Spanish Vengeance

by Diana Hamilton

  He sent her a dark, exasperated glance and Lisa sank down on the bed and vented a huge sigh that seemed to come up from the soles of her feet.

  So that was the way he was going to play it. Lying creep! With the patron saint of liars and deceivers on his side—or patron devil, more likely—he must have persuaded the hysterical Isabella to return to whence she had come, in double quick time. Made her believe there was no other woman holed up here with him, that he was here alone to commune with nature, or some such other unlikely story.

  But she wasn’t that gullible. No way! ‘Right,’ she said through gritted teeth and shot to her feet. ‘Wait here,’ she growled and stalked out of the room, red flags of furious disgust flying on her cheeks as she headed for his rooms, hearing his firm footsteps following as he disregarded her instruction and came after her.

  She’d wanted a few minutes on her own, away from the man she was tempted to do serious damage to. But at least this way she’d have to stay a few minutes less in this place.

  Swooping into his bedroom, she homed in on the framed photograph and whipped round to face him. He towered over her, bemusement coupled with the irritation of a man reaching the end of his tether writ large on his too-handsome features.

  ‘This—’ Lisa stabbed a forefinger at the lovely smiling face ‘is the woman I saw you with in Marbella on that last evening. You were all over each other. Even Sophie said you were a real steamy couple!’

  He was looming over her, his expression that of a man who had been hit over the head with a rock, but that didn’t fool her, not for a single instant. ‘And I found this—’ again a stab at the picture of the wronged Isabella ‘—this morning after you’d spent the night making love to me!’

  When this hatefully necessary confrontation was over, she’d probably be stupid enough to cry herself to sleep every night for a year but right at this moment anger was fuelling her blistering attack.

  ‘I came looking for you to ask for an explanation of your obvious on-going relationship with her and there she was, having hysterics, and you were—were—’ Words almost failed her in her furious need to lash out at him, but she ploughed on raggedly, ‘Cuddling her and stroking her…’ Her voice rose to an anguished wail. ‘And Rosa told me that Isabella had exploded because she had found out you had another woman. And then Rosa told me to leave.’

  Struggling to make sense of the disjointed statements that were issuing from that lushly desirable mouth was like wading through a thick fog and then emerging into bright sunlight. Diego’s mouth curved with immense inner satisfaction. She was behaving like a jealous virago. Bravo! It had to mean she cared for him!

  With one hand he reached out to take Isabella’s portrait from her and became aware of something digging into the palm of the other. He opened his fist on the glitter of the hoop of tiny diamonds he’d seen her wearing on the night of her engagement party.

  He dragged in a breath. It didn’t mean a thing. He held it out to her. Lisa, her face going bright scarlet, snatched it and felt awful. Ben had told her to keep it as a memento of their affection and what had she done? Carelessly dropped it into the messy and cavernous depths of her handbag!

  Knowing Ben it wouldn’t be worth much materially, but it was worth a great deal as a token of friendship and abiding affection that had been in place for most of their lives.

  Cursing herself for not taking proper care of it, she slipped it on her finger for safe-keeping and Diego, watching from suddenly narrowed eyes, told himself that her wearing another man’s ring didn’t mean anything, either. She was almost incandescent with rage and fierily beautiful with it and now that everything had slotted into place he couldn’t blame her.

  As she made to stalk past him, out of the room and, presumably, given her assumptions, out of his life, Diego clamped both hands on her slight, stiffly held shoulders and swung her round to face him.

  Inky-blue eyes dealt him a slaying glance and Diego grinned. Under the circumstances it probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do but he couldn’t help it. She was already bristling like a wild kitten and at any moment she would use her claws!

  As a small hand rose to slap the grin off his face he captured it, slid an arm around her tiny waist and deftly deposited her on the bed, quickly joining her.

  ‘Will you stop mauling me?’ Her full lower lip jutted petulantly and the temper had gone out of her voice, replaced by grumpiness. Her breathing was short and rapid, Diego noted on a tidal wave of tenderness. And something else, he decided, as desire steamed in his blood. Was she, too, remembering what had happened for them last night in this bed? She looked fantastic. His fingers itched to undo those tiny buttons down the front of the sexy top she was wearing, to slide beneath that gauzy skirt, to claim her as his own for all time because he point-blank refused to spend the rest of his life without her…

  ‘Mauling you isn’t what I had in mind,’ he affirmed thickly and felt her shudder. He stopped there, hauling himself back to the present situation.

  Briskly clearing his throat, he got back on track. ‘From your verbal assaults I think I’ve worked out what’s sent you up like a volcano.’ His eyes, as they rested on her defensively prickly profile, went soft with compassion. He ached to take her in his arms and make her believe he loved her, had never stopped, but he had to sort out this mess first.

  ‘Isabella—the girl you obviously saw me with in Marbella, the girl in the photograph—is my sister. That last night, when I’d asked to meet your friends, I’d planned to explain who I was and introduce you to the only member of my family who was in Spain at that time—my parents being on an extended visit to relatives in South America.’

  Disconcerted by that statement, Lisa sneaked a sideways glance. He looked really sincere. But apparent sincerity was the stock-in-trade of the con artist, wasn’t it?

  Huffing out a sharp breath, she returned her gaze to the uncontentious consideration of her feet. She wanted to believe him and sitting beside him on this bed wasn’t the best idea in the world.

  ‘Isabella and I met up in Marbella. She insisted on going with me when I chose the ring I intended to give you. And if you saw us and decided she was all over me, well, I guess you could have got that impression. Lisa—’ he cupped her chin and turned her to face him ‘—my sister has been a drama queen since the day of her birth, completely over the top! She was so excited that her adored brother had gone and fallen in love, was about to get engaged, and she was determined to celebrate every inch of the way.’

  He felt his bones melt as her soft lips quivered, the deep blue pools of her eyes misting over. His voice was unsteady as he mentally begged her to believe in him implicitly. ‘And that same headstrong nature had her setting out in the early hours of this morning to find me, vowing she’d left Cesar, her big-shot lawyer husband, because he was having an affair with his newly appointed personal assistant.

  ‘Utter nonsense, of course.’ The ball of his thumb gently stroked away a glistening tear drop. ‘I calmed her down and phoned Cesar, who was worried witless. Apparently, a so-called friend of Isabella’s had told her that Cesar had been seen in one of Seville’s grandest restaurants with his dazzlingly lovely new assistant when he’d told her he was working late. Well, that was exactly what he was doing, having a working dinner with an important client. His assistant was there to take notes. Nothing else. Cesar adores Isabella. The idea of cheating on her would never cross his mind.’

  ‘That’s what I did all those years ago, didn’t I? Overreact. I spoiled what we had. I decided you were a penniless waiter, the sort who preys on well-heeled females for what you could get out of them,’ Lisa confessed mournfully after a long beat of silence, feeling really guilty for the bad names she’d called him inside her head and sick at heart at the thought of what she’d done.

  She sniffed miserably. Five years ago this fantastic man had loved her, had chosen a ring to make their engagement official and she’d ruined everything, thought the very worst of him, not giving him
the opportunity to say a word, just opening her big mouth and sending him away.

  ‘Don’t cry.’ Diego got to his feet to reach for a tissue from the box on the night table. Wordlessly, he handed it to her and stood over her, watching as she dabbed her eyes then pulled the soggy tissue into tiny little pieces. She was the picture of misery. His heart kicked with compassion. He knew exactly what she was feeling. He, too, savagely regretted the misunderstandings of five years ago, the barren wasted years.

  But the moment passed. Brooding over what couldn’t be changed was a fool’s game. Only the future mattered. As soon as Isabella was safely on her way back to Seville he would have all the time in the world to convince this adored, delicately lovely creature that he loved her more than life itself and ask her to be his wife—go down on his knees and beg if necessary! But until then… ‘Can you remember how Rosa asked you to leave?’ he enquired briskly of the silky crown of her drooping head. It was the one thing that was still puzzling him. His staff weren’t in the habit of telling his guests what to do.

  Lisa’s thoughts were still on the way her awful behaviour had driven this fantastic man away. Not only that of five years ago but this morning too. He was proud and honourable; he wouldn’t relish the idea of being thought of, firstly, as some sort of gigolo and then as a cheating, sneaky husband. Last night she had really believed he cared for her, that they could put the past behind them and start over. Right now he would be despising her, or thinking she was completely insane. He would want to see the back of her as soon as possible.

  ‘You can’t remember?’ Diego asked with a decisive bite.

  Lisa shivered. He was out of patience with her and she couldn’t blame him. ‘Oh, that.’ She recalled his question and mumbled, almost word for word, what Rosa had said, then gasped with surprise as his strong hands fastened around her waist and pulled her upright.

  ‘Rosa has some difficulties with the English language. I’d asked her to bring coffee and brandy and then make sure that Isabella and I were left alone, and to pass that message on to you with my apologies. I needed time to quieten her down and contact Cesar. She didn’t mean you were to leave the house.’

  Lisa nodded, helplessly acknowledging that she was pretty damn good at getting her wires crossed. And driving a huge wedge between herself and the man she loved to distraction.

  ‘Right,’ Diego said flatly, for the first time in his life wishing his sister hadn’t followed the habit of a lifetime and come running to him whenever something happened to upset her. He wanted her out of the way, well out of it, to begin his campaign to get Lisa to agree to marry him. ‘Let’s get you looking less like a wet weekend, then go and keep Isabella company.’

  Impersonal hands smoothed her hair off her face while he was telling her, ‘Cesar’s already on his way to collect her. He’s bringing one of his junior clerks to drive her car back. He refuses to let her get behind the wheel when she’s in a state, which,’ he admitted drily, ‘she mostly is. Either deliriously happy, high as a kite, or down in the rock-bottom dumps.’

  His mouth tightened as he tucked the wandering hem of her top back into the waistband of her skirt. The touch of her skin scalded him. Dio! He didn’t know how he stopped himself from taking her in his arms and smothering her with burning kisses. He would make up for it later, when they were alone.

  Lisa noted the compression of his beautiful mouth and the chilling fact that there was no reaction to the small intimacy. She bit down hard on her lower lip to stop herself from weeping. The magic they’d recaptured last night had clearly gone and was lost for ever, swept away by her not trusting him and thinking the sort of things about him that no man could be expected to ever forgive.

  ‘In the meantime we could all use some breakfast.’ He made a terse after-you gesture in the direction of the door and Lisa exited, trying not to look as down as she felt.

  Watching the unconsciously sensual sway of her hips as she walked out of the room Diego smothered a groan. Part of him wanted to haul her back and open his heart to her, confess that he couldn’t rest until she’d given her word that she would spend the rest of her life with him.

  But the more sensible part insisted that he would need more than a few rushed minutes to convince her that despite his sordid and shamefully dishonourable attempts at revenge he did truly love her.

  A decision he would later deeply regret.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THEY found Isabella sprawled out on a padded sun-lounger on the terrace. As Diego’s shadow fell across her she half opened her dark sleepy eyes and murmured plaintively, ‘Tengo mucha hambre!’

  ‘Speak English, cara. We have a guest.’

  There was no mistaking the affection in his tone, in stark contrast to the snippy way he’d been speaking to her, Lisa recognised wretchedly.

  ‘We are all hungry, breakfast has been delayed for too long,’ he chided gently as he took his sister’s slim hands and helped her to her feet. ‘Isabella, meet Lisa Pennington,’ he introduced smoothly, his smile for his sister.

  Feeling like a spare part, Lisa met Isabella’s wide smile and returned it feebly. There was no sign now of that earlier hysterical anger, just a warm look of curiosity on that vivacious face.

  ‘Hola! Lo siento—I forgot—no Spanish! You are English, yes?’ She tucked her arm through Diego’s, her curvaceous body in flame-coloured linen pants topped by a white silk blouse gracefully relaxed as she gave Lisa a warm assessment. ‘You are the secret one, my brother, to hide your guest here away from prying eyes!’

  Her sultry eyes, glinting with mischief, found Lisa’s. ‘So tell me, how did you do it? Diego’s so off women it’s painful. It’s lovely to see he can be as human as the rest of us—and wicked, too! Tell me, is my big brother truly wicked?’

  ‘Lisa’s father is a recently acquired business partner. She is part of the same enterprise,’ Diego cut in repressively. ‘You said you were hungry.’ He curtly dismissed the subject of Lisa’s status. ‘So why don’t we eat?’

  Give Isabella the merest hint of a romance in the offing and she would be merciless, as he remembered only too well. The outrageous teasing and non-stop questions when he’d invited her to Marbella to meet his intended fiancée five years ago had tried his patience to the limits. He and Lisa had to sort things out for themselves. And they needed to be alone.

  ‘Oh, just business,’ Isabella said disappointedly as Diego steered her back towards the house. ‘How horribly boring.’

  Lisa followed on leaden legs. Diego was cutting her out of his life, that much was painfully obvious. But what else could she have expected after the things she’d accused him of? His Spanish pride wouldn’t forget such insults to his integrity.

  She had woken to a day that had seemed to be so full of promise, sure that they could reclaim the joyous, loving happiness they had both thought they’d lost. Now there would be no lazing about on the beach he had spoken of, no making love, no talking, no way of discovering if he really did still care for her.

  Her shoulders slumped and not even the Spanish sun burning into her back could thaw the ice that was forming around her heart. If he had started to believe that there was still something very special between them, then she’d certainly put paid to that by opening her big mouth on a spate of wild accusations. It certainly looked that way from where she was standing and she couldn’t come out with it and ask, not with Isabella around.

  Following the other two, Lisa took her place at the table in the small salon where Rosa had produced dishes of scrambled eggs and mushrooms, the usual crusty rolls with a choice of fillings, cured ham, crisp sweet tomatoes, cheese and anchovies.

  ‘I am dying of hunger!’ Isabella declared theatrically, opening her starched white napkin with a flourish. ‘All my own fault, of course. I couldn’t eat a thing after I believed my darling Cesar was betraying me with another! How could I have been so silly? He will be so cross with me. I shudder!’

  She didn’t seem exactly fazed by the prospect,
Lisa thought tiredly as she took a roll she didn’t want and began to crumble it on her plate. Diego didn’t appear to have much appetite, either. He just sliced a tomato up on his plate and drank several cups of coffee.

  Rousing herself to make an effort—it was entirely her own fault that Diego had washed his hands of her so she had to accept it and not wallow in self-pity and sit here like a mute lump of misery—she asked over-brightly, ‘What time do you expect your husband, Isabella?’ She guessed that Diego would remain politely distant with her until they were alone again, then arrange for her own departure in double quick time.

  ‘Diego?’ Isabella had polished off the eggs and was piling a roll with thin slices of ham. ‘What do you think? Mid-afternoon?’

  ‘Maybe sooner.’

  Dio! The sooner the better! If he’d had his wits about him earlier he’d have told Cesar he’d drive his scatty wife back to Seville himself. At least he’d have been doing something constructive. Instead of just sitting around waiting, carefully not looking at Lisa because when he did he had a battle royal on his hands, wanting to pull her into his arms and kiss her until she agreed to be his wife. He could have insisted she came with them, so that she’d have no opportunity to leave, as she’d been on the point of doing.

  Edgily, he pushed back his chair and got to his feet, his hard jawline grim. Isabella dabbed her mouth with her napkin and said, ‘Are you in a bad temper? Am I being a nuisance? Do tell if I am.’ She tilted her head coquettishly, her accompanying smile saying she couldn’t believe she could possibly have any nuisance value to anyone. ‘If you and Lisa want to have your business meeting, or whatever, then please go ahead. I won’t listen if it’s supposed to be secret!’

  ‘My discussions with Lisa can wait,’ he answered tersely. Taking up that suggestion, whisking Lisa away for a bogus business meeting in the library, was more than tempting. But he couldn’t trust his inquisitive, easily bored sister not to barge in on them. Probably at a critical moment. So he’d just have to curb his impatience, grit his teeth and wait it out.