‘I beg your pardon?’
‘The whole family knows. It was a standing joke. Every time Maria Cristina made it known that she had issued another invitation for you to visit, she left the country soon afterwards!’
‘Say that again,’ Georgie invited breathlessly.
‘She confided in Tia. That is how I know. In her innocence, Maria Cristina wanted to bring you and Rafael together, and obviously you persuaded her to do it!’
‘Then how do you explain the fact that I didn’t come to her wedding?’ Georgie was in a daze, but a great whoop of laughter was mingling with her incredulity.
All these years she had believed that her best friend was entirely ignorant of her feelings for Rafael. But Maria Cristina had clearly known all along and kept quiet, perhaps out of respect for Georgie’s apparent wish for privacy. And, in her own uniquely scatty way, Maria Cristina had tried to throw them together… by ensuring that if ever Georgie did arrive in Bolivia she would find herself stranded and forced to contact Rafael.
‘And I was so very disappointed when you failed to show…’
Both female heads spun. Rafael was poised several feet inside the door, a curious half-smile playing at the corners of his sensual mouth as he looked at Georgie. ‘Did you know that Maria Cristina knew about us?’
‘But does she? Or was it just me—I mean my feelings—she guessed at?’ Georgie stumbled awkwardly. ‘I never told her anything!’
‘Neither did I.’
‘You don’t understand, Rafael,’ Beatriz put in with distaste. ‘The woman you are on the brink of marrying plotted and planned to throw herself in your path—’
‘How flattering,’ Rafael drawled.
‘And, what is worse, she manipulated Maria Cristina into doing her bidding.’
‘My sister has the temperament of a mule,’ Rafael said drily. ‘I don’t think anybody has ever manipulated her into doing anything she didn’t want to do.’ He switched smoothly to Spanish and, a moment later, Beatriz went puce, stood up, stalked out and left them alone.
‘She said you were betrothed as children.’
‘Our fathers certainly discussed it, but she was only a child at the time and there was no formal betrothal. However, when I remained single, Beatriz began to nurture certain ambitions,’ he volunteered. ‘She has a keen sense of her own many virtues and will undoubtedly make someone a splendid wife, but she lacks any sense of humour and, between you and me, I would as soon take a refrigerator to bed!’
A startled giggle erupted from Georgie, and then her face tightened worriedly as she searched his. ‘I didn’t do what she said… and I can’t believe that Maria Cristina deliberately invited me here, knowing she would be abroad.’
‘If my sister did, I should be very angry. To strand a young woman in a foreign country where she does not even speak the language is not a joke.’
‘All the same, I think I could forgive her.’
‘You may amuse yourself ferreting out the truth when she arrives this evening.’
‘Maria Cristina’s coming tonight?’ Georgie flew to her feet. ‘And I haven’t even told her—I didn’t even ask you for her phone number!’
‘She doesn’t know about the wedding. I swore Antonio to silence,’ Rafael admitted mockingly. ‘She doesn’t even know you’re here.’
‘I really can’t believe we’re getting married tomorrow,’ Georgie confided helplessly.
‘What could possibly go wrong now?’ Encircling her with his arms, Rafael eased her close and, briefly, she rested her cheek against his shoulder, drinking in the scent and feel of him.
‘I’m not sure I can handle being so happy,’ Georgie whispered unsteadily.
‘Are you happy?’ Narrowed dark eyes roamed over her upturned face. ‘Is the past finally behind us?’
Georgie shrugged playfully, her fingers flirting with his silk tie and lingering to splay against the muscular breadth of his chest. ‘What past?’
A lean hand clamped over hers, his gaze turning incandescent gold with hunger, his expressive mouth curling with amusement. ‘I’ve been wondering… where did you pick up those moves you unleashed on me that night in the Ferrari?’
Georgie reddened. ‘Magazines.’
He looked down at her for a stunned instant. ‘What sort of magazines?’
‘Perfectly respectable women’s magazines…’ Georgie shifted sinuously against him, eased her free hand below his silk-lined jacket and skimmed her fingers along his waistline, feeling the muscles in his flat hard stomach jerk tight in involuntary response. ‘And you know something, Rafael… it was all true. You reacted like a textbook case and then you blew it,’ she sighed.
‘The next time you do that I want you to…’ And as he bent his dark head down and told her in explicit language exactly what he wanted her to do next, she went hot all over and weak at the knees.
When his mobile phone buzzed and took him off to the library, Georgie felt bereft. She also felt a little embarrassed for herself. Every time she got within hailing distance of him, she behaved like a wanton. The intense sexual attraction between them just took over, but she couldn’t help being aware that Rafael’s control was far stronger than hers. Maybe she should be playing it more coolly. If she didn’t, Rafael was likely to tumble shrewdly to the fact that she simply couldn’t keep her hands off him because she loved him and that was the only way she had of expressing those feelings.
In the late afternoon, she was fixing flowers in the hall, cheerfully unconcerned by the knowledge that she had no hope of matching Beatriz’s magnificent arrangement in the drawing-room. When she heard the helicopter flying in low, she didn’t even lift her head. Helicopters came and went on a regular basis on the estancia. About five minutes later, however, Teresa came rushing in from outside. ‘Your brother has come, señorita!’ she gasped, out of breath. ‘I not expect, nobody tell me he was coming. Where do I put a brother
to sleep?’
‘Steve”? Steve’s here?’ Georgie interrupted in astonishment, the flower she had in her hand dropping unnoticed to the polished floor.
CHAPTER TEN
GEORGIE flew across the gardens and sighted Steve’s familiar, broadly built figure, the sun glinting on his thatch of blond hair. A delighted smile lit up her features as she raced up to him. ‘How on earth did you know where I was?’ she demanded.
Steve studied her with a tight mouth. He looked pale and strained, almost as though he had been bracing himself for a far less welcoming reception. ‘I received a call from our mutual parents.’
‘But I haven’t been in touch with them—’
‘Berganza is having them whisked off their ship and flown out here for the wedding, I believe.’
‘Gosh…he thinks of everything, doesn’t he?’ Georgie shook her head slowly. ‘I didn’t like to mention them coming because I thought I’d left it too late. He must want to surprise me.’
‘How sweet of him,’ Steve sneered, his pale blue eyes cold with condemnation. ‘Thanks for telling me you were getting married. You came out here just to run after him, didn’t you? You never let on to a soul what you were planning!’
‘Because I didn’t plan it! It just happened,’ Georgie muttered, taken aback by the attack. ‘And OK, I know you don’t like him but, for my sake, surely you can grit your teeth and be pleasant?’
‘I’m hoping to take you back home with me.’
‘No chance. I love him,’ Georgie said baldly. ‘Please don’t spoil things, Steve.’
‘You’ve been out here…what? A week? And you’re marrying him? Have you lost your mind? Have you forgotten what he did to you the last time?’
‘There was a misunderstanding which I don’t want to go into,’ Georgie said awkwardly. ‘And I appreciate that you think I’m jumping in feet first, but maybe you should know that Rafael was going to ask me to marry him back then—’
‘Like hell he was!’
‘You haven’t seen the mermaid taps.’ For a moment, Georgie looked positively smug.
‘I don’t know what the blazes you’re talking about and, to be blunt, I don’t care! I’m taking you back to London with me right now—’ A large hand clamped round her slender forearm.
Georgie gazed up at her stepbrother in disbelief. ‘Have you gone mad? I’m getting married tomorrow.’
‘He’d make you bloody miserable. He’s a womaniser, Georgie. If he’s willing to give you a ring, it’s only because that’s the only way he can get you!’ Steve said unpleasantly.
‘Don’t be stupid… Look, what’s the matter with you?’ Georgie shot at him with shocked eyes. ‘Why are you acting like this?’
‘Get your hands off her.’
Georgie’s head spun. Rafael was standing about ten feet away, both fists clenched. He wore an expression of chilling menace. ‘Oh, no, don’t you start,’ she snapped in exasperation. ‘What is the matter with the two of you?’
‘You were safe,’ Rafael drawled at Steve, his golden features set with blistering derision. ‘You were safe, though you didn’t know it. I had no intention of telling her.’