The Blackmailed Bride

by Kim Lawrence

  Kate hardly wondered at the awed, open-mouthed silence around the table or the intense level of interest his presence was arousing. A tall, elegant, outrageously male figure pro­jecting an effortless air of cool command that was at sharp variance to the younger man's truculent aggression, Javier was always going to attract buckets of attention.

  As if he felt her scrutiny, his sapphire gaze suddenly swivelled towards her. The room and everyone in it dis­appeared as his eyes moved over her face, as if he was memorising every curve. At some subconscious level she registered the ripple as his throat muscles moved convul­sively, a deep sigh that juddered through his tense frame.

  `You will not dance with this man, Kate,' he stated em­phatically.

  As if her obedience was something he took for granted ­some things didn't change-he immediately switched his attention back to the younger man. His narrowed eyes moved to the hand still curved around her wrist. `Let her go,' he purred softly.

  'Says who... ?'

  Kate, who had seen the menacing expression in Javier's eyes, decided Ian was a lot more stupid than he looked!

  In reply, Javier's hand closed around Ian's own wrist and the younger man paled as his fingers opened in response to the steely pressure. He swore.

  `You will dance with me!' Javier decreed autocratically.

  Kate's jaw dropped, even for Javier this was over the top! `Your wish is my command and all that...' she breathed shakily.

  A humiliated Ian jumped in before Javier could respond to her caustic jibe. `Who the hell do you think you are, waltzing in here trying to pinch my girlfriend?'

  The danger lurking just beneath the elegant facade of Javier's silken smile, the barely suppressed fury in his ex­pression, finally penetrated even Ian's drunken bravado. The younger man instinctively drew back.

  `Boyfriend?' One dark brow rose to an incredulous angle. `I suppose we are all permitted errors of judgment occa­sionally,' he acknowledged directing a glance of dismissive scorn towards Ian. `As for who I am...' he began force­fully...

  Kate gave a horrified gasp, suddenly sure this explana­tion wasn't going to stop at his name.

  `You're Javier Montero!' Toby, who chose that moment to wander back to the table with his girlfriend, exclaimed. `Worth a bundle,' he elaborated to a pale-looking Ian. `Sev­eral bundles, actually. If you ever need a good legal brain...? The name's Toby Challoner,' he grinned, pump­ing Javier's hand with friendly fervour.

  A flicker of amusement crossed Javier's taut features. `I'll keep that in mind,' he promised, before turning his attention to Kate, who was experiencing the bizarre sen­sation of her two separate worlds colliding.

  She looked at his hand, stretched out towards her, and was seized by an overwhelming compulsion to meet it half­way. Not one to submit without a struggle to inevitability, she tucked her tingling fingertips behind her back.

  `I don't care who he is. He can't dance with you, Kate.'

  `For God's sake, Ian, shut up!' she flared, exasperated by his feeble chest-beating. In fact, she was tired full stop warned him grimly. `A simple letter from your solicitor would have done. Right now, I'm feeling particularly vi­cious!'

  His sombre expression momentarily softened. `You haven't got a malicious or vindictive bone in your body.'

  Kate found his confidence was deeply frustrating.

  `Don't you understand? Now everyone will know!' She lifted her horrified eyes to his dark face as her body began to respond automatically to the gentle rhythm and Javier's light, guiding touch. They flowed together like honey, mov­ing as one fluid unit.

  A stab of sexual longing of paralyzing intensity lanced through her body. Helpless to control what was happening to her. Kate felt her starved senses react with pathetic pre­dictability to his closeness; they drank in eagerly the unique fragrance of him and revelled in the hard-muscled male angularity of his lean body.

  A judicious application of pressure from his fingers played across the hollow at the base of her spine brought her in close contact with his thighs; the resulting flicker of shock in her wide eyes as she felt his unashamed arousal made him smile with bold brilliance down at her.

  'I can see it might limit your social life somewhat,' he admitted with a thin-lipped smile. `A certain type of man is attracted by the forbidden pleasures a married woman's bed offers but I don't think your admirer is one of them. He looked a little unwell, I thought...'

  This display of smug hypocrisy made Kate momentarily loose her footing. She doubted very much if Javier had been broadcasting his unavailability amongst the eligible high­born Spanish lovelies who had been no doubt falling over each other in their eagerness to offer him comfort. The ­thought of it made her feel physically sick.

  `Even if Ian was my boyfriend, which he isn't, wouldn't be any of your business.'

  `I'm making it my business,' he revealed calmly. His scrutiny was unbearably penetrating as he scanned her face hungrily. `You look very beautiful tonight, querida,' he continued seamlessly as Kate blinked back up at him in stunned disbelief.

  `So do you,' she admitted wistfully, without thinking. `What do you mean, your business?' she puzzled in a trou­bled whisper.

  `I mean that marrying in haste...'

  `And for all the wrong reasons.' .

  `As you say,' he conceded impatiently. `It doesn't make the pledges we made any less binding.'

  `Since when`?' A dark shadow of anguish crossed her face. `You're the one who walked away from me.' An ex­perience Kate knew she could only bear once in a lifetime.

  `You have no idea how hard that was for me, but I thought it was what you wanted. I thought you wanted your life I had stolen back.'

  `It is what I want,' she replied in small defiant voice.

  `I was a fool!' He appeared oblivious to the curious looks his loud, bitter pronouncement had drawn.

  `Did you come here about the divorce...?'

  His laugh almost hurt to hear.

  With no warning Javier stopped dead in the middle of the dancing couples who diverted curiously around the mo­tionless pair. He closed his eyes and his head fell back. Kate watched with growing bewilderment as the muscles in his brown throat worked convulsively.

  `I missed you.'

  Kate firmly doused the flare of hope that fluttered in her breast and shook her head stubbornly. `I don't believe you.' She couldn't, not knowing how much being wrong would hurt.

  His head jerked upright, the fan of dark lashes lifted from his cheekbones revealing an expression of implacable determination. His powerful chest expanded and his shoulders firmed as if he was marshalling all his not inconsiderable authority.

  `Let me convince you.'

  For the first time Kate noticed the tell-tale signs of quiv­ering tension in his body. The nerve throbbing in his lean cheek. The extra sharp edge to the jutting angularity of his facial bones.

  `You've lost weight,' she observed in a distracted, wor­ried manner.

  His body, always greyhound lean, had an even more spare look to it. This lean, hungry look was probably con­nected to the combustible, dangerous aura he was exuding. He looked like someone who had been sustained on adren­aline and will power alone for too long.

  Probably the stress of his grandfather's death, and the extra responsibilities that had fallen on his broad shoulders were responsible for these changes. Plus making sure that Luis Gonzalez finally got his comeuppance. Kate felt in­dignant that nobody close to him had had the good sense to see he needed taking care of. She contemplated the plea­sure it would give her to give them a piece of her mind, were she really his wife and in a position to do so.

  A wistful expression made her soft mouth quiver.

  Of course, if she had been his wife in a real sense, there wouldn't be any need for anyone else to make sure he didn't push himself too hard; she could have done that her­self.

  He gave a dismissive shrug, displaying an infuriatingly cavalier attitude to his health.

  `Everyone has their limits, Javi
er, even you,' she remon­strated.

  He gave an odd laugh. `If I didn't know that, the past six weeks taught me that and many things I didn't know before.'

  Her eyes darkened. `Has it been very bad...?' Her con­cern increased as she noted the faint sheen of perspiration gleaming on his vibrant, golden skin. Kate, who had seen him appear cool and collected on occasions when the tem­perature had reached the high thirties, knew that Javier was totally impervious to the heat.

  `Hell!' came the succinct response. `Are you seeing any­one?' The words emerged from between clenched white teeth.

  Her round chin firmed. `And if I was?' some perverse imp impelled her to respond.

  A white line appeared around his compressed lips. Kate had never seen the veneer of sophistication that covered his passionate nature thinner. Only pride prevented her from revealing how shaken she felt by the raw emotions spilling from him.

  `Por Dios, do not trifle with me, Kate. I am not safe!' he confided, breathing hard as he fought to retain his shred­ded self-control.

  Shaken to the core by his raw pronouncement, Kate had no intention of testing the authenticity of this claim.

  She cleared her bone-dry throat.

  `No, I'm not seeing anyone, Javier. I think,' she hypothesized, exposing her inner soul to him with a rush of relief, `that it's likely you've spoilt me for any other man.'

  When Kate finally worked up the courage to look at him, her bruised, aching heart stilled and then soared at the ex­pression of tender triumph she encountered on his devas­tatingly handsome face. Even at that moment she hardly dared trust her interpretation of his expression.

  `That is as it should be, mi esposa, for there is no doubt that you have spoilt me for any other woman. I think I fell in love with you that very first moment I saw you. I didn't realise it until you 'fainted outside the church. I was over­whelmed by my selfishness; I was sure you must despise me. Like a fool I let you go ...I was too afraid of rejection to ask you to stay with me, but now as you see my pride is in tatters.'

  `Not so as you'd notice,' Kate breathed with a delirious laugh as she gazed transfixed into his stunningly handsome face. Wonderingly, she lifted her small hand to his bronzed cheek; Javier murmured her name as he turned his head and pressed a fervent kiss to her open palm.

  Kate's tummy muscles quivered violently as she gazed at his dark glossy head.

  `I don't believe this is real.' She bit her lip, struggling to hold back the emotional tears. If she started crying, she feared she wouldn't be able to stop. `I've dreamed so often about this moment, but I never thought it would happen...'

  Javier gazed with fierce pride into her luminous eyes. `I think I might just know a way of convincing you.'

  Kate responded body and soul to the demands of his burning kiss which only ended when they both registered the polite `Wouldn't disturb you for the world!'

  'Toby, isn't it...?' Javier responded with only slightly less cool assurance than usual.

  `Thing is, I thought you might like to know the music stopped playing about five minutes ago, and not to put too fine a point on it,' he glanced sympathetically at Kate's fiery cheeks and cleared his throat, `you are the floor show.'

  `Oh, God... !' Kate moaned, suddenly conscious they were standing quite alone in the middle of the large dance floor, the focus of several hundred pairs of curious eyes.

  `There is no shame involved in kissing your husband, mi esposa,' Javier reproached, surveying the room with a stag­gering display of supreme indifference which Kate deeply envied.

  'Blame it on my British inhibitions,' she gritted cringing at the thought of the spectacle she must have presented.

  A gleam appeared in his fabulous densely lashed eyes. `I had not noticed you had any.'

  Kate choked and shot a glance towards Toby, who was tactfully examining his fingernails. `For God's sake, Javier!' she reproached, a laugh quivering in her throat.

  Javier smiled complacently down into her deliciously flushed face before turning politely to the young lawyer.

  `We are indebted to you, Toby,' he said smoothly as he inclined his head towards the loose-limbed younger man. `Do you speak Spanish?' he asked abruptly.

  The other man looked startled. `Pretty well; appalling accent though,' he admitted with a self-deprecating grin.

  `Well, if you were serious about work, ring this number,' he said in an off-hand manner as he handed the startled young man a card.

  `Are you serious... ?,

  'Always where business is concerned,' Javier responded with a wolfish grin. `Now, if you'll excuse us, Kate and I were just leaving.'

  `Good of you to tell me,' she murmured as he drew her to his side.

  One dark eyebrow rose to a satanic angle. `You prefer we continue our conversation here?

  'We weren't talking.'

  `That is why I thought it would be wiser to adjourn to somewhere less public. I have an overwhelming desire to make love to my wife, you see,' he explained, with a con­templative smile that sent a sharp thrill of sexual desire through her.

  `In that case,' she responded huskily, `lead the way.'

  Kate gave a sigh of relief as they finally reached the portioned exit. She had tried to emulate her husband's splendid indifference to the stares and whispers that had dogged their progress, but it hadn't been easy. As for Javier, he hadn't been much help; his reserves of tolerance had quickly worn thin when people with the slightest claim to his acquaintance repeatedly approached them. Towards the end, his methods of ridding himself of those unwise enough to impede their progress were brutally abrupt enough to make Kate cringe.

  `Being rich and important is no excuse for bad manners.' He immediately accepted culpability. `I know, but I am desperate to make love to you, mi esposa.'

  Kate was quick to recognise that these were extenuating circumstances.

  `You think I'm a pushover, don't you?' she accused as she happily allowed him to draw her into his arms.

  `I think you are the sweetest, most enchanting little witch in the world,' he told her throatily.

  `Well, I suppose you have your good points; you were pretty nice to Toby,' she admitted.

  `No, I was not nice to Toby. I rely on first impressions and my first impression of him tells me he is loyal but not afraid of speaking his mind. People like that are surpris­ingly rare.'

  `So your first impressions are always right, are they?' She widened her eyes innocently. `What about your first impressions of me?' She looked up at him, her eyes dancing with bright laughing expectancy.

  `Oh, my first impressions of you were one hundred per cent correct,' he assured her.

  Recalling some of his less than flattering accusations at the time, Kate's eyes widened indignantly. `I knew you were trouble, even then.'

  Trouble... ? Kate liked the sound of that; it made her feel bold and dangerous, a real femme fatale.

  `You'd better believe it,' she purred, giving a provoca­tive little wriggle.

  Delighted to see his eyes darken responsively to the light-hearted provocation, Kate was winding her arms around his neck when she was blinded by a series of bright camera flashes. Javier immediately moved to block her from the view of the opportunist photographer.

  He moved swiftly but even when she was in the back of the chauffeur-driven limousine which had pulled up in front of the building the photographer, his camera pressed up against the glass, was still popping away.

  Javier, white-faced with anger, gave his instructions to the driver before pressing the button that brought down the smoked glass screen between them.

  `Does that happen to you often?' Kate asked, sinking back into the luxurious upholstery with a sigh.

  `I'm afraid it does.' He regarded her pale, distressed fea­tures with concern. `I'm sorry, querida, for exposing you to that, but someone inside must have contacted the press about our rather public display. I should have anticipated it.' He frowned.

  `It wasn't very nice,' she admitted candidly. `And I ex­pect se
eing myself looking like some cross-eyed sheep in some scummy paper tomorrow won't be nice either, but I suppose I'd better get used to it,' she returned with a phil­osophical shrug. `That is, if you're serious about wanting this marriage to be for real...?'

  Javier's tense anxious look was replaced by one of won­dering appreciation. `You know something, you are quite incredible. You do realise that as my wife you won't have the luxury of anonymity any longer`?

  'To be your wife,' she admitted shyly, 'I'm willing to put up with a good deal.'

  A look of fierce joy flared in his eyes as, with a sharp intake of breath, he gathered her soft yielding body close. `I am the luckiest man on earth.'

  Kate emerged breathless and dishevelled from the crush­ing embrace.

  Javier leaned back in his seat and loosened his tie. `Combining your career and marriage will not be easy,' he ob­served, watching her face carefully as he smoothed down his own rumpled hair. `You will often have to deal with conflicting demands upon your time.'

  Was he asking her to give up her career, was that what the wife of a Montero was expected to do...? Perhaps she had been naive not to see this coming.

  `Are you asking me to choose between you and my job?' she asked him bluntly.

  `What do you take me for?' he demanded in a tone of deep affront. `You think that I respect what you have achieved so little, I would ask to throw it away, so that you can be at my beck and call?' He reached out for her and curving his hand over the back of her head drew her face to within an inch of his.

  Kate's head spun dizzily.

  `I would not try and destroy all the things that make you the woman I love.' His electric blue eyes swept over her face. `You are courageous, often terrifyingly so...' he mused darkly. `And funny, of course,' he added, sliding his fingers through her silky hair. `Bright, infuriating and stub­born. You think you know better than me and say so, which I admit is good for me...'

  `I'm going to remind you that you said that,' Kate prom­ised huskily.

  `I used to think I wanted a woman who needed me to shelter her from the harsh things in life...' 'Sarah...'