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At The Ruthless Billionaire's Command
Carole Mortimer
Sleeping with the enemy…Gregorio de la Cruz doesn’t care if innocent Lia Fairbanks holds him responsible for ruining her life. But he can’t get the fiery red-head out of his mind. He won’t rest until he has Lia just where he wants her – ready and willing in his bed!Lia is adamant that she won’t give in to Gregorio’s outrageous demands, no matter how wildly her body responds to his slightest touch. She knows she can’t trust him…but Gregorio is sinfully persuasive, and soon Lia finds she can’t resist the sensual onslaught of this billionaire’s seduction!


Sleeping with the enemy...
Gregorio de la Cruz doesn’t care if innocent Lia Fairbanks holds him responsible for ruining her life. But he can’t get the fiery redhead out of his mind. He won’t rest until he has Lia just where he wants her—ready and willing in his bed!
Lia is adamant that she won’t give in to Gregorio’s outrageous demands, no matter how wildly her body responds to his slightest touch. She knows she can’t trust him...but Gregorio is sinfully persuasive, and soon Lia finds she can’t resist the sensual onslaught of this billionaire’s seduction!
Lia recognised the flame in his eyes for exactly what it was. Desire. Hot, burning desire. For her. A desire he had demonstrated four months ago and which he obviously still felt.
She took a step back—only to have Gregorio take a step forward, maintaining their close proximity.
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. ‘I think you should go now.’
‘No.’ He was standing so close his breath was a light caress across the soft tendrils of hair at her temples.
‘You can’t just say no.’
‘Oh, but I can. I have,’ he added with satisfaction.
Lia blinked up at him, her heart thumping wildly now, her palms feeling damp. ‘This is insane.’
She was insane. Because a part of her—certain parts of her—was responding to the flickering flames in those coal-black eyes. Her skin felt incredibly sensitised. Her nipples were tingling and between her thighs she was becoming slick with arousal.
‘Is it?’ Gregorio raised a hand and tucked a loose curl behind her ear before running his fingertips lightly down the heat of her cheek.
‘Yes…’ she breathed, even as she felt herself drawn to lean into that caress.
CAROLE MORTIMER was born and lives in the UK. She is married to Peter and they have six sons. She has written almost 200 books since she started writing for Mills & Boon in 1978. She writes for the Modern and Historical lines. Carole is a USA TODAY Bestselling Author, and in 2012 she was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for her ‘outstanding contribution to literature’.
Books by Carole Mortimer
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
The Twin Tycoons
The Redemption of Darius Sterne
The Taming of Xander Sterne
The Devilish D’Angelos
A Bargain with the Enemy
A Prize Beyond Jewels
A D’Angelo Like No Other
Mills & Boon Historical Romance
Dangerous Dukes
Zachary Black: Duke of Debauchery
Darian Hunter: Duke of Desire
Griffin Stone: Duke of Decadence
Christian Seaton: Duke of Danger
A Season of Secrets
Not Just a Seduction
Not Just a Governess
Not Just a Wallflower
Visit the Author Profile page
at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
At the Ruthless Billionaire’s Command
Carole Mortimer


www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
With many thanks to all at Harlequin Mills & Boon
Contents
Cover (#u2dc895a3-e5f7-5934-8fb0-2b498a800859)
Back Cover Text (#u73d73efd-c407-5494-9d77-cebc784f40ba)
Introduction (#u3d2d61b1-90bf-5b18-a923-973bf6892184)
About the Author (#u507a2ad2-ab14-547a-bb75-c4d310e88666)
Title Page (#ued672bb9-f50d-544c-a57d-39904eb33088)
Dedication (#u305d2b13-8ee5-5b4d-a4e1-3f1ee3130a3d)
PROLOGUE (#ue6028c33-1ebd-57c4-a38b-398560fe5afb)
CHAPTER ONE (#u5e04aef9-f6b4-50be-9d7d-bf392091efed)
CHAPTER TWO (#u4b86cb20-c283-5abc-8a43-0170ee5c7aa1)
CHAPTER THREE (#u479ae339-0555-55b0-98f1-f71e90fcb853)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#u6f39b511-2042-5927-a96f-b739c26c7fbf)
‘WHAT’S HE DOING HERE?’ Lia couldn’t take her eyes off the man standing back slightly on the other side of the open grave where her father’s coffin would soon be laid to rest.
‘Who—? Oh, God, no...’
Lia ignored her friend’s gasp of dismay as her feet seemed to move of their own volition, taking her towards the dark and dangerous man whose image had consumed her days and haunted her nightmares for the past two weeks.
‘Lia—no!’
She was barely aware of shaking off Cathy’s attempt to restrain her, her attention focused on only one thing. One man.
Gregorio de la Cruz.
Eldest of the three de la Cruz brothers, he was tall, at a couple of inches over six feet. His slightly overlong dark hair was obviously professionally styled. His complexion was olive-toned. And his face was as harshly handsome as that of a conquistador.
Lia knew he was also as cold and merciless as one.
He was the utterly ruthless, thirty-six-year-old billionaire CEO of the de la Cruz family’s worldwide business empire. A business empire this man had carved out for himself and his two brothers over the past twelve years by sheer ruthless willpower alone.
And he was the man responsible for driving Lia’s father to such a state of desperation that he’d suffered a fatal heart attack two weeks ago.
The man Lia now hated with every particle of her being.
‘How dare you come here?’
Gregorio de la Cruz’s head snapped up and he looked at Lia with hooded eyes as black and soulless as she knew his heart to be.
‘Miss Fairbanks—’
‘I asked how you dare show your face here?’ she hissed, hands clenched so tightly at her sides she could feel the sting of her nails cutting into the flesh of her palms.
‘This is not the time—’
His only slightly accented words were cut off as one of Lia’s hands swung up and made contact with the hardness of his chiselled cheek, leaving several smears of blood on his flesh from the small cuts in her palm.
‘No!’ He held up his hand to stop two dark-suited men who would have stepped forward in response to her attack. ‘That is the second time you have slapped my face, Amelia. I will not allow it a third time.’
The second time?
Oh, goodness—yes. Her father had introduced them in a restaurant two months ago. They had both been dining with other people, but Lia had been totally aware of Gregorio de la Cruz’s gaze on her, following that introduction. Even so, she had been surprised when she’d left the ladies’ powder room partway through the evening to find him waiting for her outside in the hallway. She had been even more surprised when he’d told her how much he wanted her before kissing her.
That was the reason she had slapped his face the first time.
She had been engaged at the time—he had been introduced to her fiancé as well as her that evening—so he had stepped way over the line.
‘Your father would not have wanted this.’ He kept his voice low, no doubt so none of the other mourners gathered about the graveside would be able to hear his response to her attack.
Lia’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘And how the hell would you know what my father would have wanted when you don’t—didn’t—know the first thing about him? Except, of course, that he’s dead!’ she added vehemently.
Gregorio knew far more about Jacob Fairbanks than his daughter obviously did. ‘I repeat—this is not the time for this conversation. We will talk again once you are in a calmer state of mind.’
‘Where you’re concerned that’s never going to happen,’ she assured him, her voice harsh with contempt.
Gregorio bit back his reply, aware that Amelia Fairbanks’s aggression came from the intensity of her understandable grief at the recent loss of her father—a man Gregorio had respected and liked, although he doubted Jacob’s daughter would believe that.
The newspapers had featured several photographs of Amelia since the start of the worldwide media frenzy after her father had died so suddenly two weeks ago, but having already met her—desired her—Gregorio knew none of the images had done her justice.
Her shoulder-length hair wasn’t simply red, but shot through with highlights of gold and cinnamon. Her eyes weren’t pale and indistinct, but a deep intense grey, with a ring of black about the iris. She was understandably pale, but that pallor didn’t detract from the striking effect of her high cheekbones or the smooth magnolia of her skin. Long dark lashes framed those mesmerising grey eyes. Her nose was small and pert, and the fullness of her lips was a perfect bow above a pointed and determined chin.
She was small of stature, her figure slender, and the black dress she was wearing seemed to hang a little too loosely—as if she had recently lost weight. Which he could see she had.
Nevertheless, Amelia Fairbanks was an extremely beautiful woman.
And the sharp stab of desire he felt merely from looking at her and breathing in the heady spice of her perfume was totally inappropriate, considering the occasion.
‘We will talk again, Miss Fairbanks.’ His tone brooked no argument this time.
‘I don’t think so,’ she said, scorning his certainty.
Oh, they would meet again. Gregorio would ensure that they did.
His gaze was guarded as he gave her a formal bow before turning on his heel to walk across the grass and get into the back of the black limousine waiting for him just outside the graveyard.
‘Señor de la Cruz?’
Gregorio looked up blankly at Silvio, one of his two bodyguards, to see the other man holding out a handkerchief towards him.
‘You have blood on your cheek. Hers, not your own,’ Silvio explained economically as Gregorio gave him a questioning glance.
He took the handkerchief and rubbed it across his cheek before looking down at the blood that now stained the pristine white cotton.
Amelia Fairbanks’s blood.
Gregorio distractedly put the bloodied handkerchief into the breast pocket of his jacket as he glanced across to where she stood beside a tall blonde woman at her father’s graveside. Amelia looked very small and vulnerable, but her expression was nonetheless composed as she stepped forward to place a single red rose on top of the coffin.
Whether she wished it or not, he and Amelia Fairbanks would most definitely be meeting again.
Gregorio had wanted her for the past two months—he could wait a little longer before claiming her.
CHAPTER ONE (#u6f39b511-2042-5927-a96f-b739c26c7fbf)
Two months later
‘I NEVER REALISED I’d accumulated so much stuff.’
Lia groaned as she carried yet another huge cardboard box into her new apartment and placed it with the other dozen boxes stacked to one side of the tiny sitting room. The other half was full of furniture.
‘I’m sure I don’t need most of it. I definitely have no idea where I’m going to put it all.’ She looked around the London apartment with its pocket-size sitting room/kitchen combined, one bedroom and one bathroom. It was a huge downsize from the three-storey Regency-style townhouse she had shared with her father.
Beggars couldn’t be choosers. Not that Lia was exactly a beggar—she had a little money of her own, left to her by the mother—but the comfortable lifestyle she’d known for all of her twenty-five years no longer existed.
Every one of her father’s assets had been frozen until the extent of his debts had been decided and paid by his executors—which would take months, if not years. Considering the dire financial situation her father had been in before his death, Lia doubted there would be anything left.
Their family home had been one of those assets, and although Lia could have continued to live there until everything was settled she hadn’t wanted to. Not without her father. The business sharks were also circling, ready to snap up the assets of Fairbanks Industries as soon as the executors had decided when and how they were going to be sold off to pay the debts.
Lia had used her own money to pay her father’s funeral expenses and the deposit on this apartment, plus the few bits of furniture she had deemed necessary to fill the tiny space. She hadn’t been allowed to remove anything from the house except personal items.
She had resigned from all the charitable work that had taken up much of her time—with her father dead and his estate in limbo those charities no longer considered the name Fairbanks as being a boon to their cause!—and she’d looked for, and found, a job that paid actual wages. She needed to be able to earn enough at least to feed herself and continue paying the rent on this apartment.
She had taken charge of her own life, and it felt strangely good to have been able do so.
Cathy shrugged. ‘You must have thought you needed it when you did the packing.’
She didn’t add what both of them knew: a lot of the contents of these boxes weren’t Lia’s at all, but personal items of her father’s she had packed and been allowed to bring from their home. Items that had no value but which had meant something to him, and which Lia couldn’t bear to part with.
Lia had put all these boxes in storage for the past two months, while she’d stayed with her best friend Cathy and her husband Rick. That had been balm to her battered emotions, but a situation Lia had known couldn’t continue indefinitely. Hence her move now to this apartment.
She was over the absolute and numbing shock of finding her father in his study, slumped over his desk, dead from a massive heart attack the paramedics had assured her would have killed him almost instantly. Cold comfort when they’d been talking about the man Lia had loved with her whole heart.
In some ways she wished that previous numbness was still there. The loss of her father’s presence in her life never went away, of course, but now a deeper, more crippling agony at the loss would suddenly hit her when she least expected it. Standing in the queue at the local supermarket. Walking in the park. Lying in a scented bubble bath.
The loss would hit her with the force of a truck, totally debilitating her until the worst of the grief had passed.
‘Time for a glass of wine, methinks,’ Cathy announced cheerfully. ‘Any idea which one of these boxes you put the wine glasses in?’ The tall blonde grimaced at the stack of unopened boxes.
‘I’m space-challenged—not stupid!’ Lia grinned as she went straight to the box marked ‘Glassware’, easily ripping off the sealing tape to take out two newspaper-wrapped glasses. ‘Ta-da!’ She held them up triumphantly.
Lia had no idea what she would have done without Cathy and Rick after her father died. The two women had been friends since attending the same boarding school from the age of thirteen, and Cathy was as close to her as the sister she had never had. Closer, if what she’d heard about sisterly rivalry was true.
Luckily Cathy worked as an estate agent, and was responsible for helping Lia find this affordable apartment. But, even so, there was only so much advantage she could take of Cathy’s friendship.
‘You should go home to your husband now,’ she encouraged as the two of them sat on a couple of the boxes drinking their wine. ‘Rick hasn’t seen you all day.’
Rick Morton was one of the nicest men Lia had ever met—as much of a friend to her as Cathy was, especially this past two months. But the poor man must be longing to have his wife and his apartment to himself.
‘Are you sure you’re going to be okay?’ Cathy frowned.
‘Very,’ Lia confirmed warmly.
Rick had been persuaded to go off and enjoy a football match with his friends that afternoon. A welcome break for him, it had also allowed the two women to move Lia into her new home. But there had to be a limit to how much and for how long Lia could intrude on the couple’s marriage.
‘I’m just going to unpack enough to be able to make the bed and cook myself something light to eat before I go to sleep.’ Lia gave a tired yawn: it had been a long day. ‘I don’t just have a new apartment to organise, but a new job on Monday morning to prepare for too!’
Cathy slipped her arms into her jacket. ‘You’re going to do just fine.’
Lia knew that. After the past two months she had no doubt that she was capable of looking after herself. Nevertheless, she still had to fight down the butterflies that attacked her stomach whenever she thought of all the changes in her life since her father had...died. She still choked over that word—probably because she still couldn’t believe he was gone.
And he wouldn’t be if Gregorio de la Cruz hadn’t withdrawn De la Cruz Industries’ offer to buy out Fairbanks Industries. The lawyers might have presented that death knell to her father, but there was no doubt in Lia’s mind that it was Gregorio de la Cruz who was responsible for the withdrawal of that offer.
Her father had watched the decline of his company for months and, knowing he was on the edge of bankruptcy, had decided he had no choice but to sell. Lia firmly believed it was the withdrawal of the De la Cruz offer that had been the final straw that had broken him and caused her father’s heart attack.
Which was why all of Lia’s anger and resentment was now focused on the man she held responsible.
Futile emotions when there was no way she would ever be able to hurt a man as powerful as Gregorio de la Cruz. Not only was he as rich as Croesus, but he was coldly aloof and totally unreachable.
The man had even been accompanied by two bodyguards at her father’s funeral, for goodness’ sake. They hadn’t been able to prevent Lia from slapping him, though. Was that because Gregorio de la Cruz had allowed it? He had certainly indicated that the two men should back off when they would have gone into protection mode.
She was thankful it had been a private funeral, and that there had been no photographs taken of the encounter to appear in the newspapers the following day and stir up the media frenzy once again. There’d been enough speculation after her father’s sudden death without adding to it with her personal attack on Gregorio de la Cruz.
Nevertheless she had found a certain satisfaction in slapping the Spaniard’s austerely handsome face. Even more so at seeing her blood streaked across his tautly clenched cheek.
As the days, weeks and then months had passed, and Gregorio de la Cruz’s chilling promise that they would talk again hadn’t come to fruition, Lia had mostly been able to put the man out of her mind. Just as well, because she only had enough mental energy to concentrate on the things that needed her immediate attention. Such as packing up the house, with Cathy and Rick’s help, and finding herself an apartment and a job.
But she had successfully done all those things now—including securing a job as a receptionist in one of London’s leading hotels.
Having no wish to start answering awkward questions from a prospective employer or, even worse, become the recipient of sympathetic glances that just made her want to sit down and cry, Lia had applied for several jobs under the name Faulkner—her mother’s maiden name.
Nevertheless, she had no doubt it was her years of being the Amelia Fairbanks that had given her the necessary poise to secure her job. The manager of the hotel had obviously liked her appearance and manner enough to give her a one-day trial. He had admitted afterwards to being impressed with her warmth and the unflappable manner with which she’d dealt with some of their more difficult clientele.
The poor man had no idea she was usually on the other side of the reception desk, booking in to similar exclusive hotels all over the world.
So—new apartment, new job.
Cathy was right: she was going to be just fine.
But not if one of her new neighbours was going to ring her doorbell at nine o’clock at night, when she was soaking in a much-needed bath after having pushed herself to empty half a dozen of the boxes once she’d eaten a slice of toast.
It had to be one of her new neighbours, because Lia hadn’t sent out new address cards to any of her friends yet. It was the next job she had to do—once she had unpacked completely and arranged her furniture ready for receiving visitors.
Not that she expected there to be too many of those. Amazing how many people she had thought were friends had turned out not to be so once she was no longer Amelia Fairbanks, daughter of wealthy businessman Jacob Fairbanks. Even David had broken their engagement.
But she refused to think about her ex-fiancé now!
Or ever again after the way David had deserted her when she’d needed him most.
Going to answer the door wrapped only in a bath towel was far from the ideal way to meet any of her new neighbours, but it would look even worse if Lia didn’t bother to answer the door at all. It must be obvious she was in from the amount of noise she’d been making unpacking boxes and moving furniture around.
Impatient neighbours, Lia decided as the doorbell rang again before she’d even had chance to wrap the towel around herself.
She might be new to living in an apartment, but she knew at least to look through the peephole in the door before opening it. Except she couldn’t see anyone in the hallway—which meant they had to be standing out of view. Well, there was always the safety chain to prevent anyone from coming in if she didn’t want them to. And she didn’t want them to. She was nowhere near ready—or dressed!—to receive visitors.
The reason her visitor had been standing out of the view of the peephole became obvious the moment Lia opened the door and saw Gregorio de la Cruz standing in the hallway!
‘I do not think so.’ He placed his handmade Italian black leather shoe in the six-inch gap left by the door chain, effectively preventing Lia from slamming the door in his face.
‘What are you doing here?’ Lia demanded, her hands gripping the door so tightly her knuckles showed white as she stared at the tall Spaniard.
He was once again dressed in one of those dark bespoke tailored suits, with a pristine white shirt and a perfectly knotted dark grey silk tie. Along with that slightly tousled hair, he looked like a catwalk model.
‘You seem to have asked me questions similar to that several times now,’ he answered evenly. ‘Perhaps in future it might be wise of you to anticipate seeing me where and when you least expect to do so.’
Lia didn’t want to ‘anticipate’ seeing this man anywhere. Least of all outside the door to her apartment. An apartment he shouldn’t even know about when she had only moved in today.
Except he was the powerful Gregorio de la Cruz, and he could do just about anything he wanted to do. Including, it seemed, finding out the address of Amelia Fairbanks’s new apartment.
‘Go to hell!’ She attempted to close to door. Something that wasn’t going to happen with that expensive leather shoe preventing her from doing so.
‘What are you wearing? Or rather, not wearing...?’
Gregorio found himself totally distracted by the view he could see of Amelia’s bare shoulders, where tiny droplets of water dampened her ivory skin, and what appeared to be a knee-length towel wrapped around the rest of her body. Her hair was loosely secured at her crown, with several loose tendrils curling against the slenderness of her nape.
‘None of your damned business!’ There was a flush to her cheeks. ‘Go away, Mr de la Cruz, before I call the police and ask them to forcibly remove you.’
He arched a dark brow. ‘For what reason?’
‘Stalking. Harassment. Don’t worry, I’ll think of something suitable by the time they get here,’ she threatened.
‘I am not worried,’ he assured her calmly. ‘I merely wish to speak with you.’
‘You have nothing to say that I want to hear.’ She glared at him, her eyes a deep metallic grey, the black rings wide about the irises.
‘You cannot possibly know that.’
‘Oh, but I do.’
Gregorio was not known for his patience, but he had waited for two long and tedious months before seeking out this woman again. Two months during which he had hoped her emotions would not be quite so volatile. Obviously time had not lessened her resentment towards him. Or the blame she felt he deserved for her father’s death at the age of only fifty-nine.
To say he had been shocked by Jacob Fairbanks’s demise would be an understatement. Although it must have been a strain for the man—and his company—to have been under close scrutiny of the FSA financial regulators. They were still investigating, and all of Jacob Fairbanks’s assets would remain frozen until their investigation was complete.
Gregorio had no doubt that it had been the withdrawal of De la Cruz Industries’ offer to buy Fairbanks’s company that had caused the FSA’s investigation. But he would not be held responsible for the bad business decisions that had brought Jacob Fairbanks to the brink of bankruptcy. Or the man’s fatal heart attack.
Except, it seemed, by Amelia Fairbanks...
‘No bodyguards this evening?’ she taunted. ‘My, aren’t you feeling brave? Facing a five-feet-two-inches-tall woman all on your own!’
Gregorio’s mouth tightened at the jibe. ‘Silvio and Raphael are waiting outside in the car.’
‘Of course they are,’ she scorned. ‘Do you carry a panic button you can press, if necessary, and they’ll come running?’
‘You are being childish, Miss Fairbanks.’
‘No, what I’m being is someone attempting to get rid of an unwanted visitor.’ Her eyes flashed. ‘Now, take your damned foot out of my doorway!’
His jaw tightened. ‘We need to talk, Amelia.’
‘No, we really don’t. And Amelia was my grandmother,’ she dismissed. ‘My name is Lia. Not that I’m giving you permission to use it. Only my friends are allowed that privilege,’ she added with a sneer.
Gregorio knew he was most certainly not one of those. And nor did ‘Lia’ intend for him ever to become one.
It was unfortunate for her that Gregorio felt differently on the subject. He didn’t only want to be Lia’s friend, he had every intention of becoming her lover.
When his parents had died twelve years ago they had left their sons only a rundown vineyard in Spain. As the eldest of the three brothers, Gregorio had made it his priority to rebuild and expand, and now he and his brothers owned a vineyard to be proud of, as well as other businesses worldwide. He had done those things by single-mindedly knowing what he wanted and ensuring that he acquired it.
He had wanted Lia from the moment he’d first set eyes on her. He would not give up until he had her.
He almost smiled—but only almost—at the thought of her reaction if he were to state here and now that that was his intention. No, he knew to keep that to himself. For now.
‘Nevertheless, the two of us need to talk. If you would care to open the door and put some clothes on...?’
‘There are two things wrong with that demand.’
‘It was a request—not a demand.’
She raised auburn brows. ‘Coming from you, it was a demand. I don’t care to open the door, or go and put some clothes on. And nor,’ she continued when he would have spoken, ‘as I’ve already said, do you have anything to say that I want to hear. Because of you my father is dead.’ Tears glistened in those smoky grey eyes. ‘Just leave, Mr de la Cruz, and take your guilty conscience with you.’
Gregorio’s jaw clenched. ‘I do not have a guilty conscience.’
‘Silly me—of course you don’t.’ She eyed him scornfully. ‘Men like you ruin people’s lives every day, so what does it matter if a man had a heart attack and died because of you?’
‘You are being melodramatic.’
‘I’m stating the facts.’
‘Men like me?’ he queried softly.
‘Rich and ruthless tyrants who trample over everyone and everything that gets in your way.’
‘I was not always rich.’
‘But you were always ruthless—still are!’
For the sake of his brothers and his own future, yes, he had become so. Had needed to be in a business world that would have eaten him up and spat him out again if not for that ruthlessness. But ruthless was the last thing he wanted to be where Lia was concerned.
He shook his head. ‘You are not only being overly dramatic, but you are also totally incorrect in your accusations. In regard to your father or anyone else. As you would know if you would allow me to come in and talk to you.’
‘Not going to happen.’ She gave a firm shake of her head.
‘I disagree.’
‘Then be prepared to take the consequences.’
‘Meaning?’ Gregorio’s lids narrowed.
‘Meaning I’m being extremely restrained right now, but if you persist in this harassment I promise you I will take the appropriate legal steps to ensure you are made to stay away from me.’
He raised his brows. ‘What legal steps?’
‘A restraining order.’
Gregorio had never experienced this much frustrated anger with another person’s stubbornness before. He was Gregorio de la Cruz, and for the past twelve years no one had dared to oppose him. Lia not only did so, but seemed to take delight in it.
He had never felt so much like strangling a woman and kissing her at the same time, either. ‘Would you not have to engage the services of another lawyer in order to be able to do that?’ he retaliated.
Colour blazed in her cheeks at his obvious reference to the fact that David Richardson was no longer her family lawyer or her fiancé.
‘Bastard!’
Gregorio had regretted the taunt as soon as it had left his lips. At the same time as he couldn’t take it back when he only spoke the truth. David Richardson had left this woman’s life so fast after her father’s death and Fairbanks Industries being put under investigation, Gregorio wouldn’t be surprised if the other man hadn’t suffered whiplash.
He took his wallet from the breast pocket of his jacket before removing a card from inside. ‘This has my private cell phone number on it.’ He held out the white gold-embossed business card to her. ‘Call me when you are ready to hear what I have to say.’
Lia stared at the card as if it were a viper about to strike her. ‘That would be never.’
‘Take the card, Lia.’
‘No.’
The Spaniard’s jaw clenched as evidence of his frustration with her lack of co-operation. She doubted many people stood up to this arrogant man. He was far too accustomed to telling people what to do rather than asking.
Lia had acted as her father’s hostess for years, so she had met high-powered, driven men like him before. Well...perhaps not quite like Gregorio de la Cruz, because he took arrogance to a whole new level. But she had met other men who believed no one should ever say no to them. Probably because no one ever had.
She had no problem whatsoever in saying no to Gregorio.
Lia didn’t remember her mother, because she had died in a car crash when Lia had still been a baby. But for all Lia’s life her father had been a constant—always there, always willing to listen and spend time with her. Their bond had been strong because of it. When her father had died Lia hadn’t just lost her only parent but her best friend and confidante.
‘I’m asking you to leave one last time, Mr de la Cruz.’ She spoke flatly, sudden grief rolling over her, as heavy as it was exhausting.
Gregorio frowned at the way Lia’s face had suddenly paled. ‘Do you have anyone to take care of you?’
She blinked in an effort to ward off her exhaustion. Which in no way stopped her from continuing to fight him verbally. ‘If I tell you that I’m alone are you going to offer to come in and make hot chocolate for me? Like my father did whenever I was worried or upset?’
‘If that is what you wish.’ He gave an abrupt inclination of his head.
‘What I wish for I can’t have,’ she said dully.
Gregorio didn’t need her to say that her wish was to have her father returned to her, because he could already see the truth of that in the devastation of her expression: the shadowed grey eyes, those pale cheeks, her lips trembling as she held back the tears.
‘Is there anyone I can call to come and sit with you?’
‘Such as...?’
Not her ex-fiancé, certainly. David Richardson could not have truly loved Lia, otherwise he would have remained at her side and helped her to weather the storm that had followed her father’s death. Instead he had distanced himself from any scandal that might ensue once the investigation into Jacob Fairbanks’s finances was complete.
Gregorio had no such qualms. He had no interest in the outcome of that investigation, nor in what other people might or might not choose to say about Lia or himself. His private life was most definitely off limits. He might not be in love with Lia but he certainly wanted her, and he would be pursuing that desire.
Lia appeared to be swaying now, and there was not a tinge of colour left in her face. She looked so fragile that a puff of wind might knock her off her bare feet.
What had she been doing when he’d arrived? She was obviously naked beneath the towel wrapped about her, but she claimed she was alone so she obviously wasn’t entertaining a lover. The obvious explanation was that Lia had been taking a shower or a bath in order to wash away the dust of having moved in to her apartment today.
The loosely secured hair and the droplets of water that had now dried on the bareness of her shoulders would certainly seem to indicate as much.
‘Take off the safety catch and let me in, Lia,’ Gregorio instructed in his most dominating voice. It was a voice that defied anyone to disobey him.
She attempted a shake of her head, but even that looked as if it was too much effort. Her head seemed too heavy to be supported by the slenderness of her neck.
‘I’m not sure I can,’ she admitted weakly.
‘Why not?’
‘I... My fingers don’t seem to be working.’
Gregorio stepped up close against the partially open door. ‘Move your right hand slowly, then slide the catch along until it releases.’ He held his breath as he waited to see if she would do as he asked.
‘I don’t want to.’
‘But you will,’ he encouraged firmly.
‘I... It’s... You...’
‘Move your hand, Lia. That’s it,’ he encouraged gruffly as she hesitantly moved her hand towards the safety chain. ‘Now, slide the lock along. Yes, just like that,’ he approved softly. ‘A little more—yes.’
Gregorio breathed softly as the safety chain fell free and he was able to push the door open. Not quickly or forcefully, but just enough to allow him to enter the apartment.
To be alone with Lia at last.
CHAPTER TWO (#u6f39b511-2042-5927-a96f-b739c26c7fbf)
THE APARTMENT LOOKED to be in absolute chaos to Gregorio’s gaze. There were boxes everywhere, and furniture stacked haphazardly in the tiny sitting room. The kitchen looked as if there had been an explosion of cooking utensils in its midst, and not a single surface was visible beneath pots and pans and cutlery.
Gregorio had never seen this side of moving to a new home before. The vineyard in Spain had belonged to his family for years, and the three de la Cruz brothers had grown up there. The rambling ranch-style house was full of family heirlooms as well as memories. And he had hired an interior designer to decorate and furnish the apartments he had acquired in New York and Hong Kong, as well as his houses in Paris and the Bahamas.
No wonder Lia was exhausted.
Lia managed to rouse herself slightly as she heard the finality of the closing of the door to her apartment. She wasn’t completely sure how, but Gregorio de la Cruz was now standing inside her apartment, rather than outside in the hallway.
She remembered now... She had opened the door and let him in. Not because she’d wanted to but because she had felt compelled to. His voice, deep and mesmerising, had ordered her to unlatch the safety chain, and because she had been consumed by that black exhaustion she had done as he’d instructed.
He seemed taller and larger than ever in the confines of her untidy apartment. Taller, darker, and just plain dangerous. Like a huge jungle cat preparing to pounce on its unsuspecting prey.
The almost-black hair was in that tousled style again, and his face was set in harsh lines. His shoulders looked huge beneath the tailored suit, his chest defined and muscular, waist slender, hips and thighs powerfully muscular.
Lia could smell the aftershave he wore, easily recognising it as one that cost thousands of pounds an ounce. Even so there was a fine stubble on his chin, as if he was in need of his second shave of the day.
Her gaze moved quickly upwards and was instantly ensnared by glitteringly intense almost black eyes. ‘I—’
‘You need to sit down before you fall down.’ Gregorio stepped across the room to remove several items from one of the armchairs before lightly grasping Lia’s arm to support her until she was seated. ‘Do you have any brandy?’
She somehow looked more fragile than ever seated in the chair.
‘Wine,’ she answered with a vague wave of her hand in the direction of the kitchen area.
Wine would not revive her as well as brandy, but it was still alcohol and better than nothing. Gregorio found a half full bottle of red wine on the breakfast bar, a used glass beside it. Predictably, it wasn’t one of the de la Cruz vintages.
‘Here.’ Gregorio held the glass of wine in front of her until she took it from him with slender fingers that shook slightly. ‘Have you eaten anything today?’
‘Um...’ Her forehead creased as she gave the matter some thought. ‘A bowl of cereal this morning and some toast this evening. I think...’ she added doubtfully.
He scowled his displeasure before turning on his heel to stride through to the kitchen area. There was a loaf of bread on one of the units, a tub of butter and a carton of milk—and nothing else when he pulled open the fridge door and looked inside.
‘You do not have any food.’ He closed the fridge door in disgust.
‘Maybe that’s because I only moved in a few hours ago.’
Gregorio held back a smile at the return of her sarcasm. Evidence that Lia was feeling slightly better? He hoped so.
‘Which begs the question—how did you know I’d moved in here today?’ She eyed him suspiciously.
Gregorio had known about the apartment in the same way he’d known about everything Lia had done in the two months since her father’s death. He was given daily reports on her movements by his head of security.
No doubt it was an intrusion into her personal life that Lia would take exception to if she knew about it. But it was Gregorio’s belief that the Fairbanks’s situation was not yet over, and until it was she would accept his protection whether she wanted it or not.
‘Drink your wine,’ he ordered dryly as he took his cell phone from his pocket.
‘Look, Mr de la Cruz—’
‘Gregorio. Or Rio, if you prefer,’ he added huskily. ‘That is what my family and close friends call me.’
‘Of which I’m neither. Nor do I intend to be,’ she added dismissively. ‘What are you doing...?’ She frowned as he made a call.
‘I had intended inviting you out to dinner, but now that I see how tired you are I am ordering dinner to be delivered to us here instead.’ Gregorio put the cell phone to his ear, his gaze remaining challengingly on Lia as he waited for the call to be picked up.
Lia was starting to wonder if she had fallen asleep in the bath and was having another nightmare. Because Gregorio de la Cruz couldn’t really be in her apartment, ordering dinner for both of them. Could he?
He certainly seemed real enough. Tall, muscular, and bossy as hell.
It seemed surreal after the months of torment she had just suffered through. Because of him.
Being a little unfair there, Lia, a little voice taunted inside her head.
Gregorio wasn’t responsible for the decline of her father’s company, nor the ailing economy. He had also been perfectly at liberty to withdraw his interest in buying Fairbanks Industries if he had decided the company wasn’t viable.
Lia did believe it was the withdrawal of that offer which had resulted in her father’s company being put under investigation, though, and only weeks later in her father’s heart attack and premature death.
She had to blame someone for all that, and Gregorio de la Cruz was the obvious person.
He had ended his call now, and was once again looking at her with those fiercely penetrating black eyes.
Lia’s heart skipped a beat. Several beats. The blood rushed hotly through her veins as she saw something stirring in the cold depths of those dark orbs. Gregorio continued to stare at her. Something that looked like a flickering flame was growing stronger, hotter by the second, and was sucking all the air from the room as well as Lia’s lungs.
She swallowed. Her heartbeat was now sounding very loud to her ears. So loud that surely Gregorio could hear it too? Lord, she hoped not! This man had kissed her once, and although Lia had slapped his face for it she had never forgotten it.
‘I’m really not hungry.’ She stood up to place the empty wine glass on the breakfast bar. Only to falter slightly as she realised how close to Gregorio she was now standing.
‘I doubt you have felt hungry for some time now,’ he acknowledged softly. ‘That does not mean your body does not need sustenance.’
Why did that sound so...so intimate—as if Gregorio wasn’t talking about food at all?
Maybe because he wasn’t?
Lia recognised the flame in his eyes for exactly what it was now. Desire. Hot, burning desire. For her. A desire he had demonstrated four months ago and which he obviously still felt.
She took a step back—only to have Gregorio take that same step forward, maintaining their close proximity.
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. ‘I think you should go now.’
‘No.’ He was standing so close his breath was a light caress across the soft tendrils of hair at her temples.
‘You can’t just say no.’
‘Oh, but I can. I have,’ he added with satisfaction.
Lia blinked up at him, her heart thumping wildly now, her palms feeling damp. ‘This is insane.’ She was insane. Because a part of her—certain parts of her—was responding to the flickering flames in those coal-black eyes.
Her skin felt incredibly sensitised. Her nipples were tingling and between her thighs she was becoming slick with arousal.
‘Is it?’ Gregorio raised a hand and tucked a loose curl behind her ear before running his fingertips lightly down the heat of her cheek.
‘Yes...’ she breathed, even as she felt herself drawn to leaning into that caress.
Her father’s death and David’s defection meant it had been a long time since anyone had touched her, held her, apart from Cathy’s brief reassuring hugs. Lia’s body cried out for another kind of physical connection.
From Gregorio de la Cruz?
This man was a corporate shark who felt no compunction in gobbling up smaller fish. He was also a man who had a different woman on his arm in every news photograph Lia had ever seen of him. He bought and sold women—usually tall and leggy blonde women, who looked good on his arm and no doubt filled his bed at night—as easily as he bought and sold companies.
Lia wasn’t tall, leggy or blonde.
Nor was she for sale.
She stepped back abruptly—only to give a shiver as she immediately felt the loss of the heat of Gregorio’s body.
‘I’m going to my bedroom to dress. I advise that you be gone by the time I come back.’
His sculpted lips curved into a smile. ‘I make it a rule always to listen to advice, but I rarely choose to take it.’
Her chin rose challengingly. ‘Is that because you’re always right?’
His smile widened, revealing even white teeth. ‘I have a feeling that however I answer that question you will choose to twist it to suit your own purposes.’
He was right, of course.
As always?
‘Or should I say to suit the opinion you have formed of me without actually knowing me,’ he added harshly.
Lia eyed him impatiently. ‘I know enough to know I don’t want you here.’
‘And yet undoubtedly here I am,’ he challenged.
‘That’s because you... Because I... You know what? Get the hell out of my apartment!’ Her earlier agitation had returned, deeper than ever. ‘Whatever sick game you’re playing, I want no part of it.’
He sobered. ‘I do not play games, Lia, sick or otherwise.’
‘That’s odd, because I’m pretty sure you’re playing one now.’
Gregorio drew in a deep and controlling breath. Lia made no effort to hide her distrust and dislike of him. And right now her body couldn’t hide her physical reaction to him.
Her breasts had plumped, her nipples hard as they pressed against the covering towel, and Gregorio’s nostrils flared as they were assailed with the scent of her sweetly perfumed arousal.
Lia might distrust him, might think she had every reason to dislike him, but the response of her body told him she also desired him as much as he desired her.
He could wait to satisfy that desire. If he had to. And for the moment it seemed he must.
‘I agree—you should go and put some clothes on.’ He nodded abruptly. His self-control was legendary, but even he had his breaking point. And Lia, wearing only a towel to cover her nakedness, was it.
‘Thanks so much, but I really don’t need your permission to do anything!’
A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. ‘Dinner will be here shortly.’
‘I’ve already told you I don’t want any.’
Gregorio’s eyes narrowed. ‘Did your father have a line over which it was not safe to cross?’
‘Oh, yes,’ she recalled, with a wistful curve of her lips.
‘And I am sure you knew to the nth degree how close to that line you might venture?’
‘Yes...’ She eyed him warily now.
‘I have now reached my own line,’ Gregorio informed her calmly.
‘Is that supposed to scare me?’
Her bravado was admirable. Unfortunately it was nullified by the rapidly beating pulse visible in her throat: Lia was well aware of exactly how close she was to crossing over his line. And to paying the consequences for that trespass.
Gregorio’s mouth thinned. ‘You are—’ He broke off as the doorbell rang. ‘That will be Silvio, delivering our dinner.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Wow, you must be a regular customer for the restaurant to have delivered so quickly.’
Their dinner had been prepared at and delivered by the staff at Mancini’s, one of the most exclusive and prestigious restaurants in London. If Lia thought they were going to dine on pizza or Chinese food she was mistaken.
‘Go and dress,’ he instructed harshly. ‘Unless you wish Silvio to see you wearing only a towel.’
Lia had a feeling the thought of that bothered Gregorio more than it bothered her. She was half inclined to remain exactly as she was—if only so that she could annoy Gregorio even more than he already was.
The fact that she knew she would feel more comfortable fully clothed was the deciding factor in her turning on her heel and walking down the hallway to her bedroom. But she was aware of Gregorio’s devouring black gaze following her every step of the way.
Once in her bedroom, Lia slumped back against the closed door and drew in several deep breaths. Exactly what was going on here? Because something most certainly was.
Gregorio had not only kept the promise he’d made two months ago, that the two of them would talk again, but now that he was here in her apartment he was making no secret of the fact he still desired her.
Her body’s traitorous response to him was harder for Lia to accept, let alone make sense of.
He was Gregorio de la Cruz, for goodness’ sake. The man who’d had a hand in driving her father to his death.
When did I stop holding him completely responsible?
She hadn’t. Had she...? No, of course she hadn’t.
Gregorio was hard, ruthless, and scary as hell. He was also at least ten years older than she was, with the added experience that came with those extra years.
Dear God, she must be more desperate for human warmth than she’d realised if she’d been physically aroused by a man she should hate!
* * *
‘Good?’
Lia’s only response was a throaty ‘mmm’ as she dipped another piece of asparagus into melted butter before eating it with obvious enjoyment.
Gregorio had removed his suit jacket and tie, and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to just beneath his elbows by the time Lia had returned fully dressed from her bedroom. Her hair was loose about her shoulders, in the style he preferred—but if Lia had known that he was sure she would have scraped it back into a severe bun! She was wearing tight black jeans with a deep grey sweater that perfectly matched the colour of her eyes.
He had placed their food in the oven to keep warm, cleared the breakfast bar, found cutlery and laid two places so they were ready to eat as soon as Lia returned.
After stating that she wasn’t hungry she had devoured succulent prawns and avocado with obvious relish, and steak, asparagus and dauphinoise potatoes were now being enjoyed with the same enthusiasm. The fact that she had drunk two glasses of the red wine Gregorio had ordered to be delivered with the meal—he’d had the foresight not to order one of the vintages from the de la Cruz vineyard—would seem to indicate she approved of that too.
Gregorio had found the food to be as delicious as always, but most of his enjoyment had come from watching Lia as she placed the food delicately in her mouth before eating with relish.
More colour returned to her cheeks the more she ate, and there was now a sparkle to her eyes. Evidence that she really had been starving herself the past two months? Not deliberately, but because food had simply become unimportant to her with her life in such turmoil.
Gregorio intended to ensure that didn’t happen again.
Lia was enjoying the food so much, and Gregorio seemed to be enjoying watching her, that there had been very little conversation between the two of them as they ate together.
Which was perhaps as well. Lia felt the need to argue with this man every time they engaged in conversation.
She finally placed her knife and fork down on her empty plate. ‘I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the food at Mancini’s.’
Past tense, Gregorio recognised with a tightening of his mouth. Because Lia’s world had been turned upside down and she could no longer afford to eat in such exclusive restaurants.
Which was his cue to resume their conversation about her father’s death. A subject guaranteed to bring back the contention between the two of them, but also one that stood between them as an invisible barrier.
Gregorio would accept no barriers between himself and Lia—invisible or otherwise. He intended knowing everything there was to know about this woman. Inside as well as out. Intimately. And he intended her to know him in the same way.
‘That was delicious. Thank you,’ she added awkwardly. ‘But it’s been a long day, and now I think what I really need is to get some sleep.’
She did look tired, Gregorio acknowledged. Well-fed, but tired. And what did a delay of one more day or so matter when he had already waited this long for her?
He glanced at the disorder about them. ‘Would you like me to come back tomorrow and help you with the rest of your unpacking?’
‘Why are you being so nice to me?’ Lia frowned her puzzlement, more confused than ever now that she had satisfied a need for food she hadn’t realised was there until she’d begun eating.
Her stomach and her appetite had perked up at the very first taste of the food from Mancini’s—a restaurant she had enjoyed going to several times in the past, alone and with David or her father.
‘You are a person it is easy to be nice to,’ Gregorio dismissed with a shrug of his broad shoulders.
Shoulders that looked even wider and more muscular now that he was no longer wearing his jacket. In fact the whole casual thing he had going on—losing the jacket, taking off his tie, unfastening the top button of his shirt and rolling back the sleeves—had succeeded in making him more approachable and even more lethally attractive.
Which was perhaps his intention?
Lull the poor befuddled woman into a state of uncertainty and then pounce?
Cathy was never going to believe her when the two of them spoke on the phone tomorrow as they usually did, and Lia told her friend about Gregorio’s visit and the fact the two of them had eaten dinner together.
Lia wasn’t sure she believed it herself.
It was becoming more and more difficult to continue thinking of this man as the monster who had helped to destroy her father when he was being nothing but attentive and kind to her. No matter how rude she was, he continued to treat her with respect and kindness.
It’s just his way of worming his way into my good graces before he goes for what he really wants!
Which Lia had now realised appeared to be her.
He was obviously a man who enjoyed a challenge if he thought he was going to win that battle.
‘No, I’ll be fine, thanks.’ She stood up as indication that he should leave.
A hint he ignored as he remained seated at the breakfast bar. ‘We have not eaten dessert yet.’
‘Take it with you,’ she dismissed. ‘I couldn’t eat another thing.’
‘I could not deprive you of Mancini’s celebrated chocolate cake.’
Lia gave a soft gasp. ‘He really sent you some of his famous chocolate cake?’ The dessert was Mancini’s secret recipe, and it had always been Lia’s choice when she had dined at the restaurant. It was rich and decadent, and the taste of the cake was orgasmic.
‘He sent us some of his chocolate cake,’ Gregorio corrected.
‘He didn’t know I would be dining with you.’
‘Oh, but he did. I spoke to Mancini personally and requested he send all your favourite foods.’
She widened her eyes. ‘You told him we were having dinner together?’
Gregorio studied her from beneath hooded lids. ‘Is there a problem with that?’
‘Not for me, no.’
‘Or for me.’
He certainly didn’t look concerned at having announced to a third party that he was having dinner with the daughter of Jacob Fairbanks. Considering the speed with which some of her so-called friends and her fiancé had disappeared in a cloud of smoke, she found Gregorio’s behaviour odd to say the least.
‘You’re a very strange man,’ she said slowly.
‘In a bad way or a good way?’ he prompted as he stood up.
‘I haven’t decided yet.’
The grin he gave softened the harshness of his features. ‘When you do, let me know, hmm?’
‘You’re different than I imagined.’
‘In what way?’
‘That night at the restaurant when you—when you kissed me, I thought you were just another arrogant jerk who doesn’t like to hear the word no.’
‘One out of the two, certainly,’ he mused.
Lia didn’t need him to tell her it was the word no he didn’t like to hear. There was no doubting he was arrogant too, but there was something else. Something she couldn’t quite equate with the ruthless bastard she’d labelled him. Perhaps it was the fact that, whatever his reasons, he was actually attempting to take care of her.
‘You said you weren’t always rich?’
‘No.’ He settled more comfortably on the bar stool. ‘When I graduated from university with a business degree and returned to Spain it was to find that my father had allowed the family vineyard to decline. Several years of bad harvest...diseased vines.’ He shrugged. ‘There were still my two brothers to go to university. I put my own life on hold and set about ensuring that happened.’
‘By founding the de la Cruz business empire?’
‘Yes.’
‘And is your life still on hold?’
He looked at her admiringly. ‘Obviously not.’
Lia gave a shake of her head. ‘I don’t think it would be a good idea for the two of us to meet again.’
He looked displeased. ‘Why not?’
Lia avoided meeting his gaze. ‘Besides the obvious, I don’t belong in that world any more.’
‘The obvious...?’
‘I hold you partly responsible for my father’s death.’ There—she’d stated it clearly, so there could be no lingering doubts as to her reason for staying away from this man.
Was she protesting too much?
Because of her earlier reaction to him?
Maybe. But that didn’t change the fact that she really didn’t want to see or be alone with Gregorio again. He...unsettled her. Disturbed her. In a deep and visceral way Lia could never remember being aware of with any other man. Including the man she had once been engaged to and had intended to marry.
‘I am sorry you feel that way,’ he answered evenly. ‘And you can belong in whatever world you choose to be in,’ he announced arrogantly.
‘You really can’t be that naïve! My father is dead. My engagement is over. Most of my friends have deserted me. I’ve lost my home. My father’s business is under investigation. None of the charities I worked for want the name Fairbanks associated with them. I now live in this tiny apartment, and I start a new job on Monday.’
‘None of those things changes who you are fundamentally.’
‘I no longer know who I am!’ If there had been enough room to pace then Lia would have done so, as she was suddenly filled with restless energy. ‘I try to tell myself none of those other things matter. That this is my life now...’
‘But...?’
‘But I’m mainly lying to myself.’ She inwardly cursed herself as her voice broke emotionally. Gregorio was the last man she wanted to reveal any weakness to. ‘And you’re lying to yourself if you think that being nice to me, buying me dinner, will ever make me forget your part in what happened,’ she added accusingly.
‘No barrier is insurmountable if the two people involved do not wish it to be there.’
‘But I do wish it to be there.’
‘Are you sure about that?’
When had Gregorio moved to stand so close to her? She felt overwhelmed by both his size and the force of his personality—a lethal combination that caused her heart to start pounding loudly again.
‘You have to go,’ she told him.
‘Do I?’
‘Yes!’
Despite the food she’d eaten, Lia had no reserves of energy left to resist the pull of those dark and compelling eyes. No defences to fight the lure of that hard and muscular body. Even the reminder that he was Gregorio de la Cruz wasn’t working. She was caught like a deer in the headlights of a car as his head slowly began to lower towards hers.
Gregorio was going to kiss her...
No matter how exhausted and defenceless Lia felt, she couldn’t allow that to happen.
‘No!’ She raised enough energy to put a restraining hand against his chest, and that brief contact was enough to make her aware of the tensed heat of Gregorio’s body and the rapid beat of his heart. ‘You really do have to leave. Please.’
His lips remained only centimetres away from her own, his breath a warm caress against her cheek.
His nostrils flared as he breathed long and deeply before slowly straightening and then finally stepping away. ‘Because you asked so nicely...’
Lia gave a choked laugh, able to breathe again now that he was no longer standing quite so close to her. ‘As opposed to threatening to call the police and having them kick you out?’
‘Exactly.’ He rolled down the sleeves of his shirt and fastened them before shrugging back into his jacket. ‘Think of me tomorrow when you eat all that chocolate cake,’ he added huskily, and then the door closed softly behind him as he let himself out of the apartment.
Lia breathed easily at last once he had gone. What the hell had happened just now? She had almost let Gregorio kiss her, for goodness’ sake. She—
Lia froze as she saw the business card sitting on top of the breakfast bar.
The same business card she had refused to take from him earlier, with his personal mobile number embossed on it in gold.
CHAPTER THREE (#u6f39b511-2042-5927-a96f-b739c26c7fbf)
‘GOOD MORNING, LIA.’
Lia felt all the colour drain from her cheeks as she stared up at the man standing on the other side of the reception desk at the London Exemplar Hotel.
She had always thought that a person feeling the colour leeching from their face was a ridiculous concept: people couldn’t actually feel the colour leaving their cheeks.
Except Lia just had. In fact the blood seemed to have drained from her head completely, settling somewhere in the region of her toes and leaving her feeling slightly light-headed as she continued to gape across the reception desk at Gregorio de la Cruz.
He tilted his head, a mocking smile playing about those sculpted lips as he saw her reaction to his being here. ‘I did warn you that in future you should anticipate seeing me where and when you least expected to do so.’
Yes, he had—but it hadn’t occurred to Lia that Gregorio might turn up at her new place of employment.
Deliberately so?
Or was it purely coincidence that Gregorio had come to the Exemplar Hotel on the morning she began working there?
Lia very much doubted that. With a man as powerful and well-connected as Gregorio there was no such thing as coincidence.
Which meant he had known she would be here. How he knew was probably by the same means he had acquired the address of her new apartment.
She narrowed her eyes. ‘Are you having me followed, Mr de la Cruz?’
‘Followed? No,’ he dismissed. ‘Am I ensuring your safety? Yes,’ he admitted without apology.
Lia’s brows rose. ‘Why on earth does my safety need ensuring?’
‘You are now alone in the world.’
‘We both know why that is!’
‘Lia—’
‘Is there a problem here—? Mr de la Cruz!’ Michael, the hotel manager, quickly hid his surprise as he greeted the other man warmly.
‘Good morning, Michael,’ Gregorio returned smoothly as the two men shook hands. ‘And, no, there is no problem. I just came down to say hello to Miss... Faulkner,’ he finished, with a knowing glance at the badge Lia had pinned on the left lapel of her jacket.
It was a surname Gregorio knew didn’t belong to her.
And he also apparently knew the manager of this hotel by his first name’
An uneasy feeling began to churn in Lia’s stomach, growing stronger by the second and making her feel slightly nauseous.
There was no such thing as coincidence where Gregorio de la Cruz was concerned.
Which meant he had known exactly where she would be starting her new job this morning.
He really was having her followed—might he even have had some influence in her attaining this job too?
For what reason?
The churning in Lia’s stomach became a full-blown tsunami as she searched for the reason Gregorio was doing these things.
That guilty conscience she had accused him of having?
No, he had denied feeling any guilt in regard to her father’s death.

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