скачать книгу бесплатно
Her eyes flirted challengingly with his as she spoke through the provocative, physical teasing. “...If I stay with you the night and let you have your...” She lowered her gaze to his mouth, regarding it assessingly. “...taste of me...” She let the words linger for a moment, then flicked her gaze up, raising her eyebrows in pointed questioning. “...I get the bus? Is that the deal?”
“Yes,” he hissed at her.
“Then make your calls now, Luis. Let me hear you arrange the delivery of an appropriate bus to The Europa Hotel as soon as the curfew is lifted tomorrow. When you’ve done that, I’ll call Alan to assure him everything’s all right and I’ll be staying with you until morning.”
His jawline tightened. His eyes narrowed. He didn’t like her calling the shots, but he’d dealt her the cards, made the rules of the game, and Shontelle figured he couldn’t fault her over playing them. A sense of triumph poured a burst of adrenalin through her veins. No one was a victim unless they allowed themselves to be.
She pursed her lips into a considering little smile. “A feast of hot-blooded sensuality sounds good. I do hope you’re up to it, Luis.”
The moment the words were out, she felt a swell of danger—a dark and fierce emanation from him swirling around her, sending shivers down her spine. He smiled right back at her as he released her hair—a smile that promised himself a deep well of satisfaction. He plucked her hand from inside his shirt and drew it slowly down, palm against him, fingers splayed.
“Feel for yourself how up to it I am, Shontelle,” he drawled, his other hand gliding up her throat to cup her chin.
He was fully erect, his arousal straining against the barrier of clothes. He guided her into stroking him as he tilted her head and bent his own. “Just to make sure I do want the taste,” he murmured, then covered her mouth with his, not giving her any chance of reply.
Shontelle didn’t even think of trying to deny him. The urge to taste him, too, was far too strong for any denial. And his mouth was soft, sweetly seductive, at first, his tongue merely flicking over the soft inner tissues of her lips, sensitising them with delicious tingles.
She responded, wanting to know if the passion they had once shared could be triggered again, beyond pride, beyond all the differences between them. Her free arm instinctively curled around his neck to hold him to her and the kiss deepened, pursuing a more erotic, more exciting intimacy.
Her body started clenching with a need it had all but forgotten. She grasped the hard proof of his desire, fingers digging around it, revelling in the feel of him. She was so caught up in her own strong responses, it came as a shock when he abruptly ended their kiss, removed her hand from him and broke out of her embrace.
“You must be hungry for a man, Shontelle,” he mocked, lifting the fingers that had been squeezing him to his mouth. He lightly nipped them. “Definitely an appetising taste. Please excuse me while I execute my half of the deal. I look forward to the rest of the night.”
He walked away from her, seemingly completely in control of himself. Shontelle was left feeling shattered, her legs trembling, drained of strength, her stomach churning so much she wanted to be sick, her heart aching, her mind zigzagging helplessly through a maze of fierce contradictions.
She loved him... and hated him.
She craved more of him...yet wanted to cut out his callous heart.
Was it to be a night of intense life... or a night of heart-killing desolation?
She didn’t know...couldn’t decide...couldn’t tear herself away from whatever might pass between them.
He picked up a telephone, pressed a sequence of numbers, spoke with the arrogant authority of his name, his position, the power that came automatically with great wealth...Luis Angel Martinez...the only man who’d ever moved her like this...and maybe the only man who ever would.
Was there anything to win by staying?
The bus, her mind answered.
But the bus had no relevance to the question.
She wanted...needed...to win something for herself. So she had to stay and see this night through, even if she lost everything.
One night...one night...unless she could turn it into something more.
CHAPTER FOUR
LUIS was rock-hard and in pain but the shattered look he’d left on Shontelle’s face was worth every second of the discomfort. No way was she going to turn the tables on him! He hoped the witch was burning with frustration.
He deliberately kept his back turned to her while he talked on the phone to Ramon Flores who could organize any form of road transport in La Paz. It was local courtesy to speak Quechua, the old Inca language, and Luis did so with perverse pleasure, knowing Shontelle would not be able to follow it. Her grasp of Spanish was good, but she only had a sketchy knowledge of the native dialects.
Let her stew in uncertainty, he thought. She was too damned sure of her power to get what she wanted. Before this night was out she’d learn who was master of the situation, and he’d kiss her goodbye with the same brutal finality she’d shown him two years ago.
“The bus is not a problem, Luis,” Ramon said predictably. “But...”
The pause sharpened Luis’ attention. “But what?”
“It would be useless to ask any of my local drivers to deliver it. They would be stopped and arrested before the bus got to The Europa. The military edict is no gathering of crowds. They consider three people together a crowd. A local man taking out a bus...it would not be allowed. Too suspicious.”
Luis frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. Yet if he didn’t deliver...no, he had to. He refused to look weak and ineffectual in front of Shontelle Wright. There had to be a way.
“Your Australian friend...he might get through, being a foreigner,” Ramon suggested. “Since he is prepared to risk his tour group in trying to get out of La Paz, tell him to come to the depot and take the bus himself. It will be fully fuelled, ready to go.”
It made sense, but it wasn’t the deal he’d agreed to with Shontelle. Her words, not his, he reasoned. He didn’t have to toe her line. The essence of the deal was the same. The bus would be available for Alan to take. That was all his erstwhile friend had requested.
“Someone will be at the depot to hand over the bus?” he asked.
“Curfew lifts at six. I’ll have a man at the gates at six-thirty.”
“Thank you, Ramon.”
“Your friend is a fool, Luis.”
“His choice.”
“It’s our bus. This could bring trouble kicking back to us.”
“I’ll wear it. You are simply following my orders, Ramon.”
“As you wish.”
Luis slowly lowered the receiver, his mind engaged in hard reappraisal. This whole enterprise was stupid, inviting trouble. Alan’s tour group was safe at their hotel. What was another week or two out of their lives? Better locked away in luxury than dead. It was just as stupid for him to get involved, putting the Martinez reputation for finely balanced political sense on the line.
For what?
A woman who had used him...a woman worth nothing!
Madness to have been tempted into wreaking some sweet vengeance. It was beneath him. He should dismiss her from his suite right now, send her off with a bitter sense of failure. That was vengeance enough.
He turned to do it.
She stood framed by the blackness of the night beyond the window, the twinkling stars of light from the city surrounding her, lending her an air of etherial mystery. Her long hair gleamed like a stream of moonlight and her golden skin glowed, the perfect foil for eyes that shone like emeralds. Her full lips were slightly apart, as he’d left them, waiting it seemed for another kiss, insidiously beckoning him.
He forced his gaze down the long graceful line of her neck to the blood-red T-shirt. She had no heart, he told himself. No heart. But the lush softness of her breasts moved as though to the beat of one, a beat that tugged on him with inexorable and tormenting strength.
How was it possible, he wondered, to feel such desire for a woman...yet hate her with equal ferocity?
“Is the bus assured for tomorrow morning?” she asked, her voice strained.
The conviction swept into Luis’ mind. This was no fun for her. Which was only right and just. She’d had her fun last time. It was his turn tonight. He could send her away right now, defeated, but what satisfaction was there in that? He wanted—needed—the same physical satisfaction she had taken from him, over and over again.
“Yes,” he said. “You’ll get the bus.”
Which put their deal on the line.
Luis watched her take that in, and all it implied. Her gaze dropped from the hard challenge in his. Her hands interlocked in front of her waist, as though testing how much strength she had, fingers flexing...and he craved their touch on him again. Her breasts and shoulders lifted slightly as she drew in a deep breath. He found himself holding his own breath, waiting for her decision, willing her to concede to him, his whole body focusing energy on her, determined on drawing her into the ring with him.
She spoke, still with her eyes downcast. “If you have a wife, Luis, this is a rotten game you’re playing and I won’t be a party to it.”
Luis clenched his teeth. It was because of her he didn’t have a wife, but he’d rot in hell before she dragged that admission from him.
“If I had a wife, you would have had no access to me, Shontelle,” he stated bitingly.
Her lashes slowly lifted, her eyes meeting his with an oddly poignant expression of irony. He caught a sense of fatalism, yet there was no resignation to defeat in it, more a feeling of being ready to ride whatever outcome ensued from the situation. It disturbed him. It wasn’t what he expected from her. Not what he wanted, either.
“What time should I tell Alan the bus will be at our hotel?” she asked. “He’ll want to have the tour group ready to go.”
The hotel! It was on the tip of his tongue to state that Alan would have to collect the bus from the depot. A surge of pride stopped him. If he didn’t win his ground with this woman, he would always feel whipped by her. Which was totally intolerable. No way would he give Shontelle Wright any cause to scorn him again.
It might be sheer madness to risk his own skin to balance the scales, madness to risk blotting the Martinez reputation for steering clear of trouble, but he would get the damned bus himself rather than give Shontelle a loophole out of this deal. She had to be his for this one night. Somehow it was a need that drove to the very core of his manhood.
“Seven o’clock,” he answered tersely. “Given that it’s not stopped by the military. That I cannot control.”
A sigh whispered from her lips. She nodded acceptance. “Fair enough! I’ll ring Alan now.”
Done!
Yet Luis’ triumph had a bittersweet taste. She had wrung more from him than she was worth. But she would pay, he promised himself. He would strip her of every bit of power she had over him before dawn came. Then he would be free of her. Finally free of her.
CHAPTER FIVE
SHONTELLE tried desperately to focus her mind on how to tell Alan she was spending the night with the man who’d stolen her heart two years ago and hadn’t valued it...a man who’d used her for pleasure...and when she’d taken the pleasure away, had vindictively taken out his displeasure on her brother. There was simply no way Alan was going to understand.
One more night...
With any luck she should at least win something from this encounter. It would either set her free of Luis Angel Martinez...or...give her hope of something more from him, more than she had believed possible.
He wanted her...perhaps as badly as she wanted him. It was what she was gambling on. Plus the fact he hadn’t married. The Gallardo heiress hadn’t got him. And maybe—just maybe—Elvira Rosa Martinez didn’t know her son as well as she thought she did.
“The telephone is free for you to use,” Luis dryly reminded her, gesturing to it with a casual grace that belied any tension on his part over her decision to stay.
He looked so arrogantly sure of himself.
But he did want her.
Shontelle pushed her legs into action and a wry smile onto her mouth. “This is not going to be an easy call.”
He returned a derisive look. “Did you think it was easy, looking like a fool for ordering a bus out in this volatile climate?”
He had a point.
Both of them fools.
For some reason, that thought boosted Shontelle’s morale.
Luis did not move away from the telephone to let her speak privately to Alan. He propped himself against the edge of the writing desk, apparently intent on hearing every word. She had no choice but to stand next to him, which heightened her awareness of the strong force field coming from his dominating maleness.
She turned her back on him once the call was put through. She didn’t want him witnessing her awkwardness in explaining her decision to Alan. It was bad enough knowing he was listening without him watching her every nuance of expression.
“Where are you calling from?” Alan demanded, the moment she announced herself.
“I’m still with Luis in his suite. He’s got you the bus, Alan.”
“What did he want for it?”
“It’s no problem. You can tell everyone to be in the hotel foyer, ready to leave at seven o’clock, all going well.”
“All going well?” Suspicion sharpened his voice. “What’s Luis up to, Shontelle?”
“Alan, he’s ordered the bus. He can’t guarantee the military won’t stop it before it reaches the hotel.”
She heard him expel a long breath. She also heard Luis straighten away from the desk, moving to stand behind her.
“Right! That’s it then,” Alan decided. “I take it you’ve finished talking and you’re ready to leave. Give me five minutes and I’ll be at the side door into the Plaza to bring you back here.”
Hands slid around her waist, distracting her. Luis was standing close behind her, very close, but not touching except for his hands. Her buttocks clenched in sheer nervousness. Her heart leapt into her throat when he started unbuckling her belt.
“Shontelle?”
She dragged her attention back to Alan, belatedly recalling he’d been offering the protection of his escort back to the hotel.
“Uh...no. No, we haven’t finished here,” she rushed out.
“Just starting,” Luis murmured, darkly purred words that set her pulse pounding. The buckle undone, he unbuttoned the waistband and drew down her zipper.
Shontelle held her breath. Her mind blanked out on all active thought, waiting, poised on the edge of an explosion of sensation should he move his hand inside her clothes and...
“What’s going on there?” Alan demanded, his voice getting edgier.
She gulped, forced herself to think. An answer was needed. Fast. “I’m going to spend the night with Luis, Alan,” she gabbled, almost yelping as her trousers and underpants were pulled down to her thighs.
“What?” Alan squawked.
Her brother’s shock was nothing to Shontelle’s at being so summarily stripped. Exposed. Vulnerable to anything Luis might choose to do with her. This was going too far, too fast. The urge to drop the telephone and yank up her clothes was muddled by Alan’s yelling at her.
“I’m coming to get you right now.”
“No!” She jerked around to face Luis, wanting to stop his actions, too. “No!” she repeated for him.
