Exotic Affairs(117)
‘Okay?’ he repeated quizzically. ‘Just like that?’
‘Mmm.’ She snuggled herself into his warm, muscled strength. ‘This is too nice to spoil by talking about nasty things. And anyway, I’ve got far more pressing concerns on my mind right now.’
His eyes began to gleam, the humour she could see running through them heating her blood.
‘Shopping!’ she announced in mock censure. ‘I’m talking about my need to go shopping for some fresh clothes, since you abducted me with only enough clothes to last me three days! And I want to buy a really expensive bridal dress with all the trimmings,’ she tagged on, right out of the blue. ‘Because if I have to marry you then I insist that you let me do it in style!’
In the startled silence that followed his eyes narrowed slightly, as if he was reading a return to the old bitterness in what she’d said.
It wasn’t there. And a moment later she was being loved again—which she much preferred to talking.
They stayed in that hot, dark, old-fashioned hotel room all night, and made love and ate paella cooked specially by the hotel proprietor’s very eager wife, and slept in each other’s arms and awoke there. It was the first time Caroline had woken up to find him still there beside her. It made an oddly painful impression on her to realise that.
The next day Luiz had them flown to Cordoba, where Caroline played the future bride to a wealthy man to the hilt and shopped until she dropped. She was bright, she was flirtatious, and she was enchanting to be with. And if Luiz looked at her strangely now and then, as if he was trying to work out what was making her behave this way, Caroline just smiled at him, or kissed him, or demanded more money from him, diverting the risk of any questions.
Because how did you explain to someone like him that while reading his father’s diaries she had come face to face with the real Luiz Vazquez? She understood him now, and hurt for him, and loved him more deeply than she dared let herself dwell upon.
Even if Luiz could never come to love her in the same way that she loved him, then she could live with that—just. Because the other thing she had learned while reading those diaries was that love was not automatically given back by right.
CHAPTER TEN
THEY arrived back at the valley to find yet another wave of changes had been wrought while they had been away. The garden had been decorated with fairylights, the castle itself cleaned and polished to within an inch of its life, and the construction of a long banqueting table was in the process of being completed in the main hall as they walked in the door.
‘You are pulling out all the stops, I see.’ Felipe’s lazy drawl emerged before he did, from a dark corner of the hall.
He had a habit of doing that, Caroline thought as she took a small step closer to Luiz. His hand closed round her hand.
‘If one has to marry then let no detail be overlooked,’ he mocked. ‘No festive trick be ignored.’
His derision was acute. Caroline wanted to hit him for being so mean-mouthed. But Luiz took the criticism in his stride. ‘It must be the hotelier in me.’ He smiled. ‘If there is one thing I have learned to do well, then it is to put on a good party.’
‘With the relatives obediently gathered around you to help you celebrate.’ Felipe nodded. ‘It is quite extraordinary what healthy quarterly allowances can make people do that they normally would not deign to tolerate.’
‘Is that why you decided to hang around, Felipe?’ Luiz countered curiously. ‘Because you see the need to secure your quarterly allowance?’
‘I have money of my own,’ he declared, but Luiz had hit a raw nerve. ‘My father did not leave me quite destitute.’
‘No, he left you a finca in the Sierra Nevada and the means to make a success of it, if you could be bothered to try.’
‘While you get all of—this…’ Felipe’s smile was rancid. ‘Tell me…’ Suddenly he turned his attention on Caroline. She stiffened instantly, sensing it was her turn to receive the whip of his nasty tongue. ‘How did the poker game between your father and Luiz end? There are a lot of people who must be dying to know…’
He must have been there, in the casino, when Luiz had issued the challenge to her father, Caroline realised as she felt her cheeks grow pale. Her hand twitched in Luiz’s, in a silent plea for him to answer that question.
He tightened his grip a little, but surprised her by saying absolutely nothing. Instead he lifted his free hand and gave a sharp click of his fingers. Without warning, Vito Martinez materialised in front of them. Big and broad and built to smash rocks against, he stood waiting for Luiz to speak.