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‘I don’t need a chaperon, Tiago,’ she stressed.
‘That’s good, because I’m not for hire.’
‘Why don’t you go back to the party?’ she suggested, having no inclination to jump from the frying pan into the fire. ‘I feel really bad, keeping you here.’
‘You’re not keeping me,’ he insisted. ‘We’ll go back together. I have to know you’re safe.’
‘How much harm do you think can come to me between here and the front door?’
Tiago’s answer was to stare at her in a way that told her he wouldn’t be dissuaded, and in spite of his all too colourful reputation she had to admit she did feel safe with him. And she had to get over her schoolgirl crush fast, Danny cautioned herself. Tiago Santos was not for her.
‘Just a few more minutes,’ he said, staring at her with concern.
She smiled back at him, recognising that soothing, husky, faintly accented tone as the same voice he’d used to soothe his ponies in Brazil.
‘You don’t have to come back to the party, Danny. I’ll make your excuses for you.’
‘No, you won’t,’ she argued firmly.
Tiago raised a cynical brow over eyes that were dark and piercing. He was such a good-looking man it was impossible to remain immune to him. And he could read her like a book. He always had been able to.
The course she’d taken in Brazil had been so hard, and Tiago was a hugely successful polo international. She had always tried that little bit harder when he’d come to watch her working in the training ring. Her pride was holding her up now. He knew how shaken she was, but she didn’t want him to think her weak.
As the seconds ticked by she longed for the sanctuary of her room. This situation was unreal, and she wanted nothing more than to strip off and stand beneath a shower, scrubbing every inch of her body clean. She had to get rid of Carlos’s touch, and then hopefully forget she had ever been so stupid as to take up with a man like him in the first place.
She glanced at Tiago as he gave instructions to the security guards, thinking how different he was. Tiago’s command of the situation was reassuring. He was everything the sorry excuse for a man at their feet was not.
Did the fates see any humour in the situation? she wondered. Tiago Santos, the world’s most notorious playboy, was no playboy but a protector—strong and caring. He might look dangerous, but his character was different from the way it was described in his press.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ he called after her as she started back to the house.
‘We’ve spoken to the police. Pintos has gone—’
‘I’m heading your way, remember?’ he said, catching up with her. ‘Go straight up to your room and I’ll tell Lizzie what’s happened.’
‘No, you won’t. Lizzie’s been upset enough tonight. She must have noticed I’m missing. She will have seen the lights of the police cars. This is her day, not mine. Let’s not spoil it for her,’ she said, desperate not to ruin Lizzie’s day. ‘Just tell her the fuss is over and there’s nothing for her to worry about. Say I went to check on the horses and lost track of time. Tell her I tripped in the mud and had to clean myself up—I’ve gone upstairs to change my clothes and I’ll be back at the party soon.’
‘I’ll do what I can,’ Tiago promised. ‘But I won’t lie to her. Danny, you can’t pretend nothing’s happened,’ he insisted when she scowled at him.
‘That’s not what I asked you to do. What?’ she demanded impatiently, when Tiago continued to stare at her.
A faint smile touched his mouth. ‘You might not be able to keep it a secret.’
‘Why not?’
‘You won’t win any beauty contests tonight.’
She touched her face and groaned, remembering the bruises. She’d forgotten about them.
‘Do you have anything you can put on them?’ Tiago asked with concern.
‘I’m sure there’ll be something in the house.’
‘Maybe I should call a doctor for you?’
‘A doctor won’t come out at this time of night—and why would we trouble one? Thank you for your concern—seriously, Tiago—but it’s only a bruise, and bruises fade.’
‘And you don’t have to be strong all the time,’ he fired back.
‘What’s it to you?’ Biting back tears, and hating herself for the weakness, she confronted him in the way they had squared up to each other on so many occasions on the ranch in Brazil.
It was a terrible mistake to stare into Tiago’s eyes. Her awareness of him only grew. But she couldn’t allow him to patronise or pity her, if only because it was so dangerous to wonder, even for a second, how it might feel to have a man like Tiago Santos care for her.
The first thing she had to do was get over tonight. Bruises would fade, but the disappointment she felt in herself for not progressing her career as she would have liked, for not moving away from her home town, and most of all for getting mixed up with a man like Carlos Pintos, would take a lot longer.
‘I should thank you properly,’ she said, remembering her manners belatedly. If nothing else, Tiago had been her saviour tonight.
He shrugged it off. ‘No medals, Danny. They’d only spoil my suit.’
He could always make her smile. The playboy was still in him, beneath that white knight’s shining armour. She must never allow herself to forget that Tiago Santos possessed a glittering charm that had led many women astray. She must never be guilty of romanticising that charm, because there was another man underneath it.
Brutal tattoos showed beneath the crisp white cuffs of Tiago’s immaculate dress shirt, and a gold earring glinted in what light there was. This was not some safe, mild-mannered man—a white knight racing to rescue the damsel in distress—but Tiago Santos: the most infamous barbarian of them all.
CHAPTER TWO (#uf3466473-cc7b-57e2-9e86-3bab36943bc7)
ANNIE, THE HOUSEKEEPER at Rottingdean, was waiting for them at the front door.
‘Chico told me what happened,’ Danny heard Annie inform Tiago discreetly as the housekeeper ushered her away. She saw him nod briefly.
‘Before you go,’ he called after her. ‘Here’s my card. If you need anything...’
‘Your card?’ She smiled at the incongruity of a barbarian carrying a card, but took it and studied it before looking up. ‘I won’t need anything, but thank you again for tonight.’
Tiago ground his jaw. He wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of a rain check, she guessed as he turned to rejoin the party.
She scrubbed down in the shower, turning her face up with relief to the cleansing stream. So what excuse did she have for being in the stables on her own at night, in the middle of Lizzie’s wedding party?
She’d been having a moment, Danny concluded. She had needed some quiet time to contemplate her life going forward now her best friend was married. The stables was where she had always sought sanctuary, even as a child. The horses were so quiet and mild they had always been a relief—a release from her troubled home life—and tonight had seemed a good time for her to re-evaluate in that quiet place.
The last thing she had expected was for a nightmare like Carlos Pintos to reappear. Thankfully, he would be locked away for a very long time now. The police had told her this. It turned out he was a wanted man, who had stalked and attacked several women.
So all she had to worry about now was Tiago Santos.
Oh, good, Danny reflected wryly, wondering if she would ever get Tiago out of her head. While he was close by she could think of nothing else.
But where was she going with this? Shouldn’t she toughen up and forget about men? Wasn’t that safer? She would have to if she was ever going to give herself the chance of a career. And what was she waiting for as far as that was concerned? She had a prestigious diploma from Chico’s training school in Brazil, as well as a lifetime of experience with horses. It was time to make that count. It was time to start planning for the day when she had her own equine establishment.
With an impatient laugh she turned the shower to ice. Maybe that would wash some sense into her. She was a few hundred thousand pounds short of the start-up cash for her own place, with very little prospect of getting hold of such huge amounts of money.
‘Danny?’ Annie was calling from behind the door.
‘Yes?’
‘There’s someone here to see you, hen.’
The familiar Scottish endearment made Danny smile. ‘Just give me a minute and I’ll grab a towel—’
It would be Lizzie. She would play down what had happened. She would change the subject and make Lizzie laugh. It was her best friend’s wedding day, when everything had to be perfect. And it would be if Danny had anything to do with it.
‘I can tell him you’d rather not see anyone if you’d prefer that, hen?’
Him?
‘He’s very concerned about you...’ Annie waited, and then, receiving no reply, added, ‘I think you should at least see him to reassure him that you’re okay...’
Danny’s heart went crazy. She was actually trembling. There was only one man who knew what had happened in the stable. And she had just vowed to cut him out of her life.
‘I’ve brought you a clean dress. I’ll just leave it on the bed, shall I?’ Annie suggested. A few more seconds passed and then the housekeeper called out with concern, ‘Are you okay in there, Danny?’
‘Yes. I’m fine.’ She put her resolute face on. ‘I’m just coming... Could you ask him to give me a few minutes?’
‘Will do, hen.’
And now there was silence. Was Tiago standing outside the door, or had he gone downstairs to wait for her? She stood listening, naked and dripping water everywhere, with the towel hanging limply from her hand. Wasn’t it better to face him, talk to him, reassure him as Annie had suggested? Then she could finally put an end to this horrible episode. Tiago must understand that she was very grateful to him but that she didn’t need his help going forward.
Securing the towel tightly around her, she firmed her jaw.
* * *
She was keeping him waiting. No woman had ever kept him waiting before. He had to remind himself that tonight Danny was a special case. She’d had a shock and he was supposed to be playing the role of understanding friend. At least that was how the bride had described him when he had passed on Danny’s message. Chico had already told Lizzie what had happened, so obviously the bride was full of concern for her friend.
‘Be gentle with her, Tiago’.
What the hell do you think I’m going to be with her? he had thought.
‘Just do this one thing for me,’ Lizzie had begged him with her hand on his arm.
‘I will,’ he had promised, finding a smile to reassure the bride. And he’d kept his word.
In his hand there was nothing more threatening than horse liniment to speed up the healing of Danny’s bruises. Was that gentlemanly enough?
* * *
Danny looked at the dress Annie had left on the bed with dismay. It was the type of dress she’d seen in magazines, but it was hardly appropriate for someone whose life revolved around horses. It was lovely, and maybe any other night she would have loved to try it on. If she was honest, she would love to wear it—but not tonight, when she was feeling about as confident as a cockroach with a foot hovering over it.
The dress was bright red silk, and the type of dress to get you noticed, darted in such a way that it showed off the figure. It was a perfect dress for a wedding party, for dancing, for having fun. It was Lizzie’s dress. She recognised it immediately and smiled, thinking of her friend picking it out for her to wear.
So what was she going to do? Tiago was waiting outside. Lizzie was waiting downstairs. She didn’t want Tiago thinking she was weak, and she didn’t want to worry her friend.
She put on the dress and left her hair loose. Slipping her feet into Lizzie’s silver sandals—they were almost the same size—she checked herself over in the mirror. She tipped her chin up and sighed. The bruises didn’t look too bad now, but they were still noticeable even though she had covered them with make-up. But there would be atmospheric lighting downstairs for the dancing. No one would notice, she hoped. She was definitely going to pull this off.
* * *
He could hear Danny moving around inside the room. Why the hell didn’t she open the door? He rested his head against the wall, and then pulled away again. He thought about walking straight in, and then remembered he was playing the role of a gentleman tonight.
‘Nearly ready,’ she called out brightly, as if the evening had held nothing more for her than a garden party and a chance meeting between old friends. ‘Sorry to keep you waiting!’
I bet, he thought.
She swung the door wide and for once he was speechless. A transformation had been wrought and for a moment he wasn’t sure he approved. He’d seen Danny in breeches and a shirt often enough as she sat astride a horse. He’d seen her in a fancy bridesmaid’s dress, demure and contained—and then bedraggled, muddy and bruised later, which had brought out his protective instinct. But this red clinging number—far too short, far too revealing...
‘You can’t be thinking of going down to the party dressed like that?’
The words were out of his mouth before he could stop himself. The irony wasn’t lost on him. Danny was dressed as he expected a woman on his arm to dress—but this was Danny.
And, seeing the way she was staring at him now, he braced himself for the backlash he knew was on its way.
‘I most certainly am going down in this dress,’ she told him, her gaze steely. ‘It’s all I’ve got to wear—other than a bathrobe. Or I could make Lizzie think I’m in a really bad way and upset her even more than I have already by staying up here in my room all night?’
He slanted a smile, guessing none of those options would appeal.
‘If you’d rather not be seen with me—’
‘I brought you this,’ he interrupted.
‘What is it?’ she asked suspiciously, thrown as she stared at the tube he held in his hand.
‘I use it on the horses when they get bruises. It works miracles.’
She angled her chin to give him an assessing stare. ‘Does it smell?’
A muscle in his jaw flexed as she brought the tube to her nose. ‘I must admit I hadn’t thought about that.’
‘Perhaps I should?’ she said with the suggestion of a smile. ‘For the sake of the other guests, if nothing else?’
He raised a brow, forced now to curb his own smile. Having taken in the hourglass figure, the glorious hair hanging loose almost to her waist, and the tiny feet with pink shell-like nails enclosed in a pair of high-heeled silver sandals, he was appreciating Danny’s indomitable spirit as he never had before. The fact that she could be so together after such an ordeal was hugely to her credit.
‘Thank you, Tiago,’ she said briskly, before he could process these thoughts. ‘It seems I have a lot to thank you for tonight. And I do...sincerely,’ she added, holding his gaze steadily for a good few seconds.
It was time enough for his groin to tighten. ‘You’re certain you’re all right now?’ He had to remind himself that his thoughts where Danny was concerned weren’t appropriate.
‘I will be when I get back to the party,’ she assured him, glancing at the door. ‘I’m keen to get everything back to normal for Lizzie as soon as I can. I’ll just leave this here, if that’s all right with you?’ She flashed him a glance as she put the cream down on the table. ‘I’ll put it on tonight, when there’s no one else around to smell it.’
He was unreasonably glad to discover she would be on her own tonight. ‘Shall we?’ he said, offering his arm.
‘Why not?’ she replied walking past him.
* * *
