‘I mean it, Luc,’ Karina insisted. ‘My schedule’s packed. I could only give the project a couple of weeks and it’s going to need a lot more time than that.’
She could make the time. She could make the event fly, but that wasn’t the reason she was shying away from this plum of a job.
‘Too late,’ Luc said flatly. ‘The posters have gone out and your name’s on them. I didn’t expect you to kick up a fuss. When I put your name forward to the team, they nearly bit my hand off.’
By team, Luc meant Team Thunderbolt, the world’s most infamous gaucho polo players. Luc was a mainstay of the team and so was Dante Baracca, Karina’s nemesis. This year it was Dante’s turn to host the Gaucho Cup.
‘What’s wrong now?’ her brother demanded, glancing up impatiently from his paperwork.
Where to begin? She didn’t want to arouse Luc’s suspicions, and finding a plausible excuse not to work with Dante wouldn’t be easy. Nor would handling the whisper of awareness that skittered over her skin at the thought of being close to Dante again.
‘I need you to do this for me, Karina.’
‘I do know what this event means to you, but there are other events organisers.’
‘None as good as you,’ Luc insisted. ‘There’s no one who understands the world we work in better than you.’
Karina’s glance landed on the cabinet where Luc kept his trophies. He’d left a space for this year’s prize. Right next to it, in a pointed reminder that it would be hard, if not impossible to get out of this, there was a trophy belonging to Karina. The International Association of Events Planners had awarded it to her for exceptional merit, and Luc was as proud of that trophy as he was of his own gleaming cups.
‘I need you to give me an answer, Karina,’ Luc pressed.
‘And I need time to think,’ she countered.
‘What’s there to think about?’ Settling back in his chair, Luc pushed his papers to one side. ‘Planning the polo cup is easily the most prestigious work you’ve ever been asked to do, so what’s your real problem, Karina?’
She loved her brother dearly, but Luc had no idea what he was asking. She had avoided face-to-face confrontations with Dante for a very good reason—the man was a hundred per cent ice-cold arrogance. She’d avoided him at polo matches, had been forced into his company when Luc and Emma had got together, but apart from that she was always careful to keep her distance from him. If she accepted this commission her avoidance tactics where Dante Baracca was concerned would be shot to hell.
‘You should at least have consulted me before you went ahead with this.’
‘My apologies,’ Luc mocked, gesturing widely to express his frustration. ‘I can’t imagine why I thought you’d be thrilled. You’re the go-to events organiser in Rio, Karina,’ he reminded her tensely. ‘Who else am I going to ask?’
Her brother was right in that arranging the fixture would be an exciting challenge. It was just the man she had to deal with that was the problem.
‘Dante Baracca is an arrogant, humourless dictator,’ she murmured, speaking her thoughts out loud.
‘He’s a powerful, successful man,’ her brother argued.
‘Didn’t I just say that?’
Black eyes flashed as the Marcelos siblings stared each other out.
Karina didn’t want to upset her brother, but Luc was equally determined that she would take the job.
‘What aren’t you telling me?’ he demanded shrewdly.
Ice slid down her spine.
‘There has to be something,’ he insisted. ‘We’ve known Dante for years. I play on the same team. I’d know if there was a problem. I hope you don’t believe his press?’
‘He doesn’t intimidate me, if that’s what you think. And as for his reputation...’ She blew out a contemptuous breath. ‘Dante’s the devil incarnate if you listen to the media—and much as I would love to take on the challenge of working with someone like that, I would have thought that my brother, of all people, would do me the courtesy of allowing me to refuse this job.’
Luc shook his head. ‘No can do, Karina. Too much money has been invested in publicity for you to pull out now.’ He gave her the look that had melted a thousand hearts. ‘Do this one thing for me and I’ll never ask again.’
She smiled thinly. ‘Until the next time?’
‘I’ve never known you to be so unreasonable.’
She shared a lot with him, but not everything. ‘I’ll sort something out,’ she promised.
‘There’s nothing to sort out,’ Luc insisted. ‘We want you. Dante wants you.’
Somehow, she doubted that.
Her mind was already racing. If the posters had gone out, she would have to have a banner added, announcing her replacement. It would have to be someone good—someone who was trusted by the polo community. She might not want the job, but she would do everything she could to make sure things went well for Luc and his team. She would still be cheering for them.
‘If it’s Dante private life worrying you, it’s none of our concern. And he won’t have time to notice you in that sense as he’ll have so many admirers around him.’
‘Thanks for the reassurance,’ she said dryly. Luc was right in that there were always polo groupies hanging round the players, and she had never been the glamorous type, let alone wanted to compete with them.
‘You’re my sister,’ Luc pointed out now with exasperation, as if that were enough in itself to disqualify her from attracting male attention. ‘Dante will only want to do business with you. I hope you’ve got more sense than to think anything else?’
‘Of course. What do you take me for?’
‘A highly successful and very beautiful woman, who could never think of Dante Baracca as anything more than a childhood friend and my teammate.’
‘And a man to avoid,’ she murmured beneath her breath.
‘What was that?’ Luc asked suspiciously.
‘I don’t have to like all your teammates.’
‘You don’t have to take an unreasonable dislike to them either. Sign the contract, Karina. I’m done waiting.’
And throw herself across Dante’s path again—work with him on a daily basis?
It had been a long time since she’d been the tomboy tagging along with her brother’s gang, sharing a prickly if somewhat reluctant acceptance from his friends. But she should do this for Luc. He’d done so much for her. He’d brought her up single-handed when their parents had died. There was just one fly in that ointment. Luc had done a brilliant job but had often been distracted, which had given Karina all the time she had needed to get into mischief and more.
As Luc uncapped his pen she was forced to accept the fact that her brother meant more to her than her own stubborn pride. She would just have to put the past behind her, as they had told her to do in the hospital. She would lift up her head and move forward. Dealing with Dante Baracaa was not beyond her. And she’d put a good face on it. Luc deserved nothing less.
‘I should thank you for putting my name forward,’ she admitted as she stepped forward to sign the contract.
Luc laughed with relief. ‘Everyone wanted you—and if I hadn’t suggested you, I think you’d have cut me off at the knees.’
‘Maybe.’ Angling her chin, she gave her brother an affectionate grin. At least one of them was