Dante watched her walk across the room, putting as much distance between them as she politely could.

His eyes devoured her. No other woman could make him feel this way. As if he was risking everything—his place on the team, his friendship with Luc, his sanity—just by being in the same room as her.

He felt a spike of jealousy as he wondered who had held her since that night. Who had heard her scream with pleasure? Who knew that if they stroked Karina from the nape of her neck to the small of her back she would whimper with need and raise her hips, inviting even more intimate touches? Who had tasted her innocence since he had basked in it?

Welcome to the hot, sultry and successful world of Brazilian polo! Get ready to spend many

Hot Brazilian Nights!

with Brazil’s sexiest polo champions!

Forget privilege and prestige, this is Gaucho Polo—hard, hot and unforgiving … like the men who play the game!

Off the field the Thunderbolts are notorious heartbreakers, but what happens when they meet the one person who can tame that unbridled passion?

You may have already met gorgeous team captain Gabe in Christmas Nights with the Polo Player

Now get ready to meet the rest of the team in:

In the Brazilian’s Debt March 2015

At the Brazilian’s Command April 2015

Brazilian’s Nine Months’ Notice November 2015

And look out for Back in the Brazilian’s Bed December 2015

Available from millsandboon.co.uk Or visit the author’s website: susanstephens.com/thunderbolt

Back in the Brazilian’s Bed

Susan Stephens

www.millsandboon.co.uk

SUSAN STEPHENS was a professional singer before meeting her husband on the Mediterranean island of Malta. In true Mills & Boon Modern Romance style they met on Monday, became engaged on Friday and married three months later. Susan enjoys entertaining, travel and going to the theatre. To relax she reads, cooks and plays the piano, and when she’s had enough of relaxing she throws herself off mountains on skis, or gallops through the countryside singing loudly.

MILLS & BOON

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Contents

Cover

Introduction

Hot Brazilian Nights

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

‘YOU VOLUNTEERED ME to do what?’

Shielding her eyes against the bright morning sun, Karina Marcelos stared at her brother in disbelief. They were standing on the balcony of Luc’s eyrie on the penthouse floor of his magnificent cream marble flagship hotel with Rio de Janeiro laid out in front of them. Luc was one crazy polo player—he could be dictatorial when he was in ruling his business empire mode, but he was always considerate of her feelings.

Her brother looked at her with surprise. ‘Why the fuss? You’re the obvious choice. The job of events organiser for the polo cup couldn’t be awarded to anyone better than my highly qualified sister.’ With a shrug he left her clenching and unclenching suddenly clammy fists.

She followed him in. ‘You’ll have to un-volunteer me,’ she said firmly.

Luc scowled as he sat heavily at his desk. He wasn’t used to being denied anything, unless his beloved wife Emma was in the picture.

‘I mean it, Luc,’ Karina insisted. ‘My schedule’s packed. I could only give the project a couple of weeks and it’s going to need a lot more time than that.’

She could make the time. She could make the event fly, but that wasn’t the reason she was shying away from this plum of a job.

‘Too late,’ Luc said flatly. ‘The posters have gone out and your name’s on them. I didn’t expect you to kick up a fuss. When I put your name forward to the team, they nearly bit my hand off.’

By team, Luc meant Team Thunderbolt, the world’s most infamous gaucho polo players. Luc was a mainstay of the team and so was Dante Baracca, Karina’s nemesis. This year it was Dante’s turn to host the Gaucho Cup.

‘What’s wrong now?’ her brother demanded, glancing up impatiently from his paperwork.

Where to begin? She didn’t want to arouse Luc’s suspicions, and finding a plausible excuse not to work with Dante wouldn’t be easy. Nor would handling the whisper of awareness that skittered over her skin at the thought of being close to Dante again.

‘I need you to do this for me, Karina.’

‘I do know what this event means to you, but there are other events organisers.’

‘None as good as you,’ Luc insisted. ‘There’s no one who understands the world we work in better than you.’

Karina’s glance landed on the cabinet where Luc kept his trophies. He’d left a space for this year’s prize. Right next to it, in a pointed reminder that it would be hard, if not impossible to get out of this, there was a trophy belonging to Karina. The International Association of Events Planners had awarded it to her for exceptional merit, and Luc was as proud of that trophy as he was of his own gleaming cups.

‘I need you to give me an answer, Karina,’ Luc pressed.

‘And I need time to think,’ she countered.

‘What’s there to think about?’ Settling back in his chair, Luc pushed his papers to one side. ‘Planning the polo cup is easily the most prestigious work you’ve ever been asked to do, so what’s your real problem, Karina?’

She loved her brother dearly, but Luc had no idea what he was asking. She had avoided face-to-face confrontations with Dante for a very good reason—the man was a hundred per cent ice-cold arrogance. She’d avoided him at polo matches, had been forced into his company when Luc and Emma had got together, but apart from that she was always careful to keep her distance from him. If she accepted this commission her avoidance tactics where Dante Baracca was concerned would be shot to hell.

‘You should at least have consulted me before you went ahead with this.’

‘My apologies,’ Luc mocked, gesturing widely to express his frustration. ‘I can’t imagine why I thought you’d be thrilled. You’re the go-to events organiser in Rio, Karina,’ he reminded her tensely. ‘Who else am I going to ask?’

Her brother was right in that arranging the fixture would be an exciting challenge. It was just the man she had to deal with that was the problem.

‘Dante Baracca is an arrogant, humourless dictator,’ she murmured, speaking her thoughts out loud.

‘He’s a powerful, successful man,’ her brother argued.

‘Didn’t I just say that?’

Black eyes flashed as the Marcelos siblings stared each other out.

Karina didn’t want to upset her brother, but Luc was equally determined that she would take the job.

‘What aren’t you telling me?’ he demanded shrewdly.

Ice slid down her spine.

‘There has to be something,’ he insisted. ‘We’ve known Dante for years. I play on the same team. I’d know if there was a problem. I hope you don’t believe his press?’

‘He doesn’t intimidate me, if that’s what you think. And as for his reputation...’ She blew out a contemptuous breath. ‘Dante’s the devil incarnate if you listen to the media—and much as I would love to take on the challenge of working with someone like that, I would have thought that my brother, of all people, would do me the courtesy of allowing me to refuse this job.’

Luc shook his head. ‘No can do, Karina. Too much money has been invested in publicity for you to pull out now.’ He gave her the look that had melted a thousand hearts. ‘Do this one thing for me and I’ll never ask again.’

She smiled thinly. ‘Until the next time?’

‘I’ve never known you to be so unreasonable.’

She shared a lot with him, but not everything. ‘I’ll sort something out,’ she promised.

‘There’s nothing to sort out,’ Luc insisted. ‘We want you. Dante wants you.’

Somehow, she doubted that.

Her mind was already racing. If the posters had gone out, she would have to have a banner added, announcing her replacement. It would have to be someone good—someone who was trusted by the polo community. She might not want the job, but she would do everything she could to make sure things went well for Luc and his team. She would still be cheering for them.

‘If it’s Dante private life worrying you, it’s none of our concern. And he won’t have time to notice you in that sense as he’ll have so many admirers around him.’

‘Thanks for the reassurance,’ she said dryly. Luc was right in that there were always polo groupies hanging round the players, and she had never been the glamorous type, let alone wanted to compete with them.

‘You’re my sister,’ Luc pointed out now with exasperation, as if that were enough in itself to disqualify her from attracting male attention. ‘Dante will only want to do business with you. I hope you’ve got more sense than to think anything else?’

‘Of course. What do you take me for?’

‘A highly successful and very beautiful woman, who could never think of Dante Baracca as anything more than a childhood friend and my teammate.’

‘And a man to avoid,’ she murmured beneath her breath.

‘What was that?’ Luc asked suspiciously.

‘I don’t have to like all your teammates.’

‘You don’t have to take an unreasonable dislike to them either. Sign the contract, Karina. I’m done waiting.’

And throw herself across Dante’s path again—work with him on a daily basis?

It had been a long time since she’d been the tomboy tagging along with her brother’s gang, sharing a prickly if somewhat reluctant acceptance from his friends. But she should do this for Luc. He’d done so much for her. He’d brought her up single-handed when their parents had died. There was just one fly in that ointment. Luc had done a brilliant job but had often been distracted, which had given Karina all the time she had needed to get into mischief and more.

As Luc uncapped his pen she was forced to accept the fact that her brother meant more to her than her own stubborn pride. She would just have to put the past behind her, as they had told her to do in the hospital. She would lift up her head and move forward. Dealing with Dante Baracaa was not beyond her. And she’d put a good face on it. Luc deserved nothing less.

‘I should thank you for putting my name forward,’ she admitted as she stepped forward to sign the contract.

Luc laughed with relief. ‘Everyone wanted you—and if I hadn’t suggested you, I think you’d have cut me off at the knees.’

‘Maybe.’ Angling her chin, she gave her brother an affectionate grin. At least one of them was happy. And she would be a fool to turn this down. This wasn’t just the most prestigious job to come her way, it was the job.

Luc came around the desk to give her a hug. ‘All that fuss about nothing. This is going to be the best thing you’ve ever done.’

Dante Baracca was not a fuss about nothing. Hiding her concerns, she returned Luc’s hug. Stepping back, she assessed one of the most striking men in polo. All the players on Team Thunderbolt were forces to be reckoned with, and her brother Luc was no exception. She made allowances for his dictatorial side. He tolerated her constant challenges. They loved each other, and of course she’d do this for him, regardless of the consequences.

‘I know Dante used to provoke the hell out of you when you were young,’ Luc remarked as he relaxed into his triumph. ‘No one was more surprised than me when you practically made him guest of honour at your eighteenth birthday party.’

Karina flinched as she remembered and had to pin a smile to her face. ‘My friends wanted him there.’ She shrugged. ‘And there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then.’ Monumental understatement.

Unaware of the undercurrents, Luc laughed off her comment. ‘If you say so. I haven’t seen you anywhere near Dante since that night, so I’m guessing he said something out of turn, but whatever he did to upset you, my advice is to leave it in the past so you can see the bigger picture.’

She could see the bigger picture and it wasn’t pretty.

Turning away, she walked to the window to put some distance between herself and her sharp-eyed brother.

‘Dante is the lynchpin of our team,’ he stressed. ‘He’s hosting the polo cup. We need someone to organise it. What more do you need to know?’

‘Nothing,’ she agreed, staring blindly out of the window.

Karina would be the first to admit she’d been a wild child. Dante had been a big part of that past, but while he’d been worldly and experienced, she’d taken longer to grow up. She’d been naïve and a bit of a dreamer, and had paid a high price for her lack of sophistication. Growing up fast had been forced on her. Putting her sensible head on had come too late. She had clipped her party wings, but it still tore her up to know that by then the damage had been done. It had been a steep learning curve ever since, and that had been something in which Dante had played no part...

‘I understand this is the biggest contract you’ve ever handled,’ Luc remarked, misreading her preoccupation. ‘You’re bound to have concerns, Karina, but I know you can nail this.’

‘I’ll do a good job for you,’ she promised, turning to face him.’

‘I know you will. That’s why I want you and no one else to handle this contract. And, believe me,’ Luc added with a smile to reassure her, ‘no one finds Dante easy.’

‘With the possible exception of the women in his life,’ she countered dryly.

‘What’s that to you?’ Luc said suspiciously.

‘Absolutely nothing.’ She held his stare steadily until he looked away.

Leaning back against the cold, smooth glass, she remembered begging Luc to let her continue her studies abroad. She’d given him the excuse that she’d had enough of Rio and being under his wing, and that it was time for her to make her own way in life. Luc hadn’t guessed for a minute that all she’d really wanted was to get away from Dante. Luc had paid for her to go to catering college, which had turned out better than she had expected. She’d ended up winning a full scholarship to a prestigious Swiss training facility for event planners, where she had excelled. Equipped with an honours diploma, she had returned to Rio ready to change the world—or, at least, her brother’s hotel chain—only to find a highly sceptical Luc waiting for her.

She had won her spurs by working on small assignments for him, until he’d finally allowed her to work on his bigger projects. This Gaucho Polo Cup was the biggest project to date by far. And, yes, she wanted to be part of it. And, yes, she knew she could make it a success. She had the expertise and the inside knowledge when it came to the world of polo. But she’d be working with Dante, and that was a problem. She wasn’t the person she’d been in the past, but would Dante see that? According to the press he hadn’t changed and the word ‘wild’ still defined him. She only had to open a magazine to see him dating another woman. Dante Baracca attracted glamorous females in dizzying succession, but then he discarded them twice as fast. So nothing had changed.

‘Dante Baracca, the hard man of polo.’ Her brother said this with amusement, quoting a phrase most often associated with his teammate. ‘You’ll be the envy of half the women in the world.’

‘Half the women in the world don’t need a wake-up call from me,’ she argued. ‘And, if they did, I’d tell them that their idol has feet of clay.’

Luc drew back his head to give her a look. ‘That’s a little harsh when you’ve barely spoken to the man for years.’

‘For a very good reason,’ she dismissed. ‘Who needs trouble like Dante Baracca in their life?’

Dante could be charming when it suited him, but he could also be hard and cold. If Dante would behave professionally, she might be able to make this work. If not... Her thoughts took her back to a man with black hair, black eyes and a black heart, a man who looked like a Gypsy king with gold earrings glinting in his ears. She could still remember the night Dante had punched those gold hoops into his own earlobes because she’d challenged him to do so. They’d both been wild when he’d been fourteen and she’d been ten, back in the day when they could take risks and get away with them.

‘Stop frowning, Karina. Anyone would think I’d hooked you up with a monster. Here...’ Luc held out a magazine, which he obviously intended to reassure her. ‘Take a look at this—Dante’s riding the crest of the wave at the moment.’

Dante Baracca was on the front cover. Of course he was. Where else would the god of the game be?

‘There couldn’t be a better time for you two to be getting together.’

‘We won’t be getting together,’ she insisted. ‘I’ll be working alongside him.’

‘Of course you will,’ Luc agreed—to placate her, she suspected.

She made herself stare at the photograph while Luc looked on with approval.

Thank goodness Luc couldn’t hear her heart thundering at the sight of a man who had always affected her profoundly, both for good and for bad. The photo showed Dante seated bareback on a horse at sunset on the fringes of the surf. He was stripped to the waist with his face in profile. His powerful torso was warmed to a seductive bronze by the mellow rays of the setting sun. He was a daunting sight. The shadows pointed up the harsh angles of his face and delineated his formidable muscles. She had no doubt the photographer’s intention had been to big up the legend that was Dante Baracca, and in that he had succeeded.

Dante had more tattoos than she remembered. All the members of Luc’s team had a Thunderbolt inked on their torsos, but it wouldn’t have surprised her to learn that these new additions to Dante’s hard frame had been handcrafted by the devil.

Her mouth dried as she thought back. She would never shake the past. In many ways she didn’t want to. The memories were bittersweet. The loss had been too great, the sadness too searing, and Dante would always be part of that. He was still wearing the earrings that matched her own. Dante had given them to her on her eighteenth birthday—teasing her, saying they could be twins, but the look in his eyes had not been that of a sibling, and the earrings had been pushed to the back of a drawer after the party, because they’d become too cruel a reminder of Dante and everything he stood for...too close a reminder of kindred spirits who had almost destroyed each other.

‘Stop fretting, Karina,’ Luc coaxed when she frowned. ‘You can handle one barbarian. Why not two?’

‘If Dante is prepared to do things my way, it might work,’ she mused distractedly.

‘That should be fun to watch,’ Luc commented dryly.

‘This is no joke, Lucas.’

‘Clearly, as you’re calling me by my Sunday name.’

‘I mean it,’ she said, rounding on her brother. ‘My work is a serious business. You and Dante may have grown up wild on the pampas—’

‘As did you,’ Luc cut in, his tone turning hard. ‘What’s wrong with you, Karina? You never used to be like this. Just because you’re about to do business with a man women lust after doesn’t mean you have to wear a hair shirt. You can loosen up and make this project a success, or you can carry this ridiculous grudge you seem to have against Dante to its ultimate conclusion and wreck the match.’

‘Okay,’ she said, holding up her hands. ‘Just so long as we get one thing clear. You can’t just hire me out to your friends whenever you feel like it without my permission. No more Dante Baraccas—okay?’

Luc turned to face the door where his secretary was miming an apology for the interruption. ‘Why don’t you tell Dante that yourself? Come in, my friend...’

Striding forward to greet his fellow polo player, Luc added, ‘Karina can’t wait to tell you what she has planned.’

CHAPTER TWO

TIME HALTED AS they stared at each other. Dante’s body reacted instantly as the past flooded back—a past best forgotten while her brother was in the room. He hadn’t seen Karina this close since the night of her eighteenth birthday, when he’d seen her in infinitely more detail than he was seeing her now.

‘Come in, my friend—come in.’

He broke eye contact with Karina as Luc drew him deeper into the room, but the aftershock of his feelings for her blanked out everything but Karina. The strength of those feelings made him wonder if his first impulse had been correct. He’d been strongly tempted to veto Luc’s suggestion when Karina’s name had been suggested to the team. Why resurrect the past? He didn’t need that sort of trouble in his life. Karina had been wild, as had he, and though he’d heard how successful she had become, he had no proof that she’d changed.

In the end he had decided that vetoing Karina on the strength of evidence from the past was mean-minded of him, and that as the sister of a teammate he should at least give her a chance. He had already made plans to keep contact between them to a minimum while she was working on his ranch. She’d avoided him for many years, so he was confident that that was what she would want too. But now, being in the same room as Karina, he was forced to rethink. Her effect on him was profound. He understood now why no other woman had ever matched up to her. But all the old reasons for resisting Karina remained. He was a player in life as well as on the field, and as the sister of his teammate Karina Marcelos was forbidden fruit.

‘Dante...’

Her voice was soft and polite—for her brother’s sake, he suspected, as the expression in her eyes was at odds with that professional exterior as she crossed the room to greet him. There was no intimacy at all in her gaze. Intimacy? She was almost hostile towards him. Had that single night all those years ago taken such a toll? Apparently, it had. There was nothing to be done about it. Karina had wanted more from him than he’d been able to give. He had thrown her out of his bed for the best of reasons. He had nothing to give her in the emotional sense, and still marvelled that he had put his concern for Karina above his own selfish lust. He’d been utterly selfish back then.

He was still where women were concerned, he reflected as her cool gaze levelled on his. He still had nothing to offer. The only difference today was the fact that she wasn’t interested. Worse. The light had gone from her eyes. Where was the Karina he had known? What had happened to the tomboy who would give him as good as she got?

‘You look well,’ he said, still searching for clues.

‘Do I?’

His groin tightened at the challenge. She wasn’t so dead inside after all. She had always been a good actress, and he could understand why she was cool with him. The blow to her pride must have been immense. Saving her from him had come at a heavy price. Their friendship was dead.

‘You look well, Dante.’

‘Thank you.’

The polite exchange over, he returned to assessing Karina. She was all woman now, not a girl to provoke and tease. Her figure had filled out and her thick black hair gleamed with good health, though since that night she had started tying it back severely. Whenever he caught a glimpse of her at a polo match, it was dragged back, and it was dragged back today—so different from the past when it had cascaded in wild tangles down her back. They had both changed. They were both very different people now. He had responsibilities, while Karina’s career had obviously grounded her, and though that reassured him on a professional level, this was not the girl he had vowed to stay away from for her own good but a woman who would keep him at bay.

‘Can I get you something to drink?’ she asked politely.

Hemlock, her eyes suggested, which made him force back a smile. ‘Just water, please.’

Her expression gave nothing away as she turned to do the honours, but when she returned and gave him the glass and their fingers brushed, her cheeks pinked up betrayingly. She could act all she liked, but she still felt the connection between them, just as he did.

His hunting instinct rose and swirled around them. Sensing this, she shot him a warning glance. She hadn’t forgiven him for kicking her out of his bed. He couldn’t blame her when he hadn’t bothered with explanations. A prior, pressing appointment had done the job. If she’d stayed they would have destroyed each other. She’d been too young, too innocent for him. Progressing their friendship into something more than one night had been a car crash waiting to happen, but all Karina had seen was his betrayal.

His eyes devoured her as she crossed the room. It amused him to think that she was putting as much distance between them as she could, when at one time she would have stayed to plague and tease him. No other woman made him feel this way, as if he was risking everything—his place on the team, his friendship with Luc—his very sanity, just by being in the same room as her. And then jealousy swamped him. Who had held her since that night? Who had heard Karina scream with pleasure? Who knew that if they stroked her from the nape of her neck to the small of her back she would whimper with need and raise her hips, inviting even more intimate touches? Who had tasted her innocence since that night?

‘It’s so good to have you here, Dante.’

He shot into fully alert mode as her brother spoke to him. Luc had an easy manner with his teammates and as he crossed the room to put an arm around Dante, it was in complete contrast to the tension between Dante and Luc’s sister. He had to put all thoughts of Karina aside before he could respond to his friend. ‘Thank you, Luc. It’s good to be here.’

And then they were talking about the match and their latest pony acquisitions, but all the time he was aware of Karina. He’d ridden with her brother since they’d been boys. Luc and he were brothers in arms, both fiercely competitive, and he had never once discussed Karina with her brother. A man’s sister was inviolable, and though for years he had burned to know if Karina had a lover, it had been a question he would never ask Luc.

‘Karina has signed the contract!’

‘Excellent.’ He swung around to face her after her brother’s announcement. ‘There’s no one I can think of who is better qualified to organise the Gaucho Cup.’

‘No one understands the demands of polo players better than my sister,’ Luc confirmed warmly.

Karina said nothing.

Luc, who appeared not to have noticed his sister bristling, stared at the water in Dante’s glass. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like something stronger?’

‘I’m certain, thank you. I want to keep a clear head.’

Karina’s stare sharpened on his face.

‘Shall we?’ she said, glancing towards the boardroom table.

‘Certainly.’ He walked across the room to hold her chair for her.

Karina proved her worth within minutes, picking up points his lawyers had missed. He should have felt completely confident in her abilities, but found himself disappointed instead. Knowing Karina as he had, he had anticipated something extra, a little dose of magic that would have lifted the event above the norm. Her initial thoughts were well thought through, considering she’d only just signed the contract, and he had no doubt those plans would be executed flawlessly, but her ideas lacked oomph. They were pedestrian and he had expected more of her.

‘Well, I think that’s it,’ she said when her thoughts were exhausted. ‘I hope you have a pleasant journey home.’

He had intended to leave immediately after the meeting, but now he was determined to stay. He wanted to get to the bottom of the changes in Karina and to make a final decision as to whether or not she could realise the vision he had for the polo event. From what he’d seen so far, he had some doubts. Smiling easily, he relaxed back. ‘I’m in no hurry.’

Her expression hardened. He raised a brow. Her brother, once again, remained oblivious to the undercurrents between them. In fact, it was Luc who rescued the situation, saying, ‘You’re not leaving yet, surely?’

He smiled back at Luc. ‘No, of course not.’

‘Karina,’ Luc chastised her when she remained silent and still. ‘Are you forgetting your manners completely? Dante can’t leave yet. This calls for champagne.’

He added his support to Luc’s suggestion. ‘I agree with Luc. What’s the rush?’

The look Karina gave him called for more hemlock.

She clearly didn’t want him to stay, which made him wonder why she was feeling quite so defensive and angry. Could she have held a grudge for so long? Apparently, she could—but there was one interesting fact: she might be looking at him as if he were the devil, but not a devil she wanted to run from, rather a devil she wanted to stay and fight. That was a great improvement. It fired her up—turned her from an expressionless automaton into the Karina he had known.

‘You’re the client. Whatever suits you,’ she said, smiling a plastic smile.

* * *

Hard eyes. Hard mouth. Hard man. How could she ever have imagined she could work with Dante? He couldn’t know, of course, that what they’d done had set in motion a train of events that would have such far-reaching repercussions. She had to remind herself that the past had no part to play in these business discussions. She was proud of the career she’d built up. She’d worked hard for it, and would allow nothing and no one to take it from her—not even Dante Baracca. She’d give him no cause for complaint. If there was one thing she’d learned while working for her brother, it was that a woman had to be twice as strong as any man in the workplace, and that emotion had no part to play.

‘Your sister seems preoccupied,’ Dante remarked to Luc, as if she’d left the room. ‘Do you think she will find it impossible to work with me?’

‘I think she can handle you,’ Luc said dryly.

She swung around to confront them both. ‘I’m still in the room. If you expect me to run this project for you, please don’t discuss me as if I’m a blotter on my brother’s desk.’

Dante’s wry glance look suggested she had fallen into his trap. He had meant to provoke her to draw her back into the conversation.

‘Please excuse my sister,’ Luc joked. ‘You remember what she’s like, don’t you, Dante? But there’s one thing I can assure you, she’s very good at her job.’

‘I’m sure she is,’ Dante agreed, with a look that made her cheeks burn.

‘Well... If you will both excuse me?’

Karina stiffened as Luc started collecting up his things.

‘I’ve got another appointment I simple can’t miss.’

You can’t leave me!

Ignoring the look she gave him, her brother did just that.

Clever Luc. He’d left her with no alternative but to stay and entertain their guest.

Dante broke the silence first. ‘Well, Miss Prim.’ His voice was low and amused. ‘Why are you so reluctant to work with me?’

She drew herself up. ‘I don’t know what makes you say that. I’m looking forward to this project immensely.’

‘Liar,’ Dante murmured.

He sucked the breath from her lungs with that single word.

‘Are you still hurting after that night?’

Shock coursed through her. She couldn’t believe what he’d just said. ‘My only interest is to organise the best event the polo world has ever seen.’

‘Worthy and dull?’ he flashed.

Her cheeks blazed red under this attack. Was that was how she’d come across? When her brother left the room, she had been expecting a few pleasantries, and then the chance to make another appointment to see Dante to discuss her plans—and only that.

‘I expected more of you, Karina.’ His tone was scathing.

Completely thrown, she went into defensive mode. ‘I’ll give you my best. My clients have never been disappointed. My past record speaks for itself.’

‘Maybe your previous clients haven’t been as demanding as me.’

She couldn’t believe he was being so aggressive and, unsettled, she looked away. Reaching out, he cupped her chin and brought her back so she had nowhere to look but into his eyes. ‘Why so defensive, Karina?’ he goaded. ‘What aren’t you telling me?’

‘I don’t know what you mean. You’re a valued client, and I never break my promise to a client. That should be enough for you.’

Dante’s eyes narrowed. ‘You haven’t answered my question.’

Nor would she. Shaking him off, she stepped back. ‘If we’re going to do business together—’

‘You will have to lighten up,’ he supplied, in a tone that spoke worryingly of Dante’s growing doubt that she was up to the task.

She had to remind herself how many difficult clients she’d had in the past, and that Dante was just one more. But though she had always succeeded in winning clients over in the past, Dante was a unique case, and the way he was looking at her now, as if he wanted her to defend herself...

‘If you don’t like my suggestions—’

He cut her off with a laugh. ‘Brava, Karina. I had begun to think there was nothing left of the wildcat I remember.’

There wasn’t anything left of that reckless young woman. Was he suggesting she had learned nothing since that night?

‘You accepted this assignment because you can’t resist it,’ he accused her, bringing his face close. ‘How do I know this?’ With a shrug he stood back. ‘You accepted this contract because you won’t let your brother down. And you won’t let yourself down because you have far too much pride.’

‘I have pride?’ she demanded on an incredulous laugh.

‘Honoured client?’ Dante reminded her, easing onto one hip.

She would come to regret those words, Karina suspected as she looked away.

‘My driver is waiting downstairs.’

She stared at him blankly.

‘You’re coming with me.’

She shook her head. ‘I have work to do.’

‘Yes,’ Dante agreed. ‘My work. My contract that you just signed.’

‘Seriously, I really don’t have time for this.’

‘Then make time,’ he said coldly, reminding her of just how harsh he could be. ‘I can’t do business with you while you’re tense like this.’

‘Tense? I’m just busy, Dante. I only wish I could leave,’ she lied, softening her tone in the hope of placating him, ‘But, unfortunately, I have a very busy day ahead of me.’

‘With important clients?’

He knew there was no client more important than he was, and the air was electric between them. Two wills colliding and neither one of them prepared to back down. But Dante had the better of her today because he knew she wouldn’t let her brother down.

‘This trip?’ she prompted. ‘What did you have in mind?’

‘Let’s get out of here and then I’ll tell you.’ Dante held the door for her, and as she walked through he murmured, ‘One thing you will discover about me, chica, is that I never do anything without a very good reason.’

She stopped dead right in front of him. ‘Let’s get one thing clear from the start. I am not your chica.’

Instead of taking offence, Dante stepped up close. He stood so close, looking down at her, that she could see the tiger gold in his eyes. She held his blazing gaze steadily, though her stomach was coiled in a knot.

‘What are you frightened of, Karina?’ he murmured in a voice she knew so well.

A quiver of awareness rippled across her shoulders even as she stood up to him. ‘Not you, that’s for sure. Shall we go?’ she said.

‘You’re very confident that I won’t take my business elsewhere,’ he said as they walked along the corridor side by side. ‘Why is that, Karina?’

‘You’re not a fool?’ she said.

Dante’s husky laugh ran a full-blown shiver of arousal down her spine. His laugh was so familiar, too familiar. Dante had always possessed an animal energy that attracted her, however hard she tried to fight it off. And he had always understood her as no one else could. He probably knew that right now every part of her was on full alert just being close to him. After that night she had wondered if she would ever be capable of feeling anything for anyone again. She had also wondered if the connection between them would fade across the years. She knew now that neither one of those suspicious was true. If anything, she was more aware of him.

She had to forget the past if she was going to do business with Dante. She would have to forget everything, just as he must accept that everything in her life had changed.

‘You never married?’ he queried out of the blue as they stepped into the empty elevator.

She looked at him, shocked that he could ask such a personal question, then remembered that Dante had always been known for speaking his mind.

‘Neither did you,’ she countered. Fixing her stare on the illuminated floor numbers as they flashed on and off, she tried not to respond when he shrugged and smiled faintly.

‘I’ve been too busy, Karina. What’s your excuse?’

‘Do I need one?’

She spoke mildly, but there was the faintest of threats in her voice. Leave it, Dante, came over loud and clear. He loved it when Karina came back to life. He loved to see fire flashing in her eyes as it once had. Every woman seemed pallid to him by comparison with Karina—until he had walked into her brother’s office this morning and wondered if there was any of her old spirit left. There was, and there was more for him to tease out, he suspected, though she stood as far away from him as possible in the elevator. When the door slid open and she walked out ahead of him, she didn’t speak a word as they headed for his limousine. Perhaps she didn’t trust herself to speak.

His driver opened the door for them, and she got in. She remained silent at his side, allowing him plenty of time to weigh up the shadows in her eyes.

‘You haven’t told me where we’re going yet,’ she reminded him, conscious of his scrutiny.

‘You always used to like surprises, Karina.’

‘And now I don’t have time for them.’ She crossed her legs and sat up primly to make her point. ‘I have a working life to consider,’ she added, when he continued to stare at her.

‘Then stop worrying, because the place I’m taking you is directly connected to the business between us.

‘Relax,’ he advised.

‘I’m perfectly relaxed,’ she snapped, staring straight ahead.

* * *

Dante’s driver drove carefully through the crowded streets. It was carnival. How could she have forgotten? The city was packed with musicians and performers, and crowds from all over the world. At one time this had been her favourite event of the year.

‘You used to love carnival,’ Dante commented, as if he had picked up on her thoughts. ‘Has that changed now?’

‘It hasn’t changed.’ She felt a charge as she turned to look at him. His hands, his lips, his face, his body all so familiar, were within a few scant inches of her, and her mouth dried as she turned to look out of the window at the exuberant crowd. Carnival was all about rhythm and music, abandonment and lust, and here she was, old before her time, dressed in a sober business suit, feeling like a dried-up leaf.

‘I’m not dressed for this,’ she murmured, unconsciously voicing her inner concerns.

‘I don’t know what you’re worried about,’ Dante argued as his driver parked. ‘Who cares what you’re wearing? It’s the spirit of carnival that counts.’

That was what worried her. She’d used to have plenty of spirit, but life changed you.

‘I can’t—these heels...’

Dante glanced at her feet and laughed. ‘That’s the worst excuse I ever heard.’

She shook her head in disagreement. ‘We can’t afford to waste time here when we could be discussing plans for the polo cup.’

‘That’s precisely why we’re here,’ he argued, reaching for the door handle. ‘The event will be a huge success—if you can relax enough to organise it.’

‘I can relax,’ she insisted, pressing back against the seat. ‘I just don’t have a lot of time. I thought you understood that.’

‘I understand that you’re making excuses,’ he said, opening the door and getting out.

What the hell was wrong with Karina? What had happened to her sense of humour—her sense of fun? At one time it wouldn’t have been she leading him astray and distracting him from his work. In the past it hadn’t been possible to keep Karina away from carnival, but now it seemed she hadn’t even registered the fact that that it was carnival week in Rio. She’d be no use in this sombre mood to the event he wanted to create. He had expected the Karina he’d once known, would come up with something fabulous, something that would appeal to all ages. ‘Shall we?’ he invited, helping her out of the car—or rather drawing her out, as she seemed so reluctant. He was beginning to wonder if he’d made a huge mistake to allow Luc to talk him into this.

‘Lead the way,’ she said, with the same lack of enthusiasm, as if he hadn’t touched her at all.

He intended to lead. He intended to elicit a reaction from her. When they had all been kids together the annual carnival had been the highlight of their year, and that was exactly what he wanted to re-create on his ranch for the Gaucho Cup.

‘All work and no play will destroy your creative juices,’ he warned, as she stared around.

‘If you say so.’

Her small smile was better than nothing at all, he supposed.

‘We need to get a move on, Karina,’ he prompted. ‘The procession will start any time now.’

‘Okay.’

Wobbling on the cobbles in her high-heeled shoes, she did look out of place—as she so obviously felt. His stone heart responded just a little. Even back when Karina had been a tomboy, tormenting the life out of him, he’d cared about her in his offhand teenage way. He still cared about her, and felt compelled to get to the bottom of the changes in someone who had used to shed light, but who now cast only shadows.

CHAPTER THREE

IGNORING DANTE’S OFFER to link arms, she walked ahead. This wasn’t a personal expedition, this was business.

Really?

Dante didn’t need to know that just being within touching distance of him made her heart go crazy, or that she beginning to feel the excitement of carnival thaw the ice around her heart. She hadn’t done this for ages—walked in the city for no better reason than to have fun. She hadn’t felt this free for years. Her gaze was darting around like a hermit let out of a cave as she desperately tried to soak up all the sights and sounds and smells at once.

She felt drunk on them, elated, after the hushed silence of her brother’s luxury hotel, and for a moment she was so wrapped up in events around her that she stopped walking altogether and got jostled along by the crowd. She almost lost her balance and then a steadying hand rescued her—Dante’s. She sucked in a noisy breath, glad that the ruckus from the crowd drowned it out. Even that briefest of touches was a warning of how receptive she still was to Dante.

She shouldn’t have come here with him, she fretted as she made for some shadows beneath the awning of a shop. Carnival in Rio was the highest-octane party in the world. No one came to carnival to discuss dry business deals or to cement business relationships. If couples talked at all, their faces were close and their eyes were locked on each other.

The music, the colour, the spectacle, the noise, the heat of the sun and the warmth of the cobbled street beneath her feet, combined with the scent of cinnamon and spices, made a riotous feast for the senses, and she had been on an austere diet. Appealing to her senses was the very last thing on her agenda for today. Logic and facts were all she needed to make the Gaucho Cup a success.

But she was here. And with him. Get over it. Get out there and make the most of it.

‘Hold on,’ Dante cautioned, as she followed a sudden impulse to plunge into the crowd. ‘It gets wild from here.’

Like she didn’t know that—though anything was wild compared to the way she’d been living. She exulted in the beat of the approaching drums as they grew louder. Maybe she wasn’t so dead inside after all. She wasn’t—she wasn’t dead at all. In fact, she had to fight the urge to go along the crowd and lose herself in the echo of a different life.

‘Karina!’

Dante’s shout brought her to her senses just in time. Of course she wouldn’t have followed that impulse, and of course she held back. She knew better than to let herself go these days because she knew where that led.

They had reached a small square. The crowd had moved ahead of them, leaving just the two of them on the street. Dante was leaning back against a wall, watching her with a puzzled expression on his face. His forearms were crossed over his powerful chest, and somewhere along the way he’d removed his jacket and tie. However hard she tried to look away, she couldn’t, and when she tried desperately hard to blank her mind to the image of a ridiculously good-looking man, she failed there too.

Then she noticed that an elderly couple had stopped to watch them, as if they had somehow created a mini-drama to be played out in silence between them. She quickly dragged her attention from Dante, only to see the old lady wink at her. She wanted to explain that there was nothing between them, but that wouldn’t have been very professional of her so she smiled instead. The elderly couple were having such a happy day—why spoil it for them? But if her feelings were so obvious to them, were they obvious to Dante?

He smiled at the old couple too. He could be charming when he wanted. And then the crowd thickened once more and the elderly couple disappeared into the throng, while Dante stood in front of her to protect her as the crowd surged past.

‘I can look after myself,’ she protested, when he put an arm around her to draw her close.

‘Is chivalry out of fashion these days?’

His look was mocking. She responded in kind. ‘Chivalry? That’s not a word I readily associate with you.’

‘Why not?’ he demanded, looking at her keenly.

She looked away. She didn’t want to get into it. They were here in the middle of carnival with nowhere else to go. She had to make the best of it, and with more than two million people milling about on the streets of Rio it was important to stay close.

The crowd pushed them together as they walked along. Her body tingled each time she touched Dante. It was a distracting client relationship tool, she told herself sternly. Cold emptiness had been her companion for so long she felt each light brush as if it were an intentional touch. And then he was distracted by one of the beautiful young samba dancers and her stomach squeezed tight as she watched them exchange kisses on both cheeks like old friends. She carefully masked her feelings when he came back to her.

‘My apologies for not introducing you, Karina.’

She shrugged it off, but Dante wasn’t fooled. ‘Are you jealous?’ he probed with amusement.

‘Certainly not. Why would I be?’ she demanded, as a little green imp stabbed her with its pitchfork.

Dante’s smile broadened infuriatingly as he took her arm to steer her through the crowd. ‘We must head for the main square where all the performers are gathering.’

More choice for him?

Whatever Dante did or didn’t do with half the girls in Rio was no business of hers. Carnival was full of beautiful women. It was a showcase. It was Dante’s hunting ground. There wasn’t a samba school in the city that wasn’t represented, and the samba beauties could swivel their bodies to stunning effect. All the men were transfixed by them, and all the girls played up to the most famous man of all: the infamous Dante Baracca.

She was jealous.

She was not!

‘Karina...’

‘Yes?’

As Dante turned to look at her she was determined he wouldn’t see, not by so much as the flicker of an eyelash, that she was affected by him, and more than she could ever have anticipated.

‘Stay close,’ he advised.

That proved impossible when a gang of young girls mobbed him, and she ended up defending him. They wanted his autograph, and, by the look of it, his clothes. Elbowing her way through the scrum, she spread out her arms in front of Dante. ‘Senhor Baracca has an important appointment to keep, but I noticed a television crew around the corner—’ Barely were the words out of her mouth when the young girls screamed with excitement and ran off.

Dante was amused. ‘When I need a bodyguard I’ll know who to call.’

‘It will cost you extra,’ she warned him dryly, moving on.

Dante was right about things getting wild. The decorated floats had arrived and everyone was excited as they trundled into view. ‘Your safety’s my responsibility,’ he explained, when he yanked her close.

‘And you’re my honoured client,’ she reminded him, pulling away. ‘If anyone gets protected here, it’s you—and you haven’t paid my fee yet,’ she said dryly.

He laughed. The first honest, open laugh she’d heard from him so far.

‘You’re one tough lady.’

‘Believe it, Dante. You became my responsibility from the moment I agreed to accompany you to the carnival, and I won’t let any harm come to you.’

‘And I will allow none to come to you,’ he assured her with an intensity that made her blink.

Did the same rule apply these days to the women in his bed?

‘I can look after myself,’ she repeated, wondering if her treacherous heart could beat its way out of her lying mouth. Having Dante this close made her doubt everything—her willpower, her powers of reasoned thought...

His husky laugh put an end to her brief moment of panic. It coincided with some more girls recognising him and crowding round. His black eyes mocked her when they went on their way, and he shrugged as he excused himself. ‘They said they knew me.’

‘I’m sure they do,’ she agreed. ‘Please, excuse me if I’m interrupting your congregation in the act of worship.’

He laughed again—a wolf laugh, sharp and faintly threatening. ‘You are jealous. Why fight it, Karina?’

‘May I suggest we move on?’ she said coolly.

Another few yards on and a girl dancing on a float called out to Dante. All the men were agog as they stared at her. She was beautiful. Wearing feathers and sparkles and not much more, it was no wonder Dante was so spoiled when every woman laid it on a plate for him.

Including her, Karina remembered, firming her jaw as Dante swung his arm around her shoulders.

‘Sorry,’ he said again, with a smile that could melt the stoniest of hearts.

She resisted the temptation to melt at his feet. ‘Please, don’t worry about me. There are plenty of distractions here that prevent me watching you baste your ego.’

‘Ah, Karina,’ he growled softly, ‘have you forgotten that I’m your honoured client?’

‘I have forgotten nothing. We signed a contract,’ she reminded him crisply, ‘so I’ve got your business.’

‘So you don’t need to try?’ Dante suggested with an amused look.

‘Where business is concerned, I can assure you of my full attention. Where anything else is concerned?’ She shrugged.

That was the end of that conversation as they were forced into silence by one of the samba bands marching past. The rhythm was infectious, making it impossible to remain tense. Everyone around them had started dancing. The performers and their supporters had put so much effort into the parade even she allowed herself to respond to their energy. It occurred to her as she started dancing that at one time she would have been up there on a float, dancing along with the best of them.

‘This is good, Karina.’

Her glance flashed up to Dante.

‘Watch and learn, because this is exactly what I want you to re-create on my ranch.’

‘Carnival?’ She stared up at him in surprise.

She couldn’t help noticing how attractive Dante looked when his lips pressed down in wry agreement. ‘I’m not asking for too much, am I?’ he probed.

He was asking for the world—and he knew it. Carnival took a year to plan, and she had a matter of weeks.

‘After all, I’m paying for the best.’

He shrugged again as he said this, and his tone of voice had changed from coaxing to rather more calculating as he added, ‘I’m paying for the best, so I expect the best.’

‘Of course,’ she agreed, relaxing into this return to business, even as she wondered if it could possibly last. ‘The impossible I can do.’

‘Miracles might take a little longer?’ he suggested. ‘You will have to work fast.’

There was no leeway in that statement, and she prided herself on always doing the best job faster than anyone else. Dante had turned away to throw a roll of banknotes onto a passing float, reminding her that all the performers were collecting money for charity. People who often had very little themselves worked hard all year to raise money during the parade, which was what made carnival so special. Locating all the cash she had, she tossed it onto the float. She would never lose sight of what this city had done for her. Working here had saved her. The vitality and the energy of Rio de Janeiro had lifted her, giving her barely enough time to brood or think back.

Until now. Dante would never change, she reflected as another group of dancing girls gathered around him. They were all exquisitely dressed and very beautiful, while Dante appeared like a dark pagan god in their midst. She had never felt more like a dowdy grey sparrow as she waited for him outside the circle of girls. If only she’d taken time to change out of her formal business suit, though something told her that more than the suit would have to go if she was going to do business successfully with Dante. She would have to find some of her missing joie de vivre—and stand up to him at every twist and turn.

She gave a start when he turned to look at her. Angling her chin, she made as if to leave. She couldn’t find it in her heart to blame the girls for loving Dante when his ridiculously handsome image appeared on every Thunderbolt poster in the city, and he looked even better in the flesh, but she was determined to get on with this research project, rather than indulge his slightest whim.

How was her determination to appear disinterested in Dante as anything other than a client going so far?

Not so well. Dante Baracca was back in her life, whether she wanted him there or not, and now it was up to her to harness the tornado and make it co-operate with her vision of how carnival could be adapted to suit the confines of a ranch.

‘I’ll make sure we enjoy some quality time together so we can have a proper chat about my plans,’ Dante reassured her when he returned to her side.

‘My plans will take a little time to formulate,’ she responded mildly. Dante had a samba girl hanging from each arm. She made no comment when he shooed the girls away.

‘We will discuss my plans shortly,’ he said.

‘I’m prepared to consider your suggestions,’ she said, and emphasised, ‘Unless it’s your way to pay a dog and bark yourself?’

His mouth curved in a grin. ‘This new business partnership should be interesting.’

‘Exactly as my brother predicted,’ she confirmed, turning away.

‘Your brother?’

‘Shall we get on? Time is short. We should head for the main square,’ she reminded him.

Dante drew her into a doorway as the previous year’s samba queen danced past. The noise from the accompanying drums was like thunder, and for a few seconds she was glad to lose herself in someone else’s moment, but then the girl stopped to put on a special dance for Dante. A leopard never changed its spots, she mused wryly as Dante tucked a roll of notes into the waistband of the girl’s thong.

‘Turning into a prude, Karina?’

‘Miss Prim?’ she threw back at him. She shrugged and smiled as the girl with the flawless body danced on her way. ‘You do what you like. It’s nothing to do with me.’

‘Such a shame,’ Dante murmured, his dark glittering eyes staring deep into hers. ‘I rather thought you might keep me in line.’

‘I think you’d enjoy that too much.’

His lips pressed down. ‘You never used to be such a killjoy.’

And he was the reason she’d changed, she thought.

No sooner had she dispensed with this latest salvo from Dante than a good-looking guy stopped in front of her and started dancing. Her first impulse was to smile and move on, but then it occurred to her that if Dante could flirt and tease without restriction, why couldn’t she?

She was about to find out, Karina guessed. Judging by the look on Dante’s face, what was good for the goose definitely wasn’t good for the gander. Then another woman—who, having recognised him, began to dance in front of him—distracted Dante, and with a look in her direction he brought the woman into his arms. Retaliation was one thing, but she had no intention of cosying up to her own partner, and had to content herself with covertly watching Dante prove just how good a man could look when he had been born with the rhythm of Brazil in his veins.

This was carnival where anything was possible. Yes. Dance with the devil and you would get burned, she added silently when Dante brushed against her. She knew he was teasing her deliberately, he always had, but she refused to respond and danced on, though Dante made her partner look like a beardless boy.

CHAPTER FOUR

IT WAS A RELIEF when the band for that particular float moved on and their dance partners drifted away with the rest of the crowd. She had realised by that time that she couldn’t play games with Dante because the stakes were just too high.

‘Why so tense?’ he demanded. ‘I brought you here to relax and take everything in. Didn’t you enjoy dancing with that boy?’

‘That...boy?’ she queried frowning.

Dante shrugged. ‘I noticed you kept your distance from him.’

‘Are you jealous now?’

His look made her shiver. She’d kept her distance from the youth for a very good reason. She didn’t want his hands on her. And he had been no threat, but that didn’t matter to Dante. There was still fire between them. Maybe there always would be.

More floats arrived, swamping them in noise, colour and people, and saving her from a potentially awkward moment. The happy smiles made it impossible to remain immune to the spell woven by carnival.

Drummers marched in front of each float, and they set up a sound that reverberated through her, making it hard to keep still. In the end she didn’t try, and it was while she was swaying to the rhythm that she carelessly backed into Dante. He grabbed her. His hands closed over her body—over a part of her body she never looked at, never showed to the world, kept hidden from everyone, and especially from him. It didn’t matter that her shame was covered by layers of clothing, that awkward stumble was all it took for her eyes to fill with tears.

Jostling through a crowd, looking out for each other, was nothing they hadn’t done a dozen times before when they had been younger, but today everything had taken on a deeper significance. It was time to put some distance between them. Baring her soul to Dante was the last thing she wanted to do. She had kept her feelings to herself for too long to break down now.

‘Dance?’ he suggested, at the worst possible moment.

Dance with him?

Dante’s warm breath caressed her skin as he leaned closer. ‘Dance and forget everything but carnival, just as you used to.’

Just as she used to? That wasn’t possible. Having Dante’s hands on her body wasn’t possible.

‘If you’ve forgotten how to dance, maybe you have forgotten how to inject the spirit of carnival into your projects,’ Dante suggested with narrowed eyes.

Maybe it was the music of her youth and the fact that Dante was offering to dance with her, but more likely it was the challenge in his eyes that pressed her into doing something she had shrunk from for too long. She let herself go. Kicking off her high-heeled shoes, she took one step and then another, and soon she was dancing on the warm, dusty streets of Rio.

Raising her arms, she swayed in time to the music, allowing the rhythm to dictate her movement. The beat was repetitive and sexy, and her hips seemed to move of their own volition. Closing her eyes, she gave herself up to the music and the sunshine. It was so easy to dance once she’d started, so easy to forget so that all she felt was the urge to live and love and laugh again, and not care about tomorrow...

Which was exactly what had got her into trouble in the first place, she remembered, sobering up fast. ‘I think we should go now.’ Straightening her suit jacket, she dipped down to pick up her shoes.

‘We can’t go. Not yet,’ Dante ruled. ‘This year’s samba queen hasn’t been crowned and it would be rude to leave before that.’

‘People will notice if we’re not there?’ She turned to give him a sceptical look and then remembered she was talking to Dante Baracca. Dante had been spotted several times by performers on the floats, and his absence at the crowning would definitely be noted, even in a crowd this size.

‘If you’ve got all the information you need for the event, I can call my driver and have him take you home. Or...there is another alternative.’

Her gaze flashed up. ‘Which is...?’

‘You could tell me what’s wrong with you.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with me.’ But her cheeks had gone red, branding her a liar.

‘You’re starting to worry me, Karina.’

‘Why?’

‘Because you seem lost in the past.’

‘Are you surprised?’ she challenged, as her night with Dante came flooding back to her.

‘You’re holding out on me.’ Catching hold of her shoulders, he made her gasp. ‘What aren’t you telling me, Karina?’

She wielded her willpower like never before. ‘You’re right, you should stay on for the crowning of the samba queen,’ she said calmly. ‘That’s gives me the chance to go back to the hotel so I can start putting my thoughts down on paper.’

‘You can stay with me and do that later.’

He was making it impossible for her to leave without causing a scene. There was a part of her that didn’t want to leave—that wanted to make up for every moment they’d been apart. And she knew how dangerous that was. ‘I need some thinking time alone. I’d like to be organised when we meet to discuss the event.’

‘As I would expect,’ Dante agreed. ‘There will be plenty of time for you to do that on my ranch.’

Her mouth dried at the thought of going to Dante’s ranch. ‘I need to work while my ideas are fresh,’ she argued. ‘You want carnival as your theme, and I’ll give you carnival, but I must make my notes before all the detail of today escapes me.’

‘You have all the answers, don’t you?’ Dante stared down at her. ‘Except for the one answer I want.’

She ignored that, but not before she saw the flash of anger in his eyes. Dante liked to control everything. When she started work on his ranch she would have to make sure that Dante and his people didn’t take over. This was her contract, her reputation at stake. He played on a team. Dante should be able to work with her. But would he work on her team? Her best guess was no. She maintained a diplomatic silence as they walked on side by side to the crowning.

The piazza where the celebration was to take place was packed. Towering walls kept in the sound and the heat, creating a dizzying counterpoint to her jangling thoughts. She had always known when she had agreed to take on this project that her biggest challenge would be Dante. They were both strong characters with set ideas of their own, but he would have to learn to compromise, just as she would have to learn to keep her thoughts confined to the job.

‘I’ll take you back,’ Dante insisted, when he saw her glance at a taxi rank.

‘I can walk.’

‘I won’t let you. Do you think I’m going to abandon you in the middle of the city?’

She almost laughed. Feeling abandoned by Dante was hardly a new sensation for her.

The crowd was thickening as people gathered to watch the ceremony, but Dante guided her safely through with his hand in a safe place in the small of her back. It was incredible that such a light touch could have such a profound effect on her body. Why could she remember his touch so clearly? Why did those hands directing her pleasure have to spring to mind now?

Dante seemed totally at ease. He bought them both a bottle of water and a pair of flip-flops for her from a market stall so she could take off her high-heeled shoes. She groaned with pleasure as she replaced them with the simple footwear.

‘Please, stop,’ she begged, when he added a shawl that was billowing above them like a sail. ‘You don’t have to do this.’

‘But I want to,’ he argued, as he draped the soft jade-green fabric around her shoulders. When he drew it tighter over that part of her body and she flinched, he gave her a questioning stare.

‘I’ll need this,’ she said, gazing about to distract him. ‘The wind is cool at night.’

Dante stared at her for a moment, and then relaxed. ‘It just reminded me of that dress you wore on your eighteenth birthday.’

Why wouldn’t he remember? He had enjoyed sliding it off her.

‘Your party was themed. Arabian Nights, wasn’t it?’

‘That’s right. And as for that dress,’ she added with relief, glad that he’d turned from suspicion to thinking back, ‘I could hardly expect my guests to turn up in costume while I wore a suit.’

He huffed a laugh as he scanned her office outfit. ‘I doubt you had one in your wardrobe. You didn’t dress like an undertaker back then.’

She stroked the shawl as she remembered the soft folds of chiffon of her birthday dress beneath her hands. The outfit she had chosen to wear at her party had been floating and insubstantial...and very easy to remove.

Time to change the theme of their conversation to a safer track. ‘I love the shawl. Thank you.’ An involuntary quiver crossed her shoulders as his hands brushed the back of her neck. He was only lifting the shawl a little higher to protect her against the wind, but it was close enough to the danger area to make tremors of an unpleasant kind run through her. And then, thankfully, a group of people recognised him and crowded around, letting her off the hook.

‘You’re a complex man,’ she said, when he’d signed the last autograph.

He frowned. ‘I’m complex because I talk to people?’

‘You’re so generous with your time, and that’s not the image you give out with the team.’

‘Ah, the team.’ His dark eyes turned black with amusement. ‘The brooding and unapproachable barbarians.’ He laughed. ‘Do you think we would attract the same crowds if our publicist worked the image of clean-shaven, pipe-and-slippers men?’

Against her better judgement, he made her laugh. ‘There’s no danger of that.’

Their gazes lingered a little longer on each other’s faces than perhaps they should have done, and then Dante turned serious. ‘These people are my audience, Karina. Of course I respect them. I’ll always make time for them. Without them I’m nothing.’

‘I think you’re more than you know,’ she murmured to herself.

She wondered again about the years they’d been apart and Dante’s meteoric rise to fame and fortune after a childhood that had been less than perfect. His father had squandered the family fortune, by all accounts, and Dante had been proud but poor. Proud, but poor and determined, she amended. There had never been anyone like him, the rumour mill said. Dante was a natural horseman, and with his looks he had soon been inundated with requests from sponsors to become the face of first this big brand and then the next. She doubted he’d had to buy a car or a watch for years, and apart from those smaller perks the money that went with the huge deals had made him an extremely wealthy man. If Dante’s father could see him now...

Baracca senior had been a cold, self-serving man who could always be depended upon for one thing, and that was to be dismissive and scathing about his son. He had never been interested in what the world had thought of Dante’s emerging talent because all he’d cared about had been recounting the times when he had done so much more.

‘Wool-gathering again?’ Dante suggested, staring keenly at her.

‘I was thinking about your father.’

His expression instantly closed off, but then, to her surprise, he admitted, ‘My father was an unhappy man, who was always locked in the past.’

Always trying to belittle him, she thought as Dante fell silent. She couldn’t bring herself to feel charitable towards a man who had been so relentlessly critical of his own son.

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