by Kim Lawrence
Ramon responded to the shrill screech and hit the brake, jerking Lucy, who had freed herself from the belt, into the windscreen.
‘Madre mia, are you all right?’
Lucy rubbed her head and leaned back in the seat. ‘Fine,’ she said, dismissing his concern with a shake of her head and then regretting it, she had the start of a headache.
‘What’s wrong?’ Ramon cast a questioning look at her tense profile. ‘I could have slowed down, all you had to do was ask,’ he joked lightly as he wound down the window. ‘That was quite a bang you took.’
‘It’s nothing.’
‘So, other than my driving, what’s the problem?’
Lucy looked at Ramon and read concern in his handsome face. She bit her lip, feeling more guilty than ever. She took a deep breath. There was no way she could continue with the charade so it was best to come clean now.
‘No, I’m not all right—I’m a total bitch!’ Not as much of a bitch as Santiago Silva thought she was, but it was a close thing.
Ramon looked annoyingly unconvinced by her emotional claim.
‘When I rang you it wasn’t … it was a mistake. I’m sorry. I know I let you believe, but the—I’m not interested in you that way …’
Ramon did not display the shock she had anticipated. ‘I did wonder … So, you don’t fancy me?’
She flashed him a grateful look and shook her head slowly. ‘I really am sorry.’
‘Are you sure you don’t fancy me?’
This drew a laugh from Lucy, who begged, ‘Please don’t be nice to me! I feel awful enough as it is.’
‘Relax, I’ll survive. It’s not as though I haven’t been knocked back before …’ He paused and grinned. ‘Actually I haven’t. I’m wondering why …?’
She shook her head.
As Ramon sat there looking at her in silence for the first time she saw some family resemblance, a likeness to his brother, not so much in the individual features, more the tilt of his head and his hairline … hairline! She frowned. She had only met him the once and the encounter had lasted minutes but weirdly the details of Santiago Silva’s face were burned into her brain.
‘So why did you ring me and say you’d changed your mind?’
‘I was angry and I wanted to punish.’
‘Me?’
‘No, of course not. The thing is I met your brother and he—he made me mad.’
‘Santiago made you mad …?’ Ramon echoed in astonishment.
Ramon saw the anger in her sparkling expressive eyes before she tipped her head tightly. ‘Yes.’ He grew curious. This was not the usual impression his brother made on women.
‘When did you meet Santiago? What did he do?’
Lucy rolled down her window and took a gulp of fresh night air redolent of pine. ‘I met him yesterday and then again this morning …’ For a split second she considered telling him the truth, but held back. What was it about that wretched man that turned her into some sort of petty vengeful cow?
It wasn’t as if people had not thought and said worse about her. Why had his assumption got to her this way? Just thinking about him made her skin prickle.
‘It … it was something and nothing, really,’ she admitted, rubbing her arms as if she could rub away the memory. ‘He recognised me yesterday. You don’t know, but a few years ago I—’
‘Oh, the super-injunction stuff, you mean.’
Lucy stared at him in astonishment. ‘You know about that?’
Ramon, who was adjusting his tie in the rear-view mirror, turned his head and looked amused. ‘Of course I know about it, Lucy.’
‘But how?’
He waved his mobile phone at her. ‘I punched in your name, though actually,’ he admitted, ‘I was checking out your age on the off chance … not that I have a problem with an older woman,’ he added quickly. ‘In fact, but well, never mind. Imagine my surprise when I got not only your age but the other stuff, too.’
‘Oh!’ Lucy said, feeling foolish for not anticipating this possibility. It was impossible to have secrets when all someone had to do was punch in a name and your life—or a version of it—appeared on a screen.
‘So all this …’ the expressive downward sweep of his hand took in the silk that clung like a second skin to her body ‘… is for Santiago’s benefit, not mine.’
His brother sounded more philosophical than annoyed by this discovery, but Lucy was horrified by the suggestion.
‘Of course not!’ She almost bounced in her seat in her enthusiasm to deny the suggestion. Then as she examined her conscience she added, ‘Well, not in that way.’
‘So what did big brother do to make you so mad? Threaten to have you arrested for corrupting a minor? Have you framed for a felony? Pay you to leave the country?’
Lucy looked away quickly, but not quickly enough.
Ramon’s joking expression vanished. ‘Dio, he did, didn’t he? Santiago tried to pay you off?’
‘He … sort of,’ she admitted, feeling reluctant to tell tales.
‘I don’t believe it,’ Ramon breathed, looking stunned.
‘I understand your brother wanted to protect you. It’s only natural.’ She stopped and thought, Why am I defending the man who is clearly a total control freak?
‘Will you do me a favour, Lucy?’
Lucy quashed her instinct to say anything out of sympathy. ‘That depends,’ she responded warily.
‘Go through with your plan to teach my big brother a lesson.’
For the first time Lucy heard anger in his voice and realised that it was aimed, not at her, but his brother. ‘I’m sure he thought he was doing the right thing …’
‘You’re still defending him?’
‘No, of course I’m not,’ she replied indignantly. ‘I think your brother is the most …’ She became aware of Ramon’s expression and stopped.
‘He’s really got under your skin, hasn’t he?’ he observed.
Lucy adopted an amused expression and lied. ‘It takes more than your brother to get under my skin.’
‘You won’t deny that he needs teaching a lesson …?’ She nodded—how could she not? ‘So why not give him a night to remember? Why not? You’re all dressed up and nowhere to go. Please … for me?’ he coaxed. ‘Or if not, for good old-fashioned revenge? I’m tired of Santiago always thinking he knows what is best for me. For once, I’d like him to treat me like a man. I know he means it for the best and I know my mother gives him a hard time and blames him every time I mess up, but it’s humiliating and …’
‘You want to teach him a lesson.’
Ramon nodded. ‘He’s gone too far this time and he’s involved a friend. What’ll he do the next time—lock me in my room? I’d just like to be the one doing the manipulating for once, so he knows what it feels like.’
Lucy sighed. ‘I’m probably going to regret this …’
‘My God, it’s a castle.’ Lucy sat awestruck in her seat as Ramon stood by the open door. ‘Enormous!’ she breathed, staring at the intimidating edifice lit by strategically placed spotlights. ‘As in national monument enormous … is that tower Moorish?’
Ramon cast a negligent look over his shoulder. ‘I think … yeah, it’s big,’ he agreed.
She started to shake her head. ‘I can’t do this.’
Ramon grabbed her arm and hauled her out. ‘No, you’re not going to chicken out now. It was your idea, remember.’
The impetus of his tug made her stagger into his arms. ‘A terrible idea!’ she muttered in his ear, drawing a laugh from Ramon.
‘Are you not going to introduce me to your guest?’
The voice as smooth as silk made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The only thing that prevented her jumping away from Ramon was the hand in the small of her back.
‘Of course.’
Ramon loosed her but as she pulled away grabbed her hand.
Lucy took a deep breath, the surface of her skin prickling in a weird response to the sound of his voice
. ‘Good evening.’ She turned her head as Santiago Silva emerged fully from the shadows.
Her already rapid heart picked up tempo as she struggled to hide her reaction, not that he could be unaccustomed to attracting awed stares.
He was, she admitted, pretty awesome and she was staring.
She struggled to direct her gaze past him, but like a compass point returning north her eyes zeroed back to the tall, rampantly male figure dressed in a beautifully cut dark suit teamed with a white shirt he wore open at the neck. The informality went skin deep; he looked exclusively and every inch the autocratic patrician occupier of a castle.
He inclined his dark head, the courtesy of the gesture doing nothing to disguise the predatory gleam in his hooded eyes.
She was no adrenaline junkie but she imagined it might feel this way to jump out of a plane with nothing but a parachute. Actually maybe not even the parachute, she thought, moistening her dry lips with the tip of her tongue.
The nervous action drew his dark gaze to her mouth.
Lucy swallowed and felt a flicker of apprehension. Harriet had warned her that this was not a man to be messed with and she was messing. Was she mad or just …? She swallowed, suddenly identifying the emotion mingled in with the trepidation as excitement … Yes, clearly she was mad!
Santiago recognised the surge of molten anger he felt as he watched them, but refused to acknowledge the accompanying emotion as being related in any way to jealousy. He was not jealous of his brother; he was furious! Furious that Ramon could be so stupid; frustrated that he could not think above waist level; that he could not see past the stunning beauty of the woman in his arms.
He, on the other hand, could compartmentalise, think past the painful level of his arousal. She really was the embodiment of sin, he decided, swallowing hard as his burning glance moved over the undulating curves of her body. She was sheathed in a tight red dress that would probably and legitimately in his opinion be illegal in several countries.
‘Lucy, this is my big brother, Santiago … Santiago, this is Lucy.’
Ramon pushed her forward with a pat on her bottom that under other circumstances Lucy would have objected to, and she found herself taking a stumbling step towards Santiago. Recovering her poise and covering her growing anxiety behind a plastic smile, she took a second, more graceful step, murmuring a good evening and ignoring the voice in her head that was counselling she run in the opposite direction.
Her half-extended hand fell away as Santiago met her midway. Bending down towards her—not something that happened a lot when you were five ten in your bare feet—he planted his hands on her shoulders.
The light touch concealed a strength that she felt as strongly as the brush of his breath on her cheek. Steeling herself for an air kiss, she stiffened, gasped faintly and closed her eyes as his mouth, his lips, lightly touched her skin.
Feeling the responsive quiver run through her body, he smiled and bent in closer.
‘Great work,’ he admired. ‘Though you might want to rethink the dress—it’s a bit obvious—but the husky sexy voice, nice touch, I like it …’
The blue eyes winked wider in protest. ‘What? Husky, sexy? I wasn’t …’
She stopped, remembering just in time her role of heartless courtesan, and produced a wide, brilliantly insincere smile as she whispered back, ‘In my experience—’
‘No doubt vast.’ His nostrils quivered in response to the fragrance she wore. It smelt of something light, floral and very feminine.
‘You have no idea.’ A joking comment made by her solicitor drifted back into her head. ‘The only way we can legally clear your name is to produce a medical certificate saying you’re a virgin.’ He had never appreciated the black irony. ‘In my experience there is no such thing as too obvious when it comes to men, and if you think that was sexy … watch and learn …’
She let her voice trail away significantly and had the satisfaction of seeing a muscle along his hard jaw clench. She lifted her chin, turning a deaf ear to the voice in her head that was screaming warnings about playing with fire. Instead of lowering the temperature she raised it several degrees, responding to the anger she saw reflected back at her in the dark surface of his eyes with a slow ‘cat got the cream’ smile.
The guiding hand that then slid to her elbow was not this time light, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of reacting to the biting, bone-crushing grip of his fingers. With Ramon walking on the other side of her, he steered her towards the sweep of stairs that led to the massive porticoed entrance.
Feeling more frogmarched than guided, she lifted the ankle-length hem of her skirt as gracefully as she could and took the first step up.
It’s never too late to run.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE door pushed wider and a figure appeared at the top of the stairs. For a moment Lucy thought it was a child, then as she stepped into a shaft of light thrown by one of the spotlights that illuminated the building Lucy realised it was actually a young woman.
She was petite and wand slim, her slender curves almost hidden by the long black fine-knit silk sweater teamed with black leggings she wore. Not a look many could have pulled off, but this girl did!
Ramon, with an exclamation of welcome, pushed past Lucy. ‘Carmella!’
As she watched the two embrace Lucy was very aware of dark eyes watching her like the hawk Santiago reminded her of—it wasn’t just the nose and the hauteur, but the predatory ruthlessness. She schooled her expression into serene neutrality and considered the situation objectively—or as objectively as was possible when your body was humming with an uncomfortable combination of antagonism and a heart-pounding awareness that made her skin prickle. The wretched man set every nerve ending in her body on edge. She longed to put some distance between herself and the weird electrical charge-negative he exuded. God, even her scalp was tingling!
Presumably the presence of the tiny creature with the slow dark eyes and slender graceful body had been invited as the competition. She was definitely a dramatic contrast, the more so because the young woman wore flat leather pumps as opposed to Lucy’s four-inch spiky heels!
Coming level with the younger woman, Lucy immediately felt big, blowsy and clumsy next to this delicate creature who emerged from Ramon’s embrace looking flustered.
‘Lucy, this is Carmella—she’s like the little sister I never had. What are you doing here, Melly?’
The girl looked towards Santiago, who said smoothly, ‘Does there have to be a reason?’
Conscious of the hand on her elbow, Lucy performed the move she had been mentally rehearsing. It went flawlessly. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ She tossed a look of sparkling insincerity up at the man whose foot she had just ground with four inches of spiky heel. It had to have hurt, but other than a grunt of shocked pain he had sucked it up like a real tough guy.
Santiago acknowledged her apology with a slight tip of his dark head and a white wolfish grin that carried a promise of retribution.
Conscious of a fizz of excitement in place of the more appropriate trepidation, Lucy lowered her gaze.
‘I’m so clumsy,’ she trilled.
Clumsy! A laugh locked in the back of his throat, Santiago sucked in a sharp breath through flared nostrils. The last thing in the world anyone would use to describe this woman would be clumsy. Her every move was imbued with a sinuous, sensual, seductive grace. Yes, she might represent everything he loathed and despised, but even with the overkill of hip swinging she was the epitome of grace.
After a struggle Lucy broke her gaze free of his dark, compelling, almost hypnotic stare and, reckless excitement still humming through her body, turned with a smile to the girl.
‘Hello, Carmella.’ From the way the little brunette was looking at Ramon it seemed doubtful that she felt very sisterly towards him. Poor girl, she was clearly crazy about Ramon and his brother could not be unaware of the fact, yet it hadn’t stopped him using her to provide a distraction. He obviously didn’t care
whose feelings he trampled so long as he got what he wanted. Lucy’s blood boiled when she thought of all the casualties he must have left in his wake.
Ramon was right: it was about time someone gave him a taste of his own medicine.
‘Carmella is a ballet dancer,’ Ramon said, switching to English as the two broke off their conversation.
‘Back row of the corps de ballet,’ the girl corrected, looking embarrassed by the accolade.
The conversation had taken them through a hallway of epic cavernous proportions. This place was not what anyone would term cosy, but it was impressive. Had the circumstances been different she would have been bombarding her host with questions about the history of this fantastic building.
‘How interesting,’ she said, meaning it. She had had ballet classes herself until it became obvious that she was not built on the right scale.
Santiago, who had been speaking in a softly spoken aside to a dark-suited individual who had silently materialised, murmured, ‘Thank you, Josef,’ before turning back to them. ‘It appears our meal is ready. So, what do you do, Lucy?’
Caught off guard by the addition, Lucy blinked. It took her a second to recover her poise and resist the compulsion to say, ‘Live off impressionable boys.’ Lucy didn’t know how she managed to suppress the words hovering on the tip of her tongue.
‘I manage to keep busy.’
‘And you’re staying at the resort hotel? I just love the spa there,’ Carmella enthused.
‘Isn’t that where you usually get your dinner dates, Ramon?’ Lucy teased, forgetting for one moment her role. ‘Actually, I’m staying with a friend.’ She broke off and swallowed a gasp. The room they had entered had the dimensions of a baronial hall complete with tapestries that were probably priceless on the stone walls; all that was missing was someone playing a lute in the minstrels’ gallery. The candles on the table, heavy with silver and gleaming crystal, had been lit. A person would need a megaphone to speak to a person sitting at the far end of the table.
‘How … cosy,’ she murmured sarcastically.