In the Brazilian's Debt(45)

                Decision time, she thought as Chico put his hand on her cheek                     and made her look at him. She had to decide what was important now: pursuing a                     pipe dream, or achieving a goal. Gathering herself, she refocused on Chico’s                     face. ‘I made a mistake, but I won’t repeat it. I just want to graduate and go                     home with my diploma, and for that I need your help, but—’

                ‘Dios, Lizzie, what are you saying?’ Chico’s                     expression was thunderous.

                They had stopped dancing, and all the other couples, sensing a                     drama, were giving them a wide berth. ‘If you think for one moment I would                     penalise you unless you agree to sleep with me, you have not only disappointed                     me, you have insulted me.’

                ‘Then I apologise. That was not my intention.’

                ‘Perhaps you need to think more carefully before you say these                     things.’

                ‘What am I supposed to think when you can switch off your                     feelings so easily?’

                ‘Says the woman who makes passionate love with me, and who then                     takes to the dance floor with my friend.’

                ‘It wasn’t like that.’

                ‘You didn’t dance with Tiago?’

                ‘Yes, but that was because—’

                ‘Because you wanted to show me how I must fall into line?’                     Chico suggested. ‘I don’t do falling into line, Lizzie. You either accept me as                     I am, or—’

                ‘Or I stick around until you select your next victim from the                     available pool?’

                A muscle flexed in Chico’s jaw, but to his credit he remained                     silent, but nothing could hold back all the years of pent-up longing and hurt                     inside Lizzie now.

                ‘And when you’ve had sex with them, you cast them off, while                     they look at you adoringly, thinking how lucky they were to have come to the                     notice of the Chico Fernandez for all of ten seconds—’

                ‘I’ve noticed you for a lot longer than that, Lizzie. And we                     both know that this is the hurt of a fifteen-year-old girl talking, not the                     woman I made love to.’