Kitabı oku: «One Night Of Consequences Collection», sayfa 49

CHAPTER FIVE

NIC was innocence personified. ‘Why would it be a joke?’

Maddie was vibrating with tension now. ‘You serve me a Vasquez wine—why? Are you expecting me not to recognise it? Is this a test?’

Maddie put down her napkin and stood up, a little bewildered at how emotional she was feeling, afraid that it was coming partly from that memory just moments ago.

Nic’s hand snaked out and caught her wrist. ‘Sit down. Please.’ When she just looked at him and tried to pull her wrist out of his grip he smiled ruefully. ‘I’ll admit that I was curious as to whether or not you would know the wine.’

Maddie pulled her wrist free finally but didn’t sit down. She looked down at Nic with her most haughty expression. ‘Of course I recognise the wine. I grew up watching those very grapes ripen every year.’

Passion made her voice low and fervent. Maddie sat down abruptly—conflicted about how she was feeling. So Nic had served her a Vasquez wine? What was the big deal?

As if reading her mind, he frowned at her now. ‘I didn’t mean to anger you.’

‘No,’ snapped Maddie. ‘You were just testing me, to see if I really know my stuff or if I slept my way to getting my degree, is that it?’

Now Nic flushed dark red. ‘I don’t believe you manipulated your results.’

To Maddie’s chagrin, hot tears burnt the back of her eyes and she blinked furiously, only vaguely satisfied when she saw Nic’s horrorstruck face. She knew the emotion was coming from a complex mix of bittersweet grief for her father and the overwhelming pressure she was under—not to mention the passion Nic was able to evoke in her so effortlessly.

Exerting a valiant effort to bring herself under control, Maddie picked up the glass again and took a sip. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the liquid rest in her mouth before slipping down her throat like smooth silk. She opened her eyes again and narrowed a fiery green gaze on Nic. ‘If I’m not mistaken this is from the ninety-nine vintage. It won us the Prix de Vin for the best white in New World Wines that year.’

Nic inclined his head, his eyes focused on hers with unnerving intensity. ‘You’re right. My father bought a case of every vintage of Vasquez wines to analyse them. Exactly as your father did with our wines, I’m sure.’

Maddie nodded, and could feel some equilibrium returning. She looked away for a moment, and then back. ‘I’m sorry … it just caught me unawares. That particular wine was always a favourite of mine.’ Her voice was husky. ‘It reminds me of home. Here.’ Maddie’s fingers pleated the napkin on the table. ‘It always made me so homesick whenever I smelt it abroad. People used to order it in the restaurant where I worked, and I would pretend not to know that I should open it at the table just so I could open it first and smell it without anyone watching.’

She looked at Nic, and down again quickly when she saw that gaze, no less intense.

‘It used to amaze me to think of this bottle coming all the way from our estate. It made me wonder about the year—had the seasons been kind to the grape? I could always tell just from the smell if it had been good or bad. I can’t believe I never got fired for making such a faux pas, but the customers always seemed to forgive me.’

Nic watched as candlelight played over Maddie’s pale skin, casting her features into mysterious shadows. Her cheekbones stood out. Her lips looked ripe and full. The grey silk of her top lay against her collarbone like the most decadent covering, and the swell of her breasts pushed enticingly against the slippery fabric. He could well imagine the customers forgiving her anything.

He’d never seen anything so sensuous as the way she was cradling her glass. He was transfixed by her natural beauty and her innate earthy sexiness, and all of a sudden he felt as if he was hurtling back in time and out of his depth. The terrain he’d been so sure of was shifting. She was articulating exactly how he felt about the wines he cultivated—each year the vintage did have a certain personality, a complexity.

Maddie was about to take another sip when she looked up to see Nic’s mesmerised expression. She halted the glass before it got to her mouth. ‘What is it?’

He shook his head and colour flared along his cheekbones, making Maddie feel off balance.

‘Nothing. I shouldn’t have tested you like that.’ His mouth quirked in a wry smile. ‘You seem to bring out the worst in me.’

Maddie had to fight down a burgeoning sense of lightness. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

He lifted his glass to hers. ‘Salud,’ he said, and then took a deep sip.

The sheer masculinity of his movements while doing something that was inherently delicate made Maddie’s toes curl. He was such a man.

Much to her relief, their starter was served and eaten largely in silence, with Maddie berating herself for having come over all hysterical just because Nic had fancied giving her some sort of test. And for waxing lyrical about feeling homseick. As if Nic was at all interested in what she thought.

When the main course was served she focused on the meat with single-minded determination, savouring every succulent morsel.

Much to her surprise, they managed to conduct a civil conversation about neutral topics, and when Nic handed her a glass of red Maddie took it without a conscious awareness of how comfortable she’d become.

He said, ‘Try this. It’s a new blend I’m working on, and this is the first run of wine. I’m not marketing it yet.’

Maddie put down her fork. ‘Are you sure you want to be sharing secrets with the enemy?’

Nic’s mouth quirked. ‘After seeing your vineyard I know I’m in no imminent danger.’

Maddie flushed at being reminded of the painful reality. She raised the glass to her mouth and forced herself to hold Nic’s gaze, refusing to be the first to look away. But in the end she had to, because as she savoured the wine she closed her eyes instinctively to try and figure out the various components.

She opened them again and saw Nic watching her. It set a slow fire burning deep inside. Slowly she said, ‘Well, it’s a classic Malbec … but not like anything I’ve tasted before—it’s got a strain of something else.’

Nic inclined his head. ‘Very impressive.’

Maddie had to admit grudgingly, ‘I like it. It’s not as straightforward as the usual Malbecs—it’s got more complexity … a dark side … Pinot?’

Nic smiled. ‘I can see how you got your First.’

Maddie felt a ridiculous rush of pleasure go through her just as the attentive staff member came in and took their plates away.

Nic stood up and indicated for Maddie to precede him out of the open French doors to the patio outside. Her belly clenched for a moment—this was where he’d kissed her the other night. Then she saw that a smaller table for two had been set there, with more candles flickering in the breeze.

She almost wanted to back away and insist on leaving. But she was loath to give Nic the satisfaction of knowing that he was getting to her. She moved forward and sat down in the chair that Nic pulled out. Presently the waiter came back and served them both small dishes that held exqusite-looking lemon tart desserts. Nic opened a bottle of dessert wine and poured some for Maddie. Her mouth was already watering at the thought of the tart lemon soothed by the sweet wine.

Feeling churlish at how easily he was entrancing her, she said, ‘You really don’t have to do this, you know. It’s not working.’

Nic smiled urbanely. ‘What’s not working? You’ve proved your point, Maddie. You’re happier to live in squalor than to come running to me for home comforts. Clearly I underestimated your ability to put up with discomfort.’

Maddie’s appetite disappeared and she said tightly, ‘You underestimate a lot more than that, Nic. You don’t know one thing about what happened when I left here. You seem to have this halcyon fantasy that I went to Europe and spent my time skiing and partying.’

Carefully he said, ‘Why don’t you tell me what you did?’

Maddie wanted to refuse, to tell him it was none of his business, but she had a desire to make him understand that she was made of sterner stuff, that she wouldn’t just turn around and give up. And also a dangerous desire to see him regard her with something besides mockery or disbelief in his eyes …

‘When my mother and I left here we left with nothing. My father threw us out and turned his back on us completely.’ Her mouth tightened. ‘We spent three years in Buenos Aires living with my aunt, who eventually threw us out. In the meantime Mother had been divorced and found herself a rich suitor. She gave me a one-way ticket to London to get me out of her hair.’

Maddie didn’t want to elaborate and tell him that her mother had blamed Maddie for being left with nothing in the divorce. Her gaze remained resolutely forward, out into the darkness that encompassed his vast estate.

‘I got to London and found work in a restaurant by night, and as a hotel chambermaid by day. The night you saw me in that club was pure chance. I’d never been in it before, or since then.’ Maddie blushed when she thought of the picture she’d presented in the revealing dress. She rushed on. ‘When I’d made enough money I moved to France and looked for work picking grapes for the summer. I ended up at the vineyard in Bordeaux, where Pierre Vacheron took me in.’

Maddie sent Nic a quick defensive look. ‘He found out where I came from, that I had some knowledge of wine, and decided to give me one of the scholarships. I’d most likely still be there if my father hadn’t written and asked me to come home. Pierre offered me a full-time job.’

Nic’s face was expressionless. ‘That magazine article painted a very different picture.’

Considering that since she had divulged so much already she might as well tell him the whole truth, Maddie laid out the bones of the painful reality of her relationship with her flighty and self-absorbed mother. The humiliation of the whole episode was vivid again.

When she’d finished she put down her dessert wine glass and stood up. The full enormity of her naivety was hitting her—to allow herself to think for a second that Nic de Rojas was as urbane and charming as he appeared this evening. With any other woman, yes. With her, no. He was just trying to unbalance her, and she was letting him.

‘I want you to realise that I won’t be easily dissuaded, or seduced by the trappings of wealth.’

Driven by the wave of ambiguous anger he was feeling, Nic said, ‘Don’t underestimate my determination to succeed in this matter, Maddie. I’ve proved how determined I can be over and over again.’

Maddie fought not to let Nic see how he was affecting her. ‘So we’re back where we started?’

Nic’s gaze grew hot and moved to her mouth. Maddie moved back, putting up a hand as if to ward him off. ‘No …’

He reached for her easily and pulled her into him. ‘Yes. This is where we started—and where we’ve yet to finish.’

And he bent his head and took her mouth in a kiss so incendiary and devastating that Maddie had no defence. Especially not after laying herself bare like that. Her hands clung onto his powerful biceps, her whole body arched into his—he was bending her back further and further with the sheer force of his kiss.

Lips ground into teeth which clashed and nipped at soft skin. Maddie tasted blood at one point and didn’t know if it was hers or his. Their tongues duelled madly, in a hot swirl. She only wanted this. She would have given everything up in that moment to prolong it.

And then abruptly Nic put her away from him with both hands. ‘Get out of here, Maddie.’

Maddie looked up, shocked, hurt and bewildered. Her chest was aching with the effort to draw breath. She saw the blood on his lip. She’d bitten him.

A need to claw back some control forced her to say shakily, ‘With pleasure. I won’t whore myself to you for my vineyard, Nic—the sooner you realise that the better.’

Nic stood in a haze of sexually frustrated agony for long moments. On one level he couldn’t fathom how he’d just let Maddie go, but then he remembered the way she’d kissed him back, biting his lip in her ardour. And that—hot on the heels of her further revelations about her life these past few years—had made him feel unaccountably vulnerable.

He’d assumed Maddie and her mother had been given plenty of money. He’d had no idea that her father had turfed them out with no support, or that her mother had all but turned her back on her too. That she’d had to take two menial jobs just to survive.

Nic went over to the wooden perimeter on the decking which wrapped around this side of the house. His hands curled around it tightly and he took a deep breath, still struggling for control. Kissing Maddie just now had reminded him too vividly of losing himself to her seductive wiles before.

She’d spent a week reeling him in, making him trust her with pathetic ease. Only to reveal in the end how she’d really felt about seducing him. It had made her physically ill. He’d watched the way she’d retched and coughed after he’d touched her. Nic’s stomach clenched hard. She must have been very bored indeed to have pushed the limits of what she could endure for the sake of doing something exciting and illicit.

Something very private and vulnerable in him had been destroyed that day. He’d become hardened. Impenetrable. No woman since then had managed to crack his protective veneer, or challenge his cynicism. But the way Maddie had kissed him just now, and the way she’d kissed him the other night—as artlessly and yet as devastatingly as he remembered—was a threat for which he hadn’t been prepared.

He’d thought he could handle kissing her, but tasting her again was dangerous—he felt himself slipping and sliding away from everything that held him rooted to reality and sanity.

Nic had developed a mild aversion to being touched after his mother’s nervous and overprotective constant fussing, which had been in stark contrast to his father’s habitual rages, when he’d used his fists freely. But when Maddie touched him, he couldn’t get enough. It galled him now that he found every woman’s touch invariably cloying or too possessive, but not hers. It made him very nervous to acknowledge that … which was why he’d pushed her back.

Something inside Nic hardened. He would have her—but on his terms. He would force her to be honest with him and herself. There would be no drama, regrets or recriminations this time. Only satisfaction and closure.

A couple of days later Maddie was sitting in her father’s study and looking at another invitation. It was addressed to her father, and it was for the Annual South American Vintners’ Gala Ball in two days’ time. It was in a different city each year, and this year, as luck would have it, it was to be in Buenos Aires. So near—but so far.

Maddie sighed. Something like this was just what she needed—a chance to meet people who only remembered Vasquez as a successful estate. It was the perfect place to look for investors. But she had no hope of flying to Buenos Aires where the ball was being held. She had no money for the flight, and anyway there was a national airline strike.

Just then the phone rang, and Maddie picked it up. She flushed all over when she heard an all-too-familiar deep voice on the other end. Then she felt cold when she remembered the way he’d aborted their kiss and pushed her from him the other night. She hated Nic de Rojas for exposing her weakness and desire like that. For rejecting her.

‘Yes?’ Her voice was as cold as she felt.

‘Did you get your invitation?’

Maddie couldn’t help her stubborn streak from rising up. ‘What invitation?’

‘You’re such a terrible liar, Vasquez. I know you’re probably looking at it right now and figuring out how to get there so you can sucker some poor investor into taking on your dead-end estate.’

Maddie made a face at the phone, and then said airily, ‘Oh, you mean that invitation? Yes, I have it … why?’

‘Are you going?’

Something in his voice made Maddie’s hackles rise. ‘Of course I’m going. Why wouldn’t I?’

‘No need to sound so defensive, Maddie—I was asking because I’m taking a private jet and was going to offer you a lift.’

Maddie’s jaw dropped, but she quickly recovered. After the other night she wouldn’t accept anything from this man. ‘No, thank you.’ She injected saccharine-sweetness into her voice. ‘I’ve got alternative arrangements made. I’ll see you there.’

She barely heard him mutter something about ‘stubborn woman’ before she cut him off. Maddie’s heart was thumping. She’d have to go now. She couldn’t afford to show Nicolás any weakness.

By the time Maddie arrived in Buenos Aires, sticky and hot, almost two days later, she ached all over. She’d taken a ridiculously long bus journey from Mendoza, and every bump in the road seemed to be engraved on her nerves.

Maddie hauled her bag behind her and joined the masses of people all making their way to various destinations. Hers was the cheapest hotel she’d been able to find close to the Grand Palace Buenos Aires hotel, where the gala was due to take place that evening.

When she finally found her room and looked at herself in the mirror, she realised that she had a mountain of work to do to make herself look every inch the successful vintner she wanted to portray herself as being.

Nic didn’t like the sense of anticipation firing up his blood. This fizzing expectancy. He was used to being in control at all times, and right now he felt off-kilter. He realised that it was because he didn’t know where she was. He’d almost gone to her home and forced her to come with him on his plane, but a sensation of lingering rawness after the other night had stopped him.

And how the hell had she even got here? He knew it couldn’t have been by air because of the strike, which was why he’d ordered the private jet.

Just then he spotted a familiar face in the crowd and he smiled warmly, welcoming the distraction.

Maddie’s stomach was in knots. She took a deep breath and stepped into the thronged ballroom. She’d managed to ferret out another of her mother’s dresses, and mercifully this one fitted. It was green and shimmery, it fell to the floor, and it was relatively demure, with long sleeves and a high neck. But when she walked one pale leg was exposed, thanks to a thigh-high slit. Maddie had cursed when she’d discovered it; the sooner she could afford to supplement her own wardrobe again, the better.

She’d used her practically maxed-out credit card to buy some cheap shoes and get her hair done in a salon, and now it lay in lustrous-looking waves over one shoulder. She was glad she’d spent the money when she saw how immaculate everyone else looked. She just hoped they wouldn’t notice that her emerald earrings had come from a costume-jewellery shop.

And then she saw Nic across the room. Her hands tightened reflexively on the clutch bag she carried in front of her like a shield. She hated the awful feeling of excitement that danced along her veins at seeing him again. He wasn’t looking at her, though; he was looking down at the woman in front of him and smiling in a way that made an awful yearning go through Maddie.

And then, to her horror, as if they were connected by some telepathic thread of awareness, he looked up and straight at her. His smile faded. The woman he’d been talking to looked over as well, and Maddie felt her belly hollow out when she recognised the same stunning blonde from the first night she’d seen him again in Mendoza.

Someone came by with a tray full of champagne and Maddie grabbed a glass inelegantly because she could see Nic taking his companion by the hand and leading her towards Maddie. It was as if she was rooted to the spot. She couldn’t move, and with everything in her head and heart she cursed him—because he was going to introduce her to his mistress and make her feel like dirt.

He came closer and closer, a curiously intent look on his face and in his eyes. Maddie was stuck like a deer in the headlights. She’d never felt so alone or exposed. She should never have come … she should have known he’d take any opportunity to humiliate her …

‘Maddie, you made it … I’ll resist the temptation to ask how you did it.’

Maddie’s voice wouldn’t work for a long moment. She could feel a curious glance from the stunning blonde, and hot, angry colour seeped into her cheeks. She’d never been in this situation before—having kissed another woman’s man. And she was disappointed. Somehow she hadn’t expected this kind of behaviour from him.

‘… like you to meet someone.’

Like watching a car crash in slow motion, Maddie managed to look at the other woman and smile, but it felt numb. She realised then that the woman was much younger than Maddie had realised—about twenty at the most. Now she felt sick—and also, more worryingly, as if she wanted to gouge her eyes out.

‘This is my cousin Estella. You would have met her at the wine-tasting evening, but she had to be in BA for a modelling assignment. She’s in high demand. Not to mention that she breaks out in hives after a couple of days in the country.’

The girl looked adoringly at Nic and hit him playfully on his shoulder. ‘Hardly hives, Nic. You do like to exaggerate, don’t you?’

Maddie was aware that the girl was exquisite, beautiful, and had a sense of humour. And then it sank in properly. My cousin.

Maddie forced her throat to work, and tried to ignore the relief flooding her. ‘It’s nice to meet you, Estella,’ she said scratchily.

‘You too, Maddie.’ She turned her sunny smile back to Nic and said, ‘I’d better go and find my date or he’ll be sending out a search party.’

‘I need to meet this man who is going to pretend that he won’t be sharing your hotel room tonight.’

Maddie looked at Nic and saw an endearingly stern look on his face. His cousin blushed, but rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, Nic, but please don’t give him the third degree. He’s a nice guy, really.’

She jumped up and pressed a kiss to Nic’s cheek, then was gone with a flash of blonde hair and sinuous tanned limbs.

Maddie was mesmerised by Nic’s fond gaze after his cousin, so she wasn’t prepared when he turned to look at her and his whole visage became noticeably cooler.

‘I booked her a room for the night because I don’t like her going back out to the suburbs too late. At least this way I know she’s safe. Her father was my mother’s brother. He died when she was small, so I’ve become a sort of … father figure for her.’

Maddie’s belly clenched at hearing how protective Nic was of his cousin. A bit redundantly she said, ‘She seems nice.’

Someone bumped into Maddie at that moment, and she winced. She could feel that she had a bruise on one hip.

‘What is it?’

The sudden urgency in Nic’s voice made her look up. ‘Nothing. I’m just a bit sore after—’ She stopped herself there. But it wasn’t long before a dawning realistion came into Nic’s eyes.

‘You took the bus, didn’t you?’ He shook his head. ‘Of all the stubborn—’ He stopped and cursed. ‘How long was it? Fourteen hours?’

Maddie cursed him, and then admitted painfully, ‘Sixteen, actually. We got a flat tyre.’

He shook his head at her and then said, ‘I suppose you’re here to look for an investor?’

Maddie flushed. ‘What other choice do I have? It’s find an investor or lose everything to you.’

‘You’d be a very wealthy woman.’

Something painful twisted in Maddie’s chest at hearing him reiterate that he wanted her gone at all costs. It made her feel very nervous and she lashed out. ‘Why can’t you get it through that thick skull of yours that it’s not about the money? I love my estate and I want to restore it to its full potential.’

Nic’s jaw clenched. He opened his mouth, but just then the gong sounded for the gala dinner. Maddie took the opportunity to flee in the ensuing crush, grateful that she didn’t feel a strong hand on her arm. She had every intention of talking to as many people as possible and staying away from one person in particular.

All during dinner Nic was aware of Maddie across the other side of the table. She was seated beside Alex Morales, one of the most successful vintners in the US—a man Nic had never particularly liked or trusted without ever having analysed why. It was a gut reaction, and it was becoming stronger by the second.

He couldn’t concentrate on the conversations either side of him and he wanted to snarl at the pouting redhead across the table who seemed determined to give him a bird’s-eye view of her surgically enhanced cleavage.

All Nic could imagine was Maddie’s huge green eyes imploring Morales to invest in her poor vineyard, and he had to physically restrain himself from walking over, plucking her from the chair and carrying her far away.

Maddie looked at her attentive and charming dinner companion incredulously. ‘You’d really like to discuss this further?’

The man smiled and oozed charm. ‘Of course, my dear.’

He was a little cheesy for Maddie’s liking, but she wasn’t about to dismiss a potential investor because of a possibly erroneous gut feeling.

She couldn’t believe she’d had the good fortune to be seated next to Alex Morales, and that he was interested in learning more about the Vasquez estate. This could be the solution to all her problems. If she could persuade Morales to invest in her she’d be free of Nic’s influence.

Maddie had been uncomfortably aware of Nic’s gaze on her all throughout the dinner but she’d done her best to ignore him. However, with this exciting development, she couldn’t help glancing over in his direction. She hated that she met that blue gaze so effortlessly, as if drawn by a magnet. He was looking impossibly grim. She smiled and his eyes flashed. Maddie knew it was childish, but she was buoyed up to think that her problems could soon be over.

People were already getting up and moving out to the ballroom, which had been cleared for dancing with tables set around the dance floor. Morales took Maddie’s hand to guide her from her seat. His touch lingered a little too long for Maddie’s liking, but she quashed the flutter of doubt, telling herself she had to explore this opportunity.

He bowed slightly in a disarmingly old-fashioned gesture. ‘If you’d excuse me? I have an important call I have to make, but I will be available in about thirty minutes if you’d like to continue our discussion?’

Maddie’s eagerness was dismayingly obvious. ‘I really appreciate this, Mr Morales.’

‘Please …’ He smiled, showing glaringly white teeth. ‘Call me Alex. Why don’t you meet me at my room—say in thirty-five minutes?’

He told her his room number and was turning away when sudden panic gripped Maddie. Their conversation had just taken a turn she really hadn’t expected.

She reached for Morales’s arm and he turned back, one eyebrow raised. ‘Yes?’

Immediately Maddie felt gauche. ‘I’m sorry, but … wouldn’t it be easier to meet in one of the bars?’

Morales smiled, and it was faintly patronising. ‘I have to make the call in my room, so it really would be easier if you came to me. All of the bars will be full and very loud. Of course, if this discussion isn’t that important to you …’

His voice trailed off and Maddie picked up his meaning instantly, seeing her chance floating away.

‘No, no,’ she said hurriedly, telling herself that he sounded reasonable. ‘Your room will be fine. Absolutely fine.’

He inclined his head and then walked away. Only to be replaced almost immediately by someone taller and far more disturbing. Maddie tried to walk around Nic but he blocked her.

She glared up at him. ‘Yes?’

Nic’s jaw was tense and his eyes were flashing. ‘I don’t trust that man.’