“Wait a month before returning, Papa. Rico means what he says.”
“I will wait,” Nick answered with a hard look at Paulo, who was grumbling under his breath. “If you’re sure you want to do this.”
Want was a strong word, she thought. Oh, she wanted Rico, there was no denying that. But if she had any real choice, would she choose to stay with a man who could barely stand to look at her? Probably not. But the truth was, they were all out of options.
“I’m sure,” she said and hoped her voice sounded stronger than she felt at the moment.
“I still don’t like it,” Paulo muttered.
“Neither do I,” their father agreed, then stepped close enough to draw his daughter into the circle of his arms. He held her tightly for a long moment and Teresa snuggled in, taking the comfort he offered before he leaned back to look at her. “You are the one who decided to not be a part of the family business, Teresa. It is not right that you are the one to pay for your legacy.”
She forced a smile she didn’t feel. “It’s only a month, Papa. Then I’ll really be free. And so will my family. That’s all that matters.”
He huffed out an exasperated breath then snapped, “Take the bags to the boat.”
With a last look at his sister, Paulo scooped up their luggage and headed down the dock.
“You’re certain you’ll be safe here?”
“I will,” she lied. Of course, she wasn’t worried about Rico actually hurting her. Not physically, anyway. But every time he looked at her through eyes that spat fury, a new emotional wound opened up inside her.
Nodding, Nick looked up to the white hotel on the crest of the hill behind them, as if he could see straight into Rico’s eyes. When he turned back to his daughter, he sighed. “I should have listened to you, cara, about staying away from this man. I swear to you now, when this month is over, Rico King will be nothing but a bad memory. For all of us.”
He had never been a bad memory to Teresa, though. And she knew that after another month with him, most likely spent in his bed, she would never again be able to pry him out of her mind. But her father didn’t need to know that her heart was still uncertain when it came to the man who was now pulling their strings like a master puppeteer.
“It’ll be fine, Papa.”
Still frowning, he nodded. Then he kissed her forehead and stepped back. “One month, Teresa. We will come back for you in one month.”
She nodded too, though her heart was breaking. Her family was leaving and any minute now she would be alone with the one man who could shatter her heart and soul. “I’ll see you then.”
She watched them board the small craft and stood on the dock, gaze locked on the boat until it was no more than a smudge on the horizon. Then she turned and stared up at Rico’s castle—wondering what kind of dungeon he had in store for her.
Four
A half hour later, her family had left the island and Teresa was exactly where Rico wanted her. In the bedroom of the home he’d had built for himself on the island. Just beyond the hotel, there was a rise of land that overlooked the ocean on one side and the forest on another. Rico had known the moment he’d seen it that this was where he would build his house.
And though he had furnished it and staffed it and lived in it for almost a year now—it had felt empty to him until today. Now she was here and the palatial home felt…crowded.
He watched her walk around the room, stepping tentatively, as if she expected land mines to be lying beneath the gleaming bamboo floor. White linen curtains rippled and danced in the island breeze that wafted through the open windows. Birds in the trees beyond sang in harmonies that lent a peaceful air to this confrontation that was anything but peaceful.
In her red silk shirt and dark blue slacks, she looked like a jewel dropped from the sky against the background of his room’s white walls and furnishings. He waited for her to speak. To say something about what had happened five years before. Hell, to beg him to release her. But she gave him nothing, and a part of him wasn’t surprised.
Narrowing his gaze on her, he blurted out, “Was it all a lie? Right from the beginning?”
She turned so quickly her dark hair swung out around her in a curtain of silky movement. “What do you want me to say?”
Tricky question.
“I want the truth, but somehow I doubt I’ll get it,” Rico said, never taking his gaze off the woman across the room from him.
“Then why should I say anything?” she countered. “You wouldn’t believe whatever I told you.”
How the hell could he? He kept his distance purposely. He didn’t quite trust himself when he was too close to her. The need in him roared for satisfaction and the anger was just as raw.
Oh, he’d never hurt her. He didn’t hurt women. But damn it, he didn’t want to blackmail her into staying with him, either. Damn her for bringing him to this. And damn her for putting him here, in this position. Soon enough, though, he would have her panting to have him making love to her once again. Then he would remind her just what she’d given up by disappearing so long ago.
No other person in the world had managed to twist Rico up like she had. She’d dug so deeply inside him, there was no room for anyone else. He had his family, of course. The Kings were loyal down to the bone.
But there hadn’t been another woman in his life since Teresa and his body was clamoring for what he’d denied it for too damn long.
Sure, he’d gone out with women. Had even brought a few of them back to his rooms at the hotel. But he’d never brought one to his home before. Never taken one into his bed. Not since Teresa.
He knew what it looked like to the world at large, but the world saw what it wanted to see. A billionaire playboy. The man with a succession of gorgeous women on his arm. But those women never touched him. Never shared his bed. And none of them would admit to it, because none of them could stand letting the public know that they hadn’t been able to coax a King into their beds.
So as Teresa had lied to him, Rico had lived a lie for five long years and now that the end was in sight, he wanted her so badly he was hard as stone. So yeah, better he keep his distance.
“Try me. Tell me why. Why any of it?”
“Telling you why won’t change anything, Rico. Why go there?”
“We never left there.”
She shrugged and walked to the French doors opposite his bed that led to the terrace. She stared out and he knew the view she was looking at. The white sand beach. The aquamarine ocean beyond. The banyan trees and the double-wide hammock strung between them. There was a stone patio out there, surrounded by so many different varieties of flowers it took the breath away even as it urged you to breathe deeply, to savor the scents and tastes on the wind. There was a boat at his private dock, a yacht that Rico took out when he needed complete privacy and time to think. And when it was still and quiet enough, you could hear the waterfall in the nearby forest that splashed over rocks worn smooth by time and the relentless rush of the river.