need a wife,’ he said bluntly, with a careless gesture. ‘And I need a wife fast. I’m telling you this because I won’t pretend otherwise. I’m going to be absolutely honest with you, so that you know exactly where you stand. The terms of my grandfather’s will have left me with no option. I must marry—and soon. Before the trustees find some excuse to take over the ranch. They know nothing of its history—nothing of its people—’
Tiago’s passion scorched her. He didn’t just care about this ranch and its people—they were his life. That was the only reason she stayed to listen and didn’t get up and stamp out of the room. But she was still running his words over in her head. His wife? Tiago’s wife? She couldn’t take it in.
‘I’ll give you a moment,’ he said. ‘I can see this has come as a shock to you.’
Tiago was half out of his seat, but she gestured for him to sit down again. ‘Please...’
‘Don’t look so apprehensive, Danny, so alarmed. I mean what I say. You would have everything you’ve ever wanted—ever dreamed about—right now, rather than waiting, and you’ll be secure for the rest of your life.’
Secure? She would be rich enough to own and run her own training establishment—that was a dream come true, just for a start, to someone who had grown up penniless, believing her dreams to be as distant and unachievable as any fairytale. Tiago was offering her the golden chalice.
Yes, but he was keeping it just out of her reach. He could grant her everything—including security for her increasingly unpredictable mother—but at what cost? she wondered.
‘I’d be selling out,’ she said flatly.
‘I’m sorry you see it that way.’ Tiago’s tone hardened. ‘I think if you take a more critical look around you’ll see that every marriage is a bargain of some sort.’
‘What about love?’ She couldn’t help herself. She’d always been a romantic. ‘Where does love fit into this?’ She was as impassioned on the subject as Tiago had been when he’d talked about his ranch. ‘I refuse to believe there aren’t some marriages, at least, based solely on love without thought of gain by either party.’
She could tell he thought her naïve, but she did care about love. To love and to be loved was the most important thing in the world as far as Danny was concerned.
‘I think we’ve made a good start,’ Tiago continued calmly, as if there’d been no outburst from her.
‘And a couple of days in my company is enough time for you to decide you want to marry me?’
‘We’ve known each other a lot longer than that, Danny,’ he reminded her.
‘Yes, but as sparring partners in Brazil—nothing more.’
It had always been a lot more on her part, but she wasn’t going to confess that now. She had wanted Tiago from the first moment she saw him, but he had been an international polo player, while she’d been a lowly student living on a grant for young people with troubled home lives. They hardly had anything in common, she’d thought at the time, though that hadn’t stopped her standing up to him when he had sought her out. He had loved teasing her, she knew that, and she had loved answering back. It had excited her to confront a man like Tiago Santos and give back as good as she got.
‘We’ve always got on, Danny. If we give this a chance I can see no reason why it can’t work.’
‘Is that any basis upon which to found a marriage?’
‘Better than some,’ he said.
Brushing the attraction she felt for him to one side, she challenged him again. ‘And is that what you really want, Tiago?’
‘I want the ranch.’
Well, that was clear enough.
‘I’m proposing you remain married to me for one year, to make it seem genuine. I’m being completely honest with you, Danny. I have to get married if I’m to stop those idiots ruining all the good work that’s been done on the ranch. Our marriage must be seen as genuine—hence the term I’m putting on it. And, no, I don’t want to be tied down. Is that frank enough for you?’
‘It is honest,’ she admitted. ‘You want to give me money to induce me to marry you, but you want to carry on your bachelor ways. Is that a fair summary?’
‘It sounds rather calculating when you put it that way.’
‘How else would you put it? It is calculating. And my answer is no.’
‘No?’ Tiago’s eyes narrowed in disbelief.
‘You’re suggesting a cold-blooded contract, and yet I have no say in it because you’ve thought it all through for me. That’s right, isn’t it, Tiago? You’ve anticipated what you think it is I want out of the agreement, but you’ve judged those demands through your own eyes. It must have been very convenient for you, finding me here at the wedding—a brood mare waiting for her stallion. How long have you been sizing me up? Since you found me outside in the mud? Did I look like a victim to you? Did you think I’d be grateful for the crumbs from your table?’
‘I never thought that. I would never take advantage of you in that way. I remembered you from Brazil. You were always strong, always determined—’
‘And I’m just as determined now to say no.’
Tiago’s jaw worked as he mulled over her flat refusal.
‘Can I say anything to change your mind?’
She hesitated. Her feelings for Tiago cut too deep for her not to want to help him. She understood that he cared for the ranch, and she couldn’t deny that the chance to get to know him better was appealing. But did she have to marry him?
There was something else nagging at the back of her mind—and it was something that was weighted in his favour. The business opportunity Tiago was offering would allow her to work—and that was so far removed from anything her mother might do that it did hold appeal. She tried to measure everything she did in life by asking herself: would her mother do it? And if the answer was yes, Danny would do the opposite.
This was her one chance to fulfil her dream, Danny reasoned. If she could do that, surely she could guard her heart for a year by burying herself in work?
‘Well?’ Tiago pressed impatiently.
‘If we go ahead with this—and I’m only saying if—I have certain conditions,’ she explained.
His expression turned grim. He wasn’t used to bargaining when he had decided what he wanted to do, she gathered, but he could see that she wasn’t going to change her mind.
‘Name them,’ he grated out.
‘For one year I’m the only woman in your life. I mean it, Tiago,’ she said quickly, when he started to speak. ‘I won’t take any more humiliation. I’ve seen my mother make a fool of herself and I don’t need anyone to tell me that I was fast following in her footsteps. I won’t go down that road again—not for you, not for anyone. If you want
