He’d built his treasure, his paradise on Tesoro. And now that she was here—it felt complete.
“There’s nothing I can say to you, Rico.”
“There’s plenty you could have said five years ago,” he countered.
She blew out a breath and shook her head. “If I give you a reason, will it make this better for you?”
Nothing would. Nothing could. “Give it a shot.”
“Fine,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest in a classic self-defensive posture. “I slept with you because you were gorgeous. Famous. Rich. What girl wouldn’t go to bed with you?”
A fresh spurt of anger shot through him even as he identified the lie in her words. She was too dismissive. Too careless to be telling him any kind of truth. But this lie would serve him as no truth could.
“Good. Then the next month will be easy for you,” he said, at last crossing the room in long, slow strides that had her automatically backing away. “I’m still famous. Still rich. So being with me again won’t be a hardship for you.”
He saw her pale slightly. Then she stiffened her spine and squared her shoulders.
“I’m ready to pay my debt.” She glanced at the bed, then to him. “Now?”
God, yes.
“No.” He enjoyed the flicker of surprise he caught in her eyes. “I’ve already told you, I don’t bargain for sex, Teresa. When we come together again, it will be because you need me. Not because you are paying a bill owed by your family.” She flushed and the color was lovely on her skin.
By the time he was finished with her, she’d be pleading with him to take her. “Your things have been brought here from your suite at the hotel.”
“Here? To your house?”
“Here. To my room,” he corrected. “Our room—for the next month, anyway.”
She stiffened her spine but flattened her lips together to keep from saying whatever was stuck in her throat. Didn’t matter, he told himself. Nothing mattered now. Nothing but finally getting the revenge he’d promised himself so long ago. And still, he had to ask. “One more question.”
“Only one?”
“Were you planning your family’s theft from the beginning?”
“Would it matter if I said no?”
He thought about that for a second or two. “No, because how could I believe a thief?”
She winced and he almost felt guilty—almost.
“Get dressed. We’re going to dinner.”
She frowned and couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Dinner?”
Her surprise told him he had caught her off guard. Good. Now all he had to do was keep her there. “Be ready in an hour.”
* * *
After he left Teresa in his room, Rico stalked down the long hallway leading to the front of the house. He didn’t notice the throw rugs in bright tropical colors or the sunlight glancing in through the front windows to lie on the gleaming tile floor. His mind was too busy, his emotions choking him too completely to be interested in the mundane. Right now all he could think about was the fact that Teresa was back with him. And what that was going to mean.
In long strides, he marched down the long, elegant hallway directly to the library. Once there, he sealed himself inside, walked to his desk and sat down behind it. Snatching up the phone, he hit the speed dial and waited for the connection to be made.
“Hello?”
His cousin Sean’s voice sounded clipped and a little harassed. Rico smiled. “Catch you at a bad time, Sean?”
A huff of resignation came before Sean King said, “No. Just recovering from my latest heart attack. Mel had another false alarm.”
In spite of everything going on, Rico had to grin. Sean King had, since marrying Melinda Stanford, become a changed man. Wasn’t so long ago that Sean himself would have laughed at the image of himself as devoted husband and father-to-be. Now, though, he was the prototypical family man. And since Melinda’s due date was only a week or two away, he never let his wife out of his sight. Every sigh she made sent Sean into a tailspin, and watching his anxiety escalate over the last several months had been very entertaining. While Melinda was sailing through her pregnancy, it was about to kill Sean.
“I swear,” Sean said under his breath, “sometimes I think Mel’s doing it on purpose. I’m sitting here watching the game and she lets out this little whimper-slash-groan. I jumped up so fast I knocked my beer over and dumped a whole bowl of popcorn on the floor. The dog loves me.”
Rico laughed. “If it’s this bad before she goes into labor, how will you survive the real thing?”
“Once it actually happens I’ll be fine,” Sean argued. “It’s this waiting and waiting that’s making me nuts. And between you and me, I think Mel’s doing this stuff just to watch me jump.”
She probably was. Melinda was great, but she did love keeping her husband on his toes. “I’m sure she’s as nervous as you are.”
“Who’s nervous?” Sean replied. “I’m not nervous. I’m just hyperprepared.” He grumbled something under his breath then added, “Right now, she’s eating ice cream and laughing at me.”
In the background, Rico could hear Melinda’s laughter and the excited barking of their dog, Herman. Soon they would have their child and be even happier than they were already. Hard not to be jealous of that.
“You’re a lucky man,” Rico told him.
“Yeah, and she never lets me forget it,” Sean said, laughing. “So what’s going on?”
Secrets were impossible to keep inside the King family. So naturally Rico’s brothers and cousins all knew about his marriage to Teresa—and the fact that the divorce had never gone through. Hell, with a lot of the Kings now living across Europe, Rico had had unpaid “detectives” keeping their eyes open looking for Teresa so that Rico could finally end what was still lying between them.
The King family was tight. And since Sean had led the King Construction project to build this hotel and Rico’s home—then stayed on Tesoro when he married Melinda—the two cousins had grown even closer. They’d spent many nights having a drink together, talking about work and family and what Rico would do if he ever caught up to Teresa Coretti King.
Now that he finally had, Rico had to talk to his cousin about this. He took a breath and said simply, “She’s back.”
“She?”
“Teresa.”