The Most Expensive Lie of All

by Michelle Conder

  She walked towards them and Cruz tried not to react, but it was impossible to stop his gut from tightening as the men watched her with unrestrained lust in their eyes.

  She looked so delicate.

  So sensual.

  So his.

  The need to stamp his ownership all over her took hold and he didn’t bother to contain it. For right now, for tonight, she was his—and he didn’t care who knew it. In fact, the more who did the better. It would save him from having to keep tabs on her during dinner, and the four European jocks already halfway to being tanked would, he knew, be the best candidates to spread the news.

  As conversation once again resumed in the bar he ignored Ricardo’s keen gaze and went to her.

  She had her back to him and he felt her jump as his thigh lightly grazed her hip. She looked up and he bent his head, let his eyes linger on her mouth, gratified by her quick intake of breath.

  If it were possible, the more time he spent with her the more time he wanted to spend with her. It was a sobering thought, if he’d been in the mood to care.

  He cupped Aspen’s elbow in his palm. ‘Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse us?’

  Slowly each man registered Cruz’s proprietorial manner, but only Tommy Hassenberger had the nerve to look disgruntled. ‘Looks like I’m too late,’ he complained.

  ‘You were too late when you were born, Tommy,’ one of his friends joked, making the others laugh.

  Aspen grinned, said she’d catch up with them at the formal dinner, and then felt intoxicated as Cruz placed his hand on the small of her back to guide her from the room, the heat of his palm scorching her bare skin.

  She hadn’t known what to expect when she had entered the bar but she had decided to try and relax. To try and forget about their deal and her fears and just brave it out. Cruz had invited her to dinner—a formal event, not a date—and for all she knew that was a peace offering as well.

  ‘You wore the dress,’ he said, his gravelly voice stroking her already heightened senses.

  ‘Yes. I couldn’t not in the end. Thank you.’

  ‘You look stunning in it.’

  The look he gave her made her burn.

  Aspen took in his superbly cut tuxedo. ‘You look—’ Simply divine. ‘Nice too,’ she croaked.

  He gave her a small smile. ‘Aspen, I need to tell you something.’

  Cruz gazed down at the utterly stunning woman at his side and a ball of emotion rushed through him. Seeing her like this...having her beside him...all the animosity of the past fell away and he just wanted to take her upstairs and make love to her with a need that floored him.

  ‘What is it?’

  Aspen tilted her head and Cruz heard a roaring in his ears as their eyes connected. Reality seemed suspended and—

  ‘Señor Rodriguez, sir, the first lot of guests are assembled in the Rosa Room.’

  Cruz turned towards his head waiter. ‘Thank you, Paco. I’ll be along in a minute.’

  ‘Certainly.’

  The waiter inclined his head and left and Cruz lifted Aspen’s fingers to his lips. He could see her pulse racing and his did the same.

  ‘I wish I’d never planned this idiotic dinner.’

  ‘It’s not idiotic.’ She smiled up at him, her eyes almost on a level with his chin because she was wearing the stilettos. ‘It’s to welcome honoured guests to your flagship hotel for tomorrow’s tournament. It’s important.’

  Not half as important as what he wanted to be doing with her upstairs right now.

  His nostrils flared as he fought to control the urge to drag her into the nearest darkened corner. On one level he thought he should be concerned about the intensity of his hunger for her, but on another he just couldn’t bring himself to examine it. There was something about her that sent his baser instincts off the scale.

  Nothing a night of straightforward, short-term hot sex wouldn’t cure.

  He smiled at the thought and, with the situation once again under his control, he tucked her elegant hand in the crook of his elbow and prayed for the evening formalities to fly by.

  * * *

  The dinner took all night. As it was supposed to.

  The first course had been Mushroom-something. Aspen couldn’t remember and Cruz, possibly noticing her picking at it dubiously, had swapped it for his goat’s cheese soufflé. Then there’d been the main course. Beef or chicken. This time Aspen had swapped with him when she’d seen him eyeing her steak.

  He’d smiled, grazed her chin with his knuckles and then resumed talking to two well-dressed Asian men, who’d nodded with polite restraint. Now and then he’d twined his fingers with hers when she’d left her hand on the tabletop while he talked, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to do. As if this really was a date.

  Aspen had chatted to the wife of the Mayor, who was very down to earth and full of Latin passion, and their daughter who was studying to be a doctor. They’d swapped war stories of bad essay topics, boring lecturers and horror exams and then it had been time for dessert.

  She was full. Even though she’d hardly eaten a thing.

  Her dinner companions excused themselves, and Aspen was just contemplating whether she should move to the other side of the table to speak with an older woman who sat on her own when Cruz slid his fingers through hers again. His hand was so much bigger than hers, his skin tone darker, the hairs on the back of his wrists absurdly attractive.

  He stroked his thumb over her palm and goosebumps raced themselves up her arm.

  He glanced in her direction, brought her hand briefly to his lips and then answered one of the Asian men’s questions.

  The Mayor’s daughter returned and Cruz dropped Aspen’s hand as the girl produced a photo of her horse on her phone. Aspen made polite responses, all the time disturbingly aware of the man beside her.

  Something had changed between them since she’d come downstairs. He was behaving as she imagined a man in love would behave. Little intimate glances, tucking her hair behind her ear, pouring her water, holding her hand...

  Chad had seemed nice in the beginning too. Wooing her. Treating her lovingly. Somehow it had all come unstuck the year Cruz had left and her grandfather had been too sick to send the team to England. Chad had been unable to get a permanent ride that year and had started drinking more. By the time their wedding had rolled around she’d barely recognised him as the man who had courted her and treated her so deferentially. He’d moved back home when his father had threatened to halve his trust fund, and his father had used the opportunity to encourage Chad to get a real job. Aspen had tried to smooth things over but that had only seemed to make him resentful.

  On their wedding night— No, she didn’t want to remember that.

  She glanced at Cruz to find him deep in conversation. Would he be rough? She swallowed, her gaze drawn to his hands, wrapped around a wine glass. He stroked the slender stem with the pad of his thumb. Aspen recalled how he had stroked her lips the same way and heat erupted low in her belly. For a man with such size and strength he had been gentle. Suddenly his thumb stopped moving and Aspen felt the air between them shift even before her eyes connected with his.

  Her mouth dried and her heart thumped. Fear and desire commingled until she felt emotionally wrung out.

  ‘Aspen?’

  She glanced up but didn’t really see him.

  ‘Everything okay?’

  Oh, God, that deep, sensual voice so close to her ear. She couldn’t help it. She trembled. Then pulled herself together.

  ‘Fine.’ Just me being a nincompoop.

  Nincompoop? Her mother had used that word when she’d been laughing at herself.

  A wave of sadness overtook her and immediately made her think of Ocean Haven. Her horses. Her mother. Aspen had gained wealth by movi
ng in with her grandfather but not love, and certainly not security.

  Cruz moved his hand to the back of her chair. ‘You look miles away.’

  A wave of panic washed through her and she made the mistake of glancing up at him.

  As soon as their eyes met his sharpened with concern. ‘Hey, what’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing.’ She forced a smile. ‘I just need to go to the bathroom.’

  He scanned her face but thankfully didn’t push her. ‘Don’t be long. We’ll go when you get back.’

  Oh, help.

  She got up, stumbled and snagged the tablecloth with her leg. Cruz leaned over and held it while she straightened up. The deliciously sexy gown he had bought her swayed around her body and settled. She felt his eyes on her as she started to walk away, the dress floating around her legs as light as butterfly wings. Of course that was nothing compared to the butterflies using her belly as a trampoline.

  Once in the bathroom she told herself to calm down and splashed cold water on her wrists, dabbed it on her cheeks. She checked her make-up, shocked to see her face so flushed. It was because every time he touched her she thought of sex.

  A woman smiled at her in the mirror and Aspen dropped her gaze lest the woman accurately read her mind. Then she realised how rude that was and raised her eyes only to find the person had gone.

  She let out a shaky laugh at her absurd behaviour. She felt like... She felt like... She frowned. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this nervous.

  Well, maybe she could. On her wedding day. She’d had a similar fluttering feeling in her stomach then that had turned out to be a bad omen.

  She stared at herself. Fear knotted her insides. She couldn’t do this. Her eyes looked like two huge dots in her face. She just couldn’t do it. She was so anxious she’d probably throw up all over him.

  An older woman entered the bathroom and Aspen pretended to be wiping her hands.

  She’d have to tell Cruz.

  Would it mean she’d still get the money if she backed out?

  Oh, who cares about the money? This was no longer about the money. This was now about self-preservation. This was about going back to the wonderful, predictable life that she loved.

  Yes, but there won’t be that life if you don’t go through with this.

  She’d backed herself into a corner and the only way out was through Cruz. A man who, for all his surface arrogance, genuinely cared about his family and was smart. And also ruthless. He would chew her up and spit her out without a backward glance if she let him.

  ‘Let’s not forget why you’re here, Aspen,’ she told her reflection softly.

  He was pitting himself against her for Ocean Haven. Her farm. She should hate him for that alone but she didn’t, she realised. She didn’t hate him at all. Because she had come to understand him a little better. Understand what he had thought of her. What had shaped him as a boy. What had shaped him as a man.

  How did you hate someone you instinctively sensed was good underneath? And what did that even matter?

  Shaking her head at her reflection, she refastened a few loosened strands of hair and wondered where all her positive self-talk had run off to.

  Maybe down the toilet.

  She smiled at her lame attempt at humour and nearly walked straight into Cruz where he leant against the wall opposite the ladies’ room.

  ‘You were taking so long I got worried. I was just about to go in but I didn’t want to surprise you.’

  ‘I would have been okay.’ She let out a shaky breath. ‘It’s the old lady in the cubicle you might have had some trouble with.’

  Cruz laughed and it broke the tension. He held out his hand. ‘Shall we go?’

  She looked at his perfect, handsome face. Then his hand, palm up. He was strong, maybe stronger than Chad, but he wasn’t nasty. Even when he’d thought she had done him wrong he still hadn’t picked on her the way Chad would have done. No, Cruz was arrogant and controlling, but he was honest and straight down the line. A straight arrow. Black and white. No shades of grey.

  ‘Aspen?’

  She saw hunger and desire in his eyes and it made her feel hot all over. Maybe she could do this. Maybe.

  She glanced at his hand, wondered if she was as crazy as her uncle had suggested and placed hers in it.

  He smiled.

  She swallowed.

  It wasn’t until they were halfway across the foyer that she saw a familiar figure—a man—leaning against the reception desk. He had his back to her, so she couldn’t see his face, but he was average height with blond hair and a slightly stocky bodybuilder’s physique.

  Chad?

  Cruz pressed the lift button and Aspen’s attention was momentarily snagged by their reflection in the gold-finished doors. They looked good together, she thought. He was tall and broad, and she looked feminine and almost otherworldly in the beautiful green dress.

  His eyes met hers and she couldn’t look away.

  Then the lift doors opened. Aspen snuck another quick glance over her shoulder but the man she had spotted wasn’t there. She let out a relieved breath. After their last acrimonious argument Chad had kept to his own part of the world and she to hers.

  Still, she stabbed repeatedly at the penthouse button and only realised how questionable her behaviour looked when she noticed Cruz’s bemused expression and realised he hadn’t swiped his security tag across the electronic panel.

  His eyebrows rose and Aspen’s gaze dropped to the space between their feet, her heart beating too fast. Seeing the man who might or might not have been her ex-husband had been terrible timing. Just when she’d begun to think maybe her night with Cruz would be all right it was as if the powers that be had sent her a message to take care.

  To remind her that being in a man’s control was when a woman was at her most vulnerable.

  As the lift ascended Cruz pushed away from the mirror-panelled wall and invaded her space, startling her out of her dark reverie when he placed his warm hands either side of her waist.

  ‘Okay, talk to me. You’re as nervous as a pony facing the bridle for the first time. The same as you were last night.’

  Aspen gave a low laugh at his analogy and jumped when his thumbs stroked her hip bones through the dress. She couldn’t tell him she thought she’d just seen Chad. That would raise a whole host of questions that she did not want to answer. And what if she was wrong? Then she’d just look stupid. Or paranoid.

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘You’re shaking.’

  Was she?

  He gave her a look. ‘Is it the deal? Because—’

  ‘It’s not the deal. Actually I’d forgotten all about that again.’

  Her answer seemed to please him but she didn’t have time to consider his satisfied—‘Good.’—because the lift doors opened.

  When he’d released her he placed his hand on the small of her back as he ushered her through to the living room. The housekeeper had been and the room was cast with shadows by the floor lamps that had been switched on for their convenience.

  ‘Do you want a drink?’

  ‘Yes, please.’

  She’d said that too loudly and his eyes narrowed.

  ‘Of...?’

  Aspen forced a smile. ‘Gin and tonic.’ She winced. She hated gin and tonic.

  She wandered over to the wall to study one of the paintings she’d admired the evening before but never taken the time to look at. An overhead light outlined it perfectly and she gasped.

  ‘That’s a Renoir.’

  ‘I know.’

  He was right behind her and she heard the tinkle of ice as he handed her the drink she didn’t want.

  ‘You’re not having one?’

  ‘No.’ He perched on the arm of a nearby sofa, watchi
ng her. ‘Something wrong with it?’

  ‘What?’

  He motioned patiently towards the highball in her hand. ‘Your drink?’

  ‘No. It’s fine. At least, I’m sure it’s fine.’ It was all about maintaining control. If she did that she could get through this. ‘Look, maybe we should just...start.’

  ‘Start?’

  Aspen could have kicked herself, and she moved towards a side table so she could let out a discreet breath and put the drink down. She knew he hadn’t taken his eyes off her and she told herself that he wanted her. She’d felt how aroused he had been last night, and again in the stable that day. He had felt huge!

  So why had he stopped? Was he struggling to maintain an erection with her as Chad had done? She shuddered. On those occasions Chad had been particularly vile.

  Cruz tilted his head and looked as if he was about to say something, and then he changed his mind. Instead he uncurled his large frame and came towards her until he practically loomed over her. Then he reached for her hair.

  She didn’t mean to do it, of course, but she flinched and his hand stilled. ‘I’m just going to take your hair down.’

  She stared at his chest and tried to slow her heartbeat.

  ‘Is that okay?’

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  ‘Turn around.’

  It took all of her willpower to give him that modicum of control, but when she did turn around he stroked her shoulders.

  ‘You have a beautiful back. Lean and supple. Strong.’

  He kneaded the bunched muscles either side of her neck and her involuntary sigh of pleasure filled the quiet room.

  ‘That feels so good. I know I must be really tight.’

  Cruz groaned inwardly, knowing she hadn’t meant that comment the way his depraved mind had interpreted it. Yes, she did feel tight. Too tight. Too nervous.

  He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but she moaned softly and her head lolled on the graceful stem of her neck and the question died in his throat.