‘I THOUGHT WE would be having dinner in a restaurant.’ Lia looked dazedly around the interior of the luxurious de la Cruz jet she and Gregorio were now seated on, being flown off to goodness knew where after boarding the jet at a private airfield fifteen minutes ago. ‘I don’t have my passport with me.’
‘We are not going to land anywhere,’ Gregorio assured her. ‘And we do not need to go to a restaurant when I have persuaded Mancini to join us on board for the evening.’
If Lia had needed any convincing that Gregorio was super-rich—up there in the stratosphere wealthy—then the private jet and exclusive services of the chef were proof enough.
Except she hadn’t needed any further proof of this man’s wealth and power.
‘We’re just going to fly around while we eat our meal?’
‘Why not?’ He shrugged. ‘It ensures our privacy.’
Privacy was the last thing Lia wanted with this particular man. A man she knew was starting to get to her, in spite of herself.
Gregorio knew the information he had about Lia’s father was her only reason for allowing him to take her to dinner. Unfortunately his self-control was currently balanced on a very fine edge where Lia was concerned.
She hurled her insults at him as barbs meant to wound. They had succeeded in doing that, but her open defiance of him had also deepened the desire Gregorio felt to make love with her. To be consumed by the fire that burned between them whenever they were alone together. He wanted to strip every item of clothing from her body and gorge himself on her succulent flesh before burning in those flames.
‘Now will you tell me what you think you know about my father that I don’t?’
His gaze became guarded. ‘Our agreement was that we would have dinner first.’
She gave a frustrated sigh. ‘In that case we might as well eat.’
‘So gracious,’ Gregorio drawled as he stood up to remove his jacket.
A delicate blush coloured her cheeks. ‘Why don’t you just open and pour the wine?’ she instructed him abruptly.
‘Do you like to take charge in bed too?’
‘Gregorio!’ She gasped.
He raised speculative brows as he opened the white wine cooling in the galley, revealing none of the pleasure he felt at hearing her use his given name for the first time. ‘I wasn’t complaining. I merely wish to be pre-warned if that is the case.’
She looked more flustered than ever. ‘I didn’t accept your invitation—I’m only here because you promised to give me information about my father,’ she reminded him flatly.
‘All the while knowing how much I want you.’
‘I was only—I didn’t—Why do you always have to turn everything back to—?’
‘My wanting you?’ Gregorio finished softly. ‘Perhaps because possessing you has obsessed my mind for some time now.’
She snorted. ‘I find that very hard to believe!’
He poured the wine into two glasses before pushing one towards her, an indication that she should drink some of it. ‘That I want you? Or that I have thought of you constantly since I first saw you?’
‘I was engaged to another man!’
Gregorio gave a brief glance at her bare left hand. ‘An engagement is not a marriage.’
‘Obviously not,’ she acknowledged heavily. ‘But I find it difficult to believe you felt an instant attraction to a woman you had only just met.’
‘Possibly because you prefer to continue believing me a man capable of hounding people to their deaths.’
She winced at this reminder of her earlier accusations. ‘Talking of possessing someone—me—isn’t exactly normal behaviour,’ she defended.
‘You would prefer that I flatter and seduce you with words before I attempt to make love to you?’
‘That’s the way it’s usually done, yes.’
He gave a dismissive shake of his head. ‘I have no time for such games.’
‘And, personally, I would prefer it if you never referred to the subject again.’
‘Then you are lying to yourself.’
‘You—’
‘Would you like me to show you how much you are lying?’
‘No!’ Lia could see the raw passion burning in his dark gaze.
He drew in a deep breath as he continued to study her for several long seconds. ‘Drink some of your wine,’ he finally encouraged huskily.
‘And you call me bossy!’ She eyed him impatiently.
He studied her over the rim of his glass as he took a sip of what proved to be a very good glass of white wine. He waited until Mancini had served their first course before speaking again. ‘You believe me to be a male chauvinist?’
She grimaced. ‘Maybe it’s just a cultural difference?’
‘You do not believe that any more than I do,’ he observed dryly. ‘And you should have met my father—compared to him I am a fully enlightened man who believes in equal opportunity for all three sexes.’
‘He’s...no longer with you?’
‘Neither of my parents is still alive.’ Gregorio inwardly berated himself for unthinkingly introducing the painful subject of the death of a parent. ‘My father believed it was my mother’s role to be a wife to him and to bring up their three sons.’
‘And you don’t?’
Lia took her glass of wine. Their conversation was far too personal for her liking. Combining that with how casually dressed Gregorio was this evening, this situation—the private jet, the personal chef—was all too disturbing for her peace of mind.
‘My mother ensured my two brothers and I have a more modern attitude.’ Gregorio shrugged. ‘For instance, she insisted all of us learn how to cook.’
‘How did your father react to that?’
‘As a man who had never had to learn how to so much as boil an egg, he was horrified,’ Gregorio recalled with one of those smiles that changed his face from austerely attractive to devastatingly handsome. ‘My mother loved my father enough to allow him to believe he was the patriarch of the family, when in actual fact she was the one who decided what, when, where and how.’
‘She sounds amazing.’
Gregorio heard the wistful note in her voice—a reminder that Lia had grown up without a mother. It seemed as if every subject they touched upon had the potential to blow up in his face.
‘She was,’ he dismissed briskly.
‘But you’ve never married?’
‘There has been no time for a woman in my life.’
‘That isn’t what the newspapers say!’
‘I was referring to a woman I might wish to marry.’
‘Rather than go to bed with?’
His jaw tightened. ‘Yes.’
‘What happened to the woman you were having dinner with that night at the restaurant?’
‘Happened to her...?’
Lia nodded. ‘She looked nice.’
Gregorio’s company had been in negotiations to buy Fairbanks Industries for some weeks before he had recognised Jacob Fairbanks in the restaurant that evening. Both of them had been dining with other people. David Richardson was known to him as Fairbanks’s lawyer. But he’d never before met the woman seated between the two men.
She had been exquisite.
Gregorio had seen his dining companion seated before immediately going over to Fairbanks’s table to seek an introduction to the beautiful redhead. Amelia Fairbanks—Jacob’s daughter. And the lawyer was her fiancé.
When Amelia had stood up to go to the powder room half an hour later, Gregorio hadn’t been able to resist following her. Or kissing her. Only to receive an angry slap to his cheek as soon as the kiss had ended.
The evening hadn’t gone at all as Gregorio had originally intended it should. Not only had he mainly ignored his dining companion for the rest of the evening, in favour of staring at Amelia Fairbanks, but he had also put the other woman in a taxi as soon as they’d left the restaurant, rather than accepting her invitation to go back to her apartment for the night.
He straightened. ‘I never saw her again after that evening.’ Nor had he dated any other women in the past few months.
‘Why not?’
He gave her a pointed glance. ‘Because I saw you that night and I wanted you.’
Lia turned away from the intensity of that dark gaze. ‘I can’t imagine you allowing anyone—least of all me—to disrupt a single part of your life.’
‘Can’t you?’
She was so aware of everything about this man she was finding it hard to maintain the distance necessary if she was going to continue resisting him. Even more so after those revelations about his parents and his childhood. She didn’t want to know things about Gregorio’s life, to think of him as having been a child with loving parents and two younger brothers he had no doubt argued and fought with but would likely defend to the death if one of them was in danger. Knowing those things made him more a flesh-and-blood man and less the ruthless monster, Gregorio de la Cruz. Which had no doubt been his intention all along.
She must never forget who or what he was. Nor that he had revealed himself as someone who was not averse to using manipulation and machination to get what he wanted. And there could be no doubt now that he wanted her.
She glared at him. ‘I’m not interested.’
‘No?’
‘No,’ she snapped, seeing his knowing expression. But she knew he was right; she could never remember being this aware of a man before. Ever.
She had known David for over a year before he’d asked her out and she’d accepted. They had dated for another year before he proposed and she had accepted. They had been engaged for just over a month before David had invited her back to spend the night at his apartment, and again she had accepted.
Up until the night David had ended their engagement he had been every inch the gentleman throughout the whole of their courtship.
Gregorio wasn’t a gentlemen, and nor did he ever ask for anything he wanted. He just assumed it was his right and took it.
But wasn’t it better that way?
To be simply swept off one’s feet and not have to think about whether or not it was sensible, or consider the possible repercussions—?
No, of course it wasn’t! Now that Lia was completely on her own it was even more important for her to be on her guard. Most especially so with Gregorio de la Cruz.
* * *
‘You cheated,’ Lia complained two hours later as she let the two of them into her apartment.
‘I merely suggested we bring dessert back here.’ Gregorio followed her inside.
‘And so delayed answering my questions for even longer. Well, don’t make yourself too comfortable,’ she warned as Gregorio sat down at the breakfast bar. ‘Because you aren’t staying.’
‘You are bossy in bed,’ he said knowingly.
‘You’ll never know,’ she assured him tersely.
Gregorio made no reply. Why bother contradicting her when it would only lead to another disagreement? When he was fully aware that Lia, in spite of herself, wanted him as much as he wanted her.
Besides, he could afford to concede a single battle when he had no intention of losing the war.
‘Do you want any dessert?’
‘I couldn’t eat another thing after that delicious meal.’
‘That’s what I thought.’ She put the dessert in the fridge before straightening. ‘I’ve had dinner with you, fulfilled my part of the agreement, now it’s time for you to start talking.’
She leaned back against one of the kitchen cupboards, arms crossed defensively in front of her chest.
‘Of course.’
Gregorio stood up in what was now a very tidy apartment. All the boxes had been emptied and removed, the furniture was neatly arranged, and several photographs of Lia and her father had been placed in prominent places.
‘I liked your father very much—but obviously you choose not to believe that,’ he said impatiently, acknowledging her sceptical snort.
‘I have no reason to believe anything you say.’
‘And I have no reason to lie to you.’ He scowled. ‘Lia, De la Cruz Industries did not withdraw from the negotiations to purchase your father’s company.’
‘Of course you did—’
‘No,’ he stated evenly. ‘Your father was the one who withdrew from our offer.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’ Lia pushed away from the kitchen unit, her movements restless as she walked into the larger area of the sitting room. ‘Why on earth would he do that when he was on the verge of bankruptcy and so badly needed to sell Fairbanks Industries?’
‘In light of the current FSA investigation into the company, I think we may assume it was because he had discovered some...discrepancy.’
‘What sort of discrepancy?’
‘I believe several million pounds were transferred from the company accounts to offshore bank accounts.’
‘You believe or you know?’
‘I know,’ he confirmed quietly.
‘My father did not steal from his own company, if that’s what you’re implying!’ Her hands were clenched at her sides.
‘Of course not.’
‘Then who did?’
Gregorio shrugged his shoulders. ‘Only a limited number of people had the means, and access to the bank accounts affected.’
She frowned as she thought over what Gregorio had told her.
He’d said her father had withdrawn from the negotiations to sell Fairbanks Industries. That he had done so because he had discovered someone had been stealing from his company.
But who?
As Gregorio had said, only a few people had access to the company bank accounts.
Her father, obviously.
And Lia, as a precaution—in case anything should ever happen to him and she needed access, he’d explained. How ironic that was, in the circumstances.
The two vice presidents of the company...
The accounts department only had limited access—not enough to be able to transfer funds from company accounts to another one.
There was no one else except—
Lia gave Gregorio a startled glance. ‘Do you happen to know who he suspected?’
‘I think you have already guessed the answer to that question.’
There was only one answer, if she eliminated everyone else. But it simply wasn’t an answer Lia could give any credence to.
David had not only been her father’s lawyer but her fiancé when the embezzlement had supposedly taken place. Besides which, his family was incredibly wealthy. There was no incentive for David to steal money from her father’s company.
Lord knew she had no reason to think kindly of David, after he had let her down so badly, but she simply couldn’t believe the man she had intended to marry was capable of the things Gregorio had just revealed to her.