of your loose morals. If it means keeping an eye on you twenty-four hours a day, then so be it.”

  “Do you intend to throw it in my face every chance you get? I won’t let you do this to me.”

  “It’s already done,” he said with finality.

  “That’s not part of the deal.” Sabrina’s nerves were stretched taut. The thought of having someone shadow her day in and day out was nerve-wracking.

  “You should have added that stipulation before you signed.”

  “As if I knew you’d do something so…despicable.” Her voice was getting louder and she was glad for the soundproof glass that separated them from the driver. “Call them off.”

  “Who do you think you are?” Renaldo asked. “You are in no position to make demands.”

  Sabrina stared him down, squaring her shoulders. “Yes, I am. I know how important this deal is to you. It’s just as important to you as it is to me.”

  With a derisive chuckle, he crossed his legs. “Is that what you think? That we’re on equal footing?”

  Her confidence wavered under his self-confidence. “Call them off.” She had to stand up to him. If she didn’t, he’d walk all over her.

  “Tell me, Sabrina, what will you do if I don’t? Renege on the contract you’ve already signed? Not a good idea, meu coração. I will sue you for breach of contract, and I will destroy you. You’ll have nothing left when I get through.” Her confidence wavered yet again with that damn sideways smile of his. “Yes, think about it. Long and hard.”

  “You’re too concerned about your own reputation to sue me.”

  “Do you wish to try me?”

  He was speaking to her in such a cold, detached voice, she felt like they were strangers. “I don’t even know you anymore.”

  “Seems we’re in the same situation.”

  Sabrina fell silent, her mind racing. He’d been in her bank account, and now he was having someone monitor her movements. There was no escape from his influence. “Why are you doing this?”

  “You know why.”

  “Because you don’t trust me and because you—you hate me.”

  He didn’t respond, his face an impassive mask, and the words remained between them like a brutal, ugly thing. The fact that he didn’t deny it crushed Sabrina, and she turned to stare out of the window again.

  She refused to feel sorry for herself. She would get through it because she’d seen far worse in her life, was strong, and would fight his control. “I wanted to leave Midas on my own terms.”

  “We have an agreement. I expected you to give them notice that, effective immediately, you’re no longer available. I thought I had made myself clear the other day.”

  She barely saw the pedestrians walking in the street or the cars riding along beside them. She knew what she’d done was wrong, but did he have to treat her like this? Like she was nothing? A nobody?

  “I signed your contract, but that doesn’t mean you own me. I wanted to finish what I started before I returned to SDG. I’ll only be a figurehead anyway, so what difference does it make?”

  “I need you to start showing your face, and I fully expected you to do that right away. You also should have moved in by now.”

  Sabrina turned to face him. “I’m sorry, was that in the contract?” she asked with mock sweetness. “I wouldn’t know, since the entire thing was written in Portuguese and I didn’t have an attorney present to represent my interests.”

  Silence. “You know how important this deal is. There are millions of dollars at stake—for both of us. This is not a game.” There was an unmistakable warning in his voice.

  “I’m not playing games. I didn’t want to let Midas down. It’s unfortunate you can’t understand that. A couple more days wouldn’t have made much of a difference.”

  “It made a difference to me.”

  “And that’s all that matters,” Sabrina shot back.

  “That’s right!” A vein in his neck popped into prominence, but then he took a deep, calming breath and it disappeared.

  She turned away again, staring out at the passing traffic, wishing she could take back control of her life.

  When the car stopped in front of her apartment building, she reached for the door handle, not wanting to wait for the driver. “I’ll see you—”

  Renaldo got out of his side of the car.

  She jumped out on her side. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Upstairs, with you. You’re moving. Today.”

  “I’m not ready to move.”

  He strode toward the building, and she hurried after him, her gaze pinned to his broad back. His tall, muscular body moved with the ease and grace of an athlete. She struggled to keep up with his effortless stride. “I said that I’m not ready to move today.”

  Still ignoring her, he hit the button for the elevator inside her building, and they rode up in silence. If he didn’t want to talk anymore, that was fine with her.

  When they arrived on her floor, Sabrina hurried past him to her apartment. If she could get in before him, she had a chance of keeping him out.

  No such luck. His hand shot out to keep the door open before she could slam it in his face.

  His dark eyes smoldered with restrained anger. “It seems you are determined to try my patience.”

  He pushed the door all the way open and looked over his shoulder down the hall. He waved his hand and two uniformed men wearing caps appeared, holding large plastic totes with lids.

  Where the hell had they come from?

  Renaldo charged in, followed by the men. They were movers.

  “I refuse—”

  He spoke over her in Portuguese and pointed to the bedroom do
or, instructing them to start packing up her clothing.

  “Wait a minute!” She didn’t know if the men stopped because they understood English or because they understood the demand in her voice.

  They looked at Renaldo and he nodded for them to wait, which only annoyed her even more. “I said no.”

  “Did you forget our conversation in the car? You are moving back to the penthouse today. Now.”

  “I can take care of that myself.”

  “I’m not on your time, Sabrina.”

  “And I’m not on yours!”

  He clenched his teeth so tightly a muscle in his jaw vibrated. “Follow me.” He headed to the bedroom door, and after a moment’s hesitation, she followed.

  When they were both in the room with the door shut, she faced him, her anger nearing the boiling point. “I am not one of your damn employees. You do not get to order me around.”

  “On the contrary, with so much money at stake, I have no choice but to order you around because it’s obvious you want to make this difficult.” He looked around her room with its simple furnishings. “I would think you’d be happy to leave this place and return to the lifestyle you’ve grown used to over the past year.”

  She bristled at his not-too-subtle insult. “It may not be up to your standards, but it’s mine,” she responded, lifting her chin.

  Renaldo’s roaming gaze came to rest on the dresser. He walked over to it and picked up a photo frame. It contained a picture of the two of them on their wedding day, standing on the beach with Jewel and Renaldo’s family and friends. She’d been so happy that day.

  Her breath caught when he placed it face down on the dresser.

  “I’m tired of playing nice.”

  “You call this nice? You had me terminated from my job after you promised Jonas first dibs at Estação Central—or whatever the hell you promised him—and then you bring me here to force me to move before I’m ready. You’re so nice.”

  “Jonas no longer needed your services. And, yes, with what I’m paying you, I find myself to be considerably more than nice, since if it weren’t for this project, you’d get nothing. And as for moving, you should be thankful I’ve made the arrangements so you don’t have to.”

  “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

  “I’d like to think so, but I’m not always so prepared. There have been times when I’ve been completely blindsided. You blindsided me. But never again. Where you’re concerned, I plan to make sure I’m always prepared.”

  “This situation is impossible. How can we live together with this much animosity between us? We’re not even being civil to each other.”

  “I am being civil.”

  She stopped breathing as he came forward, stopping in front of her, forcing her to tip her head back to maintain eye contact. His closeness made her want to touch the hard contours of his face—the lean jaw, the strong chin.

  It took so much energy to fight him. And every time she was near him, she became so damn weak.

  “But that’s not what you want, is it?” he said. “You want to pretend that what you did never happened.”

  “That’s not true. I understand what I did changes everything, but you won’t accept my explanation. You won’t let me make things right.”

  “And would you offer me the same if the roles were reversed?”

  “I think I would. I love you. I think I’d at least try—give you a chance to—I wouldn’t just toss you out like you were nothing. I—” She stopped and swallowed. She was too emotional and her words were coming out all jumbled. “What’s the point? You think I’m vile. You can’t stand me—can’t even stand to look at me.” She couldn’t forget the harsh words he’d thrown at her.

  He was silent for a moment, watching her with an intensity that made her squirm internally.

  “Maybe I’ve changed my mind,” he finally said, slowly. He lifted one of her curls and rubbed it between his fingers. “Maybe this animosity between us is based on something else.”

  Sabrina swallowed past the constriction of her throat. She understood what he was saying as the air became charged with an undercurrent of sexual tension. He watched her with an open hunger that hadn’t been visible moments ago.

  “We’ve always had a hard time keeping our hands off each other. Maybe we shouldn’t deprive ourselves and just do what comes naturally.”

  Sabrina stepped back, using distance to keep from getting sucked into the enticing words. “So you want to use me to get off and then toss me aside when this is over? I don’t think so.”

  “I can change your mind.”

  “You can’t.”

  “Oh, I think I can.” His confidence irked her. “The way you responded to me the other day. It may have started as a seduction to get more money, but you wanted me as much as I wanted you. And why shouldn’t I get what you gave to another man so willingly?”

  “Unless you had marital relations written into the contract, you’re out of luck. Even if you did, I wouldn’t let you use me in that way.”

  “I see the look in your eyes.” He smiled. “It’s your own fault, you know. You shouldn’t have tried to seduce me.”

  “That’s not what I was doing.” She had been pleading with him for forgiveness, but he couldn’t see past her betrayal.

  “No? That’s how it appeared, and it now has me thinking of how moving you back into the apartment could be mutually satisfying. After all, we both know what kind of woman you are. I wouldn’t want you to be tempted to stray again.”

  Pain rifled through her. He wanted to treat her like the whore he thought she was. “I hate you for talking to me like this.”

  His eyes narrowed, and he grabbed her chin. She caught his wrist to force him to let go, but he didn’t release her. The heat of his touch sent her hormones spiraling out of control. She didn’t move, didn’t want to move, and hated how right he was about her need for him.

  After a prolonged stare, Renaldo rubbed his thumb across her lips. They parted and trembled as she fought to keep from sucking his finger into her mouth.

  “Hate is passion, minha esposa,” he said. “And I welcome yours. Do you know why? Because you could never hate me as much as I hate myself for still wanting you.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Bárbara, get in here, please.” Renaldo barely managed to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

  He sat in his office staring down at the quarterly reports that had been sent up from the finance department. His instructions on allocations were not being followed. He didn’t like it when his instructions weren’t followed.

  Bárbara, the assistant he’d shared with Sabrina when she’d worked at SDG, hurried in with a notepad and pen. “Yes, sir?”

  “Whoever sent this garbage up here—” he dropped the thick report on the desk, at the edge closest to her “—tell him, and I assume it was Foster, that I want to see him in my office now.”

  Bárbara retrieved the document and stepped back quickly. “Will there be anything else, sir?”

  “Yes,” Renaldo bit out, as he turned to his computer. “This kind of thing is unacceptable. Tell Foster when he gets here he better have a damn good explanation for why the work in his department has deteriorated so much in the past month.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Bárbara scurried away, but she stopped at the door. “Sir, if I may?”

  Bárbara was competent and efficient, but lately her expression made her look like a frightened rabbit. Had he really turned into such an ogre?

  “What is it?”

  She cleared her throat. “The work hasn’t deteriorated. I think the problem is…well, shortly after she started working here, your wife began reviewing all the financial reports before you received them.”

  That was news to him. “She did?”

  Bárbara cleared her throat again. “Yes, sir. She instructed Foster and his staff not to send the reports to you until she’d had a chance to vet them. She said your time was better spent man
aging the company and growing the business, not fixing careless errors.”

  Renaldo sat back in his chair and digested those words. “How soon after she came did she start doing this?”

  “Almost immediately, sir.”

  Foster had been hired a few weeks after Sabrina. If what Bárbara said was true, it explained why he hadn’t known about Foster’s mistakes, because Sabrina had been reviewing his work before Renaldo saw it. Why hadn’t she said anything to him?

  “If I may say, she was always very instrumental in making sure your work flow was not interrupted.” Renaldo heard the admiration in his secretary’s voice.

  Sabrina had been running interference, removing the day-to-day trivialities from his plate so he’d have more time to focus on big-picture items. Which made him wonder how many of his workaholic wife’s late nights could be attributed to taking care of problems on his behalf.

  “Thank you, Bárbara.” She didn’t move, prompting Renaldo to ask, “Was there something else?”

  She cleared her throat again. “I was just wondering…will she be returning from her leave of absence soon?”

  To avoid gossip about his personal life, he’d told the staff that his wife had taken a leave of absence. He’d decided to deal with the fallout from the divorce when he absolutely had to and not before. Besides, it was no one’s business whether or not he and his wife were still together.

  “You’ll see her later today,” Renaldo said. “She’s stopping in to do the magazine interview with me.”

  Bárbara smiled when she heard that bit of information. After she left, Renaldo looked at the connecting door he’d had installed between his and Sabrina’s office. He’d had no idea Sabrina had been quietly taking care of problems. Her actions confused him. Her thoughtfulness didn’t make sense when he considered this was the same woman who’d broken their marriage vows. Such unselfish behavior was closer to the woman he thought he’d married, not the one he wanted to divorce.

  What she’d done meant nothing, he decided, hardening his heart. She’d cheated on him and lied about it for months, and he’d do well to remember it. Because she’d saved him a few hours here and there didn’t change the facts. Their farce of a marriage was coming to an end as soon as this project was finalized. He just had to get through the next few weeks.