Mediterranean Tycoons: Dark & Demanding: At The Spaniard's Pleasure / A Most Passionate Revenge / The Italian Billionaire's Ruthless Revenge

‘Nick, Nick.’ She pushed at his broad shoulders. ‘Please get up.’

‘What?’ His tousled head lifted and he thrust up off the pillow, releasing her from his weight. ‘Flattered as I am you think I am capable,’ he lay half over her and pushed her tumbled hair back from her flushed face, ‘it is going to take me a little longer to recover,’ he teased with a lazy smile, while his fingers toyed with her long blonde hair, smoothing a few strands down the elegant line of her neck, and over a slender shoulder.

Inflamed by his teasing comment and suddenly aware it was broad daylight, ‘It’s the middle of the morning,’ Liza yelped. He knew damn fine what she meant, and she jerked her head free and wriggled out from under him, and dragged herself up into a sitting position. Nick collapsed down on his back and slanted her a wicked grin.

‘So…’ he drawled. ‘You’re not so innocent as to believe people only make love at night.’ Nick laughed.

It was the laugh that did it. Liza glanced down at him. He looked incredible, she thought, swallowing hard, his tanned torso sleek and vibrant against the blue sheets, his black hair flopping over his brow, and his sinful black eyes glinting with mocking amusement.

‘It’s not in the least amusing,’ she snapped, her temper rising, along with it a great dollop of embarrassment at how easily he had overcome her scruples about making love in his mother’s house, conveniently ignoring that she had wanted him to!

‘What will Manuel, your mother think? They might be back any minute.’ She was getting into her stride. ‘But then I don’t suppose the great Nick Menendez ever needs to consider other people’s feelings, you arrogant swine.’ She was overreacting…being an absolute bitch…but with emotions raw and new tearing at her heart she didn’t seem able to stop herself. Yet she knew it was her own sense of insecurity making her behave so unlike her usual calm self.

Nick jerked up, his lean face strong and taut, and for a split-second Liza saw a flash of raw fury in his dark eyes, and then his sensuous mouth curved in a faint smile.

‘A stickler for propriety, Liza, and this from a girl who had no qualms about rolling around with a man in the stable of this same house,’ he drawled sardonically.

All Liza’s confidence and any attempt at sexual sophistication shrivelled and died. She felt as if he had knifed her in the stomach, the pain was so intense she could not look at him. Nick had never changed his mind about her. He never would, and she had foolishly thought she could have a holiday romance.

Romance! What a joke. Sex with her was just a game to him. A game he wanted to win. The same as he won everything else he set out to achieve.

Nick saw the hurt in her eyes, before she turned her head away, and he immediately wished the mocking words unsaid. He remembered his anger at finding Liza in the arms of that boy, but he had no right to throw it back at her, and especially not when he was lying naked in bed with her. How crass was that? And totally out of character for him. For once in his life he was ashamed of himself. He admired women and prided himself on his courteous treatment of any woman he became involved with.

Was he going mad? No, it was Liza; she was driving him crazy. His usual cool control deserted him as soon as he got anywhere near her. Volatile emotions were not something he had ever suffered from and it was all her fault. His dark eyes swept over her near-naked figure and he almost groaned.

Pride and anger coming to the fore, Liza made herself look at him. ‘I was sixteen and foolish,’ she snapped, and for a second she thought he winced. No, not the mighty Nick, she told herself. ‘But I have matured and learnt better over the years.’ Head high, her eyes blazing, she added, ‘You obviously have not. You are still the arrogant, chauvinistic devil you always were. You still ride roughshod over any woman if it suits you.’ And with that she flung her legs over the edge of the bed.

There was no way Nick was letting her get away with that; his own anger rising, he grasped her around the waist and hauled her back against him. ‘Damn it, Liza.’ He fell back on the bed with a squirming Liza lashing out at him. He spun her around until she was spreadeagled on top of him. ‘Stop it, woman,’ he growled as her hands scratched his neck and, grasping a hank of her hair, he twisted it around his wrist and pulled her head down to claim her mouth with his. He was not letting her go until her temper cooled. So he kept her where he wanted her, until he felt the fight go out of her, and only then did he let her come up for air and end the kiss.

‘Call me all the names you like, Liza,’ he said roughly, planting a gentle kiss on her throat, ‘but you are wrong— I don’t override all women.’ And he kissed her again, sliding his hands down her spine and holding her close to his mighty body, his hard body… He tilted back her head, and saw the shimmer of sensual awareness she could not hide, and as he brought his hand slowly up her thigh he felt her tremble.

‘In fact I rather like a woman overriding me,’ he drawled throatily, and kissed her again. The next time he set her free and murmured, ‘Care to try it?’ Her hands were on his shoulders and his were around her thighs as he lowered her onto him.

Liza gasped out loud, her head thrown back, as he filled her so completely she thought she would faint with the pleasure. She moved with unconscious sensuality. She had never felt anything like it. Nick’s hands slid up her spine and urged her forward and he captured the peak of one perfectly shaped breast in his mouth, and her anger, her resentment no longer existed. Only the man sheathed deep inside her.

A long time later Nick chuckled, a deep, throaty sound. ‘I hate to tell you, sweetheart, but it is almost noon.’ He heard her choked gasp, and, dropping a light kiss on her swollen lips, he swung his legs off the bed and pulled on his robe.

‘Oh, my God!’ Mouth open in shock, Liza could do nothing when Nick bent down and caught her to him, and claimed a long kiss. Instinctively she splayed her palms on his broad chest, drowning in the incredible sweetness of the sensual but surprisingly tender kiss.

When he released her Nick saw the heated longing in her eyes. He knew perfectly well how he affected her. But he straightened up before he gave in to the temptation to join her in the bed again.

‘Don’t worry, there is no hurry, Liza. Lunch is about one and I’ll meet you downstairs.’ He noted the high colour in her lovely face. ‘And don’t be embarrassed. You are a very welcome guest in this house, a family friend, and I promise you will enjoy your stay.’

The kiss, the endearment and his attempt at reassurance warmed Liza’s heart, and, as she relaxed slightly, her full lips curved in a smile. ‘You’d better or I might request a refund.’

His stunning dark eyes glinted devilishly down at her. ‘A refund—no… A replay—yes.’ And he headed for the door, leaving her to interpret that as she wished.

Half an hour later Liza stood and surveyed her reflection in the cheval glass. She had swept her hair back, and knotted a white silk scarf around it. A touch of lipstick and a moisturiser for her skin was all the make-up she needed. She had opted to wear a crisp white shirt and navy trousers, a matching leather belt accentuated her narrow waist and on her feet she wore soft hide pumps. Yes, she would do… She was a bit early but she could not wait to see Nick again. She wanted to pinch herself to make sure she was not dreaming. Niculoso Menendez was her lover and she felt like shouting it to the heavens.

Instead she made her way along the hall towards the kitchen. Anna Menendez had usually kept lunch a pretty flexible affair, and she doubted anything would have changed. Five minutes later Manuel was showing her into the dining room, and she saw to her surprise there were several other guests there.

She hesitated just inside the door, suddenly overcome by nerves. She couldn’t see Nick anywhere. She scanned the room again and almost turned and ran when she realised he wasn’t there, and the other guests were all expensively attired, the men in suits and the women in designer clothes.

When she was a child visiting in the height of summer, lunch had been a casual affair and always eaten alfresco. Her own common sense should have told her in the middle of winter the dining room was a more likely venue. Except she had no common sense around Nick, and in her haste to meet up with him again she hadn’t thought. But Nick could have warned her. With all these people he must have known lunch was going to be a formal affair.

She saw Señora Menendez, and when she had recovered her poise sufficiently Liza made her way towards her. After all, she was here at the lady’s invitation. A family friend, as Nick had said. No one knew they were lovers, and if she found the thought vaguely disturbing she hid it from the woman she was approaching.

Liza had always liked Nick’s mother, a small, dark, very pretty woman, rather like Audrey Hepburn she had always thought. Today Anna Menendez was wearing what was obviously a Chanel suit. The other guests consisted of two elderly couples whom Liza had never seen before, and two young couples.

She felt rather underdressed and she could kill Nick for not telling her what to expect, and leaving her alone to face strangers. But with instant death to Nick, her nemesis, not an option…Liza straightened her shoulders and with all the poise she could muster she said, ‘Hello, Anna.’

‘Liza, how wonderful to see you again, it has been far too long.’ And suddenly Liza was being kissed on both cheeks and enveloped in a cloud of very expensive French perfume. For the next ten minutes she was subjected to a flurry of questions about her own mother and her work, and finally another invitation.

‘Your mother is coming at the end of March for Easter. We have not seen each other since she married again, but apparently Jeff has agreed to look after the business, so I am really looking forward to her stay,’ Anna told her. ‘You must come with her, we can have a real girlie break, shopping and gossiping. You must not be a stranger again. I was really angry with Niculoso for taking off to Lanzarote yesterday when he had promised faithfully to be in Granada for his Uncle Thomas’s celebration. But I totally forgive him because he found you.’ And, lifting a small, elegant hand, she patted Liza’s cheek.

‘It is great to be here. And I am sorry to hear you have been unwell,’ and, studying the older woman’s face, Liza was struck by the fact Anna looked positively blooming, her dark eyes, so like her son’s, were clear and twinkling merrily.

Anna gave her a most peculiar look. ‘Did Nick tell you that?’

‘Well, not exactly,’ Liza had to amend honestly when she thought about what Nick had actually said last night. But he had known perfectly well Liza had jumped to the conclusion his mother was ill, and played on her sympathetic nature. ‘He said you had been a bit down, but you look great.’

‘Oh, he probably meant the small chest infection I had a couple of weeks ago, but I am fine now, never better. But you know what men are, always exaggerating. Yesterday he left me a note saying he had to attend an emergency meeting with Carl Dalk and took off in the jet to Lanzarote. I doubt if it was really that vital and I expected Nick to bring Carl back with him. But instead he brought you, dear, for which I am very grateful. You didn’t happen to meet Carl, did you?’

Liza shook her head. ‘No.’ Her smooth brow creased in a puzzled frown at Anna’s revelation.

‘Maybe that’s just as well. He is very handsome and very wealthy, but what those two get up to together is anybody’s guess. I know Carl still encourages Nick in the extreme sports, long after the pair of them should have given up such things.’ She shook her dark head. ‘Still, it is lovely to have you here, and you will come back with your mother?’

Liza smiled down at Anna, feeling slightly better. ‘It is great to be here,’ she responded. ‘As for March, I will try.’ But as she said it she knew she would not. Her affair, if that was what it was, with Nick was for a limited period, and she would probably never see Anna again after this.

In fact, the more she thought about it away from Nick’s disturbing presence, the more her suspicions were aroused. She was beginning to wonder why Nick had been so eager for her to come to Spain with him for the party. Was it just her sex appeal, as he said? Hardly likely, she thought ruefully, because she’d never thought she had much. Plus Nick’s story to his mother about an urgent meeting in Lanzarote with this Carl chap didn’t ring true. Nick had spent almost the whole day and the evening with her. He could hardly have meant the two-minute visit to the building site…could he…?

‘Is Carl Dalk in the construction industry?’ Liza asked Anna.

‘No.’ Anna grinned, and stretched out an arm to show Liza a brilliant diamond bracelet. ‘This is Carl’s business, diamonds, but I get the impression from Nick all is not—’

Nick walked up behind Liza just in time to hear Carl’s name mentioned.

‘Ah, Mamma. You have met Liza,’ he interrupted quickly, cutting out whatever his mother was going to say. ‘Now, I want to steal her away from you for a moment to introduce her to Uncle Thomas.’

Liza tensed as his large hand curved around her upper arm in a firm grip. Nice of him to arrive at last, but what had got into him, interrupting the conversation like that? She shot him a puzzled sidelong glance, her resentment rising when she realised he was dressed in a perfectly tailored silver-grey suit, white shirt and silk tie. He looked magnificent and his assured masculinity took her breath away, but when her gaze reached his darkly handsome face she saw he was smiling but the humour didn’t reach his eyes; instead his dark gaze was veiled, masking all expression.

Anna Menendez, at the age of sixty, was nobody’s fool. ‘You do that.’ Her small head swivelled between the tall, beautiful girl and her huge son. The tension between the two was palpable and she knew her only son too well not to realise he was up to something. If it was what she thought it was she could not be more pleased, but at thirty-five Niculoso was very set in his ways. He had the same charm and charisma as her late husband—more, in fact. But he also had an arrogant, cynical edge where women were concerned that his father, as a happily married man, had never suffered from. ‘But I will speak to you later, Niculoso.’

Two pairs of identical dark eyes clashed, and Nick was the first to look away.

Seeing the look between mother and son, Liza knew something was going on here she did not understand. ‘Wait a minute,’ she began, turning a frowning gaze on Nick. ‘I—’

‘Later,’ Nick said smoothly, tightening his grip on Liza’s arm. ‘My uncle is dying to meet you.’ And he propelled her across the room in front of him. She looked stunning, and her behind in those trousers was doing wicked things to his libido.

Nick could not believe it! He had never known a woman in his life take so little time to get dressed, and he had known plenty. It was barely an hour ago when he had left Liza in bed, for heaven’s sake! It never entered his head she would get to his mother before he did. Heaven knew what his mother had said. But he had a damn good idea he was going to find out, and not just from Liza, but from his mother as well. Not something he was looking forward to. He doubted the man was ever born who could hide anything successfully from his own mother.

Standing at Nick’s side, Liza silently fumed, His uncle was dying to meet her? Since when? she wondered acidly. She didn’t believe it for a minute. Then, running over the conversation with Anna, she suddenly stiffened, shooting Nick an angry glance. ‘You…’ She tried to pull her arm free. He had not wanted her talking to his mother, that much was obvious.

‘I said later,’ Nick growled between gritted teeth, and then in a complete turn-about, charm oozing from every pore, ‘Uncle Thomas,’ he addressed the small man in front of them, ‘I want you to meet Liza; she is the daughter of Pamela Summers, Mamma’s English friend.’

In a flurry of introductions Liza met Thomas’s wife, Ellen, her brother, Paulo, and his wife, and discovered the two young couples were not couples at all, but the sons and daughters of Thomas and Paulo; she caught the name Marco…he looked vaguely familiar, but the rest of the names were lost.

In the general conversation that followed Liza realised Thomas and Ellen were celebrating their golden wedding. Last night there’d been a dinner at their home in Granada. The dinner Nick had missed… Today a family lunch with Anna and tonight Anna was hosting a party for all their friends and relatives.

‘I want to talk to you,’ Liza muttered in a swift aside to Nick as with a hand at her back he led her to her seat at the exquisitely prepared dining table. ‘This is a family lunch and I feel terrible, an interloper…’

But the hand Nick had at her spine slipped around her slender waist, and halted them both. He stared down at her with intent black eyes. ‘You are not an interloper. I told you before, you’re a welcome guest.’

‘So you say,’ she muttered, ‘but you could have told me…I’m not dressed.’

Nick shrugged a wide shoulder. ‘You look pretty well-covered to me,’ he drawled sardonically.

‘That is not the point,’ she snapped crossly, but before she could get another word out Nick had pulled out a chair and, with his hand on her shoulder, urged her down onto it.

His dark head bent towards hers, and he said with sibilant softness, ‘Behave yourself, Liza…nothing must spoil Thomas’s day.’

Trust him to think only of the man in the celebration and not Ellen, the wife, the chauvinistic pig… ‘What about…?’ His long fingers dug into her shoulder in a none-too-subtle threat.

‘Not now, Liza.’ His look flashed her a warning that she could not fail to recognise. ‘Later,’ he commanded and sat down on the chair next to her, his hand slipping from her shoulder to land on her thigh beneath the cover of the tablecloth.

Liza tensed in shock at his boldness and her own instant reaction to the long finger that caressed her inner thigh. She knocked his hand away, and glanced warily around, and only then did Liza realise the rest of the company had fallen silent and were watching her and Nick with varying degrees of interest. She wanted to slide under the table with embarrassment.

Surprisingly the lunch was not as bad as Liza had feared; the food was superb, and she might have quite enjoyed the spirited and lively conversation that ensued, except she could not dismiss from her mind the growing suspicion that somehow Nick’s reason for bringing her to Spain was not just because of his mother and the instant attraction between them, as she had believed.

Even admitting it had been pure coincidence that Anna had called while Liza was with Nick last night, Nick had deliberately mentioned her presence, knowing his mother would do what she had done and invite her to stay.

Liza had the nasty feeling she was somehow Nick’s second choice. His mother had thought he was meeting a Carl Dalk and bringing him back to the party. But Liza couldn’t see when Nick had had the time to meet this Dalk chap. Nick had told her he had just come from the airport and then he had spent virtually the whole day with her. Surely in the normal course of conversation he would have mentioned an urgent meeting; instead they had visited a building site for a few minutes. Maybe the two men had had some dangerous, illegal stunt in mind, like bunjee jumping into a volcanic crater in the Timanfaya National Park. According to Anna they were partners in such escapades, and then perhaps Carl Dalk had not turned up.

‘More wine, Liza?’

Liza looked up with a start, her blue eyes searching his handsome face; his expression was bland, his dark eyes revealing nothing. ‘No, thank you,’ she said firmly, recognising Nick was very good at hiding his feelings. But how much more was he hiding…?

He had been very insistent she come to the party. He had not actually lied and said his mother was ill, but he knew she had thought that was what he meant. She needed to talk to him, and she needed some answers; something smelt fishy, and it wasn’t the steak on her plate. But before she could pursue the subject Uncle Thomas asked her why a lovely girl like her was not married. Which caused great gales of laughter and a sardonic glance from Nick.

‘Because I have never found a man that suits me,’ she said with a grin. ‘Until I met you, Thomas, but unfortunately you’re taken,’ and banished her suspicions to the back of her mind in the laughter that followed.

The wine flowed freely, and when the older couples started reminiscing about the distant past, long before the rest were born, Anna suggested Nick take Liza and his cousins outside and show them his latest addition to the stables, a particularly fine racehorse.

Nick was standing, his hand on the halter of the magnificent black stallion, and smiling with obvious pride of ownership as he stroked the sleek, glossy neck. Everyone enthused over the animal.

Man and beast looked magnificent, Liza acknowledged. Two of a kind, superb male specimens. Nick looked so breathtakingly good-looking, devastatingly cool and in control of the animal. Choking back the sudden swell of emotion just watching him caused, she tore her gaze away, suddenly afraid he had been controlling her with the same accomplished ease.

She glanced around and a split-second later the colour drained from her face and involuntarily she shivered as she realised exactly where she was. The horse was in the one stall she had never wanted to see again.

Liza lifted appalled eyes just as Nick glanced in her direction, and the brilliant smile on his lean, strong face vanished as their eyes met, his expression suddenly harsh, and all her suspicions resurfaced with a vengeance.

Spinning around, Liza dashed back out of the stable, and for a moment leant against the wall, taking deep, steadying breaths, hating herself for panicking in front of everyone. It seemed in Nick’s company she could not help but regress into the besotted child she had once been, and it had to stop. Straightening up, she set off across the cobbled courtyard towards the house. To hell with Nick and his horses, she had had enough of both for the moment.

Nick handed the halter to Marco. ‘You four have a look around. I need to check on something,’ he said before he followed Liza out.

Liza had only gone a dozen yards when a strong arm wrapped around her waist and hauled her hard against a taut male body.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Nick demanded roughly.

‘Anywhere away from you,’ she shot back defiantly. She had made an enormous mistake. Nick did not need to say anything; it had been there in his face as he had glanced at her. He still thought she was no better than the slut he had accused her of being years ago, and she had compounded the notion by freely coming to Spain with him and succumbing with wild abandonment to his lovemaking. Whatever his reason for wanting her here, she was pretty sure it was not just his stated desire to sleep with her. He could have any woman he wanted, after all.

Nick hauled her around in one powerful arm and marched her towards the back of the house without a word.

‘Let go of me, you great brute,’ Liza cried, trying to break free.

‘No.’ His dark eyes without a glimmer of expression rested for a moment on her flushed, defiant face. ‘It was insensitive of me, I know, but save the recriminations until we get back to the house,’ he advised hardly.

‘Why the hell should I?’ Liza was hurting and suspicious and furious with herself for being such a push-over.

A black brow lifted sardonically. ‘Because this is a celebration, remember, fifty years married, and you are not going to cause a scene. Though how any man could stand a woman for fifty years is beyond me,’ he bit out cynically.

Hectic colour tinged her face. ‘Me, cause a scene. Your poor mother—’

‘Enough,’ Nick exploded. He was not used to having his actions questioned by anyone, and certainly not by a slip of a girl. Acting on impulse, he swung her off her feet and carried her through the kitchen, oblivious to the astonished looks of Manuel and the staff, and didn’t stop until he reached her room, and flung her on the bed.