Then again, she couldn’t tell her mother who he really was—he’d asked her not to do that, with anyone.
But worry that she’d been lying to him, too, still tightened his gut.
Was she lying about Marco, too? Playing some kind of game?
At the end of the day, Chance didn’t know this woman at all. Still, he lived by his instincts. They had saved his life more than once, and he didn’t really think Ana was lying to him.
She definitely hadn’t faked the desire she’d felt in his arms.
“Señora, encantado,” Chance said, taking her mother’s hand with a smile. “You have a lovely home, and Ana was just showing me around the gardens.”
Senora Perez smiled warmly at him and covered his hand with her own, leaning in.
“Thank you for getting Ana home, Chance. It’s good to know she has such good friends looking out for her. I hope you are staying a while?”
Ana glanced between them both. “Mama, I hoped Chance could stay through the holiday. He would not let me pay him for the flight, so I offered him a room, if that is all right?”
“Of course. I will ask Mariana to make up the guest room pronto,” Señora Perez said and winked at Chance. “It will be fun to have a friend of Ana’s around, and such a handsome one at that.”
Chance laughed. “Thank you, and thank you for switching to English. Yours is flawless.”
“Your Spanish is fine, but we speak several dialects here, and I enjoy English when I have an excuse to use it,” the señora responded, drawing him to walk along with her on one side, and Ana on the other, back to the house. “How long have you and Ana been friends?”
Chance started to reply, but Ana cut in. He agreed it was probably better to let her set the cover story, and then he could just play along.
“A little while, Mama. Chance is a new hire by the studio, and we got to be friends.”
“Flying Ana here is a big favor from a new friend,” Señora Perez said with some degree of speculation in her tone, though she remained friendly enough. Still, her implication was clear.
Chance smiled. “I needed a vacation, and Ana needed to get home. It worked out,” he said easily, hoping he was being completely convincing. “I didn’t expect you to put me up, though. I could get a hotel room,” he offered and hoped his gambit would work.
It did, as Ana’s mother pooh-poohed his offer and insisted he stay with them.
That would make things easier on a number of counts.
“Gracias, Señora,” Chance said sincerely.
“Call me Doncia, Chance. No need to be so formal,” she responded, and Chance winked at Ana behind Doncia’s back. He’d told her parents loved him.
Not that he’d met all that many parents of the women he’d dated, but some. And in high school and college, he’d perfected meeting the parents without raising anyone’s expectations.
Though he supposed that Doncia’s expectations and his were not at all the same. Better to keep that to himself.
“Mariana will show you your room while Ana and I catch up. Dinner is at seven. Everyone will be here, and they will love to meet you, as well,” Doncia told him as she nodded to him and then turned away, still linked at the arm with Ana.
Chance was grateful for a break. The shadows of early evening were stretching across the house and yard, and he wanted to make a survey of the property before everyone got home. Following Mariana, one of Ana’s younger cousins, to his room, he was impressed with the gorgeous view from a small veranda outside of the spacious bedroom. No doubt all of this was due to Ana’s success.
She had kept only a living salary from her considerable TV income, investing the rest in the village, financing businesses and, clearly, buying her family a nice home. She was generous, a giving person who clearly cared about others.
Chance felt selfish by comparison, always preferring to follow his own whims, his own adventures. He cared about his family and friends—and his work, of course. But while Berringer Bodyguards supported several nonprofit organizations through their business and even took on pro bono work, he knew that he’d led a charmed life with only himself, for the most part, to worry about.
He preferred not to think about others who worried about him, like his parents or his brothers. They knew who he was, he thought a little uncomfortably. He even recalled the look in his mother’s eyes once when he had barely escaped from a burning race car he had crashed while taking a few laps at a local track.
The memory of how rattled he’d been by Logan’s accident and then the thought of losing Ana that afternoon came rushing back; but that was hardly the same. Logan was a friend, and Ana was his client.
He switched gears away from the reflective, and uncomfortable, train of thought and focused on the scene before him. The area all around the house was shaded and blocked by trees and plants, which could allow anyone to approach unseen, hidden from various directions. He’d noticed a few dogs out back, but they hadn’t even seemed very concerned with his arrival.
Quietly leaving his room, he slipped along the cool, exposed breezeway that opened up the middle of the second floor and headed down a spiral staircase to the grounds below.
It was beautiful, he had to admit, as he assessed access points to the house. He had no idea which bedroom was Ana’s—which he would need to know, of course—for purely professional reasons.
As enticing as it might be to think about slipping into her room at night, even Chance wouldn’t try to be with her under her mother’s roof—and while she was technically engaged—even though clearly the engagement was a sham. Still, there was something about Marco that bothered him, and he hoped Ana called off the engagement soon.
Chance spent another half hour or so investigating every part of the property that he could and making a mental note of escape routes, possible dangers and any other number of routine checks.
Looking up, he paused, seeing Ana on a balcony of her own—that had to be her room. She simply stood there and gazed out over the gardens. What was she thinking?
He was hidden by the trees, so he took a minute to watch her. His heart beat noticeably faster, his chest tightening, body hardening.
What was it about this woman that tied him in knots and all he had to do was look at her?
Blowing out a breath, he turned to head back in and found himself face-to-face with Marco, who stood silently behind him.
It had been a long, long time since anyone had gotten the drop on Chance, and he wasn’t happy about it. Yet, he tried to relax, even offering a smile.
“Marco. Nice to see you again. I thought you had gone...somewhere,” Chance said congenially, shoving his hands, previously tensed to fight, into his pockets.
“I came back. What are you doing out here, watching Ana?”
“I wasn’t. I was taking a walk, checking the place out.”
“Why?”
Chance shrugged. “Why not? I wanted to get acquainted with where I’m staying for the next few weeks.”
Marco’s face became dark. “Here? You are staying here with Ana?”
“I am. Well, not with her, but with her family. Her mother invited me,” Chance explained. “And I couldn’t say no.”
Marco stepped toward him. “I see the look in your eyes, how much you want her. But Ana is mine.”
Chance pursed his lips, stood his ground. “I think Ana is...Ana’s.”
Chance was sorely tempted to tell the guy to cancel his wedding plans, but that wasn’t his place; it was Ana’s. So without another word, he stepped around Marco and returned to the house.
“There are a lot of dangers here, Mr. Berringer. Things Americans don’t understand,” Marco said after him.
Chance paused. “Are you threatening me, Marco? Because I’d think twice about doing that.”
“I don’t know why you are here, but I don’t believe you are Ana’s friend. You want...something else.”
Chance decided not to confirm or deny the statement and simply mock saluted the
other man before striding away. But his mind replayed the incident, Marco’s silent approach, his body language and his words, all the way back to his room. This wasn’t good.
Delightful aromas filled the house, but he was preoccupied with thoughts of Marco. Chance had done a thorough assessment of the danger points around the house, but what about the ones inside? The people closest to Ana?
Something told him, he thought, as he lay back on the soft bed to relax and think before dinner, that when it came to Ana, there was a lot to consider.
6
ANA WAS EXACTLY WHERE SHE wanted to be, but she wasn’t enjoying herself at all. Tension was tight all down her spine, her head pounding as she smiled and visited with her family. She was all too aware of Marco’s large presence nearby almost every second. He had glued himself to her side and wasted no excuse to touch her, although he did so politely. Marco would not be otherwise in front of her family.
Ana only wanted one man’s touch and met Chance’s eyes across the courtyard, where he sat having a bite to eat and talking with her young cousin Juan. Juan was only seventeen but had plans to go to school in the States. He was very excited to talk to Chance about East Coast schools. To his credit, Chance seemed equally interested and engaged as he spoke to the young man, and Ana appreciated that.
But as Marco’s hand fell to the small of her back, she reached around, closing her own around it, and removed it.
“Marco, we have to talk. Alone,” she said, knowing that she had to do this now. She couldn’t let it go any further.
His eyes were intent on her, almost making her look away. “Yes,” he said smoothly. “It would be nice to be alone.”
Oh, no, Ana thought miserably. It won’t be nice at all.
He was a good man. He had often looked in on her mother and helped with family things while she was gone. And he’d taken on that role without being asked. Ana owed him a certain amount of affection and respect for that alone. She needed to show him she had respect for him by making herself clear now.
However, when a flurry of excitement rose on the other side of the yard, distracting her, a cry of joy went up and Ana spotted her sister, Lucia, whom she hadn’t seen in months.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” Ana said, squeezing her sister tight.
Lucia looked lovely, though exhausted.
“You’ve lost weight,” Ana said, studying her sister’s face.
Lucia laughed. “You sound like Mama now.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Work is hard, long days, and we do not have caramel de leche every day, you know, like some people,” her sister teased.
“Huh. Are you saying I’m fat?” Ana responded, teasing her sister.
“I’m saying you’re gorgeous and I want you to make me your famous caramel de leche,” Lucia said, laughing.
“I’m so glad to see you,” Ana said, kissing her sister and meeting Marco’s eyes over her sister’s shoulder. He took them in, warm emotion in his gaze.
Ana hated to hurt him.
“Come in and sit. We have a lot to catch up on,” Ana said, drawing her sister to the table. The earlier awkwardness with Marco dissolved in the happiness and bustle of the evening. Chance was being kept busy by two more of her younger cousins. He fit right in, she realized and watched for just a second longer.
“So who is he?” Lucia whispered, leaning in as she followed the trajectory of Ana’s gaze.
“A friend,” Ana said lamely.
Lucia snorted. “We should all have such handsome friends.”
“Shh. Marco will hear.”
Lucia became serious. “So you are going through with it? Marrying him?”
“No, of course not. I was about to talk to him before you arrived. I will tell him tonight, before he goes.”
“That is good. I don’t know why Papa ever promised you and made that arrangement, but Marco takes it very seriously.”
“I know. I should have addressed this sooner, but I suppose I thought he would just move on.”
“Men like Marco...everything for them is family, duty, honor. They do not move on so easily,” Lucia said with a sigh.
Ana knew she was right and chastised herself for having left things hanging like this. It showed how much she had become part of her new life, letting the threads that held her here weaken. That was something she was going to change.
“No more about that. Please, tell me everything about you, where you have been, what you are doing.”
Lucia brightened and told Ana of her positive experiences in her work. Ana was glad to hear her sister was now home for the entire vacation. She had missed her so much.
“I worry about you being safe out there,” Ana said, laying her hand over her sister’s.
“It can be dangerous. More so these days, it seems. We interfere, and a lot of people have not been happy with that. But the people suffer and so need our help,” Lucia said.
“You are so brave.” Ana felt her throat tighten at her sister’s sacrifice for so many people.
“Not so much. I had to leave, and I may not be able to go back. It was getting too dangerous. Not just for myself but for those we were helping. One cartel in particular has targeted us, and they would not hesitate to take it out on the people,” Lucia confessed, looking very sad.
“They are a scourge,” Ana said hotly, hating the thought of her sister being afraid. “But there are plenty of places for you to help, I’m sure. I am thinking about not going back, as well. At least, not to the show.”
Lucia’s eyes reflected her shock, but their conversation was cut short when Ana felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Marco.
“May I steal Ana away to say good-night? I have an early morning tomorrow,” he said, leaning down to hug Lucia, as well.
“Yes, of course,” Lucia said, squeezing Ana’s hand in silent support.
Ana walked with Marco to a quiet alcove by the front of the house, where, ensconced in shadow, she tried to find the right words.
He took her silence for something other, and before she could stop him, he kissed her, shocking her completely. Ana pushed him away, which surprised
him, too.
“Marco, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to react that way. It’s just been—”
“A long time, I know, Ana. But we can make up for lost time now. I thought we would make our plans final on the New Year, so that our families can all celebrate with us. I’m afraid I will have to leave on business again shortly after that, but you will be back to the States, too. We will have to work out the details,” he added, clearly having thought about this more than she had.
Ana took a deep breath, steeling her spine.
“I’m so sorry, Marco,” she repeated. “But I’m not going to marry you. I should have told you years ago, but I never imagined you held to the promise our fathers made when we were children. Not until I heard from you,” she said in a rush, while she had the nerve. “I consider you a friend. A dear friend, but...I am not in love with you. And my life, much of it, is in the States. And if nothing else, your work and your life are here. Even if I wanted to go through with it, it would never work.”
Silence hung heavily between them, and Marco’s voice was low as he stepped closer. Not the move she’d anticipated, and she felt herself backed against the cool adobe wall.
“Is it this man? Chance? He is your lover?”
Ana blinked at the anger in his tone. Somehow, she had expected his disappointment at most, but not his anger.
“No, but if it was, it’s none of your business. I’ve lived my life on my own for over a decade, Marco, and it’s how I intend to keep living it. You and I, we have hardly spoken in that time, so why now? Why send that message now? You never gave me any indication you wanted to see this childhood promise through.”
Ana could hear his breathing, see his eyes flash as he looked down at her. Then he turned away, his posture stiff. He was a proud man, she knew. And Lucia was right—he was o
ld-fashioned. She should have seen it coming.
“I’m afraid it’s not that easy,” Marco said.
“What do you mean?”
“I need to marry to inherit my family’s business. My grandfather will not will it to me if we do not honor our promise.”
Ana’s eyes widened. “You want to marry me so that you can get the family store?”
“You make it sound so cheap. It is not. I respect you, and I would be a good husband. It would embarrass my grandfather, my family greatly, for us not to marry. They would not forgive me. I would look like a failure in their eyes. You must honor this promise, Ana.”
Ana shook her head, unsure what to think. “I don’t know what to say. I never made a promise, Marco. My father did, and he shouldn’t have. But I’m not marrying you, and you have to accept that. I’m sorry, but your family will have to work this out among themselves.”
He spun, advancing on her. “You disclaim your heritage, your family’s duty, so easily? You cast aside any responsibility you have to them like this? To me? For what? For the American? For your life there, you sacrifice your life here?”
Ana’s own temper rose, and she pushed him back again, and she didn’t apologize for it this time.
“Watch yourself, Marco. We’re friends, and I want us to stay that way, but I won’t be treated like anyone’s property.”
He pulled her close to him, and Ana’s breath escaped in a gasp of pain.
“Marco, stop it,” she said and, a second later, felt his grip loosen as he was pulled backward, away from her.
Ana thought at first that he’d fallen, tripped, but then she saw Chance hauling him back and facing off with Marco, his expression fierce.
“Chance, no,” Ana gasped as the two men grappled and punches were thrown, both of them falling to the hard surface of the patio as others came rushing to see what was happening. Ana heard her mother’s and Lucia’s shocked exclamations.
Two of her cousins moved forward to try to break up the brawling men, but her mother put a hand out, stopping them. It was the right thing to do—her younger cousins were no match for these two large, angry men.
“I don’t know how you do things down here, but no means no, Marco,” Chance said, once he had Marco in a tight throat hold.
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