‘Honoured client?’ Dante reminded her, easing onto one hip.
She would come to regret those words, Karina suspected as she looked away.
‘My driver is waiting downstairs.’
She stared at him blankly.
‘You’re coming with me.’
She shook her head. ‘I have work to do.’
‘Yes,’ Dante agreed. ‘My work. My contract that you just signed.’
‘Seriously, I really don’t have time for this.’
‘Then make time,’ he said coldly, reminding her of just how harsh he could be. ‘I can’t do business with you while you’re tense like this.’
‘Tense? I’m just busy, Dante. I only wish I could leave,’ she lied, softening her tone in the hope of placating him, ‘But, unfortunately, I have a very busy day ahead of me.’
‘With important clients?’
He knew there was no client more important than he was, and the air was electric between them. Two wills colliding and neither one of them prepared to back down. But Dante had the better of her today because he knew she wouldn’t let her brother down.
‘This trip?’ she prompted. ‘What did you have in mind?’
‘Let’s get out of here and then I’ll tell you.’ Dante held the door for her, and as she walked through he murmured, ‘One thing you will discover about me, chica, is that I never do anything without a very good reason.’
She stopped dead right in front of him. ‘Let’s get one thing clear from the start. I am not your chica.’
Instead of taking offence, Dante stepped up close. He stood so close, looking down at her, that she could see the tiger gold in his eyes. She held his blazing gaze steadily, though her stomach was coiled in a knot.
‘What are you frightened of, Karina?’ he murmured in a voice she knew so well.
A quiver of awareness rippled across her shoulders even as she stood up to him. ‘Not you, that’s for sure. Shall we go?’ she said.
‘You’re very confident that I won’t take my business elsewhere,’ he said as they walked along the corridor side by side. ‘Why is that, Karina?’
‘You’re not a fool?’ she said.
Dante’s husky laugh ran a full-blown shiver of arousal down her spine. His laugh was so familiar, too familiar. Dante had always possessed an animal energy that attracted her, however hard she tried to fight it off. And he had always understood her as no one else could. He probably knew that right now every part of her was on full alert just being close to him. After that night she had wondered if she would ever be capable of feeling anything for anyone again. She had also wondered if the connection between them would fade across the years. She knew now that neither one of those suspicious was true. If anything, she was more aware of him.
She had to forget the past if she was going to do business with Dante. She would have to forget everything, just as he must accept that everything in her life had changed.
‘You never married?’ he queried out of the blue as they stepped into the empty elevator.
She looked at him, shocked that he could ask such a personal question, then remembered that Dante had always been known for speaking his mind.
‘Neither did you,’ she countered. Fixing her stare on the illuminated floor numbers as they flashed on and off, she tried not to respond when he shrugged and smiled faintly.
‘I’ve been too busy, Karina. What’s your excuse?’
‘Do I need one?’
She spoke mildly, but there was the faintest of threats in her voice. Leave it, Dante, came over loud and clear. He loved it when Karina came back to life. He loved to see fire flashing in her eyes as it once had. Every woman seemed pallid to him by comparison with Karina—until he had walked into her brother’s office this morning and wondered if there was any of her old spirit left. There was, and there was more for him to tease out, he suspected, though she stood as far away from him as possible in the elevator. When the door slid open and she walked out ahead of him, she didn’t speak a word as they headed for his limousine. Perhaps she didn’t trust herself to speak.
His driver opened the door for them, and she got in. She remained silent at his side, allowing him plenty of time to weigh up the shadows in her eyes.
‘You haven’t told me where we’re going yet,’ she reminded him, conscious of his scrutiny.
‘You always used to like surprises, Karina.’
‘And now I don’t have time for them.’ She crossed her legs and sat up primly to make her point. ‘I have a working life to consider,’ she added, when he continued to stare at her.
‘Then stop worrying, because the place I’m taking you is directly connected to the business between us.
‘Relax,’ he advised.
‘I’m perfectly relaxed,’ she snapped, staring straight ahead.
* * *
Dante’s driver drove carefully through the crowded streets. It was carnival. How could she have forgotten? The city was packed with musicians and performers, and crowds from all over the world. At one time this had been her favourite event of the year.
‘You used to love carnival,’ Dante commented, as if he had picked up on her thoughts. ‘Has that changed now?’
‘It hasn’t changed.’ She felt a charge as she turned to look at him. His hands, his lips, his face, his body all so familiar, were within a few scant inches of her, and her mouth dried as she turned to look out of the window at the exuberant crowd. Carnival was all about rhythm and music, abandonment and lust, and here she was, old before her time, dressed in a sober business suit, feeling like a dried-up leaf.
‘I’m not dressed for this,’ she murmured, unconsciously voicing her inner concerns.
‘I don’t know what you’re worried about,’ Dante argued as his driver parked. ‘Who cares what you’re wearing? It’s the spirit of carnival that counts.’
That was what worried her. She’d used to have plenty of spirit, but life changed you.
‘I can’t—these heels...’
Dante glanced at her feet and laughed. ‘That’s the worst excuse I ever heard.’
She shook her head in disagreement. ‘We can’t afford to waste time here when we could be discussing plans for the polo cup.’
‘That’s precisely why we’re here,’ he argued, reaching for the door handle. ‘The event will be a huge success—if you can relax enough to organise it.’
‘I can relax,’ she insisted, pressing back against the seat. ‘I just don’t have a lot of time. I thought you understood that.’
‘I understand that you’re making excuses,’ he said, opening the door and getting out.
What the hell was wrong with Karina? What had happened to her sense of humour—her sense of fun? At one time it wouldn’t have been she leading him astray and distracting him from his work. In the past it hadn’t been possible to keep Karina away from carnival, but now it seemed she hadn’t even registered the fact that that it was carnival week in Rio. She’d be no use in this sombre mood to the event he wanted to create. He had expected the Karina he’d once known, would come up with something fabulous, something that would appeal to all ages. ‘Shall we?’ he invited, helping her out of the car—or rather drawing her out, as she seemed so reluctant. He was beginning to wonder if he’d made a huge mistake to allow Luc to talk him into this.
‘Lead the way,’ she said, with the same lack of enthusiasm, as if he hadn’t touched her at all.
He intended to lead. He intended to elicit a reaction from her. When they had all been kids together the annual carnival had been the highlight of their year, and that was exactly what he wanted to re-create on his ranch for the Gaucho Cup.
‘All work and no play will destroy your creative juices,’ he warned, as she stared around.
‘If you say so.’
Her small smile was better than nothing at all, he supposed.
‘We need to get a move on, Karina,’ he prompted. ‘The procession will start any time now.’
‘Okay.’
Wobbling on the cobbles in her high-heeled shoes, she did look out of place—as she so obviously felt. His stone heart responded just a little. Even back when Karina had been a tomboy, tormenting the life out of him, he’d cared about her in his offhand teenage way. He still cared about her, and felt compelled to get to the bottom of the changes in someone who had used to shed light, but who now cast only shadows.
CHAPTER THREE
IGNORING DANTE’S OFFER to link arms, she walked ahead. This wasn’t a personal expedition, this was business.
Really?
Dante didn’t need to know that just being within touching distance of him made her heart go crazy, or that she beginning to feel the excitement of carnival thaw the ice around her heart. She hadn’t done this for ages—walked in the city for no better reason than to have fun. She hadn’t felt this free for years. Her gaze was darting around like a hermit let out of a cave as she desperately tried to soak up all the sights and sounds and smells at once.
She felt drunk on them, elated, after the hushed silence of her brother’s luxury hotel, and for a moment she was so wrapped up in events around her that she stopped walking altogether and got jostled along by the crowd. She almost lost her balance and then a steadying hand rescued her—Dante’s. She sucked in a noisy breath, glad that the ruckus from the crowd drowned it out. Even that briefest of touches was a warning of how receptive she still was to Dante.
She shouldn’t have come here with him, she fretted as she made for some shadows beneath the awning of a shop. Carnival in Rio was the highest-octane party in the world. No one came to carnival to discuss dry business deals or to cement business relationships. If couples talked at all, their faces were close and their eyes were locked on each other.
The music, the colour, the spectacle, the noise, the heat of the sun and the warmth of the cobbled street beneath her feet, combined with the scent of cinnamon and spices, made a riotous feast for the senses, and she had been on an austere diet. Appealing to her senses was the very last thing on her agenda for today. Logic and facts were all she needed to make the Gaucho Cup a success.
But she was here. And with him. Get over it. Get out there and make the most of it.
‘Hold on,’ Dante cautioned, as she followed a sudden impulse to plunge into the crowd. ‘It gets wild from here.’
Like she didn’t know that—though anything was wild compared to the way she’d been living. She exulted in the beat of the approaching drums as they grew louder. Maybe she wasn’t so dead inside after all. She wasn’t—she wasn’t dead at all. In fact, she had to fight the urge to go along the crowd and lose herself in the echo of a different life.
‘Karina!’
Dante’s shout brought her to her senses just in time. Of course she wouldn’t have followed that impulse, and of course she held back. She knew better than to let herself go these days because she knew where that led.
They had reached a small square. The crowd had moved ahead of them, leaving just the two of them on the street. Dante was leaning back against a wall, watching her with a puzzled expression on his face. His forearms were crossed over his powerful chest, and somewhere along the way he’d removed his jacket and tie. However hard she tried to look away, she couldn’t, and when she tried desperately hard to blank her mind to the image of a ridiculously good-looking man, she failed there too.
Then she noticed that an elderly couple had stopped to watch them, as if they had somehow created a mini-drama to be played out in silence between them. She quickly dragged her attention from Dante, only to see the old lady wink at her. She wanted to explain that there was nothing between them, but that wouldn’t have been very professional of her so she smiled instead. The elderly couple were having such a happy day—why spoil it for them? But if her feelings were so obvious to them, were they obvious to Dante?
He smiled at the old couple too. He could be charming when he wanted. And then the crowd thickened once more and the elderly couple disappeared into the throng, while Dante stood in front of her to protect her as the crowd surged past.
‘I can look after myself,’ she protested, when he put an arm around her to draw her close.
‘Is chivalry out of fashion these days?’
His look was mocking. She responded in kind. ‘Chivalry? That’s not a word I readily associate with you.’
‘Why not?’ he demanded, looking at her keenly.
She looked away. She didn’t want to get into it. They were here in the middle of carnival with nowhere else to go. She had to make the best of it, and with more than two million people milling about on the streets of Rio it was important to stay close.
The crowd pushed them together as they walked along. Her body tingled each time she touched Dante. It was a distracting client relationship tool, she told herself sternly. Cold emptiness had been her companion for so long she felt each light brush as if it were an intentional touch. And then he was distracted by one of the beautiful young samba dancers and her stomach squeezed tight as she watched them exchange kisses on both cheeks like old friends. She carefully masked her feelings when he came back to her.
‘My apologies for not introducing you, Karina.’
She shrugged it off, but Dante wasn’t fooled. ‘Are you jealous?’ he probed with amusement.
‘Certainly not. Why would I be?’ she demanded, as a little green imp stabbed her with its pitchfork.
Dante’s smile broadened infuriatingly as he took her arm to steer her through the crowd. ‘We must head for the main square where all the performers are gathering.’
More choice for him?
Whatever Dante did or didn’t do with half the girls in Rio was no business of hers. Carnival was full of beautiful women. It was a showcase. It was Dante’s hunting ground. There wasn’t a samba school in the city that wasn’t represented, and the samba beauties could swivel their bodies to stunning effect. All the men were transfixed by them, and all the girls played up to the most famous man of all: the infamous Dante Baracca.
She was jealous.
She was not!
‘Karina...’
‘Yes?’
As Dante turned to look at her she was determined he wouldn’t see, not by so much as the flicker of an eyelash, that she was affected by him, and more than she could ever have anticipated.
‘Stay close,’ he advised.
That proved impossible when a gang of young girls mobbed him, and she ended up defending him. They wanted his autograph, and, by the look of it, his clothes. Elbowing her way through the scrum, she spread out her arms in front of Dante. ‘Senhor Baracca has an important appointment to keep, but I noticed a television crew around the corner—’ Barely were the words out of her mouth when the young girls screamed with excitement and ran off.
Dante was amused. ‘When I need a bodyguard I’ll know who to call.’
‘It will cost you extra,’ she warned him dryly, moving on.
Dante was right about things getting wild. The decorated floats had arrived and everyone was excited as they trundled into view. ‘Your safety’s my responsibility,’ he explained, when he yanked her close.
‘And you’re my honoured client,’ she reminded him, pulling away. ‘If anyone gets protected here, it’s you—and you haven’t paid my fee yet,’ she said dryly.
He laughed. The first honest, open laugh she’d heard from him so far.
‘You’re one tough lady.’
‘Believe it, Dante. You became my responsibility from the moment I agreed to accompany you to the carnival, and I won’t let any harm come to you.’
‘And I will allow none to come to you,’ he assur
ed her with an intensity that made her blink.
Did the same rule apply these days to the women in his bed?
‘I can look after myself,’ she repeated, wondering if her treacherous heart could beat its way out of her lying mouth. Having Dante this close made her doubt everything—her willpower, her powers of reasoned thought...
His husky laugh put an end to her brief moment of panic. It coincided with some more girls recognising him and crowding round. His black eyes mocked her when they went on their way, and he shrugged as he excused himself. ‘They said they knew me.’
‘I’m sure they do,’ she agreed. ‘Please, excuse me if I’m interrupting your congregation in the act of worship.’
He laughed again—a wolf laugh, sharp and faintly threatening. ‘You are jealous. Why fight it, Karina?’
‘May I suggest we move on?’ she said coolly.
Another few yards on and a girl dancing on a float called out to Dante. All the men were agog as they stared at her. She was beautiful. Wearing feathers and sparkles and not much more, it was no wonder Dante was so spoiled when every woman laid it on a plate for him.
Including her, Karina remembered, firming her jaw as Dante swung his arm around her shoulders.
‘Sorry,’ he said again, with a smile that could melt the stoniest of hearts.
She resisted the temptation to melt at his feet. ‘Please, don’t worry about me. There are plenty of distractions here that prevent me watching you baste your ego.’
‘Ah, Karina,’ he growled softly, ‘have you forgotten that I’m your honoured client?’
‘I have forgotten nothing. We signed a contract,’ she reminded him crisply, ‘so I’ve got your business.’
‘So you don’t need to try?’ Dante suggested with an amused look.
‘Where business is concerned, I can assure you of my full attention. Where anything else is concerned?’ She shrugged.
That was the end of that conversation as they were forced into silence by one of the samba bands marching past. The rhythm was infectious, making it impossible to remain tense. Everyone around them had started dancing. The performers and their supporters had put so much effort into the parade even she allowed herself to respond to their energy. It occurred to her as she started dancing that at one time she would have been up there on a float, dancing along with the best of them.
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