you credit. Knowing you were on those mountain roads searching for me is a thought I will cherish for ever.’
The rage that had simmered in his veins since he and Javier had pieced all the parts of the jigsaw together flashed through his skin.
Luis hadn’t expected contrition from her but her triumph was something else.
Chloe had sent him on a wild goose chase so he would be late for the gala. Her brother had conspired to ground Javier’s flight to Madrid so he too would be late for the gala. With both Casillas brothers out of the way and the world’s media present, Benjamin had pounced, stealing Javier’s fiancée away and taking her to his secure chateau in Provence. And then he had proceeded to blackmail them: Javier’s fiancée in exchange for the money he claimed they owed him. If the money wasn’t forthcoming he would marry her himself.
Luis could not remember the last time his brother had been so coldly furious. Javier had dug his heels in and refused to pay. For Javier it was a matter of principle. They had done nothing illegal and a court of law agreed with them. They didn’t owe Benjamin a cent.
For Luis, Benjamin’s actions were a declaration of war. All the guilt he’d felt and his plans to put things right between them had been discarded in an instant.
The press photographs of Freya leaving the gala hand in hand with Benjamin had captured a certain something between the pair of them that had made Luis wince for his brother. Whether Javier’s fiancée was an unwitting tool in the plot or a willing supplicant was irrelevant. Those pictures had shown his brother’s fiancée gazing into his enemy’s eyes with a look of rapture on her face. Javier would rather starve than take her back.
His brother had been right not to take her back. Their enemy had married Freya two days ago, barely five days after stealing her away. The fallout against the Casillas brothers had accelerated.
Chloe had willingly played her part in this. She would find herself playing a role to end it and whether that was willingly, he could not care less.
‘Cherish those memories, bonita,’ he said, hiding his anger with a beatific smile of his own. ‘You earned them. You have proven yourself to be a fabulous actress.’
She fluttered her long black eyelashes at him. ‘Were you worried about me? How touching.’
Remembering the burst of raw panic that had grabbed him to find her car missing from the place he had expected it to be... Worried, Luis concluded grimly, did not begin to cover it.
It was only because he had known her since she was in her mother’s stomach, he told himself. For the first three years of Chloe’s life he, Javier and Benjamin, all ten years older, had been her chief babysitters. None of them had been enthusiastic about the job, especially when she’d entered toddlerhood and turned into a pint-sized She-Devil.
More fool him for being so blown away by her adult beauty that he’d failed to see behind the fun-loving façade to the fully grown She-Devil beneath the milky skin.
‘I would not be human if I hadn’t been concerned,’ he said blithely.
‘I think it’s debatable whether you and your brother are human at all.’
He spread his arms out and winked. ‘Oh, I am very human, bonita, as I am more than happy for you to discover for yourself.’
A tinge of colour slashed her pretty rounded cheeks. She scowled at him and pulled her bag even closer into her side. ‘Are we done yet? Have you finished with your fun?’
‘Finished? Bonita, my fun with you has only just begun.’
Indeed, this was already much more fun than he had envisaged. Chloe’s belligerent discomfort and outrage were things of beauty, acting like salve to his rabid anger.
‘Yes, well, my fun is over. I’m going.’
‘Going where?’ he asked as she stomped to the door, giving him an extremely wide berth as she moved.
‘Back to my villa.’
‘How?’
It was the way he said that one word that made Chloe pause and her heart accelerate even faster and the sick feeling in her stomach swirl harder.
It didn’t matter that Luis had found her, she kept telling herself. It had been inevitable that their paths would cross again one day. At least it was done with and she could stop worrying about it.
‘Have you been so enraptured by my presence that you failed to notice we’re no longer at port?’ he mocked.
She turned her head to look out of the window to her left. Then she turned it to the right.
Then she spun round to face the front, curses flying through her head.
The captain had set the Marietta to sail and she hadn’t even noticed.
‘Get this thing turned around right now!’ she demanded, eying him squarely.
He rubbed his chin. ‘No, I don’t think I will.’
‘The captain will turn it round.’ She took three quick paces to the door and pressed the green button beside it.
‘That won’t work,’ he commented idly. ‘The crew have been instructed to leave us alone until further notice.’
‘Take me back to port right now or I’m calling the police.’
He strode to the bar and laughed. It had a cruel, mocking tinge to it. ‘Why ruin this wonderful reunion with talk of the police?’
She could have easily stamped her feet. ‘Because you’re holding me here against my will.’
He turned his back on her to study the rows of spirits, liqueurs and mixers lined up on the bar. ‘Drink?’
‘What?’
‘I need a drink. Do you want one?’
‘I want you to take me back to port. This game has gone on long enough.’
‘This is no game, bonita.’
‘Stop calling me that.’
He looked at her and winked. ‘I remember when it made you blush.’
‘That was before I knew what kind of a man you really are, you unscrupulous jerk. And stop winking at me. If this isn’t a game, stop acting like it is.’
‘If I am acting like it’s a game, you conniving witch, it’s to stop myself from grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you until your teeth fall out.’ He flashed his perfectly white and perfectly straight teeth at her. ‘Or from taking the kiss you owe me.’
She sucked in a sharp breath.
His threat didn’t bother her because she instinctively knew Luis would never lay a finger on her in anger.
But the mention of the kiss she owed him...
Chloe
