had smashed—Ramon’s expertise and energy had helped him to save the estancia from imminent financial ruin.
Luiz was grateful that his grandmother still remained blissfully ignorant of the personal funds he had poured into the failing estate and how close she had come to losing it.
‘Surprise visit,’ the other man observed as he approached.
‘You could say that,’ Luiz agreed, unfastening his tie from his throat and loosing the top button of his shirt.
‘Your grandmother…?’
Luiz nodded.
Ramon winced and clapped a sympathetic hand to the other man’s shoulder before tentatively asking, ‘Not a good time, I know, but I was wondering should I go ahead with the preparations for next week’s birthday celebrations or…?’
‘Go ahead with them,’ Luiz agreed before turning the subject to matters he felt more comfortable discussing. ‘Has anything else come up?’
‘It’s funny you should say that.’
Luiz, clasping a hand to the back of his head as he rotated it to relieve the tension that was tying his shoulder muscles in knots, missed the flicker of amusement that crossed Ramon’s face. Brow puckered in concentration, he glanced at his wristwatch.
‘Give me an hour to see my grandmother, change and shower…’
‘This item that has come up is actually of the immediate variety.’
There was a flicker of interest in Luiz’s eyes as he asked, ‘How immediate?’
‘Immediate as in there is a woman, a pretty woman, demanding to see you.’
‘A woman!’
‘Pretty woman.’
‘I was thinking more along the lines of a problem with the plumbing or a disaster with the first press of olives,’ Luiz admitted. ‘And does this woman…sorry, pretty woman—and I have to say, Ramon, it pains me that you would think that would make a difference—have a name?’
‘She is a Miss Nell Frost. English, I believe.’
Luiz shook his head and shrugged dismissively. The name rang no bells. ‘Never heard of her.’
‘Pity. I was hoping she was your birthday present for Doña Elena’s birthday—the next Mrs Santoro. Now that would make her day.’ When his joke fell flat Ramon shrugged and asked, ‘Got any other ideas?’
‘Ideas?’ Luiz, who couldn’t see the problem, frowned. ‘Just tell her it is not convenient, suggest she makes an appointment.’
He began to walk away but Ramon followed him.
‘It won’t work. Neither will threats, charm or bribery because I’ve already tried and failed.’
Luiz felt a surge of impatience. How hard could it be to get rid of one unwanted visitor?
‘Have Security remove her.’ His expression revealed that he was amazed this had not already been done. ‘Or better still, get Sabina to give her her marching orders.’
‘Sabina has tried. It was she who suggested that you might like to speak with the young lady.’
Luiz raised a brow. Sabina held the official title of housekeeper, but in reality she was far more and in this household her suggestions carried as much weight as his grandmother’s orders. He gave a resigned sigh. ‘Where is she?’
‘She has been sitting on the south lawn for the last hour or so, and it’s warm.’
Luiz raised his brows at the understatement. It was thirty-plus degrees in the shade. ‘Why has she been sitting on the south lawn?’
‘I believe it is in the nature of a protest.’
‘A protest,’ Luiz echoed. ‘Against what?’
The other man struggled against a smile. ‘Why, something to do with you, I believe. Did I mention she is very pretty?’ he added.
CHAPTER TWO
NELL lifted her hand to shade her eyes from the sun that beat down on her unprotected head. The throbbing pain in her temples and behind her eyes felt uncomfortably similar to the early stages of a migraine.
She dragged her hand down her forehead to blot the salty rivulets that ran down her face. Her skin felt gritty and hot.
How long had she been sitting here? This morning certainly seemed like several lifetimes ago, she thought, pulling the creased and crumpled e-mail printout from her pocket. She had lost track of time; actually she was finding it increasingly difficult to focus her wandering thoughts.
She didn’t know who had been more surprised when she had sat down and delivered her ultimatum, her or the man with the warm smile. He had been so nice she felt a bit guilty, but mingled with the guilt had been a weird sense of liberation. After spending most of her adult life being accommodating and putting her plans on hold for other people, now it was her turn to be obstinate and awkward.
‘I’m actually quite good at it,’ she discovered with a smile.
Luiz, who was approaching the solitary figure sitting in the middle of several acres of carefully manicured lawn, stopped when she spoke.
The voice was low and with an unexpectedly sexy rasp that was a lot more grown up than she appeared to be. Ramon had misled him when he had said woman—the female sitting there was, he decided, a girl.
A girl with hair that shone honeyed gold in the sun, dressed in a light blue summer dress that revealed slim, shapely calves. She might be shapely all the way up to her delectable lips but the dress was not fitted to her slim shape.
As he continued to observe her as yet unseen a sudden gust of warm air lifted the skirt of her unfitted dress and suggested the shapeliness went at least thigh-high.
Had he not had more important things on his mind… Had she not been too young, and possibly unstable—she was talking to herself, after all—Luiz just might, he conceded, have been interested.
But as none of the above conditions applied he could view her with total objectivity.
‘From now on everyone is going to give in to me. I’m a powerful and strong woman. God, I’m not even in my prime yet. Where has the man with the warm smile gone—to call for rein-forcements or get Luiz Felipe slimy snake Santoro?’ Liking the alliteration she smiled and wondered if she’d had too much sun.
‘He went to get Luiz Felipe Santoro.’ Accustomed to hearing himself described in slightly more flattering terms—at least to his face—Luiz was curious to discover where this young woman had formed this opinion of his character.
Nell, who had been unaware that she was voicing her thoughts out loud until that moment, focused on the shiny leather shoes a few feet away.
‘Who are you?’ Luiz asked as his brain struggled to provide a scenario that would put this odd girl here,
