‘PERHAPS I SHOULD introduce myself?’
A fully dressed Gregorio—thank goodness—looked at Lia as the four of them stood awkwardly in the sitting room of her apartment. Lia really hadn’t had any choice but to invite the other couple inside.
‘Fine.’ It was the only word she’d seemed able to say since she had opened her apartment door and found Cathy and Rick standing outside in the hallway.
‘Oh, I know exactly who you are, Mr de la Cruz,’ Cathy assured him with a sideways glance at Lia. ‘We’re Cathy and Rick Morton. Friends of Lia’s.’
Lia winced as she sensed Cathy’s censorious gaze on her after that last announcement. It was questioning why, when they were such close friends, Lia hadn’t confided in Cathy regarding her friendship with Gregorio. She was going to have some serious explaining to do once Gregorio had left. Whenever that was going to be. Because of the four of them he seemed to be the most relaxed and the least intimidated by this situation. He also showed no inclination to leave.
Lia felt bad for not telling Cathy about Gregorio’s previous visit, or that she was working for him. At the time she had thought it was the right thing to do—that she would be avoiding Gregorio as much as possible in future, so telling Cathy about him was a waste of time. Look how well that had turned out!
But at least he had all his clothes back on and had tidied himself before he’d come out of her bedroom. Although the slightly creased T-shirt and tousled dark hair indicated that hadn’t been the case minutes ago.
Lia knew Cathy was going to want to kill her once the two of them could speak privately.
‘I remember seeing you with Lia at the funeral,’ he answered Cathy as the three of them shook hands. ‘And, please, you must both call me Gregorio.’
The pleasantries over, an awkward silence once again fell over the room.
‘Wine.’ Lia had finally found another word to say. ‘Let’s all have a glass of wine. I have red or white. Which would you prefer? The white is dry, the red fruity.’
Now she’d regained her voice Lia didn’t seem able to stop babbling, but at the same time her gaze couldn’t quite meet Cathy’s or Rick’s, and she was avoiding Gregorio’s completely.
She felt so stupid. Like a child who had been caught out not being honest. Not that Cathy or Rick were in the least judgemental—it was Lia who felt as if she had somehow disappointed them.
‘You sit and chat with your friends and I’ll pour the wine.’ Gregorio spoke dryly, obviously knowing the topic of their conversation would be him.
‘I’ll help you.’ Rick hurriedly followed the other man into the kitchen area.
‘Cathy—’
‘He seems to know his way around your kitchen,’ Cathy observed softly as the two women sat down, Her brows rose as she watched Gregorio remove a bottle of red wine from the rack before taking glasses from the cupboard above.
Lia tried again. ‘Cathy—’
‘I have to say he’s an improvement on the last guy,’ her friend murmured appreciatively.
Lia’s eyes widened. It was the last thing she had expected the other woman to say. ‘You didn’t like David?’
‘He was your choice, so of course I liked him.’ Her friend shrugged. ‘Except I didn’t, if you know what I mean.’
No, Lia didn’t know what she meant. She had always thought Cathy and Rick liked David: the four of them had often gone out to dinner together, and they had always seemed to get on.
‘He could be rather condescending,’ Cathy added with a grimace.
Thinking back to those evenings, she realised David had talked down to Cathy and Rick. As if they weren’t quite of his social standing. Which was ridiculous. Cathy’s father was a politician, currently in government, and Rick’s family owned and ran a huge farm in Worcestershire. Rick himself was senior manager at a software firm here in London.
It made her wonder what else she hadn’t noticed about David during the months they had dated and been engaged. Whether Gregorio’s suspicions about him were well-founded. David had certainly proved himself to be a less than supportive fiancé after her father’s death.
Unlike Gregorio...
She might not particularly like the idea of Gregorio having his security men keeping an eye on her, but there was also a certain...reassurance—a warmth in knowing that someone cared enough about her to do that.
Lia chewed on her bottom lip. ‘About Gregorio—’
‘Don’t worry about it, sweetie.’ Cathy smiled as she leaned forward to give Lia’s arm a reassuring squeeze. ‘It’s a surprise, but not an unpleasant one. The man is gorgeous, isn’t he?’ She lowered her voice even more.
Lia glanced across to where Gregorio and Rick were chatting together like old friends—as it turned out, as she listened briefly to their conversation, they were two men who both liked football but supported opposing teams. Gregorio was laughing at something Rick had said, his dark eyes warm with humour, a relaxed expression lightening his austere features.
‘Yes, he is,’ Lia acknowledged softly.
‘He doesn’t seem at all cold and remote this evening,’ Cathy added approvingly.
Gregorio had been anything but cold and remote in her bedroom a few minutes ago. Burning hot and very close better described the two of them together. Just thinking about all Gregorio’s naked and responsive flesh was enough to cause Lia’s cheeks to warm in a blush.
Cathy gave her a knowing grin. ‘Do you want us to leave as soon as we’ve drunk our wine?’
‘No! I mean... No,’ she repeated softly as the two men turned curiously at her vehemence. ‘I think I may need saving from myself,’ she told Cathy with a groan. ‘I don’t know what I was even thinking. He’s just so—’
‘Overwhelming and sexy as hell?’ her friend supplied lightly.
Lia’s gaze could no longer meet Cathy’s. ‘Yes.’
‘Here we go,’ Rick announced in an over-hearty voice as he handed Cathy a glass of red wine. No doubt as a warning to the two women that they were no longer alone.
‘Lia.’
She glanced up at Gregorio as he stood beside her chair, holding out a glass a red wine for her to take. The humour gleaming in those dark eyes told her he had overheard Cathy’s last comment—and Lia’s response to it.
She turned her gaze away, her hand shaking slightly as she took the wine glass from him.
‘So, what do the two of you have planned for the rest of the evening?’ Rick prompted politely—and immediately had to thump Cathy on the back as she began to choke on a mouthful of wine. ‘What did I say?’ Rick looked bewildered by his wife’s reaction.
‘Never mind, love,’ Cathy answered once she’d caught her breath. ‘Let’s just drink our wine and pick up a Chinese takeaway on the way home.’
‘Lia and I have already eaten, but we could always order in food for you to eat here?’ Gregorio suggested lightly. ‘Alternatively, we could all go out for a drink together somewhere the two of you could have some food?’
Lia slowly turned her head to look at him. Who was this man and what had he done with the cold and arrogant Gregorio de la Cruz? Because this man certainly wasn’t the ruthless businessman who swallowed up companies with the voracity of a shark. Or the playboy billionaire she’d read about in the newspapers who had a different blonde on his arm every week.
‘Okay, this is getting a little weird now.’
Lia stood up decisively. She might have been in shock since Cathy and Rick had arrived, but she was recovering fast. And the four of them spending the rest of the evening together wasn’t going to happen.
‘Cathy and Rick are far too polite to say so, but they don’t want to spend the evening with the two of us—’
‘Hey, don’t put words in my mouth,’ Cathy protested.
‘Because they are both totally freaked out right now,’ Lia continued determinedly. ‘I’m freaked out right now, so I know they have to be too.’ She frowned at Gregorio. ‘The two of us aren’t a couple and we aren’t going out for the evening with anyone—least of all my two best friends. What happened earlier...’ She gave Cathy and Rick a self-conscious glance. ‘Shouldn’t have happened.’
‘I believe you are the one embarrassing your friends.’ Now Gregorio looked every inch the coldly arrogant man Lia had met at her father’s funeral: his eyes were narrowed and no longer warm, but hard as the onyx they resembled, and his sculptured lips were thin and unsmiling.
‘Not at all.’ Cathy stood up. ‘It’s time the two of us were going anyway. Rick?’ she prompted sharply as her husband made no move to get up out of his chair.
‘What? Oh. Yes. Sorry.’ He rose abruptly to his feet, then seemed to realise he still had a glass in his hand and looked around for somewhere to put it.
‘Here.’ Cathy took the glass and placed it on the coffee table next to her own. ‘I’ll call you in the morning, okay?’ She gave Lia a hug. ‘Nice to meet you, Gregorio.’ She nodded. ‘Say goodnight, Rick,’ she instructed dryly. Her husband still looked slightly dazed by the speed of their departure.
‘Goodnight, Rick,’ he repeated as he was pulled down the hallway by his wife.
The apartment door closed quietly behind them seconds later.
Leaving an awkward silence.
A very cold and very uncomfortable silence that caused Lia to give a shiver as the chill seemed to seep into her bones.
‘Your rudeness was completely uncalled for,’ Gregorio snapped finally.
‘No.’ Lia’s chin rose as she faced him. ‘No, it really wasn’t. I don’t know what happened between the two of us earlier, but it isn’t going to happen again. I won’t let it happen again,’ she added firmly. She was totally unsettled by their earlier passion. ‘And we certainly aren’t ever going out for the evening with any of my friends, as if the two of us are together.’
Gregorio was having to exert great willpower so as not to lose his temper. He made a point of never losing his temper—no matter what the provocation. But he had not encountered anyone as stubborn as Lia before.
He had been disappointed when he’d realised Lia’s visitors had to be Cathy and Rick Morton, the couple he had seen her with at her father’s graveside two months ago. He knew, from the daily security reports he received, that Lia had lived with the other couple before moving into her apartment at the weekend.
Rather than remaining in Lia’s bedroom like a dirty little secret she was keeping hidden away, Gregorio had decided to dress and join them.
He had no experience of being in the company of a woman’s friends or family, but he had thought he was doing quite well. Being charming to Cathy. Talking football with her husband. Pouring them all wine. It had seemed perfectly logical to him, as the other couple were obviously close to Lia, to suggest they all spend the rest of the evening together.
Lia’s vehemently negative response to that suggestion had been immediate. And, to his surprise, her words had hurt.
He was close to his two brothers. Well...as close as he could be when he was based in London, Sebastien was in New York, and Alejandro was taking care of the estate and vineyards in Spain. He also had a large extended family, of which he was the recognised patriarch.
He had sex with the women who flitted in and out of his life, but he did not become involved with their family or their friends. He rarely even met any of their friends, let alone their family. He had been willing to make an exception with Lia, and he’d received a verbal and public slap in the face for his trouble.
He would not make the same mistake again.
‘What happened earlier is that you used me for sex,’ he bit out coldly, his accent more clipped in his anger. ‘No doubt any man would have sufficed. I am pleased I was able to give you one orgasm, at least, before we were interrupted.’
The colour had drained from her cheeks. ‘You bastard!’
Gregorio shrugged his shoulders. ‘You were the one at such pains to explain exactly what we have between us, I am merely agreeing with you. When you feel in the need for sex again perhaps you should give me a call? If I have the time I—No, I do not think so.’ Gregorio grasped hold of Lia’s wrist as her hand arced up towards his cheek. He used that grip to pull her up close against him. ‘I warned you the last time you did that I would not allow you to do it again without retaliating.’
Her top lip turned back in a sneer. ‘I should have known you were the type of man who would hit a woman!’
Gregorio’s jaw tightened. ‘Any man who strikes a woman, for whatever reason, no longer has the right to call himself a man. My retribution will be of quite a different kind, I assure you.’
Lia swallowed. Gregorio’s threat was all the more disturbing because he’d delivered it in such a calm and conversational tone. As if they were discussing the weather rather than his retribution.
‘Let go of me,’ she said evenly.
He quirked one dark brow. ‘Are you going to slap me again?’
‘No.’ That impulse had passed. Besides, she had never felt tempted to hit anyone before Gregorio.
‘Pity.’ He bared his teeth in a humourless smile as he released her wrist and stepped back. ‘I believe I would have enjoyed punishing you. Perhaps I still will...’ he mused.
Lia breathed shallowly. ‘Punishing me?’
Black eyes glittered through narrowed lids. ‘You are not someone who likes to feel out of control, are you?’
That sounded more like a statement than a question, and Lia treated it as such. ‘Neither are you,’ she defended.
‘I do not remember objecting when you made love to me earlier.’
The warmth in her cheeks deepened as she recalled her aggression. And her pleasure...
Which was another reason she wasn’t going to allow herself to be alone with Gregorio again. He affected her, drove her wild with passion in a way no other man ever had. Including the man she had intended to marry.
She and David had spent the night together regularly after their engagement. Nights she had enjoyed even as she had known there had to be more. Although she had enjoyed David’s lovemaking she had never reached the pinnacle of physical pleasure when they were together.
A few minutes of just being kissed by and kissing Gregorio and she’d had her first orgasm. He hadn’t even touched her. The stimulation had come from those kisses alone.
Just being with him physically excited her.
As much as it disturbed her.
Because she wasn’t sure she even liked Gregorio.
Lia moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. ‘I really think you should leave now.’
Gregorio had given her far too much to think about. Not just what had happened between the two of them, but the truth about David’s involvement in the demise of her father’s company.
Because, no matter how confused she was about her feelings for Gregorio, she knew he wasn’t a liar. In fact, he was the opposite: Gregorio tended to be brutally honest.
Lia knew she had to see and talk to David again. To find out for herself if what Gregorio had said about him having a gambling habit was true, at least. To try and get David to tell her the part he had played—or not played—in the downfall of Fairbanks Industries.