by Kim Lawrence
‘There might be some delay in that lift to the airport.’
‘Why?’ Did he really just suggest that they stay in touch or had she imagined it? Did she really want to continue something with a man who carried so much emotional baggage?
‘Because my sensitive, heartbroken cousin has just driven off in the car.’
‘What?’ Nell exclaimed, running across to the window in time to see a dust cloud. ‘But he can’t do that.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘HE HAS done that.’
‘The little idiot!’
Luiz clicked his tongue in mock reproval. ‘Is that any way to speak about a sensitive young man?’ he chided.
Nell flashed him an irritated look. ‘So what happens now?’
Luiz produced a mobile phone from his pocket. ‘I use this and arrange us some transport. I suggest you use the time to freshen up.’
Nell lifted a self-conscious hand to her hair. ‘I must look a wreck.’
‘You look…’ Nell watched a strange look spread across his face as he stared at her for what felt like a long time. ‘You look fine.’
His manner was dismissive as he started punching numbers into his phone.
For want of anything better to do and glad of the opportunity to escape his unsettling presence, she set off in search of a bathroom.
The first door she tried was locked, the second was a bedroom with a connecting bathroom, big, luxurious, with an old-fashioned claw-foot tub that could have bathed an army. Had Luiz ever shared it?
She dismissed the intrusive question from her head. For God’s sake, the sooner she was out of Spain, the better—it was turning her into some sort of sex addict!
A glance in the mirror revealed that Luiz had been economical with the truth. Fine was one thing she did not look! A total wreck on the other hand? Yes, that definitely applied. So did scary, she thought, lifting a tangled strand of the hair that fell in witchlike tangles around her face, before dropping it with a grimace.
‘Right, we can’t do glamorous, but clean—or cleanish at least—we can do.’
Wetting her hands, she ran her fingers through her totally wild hair, smoothed her stained and creased clothes and grimaced at the result.
With a sigh she filled the basin with water and set about repairing some of the surface damage. The results were a slight improvement, though the dark mark on her cheek she spent ages scrubbing proved to be a bruise, not dirt.
‘Well, that will have to do,’ she told her reflection as she took a deep breath and left the room. She went directly to the drawing room but Luiz was no longer there. She was about to go in search of him when the sound of voices drew her to the window.
Luiz was standing in the driveway talking to a man about his own age. They were both standing beside a truck. The sight should have lifted her spirits—presumably this was her taxi. Instead to her bemusement Nell felt strangely downbeat.
Luiz turned his head, caught sight of her in the window and waved his hand for her to join them.
Outside the light breeze that blew in from the sea was pleasantly cool. It caught her damp hair and Nell needed both hands to anchor it from her face as she walked towards the two men.
They both stopped talking as she approached. The stranger smiled as Luiz introduced her.
‘This is Francesco Angelus. He has ridden, or in this case—’ he flashed the other man a smile ‘—driven to our rescue.’
‘It is nice to meet you, Miss Frost. Have you known Luiz long?’
Nell saw his eyes drift towards her finger and widen; she tucked it self-consciously behind her back and said with a composure she wasn’t feeling. ‘Not long.’
Luiz said something to the other man in Spanish, then, turning to her, added, ‘I’m just going to close the cottage up. Wait here.’
Nell lifted her hand in a mocking salute and clicked her heels. ‘Yes, sir!’
A smile slid into Luiz’s eyes as he bowed his head in acknowledgement. ‘Please stay here.’
Francesco, who had watched this interchange with interest, waited until Luiz had vanished inside the building before he spoke.
‘I’m glad that Luiz has brought someone here. It has been a long time. It was not healthy,’ he mused, ‘to make this place some sort of shrine.’ He added something in Spanish, but the only word Nell caught was Rosa.
Nell, her brow furrowed in enquiry, turned to look at the tall Spaniard. If she had never met Luiz she would have classed him pretty much stunningly handsome, but her measure of male perfection had changed.
A lot of things had changed.
‘This was actually,’ he continued, casting a thoughtful glance towards the cottage, ‘always more Luiz’s place than Rosa’s—too close to the home she wanted to escape. Rosa was a city girl at heart. She used to say the cosmopolitan buzz fed her artistic juices, though she loved the light in the studio here. For Luiz rebuilding the place virtually stone by stone when they first married was a labour of love—I helped out a bit.’
Nell’s eyes widened in comprehension. She recalled his reluctance to enter and now she knew why: this had been the home he had shared with his wife.
‘Even though everyone knows that Luiz will inherit when Doña Elena dies—’
‘They do?’ Nell felt uneasy, but thought it a strong possibility he was just quoting Luiz.
‘Of course. Who else is there…Felipe?’ Francesco suggested with a good-natured smile. ‘It’s just if he lost all his money tomorrow, a stretch I know, but if it happened I think if he had to choose one place, one piece of property, to keep intact I think it would be this place. Not worth much financially but it carries so many memories.’
‘He doesn’t come across as a sentimental man. You knew Rosa?’
Francesco’s brows lifted. ‘I’m her brother. I thought you knew.’
Nell’s eyes fell. ‘Sorry, no, I didn’t.’ The extent of her ignorance was becoming more obvious with each passing second, also the extent of her misjudgement. Could it be true? Had Luiz been telling the truth all along?
‘Don’t worry, I’m fine with you being here,’ he added, clearly misinterpreting her discomfort. ‘I’ve been telling Luiz for years now that he can’t live in the past. He needs a woman and coming back here with you is obviously his way of laying old ghosts. You’re obviously very good for him.’
Nell, blushing madly, shook her head. ‘Not me, I’m not his woman, I’m…’ She thought about the ring on her finger that felt like a burning brand and closed her mouth. Explanations were only going to make things look worse.
Francesco smiled, and taking her hand between the two of his, bowed slightly over it. ‘Don’t worry about me. I understand…’
You so don’t, thought Nell.
‘Your secret is safe with me.’
‘No secret,’ she promised, hardly daring to imagine what he was thinking.
‘And when you’re ready to go public I’ll be the first to toast you both. Luiz is one of my favourite people, and I’ve a lot to thank him for, but you know Luiz—he runs a mile from gratitude and he doesn’t like anyone to know about his good deeds.’ His tone grew reminiscent as he continued. ‘We grew up together, Luiz, Rosa and I. Our family had been tenants on the estate for generations. My father still has a farm near the castillo. I took over a vineyard about a mile away from here five years ago or so. Luiz’s investment has meant—’ He stopped abruptly in a manner guaranteed to excite Nell’s curiosity, then finished, ‘Let’s just say I owe him.’
Nell listened to his confidences, her dismay growing.
‘I always knew he would be successful, but the great thing about Luiz is he doesn’t forget his old friends no matter how many billions he makes.’
Billions…? Before Nell opened her mouth to extract further details Luiz appeared.
‘Are you ready to go?’
Nell, who hadn’t heard his approach, turned and saw his dark gaze was trained on her hand still enfolded in Francesco’s warm grip. The expr
ession glowing in those dark depths was openly hostile.
Blushing, Nell pulled her hand away then immediately regretted her guilty response—she had nothing to feel guilty about, if of course you excluded a night of passion with a tall, dark stranger. She glared at Luiz and flashed a smile of particular warmth at Francesco.
‘I was the one who was waiting,’ she reminded him, thinking, Billionaire?
Francesco, oblivious to the undercurrents, smiled. ‘I’ll be seeing you again very soon, I hope.’ His smile included Nell as he clapped Luiz on the back.
Nell thought about the return journey alone with Luiz and her face dropped. ‘Aren’t you coming?’
‘It’s only a short walk back over the fields for me. Luiz will send the car back.’ He caught Nell’s hand, brushed the back of it with his lips in a courtly gesture and, with a wave, headed off in the direction he had indicated.
In the car Luiz waited for Nell to fasten her seat belt before he started the engine. He slid the car into gear, then with a muttered imprecation slid it into neutral and switched off the ignition.
Nell turned her head. ‘Let me guess—we are out of petrol?’
He sketched a humourless smile. ‘He’s married.’
Nell looked at him blankly. ‘What?’
‘Francesco is married.’
She’d been slow to catch his drift, but now she had the angry colour flew to her cheeks. ‘You are telling me this why?’ She just wanted to hear him say it.
‘Well, you were clearly very taken with him.’
She arched an ironic brow and fixed him with a cold glare. ‘How charmingly put—much nicer than flat out accusing me of being a slut. It may surprise you to learn that I can smile at a man without ripping off his clothes.’
‘You did not smile at me and you ripped my clothes off anyway.’
Nell drew a shuddering breath. I walked right into that one. ‘I liked Francesco because he is a gentleman. You are a total barbarian!’ She flung the accusation in a voice that ached with loathing.
She was actually shaken by the violent depth of her feelings. All her emotions seemed to be extreme around this man.
The fine muscles around his jaw tightened as their glances locked, stormy dove-grey on smouldering brown. Sheer obstinacy prevented her shrinking back in her seat—he looked the barbarian she had accused him of being and more.
So why was her pulse racing in excitement? Nell asked herself, the voice in her head mocking her newfound taste for barbarians with beautiful mouths.
Nell’s eyes flickered wide in horrified recognition.
Luiz held her eyes for one long nerve-shredding moment before switching on the engine, crunching the gears and grunting. ‘Maybe you bring out the barbarian in me.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
IT WAS LATE afternoon when they reached the castillo; since the heated exchange when they had set out Luiz hadn’t spoken a word.
And Nell had not felt inclined to initiate a conversation, as conversations, even ones that involved safe, boring subjects like the weather, somehow developed sexual undertones.
Why was everything suddenly about sex: the elusive fragrance of his warm body, the stubble on his chin, his damned stupidly long eyelashes? It was, she decided, one of life’s great enigmas—either that or she had lost her mind.
So what happens now? Nell wondered, casting a surreptitious glance at Luiz’s profile. In the shadows cast by the tall trees that lined the entire driveway it was impossible to make out details, just the strong, pure outline.
Would he put her in a taxi or expect her to share his bed?
A shiver shimmied down her spine as she slipped free of her safety belt and thought about the latter possibility—and if he did would she accept?
Would it be so terrible?
Nell’s eyes flickered wide—the fact she had seriously asked herself the question even hypothetically meant there had been a major shift in her thinking over the past twenty-four hours.
It wasn’t as if it could make things worse to sleep with him, in a bed—she would still be going home tomorrow. And she wanted him—why deny it when she couldn’t think about anything else?
The acknowledgement of her total fixation drew a tiny grunt of shock from her dry throat.
Luiz, who had just switched off the engine, turned his head at the sound. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Fine, totally fine!’ And then, because her cheery smile seemed to throw him, she pressed her hand to her chest and cleared her throat. ‘I’m just a bit…dry. I’ll be fine after a cup of tea…if you have…if it’s not too much trouble,’ she finished lamely.
He raised a brow and regarded her quizzically. ‘You want tea?’
I want you. ‘That would be good, please.’
Luiz carried on looking at her in that spooky way that made her feel he could actually see the thoughts in her head.
There were beads of sweat along her upper lip when she finally managed to break eye contact. The atmosphere in the car hummed with tension. ‘Gosh, I’m so stiff it will be good to stretch my legs.’
Nell almost fell out of the car in her effort to escape. She stood there drawing in big shaky gulps of fresh air.
She had gone through her entire adult life without any sex and now she couldn’t think about anything else!
Nell heard the crunch of gravel as Luiz got out and joined her; she didn’t turn her head, but she knew he was standing behind her. The sensitive skin on the back of her neck prickled as she sensed his presence. She was painfully aware of Luiz, the texture of his skin, the sound of his voice… She closed her eyes—what was happening to her?
If anyone had told her twenty-four hours earlier that she would be unable to breathe because a man was standing close to her she would have laughed in her face.
This was ridiculous. Nell pinned a smile on her face, turned around and heard herself say with wince-inducing chirpiness, ‘Well, we’re here.’
‘So we are.’
There was nothing chirpy about Luiz’s voice. The low, seductive rasp sent her stomach muscles into violent quivering mode.
Standing there, one thumb hooked into the belt of his jeans, the breeze tugging at his dark hair, he looked totally relaxed until you reached his eyes. They were not relaxed, they were dark, smouldering with a raw, undisguised hunger.
The air between them shimmered thick with unspoken dark, smoky desires. Heat swirled through Nell as a violent stab of sexual longing nailed her to the spot, drawing the air from her lungs in one gasping breath, and she said the first thing that came into her head.
‘Why didn’t you tell me the cottage was your home? Yours and your wife’s.’
‘It did not seem relevant.’
Nell wasn’t convinced by the careless shrug. ‘It was the first time you’d gone back there.’ She imagined him walking from room to room recalling the special memories they held and felt depressed. ‘It’s special to you.’
‘It’s a place.’ Luiz was surprised to find he could say it and mean it. In a sense returning there had been liberating, it was something that he now knew he ought to have done years before.
‘A special place.’
Her persistence began to visibly annoy him. ‘What I did or felt before we met does not concern you, Nell.’
Nell blinked. Was Luiz saying that what he did and felt now did concern her? It was only the sound of someone clearing his throat that stopped her blurting out the question on the tip of her tongue.
Nell jumped at the sound, embarrassment swirling through her as she looked away. Talk about saved by the bell! She was guilty of reading far too much into his most casual remark—a case of hearing what she wanted to?
‘Ramon?’ Luiz struggled to hide his frustration and impatience as he turned to the other man.
Ramon slid a glance towards Nell and nodded, his manner pleasant and not, to her relief, particularly curious. The curiosity factor increased dramatically when his eyes brushed her ring. They jumped, startled, back t
o her face—you could almost hear him thinking, Odd choice for the man who could have anyone.
Oh, God, she was really going to have to get this thing off, she thought, tugging at it surreptitiously with more hope than expectation of feeling it loosen.
It stayed where it was.
‘If I could have a word, Luiz?’
Luiz nodded to Nell and said, ‘This won’t take long.’
It couldn’t. The journey here had been sheer hell. He’d barely been able to concentrate on the road ahead; his mind had kept drifting off and always in the direction that involved her skin, her softness, her mouth, on him, under him, around him.
Nell watched the men talk. She couldn’t hear what they were saying. Had something happened to Luiz’s grandmother? Had her condition taken a turn for the worse?
Luiz gave her no time to enquire when he returned, he just said abruptly, ‘Go with Ramon. I will be with you later.’ Then he was gone. Nell didn’t even have a chance to challenge his assumption she would be waiting.
‘Miss Frost.’ The man with the warm eyes from yesterday explained that he was the estate manager and he would, he said, escort her to Luiz’s private apartments.
Nell, feeling awkward, nodded and said, ‘Call me Nell, please.’
‘It is this way.’ He stood to one side to allow her to join him on the path that went in the opposite direction to the one that Luiz had taken. ‘The castillo can be confusing until you get your bearings.’
Following him through the maze of corridors, Nell doubted that the day would ever come that she got her bearings even if she spent the rest of her life here, which she very obviously wouldn’t.
This wasn’t really happening; it was a dream. A defiant light entered her eyes. It was a dream she wanted to cram as much fantasy as possible into before she woke up. It wasn’t that she was actively seeking a replay of last night’s wild passion, it was just, if it happened—well, she wasn’t going to actively resist it. She was going to go with the flow.
Do you want uncomplicated sex? Can you even do uncomplicated sex? asked the doubtful, disapproving voice in her head.