Читать книгу A Spanish Vengeance - Diana Hamilton - Страница 6

A DEEPLY unsettling mixture of frazzled nerve ends and sizzling excitement was making Lisa Pennington feel decidedly queasy.

Long fingers fumbled in her envelope purse, searching for a tissue to mop the perspiration from her face. She was sweating like a foundry worker. She tried to convince herself it was down to the heat of the Spanish evening sun and told herself to snap out of it. She’d end up looking a real soggy mess if she didn’t pull herself together. And that mustn’t happen.

She had to look good, cool and calm, if only to counteract Ben’s reaction. So she’d pulled out all the stops, and dug out her make-up bag. The creamy foundation toned down the tan she’d acquired during the last eight weeks, while silvery eye-shadow emphasised the size and shape of her inky-blue eyes, and scarlet lipstick gave her the illusion of courage.

She’d slopped around in shorts and cool cotton tops all through this holiday but this evening she was wearing a dress in silvery-green silk, sleek and hopefully sophisticated. She couldn’t be seen in the newest, smartest hotel in the whole of Marbella wearing any old rag.

Tomorrow she, Ben and Sophie would be returning to England. By tomorrow everyone would know what Diego’s intentions were. She quivered, assailed by a fresh onslaught of nervous tension.

Diego. Oh, how she loved him—she couldn’t describe how much! In the last seven weeks he had become her whole world, the focus of every thought, of every breath she drew. And he loved her; she knew he did. The knowledge was pure magic. Tonight he would make his intentions plain. Why else would he have suggested he meet with her and her holiday companions in the disco bar of the exclusive hotel? He knew how close Ben and Sophie were to her, twin offspring of her father’s business partner. The three of them had always been mates, especially after the death of her mother four years ago when they had taken her under their loving, protective wings.

Lisa crossed her fingers, praying that the coming meeting would go smoothly, that Ben wouldn’t come out with something Diego’s Spanish pride would never let him forgive. It would be unbearable if the three people she loved best in the world were at daggers drawn.

Straightening her shoulders, feeling the long silky fall of her silver-blonde hair brush against the bare skin of her back, she risked a sideways glance. Ben, strolling at her side, was seemingly intent on watching the expensive cars cruising the elegant sea front. He wasn’t looking at her but she knew his bluntly good looking features would be clenched with displeasure if he did turn in her direction.

At twenty years of age he was only two years her senior yet he sometimes acted as if he were her grandfather! Lisa sighed, remembering his stinging comments when, in order to explain why she’d spent little time with him and Sophie, she’d had to confess that she’d met someone.

Flushed with the wonder of finding the love of her life here in Spain when she hadn’t really wanted to be here at all, when she had intended spending her gap year back-packing around Europe, she had given his name, ‘Diego Raffacani,’ adding unnecessarily, ‘He’s Spanish.’ Holding the fact that he was the most gorgeous-looking human being ever to walk the planet very close to her madly beating heart.

Ben had shot her the underbrow look that told her she was in for a lecture. ‘How old is this guy? And I presume that, as you spend every day together, he’s out of work?’

‘Then you presume wrong!’ Lisa’s pointed chin shot up defensively. ‘Diego works most evenings in one of the hotel restaurants down in Marbella—that’s why he’s free to spend his days with me! And, if you’re really interested, he’s twenty-two.’

Only four years her senior and so darkly handsome, so lithe and physically perfect that her heart ached just to look at him.

‘So you’ve been picked up by a Spanish waiter,’ Ben delivered drily. ‘What a cliché!’

Unforgivably, Lisa giggled because, technically, Ben was spot on. She’d thought back to that day over three weeks ago. She’d spent the first week here dutifully tagging along with her friends. Descending from the hills where their rented ex-farmhouse holiday home was situated in the hired four-by-four. Doing what Ben and Sophie enjoyed. Playing golf, window-shopping, sipping coffee outside one of the trendy cafés, exploring what they could of the exclusive and highly fashionable nearby Puerto Banus area.

That particular day she’d cried off, the glitz beginning to pall, preferring to spend some time exploring the surrounding hilly back country on foot, comfortably clad in shorts and a matching acid-yellow T-shirt and sensible trainers. The buzzing of a motor scooter—a Vespino, Diego called it—was a warning that came too late. They had met on a bend in the steep, narrow track. Lisa had fallen backwards on to a carpet of wild herbs and the handsome young Spaniard had braked the scooter to a stone-spitting, slithering sideways halt.

Leaping across the narrow space, he’d gently helped her to her feet. So yes, he had quite literally picked her up! Looking into the concerned dark eyes, the proud, almost unnerving, aristocratic-looking features, at the tall bronzed perfection of a sensationally honed male clad just in patched cut-off denims that clipped the hard, narrow jut of his hips and a black vest top that had faded to grey, she had been utterly transfixed, her heart jumping up into her throat then spiralling down again to play havoc in the region of her stomach.

Their eyes had held as he assured himself she was unhurt—his questions couched in soft, only slightly accented English—gleaming black fringed with heavy thick lashes sending unspoken heady messages to wide inky-blue, the strong, steadying hands that curved around her slim shoulders transmitting a sensation that was a slow, unbearably sweet aching deep inside her.

That was how it had begun. And she would never again pour scorn on the idea of falling in love at first sight.

Ben had heaved a worried sigh, watching her as she made the morning coffee and Sophie, putting freshly picked peaches on a dish precisely in the centre of the breakfast table, had said lightly, ‘Every girl’s entitled to a holiday romance once in her life—provided things don’t get out of hand.’

‘They haven’t, have they?’ Ben put in quickly, his frown deepening.

As if she’d tell him! And no, they hadn’t. Diego’s kisses and caresses had sent her up in flames, the wanting a sweet wild torment inside her, but he had always pulled back at the critical moment, his voice soft and sultry as he had explained, ‘You are very young, querida. One day you will be my bride. Until then, my angel, I value your purity above all else.’

‘Is that a proposal?’ Her voice was shaky with passion, her throat thick. He was all she had ever wanted; it was like a fairy tale.

‘But of course, querida. You are my angel. I truly love you.’ A gentle forefinger traced the outline of her lush lips, making her tremble. She could hardly speak through the rip-tide of ecstatic happiness, but managed a breathless, ‘When?’

‘When the time is right, amor mio,’ he answered lightly, ‘When you graduate from university—’

‘That’s years away!’ she punched out, wriggling out of his arms. He’d offered her heaven and now she could see it slipping away like water down a plughole.

He took her hands. ‘There is no ending to our love; time won’t alter that.’ Warm, dark eyes smiled into hers. ‘I too have things to do. Time will pass quickly, I promise. You will have vacations and I shall tell you where I am and you shall come to me.’ His smile widened to a teasing grin. ‘You have a rich daddy who will pay for your air fares!’

She dragged her hands away and sulked for the rest of the day. If he loved her as much as she loved him he wouldn’t want to wait. Marrying her this minute wouldn’t be soon enough!

But lying awake that night she’d formulated the perfect plan. She’d return to England at the end of their holiday as planned, square it with her father, who was remote enough not to mind what she did as long as she didn’t bother him, and spend what was left of her gap year here with Diego. And at the end of the year they would have become so close, so loving, he wouldn’t be able to face letting her go.

‘Nothing to say for yourself?’ Ben’s question pulled her back into the farmhouse kitchen that day, almost four weeks ago. He accepted the mug of coffee she’d poured for him. ‘I suppose you’ve told him who you are.’

‘Of course he knows who I am!’

Ben’s comment made no sense until he expounded, ‘That your father is joint proprietor of a monthly glossy. That we publish Lifestyle among other less upmarket magazines. That our families are not short of cash.’

‘There speaks the accountant!’ Lisa derided gently. Ben had just finished a business accountancy course and on their return to England at the end of their holiday was to join the accounts department at Lifestyle.

‘No,’ Ben came back mildly. ‘There speaks an old friend who is concerned for your happiness. Marbella is a hot spot of wealth; it attracts con men and hangers-on like flies. Men who latch on to rich women for what they can get out of them. Has your Spanish waiter wheedled anything out of you, by any chance?’

‘Of course not!’ But Lisa was aware that her cheeks burned with guilt. He hadn’t wheedled that expensive watch out of her, she mentally defended. Far from it. He’d lost his own, explaining that the strap must have broken without him noticing it when he’d glanced at his naked wrist to check whether it was time for them to start heading back from the little secluded beach he’d taken her to.

That evening, while Sophie and Ben had been admiring the million dollar yachts in the marina, she’d slipped away and bought him a replacement, knowing he hadn’t much money to spare. A waiter’s wage wouldn’t be anything to write home about and he needed a watch. ‘And Diego doesn’t like Marbella—’ She wisely changed the subject. ‘We never go there—he says it’s too flashy, not the real Spain at all. We explore quaint little hill villages and off-the-track beaches.’

She loved Ben like a brother but was close to hating him for implying her beloved Diego was only interested in her for what he could get out of her. No way would she explain about the gift of that slim gold watch.

‘So when do we get to meet him?’ Sophie, the peace-maker, took her place at the table and reached for a crusty roll and the honey pot.

No answer, because there wasn’t one to give. She’d once suggested a foursome—she’d wanted him to meet her best friends—but Diego had asserted that he was a selfish man and wanted her all to himself.

And now they were on their way to meet him at last—at his suggestion. Ben’s comment had been a dry, ‘He picked the most expensive joint he could find. I wonder who’ll end up paying for the drinks and the meal!’

They were nearing the venue, the white futuristic hotel overlooking the gentle curve of the palm-fringed beach. Lisa’s heart swelled. It would be all right; it had to be! Ben would take back every insulting insinuation when he realised what a super guy Diego was.

In a way she could understand his reservations. Ever since they’d been children he’d looked out for her. He still did, and that probably had something to do with her tiny stature—five-two, small-boned, delicately slender and wide-eyed. If she’d been built more like Sophie, tall and big in the bosom and hip department, he might have had more confidence in her ability to look out for herself.

Not that his opinion would make any difference to the way she felt about the man she was determined to marry. But she didn’t want to quarrel with Ben; she was too fond of him.

‘Hey, you guys—come and look at this!’ Sophie cried. She’d been indulging in her favourite occupation, window-shopping, and was several yards behind them, her nose pinned to the window of a glitzy boutique. ‘Would my bum look big in this?’

Ever willing to indulge his twin, Ben turned to retrace his steps, smiling, and Lisa stood where she was, too wound up to ooh and ahh over whatever it was Sophie was coveting.

Glancing at her platinum Jaeger-Le-Coultre watch, an eighteenth birthday gift from her father who thought that material things made up for a lack of any overt signs of parental affection, she noted there were still thirty minutes to get through before they were due to meet Diego. It felt like a lifetime.

The town was beginning to gear up for the evening, more people strolling the pavements, wanting to see and be seen, more flash cars cruising. One car in particular caught her attention. A bright scarlet drop-head sports job driven by a glamorous creature who looked as if she’d just materialised from between the covers of a high fashion magazine. But it was her passenger who drew her widening eyes—Diego? Surely not!

Diego, his thick dark hair expertly groomed, wearing classy casual chinos and an open-necked sleeveless shirt in a matching cool stone colour that accentuated the warm olive tones of his skin instead of the beat-up shorts and vest tops she was used to seeing him in.

The sports car growled to a halt, parked illegally outside the sort of jeweller’s where the atmosphere would be too rarefied for ordinary mortals to breathe in, and Diego removed his arm from the back of the driver’s seat and exited.

He had obviously smartened himself up for his meeting with them at the hotel and he looked good enough to eat, the darling! Like them, he was half an hour early. The classy female must have given him a lift. She was probably resident at the hotel where he worked, had recognised him as the waiter who serviced the table she regularly used and had picked him up.

The explanations flashed with comforting swiftness through her mind, though the phrase ‘picked him up’ did have uncomfortable connotations, thanks to Ben.

About to call his name, wave to attract his attention, she was morbidly glad she hadn’t when he strolled round to the other side of the car, opened the door at the driver’s side and helped the glamorous creature out, holding her hands. And not letting them go.

She was gorgeous. In spiky high heels, she was three inches short of his six-one, the hem of her silky black dress way above her knees, the costly fabric clinging to every curve of her eye-popping body, her bare arms glinting with, it seemed, half a ton of gold bracelets.

Jewelled hands slid from his fingers and snaked up to cup his face as he leaned towards her, saying something, his lips curved in the teasing smile Lisa knew all too well. Her heart stopped beating as the woman leaned right into him, bestowing kisses on one lean hard cheek and then the other before tipping her glossy head back, laughing up at him then leading him by the hand into the exclusive interior of the jeweller’s shop.

As her heart crashed back into action Lisa went hot all over, then cold. Icy cold. Her breathing erratic, she felt giddy. There had to be a perfectly feasible explanation for what she had just witnessed. Anything else was unthinkable. Her dazed brain tried to find one.

Instead it spitefully reminded her that classy customers didn’t go around kissing their waiters unless there was a high degree of intimacy between them. Then it made her recall her disbelief and disappointment when, the day before, he’d told her he wouldn’t be able to see her that morning.

‘Things to do,’ he’d said, ‘but we’ll be meeting up in the evening.’

If she’d been a couple of years younger she would have thrown a tantrum. As it was, she’d been very adult about being deprived of his company on what he thought was her last day in Spain. She had meant to surprise him when she returned after she’d persuaded her father that she was going to spend her entire gap year holed up in Marbella. So she’d merely nodded, ‘See you then,’ as if not seeing him during the day didn’t bother her.

Did ‘Things to do’, mean finding her replacement? If so, he’d hit the jackpot!

She shivered, swallowing down the sick feeling inside her, hating herself for thinking such a thing was possible. She rubbed a clammy hand over her forehead. It was all Ben’s fault. He had put the idea of charismatic, handsome young Spaniards sucking up to wealthy lone female holiday-makers for what they could get out of them into her head.

‘Practising being a statue?’ Sophie slipped an arm under hers. ‘You should have seen that suit! It was gorgeous but Ben said black wouldn’t suit me and I’d have to live and sleep in it for fifty years to get my money’s worth!’

‘Typical boring accountant!’ Lisa sniped, still annoyed with him for making her doubt—if only for a moment—her darling, adorable Diego.

‘Now you know you don’t mean that,’ Sophie scolded mildly as they slowly, arm in arm, approached the wide flight of steps that led up to the hotel foyer. ‘You know he can’t help being practical any more than you can help being a dreamer. And cheer up, do. Such a long face! I can’t wait to meet your Diego. It looks like he’s serious about you if he wants to see me and Ben—your minders—on your last night in Spain!’ She gave Lisa’s arm a tiny, reassuring squeeze. ‘I’ve told Ben not to say a word out of place; you know how protective he is of you. And I told him Diego probably wants to ask his permission—in the absence of your father—to visit you in England.’

Or to get a free slap-up meal and plenty to drink as a final perk. Lisa hated the disloyal thought that sprang into her head just as much as she hated her inability to prevent it forming. And loathed Ben for putting it there in the first place. She ousted it firmly. Diego wasn’t into fancy food and wines. He’d always come provisioned with a picnic lunch on their days together. Crusty bread, olives, fruit and bottled water. Simple, cheap and wholesome.

‘We’re a bit early,’ Ben commented as he caught up with them on the steps, eyeing the impressive smoked glass revolving doors.

‘So?’ Sophie shrugged. ‘So we sit in the foyer, cool down and people watch.’ She pushed through the doors and Lisa followed, wishing the dragging minutes away, desperate to ask Diego what he’d been doing with that devastatingly beautiful woman, why he’d let her kiss him, why they’d disappeared into that jeweller’s together. Desperate to hear an entirely acceptable explanation.

And time, perversely, seemed to pass even more slowly in the air-conditioned space. All cool marble floors and stately columns, chandeliers and hushed opulence. Seated in matching pale jade-green upholstered chairs around a low table, Lisa had her back to the main area but Sophie was avidly scanning the languid comings and goings of the wealthy patrons.

‘Now, how’s that for an invitation!’ Sophie giggled. ‘Over there, by Reception—turn round and take a look. It’s his lucky day!’

Lisa obliged. Anything to pass time, to stop her friends from wondering what was wrong with her, why she was wearing what they’d teasingly describe as her Tragic Face.

Diego and that woman!

Lisa shuddered with disbelief and a pain that wrapped icy fingers round her heart. What she was seeing wiped out every beautiful moment of the last weeks. Her eyes filled with tears. She blinked them away. One of his hands rested on the sexy curve of her black-silk-clad hip while the other flipped the lid of a small jeweller’s box closed and slotted it into his pocket. A gold signet ring to match the watch she had bought him? Had the fabulous dark-haired woman already kitted him out with the classy casuals he was wearing?

Stretching up on her high spiky heels, the owner of the scarlet sports car reached up to whisper in his ear. Whatever she said made him grin, that wide slashing grin that said he was happy. She knew it so well!

A slender gold-dripping arm was lifted, beringed fingers dangling a room key in invitation, just before she turned and swayed away towards the bank of lifts, sexual confidence in every movement of those endless legs and delectable body. Diego watched her, still grinning, then turned and sauntered over to Reception.

‘Steamy, or what?’ Sophie hissed and Lisa had to summon every ounce of will-power to make her face blank as she turned back to face the others.

Ben kept glancing impatiently at his watch and Lisa said, trying not to sound as if her world had just fallen into ugly little pieces, ‘Let’s go and find a drink; I’m sick of sitting here.’

She shot to her feet to stall any protests from Sophie who was clearly enjoying her people watching session. And Ben followed suit but insisted on finding the disco bar, even though Lisa was convinced that Diego wouldn’t turn up. Why would he, when he obviously had better prospects lined up? The betrayal was so immense she couldn’t bear to think about it and she couldn’t drag the others away from this place without confessing that Ben had been right about Diego.

Tapas and heavy beat music. Lisa demanded champagne. She would have asked for something strong enough to dull the piercing ache that stabbed through her heart—whisky, maybe—but she knew Ben wouldn’t oblige. Convent educated by nuns strict enough to make your eyes water, treated like a vaguely annoying house guest by a father who had never taken much interest in her when she was home, Ben still tended to regard her as a delicate flower in need of perpetual care and attention.

‘Yes, let’s let our hair down,’ Sophie put in when she noticed Ben’s eyes gravitate to the soft drinks dispenser. ‘It is our last night.’

Lisa drained her glass in two long thirsty swallows and sneaked a refill when Ben wasn’t looking. He was peering at his watch.

Already ten minutes after the appointed time. Diego wouldn’t be coming. Lisa was psyching herself up to tell them why, admit that Ben had been right about her Spanish waiter, drinking her second glass like water to dull the pain when Ben, watching her put the empty glass down on the tiny table, grinned at her. ‘Dance, Lise?’

She wanted to dance about as much as she wanted to sit in a barrel of hot tar but anything had to be better than sitting here, getting tipsy, wanting to cry and doing her best not to, wanting to get her hands on Diego and strangle him after asking him how he could be so cruel.

She took Ben’s hands and got to her feet. The floor dipped and heaved so, instead of dancing opposite him like the other couples, she clung on to his shoulders and was grateful when he clamped his hands around her waist to steady her. He raised his voice above the level of the thumping music and lectured, ‘Squiffy, Lise? That will teach you not to drink a glass of champagne in five seconds flat.’

Two glasses, did he but know it! A hysterical giggle, halfway to a sob, caught in her throat. About to bury her head on his wide shoulder and confess everything, she saw Diego arrive. He said something to his glamorous new girlfriend who gave him a conspiratorial wink before sashaying off to the bar.

How dared he? How could he? Lisa knew she was about to be horribly sick. But she mustn’t! Her fingers dug into Ben’s shoulders. The pain in her gut was unbearable. Think about something else.

Revenge.

Show him! Show him that she wasn’t a silly little girl with the smell of the schoolroom still lingering around her; that she wasn’t the type to cry for a month because she’d been conned by an expert.

He was now standing a scant three feet away, his beautiful eyes lightly hooded as he watched her. What was his intention? How did such guys operate? Would he tap her on the shoulder, wish her a pleasant flight tomorrow, then join his new prey at the bar?

Or would he simply ignore her?

Well, he wouldn’t ignore this—without giving herself time to think—her misery was too great to allow coherent thought—she lifted her hands, pulled Ben’s head down and kissed him as if she were auditioning for a part in a blue movie.

And while Ben was trying to recover, his face brick-red, she looked into Diego’s suddenly ferocious black eyes and lashed out, ‘Go away! You’re cramping my style!’ and watched him turn abruptly on his heel, his mouth hard, his shoulders rigid, as he walked over to his new woman. Lisa thrust her knuckles into her mouth and bit them. She wanted to run after him, take it all back, beg him to make everything all right again.

But she knew she couldn’t. The fairy tale romance was over, the ecstatic days when two hearts had seemed to beat as one had turned into a sordid nightmare.

She turned to Ben, her face white. ‘Take me home. He won’t be coming. I can explain. But not now. Take me home!’