that had been burning in his mind all these years. She flinched, and his gaze clung to hers, fear of her answer making him as tense as a string on a harp.
‘Of course I didn’t! I’m sorry if you thought that, but there was no one else…there still is no one else.’
Exhaling a long, relieved breath, he was still infuriated by her apparent calmness when inside everything in him was churning as turbulently as the Atlantic in a squall.
‘And what about you?’ she ventured tentatively. ‘Did you get back with your ex?’
‘My ex?’
For disturbing seconds Pascual recalled something that had happened the night before Briana had left. The Brazilian model he had briefly dated before he had met her had unexpectedly turned up at the family party, on the arm of his cousin Rafa. His mother, being the perfect hostess, had not turned her away. During the evening Claudia had drunk a little too much cachaca, and when Briana had been out on the terrace talking to Marisa and Diego she had pulled a stupid stunt on him. She’d circled his neck with her arms, pressed her body hard against his and kissed him full on the mouth…
Pascual’s blood ran briefly cold as he remembered the incident with renewed distaste and anger. He wasn’t remotely interested in taking up with Claudia again…either then or now. It was Briana he had loved. But clearly she had not loved him. Why else had it been so easy for her to walk away? The idea pierced his very soul. No man liked to think the loving relationship he believed to be real was based on a lie. A lie that meant his sweetheart did not feel as strongly for him, her lover, as she had insisted she had. Renewed hurt and fury coursed through his bloodstream that the woman in front of him had treated him so abominably.
Raising her bewitching gaze to his, she attempted a smile of sorts. She wasn’t quite successful, and he saw the worry and concern reflected clearly in her eyes. Good. He was glad he had unsettled her. God knows, she had unsettled him!
‘When she showed up at that party…I just thought that you and she—’
‘Well, you were wrong. She was dating my cousin and he brought her with him. End of story!’
‘Well, then…I’d better just leave you to have your coffee,’ she remarked. ‘Your hosts are waiting for you in the drawing room downstairs. Shall I tell them you’ll be ready in about twenty minutes or so? I can meet you in the lobby and take you to them.’
‘I will be ready when I am ready, and not before!’ Pascual snapped, turning his back on her and moving towards the tray of coffee.
Choosing to remain silent for a few moments, he poured some of the hot aromatic beverage into the porcelain cup and took a sip. Definitely particular about the type of coffee he drank, he found he could not fault whoever had chosen this particular blend on his behalf.
Facing Briana again, he observed the slight pink flush across her cheekbones. ‘You are here the entire weekend?’ he asked, knowing this conversation they had started had only just begun.
‘Yes…my job dictates it.’
‘And how long have you been working for this company that provides “hospitality services”?’
‘About three years. It’s my own company.’
‘So you are a businesswoman now? You have managed to surprise me again!’
Unable to keep the cynicism from his voice, Pascual was actually genuinely taken aback by the revelation. The Briana he had known had never given any indication of being remotely interested in starting up her own business. Back then she had vowed she was only happy working with children and animals. On her arrival in Buenos Aires she had found work as a professional dog-walker, then as a children’s nanny. But he had learned to his cost that she had not been entirely frank with him about many things, and her dishonesty still cut him to the quick.
‘I’ll leave you to enjoy your coffee in peace and go and wait downstairs.’
Moving towards the door, Briana could not disguise her eagerness to get away, and it incensed Pascual that she should want to effect distance between them again.
‘Before you run away I want you to tell me something of these businessmen I am meeting with. No doubt you have some information that might be useful?’ Staring at her pointedly, he knew a sudden desire to test her out and see if she was at all competent at the business she had chosen for herself. If he himself had been in this line of work the first thing he would want to know was about the kind of people who were employing his services.
‘What do you want to know?’ she asked, clearly discomfited that she could not escape as easily as that.
‘I want to know the things they have not revealed in their bid to buy my horses. You know the kind of information I am getting at? It is important that my ponies go to the very best homes. As I am sure you are aware, I do not make these transactions just for money.’
‘All their credentials are first class, but if you want to ask me about specifics fire away. I can assure you that I’ve done my homework in that regard.’
‘Really? But you clearly did not know that it was me that was the VIP guest this weekend, did you? Is that not somewhat remiss of you?’
A scarlet brand seared even hotter colour into her cheeks. ‘It wasn’t a mistake I would ever make normally, I can assure you! It’s just that I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and I—’
‘Your personal concerns should never impinge on your ability to do your job well.’
‘In a perfect world that might be so, but in case you hadn’t noticed this world isn’t perfect, and from time to time people do have worries that cannot help but disturb them.’
‘What kind of worries do you have nowadays, Briana?’ Pascual shot back, no small amount of bitterness edging his tone. ‘I thought you must be perfectly happy and content. After all…you escaped from a man and a marriage you clearly did not want, did you not? I imagined that you must have got exactly what you wanted when you walked out on me.’
‘Can we not do this? It’s painful enough that we should meet up again like this without us sniping at each other. We’re both here for more important reasons than what’s between us personally. I know we need to talk, but this is hardly the right time.’
Wanting to, but hardly able to refute her argument right then, Pascual took another sip of his coffee, then placed the cup and saucer back on the tray. ‘Give me five minutes and then I will meet you downstairs,’ he responded tersely. ‘No doubt we will indeed have an opportunity to discuss our personal issues over the weekend. If it looks like we will not—then we will have to make sure we create an opportunity. I can assure you of one thing: you are not leaving this establishment until I hear the full account of why you ran away from our marriage. And even then I will not let you go until I am satisfied that you have told me the truth!’
After her encounter with Pascual, Briana was still inwardly shaking as she attempted to chat to Tina in the lobby, and she knew her colleague saw that she was unusually distracted. Priding herself on her ability to remain unflappable in most situations—especially when it came to her work—she feared she was going to have to dig deep for resources she wasn’t even sure she had to get her through the rest of this weekend.
When Pascual descended
