At The Ruthless Billionaire's Command

‘In what way?’

‘That night at the restaurant when you—when you kissed me, I thought you were just another arrogant jerk who doesn’t like to hear the word no.’

‘One out of the two, certainly,’ he mused.

Lia didn’t need him to tell her it was the word no he didn’t like to hear. There was no doubting he was arrogant too, but there was something else. Something she couldn’t quite equate with the ruthless bastard she’d labelled him. Perhaps it was the fact that, whatever his reasons, he was actually attempting to take care of her.

‘You said you weren’t always rich?’

‘No.’ He settled more comfortably on the bar stool. ‘When I graduated from university with a business degree and returned to Spain it was to find that my father had allowed the family vineyard to decline. Several years of bad harvest...diseased vines.’ He shrugged. ‘There were still my two brothers to go to university. I put my own life on hold and set about ensuring that happened.’

‘By founding the de la Cruz business empire?’

‘Yes.’

‘And is your life still on hold?’

He looked at her admiringly. ‘Obviously not.’

Lia gave a shake of her head. ‘I don’t think it would be a good idea for the two of us to meet again.’

He looked displeased. ‘Why not?’

Lia avoided meeting his gaze. ‘Besides the obvious, I don’t belong in that world any more.’

‘The obvious...?’

‘I hold you partly responsible for my father’s death.’ There—she’d stated it clearly, so there could be no lingering doubts as to her reason for staying away from this man.

Was she protesting too much?

Because of her earlier reaction to him?

Maybe. But that didn’t change the fact that she really didn’t want to see or be alone with Gregorio again. He...unsettled her. Disturbed her. In a deep and visceral way Lia could never remember being aware of with any other man. Including the man she had once been engaged to and had intended to marry.

‘I am sorry you feel that way,’ he answered evenly. ‘And you can belong in whatever world you choose to be in,’ he announced arrogantly.

‘You really can’t be that naïve! My father is dead. My engagement is over. Most of my friends have deserted me. I’ve lost my home. My father’s business is under investigation. None of the charities I worked for want the name Fairbanks associated with them. I now live in this tiny apartment, and I start a new job on Monday.’

‘None of those things changes who you are fundamentally.’

‘I no longer know who I am!’ If there had been enough room to pace then Lia would have done so, as she was suddenly filled with restless energy. ‘I try to tell myself none of those other things matter. That this is my life now...’

‘But...?’

‘But I’m mainly lying to myself.’ She inwardly cursed herself as her voice broke emotionally. Gregorio was the last man she wanted to reveal any weakness to. ‘And you’re lying to yourself if you think that being nice to me, buying me dinner, will ever make me forget your part in what happened,’ she added accusingly.

‘No barrier is insurmountable if the two people involved do not wish it to be there.’

‘But I do wish it to be there.’

‘Are you sure about that?’

When had Gregorio moved to stand so close to her? She felt overwhelmed by both his size and the force of his personality—a lethal combination that caused her heart to start pounding loudly again.

‘You have to go,’ she told him.

‘Do I?’

‘Yes!’

Despite the food she’d eaten, Lia had no reserves of energy left to resist the pull of those dark and compelling eyes. No defences to fight the lure of that hard and muscular body. Even the reminder that he was Gregorio de la Cruz wasn’t working. She was caught like a deer in the headlights of a car as his head slowly began to lower towards hers.

Gregorio was going to kiss her...

No matter how exhausted and defenceless Lia felt, she couldn’t allow that to happen.

‘No!’ She raised enough energy to put a restraining hand against his chest, and that brief contact was enough to make her aware of the tensed heat of Gregorio’s body and the rapid beat of his heart. ‘You really do have to leave. Please.’

His lips remained only centimetres away from her own, his breath a warm caress against her cheek.

His nostrils flared as he breathed long and deeply before slowly straightening and then finally stepping away. ‘Because you asked so nicely...’

Lia gave a choked laugh, able to breathe again now that he was no longer standing quite so close to her. ‘As opposed to threatening to call the police and having them kick you out?’

‘Exactly.’ He rolled down the sleeves of his shirt and fastened them before shrugging back into his jacket. ‘Think of me tomorrow when you eat all that chocolate cake,’ he added huskily, and then the door closed softly behind him as he let himself out of the apartment.

Lia breathed easily at last once he had gone. What the hell had happened just now? She had almost let Gregorio kiss her, for goodness’ sake. She—

Lia froze as she saw the business card sitting on top of the breakfast bar.

The same business card she had refused to take from him earlier, with his personal mobile number embossed on it in gold.

CHAPTER THREE (#u6f39b511-2042-5927-a96f-b739c26c7fbf)

‘GOOD MORNING, LIA.’

Lia felt all the colour drain from her cheeks as she stared up at the man standing on the other side of the reception desk at the London Exemplar Hotel.

She had always thought that a person feeling the colour leeching from their face was a ridiculous concept: people couldn’t actually feel the colour leaving their cheeks.

Except Lia just had. In fact the blood seemed to have drained from her head completely, settling somewhere in the region of her toes and leaving her feeling slightly light-headed as she continued to gape across the reception desk at Gregorio de la Cruz.

He tilted his head, a mocking smile playing about those sculpted lips as he saw her reaction to his being here. ‘I did warn you that in future you should anticipate seeing me where and when you least expected to do so.’

Yes, he had—but it hadn’t occurred to Lia that Gregorio might turn up at her new place of employment.

Deliberately so?