The Spaniard's Passion

If only time would stop and the three of them could remain together, forever, like this.

CHAPTER ONE

“HOW much?” Lady Sophie Wilkins asked, holding her hand up, watching the ring catch the light. The marquis cut emerald surrounded by smaller diamonds glittered in the jewelry store’s bright fluorescent lighting, throwing off white sparks like fireworks exploding on New Year’s Eve.

“Ten thousand pounds,” the jeweler answered.

She turned her hand a little, mesmerized by the hot glow of the emerald and the brilliant blue and yellow streaks of fire in the white stones.

She heard the jewelry store door open but she couldn’t tear her gaze from the glittering stone on her finger. Ten thousand pounds, she silently repeated, ten thousand pounds, knowing she’d never have anything half so beautiful again. But she couldn’t keep it. She had to get to Brazil, and she still had so many bills to pay, and ten thousand pounds would settle a lot of debts.

Her silence troubled the jeweler. “I might possibly be able to do ten thousand five hundred,” he said as though she’d squeezed the offer from him, “but that’s my best price, Lady Wilkins. I couldn’t go higher.”

“Not even though you’ll get twice that much tomorrow?” a deep male voice asked mockingly.

Sophie felt a shadow cross her grave. It couldn’t be…

Slowly she looked up, and slowly her eyes focused. The air left her throat. She swayed a little on her feet. “Lon?”

“Sophie.”

She couldn’t look away, her hand balled into a fist and she kept staring at him as if she’d seen a ghost. “What are you doing here?”

“Taking care of some business.”

“Business?” she repeated numbly, as if it were a foreign concept, although she knew Alonso was one of the world’s leading emerald exporters.

The jeweler hurriedly put away his monocle and the black velvet pad on the counter. “I didn’t expect you until tomorrow, Mr. Huntsman. The stone’s not even cleaned yet.”

Sophie’s eyes searched his face even as her fingers curled around the wedding ring still on her fourth finger. “You’re buying a stone?”

“An emerald,” Lon answered.

He’d traveled halfway around the world to buy an emerald? “Must be valuable.”

His eyes never left hers. “It came from my mine, so I suppose you could say it has sentimental value.”

As he’d talked she’d gone hot, then cold, and now she tugged her wedding ring from her finger and handed it to the jeweler. “I accept your offer.”

The jeweler nodded his head, pocketing the ring Clive had given her nearly six years ago. “Will you take a check, Lady Wilkins?”

“Yes.” Her throat seemed to be squeezing closed. “Thank you.” The jeweler moved across the shop and chilled, Sophie began to button her long wool coat.

“You’re selling your wedding ring?” Lon asked, black lashes lowered, concealing his expression.

“It’s a reputable jeweler,” she answered, hating the defensive note that had crept into her voice.

“You’re short on cash?”

“I’m fine.” There was no way she’d ever tell Lon the truth. She didn’t want pity, and she didn’t want sympathy from him, either. She’d chosen Clive. End of story. “I didn’t realize you were back in the country.”

“I have a house in Knightsbridge.”

“You live here in London?”

“Part of the year.”

“I had no idea.”

Lon heard the pang in her voice, and he felt a shaft of hot emotion. He’d known from the start that her marriage had been rocky, maybe even downright unhappy, but she’d never said a word against Clive. “I travel back and forth between South America quite a bit. Depends on business.”

He hadn’t seen her in years and yet she was still beautiful. More beautiful. If anything, grief had etched her features finer, darkening her eyebrows, softening her mouth, creating deeper hollows beneath her cheekbones. Few women could achieve with plastic surgery what nature had given Sophie so freely.

The jeweler returned with a check which Sophie silently pocketed. Transaction completed, she murmured her thanks and Lon escorted Sophie outside. “What about your business?” she protested.

“The stone’s not ready. I’ll come back later.”

It was cold outside. The late afternoon temperatures dipped low. Sophie took a quick breath, trying to clear her head. Lon here. Impossible. Incredible. She’d never once bumped into him in all the years since they’d left Colombia.

She drew her coat closer as throngs of pedestrians pushed past them, and her gaze took in Harrod’s festive windows across the street. The ornate building’s majestic turrets were illuminated with countless white lights and windows were decked with wreaths.

“It’s almost Christmas,” Lon said, breaking the uneasy silence between them.

Which meant it’d been almost two years without Clive. Sophie bit her lower lip, fighting tears and the confusing emotions threatening to overwhelm her.

God, she’d missed Lon. He’d been her friend for years and then he’d just disappeared from her life. She struggled to think when she’d last seen him but she couldn’t even figure out how long it’d been.

“You still look like a savage,” she said huskily.

“And you don’t like savages.”

“I liked you.”

“Past tense?”

Sophie’s eyes stung all over again and the wind tugged at her coat, nipping at her skin. What lies they’d told themselves to make her decision all right.

“I have to go home,” she said, voice thickening. “The Countess is waiting.”

The first raindrop fell from the heavy dark clouds. “I’ll take you.”

“It’s too far. An hour and a half—”

“I’ll take you,” he repeated, and he practically tucked her beneath his arm, her head against his shoulder, her body pressed to his side.

He was still hard, solid, imposing and she shivered all through her feeling as if she’d been washed overboard and was close to drowning.

He’d only been back in her life twenty minutes and already nothing was the same. But that’s how Lon had always been. Huge. Imposing.