a glass a red wine for her to take. The humour gleaming in those dark eyes told her he had overheard Cathy’s last comment—and Lia’s response to it.
She turned her gaze away, her hand shaking slightly as she took the wine glass from him.
‘So, what do the two of you have planned for the rest of the evening?’ Rick prompted politely—and immediately had to thump Cathy on the back as she began to choke on a mouthful of wine. ‘What did I say?’ Rick looked bewildered by his wife’s reaction.
‘Never mind, love,’ Cathy answered once she’d caught her breath. ‘Let’s just drink our wine and pick up a Chinese takeaway on the way home.’
‘Lia and I have already eaten, but we could always order in food for you to eat here?’ Gregorio suggested lightly. ‘Alternatively, we could all go out for a drink together somewhere the two of you could have some food?’
Lia slowly turned her head to look at him. Who was this man and what had he done with the cold and arrogant Gregorio de la Cruz? Because this man certainly wasn’t the ruthless businessman who swallowed up companies with the voracity of a shark. Or the playboy billionaire she’d read about in the newspapers who had a different blonde on his arm every week.
‘Okay, this is getting a little weird now.’
Lia stood up decisively. She might have been in shock since Cathy and Rick had arrived, but she was recovering fast. And the four of them spending the rest of the evening together wasn’t going to happen.
‘Cathy and Rick are far too polite to say so, but they don’t want to spend the evening with the two of us—’
‘Hey, don’t put words in my mouth,’ Cathy protested.
‘Because they are both totally freaked out right now,’ Lia continued determinedly. ‘I’m freaked out right now, so I know they have to be too.’ She frowned at Gregorio. ‘The two of us aren’t a couple and we aren’t going out for the evening with anyone—least of all my two best friends. What happened earlier...’ She gave Cathy and Rick a self-conscious glance. ‘Shouldn’t have happened.’
‘I believe you are the one embarrassing your friends.’ Now Gregorio looked every inch the coldly arrogant man Lia had met at her father’s funeral: his eyes were narrowed and no longer warm, but hard as the onyx they resembled, and his sculptured lips were thin and unsmiling.
‘Not at all.’ Cathy stood up. ‘It’s time the two of us were going anyway. Rick?’ she prompted sharply as her husband made no move to get up out of his chair.
‘What? Oh. Yes. Sorry.’ He rose abruptly to his feet, then seemed to realise he still had a glass in his hand and looked around for somewhere to put it.
‘Here.’ Cathy took the glass and placed it on the coffee table next to her own. ‘I’ll call you in the morning, okay?’ She gave Lia a hug. ‘Nice to meet you, Gregorio.’ She nodded. ‘Say goodnight, Rick,’ she instructed dryly. Her husband still looked slightly dazed by the speed of their departure.
‘Goodnight, Rick,’ he repeated as he was pulled down the hallway by his wife.
The apartment door closed quietly behind them seconds later.
Leaving an awkward silence.
A very cold and very uncomfortable silence that caused Lia to give a shiver as the chill seemed to seep into her bones.
‘Your rudeness was completely uncalled for,’ Gregorio snapped finally.
‘No.’ Lia’s chin rose as she faced him. ‘No, it really wasn’t. I don’t know what happened between the two of us earlier, but it isn’t going to happen again. I won’t let it happen again,’ she added firmly. She was totally unsettled by their earlier passion. ‘And we certainly aren’t ever going out for the evening with any of my friends, as if the two of us are together.’
Gregorio was having to exert great willpower so as not to lose his temper. He made a point of never losing his temper—no matter what the provocation. But he had not encountered anyone as stubborn as Lia before.
He had been disappointed when he’d realised Lia’s visitors had to be Cathy and Rick Morton, the couple he had seen her with at her father’s graveside two months ago. He knew, from the daily security reports he received, that Lia had lived with the other couple before moving into her apartment at the weekend.
Rather than remaining in Lia’s bedroom like a dirty little secret she was keeping hidden away, Gregorio had decided to dress and join them.
He had no experience of being in the company of a woman’s friends or family, but he had thought he was doing quite well. Being charming to Cathy. Talking football with her husband. Pouring them all wine. It had seemed perfectly logical to him, as the other couple were obviously close to Lia, to suggest they all spend the rest of the evening together.
Lia’s vehemently negative response to that suggestion had been immediate. And, to his surprise, her words had hurt.
He was close to his two brothers. Well...as close as he could be when he was based in London, Sebastien was in New York, and Alejandro was taking care of the estate and vineyards in Spain. He also had a large extended family, of which he was the recognised patriarch.
He had sex with the women who flitted in and out of his life, but he did not become involved with their family or their friends. He rarely even met any of their friends, let alone their family. He had been willing to make an exception with Lia, and he’d received a verbal and public slap in the face for his trouble.
He would not make the same mistake again.
‘What happened earlier is that you used me for sex,’ he bit out coldly, his accent more clipped in his anger. ‘No doubt any man would have sufficed. I am pleased I was able to give you one orgasm, at least, before we were interrupted.’
The colour had drained from her cheeks. ‘You bastard!’
Gregorio shrugged his shoulders. ‘You were the one at such pains to explain exactly what we have between us, I am merely agreeing with you. When you feel in the need for sex again perhaps you should give me a call? If I have the time I—No, I do not think so.’ Gregorio grasped hold of Lia’s wrist as her hand arced up towards his cheek. He used that grip to pull her up close against him. ‘I warned you the last time you did that I would not allow you to do it again without retaliating.’
Her top lip turned back in a sneer. ‘I should have known you were the type of man who would hit a woman!’
Gregorio’s jaw tightened. ‘Any man who strikes a woman, for whatever reason, no longer has the right to call himself a man. My retribution will be of quite a different kind, I assure you.’
Lia swallowed. Gregorio’s threat was all the more disturbing because he’d delivered it in such a calm and conversational tone. As if they were discussing the weather rather than his retribution.
‘Let go of me,’ she said evenly.
He quirked one dark brow. ‘Are you going to slap me again?’
‘No.’ That impulse had passed. Besides, she had never felt tempted to hit anyone before Gregorio.
‘Pity.’
