Eduardo rolled onto his side, hissing in a deep breath as the cuts on his shoulder made contact with the mattress. What time was it? He’d gone to bed at 2:00 p.m., but based on the lack of light at the edges of the curtains, it was night now. More than night, the bedside clock revealed. Almost dawn. He’d slept for sixteen hours.
Those were some pills the doctor had given him. But it wasn’t the tablets that had calmed his mind. It was finally having made a decision about Anna. Taking her to bed now seemed the smart thing to do. They’d both get what they wanted. And if a weekend of sex allowed him the closure he needed to move on, that’s what he’d do.
Score one for logic.
Now all he had to concentrate on was keeping his emotions in check. The thought of spending a couple of days in bed with a woman had never filled him with such elation and trepidation at the same time. He was being ridiculous. How good could it be?
If they were going to have a few days to concentrate on nothing but her sexual education, he needed to clear up a few things first. Like who was behind the attacks.
He listened to his voicemail messages, several from the office updating him on various projects, which thankfully, seemed to be running smoothly despite his absence. There was one from his contact on the police force.
They’d ruled out Raul as the target. Evidently, there was a cop undercover within the gang who said there was no vendetta against the former member. As long as Raul stayed away from criminal activity, they’d leave him alone.
Eduardo couldn’t wait to tell his friend. Maybe Raul would want to relocate to Mendoza permanently once they’d settled the custody dispute. He didn’t really need a driver. Tiago was always looking for good workers, and Timo seemed to love the being in the country. It could be good for both father and son to have a fresh start.
On to the other avenues of inquiry. Eduardo did a quick time difference calculation, then placed a call to his friend and business partner on holiday in France.
“You okay?” Tiago asked as he answered the phone.
“Yeah, a few cuts and bruises but nothing serious. Thanks again for letting us hide out at your place and for the use of your plane.”
“It might be clichéd, but it’s still true: mi casa es su casa. How are the other guests?”
“Fine. Little Timo loves it here. We may have a hard time getting him to leave.” He was not going to discuss Anna. His friend was too astute. He’d recognize the change in Eduardo’s voice when he even said her name.
“You can all stay as long as required.”
“Thanks.” He needed to switch subjects before his throat closed. “About the community center—”
“You think I’m worried about the company when someone blew up my best friend’s car?”
That elicited a genuine chuckle. “My, how the mighty have fallen. I recall a time not too long ago when you breathed business.”
“I was a fool.”
A condition Eduardo was perilously close to emulating. “Nevertheless, buildings are waiting to be built. Love may make the world go around, but it doesn’t file permit applications or arrange deliveries of cement.”
“No, that’s what competent staff do. Let them prove themselves, Eduardo. You don’t need to oversee everything. Figure out who’s got a grudge against you or your friends. Then we’ll sort out the rest together.”
“Speaking of grudges, what have you been able to discover about Spencer and Linda Suarez?” Those two had put Tiago through hell when they’d been battling over custody of Miranda. Perhaps with their main target out of the country, they’d decided to focus their revenge on Eduardo, who’d helped thwart their plans.
“Spencer is still in prison in Rawson. He’s had a few visitors lately. We’re making inquiries. Linda is in BA, on parole. But according to the officer assigned to her, she’s been a model citizen.”
“The woman is a snake. I wouldn’t trust her with a rotten apple.”
“Agreed. I’ve got someone tailing her, but so far she hasn’t done anything suspicious.”
Eduardo groaned. This tangle had so many threads it was going to take more than one lead to figure out who was involved.
“Jacques has been dealing with the American suspects. Do you want to talk to him?”
“Please, if he’s available.”
“He’s right here. We were discussing a collaboration with our vineyards.”
“Bonjour, Eduardo,” Jacques de Launay, Tiago’s pseudo half brother greeted him. The man was a billionaire who’d left it all behind to go into hiding with the woman he loved because of a threat on her life. If anyone understood Eduardo’s position, it was Jacques.
“I appreciate your help,” Eduardo began.
“No problem. To be honest, since Maya’s troubles are over, things have been a bit dull.”
“At the moment, I’d gladly take dull. Have you uncovered anything?”
“Your woman has an interesting family.”
Eduardo let the comment about Anna being his woman pass. “I know her late husband’s children are suing her for a larger share of the estate. But Anna doesn’t believe they’re capable of violence.”
“That was my investigator’s initial assessment as well. In her words, ‘they couldn’t find their way out of a closet.’ The likelihood of them organizing an escalating terror campaign is highly improbable. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t someone in the background who has the wherewithal to do it. The instigator might benefit if any of those three came into a lot of money.”
“That’s a possibility.” And it widened the search even more. Mierda.
“Another person of interest is Anna’s mother.”
Eduardo sat. “Valentina? Why would she want to endanger her own daughter?” They didn’t have the closest relationship—at least they hadn’t when Anna had been his girlfriend. And given Anna’s response when he’d asked about her mother, it hadn’t improved in the meantime.
“Valentina Marquez, now Fuller, is deeply in debt, and her marriage is on the rocks. Anna pays her a monthly stipend, but it’s obviously not enough for the lifestyle she’s living. Maybe she’s hoping that if her daughter is upset, she’ll turn to her mother for comfort and get back into her good books. Or worse. Ask Anna if her mother is a beneficiary in her will. Valentina could have approximately a hundred and fifty million reasons to want her daughter dead.”
Eduardo rubbed his sternum. This would crush Anna. Her mother was all she had left. “I’ll ask her about their relationship and the terms of her will.”
“Très bien. We’ll keep investigating. I’ll pass you back to Tiago. Good luck and stay safe, Eduardo.”
“Thanks again, Jacques.”
Tiago came back on the line. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know we’re heading back early. We’ll arrive in Mendoza on Sunday.”
“You’re not cutting short your holiday because of me, are you?” Was this sinking feeling consternation that his friend had curtailed his vacation? Or disappointment that he now wouldn’t be spending an entire two days in bed with Anna?
“No. As I mentioned, Jacques and I are going to co-produce a vintage next year. He wants to taste the grapes personally, and they need to travel soon as Maya is getting big with the twins she’s expecting. He doesn’t want to leave her or have her travel any closer to her due date.”
Another man so besotted with his wife he couldn’t bear to be apart from her for even a few days. A vision of Anna pregnant with his child flitted through Eduardo’s mind. Nope, he wouldn’t be able to travel solo either.
“Okay. See you Sunday.”
The pressure on his chest increased. If he let himself fantasize about a future with Anna and what they could mean to each other, he’d stare heartache in the face again.
He needed to exercise, clear his body of the pain meds, and get his focus back.
He downed the glass of water beside the bed and brushed his teeth to rid his mouth of the woolly sensation. After slipping on a pair of shorts, he exited his room.
And ran straight into Anna.
***
Eduardo’s strong hands grabbed her arms or she would have fallen.
“Sorry. I didn’t expect you to be outside my bedroom door at six in the morning,” he said.
Busted. Heat crept up her neck, infusing her cheeks. “I heard your voice and I was worried. You slept so long. Raul checked on you twice, just to make sure you were still breathing.” She searched his face, looking for signs of fever or delirium. She hadn’t been able to hear what he said, but she was concerned. Had he been talking in his sleep or hallucinating that someone was with him?
“I was on my phone. Those pills really knocked me out. But I’m feeling better now. I was just going for a run.”
“Is that wise? The doctor told you to keep your back dry. I don’t think getting all sweaty will help you heal.”
“Damn, I had forgotten that. I’ll just walk around the gardens. Some fresh air will clear my head of the pain pills.”
Wow, was he desperate to get away from her or what?
“Outside? In the dark? And have the commandos shoot you, thinking you’re an intruder?”
He rubbed his hand over his chin, now sporting two days’ growth of beard. Dios, he was so sexy. “Not likely, but I take your point.”
“There’s a fully equipped fitness room on the ground floor. You could walk on the treadmill. Just give me a second to change.”
His eyes flitted down her body, pausing where her breasts pressed against the thin cotton camisole she wore. Under his gaze, her nipples pebbled. And that had nothing on the moisture gathering between her thighs.
“I don’t need a nanny, Anna. I’ll see you at breakfast.” He turned to leave.
“Eduardo.” She grabbed his arm, and his muscles tensed beneath her fingers. “I…”
How did you explain to someone so self-sufficient—someone who’d had no one to rely on since childhood—that you were lonely? While he slept, she’d spent the day rattling around this big house. She’d wanted to play with Timo, but he’d been helping his father wash Tiago’s seemingly endless inventory of vehicles. The pride and joy on the little boy’s face as he scrubbed at the rims of a Bentley with an old toothbrush had been too precious to interrupt.
Still, the emptiness in her life echoed around her soul. She had no right to burden Eduardo with her drama. That didn’t mean she couldn’t try to cajole him into a small display of affection, something to get her through the next few hours.
“You promised me the boyfriend experience,” she blurted out.
His eyes narrowed and his chest expanded as he pulled in a deep breath. “Even when we were together, we didn’t live in each other’s pockets. I just want to exercise. I promise not to do anything too strenuous.”
“All right. But how about a see-you-later kiss?”
The words had barely left her mouth before he’d wrapped a strong arm around her waist and pulled her against him. His other hand gently tilted her face up. Passion darkened his eyes to nearly black, but they were softened by some other emotion she dared not name. The second his lips touched hers, however, her eyes drifted closed. She’d been chilled standing in the hallway wearing only a camisole and shorts. Now heat engulfed her, and even those few scraps of fabric seemed too much.
Her back hit the wall and Eduardo’s hand at her waist slid under her thigh and pulled it up to anchor around his hips. His touch was fire, and she burned inside and out. Madre de Dios, this was just a kiss. When he did make love to her, she’d be a puddle in seconds. Her head filled with his scent of bergamot and sandalwood, drowning her in want. He tasted of minty toothpaste and the essence of Eduardo. She couldn’t get enough.
His mouth devoured hers. This was no gentle kiss. No embrace between teenagers exploring their sexuality for the first time. This was a man who knew how to make a woman writhe with passion, as he’d promised. His tongue swept against hers, dueling, leaving her in no doubt of his expertise. The hand at the back of her knee slid along her inner thigh. If his fingers slipped five centimeters to the left, he’d find her soaking wet and ready for him.
A gasp escaped her lips as his other hand slid under her top and caressed her bare breast. He rolled her tight nipple between his thumb and index finger, giving it a gentle pull. She nearly came out of her skin. Every single one of her nerve endings was alive, waiting, begging for his next touch. His teeth nipped her bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth, soothing the minor sting with a caress of his tongue.
Her head fell backward and hit the wall when he abandoned her mouth and traced his way across her jaw and down the corded side of her neck with little nips and licks.
His index finger followed the seam of her shorts between her legs, and she could feel him smile against the skin of her collarbone. His hand cupped her full breast, which pulsed with need. Her fingers in his hair tried to tug his mouth down to her chest. She wanted his tongue on her nipples more than she needed to breathe.
Instead he returned his lips to hers and once more plundered what she willingly offered. Her senses were overloaded, firing messages too fast for her brain to comprehend. Each sweep of his fingers over her flesh sent a cascade of electric shocks through her system. The world, her problems, her fears, all disappeared under his skill.
This. This was what she’d missed by choosing her career over love.
He released her lips.
“Edio.” His nickname escaped her mouth, accompanied by a breathy moan. He licked the shell of her ear, melting her bones. It was several seconds before she realized that both her feet were back on the ground. Her top had been tugged down, but his hands were on her hips only, to steady her.
“Go back to bed, Anna. I’ll see you at breakfast,” he whispered into her ear, his hot breath sliding down her neck to nestle between her breasts. Too soon he broke even that contact, moving to the middle of the hallway and leaving a lifetime of distance between them. If it weren’t for the rapid rise and fall of his chest and the discernible bulge in the front of his shorts, she’d never believe he’d been involved in the most passionate encounter of her life.
“Eduardo.” How could he just walk away after … that?
“Later we need to talk about your mother,” he said striding down the hall towards the stairs.
No other eight words could have doused her ardor as quickly.
She sank to the floor. Her back against the wall was the only thing keeping her upright. Her brain was still befuddled and couldn’t send the necessary messages to her legs to carry her to her bedroom. Not that she’d be able to sleep anyway. She may never sleep again until he finished what he started.
This was not what she’d expected. Sure, the passion was more than anything she’d ever known, but she’d been quasi-prepared for that. It was the need for him. Not just for his body. For all of him. Every single piece of his body, heart, mind, and soul. She craved it all.
Eventually, she picked herself up off the floor and made her way back to her room. Her bed was too big, too lonely to even contemplate a return there. Instead she sat on the round armchair and pulled her guitar into her lap. The familiar pose soothed her soul as her fingers picked out chords at random, stringing sounds together that reflected the chaos of her heart.
Had she made a huge mistake in trying to reignite the flame between her and Eduardo?
She needed to tread carefully. Love for him still lingered in her heart. But she’d lost a lot of people she loved recently; she was emotionally bereft. And at a low point in her career. Add in an intense attraction that had never died, and she could so easily fall back to into the submissive girlfriend role. That wouldn’t do. Not only would it be cheating herself, it would be unfair to Eduardo too. He deserved a strong woman who could stand on her own and support him in times of difficulty. She still wanted him to make love to her—Dios, she wanted him, especially after that kiss—but anything more than that would have to wait until she was at a better place in her life.
She loved being Angel, sharing her talent with the world, helping people cope with their own emotional turmoil, but she was realizing she also loved being Anna. How long had it been since she’d played with a child as she’d done with Timo the other day? How long since she’d worn clothes in bright, fun colors that didn’t come with a designer name attached? How long since she’d laughed until she snorted? Angel never snort-laughed.
That was going to change. Starting now. She’d find a balance between her life and her career. Then go after everything she wanted.
That they did teach in diva school.
***
Not being able to pound his body into submission was damned annoying. Eduardo did his lower body workout, but the lunges weren’t cutting it to dampen his ardor. What the hell had he been thinking, kissing Anna that way? He hadn’t been thinking at all. The hallway incident had been entirely hormonal, a lust-hazed action-adventure of epic proportions. Incredible. And anything but wise.
No jury of his peers would convict him of taking things too far too fast when faced with a partially clad woman who held his heart in her clenched fist and demanded that he kiss her. Hell, she’d been with him every step of the way.
The problem was his lack of self-control. It had all been too amazing, too scorching, too … emotional. Her response, her touch, her taste had overwhelmed him until he’d been reduced to a man whose sole purpose was to give pleasure. And receive it. Dios, she’d been so hot.
Maybe he shouldn’t have run his fingers along her inner thigh or stroked between her legs. Even through the layers of fabric, her heat had enticed him to strip the shorts from her body and plunge into her wetness. He’d been stopped only by the flashing reminder that she was a virgin and her first time should be more than a pounding against the wall in his friend’s hallway.
Lust flamed again within him. This was going to be a hell of a few days if he could neither act on the desire nor alleviate it with exercise. He should stay away from her. Not that that was an option. She wanted the boyfriend experience. Maybe this morning’s demonstration showed he wasn’t boyfriend material.
He tried to recall his vow to her grandmother. It had kept him in check in the past. Unfortunately, he was no longer dealing with a teenage girl on the cusp of womanhood. Anna was one-hundred-percent temptress.
The only benefit from the early morning escapade was that his heart rate had been accelerated enough that he didn’t need to do a warm-up before exercising. And by the time he’d hit the gym, the drugs were gone from his system.
Raul joined him a few minutes later. If he noticed his boss’s rather desperate demeanor, he said nothing.
Eduardo caught Raul’s gaze. “It wasn’t your past catching up with you in BA. The gang says as long as you stay out of their business, they’ll leave you alone.”
“I’m glad it wasn’t because of me. I was trying to figure out how I’d pay you back for your car.”
“Insurance will do that. There was something else I wanted to ask. How would you feel about relocating here to Mendoza?”
A smile lit the other man’s face. “You’re moving here? Timo loves seeing the mountains and all the green fields. Of course, he’s going to be disappointed that we won’t be living in a grand place like this, but I think the change will do him good. I swear he’s already grown an inch in the few days we’ve been here. But that could be all the treats the cook is feeding him.”
“No, I’m not moving. But I know Tiago is looking for a warehouse manager. I could recommend you. He has great plans for the winery. It could be a stepping-stone to an interesting career for you.”
The smile faded from Raul’s eyes. “I have no experience.”
“I wouldn’t say that. You ran a very efficient product distribution network for the cartel. This job would be similar, just more legal.”
“But you…”
Eduardo put his hand on the big man’s shoulder. “Amigo, we both know I don’t really need a driver. And that you are capable of so much more. I would hate for you to look back on your life in ten years and feel you’ve wasted it behind the wheel.” Eduardo read reluctant acknowledgment in the other man’s eyes. But he couldn’t limit his friend’s potential because Raul felt indebted. “Besides, I don’t currently have a car for you to drive. Mine got blown up, if you recall.”
“I don’t know…”
“Just think about it. We still have to wrap up the custody case. But with what I’ve been able to uncover about your ex-wife, I’m pretty sure you’ll be granted full custody. And if we can tell the judge you have a good job and a healthy environment for Timo here in Mendoza, that will also go in your favor. Tiago will be home on Sunday. Meet with him and see if you like the sound of the job, and if you could work with him.”
There was a glassiness in Raul’s eyes. Eduardo moved over to the rack to pull off a couple of dumbbells, giving his friend a chance to get his emotions under control. Eduardo attempted a bicep curl but stopped when the skin across his back protested. He did not want to risk a delay in recovery if it meant he’d have to wait longer to make love to Anna.
“Why?” Raul asked. His voice held a hint of a quaver, and he cleared it. “Why are you doing all this for me?”
Eduardo looked him in the eye. “Because my life could have easily turned out just like yours. I was headed into a life of crime. Then I met Anna.”
She’d saved him. And then nearly destroyed him.
Raul held a twenty-five-kilogram weight but didn’t slip it on the bar. “About her. I know it’s not my place…”
“You’re my friend, Raul. As long as you don’t disparage her, say what you want.” Eduardo picked up the other twenty-five-kilogram disc, ready to slip it onto the other end of the weightlifting bar. At least he could spot for his friend.
Raul’s eyes were wide. “I’d never say anything bad about her. She’s so wonderful with Timo, and kind to me too. She insisted I call her Anna. Anyway, I was thinking… You have history with her.” Raul held up his hand as Eduardo opened his mouth again. “I don’t want to know what happened, but can I give you some advice?”
“If you feel you need to.” Dios. Everyone was a relationship expert these days.
“When you look at her, all you’re remembering is the bad stuff, the way it ended. You just told me she saved you. Look at the good stuff, how you felt when you were together, how she made you a better man. I hated my ex after she left. But without her, I wouldn’t have Timo. And he’s everything to me. So, yeah, maybe I don’t hate her completely. Just … give Anna a chance.”
Eduardo had felt amazing when Anna had been in his life. Since then, he’d achieved great success. But he’d never been as happy.
Raul had a point.