Читать книгу Mediterranean Tycoons: Dark & Demanding - Jacqueline Baird - Страница 14

LIZA shivered, feeling the chill in the air, her long eyelashes fluttering over half-open eyes. A watery sun illuminated the room in a blue haze, and she pulled the cover up to her neck and shifted sleepily. For a moment she did not know where she was, then memory returned. Of course—Spain; it was not as hot in winter here as Lanzarote.

Oh, God! Nick!

Liza twisted around and a dozen unfamiliar aches and pains in places she never knew she had made her groan. What had she done? Suddenly the erotic memories of the night before suddenly overwhelmed every other thought in her head. Had she really made love with Nick on the plane? Just the thought made her temperature rise. Nick was every woman’s fantasy lover. Her whole body blushed as she recalled her own feverish abandonment to the power of his lovemaking, and she no longer felt in the least chilled.

She pushed the coverlet back down to her waist, and drew in a deep, steadying breath. So they had made love, and she was now a fully paid-up member of the mile-high club. Not something she had ever aspired to, but, being honest, she did not regret it… But it was only a holiday affair, she reminded herself quickly.

Perhaps not even that; Nick had quite happily accepted her ‘No’ to making love in his mother’s house, and now, with the memory of the passion and the pleasure fresh in her mind, she wondered if she had been too adamant in her refusal to share his room.

She was a grown woman and perfectly entitled to explore her own sexuality, live for the moment if she wanted to, and, dear heaven, she wanted to, she thought wryly. There was no point in denying it, and, reaching her arms above her head, she stretched languorously, relishing the new sensually aware woman Nick had made her.

‘Now, that is a picture worth preserving.’ A deep, husky drawl shattered the silence.

Liza froze at full stretch, her gaze winging to the tall man entering the room, a tray in his hands… Nick. She studied him with helpless appreciation as he approached the bed, obviously fresh from the shower—his black hair was brushed severely back from his brow and his incredibly attractive face radiated vitality. A white towelling robe covered him from shoulder to knee, but afforded a glimpse of a hair-roughened chest. Her heart lurched at the sight of him.

‘I wish I had a camera,’ Nick murmured, studying her tousled appearance. With her long blonde hair tumbling around her shoulders and her arms above her head, the smooth, creamy lift of her perfect breasts was enough to make him harden. The dusky peaks tightening as he watched didn’t help.

Suddenly Liza realised she had parted with the towel some time in the night, and she was naked from the waist up, and Nick’s gaze was fixed on a certain part of her anatomy. Making a mad grasp for the coverlet, she pulled it up and tucked it firmly over her breasts, her face flaming.

What did you say to a man that you had had sex with on a plane? It was not a scenario she was familiar with, and her stomach cramped with nervous tension, but before she could think of a flip reply to fling back he added, ‘You’d make a great centrefold.’

His words underlined her secret fear; Nick had wanted only one thing from her, and he had got it with remarkable ease. She had no one to blame but herself. She had looked at him, wanted him, and foolishly imagined she could play him at his own game, and indulge in a sophisticated love affair with no strings attached. What had been an incredible experience for her, probably ranked as an easy lay for him…

The knowledge hurt, but also stiffened her shaky resolve. If an experienced woman of the world was what Nick wanted, then that was exactly what she would be. Calling on a lifetime of ingrained good manners, she said, ‘Good morning, Nick.’

Stopping at the side of the bed, Nick drew his brows together in a brief frown. He was used to a more enthusiastic welcome from the woman in his life. Why Liza was trying to appear cool when the blush in her cheeks declared otherwise, he had no idea. If he hadn’t shared the most incredible sex with her, he would have said she was embarrassed. But that wasn’t possible… He was not the first man she had slept with and he was not absolutely convinced she was innocent in the other matter either.

‘Good morning. Is that it?’ Black brows rose in sardonic amusement. ‘And here I was, hoping for a kiss at least,’ his dark eyes roamed with knowing sensuality over her luscious body, ‘after all we have shared,’ he concluded silkily and, putting the tray down on the table, he sat on the edge of the bed and reached for her hand.

Liza snatched her hand away, and fixed all her attention on the tray, unwilling to acknowledge the blatant sensuality in his look. There was a silver coffee-pot, a jug of cream, a bowl of sugar and two cups and saucers and a plate of pastries. ‘You’re joining me for breakfast; how nice,’ she said politely, and unwillingly her gaze was drawn back to meet Nick’s.

‘That was the idea. I did not think you would object.’ He noted her small hands clench in the coverlet and realised she was nervous. ‘I thought a woman of your incredible sexual aptitude would naturally share all my appetites,’ Nick teased, a slow, intimate smile curving his firm lips.

‘No—yes…of course not,’ Liza said in confusion, not sure if she should be flattered or furious he had found her satisfactory! Not sure he should even be here in her room, she thought, panic rising in her breast. ‘What about Manuel…? Your mother…?’ Liza heard her voice rising but was unable to control it as the full import of what she had allowed to happen hit her, and she turned red with embarrassment.

‘Take it easy, Liza.’ Nick chuckled. ‘Manuel and Marta always have Sunday morning free to attend church. As for mother, she is at church in Granada, and won’t be back for a while yet. She need never know that you are sharing a coffee with me.’ And with a wicked grin he added, ‘Stark naked beneath that sheet.’

The reminder of her nakedness made Liza blush even more, but his smile surprised her. Nick could amuse her and make her feel wanton at one and the same time. It was a lethal combination that made her even more wary. ‘Oh, just shut up and pour the coffee,’ she snapped.

‘I do adore a woman who can take charge occasionally,’ Nick drawled with a sardonic arch of one ebony brow. ‘Especially in the bedroom.’

‘Just pour the damn coffee,’ she reiterated, her temper rising. ‘I can do without sexual innuendoes first thing in the morning.’

‘Pity,’ Nick opined, but leant forward and filled the two cups from the jug and passed one to her. ‘I guess you’re not a morning person.’

Liza took hers and swallowed it down with unseemly haste, clattering the cup down on the tray with a less than steady hand. ‘Well, you’re wrong. I am once I have my caffeine fix.’ She strove for normality, but it was difficult with Nick sitting so close. She picked up a pastry and took a bite, but she had never felt less like eating, and it was such a struggle to get the food down she didn’t risk another bite, and dropped it back on the plate.

Nick chuckled, a deep, throaty sound, and reached out a long, elegant hand to sweep the tangled mass of her hair from her face. Then settled his arm around her shoulders, trapping her in the arc of his muscular chest. ‘Prove it, Liza.’

His stunningly handsome face was much too close; she could see the curling length of his lashes sweep his high cheekbones, and lift to reveal eyes glinting with amusement, the firm mouth also quirking at the corners with humour.

‘Prove what?’ She stared up at him with a mixture of fear and anticipation.

‘This.’ And he covered her mouth with his own.

Her startled cry was silenced in her throat; she struggled wildly, lashing out at his great torso with curled fists. She was no man’s push-over…whatever Nick Menendez thought… With a husky laugh he tipped her back against the pillows, and captured both of her flaying hands in one of his and pinned them above her head, his long body pressing her to the bed, and then he was kissing her again with a hard, deep hunger that set her on fire.

Suddenly the reason for her resistance was lost in the chaos he made of her mind. She tried to pull her hands free to hold him and with another husky chuckle Nick lifted his head and stared down into her flushed face.

‘No, my lovely, I am not setting you free. I missed you in my bed last night.’ Instantly she was flooded with an emotion so powerful she nearly told him, she didn’t want to be free of him ever… Surely he could see that. He might be an overbearing, arrogant chauvinist, but she knew deep within her soul that he was everything she could ever want or need in a man.

She wanted back the friend she had missed, the lover she had only just discovered, and the intellectual and emotional strength that he had given so generously to a young girl before the episode that had made him her enemy.

‘Your mother…’ She made a weak attempt to object but her heart wasn’t in it. It was in her mouth as he kissed her again. She couldn’t get enough of his mouth, her tongue seeking his in a dance of desire that met and matched him with ever deeper abandon. She slid her hands over his shoulders removing his robe in the process.

His mighty chest heaved and finally Nick lifted his head, his breathing harsh and his eyes staring into hers with burning satisfaction. ‘Has no one ever told you it is not a good idea to remind a man of his mother at a time like this?’ he husked, the tension holding Nick’s huge, powerful body taut over hers relaxing slightly as he shrugged off the robe completely. His heavy thigh slid over her slender hips and his hand splayed under her bottom, and pulled her into fierce connection with the rigid strength of his erection, sending quivering arrows of exquisite delight up from the apex of her thighs to spread through every nerve in her body.

Lifting his eyes to hers, a gleam of devilment lurking in their depths, he said throatily, ‘But maybe you’re right. You just reminded me of the first pleasure in a male’s life—the joy of suckling.’

Leaning back, he looked his fill of the perfect mounds of her breasts, pale as magnolia with erect, rosy peaks. His hands cupped and shaped them, his thumbs teasing the straining nubs until Liza moaned her pleasure, and only then did he bury his hot mouth against her aching breasts. He laved his tongue over a rigid tip and then drew the tight bud into his mouth and suckled gently.

Helplessly Liza ran her fingers through the thick black hair of his head and urged him to deliver the same ecstasy to its aching counterpart and he obliged.

‘You like that,’ Nick teased and then replaced his mouth with his hands, rolling the distended, dusky nipples between his thumb and forefinger, while he trailed a burning line of kisses down over her flat stomach.

He nudged her long legs apart and, swamped in sensation after sensation, Liza helped him, and when his mouth delivered the most intimate kiss of all she welcomed it. Her slender hands grasped his wide shoulders and tremor after tremor shook her whole body, her nails dug into his flesh as the pressure heightened and heightened, until she thought she would die, and then suddenly it happened.

Nick reared up and, lifting her, plunged into the shuddering heat of her in one driving movement. ‘Dios! You feel fantastic, unbelievable.’

‘So do you!’ Liza cried out as she took all of him, and as he began to move she convulsed and convulsed again in a shattering climax. Her blue eyes flew wide and collided with molten black and his dark head bent and took her mouth in a deep, almost yearning kiss.

Incredibly the pleasure was rising again as Nick moved in a sensual rhythm, a driving urgency that Liza met and matched in a primitive, wild abandon that had her whimpering and crying out with pleasure. Then she felt Nick’s ferocious tension, and one last desperate plunge that seemed to rock her very womb. She climaxed again as his great body shuddered over her. He groaned out something in Spanish but she was too far gone to hear, as his life force poured into her.

He had given her more pleasure than she had ever imagined existed, and yet when it was finally over, and their sweat-slicked bodies lay entwined in exhausted abandon, she felt the chill tendrils of fear snake through her tired mind.

Nick had only to appear for her to collapse into his arms. How on earth was she going to hide her helpless reaction to him? Nick was conceited and arrogant enough already about women if the gossip columns were to be believed. He did not need her adding to his tally.

‘Nick, Nick.’ She pushed at his broad shoulders. ‘Please get up.’

‘What?’ His tousled head lifted and he thrust up off the pillow, releasing her from his weight. ‘Flattered as I am you think I am capable,’ he lay half over her and pushed her tumbled hair back from her flushed face, ‘it is going to take me a little longer to recover,’ he teased with a lazy smile, while his fingers toyed with her long blonde hair, smoothing a few strands down the elegant line of her neck, and over a slender shoulder.

Inflamed by his teasing comment and suddenly aware it was broad daylight, ‘It’s the middle of the morning,’ Liza yelped. He knew damn fine what she meant, and she jerked her head free and wriggled out from under him, and dragged herself up into a sitting position. Nick collapsed down on his back and slanted her a wicked grin.

‘So…’ he drawled. ‘You’re not so innocent as to believe people only make love at night.’ Nick laughed.

It was the laugh that did it. Liza glanced down at him. He looked incredible, she thought, swallowing hard, his tanned torso sleek and vibrant against the blue sheets, his black hair flopping over his brow, and his sinful black eyes glinting with mocking amusement.

‘It’s not in the least amusing,’ she snapped, her temper rising, along with it a great dollop of embarrassment at how easily he had overcome her scruples about making love in his mother’s house, conveniently ignoring that she had wanted him to!

‘What will Manuel, your mother think? They might be back any minute.’ She was getting into her stride. ‘But then I don’t suppose the great Nick Menendez ever needs to consider other people’s feelings, you arrogant swine.’ She was overreacting…being an absolute bitch…but with emotions raw and new tearing at her heart she didn’t seem able to stop herself. Yet she knew it was her own sense of insecurity making her behave so unlike her usual calm self.

Nick jerked up, his lean face strong and taut, and for a split-second Liza saw a flash of raw fury in his dark eyes, and then his sensuous mouth curved in a faint smile.

‘A stickler for propriety, Liza, and this from a girl who had no qualms about rolling around with a man in the stable of this same house,’ he drawled sardonically.

All Liza’s confidence and any attempt at sexual sophistication shrivelled and died. She felt as if he had knifed her in the stomach, the pain was so intense she could not look at him. Nick had never changed his mind about her. He never would, and she had foolishly thought she could have a holiday romance.

Romance! What a joke. Sex with her was just a game to him. A game he wanted to win. The same as he won everything else he set out to achieve.

Nick saw the hurt in her eyes, before she turned her head away, and he immediately wished the mocking words unsaid. He remembered his anger at finding Liza in the arms of that boy, but he had no right to throw it back at her, and especially not when he was lying naked in bed with her. How crass was that? And totally out of character for him. For once in his life he was ashamed of himself. He admired women and prided himself on his courteous treatment of any woman he became involved with.

Was he going mad? No, it was Liza; she was driving him crazy. His usual cool control deserted him as soon as he got anywhere near her. Volatile emotions were not something he had ever suffered from and it was all her fault. His dark eyes swept over her near-naked figure and he almost groaned.

Pride and anger coming to the fore, Liza made herself look at him. ‘I was sixteen and foolish,’ she snapped, and for a second she thought he winced. No, not the mighty Nick, she told herself. ‘But I have matured and learnt better over the years.’ Head high, her eyes blazing, she added, ‘You obviously have not. You are still the arrogant, chauvinistic devil you always were. You still ride roughshod over any woman if it suits you.’ And with that she flung her legs over the edge of the bed.

There was no way Nick was letting her get away with that; his own anger rising, he grasped her around the waist and hauled her back against him. ‘Damn it, Liza.’ He fell back on the bed with a squirming Liza lashing out at him. He spun her around until she was spreadeagled on top of him. ‘Stop it, woman,’ he growled as her hands scratched his neck and, grasping a hank of her hair, he twisted it around his wrist and pulled her head down to claim her mouth with his. He was not letting her go until her temper cooled. So he kept her where he wanted her, until he felt the fight go out of her, and only then did he let her come up for air and end the kiss.

‘Call me all the names you like, Liza,’ he said roughly, planting a gentle kiss on her throat, ‘but you are wrong— I don’t override all women.’ And he kissed her again, sliding his hands down her spine and holding her close to his mighty body, his hard body… He tilted back her head, and saw the shimmer of sensual awareness she could not hide, and as he brought his hand slowly up her thigh he felt her tremble.

‘In fact I rather like a woman overriding me,’ he drawled throatily, and kissed her again. The next time he set her free and murmured, ‘Care to try it?’ Her hands were on his shoulders and his were around her thighs as he lowered her onto him.

Liza gasped out loud, her head thrown back, as he filled her so completely she thought she would faint with the pleasure. She moved with unconscious sensuality. She had never felt anything like it. Nick’s hands slid up her spine and urged her forward and he captured the peak of one perfectly shaped breast in his mouth, and her anger, her resentment no longer existed. Only the man sheathed deep inside her.

A long time later Nick chuckled, a deep, throaty sound. ‘I hate to tell you, sweetheart, but it is almost noon.’ He heard her choked gasp, and, dropping a light kiss on her swollen lips, he swung his legs off the bed and pulled on his robe.

‘Oh, my God!’ Mouth open in shock, Liza could do nothing when Nick bent down and caught her to him, and claimed a long kiss. Instinctively she splayed her palms on his broad chest, drowning in the incredible sweetness of the sensual but surprisingly tender kiss.

When he released her Nick saw the heated longing in her eyes. He knew perfectly well how he affected her. But he straightened up before he gave in to the temptation to join her in the bed again.

‘Don’t worry, there is no hurry, Liza. Lunch is about one and I’ll meet you downstairs.’ He noted the high colour in her lovely face. ‘And don’t be embarrassed. You are a very welcome guest in this house, a family friend, and I promise you will enjoy your stay.’

The kiss, the endearment and his attempt at reassurance warmed Liza’s heart, and, as she relaxed slightly, her full lips curved in a smile. ‘You’d better or I might request a refund.’

His stunning dark eyes glinted devilishly down at her. ‘A refund—no… A replay—yes.’ And he headed for the door, leaving her to interpret that as she wished.

Half an hour later Liza stood and surveyed her reflection in the cheval glass. She had swept her hair back, and knotted a white silk scarf around it. A touch of lipstick and a moisturiser for her skin was all the make-up she needed. She had opted to wear a crisp white shirt and navy trousers, a matching leather belt accentuated her narrow waist and on her feet she wore soft hide pumps. Yes, she would do… She was a bit early but she could not wait to see Nick again. She wanted to pinch herself to make sure she was not dreaming. Niculoso Menendez was her lover and she felt like shouting it to the heavens.

Instead she made her way along the hall towards the kitchen. Anna Menendez had usually kept lunch a pretty flexible affair, and she doubted anything would have changed. Five minutes later Manuel was showing her into the dining room, and she saw to her surprise there were several other guests there.

She hesitated just inside the door, suddenly overcome by nerves. She couldn’t see Nick anywhere. She scanned the room again and almost turned and ran when she realised he wasn’t there, and the other guests were all expensively attired, the men in suits and the women in designer clothes.

When she was a child visiting in the height of summer, lunch had been a casual affair and always eaten alfresco. Her own common sense should have told her in the middle of winter the dining room was a more likely venue. Except she had no common sense around Nick, and in her haste to meet up with him again she hadn’t thought. But Nick could have warned her. With all these people he must have known lunch was going to be a formal affair.

She saw Señora Menendez, and when she had recovered her poise sufficiently Liza made her way towards her. After all, she was here at the lady’s invitation. A family friend, as Nick had said. No one knew they were lovers, and if she found the thought vaguely disturbing she hid it from the woman she was approaching.

Liza had always liked Nick’s mother, a small, dark, very pretty woman, rather like Audrey Hepburn she had always thought. Today Anna Menendez was wearing what was obviously a Chanel suit. The other guests consisted of two elderly couples whom Liza had never seen before, and two young couples.

She felt rather underdressed and she could kill Nick for not telling her what to expect, and leaving her alone to face strangers. But with instant death to Nick, her nemesis, not an option…Liza straightened her shoulders and with all the poise she could muster she said, ‘Hello, Anna.’

‘Liza, how wonderful to see you again, it has been far too long.’ And suddenly Liza was being kissed on both cheeks and enveloped in a cloud of very expensive French perfume. For the next ten minutes she was subjected to a flurry of questions about her own mother and her work, and finally another invitation.

‘Your mother is coming at the end of March for Easter. We have not seen each other since she married again, but apparently Jeff has agreed to look after the business, so I am really looking forward to her stay,’ Anna told her. ‘You must come with her, we can have a real girlie break, shopping and gossiping. You must not be a stranger again. I was really angry with Niculoso for taking off to Lanzarote yesterday when he had promised faithfully to be in Granada for his Uncle Thomas’s celebration. But I totally forgive him because he found you.’ And, lifting a small, elegant hand, she patted Liza’s cheek.

‘It is great to be here. And I am sorry to hear you have been unwell,’ and, studying the older woman’s face, Liza was struck by the fact Anna looked positively blooming, her dark eyes, so like her son’s, were clear and twinkling merrily.

Anna gave her a most peculiar look. ‘Did Nick tell you that?’

‘Well, not exactly,’ Liza had to amend honestly when she thought about what Nick had actually said last night. But he had known perfectly well Liza had jumped to the conclusion his mother was ill, and played on her sympathetic nature. ‘He said you had been a bit down, but you look great.’

‘Oh, he probably meant the small chest infection I had a couple of weeks ago, but I am fine now, never better. But you know what men are, always exaggerating. Yesterday he left me a note saying he had to attend an emergency meeting with Carl Dalk and took off in the jet to Lanzarote. I doubt if it was really that vital and I expected Nick to bring Carl back with him. But instead he brought you, dear, for which I am very grateful. You didn’t happen to meet Carl, did you?’

Liza shook her head. ‘No.’ Her smooth brow creased in a puzzled frown at Anna’s revelation.

‘Maybe that’s just as well. He is very handsome and very wealthy, but what those two get up to together is anybody’s guess. I know Carl still encourages Nick in the extreme sports, long after the pair of them should have given up such things.’ She shook her dark head. ‘Still, it is lovely to have you here, and you will come back with your mother?’

Liza smiled down at Anna, feeling slightly better. ‘It is great to be here,’ she responded. ‘As for March, I will try.’ But as she said it she knew she would not. Her affair, if that was what it was, with Nick was for a limited period, and she would probably never see Anna again after this.

In fact, the more she thought about it away from Nick’s disturbing presence, the more her suspicions were aroused. She was beginning to wonder why Nick had been so eager for her to come to Spain with him for the party. Was it just her sex appeal, as he said? Hardly likely, she thought ruefully, because she’d never thought she had much. Plus Nick’s story to his mother about an urgent meeting in Lanzarote with this Carl chap didn’t ring true. Nick had spent almost the whole day and the evening with her. He could hardly have meant the two-minute visit to the building site…could he…?

‘Is Carl Dalk in the construction industry?’ Liza asked Anna.

‘No.’ Anna grinned, and stretched out an arm to show Liza a brilliant diamond bracelet. ‘This is Carl’s business, diamonds, but I get the impression from Nick all is not—’

Nick walked up behind Liza just in time to hear Carl’s name mentioned.

‘Ah, Mamma. You have met Liza,’ he interrupted quickly, cutting out whatever his mother was going to say. ‘Now, I want to steal her away from you for a moment to introduce her to Uncle Thomas.’

Liza tensed as his large hand curved around her upper arm in a firm grip. Nice of him to arrive at last, but what had got into him, interrupting the conversation like that? She shot him a puzzled sidelong glance, her resentment rising when she realised he was dressed in a perfectly tailored silver-grey suit, white shirt and silk tie. He looked magnificent and his assured masculinity took her breath away, but when her gaze reached his darkly handsome face she saw he was smiling but the humour didn’t reach his eyes; instead his dark gaze was veiled, masking all expression.

Anna Menendez, at the age of sixty, was nobody’s fool. ‘You do that.’ Her small head swivelled between the tall, beautiful girl and her huge son. The tension between the two was palpable and she knew her only son too well not to realise he was up to something. If it was what she thought it was she could not be more pleased, but at thirty-five Niculoso was very set in his ways. He had the same charm and charisma as her late husband—more, in fact. But he also had an arrogant, cynical edge where women were concerned that his father, as a happily married man, had never suffered from. ‘But I will speak to you later, Niculoso.’

Two pairs of identical dark eyes clashed, and Nick was the first to look away.

Seeing the look between mother and son, Liza knew something was going on here she did not understand. ‘Wait a minute,’ she began, turning a frowning gaze on Nick. ‘I—’

‘Later,’ Nick said smoothly, tightening his grip on Liza’s arm. ‘My uncle is dying to meet you.’ And he propelled her across the room in front of him. She looked stunning, and her behind in those trousers was doing wicked things to his libido.

Nick could not believe it! He had never known a woman in his life take so little time to get dressed, and he had known plenty. It was barely an hour ago when he had left Liza in bed, for heaven’s sake! It never entered his head she would get to his mother before he did. Heaven knew what his mother had said. But he had a damn good idea he was going to find out, and not just from Liza, but from his mother as well. Not something he was looking forward to. He doubted the man was ever born who could hide anything successfully from his own mother.

Standing at Nick’s side, Liza silently fumed, His uncle was dying to meet her? Since when? she wondered acidly. She didn’t believe it for a minute. Then, running over the conversation with Anna, she suddenly stiffened, shooting Nick an angry glance. ‘You…’ She tried to pull her arm free. He had not wanted her talking to his mother, that much was obvious.

‘I said later,’ Nick growled between gritted teeth, and then in a complete turn-about, charm oozing from every pore, ‘Uncle Thomas,’ he addressed the small man in front of them, ‘I want you to meet Liza; she is the daughter of Pamela Summers, Mamma’s English friend.’

In a flurry of introductions Liza met Thomas’s wife, Ellen, her brother, Paulo, and his wife, and discovered the two young couples were not couples at all, but the sons and daughters of Thomas and Paulo; she caught the name Marco…he looked vaguely familiar, but the rest of the names were lost.

In the general conversation that followed Liza realised Thomas and Ellen were celebrating their golden wedding. Last night there’d been a dinner at their home in Granada. The dinner Nick had missed… Today a family lunch with Anna and tonight Anna was hosting a party for all their friends and relatives.

‘I want to talk to you,’ Liza muttered in a swift aside to Nick as with a hand at her back he led her to her seat at the exquisitely prepared dining table. ‘This is a family lunch and I feel terrible, an interloper…’

But the hand Nick had at her spine slipped around her slender waist, and halted them both. He stared down at her with intent black eyes. ‘You are not an interloper. I told you before, you’re a welcome guest.’

‘So you say,’ she muttered, ‘but you could have told me…I’m not dressed.’

Nick shrugged a wide shoulder. ‘You look pretty well-covered to me,’ he drawled sardonically.

‘That is not the point,’ she snapped crossly, but before she could get another word out Nick had pulled out a chair and, with his hand on her shoulder, urged her down onto it.

His dark head bent towards hers, and he said with sibilant softness, ‘Behave yourself, Liza…nothing must spoil Thomas’s day.’

Trust him to think only of the man in the celebration and not Ellen, the wife, the chauvinistic pig… ‘What about…?’ His long fingers dug into her shoulder in a none-too-subtle threat.

‘Not now, Liza.’ His look flashed her a warning that she could not fail to recognise. ‘Later,’ he commanded and sat down on the chair next to her, his hand slipping from her shoulder to land on her thigh beneath the cover of the tablecloth.

Liza tensed in shock at his boldness and her own instant reaction to the long finger that caressed her inner thigh. She knocked his hand away, and glanced warily around, and only then did Liza realise the rest of the company had fallen silent and were watching her and Nick with varying degrees of interest. She wanted to slide under the table with embarrassment.

Surprisingly the lunch was not as bad as Liza had feared; the food was superb, and she might have quite enjoyed the spirited and lively conversation that ensued, except she could not dismiss from her mind the growing suspicion that somehow Nick’s reason for bringing her to Spain was not just because of his mother and the instant attraction between them, as she had believed.

Even admitting it had been pure coincidence that Anna had called while Liza was with Nick last night, Nick had deliberately mentioned her presence, knowing his mother would do what she had done and invite her to stay.

Liza had the nasty feeling she was somehow Nick’s second choice. His mother had thought he was meeting a Carl Dalk and bringing him back to the party. But Liza couldn’t see when Nick had had the time to meet this Dalk chap. Nick had told her he had just come from the airport and then he had spent virtually the whole day with her. Surely in the normal course of conversation he would have mentioned an urgent meeting; instead they had visited a building site for a few minutes. Maybe the two men had had some dangerous, illegal stunt in mind, like bunjee jumping into a volcanic crater in the Timanfaya National Park. According to Anna they were partners in such escapades, and then perhaps Carl Dalk had not turned up.

‘More wine, Liza?’

Liza looked up with a start, her blue eyes searching his handsome face; his expression was bland, his dark eyes revealing nothing. ‘No, thank you,’ she said firmly, recognising Nick was very good at hiding his feelings. But how much more was he hiding…?

He had been very insistent she come to the party. He had not actually lied and said his mother was ill, but he knew she had thought that was what he meant. She needed to talk to him, and she needed some answers; something smelt fishy, and it wasn’t the steak on her plate. But before she could pursue the subject Uncle Thomas asked her why a lovely girl like her was not married. Which caused great gales of laughter and a sardonic glance from Nick.

‘Because I have never found a man that suits me,’ she said with a grin. ‘Until I met you, Thomas, but unfortunately you’re taken,’ and banished her suspicions to the back of her mind in the laughter that followed.

The wine flowed freely, and when the older couples started reminiscing about the distant past, long before the rest were born, Anna suggested Nick take Liza and his cousins outside and show them his latest addition to the stables, a particularly fine racehorse.

Nick was standing, his hand on the halter of the magnificent black stallion, and smiling with obvious pride of ownership as he stroked the sleek, glossy neck. Everyone enthused over the animal.

Man and beast looked magnificent, Liza acknowledged. Two of a kind, superb male specimens. Nick looked so breathtakingly good-looking, devastatingly cool and in control of the animal. Choking back the sudden swell of emotion just watching him caused, she tore her gaze away, suddenly afraid he had been controlling her with the same accomplished ease.

She glanced around and a split-second later the colour drained from her face and involuntarily she shivered as she realised exactly where she was. The horse was in the one stall she had never wanted to see again.

Liza lifted appalled eyes just as Nick glanced in her direction, and the brilliant smile on his lean, strong face vanished as their eyes met, his expression suddenly harsh, and all her suspicions resurfaced with a vengeance.

Spinning around, Liza dashed back out of the stable, and for a moment leant against the wall, taking deep, steadying breaths, hating herself for panicking in front of everyone. It seemed in Nick’s company she could not help but regress into the besotted child she had once been, and it had to stop. Straightening up, she set off across the cobbled courtyard towards the house. To hell with Nick and his horses, she had had enough of both for the moment.

Nick handed the halter to Marco. ‘You four have a look around. I need to check on something,’ he said before he followed Liza out.

Liza had only gone a dozen yards when a strong arm wrapped around her waist and hauled her hard against a taut male body.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Nick demanded roughly.

‘Anywhere away from you,’ she shot back defiantly. She had made an enormous mistake. Nick did not need to say anything; it had been there in his face as he had glanced at her. He still thought she was no better than the slut he had accused her of being years ago, and she had compounded the notion by freely coming to Spain with him and succumbing with wild abandonment to his lovemaking. Whatever his reason for wanting her here, she was pretty sure it was not just his stated desire to sleep with her. He could have any woman he wanted, after all.

Nick hauled her around in one powerful arm and marched her towards the back of the house without a word.

‘Let go of me, you great brute,’ Liza cried, trying to break free.

‘No.’ His dark eyes without a glimmer of expression rested for a moment on her flushed, defiant face. ‘It was insensitive of me, I know, but save the recriminations until we get back to the house,’ he advised hardly.

‘Why the hell should I?’ Liza was hurting and suspicious and furious with herself for being such a push-over.

A black brow lifted sardonically. ‘Because this is a celebration, remember, fifty years married, and you are not going to cause a scene. Though how any man could stand a woman for fifty years is beyond me,’ he bit out cynically.

Hectic colour tinged her face. ‘Me, cause a scene. Your poor mother—’

‘Enough,’ Nick exploded. He was not used to having his actions questioned by anyone, and certainly not by a slip of a girl. Acting on impulse, he swung her off her feet and carried her through the kitchen, oblivious to the astonished looks of Manuel and the staff, and didn’t stop until he reached her room, and flung her on the bed.

‘Right, Liza, let’s have it,’ he demanded roughly.

For a stunned moment Liza thought he was referring to sex. Her face paled, and then a swift tide of red suffused her cheeks. ‘Why, you—’

‘My, but you do have a one-track mind…’ Nick drawled mockingly, the knowing light in his deep brown eyes telling her he had read her mind.

‘Hardly surprising around the Spanish Stud,’ she flung back.

‘Ah, Liza,’ he glanced down at her, viewing her angry expression with an indulgent smile, ‘you should not believe everything you read in the gossip columns.’ He grinned smugly. ‘Though I didn’t hear you complaining this morning—quite the contrary.’

His impregnable confidence in his masculine prowess made her temper rise to boiling point, and, leaping off the bed, she marched up to him.

‘I am glad you think it is funny.’ She poked him in the chest with a finger. ‘You conniving bas—’ Her wrist was caught in an iron grip and the insults stuck in her throat.

‘No one talks to me like that.’ Nick’s hard jawline clenched and glittering black eyes scanned her angry face. ‘Especially not a woman of your kind,’ he told her icily.

‘My kind?’ Liza repeated, a terrible coldness taking the place of her anger that he could be so callous.

‘You know what I mean, Liza. I was not your first lover and I certainly won’t be your last, though if your overreaction is anything to go by your past lovers must have been pretty ineffectual. You were as up for it as I was from the moment we met again. Why the outrage now?’ he demanded with a cruelty she would not have thought him capable of. ‘Simply because you found yourself in a stable that held a memory of a past indiscretion?’

Colour tinged her cheeks; she did not need to be reminded of her helpless surrender to his sexual expertise, and certainly not of her juvenile reaction to him years ago. ‘That is a filthy thing to say…but about what I would expect from a man of your morals.’ And, blue eyes flashing flames, she stared furiously up into Nick’s face. ‘But this isn’t about sex,’ she said, fighting to retain her temper. ‘There is something going on here that I don’t understand. Who the hell is Carl Dalk? Your mother thought you had an urgent meeting with him yesterday, and I can’t believe you would lie to your own mother but you told me you had just come from the airport when we met, and you spent the whole day with me. I am not conceited enough to think a man like you would dump an emergency meeting for me.’ Once Liza started listing her suspicions she could not stop. ‘Your mother thought this Carl chap was coming back with you.’ She fixed angry, assessing eyes on his hard face. ‘And another thing, last night you let me think your mum was ill, and yet when I met your mum she said she has never felt better in her life. Don’t take me for a fool, Nick.’

Nick absorbed her flushed and angry face with arrogant detachment. He had known it was coming but he had hoped to divert her. Liza’s mention of Carl was a little too close for comfort. Narrowed dark eyes met brilliant blue and he was impressed—not many people stood up to him or even tried. He supposed he should be flattered that at least Liza did not want to think him capable of lying to his own mother, but what to tell her?

‘Watch it, Liza, your paranoia is showing,’ he tried to tease, but she met his attempt at humour with an elegantly elevated brow. She was an intelligent woman and wanted answers, Nick recognised, and humour wasn’t going to do it for her.

‘Just answer the question,’ Liza demanded.

‘Carl Dalk is an old friend of mine and, contrary to what you assumed, I did speak with him yesterday afternoon, after I left you at your hotel.’

‘Oh.’ Liza supposed that was possible, but it didn’t strike her as very urgent if he could wait all day to meet the man. ‘Not that much of an emergency, then,’ she prompted defensively, beginning to wonder if maybe he was right and she was being paranoid…

‘My, my, Liza, you do have a suspicious mind in that very lovely body. As for Mamma, I told you she was feeling down.’ He shrugged a shoulder. ‘You drew your own conclusion.’

‘And you let me!’ Liza exclaimed, amazed at the sheer gall of the man. ‘You dragged me a thousand miles to sle…to Spain…’ She stuttered to a stop, having almost said to sleep with me and stared at him, scanning his strong dark features, the devastating face, looking for some guilt… She found none. Instead to her shame her anger faded beneath the mesmerising effect of his powerful presence. She shook her head; she didn’t understand. ‘Why?’

‘First, I don’t recall any force involved. You accepted my mother’s invitation, before I told you she had been ill. I just helped reinforce your decision when, like a typical woman, you looked like changing your mind,’ Nick contradicted silkily as two strong hands curved around her shoulders. ‘As to the why—because I wanted you; it is that simple.’ His dark head lowered, his lips feathering across hers, and she trembled as the pressure of his kiss deepened, the hard heat of his mouth burning on her own.

‘No,’ Liza groaned in denial, but couldn’t prevent the familiar heat igniting in her traitorous body.

Nick stifled a groan of pent-up desire and ended the kiss. He could not tell her the whole truth, not if he wanted to keep her safe and in his bed, and suddenly he discovered keeping her in his bed was becoming of vital importance to him. The enormity of the thought shocked him.

Defence mechanisms clicking in, Nick stilled then eased away slightly. ‘OK.’ Her head was thrown back, her eyes were closed and her cheeks were hot with colour. He couldn’t resist so he nuzzled the elegant line of her throat, heard her soft moan and sensed her fluctuating inclinations as expertly as he read the stock market.

When he finally lifted his head he saw her eyes open and the flicker of disappointment in their depths she was unable to hide. His smile was a battle between contrition and triumph. He was still in control. ‘Be honest, Liza, you know the sexual chemistry between us is too powerful to ignore,’ he prompted with total conviction.

The chemistry she could not deny, and did not try to. ‘But why did you want me to speak to your mother in the first place?’ she asked shakily, feeling her way through a minefield of conflicting emotions. He implied it was because he wanted her… She should be flattered…but something still niggled. He was an experienced man, and her own innate honesty forced her to admit she would have gone to bed with him anywhere, and he had to know that. ‘We could have stayed in Lanzarote,’ with no family and friends to bother them, she thought, but didn’t say it.

Nick slipped a hand around the nape of her neck; as she felt his fingers lacing through her hair and trying to ignore the racing of her pulse and the heat curling through her at his closeness, she repeated, ‘Why?’

‘Simple expedience, Liza.’ His dark gaze held hers with a narrow-eyed intensity that tore at her fragile control. ‘I had to return to Spain, because my mother and I are the hosts of this party tonight.’

‘Oh, yes,’ Liza murmured. She had forgotten that and felt a fool.

‘Yes, Liza.’ And he tilted her head towards his. ‘And, having just found you, I could not bear to let you go.’

Fantastic as it sounded, Liza wanted to believe him, she wanted Nick to feel just a fraction of what she felt for him, and she told herself his explanation was reasonable. But, held close to his hard body with one arm around her waist and with his other hand in her hair, she had a suspicion he could have told her black was white and she would have believed him. The raw sexuality he exuded was an almost tangible force that enveloped her practically to the exclusion of everything else. But not quite…

‘You could have just asked me.’ Liza stated the obvious, while unable to restrain a thrill of pleasure that a man like Nick might actually want her so desperately.

‘And you would have agreed to take off to another country with me for a party. Just like that?’ Nick stated with a sardonic lift of one black brow. ‘Don’t forget I remember you of old, Liza, and did not fancy getting my face slapped for my cheek.’

‘No, probably not,’ she conceded.

‘So I am forgiven, and that is our first fight over and forgotten and we can get back to more satisfying pursuits,’ he declared huskily.

No asking forgiveness, just declaring it—how like Nick, she thought dazedly as he asserted his masculine power in a wordless possessive look that ripped through the last of her defences. ‘You’re impossible,’ Liza said, her lips parting in a wry smile. ‘Your arrogant conceit never ceases to amaze me.’ But the soft glow in her expression took the sting from her words.

His dark head bent and his hand in her hair tightened, tilting her face up to his, and he brought his mouth gently down on hers. ‘Ah, but admit it, Liza. You would not have me any other way.’ He mouthed the words against her lips and then stopped her outraged gasp by the seductive invasion of his tongue.

Later she might regret it, but with pulses pounding, and the familiar ache of desire coursing through her body, her hands stroked up and over his broad shoulders, and quite simply clung…

Nick’s mouth lifted from hers, his deep brown eyes darkening with passion. ‘I would continue,’ he murmured throatily, ‘but I think I have embarrassed you enough for one day carrying you up here,’ he said ruefully, studying her beautiful, flushed face. ‘Being late for Mamma’s party would really feed the gossip mill.’

‘You’re right.’ Liza sighed her agreement.

‘I always am,’ Nick stated outrageously, and he kissed her again. The passion of his kiss was so overwhelming that she could not immediately pull herself together when he raised his head and stepped back. ‘And, before you ask, the party is formal, and I will be back here to escort you at seven.’

‘I’ll have to find something to wear,’ she blurted, grateful for something normal to focus on when Nick made pea soup of her usually astute deductive powers.

‘You do that.’ And, swooping down, he brushed her mouth with his again. ‘But I much prefer you naked.’ And left.