After Their Vows

Angie nodded. ‘He didn’t answer.’

Something very close to grim satisfaction honed the naturally sensual curve of his mouth and Angie leapt on it. ‘What have you done? Why isn’t he answering his phone? Did you—?’

‘Calm down,’ Roque said, turning slightly, so she could see Carla standing just behind him, viewing their interaction through curious eyes. The last thing Roque needed right now was for Carla to jump back onto Angie’s side of the fence after the work he’d just put in bringing her down on his side.

‘Adeus, Carlina,’ he bade her coolly, barely giving Angie time to snatch up her bag before he was ushering her towards the exit as fast as he could.

‘I will expect to hear from you, Roque,’ Carla fed after him like a threat.

‘Sim. Soon,’ he promised over his shoulder.

Outside the building, instead of his Porsche, a sleek chauffer-driven silver limo idled on double yellow lines five strides away. Even with her long legs Angie struggled to keep up with him as he covered the distance in three. Handing her into the rear seat, he joined her and closed the door. A second later they were slipping smoothly into London’s nose-to-nose traffic.

‘What’s going on?’ Angie twisted on the seat to spear a taut look at him. ‘What have you been discussing with Carla? Have you just lost me my job? And where is my brother? You had better come clean fast, Roque, because you won’t enjoy watching me fall into a screaming rage!’

‘You are already there.’ Turning his dark head, he scanned her taut features and bright eyes. ‘If you had invested this much emotional energy into trying to make our marriage work we would not be in this present situation,’ he clipped out in contempt.

‘Well, that’s great, coming from the man who took other women to bed,’ Angie flung back.

He removed his eyes from her and said not a single word in his defence, and Angie slumped back against the soft leather upholstery. ‘You’re such a hypocrite.’

‘Your brother still has his head attached to his neck,’ he drawled, as cool as ice. ‘He is not languishing in a police cell or cowering in a dark corner somewhere, scared that I have set a band of hitmen onto him.’

‘Thank you,’ Angie murmured, with excruciatingly well-mannered ill grace.

Then she glanced back at him, to find he was looking at her again. The skin banding her throat started to prickle, because the way he was looking at her somehow relayed his resentment for needing to look. Sparks flew between them—they always did. Hot sparks, angry sparks, sexually stimulating, breath-catching sparks.

‘What was all that with Carla?’ Angie mulishly persisted when his mood told her she should not.

‘Business.’

And that was it? The dark glint in his eyes dared her to continue. The need to constantly take him on fizzed like a fever in her blood. It had something to do with not letting him claim the upper hand over her, for he was the kind of man who would eat her alive if she gave him the chance.

The car pulled up outside his apartment block. Angie frowned when Roque instructed the driver that they would need him again in a couple of hours.

‘Why? Where are you going?’ Having to rush to keep up with him again, Angie was forced to ask the questions to his back.

He stabbed the lift button and leant back against the casing like a surly boy in a very bad mood. ‘Just shut up for two minutes, Angie,’ he growled at her. ‘I am still too angry with you to want to play fair right now.’

Widening her eyes, ‘What have I done?’ she cried out.

He didn’t bother to answer. He just strode out of the lift like a man in search of escape.

Angie followed at a slower pace, confused, really unsure of her ground now, for she did not understand his mood. Molly the cleaner was no longer in evidence, she noticed. Everywhere looked polished and neat. Sliding her bag off her shoulder and depositing it on one of the sofas, she followed Roque as he made directly for his study. The way he threw the door open wide made her blink in anticipation of it hitting the cabinet she knew stood just behind it.

It didn’t hit the cabinet, but she was still left with a wincing sensation as if it had. This was crazy, she thought. She didn’t even know what he was angry about! And what had he been discussing with Carla? Why had her boss let her go with him without putting up an objection?

Tugging in a deep breath, she followed him, determined to get some answers even if it felt as if she was about to enter the lion’s den. And her heart was hammering at the prospect of taking him on yet again, she noticed.

He was standing behind the desk with his dark head lowered as he flipped through the small stack of mail Molly must have placed there. Angie could not see his face, but she could feel the circle of grim reserve he had drawn around himself like an invisible line he was silently warning her not to cross.

Pressing her teeth down into her bottom lip, she made herself walk forward. ‘Roque—’

‘Smile for me, Angie,’ he said.

‘Wh-what?’ She pulled to a nerve-crunching standsti

ll.