‘When I leave for Buenos Aires in two days’ time you and my son are coming with me for an extended holiday…a holiday during which time a marriage between us will take place—the marriage that should have taken place five years ago!’

‘What?’

‘You heard me. And when you return to the UK it will only be for the purposes of winding up your business and closing it down.’

‘Closing it down?’

‘Sí. It is in trouble anyway, is it not? It can only be a relief to put it behind you. Once you are back in Buenos Aires, instead of running a business you will have to get used to fulfilling the role of my wife instead. Do not worry, Briana…’ Pascual’s dark-eyed gleam was deliberately provocative ‘…there will be plenty to keep you occupied as far as that position is concerned…’

The day Maggie Cox saw the film version of Wuthering Heights, with a beautiful Merle Oberon and a very handsome Laurence Olivier, was the day she became hooked on romance. From that day onwards she spent a lot of time dreaming up her own romances, secretly hoping that one day she might become published and get paid for doing what she loved most! Now that her dream is being realised, she wakes up every morning and counts her blessings. She is married to a gorgeous man and is the mother of two wonderful sons. Her two other great passions in life—besides her family and reading/writing—are music and films.

Recent titles by this author:

BOUGHT: FOR HIS CONVENIENCE OR PLEASURE?

PREGNANT WITH THE DE ROSSI HEIR

THE SPANISH BILLIONAIRE’S CHRISTMAS BRIDE

THE RICH MAN’S LOVE-CHILD

THE
BUENOS AIRES
MARRIAGE DEAL

BY

MAGGIE COX

MILLS & BOON®

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Trish May your love and appreciation of beauty continue to lift your spirits and give you wings to fly!

Table of Contents

Coverpage

Excerpt

About the Author

Other Books By

Title Page

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

RETURNING from his morning hack beneath the dazzling Palermo sunshine, Pascual Dominguez cantered into the relative cool and shade of the stables and dismounted. Patting his steed on the rump as a groom promptly materialised, he ordered the young man to turn the pony out into the field after he had seen to him.

He was in good spirits. After a family party last night in honour of his forthcoming marriage he was looking forward to having his fiancée Briana to himself again in a couple of hours, after she had finished work.

There had been far too many people there last evening for them to grab even one moment together, but tonight they would be having dinner at his favourite restaurant, and afterwards he fully intended that she would be spending the night with him, prior to enjoying a few days together before the wedding. Time alone away from no doubt well-meaning family and friends…just the two of them.

Briana had turned Pascual’s well-ordered world upside down and that was a fact! Never having dreamed that such a powerful instant connection with a woman would ever come his way, every day he woke and counted his blessings.

From practically the moment he had set eyes on the young English nanny his friends Marisa and Diego de la Cruz had hired to take care of their baby girl, Briana Douglas had become the sole focus of all his hopes and dreams. She had consented to become his wife, and now he found himself counting the days to their wedding.

Whistling softly beneath his breath, he found his housekeeper waiting for him as he strode through the opened double doors of the main house. A frown puckered the friendly, still smooth olive-skinned features that belied her years.

‘What is it, Sofia?’ Pascual arched a dark brow, an inexplicable dart of apprehension shooting through him and making him feel suddenly cold.

‘Señorita Douglas came by while you were out riding…’ the older woman began.

‘Where is she?’ he interrupted, gazing impatiently round the stunning marble vestibule.

‘She did not stay, señor.’

The housekeeper was delving inside the pocket of her long black skirt for something. In the next instant she handed Pascual a slim white envelope. The cold feeling inside him deepened to ice.

‘She told me to give you this letter.’

‘Gracias.’ He all but snatched it from her hand and headed towards the grand winding staircase, taking the steps two at a time before she’d barely finished speaking.

In his personal suite of rooms, he started to rip open the envelope, now frankly hating the presentiment of doom that seemed to be clutching his vitals in a vice. What was wrong with him? Was he coming down with something? With his wedding only days away, he sincerely hoped not. Standing by the opened balcony doors of his sitting room, he felt a gentle welcome breeze that carried the enticing scents of jasmine and honeysuckle ripple across the single page of cream vellum notepaper that his hand clutched so avidly.

As he started to read, the icy sensation that had gripped him sickeningly intensified.

Dear Pascual

Where do I start? This is so hard for me to tell you, but I have decided that I can’t go through with our marriage after all. It’s not because I have fallen out of love with you or anything like that. My feelings are still as strong as ever. But I have increasingly begun to realise that a marriage between us could never really work. The reason is that our backgrounds and who we are as people are just too different. I’ve tried discussing this with you, but you always tell me there is nothing to worry about and I am just inventing problems where there are none.

I’m afraid you’re wrong. Ultimately our vast differences can only impinge negatively on our relationship. Already there have been repercussions within your family because you want to marry an outsider. They mean the world to you, I can see that, and I don’t want to come between you and for you to gradually grow to resent me because of it. So, rather than cause any worse heartache by staying and watching what we have slowly disintegrate, I have made the decision to go back to England and resume my life there.

I realise this news will come as a tremendous shock to you, and I am so sorry for any hurt or grief I may cause, but I believe that ultimately this is the right decision for both of us. You have been so good to me and I will never forget you, Pascual, no matter what you might think as you read this letter. I’m also sorry that you have to be the one to tell everyone that the wedding will not be taking place after all—but, having come to know your family a little, I am certain that this news will only confirm their beliefs that I was totally unsuitable for you in the first place.

Please don’t try to contact me again. That’s all I ask. It would only prolong the pain for both of us, and I think it’s best if we just make a completely new start. Take care of yourself, and I wish you only good things—now and always. All my love Briana.

‘Dios mio!’

As wave after merciless wave of disbelief, hurt and disappointment submerged him, Pascual scanned the letter again, hardly able to take on board the devastating contents that had been so cruelly revealed to him. She had left him…Briana—the woman of his heart—the beautiful girl he had fallen so hard for almost on sight and had been going to marry—had left and gone back to England, without even having the guts to tell him to his face the unbelievable decision she had made.

Last night at the party she had seemed so happy. Hadn’t she? Now he remembered that later on during the evening at his parents’ house she had been looking a little tired and strained, and he had longed to get her alone and find out what was troubling her. In the end—because his friends had not wanted him to desert the party too early—he had conceded to stay and had got his chauffeur to drive Briana home, thinking he would see her tonight and get to the bottom of her disquiet then.

It was too cruel to realise that his intention would now never materialise because she had elected to leave rather than wait and talk to him. Why had he not listened to what she had tried to tell him before? he asked himself, anguished. Clearly Briana had believed there definitely were problems, even if he had not. But how dared she assume that she knew what was ‘ultimately best’ for both of them? She was merely speaking for herself…not for him!

Suddenly feeling that the generously sized room had become a stifling prison, the growing need inside him to escape and breathe some fresher air galvanised him into unhappy action. Throwing the letter down on a nearby bureau, he once again went outside. A violent expletive left his lips as he strode purposefully out into the hot mid-morning sun, the heels of his hand-crafted, made-to-measure calf leather riding boots ringing out clearly on the bleached white cobblestones before him.

For the second time in his thirty-six years he had been brought starkly face to face with what loss meant and it had left him reeling. The year he had turned thirty his best friend Fidel had lost his life in a horrific car crash, leaving behind a wife and child. Pascual had been brutally awakened to the fact that life was short—and what was the use of having great wealth at his fingertips if he had nobody significant to share it with? Soberly he had reflected on the future and realised that he craved a wife and family of his own. But in his hopeful search for a mate it had unfortunately transpired that he had given his heart to a woman who had clearly thought so little of his feelings that she imagined it was nothing to him for her to simply walk out without warning or giving him proper explanation.

Again it hit Pascual that Briana had left and such was his agony of spirit that for a moment despair almost brought him to his knees. Why had she not trusted him enough to talk to him about her doubts for their future—if doubts were what she had had? As far as he was concerned right now, her actions put her beneath his contempt! His only consolation was that he hoped she would come to bitterly regret her hasty desertion of him and suffer accordingly.

Because he would not go after her…Not for a second time would he invite her rejection of him—no matter how desperate he might become to see her again in the following few days, weeks, years. And if he ever happened to discover that she had left him because of the unthinkable…because she had fallen in love with somebody else…then he would honestly curse her to the very end of his days…

Five years later, London, England.

‘Was that the postman, love?’

‘Yes, Mum.’

Staring down at the slim brown envelope that she’d retrieved from the mat, Briana felt her heart drop like a lead weight inside her chest. If she wasn’t mistaken it was another missive from the bank, and this time maybe the threat of a court summons that had been hanging over her head for weeks now had become a horrible reality.

Just eighteen months ago the hospitality business she had set up, providing administrative and organisational services for visiting business people from abroad, had been flourishing almost beyond her wildest dreams. But since the threatening global recession had taken a grip the way Briana’s thriving business had started to plummet was no joke. People were not so eager to use less well-established businesses like hers when other, more long-standing companies could risk undercutting their fledgling competitors and charge less for the same services.

She had a son to raise and rent to pay—and how was she going to do either of those things when there was barely enough money coming in to feed them, let alone pay bills?

‘Briana? Are you going to come in and have some breakfast with me and Adán before you leave for your weekend away?’

‘Of course. Just give me a minute, will you?’

Stuffing the offending envelope unopened into her bag, Briana sighed heavily. She had no intention of sharing with her mother the news that she had received yet another worrying letter regarding her debt. Frances Douglas would sell the clothes from off her back if it would help her daughter and grandson make ends meet, and she had already threatened to take a second mortgage out on her own house to help them. She had done enough. Without her help Briana wouldn’t have been able to set the business up in the first place. Now it was up to her to get them out of the hole they were in.

Pushing her fingers resignedly through the mane of silky brown hair that seemed to have a mind of its own, she returned to the kitchen with a deliberately cheerful smile on her face. Her young son was seated up at the breakfast bar on a high stool, eating his cereal, and his grandmother was busy slotting two slices of wholemeal bread into the toaster.

The child beamed when he saw Briana. ‘Mummy, this is my second bowl!’ he happily announced, milk glistening on his small dimpled chin.

‘Is it, my angel? No wonder you’re getting so big!’ Lovingly dropping an affectionate kiss on the top of his silky dark head, Briana started moving away towards the boiling kettle on the marble-effect worktop. ‘Cup of tea, Mum?’

‘Why don’t you sit down with Adán and let me do it? And you’re not going out of this house this morning until you eat at least a couple of slices of toast, either! All this worry is making you thin and pale—and how is it going to help anybody if you fall ill?’

‘It’s not that I’m not eating.’ Curling her hair behind her ears, Briana sighed and dropped teabags into the two waiting mugs, ‘I’ve just been a bit distracted, that’s all. This weekend simply has to go well, Mum. I’ve got three entrepreneurs entertaining some billionaire from abroad, and I’ve got to help take care of them in a Tudor mansion I haven’t even had a chance to familiarise myself with yet. I have to get there early and get my act together to greet them or I’ll be for the high jump! Thank God Tina went there yesterday, to do some groundwork for me! If I impress, it’s been hinted that there might be some more work coming my way from that direction—so keep your fingers crossed for me, won’t you?’

‘You shouldn’t need me to keep my fingers crossed!’ Frances Douglas announced, her smoothly powdered features gently chastising. ‘You are the very best at what you do, Briana Douglas, and don’t you forget it! Your trusting nature brought you that bad debt that’s got the business into trouble…not your lack of ability!’

‘Thanks, Mum. I needed a boost this morning. You’re an angel!’

‘And don’t fret about Adán either. I have a lovely weekend for us both lined up. I just want you to go to work and concentrate on what has to be done without worrying about us.’

‘I promise I won’t let you down.’

The older woman’s light grey eyes glistened. ‘You’ve never let me down in the whole of your twenty-seven years, child, so don’t even think such a thing!’

Her own eyes moist, Briana sniffed and gave her mother a brief hard hug. She was so lucky. She had the most wonderful mother a girl could wish for, and a darling little boy who was the light of her life. All things considered—financial problems aside—she wasn’t doing badly. So why, then, just at the moment when she had determinedly decided to look on the bright side, did a disturbing vision of her child’s father slide across the cinema screen of her mind and clamp her heart hard enough and painfully enough to take her breath away?

The house was startlingly impressive. Set in the napped velvet green of the gently undulating Warwickshire landscape, in what was known as Shakespeare country, it was a genuine beautiful relic from England’s tumultuous Tudor past that anyone with half an interest in history would relish.

Pascual had stood outside for several minutes after the chauffeur had opened the door of the Rolls-Royce that had brought him from the airport—simply to admire its black and white three storeyed wattle and daub façade and the small arched windows with their leaded panes. The grounds were stunning too. On the way in they had driven past an imposing gatehouse and parkland, as well as some trees that looked as durable as any fascinating ancient monument he had ever seen. As if to doubly remind him that he was in the English countryside now, and far from the vibrancy, colour and heat of Buenos Aires, rain had started to fall—softly at first, then hard enough to make him immediately dash for cover.

As he did so he literally bumped into a young slim blonde who announced that her name was Tina and that she was working for the businessmen who were hosting Pascual’s stay this weekend. After showing him to his suite of rooms she said she would bring him some coffee and refreshments—then her colleague would take him to meet his hosts.

Welcoming the opportunity to shower and take stock of his surroundings before partaking of any refreshments and putting on his ‘business head,’ Pascual took his time getting ready for his meeting. All the while the steadily falling rain drilled against the diamond-patterned leaded windows of his bedroom and, glancing outside, seeing the boughs of the surrounding trees bend almost to the ground, he realised that the wind was whipping up quite a storm too. But inside it was cosy and warm, and the kind of peace and quiet that he almost never experienced at home descended like a soft down blanket, cocooning him from the rest of the world.

His ensuing sigh was almost contented. After all…what had he to worry about? However long he made his hosts wait, the last thing they would do would be to voice a complaint. They were getting the chance to buy the most sought-after thoroughbred polo ponies in the business—the elite of the elite—and so they would stem their impatience and relax for however long it took before Pascual finally sought them out.

Absorbed with fastening the small diamond cufflinks on his tailored deep blue Savile Row shirt, he frowned at the sudden knock on the door. No doubt it was the little blonde, returning with his refreshments, he thought lazily. Good. He could do with some strong black coffee.

Outside the panelled oak door in the long, lowceilinged corridor, Briana was schooling herself to try and breathe more slowly. She’d arrived late, despite all her best efforts, and had just got there in the nick of time to take the tray of coffee from Tina and bring it up to their VIP guest’s room. Patting down her hair, she hoped her motorway dash and her lack of time to retouch her make-up would not detract from the warmth and professionalism that was usually her byword. She hadn’t even had the presence of mind to ask Tina what their important guest’s name was! Never mind. Perhaps he’d just be so grateful for the coffee he wouldn’t notice that she didn’t address him by his name.

The silver coffee pot, patterned cup and saucer and little white jug on the elegant silver tray rattled a little between her hands as Briana held it, and she made herself take another steadying breath.

‘Good timing! I was just—Dios mio!’

Hooded eyes the intensity and colour of luxurious cocoa set in a handsome strong-boned face with high cheekbones and the most sensuous masculine mouth imaginable stared back at her, as though its owner hardly believed the validity of his own eyesight.

‘What in God’s name are you doing here?’

Just in time Briana held onto the already precariously rattling tray. Was she dreaming? As her heart pounded out a shocked tattoo, she had to struggle to maintain her balance. Pascual was the VIP guest? How could she not have known that? Suddenly her equilibrium and professionalism fled altogether, and she was left feeling so painfully vulnerable, exposed and inadequate that tears were a mere breath away.

‘Did you hear what I said?’

For a moment his accent sounded heavier than she remembered. The naturally sensuous timbre of that arresting voice still had the power to turn her limbs to the fluidity of water Briana discovered disturbingly. ‘I’m working…and I’ve brought you your coffee,’ she managed through numbed lips, giving him a nervous lopsided smile. ‘Do you mind if I put the tray down? I’m afraid I might drop it.’

Holding the door wide so that she could enter, Pascual allowed his dark, accusing gaze to follow her like sharpened daggers as she crossed the room to deposit the tray on a small carved oak side-table.

‘What is the meaning of this?’

He was studying her as if she were a nasty trick being played on him…a trick he abhorred and detested.

‘I told you…I’m here working. Your hosts hired my company to provide hospitality services for your stay. I didn’t realise that you were the VIP guest. I’m sorry, Pascual…’

Biting her lip, she felt herself blush hard at the old familiar use of his name and instantly regretted voicing it. Especially when his handsome face demonstrated no pleasure whatsoever in seeing her again…in fact the exact opposite!

‘This is probably the last thing you need. Seeing me again, I mean,’ she murmured. Her confidence drained away as his eyes tracked slowly and devastatingly up and down her body, in a simple but professional black A-line skirt and jacket, as if checking her out for flaws.

What was he going to do? If he dismissed her and she couldn’t carry out her job it would be the last straw as far as her finances and her reputation went. Briana prayed he wouldn’t go as far as that. And at the same time as she worried about losing this job—and laying the hurt of the past aside—her hungry eyes wanted to weep with joy at the flesh-and-blood evidence of the man she had loved and had secretly dreamed of one day seeing again.

He looked wonderful. ‘A sight for sore eyes’, as her mum would say. And he’d hardly changed at all—though his stature seemed more imposing than ever. His physique was still leanly muscular, and underneath the sublimely tailored clothes he wore no doubt still in tip-top, enviable condition. And with that arrestingly gorgeous face Pascual Dominguez was not the kind of man who appeared on a girl’s radar every day. At least not where Briana came from.

Right from the start she had been smitten, and in no time at all had found herself blissfully and madly in love with him. When she’d discovered that he felt the same way about her she had hardly been able to believe her luck. But that had been five years ago—five years in which she’d had to come to terms with being a single mother, because Pascual had no clue that he had fathered a child with her when she left. Not a day went by when the dreadful guilt of that reality didn’t weigh her down…

When he still didn’t speak, but continued to stare at her as if not knowing whether to shake her senseless or verbally rip into her until her ears rang, Briana twisted the suddenly chilled fingers of her slim hands together and glanced back at the ornate little table where she had put down the tray she had brought. ‘Shall I pour you some coffee?’

‘Forget the damn coffee! What do you think you’re playing at?’

His bitter, chastising tone shocked her blood to ice. ‘I’m not playing at anything. This situation is as unexpected and shocking for me as it is for you.’

‘But you did play me for a fool—didn’t you Briana?’ His dark eyes narrowed furiously beneath their long-lashed hooded lids. ‘I still find it hard to believe you did what you did…even after all this time!’

‘It was never my intention to make you feel like a fool.’

Feeling her lips tremble, Briana desperately sought to hold it together—not to break down in front of him and confess all. What would it serve to fully explain now why she had left him? Five years had passed by. He hadn’t wanted to listen to her then, so why should he listen now? Anyway…right then she was hardly prepared or willing to rake over old coals and engage in a row—which was no doubt what would happen. As for Adán’s existence—she couldn’t tell him about that just yet. She needed more time…

‘I’m really sorry things turned out the way they did, but perhaps it was for the best?’

It was a stupid thing to say, and it sounded totally banal.

‘For the best?’

The words reverberated round the room on a savage breath, and Briana registered the emotion Pascual was feeling like a punch. Confusion, anger, frustration…it was all there.

Scraping his fingers agitatedly through silken layers of rich dark hair, he moved his head from side to side, staring at her hard. ‘I can get over being made a fool of in front of my friends and family, but what I cannot come to terms with or forgive is that you gave me no indication that your professed feelings for me could be broken off so easily. Or that you would leave without even giving me a chance to hear why from your own lips instead of reading it in some cold, unemotional letter! You must be a consummate actress, Briana…You seemed happy and in love and I believed you. What an idiot I was!’

CHAPTER TWO

HIS heart was thundering as hard and as fast as any express train. It was difficult to take in the fact that the woman he had once loved, who had so callously deserted him mere days before their wedding, was standing there in front of him.

Pascual discovered that his memory of her had not served him as well as he’d thought. In the flesh Briana Douglas was far more beautiful than any mental picture he could call up. Right then she reminded him of an exotic intense port wine, and even though he deplored what she had done he still wanted to drink in every inch of her until he was intoxicated. She had always had a figure to make his pulse race, and in the slim pencil skirt and smart tailored jacket she wore he saw that it was Marilyn Monroe hourglass perfect. Her very presence exuded an earthy sexiness that heated his blood. Would heat any man’s blood! But it was her face that arrested his attention the most.

With her almost feline smoky-grey eyes, apple cheeks and lush enticing mouth, she was a woman to entertain the most sensual private fantasies about. With that face and body she would stop rush-hour traffic in any major city of the world in a heartbeat. Suddenly Pascual was intensely excruciatingly jealous at the idea of her with somebody else—the idea that she might have left him because she preferred another man to him. It took him a moment to get his bearings as well as his sudden inconvenient and shocking desire under strict control.

‘There must have been some other reason you left me besides the one that you stated in your letter. Did you leave me for another man? Is that it?’ However controlled he strove to be, he still had to voice the question that had been burning in his mind all these years. She flinched, and his gaze clung to hers, fear of her answer making him as tense as a string on a harp.

‘Of course I didn’t! I’m sorry if you thought that, but there was no one else…there still is no one else.’

Exhaling a long, relieved breath, he was still infuriated by her apparent calmness when inside everything in him was churning as turbulently as the Atlantic in a squall.

‘And what about you?’ she ventured tentatively. ‘Did you get back with your ex?’

‘My ex?’

For disturbing seconds Pascual recalled something that had happened the night before Briana had left. The Brazilian model he had briefly dated before he had met her had unexpectedly turned up at the family party, on the arm of his cousin Rafa. His mother, being the perfect hostess, had not turned her away. During the evening Claudia had drunk a little too much cachaca, and when Briana had been out on the terrace talking to Marisa and Diego she had pulled a stupid stunt on him. She’d circled his neck with her arms, pressed her body hard against his and kissed him full on the mouth…

Pascual’s blood ran briefly cold as he remembered the incident with renewed distaste and anger. He wasn’t remotely interested in taking up with Claudia again…either then or now. It was Briana he had loved. But clearly she had not loved him. Why else had it been so easy for her to walk away? The idea pierced his very soul. No man liked to think the loving relationship he believed to be real was based on a lie. A lie that meant his sweetheart did not feel as strongly for him, her lover, as she had insisted she had. Renewed hurt and fury coursed through his bloodstream that the woman in front of him had treated him so abominably.

Raising her bewitching gaze to his, she attempted a smile of sorts. She wasn’t quite successful, and he saw the worry and concern reflected clearly in her eyes. Good. He was glad he had unsettled her. God knows, she had unsettled him!

‘When she showed up at that party…I just thought that you and she—’

‘Well, you were wrong. She was dating my cousin and he brought her with him. End of story!’

‘Well, then…I’d better just leave you to have your coffee,’ she remarked. ‘Your hosts are waiting for you in the drawing room downstairs. Shall I tell them you’ll be ready in about twenty minutes or so? I can meet you in the lobby and take you to them.’

‘I will be ready when I am ready, and not before!’ Pascual snapped, turning his back on her and moving towards the tray of coffee.

Choosing to remain silent for a few moments, he poured some of the hot aromatic beverage into the porcelain cup and took a sip. Definitely particular about the type of coffee he drank, he found he could not fault whoever had chosen this particular blend on his behalf.

Facing Briana again, he observed the slight pink flush across her cheekbones. ‘You are here the entire weekend?’ he asked, knowing this conversation they had started had only just begun.

‘Yes…my job dictates it.’

‘And how long have you been working for this company that provides “hospitality services”?’

‘About three years. It’s my own company.’

‘So you are a businesswoman now? You have managed to surprise me again!’

Unable to keep the cynicism from his voice, Pascual was actually genuinely taken aback by the revelation. The Briana he had known had never given any indication of being remotely interested in starting up her own business. Back then she had vowed she was only happy working with children and animals. On her arrival in Buenos Aires she had found work as a professional dog-walker, then as a children’s nanny. But he had learned to his cost that she had not been entirely frank with him about many things, and her dishonesty still cut him to the quick.

‘I’ll leave you to enjoy your coffee in peace and go and wait downstairs.’

Moving towards the door, Briana could not disguise her eagerness to get away, and it incensed Pascual that she should want to effect distance between them again.

‘Before you run away I want you to tell me something of these businessmen I am meeting with. No doubt you have some information that might be useful?’ Staring at her pointedly, he knew a sudden desire to test her out and see if she was at all competent at the business she had chosen for herself. If he himself had been in this line of work the first thing he would want to know was about the kind of people who were employing his services.

‘What do you want to know?’ she asked, clearly discomfited that she could not escape as easily as that.

‘I want to know the things they have not revealed in their bid to buy my horses. You know the kind of information I am getting at? It is important that my ponies go to the very best homes. As I am sure you are aware, I do not make these transactions just for money.’

‘All their credentials are first class, but if you want to ask me about specifics fire away. I can assure you that I’ve done my homework in that regard.’

‘Really? But you clearly did not know that it was me that was the VIP guest this weekend, did you? Is that not somewhat remiss of you?’

A scarlet brand seared even hotter colour into her cheeks. ‘It wasn’t a mistake I would ever make normally, I can assure you! It’s just that I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and I—’

‘Your personal concerns should never impinge on your ability to do your job well.’

‘In a perfect world that might be so, but in case you hadn’t noticed this world isn’t perfect, and from time to time people do have worries that cannot help but disturb them.’

‘What kind of worries do you have nowadays, Briana?’ Pascual shot back, no small amount of bitterness edging his tone. ‘I thought you must be perfectly happy and content. After all…you escaped from a man and a marriage you clearly did not want, did you not? I imagined that you must have got exactly what you wanted when you walked out on me.’

‘Can we not do this? It’s painful enough that we should meet up again like this without us sniping at each other. We’re both here for more important reasons than what’s between us personally. I know we need to talk, but this is hardly the right time.’

Wanting to, but hardly able to refute her argument right then, Pascual took another sip of his coffee, then placed the cup and saucer back on the tray. ‘Give me five minutes and then I will meet you downstairs,’ he responded tersely. ‘No doubt we will indeed have an opportunity to discuss our personal issues over the weekend. If it looks like we will not—then we will have to make sure we create an opportunity. I can assure you of one thing: you are not leaving this establishment until I hear the full account of why you ran away from our marriage. And even then I will not let you go until I am satisfied that you have told me the truth!’

After her encounter with Pascual, Briana was still inwardly shaking as she attempted to chat to Tina in the lobby, and she knew her colleague saw that she was unusually distracted. Priding herself on her ability to remain unflappable in most situations—especially when it came to her work—she feared she was going to have to dig deep for resources she wasn’t even sure she had to get her through the rest of this weekend.

When Pascual descended the thickly carpeted staircase, only moments later, her breath all but got locked inside her throat. If he’d meant to make a statement that there was no question it was he who was the VIP guest this weekend, then he had more than succeeded. He had teamed the most exquisite bespoke black jacket with beautifully tailored trousers and a deep blue shirt, and Briana’s knees almost gave way beneath her at the sight of him. He had always looked amazing in a suit—elegant in a way that most very masculine men couldn’t attempt to carry off, as well as effortlessly stylish, fit, and sexy enough to make a woman forget what she was thinking about the second she clapped eyes on him. No matter what her age or marital status!

It was no surprise when Tina leaned over to her and whispered, ‘My God! He’s the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen. How lucky are we that he’s the VIP client!’

Lucky? That wasn’t exactly how Briana would describe what she was feeling as Pascual turned his disdainful dark gaze her way and silently warned her that he was not finished with her yet…not by a long chalk.

‘Señor—Mr Dominguez…your meeting is this way. Please come with me.’

As she led him into the elegant drawing room where the three businessmen were waiting to meet him, they rose in unison from their pin-tucked armchairs round the fireplace. Her voice had a slight tremor in it as she made the formal introductions. There was no doubt in her mind that the men were relieved that Pascual had finally appeared, and straight away she sensed how deferential they were towards him. Her ex-fiancé had always seemed to elicit that kind of response from other people. There was something almost aristocratic about him that, along with his sensational looks, guaranteed he commanded instant attention wherever he went.

After five years of not seeing him the impact he made when he walked into a room had not lessened one iota, Briana discovered, and she wondered what Tina would say if she ever found out that this ‘gorgeous man’, a wealthy Argentinian, was the father of her little boy Adán. Surveying him now, she could hardly believe it herself. Their whirlwind romance seemed such a long time ago. A long, lonely time ago, she thought with a sudden profound ache in her heart.

‘Can we get some more coffee in here—and maybe some brandy, sweetheart?’ Steve Nichols, MD of an advertising agency in Soho and lately coowner with his two colleagues of highly desirable stables in Windsor, took Briana aside.

Glancing into his pale blue eyes and looking at his slightly shiny pallor, she couldn’t help shivering with distaste. Unfortunately she knew his type. He might be on a business trip, but he would consider any reasonably attractive female between the ages of sixteen and forty fair game. Briana knew she would have to keep her wits about her around him. His business credentials might be impeccable, but that didn’t mean his manners or his behaviour towards women followed suit.

To Pascual—a fellow entrepreneur, with a commodity to sell that he very much desired—he would be sycophantic and deferential to a tee. But to her and Tina he could potentially be a nuisance.

‘Of course…Was there anything else?’ Glancing deliberately over at the other men she waited until they all agreed that coffee and brandy was just perfect for now.

As she turned to leave Steve Nichols leaned over to her and whispered conspiratorially, ‘Hurry back, sweetheart,’ and winked. At that very moment she sensed Pascual’s deeply disapproving gaze come to rest on her, and then on the man beside her. Briana’s face flamed again. She hoped to God he didn’t think she was encouraging him!

The meeting went on for at least three hours, and by then it was nearly dinnertime. The hosts had requested that dinner be provided and catered for by a local well-known Michelin-starred restaurant, and while Briana and Tina dealt with the staff from there, who had arrived with their supplies and were currently ensconced in the house’s ample kitchen, the three businessmen retired to their respective rooms to get ready.

To be honest, Briana was glad of the breathing space in which to busy herself with the practicalities of her job and stem the tide of anxiety and emotion that had swept over her since she’d seen Pascual again. But she knew she couldn’t avoid him for ever. Sooner or later he would confront her about the events of the past and the unexpected and abrupt manner in which she had left Argentina.

He would demand a fuller account of why she had left.

The plain fact of the matter was that her reasons for leaving had not become any easier to come to terms with over the years. In fact, some days she worried that they would be with her, spoiling her chance of happiness with a man, for ever…Not that she even wanted any other man. After all that had happened, Pascual’s trust in her was obviously going to be in very short supply. Would he even believe her when she did finally explain things?

About halfway through the evening Tina emerged from the private dining room that overlooked the beautiful gardens which now, as darkness fell, were hidden from view by the heavy velvet drapes at the windows. Briana rose up from the padded love-seat in the lobby and asked, ‘How’s it going in there? Everybody happy?’

‘The food looks amazing! Everyone is tucking in, but our gorgeous Argentinian looks bored, frankly—as if he’d much rather be somewhere else than here.’

Briana’s stomach sank. Their personal business was one thing, but if Pascual was looking bored then the businessmen who had hired her company’s services would not be so thrilled, and she felt responsible for that. Somehow she had to rescue the situation.

‘I was thinking everyone might like to go out somewhere afterwards. There’s a private members’ club with a casino in town. I’ve already been on the phone to them and they would be more than happy to have our party visit.’

‘Great idea! Why don’t you go in and tell them?’ Tina replied, with a wink of her plum-coloured eyelid. ‘They’ll probably appreciate the suggestion more coming from you…I’ve noticed how they’ve all hardly been able to take their eyes off of you—especially the heavenly Mr Dominguez!’

‘You’re imagining things.’

‘All I know is if I had even half the sex appeal you’ve got, Briana Douglas, then I’d be milking it for all I was worth! Every one of those men in that dining room is a multimillionaire, and Mr Dominguez—who’s by far the yummiest of the lot—is apparently a billionaire! Haven’t you ever fantasised about some outrageously rich and gorgeous man sweeping you off your feet and marrying you?’

Briana would have laughed out loud if the irony of her colleague’s words hadn’t been quite so acutely painful. Touching her fingers briefly to her burning cheek, she dismissed the younger girl’s comments with a deliberately distracted air, and gave the black velvet waistcoat she wore over a white silk blouse a little tug to bring it better into alignment with the waistband of her matching fitted skirt.

‘I’ll go in and talk to them…In the meantime, Tina, could you get me a cup of coffee and a sandwich from the kitchen? I don’t think I could face a meal tonight. Do you mind?’

‘You’re mad, turning down the chance to try some of that fantastic food that’s been brought in! They brought enough for us with them, you know.’

‘Then why don’t you have my share?’

Heading down the rich maroon carpet of the hallway that led to the dining room, Briana thought she’d be hard pressed even to eat the sandwich she’d requested, let alone a full meal. Her stomach was deluged with butterflies at just the thought of having a private conversation with Pascual, as she knew she must. She felt doubly unsettled when she thought about her little son…the child he had no idea that he’d fathered when she’d left Argentina in such an unseemly hurry. Following on from that came the realisation that someone with the wealth and status he had at his fingertips could all too easily take Adán from her if he had a mind and a will to…

‘A casino? What an inspired idea—if you don’t mind my saying so, Miss Douglas!’ Steve Nichols leant back in the rather grand Tudor dining chair he occupied as his colleagues readily concurred, and gave Briana another one of his irritating winks.

Compressing her lips in mild irritation, she quickly glanced round the rest of the table and endeavoured to engage the other diners with her pleased smile. But the gesture faded prematurely when her anxious gaze inevitably collided with Pascual’s. He did not simply look bored, as Tina had suggested. Quite clearly he was more annoyed than anything else! Was that because she had walked in and soured his mood?

Once upon a time his face had lit up whenever she came into a room where he happened to be, and again Briana’s heart couldn’t help but yearn for those happier times. To be young and in love with the man of her dreams, living in a vibrant and amazing city like Buenos Aires, had been more than incredible! Sometimes she had to pinch herself to remember that it had ever happened at all…Perhaps it was something she’d dreamt up, because of her loneliness now? But she only had to glance at her son’s sweet dark-eyed face to see the startling resemblance to his charismatic father, and she told herself to simply count her blessings. Having Adán reminded her that she hadn’t lost everything, after all. She had her precious child.

‘What about you Mr Dominguez?’ she forced herself to ask. ‘Would you like to go the casino?’

‘Only if you will agree to accompany me, Miss Douglas,’ he answered smoothly, with an arch of his eyebrow. ‘I always like to have a beautiful girl on my arm when I go to a casino…for luck, you understand…’

‘I…I’m afraid I have work to do.’

All eyes were upon her, and Briana wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. What was Pascual playing at, inviting her to go with them? He must know it was completely inappropriate and would put her in a most awkward position.

‘Come, come, Miss Douglas,’ coaxed Mike Daniels, one of the other businessmen. ‘Mr Dominguez is our guest tonight. He’s come all the way from Argentina for our meeting—the least we can do is grant him this one request, don’t you think? Think of it as one of the perks of the job. Myself and my colleagues will gladly foot the bill.’

Still doubtful, Briana easily guessed that Pascual was taking the utmost pleasure in her obvious discomfort and embarrassment. She wanted to tell Mike Daniels that acting as escort to his VIP guest on a visit to a casino was definitely not part of the services her company provided. But she sensed her ex-fiancé’s potential to make life very difficult all round for everyone if she refused.

Her grey eyes beseeching, she gazed back into the compellingly handsome face that still lazily studied her, and disturbingly saw that a small mocking smile was playing around his lips.

‘I haven’t brought anything suitable with me to wear to a casino.’

‘What you have on is absolutely fine.’ Her tormentor’s smile widened, and his dark eyes lit with mischief as he deliberately swept his gaze up and down her figure, letting it linger in particular on the lush curve of her breasts outlined by the snug black velvet waistcoat.

His aim was obviously to embarrass and belittle her as much as he could, Briana saw, and she would have had no bones about demonstrating her fury with his behaviour if only they had been alone. As things stood, she couldn’t do that. Not without making a scene and besmirching her hard-won reputation as a professional businesswoman.

‘Very well, then. I’ll go and ring the casino and let them know how many of us are coming.’

CHAPTER THREE

THE private members club was situated in an elegant Georgian house tucked away down a quiet country lane, and it welcomed them with open arms. Used to his name and his wealth opening doors Pascual hovered conveniently close to Briana’s slim back as they were shown into the private casino that was set aside for VIPs only.

If he was announcing to all who cared to observe them that he was the one who was her escort for the evening then he did not stop to examine why he should be acting so possessively over a woman who had treated him with such disdain. All Pascual knew was that not only did he need to be close to Briana, but he would take a secret sardonic delight in her discomfort too. She had hurt him badly. He knew it was pure animal instinct, but he wanted to find a way of getting back at her for the deed…of ensuring that she would think twice before ever behaving like that again.

Asked what his favourite game was by the club manager, he had no hesitation in replying, ‘American Roulette.’ Once seated at a circular mahogany table, with a roulette wheel at the centre, and having given their drinks order to a pretty auburn-haired waitress in a short satin lilac dress, he made sure Briana sat next to him on the padded red-velvet seat. His thigh deliberately pressed up against hers. The distinct quiver that shuddered through her made him smile with satisfaction. The sweetly seductive scent of her light perfume and the warmth of her body elicited a similar response inside Pascual. Dios mio! He could hardly credit why he should still be so violently attracted to her after all this time.

Something about the combustible mix of chemistry they produced when they were together, obviously.

Seeing the jealous flare in Steve Nichols’ pale watchful gaze as he surveyed the brunette with Pascual, the Argentinian ironically found himself musing that all was fair in love and war, and deliberately leaned closer to Briana, so that she gazed up at him with those smoky alluring eyes of hers and coloured hotly.

‘You choose the numbers for me tonight,’ he instructed softly as the smartly dressed croupier dealt the chips.

‘I’m not sure I agree with gambling,’ she breathed. ‘What if you lose everything because of me?’

As if realising what she had said might also refer to the way their relationship had ended, she let her even white teeth come down hard on her tender lower lip and couldn’t hide her intense discomfort.

‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured.

For a moment Pascual forgot they were in company, in a public albeit supposedly discreet venue that was used to visiting VIPs with a need for privacy, and warred with an almost insatiable urge to savagely claim her mouth and passionately kiss her.

Maybe that could come later? he considered, willing his heartbeat to slow down, unable to tear his heated gaze from hers. A quiet but pervasive excitement took root inside him at the idea.

‘Place your bets,’ the dealer invited, and Pascual raised an eyebrow at his female companion. ‘What will it be?’

Clearly reluctant to participate, but knowing she could hardly refuse, Briana frowned. ‘Red six,’ she replied.

‘Why six?’

‘It’s always been lucky for me.’

As the little hard white ball hopped and skipped round the moving wheel, every glance round the table seemed hypnotised by it. The other patrons had bet too. Hardly caring whether he won or lost, Pascual felt his heart nearly miss a beat when the ball landed squarely on red six. He had just won thirty-five times his stake, and his had been the only coloured chip on that number.

His hosts and the other two couples round the table politely applauded. When the croupier paid him out in the appropriate chips, he turned and put them on the table in front of Briana.

‘Play again,’ he urged smoothly, smiling at the shock on her face. ‘Perhaps you have other lucky numbers at your disposal? Whatever you win…you keep.’

‘I’d rather not, if you don’t mind.’ Appearing distressed, she pushed to her feet. Her cheeks reddening, she halted a passing cocktail waitress. ‘Can you tell me where the ladies’ cloakroom is, please?’ she asked.

In faint concern, Pascual also got to his feet. He caught Briana’s elbow as she started to move away. ‘What is the matter? Are you unwell?’

‘I shouldn’t have come here!’ she hissed, her silvery eyes shimmering beneath the twinkling lights of the opulent chandelier sparkling above them. ‘I came against my better judgement, and now I wish I hadn’t!’

‘Why? Are you so averse to winning money?’

‘I’m not winning anything, Pascual! It’s your money that you’re so recklessly throwing away to chance, and I want nothing more to do with it.’

‘Such principles you have! What a shame they were not in such evidence when you ran away from me in Buenos Aires five years ago, without even giving me a good reason why you’d suddenly decided I was not good enough to be your husband!’

‘I saw you kissing another woman!’ Jealousy and hurt slashed through Briana’s insides like a blade, with no lessening of the pain she had suffered at the time of the incident five years ago.

Remembering where she was, she quickly glanced behind her and realised that they had an audience. She moved her head in anguish. She hadn’t meant to just come out with it like that, but the memory had been dragging at her heart from the moment she’d set eyes on Pascual again and she could stem the tide of hurt no longer. Pulling her arm free from his hold, she tried to regain control of her briefly lost equilibrium and restore her dignity.

He considered her with a stunned look. ‘Who?’ he demanded. ‘Who was this woman you saw me kissing?’

‘You know very well who!’ Her lip trembling, Briana kept her voice low.

‘I imagine you are referring to Claudia at the party that night? A very drunk Claudia, who barely even knew what she was doing!’

‘Oh, she knew what she was doing Pascual…And so did you, by the looks of things.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me you saw this? Was that the real reason you left? Dios mio!’

‘We’d better not have a scene here, in front of everyone. Think how it will look to your hosts—and it might reflect badly on my business too.’

‘Yet you clearly did not care how it looked to my family and friends when you heartlessly deserted me just a week before our wedding!’

Pascual’s heart was pounding again, and he almost did not care whether he made a scene or not. The memory of Briana’s renunciation of both him and their marriage still cut him to the bone. And now to discover that she had witnessed that distasteful incident with Claudia, to learn that that was the reason she had left! Inside he was reeling from the knowledge. Why hadn’t she immediately said something to him? Demanded an explanation and given him the chance to tell her that his ex had been drunk and he had frankly been appalled by her throwing herself at him?

Mindful that they were not alone, he had no intention of providing entertainment for the night for all and sundry who might be watching. A more personal discussion of events would have to wait. Giving Briana a stiff little bow, he barely disguised his impatience and annoyance.

‘Go to the ladies’ cloakroom. When you return I will instruct our driver to take us back to the house. I have suddenly lost my interest in gambling any further tonight!’

Taking her brush out of her compact leather handbag, Briana made a half-hearted attempt at tidying her hair. The bank of sparkling mirrors in the luxurious ladies’ powder room left her with no place to hide her distress. She should have controlled her emotions better just now in the gaming room! But it had been so hard, when the reality of Pascual had just kept overwhelming her. And then when he had so carelessly and tauntingly put that little pile of coloured chips in front of her, each one reflecting a sum that would easily pay three months’ rent on her house, it had all been too much. Here she was, worrying herself sick over her business and facing potential bankruptcy, and Pascual was acting as if money was nothing to him! But of course with the vast wealth he had at his disposal the value of those coloured chips was even less than a drop in the ocean. If Briana was really honest it was not her financial worries that were causing her the most concern right then. Her little son’s beautiful face was constantly in her mind—a face that was a perfect miniature version of his father’s—and she wondered how on earth she could break the earth-shattering news of his existence to a man who would probably despise her even more than he did already when he heard it. She had kept Adán from him, and Pascual had every right to deride her.

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