Читать книгу Wedding Party Collection: Proposing To The Planner: The Argentinian's Solace - Aimee Carson, Susan Stephens - Страница 14

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘SO, YOU’RE frightened of me?’ Diego observed—a little smugly, Maxie thought—when Maria had left them.

‘Rubbish,’ Maxie protested, concentrating on loading the dishwasher. She had offered to clear up, knowing how busy Maria was. She had taken up enough of the good-hearted housekeeper’s time already.

‘You can’t trust yourself to touch me,’ Diego mocked as he reclined in his chair.

‘You wish,’ she murmured under her breath.

‘Why else would you deputise Maria?’ Diego challenged.

‘You’re going to trip over that ego of yours one day,’ Maxie observed coolly, stretching up on tiptoe to put some bowls on the top shelf. ‘The only reason I asked Maria to help is so you won’t be left stranded when I leave.’

‘When are you planning to leave?’

Diego’s sharp tone surprised her. ‘My work here is almost done,’ she pointed out, turning to face him. ‘All the suppliers I need are in place for the wedding, and I’ve got a full programme of events planned. I’m only waiting for Holly’s go-ahead.’

‘Great,’ Diego said, without enthusiasm.

Springing out of the chair, he stalked to the window to stare out. She couldn’t leave. There was too much unfinished business between them. He wanted to know more about Maxie—who she was, and why she was so reticent about talking about her family. He wanted to unearth Peter Parrish, and there was always that faint chance that Maxie might be able to lead Diego to him. Either way, he wasn’t ready to let her go.

‘Good,’ he said, changing his plans as he swung round. ‘It’s time for me to go too. I’ve been here long enough, and thanks to you my leg is almost better. I’m match-fit and my horse has recovered. What point is there in staying?’ He shrugged, a little pleased to see the surprise in Maxie’s eyes.

She had put her challenge out there, hoping, she supposed, that Diego would talk her out of it, only to learn that he wasn’t going to. So this extraordinary adventure was over.

Moving things round at the sink so he couldn’t see the disappointment on her face, she resigned herself to a life of fantasy. She had seized life briefly, but then had taken fright and let it go again. ‘It will be good to get back,’ she said brightly.

‘You’re a terrible liar, Maxie.’

‘I always tell the truth,’ she argued as Diego’s lips tugged in a smile.

‘Do you?’ he said.

‘Yes,’ she said hotly.

‘I like that,’ he commented, angling his stubble- blackened chin to stare at her.

‘What?’ she said, still churning inside.

‘I like the way you’ve changed since you first arrived on the island. I like the way the buttoned-up businesswoman has lost her bit and bridle on the island.’

Yes, but he didn’t want to take advantage of it. ‘It’s just a shame you haven’t changed from the charmer who met me on the dock,’ she countered.

‘I think we’ve both changed,’ Diego argued thoughtfully. ‘But don’t change the subject, Maxie. We’re talking about you—not me. I want to know more about you.’

‘Like what?’ she said defensively.

‘I’d like to know why you shrink back into that same defensive shell every time you take a call from England.’

‘I don’t!’

‘Don’t you?’

She exclaimed with shock when Diego dragged her close. ‘So who is the real Maxie Parrish?’ he demanded. ‘Is it the buttoned-up businesswoman with the weight of the world on her shoulders? Or is it the firebrand who tore up the road on my bike?’

She tried to fight him as he kissed her, savagely and without break. Balling up her fists, she thrust them against his chest, only to encounter solid rock, but Diego broke away as quickly as he had claimed her.

‘When are you going to be honest with yourself, Maxie?’

She was still shaking, her hand across her mouth as if that could hide the proof her arousal. How could she have allowed this to happen again? She stared at Diego with furious eyes, wanting to throw a punch at his arrogant mouth. She wanted to spit in his black, piratical eyes. She was panting and furious and—and inconveniently aroused, Maxie admitted silently as she fought for control. And while the urge to pummel the living daylights out of Diego was certainly one option, he had lit something inside her that refused to be extinguished.

Grabbing hold of him, she yanked him close and took what she wanted, and as much as she wanted, for as long as she wanted, until with a fierce, angry sound she let him go.

‘Dios!’ Diego murmured, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he stared at her in amazement. ‘I knew I was right—but not that right!’

‘Don’t flatter yourself,’ she flashed.

Turning abruptly, she left the room.

* * *

What now? Maxie asked herself, furious at her loss of self-control as she stalked across the courtyard on her way to who knew where. By the time she reached the fence surrounding the paddock where the horses were grazing she was ready to admit she had actually followed her inclinations for once.

Climbing up a rung of the fence, she leaned her chin on her arms. Actually living life wasn’t half bad, she reflected, tentatively examining her lips with the tip of her tongue, though perhaps in future she should spend a little more time thinking about the consequences of her actions before putting them into practice. Diego had turned the tables on her pretty comprehensively, leaving her lips with a swollen and throbbing reminder of how thoroughly she’d been kissed. Plus, he was right again, Maxie conceded with a rueful sigh. There was definitely passion lurking inside her somewhere.

‘Now you’ve got that out of your system, are you ready for your first riding lesson?’

A lightning strike couldn’t have shocked her more. Wheeling round, she took in Diego’s dark, amused gaze at a glance. ‘Riding lesson?’

‘Unless you don’t feel up to it?’ he said, lips pressing down in a mocking reminder of her exhaustive assault on him.

She held the stare with a cool one of her own. ‘I’m up to it,’ she said, wishing the imprint of Diego’s hands on her body hadn’t left quite such a searing brand.

‘I have just the horse for you,’ he said, smiling pleasantly, which in itself was enough to make her suspicious.

‘Would that be a stamping stallion to cart me off? Or a donkey?’

‘You’ll just have to rely on my judgement,’ he said, and with one last amused look he vaulted the fence into the field.

Maxie studied Diego’s powerful, athletic body as his easy stride ate up the distance across the field. Riding lessons had never been like this before. He returned with a mild grey pony and, tacking up, showed her how to hold the reins. Cupping his hands, he offered her a leg up. She was careful not to touch any part of him she didn’t have to as she lowered herself gently onto the saddle.

‘Are you listening, Maxie?’ Diego demanded after they had been walking for a while.

‘Of course I am.’ She dragged her gaze from his wild, thick hair.

‘Then loosen the reins,’ he said impatiently.

She did so as she took in the wide sweep of his shoulders. Diego was such a big man. If a man that size made love to her would she enjoy it, or would he prove too big for her?

‘Put your heels down,’ Diego rapped in a voice that definitely suggested she had missed something. ‘Aren’t you listening to a word I say?’ he demanded.

‘I’m hanging on your every word,’ she said solemnly, and for the pony’s sake she would try. She was enjoying the gentle rocking movement of the horse—enjoying the chance to be close to Diego too, without the need for combat or conversation.

‘You’re a good pupil,’ he remarked when he drew the pony to a halt.

‘With an excellent teacher—even if he is a little impatient.’

Diego’s glance sent heat streaking through her. She should know better than to challenge him. ‘Well,’ she said, turning in the saddle to gaze back at the house, ‘I should be getting back.’

‘I thought you said you had finished your work?’

‘I have, but—’

‘You have calls to take?’ Diego suggested.

Warning signals flattened her enjoyment of the last hour. ‘I’m due to ring Holly with a report,’ she said quickly.

Diego released the pony into the field, and they were walking back to the house when he started to ask her more questions about her family. She didn’t want to lie, but she wasn’t going to betray her father’s trust, either. ‘There’s just me and my father.’

‘And that’s it?’ Diego pressed, frowning. ‘No husband? No partner? No special boyfriend?’

She laughed. ‘No one. Don’t look so surprised. It works for me.’

‘I think what you mean is it’s all work for you,’ Diego remarked dryly.

Just when she had relaxed into a laugh, he went on, ‘So, no brothers or sisters, Maxie?’

‘That’s it,’ she confirmed. ‘You only think it’s odd because you grew up in a crowd. What was that like, by the way?’ she added, determined to steer the conversation away from herself.

‘Noisy and chaotic.’ Diego shrugged. ‘Nacho brought us up. We gave him a hard time. No privacy—’

‘No wonder you like it here,’ she said. ‘And it must have been fun when your friends came round—all this space?’

‘Yes, it was,’ Diego agreed gruffly. ‘So what about your father, Maxie? Do you see a lot of him?’

‘No,’ she said quickly. Too fast. Alarm bells were ringing loud and clear now. Why the sudden interest in her father? She had done everything she could think of to protect his anonymity—booking him into a private nursing home under a different name where the staff was both loyal and discreet. ‘Why are you so interested in my father?’

‘Just curious.’

Her father’s bungled business interests had never stretched to South America, of that much she was sure. He’d been ill for years, so he could never have met Diego—unless Diego had been just out of school.

‘His name isn’t Peter, is it?’ Diego prompted lightly.

Maxie’s heart stopped, and then began racing uncontrollably. ‘No. Why?’ That was not the name her father went under at the nursing home. She hated lying to Diego, but tell one person a secret and they told the next one, who told the next one, and in no time the whole world knew.

‘I knew someone once with the surname Parrish,’ he said with a dismissive shrug. ‘That’s all.’

‘Common name,’ she confirmed. She didn’t know a lot about her father’s business interests, other than to say he’d used to run a small and not very successful investment outfit. She couldn’t imagine a wealthy South American from a polo playing family having anything to do with such a small-time broker, and it was a relief when Diego started to talk about a swimming machine for horses that strengthened their legs.

But just when she was relaxing into that topic he threw another curve ball. ‘So you don’t like talking about your home life, Maxie?’

‘Only because there’s nothing to tell…’ Diego was way too perceptive, and she only now realised that her hands were clenched so tightly she was in danger of drawing blood from her palms.

When they got back to the house he made some excuse to put some space between them. He wanted to call his investigator. He had lots of gaps to fill in now.

‘Thanks for the riding lesson,’ Maxie said when they parted in the courtyard.

The blush in her cheeks suggested Maxie was remembering more than riding his horse. It made him keener than ever to find out the truth, and for his investigator to confirm that Maxie had nothing to do with Peter Parrish. She stood up to him like no other woman apart from his sister, and he liked that. He liked it a lot. In fact, Maxie Parrish was turning out to be the most intriguing and complex woman he had ever met.

If only he could bury the past once and for all…

He was confident Ruiz was right. There were countless people with the surname Parrish—and he hated the dark, twisted part of him that said nothing in life was ever that easy.

* * *

Diego’s mouth firmed even as his heart lifted when Maxie walked into the kitchen that evening. He stared at her, hunting for something dark beneath those clear grey eyes, but there was nothing outwardly to suggest that Maxie might have any connection with Peter Parrish. He had still had no answers from his PI yet, but despite Ruiz’s belief that the two were unrelated Diego still held a niggling doubt he could not explain.

‘Good evening, Diego.’

‘Good evening, Maxie…’

Putting down his newspaper, he registered the smell of soap and some light scent she was wearing. Fresh jeans and a long-sleeved white top made her look young, casual and relaxed. Her hair was still a little damp from the shower, and the thought of burying his face in the silky flesh above her shoulder was intoxicating. There were so many ways he could put his dark thoughts behind him…

He settled for leaning back in his chair and putting the first part of his plan into action. ‘I imagine you have plenty of work waiting for you in London?’

‘Yes,’ she said.

Actually, there was quite a gap in her schedule, Maxie silently acknowledged. Not knowing what she would find when she reached the island, she had built in some extra time to allow for a change of venue had that proved necessary.

‘Good.’ Diego’s lips pressed down with approval. ‘I’m very pleased to hear it.’

Was he? Something in Diego’s voice wasn’t quite right. This thought was followed by a shiver of foreboding for which she had no explanation.

‘Supper,’ he announced as Maria came bustling between them with steaming plates of hot food.

‘Yes,’ Maxie murmured, accepting everything was indeed normal as she shook herself round.

* * *

He spent another restless night making plans. Keeping Maxie close was number one on his agenda. He wanted to know more about her, but he also acknowledged that he wanted her in his bed.

Fortunately, Holly provided him with the perfect excuse when she rang him first thing. ‘The charity event?’ he murmured, his mind racing as a plan began to take shape in his head. ‘Of course I haven’t forgotten about it.’ Ideas were coming thick and fast now. ‘Of course I’ll be home. I can’t organise it from a distance, can I?’ he said, dangling some tasty bait.

‘But you know someone who can?’ Holly prompted with a smile, supplying him with exactly the right cue.

‘Do you mean Maxie?’ he said, injecting surprise in his voice.

‘Who else but Maxie?’ Holly demanded, laughing at his apparent slowness to catch on.

‘I suppose I could approach her…’ He said this thoughtfully. ‘We’ll just have to hope she can work our charity event into her schedule.’

‘If you ask her she will. I know she will. Please ask her, Diego!’

‘All right,’ he agreed indulgently. ‘For you, I will.’

* * *

Maxie woke slowly and cautiously, and then groaned when she remembered everything that had happened the day before. Touching her lips before she had even opened her eyes, she hummed in rueful confirmation that they were still swollen, and that the area round them was still abraded where Diego’s sharp black stubble had raked her skin. She reached for the pot of moisturiser by the side of her bed. She couldn’t possibly afford an affair with Diego. She’d have to start buying face cream in bucketloads.

There was no chance she was going to have an affair with Diego, Maxie told herself firmly as she got out of bed. She was a realist, who was going to pack and get ready to go home.

Showering and dressing as fast as she could in T-shirt and jeans, she raced downstairs. A couple more photographs and one more report to the bride and she was done—out of here with her reputation more or less intact. By some miracle, Maxie concluded, as her body warmed just at the thought that Diego might be around.

Maria greeted her gaily with, ‘Buenos dias, señorita.’

‘Buenos dias, Maria.’

‘Señor Diego is waiting for you outside.’

‘He is?’ Maxie’s heart began to thunder as she glanced out of the kitchen window.

‘Your riding lesson,’ Maria trilled.

‘I thought I had one yesterday?’

‘Practice makes perfect,’ Maria assured her with a twinkling smile.

Maxie wasn’t so sure about that. Grabbing a piece of toast and an apple, she paused to give Maria a hug. ‘You’re the best,’ she said, giving the smiling housekeeper a squeeze before taking her concerns outside. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself as she stared up at the man on the back of the impossibly fired-up stallion. ‘Good morning, Diego.’

‘Good morning, Maxie.’

Hmm. Something wasn’t right here. Diego was holding the mild grey pony on a lead rope at his side, while his mighty stallion pawed the ground and snorted imperiously. All right so far. It was just that look on his face—confident and…sexy. She laughed when the grey gelding turned a patient face towards her as if to say, These guys are a pain, aren’t they?

‘Yes, they are,’ she said, stroking the grey pony’s velvet muzzle.

‘Who is what?” Diego demanded suspiciously as his stallion’s bridle chinked an impatient warning.

‘You don’t need to know,’ Maxie murmured, resting her cheek against the pony’s warm, firm neck for a soothing moment.

‘Are you ready for your second lesson?’

‘As I’ll ever be,’ Maxie agreed, wondering where this one would lead.

‘Good. And I’ve got something else for you to consider.’ Springing down, he looped the stallion’s reins over his arm and helped her to mount up.

‘Tell me?’ she prompted once she was settled in the saddle.

‘I’ve got another job for you—if you want it?’

She couldn’t afford to turn work down. And she’d do almost anything to spend some more time with Diego, Maxie realised. Which was both dangerous and absurd.

‘We hold a big charity event in Argentina every year at the estancia,’ Diego explained as they started off down the path.

Maxie’s mind automatically switched to business, and was soon filled with plans to ship things out to South America, along with the additional complication of sourcing dependable operatives without actually meeting them. Argentina…

‘I take it you’re pleased with my work?’ She had to bat away seductive images of the wild pampas, and everything that went with it.

‘Holly’s very pleased with the work you’ve done here,’ Diego explained. ‘She’s passed on that enthusiasm to the family. They want you to run things for us—as I do.’

‘How can I help?’ she said, desperately hanging on to a hank of mane as Diego urged their horses into a trot.

‘Think Mardi Gras—parades, floats, stalls, fireworks and music…lots of music,’ he called back over his shoulder, encouraging their horses to go faster.

‘Mardi Gras is a little out of my range,’ Maxie admitted hanging on for dear life.

‘That’s something that can be addressed, surely?’ Diego countered.

‘Can we slow down if we’re going to discuss this? It’s hard to talk when my teeth are clattering like castanets.’

‘Of course,’ Diego agreed with an amused look. ‘Though all I need to know at this point is do you want the job or not, Maxie?’

‘I’d love to pitch for it,’ she admitted. With most of the loose ends tied up here, there was that gap in her schedule.

‘I think you can take it you’re the preferred supplier.’

‘That’s great.’ She could hardly refuse another big job. ‘I’ve just got one reservation.’

‘Name it.’

‘Will it include a polo match?’

‘Of course.’ Diego laughed. ‘But we’ll handle that. You just have to do everything else.’

‘So, let me get this straight. You want me to arrange a charity event in Argentina the same way I’ve handled Holly’s wedding—that is to say by e-mail and by phone?’ She was already setting up the building blocks in her mind, Maxie realised. Apart from her personal concerns she would never refuse to help a worthy cause unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

‘I was thinking of something rather more hands-on than that,’ Diego admitted, slanting a look at her.

‘Like what?’ Maxie’s antennae were already pinging warnings.

‘You’d have to come to Argentina so you can see for yourself what has to be done.’

Her heart was banging in her chest, and it took her a jolting bounce or two before she was ready to speak. ‘I’m afraid I can’t,’ she said then.

‘Why not?’ Diego demanded.

‘Because my responsibilities keep me at home—I have a business to run.’

‘Which you have proved you can run from anywhere in the world. Argentina is hardly as isolated as this island.’

And it was a great opportunity. So why did she feel that same shiver of apprehension, as if invisible walls were closing round her?

‘You won’t even have to sail a boat to get there,’ Diego was telling her. ‘I’ll fly you there in the jet.’

‘How exciting.’ Under other circumstances she might have been overwhelmed by Diego’s offer—but right now? She would be on his territory, and a long way from home.

But then he hit her with the clincher. ‘Holly will be in Argentina at the same time as you, and as she travels the world with my brother this might be the only chance you two get to meet face to face before the wedding. My family needs you in Argentina, Maxie. And don’t forget I need my therapist,’ he added with a grin. ‘Come on,’ he pressed. ‘Why the hesitation? Is it really so hard to visit Buenos Aires and the pampas and earn lots of money? You can’t let us down,’ he added, baiting her with his dark, intense stare. ‘I’ve told my brothers all about your magic hands and they can’t wait to meet you.’

Oh, great. The thought of meeting the Acostas en masse was daunting enough without that. Yes, but how many years of fees at the nursing home would a commission like this pay? Could she afford to refuse Diego’s offer if it secured her father’s future?

‘You’re making good progress with your riding,’ Diego observed, forcing her back to full attention. ‘I think you’re safe to go a little faster.’

‘No,’ she exclaimed.

‘Do you mean the riding or the event?’ Diego called over his shoulder.

‘I’m happy to accept the job,’ she called back tensely.

‘Excellent. I’m sure you won’t disappoint us, Maxie.’

‘I never accept a commission unless I’m sure I can exceed a client’s expectations.’

But this time she might have bitten off more than she could chew, Maxie conceded when she saw the expression on Diego’s face.