Marriage Made in Blackmail

by Michelle Smart

  It had always been too much but it had never scared her before, not like this.

  She had such awareness for this man. She remembered all the visits he’d made to the theatre when she’d been working there, how she would sense his presence in the building long before she caught sight of him, almost as if she had an internal antenna tuned to his frequency. That antenna was as alert now as it had ever been and vibrating like the motor of a seismograph recording an earthquake.

  She needed to find safety before the ground opened up and swallowed her whole.

  He studied her silently, the brief amusement disappearing into seriousness. ‘I warned you in my message that I would find you and that you would live to regret crossing me,’ he told her slowly. ‘You have known me long enough to know I am not a man to make idle threats.’

  ‘Believe me, right now I am regretting it.’

  ‘You’re only regretting that I found you, not your actions.’

  She opened her mouth to lie and deny it. His denials about not being party to Benjamin signing the contract under false pretences and that he’d wanted to put things right had sounded so sincere that there had been a few moments when she’d wondered if he might be speaking the truth.

  His threats to marry her made her glad she hadn’t swallowed those lies.

  It would never happen. He could go to hell first. Hell was where he belonged, him and his cold monster of a brother.

  ‘I can see the truth in your eyes, bonita,’ Luis said grimly before she could speak. ‘You don’t believe me and you don’t regret your actions. In many respects I commend you for your loyalty to your brother.’

  It was a loyalty he understood.

  Luis and Javier had always been loyal to each other. Though far removed from the other in looks and personality, they had grown and developed in the same womb and the bond that bound them together was unbreakable, tightened by the tragedy of their lives.

  ‘Benjamin’s own sister marrying me will kill the rumours and stop people believing that Javier and I are the devil’s spawn. It’s the only way to repair the damage.’

  ‘I would rather swim to shore than marry you,’ she spat, not caring at that moment that she’d never even mastered a basic doggy paddle.

  ‘It will be the only way you get home if you don’t agree to it.’ He placed his chin on his knuckles. ‘But have no worries, bonita. I am happy to wait for as long as is needed for you to come to the correct decision.’

  ‘Then we will sail these seas for ever because I will never, ever, marry you and there is nothing you can do to make me.’ She smiled tremulously. ‘You can’t threaten to fire me—I’ve already quit.’

  It didn’t escape his attention that she was inching her way to the door. Any moment she would bolt on those long gazelle-like legs.

  Let her run. Chloe would soon discover there was no escape.

  He returned the smile. ‘You have not worked your notice period. I can sue you for that and I can sue you for breach of contract.’

  ‘What have I breached?’

  ‘You passed on confidential information about one of our dancers to your brother.’

  ‘Freya’s not an asset, she’s a person.’

  ‘She’s a company asset. You acted as a spy against our interests.’

  ‘You would have to prove it. Look at their wedding photo. It’s obvious they’re in love with each other.’ Her beautiful smile widened but there was a growing wildness in her eyes. ‘See? My instincts were right. Benjamin took her to punish Javier but he already wanted her for himself and she wanted him. You can sue me for whatever you want but if you won it wouldn’t matter; Benjamin would pay any fine.’

  ‘I could make sure you never work in the ballet world again.’

  ‘I’m sure you could and without much effort but I don’t care. I survived on an apprentice’s salary, I’ll cope. I don’t care what job I do. I’ll wait tables or clean bathrooms.’

  ‘You would throw your career away?’

  Her heart-shaped chin lifted. ‘Some things are more important. I knew the risk I was taking when I made the call to you.’

  ‘Interesting,’ he mused. ‘You will be pleased to know I have no wish to destroy you. Your brother? Sí. I would gladly destroy him but the feud can end here and now—call it an additional incentive. All you have to do is marry me and all the bad blood will be over.’

  ‘You call that an incentive?’ she said disdainfully. ‘There is nothing more you can do to hurt him than you have already done.’

  ‘Any hurt caused was not deliberate,’ he asserted through gritted teeth.

  ‘You would say that. You wanted me to feel guilty enough that I agreed to your nefarious plan. Well, it hasn’t worked. I don’t believe you ever intended to give him any of the profit you denied him and I regret nothing. I will never marry you.’

  The last of Luis’s patience snapped.

  He’d only been prepared to make up the profit shortfall because Benjamin was his oldest friend. In truth, despite his bulging contact book, Benjamin was his only real friend.

  But Benjamin had not just crossed a line, he’d hacked at it with a chainsaw and the damage caused by his actions had the potential to destroy both Casillas brothers. Reputations could be broken by the smallest means and businesses ruined. Luis had not been exaggerating when he’d spoken of the financial troubles he and Javier had got into seven years ago. There had been an eighteen-month period when they had struggled to find the cash to put petrol in their cars but then three projects were completed within months of each other and suddenly the money had started rolling in. Almost a decade of complete focus and hard work and suddenly they were richer than they had ever dreamed possible. Their fortune had only grown since.

  He would not be poor again. He would not have his or his brother’s reputation battered any more. Chloe could put a stop to all of it with two simple words: I do.

  ‘I have explained the facts of the situation,’ he said tightly. ‘If you choose not to believe them then so be it but this ends now. Too much damage has been caused. Marry me and no one else need be hurt.’

  ‘Apart from me.’

  ‘How will marriage hurt you? You’re a single woman—’

  ‘We went on one date two months ago,’ she interrupted hotly. ‘You’ve no idea who I’ve seen since then.’

  He mustered a smile. ‘You said only an hour ago that you were on a holiday that involved hot men. That implies you are either single or a cheat. Which is it?’

  Her cheeks had turned red enough to warm his hands on them. ‘I’m a grown woman. How I conduct my personal life is my business.’

  He shrugged. ‘Lover or not, you’re an unmarried woman. Your career is in tatters... What will you be giving up to marry me and rectify the mess you helped create? It wouldn’t be a permanent marriage, only one that lasts long enough to shut the wolves up and restore my and my brother’s reputations. In return, I would give you everything your heart desires.’

  ‘My heart does not desire you.’

  ‘Your body does.’ At the outraged widening of her eyes, his smile broadened. ‘I do not forget the kiss you owe me or the way your hungry eyes looked at me.’

  Somehow her cheeks managed to turn a shade darker but she tossed her hair over her shoulders defiantly. ‘That was the wine talking.’

  His laugh at her barefaced lie was genuine. Even now, with all the acrimony and anger between them, that undercurrent remained, thick enough to taste. ‘Do you want to prove that?’

  ‘I don’t have to prove anything. I don’t want to marry anyone, not even for a short time, and if I did you would be the last man on the list. I won’t do it. Promise what you want, make all the threats you like, I’m not going to marry you. The end.’ Her hand grabbed the handle of the door that led outside. ‘This isn’t the Middle Ages. Women are not chattels to be bought
or traded. As fun as this conversation has been, I’m going.’

  Turning her back to him, Chloe stepped out onto the deck. After the air conditioning of the sky lounge it was like stepping into a furnace, the sun high above them and beaming its rays onto her skin.

  She would find a way off this yacht even if she had to row her way back to shore. She’d just have to wear a life-jacket.

  All she could see to the horizon was the Caribbean Sea, shining brilliantly blue under the azure sky.

  She shivered to think what creatures lay beneath the still surface.

  She spotted the stairs that led to the deck below and hurried down them.

  ‘Where are you going to go?’

  Heart pounding, she paused to look up.

  Luis’s arms were hanging over the balustrade at the top of the stairs, his handsome, sexy face smirking down on her but that hardness still glinting in his eyes.

  ‘I’m going to find the captain and tell him to take us back to shore,’ she told him with all the defiance in her veins.

  ‘I bought the Marietta from her namesake three days ago. The captain answers to me.’

  ‘But the manager said it belonged to the owner...’

  ‘I bribed him,’ he said matter-of-factly, without an ounce of shame. ‘Marietta doesn’t own the complex in Lucaya.’

  She stared up at him as she processed what he’d said. ‘You bought a yacht to trap me on?’

  ‘I have often considered the idea of a yacht and now I have one.’

  ‘Just like that?’

  ‘I had a spare two hundred million sitting in a bank account. I was going to use that money to settle with your brother...that money enabled me to make Marietta an offer she couldn’t refuse.’

  Her stomach cramped to imagine what other factors he had brought to the negotiating table with Marietta. If his reputation was anything to go by it was more likely to have been a negotiating bed.

  Wherever he’d done his negotiations for it, knowing he’d bought this yacht with the primary purpose of trapping her almost had her struck dumb.

  Seven years ago it would have thrilled her.

  From the age of seventeen she’d developed an intricate fantasy in her head where Luis waited for her to become a fully mature woman then declared his undying love for her and whisked her down the aisle.

  That memory, not thought of in years, lanced her.

  Once upon a time she had dreamed of marrying him.

  How idyllic she had been. And how starved for affection.

  She’d woven the fantasy while living under her father’s roof for the first time in her life, mourning the mother she had loved with all her heart and coping with her remaining parent’s indifference. His indifference shouldn’t have hurt, not after a life spent where he’d been nothing but a name, but he was her father. His blood ran in her veins. They shared the same nose and ears.

  Once she had moved out of that awful, unloving home the fantasies about Luis had petered away. She’d had a career to embark on and she’d been determined to put the past behind her and get out there and live her life to the fullest.

  It had been the biggest shock to her system to re-enter Luis’s orbit and discover her old craving for him hadn’t withered into nothing, just been pushed into dormancy.

  It felt like poison in her veins to imagine the debauched parties he would host on this beautiful yacht.

  He moved from the balustrade and put his hand on the rail as he made the slow walk down the steps. That dangerous glint remained in his eyes but there was amusement within the hazel swirl too. ‘Have you not yet realised I am a man who plans everything down to the last detail?’

  Her throat closed at his approach. She stepped back, off the bottom step and onto the safety of the deck.

  His smile grew with every step he took closer to her. ‘Your brother is good with details too. I have thought about how he was able to steal Freya and keep her under lock and key. Seclusion with only trusted employees was how he achieved it. He even got her to marry him, the clever man. I thought if such a ploy is good enough for Benjamin then it is good enough for me. All I had to do was work the details. The yacht is mine and the crew are in my employ. They obey orders directly from me and I am paying them enough to ensure their loyalty.’

  She took another step back. ‘Not everyone’s loyalty can be bought. And don’t come any closer.’

  The faint amusement that had lurked in his eyes faded away as he came to a stop barely two feet from her.

  For a long moment neither of them spoke. Chloe, trapped in the sudden intensity of his stare, felt her heart clench into a fist then burst into an erratic beat that echoed up her throat.

  Then a tight smile formed on those sensual lips and he spread his arms out. ‘Search wherever you like. Speak to whoever you like. When you are satisfied you have nowhere to escape, come and find me.’

  And then he walked back up the steps, leaving her standing there, her nails digging into the palms of her hands.

  She would find a way off this yacht. She would. And then she would bring the full force of the law down on him.

  * * *

  Luis disconnected the call from his brother and bowed his head to dig his fingers through his hair, doing his best to rub the forming headache out of his skull.

  He had finally got hold of George, their Canadian partner in their venture to build the largest shopping complex in the northern hemisphere. George was one of the richest and most powerful men in North America. After much coaxing, he had agreed to a video conference. However, he had insisted it be held in the morning.

  Just as they had suspected, George was seriously considering pulling out of the agreement. Without George as their partner, the permits needed would be revoked.

  Unfortunately he’d insisted Javier be in attendance for the call too.

  Luis swore as he thought of his brother’s foul mood. His brother was like a stick of old highly temperamental dynamite ready to explode at the slightest provocation.

  Even if he succeeded in getting Javier to put on a human front, Luis knew it would not be enough. Their Canadian partner was an old-school tycoon who believed in a man’s word being his bond. It was the injunction he and Javier had taken out against Benjamin that would be the biggest hurdle to overcome.

  That damn injunction. At the time, with Benjamin then the one behaving like a stick of temperamental dynamite, it had seemed necessary. They had rushed it through, knowing time was of the essence. Now it only served to make them look guilty over a matter in which they had broken no law.

  If George pulled out of the project, the consequences were unimaginable. It wasn’t the money, it was what it represented. If he pulled out he was essentially telling the world that the Casillas brothers were not men who could be trusted to do business with. It would prove fatal to their already battered reputations.

  With Chloe as Luis’s wife, all of George’s doubts would be allayed and the dominoes would stop falling but until he got his ring on her finger he would have to play for time.

  He’d known from the first look at the pictures of Freya and Benjamin leaving the gala hand in hand how the situation would be played out in the media. He and his brother would be painted as the devils. Their parents’ history would be dredged up and played to fit the media’s narrative of them. The idea of marrying Chloe had floated into his mind almost immediately bringing with it a flicker of excitement through his loins. Punishment and vindication all in one neat move.

  Chloe had become an itch he could not purge in more ways than one, a taunt in his dreams, and suddenly he’d been presented with the motives to scratch it all away.

  He’d known her well enough to know she wouldn’t agree to marriage without a fight. Chloe had been born stubborn...

  The door from the deck suddenly flew open and she burst into the lounge, raven hair sp
raying in all directions.

  In one skip of a heart his burgeoning headache and weariness disappeared and his mood lifted.

  He straightened in his chair, taking in everything about her afresh.

  She glared at him, her chest heaving as she struggled for breath.

  Then those wonderful voluptuous lips parted. ‘I hate you.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  TWO WHOLE HOURS Chloe had wasted going from room to room, speaking with crew member after crew member, her panic growing with each brief conversation. Surely her pleas for help would be met with sympathy from someone? Instead she had gained the distinct impression they didn’t understand what she was complaining about.

  Either that or they were used to histrionics. They probably assumed she was some spoilt rich girl who’d had a fight with her boyfriend.

  The worst of it was that Chloe had always prided herself on never having histrionics. Only once had she succumbed to it and it had ended with her moving out of her father’s house and moving in with her brother. She hadn’t spoken to her father since that awful argument.

  Luis sat casually on a chair with his elbows resting on his thighs, his hazel eyes fixed on her with what looked like calm amusement that raised her blood pressure to critical levels.

  How could he be so calm when her entire life was being pulled out from beneath her?

  ‘When I get away I am going to make it my mission in life to destroy you.’

  ‘I’m terrified.’ He stretched his back. ‘I assume you didn’t find an escape route?’

  How badly she hated him, his arrogance, his cruelty, his entitlement.

  And how badly she despised herself for having a heart that still jolted violently just to look at him.

  Why were these awful emotions for this man still inside her, after everything he had done? She could forgive her just-turned-seventeen-years-old self for blithely overlooking his reputation as a ladies’ man in the dreams she had created about him but she was an adult now, with adult thoughts and responses.