The Pleasure King's Bride (9 page)

“Out of what, Christabel?’’ he persisted. She shook her head. “Please listen to me, Jared. It’s for your own good, believe me. Once we get to Broome, you can drop me and Alicia where I parked the Cherokee, near the school. I’ll drive to the airport and fix things up with the KingAir office. That way you won’t be personally connected to my...my getaway.”

He frowned at her. “You’re frightened for me?” She closed her eyes at his incredulous tone. “Please...just do as I ask, Jared,” she begged flatly. He made no reply for an agonising length of time. For Christabel, the tension of waiting was so painful she could barely contain the emotions churning through her. She fiercely willed him to agree, to cut himself free of her and Alicia.

“Give me your car keys,” he brusquely commanded.

Her eyes flew open in disbelief. “What?”

“Your car keys,” he repeated. “I’ll see that your Cherokee is parked outside the KingAir office after you’re on the plane. That will cover your story, if a story eases your mind.”

“But...”

“It will ease my mind to personally see you and Alicia onto a plane and know you’re beyond the grasp of the men you fear.” He sliced her a look of steely determination. “I’m not letting you out of this vehicle until we arrive at the airport, so just do as I say and give me your car keys.”

She had to concede that his plan eliminated any risk of running across the men she wanted to avoid. Relieved that he seemed to be accepting her cover story, she dug into her handbag for her key ring.

“Make sure it’s left in the ignition,” she instructed, as she handed over the set of keys she carried.

“I only need the one for the car.”

“I’ll never use the others again so they don’t matter. I won’t be coming back, Jared.”

“You’re prepared to leave everything behind?”

“Yes.”

“Including me?”

His eyes seemed to burn into her soul. It hurt so much, more than he’d ever know, to turn her back on what they might have had together. For several moments she couldn’t override the yearning that ripped through her. She wanted to reach out and hold onto him, to take whatever he’d offer her, to wallow in his caring, to lean on his strength, to tell him no one—
no one
—had given her what he had and she wished they could stay together.

Tears pricked her eyes. She wrenched her gaze away, took a deep breath and forced out the only answer she could give, if she was not to ruin his life in ways he wouldn’t comprehend until they hit him. He would end up cursing her for involving him if she didn’t finish it now.

“There is no future for us,” she stated categorically. “There never was. You asked for one night. It’s gone. But I’ll always remember it. And I thank you for the memory.”

That said it all. Pointless to expand on it even if her throat wasn’t choked up. Expressing her feelings might only goad him to insist on standing by her side and she couldn’t let him. If she sounded cold and heartless, so much the better. Easier for him to let her go, believing she didn’t care enough to hold on.

She kept herself rigidly still, staring ahead, closing him out of her personal space, mentally sealing every crack in her composure, determined not to leave him any opening for a different ending to this final encounter. Jared King was a good man. She might not leave him feeling good about the rather curt end to their relationship, but at least she could ensure nothing worse happened to him because of her.

It should have been a relief to reach the outskirts of Broome, knowing their time together was mercifully short now. Perversely, that reality increased the painful anticipation of parting. Forever, Christabel thought, on a wave of intense misery. In a few more minutes, Jared King would only be a memory for her, and she had a terrible urge to feast her eyes on him while she still could, to stamp every detail of him on her brain. She didn’t have a photograph of him. All she would have was a memory and it had to last forever.

But if she looked at him he’d see...he’d feel what she was feeling. Jared was so perceptive, so sensitive to mood changes. She couldn’t risk looking. Her hands clenched in savage resistance to the urge that would undermine the attitude she had struck. For his sake, she reminded herself. For his sake she had to be content with the memory of their one night together.

The Range Rover turned onto the road to the airport. She shot a quick glance at Alicia in the back seat, realising she’d been completely quiet on the trip. Her head was slumped in sleep. She’d nodded off, tired from the long walk at the bird observatory. A five-year-old child, Christabel thought, worrying over how long she could keep her daughter an innocent little girl, ignorant of the forces that saw only her inheritance.

Jared drove straight to the KingAir office. There was one small plane out front, ready to be taxied onto the runway. Desperate to limit any farewell scene, Christabel anxiously gabbled, “I’ll take Alicia out to the plane while you notify the pilot we’re here.”

“She’s asleep. I’ll carry her. See you both strapped into your seats,” he firmly countered.

“Okay,” she agreed, realising his way might be easier, avoiding a spate of questions from a newly wakened Alicia.

The moment he switched off the engine, they were both out of the vehicle, Jared appearing as keen as she was to speed her on her way. There was no more talking between them. Whatever Jared thought of her decision, he was keeping it to himself and she was grateful not to have any argument from him.

They walked out to the plane in a silence that throbbed with all that remained unspoken. Having spotted them from the office window, one of the KingAir employees—the pilot?—raced out to catch up with them and be on hand to open the door and adjust the front passenger seat in the cockpit to allow access to the seats behind it. He helped Christabel into the small plane then stood back for Jared to lift Alicia into the seat beside her.

As he withdrew his arms from around her daughter, Christabel grasped his hand, wanting one last touch of him. “Thank you,” she said huskily. “Thank you for everything, Jared.”

His mouth took on a wry twist as he answered, “My pleasure.”

But there was no pleasure in his eyes. They were hard and flat and she had the quivery feeling that they were shielding a relentless drive to accomplish what he wanted accomplished. Which was probably to cut her out of his life as ruthlessly as she was cutting him.

“Fasten your seat belts,” he instructed, moving his hand from hers to lock the front seat back into place. “Take-off will be in five minutes.”

He closed the door and strode back to the office with the KingAir employee. The parting was so abrupt, she’d had no time to remind him about bringing the Cherokee to the airport. He’d remember, she assured herself. Though he might not want to remember anything else.

She sat in a pall of sadness, waiting for the pilot to come. Her chest was so tight, she needed the release of tears, but knowing instructions had to be given about her destination, she held back the flood that threatened. Later, when they were in the sky, she could give way to her grief for a while.

Her heart cramped when she saw Jared walking back to the plane. Alone. Was there trouble? More delay? Wrapped in dread of last-minute complications, she didn’t realise his intention, even when he walked around the other side of the plane and hauled himself into the pilot’s seat and closed the door behind him.

“Do we have a problem?’’ she croaked out.

“None that won’t get sorted,” he answered, and switched on the ignition.

“Jared?” Bewilderment crashed into horror. “You can’t...”

“This is my plane, Christabel, and I’m flying you to a safe place. As I promised.”

“But you agreed...”

“The Cherokee will be brought to the airport to buy us more time, but when time runs out, my mother knows how to deal with your visitors.”

Overwhelming panic. He was drawing his
family
into her mess! “Your mother doesn’t know what she’s dealing with.”

“Doesn’t matter. She knows I’m taking you somewhere untouchable. Where the only law is Lachlan’s law,” he said with grim satisfaction. “We deal from strength, Christabel, a strength that belongs uniquely to the outback.”

“You don’t understand their resources,” she cried. “Nor they ours,” he retorted, totally unmoved by her protests, taxiing the plane towards a take-off position.

“Please, please listen,” she begged. “You don’t know what you’re up against.”

“But I will know, Christabel. Either from them or from you.”

She heard the ruthless, relentless tone in his voice, knew the purpose he’d hidden behind the hard, flat eyes, and finally comprehended that Jared had no intention of letting her go before finding out everything he wanted to know.

“You might as well settle back and relax now,” he instructed, facing the plane down the runway.

“Where do you think they can’t get at us?” she asked in bleak resignation.

“King’s Eden. We fly to King’s Eden, Christabel. Tommy will monitor the airways. Nathan rules the ground. No-one can get to King’s Eden without our knowing it, and if they come, it will be on our terms.”

He was so sure, so confident. Maybe it was true. The Kings of the Kimberly virtually had a legendary status, having ruled their territory for over a hundred years. Were they impregnable in that majestic old homestead that had housed generation after generation of a family bonded to a hard, primitive land?

Primitive...
the word stuck in her mind. For all Jared’s sophisticated polish, he came from pioneering stock, people who fought for what they held, people who endured any and all adversity, people who survived and went on prospering.

She remembered the aborigines at Nathan’s wedding, calling on the spirits of the Dreamtime with their didgeridoos. She remembered the timeless feel of the place, the daunting distances, the sense of a strong, unbreakable destiny embodied in Nathan King and his brothers, standing shoulder to shoulder, and the pride on their mother’s face, looking at them with the bearing of a queen who knew she had given birth to kings...
kings of the outback.

The plane lifted off, control in Jared’s hands now.

Could this formidable family do it...break the chains of the Kruger juggernaut of power? She shook her head at the fanciful thought. Why should they when she and Alicia were not their responsibility? Nor did they owe her anything.

She had to tell them what they’d taken on, lay out the whole picture for Jared to see not only what he was embroiling his family in now, but what he could expect in any future with her. Then he could decide if the fight was worth fighting.

His choice.

He’d overridden her choice.

She gave up worrying and let the blocked tears swim into her eyes. Jared might believe King’s Eden was the perfect escape. He meant well. But Christabel couldn’t believe it would really provide that. For her and Alicia it was the end of the road.

Elizabeth King
waited for Vikki Chan’s appraisal of the man who had come to her house. It was strange and rather disturbing, after all these years of widowhood, to find herself attracted—physically attracted— and excited by a man. She had believed such feelings had died in her when she’d lost Lachlan. Always to her mind, her husband had been one of a kind, unmatchable, yet Rafael Santiso had definitely put a zing in her blood.

Brilliant dark eyes zeroing in on hers, just as Lachlan’s had, the power of the mind behind them reaching out, probing, challenging, so assured of commanding the situation, of dominating. Aristocratic Spanish, she’d thought this morning, taking in his elegant features and fine, upright figure. Argentinian, she knew now, and wondered if he came from a family who had owned one of the great cattle ranches in South America. There was that sense of unyielding mettle about him...but it was probably foolish to compare him to Lachlan.

A dangerous man, Jared had warned, a master of manipulation, trustee of the multimillion-dollar Kruger inheritance, and Christabel’s daughter, Alicia
Kruger,
not Valdez, was the heiress. For over two years Christabel had been on the run from Rafael Santiso and the influence he wielded, and Christabel was not a fool. Her enigmatic behaviour was now answered, and given the story she had told Jared, her fears were certainly not groundless.

Yet to Elizabeth, even the sense of danger had a special exhilaration to it...the need to be on her guard, to be alert and ready to counter-challenge with her own power. She couldn’t remember when she’d last felt quite so
alive.
It gave her an enormous buzz, knowing Rafael Santiso was waiting on her veranda, waiting on her pleasure, immune from any force from him.

She heard Vikki returning down the hall, and her heart lifted in anticipation of the old housekeeper’s judgment. “Well?” she asked.

Vikki Chan entered the kitchen smiling, her eyes twinkling in amusement. “He is not used to being thwarted. But he is very quick, Elizabeth. In the blink of an eye he changed his intimidating manner to appealing charm.”

“But he did try to walk over you initially.”

“Frustration momentarily clouded his vision, but he is adept at reading people. He checked himself even as he began his demand for you, sliding it into a request.”

“Your personal feeling about him?”

The shrewd black eyes didn’t miss anything. “He is a mandarin.”

Elizabeth frowned over the old Chinese term for a government official. The picture didn’t fit for her.

“A red coral button mandarin,” Vikki elaborated. “A wily governor and an efficient general.”

“He’s in charge of a vast financial empire,” Elizabeth reminded her.

“A trustee, not an emperor.”

“Christabel doesn’t trust him. Such power can corrupt.”

“I felt no evil in him. Neither did you, Elizabeth. You are drawn to him.” Her all too wise eyes crinkled as she added, “You changed into the coral shift to match him.”

Elizabeth laughed. “Does nothing escape you, Vikki?”

“He came alone. That is interesting, is it not?’’

“We shall see. Bring refreshments out in about ten minutes.”

“You don’t wish to invite him inside?”

“No. Christabel regards him as me enemy. Until I am convinced otherwise, he will not be a guest in my home.”

She was conscious of a rush of adrenalin as she walked down the hall to the front door. It
was
interesting that he had come alone. Her secretary had reported that all three men had come to her office at four o’clock, undoubtedly having discovered from Alicia’s teacher that their quarry had left with Jared long before the end of the school day.

Elizabeth had deliberately gone home after she heard Jared’s report from King’s Eden. Let Santiso chase after her, she’d thought. How he did it would tell her more about him. He’d weighted his presence with the Swiss accountant and the German lawyer this morning, and again at four o’clock this afternoon. Now it was after five and he’d come alone. Elizabeth surmised a lot of thinking had been done in the past hour.

She opened the door. He stood well back from it, half-turned towards the view over Roebuck Bay, and he was no longer dressed in a suit. As he swivelled to face her, Elizabeth had the wild impression of a toreador, flexing his lithe muscular body and flaunting his virility.

Maybe it was the open-necked white shirt and black trousers, or the flash of sexual challenge in the magnetic dark eyes, or the sense of power tightly coiled, ready to be unleashed...whatever...the male animal impact was much stronger than before, and Elizabeth felt her stomach curl in response.

It was totally irrelevant that this was a man in his sixties, his thick black hair threaded with silver, his face lined with years of maturity. He exuded an immensely powerful sex appeal, and Elizabeth was suddenly certain he knew it and this was deliberately switched on for her.

“Mrs. King...” He offered his hand, even as she noted his voice had taken on a richer timbre, not so clipped and coolly controlled.

“Mr. Santiso,” she replied, meeting his hand with hers and feeling an astonishing frisson of electricity on her skin as he fanned it with his thumb.

“Since I find that your son has flown off with Christabel and her daughter, I am at a loose end here in Broome,” he went on, his eyes projecting a pleasant opportunity as he added, “I was wondering if I could persuade you to join me for dinner tonight.”

Elizabeth withdrew her hand and floated it in a graceful invitation towards the table and chairs on the veranda. “An attractive suggestion, Mr. Santiso, but I shall need some persuasion. If you’d like to sit and enjoy more of the view here...”

“I’ve taken the Nolan Suite at the Cable Beach Resort. It has a private dining room. I’m told the sunset from there is spectacular.”

“Indeed, it is. And I tend to think you’ll be seeing many sunsets if you’re waiting for Christabel and her daughter to return to Broome.” She smiled and stepped purposefully towards the table, remarking, “From this side of the peninsula we enjoy the moon-rise.”

He laughed and followed her. “I take it you are conceding there is more than a professional connection between your son and Christabel.”

‘‘Jared is very dear to me, Mr. Santiso. He has been very dear to me for over thirty years.” She settled on the chair at the far side of the table and raised an eyebrow at the man who presumed she could be won in bed. “Do you imagine the pleasure of being in the Nolan Suite with you would make me forget that?”

He grinned, totally unabashed. “You are, without a doubt, the most exciting woman I’ve ever met.”

“Then why don’t you sit down and pursue my acquaintance, Mr. Santiso?’’ Elizabeth replied, ignoring the absurd leap of her pulse. He had to be flattering her. Such a man could have his pick of any number of beautiful, clever and
younger
women.

He regarded her speculatively, still on his feet behind the chair at the opposite side of the table. “Why do you not believe me?’’

“Because you’re here for a purpose and I am not that purpose.”

“Christabel must feel safe with your son.”

“I believe she does. But she does not feel safe with you, Mr. Santiso.”

“Rafael. My name is Rafael.”

“I know.”

“May I call you Elizabeth?”

“If you wish.”

“I was entrusted with the responsibility of keeping the child safe. On Alicia’s eighteenth birthday, she will inherit six hundred million dollars.” He paused, watching her reaction. “I see you are not surprised, Elizabeth.”

“Jared informed me of that fact two hours ago.”

“And he is still intent on keeping them...
safe?”

“
We are not without means,” she said with dry irony, knowing full well that six hundred million dollars dwarfed the wealth the King family could lay claim to. Yet there were resources that money couldn’t buy, and inadvertently Elizabeth’s eyes flashed that confidence as she added, “This is not your world, Rafael. It is ours.”

“The Kings of the Kimberley,” he mused softly. A whimsical little smile lingered on his mouth as he moved over to the balustrade between the veranda posts and turned his back to the view, dominating her vision as he faced her.

“I came to satisfy myself about your family. That is my purpose, Elizabeth,” he stated directly. “I have known about Christabel’s connection to your son since it started...months ago. I knew of her visit to King’s Eden for the wedding of your eldest son. And on Monday morning I received the report that suggested that an intimate relationship had developed.” Was this true? He’d had Christabel watched all this time? Or had he gathered this information since his arrival today?

“Did you come to stop it?” she probed, wanting him to reveal more.

“Do
you
want it stopped?” he countered.

“I believe Jared wants Christabel more than he’s ever wanted any other woman, and none of the barriers she has raised have turned him away. Believe it or not, the child’s inheritance will be totally irrelevant to him. Some things can’t be stopped.”

“And you will stand behind your son.”

She nodded. “His brothers, as well.”

“Such a fortune draws more problems than prizes,” he warned.

She was well aware of the power and politics attached to the Kruger cartel, the control they exerted over the diamond and gold markets, plus virtually every precious stone in the jewellery business... except pearls. The pearl farms of Broome produced the best in the world and were owned by Australian families.

“You cannot threaten our business, Rafael,” she slid at him. “We would fight any attempt at interference and I have no doubt that supply and demand would come down on our side.”

He shook his head. “No threats. I simply state the reality of the situation. The inheritance is more a curse than a benefit. It’s not going to go away, Elizabeth. You will be loaded with the problems it brings.”

Somehow we’ll deal with them, Elizabeth thought, feeling more sympathy with Christabel than she’d ever felt before. Besides, this was not Europe. If Christabel wanted to stay with Jared, the outback had a way of protecting its own. Alicia would be insulated here from those who wanted a bite of her inheritance.

The question was... where did Rafael Santiso stand in this? What were his interests?

“If the inheritance is more a curse than a benefit, why do you stay in charge of it?”

His mouth tilted self-mockingly. “I’m addicted to problem-solving.’’

“Yet you allowed Christabel to run in fear of you. Do you call that solving a problem?”

He cocked his head slightly to one side, deliberating over his reply, possibly assessing its believability. This was the crux of the conflict between them and both of them knew it. It had to be resolved.

“She had cause for fear...but not from me,” he stated, a harsh edge to his voice. “There were those whose interests were best served by poisoning her mind against me. As a result, she was resisting my efforts to keep her and the child safe, which made the situation more difficult.”

He shrugged, and his tone slid into irony. “One cannot enforce trust. I saw it would be an easier task to facilitate her escape from the Kruger network, which she viewed as a prison.”

“You planned it?”

“And directed it, every step of the way. The diamonds she has used for currency, the people who bought them from her, the bodyguards she never knew were watching over her. I can prove this, Elizabeth.”

“Whether you can or not, she has still lived in fear of you,” she tersely reminded him.

“I could not change that, and escape was her choice. It gave her the sense of freedom she wanted,” he sharply retorted. “If she had reason to fear me, do you think I would have allowed her any possible alliance with your family?’’

“I don’t know. You’re here now.”

He visibly relaxed, leaning back against the balustrade, his eyes taking on a warm velvety glow. “I like the connection. I’m liking it more all the time, Elizabeth.”

“I think you have more explaining to do,” she said flatly, not allowing any softening towards him.

He made an elegant open-handed gesture. “The reality was...Christabel’s and Alicia’s very carefully orchestrated disappearance served two purposes. It removed them from very real danger and left me free to deal with those who were contesting Bernhard’s will.”

“Is the danger now over?”

“There will always be the danger of kidnappers, but I’m satisfied that the house of Kruger has now been cleared of...malcontents.” There was a ruthless glitter in his eyes as he curled his mouth around that last word. “Factions who want to shift the rules will undoubtedly form from time to time.” He smiled. “But I am a very good watchdog.”

And much more, Elizabeth thought, sensing the drive and commitment that took this man wherever he chose to be. There was almost a devil-may-care air in his smile, and she knew intuitively he thrived on danger, as well as problem-solving. Maybe it was that quality that made him so exciting.

“We would make good partners, Elizabeth,” he said softly.

She lifted her gaze to his and once again was hit by the sexual challenge he threw at her. “Partners in protecting Alicia?” she tossed back, struggling to contain her response to him.