the two women had arranged to meet for lunch. ‘Met any gorgeous unmarried billionaires yet?’ she teased as she made herself more comfortable by shrugging off her jacket.
Oh, yes, Lia had met an unmarried billionaire. But Gregorio de la Cruz’s looks were compelling rather than pretty-boy gorgeous.
But he was a manipulator. He was having her followed. He had arranged for her to be employed at his hotel. He had literally taken away all her options. Until he owned her body and soul.
Body and soul?
Lia would be lying to herself if she didn’t acknowledge her physical reaction to Gregorio. She only had to glance at him to be totally aware of him. Only had to look into those dark and compelling eyes to feel her body heating from the inside out.
Much as she might wish it wasn’t true, she was physically attracted to Gregorio de la Cruz.
‘Never mind,’ Cathy sympathised, obviously misunderstanding the reason for Lia’s silence. ‘It was only your first morning, after all.’
For some reason, when the two women had spoken on the phone yesterday Lia hadn’t told Cathy about Gregorio’s visit to her apartment the evening before. Usually she told Cathy everything—had done since the two of them were at school together—but when it came to the subject of Gregorio, Lia didn’t know quite what to say.
Maybe because yesterday she had still been a little uncertain in her conjecture as to the reason for Gregorio’s visit the evening before—had still been wondering if perhaps she wasn’t imagining things...desires...that simply hadn’t been there.
On Saturday he had said he wanted to talk to her—which he hadn’t. He had told her he would feed her dinner—which he had. And he had almost kissed her. He would have kissed her if Lia had allowed it.
His appearance at the hotel this morning—the hotel he owned—left her in no doubt that for reasons of his own Gregorio was weaving a spider’s web about her. One made out of expensive dinners and the job she desperately needed, but still a spider’s web.
Was he only doing these things because he wanted her?
Because he knew he couldn’t have her any other way?
Lia found it hard to believe it was because Gregorio desired her. She had been complimented on the way she looked since men had first begun to take notice of her in her mid-teens. But she didn’t fool herself into believing Gregorio was so bedazzled by her he would go to any lengths to have her. He only had to snap his fingers to have any woman he wanted, when he wanted her, so why bother even trying with a woman he knew had every reason to continue resisting him?
Maybe, despite his denials, he did feel some guilt in regard to her father’s death?
‘You okay, Lia?’
‘Fine.’ She determinedly shook herself out of her mood of despondency as she picked up the menu. ‘Let’s order, shall we?’
Until she knew what Gregorio was up to she had no intention of telling Cathy she had even seen him again, let alone that he was now pursuing her.
Relentlessly.
* * *
‘Can I offer you a lift home?’
‘No, thank you.’
Lia didn’t need to look at the driver of the dark sports car driving slowly beside the pavement she was walking along to know it was Gregorio. Illegally kerb-crawling, of course—but then he seemed to be as cavalier towards the law as he was to everything else.
‘You would prefer to take public transport rather than be driven home in the comfort of my car?’
‘I would prefer to crawl home on my hands and knees than accept a lift from you!’
‘You are being childish.’
‘I am being the independent woman I now am—despite your efforts to make me otherwise!’ Lia’s hands clenched as she turned to glare through the open passenger window at Gregorio.
She had half expected to see him at the hotel again when she’d returned from lunch, and had breathed a sigh of relief when the afternoon had passed by without any more unwelcome interruptions from him.
She should have known he wouldn’t give up that easily.
The car came to a stop and she stepped forward to bend down and talk to him directly through the open window. ‘I realise you’re a man accustomed to taking what he wants, and to hell with anyone else’s feelings, but let me assure you I can’t be bought or seduced into your bed with a few expensive dinners and a job—What are you doing?’ she gasped as Gregorio turned off the car’s engine before opening his door and climbing out of the low-slung vehicle.
His expression was dark and thunderous as he strode round the back of the car towards her. Lia instinctively took a step back.
He was dressed less formally than Lia had ever seen him before, in a black polo shirt open at the throat and worn beneath a soft black leather jacket, with jeans resting low down on his hips. The former emphasised the broadness of his shoulders and toned chest and abs, and the latter added to that rugged attraction. Gregorio looked breathtaking in a formal suit, but in casual clothes he was even more dark and dangerous.
Gregorio took a tight grasp of her arm as he opened the passenger door of the car. ‘Get in,’ he bit out between gritted teeth.
‘I—’
‘Get in the damned car, Lia, before I pick you up and put you there.’ His voice was low and controlled. As if he might start shouting if he allowed himself to speak any louder.
It made Lia even more reluctant to put herself in the vulnerable position of being alone in his car with him. At least out here in the street she had somewhere to run.
She raised her chin challengingly. ‘I believe you are stepping way over my line now.’ She reminded him of their conversation on Saturday.
Those black eyes glittered dangerously. ‘You just made an outrageous accusation. One I do not intend to dignify with an answer when we are standing out here in the street, where anyone might overhear our conversation.’
Her cheeks warmed. ‘You made the purpose of your interest in me obvious on Saturday evening. Or am I wrong in thinking you want me in your bed?’
A nerve pulsed in his clenched jaw. ‘No, you are not wrong.’
She nodded. ‘Which is why, after discovering you’re now my employer, I have come to the conclusion I have.’
Gregorio never lost control. Never. He considered it a weakness to do so. And weakness could be exploited...manipulated.
Nevertheless, he knew he was seriously in danger of losing control at this moment. No one had ever accused him of the things Lia just had. No one would ever dare. No matter what she believed, he had no reason to manipulate her into an intimate relationship with him.
Not when he knew she felt the same desire for him that he felt for her...
Even if it was a desire she obviously
