Exotic Affairs(103)

No wonder he had left it so long without bothering to go and meet his inheritance face on, she grimly concluded. For Luiz was not a fool; he knew what he was going to find waiting for him. Which left begging just one more question she couldn’t leave unasked.

‘Our marriage?’ she prompted. ‘What has it to do with all of this?’

For a moment she thought he wasn’t going to answer. His mouth was tight, his eyes shot through with a hard glitter as they followed the snaking line of the road ahead. Then, ‘Our marriage is the means by which I put them in the cold,’ he replied. ‘For by my father’s decree they may continue to live in the castle only until I marry.’

His ruthless streak was showing again. And Caroline was beginning to feel sorry for Luiz’s new-found family. She had a horrible feeling they had no idea what kind of man it was who was coming to meet them today, or they would have packed their bags and got out before he arrived.

‘Ever heard of the word forgiveness?’ she advanced huskily.

‘Forgiveness is usually only given to those that want it,’ he replied.

Slick and shrewd though his reply was, it still made her shiver. She fell silent after that. And they didn’t speak again throughout the miles they ate up until they entered the sleepy little village of Los Aminos.

‘We’ll stop here for some lunch,’ Luiz decided.

Caroline didn’t demur. She was beginning to feel stiff and thirsty, and a break for lunch was a preferable option to keeping on driving towards she knew not what.

Luiz found a little café with wooden tables set outside beneath a faded blue awning. Pulling into the kerb, he climbed out of the car, then stood stretching taut muscles while he waited for Caroline to join him. The inn wasn’t what you would call a fashionable place, but the basket of bread and bowl of crisp salad they were served were fresh and tasty.

She asked for a Coke, and Luiz did the same, then they sat sharing the lunch between them as if they did this kind of thing all the time. But the silence was still there, pulsing between them.

Reaching for another thick chunk of bread, she asked, ‘How much further?’ in an effort to break the deadlock.

‘Same again,’ Luiz answered briefly, while reaching for some more bread himself.

She huffed out a weary sigh that turned into a yawn. The day was hot and the air was humid, and she had lied about sleeping well last night, so now she was beginning to feel the dragging effects of hardly any sleep at all.

‘Tired?’ Luiz asked.

‘It’s the heat,’ she blamed. ‘And the travelling. Where did you sleep last night?’

And she could have bitten off her tongue the moment she caught the sudden gleam in his eyes. ‘Missed me, did you?’ he murmured silkily.

‘No,’ she denied. ‘I slept like a log.’

‘Well, I missed you,’ he told her huskily.

Warily she glanced up, thinking he was just teasing—but he wasn’t. And the atmosphere between them suddenly took a violent change. He was looking at her as if he was seeing her sitting there naked.

She looked away again quickly—but not quickly enough to stop her insides from coiling tightly, and she could feel a sensual tingling between her thighs.

‘We could go somewhere,’ Luiz suggested.

Caroline almost choked on her bread. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? She picked up her Coke and gulped at it in an effort to disperse the bread.

‘You only have to say yes…’

Oh, for goodness’ sake! she thought. ‘No, Luiz!’ she whispered hoarsely. And made the mistake of looking into his eyes again.

They were on fire. He wanted her. And he wanted her now! ‘Stop it,’ she breathed, feeling her cheeks begin to glow, and sent trembling fingers on a wild foray of the salad bowl—only to meet his fingers halfway, because he was reaching for her.

It was like making contact with a high-voltage cable. Caroline snatched her hand away on a sharp gasp; Luiz did more than that—he released a low, short, explicit curse, then lurched angrily to his feet.

It a state of near shock, because she didn’t know what had happened between them, she watched him dig into his pocket for some money and toss it onto the table before reaching out to grab her hand.

And this time there was no snatching it back as if the contact was too electrifying to tolerate because Luiz wasn’t letting go. He turned and began striding off down the sundrenched and dusty street, trailing her behind him like some recalcitrant child he was taking off to be smacked.

She wanted to protest—demand where he thought he was going, when the car was parked the other way! But the sheer ferocity etched into his lean face was enough to keep the words locked up tight in her throat.