Net of Lies (4 page)

S
he dropped to the sand to brush the remaining grains of sand from her throbbing foot. She probed the spike with her nails, biting her lips to stop herself from crying out loudly as the pain intensified. It moved promisingly, only to slide back deeper. The dark spot taunted her as she weighed her options. She could continue to sit there, waiting for her friends to return, or she could hobble back to their parked car a couple of kilometers away. Or she could try reaching them at the terrace of the bar, but the
few hundred feet
stretching between them seemed like a vast desert.

As she looked down at her foot, the redness and swelling getting worse by the minute, she opted for the
third option, determined to overcome her weakness. Standing up was tricky, and her clumsy hands shook as she pulled a t-shirt over her wet bikini top and forced herself into her white jean shorts. She tried to walk on her tiptoes, but the first few steps convinced her of the absolute impossibility of the task. Resolved to the awkward hopping, she started her trek, biting her lips to stop herself from whimpering. The electric shock shooting up her leg with every single movement she made hurt like hell. Plopping back into the sand, she searched her pockets, hoping to find something to wrap around the sore spot before she continued walking toward the restaurant. Only she had nothing. She cursed softly, her frustration taking over.

‘Are you all right?’
A voice, beautiful and deep, broke into her miserable musing, and she looked up into the blinding sun. His tall dark silhouette blocked out the sunrays, and her dazed eyes saw nothing but the outline of his muscular frame. She wasn’t afraid, not at all. After all, they were on a public beach in the middle of the day, with the restaurant close enough for her to hear a wisp of laughter and music that the wind carried toward them over the sand and water. Whoever had stopped to ask the question couldn’t really have dark motives.

‘I stepped on a sea urchin
.’ She smiled up at the stranger, blinking to adjust her eyes to the shadows around his face. ‘And I think I got a part of its spike in my foot.’

‘
Can I have a look?’ His English was impeccable, with just the tiniest hint of a Spanish accent coloring his rich voice. He crouched next to her, close enough for her to smell the subtle fragrance of his aftershave and get a better view of his features. And the world changed. Her mouth dried up as their eyes met, the darkness of his gaze holding her spellbound for a second that seemed to last an eternity. He was absolutely gorgeous. Raven hair and equally dark, straight eyebrows framed his elegant high-boned cheeks, straight nose, and sensuous mouth. His skin was olive colored, and instinct told her it wasn’t because of the sun. Parts of his body that wouldn’t normally be exposed to the sun matched the deep, warm hue of his face. Yet it wasn’t so much the way he looked that made her heart stop for a second, only to gallop in a crazy rhythm afterward. A tangible energy hovered around him, pulling her in with an unstoppable force, her helpless senses assaulted with an overwhelming attraction. He was like the eye of a storm—calm yet dangerous as everything around him gravitated toward the center.

‘
Yes, please,’ she managed to answer, her voice husky and breathless as her blood rushed through her veins like a stream of hot lava. Confusion made her blush, her own unexpected reaction to the stranger shaking her to the core. Never in her life had she felt such a wondrous sense of magic weaving a net over her. She had known plenty of men—and dated a few, too.

Desperate to shake off
her inappropriate and unexpected feelings, she smiled, grateful for his eyes going down to her foot and breaking eye contact.

‘I know I should have worn shoes
. It was silly of me not to,’ she supplied, relieved to hear her voice sounding more normal as she went on. ‘It was just one wrong step, that’s all.’

‘
That’s exactly how it usually is.’ His long, slim fingers, gentle yet confident, probed her foot. ‘Plenty of people make the same mistake, though, if it helps.’

He looked up, a swift smile of reassurance curving his mouth upward as he sought her eyes.

‘Well, for me, it was the first time at the beach here.’ Smiling back, she shook her head in self-mockery. ‘I guess I can count it as a lesson for the future.’

‘A painful one,
that’s for sure.’ He nodded, a wisp of his raven hair grazing his eyebrow and making her wish to brush it aside. ‘This thing should be removed, though, as fast as possible. Otherwise, it won’t heal properly, and you’ll be looking at a painful and long recovery.’ He watched her for a second, his eyebrows drawn into a straight line as he seemed to weigh the options. He must have realized how disheartening it sounded, because he smiled and added instantly, ‘I’m sorry. I should have introduced myself earlier. How very rude of me. The only excuse is that I was watching you trying to walk and worried about you. Everything else somehow became unimportant at that moment.’

He smiled again, and
the goose bumps forming on her skin gave her the sudden premonition that something extraordinary was about to happen.

‘
I’m Raoul Santos, and it’s also my first time on this beach.’ His white teeth flashed in a grin, raising his appeal another hundred percent.

‘Kate
Reeves. Nice to meet you.’ She smiled back, regaining some of her usual composure. Maybe the sensation of something special and pivotal happening was nothing more than just surprise at being talked to. Glad to find her confidence again, she continued, her voice playful, ‘I’m sure I must have looked quite unusual, hobbling around the sand like that.’ She wiggled her toes, gasping as the pain returned with full force. ‘No wonder you noticed.’

‘I noticed you even before, as I was walking by the first time.’ His calm response ruined her light joke,
and the sudden seriousness of his dark gaze sent her pulse skyrocketing. ‘You were here with your friends before,
no
? Where are they now?’

‘
At the bar.’ She pointed to the cabana.

He knitted
his eyebrows together in disapproval. ‘They left you all alone, Kate?’ He shook his dark head. ‘It isn’t too safe for a beautiful woman like you to be all alone here. You can’t tell if some of the men looking for fun might find you easy prey, Kate.’

She was
annoyed that he thought she was helpless and weak, as if she needed her friends to chaperone to survive a day at the beach. She wasn’t so desperate for help that she would allow this stranger to lecture her on the dangers that lurked around a woman the moment she happened to be by herself in broad daylight. Kate was twenty-two and had lived on her own for three years, ever since moving to London for her studies.

He
had called her beautiful, though, and her vanity and pride battled as she searched for the right reply. Her pride prevailed, and she glanced back into his arrogant face. ‘I’m not a child. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.’

‘And that’s exactly the problem
.’ Unfazed, he looked back, his powerful shoulders shrugging under the thin fabric of his black t-shirt. ‘Around here, women don’t really go places alone very often. If you do and are as pretty as you, it sends the wrong signals. An invitation to something more, if you get my meaning…’

She would be damned if she admitted
that she didn’t feel quite as comfortable on her own as she was trying to make him believe. She had noticed the groups of young men hanging around the town and the beaches. She’d felt their assessing looks as they eagerly hoped for any kind of encouraging response in her face or body language. They were harmless, yet obviously interested in starting a conversation with a single woman. And she couldn’t deny that lots of female tourists were looking for exactly that kind of an adventure, eager to spice up their stay under the Andalusian sun with the embrace of a local Casanova.

‘I can handle men very well, thank you
,’ she responded crisply, giving him a challenging expression.

Hi
s gaze softened as it lingered on her proud face and the rebellious pout of her full mouth. ‘I didn’t mean it as an affront. I’m sorry if I came across as being bossy.’ He dipped his dark head in a short apology before returning his attention to her foot. ‘I think we should get you to a doctor, though. It looks to me that the needle got really deep into your foot, and the wounds from an encounter with a sea urchin heal slowly, even in the best of cases. This has the potential to turn really nasty, unless you are taken care of real soon, Kate.’

H
er foot pulsated with a dull ache even when she as much as twitched. She felt horrible realizing that her mishap would put an end to this outing, which both her friends had looked forward to with much enthusiasm. Their plans to spend a whole day at the beach and finish it off with a nice dinner at the local shellfish restaurant would have to be postponed. Finding a local doctor had become her immediate priority.

She sighed, realizing he waited for her answer.
‘If you would be so kind as to help me get to my friends, I think we can sort it out as soon as possible.’

He nodded in response, and she waited for him to offer her his
arm so they could cover the distance to the bar. Instead, he surprised her yet again by putting his long arms around her and picking her up with one swift movement. Kate found herself nestled against his chest, the warmth and fragrance of his skin assaulting her senses with its potency. She had no time to object to this drastic measure before he started walking toward the bar, his steady, smooth stride at odds with the whirlwind of emotions that twisted inside her.

‘Hold on to me, will you
?’ he ordered calmly.

Her arms wrapped obediently around
his neck before she made the conscious decision to follow his command. To her utter bewilderment, it felt right; the safety of his arms was as natural and easy as breathing. She felt as if that was the only place in the world where she belonged, and her body curved into the haven of his chest with an absolute, unjustified trust.

‘I did not mean to impose on you, Raoul,’ she said, finding
the silence unbearable. ‘I’m sure that if you’d helped me a bit, I could have gotten to the bar on my own two feet.’

‘Certainly.’
All her senses attuned to his magnificent presence, she could feel the vibrations in his chest as he spoke. His breath fanned her face, and she had to make a conscious effort to breathe. ‘But it will be faster this way, and you’re as light as a feather, Kate.’

He was right about the
speed, and the expressions on her friends’ faces as Raoul reached the terrace were priceless. In any other circumstance, she would have had trouble keeping a straight face as they gaped openmouthed at her and her dark savior, who had shaken up their quiet meal. But as it was, she was shaken up herself. His proximity to her was doing all kinds of dangerous things to her, and a thousand butterflies flittered in her tummy.

He released her carefully, his arm supporting her as she plopped down on one of the wooden benches, feeling oddly bereft without
his warmth and virile strength she had experienced during their short walk. She’d thought he would take his leave after having delivered her safely to her friends, but he proved her wrong. He sat down and followed their conversation as they tried to decide on the best solution. Kate felt guilty enough without the extra audience. She was perfectly aware that her short friendship with the two other girls didn’t necessarily entitle her to their help and support. Sure, they were all British art students, but that was where their similarities ended. While hanging out together and chatting had been fun, she could only imagine that she had become a liability. They were obviously having a grand time with the men from the beach, and their reluctant reassurances that they didn’t really mind leaving to search for a doctor sounded lame.

Raoul, his handsome face expression
less and distant, suddenly chimed in to the conversation and offered to take her to the doctor. He produced his ID, calming their suspicions about his intentions. His car was parked nearby, and he knew the city well enough to take her to a doctor that could see her right away. Her weak protests that she didn’t want to impose any more than she already had were waved away with one movement of his impatient hand, then his eyes and smile charmed her companions into compliancy. He would see her to the doctor and drive her home afterward; the hour drive to her hotel didn’t deter his generous offer.

He
had won the argument, of course, and many times afterward, Kate would think of that very moment as the beginning of their future relationship, the foundation for the way they dealt with things after. Raoul decided things, and she followed, drawn to him like a moth toward the flame, oblivious to the danger it represented.

………………………………

As she looked at him, sitting across from her at the gala, the memories flooded back. She managed to remain calm and serene, her palms sweaty and icy cold, only because of Marc’s presence. She must have done a better job than she’d thought possible, because Marc hadn’t seemed to notice anything was amiss. His animated chatter grated on her nerves with irritating precision. He wanted her to show Raoul around… or rather, he was unwittingly manipulated into doing so. The tall and arrogant man with the face and body of an ancient god might have been rich and powerful—the extent of his true market value still just vaguely registered in her mind—but that didn’t change anything as far as she was concerned. Thinking he was her soul mate and the love of her life, she’d loved him when she’d thought he was poor.