games. And it was intoxicating.
“I also want to thank you for not talking business.”
“I want to discuss a few things with you before I bring up anything with him. I have reports, but I want what only an insider would know.”
“Let it go altogether, okay? Even my father didn’t bring up business. Now that he saw us together, I believe he won’t.”
“I know he has big problems, Eliana.”
Dismay flooded her eyes. “I guess it was too much to hope that you of all people wouldn’t find out. But we’re working on a resolution, and I’m hopeful we’ll soon have it.”
“I know a partnership with me would help resurrect his business. Even if I don’t give it to him, I still want to help.” He did intend to save her father’s business, for her, to preserve her legacy. He’d seen Ferreira’s will, and she was his only beneficiary. No matter what he felt about her father, he wouldn’t let her inherit an ailing enterprise. He buried his lips in her palm. “Let me help.”
She caressed his cheek, hand trembling as it was singed by his passion, her gaze softening with gratitude. “It doesn’t matter if you can help, it’s enough you want to.”
“I can do anything, remember?”
“Oh, yes, you can.” Her smile was tenderness itself. Then suddenly she pushed her chair back and stood up.
He rose at once. “Where are you going?”
“Back to work. Then to the orphanage.” She grinned as she reached for her coat. “As you already know.”
He helped her on with the coat that matched the deep royal-blue dress he’d spent much of the lunch hour fantasizing about ripping off her.
She hooked her purse across her body. “See you at my place later? Or would you rather I come to yours?”
“I’ll come to you. And I don’t want you driving on that road alone again, so whenever you want to come to my place, I’ll pick you up. Eight o’clock?”
“Make it nine.” Her smile lit up the whole world as she walked into his arms and met him halfway in a kiss that had the whole restaurant watching.
After she left, some men gave him the thumbs-up. One was giving him two.
Mock bowing to them, he walked out into the hubbub of Rio’s midday congestion. Cariocas filled the streets as they did every hour of the day. Anyone coming to Rio came for its laid-back beach culture as much as its breathtaking landscapes and abundant tourist attractions. And everyone got the impression the Cariocas were on perpetual vacation.
He breathed deep of the ocean breeze and the unique scents of this city he’d spent his formative years in. It was strange how alien he felt here. His kidnapping had truly cut all the ties he had with his past, with the being he’d been.
But Rio was still the place he’d been taken from, and it was where he’d returned to enact the vengeance he’d waited for almost a quarter of a century. Three quarters of his life.
Then in three days, Eliana had turned his world upside down and shifted his priorities.
But his plans were only postponed, not cancelled. He would still punish her father.
Just not before he secured her.
* * *
At eight o’clock sharp, that Amazonian parrot she had for a bell burst into song.
Ellie flew to the door, heart soaring as she snatched it open, expecting to see Rafael. He was there. Only not alone.
“Please meet my boor of a partner, Richard Graves.”
Her heart plummeted as she leveled her eyes on that menace, before turning her scowl on Rafael. “You shouldn’t be walking around with him so blithely. Without a leash, too.”
Rafael laughed. “I promise you I have him well in hand. Invite us in, querida.”
“No.”
Rafael’s smile tried to coax her. “Not even now that he got what he deserves?” He shoved Graves forward.
Graves rolled his eyes, moved into the light of her foyer and showed her the right side of his face. It was a swollen deep purple beneath the beard he now sported. After he’d given her a good look, he stepped back, resettled that harsh gaze on her.
She blinked dazedly up at Rafael. “You hit him?”
“You think I’d do anything less once I found out what he’d done? What he’d said to you?”
She turned her gaze to Graves. “You told him about propositioning me, huh?”
“Of course.”
Suddenly, a realization hit her, made her turn anxiously back to Rafael. “Is that how you hurt your hand?”
Rafael nodded. “You think anything less than his concrete jaw can break my bones?”
She gaped at him. “Your hand is really broken?”
“I do have fissures in two metacarpal bones.”
She dragged him inside, heart squeezing as she feathered anxious touches over his splint. “God—and I made fun of your injury! I thought it was a sprain or something and you were only teasing me.”
“No teasing.” Graves walked in without invitation and closed the door behind him. “Under your thrall, he went and broke his hand. After I spent years teaching him how to fight without ever injuring himself. Terrible student.” A mirthless laugh. “And he didn’t even get his boo-boo kissed for his trouble.”
She took Rafael down on the couch with her and glared up at Graves. “Oh, he will now. And then he’ll get everything kissed. Anything that hasn’t already been, that is.”
At Graves’s raised eyebrows, Rafael turned to him with a triumphant smile. “For the record, I didn’t employ your generously imparted techniques because I just wanted to hurt you. And myself. I was the one who gave you the impression you can be rude to Eliana when I walked away from her.”
“Is he always that vicious to women he thinks you’re done with? Or is he that brutal by default? Which wouldn’t surprise me. He doesn’t feel quite human to me.”
Graves turned his gaze to Rafael. “Very astute, this one. Foolishly outspoken, too. You may have to keep her.”
Rafael’s eyes ate her up. “Oh, I am keeping her.”
She mock scowled at him. “How kind of you both. But I’ve been known to keep myself, thank you. So why don’t you unstoppable forces of nature just run along and go exude charisma and testosterone all over someone else?”
Graves’s lips spread. “It really looks like you’ll have to keep her.”
Rafael gave an exaggerated sigh. “If only she keeps me.”
