But the man Suki had placed on a lofty pedestal was far removed from the one now watching her with wild, unsettling eyes. A fact his own brother noted as he peeled the foil off the champagne cork.
‘You seem wound up tighter than normal, Ramon. I can virtually see the smoke curling from your ears. It’s quite a sight to behold,’ Luis observed dryly.
Ramon’s mouth tightened. ‘Is this how you wish to spend the rest of your birthday, lobbing jokes at me?’ he asked without taking his eyes off Suki.
She suppressed a shiver, wondering what was going on behind the hooded green eyes.
‘I was just trying to lighten this heavier than normal mood, seeing as it’s my birthday and I can do what I want, but if you’re not going to explain yourself, at least answer that damn phone that’s been buzzing in your pocket for the last five minutes?’
Ramon shifted his gaze from her long enough to flick his brother an impatient look before reaching into his jacket. Extracting the sleek phone from his pocket, he barely glanced at it before powering it off.
Luis’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re actually turning off the power source to the empire? Are you unwell? Or are you ignoring someone specific?’
‘Luis...’ His voice held patent warning. One his younger brother didn’t heed.
‘Dios, is there trouble in paradise? Has the great Svetlana tripped over her stilettos and fallen from grace?’
Ramon Acosta’s face iced up, his eyes turning a shade of turbulent green. ‘I was waiting until later to share the news, but if you must know, as of this morning, I’m no longer engaged.’
He was no longer engaged.
As if his words had caused the planet to stop turning, silence descended on the booth. The three of them remained frozen in place, even as the words ricocheted through her brain.
He was no longer engaged.
Suki jumped at the sound of the cork forcefully ejecting from the bottle. Frothy, expensive liquid spilled. The sounds and smell of the pub roared back into her consciousness. But still the words pounded through her head.
Ramon was no longer committed to another woman.
She frowned at the giddy relief swirling through her, then started as a flute of champagne was thrust into her hands.
‘Drink up, little mouse. Now we have two...no, three reasons to celebrate,’ Luis said, eyeing her with even deeper resolution.
‘I’m glad my broken engagement brings you such sublime joy, hermano,’ Ramon replied, his voice arctic cold.
Luis sobered. ‘I chose to respect your relationship, but my views on your engagement never changed. She was the wrong woman for you. Whether the move to end it was hers or yours—’
‘It was mine.’
Luis’s smile returned. ‘Then either celebrate with me or drown your sorrows. Either way, we’re finishing this champagne.’ He poured two more glasses.
Ramon waited a beat, then raised his glass and recited another clipped birthday toast before tossing back the drink. Luis, his point made, proceeded to drink most of the bottle, while Suki sipped hers.
All the while tension reigned, heightened even further by the looks Ramon kept casting her way.
She breathed a sigh of relief when Luis rose just after midnight, his predatory gaze on a stunning redhead smiling at him from two seats away.
‘Time to make a significant start on my second quarter-century.’
Suki pushed away her half-finished glass. ‘I think I’ll head home—’
‘Stay,’ Ramon said. Before she could reply, he turned to his brother. ‘My limo is outside. Have the driver deliver you wherever you want to go.’
Luis clapped his hand on his brother’s shoulder. ‘I appreciate the offer but I’m going to tread delicately with this flower. We don’t want her overwhelmed and bolting at the sight of all those Acosta billions before I get the chance to close the deal, now, do we?’
Ramon’s jaw tightened before he shrugged. ‘Very well. I’ll leave you to serenade your paramour on the night bus.’
‘Dios, everything is such an extreme with you, isn’t it? There’s such a thing as a black cab, you know? And even with the lowly salary you pay me as junior marketing executive, I can still afford one.’
‘If you say so. Either way, I expect you to report to the office sober and whole on Monday morning.’
‘As long as you promise to deliver Suki home, safe and sound.’
She shook her head, grabbing her handbag as she rose. ‘There’s no need. I’ll be fine getting home by myself.’ Although she would be relying on the maligned public transport, the reason to keep a close eye on her spending casting a sudden grey shadow on her birthday. Her phone hadn’t rung in the four hours since she’d called the hospital to check on her mother so she must be having a relatively restful night. At least she hoped so.
‘Sit down, Suki,’ Ramon drawled, his tone throbbing with implacable power. ‘You and I aren’t finished.’
She ignored him. Or at least she tried. She cast a desperate look towards Luis, but her friend merely reached across the table and hugged her close, murmuring in her ear, ‘It’s your birthday, Suki. Life’s too short. Give yourself a break and live a little. It’ll make you happy, and it’ll make me infinitely ecstatic!’
Before she could respond, he was headed for the redhead’s table, smiling that smile that made women trip over themselves.
‘I said, sit down,’ Ramon pressed.
There was no way to leave the booth while he blocked her exit. With Luis’s words ringing in her ears, she slowly sank back into her seat. ‘I can’t imagine why you’d want me to. I have nothing more to say to you.’
His gaze gradually defrosted from arctic cold to heated green as he scrutinised her face with that unnerving intensity. ‘I think we established that I owe you...something.’
‘An apology. Is that a difficult word for you to say?’
He shrugged and opened his mouth, just as raucous laughter fuelled by hours’ long hard drinking erupted from a group nearby.
Distaste crossing his face, he rose and stationed himself at the mouth of the booth. ‘Come, we’ll continue this conversation elsewhere.’
Despite his imperious tone, Suki stood, telling herself she was obeying just so she could make a quick getaway once they were outside. Ramon Acosta had revealed a part of himself tonight that scraped her giddy dreams raw. She’d seen the ruthless man the financial papers wrote about, the insufferable deity-like brother Luis complained about. She’d also seen a bitter man turned lethally furious by his broken engagement.
Whatever had happened between Ramon and Svetlana still pulsed ill-feeling through his veins. Even now, she felt him loom like a dark lord behind her, quiet fury pouring off him.
The glimpse into his character was a timely reminder that Suki grabbed and held close. Her experiences of men, including her own father, had left her with a deeply ingrained distrust that, unfortunately, received further validation with each interaction with the opposite sex.
Thus far, Luis was the only one who’d breached that distrust. He was the reason why, believing there were other exceptions like him, she’d attempted, despite her mother’s bitter