Читать книгу The Montoros Dynasty - Джанис Мейнард, Katherine Garbera - Страница 13

Seven

Two hours later, after a sumptuous lunch of roasted pork and summer squash, Maria found herself with Bella in the backseat of a large, luxuriously outfitted van. Up front, Gabriel sat at the wheel with his brother in the passenger seat. Alex occupied the middle row, flanked by two large coolers filled with beverages and snacks.

Maria eyed the coolers with misgivings. Exactly how long was this trip? Eventually, they pulled into a nondescript gas station and met up with their guide, who then led them in his ancient pickup truck out to the docks where the boats were tethered.

On the upside, the airboats appeared to be modern and well maintained. The padded seats, three and three, were elevated to provide the best vantage point for viewing wildlife. But there was no railing of any kind.

Bella took her arm. “We’ll give you the seat in the middle.”

That was some small comfort. Maria had assumed Alex might want to sit beside her, but he joined Rafael in the other row. Leaving Gabriel to flank her opposite Bella.

When the guide handed out headphones to block the noise of the motor, Maria eyed her set askance, deciding that she’d rather be deaf than have that thing pressing on her injured head. Gabriel fished out a plastic-wrapped pair of earbuds from his pocket. “You may not need any of this. It’s up to you. But I brought you these, just in case.”

“That was sweet of you.”

He shook his head ruefully. “Merely my guilty conscience at work.”

As it turned out, the airboat was noisy, but not incredibly so. The pilot scudded rapidly through the waterways until they reached the Everglades proper. Now he slowed the pace, sliding over the surface of the water as they entered the grasslands. Birds flew everywhere. One of the first varieties of wildlife they spotted in the water was not an alligator at all, but actually a banded snake that turned out to be very rare.

In the midst of the beauty and wonder of it all, Maria forgot to be afraid. Almost. The vegetation was lush and the heat oppressive. Before starting out, she had pulled her hair into a high ponytail and donned a hat and dark sunglasses. Even so, the saunalike atmosphere was sweltering. Soon they were deep in a mangrove swamp. The creek they traversed narrowed in spots until there was barely room for the boat.

All the while she was conscious of Alex sitting behind her. What was he thinking? Maybe not about her at all. Perhaps last night meant nothing more to him than a bit of fooling around. The thought left a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. And the taste of shame.

It was one thing to initiate something that might be serious, but another entirely to think that Alex saw her as an easy mark.

When Gabriel touched her arm, pointing out a bald eagle, she forced herself to ignore Alex completely. The Everglades were fascinating, 4,300 square miles, a river of grass...unlike anything she had ever seen.

Again, she asked herself why the Montoros would choose to go home to Alma. For the generation sitting in the boat today, Alma was no more home than it was to Maria. She had chosen to move there so she could keep her job when the Ramons relocated their oil business. But for Bella and Rafael and Gabriel, there was nothing but the history in dry books to tie them to the island nation. Who could expect them to tear up roots and make a new home four thousand miles away?

After they had been touring for an hour and a half, the captain steered the boat to a halt and tied it to an outcropping of bushes. Maria looked around with a frown. “Why are we stopping?”

Rafael spoke up. “We like to explore the island. You can get a feel for what it was like before humans came.”

“Um, no thanks. I’ll wait for you here.”

The other four and the grizzled captain stared at her.

She shrugged. “I looked up fatal alligator attacks on humans on the internet yesterday afternoon. I’ll be fine right here. I promise.”

The captain chewed a toothpick in the side of his mouth. “Reckon you’ll be safer on land. No gator’s gonna go after six adults together. But one might take a notion to climb into an empty airboat.”

Maria scrambled onto shore without another word, enduring the laughter that followed her. The men set up a folding table and some deck chairs. Their guide started opening the coolers and pulling out packets of boiled shrimp and French bread.

The meal had a surreal feel to it. Though Alex still avoided her, she found a quiet pleasure in the day. This trip to the States might be her last chance to travel for many years. Her position paid well as such jobs went, but if she planned to help her mother retire early, there would be little extra money, certainly not for worldwide jaunts.

The negatives facing her had piled up; the negotiations in particular were not going well. Alex was giving her the cold shoulder. She had a bruise the size of a small country around her eye, with a headache to match. But even so, she couldn’t be sorry about today. The Montoros were fun and interesting people. She was seeing an ecosystem that was both fragile and starkly beautiful.

When the meal was finished, the Montoro siblings squabbled about how to pack up the leftovers. The guide headed back to the boat. For a moment, Maria and Alex were isolated in a bubble of silence a few yards away from the others. She summoned her courage and spoke her mind. “Are you angry with me, Alex?”

She saw a muscle in his throat work. “No. Of course not.”

“You’ve barely looked at me all day. I can’t help thinking the change in you is about last night.”

Beneath his tan he was pale. He glanced around, perhaps hoping for rescue, but the Montoros were oblivious. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said.

Her temper flared. “Oh, please, Alex. Don’t lie to me. Surely I deserve better than that.”

He clenched his jaw, perspiration beading on his forehead from the thick, heavy air. “It isn’t the time or place to talk about this.”

“This what?” she asked, her gaze curious, though she knew exactly what he meant.

“We made a mistake,” he said through clenched teeth. His voice was low, barely audible. “We’re here in Miami to do a job. We have to finish writing the proposal and we have to convince them to sign it. We don’t have the luxury of...” He trailed off, but his meaning was clear.

“I see.” Hurt made her breathless. Emotion stung the backs of her eyes, but she wouldn’t cry. Her injury and her restless night had left her defenses at low ebb. “I won’t mention it again. It was nothing anyway.”

* * *

Alex watched her walk away from him and wanted to curse long and loud. The very thing he’d hoped to avoid had happened. He had hurt Maria, and all because he hadn’t been able to resist touching her.

She joined the Montoro siblings, pitching in to clean up the last of the picnic debris. When Gabriel suggested a short walk, Maria nodded. That told Alex more than anything about the state of her mind. She would rather venture into a cypress swamp rife with alligators than remain in his presence one second longer.

He let them go, unable to stomach the sight of Maria’s arm tucked in Gabriel’s. As the foursome wandered off, Rafael and Bella joked about “lions and tigers and bears, oh my.” Gabriel merely kept Maria close to his side, promising to defend her to the death. His dramatic vow made Maria laugh. Alex kicked a root at the happy sound, his thoughts grim.

It was becoming clearer every day that Gabriel Montoro liked Maria. A lot. In a romantic way? Who knew...? But Alex needed to back off or risk damaging the relationships that were integral to the success of his mission for Alma.

As he sat on the airboat and listened to the old captain tell stories of the Florida that existed before Disney and the interstate highway system, only half of Alex’s attention was engaged. He was debating his options. He could send Maria back to Alma on some pretext. That would put an end to his temptation, and she would also be out of Gabriel’s reach.

But the idea lasted only a nanosecond. Maria was a gifted, hardworking member of the delegation, and she deserved this chance to shine. Alex had no right to kick her off the team; nor did he have the moral imperative to step in between her and Gabriel.

His conclusions were sound. But he didn’t have to like them.

In another twenty minutes, the explorers returned to the boat, all in one piece as Gabriel pointed out, poking Maria in the ribs with a sly smile.

“No thanks to you,” she said, settling into her original seat and sparing no glance for Alex.

The captain started up the boat, and the rest of the afternoon passed without incident. To Alex’s critical eye, Maria seemed to flag by the end of the day, but he had abdicated any right to check on her well-being. When the Montoros dropped off Alex and Maria at the guesthouse, Maria disappeared into her bedroom without so much as a word.

Though they later rode in a golf cart together up to the main house, the journey was silent.

Dinner that night was both pleasant and awkward if such a thing was possible. Isabella was in attendance, her wheelchair pulled to the edge of the table at Rafael III’s right hand. Her nephew encouraged her to tell stories of the old times, and the elderly woman did so with enthusiasm.

She’d had one of her rare good spells today. Though her body trembled and her voice was weak, it was clear to everyone present that her spirit was unquenched. Isabella had been a very young child when the royal family was overthrown. In all likelihood, she didn’t actually remember any of the details. But the tales of the traumatic events had been repeated often as she grew up, and to her, the end of the Montoro reign was still vivid.

Alex knew—as did her family, he supposed—that Isabella would not be happy until another Montoro ascended the throne that was rightfully theirs. She was in a fragile state. The span of her life was uncertain. What would happen if she died before a decision had been reached? Would the Montoro family choose to stay in Miami?

Alex had plenty of questions and not enough answers.

Gabriel asked Maria to stay for coffee after dinner adjourned. He glanced at Alex. “I’ll bring her home before curfew, I promise.”

Alex managed a smile, but his gut churned. Walking out of that house and leaving Maria with Gabriel was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do. The hollow feeling in his chest told him he was in deep trouble. He had been lying to himself about the intensity of his feelings for Maria.

With that knowledge came stinging regret. Had he crushed something new and beautiful beneath the heel of his duty and ambition?

He should have been proud of his dedication and resolve.

But it wasn’t pride that kept him awake until three in the morning, when he heard the front door of the villa open and shut...

* * *

By Monday morning, Maria was able to conceal most of the vestiges of her contact with Gabriel’s spiked volleyball. The swelling around her eye had gone down, and, with artful concealer, her appearance was close to normal.

She had never been more thankful for the presence of the lawyer, Jean Claude. Having a buffer meant that she and Alex were able to work side by side on the draft of the official proposition without acknowledging the events of the weekend. By noon, they were so deeply involved in the knotty questions of language and ceremony that personal situations were pushed aside.

The document was shaping up nicely. Alex and Maria were composing the actual words. Jean Claude was guiding them with the necessary legal language. The collaborative effort flowed well, though as Maria worked feverishly at her laptop, transcribing the conversations, she couldn’t help but wonder if all of this would be in vain.

That night she ordered room service for dinner and fell into bed soon after, too tired from the intensity of the day’s efforts to do more than dream of Alex. The same pattern repeated itself for the following three days. On Friday morning, the rough draft of the document was complete. Though satisfying, it was only the first step. It would have to be faxed to the prime minister back in Alma. In addition, the entire delegation was to meet the following week to pick it apart and look for weaknesses.

Unfortunately, Jean Claude received a phone call midday summoning him back to Alma for a family funeral. Harried and sad, he offered Alex a bulging folder. “You and Maria can handle editing and polishing over the weekend. Here are all my notes. I’ll check in with you before Monday to see if you have any questions.”

When he was gone, the silence in the room became oppressive. Maria swallowed hard. She and Alex had shared barely half a dozen personal words since the day of the airboat ride. She hated the rift between them. For years they had worked together in harmony.

Even when she was promoted to a new position and no longer reported directly to Alex, they still had frequent contact in the Department of Commerce. And of course, here in Miami, he was her boss. She had been thrilled to be picked for the delegation, especially knowing it would be a chance to work with Alex again.

Since coming to Miami, she’d seen him in a new light—in all honesty, as a potential lover. And it had seemed to her as if Alex was experiencing the same shift in dynamics. There was awareness between them. An unspoken bond that had bloomed out in the open in Miami’s atmosphere of hedonism and fun.

Their first kiss had rocked her...had forced her to be honest with herself about the fact that her admiration for Alex had segued into something much deeper and more volatile. She wanted him.

When she was injured and he cared for her with such wildly intimate results, she’d been sure he was feeling the same desperate, crazy passion that she was. But almost in the next instant, he had shut her down. Which said that his emotions were unengaged.

He might have a physical response to her as a woman. But she needed and wanted far more. So much more.

“Shall we continue?” she asked. “With the editing, I mean.”

His face was hard to read. “I think not. We’ve worked incredibly hard this week. Why don’t we take the rest of the day for ourselves? Call a truce. Play tourist.”

Her heart sank. He was offering an olive branch at the worst possible time. “That’s very kind of you, Alex. And very tempting. But I’m meeting Bella and Gabriel and Rafe for an early dinner.”

His dark eyes flashed fire for a brief second before his expression shuttered. “I see.”

She shoved her hands through her hair. “No. I don’t think you do. They’re concerned about the future. And they know I’m not a native of Alma, so they think I can be objective.”

“And can you?”

The derision in his voice hurt. “I’ve given a hundred percent to the work of the delegation. And I’ll do everything in my power to convince them the monarchy is important for everyone.”

“Anything else?”

The sarcasm was overt, but she was angry enough now not to be affected by his scorn. “If you must know, I’m trying to get closer to Gabriel.”

“I’ll bet you are.”

“Oh, grow up,” she said. “Somebody has to ferret out his bad-boy secrets, not to mention defusing anything that might embarrass the Montoros once they return to Alma.”

“And that has to be you?”

“Do you have a better idea? He likes me. I think he trusts me. So I’m going to use that connection to do my job.”

Alex’s glare could have melted a Titanic-sized iceberg. He held up his hands, his cheekbones streaked with color. “Don’t let me stand in your way, Ms. Ferro. Good luck.”

Fury sent her across the room to go toe-to-toe with the irritating man. “I can’t believe I ever thought you were a nice guy. You’re overbearing, hostile, argumentative—”

He shut her up abruptly by the simple expedient of slamming his mouth down on hers. Neither suave nor sophisticated, the move reeked of desperation.

Shock held her immobile for two seconds before she put her hands on his shoulders in a token attempt to shove him away. “I won’t let you kiss me,” she muttered. But her arms curled around his neck and her lips parted to allow his tongue entrance.

She was so damned mad at him, but somehow all that feeling transmuted into hunger that consumed her from the inside out.

He wedged a leg between hers. “I don’t know what to do about you, Maria. God help me, I don’t.”

With some last vestige of self-respect, she jerked out of his embrace. Her knees trembled, and she could barely breathe. But she wouldn’t let him toy with her emotions. Not like this.

She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, trying to eradicate the taste of him. “You need to make up your mind, Alex,” she whispered raggedly. “Either I’m a valued employee or a prospective lover or a gold digger looking to marry into the royal family. When you figure out the answer, be sure to let me know.”

Walking toward the door, she stopped abruptly and gave him one last withering glance. “I’ll see you here Monday morning at nine o’clock sharp. If you need any edits on the document over the weekend, email them to me. I think it would be better for everyone concerned if you and I stay away from each other.”