Mistress: Pregnant by The Spanish Billionaire

by Kim Lawrence

  Nell wiped her watering eyes and made no attempt to follow his suggestion. ‘Next you’ll be asking me to make a bow and arrow and kill small furry things.’ The discordant sound of her own shrill laugh drew a wince from Nell, but to her immense relief broke the scary spell that had been growing in the air between them.

  She planted her hands on her hips, unwittingly drawing his attention to her feminine outline, and adopted an air of defiance, feeling relieved to realise that the moment had been a by-product of an overactive imagination and exhaustion. Sure, he was a sexually attractive man, if you went for the dark brooding thing, and he could kiss, but, heavens, she didn’t even like him!

  ‘Are you going to make us clothes from their skins? Or spear fish…?’ The sarcastic remark reminded Nell of how hungry she was.

  Luiz looked amused rather than offended by her snarly rant. ‘I take it the back-to-nature thing does not appeal to you,’ he observed, feeding the first flickering orange tongue of fire with another piece of wood. ‘And there are not just cute furry things in these woods. We have wild boar. They can be dangerous.’

  Nell glanced nervously over her shoulder. ‘Wild boar!’ Was he joking?

  ‘Some estancias rear them commercially. Ours are wild.’

  ‘We’re still on your grandmother’s estate?’

  He nodded. ‘For most of the time we have been driving across area owned by the family.’

  Nell was startled. It had to be vast. No wonder he was willing to go to such extreme lengths to inherit.

  He looked at her, a teasing light in his eyes. ‘Not everyone has the chance to be at one with nature.’

  Nell, despairing of her fascination with his long fingers, responded harshly. ‘I have no intention of getting back to nature with you!’ She intercepted the gleam in his eyes and, flushing to the roots of her hair, shook her head. ‘You have a vile mind.’

  His wicked, husky laughter sent a sensual shiver of sensation through Nell’s body.

  Luiz rose from his crouching position, brushing debris from the knees of his jeans. ‘Are you sure it’s my mind you are worried about?’

  Nell was glad of the shadows as she felt the heat wash over her skin. ‘I’ve more things to worry about than your irresistibility. My niece…’

  ‘Your niece is an adult,’ he cut back unsmilingly.

  ‘Legally perhaps, but in experience…’

  ‘I thought you said she has been travelling around Europe for the past six months?’

  ‘She is only nineteen.’

  ‘What were you doing at nineteen, Nell? If you can remember that far back,’ he added mockingly. Standing there, her face bare of any make-up, her hair loose, she looked younger than the niece she had come to save.

  His expression grew stern as he filled the silence. ‘You were caring for a dependent parent.’

  Luiz couldn’t even begin to imagine what that had involved, but to his mind it was not what a young woman on the threshold of life should have been doing.

  He felt a powerful surge of anger directed at the older sister and brother who had, it seemed to him, behaved with criminal selfishness.

  ‘There is no comparison,’ she protested crankily.

  ‘I’m not the one who’s making the comparison. This isn’t history repeating itself, Nell.’

  Nell shook her head, a flicker of bafflement clouding her clear eyes. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘I think you do.’ Nell’s eyes slid from his. ‘Your niece isn’t being forced to put duty ahead of desire. She isn’t making a selfless sacrifice.’

  His tone suggested he didn’t have a high opinion of people who made such sacrifices and as his meaning penetrated an embarrassed flush of annoyance washed over Nell’s skin.

  ‘I’m not some sickly saintly martyr, if that’s what you’re implying.’

  ‘You didn’t feel trapped? Hasn’t it occurred to you that the entire personal crusade thing isn’t about your niece, it’s about you? You can’t bear the idea of your niece throwing away what was snatched away from you when you were her age.’

  Nell looked shocked by the suggestion that genuinely hadn’t occurred to her—not until now anyway.

  ‘That is a ridiculous idea.’ Nell greeted the idea with scorn, but beneath her cool rebuttal she was uneasy… Wasn’t there a thread of truth in it? ‘I’m worried about Lucy…’

  As he struggled to contain a strong irrational surge of anger at the girl’s name Luiz met her head-on aggressive glare with a narrow-eyed look of seething irritation. Why was the woman refusing to recognise the obvious? He couldn’t decide if she was too stubborn or stupid… She was definitely infuriating!

  ‘This isn’t about Lucy!’ he bellowed.

  Her adrenaline levels high, Nell was so immersed in the heated verbal exchange that she almost let the comment pass unchallenged. She even opened her mouth to deliver another sally in the vocal battle when her expression froze. ‘Yes, it is.’

  ‘When are you going to stop taking on other people’s responsibilities and get around to living your own life?’ His eyes narrowed as he searched her face. ‘Or is that what you’re afraid of?’ he suggested, flinging another log onto the fire. Glowing sparks rose up wrapped in a swirling smoky cloud.

  Nell recoiled, slightly taken aback by the strength of his goading anger. ‘Not you, if that’s what you think.’

  He moderated his tone and he said softly. ‘I’m not trying to frighten you.’

  She stuck out her chin. ‘I’m not frightened.’

  Her defiance filled Luiz with a mixture of exasperation and tenderness—the former was, he thought, understandable, the latter totally inexplicable.

  ‘Look, your niece is young and I agree with you—’ He ignored her derisive hoot of mock amazement and added. ‘I agree that at nineteen she knows nothing much about sensible decisions, but at nineteen you knew too much. Your niece is not you, Nell. She is a wilful, spoilt child.’

  Nell, her protective hackles bristling, sprang to Lucy’s defence. ‘You know nothing about Lucy! How dare you criticise her? She’s a lovely girl.’

  Luiz lifted his shoulders in a laconic manner and rolled down the sleeves of his shirt, which had been turned back to his elbow revealing an expanse of strong, hair-roughened forearms, before rising to his feet.

  He gave a dispassionate shrug and looked down at her. ‘There’s no point discussing this—you’re too close to it to be objective.’ The irony of his observation was not lost on Luiz, who was struggling to retain his own objectivity every time he thought of the family who had let this young woman shoulder the responsibility of caring for her father alone.

  ‘Don’t you dare patronise me!’ she yelled, glaring angrily at his broad back as he turned away. ‘Look at me, will you?’ she panted, stumbling across the uneven ground towards him, and grabbed his shoulder. ‘Don’t walk away while I’m talking to you.’

  Luiz spun back. As his hypnotic dark stare settled on Nell’s face her hand fell away. She rubbed her tingling fingers against her thigh and, lowering her lashes protectively, looked up at him through the protective dark mesh.

  Suddenly the idea of him walking away didn’t seem so bad.

  ‘I’m listening.’

  And I’m shaking, she thought. ‘What did you mean by “too close”?’

  ‘Look, whether we like it or not we’re stuck here, so try and relax. This is not Las Vegas, there are no twenty-four-hour wedding chapels—if they are planning to tie the knot they are not going to do it tonight. And look on the bright side—they’re young. By now they’ve probably changed their minds. If you want to be useful go gather some dry wood.’

  Forced to tilt her head back to meet his eyes, Nell folded her arms across her chest. ‘I don’t want to be useful.’ I want to go home.

  Luiz watched her lip quiver and fought the alien urge to pull her into the protective circle of his arms. Once she was there he was pretty sure that less noble instincts would take over.
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br />   As his gaze lingered on her soft, quivering mouth a deep shudder passed through his body. He wanted her so badly he could taste it—he wanted to taste her. The image in his head of him parting her lips and plunging into that sweet, soft warmth within was so powerful that he was nailed to the spot and unable to speak.

  When he did break the static silence his voice was harsh. ‘The list of what I don’t want to do is long.’ But not as detailed as the list of what he wanted to do… At his side his fingers curled into fists.

  Dios, he could not recall being drawn so blindly to a woman this way. He had always felt vaguely scornful of men who were ruled by their libido and now frustration and a constant level of arousal were making it hard for him to concentrate. ‘Do you imagine there are not places I would prefer to be and—’

  The anger in his voice, the abrupt shift in his mood aroused Nell’s combative instincts. Sticking out her chin she cut across him with a bored, ‘And people you’d prefer to be with. I get the message. Well, for the record, you’re not the person I’d choose to be trapped on a desert island with.’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  DESPITE Nell’s claim she had to concede that personality-wise he would adapt more easily than most to such a situation.

  Luiz Santoro was a man who liked to be challenged physically and intellectually. The air of urbane sophistication and his handmade designer shoes had fooled her at first, but Nell was belatedly realising that, should the situation demand it, Luiz Santoro would shrug off the veneer of civilisation very easily.

  Only a total idiot would find his unpredictable combustible nature exciting. Nell pressed a hand to her stomach but the butterflies carried on rioting. It was not a good time to discover she was actually not that bright.

  ‘This is not a desert island.’

  ‘No,’ she said, drawing her thin cardigan tight around her body. ‘A desert island would be warmer.’ After the day’s heat she was feeling the temperature drop.

  ‘There are tried and tested ways to keep warm.’

  Her wide eyes flew to his face. The dark, predatory gleam in his eyes sent Nell’s stomach into a slow spiralling dive and sent a paralysing stab of lust all the way down to her curling toes. The sounds of the forest faded and all she could hear was the thunderous roar of her blood in her ears as, with his eyes locked on her own, Luiz took a step towards her.

  Everything inside Nell screamed to meet him halfway. She had actually lifted one foot when from somewhere a whisper of sanity made her hold back.

  ‘No!’

  It was possible she hadn’t spoken out loud, that the yell was only in her head, because Luiz didn’t respond to it.

  The awkward moment stretched as she struggled for breath and control.

  ‘What are you building a fire for anyway? Wouldn’t it be more sensible to stay in the car?’ The words emerged staccato and breathless.

  Luiz gave a shrug. ‘Are you always sensible, Nell?’

  She swallowed. His dark eyes felt as though they were eating her up. A man had never looked at Nell this way before and it excited and scared her in equal measure.

  She ran her tongue across the outline of her dry, quivering lips. ‘Yes?’

  It was a question that she was silently begging him to disprove. A nerve clenched in his lean cheek as Luiz struggled with himself. Knowing she would respond if he touched her made it harder to listen to the voice of reason that told him this would be a mistake—on so many levels a mistake. A mistake because he knew it would be uncomplicated sex, but would she?

  ‘Sleep where you like. I can’t make the decision for you, Nell.’

  Nell fixed on some point over his shoulder. ‘That means I’ll have the car to myself.’ She turned and blindly ran.

  By the time she reached the car Nell was panting as she struggled to catch her breath. It was nothing short of a miracle that she had only slipped once during her flight. She bent forward, brushed the loose earth from her grazed knees and examined the heels of her hands that had saved her from the ignominy of landing face first in the dirt—they were bruised.

  She had escaped lightly, she reflected grimly. Bruised hands and scraped knees—it could have been a lot worse. Her thoughts drifted back to those tense, sexually charged moments when things could have got seriously out of control. With a sigh she leaned her back against the door and closed her eyes as she waited for her heart rate to slow.

  Luiz hadn’t attempted to stop her or follow her; Nell hadn’t expected him to. He had been offering her casual sex, not a lifetime commitment, and no doubt he had just shrugged and said win some lose some—or the equivalent in Spanish—when she had bolted like a scared rabbit.

  She groaned at the memory of her retreat. He probably thought she was insane. He might be right. Nell, unable to decide whether wanting to stay or not staying constituted insanity, gave a slightly hysterical laugh.

  Nothing had happened, and there was no point agonising over it. It was well known that mental and physical exhaustion made people act totally out of character.

  ‘Sleep, that’s what I need,’ she told herself as she reached with a shaking hand into her shoulder bag to retrieve the car keys. With the talk of wild boar she froze at a sharp crackling sound in the undergrowth.

  She stayed that way, ears straining, for several minutes and when she continued to sift through the contents of her bag she kept her eyes trained on the undergrowth.

  She was as fond as anyone of wildlife, but she felt a little uneasy about face-to-face encounters. A car door between her and any nocturnal visitors would make her feel a lot more comfortable.

  When the keys remained elusive Nell made a clicking noise of impatience with her tongue and, dropping to her knees, tipped the entire contents onto the grass.

  She scanned the objects spread out feeling irritation initially, not concern, when the keys didn’t leap straight out at her. Muttering, ‘More haste less speed,’ she began to return the contents one by one to her bag. It was when their numbers were reduced by half that she felt the first stirring of genuine apprehension.

  When all the contents were returned except the pencil torch that she held in a white-knuckled grip the apprehension morphed into full-blown despair.

  She dropped her head into her hands and groaned. The thought of spending the night out here alone filled her with utter horror. But what alternative did she have? Crawl back to Luiz?

  Nell shook her head from side to side. ‘Absolutely not—never!’ That simply wasn’t an option.

  Face set in a frowning mask of determination, she tapped her forehead with her finger… Think, Nell, think.

  Brow furrowed in concentration, she mentally retraced her actions. She had definitely put them in the bag, they weren’t there now so logically they must be somewhere… Her glance slid to her scratched knees and her glance swerved towards the trees that were now a dark sinister shadow in the fast-fading light. They must have fallen from the bag when she fell over.

  She flicked the switch on the pencil torch and gave a hollow laugh as its feeble beam shone out. A needle in a haystack would be child’s play compared to finding the keys in there with this. With a snort of disgust she threw it over her shoulder.

  A moment later, regretting the gesture, she felt around in the grass for the discarded torch. It wasn’t much but it was all she had. When her fingers closed over the torch she gave a sigh of relief and settled back on her heels, brushing the tears of self-pity from her cheeks with an impatient gesture.

  ‘Show a little backbone, Nell!’

  This was Spain, not the Antarctic. She was not going to die of hypothermia. There were no wolves…were there? Unable to resist the impulse to glance nervously over her shoulder, she switched on the torch. She even had a light and tomorrow when the sun came up she would go and find the keys before Luiz even knew they were missing.

  Having satisfied herself this was a workable plan and telling herself it would all make a good story when she got back home with Lucy she settled he
rself for the night ahead.

  Nell had not allowed for the altitude. Once the last faint rays of sun slid behind the horizon her thin cotton dress didn’t offer much protection from the elements, not to mention the wildlife.

  Listening to the sounds of the night, Nell sat with her back pressed to the car, her chin propped on her knees as she hugged herself in an effort to retain a little body heat.

  Her imagination in overdrive, she flinched at every little sound as the mountain that had seemed wild but beautiful in daylight became sinister and very noisy. She held her nerve until something warm and furry scuttled across her foot.

  A scream locked in her throat, her heart banging against her ribs, she leapt to her feet and ran. Once in the trees she headed towards the glow of the campfire.

  Luiz lay to one side of the flames, his back turned to her, his breathing steady and slow.

  Holding her own breath and keeping one eye on the sleeping Spaniard, she crept silently to the opposite side of the fire and dropped to her knees, then, taking care not to make a sound, she eased herself into a lying position.

  ‘I hope you don’t snore.’

  Nell started and turned over. Luiz lay on his back one arm curved above his head, looking at her.

  ‘You’re asleep,’ she heard herself say stupidly.

  ‘I was,’ he agreed. ‘But your perfume is very distinctive.’

  ‘I’m not wearing perfume.’ Not sure if he had heard her, she raised her voice as she added, ‘I changed my mind…about the car. It was stuffy.’

  ‘Ah.’

  Nell’s relief that he hadn’t asked any awkward questions about her change of mind was short-lived. The breath snagged in her throat as he rose to his feet in one fluid motion. Her pulse raced in dizzy, dry-throated anticipation as he walked towards her. At her side he stopped and looked down; his liquid dark eyes made her tremble.

  It was when he started to shrug off his jacket that she was able to reassert a little control over her lust-paralysed limbs.