THE VALQUEZ SEDUCTION Read online

  ‘Mr…er…Wyndham? Luiz Valquez. Daisy was a little under the weather last night so I—’

  ‘Drunk?’ her father exploded. ‘How dare you suggest such a thing? Do you have any idea of whom you’re dealing with here?’

  Luiz’s mouth developed a smirk, which Daisy was eminently glad her father couldn’t see. ‘Yes, sir, I do. You’re a loving father who is concerned about his daughter’s welfare.’

  She grimaced. Her father hated being patronised. She waited for the fallout. Any second now… She exchanged a quick look with Luiz. He wasn’t looking unduly worried. If anything, there was a glint of amusement in his dark gaze.

  ‘Parli italiano?’ her father demanded.

  ‘Sì.’

  The rest of the exchange was conducted in rapid-fire Italian and, while Daisy was moderately good at languages, she wasn’t that good. Whatever was said was short and to the point. Luiz showed little emotion on his face but she noticed the smirk had gone by the time the call ended and he handed back her phone. ‘Quite a guy.’

  ‘He’s really sweet when you get to know him.’

  There was a pregnant silence.

  ‘What did he say to you?’ Daisy asked.

  ‘Nothing much.’

  She chewed her lip again. Her father could be quite threatening at times. He was all bluster, of course. He wouldn’t hurt a fly if push came to shove. She reached for her purse again. ‘I guess I should let you get on with your morning.’

  Luiz’s hand on her arm stalled her. ‘There’ll be press out there.’

  ‘Press?’

  His look was grim. ‘Paparazzi. They follow me everywhere.’

  ‘Oh…’ Daisy hadn’t got as far as thinking beyond leaving his hotel suite before she made a complete fool of herself and begged him to kiss her. Being in his company had been far more pleasant than she’d expected. He was funny and charming and his gallantry towards her had totally ambushed her determination to dislike him. ‘What should I do?’

  ‘Leave all the talking to me.’

  Daisy had spent most of her life having her voice silenced by her father. She wasn’t going to let another man, even one as gorgeous and sexy as Luiz Valquez, speak for her. For the moment she’d play along but he would soon find out she wasn’t as wet behind the ears as he thought. ‘What will you say to them?’

  ‘I’ll think of something.’

  Something that might not reflect too well on her, Daisy thought. His scandalously racy reputation was well known. Being found in his room was not going to do hers any favours. She would be painted as one of his groupies for sure. No way was she going to be portrayed as yet another one of his one-night stands. She would have to think of something a little more fitting for a London kindergarten teacher who had the school board to consider.

  Luiz reached for the champagne in the ice bucket. ‘Have a drink with me.’

  ‘At this hour?’

  He popped the cork and poured the delicate bubbles into the crystal long-stemmed flutes. He handed her one, clinking his against hers in a toast. ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.’

  Daisy took a sip of the champagne, feeling decidedly decadent on top of her calorie-rich breakfast. ‘Hair of the dog, huh?’

  ‘Works for me.’

  She watched as he took a measured sip of his drink. His smile had faded and two pleats had formed between his brows. ‘Is something wrong?’

  His features relaxed but she could still see a faint line of tension around his mouth. ‘What are your plans for the rest of your stay? Have you booked any tours?’

  ‘No, the girls have but I wanted to do my own thing. I hate structured tours. I like to mooch around and get a feel for the place on my own.’

  ‘Fancy me as a guide for the next couple of hours?’

  Daisy fancied him full stop. Big time. The longer she spent in his company, the more tempted she was to relax her good girl standards and take a walk on the wild side with him. Besides, hadn’t he already demonstrated his trustworthiness? What would be the harm in hanging out with him for the rest of the day? Maybe even a few days?

  A little thought took hold in her mind… She could have a holiday fling with him to get herself out there. He wasn’t interested in anything permanent. And there was no way she could ever be serious about someone so unsuitable as husband material. But for a few days of flirting and fun…who better than a man who really knew how to lay on the charm? ‘Are you sure you’re not too busy?’

  ‘For you, querida?’ He clinked his glass against hers once more, his black eyes gleaming. ‘I am more than happy to clear my diary.’

  ‘Well…if you insist.’

  ‘I do.’

  She smiled at him. ‘You know something? When I first met you I thought you were brash and arrogant and ridiculously shallow.’

  ‘And now?’

  ‘I think underneath that easy come, easy go exterior you’re a really nice guy.’

  A dangerous light came back on in his eyes as he trailed a lazy finger down the curve of her cheek. ‘Don’t be fooled, little English girl. Your white knight has the blackest of hearts.’

  ‘At least you have one.’

  He studied her mouth for a heart-stopping moment. Daisy felt her breath come to a screeching halt as his fingertip traced the outline of her lips, the top one and then the bottom one. The movement of his finger stirred every nerve into a happy dance. She could feel her lips buzzing as if a swarm of bees was trapped beneath their surface.

  ‘Are you going to kiss me?’ Had she really asked that? She really needed to work on her flirting lines. But hey, this might just be the opportunity to do it.

  His mouth curved upwards in an enigmatic smile. ‘Let’s say I’m measuring the risks.’

  ‘Just so you know…I don’t bite.’

  ‘No.’ He took a fistful of her hair in his hand and pulled her close as his mouth came down towards hers. ‘But I do.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  HER LIPS WERE soft and pliable and she tasted of a heady cocktail of champagne and innocence. Luiz had wanted to kiss her from the moment he’d laid eyes on her in the nightclub. Her feisty little brush-off had amused him. He knew he could take her down given enough time. Now he had her in his arms but taking it a step further was giving him some pause. Her father had issued a thinly disguised warning. Sully his little girl’s reputation and there would be unpleasant consequences. Luiz would have told him where to stick his threats but the name Charles Wyndham rang a faint alarm bell in his head.

  But that didn’t mean he couldn’t indulge in a kiss with Daddy’s little princess first.

  Except that kissing her was proving to be far more addictive than he had bargained for. Her soft lips opened on a breathless sigh as he deepened the kiss with a smooth stroke of his tongue against the seam of her mouth. She pressed herself closer to his body, triggering a molten fire inside him as he recalled every deliciously naked inch of her last night as she had wantonly stripped off her clothes and danced and jiggled her breasts around him. In spite of his moral stance, it had taken a monumental amount of willpower to resist her clumsy attempt to seduce him. She had gorgeous curves that were womanly and yet delightfully youthful. Her breasts were small but perfect globes of feminine flesh with rose-pink nipples that had made his mouth ache to taste their budded peaks. Her waist was tiny in comparison to the feminine swell of her hips, small enough for his hands to span, which had been one temptation he hadn’t been able to resist. He had done it as an experiment…or so he told himself. But feeling her push against him in nothing but her creamy skin had all but disabled his willpower. A backdraught of heat had shot through his system when her pelvis came in contact with his.

  Luiz felt it again as she moved against him now and, even though this time she was fully clothed, just knowing that under
that little black dress and those little lacy black knickers she was waxed clear made him throb with a fireball of lust.

  He plunged deeper into her mouth, seeking the hot sweet wetness of her, as if that in some vicarious way would suffice. Her tongue approached his with a teasing little flicker that made him go after it with ruthless intent. He drew it into his mouth, cajoling it into submission as his hands gripped her hips and held her tight against the swell of his pounding erection. Need roared inside him like a wild animal on the prowl. Earthy need. Primal need that would not be assuaged any other way than with monkey sex at its most animated.

  He brought his hands to her head, spreading his fingers through her hair as he held her mouth to his in a passionate duel. Not that she was fighting him or anything. She was with him all the way, making it impossible for him to pull back and get perspective.

  Damn perspective.

  He wanted her.

  But, for all that, her father’s threat sent a cube of ice scudding down his spine. It was one thing to make a threat to have his legs broken—which he didn’t for a moment take seriously because last time he looked he wasn’t in an episode of a mob drama—but how far did her old man’s influence reach? During the course of the brief conversation Charles Wyndham had chillingly mentioned Alejandro and Teddy’s upcoming wedding. They had married a few weeks earlier in a marriage of convenience arrangement to secure Teddy’s inheritance and some land next to the Valquez family estate—now Alejandro’s property—which had been swindled off their father by Teddy’s father twenty years ago.

  How much did Charles Wyndham know about the way Alejandro and Teddy had come together? Luiz knew Alejandro was at great pains to give Teddy the best wedding day imaginable, given he had marched her off to a register office for a civil ceremony that had no hint of romance or fairy tale about it. Charles Wyndham had implied Alejandro and Teddy’s special day would be sabotaged if Luiz didn’t play by the rules.

  Rules. Schmules. No one told him what to do or how to do it.

  But this wasn’t just about him now. His older brother had sacrificed years of his life—the best years—to salvage the family business and to bring Luiz up. Alejandro had forfeited fun for duty. Now he was finally happy with the lovely Teddy and all that could be undone if Luiz didn’t watch his step.

  As much as it galled him to appear to be kowtowing to a tyrannical dictator, he knew it was in his interests to keep things cool until this particular storm cloud blew over. All he had to do was hang out with Daisy for a few hours before getting her back on her way with her girlfriends.

  After he finished kissing her, of course.

  When had a kiss tasted so tantalising? Her arms were around his neck, her mouth pressed hotly to his, her fingers playing with the ends of his hair that brushed his collar. Shivers coursed up and down his spine at her touch. He imagined those soft little hands exploring other parts of his body: down the muscles of his back and shoulders, his chest and abdomen and lower, where he throbbed and pulsed the hardest.

  He groaned deep in the back of his throat as her teeth nipped at his lower lip before salving the sting with a moist stroke of her cat-like tongue. His erection painfully hardened at the thought of that clever little tongue teasing the length of him, tasting him, taking him to the limit of human control and beyond.

  Her body rubbed against him invitingly, from chest to thigh, ramping up his desire to a level that was quickly slipping out of the bounds of his normally cool and measured control. He prided himself—some would say arrogantly so—on being a supremely competent lover who always made sure a good time was had by all. But with Daisy’s soft little mouth and her perky little breasts and her curvy body wreaking such havoc on his senses he felt like a trigger-happy teenager.

  He pulled back reluctantly, his body instantly wailing at the loss of the teasing friction of hers. ‘This might be a good time to put the brakes on.’

  Her cheeks were flushed a deep shade of rose. Her lips were swollen from the press of his; even her chin had a little red patch where his morning stubble had caught her. She had a dazed look in her beautiful blue eyes. He suspected it might match the one he was doing his level best to disguise in his own. ‘Oh…yes, right. Good idea…’

  ‘Do you normally kiss like that?’ he found himself asking.

  Her forehead puckered. ‘Was I totally rubbish at it?’

  ‘Hell, no. I’m just saying…’ What was he saying? That she knocked him off his feet with a kiss? Yeah, right, like he was going to tell her that. Anyone that.

  She, it seemed, had no such scruples. ‘You’re an amazing kisser. No wonder you’ve got the reputation you have.’

  Why did his reputation feel like something to be ashamed of when he was with her? He couldn’t imagine her leaping from one bed to the other, barely taking enough time to register a sexual partner’s name before moving on to the next.

  Not that he wasn’t happy with his life. His life was fun. He liked being on the move. Putting down roots was for trees. Not for him.

  But something about the way she was looking at him made a space creak open inside his chest. A tiny fissure along a fault line, barely enough to send a beam of light through, but he felt a spill of warmth flow from it and brush like a puff of a hot breath against his chilled heart.

  ‘What was wrong with the way I was kissing you?’ she suddenly asked.

  ‘Nothing. It was great. You were great. Fabulous, in fact.’ He stopped gushing long enough to draw a breath to rebalance. ‘You might want to hold back on the enthusiasm a bit. A less principled guy might take advantage of it.’ Jeez, he was starting to sound like a parent again.

  ‘But what if I wanted you to take advantage of it?’

  Luiz blinked. ‘No, you don’t… Do you?’

  Her face was so youthfully open and fresh it made something deep inside his chest pinch. ‘I didn’t before but I’ve changed my mind. I like you. I’d like to spend some more time with—’

  ‘No. No. No. A thousand times no.’ He practically frogmarched her to the door. ‘You, young lady, need to go and join your friends. Go do a tour of the Grand Canyon or go shopping or book to see a show or something.’ He scooped up her purse and thrust it in her hands before opening the door. ‘Out.’

  A blinding flash hit him in the eyes as a round of paparazzi cameras went off.

  ‘Luiz, tell us about your mystery date,’ a journalist said. ‘Everyone’s talking about her. Who is she?’

  ‘Are you going to see her again?’

  ‘What’s your name, sweetheart?’

  Luiz took Daisy’s arm and pulled her back behind him. ‘Don’t tell them.’

  ‘Ooh!’ a female journalist crowed. ‘It must be serious. He’s never done that before.’

  ‘Her name’s Daisy,’ someone offered from the back of the assembled press. ‘I spoke to one of her friends earlier. She’s a kindergarten teacher from a posh school in London.’

  ‘Can we expect a double wedding with your brother, eh, Luiz?’ one of the old regulars asked.

  Luiz laughed it off. ‘We’re just friends.’

  ‘How about we hear what Miss Wyndham has to say?’

  Luiz’s fingers clamped down on Daisy’s wrist. ‘She has no comment to make. Now, if you’ll excuse us—’

  ‘Yes, I do.’ Daisy poked her head around his shoulder before he could stop her. ‘I’m in love with Luiz and he’s in love with me.’

  Somehow Luiz kept his composure but it was a near thing. Thank God for the improvisation drama classes way back in his boarding school days. He smiled stiffly and put his arm around Daisy’s waist, tugging her close to his body; registering again how neatly she fitted against him. ‘That’s right.’ He swallowed to get his next words out without choking. ‘We’re officially a couple.’

  The cameras went crazy. So many flashes an
d clicks it sounded like rounds of artillery on a battlefield.

  But this was one battle Luiz was determined to win. No one—not even a pretty little English girl or her overbearing father—was going to manipulate him into a relationship. He was a free agent and he was going to stay that way.

  He shepherded Daisy back inside his suite and closed the door firmly, hoping the paparazzi would get the message and move on. When he was certain they had left he nailed her with a hardened look. ‘Want to tell me what that was all about?’

  She stood before him, straight-backed and defiant. ‘I didn’t want them to think I was one of your groupies.’

  ‘In love?’ Saying the words felt as if he was coughing up a fur ball.

  Her cheeks stained with spreading colour. ‘OK, I admit it might’ve been a bit over the top but I had to say something.’

  ‘No, you did not.’ He didn’t bother softening his tone. ‘I told you to keep quiet. But no. You go and announce to the world you’re in love with me. Seriously?’

  A combative light came into her eyes. ‘It’s all right for you. You don’t care what people think of you, but I have to think of my reputation. I don’t want to be seen as another one of your trashy one-night stands. I have children who look up to me.’

  He looked at her blankly. ‘Children?’

  She whooshed out a flustered breath. ‘My pupils. You heard what the journalist said. My school’s not just your common or garden variety one. The parents pay extortionate fees to have their little darlings educated. As a staff member I have standards to uphold both professionally and personally. Kindergarten kids are highly impressionable. If word got back to the school board that I was cavorting in Vegas with a layabout play—’

  ‘Hey, watch your language.’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘Whatever.’

  Luiz raked a hand through his hair. Did she really think he was—? No, don’t even go there. He didn’t care what she thought of him. Why would he? He didn’t have to explain himself to her or to anyone. ‘I don’t care if you want to pretend to be in love with me, but why throw in that porkie of me being in love with you?’