by Abby Green
He glanced at her before looking back at the road. Lia was glad his eyes were covered. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to see what was in them.
‘So, what do you plan to do with your degree?’
She hesitated for a moment, and then said, ‘I have a specific interest in crisis zones—in being the first on the ground to help with the rebuild.’
‘Hence your interest in the charity whose benefit we were attending? They’re renowned for the work they do in desperate situations.’
She nodded. ‘I volunteered with them after an earthquake in South East Asia, and that’s when I became really committed. I persuaded my father to support the charity too.’
Ben cast her another quick look, a wry tilt to his mouth. ‘You weren’t planning on shopping this weekend, were you?’
Lia shook her head, her heart tripping at the thought that she was telling him this. ‘No, I had planned to go to a series of lectures at NYU.’
He said with a devilish grin, ‘I’d be lying if I said I was sorry for upsetting your plans.’
Lia felt breathless again as something hot moved through her. Then Ben made a small whistling sound.
‘Intelligent, noble and beautiful? If you’re trying to turn me off, it’s not working.’
Lia felt a rush of pride and berated herself for being so weak as to seek his regard. But still... The fact that he seemed to be so accepting of this more secret side to her meant something.
In a bid to deflect attention from her, she said, ‘The CEO of that charity appeared to know you?’
He nodded. ‘Believe it or not, I’m also interested in what it takes to make disaster areas stable again. I’ve taken equipment and some of my men into crisis zones to help them stabilise buildings, the infrastructure. The truth is I’m one of the patrons of that charity.’
His words sank in and Lia turned in her seat to face him, shocked. Instant humiliation washed over her, because she’d believed he’d pursued her there for no other reason than to get her to agree to date him. Because he’d wanted her so badly. Now she felt like an abject fool—because he would have been there anyway.
Had he simply seen her there and made the most of the opportunity? More humiliation flooded her when she thought of how she’d just been laying out her accomplishments, seeking his approval. Lord, she had it bad.
Fury strangled her words, but eventually she got out, ‘Stop the car—now.’
She had her hand on the door handle even before Ben pulled the car into a layby. As soon as it stopped she jumped out and faced him when he got out too and stood beside the bonnet. She pushed her sunglasses on top of her head and put her hands on her hips, not even sure why she was so angry...just that she was.
‘So everyone there must have known exactly who you were, and yet you let me make a complete fool of myself—standing on that podium with no clue as to who on earth you were—’
He came towards her, cutting her off. ‘My aim was never to make a fool of you, Lia. I hadn’t intended on hiding my identity for as long as I did.’
He muttered something that sounded like a curse and pushed his own sunglasses to his head. His eyes were intense on her, making her regret reacting so forcefully.
Ben went on. ‘The opportunity to talk to you without you knowing who I was was too tempting. Especially after that date. And the truth is that I didn’t want to see your reaction when you realised who you’d been talking to.’
Lia forced down the weak way she wanted to seize on that and folded her arms. ‘That doesn’t change the fact that you saw me and made the most of an opportunity. Were you bored? Was that it? You thought you’d have some fun at my expense?’
Ben frowned and shook his head. ‘No, it wasn’t like that at all. I had no plans to go to that particular function, Lia. I went because I found out that was where you’d be.’
The fire drained out of Lia’s anger like a stealthy traitor. She believed him. He looked almost angry, as if he hadn’t wanted to admit this to her. A muscle pulsed in his jaw.
Lia was embarrassed by the emotion she’d shown even as she began to feel mollified. She’d revealed far too much. So she just said, ‘Okay,’ and walked back to the car and got in.
Ben looked at her for a long moment as she buckled up, and then he got in too. For the remainder of their journey to Salvador they only spoke when Ben pointed out things of interest to Lia.
The fact that they did share a common interest in a cause very close to Lia’s heart was something that she’d never expected, and it wasn’t doing much to help her resolve to keep him at a distance.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘THIS IS ONE of the earliest squares in Salvador, laid out by the then governor. And that is the Catedral Basílica de São Salvador—one of the most ornately decorated baroque churches in Brazil.’
Lia had thought she couldn’t be more impressed than she already was, but as she followed Ben into the huge church off the beautiful square and saw how everything gleamed with gold—literally—her jaw dropped. She had to hand it to him for keeping this till last.
It was a fitting end to what she had to admit had been a very enjoyable day—after that skirmish by the side of the road.
Almost against her will Lia had found herself relaxing bit by bit as Ben showed her around the stunning city which had once been next in importance to Lisbon in the Portuguese colony. It was vibrantly colourful, with hilly cobbled streets and baroque architecture everywhere, and she’d been charmed from the start.
Everyone seemed to smile all the time, and the mix of cultures and nationalities—many of the population were descended from African slaves—added to the melting pot atmosphere. There was music everywhere, calling to a side of Lia that she didn’t indulge often.
Just as she’d relaxed when she’d sunk her feet into the sand outside Ben’s villa yesterday, something seemed to be unwinding inside her today. Everything about this place called on her to settle into a different rhythm. It was intoxicating. And Ben, surprisingly, was a brilliant guide. A natural storyteller.
He’d also proved himself to be a consummate gentleman. If he’d touched her at all it had been only fleetingly, to draw her attention to something—like when they’d stood on a bluff overlooking the city and the impressive bay. Perversely, that had seemed to have more of an effect on her than if he’d touched her with more intent.
He’d taken her to lunch to an admittedly dubious-looking restaurant on the seafront earlier. Catching her expression, he had chided softly, ‘Don’t let its exterior fool you—the owner keeps it looking like this to scare the tourists away. This place serves the best fish in Brazil, and it’s for locals only.’
He’d been right. To Lia’s surprise it had been pristine inside, and the fish had indeed been the best she’d ever tasted, served on a beautiful rooftop with trellised vines keeping the harshness of the sun at bay. The smell of the sea had only added to the taste.
She was acutely aware of Ben now, as he walked close behind her as they looked around the cathedral.
Lia stopped at the wooden altar, which was covered in a thin layer of gold. She shook her head. ‘This is totally over the top, but it’s beautiful.’
‘I know.’
She glanced up to see Ben had come to stand beside her and was looking up at the ceiling. He said, ‘They brought the stone for a lot of these buildings all the way from Portugal, on ships. The sheer industry involved is breathtaking.’
Lia hardly heard what he said. She was mesmerised by the strong column of his throat and that proud profile. The sensual curve of his fuller lower lip. She wondered about his early life. Where exactly had he dragged himself from to become such a titan of industry?
Just then someone bumped into her from behind, making her pitch forward into thin air, but within a split-second strong arms were around her and she was pressed close to Ben’s side as he accepted someone’s profuse apology over her head.
Lia’s breasts were crushed against hard muscle, and every curve
she had and even some she hadn’t been aware of melted into Ben’s form as if they’d just been waiting for this opportunity. Her hands were splayed across his chest and she was very aware of the thin material of his T-shirt. She’d noticed how it had moulded to those defined muscles whenever the breeze had caught it during the day. And the way his faded jeans clung lovingly to powerful thighs and tight buttocks.
For someone who up till now hadn’t considered herself very sexual, some switch seemed to have been well and truly turned to on.
The tour group behind them moved on but Ben didn’t release her. She was filled with lassitude and a reluctance to break free. Slowly she looked up—and fell straight into those bluer-than-blue eyes.
The memory of that hot kiss in New York emblazoned itself on her mind...she wanted to reach up and feel his mouth on hers again. Feel the slick slide of his tongue against hers. Something sizzled.
‘I’m okay...’ Lia finally managed to get out, pulling herself back from the brink of humiliating herself again. ‘You can let me go now.’
For a moment Ben didn’t, and Lia’s heart spasmed with anticipation in the flickering glow of a thousand candles, and then he did, saying with a little grimace, ‘As my thoughts are decidedly unholy right now, I think it’s for the best.’
By the time they’d reached the entrance again and walked out, with Lia keeping a careful few steps behind Ben, she’d almost got herself under control. She’d just had a glimpse of how much he’d lulled her into a false sense of security, but instead of making her angry, she felt excited.
The setting sun was burnishing everything with blazing orange and pink, and some musicians nearby were infusing the air with a contagious tropical beat. An old Bahian couple danced together and for a moment Lia felt reckless, giddy. Just as she had on the dais at the auction... Dangerous. Maybe the intense smell of incense had got to her inside the cathedral? Maybe it was all part of this man’s plan to break down her defences until she was just a weak, pliable mess?
Then he turned to look at her and every coherent thought left her head. She already was a weak mess. Pathetic.
Ben frowned then and plucked his phone out of his jeans pocket, looking at the screen. Lia hadn’t heard a sound, so it must be on silent, and she only realised then how much attention he’d devoted to her all day, rarely looking at his phone at all—which, in this day of digital over-connectivity, was pretty amazing. Especially for an important CEO of his own company.
Her ex-fiancé, who’d had a far less important job, had always been glued to his two phones.
Ben looked at her. ‘That was from a friend of mine who lives here in town. He’s heard that I’m here and he’s invited me to a party in his house tonight.’
Lia felt an acute sense of disappointment that their day was at an end and, terrified by that reaction, said quickly, ‘Oh...of course you should go. I’m sure I can take a bus or a taxi back to the villa...’
He shook his head at her and his eyes gleamed. ‘I don’t intend to go alone.’
Lia flushed with a mix of pleasure and trepidation. Her feelings for this man had undergone a seismic change in just one day—helped by the seductive surroundings, yes, but also because he was proving to be far more enticing than she’d expected.
She’d thought it would be easy to dismiss him. To maintain her aloofness. But right now she was hot and sticky on the outside, and inside, in secret places. Although she had the sense to know that she was no real match for a man like Ben Carter, connoisseur of women. Playboy.
‘I couldn’t intrude, but you should go.’
Ben shook his head and asked softly, ‘When was the last time you did something spontaneous and had fun?’
The question was so unexpected that Lia blinked for a moment. A kind of cold horror swept through her as she realised that she’d couldn’t remember the last really spontaneous thing she’d done. If she’d ever done anything. And as for fun...? She’d had fun with her father on their sailing trips, but they hadn’t done one of those for a long time.
As Louis Ford’s daughter, not a lot of her colleagues saw her as someone to have fun with when she was keeping an eye on things for her father—no doubt afraid she’d report back to the boss. And, her relationship with Simon certainly hadn’t been fun.
Absurdly, she felt her throat grow tight as the pathetic reality sank in. And through it all Ben just watched her with those bright blue eyes, seeing all the way through to where she was most vulnerable.
Lia fought to regain her composure and swallowed the lump in her throat. ‘Well, if you’re sure he won’t mind...’
‘He won’t.’
Ben smiled, and it knocked the breath from Lia’s chest.
‘You’ll see how things work here—it’s much more relaxed. It’s not just Luis, it’s his husband, Ricardo, too. They love being surrounded by beauty—including beautiful women, so I’ll soon be relegated to the sidelines.’
Something inside her contracted at his easy mention of these friends. And the truth was that she wanted to know more about Ben Carter—she couldn’t deny it, much as she might want to.
She pointed vaguely at her attire, dusty and wrinkled after the long day, and said ruefully, ‘I’m hardly dressed for polite company.’
‘I know a place that’ll look after us.’
Ben held out his hand. Lia looked at it for a long moment, and then an overwhelming sense of rightness made her put her hand in his. He held it as they left the square behind and walked back to the car. And Lia tried to ignore the sensation that she’d just turned a corner and she’d never find her way back.
But she couldn’t. It sat in her belly like a fizzing time bomb.
* * *
Ben had taken Lia to a friend’s boutique after she’d put her hand in his and let him lead her back to the car. Her agreement to go to the party with him had left him buoyant. Crazy how each tiny concession from this woman felt like a ridiculous triumph.
When they’d got to the boutique Ben had tensed, waiting for Lia to turn up her nose at the discreet name over the door, but she’d gone in, oblivious to his tension, showing him yet another facet of her personality—she obviously wasn’t defined by designer labels.
Within minutes he’d explained what they needed to Gaby, Esmé’s cousin and the shop’s owner, and she’d handed Ben some clothes and whisked Lia out of sight behind a swathe of velvet material. Ben waited now, having changed into smart black trousers and a shirt.
When he heard a noise behind him he turned around and for a second his brain froze. Lia stood before him in bare feet, her hair tumbling around her shoulders. And her dress...her dress took his breath away.
It was a long silk wraparound dress in a deep royal blue colour that made her eyes pop like two gems. He could see a tantalising slit in the material that revealed one long shapely leg. He could see even from where he stood that in the space of two days her skin had taken on a faint golden glow, and he knew that there was already a spread of light freckles across her nose.
He felt robbed of breath. As if someone had punched him.
The vee neckline of the dress was a tantalising enticement to pull the material aside. It would be so easy to expose a lush breast and then cup its weight—
Lia started to turn away, saying, ‘I knew it. It’s too—’
Her voice cut through the haze in his brain. ‘No!’ His voice sounded too harsh to his ears.
She turned around again, slowly. Amazingly, she looked unsure.
‘It’s perfect,’ he managed to say, sounding only half coherent.
Gaby appeared then, and caught the end of their conversation. ‘Ben’s right! It’s just perfect for one of Ricardo and Luis’s parties. And on you, my darling, it is perfeito. Come, let’s find you some shoes to wear.’
Ben was glad of a moment alone to gather his wits again. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d seen plenty of women in far less clothing and it had never made him feel as if he was teetering on the brink of some kind
of meltdown. And usually seeing women in clothes he’d bought them came after he’d slept with them.
So far his relationship with Lia was the most chaste he’d ever indulged in. He wasn’t necessarily proud to admit that, for him, relationships with women were less about really getting to know them and more about slaking the desire he felt for them, which was usually fleeting.
He had a sense that where Lia was concerned his lust wouldn’t be so easily slaked.
For the first time he had to wonder if he’d done the right thing, bringing her here... But then she emerged again, wearing strappy silver sandals, and that last thought was blasted apart by another surge of desire.
He instructed Gaby to put all the items on his tab and took the bag she gave him containing the clothes they’d been wearing earlier. Outside, Ben opened the car door for Lia to get in. He could see her biting her lip, looking concerned.
She stopped with her hand on the door and looked at him. ‘I’ll pay you back for the clothes.’
Confirmation of the fact that she wasn’t spoilt. Another blow to Ben’s misconceptions.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said gruffly.
Lia slid into the passenger seat, her dress gaping slightly as she did so, affording him a glimpse of the curve of one perfectly rounded breast encased in delicate lace.
Gritting his jaw, Ben closed the door and strode around the other side of the car, praying for the strength to restrain himself. He’d never needed it more than right now.
* * *
Ben’s friends were an exuberant couple who swept Lia into their embraces and their stunning baroque mansion, high on a hill overlooking the entire city, within seconds. Much to her amusement, Ben had predicted their reaction accurately: he was all but ignored as they grilled her.
‘But where have you been all our lives?’
‘This is a scandal! You can’t live in cold, grey England—move here! We need more beautiful women!’
In truth, they were a little overwhelming, both at once, and soon Ben took advantage of more guests arriving, skilfully manoeuvring them to where long tables covered in pristine white linen groaned under the weight of more food than Lia had ever seen in her life.