by Maggie Cox
To Pascual—a fellow entrepreneur, with a commodity to sell that he very much desired—he would be sycophantic and deferential to a tee. But to her and Tina he could potentially be a nuisance.
‘Of course…Was there anything else?’ Glancing deliberately over at the other men she waited until they all agreed that coffee and brandy was just perfect for now.
As she turned to leave Steve Nichols leaned over to her and whispered conspiratorially, ‘Hurry back, sweetheart,’ and winked. At that very moment she sensed Pascual’s deeply disapproving gaze come to rest on her, and then on the man beside her. Briana’s face flamed again. She hoped to God he didn’t think she was encouraging him!
The meeting went on for at least three hours, and by then it was nearly dinnertime. The hosts had requested that dinner be provided and catered for by a local well-known Michelin-starred restaurant, and while Briana and Tina dealt with the staff from there, who had arrived with their supplies and were currently ensconced in the house’s ample kitchen, the three businessmen retired to their respective rooms to get ready.
To be honest, Briana was glad of the breathing space in which to busy herself with the practicalities of her job and stem the tide of anxiety and emotion that had swept over her since she’d seen Pascual again. But she knew she couldn’t avoid him for ever. Sooner or later he would confront her about the events of the past and the unexpected and abrupt manner in which she had left Argentina.
He would demand a fuller account of why she had left.
The plain fact of the matter was that her reasons for leaving had not become any easier to come to terms with over the years. In fact, some days she worried that they would be with her, spoiling her chance of happiness with a man, for ever…Not that she even wanted any other man. After all that had happened, Pascual’s trust in her was obviously going to be in very short supply. Would he even believe her when she did finally explain things?
About halfway through the evening Tina emerged from the private dining room that overlooked the beautiful gardens which now, as darkness fell, were hidden from view by the heavy velvet drapes at the windows. Briana rose up from the padded love-seat in the lobby and asked, ‘How’s it going in there? Everybody happy?’
‘The food looks amazing! Everyone is tucking in, but our gorgeous Argentinian looks bored, frankly—as if he’d much rather be somewhere else than here.’
Briana’s stomach sank. Their personal business was one thing, but if Pascual was looking bored then the businessmen who had hired her company’s services would not be so thrilled, and she felt responsible for that. Somehow she had to rescue the situation.
‘I was thinking everyone might like to go out somewhere afterwards. There’s a private members’ club with a casino in town. I’ve already been on the phone to them and they would be more than happy to have our party visit.’
‘Great idea! Why don’t you go in and tell them?’ Tina replied, with a wink of her plum-coloured eyelid. ‘They’ll probably appreciate the suggestion more coming from you…I’ve noticed how they’ve all hardly been able to take their eyes off of you—especially the heavenly Mr Dominguez!’
‘You’re imagining things.’
‘All I know is if I had even half the sex appeal you’ve got, Briana Douglas, then I’d be milking it for all I was worth! Every one of those men in that dining room is a multimillionaire, and Mr Dominguez—who’s by far the yummiest of the lot—is apparently a billionaire! Haven’t you ever fantasised about some outrageously rich and gorgeous man sweeping you off your feet and marrying you?’
Briana would have laughed out loud if the irony of her colleague’s words hadn’t been quite so acutely painful. Touching her fingers briefly to her burning cheek, she dismissed the younger girl’s comments with a deliberately distracted air, and gave the black velvet waistcoat she wore over a white silk blouse a little tug to bring it better into alignment with the waistband of her matching fitted skirt.
‘I’ll go in and talk to them…In the meantime, Tina, could you get me a cup of coffee and a sandwich from the kitchen? I don’t think I could face a meal tonight. Do you mind?’
‘You’re mad, turning down the chance to try some of that fantastic food that’s been brought in! They brought enough for us with them, you know.’
‘Then why don’t you have my share?’
Heading down the rich maroon carpet of the hallway that led to the dining room, Briana thought she’d be hard pressed even to eat the sandwich she’d requested, let alone a full meal. Her stomach was deluged with butterflies at just the thought of having a private conversation with Pascual, as she knew she must. She felt doubly unsettled when she thought about her little son…the child he had no idea that he’d fathered when she’d left Argentina in such an unseemly hurry. Following on from that came the realisation that someone with the wealth and status he had at his fingertips could all too easily take Adán from her if he had a mind and a will to…
‘A casino? What an inspired idea—if you don’t mind my saying so, Miss Douglas!’ Steve Nichols leant back in the rather grand Tudor dining chair he occupied as his colleagues readily concurred, and gave Briana another one of his irritating winks.
Compressing her lips in mild irritation, she quickly glanced round the rest of the table and endeavoured to engage the other diners with her pleased smile. But the gesture faded prematurely when her anxious gaze inevitably collided with Pascual’s. He did not simply look bored, as Tina had suggested. Quite clearly he was more annoyed than anything else! Was that because she had walked in and soured his mood?
Once upon a time his face had lit up whenever she came into a room where he happened to be, and again Briana’s heart couldn’t help but yearn for those happier times. To be young and in love with the man of her dreams, living in a vibrant and amazing city like Buenos Aires, had been more than incredible! Sometimes she had to pinch herself to remember that it had ever happened at all…Perhaps it was something she’d dreamt up, because of her loneliness now? But she only had to glance at her son’s sweet dark-eyed face to see the startling resemblance to his charismatic father, and she told herself to simply count her blessings. Having Adán reminded her that she hadn’t lost everything, after all. She had her precious child.
‘What about you Mr Dominguez?’ she forced herself to ask. ‘Would you like to go the casino?’
‘Only if you will agree to accompany me, Miss Douglas,’ he answered smoothly, with an arch of his eyebrow. ‘I always like to have a beautiful girl on my arm when I go to a casino…for luck, you understand…’
‘I…I’m afraid I have work to do.’
All eyes were upon her, and Briana wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. What was Pascual playing at, inviting her to go with them? He must know it was completely inappropriate and would put her in a most awkward position.
‘Come, come, Miss Douglas,’ coaxed Mike Daniels, one of the other businessmen. ‘Mr Dominguez is our guest tonight. He’s come all the way from Argentina for our meeting—the least we can do is grant him this one request, don’t you think? Think of it as one of the perks of the job. Myself and my colleagues will gladly foot the bill.’
Still doubtful, Briana easily guessed that Pascual was taking the utmost pleasure in her obvious discomfort and embarrassment. She wanted to tell Mike Daniels that acting as escort to his VIP guest on a visit to a casino was definitely not part of the services her company provided. But she sensed her ex-fiancé’s potential to make life very difficult all round for everyone if she refused.
Her grey eyes beseeching, she gazed back into the compellingly handsome face that still lazily studied her, and disturbingly saw that a small mocking smile was playing around his lips.
‘I haven’t brought anything suitable with me to wear to a casino.’
‘What you have on is absolutely fine.’ Her tormentor’s smile widened, and his dark eyes lit with mischief as he deliberately swept his gaze up and down her figure, letting it linger in particular on the
lush curve of her breasts outlined by the snug black velvet waistcoat.
His aim was obviously to embarrass and belittle her as much as he could, Briana saw, and she would have had no bones about demonstrating her fury with his behaviour if only they had been alone. As things stood, she couldn’t do that. Not without making a scene and besmirching her hard-won reputation as a professional businesswoman.
‘Very well, then. I’ll go and ring the casino and let them know how many of us are coming.’
CHAPTER THREE
THE private members club was situated in an elegant Georgian house tucked away down a quiet country lane, and it welcomed them with open arms. Used to his name and his wealth opening doors Pascual hovered conveniently close to Briana’s slim back as they were shown into the private casino that was set aside for VIPs only.
If he was announcing to all who cared to observe them that he was the one who was her escort for the evening then he did not stop to examine why he should be acting so possessively over a woman who had treated him with such disdain. All Pascual knew was that not only did he need to be close to Briana, but he would take a secret sardonic delight in her discomfort too. She had hurt him badly. He knew it was pure animal instinct, but he wanted to find a way of getting back at her for the deed…of ensuring that she would think twice before ever behaving like that again.
Asked what his favourite game was by the club manager, he had no hesitation in replying, ‘American Roulette.’ Once seated at a circular mahogany table, with a roulette wheel at the centre, and having given their drinks order to a pretty auburn-haired waitress in a short satin lilac dress, he made sure Briana sat next to him on the padded red-velvet seat. His thigh deliberately pressed up against hers. The distinct quiver that shuddered through her made him smile with satisfaction. The sweetly seductive scent of her light perfume and the warmth of her body elicited a similar response inside Pascual. Dios mio! He could hardly credit why he should still be so violently attracted to her after all this time.
Something about the combustible mix of chemistry they produced when they were together, obviously.
Seeing the jealous flare in Steve Nichols’ pale watchful gaze as he surveyed the brunette with Pascual, the Argentinian ironically found himself musing that all was fair in love and war, and deliberately leaned closer to Briana, so that she gazed up at him with those smoky alluring eyes of hers and coloured hotly.
‘You choose the numbers for me tonight,’ he instructed softly as the smartly dressed croupier dealt the chips.
‘I’m not sure I agree with gambling,’ she breathed. ‘What if you lose everything because of me?’
As if realising what she had said might also refer to the way their relationship had ended, she let her even white teeth come down hard on her tender lower lip and couldn’t hide her intense discomfort.
‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured.
For a moment Pascual forgot they were in company, in a public albeit supposedly discreet venue that was used to visiting VIPs with a need for privacy, and warred with an almost insatiable urge to savagely claim her mouth and passionately kiss her.
Maybe that could come later? he considered, willing his heartbeat to slow down, unable to tear his heated gaze from hers. A quiet but pervasive excitement took root inside him at the idea.
‘Place your bets,’ the dealer invited, and Pascual raised an eyebrow at his female companion. ‘What will it be?’
Clearly reluctant to participate, but knowing she could hardly refuse, Briana frowned. ‘Red six,’ she replied.
‘Why six?’
‘It’s always been lucky for me.’
As the little hard white ball hopped and skipped round the moving wheel, every glance round the table seemed hypnotised by it. The other patrons had bet too. Hardly caring whether he won or lost, Pascual felt his heart nearly miss a beat when the ball landed squarely on red six. He had just won thirty-five times his stake, and his had been the only coloured chip on that number.
His hosts and the other two couples round the table politely applauded. When the croupier paid him out in the appropriate chips, he turned and put them on the table in front of Briana.
‘Play again,’ he urged smoothly, smiling at the shock on her face. ‘Perhaps you have other lucky numbers at your disposal? Whatever you win…you keep.’
‘I’d rather not, if you don’t mind.’ Appearing distressed, she pushed to her feet. Her cheeks reddening, she halted a passing cocktail waitress. ‘Can you tell me where the ladies’ cloakroom is, please?’ she asked.
In faint concern, Pascual also got to his feet. He caught Briana’s elbow as she started to move away. ‘What is the matter? Are you unwell?’
‘I shouldn’t have come here!’ she hissed, her silvery eyes shimmering beneath the twinkling lights of the opulent chandelier sparkling above them. ‘I came against my better judgement, and now I wish I hadn’t!’
‘Why? Are you so averse to winning money?’
‘I’m not winning anything, Pascual! It’s your money that you’re so recklessly throwing away to chance, and I want nothing more to do with it.’
‘Such principles you have! What a shame they were not in such evidence when you ran away from me in Buenos Aires five years ago, without even giving me a good reason why you’d suddenly decided I was not good enough to be your husband!’
‘I saw you kissing another woman!’ Jealousy and hurt slashed through Briana’s insides like a blade, with no lessening of the pain she had suffered at the time of the incident five years ago.
Remembering where she was, she quickly glanced behind her and realised that they had an audience. She moved her head in anguish. She hadn’t meant to just come out with it like that, but the memory had been dragging at her heart from the moment she’d set eyes on Pascual again and she could stem the tide of hurt no longer. Pulling her arm free from his hold, she tried to regain control of her briefly lost equilibrium and restore her dignity.
He considered her with a stunned look. ‘Who?’ he demanded. ‘Who was this woman you saw me kissing?’
‘You know very well who!’ Her lip trembling, Briana kept her voice low.
‘I imagine you are referring to Claudia at the party that night? A very drunk Claudia, who barely even knew what she was doing!’
‘Oh, she knew what she was doing Pascual…And so did you, by the looks of things.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me you saw this? Was that the real reason you left? Dios mio!’
‘We’d better not have a scene here, in front of everyone. Think how it will look to your hosts—and it might reflect badly on my business too.’
‘Yet you clearly did not care how it looked to my family and friends when you heartlessly deserted me just a week before our wedding!’
Pascual’s heart was pounding again, and he almost did not care whether he made a scene or not. The memory of Briana’s renunciation of both him and their marriage still cut him to the bone. And now to discover that she had witnessed that distasteful incident with Claudia, to learn that that was the reason she had left! Inside he was reeling from the knowledge. Why hadn’t she immediately said something to him? Demanded an explanation and given him the chance to tell her that his ex had been drunk and he had frankly been appalled by her throwing herself at him?
Mindful that they were not alone, he had no intention of providing entertainment for the night for all and sundry who might be watching. A more personal discussion of events would have to wait. Giving Briana a stiff little bow, he barely disguised his impatience and annoyance.
‘Go to the ladies’ cloakroom. When you return I will instruct our driver to take us back to the house. I have suddenly lost my interest in gambling any further tonight!’
Taking her brush out of her compact leather handbag, Briana made a half-hearted attempt at tidying her hair. The bank of sparkling mirrors in the luxurious ladies’ powder room left her with no place to hide her distress. She should have controlled her emotions better just now in
the gaming room! But it had been so hard, when the reality of Pascual had just kept overwhelming her. And then when he had so carelessly and tauntingly put that little pile of coloured chips in front of her, each one reflecting a sum that would easily pay three months’ rent on her house, it had all been too much. Here she was, worrying herself sick over her business and facing potential bankruptcy, and Pascual was acting as if money was nothing to him! But of course with the vast wealth he had at his disposal the value of those coloured chips was even less than a drop in the ocean. If Briana was really honest it was not her financial worries that were causing her the most concern right then. Her little son’s beautiful face was constantly in her mind—a face that was a perfect miniature version of his father’s—and she wondered how on earth she could break the earth-shattering news of his existence to a man who would probably despise her even more than he did already when he heard it. She had kept Adán from him, and Pascual had every right to deride her.
But she had been utterly devastated when she had seen him with Claudia in his arms that night. Briana’s motives in doing what she had done had only been to try to protect herself and her son from possible future hurt…Not for the first time fear that her decision had been the wrong one clutched deep in her vitals. Claudia had been drunk, he had said. Was he telling her the truth?
Drawing the flat of her hand across her jittery stomach, she resignedly moved away from the uncomfortably candid bank of mirrors and returned to the gaming room. When she did, true to his word Pascual was waiting for her, his dark elegant suit and disturbingly handsome face easily singling him out from all the other men in the room.
‘Are you ready to leave?’ he asked, his sable eyes flicking over her from head to toe.
‘What about the others?’ she returned anxiously, glancing back at the roulette table and the three men they had arrived with.
‘I will instruct the chauffeur to return for them. Do not fret—we will not leave them stranded!’