by Maya Blake
‘Inez!’
The rapier-sharp call of her name doused her with ice-cold water. She wrenched herself from Theo’s hold…or at least she tried to.
The hands that had dropped from her breasts to her waist at the sound of Pietro’s return stayed her desperate flight.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Pietro growled, no longer looking as drunk as he’d been half an hour ago.
‘If you need it explained to you, da Costa, then I’m wondering who the hell I’m getting into business with.’
Her brother flushed in anger. ‘I wasn’t talking to you, Pantelides. But maybe I should ask you what you’re doing, pawing my sister like some mad animal.’
Inez desperately tried to pull her dress down. But Theo stood firmly between her thighs, making the task impossible. Her sound of distress drew his attention from Pietro. He stared down at her for a second before he adjusted his stance. But although he allowed her to close her legs and pull her dress down, his hands didn’t drop from her waist. If anything, they tightened, their hold so possessive she fought to breathe.
‘Inez was going to tell you tomorrow. But I guess tonight’s as good a time as any.’
Pietro’s gaze shifted from Theo’s face to hers. ‘Tell me what?’
‘Do you want to do the honours, anjo? Or shall I?’ he queried softly.
Her heartbeat accelerated but not with the arousal pounding through her bloodstream. She heard the clear warning in Theo’s tone. Anything short of what he’d demanded of her would see her family ruined completely.
She opened her mouth. Closed it again and swallowed hard.
A trace of fear washed over Pietro’s face. Despite their strained relationship, there’d been times in the past when they’d been close. She knew how much a political career of his own some day meant to him. How much he was pinning his hopes on what her father’s campaign would mean to him personally.
She tried again to speak the words Theo demanded she speak. But her vocal cords wouldn’t work.
‘Would someone hurry up and tell me what’s going on?’
Fierce hazel eyes drifted over her face in a look that spelled possession so potent her breath caught.
Theo curled his arm over her shoulders and pulled her into the heat of his body. He drifted his mouth over her temple in an adoring move so utterly convincing she reeled at his skilful deception.
She was grappling with that, and with just how much of the kiss they’d shared had been an exercise in pure ruthless seduction on his part, when he spoke.
‘Your sister and I have become…enamoured with each other. We only met last night but already I cannot bear to be without her.’ His voice held none of the mockery from before, sparking another stunned realisation of his skill. He stared down at her and she caught the implacable determination in his eyes.
When his gaze reconnected with Pietro’s she stared, mesmerised, at his profile then shivered at the iron-hard set to his jaw.
‘Tomorrow she will be moving out of your home. And into mine.’
CHAPTER SIX
‘LIKE HELL YOU ARE,’ Pietro repeated for the hundredth time as their chauffeur-driven car stopped outside the opulent Ipanema mansion she’d grown up in.
She quickly threw open the door and hurried up the steps leading to the double oak front doors although she knew escape wouldn’t be easy. Pietro was hard on her heels.
‘Did you hear what I said?’ he demanded.
‘I heard you loud and clear. But you fail to realise I’m no longer a child. I’m twenty-four years old—well over the age when I can do whatever the heck I want.’
He slid a hand through his hair. ‘Look, I know I may have pushed you into playing a greater part in Pai’s fund-raising campaign. But…I don’t think getting involved with Pantelides is a good idea,’ he said abruptly.
Inez’s heart lurched at his concern but she couldn’t reassure him because she herself didn’t know what the future held. ‘Thank you for your concern but like I said, I’m a grown up.’
He swivelled on his heel in the vast entrance hall of the villa. ‘Are you really that into him? I know what I saw on his deck tells its own story but you only met him last night!’
‘I hadn’t met Alfonso Delgado before last night either and yet you expected me to charm him.’
‘Charm him, not move in with him!’
‘There’s no point arguing with me. My mind is made up.’
Pietro’s face darkened. ‘Is this some sort of rebellion?’
Inez sighed. ‘Of course not. But I’d planned to move out anyway, once you and Pai started on the campaign trail.’
‘Move out and go where? This is your home, Inez,’ he replied.
She shook her head. ‘My world doesn’t begin and end in this house, Pietro. I intend to rent an apartment, get a job.’
‘Then don’t start by ruining yourself with Pantelides.’
Her throat clogged. ‘My reputation is already in shreds after Constantine. I really have nothing left to lose.’
She turned to head up the grand staircase that led to the twin wings of their villa. Behind her, she could still hear Pietro pacing the hallway.
‘This doesn’t make any sense, Inez. Perhaps a good night’s sleep will bring you to your senses.’
She didn’t answer. Because she didn’t want to waste her time telling him the decision had already been made for her.
For Theo to have gone to the effort of staging that kiss and paving the way for the lies she had to perpetuate, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that his demands were real.
He’d gone to a lot of trouble to set up tonight’s meeting. She would be a fool to bait him to see if he would carry out his threat.
Her heart hammered as she undressed and stepped beneath the shower. Slowly soaping her body, she found her mind drifting back to their kiss. The incandescent delirium of it was unlike anything she’d felt before.
Her fingers touched her lips, and they tingled in remembrance.
Tomorrow she was inviting herself into the lion’s den to be devoured whole for the sake of her family.
A hysterical laugh became lost in the sound of the running water.
Pietro was finally showing signs of being the brother she remembered before their mother died. Shame that she’d had to sacrifice herself on the altar of their family’s prosperity before he’d come round. As for her father…sadness engulfed her at the thought that even if he knew of her sacrifice, he probably wouldn’t lift a finger to shield her from it.
* * *
Theo’s gaze strayed to his phone for the umpteenth time in under twenty minutes and he cursed under his breath.
He’d called Inez this morning and they’d agreed a time of eleven o’clock, two hours before he was due to sign the documents at her father’s office.
It was now eleven twenty-five and there was no sign of her. No big deal. She was probably stuck in traffic. Or she hadn’t left her home on time, especially if she was packing for a three-month stay.
Besides, women are always late.
Even as a child he’d known this. His mother had never been on time for a single event in her life.
His mother…
Memory rained down vicious blows that had him catching his breath. His mother, the woman who’d been nowhere in sight, either before or after he was kidnapped and held for ransom by Benedicto da Costa’s vicious thugs.
For weeks after he’d been rescued and returned home, broken and devastated by his ordeal, he’d asked for his mother. Ari had made several excuses for her absence. But Theo had been unable to reconcile the fact that the mother who’d once treated him as if he’d been the centre of her world suddenly couldn’t even be bothered to pick up the phone and enquire about her mentally and physically traumatised child.
No. She’d been too preoccupied with wallowing in her misery following her husband’s betrayal to bother with her own children.
Ari had been the one to hold them together
after their family was shattered by the press uncovering their father’s many shady dealings and philandering ways.
For a very long time he’d laboured under the misconception that out of the three brothers he was the most special in their father’s eyes. That just because he was the miracle baby his parents had never thought they’d have, he was their favourite. His kidnapping and what he’d uncovered since had mercilessly ripped that indulgent blindfold away.
Finding out that his father had known about Benedicto da Costa’s escalating threats and that he’d done nothing to warn or protect him had forced the cruellest reality on him.
And his mother’s response to all that had been to abandon him, together with her other two children, and go into hiding.
Hearing of his father’s eventual death had made him even angrier at being robbed of the chance to look his father in the eye and see the monster for himself.
Because, even now, a pathetic part of him clung to the hope that maybe his father hadn’t known the full extent of the kidnapping threat; hadn’t known that Benedicto da Costa’s reaction to being thwarted out of a business deal would be to kidnap a seventeen-year-old boy, and have his torture photographed and sent to his family to pressure them into finding the millions of dollars owed to him.
His phone rang, wrenching him out of the bitter recollections. Glancing down at the number, a bolt of white-hot anger lanced through him. He forced himself to wait for a couple more rings before he answered it. ‘Pantelides.’
‘Bom dia. I’ve just had a very interesting conversation with my daughter.’ Theo detected the throb of anger in Benedicto da Costa’s voice and a grim smile curved his own lips. ‘She seems determined to pursue this rather sudden course of action where you’re concerned.’
‘Your daughter strikes me as a very determined woman who knows exactly what she wants,’ he replied smoothly.
‘She is. All the same, I can’t help think that this decision is rather precipitate.’ There was clear suspicion in Benedicto’s voice now.
‘Trust me, it’s been very well thought through on my part. Tell me, Benedicto, has she left yet?’
‘Sim, against my wishes, she has left home,’ he replied, his voice taut with displeasure.
A wave of satisfaction swept through Theo. ‘Good. I’ll await her arrival.’
‘I hope this will not delay our meeting,’ the older man enquired.
‘Don’t worry. The moment I welcome your daughter into my home, I’ll head to your offices.’
An edgy silence greeted his answer and Theo could sense him weighing his words to perceive a possible threat. Finally, Benedicto answered, ‘We should celebrate our partnership once the documents are signed.’
Theo’s mouth twisted. Benedicto had already moved on from the subject of his daughter. And he noticed there had been no admonition to treat her well, or else…
But the knowledge that Benedicto had intensely disapproved of Inez’s intentions and had called him to air that disapproval was good enough for him.
‘Great idea. Unfortunately, I’ll be busy for the next few nights. Perhaps some time next week Inez and I will have you and Pietro over for dinner.’
The fiery exhalation that greeted his indelicate words made Theo’s grin widen.
‘Of course. I’ll look forward to it. Até a próxima,’ Benedicto said tightly.
Theo ended the call without responding. He absorbed the pulse of triumph rushing through his bloodstream for a pleasurable second before he exhaled.
His plan was far from being executed. But this was a brilliant start.
He looked out of the floor to ceiling window at the sparkling pool and the beach beyond and tried to push away the images that had visited him again last night and the single hoarse scream that had woken him.
A full body shudder raked his frame and he shoved a hand through his hair. Although he’d long ago accepted the nightmares as part of his existence, he loathed their presence and the helplessness he felt in those endless moments when he was caught in their grip.
The single therapy session he’d let Ari talk him into attending had mentioned triggers and the importance of anxiety-detectors.
He laughed under his breath. Putting himself within touching distance of the man responsible for those nightmares would be termed as foolhardy by most definitions.
Theo chose to believe that exacting excruciating revenge would heal him. An eye for an eye.
And if he had to suffer a few side-effects during the process, then so be it.
He tensed as his security intercom buzzed. Crossing the vast sun-dappled room, he picked up the handset.
‘Senhor, there’s a Senhorita da Costa here to see you.’
A throb of a different nature invaded his bloodstream. ‘Let her in,’ he instructed.
Replacing the handset, he found himself striding to the front door and out onto his driveway before he realised what he was doing.
Hands on his hips, he watched her tiny green sports car appear on his long driveway. The top was down and the wind was blowing through her loose thick hair. Stylish sunglasses shielded her eyes from him but he knew she was watching him just as he was studying her.
She brought the car to a smooth stop a few feet from him and turned off the ignition. For several seconds the only sound that impinged on the late morning air was the water cascading from the stone nymph’s urn into the fountain bowl. Then the sound of her seat belt retracting joined the tinkling.
‘You’re late,’ he breathed.
She pulled out her keys and opened her door. ‘It took a while to uproot myself from the only home I’ve ever known,’ she said waspishly.
A touch from a well-manicured finger and the boot popped open. He strolled forward, viewed its contents and his eyes narrowed.
‘And yet you only packed two suitcases for a three-month stay?’ he remarked darkly. ‘I hope you don’t think you can run back to Pai’s house each time you need a new toothbrush?’
She got out of the car.
From across the width of the open top, she glared at him. ‘I can afford to buy my own toothbrush, thanks,’ she retorted.
Theo nodded. ‘Good to hear it.’ Unable to stop himself, his gaze travelled down her body.
Faded jeans moulded her hips and her cream scooped-neck silk top left her arms bare. Its short-in-the-front, longer-at-the-back design exposed a delicious inch of golden, smooth midriff when she turned to shut her door and the air lifted the light material.
Heat invaded his groin, once again reminding him of their kiss last night.
The kiss that had blown him clean away and rendered him almost incoherent by the time her brother had rudely interrupted them.
Hell, she’d been so responsive, so intoxicatingly passionate, she’d gone to his head within seconds. What had set out as a hammering-a-point-home exercise to convince her he meant business had swiftly morphed into something else. Something he’d still been struggling to decipher when she’d been hustled off his boat by her suddenly protective brother.
One thing he’d been certain of was that had Pietro been a few more minutes returning to the top deck, Theo was sure he would’ve had his hands on her bare skin, exploring her in a more earthy way, propriety be damned.
Luckily, he’d come to his senses. And, from here on in, he intended to focus on his plan and his plan alone.
She went to the boot and bent over to lift the first case. The sight of her rounded bottom made a vein throb in his temple.
He stepped forward, grabbed the cases from her and handed them to his hovering butler. ‘I’m running late for my meeting. We should have done this last night like I suggested.’
He’d tried. But she’d stood her ground and he had quickly decided that there was nothing to be gained from getting into a slanging match with Pietro da Costa. That he’d also realised that his change of timing was to do with that kiss and nothing to do with his carefully laid plans had had him sharply reassessing his priorities.
&nb
sp; ‘I’m here now. Don’t let me stop you from leaving if you wish to.’
He smiled at the undisguised hope in her voice. ‘Now what kind of host would I be if I desert you the moment you turn up?’
‘The same as the one who blackmailed me into this situation in the first place?’ she replied caustically.
There was a thread of unhappiness in her voice that grated at him.
‘This will go a lot easier if you accept the status quo.’
‘You mean just shut up and do as I’m told?’ she snapped bitterly as she slammed the boot shut and walked towards him.
Unease weaved through him. With restless shoulders, he shrugged it away. ‘No. You can protest all you want. I just want you to be aware of the futility of it.’
She snorted under her breath, a sound that made his smile widen. She had spirit, and wasn’t afraid to bare her claws when cornered. Which made him wonder why she withstood the unreasonable control from her father. Were material benefits so important to her?
The heavy glass front door slid shut behind them and he watched her reaction to his house. It was an architectural masterpiece, and had featured in several top magazines before he’d bought it a year ago and ceased all publicity of the award-winning design.
‘Wow,’ she breathed. ‘This place must have cost you a bomb.’
Theo had his answer. Disappointment scythed through him as he watched her move to the bronze sculpture he’d acquired several weeks back.
‘I saw the exhibition on this two months ago. This piece is worth a cool half million,’ she gasped in wonder. ‘And that one—’ she pointed to another smaller sculpture he’d commissioned by his favourite New York artist ‘—is an exclusive piece, worth over two million dollars.’
His lips twisted. ‘Should I be worried that you know the monetary value of every piece of art in my house?’
She whirled to face him. ‘Excuse me?’
‘I hope we can engage in more meaningful dialogue than how much everything is worth. I find the subject of avarice…distasteful.’