The Spaniard's Pleasurable Vengeance

by Lucy Monroe

  “What? No, actually. Baz took care of stuff before I left. I’ve enjoyed not having to track my name and wonder if today would be the day I’d get vilified in the press again.” Her heart tightened, her stomach cramping. “Are you saying Carl Madison went back on the agreement?”

  That fast Baz was there, putting his hand out for the phone. She gave it to him without a second thought.

  “Kayla, it is Basilio. What is going on?”

  He grimaced, listening to whatever Kayla was saying, his expression turning more and more grim as her sister’s agitated tones came through the phone.

  Finally, he said, “Do not worry about it, Kayla. I will take care of it.”

  Kayla said something.

  “No, of course not.”

  She said something else.

  His lips tilted in a partial smile. “Thank you. We will see you soon.”

  They ended the call.

  “Didn’t she want to talk to me again?” Randi asked.

  “She understood I needed to tell you the latest development.”

  “What latest development?”

  Baz pulled her over to their bed and helped her climb inside before joining her, his arm a solid presence around her waist as they faced each other.

  He traced her jawbone and then tucked her hair behind Randi’s ear. “I do not want you to worry.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “The researchers at the television station you were going to do the interview on are much better at their job than any media outlet so far. They got ahold of the police reports, both from five years ago and recently when Carlos assaulted you.”

  “What? How?” Agitated and worried, she plucked at the bedding. “I didn’t say anything. I didn’t even hint. I promise, Baz. Andreas’s contact set up the interview and no one knew exactly what I planned to say, just that I was going to give my side of the story.”

  “Of course you didn’t. You have too much integrity to go back on your word.”

  “That’s what you told Kayla. That of course I hadn’t done it,” Randi said wonderingly.

  “Naturally.”

  She threw herself at Baz. “I love you so much. I know you don’t believe in it, but I’m not keeping the words inside.”

  His arms automatically wrapped around her, pulling her tight against his near-naked body. “Because I believe in your integrity?”

  “Because everything. You’re ruthless, but you weren’t lying when you said it was both with and on behalf of your family. You’re kind. You’re generous even if you’d like to hide that fact. You’re incredibly loyal. And, well, you’re sexier than any other man alive.”

  “I believe you are profoundly biased.”

  “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. In love.”

  He got a strange look on his face. “Love. I promised myself that I would never fall for that construct.”

  “I’m allowed to love you, whatever promises you’ve made to yourself. You’d better accept that now. We won’t be talking marriage if you don’t.” That was a deal-breaker for her. It was one thing to accept a man who never said the words, but exhibited the emotion; another thing entirely to expect her never to speak of her love for him.

  He smiled wryly. “I broke the promise.”

  “What? What are you saying?” She cuddled closer to him, looking up into his espresso gaze, tendrils of hope curling around her heart and seeping into her soul.

  “I’m saying that the only thing that explains what we have between us, my need not only to have you in my bed, but also in my life, and not just for now, but for the rest of that life...” He stopped speaking, just looking down at her, his dark eyes filled with wonder, warmth and a lot of heat. “I love you, Miranda. You have broken through every chain locking my heart tight.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “I didn’t think you’d ever admit it to yourself, much less me.”

  “How can I show less courage than you?”

  “I’m not brave.”

  “Despite all you have experienced, you believe in the goodness in people. You believe you can make a difference in the lives of children. You trust me. That is a gift of the highest magnitude.”

  “I love when you start talking all formal.”

  “It is easier when my emotions are trying to take over my brain, especially when I’m not communicating in the language of my birth.”

  “I thought you didn’t do powerful emotion.”

  “I find that I do.”

  The tears spilled over. “Oh, Baz.”

  “I love you, now and forever.” He rolled her under him.

  She smiled up into his handsome face. “Into eternity.”

  EPILOGUE

  CARLOS THREW A fit when Basilio called him about the truth coming out, but ultimately agreed to do what his younger brother instructed.

  He didn’t want to lose the support of Perez Holdings. Between his PR team and the one dedicated to Perez Holdings, they mitigated as much damage as possible. But this time around the truth was out there for everyone to judge.

  Tiffany ended up taking an extended holiday in Australia; the children came to Spain to stay with Basilio, Miranda and Armand. Miranda was glad to be out of the US while the story got a chance to blow over. She refused all requests for interviews, photo ops or anything else that might put her into the public eye.

  She was ridiculously content in Basilio’s home and his life, her days busy with the children, her duties with Kayla’s for Kids and the new Loving Sisters Shelter. Miranda found peace unlike she’d known in five years as she grew closer to Grace and Jamie, the little boy who had not only survived the accident, but now flourished with keen intelligence and typical little-boy enthusiasm for life.

  When they returned the children to the States two weeks later, it was to learn that Kayla was pregnant.

  She and her beautiful son attended Miranda and Baz’s wedding the following year. The infant, too small to take part in the ceremony, sat on his proud papá’s lap. The little girl they had adopted out of foster care, however, was just the right age to act as a flower girl. She stood beside her mother and Miranda as she and Baz spoke vows of love and lifelong commitment. It was only afterward she learned that Baz had hired security to keep her mother away from her special day.

  He took protecting Miranda very seriously and spoke of his love for her every day. She was always eager to return the words, truly content, knowing she was genuinely and always safe for the first time in her life.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed The Spaniard’s Pleasurable Vengeance, you’re sure to enjoy these other stories by Lucy Monroe!

  Sheikh’s Scandal

  An Heiress for His Empire

  A Virgin for His Prize

  Kostas’s Convenient Bride

  Available now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Kidnapped for Her Secret Son by Andie Brock.

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  Kidnapped for Her Secret Son

  by Andie Brock

  PROLOGUE

  ‘BUONASERA!’

  He was beside her in a couple of long strides. All towering height and dark, sexy masculinity, he was wearing expensively cut suit trousers and a white shirt tugged open at the throat. His black leather shoes were already sprinkled with a coating of dry Sicilian dust. Immediately his hands went to cup her face and he lowered his head to capture her mouth with a kiss full of possession and promise.

  Leah leant in to him, her eyelids closing as she breathed in his familiar cologne mingled with his heat and scent after several hours’ travelling. She had been longing for this moment for weeks. But now...

  ‘Mmm, that’s better.’ Pulling away, Jaco let his arms drop and, finding her hands by her sides, linked his fingers through hers. ‘You look...bellissima.’ His intensely dark brown eyes raked hungrily over her body.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I’ve missed you.’

  ‘I’ve missed you too.’ Leah focussed on keeping her voice steady. ‘It’s been a long time, Jaco.’

  ‘Yes, too long.’ Running his hands over her cheeks, he kissed her softly on the lips again. ‘But now I am here I intend to make it up to you.’

  He pulled her closer to him, the evidence of how he intended to do that already making itself felt.

  Leah gently pushed him away. ‘So how long are you here for?’ She tilted her head to meet his.

  ‘I should be able to manage a couple of days.’ Jaco held her gaze, stroking a seductive finger along her jawline as if reacquainting himself with her face.

  ‘Two days?’ Leah rearranged her features to hide her disappointment.

  ‘Sí.’ He smiled at her—the sort of smile that could break a thousand hearts the world over. ‘So we’ll have to make the most of the time while we have it.’

  ‘Yes.’ She bit down on her lip. ‘I suppose we will.’

  ‘Right, I’m going to grab a shower, and maybe something quick to eat, and then I am very much hoping we can pick up where we left off.’ The wicked gleam in his eyes left no room for doubt as to where that would be.

  Where they’d left off. Leah’s stomach swooped at the memory of the last night they had spent together. The wonderful intimacy they had shared before Jaco had disappeared from her life yet again.

  Jaco Valentino: tall, dark, ridiculously handsome, flirty, funny and sexy...knee-shakingly sexy... He was impossible to ignore or resist. Introduced to her by her twin sister, Harper, at Harper’s wedding to Vieri, it had been lust at first sight for Leah. A sledgehammer kind of attraction—the sort you never really recovered from.

  So when Jaco had invited her to visit his vineyard the next day she had accepted right away, any ideas about being more cautious, more circumspect, somehow blown to the wind. He had described the Capezzana estate as his ‘Sicilian roots’, and his obvious pride in the place had made her fall in love with it before she had even seen it. She’d known she might fall for its owner too, if she wasn’t very careful.

  And Capezzana had proved to be every bit as enchanting as Jaco had said. With its rows upon rows of neat vines against a stunning backdrop of dark mountains, not to mention an imposing eighteenth-century palazzo, it was picture-perfect. The few days they had stayed there had been wonderful—special—as they had begun to get to know one another, sharing stories, chatting, laughing, sampling the delicious Capezzana wine—probably too much of it in Leah’s case.

  Although her light-headedness had been more likely down to the company than the alcohol. Jaco Valentino was like no man she had ever met before. Somehow he made her feel as if the ground beneath her feet was no longer quite solid, as if the sky was more intensely blue, the air suddenly in short supply. It was a dangerously exhilarating feeling, but Leah had sternly told herself to stamp it down, not to let herself get carried away.

  Because Leah had learnt never to trust a man. Starting with her father, who had turned to drink when she’d needed him most, it seemed to Leah that the opposite sex had done nothing but let her down her whole life.

  Okay, maybe she was partly to blame. She was impulsive by nature, and a series of bad judgements had landed her in trouble more times than she cared to remember. Act first and think later. The phrase might have been invented for her. And it seemed there were plenty of men only too happy to take advantage of that.

  From the job interview in Morocco, when she had ended up slapping the guy’s sleazy face after she’d found out what was really involved, to stupidly losing all her money to a gambling addict in Atlantic City, she had managed to mess up all over the world.

  But only once had she lost her heart, and that had been in her home town of Glenruie, in the wilds of Scotland. At the age of eighteen, finally fit and healthy after the years of kidney problems that had plagued her young life, she had fallen head over heels for a handsome young redhead called Sam, the son of the local Laird. The same Laird who owned the Craigmore estate, which employed her entire family. Leah and Harper had both worked at the lodge, and their father, Angus, was the head gamekeeper.

  The whole thing had ended in misery. Several months into their relationship Leah had discovered that Sam was engaged to someone else—a titled lady, no less. And not only that, as employees at the lodge Leah and Harper had had to wait on the happy couple at their wedding.

  When a bowl of cock-a-leekie soup had mysteriously ended up in the groom’s lap, Leah had been hauled before the Laird and told in no uncertain terms that if she and her sister wanted to keep their jobs—and more importantly if they wanted their father to keep his, a job he was only hanging on to by a thread anyway, because of his drinking—Leah had better change her ways.

  And so she had. Simmering with the injustice of it all, while trying to hide her poor broken heart, she had vowed she was never going to be stupid enough to fall in love again.

  Which was why, even though the sexual chemistry between her and Jaco had been off the scale from the start, she had done her very best to keep herself grounded, not to give in to her feelings. Concentrating instead on trying to work out exactly who this darkly handsome stranger was. To figure him out rather than let the explosion of desire knock her off her feet.

  And it had seemed that Jaco felt the same way. Flirtatious and tactile from the start, he had never tried to hide his attraction to her, but at the same time he had tantalisingly held back from attempting to take it any further. Treating their relationship like an unexploded bomb, he had handled it so carefully that Leah hadn’t known whether to swoon or scream.

  So when the time had come for them to leave—Jaco to fly back to New York, and Leah reluctantly to return to her family home—she had told herself that that was that. With no mention of their meeting up again, she had swallowed her disappointment and pasted on a brilliant smile, only letting it slip very slightly when Jaco had enfolded her in his strong, warm embrace to give her a tight hug.

  Lord, he’d felt so good. Pulling back, he had looked into her eyes for a long, mesmerising moment, before turning to stride away, taking a regretful little piece of Leah’s heart with him.

  However, twelve months later they had met again. On discovering they were both to be godparents to Harper and Vieri’s baby son, Leah hadn’t been able to stop the rush of excitement. And when, a week before the christening, she’d received Jaco’s te
xt message, saying how much he was looking forward to seeing her again, her whole body had started to sing and dance in anticipation.

  But she’d known she had to be sensible. That text had been the only contact she’d had with him in a whole year. She had no idea what he’d been up to, who he had been seeing. He might well have a girlfriend by now—a whole string of girlfriends for all she knew. He looked as if he could handle it.

  Trying to grill Harper for information about him had proved frustratingly unproductive. Even though he was Vieri’s oldest friend, it seemed Jaco Valentino played his cards very close to his chest. Slowly it had begun to dawn on Leah that she actually knew very little about this man who had had such a powerful effect on her—that while he was so good at eliciting information from her, he’d given virtually nothing away about himself.

  The more she’d thought about it, the more she had started to wonder who the real Jaco Valentino actually was. Just who lay behind that darkly handsome exterior.

  But the moment she had laid eyes on him again those doubts had been knocked aside like skittles—washed away by the tidal wave of attraction that had all but taken her legs from under her.

  So after the christening ceremony, when Jaco had pulled her to one side, saying that he had a proposition to put to her, Leah’s senses had gone into free fall.

  Taking her by the hand, he had led her into one of the many echoing rooms of Castello Trevente, the grand property that was now her sister’s family home. But his proposition had taken her by surprise. Instead of pulling her into his arms and making mad passionate love to her right there and then, up against the hard stone walls of the castello—something that Leah had been fantasising about ever since she had met him—Jaco had calmly offered her a job at his vineyard. He needed a marketing manager with immediate effect. He thought she would be perfect.

  Quickly hiding her surprise, Leah had jumped at the chance. All her good intentions, her vague misgivings, had been instantly forgotten. A job in Sicily was a dream come true after the tedious boredom of Glenruie, the small town where she had been born and bred and had spent most of her adult life trying to escape. Capezzana was warm and exotic and beautiful. And so was the man who owned it. The thought of working alongside Jaco, spending more time with him, had only made his offer all the more enticing.