He gritted his teeth against the prompt to deliver a swift killing blow to Benedicto da Costa.
His own ordeal hadn’t been swift. It’d been long and tortuous. The punishment should fit the crime. Any hesitation on his part now merely stemmed from the afterglow of the chemistry between him and Inez. He freely admitted that theirs was a strong and potent brand, more intense than anything he’d ever experienced before.
It was messing with his mind, the same way the thought of her ex-lover had made him see red for several long seconds. But there was no way he was letting it impede his goal.
Which meant he had to come at this problem from another angle.
He swallowed the acrid taste in his mouth at the thought that Inez had put him into the same class as Constantine Blanco.
Slowly walking back indoors, he turned over the dilemma in his mind. By the time he reached his suite and changed out of his swimming trunks, a smile was curving his lips.
An hour later, he watched her descend the stairs, her duffel bag slung over her shoulder and an overnight case in her hand.
‘Did Teresa tell you to pack your swimming gear?’
She regarded him warily. ‘Yes. But I thought we were just taking the boat out?’
He shrugged. ‘I thought you would welcome the opportunity to sunbathe away from the prying lenses of the paparazzi? There are several decks on the yacht that you can sunbathe on. Or we can swim in the sea, dine alone under the stars. Would you like that?’ he asked, then felt a jolt at how much he wanted her to answer in the affirmative. In the past, he’d never taken the time to seek out what pleased his girlfriends beyond the usual gifts and fine dining. It was why he operated his relationships on a strict short-term basis with as little maintenance as possible.
Inez was far from low maintenance. And yet he found himself even more drawn to her.
She glanced pointedly over his shoulder. ‘I’ll think about it and let you know.’
His unsettled feelings escalated. He reminded himself that they were heading for his boat. She liked his boat. Perhaps she would relent enough to forget that she was angry with him. Forget about Blanco and forget that she was being blackmailed.
Theo was still debating why her feelings meant so much to him when he pulled up at the marina.
* * *
‘You’ve been smiling ever since we set sail.’
Her voice was full of heavy suspicion. Theo’s smile widened as he tilted his face up into the sunshine. ‘Have I? It must be the weather.’
‘The weather has been the same for the last month,’ she replied sourly.
He slowly lowered his head and captured her gaze with his. ‘Then it must be the company.’
A delicate wave of heat surged up her neck into her cheeks, making him wonder, as he had more than once these past two weeks, how she could have been involved with someone like Blanco and still blush like a schoolgirl.
Theo had looked into Constantine Blanco and had not been surprised to find that he was cut from the same cloth as Benedicto. It was perhaps why Da Costa had chosen to ally himself with the younger man politically. He’d sent his daughter to spy on Blanco and had been double-crossed in the bargain.
Theo’s smile slipped as he recalled her hurt when he’d thrown her relationship with Blanco at her. He reached for the glass of wine that had accompanied their late afternoon meal and took a large gulp.
The guilt tightening in his chest since her accusation at the pool squeezed harder.
What the hell was going on with him?
‘Have you decided whether you’re selling the boat or not?’ she asked.
In the sunlight, her black hair gleamed like polished jet, making him burn to feel its silkiness beneath his fingers.
He stared into his drink. ‘Maybe. I’ll have to weigh up practical usage versus the desire to hang on to something beautiful.’
‘But you’re a billionaire. Isn’t collecting toys part and parcel of your status?’
‘I wasn’t always a man of means. In fact my brothers and I worked our backsides off to achieve the level of success we enjoy now.’ His smile felt tight and strained.
‘Your brothers…Sakis and Arion…’
He looked up in surprise. ‘You’ve been playing around on the Internet, I see.’