He would never forget Lia’s name.
Would never forget Lia.
She was unforgettable.
Not because she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Which she was.
Nor because she was the best lover. Which she was.
No, he would never forget her because she was Lia.
Fiery of temperament. Passionate of nature.
Lia.
* * *
‘What happened to you yesterday—? Careful,’ Cathy warned as Lia’s hand jerked so suddenly she almost tipped her glass of water all over the table. The two women had met up at the gym after work, and were now enjoying a relaxing cold drink together in the bar there. ‘I expected you to telephone last night, but now I really want to know what happened yesterday.’
The other woman eyed Lia knowingly.
‘Which part?’ Lia couldn’t quite meet her friend’s gaze.
She had gone to bed early last night—had pulled the covers over her head and slept for almost twelve hours. Today she was back working behind the reception desk at the Exemplar Hotel, so obviously Gregorio’s PA had recovered enough to come in today. Or maybe not? Maybe Gregorio was doing the same as Lia? Trying to ignore her existence as she was trying to ignore his. She certainly hadn’t seen anything of him in the hotel today.
‘The part that’s making you blush,’ Cathy said with relish.
Lia winced. ‘I’d rather not.’
‘At least tell me if it involves Gregorio de la Cruz?’
She sighed. ‘It does.’
‘Wow!’ Cathy had a dreamy expression on her face. ‘I love Rick to bits, but being married doesn’t make me blind and Gregorio is something else.’
Yes, he was. But quite what that something else was Lia had no idea.
She knew she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since she’d left his apartment late yesterday afternoon. Since she had made... Well, it hadn’t quite been the walk of shame, because it hadn’t mattered that the clothes she was wearing were the same ones she had worn to work that morning. But it had certainly been an embarrassing exit from the hotel after Lia had collected her coat from the staffroom. Made more so by the fact that the other receptionists had cheerfully wished her goodnight before she left—just as if it had been a normal working day at the Exemplar Hotel.
There had been nothing normal about yesterday as far as Lia was concerned.
The pleasurable aches and pains in her body when she’d woken up that morning had seemed to agree with that sentiment. Which was why she had suggested meeting up with Cathy at the gym after work. The two women had been using different apparatus since they’d arrived, so sitting in the adjoining bar, sipping iced water, was the first opportunity they had found actually to chat.
‘I can see by the smile on your face that he’s every bit as satisfying as I thought he might be.’
‘Cathy!’ Lia’s cheeks were ablaze with revealing colour.
‘Lia!’ she came back teasingly. ‘You never had that cat-that-got-the-cream expression on your face after spending the night with David.’
Lia sobered at the mention of her ex-fiancé. ‘I saw David yesterday too.’
‘What?’ Cathy sat forward. ‘When? Why?’
She sighed heavily. ‘Gregorio told me some things about him and I wanted to know if they were true.’
‘And were they?’
‘Yes.’ Lia had no doubt now that Gregorio’s suspicions about David would prove to be correct. Or that he was right to be cautious about to what David might do once Gregorio had evidence against him.
‘More secrets?’ Cathy eyed her sympathetically.
Lia blinked back the tears that never seemed to be far away nowadays. ‘Gregorio thinks David is responsible for my father’s financial problems and subsequent heart attack. I’m inclined to agree with him.’
‘Oh, Lia.’ Cathy placed her hand over Lia’s and gave it a squeeze. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘But not surprised?’ Lia quirked a rueful brow.
‘Not really, no,’ her friend acknowledged with a pained wince.
Lia laughed softly. ‘You really will have to be more honest with me in future regarding the men I date!’
‘Gregorio has my full approval,’ Cathy supplied instantly.
He had Lia’s full approval too. But that didn’t change the fact that she was just another sexual conquest to him. Unfortunately she had to accept that her emotions didn’t function in the same compartmentalised way as his. She already cared more for Gregorio than she should, and she didn’t need to have her heart broken for a second time in a matter of months.
Had David’s desertion broken her heart?
If Lia was honest, the answer was no. It had hurt that he had ended their engagement so abruptly after her father’s death, but she hadn’t been heartbroken in the way she would be if she allowed her emotions to become fully engaged where Gregorio was concerned.
If they weren’t already...
* * *
‘I was wondering when you were going to arrive home.’
Lia stiffened as she stepped out of the lift and saw David standing in the hallway, directly outside her apartment. ‘How did you get in here?’
There was no reception at this small apartment complex, but it did have a key-coded panel outside the front door, and a security number that had to be logged in before the door could be opened.
She had also left Raphael, her protector for the day, sitting outside in his SUV on the other side of that locked door.
David gave an unconcerned shrug. ‘I told one of the other tenants I was a new neighbour and I’d forgotten the door code. She was only too happy to let me inside.’
Lia was pretty sure there had been a lot of David’s false charm involved in that conversation. Although she really would have to introduce herself properly to the other tenants, so that they knew exactly who their new neighbour was in future. They also needed to be more cautious about letting unknown people into the building.
In the meantime, she had to deal with David’s unwanted presence. ‘How did you find out where I’m living now?’ she demanded as she walked down the hallway.
He shrugged. ‘It wasn’t that difficult. A friend of a friend who works for the telephone company.’
Lia eyed him warily. ‘Why are you here?’ He was dressed casually, in an open-necked pale blue polo shirt and designer label jeans, so he had obviously been home and changed after work before coming here.
He gave her one of his most charming smiles. ‘I felt we parted badly yesterday, and I wanted to put things right between us.’
‘Really?’ She quirked a sceptical brow.
‘Yes, really.’
The smile stayed firmly in place, but Lia knew David well enough to realise it hadn’t reached his eyes.
‘You said some unsettling things to me yesterday, and I wanted to set the record straight.’
Lia thought saying really again might be a little too much. ‘That’s no longer necessary,’ she said.
He tensed. ‘Oh?’
‘I think we both know the truth, David. Which means we have nothing more to say to each other.’
‘You aren’t being very friendly.’
She snorted. ‘Do I have reason to be?’
‘We were engaged...’
‘Were engaged being the appropriate phrase.’
‘Look, I know I let you down when you needed me to be strong for you. I made a mistake, okay?’ His smile became ingratiating. ‘I obviously don’t handle sudden death well—’
‘I will not discuss my father with you,’ Lia snapped. ‘Ever,’ she added vehemently. ‘Now, I would like you to leave.’
‘I just want to talk to you, Lia,’ he cajoled. ‘I’ve missed you.’
‘Oh, please!’ She glared her disgust. ‘I realise now how completely naïve I was until a few months ago. Maybe I was just too busy being “the privileged daughter of the wealthy and powerful Jacob Fairbanks”,’ she said, repea
ting his insult of yesterday. ‘If I hadn’t been then perhaps I would have seen through you much sooner.’
‘This isn’t like you, Lia...’
David had returned to the condescending voice that was really starting to grate on Lia.
‘You don’t talk like this. I can only conclude that it’s the influence of de la Cruz.’ He gave a shake of his head. ‘What on earth are you doing with a man like that anyway? He’s a womaniser—and a corporate shark of the worst kind.’
‘He’s a more honourable man than you’ll ever be!’
Lia knew that was the truth. In all his dealings with her Gregorio had been nothing but honest. Even when the two of them had spent the afternoon in bed together Gregorio hadn’t made any false declarations or promises—before or after.
‘Now, I really want you to leave, David.’ She searched agitatedly through her shoulder bag for her door key.
‘What if I don’t want to?’
Lia looked up sharply, butterflies fluttering in her stomach as she realised that David had moved and was now standing much too close to her in the hallway. Uncomfortably so. There was no charm nor an ingratiating smile on his face now.
‘One of Gregorio’s men is sitting in his car outside this building,’ she challenged tensely.
David raised is brows. ‘He has men watching you?’
‘Protecting me, yes.’
‘Protecting you from whom? Me?’ David questioned when Lia gave him a pointed glance. ‘You never used to be paranoid, Lia,’ he scorned.
‘I never used to be a lot of things that I am now.’
‘So I’ve noticed. And not all of those changes are for the better,’ David assured her. ‘But de la Cruz and his men aren’t here. There’s just the two of us.’
Lia was aware of that. Very much so. And she didn’t like it one little bit. Didn’t trust or like David one little bit.
‘I said I want you to leave,’ she repeated through gritted teeth.
‘Wouldn’t you like to know what really happened the night your father died?’
‘What?’ Lia gasped as she stared at him with wide eyes.
David returned her gaze challengingly. ‘I said—’
‘I heard you,’ she dismissed agitatedly. ‘What I want is an explanation of what you meant.’
He shrugged. ‘I was with your father when he died.’
‘I... But... There was never any mention...’ She gave a shake of her head. ‘I was the one to find him—slumped over his desk in the morning.’
‘Our meeting was lawyer/client confidential.’ David shrugged. ‘When he suddenly collapsed... Well, as I said, I don’t handle sudden death well.’
‘He had a heart attack in front of you and you just left him there to die?’ Lia reached out to place her palm on the wall for support as she felt herself sway.
‘He died almost instantly.’ David’s mouth was tight. ‘There was nothing anyone could have done.’
‘You don’t know that!’ Lia stared at him incredulously. ‘You all but killed him!’
‘Your father died of a heart attack,’ he maintained evenly.
‘But heart attacks are usually brought on by stress or shock. Did you do or say something to cause his heart attack?’ Lia was having difficulty keeping down the waves of nausea churning in her stomach.
‘Invite me in and I’ll tell you exactly what happened.’
Lia didn’t like the smug expression on David’s face. Smugness caused by the fact that he knew she would want to know exactly what had happened the night her father died. That she needed to know.
But to do that David had said she must invite him in to her apartment.
Did she dare to be alone with him in there?
CHAPTER TEN
GREGORIO TRULY BELIEVED what he had told Lia: a man could no longer call himself a man if he ever raised his hand in anger to a woman. But right now he was very angry. With a red-hot, blinding anger.
Which meant he would have to punch a wall or something to alleviate his tension before seeing Lia. Or he could just punch David Richardson in his too-handsome face and kill two birds with one stone—or one punch.
But for now Gregorio had to concentrate on driving to Lia’s apartment so that he arrived in one piece.
He had deliberately avoided the reception area of the hotel today. Had avoided Lia. She had made it clear yesterday that she didn’t want to continue seeing him.
That was about to change—whether Lia liked it or not.
Raphael had telephoned him just fifteen minutes ago to report that as a routine precaution he had checked all the numberplates and owners of the cars parked in the street where Lia’s apartment was located. He had found Richardson’s sports car parked at the other end of the street, neatly—deliberately?—hidden between two SUVs.
Gregorio had left his hotel suite in such a hurry he had still been talking to Raphael on his cell phone when he’d stepped into the lift and impatiently punched the button for the basement car park.
If Lia had invited Richardson to her apartment, against all Gregorio’s advice for her to stay away from the man...
The thought had Gregorio pressing his foot down hard on the accelerator, his expression grim.
* * *
‘I’m still waiting,’ Lia challenged as David stood unmoving and silent in the sitting room of her apartment.
A mocking smile tilted his lips. ‘This place is a bit of a come-down for you, isn’t it?’
Her gaze remained fixed on him. ‘I like it.’
And she did. The apartment was compact and easy to keep clean. It was also her first very own space. She had enjoyed living with her father, but there had been a formality to it, with meals served at set times and an army of staff to cook for them and clean the house. And consequently very little privacy. Here she could do exactly as she pleased, when she pleased—including eating what and when she wanted. In the nude if she so chose.
‘If you say so,’ David derided sceptically.
‘Well?’ Lia’s impatience deepened.
‘Aren’t you going to offer me a coffee or something?’ He made himself comfortable on the sofa.
‘No.’
He chuckled. ‘I think I like this new, outspoken Lia after all. Very sexy.’ His gaze ran slowly over her, from her head to her toes and back again.
Her hands clenched at her sides. ‘Will you just tell me what happened the night my father died?’
David’s expression became guarded. ‘He invited me over. We talked. He had a heart attack. I left.’
Anger welled up, strong and unstoppable. ‘You already told me that much in the hallway.’
Had her father known David was responsible for the missing money? Had he confronted the other man and then David had simply let her father die when he collapsed?
Why hadn’t her father confided in her?
The answer came to Lia so suddenly and with such force she almost bent over from the pain.
David had been her fiancé. The man her father had believed she loved and intended to marry. At the time she had believed that too. She had no doubt her father had loved her enough to want to protect her from knowing the truth about her future husband.
‘My father confronted you about the embezzlement of Fairbanks Industries funds.’ It wasn’t a question but a statement.
David’s mouth twisted derisively. ‘He said that if I returned the money then no one else needed to know what I’d done.’
‘But you no longer have the money, do you?’
‘Not all of it, no.’
‘Because you’re addicted to gambling.’ Lia looked at him with disgust.
‘I’m not addicted!’ There was an ugly expression on David’s face. ‘I just enjoy the thrill...the excitement.’
Addiction.
‘Can’t you see how it’s ruining your life?’ Lia frowned. ‘How it’s turned you into a man who steals from his clients to feed his addiction?’
‘You sound just like your father,’ Da
vid scorned. ‘He said if I returned the money no one else need ever know about it and the two of us could live happily ever after. He withdrew from the de la Cruz negotiations to give me time to make the adjustments.’
Which proved Gregorio had been telling the truth when he’d told Lia her father had been the one to withdraw from the negotiations with De la Cruz Industries, even though the sale of the company would have saved her father and the people who worked for him.
Because he had hoped to resolve the situation of David’s embezzlement from the company without anyone being any the wiser. Certainly without Lia knowing what David had done.
My father confronted David alone that evening for the same reason—because he wanted to avoid hurting me.
And David—thief, liar and manipulator that he undoubtedly was—had no doubt used her in the same way to try and blackmail her father into silence. The strain had finally proved too much for her father and he’d had a heart attack.
Lia hadn’t been in her father’s study that evening, nor had she heard any of the conversation between the two men, but she knew with certainty that that was exactly what had happened.
‘Get out,’ she told David coldly.
His brows rose. ‘We haven’t finished talking yet.’
‘Oh, we’ve finished,’ Lia assured him evenly. ‘We’re way beyond finished,’ she added vehemently. ‘My father acted the way he did out of love for me, and now I’m going to do exactly the same out of my love for him. I am going to ruin you, David, as you ruined and eventually killed my father. I’ll expose you for the cheat and a liar you really are—Take your hand off me!’ she protested as David stood and moved across the room so quickly she was unable to avoid his painful grasp about her wrist.
Instead of releasing her David twisted her arm and held it at a painful level against her back, stepping behind her and bringing himself nauseatingly close to her.
‘I don’t think so,’ he murmured viciously as he bent his head close to her ear. ‘Why don’t you just agree to be a good girl, hmm? Otherwise...’
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