Maddie just wished that her mother had been less flamboyant—and taller. Maddie was five foot nine and the dress ended around her mid-thigh, showing lots of pale leg. Her unusual colouring of black hair, green eyes and pale skin was courtesy of a great-great-grandmother who had come to Argentina with a wave of Irish immigrants and subsequently married into the Vasquez family.
So now, as she finally stepped from the shadows outside the hotel and the gentle breeze whistled over her bare flesh, she felt ridiculously exposed. Mustering all the courage she would need for this encounter, she valiantly ignored the double-take glances of recognition she drew, and strode into the luxurious marbled lobby.
Nicolás Cristobal de Rojas stifled a yawn. He’d been working around the clock to ensure this year’s grapes would be ready to pick soon. After a mercurial summer, they would either have one of the best vintages on their hands or the worst. He grimaced slightly. He knew bringing in his vintage wasn’t the only excuse for driving himself like a demon. That work ethic was buried deep in his fraught childhood.
‘Really, darling,’ came a dry voice to his right, ‘am I that boring?’
Nic forced his attention back into the room and looked down at his date. He quirked a mocking smile. ‘Never.’
His blonde companion squeezed his arm playfully, ‘I think the ennui is getting to you, Nic. You need to go to Buenos Aires and have some fun—I don’t know how you stand it in this backwater.’ She shuddered theatrically, then said something about going to the powder room and disappeared with a sexy sway to her walk.
Nic was relieved to be immune to this very feminine display, and watched as male heads swivelled to watch her progress. He shook his head ruefully and thanked his lucky stars that Estella’s presence tonight might at least temporarily stave off the more determined of the Mendoza man-eaters. He was in no mood to humour the mercenary women he attracted in droves. His last lover had screamed hysterically at him for an hour and accused him of having no heart or soul. He had no desire to head down that path again any time soon.
He could do without sex if that was going to be the outcome. If truth be told, his last sexual encounters had all felt curiously … empty. Satisfying on one level only. And as for a more long-term relationship? He certainly had no intention of even thinking about that. The toxic relationship of his parents had cautioned him from an early age. He was going to choose a long-term partner with extreme care and diligence. Naturally there would be a long-term partner at some point in the future; he had a valuable legacy to pass on to the next generation, and he had no intention of breaking the precious cycle of inheritance.
Just then he saw a figure appear in the doorway to the ballroom. Inexplicably his skin tightened over his bones and the back of his neck prickled—the same way it had just now outside the hotel, when he’d felt as if he was being watched.
He couldn’t make out the woman’s features. He could only make out long, long shapely pale legs and a glittering short black dress which outlined a slender figure. But something about her was instantly familiar. In his gut. Midnight-black wavy hair was swept over one shoulder—and then he saw her head turn. Even from where he stood he could see a stillness enter her frame, and then she started to walk … directly towards him.
Ridiculously Nic felt the need to turn and leave. But he stood his ground. As she came closer and closer, weaving through the crowd, suspicion grew and formed in his head. It couldn’t be, he told himself. It’s been years … she was in London.
He was barely aware of the hushed murmurs surrounding him, growing louder as the woman finally came to a stop just a few feet away. Recognition and incredulity warred in his head. Along with the realisation that she was stunning. She had always been beautiful—slightly ethereal—but she’d matured into a true beauty since he’d seen her last. She was statuesque and slender and curvaceous all at once. An intoxicating package.
Nic hadn’t even realised that he’d given her such a thorough examination until his eyes met hers and he saw the pink flush in her pale cheeks. It had a direct effect on his body, causing a hot throb of desire in his groin.
The ennui he’d just been teased about was long gone. Too many emotions and sensations were starting to fizz in his gut—the dominant ones being acrid betrayal and humiliation. Still, after all these years. He retreated behind a cold wall of anger. Anything to douse this very unwelcome stabbing of desire. His eyes narrowed and clashed with eyes so green they looked like jewels. He had to exert every ounce of his iron control not to be flung back into time and remember what it had felt like almost to drown in those eyes. The problem was he had drowned.
‘Madalena Vasquez,’ he drawled, not a hint of his loss of composure in his voice, ‘what the hell are you doing here?’
Maddie winced inwardly and fought to retain her composure. She could remember a time when he’d called her Maddie. The walk from the door to here had felt as if it had taken years, not seconds, and hadn’t been helped by the fact that her mother’s shoes were a size too big. She was aware of the hush surrounding them, and the whispers—none of which she could imagine were complimentary after the very public way her father had thrown her and her mother out eight years before.
Nicolás de Rojas’s mouth became a flat parody of a smile. ‘Please accept my condolences on the death of your father.’
Fire flashed up Maddie’s spine. ‘Let’s not pretend you care one iota,’ she hissed, mindful of the eavesdroppers. Nicolás de Rojas didn’t seem to be fazed by their audience at all, but the grief and futile anger she felt over her father’s death nearly choked her.
The man in front of her folded his arms across his formidable chest, making him look even more intimidating. Maddie’s skin itched uncomfortably where the dress revealed her back. Her hands were clenched to fists at her sides.
He shrugged negligently. ‘No, I can’t say I did care. But I can be polite at least.’
Maddie flushed at that. She’d seen in the papers that his father had died some years before. They were both products of generations who would have merrily danced on each other’s graves, yet it wasn’t in her to glory in someone’s death—even an enemy’s.
Awkwardly but sincerely, she said now, ‘I’m sorry about your father too.’
He arched a brow and his face tightened. ‘Are you going to extend that to my mother? She killed herself when she found out your mother and my father had had an affair for years … after your father told her.’
Maddie blanched to hear that Nicolás was aware of the affair. She saw in that instant how much anger his apparent civility was masking as his eyes flashed dangerously and white lines of tension bracketed his sensual mouth.
Her brain felt fuzzy. She shook her head. She’d had no idea her father had told his mother about the affair, or that she had taken her own life. ‘I didn’t know any of this …’
He dismissed her words with a slashing hand. ‘You wouldn’t, would you? You were so quick to leave and spend your family fortune running around Europe with your wastrel of a mother.’
Maddie felt sick. This was so much worse than she’d feared. She’d somehow naively imagined that she would say her few words to Nicolás de Rojas, he would respond with something at least civil, and that would be it. But the ancient feud between their families was alive and well and crackling between them—along with something else Maddie didn’t want to acknowledge.
Suddenly Nicolás de Rojas cast a quick glance around them and emitted a guttural curse. He took Maddie’s arm in one big hand. She was being summarily dragged to the other side of the room before she knew what was happening. He whirled her around to face him again in a quiet corner. This time all