The Buenos Aires Marriage Deal by Maggie Cox Read Free Book Online

come to a decision. ‘We will continue this discussion tomorrow, after I return from the polo match. Now…I am going to go and help myself to a nightcap, then sit in the drawing room for a while and imagine you all alone in your bed to see what fantasies I can conjure up about what you will be wearing. I know you always resisted sleeping naked…is that still the case?’
    Remembering how he’d used to tease her about her ‘charming modesty’, Briana gripped the stair-rail a little harder as she also recollected that—no matter whether she’d worn something in bed or not—Pascual had always ensured that she ended up naked.
    ‘Goodnight, Pascual,’ she murmured, electing to ignore the tantalising question altogether.
    ‘ Buenas noches, Briana.’
    Turning abruptly away with a little half-smile, he made the long walk down the carpeted oak floor to the drawing room. All the while Briana’s anxious gaze cleaved to his tall, straight back—until he went inside the door and disappeared from view. The intoxicating taste of him was still clinging to her mouth like some kind of drugging nectar, making her perversely wish for a very different ending to their evening together indeed…

CHAPTER FOUR
    I T SOUNDED as if someone was trying to break down the door. Her heart beating like a loud bass drum, Briana let her gaze adjust to the dark for a second, before leaning over to the bedside lamp and switching it on. As soon as light flooded the room she was out of bed in a flash, hurrying to see who her urgent-sounding caller was. Her mind was wild with fear that something unthinkable might have happened to her son.
    The figure that loomed up before her out of the semi-darkened corridor was Pascual, and he was glaring at her like a man holding onto the last vestiges of his self-control. His furious, contemptuous gaze seared her to the spot with its ferocity.
    ‘You heartless, selfish little bitch!’ he spat out.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked weakly, her hand nervously going to the V of her short cotton nightie. She was afraid she knew the answer.
    Kicking the door shut behind him with the heel of his shoe, he moved towards Briana in head-to-toe black clothing, like some deadly feral panther alighting on his kill, and she honestly thought she might pass out in shock. She was almost tripping over her own feet in her anxious bid to get away, but nonetheless Pascual easily caught her and impelled her towards him, his hard chest acting like an impenetrable wall to confound her escape.
    ‘You have a son! A four-year old son! He’s mine, isn’t he? He must be mine! Even you would not have deceived me with another man when we were together…not when I made sure that practically every night you were kept occupied in my bed!’
    For long, excruciating seconds every possibility of speech deserted Briana. Staring up into the sea of pain and accusation bearing down on her in Pascual’s scorching livid gaze, she felt her stomach clench sickeningly with fear and regret.
    ‘How did—?’ she began brokenly, hardly even feeling the immovable band of his fingers that was tightly circling her small-boned wrist. ‘How did you find out?’
    ‘Your colleague Tina was most illuminating about a lot of things,’ he answered scathingly. ‘I found her alone in the drawing room, reading, and I suggested she share a nightcap with me. Sitting by a cosy fire, it did not take long for alcohol to loosen her already willing tongue. Before I knew it she was practically telling me your life story!’
    ‘She—she wouldn’t!’
    Throwing Briana’s arm away, as if her touch was nothing less than poison, Pascual snorted. ‘How little you seem to know about human nature…No wonder your business is failing! Did you not know that anyone can be bought for a price? In your colleague’s case just a small sherry was enough for her to spill all your guilty secrets at my feet…like a treasure trove!’
    Lost for words for a second time, Briana threaded