The Most Expensive Lie of All (15 page)

‘Really?’ She took a hesitant step towards him. ‘You’re serious? It’s mine?’

‘Yes,’ he said gruffly, wondering why it was that he couldn’t look at her without wanting to strip her clothes off.

‘Oh, Cruz...’

She looked as if she might cry, and just when he was about to back away she gave a gurgle of laughter and rushed over to him, jumping up to wind her arms around his neck. Instinctively Cruz grasped the backs of her thighs, and it seemed completely natural to raise her legs and lock them around his hips.

In an instant the chemistry between them ignited and he filled his hands with her taut curves as he sought to steady them both.

‘Thank you, thank you... This means so much to me. You have no idea.’

Before he could formulate a sane response she leant forward and kissed him, her silky tongue sneaking out to wrap around his. Cruz held in a groan and took charge of the kiss. This was what he’d wanted from the minute he’d woken up this morning.

Then he’d held himself back. Now, with her honeyed taste on his tongue, he didn’t bother. Her mouth was the greatest aphrodisiac he’d ever known.

She moved her hips and Cruz pressed himself more snugly against the seam of her jeans. She murmured something and he almost ignored it, but the words ‘We’re not alone...’ and ‘Everyone is watching...’ somehow permeated his addled brain.

He glanced around at his stunned executive team. She was right. Not one of them had looked away and he couldn’t say he blamed them. He was just as shocked that he’d forgotten they were still in the room as they were at seeing him with a woman locked in his arms.

He released a careful breath.

‘Excuse me, everyone. I’m going to have to adjourn this meeting. Again.’

He held Aspen as still as a statue until the door snicked closed. Then he devoured her, pulling at her clothes and unzipping his jeans. He shoved aside the laptop on the mahogany table and laid her down. Her shirt was open around her and her breasts were heaving against the delicate cups of her plain white bra. She looked wild and wanton, her hair spilling out of the French braid she had secured it in. His hands skimmed her, claimed her, and she arched up off the table towards him.

‘That door isn’t locked,’ she got out between gasps of pleasure.

‘No one will come through it unless they want to start looking for a new job.’

‘This is...’

‘Madness?’ His hands felt clumsy as he yanked her jeans down her legs. ‘You need to start wearing skirts more,’ he complained.

She let out a husky laugh, and then her breath hitched as he ripped her panties aside and parted her legs. She was already slick and ready and he growled his appreciation.

‘I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I want you.’

He ducked his head down and bathed her silky wetness with his tongue. Her legs fell further apart and he saw her watching him as he licked and sucked on her sweetness. The picture of his dark head nestled between her creamy thighs nearly unmanned him, and when he felt her inner walls start to tremble with her imminent release he rose up and pulled her towards the edge of the table.

‘Not without me,
mi gatita
. I want to feel you come around me.’

Quickly applying a condom, Cruz hooked her legs over his forearms and drove into her. Her gasp was raw and shocked and, given everything she had revealed to him last night, he tried to check himself.

‘No, don’t stop. Please.’

Her hands clutched his forearms, urging him closer, and Cruz closed his eyes and pumped himself into her, grazing her clitoris with his thumb to maximise her pleasure. She came hard and fast at exactly the moment he did. Pleasure turned him inside out. The world might have ended at that moment and he wouldn’t have had a clue.

CHAPTER TEN

‘Y
OU
DO
MISS
IT
.’

‘What?’

‘Playing polo.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Aspen smiled up at Cruz. ‘The wistful look on your face right now, perhaps.’

They were leaning on the fence post of one of the stable yards, watching the grooms and riders put the finishing touches to their horses before the main tournament got under way.

‘I’m assessing the state of the horses.’

Aspen cocked her head and studied his profile, shadowed from the sun by a baseball cap. His hair curled sexily at the sides. ‘Why did you give it up?’

He turned his head, his black eyes piercing. ‘Money.’

‘Ah. I’m sensing there’s a theme here.’ She laughed.

‘No theme,’ Cruz growled without heat. ‘I didn’t have much when I left Ocean Haven and I knew that polo wasn’t going to give me what I needed.’

Aspen nodded. ‘Money gives you the security that Ocean Haven gives me, but it’s our loss. Watching you play polo was like watching poetry in motion.’

He looked at her strangely and then gave her a small smile. ‘Those days are long gone now. And, while I did miss it, my life is full enough as it is. By the way...’ His tone turned serious. ‘Anderson is here. He was injured last month in Argentina so he wasn’t expected to turn up. I told him to keep away from you.’

Aspen reeled. So it
had
been Chad she had glimpsed last night in the hotel foyer. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She hadn’t seen him in years, and while she really didn’t want to she didn’t want Cruz feeling as if he had to defend her just because she had unexpectedly opened up to him.

‘You don’t have to fight my battles for me, Cruz.’

He shook his head as if he knew better and tapped the tip of her nose affectionately. ‘Somebody has to.’ He took off his cap and fitted it to her head. ‘You need a hat if you’re going to stay out in the sun,
mi
gatita
. Excuse me for a minute.’

He headed off inside the stable, his long stride and two-metre frame seeming to strike sparks in the air as he moved. Aspen tried to feel annoyed at his high-handedness, but after last night and then this morning on his conference table it was hard to stay irritated with him over anything. It had been so long since she had felt this good.

So long since she had just enjoyed herself without the pressure of work and bills getting in the way.

So long since she had felt the freedom of truly being in charge of her own destiny.

And it was exhilarating. She grinned to herself. Almost—but not quite—as exhilarating as feeling Cruz move inside her body. She smiled again. Almost as exhilarating as feeling his mouth on her breasts, between her legs.

As soon as she had
that
thought liquid heat turned her insides soft and her smile widened, because now that she recognised the sensation she could actually feel herself growing moist. She glanced around surreptitiously, just to make sure no one else could see that she was turning herself on.

Her newly awakened desire was like a runaway train. And while part of her knew she should probably try and put the brakes on it, another part of her wanted to roll around in it like a cat in the sun.

Mi gatita
. His kitten.

Aspen rolled her eyes. She shouldn’t get so much joy out of the pet name but she did.

Her cell phone beeped an incoming message and she snatched it out of her pocket, hoping it was her uncle returning her call. Earlier she had left an excited message on his answering machine, informing him that she had raised the money they had agreed upon for her to buy The Farm. She wondered if he had got it yet and whether he was surprised, wishing she could have told him in person. Unfortunately a trip to England was not in the cards for her in the next twenty-five hours. Although, seventy-two hours ago she would have said a trip to Mexico wasn’t, either.

Checking her phone, she saw it was just Donny, informing her that he’d organised for Matty, one of the local teenagers who attended her riding school, to relieve him for the day. Aspen quickly texted back to tell him to have a great day off with his family.

Family...

That sounded so nice.

‘Catch.’

Cruz’s voice broke her reverie and Aspen looked up just in time to grab the bundle of clothes he had tossed at her and to see a smirk on his handsome face. ‘What’s this?’

‘
You’re my new groom. How soon can you change?’

Aspen didn’t miss a beat. ‘Five minutes.’

‘See Luis over there?’ Cruz pointed with his free hand towards the players’ area.

‘Yes.’

‘Meet me there in two.’

Aspen felt deliriously happy. She reached out and grabbed his arm as he made to walk past, a thrill of excitement racing through her. ‘You’re really going to play?’

He paused, cocked his head. ‘You wanted to see poetry in motion, didn’t you?’

Aspen shook her head, smiling at his cockiness.

It was dangerous to feel this much happiness because of a pair of jeans and a shirt, but it wasn’t that. It was the man.

She’d fallen in love with him, she realised with a sinking feeling.

He must have sensed her regard because he turned and met her gaze.

‘One minute left,’ he drawled.

Totally in love, she thought, and she had no idea what to do about it.

* * *

He was in love.

The thought gripped him by the throat in the middle of the game just as he was about to make a nearside forehand shot and he nearly fell off his horse and landed on his behind. Fortunately years of training and a horse that could play blind saw him come out of the offensive strike still in the saddle.

He pulled up and let one of his team members carry the ball to the goalposts.

He couldn’t be in love with her. It was impossible. He didn’t want to be in love with anyone. Not yet. It wasn’t part of his plan.

Surely it was just the exhilaration of being out on the polo field again that was sending weird magnetic pulses to his brain? The sense of fun he hadn’t felt in far too long?

He glanced towards the players’ area and his eyes effortlessly zeroed in on Aspen standing beside one of his players. She wore his Rodriquez Polo cap and her flyaway blond curls billowed out at the sides. She’d put on his team colours and she looked curvy and edible as she clapped her hands wildly.

The horn went, signalling the end of the game, and Cruz trotted towards her almost hesitantly.

Unaware of his thoughts, she beamed up at him. ‘You are such a show-off. Congratulations on the win.’

He returned her smile. She was gorgeous. Gorgeous and smart and funny and hot-headed. And, yes, he was in love with her.

Other players thumped him on the back and congratulated him and he could hear the commentators waxing lyrical about his statistics and his comeback—not that this
was
a comeback, more a hiatus in his normal working life—but he wasn’t really paying attention to anything other than Aspen.

He hadn’t had any idea that he was falling in love with her but now that he had acknowledged it, it made perfect sense. Probably he had always loved her.

And he couldn’t wait to tell her because last night and earlier, when he should have been concentrating on work, she had looked at him in such a way that he was confident she felt the same as he did.

Not that he would tell her here. He’d do it in private. Maybe over an elaborate dinner. He smiled, already anticipating the moment.

Aspen took Bandit’s reins and he dismounted. ‘That last goal was simply brilliant.’

‘I thought so.’

He readjusted his helmet and Aspen automatically pushed some of his hair out of his eyes. ‘You need a haircut,’ she admonished.

He stilled, his gaze holding hers. ‘I have something I need to tell you.’

‘What is it?’

‘Not here.’ He shook his head. ‘I promised Ricardo I’d check in with the Chinese delegation I have apparently neglected all day. How about we meet back in the suite in thirty minutes?’

‘This sounds serious.’

‘It is. Here, let me take Bandit back to the stables for Luis to get her cleaned up.’ He mounted and reached down for the mallet Aspen was holding for him. Instead of taking it he gripped her elbow, raised her onto her toes and kissed her soundly. ‘Very serious.’

Aspen watched Cruz canter back towards the stables, her fingers pressed to her throbbing lips.

‘Now, that was really touching.’

Aspen swung around at the sound of a mocking voice behind her. For a moment all she could do was stare blankly, her mind frozen as if she’d just been zapped.

‘Chad,’ she finally managed to croak out.

His smile was charming and boyish. ‘One and the same, babe, one and the same.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

H
OPING
C
HAD
WAS
just an apparition, Aspen blinked rapidly and then gave a sharp gasp as her vision cleared and she saw him properly. ‘What happened to your eye?’

He fingered the puffy purple skin of his eye socket. ‘I ran into your
boyfriend
. Didn’t he tell you?’

Yes, he had, but he’d neglected to say that he’d done anything but talk to him. A warm glow spread through Aspen’s torso. As much as she abhorred violence, the fact that Cruz had reacted on her behalf did make her feel good. Special.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Do you care?’ he sneered.

‘Of course.’ Memories flooded in, preventing her from saying anything else. The unexpectedness of seeing him causing her heart to beat heavily in her chest.

He stood before her, the typical urban male, with his designer haircut, stubble and trendy sportswear. She knew it took him hours to achieve that casually dishevelled appearance, and that he’d always hated the fact that she didn’t pay more attention to her own appearance.

‘Can’t you straighten your hair sometimes? It’s a mess.’

‘I didn’t expect to see you so far from Ocean Haven.’

His words snapped her attention back to him and slowly she started breathing properly again.

‘I’m...here on...business.’ She stumbled over the words and furtively looked around for Cruz. Then she felt angry with herself. She was no longer the naïve eighteen-year-old girl who had mistaken friendship for love and had thought that wealth was synonymous with decency. She didn’t
need
Cruz to protect her. She didn’t need any man to do that.

‘Some digs,’ Chad continued, looking back at the hotel. ‘The stable boy has come a long way.’

‘What do you want, Chad?’

‘To say hello.’

‘Well, now you’ve said it, so...’

‘What?’ He held his hands wide as if in surprise. ‘That’s all you’re going to say?’

‘We haven’t spoken for a long time. I don’t see any point in changing that.’

‘What if I do?’

Aspen felt her mouth tighten. ‘I believe Cruz told you not to come near me.’ And she hated pulling that card.

Chad’s lip curled. ‘See, Boy Wonder would like to think he controls everything, but he doesn’t control me. Does he control you, Assie?’

Aspen’s mouth tightened. There was no way she was playing mind games with her ex-husband again. She’d done that enough when they had been married.

‘Goodbye, Chad.’

She turned on her heel, intent on walking away from him. but it seemed he had other ideas.

‘Aspen, wait.’ He jogged after her. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’

‘No?’

‘No. I wanted to apologise to you, actually.’

Aspen stopped. ‘For...?’

‘For being such an idiot when we got married. I was in a bad way and—’

Aspen held up her hand like a stop sign. ‘Don’t, Chad.’ She knew his game. She had heard his apologies a thousand times before. Usually they amounted to nothing. ‘It doesn’t matter anymore.’ And amazingly it didn’t. Cruz had seen to that.

Cruz who was
nothing
like Chad. Cruz who was proud, but gentle. Cruz who was smart and masterful and possessive. And it thrilled her.
He
thrilled her. And she couldn’t wait to see him. Maybe even to tell him that she loved him if she had the courage.

She looked at Chad now. Really looked at him. He couldn’t hurt her anymore and it made her feel a little giddy.

‘Chad, I’m sorry, but I don’t want to see you or talk to you. Whatever you have to say is irrelevant.’ She smiled inwardly as she borrowed one of Cruz’s favourite expressions.

‘I just want to be friends, Aspen, put things behind us.’

Aspen felt petty in refusing him, but he had hurt her too much for her ever to consider him as a friend. ‘I’d like to put things behind us too, but we can’t ever be friends, Chad.’

‘Because of
Rodriguez
?’ Chad sneered. ‘He won’t want you for long. His heart belongs to his horses and nothing else.’

Aspen shook her head. This was the Chad she knew too well.

‘Is it serious between you?’

‘That’s none of your business.’

‘You’re in love with him.’ Chad spat on the ground. ‘You always were.’

‘I wasn’t. I thought I loved you.’

‘But you didn’t, did you? It was him all along. I told your grandfather. That night.’

Aspen frowned. ‘It was you who sent him out after me?’

‘I watched you chase him like one of his fawning groupies. Did you have sex with him? Your grandfather would never say.’

God, this was awful, but Aspen wasn’t sure if she was more appalled that he had talked to her grandfather so intimately about her or that he was talking to her about it now.

‘Why do you hate Cruz so much?’ She couldn’t help asking.

Chad shrugged and stared at her mulishly. ‘He was an arrogant SOB who never saw me as competition. He never took me seriously except where you were concerned.’

Aspen gave a sharp, self-conscious laugh. ‘And there I was, thinking that you wanted Ocean Haven.’

Chad shook his head. ‘I didn’t. But he did. And he’s won that too, I hear.’

An uneasy sensation slipped down Aspen’s spine and she told herself to ignore him. To walk away. ‘What is that supposed to mean?’

He looked at her like a hyena scenting a wounded animal. ‘Boy Wonder bought The Farm. Not literally—unfortunately—but... You didn’t know?’

Aspen knew better than most not to listen to anything Chad said, not to place any importance on his words, but she couldn’t make herself leave. Not with her mother’s cautionary advice that if something looked too good to be true it usually was ringing loudly in her ears.

‘How would you know anything about the sale of The Farm?’

‘My daddy wanted to buy it. He had high hopes of swooping in at the last minute and picking it up for a song.’

Aspen’s head started to hurt. ‘Well, it’s not true. Cruz hasn’t bought Ocean Haven. Your father has his facts wrong.’

Chad shrugged. ‘I guess the guy brokering the deal is the one who has it wrong. My father did wonder when he heard Rodriguez had paid more than double the value of the property.’

More than double?

Aspen felt a burning sensation in the back of her throat. ‘Yes, I’d say he’s wrong. Excuse me.’

She pushed past Chad, only to have him grab her arm.

‘He’s not worth it, you know. You can’t see it, but he won’t hang around for long.’

Hardly in the mood for any more of Chad’s snide comments, Aspen turned on him sharply. ‘That’s not your business, is it?’

Chad reeled back and covered the movement with a disbelieving laugh. ‘You’ve changed.’

‘So I’ve been told.’

She said the words automatically but Aspen knew that if there was any truth to Chad’s words then she hadn’t changed at all. Because if Cruz had bought The Farm out from under her it would mean that she had fallen into the same trap she had in the past—wanting the love and affection of a man who wouldn’t think twice before walking all over her.

Telling herself to calm down, she stabbed the button on the lift to the penthouse and used the temporary access card Cruz had given her.

Chad had admitted that he hated Cruz, so this could just be trouble he was stirring up between them. But how would he know it would cause trouble? He couldn’t. No one knew about the private deal she had struck with Cruz. No one but her knew that this morning Cruz had promised her he had decided not to buy Ocean Haven.

Calm, Aspen
, she reminded herself, desperately trying to check her temper.

When the lift doors opened her eyes immediately fell on an immaculately dressed woman who looked like a supermodel.

For a minute she thought she was in the wrong suite, but deep down she knew she wasn’t.

‘I’m sorry...’ She frowned. ‘I’m looking for Cruz.’

‘He’s in the shower,’ the woman said.

Was he, now?

Aspen swallowed down the sudden feeling of jealousy. The woman was dressed, for heaven’s sake. ‘And you are...?’

The woman held out her hand. ‘I’m Lauren Burnside. Cruz’s lawyer. Would I be right in assuming that you’re Aspen Carmichael?’

The fact that his lawyer knew of her wasn’t a good sign in Aspen’s mind. ‘Yes. Would
I
be right in assuming you’re here about the sale of Ocean Haven?’

The lawyer’s eyes flickered at the corners and an awkward silence prevailed over the room. ‘You would have to ask Cruz about that.’

Cruz, not Mr Rodriguez, Aspen noted sourly. How well did this woman know him? And why did the thought of this woman running her hands all over Cruz’s naked body hurt her so much?

Because you love him, you nincompoop.

Aspen moved to the side table beside the Renoir and placed her hands lightly on the wood-grained surface. Memories of the last time she had stood in this exact position, with Cruz behind her, kissing her neck, murmuring tender words of encouragement to her, lanced her very soul. Yes, she loved him—and that just took this situation from bad to completely hideous.

‘His heart belongs to his horses and nothing else.’

Chad getting inside her head did nothing to stave off her temper either. But still she tried to convince herself that she didn’t know the facts. That she wouldn’t jump to conclusions as Cruz had done about her eight years ago.

‘Lauren. Aspen!’

Aspen turned as Cruz entered the room. Pleasure shot through her at the sight of him fresh from the shower in worn jeans and a body-hugging white T-shirt.

He smiled at her.

She looked away, but he had already transferred his attention to the other woman.

‘You have the contracts?’

‘Right here.’

Aspen turned and leant against the side table, blocking all memories of the intimacies they had shared, blocking the pain of his betrayal, her foolish feelings for him.

‘They would be the contracts to finalise the sale of my farm?’ she said lightly.

Cruz’s eyes narrowed and Aspen knew. She
knew
!

‘When were you going to tell me?’

Her casual tone must have alerted him to her state of mind because he didn’t take his eyes off her. ‘Can you excuse us, please, Lauren?’

‘Of course. I’ll leave the contracts on the table.’

She threw Cruz an intimate glance and Aspen felt her cheeks heat at having witnessed it.

‘So, here we are, then...’ Aspen strolled across the room and stopped beside the urn of flowers on the dining table. She stroked the soft rose petals and thought how impervious they were to the fact that she felt like hoisting them up and hurling them across the room.

‘Yes. And to answer your earlier question I was going to surprise you over dinner.’

Surprise her?
Aspen’s mouth hit the floor and her temper shot through the roof.
Surprise her!

‘Dinner?
Dinner?
’ She laughed harshly. ‘You filthy, gloating bastard.’

‘Aspen—’

‘Don’t.’ Disappointment coalesced into rage and she just needed to get away from him. ‘Don’t say a word. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear anything from you. I hate you.’

She whirled away and would have walked out of the room—no, run out of the room—but he was on her in a second.

‘Aspen, let me explain.’

‘No.’ She shoved against him and beat her fists against his chest in her anger. ‘You tricked me. You lied to me. You told me you weren’t trying to buy Ocean Haven any more but you were.’

‘Dammit, Aspen.’ He bound her wrists in one of his hands but she broke loose and tried to slap him. ‘Stop it, you little hellcat. Dammit.
Ow!
Listen to me. I left a message for Lauren to pull the pin on the sale but she didn’t get it,’ he said, breathing hard.

As suddenly as her rage had swept over her it left her, and Aspen felt deflated and appalled that she had hit him. She
hated
violence. ‘Let me go, Cruz,’ she said flatly.

He frowned down at her. ‘It’s the truth.’

Aspen sighed and pushed away from him, feeling shivery and cold when he released her. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘Of course it matters.’ Cruz moved to the table and picked up the wad of paper Lauren had left behind. ‘Look at this.’

Aspen glanced at it warily. ‘What is it?’

‘As soon as I found out that your uncle had accepted my offer I had Lauren organise the immediate transfer of the deeds into your name. It’s all here in this contract.’

‘What?’

‘That was what I was going to tell you over dinner.’

Aspen frowned. ‘So you’re saying our deal is still on?’

Cruz glowered at her. ‘Of
course
the deal is not still on. I don’t expect you to pay me back. I’m giving you the property.’

‘You’re giving...’ She shook her head. ‘You mean lending me the money to buy it?’

‘No, I mean giving it to you.’

‘Why would you do that?’

‘Because this way you have security.’

‘Security?’

‘You would have been bankrupt within the year if you’d borrowed all that money.’

Scowling, she moved away from him. ‘That’s not true. I have a great business plan to get Ocean Haven out of trouble and—’ She stopped as he shook his head at her as if she didn’t have a clue.

‘Aspen, there’s no way you can carry that kind of debt and survive,’ he said softly.

His words registered in her brain as if she was sitting at the back of a large lecture theatre and trying to read off a tiny whiteboard. ‘So you’re just giving it to me?’

‘It’s just a property, Aspen.’

It’s just a dress
.

It’s just her self-worth.

Just her
heart
.

‘I don’t want you to give it to me,’ she said.

‘Why are you being so stubborn about this?’

Why? She didn’t know. And then she did. For years she’d thought that all she wanted was security, but really—really what she wanted was validation. Trust in her judgement. What she wanted was to know that she could direct her own future. Her way. But somewhere in the last couple of days Cruz had become the centre of her world. Just as both her grandfather and Chad had been at one stage.