The Latin Lover

CHAPTER FOUR

THE words hung in the air between them, heavy and dripping with unspoken meaning, while cold fingers tracked a spidery path up her back. She sat there, her spine rigid, facing a man so good-looking he could be the devil himself. Was this, then, the moment she was required to sell her soul?

‘Which is?’

‘Reconsider your decision. I will bail out your brother if you agree to come back to me.’

Leah squeezed her eyes shut. Of course. That was what this was all about. She’d been a fool to think that Alejandro would let her walk away again—a fool to think that Alejandro would let her off the hook. If she’d thought for a moment that he cared, that he felt something for her, it would be so different. But there was nothing in his words or his actions so far that indicated he thought of her as anything but an object he wanted and couldn’t have. And with Jordan’s financial troubles he’d found the chink in her armour, and he intended exploiting it for all it was worth.

‘So that’s what this charade of a meal is all about—drip-feeding me information about my brother’s situation, letting me know what desperate straits he’s in, so ultimately you can blackmail me into coming back to you, regardless of the fact it’s the last thing I want to do.’

His eyes grew cold, his gaze unrelenting as he pushed himself back in his chair. ‘Consider it a business proposition, if you will. Your services in exchange for your brother’s debts, paid in full.’

A business proposition. How very Alejandro that was.

‘You seem to conveniently forget I have my own business to run. Just how long would my “services”, as you so charmingly put it, be required?’

One side of his mouth lifted, as if sensing victory. ‘It’s a considerable amount of money. I should think it will take as long as it takes.’

Everything was loaded Alejandro’s way. Every damn thing and he knew it. And now he expected her to fall in with his plans like the good little mistress he wanted in his bed.

Well, damn him, he wasn’t going to have everything his own way. She would not be blackmailed into going back to him—as much as she wanted to help her brother, and as much as the prospect of an easy fix held a certain appeal. She could not go back to Alejandro. She just couldn’t.

She’d find another way to help Jordan. She didn’t know how, but she still had forty-eight hours to come up with something, and until she’d exhausted the banks and legitimate finance companies, had scraped up anything she could against her bedsit, and hocked every last piece of her jewellery, she wasn’t giving up. She’d raise the money somehow.

She squared her shoulders to deliver her verdict, feeling more empowered than she had all day. ‘I’m sorry, Alejandro, there is nothing to reconsider. Our time is past. I’m not coming back to you.’

He made a sound like a growl, deep down in his throat, his eyes boring into hers like a predator held back from its kill, unable to give up the carcass that was his. A tremor moved through her, but whether it was from the intensity of his gaze or the realisation of what she’d just done, she didn’t know. His eyes narrowed.

‘You turn down the only lifeline your brother has? You yourself have just said that there is no way you can get the money together. I thought you cared for your brother.’

‘I do care about Jordan.’ But she cared about herself too, and self-preservation was a powerful motivator. She hadn’t spent the two months since leaving Alejandro, telling herself—convincing herself—that she was becoming stronger and more independent by the day to give it all away now. There had to be another answer to Jordan’s money woes, one that didn’t involve her becoming some rich man’s plaything, and she’d find it. ‘But I’ll work out a solution. I’m certainly not about to be railroaded into one that suits you.’

‘You have no time!’

‘I said I’ll find a way!’

His eyes glinted at her dangerously as he contemplated her over his swirling wine glass, before downing the contents. The crystal base hit the table with a thump. ‘Why do you make this so difficult? All I’m doing is trying to help you.’

‘No, you’re not. You’re trying to help yourself, like you always do. You don’t care one bit about me or my brother, otherwise you’d offer to pay off his loan with no conditions, no ties. It’s not like you can’t afford to.’

He brushed her words aside. ‘My wealth has nothing to do with this.’

‘It does if you use it to blackmail me.’

He stared at her for some seconds, his fury at her refusal to accept his deal vividly portrayed on his features, turning his olive Mediterranean skin even darker. ‘Perhaps you are right,’ he growled at last. ‘Perhaps it is better this way. Please excuse me while I make this call.’ He snapped open a mobile phone, pressed a few rapid-fire buttons, and held it to his ear.

Something about the change in his mood struck her as wrong, setting off a new round of concerns. Alejandro would never admit she was right.

‘Who are you calling?’

‘I’m simply calling off my dogs. You don’t require my protection for your brother any more. You have a better idea. Isn’t that right?’ He turned his head away, as if focusing on the call, waiting for it to connect.

A spear of panic skewered her thoughts, setting her senses into disarray. She’d wanted him to realise she was more than just another pawn on his corporate chessboard, another mere provider of ‘services’, but the knowledge that her brother would lose his protection made her stand look all the more rickety. ‘So you would abandon my brother—throw him to the wolves—just like that?’

His head swivelled back until his eyes locked once again on her own. ‘That’s unfair. I don’t think it’s me throwing your brother to the wolves, do you?’

‘But you could keep your people there, just long enough…’