A Taste of the Untamed

by Susan Stephens

  Murmuring reassurances to his newly broken horse, he slapped the proud, arched neck with approval. When his stallion stilled to listen to his voice he wondered, not for the first time, if he didn’t prefer animals to people. As the stallion struck the ground aggressively he was reminded they were both experiencing great change. The horse had lost his freedom, while Nacho had gained his after years of caring for his siblings. But the shallow life of a playboy had not been for him, and his freedom had soon proved disappointing. So Nacho had returned to Argentina full of renewed determination to turn the failing vineyards into a valuable asset for his family.

  ‘We both need something to distract us,’ he murmured as the stallion’s muscles balled beneath him.

  Keen to inspect the vines, he urged the horse forward. Under his rule order had been restored and another considerable asset added to the Acosta family fortune.

  The sun on his back after the chill of London was an almost sensual pleasure, and he couldn’t have been in a better mood. Until he saw the dog. Unleashed and unattended, a big yellow mutt was relieving himself on his vines. And then a flash of movement drew his attention to the riverbank. Filled with fury at this unauthorised intrusion, he kicked the horse into a gallop, closing the distance at brutal speed.

  ‘This is private land!’ he roared, drawing the stallion to a skidding halt.

  Grace hugged herself in terror. That voice, the raging hooves—this was everything she had been dreading and more.

  And everything she had hoped for, Grace’s inner voice insisted.

  Had dreaded, Grace argued firmly. She had planned to have a businesslike first meeting with Nacho, in the calm surroundings of his office—not the furious drum of steel-shod hooves crashing to a halt only inches away. His horse’s hot breath was on her face, and she could feel Nacho glaring down at her. Being this close to him slammed into her senses and memories flooded back, colouring in the void behind her eyes. Nacho was bigger, stronger, darker—more intimidating than any man she had ever known before.

  So had she wilfully courted danger? Hadn’t Nacho’s housekeeper warned her that the master might be back home soon? Hadn’t she mentioned that he always liked to ride along the riverbank when he came home?

  Nacho wheeled his snorting stallion to a halt within a few inches of the girl’s back. She didn’t flinch, as he had expected. She didn’t move at all. She kept her back to him and ignored him. Her dog showed more sense, sinking to its belly and baring its teeth.

  ‘This is a private land,’ he repeated harshly, ‘And you are trespassing.’

  ‘I heard you, Nacho.’

  Dios! Dear God! No!

  As the girl turned around, shocked curses without number or form flooded his head. When he saw who it was … when he saw her unfocused eyes … he knew her.

  Of course he knew her. But not like this.

  ‘Grace?’ he demanded.

  ‘Of course it’s Grace,’ she said—with false bravado, he suspected, noticing how she quivered with apprehension like a doe at bay. ‘Didn’t Elias e-mail ahead to warn you I was coming?’

  ‘My PA said something about his replacement.’ His brain was racing to find the right words to say. There were none, he concluded. He was angry at this obvious deception by Elias, but he was shattered at seeing Grace like this.

  ‘And you can’t believe I’m that replacement?’ she said. ‘Is that it?’

  ‘How can you be,’ he demanded, ‘when Elias is the best in his field?’

  She fell silent and he took a better look at her. It felt strange to be staring at someone who couldn’t see—as if he were taking advantage of her, almost. But apart from the vague, unfocused eyes Grace hadn’t changed that much at all.

  He didn’t need this sort of distraction in his life. He had marked Grace out as interesting at Lucia’s wedding, only to find her disappointingly immature and naïve.

  ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you,’ she said, crashing into his thoughts. ‘I felt sure that Elias would have mentioned that I work for him when you came to see him in London.’

  ‘The subject never came up,’ he said brusquely. ‘Why would it?’

  ‘Well, please don’t be angry with Elias. He trained me well, and he has every reason to trust my judgement.’

  ‘And you expect me to?’ Nacho cut in with scorn.

  His horse had started stamping its hooves on the ground, as if the big beast had had enough of her too. She could smell it and feel its hot breath. She could hear the creak of leather and the chink of its bridle as it danced impatiently within inches of her toes.

  ‘I can’t believe Elias would send a young girl in his place when I was expecting a master vintner,’ Nacho said from somewhere way above her.

  ‘And you’re wondering what I can possibly know about fine wine?’ she said, determined to keep her voice steady.

  ‘I’m wondering what you’re doing here at all. Did you learn about wine at the club?’ he suggested scornfully.

  The wine they had served there, by Elias’s own admission, had been his cheapest brand, Grace remembered.

  ‘There’s definitely been some mistake,’ Nacho insisted.

  ‘There’s no mistake,’ Grace insisted, growing angry. ‘I can assure you I’ve been very well trained.’

  Nacho laughed. ‘So has my horse.’

  She looked as if she’d like to unseat him, her jaw fixed and her hands balled into fists. She was angry. So what? But what should have been a simple solution—send Grace home on the next flight—was immeasurably changed by the fact that she was blind. And she was his sister’s best friend. How could he rage against a girl scrabbling around on the ground searching for her dog’s harness?

  ‘It’s over there—to your left,’ he said impatiently.

  Dios! What had he said now? Grace couldn’t see anything to her left or her right.

  ‘Thank you, but Buddy will find it for me,’ she snapped, still angry with him.

  Sure enough, the big dog put the harness in her hand.

  The last time Nacho had seen Grace had been at Lucia’s wedding, where he’d felt a connection between them he couldn’t explain. Wanting to pursue it, he’d found her as nervous as a fawn. Perhaps she had sensed something of the darkness about him? he’d thought at the time. She had certainly changed since then—because she’d had to, he realised. There was a resolve about Grace now that piqued his interest all over again.

  ‘I realise that my coming here must be a shock for you, Nacho,’ she said. She deftly fastened the harness while the big dog stood obediently still.

  ‘Somewhat,’ he conceded, with massive understatement. ‘What happened to you, Grace?’

  ‘A virus,’ she said with a shrug.

  However casually she might treat it, he felt angry for her. ‘How long do you plan to stay?’ Before she had a chance to answer he gave his own reading of the situation. ‘I expect you’ll take a few notes, have a look around, and then report back to Elias. Shouldn’t take long—say, a day?’

  ‘A day?’ she exclaimed. ‘I’ll need to do more than take a few notes!’

  In spite of his outrage at the trick Elias had played on him, his overriding feeling was of dismay when Grace turned her head and her lovely eyes homed in on the approximate direction of his voice.

  ‘I’ve brought a Braille keyboard and a screen with me,’ she explained matter-of-factly. ‘I expect to be here for around a month.’

  ‘A month?’ he exploded.

  ‘Possibly a couple of days more,’ she said, thinking about it. ‘Please don’t be concerned,’ she said briskly. ‘I am a trained sommelier, with a diploma in viticulture—’

  ‘And how much experience?’ he demanded sharply. What the hell was Elias playing at? He would just have to send someone else to evaluate his wine.

  Sensing his growing anger, the stallion skittered nervously beneath him. Grace had started walking up the path ahead of him, with her dog at her heels.

  ‘Aren’t you going to put your sand
als on?’ he called after her

  ‘I’m not a child, Nacho.’ Without turning she dangled her sandals from one finger and waggled them at him in defiance.

  She couldn’t let Nacho see that she was as tense as a board, and that she couldn’t stand his scrutiny a moment longer. She just had to get back to the guest cottage where she was staying and regroup. She hadn’t anticipated feeling that same stab of excitement when was she near him, but nothing had changed. Nacho couldn’t have made it plainer that she was not only the last person he wanted to see but an unwelcome intruder on his land—and a fraud. At the wedding she had allowed her head to fill with immature fairytale notions and had had her bluff well and truly called when he had sought her out. But she was here now, and she was staying until she got this job done.

  They walked on in silence. She felt as if Nacho were tracking her like a hunter with his prey. She could feel his gaze boring into her back, flooding every part of her with awareness and arousal. It made her recall his touch on her arm at the wedding and the brush of his lips on her mouth. She remembered the terrifying way her body had responded—violently, longingly. Common sense had kicked in just in time, reminding her that she was inexperienced and Nacho Acosta was not, and that any more kisses would only lead to heartbreak in the end. As far as Grace was concerned, love and lovemaking were inextricably entwined, while Nacho, according to the popular press, was a notorious playboy who drank his fill at every trough around the world.

  But he was right about one thing. If only she could see.

  The path was stony. She stopped to put her sandals on.

  ‘Please don’t,’ she said, hearing Nacho move as if he might dismount to help her. ‘Buddy will stop me falling,’ she insisted—which should have been true. But for the first time in ages she was stumbling around like a blind woman. She hadn’t felt so unsure of herself since the shadows had closed in, Grace realised, beginning to panic. She even missed when she went to grasp Buddy’s harness.

  ‘Here—let me,’ Nacho said brusquely.

  It was too late to say no. He had already sprung to the ground.

  ‘Thank you, but you’ll only confuse Buddy,’ she said tensely, feeling quivers of awareness all over her body as Nacho closed in.

  ‘My apologies,’ he said in a cold voice. ‘I realise your dog can do many things, but can he catch you if you fall?’

  ‘Buddy prevents me falling,’ she pointed out. ‘And we’re fine from here. Buddy? The cottage.’

  She was walking faster and faster now, practically running from one kind of darkness to another, with no landmarks in between. She was frightened of the strange territory, and she was frightened of Nacho. She heard him mount up again and now he was right behind her, his horse almost on top of her.

  ‘We know our way,’ she insisted, fighting off the terrifying sense of being hunted in the dark. She wished he’d speak, so she could tell exactly where he was. She wished she could see his face and know exactly what he was thinking. As long as there wasn’t any pity on it. She couldn’t have borne that. She’d had enough of people treating her as if her brain was faulty along with her sight. ‘Really, we’re fine from here,’ she called out, hating the fact that her voice was shaking.

  ‘Can’t I show you some basic civility?’ he said, giving her some indication that he was keeping his horse a safe distance away. ‘While you’re here in Argentina you’re my guest.’

  While she was there? That sounded ominous, as if she wouldn’t be here very long—which was bad news for Elias. ‘Look, I must apologise,’ she said, drawing to a halt. ‘I realise we haven’t got off to the best of starts. I want you to know that I’m really looking forward to tasting your wines …’ She stood and listened. It had gone very quiet again. ‘Elias spoke so highly of them …’

  She breathed a sigh of relief as she heard Nacho’s horse move and its harness chink.

  ‘I’m sorry if my being here instead of Elias has been a disappointment for you,’ she said.

  Not half as sorry as he was.

  ‘And I realise you must be wondering—’

  ‘Wondering what, Grace?’ he interrupted. Shortening the reins, he brought the stallion under control. ‘Elias has kept me completely in the dark. I feel let down. What am I supposed to think when Elias sends a young girl with little or no experience in his place? If you’re asking me to be blunt, I can’t imagine how you can possibly do the job.’

  She flinched, and he felt wretched, but people’s livelihoods were at stake. And now she was about to fall down a bank.

  ‘Grace, watch out!’ he yelled.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she said as the dog led her safely back onto the path.

  ‘You nearly did.’

  ‘Buddy wouldn’t let me fall.’

  He admired her confidence and hoped it wasn’t misplaced. This was not the naïve young girl he remembered from Lucia’s wedding. This was a woman with steel in her spine and she intrigued him—which complicated matters.

  ‘How did you find your way to the river in the first place?’ he said, trying to imagine himself blindfolded, with only a dog to lead him.

  ‘Buddy heard the water—smelled it too, I expect. He started barking, and after the long journey I thought we both needed some fresh air.’

  ‘I can’t understand why my sister didn’t mention your illness.’

  ‘Because I asked her not to.’

  ‘Why keep it a secret?’ he said suspiciously.

  ‘Because I’m handling it,’ she said, marching on. ‘Because I don’t want to be treated any differently just because I can’t see. I don’t want to be defined by being blind. I don’t want it to influence what people think about me.’

  ‘I think you’re being overly optimistic, Grace.’

  ‘Well, maybe I am, but I don’t want smothering,’ she snapped. ‘I’m quite capable of looking after myself.’

  ‘Don’t you think it would be more considerate if you warned people in advance, so that they can make the necessary provision for you?’

  ‘What provision?’ she flashed. ‘That’s exactly what I don’t want. Why should I—?’

  ‘Compromise?’ he suggested as he battled to keep the stallion in check.

  The horse was bored with inactivity, and it didn’t like the turn this conversation was taking. Animals could sense tempers rising faster than humans, and Nacho was determined that passions of any kind would not be roused between him and Grace.

  Passion could kill, as he knew only too well, and he never made the same mistake twice.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘SURELY compromise is all part of adapting to your new situation?’ Nacho insisted as he continued to follow Grace along the riverbank. He caught a glimpse of her face as she strode along. Her jaw was firm and the set of her face was still angry. He could almost see her thinking, What would you know about it? And the answer to that, for once in his life, was absolutely nothing.

  ‘Why should I compromise?’ she said, confirming those thoughts. ‘That sounds too much like defeat to me.’

  ‘Grace! Watch that branch—’

  ‘I’m okay,’ she fired back, and the big dog adjusted direction seamlessly to lead Grace safely round the fallen branch.

  But she still couldn’t know she was so very close to the edge of a steep bank, or that from there it was just a short fall into the fast-flowing river. Nacho’s head reeled with sudden dread as he thought back to another time and a tragedy he should have been there to prevent.

  ‘I might not be able to see the river,’ Grace said, as if she could read his thoughts as well. ‘But I can hear it. And with Buddy to guide me and keep me safe—’

  ‘There’s absolutely no danger of you falling in?’ he demanded sarcastically as the ugly memories continued to play out in his head. ‘And if such a thing were to happen, your dog would, of course, leap in and save you.’

  ‘Yes, he would,’ she said, ignoring his sarcasm. ‘Buddy has more ability than you can possibly imagine.
’

  His imagination was all too active, unfortunately, and while Grace was staying here she was his responsibility. ‘Next time you feel like putting your life at risk, call me first.’

  He ground his jaw when she laughed. It would be better if Grace left immediately.

  ‘I’m sorry if I shock you with my independence,’ she said. ‘Would you have preferred me to remain cowering in the guest cottage until you arrived?’

  ‘If you expect to do any sort of business with me you should think firstly about being more polite, and secondly about being more compliant.’

  ‘More compliant? What do you think I am? And if you speak like that to everyone you meet, no wonder they’re not polite to you. My job, as I understand it, is to independently judge your wine—so I would have thought that for your sake, and for the success of your business, my compliance would be the last thing you should want.’

  She had an answer for everything. His practised gaze roved over Grace’s slender frame. She had changed completely in all ways but one—physically she was every bit as attractive as he remembered.

  ‘Elias has been very good to you,’ he observed, curious about this new Grace.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, relaxing for the first time. ‘He took me on when no one else would even give me a job. And he paid for my training.’

  It was interesting to see her open up, though the training must have been recent, which was hardly what he hoped for in an expert. ‘I’m surprised Elias was less than frank with me. He only had to pick up the phone to explain what he intended to do.’

  ‘And would you have allowed me to come if he had done that?’

  He had no answer to that.

  ‘And please don’t blame your PA,’ Grace insisted. ‘You must have been in the air when Elias e-mailed. Your housekeepers have made me very welcome, so it would seem she has done her job to perfection.’