style="font-size:15px;"> Amado frowned. The illness made this foreign stranger seem more real to him. “Is he suffering?”
“I’d imagine so. No one wants to die.” She looked out the window, to where the Andes rose in the distance. “This quest to find his lost children is keeping him going, from what I hear. It’s become a passion for him.”
“But why does he want to find them?”
“I think he wants to confront his past mistakes, or failings, or something. Face up to them before he dies.”
“So he thinks I’m one of his past mistakes?” Amado couldn’t help laughing.
“It does sound rude, put like that. He’s very rich, though. I suspect he wants to leave some of his vast fortune to them.”
She looked at him with those dark, perceptive eyes. Studying him for signs of greed?
Fifteen years ago, even five years ago, money might have been welcome as he tried to bring the estancia up to modern methods of production. The construction of the state-of-the-art winery had involved large and complicated loans.
But now the vineyard was humming and prosperous. The last of the debts had been paid three years ago and they were seeing comfortable profit margins.
“I don’t want his money or anyone else’s. Unless they’re buying my wine, of course.”
For most of the drive, though, they didn’t talk about Tarrant Hardcastle at all. Susannah seemed to be enchanted by the beauty of the region. Once in the city, she marveled at the open ditches bringing water down from the mountains to irrigate the many trees and fountains. Amado explained the technique had been in use by the Huarpe people when the Spanish settlers first arrived, and it was the same system of aquecias that made lush vineyards possible today despite the low annual rainfall.
The lab was on a quiet side street. Amado could tell Susannah was jittery as they pulled into a parking space. She laughed and exclaimed as he led her over one of the neat ditches that lined the city sidewalks. What did she stand to gain or lose from all of this?
For her, it was a purely professional matter. However the results came out, she’d done her duty and could wash her hands of the situation.
Of him.
His muscles tightened with an uncomfortable mixture of irritation and longing. It infuriated him that she could spend the night with him—and such a night—then just walk away.
She spoke quietly to the person behind the counter, prim and proper in her black dress with its row of buttons down the back.
He couldn’t help wanting to unbutton them, one by one, and expose her smooth, olive skin. To lick the delicate bumps of her spine and layer soft kisses over her waist…
He shoved a hand through his hair. No sense getting all worked up. He wasn’t required to donate sperm.
“Come this way.” A uniformed nurse—or someone dressed like a nurse—ushered them through a door behind the reception desk. This whole situation gave him the creeps.
Who knew what they were going to do with his private biological information? Maybe he’d end up accused of some crime or discover he carried the gene for a terminal illness.
“Sit here, sir.”
He lowered himself into the plastic chair and held his head high as the nurse stuck a long cotton swab into this mouth and rubbed it against his cheek. “All done.”
“That’s it?” he asked, adrenaline pumping.
That’s all it took to change a life? To ruin it, even? It didn’t seem right.
Still, he knew what the results would say. No reason to worry.
He looked at Susannah, slim and lovely and nervous as a hungry cat, twisting her fingers and toying with the skirt of her dress.
The nurse left the room with the sample.
Amado didn’t take his eyes off Susannah. “Let’s go eat lunch.”
“I should head for the airport. I need to get back to New York.”
So easy for her to just leave. Clearly, leaving was part of her modus operandi in life. Dust off her hands, and move on.
He wasn’t ready for her to leave yet. “You can’t go until we have the results.”
“Why not?”
“Because I might pay off the lab to get the results I want.” He narrowed his eyes.
“You couldn’t. They have a stellar reputation.”
He cocked his head. “Any man, or woman…has their price.” He glanced meaningfully at the door. Which opened to admit the brisk blond nurse.
“All under way. We should have results in five days.”
“Five days?” Amado rose to his feet, almost knocking over the chair.
“That’s our minimum period of time for accurate analysis.” The nurse shuffled a stack of papers. “We’ll call and let you know when the results are in.”
Amado glared at Susannah. She was heading back to her ordinary life and leaving him to deal with the fallout from the tests. Resentment tangled with unspent desire in his chest.
“What time is your plane?”
“I’ll take the first plane I can board to Santiago, Chile. My flight for New York leaves from there tonight.” Susannah followed the nurse out the door into the waiting area.
“You had your ticket booked the whole time? You must have been very sure of getting your sample.”
The nurse glanced back at him. Most likely she thought Susannah was collecting his DNA to prove paternity of their child. It rankled him that anyone could think of him as the kind of cad who’d dispute such a thing.
“I was hopeful.” Susannah avoided his glance as she thanked the receptionist and paid by credit card.
Of course, she couldn’t have suspected he’d persuade her to sleep with him.
Could she?
A growing sense of panic gripped Susannah as Amado pulled into a parking space at the airport.
He lifted her suitcase from the trunk. “You’ll come back when the new Malbec is ready?” He looked toward the terminal as if he didn’t care one way or the other.
Likely it would be an inconvenience for him if she came back. Awkward and embarrassing. He’d have enjoyed several more encounters with visiting females by then. Possibly he’d have forgotten her.
She didn’t want to look like she cared, either.
“I’d love to, but I’m afraid it depends upon my schedule. I have a series of trips to Europe and South Africa over the upcoming months.”
She
