Exotic Affairs(106)

‘Both things could happen just as easily in a five-star hotel,’ Luiz pointed out dryly.

But Caroline shook her head. ‘If this table had had ink spilled on it in one of your hotels it would have been replaced with a nice new one before you had a chance to blink. No soul in that, Luiz,’ she told him sagely. ‘No soul at all.’

‘So you like all things old and preferably flawed.’ He smiled. ‘Is that what you’re saying?’

‘I like some things old and sometimes flawed,’ she amended. ‘I also like new, so long as it tells a story. I like interesting,’ she decided that said it best.

‘Well, I think I can probably promise you interesting where we are going,’ he said.

And suddenly the cynicism was back. Impulsively Caroline reached for his hand across the table. ‘Don’t, Luiz,’ she pleaded. ‘Don’t spoil it.’

He glanced down to where her hand covered his. His expression remained cast in stone for a while, then he released a small sigh, turning his hand to capture hers, and got to his feet, pulling her up with him.

His mouth was gentle on hers—seeming to be offering an apology. But when she made a move to deepen the kiss he withdrew, and his expression was still closed when he said, ‘We really have to be going.’

The afternoon of near perfect harmony, she realised, was over…





CHAPTER EIGHT


LEAVING Los Aminos behind, they began another twenty miles or so of driving before they would reach their destination. As the car ate up the miles so the scenery changed, from sprawling plains into rolling hills at first, then eventually into a more rugged terrain, where the hills took on the shape of forest-covered mountains.

The quality of the road they were travelling on changed also, narrowing to little more than a single car width as it wound them upwards on a steep climb that hugged a mountain face on one side and left sheer drops into deep ravines exposed on the other.

‘How much further?’ Caroline asked, beginning to feel as if they had been climbing for ever.

‘The next valley,’ Luiz replied. And his tension was back, in the clenched jawbone, the white-knuckled hands gripping the steering wheel.

He didn’t want to come here, she silently reiterated. He didn’t want to be this person who had to meet with people who were already programmed to hate and resent him.

And there was a hint of ill-omen in the way the air on the mountain suddenly turned colder, raising goosebumps on her arms she rubbed at with a small shiver.

Instantly Luiz touched a switch that changed the air conditioning from cold to warm. ‘You should have brought a sweater,’ he said.

‘If I’d known where we were coming, perhaps I might have thought of that myself,’ she smiled ruefully.

‘There’s a car rug on the back seat if you—’

‘I’m fine,’ she softly assured him, wishing she could say the same about Luiz. But he was far from fine, she observed worriedly. For the higher they climbed the more tense he became.

‘You could always make the grand gesture and pass everything over to your half-brother then just walk away,’ she gently suggested.

His dark head shook. ‘That isn’t an option,’ he stated.

‘Because you feel he owes you for the years you had nothing while he had everything?’ she posed.

‘Because it just isn’t an option,’ he repeated in a tight voice that warned her that she was prodding what was really a very dangerous animal, the way he was feeling right now.

On a sigh, she took the hint, and fell silent. They were driving between the tall peaks of two mountains now, still hugging the side of one while the other stood guard in the distance. And really, Caroline observed, if they didn’t reach the valley soon then the only place left for them to go would be off the side of the mountain, because surely they couldn’t climb any higher?

Then—without warning—it finally happened. They rounded a deep bend, suddenly found themselves driving through a split in the mountain—and there it was.

The most beautiful place Caroline had ever seen in her entire life.

‘Oh, Luiz,’ she breathed, while he seemed to freeze for a couple of taut seconds, before bringing the car to a stop.

After that they both sat there and just stared in breathless awe at what had opened up in front of them.

The Valle de los Angeles… It could not possibly be anything else, Caroline decided. And they’d caught it at probably one of its most perfect moments, with the late sun pouring fire down its lush green slopes to brush everything on the wide valley bottom with a touch of sheer magic.

Directly below them blushing white-painted buildings stood clustered around a tiny church sitting in the centre of the village square. From there, and running parallel with the valley, snaked a gentle stream with a narrow dirt road running beside it through line upon line of what looked like fruit trees planted in uniform rows.