wrong with me, if it’s not too much trouble?’ she muttered.
Reyes’s mouth firmed. ‘You’re severely dehydrated and a touch malnourished. The fluids should do the trick. And I’ve ordered more food to be prepared for you. When was the last time you had a healthy meal?’ he asked with a dark frown.
Her eyelids dragged heavily as she blinked. ‘You mean the last time before I was incarcerated in your basement?’
‘Answer the question, Jasmine.’
Her heart shouldn’t have jumped at the sound of her name on his lips. But it did. ‘I don’t know. Yesterday afternoon, I think. I haven’t had much of an appetite lately.’
Her eyes met his. Stayed. A piercing awareness lanced between them.
Reyes lunged to his feet and uttered a sharp command in Spanish. A bodyguard entered, glanced her way and nodded. She didn’t need a translator to know she was the subject of the discussion. Feelings of vulnerability rose along with the hairs on her nape. ‘What’s going on now?’
Reyes didn’t answer. He merely turned on his heel and walked through a door to a connecting room.
‘His Highness requires me to attend your home...bring you a few things before we leave,’ the bodyguard delivered in halting English.
Surprise froze Jasmine for all of ten seconds before her head swivelled towards the door Reyes had just walked out of. ‘Leave? I’m not going anywhere.’
‘You misunderstand. This is not a request from His Highness. It is a summons.’
‘A what?’ she asked dumbly, unable to immediately compute the words.
‘You are required to pack a bag, señorita. We leave tomorrow.’
‘You have your orders, I understand. But perhaps I can talk about it with His Highness when he has a minute?’ Her words were delivered loud in the hope that Reyes would hear her from wherever he’d disappeared to. She didn’t want to create any more waves, but neither could she let Reyes take over her life.
Silence descended in the room, the bodyguard eyeing her as if she’d gone insane.
Reyes re-entered the room. With a nod, he dismissed the security detail, waiting until they’d shut the door behind them before addressing her.
‘I think during your exchange with my men something may have become lost in translation. My request was actually a command. There was nothing of a suggestion about it. When I leave here in the morning, you’re coming with me.’
Despite her hammering pulse and the exhaustion sapping at her, she found the strength to speak. ‘I understand that I’m your prisoner, but even prisoners get advance warning of their fate,’ she implored.
One dark eyebrow rose. ‘You forget you have no rights here. I hold all the cards. You go where I wish you to go.’
Jasmine’s mouth dried up. The back of her hand itched and she yearned to rip the needle out, grab her shoes and handbag and run as fast as her legs could carry her. But she knew, even if her conscience allowed her, she wouldn’t make it to the door.
Desperation made her blurt out, ‘I have a life, a job to return to.’
‘You will resign tomorrow.’
A death knell sounded somewhere in her head. ‘Please, don’t do this, Reyes.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Resign. Or I’ll take pleasure in informing your superiors of the true depths of your character. After I hand you over to the authorities.’
‘Are you saying that if I resign you won’t tell them I’m—’ She stopped, unable to speak the hated word that sealed her guilt. But he already knew she was guilty. His eyes narrowed scornfully.
‘Afraid to say it out loud? A thief, Jasmine Nichols, that’s what you are,’ he condemned through clenched teeth. ‘You not only stole from me, you stole from my people. You single-handedly set back years of trade negotiations.’ His eyes blazed at her, grey fire that stripped her to the bone.
Her heart lurched as her sins were laid bare in front of her. The heat of shame burned through her, from the soles of her feet up through her body until the acrid taste of it flooded her mouth.
‘Rey—I’m sorry. What happened wasn’t supposed to happen.’
His laughter mocked her. ‘You mean the sex was supposed to addle my brain so much I’d suspect someone else of the theft?’ he snarled.
‘No. I mean I shouldn’t have taken the treaty in the first place.’ Jasmine couldn’t contain the sob that rose in her throat. Tears flooded her eyes. To hide it, she turned away and plugged a fist to her mouth.
But he heard it. Of course he heard it. ‘Tears, Miss Nichols?’ he taunted. ‘How original. Almost as original as your pick-up line in Rio.’
Her sob emerged, thick and broken. Desperately, she tried to gulp it down.
His scorn reached her from across the room. ‘Spare me the histrionics. You cry as if your heart is breaking. Which cannot be because you don’t have a heart.’
Her head whipped round at the cruel assertion. He stood against the window, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. She deserved every accusation he threw at her, but she needed him to see she wasn’t all bad.
‘What I did was wrong, I know that. And I have a heart, or I wouldn’t be here, trying to make amends.’
A cruel smile curved his lips. ‘Well, that’s a shame and a curse for you. Because I aim to make you pay for your betrayal. And by the time I’m finished with you, you’ll feel that heart you claim to possess ripped from your chest!’
* * *
Reyes watched her eyes widen. The same eyes had gazed adoringly up at him that night on his yacht, then darkened as passion had gripped them both. Eyes he’d drowned in as he’d sunk deep inside her.
Deceptive, duplicitous eyes that had taken his lust and turned it against him. Played him as a virtuoso plucked at willing strings. Deep down in a place he rarely liked to visit, it still burned him that he’d never seen it coming. That he’d been so completely and utterly duped for the second time in his life.
Duped by a woman who’d proclaimed to be one thing and turned out to be another.
And this time, the consequences threatened to be worse.
Anaïs had ruined one life, devastated one family. Jasmine’s actions threatened thousands.
He’d been willing to bide his time. But he’d never been one to miss an opportunity. And while he hadn’t expected the opportunity to arise so soon, he was perfectly willing to take his revenge now.
Jasmine Nichols had walked into his life, brazen and unrepentant. He had every intention of making her pay for her sins. Seeing the tears on her face only strengthened his resolve.
Reyes didn’t doubt they were genuine, but he knew they were born of self-preservation
