She had been shipwrecked on a desert island fit for a queen.
Her upbeat mood changed abruptly when she remembered Tiago's parting words. Even here, in this cosy suite of rooms, a shiver ran through her. She had been telling him how much she loved his home when he'd replied, ‘This is what money can buy, chica. This is what you can buy now.'
It all came down to the ranch for Tiago, and he thought she felt the same about money.
* * *
When Tiago returned from his tour of the ranch everything moved towards the wedding at breakneck speed.
‘I had wanted time for you to get used to your surroundings,' he explained the next morning with a careless gesture, ‘but there is no time. The clock is ticking. I must marry before the week is out if I am to fulfil the terms of my grandfather's will.'
And there was no chance he would risk reneging on that, Danny thought, though now she'd met the people on the ranch she could understand why.
‘Will there be enough time to arrange everything?' she asked with concern.
‘You knew the terms of our agreement before you left Scotland,' Tiago said impatiently, ruffling his thick black hair.
‘Yes, but-' She pulled herself up. ‘I hadn't expected it to be quite so soon.'
‘I factored in the inconvenience element when I calculated your payment.'
His words hurt. Tiago could be charm personified, or he could be as he was now-a warrior, ruthless and driven, a man who had paid a lot for his bride. And now it was payback time.
She had to remind herself that this wasn't a love-match but a marriage of convenience-for expediency, and to ensure her mother's future as well as her own.
They were standing in a field where foals were grazing, and she guessed Tiago had brought her here on purpose, so she would be relaxed when he dropped the bombshell of their marriage happening by the end of the week. He must have known how quickly they would have to be married before they'd left Scotland, but had chosen not to tell her. Perhaps because he'd been worried that she'd change her mind.
Her hope for a happy-ever-after future had always been slim, but now it drained away into the ground.
Sensing her tension, Tiago wheeled around to pin her with a stare. ‘I thought I had explained quite clearly the urgency of this situation?'
‘You did.' She was a ‘situation' now.
‘We should get the contract signed.'
‘Yes.'
She would sign. She wouldn't go back on her word. She would make the best of this situation, and commit to a life she couldn't imagine. It would be a life with the man who had won her heart in Brazil, but a life in which she neither belonged, nor would be able to distance herself.
When Tiago started walking back towards the house his face was set. ‘Let's get this thing done. I want you to check the contract over carefully-make sure you agree with all the terms before you sign.'
How cold-blooded could a wedding be?
She was about to find out.
She had always had such soft, romantic dreams about her wedding day...the wildflowers she would wear in her hair. Everyone would walk to the kirk in the village of Rottingdean and there would be a party afterwards in the village hall. Everyone would help out and contribute something. It would be such a happy day-a simple day, a precious day full of memories...the type of memories she would treasure for a lifetime.
That was her dream. The facts were somewhat different. It sounded as if there was going to be a rushed ceremony-possibly with witnesses she didn't even know.
Tiago was striding ahead of her. His transformation into gaucho was complete. The unforgiving pampas had carved him. Even his clothes had changed. There was nothing designer about his clothes now-nothing of the playboy. He wore threadbare jeans with worn leather chaps over them, and a red bandana secured his wilful hair. His boots were tooled leather, and he carried a lethal-looking facón-the vicious knife that gauchos wore-hanging from their belt.
It was hardly possible to believe that this rock-like individual was the same sophisticate who had joked and laughed and made her feel good about herself on Chico's ranch.
Tiago had stopped abruptly-but not to wait for her. He was staring at some horses in the field-evaluating them, counting them, maybe, though she suspected he knew every head of stock. Compared to his ranch, she was nothing. There were no sacrifices Tiago would not make, no lengths he would not go to, to keep this land.
She could always change her mind.
Could she? Signing this contract was a way forward for her-the best and perhaps the only way to secure her mother's future.
* * *
‘Now you understand why I must do this,' Tiago said with confidence as he laid the contract down in front of Danny on his desk. ‘You've only seen a fragment of the ranch, but enough to know that it must be saved.'
She wouldn't disagree with him, Danny thought as she took her time to check the contract, line by line. It was everything she had asked for, everything she had read on the screen of his phone-not a line had been changed.
‘A year...' she murmured, wondering if it would be a happy year, or a year of torment for them both. And then something mischievous occurred to her, right out of the blue. ‘How many relationships have you had that have lasted a year, Tiago?'
He narrowed his eyes and she could practically see his hackles rise. ‘I don't understand what that's got to do with this.'
‘How many?' she pressed.
Raking his hair with an impatient gesture, he decided to ignore her question. ‘Are you going to sign this or not?'
She guessed he had never stayed with a woman for as long as a year. Tiago was sailing into uncharted waters as much as she was. If he had ever enjoyed a long-term relationship the press would have seized on it. What the press would make of their marriage she didn't know-and didn't care, either. This was a private arrangement between the two of them. The world would have to make of it what it wanted.
He held out his pen. She took it and signed her name, and Tiago countersigned the document after her. She stared at their signatures and felt cold inside. She had no idea what Tiago felt. Relief, certainly, but she doubted whether he felt anything more.
What had made him this way? she wondered. The polished playboy of the polo circuit seemed far happier and more relaxed here on his ranch, working alongside the gauchos. The thought that she had just contracted to marry a man she didn't know did nothing to reassure her. She should have listened to those rumours of the lone wolf. If she had she wouldn't be here now, with her heart yearning for a man who thought of her only as the means to an end.
‘So you're rich now,' he said. ‘How does that feel?'
‘Strange,' she admitted.
Stranger still was the fact that she had never felt more impoverished in her life.
* * *
What had she done? Danny wondered as she watched Tiago cross the yard. She had to shake off this feeling of doom. She was about to join one of the finest horsemen in the world and work alongside him. What could be better than that? The wedding would happen when it happened, and in the meantime she would concentrate on everything Tiago could teach her about the ranch.
Maybe that would bring them closer. If not love, then maybe they could pick up their friendship and make the year ahead bearable for them both. That shouldn't be too hard when they shared so many interests.
Deciding to act as if this were just a new and exciting day in Brazil, rather than the start of a new and uncertain life, she leaned over the fence of the corral where Tiago was working, telling herself that she would get through this, and would learn a lot along the way.
‘Would you like to try?' Tiago called to her softly.
He didn't take his attention off the young colt he was training for a moment. The pony was trembling with awareness, and it was one of the most valuable animals on the ranch, Tiago had explained.
‘You'll let me work with him?' Danny asked with surprise.
‘Why not? You're good.'
She couldn't pretend that didn't thrill her.
Taking care to shut the gate silently, she joined one of the best horse-trainers in the world. Working alongside Tiago would be the greatest opportunity of her life.
‘Now, watch how I do this,' he said after a few moments.
Watching Tiago was no hardship. She watched his lips move when he spoke. She watched the muscles flex in his arms as he worked with the pony. She watched his hands soothe and stroke with exquisite sensitivity-
‘Concentrate,' he said softly.
She hated it that he knew what she was thinking.