Blackmailed by the Spaniard

by Clare Connelly

  Pink suffused her cheeks at the sense that she’d crossed an invisible line. That she’d not only lied to him, she’d stalked him.

  “I paid attention to things you said,” she muttered. “It wasn’t hard to work it out.”

  “Like the talented scammer you are,” he said with mock approval.

  She whipped her head around to face him. “No. Like a woman in love.”

  Colour drained from his features momentarily and then he laughed. “You must need something substantial from me, to be carrying on with your charade, even now.”

  She swallowed, her eyes giving away the truth of his statement when it was on the tip of her tongue to deny it.

  “Let me guess,” he crossed his arms over his broad, muscled chest. “You need money.”

  Addie’s breath was squeezing out of her. She met his eyes but couldn’t hold his gaze when she saw the derision bouncing back at her. The judgment. The disrespect.

  It physically pained her to have the man she’d loved looking at her in such a manner.

  “Well, Ava? Spit it out.”

  She had come so far. She’d used all her savings. And he was offering to give her a hearing, at least. Her pride was already in tatters. What point did she have for it now?

  “A loan,” she whispered.

  His lips compressed, his face angry. “What?”

  “I came to ask for a loan.” She couldn’t meet his eyes. She stared at a point over his shoulder, her blood gushing hard and fast through her slim frame, vibrating in her veins with its tsunami-like rush.

  He didn’t say anything. Not for a long time. Addie eventually had little choice but to look at him, to see if he’d even heard. To see what he was feeling.

  And the scathing derision in his face left her breathless.

  “Well then,” the words were drawled with ice-like detachment. “I suppose you had better come in.”

  “Come in?”

  “To discuss terms, Ava.”

  *

  She’d always been slim but now she was bordering on waif-like, her body slender beneath the barely-there dress she wore. Guy studied her as she sipped her water, the column of her throat moving with the action. There was a very fine tremble in her fingertips, which she was trying to conceal. But Guy saw everything.

  Everything.

  He hadn’t back then.

  He’d seen only what she’d wanted him to see, but six months ago, he’d been stupid – at least where Ava was concerned. He’d bought her act, hook, line and sinker. He’d been the kind of fool he’d sworn he’d never be again. He’d let a woman lie to him. He’d eaten her lies up hungrily, one after the other.

  What an idiot!

  It was a mistake he wouldn’t make again.

  He eyed her dispassionately now, and gave her full marks for effort. Her act was exceptional. She looked every bit the scared, worried beauty – it was a part she was playing perfectly. She exuded the kind of fragility that she, perhaps, was hoping would soften him towards her. Appealing to the masculine need he’d once had to protect her at any cost.

  But it had been a long time since he’d felt like that. Every day away from Ava had made him realise that their ‘love’ had just been a construct of his mind. An illusion.

  “Well, Ava?” He enjoyed the look of pain that covered her face when he used her fake name. It served her right. She’d seen fit to feed him the lie – he was simply sticking to it. “You would like to borrow money from me?”

  Her eyes skittered to him and then ran away again, like a kitten in a downpour. She was doing a terrific job of seeming uncomfortable, but Guy had witnessed her performances before. Knowledge of her prowess as an actress allowed him to remain completely unconcerned.

  “I’d pay you back,” she said quietly, nodding her head slowly.

  Sarcasm permeated his expression. “That is, generally, how a loan works.”

  “It would take me … well, years,” she said slowly. “But I have an installment plan worked out.”

  Guy’s brows shot up. “Years? How much do you intend to ask me for?”

  The fine pulse at the base of her neck was racing, beneath his impassioned scrutiny. Frantic and fast. Hell, she must need an enormous sum. Curiosity kept him still. He could afford whatever she needed. God knew he had more than enough money to buy several small countries. But what could she possibly need the money for?

  The lack of what he knew about her filled him with a sense of gladness. Gladness that he’d ended their relationship when he had. Gladness that he’d been strong and put her from his mind ever since.

  “A lot,” she whispered, standing suddenly, her fine frame jack-knifing off the sofa so that she could walk towards the windows overlooking the street. She stared down, her long dark hair pulled over one shoulder exposing a swan-like neck.

  “How much?” He prompted, studying the way her back moved as she breathed in and out.

  She whispered something, and he didn’t catch it, because she was facing away and the words were issued so softly.

  “I cannot hear you when you mumble,” he snapped, more caustically than he’d intended.

  Addie spun around, and again, he had the strangest sense that she was being pursued by wolves. That some unknown danger was eating at her. “Fifty thousand pounds.”

  Such a sum! He had been expecting hundreds of thousands at least, perhaps even a million! Fifty thousand pounds? Cristo! He frequently donated larger sums to the charities he supported.

  “What do you need it for?” He asked with a shake of his head, enjoying the way panic spread over her features. She thought he was going to say ‘no’. And she was doing a very good imitation of someone who was desperately afraid.

  She didn’t answer his question. There was a guarded secrecy in her features as she said, “I’d pay back every penny.”

  Guy nodded thoughtfully, his eyes assessing the woman he had once craved like none other. The woman who had formed the baseline for his fantasies.

  He’d been furious that night – the night he’d learned the truth. No. He’d never learned the truth. He still didn’t know anything about who she really was, and nor did he want to; he knew only that she’d lied to him. He knew she’d given him a fake name, a fake profession, been vague about where she lived.

  He’d spent a month sleeping with a perfect, sexy stranger. A liar. He’d fallen in love with a mirage.

  And now she wanted something from him. His eyes narrowed, taking in her pale skin, her wide-set eyes, the unmistakable impression that she was hanging on his every word.

  “Fifty thousand pounds,” he murmured, as though the amount was worthy of his solemn consideration. He paced across the room, staring out at the garden.

  “I know it’s a lot.” Her words stretched a harsh smile over his face, one she wouldn’t have seen for the way he stood, turned away from her. “Believe me, Guy, I wouldn’t be here, asking for your help, if there was any other option.”

  He didn’t believe her. Not for one second.

  Ava – Adeline – whatever the hell her name was – knew his worth. She knew the level of wealth he possessed. Why waste her one shot at fifty thousand pounds, when as his lover she would have access to the lifestyle she’d already experienced?

  Did she think she could win him back by playing the damsel in financial distress?

  Not likely. Having been foolish enough to be drawn in by Addie once, he wasn’t likely to be so ever again. He’d learned his lesson about the beautiful woman. She wasn’t to be trusted, not for a million pounds. Not for anything.

  But that didn’t mean he couldn’t have some fun with her, did it?

  CHAPTER TWO

  “YOU’RE RIGHT. FIFTY THOUSAND pounds is a lot of money.” He spun around to face her and Addie froze, the full force of his strength lashing across the room like a cyclone.

  She knew him to be a powerful, influential man. She’d understood that the night they’d met, even before she’d known his name. Men like Guillem R
odriguez possessed in their very being a latent control that communicated itself in every gesture. In the way they spoke, the way they stood, the way they commanded the attention of a room simply by entering it.

  And Guy commanded Addie, in that moment. She stood, almost as if to attention, waiting with breath held, heart throbbing, blood rushing.

  “I would pay you back,” she heard herself say again, simply to fill the silence that was emanating from him, beating against the walls with its powerful nothingness.

  “Oh, that wouldn’t be necessary.” His eyes were rich with sardonic anger when they clashed to hers. “At least, not pound for pound.”

  Addie swallowed, trying not to let herself feel relief that they were moving closer to an agreement. Because his manner was confusing her now, suggesting complications she hadn’t – foolishly – anticipated.

  “What does that mean?”

  He moved closer, just a few steps, but her body began to thrum with a new awareness, to vibrate differently. “Before you arrived today, I was pondering a problem I have.”

  “A problem?” Addie responded, trying to keep up.

  He prowled closer. “And here you are: a perfect solution.”

  “To what?” She held her breath, her eyes glued to him as he closed the distance between them.

  Just the nearness of him was overpowering every single one of her senses. He lifted a finger, and ran it down her cheek, dropping it insolently to her shoulder, as though he had every right to touch her. She drew in a harsh breath, but didn’t move, didn’t look away.

  “Guy?” It was a plaintive whisper. A small cry for clarity in a whirlwind of confusion. In a million years, she hadn’t imagined he would touch her like this. Nor look at her as though he wanted to strip her naked and take her to his bed.

  “I was very angry at you that night.”

  She nodded, just a tiny jerk of her head. “I remember.” He had been scathing. Brutally so.

  “I am no longer angry.”

  Hope fluttered in her breast.

  “Anger requires an emotional investment I have ceased to feel for you. I see you clearly now, as I should have all along. I see the kind of woman you are. It is important that you remember how I feel about you, if this is to work.”

  “Damn it, Guy,” she spoke quietly. “It was a mistake…”

  “You can say that again.” His smile was dismissive. Just a sharp twist of his lips. His handsome face was otherwise dispassionate. “You know, I’ve wondered what you wanted from me. Was it the prestige you thought I could provide? Money? Connections?” He shook his head.

  “It wasn’t like that,” she insisted. “Guy, I fell in love with you. Not because you’re richer than sin, or because you know a heap of important people. It was you.”

  His laugh was almost indulgent. “Do not insult me by lying now. Not when you are showing your true colours by coming to me and begging for cash.”

  “It’s a loan. I promise, I will pay you back.”

  “Out of curiosity, why do you think I’d want to help you, Ava?”

  “Addie,” she corrected automatically. “You told me you would do anything to make me smile. That my happiness meant everything to you. I thought that even after we… after we broke up, that maybe you would still care enough to want to help.”

  She held her breath, the innocence of her hopes seeming absurd now, standing face to face with Guy and his obvious disdain.

  “You were wrong.”

  Her heart stuttered. Hopes dropped.

  “I do not wish to help you. I certainly do not ‘care’ for you.”

  Addie sucked in a breath that burned all the way down to the pit of her stomach. “Guy…”

  He lifted his finger to her lips, pressing it against her, his eyes boring down on hers. “Nothing comes for free, Ava. You want me to give you money?”

  “Lend me,” she reminded him croakily.

  His expression was a swift rejection of her differentiation. “You came to my door, in need of my help. Did it not occur to you that I would expect something in exchange?”

  Her breath hitched in her throat and her knees suddenly felt weak and tingly. “What do you mean?”

  And then, the penny dropped. Was he actually suggesting that she sleep with him in exchange for money? Colour drained from her face and she stepped back in an instantaneous, silent rejection of any such notion.

  “You can’t be serious?” She reached behind her, finding a chair and dropping down into it. The support was suddenly imperative.

  “Serious about what?” He prompted, moving to stand over her, his arms crossed, his expression like iron.

  “You think I’ll go to bed with you in exchange for money?”

  His laugh was sardonic. “Oh, Ava. You were a sensational lover, but not irreplaceable, believe me. I do not need to pay any woman to get her into bed.”

  Addie squeezed her eyes shut as emotions tumbled through her. Embarrassment at the way he’d belittled what they’d shared, reducing it to average sex when it had been anything but. Jealousy and rage at the way he’d just intimated she’d been usurped in his bed – and so easily. Hate, yes, hate, for how they were speaking to one another, when at one time she had loved him with all of her heart.

  How could he think these things of her? How could he despise her so much?

  “That’s a relief, because believe me, I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot barge pole.”

  They both knew it was bravado. And a lie. Then again, she was a skilled liar, according to him, so what if she was simply living up to his expectations?

  “I’ll enjoy disproving that at a later date.”

  Her eyes lifted to his. That implied a future that she hadn’t envisaged. “What do you want from me, Guy?”

  “It’s what you want from me,” he corrected. “And what you’re willing to do to get it.”

  Addie thought of her mother, her mother who might as well have died with her father and brother, she thought of her family as it had once been. And the home that had housed them so happily for twelve years of Addie’s life. She thought of how close she was to losing it all, how desperately she needed to make the repayments that had amassed without her knowledge.

  And she knew there was no limit to what she’d do to save her mother. Tears sparkled on her lashes but they were tears of resentment and defiance. “I’ll do anything,” she heard herself admit. “Does that make you happy? To know that I’m so desperate I’ll agree to anything you propose? Do you enjoy seeing me demeaned like this?” She dashed away her tears and stood, side-stepping him with care.

  “Yes.” The answer was like a crack of lightning, slashing through the air. “I enjoy seeing you get a hint of what I think you deserve. Perhaps you have never had to face the consequences of your actions, but that is going to change immediately.”

  Her heart was thumping in her chest and angry defiance zipped through her. “You make it sound as though I hatched a plan to steal the crown jewels of England!” His eyes narrowed. “I never meant to deceive you. What happened with us was an accident, Guy. You have to believe I had no intention of meeting anyone like you that night. I was doing this thing, with my cousin, I was…” Trying to forget. The words clogged in her throat. She blinked her eyes shut. “I was just having fun. I never planned to lie to you.”

  “But you did lie to me, again and again and again. I do not forgive liars, querida. And I will never forgive you.”

  Ice ran through her veins. “You hate me.”

  “I don’t feel enough for you to hate you,” he said with a careless shrug. “I hate what you did. I hate the kind of woman you are. But I would say, instead, that I pity you and your lifestyle choices.”

  “God, Guy, don’t!” She lifted her hands to his chest, suddenly needing him to understand, needing him to see her for who she really was. “Think about what we were. Think about all the time we spent together. Laughing, talking, walking, sleeping… everything. How could I have lied to you that whole ti
me? You knew me. Not my name, not my address, but come on! Everything that mattered, you knew!”

  He stared at her for so long that she thought he might have been listening to sense. That perhaps he was going to realise how foolish he was being. “I will not enter into a deal with you, of any kind, if you continue to discuss the past. So far as I’m concerned, it is of no interest. There is no sense discussing what we were, for we will never be that again.”

  Addie’s stomach churned with misery and shock. “Guy…”

  “No.” He spoke harshly, interrupting her. “It is non-negotiable, Ava. I do not want to listen to any more of your pathetic lies.”

  “It isn’t a lie!” She cried, stomping her foot in frustration. “Please, just let me explain about that night. About why…”

  But his Spanish temper was soaring. Addie could feel it and it stirred an answering wave of heat inside of her. She hadn’t told him anything about her family. About her father and brother and The Accident. She hadn’t wanted him to look at her like everyone else did. But maybe if he knew the truth, he would start to see that it was so much more complex than he appreciated.

  “Enough! There will be no more talk of it. Understood?”

  Her caramel eyes clashed with his, and electricity arced around the room, sizzling and powerful. Tension pulled between them until finally, it was almost at breaking point.

  “What do you want from me?” Addie asked out of desperation.

  “Something you will find easy to accommodate,” he murmured. “I want you to lie for me.”

  Addie stared at him as though he’d started to speak Swahili.

  She opened her mouth to defend herself but he lifted his hand, his palm facing her, imploring her to be silent.

  “If you so much as try to defend yourself, I will terminate this negotiation. I told you, I do not want to discuss the past. I do not care to hear your excuses. I do not mean that you should lie to me.”

  Pain scored her body, a sharp, aching pain. “Who then?” She whispered, not sure if she had any intention of doing what he suggested, but needing to know for some macabre reason.