She stood at the window, brushing the curtains to the side and looking out at the well-manicured lawn. The pale moonlight spilled over the rippling grass, the slight breeze making it look like water rather than earth. Making her feel as though she could open the window and dive straight down into the depths and swim far, far away from all of this.
Suddenly, she saw movement. Not the shift of a blade of grass, but a shadow, moving across the grounds. She didn’t know what possessed her, only that she unlatched the window, opening it and the screen along with it, leaning out slightly so that she might get a better look at whatever was below.
And then, the dark shadow was closer to the house, and she could see for sure what it was.
A man.
There was a man out on the grass, moving around. She should call someone. For in all likelihood someone clearly sneaking through the property was not staff, and was not supposed to be here at all.
Perhaps he was one-half of a pair of ill-fated lovers. In which case, she didn’t want to call anyone.
Her own love life was, if not ill-fated, then severely stunted, and she was hardly going to damage anyone else’s.
But the figure kept coming closer to the house, and when he began to scale the side of the building, using the ornate molding and the window ledges as footholds, she stood frozen, watching him.
She should scream. She should call out for help. But she didn’t. She simply stood. With the window open, as if she were inviting him in. He kept moving closer, and closer. And then he looked up, and she saw dark, glittering eyes just barely visible in the moonlight.
Still. She didn’t move. Still, she stood without making a sound.
It wasn’t until he climbed to her window, and wrapped his arm around her waist, one hand holding tightly to the molding up above, his eyes clashing with hers, that she screamed.
“Now we must hurry,” he said, that voice low and far too familiar. “Because you have caused a scene.”
She found herself being jerked from the window, suspended above the ground, terror roaring through her veins.
She clung to the man, because she had no choice. She would fall to her... Well, perhaps not her death, but her certain maiming if she did not cling to those strong, broad shoulders, her breasts pressed against the chest so solid it seemed to be made of stone rather than flesh.
But he was hot. Hot in a way that only flesh and blood could be.
He had spoken.
And she knew.
Knew exactly who held her in his arms.
“I have a helicopter waiting,” he whispered. “Are you holding on to me?”
“Y-yes.”
“Good,” he responded.
He let go of her and she wrapped her arms more tightly around his neck, as he made startling time scaling down the side of the house. She gave a short prayer of thanks when her feet connected with the grass, but it was short-lived as she found herself being picked up and hauled away quickly.
She heard voices, shouting, and she looked over his shoulder to see dark figures standing in her bedroom window. Clearly responding to the scream.
“We will escape before he manages to mobilize. Believe me. I was hardly going to plan a kidnapping that I could not execute. I’m far too vain for such a thing.”
“For kidnapping?”
“For failed kidnappings. I would only ever engage in a successful one.” He bustled her into a car waiting at the edge of the lawn and drove them to the edge of the woods, taking her out of the car again, hauling her around like she was a sack of nightgown-wearing potatoes.
“Why exactly are you kidnapping me?” she asked, as she hung limp over his shoulder.
It was strange, she imagined, that she wasn’t fighting him. That she wasn’t screaming or pitching a massive fit, trying to escape his hold.
But she didn’t want to. Not even a little bit. Not in the slightest. She found that she wanted to...see where he was going. Because hadn’t it been Diego she had just been thinking of?
And she had to ask herself why she had stood there with the window open if she truly didn’t want to be taken.
And so she let him carry her into the woods, across to a clearing, where there was indeed a helicopter awaiting them. He hauled her up inside easily, depositing her in the seat and buckling her before taking his position at the controls.
“You pilot...helicopters?”
“We don’t have time to talk.”
He fired up the rotors, and they began to gain speed. Just as she saw lights in the distance, they lifted off from the ground, above the trees, and away.
She couldn’t hear, not over the sound of the engine and the propellers, but then he put a headset on, and placed one on her head as well. She adjusted it.
“Can you hear me?”
His voice came over the speakers and into her ears. “Yes,” she responded.
“Excellent.”
“Did you want to make conversation now?” It seemed strange, all things considered.
“I thought we might pick up where we left off when last we spoke,” he said.
“Did you? Well, it might be a slightly different conversation, Diego, as when last we spoke we were in my father’s library. And today we are in a helicopter, with you having kidnapped me from my fiancé’s home.”
“You will not marry him.”
Her heart kicked into gear, slamming into her breastbone. “I won’t?”
“No,” he said, his voice dark and decisive.
“He’s going to come for me.”
“I’m not going anywhere that he will be able to trace us. My brother and I are not close. Believe me when I tell you he has no idea of all the residences I own. Nor the aliases they are listed under.”
“Aliases...”
“What did you think of me, tesoro? That I was simply misunderstood? And that was why I was the black sheep of the Navarro family? No. I am not misunderstood. Not in the least. In point of fact, I am rather well understood. I’m not a good man.”
“That is not...overly comforting, considering I’m now hurtling through the air with you.”
“It was not intended to be a comfort. I’m simply making sure that you are aware of the position you find yourself in.”
“What position is that?”
“You’re going to marry me now, Liliana.”
Something hot and reckless jolted through her, a lot like fear, but with a hard edge to it that thrilled her as much as it repelled her.
“You can’t just... How can you possibly think that I would agree to that?”
“Don’t be silly, tesoro. I have all the ammunition I could possibly want. Did you honestly think I would go to all this trouble without hedging my bets? I was not counting on my charm to sway you.”
If only he knew. Before this moment, he could have climbed through the window and seduced her, likely so easily it would be humiliating.
She had never kissed a man. Not truly. The chaste exchanges she’d had with Matías were nothing like a real kiss, and the idea of Diego’s lips kept her awake at night.
Indeed, they had been keeping her awake this very night. And he had no idea. Of course not.
But now... Now she was seeing him in a slightly different light.
She looked at him, his face cast in sharp relief by the glow of the control panel in front of him. High, hard-cut cheekbones, a cruel, sculpted mouth, nose straight like a blade.
Oh, dear heaven, she was no less attracted to him now than she had been before. There was perhaps something wrong with her. And she w
asn’t entirely certain there was anything that could be done about it. She wasn’t entirely certain there was anything she would want to do about it. Because she had never felt anything like this. Nothing quite so dangerous, nothing quite so exhilarating. Her life had been lived entirely to please her father. Entirely to live up to the memory of her mother.
Lusting for dark and dangerous men fit nowhere in that. But Diego had swept into her father’s house like an undeniable force. Indeed, he had swept into her bedroom tonight like one as well. And at the moment there was nothing she could do.
She was being whisked away, after all. She could hardly leap from the helicopter.
And the fact that he made her stomach sink, made it swoop like a butterfly whose wings had been torn, one that was falling out of the sky, toward its inevitable demise... Well, right now there was nothing she could do about that.
“If you truly wanted to marry me, you could have spoken to my father,” she said, her voice small.
“You don’t understand,” Diego said. “I must prevent my brother from marrying you.” He turned to face her for a moment, his lip curled into a sneer. “If he marries you, then he gains the inheritance of the ranch. I want you, and I want the rancho. My marriage ensures that I get it. And that is why you must marry me. The fact that I have fantasies of tearing that virginal nightgown from your body is only a bonus.”
His words rolled over her like a poison. He didn’t want her, not really. He didn’t want to marry her because he had any finer feelings for her. He wanted to marry her because of an inheritance.
Matías wanted to use her as well, wanted to use her to forge an alliance with her father, and apparently, to get an inheritance. But that didn’t bother her. Because when it came to Matías, she had only been following her father’s orders.
Her feelings for Diego had nothing to do with orders.
“If my brother has had you, that makes no difference to me. In fact, I shall take a great joy in wiping your memory of him from your mind.”
She realized what he meant, though it took a moment, and shock rolled over her.
She had not been with Matías. But she wasn’t going to tell him that. She didn’t know why, but for the moment it felt like a small bit of power.