CHAPTER EIGHT

      ‘WILL YOU JUST ease up—before I either fall over or you pull my arm out of its socket?’ Lia complained as Gregorio continued his march down the street, his fingers firmly around the top of her arm as he pulled her along beside him. Everyone instinctively stepped out of his way, and consequently hers too. They obviously knew from looking at Gregorio’s face not to get in his way.

      His expression was... Dark and dangerous. That was the only way Lia could think of to describe it. Thunderous brows were lowered over even darker and stormier eyes, his jaw was tight, lips still thinned, his jaw clenched. His whole body language said, Get out of my way or risk being trampled underfoot.

      An impression no doubt added to by the two men who were six and half feet of pure muscle following just a couple of steps behind them.

      ‘Gregorio—’

      ‘It would be better if you did not speak to me right now,’ he bit out, without so much as glancing at her.

      ‘But—’

      ‘Dios, do you ever do as you are told?’ He maintained his hold on her arm as he turned to face her, his eyes glittering darkly as he glowered at her from his superior height. ‘Do you have any idea what you risked by meeting Richardson alone?’

      She did now. ‘I wasn’t exactly alone when one of your men follows me everywhere I go. Besides, David would never—’ She broke off with a wince, knowing that the David she had met today was not the man who had wooed and won her. Today he had been that cornered animal. Feral. Likely to strike out and maim or kill without warning.

      Gregorio eyed her scornfully. ‘Do not try to convince me of something you no longer believe yourself!’

      Her cheeks warmed. ‘That isn’t true—’

      ‘Do you still have feelings for him? Is that it?’ Gregorio snapped disgustedly. ‘You want to believe he is not involved because you are still in love with him?’

      ‘No!’

      Gregorio couldn’t miss the vehemence in her denial. ‘Then why meet with him at all? Why would you even do something like that when I have told you of my suspicions regarding him?’

      ‘Because I needed to know—to see for myself—whether or not David is capable of doing what you suspect he has!’ She glared at him.

      ‘And?’

      She gave a shiver. ‘He’s more than capable. In fact I was about to excuse myself from having lunch with him when you arrived and started acting like a caveman.’

      Given the circumstances, Gregorio considered his behaviour earlier to have been quite circumspect. What he had really wanted to do was rip David Richardson’s head from his shoulders for daring to so much as breathe the same air as Lia.

      If Lia thought he had behaved like a caveman when he’d joined her and Richardson, then she should have seen him when he’d first received Silvio’s phone call telling him exactly who she was meeting for lunch.

      Gregorio had left the hotel immediately and walked the short distance to the bistro. Seeing Lia sitting cosily in a booth with Richardson had only made him angrier. Overhearing Richardson’s scornful comments to her, mocking her social fall and her need to work for a living, had made Gregorio want to slam his fist into the other man’s face.

      ‘I consider myself to have been very restrained,’ he assured her tightly.

      ‘Is your restraint an excuse for all that nonsense about an engagement ring too?’ She eyed him disgustedly.

      Gregorio felt warmth staining his cheeks. ‘It was my way of letting Richardson know that you aren’t alone in the world, no matter what he may think to the contrary.’

      ‘By giving him the impression that I’m now engaged to you?’

      A nerve pulsed in his jaw. ‘It worked, didn’t it?’

      ‘And what if he decides to tell someone else about our bogus engagement? Maybe the media?’ Lia challenged. ‘Did you even think of that?’

      Of course Gregorio hadn’t thought of that. His only objective had been to protect Lia.

      Really?

      Was he being honest with himself?

      Knowing Lia was with David Richardson had filled him with a blinding rage. Seeing her in the company of the other man, her hair a loose tumble about her shoulders in the way that he liked it, had sent every thought from his head except getting rid of Richardson.

      And one word.

      Mine.

      Lia was his—whether she knew it yet or not.

      Perhaps it was time that she did.

      ‘Gregorio!’ Lia squeaked in protest when he didn’t answer her but instead resumed pulling her along the street beside him, his face set in grim lines.

      Lia wasn’t sure she altogether trusted that expression. And she felt even less reassured when they entered the hotel through the underground car park, where one of the lifts for the penthouse floor was situated. Gregorio scanned his key card to open the doors and pressed the button for the penthouse floor once they were both inside.

      Lia could only assume the two bodyguards would either remain downstairs or come up later. Because Gregorio obviously wasn’t willing to let them travel in the same lift as them.

      Lia could feel the heat and tension radiating from Gregorio now they were together in this small confined space. He didn’t so much as look at her—because he was so disgusted with her?—but his harsh expression said he was every inch the arrogant and ruthless Gregorio de la Cruz at this moment.

      She ran the tip of her tongue over the dryness of her lips before speaking. ‘I believe I owe you an apology for the way I behaved and spoke to you yesterday evening—’

      Her words were cut off abruptly as Gregorio pressed her back against one of the mirrored walls, grasping both her wrists in one of his hands before lifting her hands above her head and holding them there as he fiercely claimed her lips with his own.

      The length of his body was pressed intimately against Lia’s, allowing her to feel how aroused he was. And she was aware of the response of her own body.

      She kissed him back with all the pent-up emotions from last night and from this morning, parting her lips to allow Gregorio’s tongue to claim the heat of her mouth. Possessively.