CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER TWO
J UAN R AMON F ERNANDEZ clenched every muscle and made himself remain still. Not because he’d recoil but rather he was on the verge of pulling her against him and sealing the deal with an incendiary kiss!
But he did not want a wife. He would never want a wife. Yet the unpalatable truth hitting him hard was that he might very well need one. Soon. That was surely the only reason why he was almost overcome by the most inexplicable urge to grate out an expletive-laden acceptance of this fiery woman’s scathing proposal. Why he’d haul her into his arms before she could change her mind. Why he had the impulse to carry her off to the nearest altar this instant—impossibly happy to! Because then he’d take her to bed.
Fortunately Elodie Wallace’s very direct, very condemning blue gaze nailed him to the spot as that roar of possession swept through him.
Possession?
He’d been possessed. Momentarily gone mad. Blinking, he spun and stalked to the gleaming glass counter in the corner behind his desk.
‘Would you like a drink?’ he asked unevenly.
He’d pour hers and swig directly from the bottle if it wouldn’t betray his loss of composure. And he was damn well clinging to that facade with a death grip.
‘I’m not leaving until you agree to release Ashleigh from this sham engagement.’
He splashed four fingers of whisky into a crystal tumbler before glancing back at the flame-haired fury standing in the centre of his study. She had guts, he’d give her that. Bold as anything and beautiful with it. A little thing with a big impact. The chandelier must have been dusted recently, or perhaps Piotr had changed the bulbs because the light illuminated her so intensely it was like she gleamed from the inside out. And when she shook her head at him, all fury and scorn, her mass of red hair glittered like a waterfall of fire across her shoulders. He couldn’t look away from her if he tried. Which was a further loss of control he didn’t appreciate.
Oh, who was he kidding? He fully appreciated looking at her. A human form tempest crossed with a Siren and right now he relished the distraction she was—mitigating the rage rising within. The fact was he had no power to release her sister from an engagement he was no part of. It was another arm of his family at fault. His aunt . Apparently not content with the company money she received, she was willing to use her own son to steal the most priceless jewel in the family treasure chest.
‘I mean it,’ Elodie-the-Beautiful declared defiantly, her hair catching the light as she tossed her head again.
Amusement rippled through him. Amusement that he didn’t ordinarily indulge in. Amusement dangerously intertwined with lust and as inappropriate as hell given the situation. He sipped his drink—another thing he didn’t ordinarily indulge in—hoping it would settle the other urges still rippling through him, but the burn wasn’t enough to clear his head. He took another, deeper draw. Then he gave in and accepted that this was no ordinary day and he was going to have to do something drastic to resolve this.
‘Piotr!’ Ramon called loudly. ‘Change of plan for this evening,’ he said brusquely the second his assistant appeared, but he kept his gaze on Elodie. ‘I’m staying in. Please send my apologies, prepare dinner for two and ensure the guest suite is ready.’
That amusement tightened as he watched her jaw slacken and then in a flash her entire body stiffened with fury again.
‘The guest suite?’ Her query dripped with iced loathing.
‘Well, I thought it might be a little soon for my room but I don’t mind having you there tonight if that’s what you’d prefer,’ he purred.
He shouldn’t have said it. Couldn’t resist. Blamed the drink and set it down.
She stared open-mouthed at him. ‘You’re...’
Yeah. He had no words either right now. He could only inwardly curse.
Ramon would be the first to acknowledge that his regimented life could sometimes be boring, but his narrow focus was utterly deliberate. Greed—hunger for excess in all forms—was the family curse. His father had allowed his appetites to spiral out of control regardless of the cost to his family. Ramon had an equally rampant appetite, but he’d chosen to channel it into work. He’d relished the challenge of turning the family conglomerate he inherited too soon from overly stretched to stratospherically successful. Relationships were out. Never was he getting married. His father’s rapacious genes ran through him, and he wasn’t destroying any woman the way his father had destroyed his mother.
So the time Ramon offered a partner was limited. Anything long-term a definite no-go. And women didn’t like coming second to work, didn’t like that he travelled so much and never invited them along—so it was easy enough to keep emotional complication at bay. Nowadays on the rare occasions it got the better of him he slaked sexual hunger with a one-night stand. Maybe it had been a while. Maybe that was why when the doorbell had rung and he’d glanced at the security feed from the front door, he’d been intrigued by the bold woman staring straight into the camera. When she’d outlandishly claimed to be his fiancée’s sister, he’d simply had to indulge the ridiculous urge to let her in. He’d been unable to resist hearing what she’d wanted to say. Turned out to be quite a lot. By admitting little and encouraging her ire, he’d grasped what was really going on.
Her sister. His cousin. His aunt making a monstrous mistake.
So yeah, he was far from bored now as he watched Elodie’s lusciously full lips press together, part, then press together again.
Still no words. Right.
A wash of colour betrayed her despite the immaculate make-up and to his horror he felt an answering wash of heat suffuse his own face. Again. He’d never heard of Elodie Wallace before now but he wished he had. Wished he’d been warned that when entering her orbit he’d have an intensely sexual reaction. Her eyes were a far more vibrant blue than his and right now they were very alert. Her slick make-up didn’t entirely mask the freckles over her face but it was expertly done—her long lashes were enhanced, her lips shiny—while her slender figure was showcased to perfection with that stunning outfit. In theory her black pants suit would be appropriate for any occasion but the beaded bustier she wore beneath the blazer gave him a glimpse of her breasts almost spilling from the top and was sexy as hell. Dominatrix-lite. All she was missing was a riding crop. She was here to demand what she wanted and she wasn’t leaving until she got it.
‘You can marry me!’
Her outrageous suggestion hung in the air above him like a Shakespearean dagger. A dramatic temptation that a devil within still urged him to accept because it would so neatly solve the situation that he hadn’t anticipated would come to a head so soon.
‘You just said you weren’t leaving until Ashleigh’s freedom is secured.’ He mastered the mess of emotions engulfing him and broke the scalding silence with as mild an expression as he could muster. ‘I need time to consider my options. You may stay while I do that or you can leave.’
Ungallant as his deception was, he had to find out as much as he could from her and he could never confide to anyone—let alone a complete stranger—that his own family had their knives out and had caught him off guard.
‘But if you do choose to leave,’ he added, ‘then the plan currently in place will likely continue.’
‘You need time ?’ she echoed incredulously. ‘It should take a man like you less than two seconds to realise dragging a teenager to the altar is a more than bad idea,’ she snapped. ‘Yet apparently, you’re incapable of rational thought on this.’
She was right and she expected him to back down. She was used to getting what she wanted. Her confident diva aura was total demonstration of the fact. Curiosity devoured his brain—all he could think about was all the things he wanted to learn about her . Mostly inappropriate things. He gritted his teeth and summoned some self-control.
‘Your kind offer of accommodation isn’t really a choice for me, is it?’ She stepped closer until she stood toe to toe with him. ‘Does it make you feel good to exert control over someone?’ she asked, her voice husky and low as she glared up at him irately. ‘Is that what gets you going?’
He could only stand and stare at her. Couldn’t let himself so much as breathe. Because she was what got him going in this instant and another acerbic challenge like that would have him slip the leash.
‘Is that why you want a young bride?’ she challenged further, oblivious to the storm brewing within him. ‘Do you think you can mould her into your ideal wife?’
He didn’t want to control her. He wanted to be consumed in her fire. He was so tempted to take her in his hands and tease her more. Instead he dragged in a steadying breath and harshly demanded information .
‘Why wouldn’t Ashleigh have dared mentioned you?’
Her eyes widened.
When he’d got this inappropriately close earlier, her haughty facade had fallen and he’d seen an uncontrollable response flash—not fear but a flare of attraction that mirrored his in every way. Instant, unwanted, intense. A weakness. He saw it again now and would exploit it. Because when she was emotional she exploded and truth emerged. He had to use those tactics because he didn’t trust her. Nothing personal. He didn’t trust anyone, not when he came from a family gored by infighting. Not when his own father had been a master of betrayal. Not when he’d been forced to be complicit in his old man’s deceit.
He’d thought the worst of all that was in the past. Thought he’d made enough amends on behalf of his gluttonous father. Apparently not. He knew his aunt Cristina had suffered as a spoiled but ignored second child, as a young woman taken advantage of by a man who’d consumed everything he could from everyone he encountered. But that she would consider doing this?
He’d thought her interest in a hotel investment in the South of England was little more than a vanity project for her son. He’d missed the off-paper condition—a wedding.
That told him this wasn’t about Elodie’s family’s barely-breaking-even hotel. This was about his family’s private island. The sanctuary his mother had retreated to in her despair and which had returned to the family trust since her death. The trust decreed that lifelong occupancy rights were granted to the most senior male of the family as long as he were married . While Ramon was the most senior male, he was single. If the next in line— Cristina’s son —were to marry, then he could claim occupancy—and development—rights. Ramon couldn’t allow that to happen because Cristina would use her son to destroy everything Ramon’s mother had built there.
Ramon could mount a legal challenge to amend the trust. Should’ve done that already, but since his mother’s death he’d buried himself even more in work and somehow three years had passed. But Ramon would protect his mother’s legacy by whatever means necessary—especially now he knew he no longer had the time for a protracted legal battle.
So he did need to know everything about the fire-breathing beauty before him. No way would his aunt allow a woman like Elodie Wallace to enter the family—which meant Cristina didn’t know about her and that could play very well into his hands. Perhaps he was the one who’d take revenge this time. Maybe he’d finally make his aunt pay for the cruelty she’d shown his mother in her grief.
‘Elodie?’ He caved in to temptation and gently cupped her face. ‘Are you persona non grata?’
She trembled slightly at his touch but she didn’t pull back. The hint of hurt crossed with courage in her eyes made his chest tighten.
Yes, he could save time, money and stress by getting married himself. The trust didn’t specify that he had to stay married or for how long he even had to be married. Because in his hypocritical family, the concept of divorce supposedly didn’t exist. But it would for him because there was no way in hell that he would ever marry for real. All he had to do was get married for long enough to invoke the occupancy rights. Maybe he would call Ms Elodie Wallace’s bluff. Right now he wanted to do that more than anything.
‘What did you do ?’ He provoked with a silkily patronising tone, pleased to see the instant flare in her eyes. ‘What’s really so dangerous about a little thing like you?’
‘I lied.’ She glared, finally goaded. ‘I cheated. I abandoned my responsibilities.’
There was a ring of truth in her flash that he couldn’t ignore.
‘That bad, huh?’ He tried to keep his tone light but his anger flared because he knew too well how those things damaged people. His father had lied, cheated. His mother had abandoned her responsibilities. And this woman was apparently every bit as fickle as she was beautiful and right now that pissed him off more than anything.
‘Worse.’ She was ferociously defiant.
‘Yet here you are sweeping in to save your sister from a fate worse than death,’ he snarled, because she was a contrary mix of shameless and protective.
‘Because she’s innocent.’
And Elodie wasn’t. Bitterness burned. He could never, ever trust her. Which meant she presented one problem while being the solution to another in the one stunning package. He moved closer still, needing not just to see her reaction, but to feel it. He put his hand on her waist. A tremor instantly wracked her beautiful body, but she kept her head high, captivating him with her stormy gaze despite him being the one holding her. His smile was both twisted and unbidden. Without a doubt they would end up in bed together and he knew to his bones it would be mind-blowing. But that time was not now.
‘Well, thank you for your honesty,’ he muttered. ‘It seems an appropriate time to admit that I haven’t been completely forthcoming with you.’
And he still wasn’t going to be entirely honest because some family secrets he could never tell. It didn’t matter, she’d just admitted her prior deceit so she’d hardly care.
‘ I’m not the man intending to marry your sister,’ he finally said softly. ‘My cousin is.’