what is relevant?’
‘The reason you’re here tonight. Felicity.’
‘I came here expecting to meet her.’ His gaze drifted over the crowd on the upper terraces.
‘She’s unavailable. She couldn’t be here.’
‘So your father mentioned.’
Ella wondered what else her father had said. She’d bet her whole savings account he hadn’t admitted Fuzz had done a runner to north Queensland rather than face this man.
The idea of Fuzz anywhere without cold champagne on tap, working spa baths and an adoring audience was unbelievable. Yet Rob said they were camped in a couple of rooms at the old motel, making do with a primus stove and cold showers while the renovations were underway.
For the first time Fuzz was in love. Matthew, Rob’s friend, now business partner, was decent, honest and hard-working, a rarity in her family’s social circle. It gave Ella hope that Fuzz had fallen for him rather than the smarmy powerbrokers she’d dated before. Matthew’s decision to turn the rundown motel he’d inherited into an upmarket resort had been the catalyst Rob and Fuzz needed to break from Sydney and their father.
‘So you’re standing in for your sister.’ Donato’s dark voice trawled like pure alcohol in Ella’s veins, making her blood tingle. ‘What could be more pleasant?’
His expression changed, lines deepening, gaze piercing. He looked...predatory.
Instantly heat bloomed.
‘Not in the way you think!’ Ella blurted.
‘You know my thoughts?’ Again that rise of slashing ebony eyebrows. It made him look like a haughty Spanish grandee of old.
‘Of course not.’ How did he throw her off balance so easily? She’d spent years learning to keep her thoughts to herself and her emotions under control. She always had both feet on the ground.
Yet around Donato Salazar she felt different.
He looked intent and assessing and his stare sent anxiety spidering across her flesh, drawing it tight. Ella wasn’t used to such close masculine attention. Not from men like him. She felt out of her depth and that made her bristle. She decided to change the subject.
‘I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself tonight. My father’s parties are renowned.’
A shrill cry split the air, followed by a splash in the pool. There was laughter then another splash.
‘So I gather.’ His expression didn’t change but there was steel in his tone that told her he had no time for party games. ‘But I’m here to become acquainted with your family. With you, Ella.’
There it was again, that tremor of excitement as he said her name. Ella rubbed her hands up her bare arms to smooth sudden goose bumps. Too late she saw her mistake, when his gaze zeroed in on the movement. It wasn’t cold. The night was balmy. He knew she was reacting to him.
Ella shouldn’t have let pride tempt her into raiding her sister’s wardrobe. Years as the frump of the family, the one with puppy fat and boring brown hair instead of glorious golden locks, had made her determined to look good. Now, wedged into her sister’s dress, perched in glittery shoes, she craved her sensible trousers and flats.
She turned to lean on the waist-high terrace wall, pretending to look at the harbour view.
Donato stood over a metre away. Yet she felt him as if they touched. How was it possible?
‘I didn’t know until tonight that your father had three children. I’d only heard of two.’
That was no surprise. Reg Sanderson never boasted about his boring middle child as he did about his clever son or gorgeous older daughter. Until tonight Ella had been persona non grata.
‘Felicity and Rob are closer to him. Rob even worked for him.’ Until too-close exposure to their father’s business soured his enthusiasm. Rob was a corporate lawyer and Ella suspected he’d seen too much of their father’s business tactics.
‘Yet I haven’t seen photos of you with your sister in the press.’
Ella blinked. ‘You read the social pages?’ He looked the kind of man who only read finance and politics.
‘You’d be surprised what I read.’
She frowned. ‘It matters to you, does it? Who’s seen at high-profile parties?’
‘It matters that I understand people when I’m about to do business with them.’
Ella stiffened. ‘Your business is with my father, not me or Felicity.’
His regard was enigmatic and unblinking. Challenging.
‘You were checking up on her?’
He shrugged. ‘Isn’t it natural that I take an interest in your family?’
Since he planned to marry into it. Her stomach clenched.
‘Did you hire investigators too?’ She whipped around to face him full on.
‘Why would that bother you?’
‘Because it would be an invasion of privacy. It would be—’ she shuddered ‘—intrusive.’
Had there been cameras trained on her sister when she partied? When she and Matthew were together? Ella frowned. Fuzz mightn’t be the best sister in the world but she was the only one Ella had.
‘Did you spy on my sister?’ Ella stepped up to Donato, her hands finding her hips, her bottom lip jutting.
‘Your sister? No.’ He was staring at her mouth.
Crazily, she felt her lips go dry. She swallowed and he watched the movement. How could it feel as if he trailed a finger down her throat when he hadn’t lifted a hand?
Hormones. They danced riotously, making her heart drum against her ribcage and her insides clench needily.
Ella swiped her parched lips with her tongue and wished she hadn’t. His look seared. She wanted to back up a step but he’d know why. She was stuck there, her neck arched to meet his intense scrutiny, her body taut as a spinnaker billowing and snapping in a sudden gale.
She didn’t imagine the turbulence in the air. It was real and it emanated from him.
‘You didn’t hire investigators?’ she pressed.
He shook his head, eyes never leaving hers. ‘No one investigated you or your siblings. Otherwise I’d have known about you before tonight, wouldn’t I?’
Ella drew in a deep breath, searching for calm. Trying to ignore the way her bra scraped her over-sensitive breasts and budding nipples. Trying to concentrate on the conversation, not how this man made her feel.
It took a moment to realise what he hadn’t said.
