prepared to back down.
‘All right,’ he said eventually. ‘But if you’re putting conditions on this then so am I. This will be a proper marriage, and you will be in my bed.’
Her throat constricted. She couldn’t have answered him if she’d wanted to. The expression in Tiago’s eyes had turned cold and hard. This was the deal-breaker, delivered by a man determined to have his way. Tiago was like a coin with two sides, she decided. There was the strong and compassionate man on one side of the coin, and the ruthless playboy on the other. Surrendering her body to a man like that was a heart-stopping thought.
But her body betrayed her now by melting. Her mind burned with confusion. It was like drowning in a sweet honey bath of desire, even while everything about Tiago in this frame of mind was a warning to her not to fall for him unless she wanted to be hurt. But how was she going to remain detached from her feelings when she was lying in his arms?
She would have to, Danny determined, but there were one or two more points she wanted to clear up first. ‘If this is to be a marriage in every sense, as you suggest it will be, then we have to consider the potential consequences.’
‘For instance?’ he pressed without warmth.
‘How will we explain this love-match of ours to any children we might have? And I use the term “love-match” in its most cynical form.’
Tiago shrugged. ‘I must admit I have never thought of this as a permanent arrangement.’
‘Clearly,’ she said, shrinking a little inside. Was this the one thing in his life that Tiago Santos hadn’t thought through? she wondered.
‘Finding a wife is uppermost in my mind,’ he said, as if he could read hers. ‘Perhaps I am guilty of not considering every possibility. I can only tell you that when I found you yesterday outside the stable block I wasn’t thinking about this at all. My one thought was your safety. I hope that reassures you? As for this contract—I can’t have been planning it for long, chica, since I’ve only been here for a couple of days!’
Calling her chica threw her. It was so intimate—too intimate. Endearments from Tiago were unsettling, as was his cold-blooded approach to marriage. When she kept him at a distance she could handle her feelings for him. Jibing at him verbally in Brazil had been fun, but this was a very different situation.
She wasn’t about to roll over and become his convenient wife, Danny concluded. Tiago would have to consider her terms and conditions. They were a deal-breaker for her.
‘You’ve only been here for a couple of days,’ she agreed, ‘but that’s long enough for you to negotiate a business contract, I imagine?’
‘True,’ Tiago agreed. ‘But this is particularly important to me.’
‘And to me,’ she said. ‘It’s quite a commitment you’re asking me to make.’ She felt a cold hand clutch her heart as she said this.
Tiago was quick to reassure her, ‘The agreement between us will be drawn up by my lawyers to include your demands. It will be absolutely watertight. I assure you of that.’
‘I have no doubt.’
‘You’ll be protected, Danny. You’ll be safe. You’ll be secure for the rest of your life.’
‘You make it sound like a prison sentence.’
‘It will be what we make it,’ Tiago told her with calm assurance. ‘You can have your own lawyers look over the contract. I’ll pay for them.’
‘But you don’t know me.’ She shook her head, still racked with doubt. ‘We don’t know each other.’
‘How long does it take to know someone? I saw you nearly every day for a year on Chico’s ranch. It will be the same. You struck sparks off me with your banter then—’
‘Do you mean I stood up for myself?’ she asked wryly.
He relaxed, and his mouth curved in the familiar winning smile. ‘That’s why I like you, Danny. I’m not looking for a push-over. I’m not interested in taking advantage of you. I want this to be fair. And when we’re married—’
‘I haven’t said yes to your outlandish proposal yet,’ she pointed out.
‘But you will,’ he said confidently. ‘I will expect you to stand up to me. I expect you to tell me when something doesn’t make you happy. I expect to enjoy a healthy, outspoken relationship.’
‘You can depend on that,’ she assured him. ‘But a year sharing a bed with a man without love...?’
‘I’m sorry you see it that way. I wish I had more time to persuade you that this will work really well for both of us, but I don’t have that luxury. I can only promise you that you’ll have everything you need and that I will always respect you and treat you well.’ He shrugged. ‘I can’t think of anyone I would rather enter into this agreement with—anyone I can imagine seeing on a daily basis and getting on with half as well as I get on with you.’
‘So long as we do get on well,’ she said dryly.
‘Danny—’
‘I know. You have a flight plan filed, no doubt, and you don’t have time to waste selling love’s young dream to me.’
‘Don’t be such a cynic. It doesn’t suit you. Your choice is simple. Stay here and nothing changes, or come with me on the biggest adventure of your life. Which is it to be, Danny?’
DANNY TOOK A firmer grip of her suitcase when Tiago threatened to swoop on it. Half an hour ago, over breakfast, he’d shown her the contract his lawyers had drawn up on the screen of his phone. When she had expressed surprise that he had been able to rouse his team at such short notice just before the holidays, he’d set the tone by telling her that holidays were for wimps and that he didn’t take them.
Money bought everything, she thought. And now here they were, in the hall, about to leave the house on their way to Brazil. She’d called her mother, but there had been no reply. She hadn’t wanted to disturb Lizzie, so she had sent her an email. And her wedding to Tiago...? That lay some time in the future and still didn’t feel real.
Just as Tiago had promised, the terms of the contract were solid enough. She’d been given everything she’d asked for, and to build her confidence before she took this final step Tiago had pressed an open first-class airline ticket home into her hands, and told her she could bail out at any time. Yet even now she felt she’d sold out.
Or, as Tiago had so romantically put it, ‘Congratulations, chica! You’ve got the guts to seize the opportunity of a lifetime and share my bed.’
Yes, she knew he’d been teasing her, in that old, tormenting way, but this time she hadn’t fired back. The reality of intimacy with Tiago was only just dawning on her. Yes, of course she knew that intimacy was part of any married couple’s life, and Tiago had said that their marriage would be as close to normal as it could be for a year, but she was certain that sharing his bed would be very different from her fantasies.
