A Deal Before the Altar

He picked her dressing gown off the bed, now remade after their night of passion, and handed it to her. ‘You must care for your sister very much.’

Instantly her senses were on high alert. What was he suggesting? ‘She’s all I have.’

He handed her the cream silk garment. ‘But to marry just so that your sister can marry for love?’ His voice rose with incredulity as he took fresh clothes from the wardrobe and hastily got dressed.

‘Maybe I love my sister as much as you hate your brother.’ Was he referring to their marriage or her first one? It made no difference; both had been made out of love for her sister.

Tension filled the room and his eyes sparked with anger as he stood in front of her, all the passion and desire of moments ago forgotten.

‘Half-brother.’ The words were harsh and staccato.

She pulled on the dressing gown, no longer wanting him to see her naked now he was clothed, as if it somehow weakened her. He turned and paced across the room towards the door, but she couldn’t let him go, couldn’t let him walk out now, even if it meant killing the loving moments they’d shared.

‘Coward.’ The word rushed from her lips, provoking him.

Instantly he whirled round and fixed her with a fierce glare, his face a hardened and angry mask. ‘I don’t do emotions, Georgina. Hate or love. I don’t do them.’

‘And because of that two people who love one another are suffering.’

‘How?’ He strode back across the room, but she stood her ground. ‘And how do you know they are in love? How do they even know?’

‘You must have loved someone, Santos, despite what you just said.’

‘Love is for weak-willed fools.’ His voice was like granite and his eyes glittered dangerously as he looked at her.

‘You don’t really believe that?’ she whispered in disbelief.

She’d vowed she’d never love anyone other than Emma, never give her heart to a man as her mother had time and time again. But somehow she’d become dangerously close to loving Santos.

‘Isn’t that why you made this damn deal, Georgina, because you don’t believe in love?’ He was like an angry lion, caged up and looking for a way out as he strode across the room to glance out of the window. He turned and looked at her, waiting for her reply.

‘I did it for love.’ She rallied against his contempt. ‘I did it for the love of my sister.’

‘Ha!’ He laughed, so arrogantly she almost cringed. ‘You did it for money, for all you could get from it—just as you did the first time around.’

How dared he bring Richard into this? The man who had seen she needed a lifeline and offered one without expecting anything in return? Well, if that was what he thought of her, so be it. Attack was the best form of defence.

‘Yes, just as I did the first time.’

For a moment he looked at her in stunned silence, his jaw grinding hard. He looked for all the world as if he was jealous of Richard. How could a powerful man like Santos be jealous of anything or anyone?

He glared at her. ‘Get dressed,’ he snapped after what seemed like an eternity. ‘We’re going back to the villa.’

Panic tore at her. She’d promised Emma she’d keep him out of the way, and here on the yacht was the perfect place.

‘So soon?’ She hated the nervous edge to her voice, but knew any attempts at flattering him would be futile.

His eyes narrowed. ‘I have work to do. Playing at this newlywed game has gone on for long enough.’

With that he strode from the room and she sank onto the bed. Last night they had made love for the first time, been given pleasure so intense it still lingered in her body. Only minutes ago they had been consumed by desire and need for one another. How could the man who kissed her so passionately be the same man who’d just left the room?

She dragged in a deep breath, pressing her fingertips to her lips, bruised from his hard kisses in the shower. How could she, a woman who’d renounced love, feel such desolation as the man she’d given herself to last night with total completeness walked out on her?

CHAPTER NINE

SANTOS’S MOOD WAS as dark as the storm clouds rolling down from the mountains. He’d thought Georgina was different, thought she could keep emotions out of things. Instead she’d proved beyond doubt that she was as clingy as any woman, unable to resist the urge to delve into his past.

He’d thought he’d met his match—a woman who could share his passion without the need for anything more.

But he’d been wrong, damn it, very wrong.

‘I have business matters to attend to.’

Unable to keep the frustration from reverberating in his voice as they arrived back at the villa, he swung the car in through the gates without giving the photographers loitering there a second glance and powered up the driveway.