Dutifully Fliss raised the glass of red wine to her lips and breathed in its heady bouquet, intrigued by the hint of what smelled like scented blossom mixed with the rich smell of the wine itself, before taking a cautious sip. She had been right to be cautious, Fliss recognised, as she felt the wine’s full-bodied warmth spreading through her body.
‘It’s excellent,’ she told Ramón truthfully,
‘It is Vidal who deserves your praise, not me.’ Ramón smiled. ‘It was his idea to import some new vines from a vineyard in Chile in which he has a financial interest, to see if we could replicate the excellent wine they produce there.’
‘What we have produced here is unique to this area.’ Vidal joined in the conversation. ‘Something of the smell of our orchards has been incorporated in the wine.’
‘Yes, I noticed that,’ Fliss agreed, taking another sip from her wine glass. The wine really was good. Its scent was making her want to bury her nose in the glass to breathe in more of it.
‘Vidal said that he wanted to produce a Merlot that reminded him of riding through the orchards on a warm spring morning,’ Ramón enthused. ‘A lovers’ wine that is full of promise and the joy of being alive. It has been very well received in the industry. I think, Vidal, that we should perhaps have named it for Señor Felipe’s oh-so-beautiful daughter,’ Ramón told Vidal, giving Fliss another admiring look.
Vidal felt as though someone had sliced straight into his gut as he watched Fliss smile warmly at Ramón. She had not mentioned there being a current man in her life, but even if there was, given what he knew about her, she was hardly likely to think it necessary to stop at one—especially when she was far away from him.
Abruptly he stood up, announcing brusquely, ‘We should make a move, I think. You will report back to me about that problem with the irrigation system before tonight, please, Ramón. If we are going to have to get a senior engineer out I would prefer it to be tomorrow, whilst I am still here.’
‘I’ll go and find out what’s happening,’ Ramón confirmed, rising from his own chair and then coming to hold Fliss’s chair for her with a courtly gesture as she too moved to stand up.
Excusing himself to go and get on with his work, Ramón left Fliss and Vidal to walk out into the early-afternoon sunshine together.
Since she had expected that her father’s home would be within walking distance of the castillo, Fliss was surprised when Vidal placed his hand beneath her elbow to direct her back towards the car. She could feel first her arm and then her whole body burning with the heat caused by her proximity to him, causing her an immediate panic and a need to get away from him. It would be unbearable if he should guess the effect he had on her. Fliss could just imagine how much he would enjoy the humiliation that would bring her. But no amount of fear of that humiliation though was enough to stop her nipples from hardening to push determinedly against the covering of her bra and her dress. It was almost as though they wanted to shame her by flaunting their arousal and their willing availability in front of Vidal.
Angry with herself, she took refuge from her unwanted sensual vulnerability to him and her inability to control it by telling him scornfully, ‘I suppose it’s beyond your dignity as a duke to walk to the house?’
This drew a grim look from him as he told her coldly, ‘Since it’s a mile-and-a-half walk along the road, or a mile as the crow flies, I thought it would be easier to use the car. However, if you prefer to walk …’ He looked down at Fliss’s flimsy sandals as he spoke, causing her to recognise with a new surge of anger that he had won that particular run-in between them.
They had travelled quite a distance down the long drive, in a silence that bristled with mutual hostility, before Vidal announced in a peremptory tone that would have immediately got Fliss’s back up even without the added insult of what he had to say, ‘I must warn you against indulging in a flirtation with Ramón.’
‘I was not flirting with him,’ Fliss snapped in outrage.
‘He made it plain that he found you attractive, and you allowed him to do so. Of course we both know how eager you are to accommodate the desires of any man who chooses to express them to you.’
‘Trust you to throw that in my face.’ Fliss tried to defend herself. ‘You just couldn’t wait to do so, could you? Well, for your information—’
‘For your information,’ Vidal interrupted her coldly, ‘I will not have you indulging your promiscuous sexual appetite with Ramón.’