Hostage Of Passion

Awkwardly, she wriggled out of the severely styled dark grey blazer she had chosen to wear over paler grey linen trousers and a matching shirt Even in April the heat was astonishing. She had forgotten how fierce the sun could be in southern Spain and couldn’t wait to get back to the cool English spring she had left behind. It was far more suited to her temperament, she decided tiredly, feeling an annoying crop of perspiration spring out on her upper lip.

Closing her eyes on the vibrant landscape, the terrifyingly twisty road, she picked over the situation that faced her.

On the one hand she could find her father alone, working like a man possessed, never having heard of the absconding Encarnación, in which case she would stay overnight and leave first thing in the morning with a huge sigh of relief.

Or—and this was the worst-case scenario, her secret fear—she could find him with his new young mistress and have the disagreeable task of making him see sense, pointing out, with graphic emphasis, what he could expect if Francisco Garcia Casals ever got within thrashing distance, trying to make the wayward young minx see the error of her ways and return to her family home.

That Piers would be at the house in Arcos, innocently or not so innocently, was in no real doubt now. When her mother had been alive they had often spent the spring there because Piers had always felt spiritually at home in the Andalusian mountains, executing some of his best work there.

After her death—when Sarah herself was only thirteen—Piers had closed the house up for a time but in later years he had often used it as a bolthole when he wanted to get down to serious, concentrated work.

He called it his cabaña, but it wasn’t, of course. It was a small house in a tiny warren of streets in the old town, but, as he said, he liked the way the word cabaña rolled off the tongue. Her father, she thought resignedly, wasn’t spectacularly clever when it came to seeing things as they really were.

And no matter how often she told herself that there had to be some mistake, the letter had been all too explicit. Impatiently, she dabbed her damp forehead with the back of her hand. It was all too tiresome to be borne and she could only pray that, as Encarnación had obviously met Piers at some time or other, the little minx had picked his name out of the ether and used it as a smokescreen for her own questionable activities.

The Spaniard had described his sister as being sheltered and protected—and that, of course, pointed to innocence. From the little Sarah knew of Señor Casals she guessed that translated into the fact that the eighteen-year-old had been utterly dominated by his sledge-hammer personality, that he expected his female relatives to stick to rigidly old-fashioned codes of behaviour, gave them no freedom whatsoever in a changing world, a world where female emancipation was the accepted thing in all levels of society, even here.

She didn’t blame the unknown girl for wanting out of such a stultifying situation. But that didn’t excuse Encarnación’s abuse of Piers’ name, if that was what had happened—and oh, how she prayed that it was. He was more than capable of making trouble for himself; he didn’t need help in that direction from a Spanish teenager who wanted to toss a red herring or two in front of her big brother’s aristocratic nose.

At last the driver flourished to an untidy halt, the ramshackle old Seat splayed across the narrow street, and Sarah scrambled out thankfully and paid him off, standing in the scorching sun for long moments after he’d reversed flamboyantly away in a cloud of exhaust fumes, trying to recover her poise after the hair-raising drive into the mountains.

Not many things gave her the jitters but bucketing around in the back of a car that had obviously long since passed its use-by date, driven by a man who took hairpin bends and horrifying gradients with as much apparent care as a swallow testing the thermals, was one of them.

Shuddering, she pulled herself together, becoming aware now of a round señora clad in voluminous black who was observing her with brightly inquisitive eyes from the doorstep of one of the neighbouring houses.

Alone in the tiny street, her father’s house looked neglected and shabby. The others were brightly painted, the window-boxes and balconies brimming with abundantly flowering plants, whereas Piers’ so-called cabaña had peeling paintwork, rusting balconies and seemed to sag, held up only by its neighbours.

But that was no surprise. When Patience had been alive she had done her utmost to keep up outward appearances, pretend that they were a normal family just like everyone else, creating a comfortable home wherever they happened to behere in Spain in the fecund months of spring or in the rented stone cottage on a remote mountain-flank in Wales which had been the nearest thing to a settled home Sarah had had during her early childhood.

Her mother, she decided, not for the first time, had been aptly named.

Her father had never cared what his surroundings were like. He actually seemed to thrive in an atmosphere of chaos and turmoil.

Bracing herself for the coming encounter with her wayward, irresponsible parent, she pushed on the bleached-wood door and found it securely locked, then hammered without any real hope on the grainy surface.

He would almost certainly be out in the surrounding countryside, sketching or painting. Why hadn’t she thought of that? She might have to wait for hours before he decided to come back.

The watching woman shuffled off her doorstep, bombarding her with a rapid carillon of Spanish, and Sarah, who had long ago forgotten the few words of the language she had picked up in her childhood, smiled tightly, shrugging her slim shoulders.

Her shirt was sticking to her in the heat. She was getting a headache, felt almost sick with thirst and almost had to add a threatened heart attack to her list of unpleasant physical inconveniences when the arrogantly confident, uncompromisingly masculine Francisco Garcia Casals said from directly behind her, ‘Having trouble, señorita?’

She twisted round, her insides clenching, her heart palpitating wildly under her breasts. How in the name of everything sacred had he got here? Followed her? All the way from London? Determined to get to Piers and beat him to a pulp?

She couldn’t ask because she couldn’t breathe. He filled all her space, stole the air from her lungs. And he was talking to her father’s neighbour, his Spanish smooth and rich, a deceptively soothing counterpoint to the elderly woman’s shrill stacatto. Deceptive, because he turned and held her eyes with the penetrating blackness of his, telling her with a twisted sardonic little smile that curled her toes, ‘Papá is away from home and not expected back for a number of weeks. But I have been reliably informed of his exact whereabouts.’ His smile as he turned to his compatriot was warm and beguiling, making him look thoroughly gorgeous, and watching the way the woman bridled, a grin splitting her face, made Sarah feel ill.

They said all men were suckers for a pretty face but the same could be said for women. If a sexy man turned on the charm they went to mush.

Not this one, though. She had far more sense. Very aware of the problems her father could be facing, she fixed the wretched man with cool blue eyes and demanded, ‘Then I insist you share the information.’

‘Do you indeed?’ One black brow drifted slowly upwards and she flinched under the impact of that slight, lopsided smile as he reminded her, ‘Did you share your information with me? I think not, señorita. I suspected the agent had said something to turn the wheels of your cold little brain. You put me to the trouble of following you.’

He examined his square-cut, perfect fingernails briefly before shooting her a fiercely derisive look. ‘I found the exercise highly tedious. Regard the withholding of my information as punishment. A just punishment, you must agree, when I tell you that the señora here described the “friend” who left with him. She was either my sister or her nonexistent twin.’

Hot temper glared in his eyes and, seared by it, by the damning information he had relayed, Sarah stepped back, her legs shaking.

And then he turned his back, the silky white fabric of his shirt falling in graceful folds from his wide shoulders, his mean and moody narrow hips and long black-clad legs moving with eloquent dismissive arrogance as he stalked away.

For a moment she simply stared. She couldn’t believe this was actually happening, that he was walking away, refusing to tell her where Piers was, leaving her to stew in this heat, expecting her tamely to return to London, knowing that her headstrong, selfish parent had indeed seduced an innocent girl away from her deeply protective family, and wait for a call from a Spanish hospital to tell her that her father was hooked up to a life-support system in Intensive Care!

She gritted her teeth until they hurt. How could he do this to her? How dared he? He was not, she decided toughly, going to get away with it!

Grabbing her overnight bag and her jacket, she hared after his tall, receding figure, and was out of breath, her hair beginning to come down, falling all over the place, damp tendrils clinging to her temples, when she finally caught up with him.

And only just in time. He was already opening the door of an intimidating scarlet Ferrari. There was only one thing for it. Since she couldn’t follow on foot she would have to prevent him leaving.

Using her last gasp of breath, she swooped over the cobbles and neatly inserted her body between him and the door, really hating him now for forcing her to behave like a hoyden, lose all her dignity, her highly valued poise.

He barely moved, only enough to accommodate her, and he didn’t even look surprised. His conceit was monumental, his self-confidence appalling, she thought disgustedly, mentally grinding her teeth as she struggled to regain enough breath to make a few succinct demands.

But her breathlessness, if anything, was getting worse. And she was horribly aware of the hot metal burning her back as she was forced against the door by the infinitely more searing heat of his body. There was a strange tingling, burning sensation where her heaving breasts were thrusting against the heated male skin beneath that sinfully expensive shirt and she wasn’t even going to think about what the pressure of those mean hips was doing to her abdomen…

‘Did you want something, señorita?’ The voice was slow and rich and smooth, and was the slight glide and gyration of that hard pelvis really accidental?

Sarah gulped, her lungs fighting for air, and at that moment the rest of her hair fell down from its normal careful restraint, slithering in a silky blonde tumble to cloak her shoulders.

Her dazed eyes narrowed furiously; she hated feeling uncontrolled, hated him for making her feel this way, looking at her as if she were somehow amusing. Amusing! And much as she wanted to get as far away from him as physically possible she couldn’t do it.

He knew where Piers was and intended to get to him and wreak his terrible vengeance. Even if he hadn’t said as much the intent was there, deep in those black Spanish eyes. Come what may, she had to be there when the two men met up, to act as intermediary, a calming influence, at the very least.

He put his hands against the gleaming bodywork of the car, trapping her, the pressure of his hard, lean body increasing to dangerous proportions, and she shot out hoarsely, ‘I demand to know—’

He cut in smoothly, ‘Save your breath. I have no intention of telling you where el diablo is hiding, or of taking you with me when I go to take my sister away from his evil influences. It is a matter between him and me. You understand what I am saying?’

His white teeth gleamed dangerously and her stomach lurched. He meant it, he really meant it, and despite the years of embarrassment and annoyance, the times when she would have preferred not to have a father at all rather than one as wild as Piers, she knew she would do anything to save him from physical damage at the hands of this avenging devil. Her father, for all his faults and failings, she realised with momentary shock, meant far more to her than she had ever supposed.

Yet what could she do? He had already stepped back, removing the shatteringly unwelcome pressure of his body, his hands on her elbows as he shifted her dispassionately out of his way.

‘Please, señor…’ Her voice emerged as a disgraceful whimper but if she had to beg she would do it. Piers wasn’t a young man and a violent encounter between him and this hard-jawed Spanish aristocrat with his damaged family pride and his lust for vengeance was beyond bearable thought.

‘Please?’ An eloquent black brow lifted in shaming derision. ‘Don’t try to appeal to my better nature. When my sister has been damaged, it doesn’t exist. And you have no bargaining power. I have the information I need and you have nothing to offer that could tempt me to reveal it.’

That sexy accent growled through his voice and she stared at him with cold blue eyes. If he thought that lightly veiled insult would upset her he was making a huge mistake. She had no intention of making a bargain, certainly not the one he had conceitedly implied. There were some limits to what she would do to save her father’s hide!

‘However—’ he dipped his head and the harsh

sunlight gleamed on the dark luxuriance of his hair ‘—as I am not without honour, and you are a guest in my country, I will not abandon you in your obvious distress. Come.’ He smiled grimly at her stupefaction, taking her baggage from her suddenly nerveless hands. ‘I will take you to a hotel where you may refresh yourself, señorita. Where you may also hire a taxi to take you back to the airport. Try to find a driver who is a little less impulsive than the one you had before,’ he added drily, opening the passenger door, stiffly formal now.

Formality suited her just fine. Much better than threats and insults, glimpses of a hot, wild temper, the way he had dominated her with his male body as if to impress upon her his vast superiority. Besides, she’d just had a wonderful idea. His reference to the driver who had brought her out had seeded it in her mind.

So she was feeling in control of the situation again as he manoeuvred the Ferrari out of the tiny colourful square, able to give grudging admiration as he negotiated the narrow streets in the shadow of the church of San Pedro, down to the lower reaches of the ancient town that straddled a towering rocky spur, finally parking in front of an imposing hotel, the potent scarlet car a shriek of affluence and power amid the humble waiting taxis.

She exited before he had time to come round to help her, pleased to note that her legs had stopped shaking, and her features were commendably serene as the Spaniard took her belongings in one hand and her elbow in the other and marched her up the broad, sweeping marble steps and into the foyer.

Her idea might not work, of course, for all kinds of reasons. But she would give it her best shot. And hopefully he would soon learn that he was not the only one who made things happen, took the prevailing circumstances and forced them to his will!

Inside, the foyer was all hushed, cool opulence, slow-moving brass-bladed fans overhead, marble slabs underfoot, intricate plasterwork and rich carved wood. And glass telephone booths, Sarah noted, filing the information tidily away, her stomach tightening with the excitement of knowing that her plan might possibly work.

‘You are hungry?’ her escort asked, apparently without a great deal of interest.

She shook her head without thinking. She was too wound up inside to think of eating now. But then she realised that if she had said she was ravenous it would have delayed his departure for a little longer, so she tacked on quickly, before he could walk away and leave her, ‘I’d love a long cold drink, though, if you’re having something,’ and added, ‘Might I freshen up first? Could you tell me where to go?’

‘But of course.’ He seemed bored now, and she tagged along as he approached the reception desk, but her spirits soared to fresh heights as he addressed the male clerk in English.

‘The señorita wishes to use the rest-room. I shall be waiting in the terrace restaurant; will you bring her to me?’

Sarah barely registered the man’s reply. It was all going better than she would ever have dared to hope. Veiling her aquamarine eyes in case they betrayed her mounting inner excitement, she extracted her shoulder-bag from the baggage he was still holding, said, ‘See you in around ten minutes,’ and headed smartly for the rest-room, ignoring his drawled ‘Take your time’, not caring an atom if he was regretting his decision to do her the courtesy of allowing her to refresh herself before he abandoned her to go off in murderous pursuit of her father.

He was going to regret his ‘honourable’ impulse far more before the day was out. She was about to make very sure of that.

CHAPTER THREE

THIS time round Sarah didn’t in the least object to being jolted about in the back of a taxi. And she kept her eyes wide open. If they hadn’t been screwed tightly shut for most of that earlier, stomachtwisting journey into Arcos then sooner or later she would have noticed the prowling Ferrari behind them. And been warned.

But, never one to take lingering backward looks at past mistakes, Sarah now kept her sparkling eyes firmly glued to the road ahead, on the unsuspecting speck of scarlet in the distance.

Little more than an hour ago, the gut-wrenching fear that Francisco Casals would roar off into the wild blue yonder, reclaim his erring sister then beat her father senseless, without her being around to stop it or temper the Spanish brute’s ferocity, had seemed a frightening certainty. He had made her feel utterly impotent for the first time in years, and she hadn’t liked the sensation one little bit.

But a few careless words of his had given her the idea of following him, as he had so obviously followed her all the way from London. And the rest had been amazingly, brilliantly easy. Even now, with her plan working out perfectly, she could hardly believe her good fortune, the way everything had neatly fallen into place without a single hitch.

A few seconds in the rest-room, just long enough to give him time to take himself off to the terrace restaurant, had been followed by a thoroughly satisfying whirlwind of activity.

The availability of public telephones had been a foregone conclusion and she’d been able to get through to her London office with hardly any delay, her tone brisk and concise as she’d told Jenny, ‘Look, something’s cropped up and I’m going to have to be away longer than I bargained for. Hold the fort for me, would you? I’ll get back just as soon as I can.’

‘Not to worry, boss. Take all the time you need.’ Jenny sounded emphatic. ‘It’s ages since you had a break—just make sure you have a great time, and relax for just once in your life.’

Ordeal by a vengeful, tricky Spaniard was hardly her idea of a holiday, Sarah thought wryly as she replaced the receiver. But two could be tricky—as the lordly Francisco Garcia Casals would soon discover—and as for relaxing, well, there would be no time for that until she’d outwitted that black Andalusian devil…

Her shoulders straight, she marched purposefully over to Reception and asked the man she now knew spoke English—which had been another stroke of sheer good luck, hadn’t it just?—‘Could you help me, please?’

‘Sure.’ He almost sprang to attention. ‘Señor Casals is waiting on the terrace. If you’ll follow me…’

His dark eyes showed no surprise at her obviously unrefreshed appearance but his brows did rise a fraction when she corrected him swiftly, ‘In a moment. First, though, I need to arrange for a taxi—I speak no Spanish, I’m afraid.’

She ignored his openly surprised, momentary stare and followed coolly as he led the way outside to where three or four drivers were waiting for a fare, boredom or a kind of resignation written all over them. He probably couldn’t understand why any woman would be thinking of transport when that suavely gorgeous hunk of Spanish manhood was waiting—especially a woman who must look as if she’d spent the last few hours fully dressed in a Turkish bath.

She didn’t care what chauvinistic thoughts were rattling around inside his brain but embarrassment reared its debilitating head when he turned to her, bland-eyed now, asking, ‘Tell me where you want to go, señorita, and I will translate.’

For one weak moment, Sarah was tempted to ask for the airport, to fly back to England and hide from the mess Piers had unwittingly got her into. But, she reminded herself, she had never run from anything yet, and wasn’t going to start acting like a moral coward now. And she could weather a little embarrassment, couldn’t she?

So she held her head high, looking down the length of her neat nose, toughing it out.

‘I want a driver who is prepared to wait until Señor Casals and I leave. The señor will be driving the red car. I will want my driver to follow, at a discreet distance, naturally, to—’ Her voice faltered, echoing the way she was cringing inside, but she overcame the slight problem and went on firmly, ‘To wherever he goes. I am prepared to pay well over the odds.’

She refused to look away, even when he smirked with unconcealed amusement, just tilted her chin that little bit higher. She knew just what he was thinking. The handsome señor, who drove the kind of car only the seriously wealthy could afford to run, had grown bored with his English bit on the side—who could blame him?—and had dumped her. But the unglamorous, sadly plain creature wasn’t prepared to be dumped, was determined to follow wherever he went, make a nuisance of herself. The conclusion was so obvious that she couldn’t blame him for reaching it.

With a fatalistic shrug that implied that all men, even the mightiest, had to pay for their pleasures in the end, the receptionist spoke rapidly to one of the drivers and, the deal apparently clinched, turned back to Sarah, his smile very broad now.

‘You wish now to join Señor Casals?’

‘Of course.’ It was difficult to maintain her dignity in the face of his amusement, but she managed it as he escorted her to the terrace restaurant. The incident would have enlivened his otherwise dreary working day. And if the sly, sideways glance he gave Francisco Casals as he rose to his feet when Sarah was led to his table was anything to go by they would both be the subject of endless jokes and speculation among the rest of the staff here.

Oddly enough it gave her a weird sense of fellowfeeling with Francisco as he dismissed the receptionist with a curt word of thanks. As if, in some strange way, they were bound together.

Which was complete and utter nonsense, she dismissed as she took her seat at the white-covered table, refusing anything from the lavish bowl of luscious-looking fruits, just accepting the glass of orange juice he poured from a jug that nestled in a bowl of crushed ice.

He was her father’s enemy and that made him hers—because, whatever the rights or wrongs of the situation, violence was demeaning, it solved nothing, and she intended to be around to see that it didn’t happen.

Ignoring the magnificent view of rumpled, sunbaked mountains spread out in front of the terrace restaurant, she gave him her full attention. There was a gleam in his eyes she didn’t like—it gave her the mental shudders—so she ignored that too, offering him one last chance to redeem himself.

‘You say my father’s neighbour told you where he is, and that a girl answering Encarnación’s description was with him when he left Arcos. And that you intend right now to go and find them.’

She took a sip of her juice to moisten her suddenly parched throat, horribly aware of the way his black eyes never once left her consciously prim features, and then a huge gulp of the cold, delicious liquid because that sip hadn’t eased the annoying constriction in her throat. Then from somewhere she found the most businesslike tone she possessed and suggested sensibly, ‘Tell me where they are and let me sort it out. I promise to separate them and personally deliver your sister to you. I sympathise with your concern, believe me, but violence won’t solve anything.’