‘What does it say?’ Belinda jostled against her shoulder.
Daisy looked down at the dark scrawl of the letter L.
Belinda gave a cynical exhale. ‘His initial.’
‘What if it stands for love?’ Kate asked.
Daisy folded her fingers over the card, her heart lifting on a faint breath of hope. ‘Come on. That’s our boarding call.’
* * *
It was raining when Daisy landed in London. Her father was there to meet her and ushered her out of the arrivals hall with a hand firmly at her elbow. ‘You have some explaining to do, young lady,’ he said. ‘That clip of you dancing with Luiz Valquez has gone viral. I didn’t sacrifice everything to bring you up to act like a slut the first moment I turn my back.’
‘I was dancing, Dad. I was enjoying myself. You should try it some time.’
He frowned at her. ‘Why him? Why not some decent guy who’d do the right thing by you? This is not what I wanted for you. You could do so much better.’
So much better than what? Daisy thought. Who could be better than Luiz? He was everything she wanted. She couldn’t imagine wanting anyone else. He had awakened her with his touch. Her body responded to him as if it had been waiting for him all this time. How could she settle for anyone else with the memory of his caresses still echoing throughout her body?
‘Attraction doesn’t work that way,’ she said. ‘You should know that. Remember how you chased after Mum until she finally gave in? Yes, I thought you might.’
‘That’s not the same at all,’ he said. ‘I loved your mother.’
She stopped walking to look at her father. ‘What if I told you I was in love with Luiz?’
He looked at her for a long moment. Then he threw back his head and laughed so hard his eyes watered. He brushed the moisture away with the back of his hand, still chuckling but with a cynical tone to it that made her stomach feel uneasy. ‘Did he say he was in love with you?’
‘No, but I think he’s coming round to—’
‘He’s looking out for himself, that’s what he’s doing,’ he said. ‘And I’m not referring to his big sponsorship deal everyone is talking about.’
Daisy didn’t care for the snide expression on her father’s face. Suspicion began to chill her blood until every hair on her head pulled away from her scalp. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I told him what I’d do with him if he didn’t do the right thing by you.’
Something heavy lurched in her belly. ‘You…you threatened him?’
‘Not much, just enough to make sure he toed the line. I wasn’t going to stand by and watch him trash my little girl’s reputation with a one-night stand. He knew which side his bread was buttered. I made sure he ate it.’
Daisy couldn’t believe it. Didn’t want to believe it. The whole time Luiz had been with her he had been acting out of fear of her father? Had none of it meant anything to him—not one kiss, not one caress, not one passionate interlude—except as a way to save his own back? The man she had thought so gallant and kind was acting out of cowardice? How could it be true? It couldn’t be true. He had been so convincing. She had fallen so hard and so fast. Was she really that naïve?
‘I don’t believe it. He wanted to be with me. I know he did. He wanted me to stay longer. He asked me to but I said no because—’
‘He won’t see you again,’ her father said. ‘He’ll have someone else in his bed by now. You mark my words. Before you know it, someone will post a photo of him on social media with a new lover on his arm.’
Daisy didn’t want her father to be right. It was too painful to think of Luiz replacing her before her plane had got off the ground. But what else was she to think? He had only been with her because of the pressure her father had put on him. It tarnished everything they had shared. Every moment they’d had together was tainted. Spoiled by the machinations of her father, who wanted to control every aspect of her life. His constant need to control her had ruined her one chance at finding happiness.
She had connected with Luiz. Not just physically, but emotionally. And it had happened right from that first breakfast. She had seen him. The real him. Without the mask he wore for everyone else. How could that have been an act on his part? Why would he let her in like that if he was only pretending to enjoy her company?
She had fallen in love with him. He had come to her rescue and kept her safe. Every time he had smiled at her she had fallen a little harder. Every time he touched her, kissed her or made love to her she had given him another piece of her heart. She had denied it to herself, not wanting to admit how much he had affected her. But he was everything she was looking for in a partner because without him she felt only half alive.
But he hadn’t been with her for her.
He had been pretending the whole time. Acting his way through their four days together like an actor did a role he’d been assigned. Had any of their time together been real or was it all one big fake? What about that morning? Why had he asked her to stay? That surely couldn’t have been because of what her father had said?
Daisy felt as if a blade had carved right through her heart, leaving it in shredded pieces hanging from her ribcage. Why couldn’t he have flown with her back to England if he’d wanted more time with her? Surely he could have postponed his trip back to Argentina by a couple of days.
No. He would never do that because she was meant to fit into his life as if she had no life of her own. Just like her mother had been expected to fit into her father’s life. To be what he wanted, when he wanted, where he wanted.
To be controlled.
‘Come on,’ her father said as he shepherded her towards the exit. ‘I’ve got a special dinner planned. You know that new accountant I put on a few months ago? I’d like you to spend some time with him. I’m thinking of making him a partner. He can take over the business once I retire. He’s exactly the sort of man I want as a son-in-law.’
Daisy stopped in her tracks and shook off her father’s hold. ‘What?’
‘I don’t think he’ll be put off by your little fling in Vegas—’ her father carried on as if she hadn’t spoken ‘—he’s probably sown a few wild oats himself. If I offer him a partnership to sweeten the—’
‘Stop it right there,’ she said through clenched teeth. ‘I do not need you to organise my life for me. I do not need you to find me a husband or bribe someone to have dinner with me or anything else. How can you be so…so ridiculously obsessive about controlling everything I do? I’m not a kid any more. I’m an adult, Dad. I want to be in control of my own life. When are you going to finally accept that?’
Her father frowned as people glanced at them on their way past. ‘Don’t make a scene. You’re acting like your mother, getting hysterical over nothing. I’m just trying to help you because I love you.’
‘Do you?’ Daisy asked. ‘Do you really? You said you loved Mum but you never let her be herself. If you love me so much then why aren’t I good enough the way I am?’
Her father’s frown was dark and forbidding. ‘What’s got into you? Have you been eating too much sugar or something? You know how it makes you tetchy.’
Daisy repositioned her handbag strap over her shoulder. ‘Maybe I’ve finally grown up.’
‘You’re letting one silly little fling go to your head,’ he said. ‘You’ll forget about him soon enough. Once you meet Laurence you’ll see what I mean. He’s perfect for you. He reminds me of myself at that age.’
Great. Just what she needed. Another control freak in her life, hand-picked by her father.
Daisy kept walking towards the exit. ‘Make my apologies. I have other plans.’
‘You’re jet-lagged. You always get irrational when you’re over-tired. I can make it next week. How about that?’
She rolled her eyes as she faced him again. ‘Dad. Rea
d my lips. Stop controlling me.’
‘A coffee?’
‘No.’
He sucked in his lips and then pushed them out on a sigh, giving her the little boy lost look that normally would have seen her cave in. ‘Does this mean you’ll be moving out of the flat?’
Daisy gave him a determined look. ‘I think it’s time, don’t you?’
* * *
Luiz stood a few metres away from the school gate, where an assortment of mothers and fathers and nannies or au pairs were collecting children. The icy wind was boring holes in his chest and making his eyes sting but he barely noticed. He had flown in that day after a week of playing charity matches in towns throughout Argentina. He had sent Daisy a few texts over the last few days but her replies had been distant and impersonal. He could hardly blame her, given how clumsily he had handled their parting back in Vegas. He hadn’t had enough time to prepare for her leaving. He’d put it to the back of his mind, not wanting to face the fact their relationship would be on hold until he could free up some time to be with her. Offering to cover her wages… He still kicked himself over that. Of course she would be offended. Could he have thought of a worse way to insult her?
But he had a surprise for her that would make up for it. It had taken him this time apart to realise she was the only woman he could ever love. Perhaps a part of him had known it right from the start. Wasn’t that why he had relaxed his guard? He had told her of his deepest hurts and she had listened with that gentle look on her face that made him feel as if a soothing balm had been spread over his raw wounds, finally giving them a chance to heal.
The last of the children were collected and the wind got icier as sleet started to fall. And then he saw her. She was dressed in a smart wool dress with a cashmere coat over the top and knee-high boots. A scarf was wound around her neck and her hair was in a tidy chignon at the back of her head. She had her head down against the wind-driven sleet but she must have sensed she was being watched for she suddenly glanced his way. Her eyes blinked and she touched the scarf at her throat with a nervous flutter of her hand. But then she gripped the strap of her bag a little tighter and stalked out of the school gates and towards the tube station a couple of blocks away.
He caught her before she got to the last wrought iron post of the school fence. ‘Daisy. Wait.’
She swung around to face him, her cheeks rosy-red and her blue eyes flashing. ‘I have nothing to say to you. I think my father said it all, don’t you?’
He frowned. ‘What has your father got to do with anything?’
She stood staunchly before him. ‘Why don’t you tell me?’
He took in her tightly set mouth and glittering eyes. ‘I’m here because I need to talk to you.’
‘I think you should find someone else to help you butter up your sponsors,’ she said. ‘I’m no longer available.’
A sharp pain seized him in the chest but there was no way he was going to let her see how much her cold statement hurt him. ‘That didn’t take you long. How long’s it been? A week?’
She raised her chin. ‘I’m sure you’ve filled my position seven times over.’
‘Is that what you think?’
‘It’s what I expect from someone like you.’
Luiz drew in a breath and slowly released it. ‘Right, well, then. I guess I should cancel my arrangements for the weekend.’
She glared at him. ‘How could you?’
‘How could I what?’
‘Sleep with me because of what my father said.’
‘Hang on a minute. I did not sleep with you because of anything your father said. I slept with you because I couldn’t help myself.’
She threw him a scornful look. ‘You expect me to believe that?’
‘It’s true,’ Luiz said. ‘I wanted you from the moment I laid eyes on you. Your father had nothing to do with it.’
Her forehead crinkled in an even deeper frown. ‘But he told me he threatened you.’
‘He did but I didn’t take it seriously. Well, only a bit. But it didn’t stop me from wanting you. I don’t think any threat could do that.’
She chewed her lip for a moment. ‘Why are you here?’
‘We had an agreement, remember?’
She moved her gaze to look at a point in the distance, both of her hands gripping her bag strap so tightly he could see the small white bulges of her knuckles. ‘I’m not sure I can go through with it… Not now…’
‘Why not?’
She shifted her weight on the cobblestones and met his eyes. ‘I think it’s unwise to extend a holiday fling.’
‘Why?’
‘Because people aren’t the same when they’re back in their real worlds.’
‘I came all this way to see you, querida,’ he said. ‘I’ve booked a luxury hotel. I’ve got a helicopter on standby to take you there. We can have the weekend together and shut out the rest of the world. Come on. What do you say?’
Her eyes hardened as they held his. ‘Did you think to ask me if I’d like to be whisked away to a hotel for the weekend? What if I had other plans? What if I had already made my own arrangements?’
‘You can cancel them, can’t you?’
She blew out a whooshing breath. ‘You’re unbelievable. You think you can do anything you like by waving a fistful of money around. You’re exactly like my father. You think you can control people by dangling big carrots under their nose. Well, you can find someone else to have your weekend with. I’m sure you won’t have too much trouble. I’m not available, nor am I interested.’
Luiz stopped her spinning away by grabbing her arm. ‘Wait a damn minute. I’ve rearranged my whole schedule to get here. I forfeited a training session with my team. That’s a big deal so close to the Grand Slam.’
She looked at him with a steely glare. ‘Why are you here, Luiz? Why are you really here?’
He thought about telling her but how could he do it like this? Not out on a cold and gloomy rain-sodden street with people looking on. He wanted to take her away and romance her, to show her just how much he loved her by treating her like a princess. ‘I told you. I wanted to see you. We agreed to see each other for the next—’
‘So you’ve seen me. Now you can go.’
His heart jerked with a spasm of pain so sharp it felt like someone had ripped it out of his chest. Disappointment chugged through him, making his legs feel numb and useless.
He’d been wrong.
Stupidly, gullibly wrong.
She didn’t feel anything for him. She couldn’t have made it clearer.
The blood was pounding in his head and his ears to a repetitive and sickening beat: It. Is. Over. It. Is. Over.
He let his hold fall away from her arm. ‘Fine. If that’s the way you want to play it. We’ll leave it there.’ He stepped back from her. ‘Adios, querida.’
She stood with soldier-straight shoulders, her lips barely moving as she said, ‘Goodbye.’
* * *
Belinda scrolled through her Twitter feed. ‘Nope. Not a thing about him anywhere. He hasn’t posted anything since he was playing those charity matches in Argentina.’ She put her phone down and gave Daisy a pointed look. ‘Makes you kind of wonder, doesn’t it?’
Daisy flattened her lips. ‘He’s probably too busy seducing some skinny supermodel.’
‘Maybe.’ Belinda leaned forward. ‘Are you going to eat that cheesecake or just scowl at it?’
She shoved the plate in Belinda’s direction. ‘You have it.’
Belinda took a mouthful and then swallowed it before saying, ‘Turning your nose up at cheesecake is a bad sign.’
‘I’m not hungry.’
‘Boy, you have got it bad, haven’t you? I’ve never seen you like this before.’
Daisy dropped her h
ead into her hands and squeezed bunches of her hair until her scalp stung. ‘I’m so stupid. What was I thinking? A holiday fling with a career playboy? Me? God, what a pathetic joke.’
Belinda downed another mouthful of raspberry cheesecake. ‘What exactly did your father say to him?’
‘Does it matter?’ Daisy sat back and folded her arms crossly. ‘He expected me to drop everything and go with him. What planet is he from? I have a career. I have commitments. I have responsibilities I take very seriously. What does he do? He flies around the globe to sit on a horse and whack a ball with a mallet.’
Belinda scooped up a dollop of cream. ‘He raised a lot of money for homeless kids in Argentina.’
‘So?’
‘Come on, Daze. You’ve got to admit that’s pretty decent of him.’
Daisy let out a long breath. ‘I wish he’d asked me first, you know? I mean, what sort of guy just assumes you’ve got nothing better to do than to wait for him to call?’
Belinda licked some raspberry coulis off the end of her fork. ‘A guy in love doesn’t always think. They act first.’
Daisy frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Think about it. On the spur of the moment he asked you to stay with him a little longer but you declined. Then he flew to London after organising a surprise weekend getaway for you, which you also declined. Which, by the way, must have cost him a bomb. My guess is he’s not going to ask again.’
‘He didn’t ask.’ Daisy scowled. ‘He told me.’
Belinda dug into the cheesecake again. ‘Maybe you should ask him this time.’
‘Ask him what?’
Belinda gave her a level look. ‘If he’s not in love with you, then why hasn’t he been seen with anyone since?’
* * *
Luiz went through his warm-up routine in the changing room but his heart wasn’t in it. His head wasn’t in the right space. He couldn’t concentrate. He couldn’t think of anything but of how angry Daisy had been. How she had looked at him with such icy coldness. How she had frozen him out when all he had wanted was to whisk her away to tell her how he felt. He’d pinned so much on that trip. He had organised it down to the finest detail. Roses, champagne, gourmet food—everything a girl with her heart set on romance would want. How had he got it so wrong about her? Had he been so blindsided by his feelings he hadn’t seen what was right under his nose?
THE VALQUEZ SEDUCTION Page 14
