What race? Something else he had failed to inform her about? Annalisa wondered irritably.
Gathering her papers together, she pushed her chair back and stood up. ‘Frankly, gentlemen, I don’t care what he’s doing. I see Señor Perez next week, or these negotiations are at an end.’
Annalisa felt pretty good about the stand she had made as she walked to the small run-around she had purchased. She felt even better as she drove speedily along the uncrowded highway and finally turned onto her own potholed lane. The sale of her house in England had finally gone through without a hitch, and she would use the money to improve the road. But that would almost clean her out. There might just be enough for one last splurge for herself, for when the going got tough—a reward for sticking by her principles and resisting the charms of Ramon.
‘What the—?’ Annalisa slammed to a halt in front of the finca and almost catapulted out of her seat. ‘Stop! Stop that now!’ she insisted frantically.
Swarming all over her roof, workmen were ripping up the few remaining tiles. They showed no sign of hearing her. Ladders leaned drunkenly against the uneven walls and puffs of old plaster and debris were falling all around like dirty snow. After standing there for just a few moments she felt her lustrous black hair was coated with an itchy grey crust.
Finally one of the men responded to her furious gestures and called down, ‘Señor Perez’s orders—’
Annalisa’s emotions went up like a rocket. ‘Señor Perez has no control here! How dare—?’
The man shrugged as he gave her a brown-toothed grin. ‘You want we should leave it?’
‘Yes! No!’ Annalisa gazed around in desperation. Neatly stacked piles of brand-new roof tiles stood in one corner, whilst heaps of old tiles, now broken beyond hope of saving, littered the ground.
‘Where is Señor Perez?’ she demanded. ‘No—’ She flung up her hand to stop the man the moment she heard the words Inglaterra and Margarita. ‘In England, at the race with Margarita,’ she muttered fiercely, swinging around to consider what to do next.
‘No, no, señorita,’ another voice called from somewhere on the ruined roof. ‘Señor Perez returned home today.’
‘Right!’ Annalisa said, tightening her mouth. ‘Thank you very much,’ she shouted. Swinging away from them, she ran back to the car.
‘That’s all right, Rodriguez. You can leave us,’ Ramon Perez instructed his tight-lipped manservant. ‘And, gentlemen,’ he added, turning to the group of sober-suited men seated at the table with him, ‘we will reconvene this meeting in one hour’s time.’
One hour? Annalisa’s brows lifted. He had been away for weeks, missed their meetings, played house with her home, and seriously expected to be rid of her within the hour?
‘Annalisa,’ Ramon said when they had all left the room. ‘What an unexpected pleasure. What can I do for you?’ As he spoke he eased his chair back and stood to confront her, his hawkish expression completely at odds with the courteous words.
Somehow the austere business suit only served to affirm his brutally male appeal, Annalisa realised, finding the effect on her resolve an added irritation. ‘Don’t try that power jag on me,’ she warned. ‘You’ve already done far too much for me already!’
‘Really?’ he murmured, turning to glance out of the window, but not before she caught the gleam of amusement in his dark eyes. ‘How careless of me.’
‘This isn’t a joke, Ramon.’
‘I can see that,’ he said, turning so abruptly she jumped.
‘No!’ she warned, taking a step back when it looked as though he might come closer. ‘I demand an explanation.’
‘You demand?’ he drawled, while his mouth curved in a long lazy smile.
‘Yes, I—’
He held up his hands in an unexpected gesture of surrender. ‘You have my apologies,’ he said mildly, then spoiled the effect with his next observation. ‘I should have realised how frustrating this must be for you.’
Frustrating! And now he was heading straight for her… ‘I have no idea what you mean,’ Annalisa flared, retreating a step only to find the door at her back.
He stopped short and shrugged. ‘The waiting, of course.’ And now his eyes were glinting with amusement. ‘All these problems getting in the way,’ he murmured, brushing a hand down the side of her face.
She jerked back. ‘In the way of what, exactly?’
‘Of an agreement being drawn up between us,’ he clarified, moving away again.
Annalisa swallowed hard as she watched his lean, tanned fingers move to adjust his tie. It was so easy to fall under his spell…far too easy. Determinedly she rallied her wits. ‘Really, Ramon. I must insist—’
‘You must insist?’ He looked at her with amused tolerance, as if she had lost her wits rather than rallied them. And then, advancing far enough to trap her against the door, he traced her full lips with one firm thumbpad.
As hard as she strained back there was nowhere to go. ‘My roof—’ she protested breathlessly, moving to protect her mouth with the back of her hand.
‘Ah, yes,’ he murmured, his amused glance straying to her hand. ‘Your roof.’
The heat in her face went rampaging through her body. ‘You’re repairing it,’ she gasped out.
With a sharp look he turned on his heels. ‘Before it falls down.’
‘It’s not yours to repair!’ Annalisa pointed out.
‘Call it neighbourly concern, if it makes you feel better.’
‘I can’t afford to pay you back,’ she admitted tensely. ‘Not at the moment, anyway.’
‘Have I asked for payment?’
‘But you will want paying,’ she chipped in, wishing her breathing would steady.
He swung around to face her again, fingering his stubble-darkened chin. ‘Perhaps we could operate a barter system.’
The thought of how that roughened face would feel against her pink-flushed skin was disturbing…distracting… ‘I won’t be pushed into parting with any land before I am ready—’
‘Stop jumping to conclusions, Annalisa. How do you know it’s your land I’m talking about?’
‘What else could it be?’ The look he gave her threw her stimulated senses into turmoil. ‘How can I possibly know what you’re talking about when you can’t be bothered to attend the meetings we arranged?’ Her glance bounced off his eyes and landed on his lips.
‘That was unfortunate, and I apologise. A family matter required my immediate attention. Family always comes before business as far as I am concerned, Annalisa. Margarita needed me—’ He shrugged.
As an ice-cold hand grabbed her spine Annalisa’s eyes flickered slightly—the only sign that she’d recognised his need to remind her that he had a wife.
‘I promise you that I will definitely attend the next meeting.’
She managed a stiff nod.
A discreet tap on the door distracted them both.
‘Come,’ he called imperiously.
Rodriguez advanced a few steps into the room. ‘You have a visitor, Señor Perez.’ He glanced at Annalisa, then walked up to Ramon and whispered something in his ear.
Ramon’s face hardened briefly. Turning to her again, he sighed. ‘Forgive me, Annalisa. I’m afraid I shall have to continue this conversation some other time.’
‘About the roof—’
‘Let my men finish the job now they have started,’ he suggested. ‘We’ll arrange payment the next time we meet. I assure you that my terms will be fair.’ He cast her a long, assessing look from slanting umber eyes. ‘The main thing is that you are safe and dry. I don’t want you on my conscience.’
Annalisa kept her face neutral, but her heart was still reeling from his humiliating reminder about Margarita. As far as she could see Ramon Perez was singularly unburdened by conscience. ‘Until our next meeting, Señor Perez.’
‘Ramon,’ he reminded her with a courteous dip of his head.
‘Señor Perez,’ Annalisa returned stiffly. And, sticking her
chin in the air, she marched out of the room.
As she was crossing the hall Annalisa saw someone follow Rodriguez into the room where she had just left Ramon. There was something about the way the woman carried herself that reminded Annalisa of Señora Fuego Montoya. Even the snatch of a beautifully modulated voice was exactly as she had imagined it. Turning impulsively, she was sure she was right. But what was her father’s widow doing with Ramon? Were they hatching something together? If so, it wouldn’t just be a piece of beach that was up for grabs…it would be the whole estate!
As she ran down the front steps she weighed the evidence. Ramon had made sure she was heavily in debt to him. He missed meetings rather than commit to a deal. Could that be because he knew he could get for free what he allegedly wanted to buy? Was he simply playing for time? He was certainly unscrupulous enough. He knew she was drawn to him, a married man, yet did nothing to discourage her. In fact, she was sure now that he relished those times when he breached her outward composure. And as for Señora Fuego Montoya—her stepmother…?
Just forming the word in her mind made her feel doubly vulnerable. Of course there would be resentment for a stepdaughter she had never met. A stepdaughter who had inherited vast tracts of land right over her head. It all made a horrible kind of sense. The son of her late father’s business partner forming an unholy alliance with her father’s widow…
Even the sight of her new red-pantiled roof failed to console her as she pulled into the yard at the finca. But she had to admit that the workmen had done an excellent job. Everything was neat and tidy, with not a hint of rubble to suggest the disruption there had been earlier. It was a quality job…but quality had its price.
She would cool her emotions with a quick swim. Hurrying into the house, Annalisa grabbed a bikini out of her bedroom drawer and quickly got changed. But even as she stripped off the Armani suit her stress levels increased. That had cost a fortune. Then there was the underwear, the silk blouse, and the first outfit from Margarita… She groaned. Ramon had reeled her in like a dazed fish. She would be paying off her debts to the Crianza Perez family for the rest of her life the way things were going.
By the time she made it down to the shore the sun was a huge orange ball balanced on the horizon. A light breeze had kicked up the waves so that they ran in truculent eddies around the rocks, tossing plumes of white foam into the soft evening air. Impatient to feel the soothing chill of deeper water, she plunged in and started to swim, embracing the waves with a reckless excitement as if the shock of the icy sea could really help soothe her overheated emotions.
As the familiar rhythm worked its magic she powered out, hard and fast, oblivious to the speed with which she was being carried away from the shore. Only when the ocean began swallowing more and more of the sun did she break stroke and start to head back. But the current was unforgiving. She trod water, her mind whirling frantically.
The only visible point of safety in a rapidly darkening sea was the sleek white roof of Ramon’s cruiser; her only hope was to swim to it—to swim for her life… But she was tiring rapidly, and with every stroke the waves seemed to grow higher, rougher and faster, until choking on seawater, she battled for air.
And when she went under it wasn’t her whole life that flashed before her eyes…just the same charismatic face that penetrated all her dreams. Feeling herself sinking lower, she kicked out weakly, in an attempt to break through the deadly ceiling so cruelly close to her head. But as the remorseless current tugged her sideways, her reaching arms achieved nothing more than a weak pass at a beam of moonlight that provided a slim shaft of light in the unremitting gloom.
Weakening fast, she barely registered the fact that a band of iron had snapped around her waist. But after Ramon brought her coughing and gasping to the surface she went rigid as a flood of expletives in Spanish exploded in her ear.
‘Ramon!’ she cried gratefully, trying to turn in his arms.
‘Keep still, you little fool! Do you want to kill us both?’ he rasped, kicking out strongly.
He was holding her so tightly she was almost more frightened by that than the thought of drowning. He was absolutely furious, she realised as she submitted to the indignity of being towed to shore like a piece of driftwood.
Yanking her from the water, he carried her to the beach—and when he saw she was all right he all but dropped her onto the sand at his feet. ‘You little idiot!’ he grated furiously. ‘What the hell did you think you were doing?’
Spluttering helplessly, she retched violently in an attempt to expel the last of the sand and water from her lungs.
‘I’m waiting, Annalisa.’
His voice was merciless, and when she was able to risk a glance at him she saw that every muscle and sinew betrayed the depths of his emotion. To make matters worse, he was dressed for dinner. Apart from the shoes he had obviously shed just before diving into the water, black trousers and a black silk shirt clung to his body like a second skin. Both were completely ruined. But it wasn’t the loss of his clothes that concerned her most. ‘I’m sorry,’ she gasped at last. ‘It’s just that I’m unfamiliar with—’
‘What?’ he cut in harshly before she could say any more. ‘Drowning?’ And when she began to stutter an apology he hunkered down beside her, grabbing her shoulders in an unforgiving grasp to shake some sense into her. ‘Let’s keep it that way, shall we?’
Recoiling from the heat in his eyes, Annalisa hung her head as she nodded agreement.
But Ramon hadn’t finished with her. He demanded her full attention. Seizing her chin, he forced her round to face him. ‘No more swimming in the dark, comprende?’
‘OK, OK.’ He was very close…too close. She stiffened, ready to push him away…then relaxed. He had just saved her life…
‘The sea knows no master, Annalisa,’ he rapped starkly. ‘The last time you did something foolish I warned you. Now I’m telling you. Don’t ever swim in the sea on your own again.’
When he was satisfied her remorse was genuine Ramon stood up and tugged off his shirt. Exhausted as she was, Annalisa’s senses sharpened as she took in the broad sweep of his shoulders and the taut muscles of his deeply tanned chest, along with the strength so clearly defined in his powerful arms. She looked away as he began to finger the buckle on his belt. Then, as he peeled off his sodden trousers, she instinctively whipped her head away, wrapping her arms across her chest and drawing her legs tightly underneath her.
‘It’s OK. You can look now,’ he said.
She should have known he could not be trusted! She had seen him in bathing trunks before…but they had been designed for swimming. His close-fitting black silk underpants had not. She closed her eyes, as if that might help to obliterate an image already branded on her mind.
‘Your little adventure seems to have temporarily rendered you speechless,’ he observed sardonically. ‘I think you’d better come out to the boat with me…dry off and get warm before you go into shock. I’ve got a dinghy moored just behind those rocks. You can have a hot shower…put on some dry clothes.’
He might have recovered, but she had some way to go. And it wasn’t the close brush with drowning that was driving a battering ram through her composure.
‘Come on,’ he insisted. ‘Before you catch a chill. The breeze is fierce tonight. That’s one of the reasons you got into difficulties.’
Annalisa almost smiled. If only all her difficulties had been tied in to the weather she wouldn’t be feeling half so worried. ‘I’d rather go home,’ she managed sensibly.
‘That’s not an option,’ Ramon countered firmly. ‘In your present state.’
‘No, really. I’d rather.’
‘And I’d rather you came with me,’ he said decisively. ‘I have plenty of towelling robes on board.’
‘No. I’m sorry, but—’
‘You will be.’ Having put up with as much as he intended to, Ramon yanked her to her feet. ‘You are proving to be a very troublesome neighbour, Annalisa Wilson.’
‘And an expensive one,’ she said, laughing nervously as his warmth stole through her.
‘Have you eaten tonight?’
‘No…’ she admitted hesitantly.
‘Then I’ll see to that at the same time.’
‘Oh, no… I—’
‘I might as well finish the job.’
She knew from experience that it would be better to give in gracefully…to the offer of a meal and some dry clothes at least. She glanced up through lashes clotted with seawater. ‘You saved my life… How can I ever—?’
He cut brusquely through the commendation. ‘You can thank me by never taking risks like that again.’
‘I’ve never swum so late before,’ she admitted.
‘You could have been killed! Madre de Dios!’ Ramon exclaimed, frightening her with his vehemence.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t understand what—’
‘Neither can I understand,’ Ramon broke in passionately, ‘how the Annalisa Wilson I hear about in the village could do something like this!’
So they were talking about her in the village…and, worse still, Ramon was aware of the rumours. ‘What have you heard about me?’ she asked, dreading the answer. Her skills as a fruit-grower wouldn’t bear much scrutiny.
‘Señorita Wilson’s self-sufficiency, her intelligence, her common sense… Common sense?’ he exploded. ‘For goodness’ sake!’
It was a few moments before she realised he was teasing her. And, despite her misgivings, she liked the feeling. She liked it a lot.
Without warning he grabbed hold of her. ‘Are you acting in this crazy fashion because of me?’
‘Don’t be so ridiculous!’ she protested, trying to ignore the fact that they were both practically naked.
He let the silence hang between them for a while, and then released her. ‘You’re shivering. Hardly surprising after the shock you’ve had. We’d better go.’
Back in her own bed, Annalisa sat hugging her knees. Fudge lay across her feet and she could hear the cats patrolling outside the door.
This was not the finale anyone else might have expected to Ramon’s dramatic rescue…and anyone else might have been more successful than she had been in getting answers to the questions buzzing around her head. Questions that Ramon could have answered for her after her shower on his boat…or during the meal that had followed.
A Spanish Inheritance Page 6