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“Maya.” She forced a smile.
“Please, call me Ilano.” He was rude, excluding the rest of the group from the tête-a-tête he had going on with her. He released her hand and placed his palm on her hip. “Are you here alone?”
“She’s with me.”
All heads turned in Tim’s direction, who was walking toward them with a rigid back and tense shoulders. His look was measured as it fell on the spot where Ilano touched her body. Pulling her away from Ilano, he sheltered her under his arm.
“You’re a lucky man,” Ilano said with a calculated smile.
Tim didn’t quite hide the tightness of his voice. “I know.”
“If she’s yours, you should put a mark on her, or single men like me may believe she’s fair game.”
“Excuse me?” She wasn’t a cow that could be branded with a mark.
Tim looked like a storm about to erupt.
Ilano turned back to Maya. “All I meant to say, my dear, is that I don’t see a ring on your finger.”
There was more behind Ilano and Tim’s exchange than what met the eye.
“Wait a minute,” Ann said. “Tim, isn’t this the girl we saw at Tesoro del Mar?”
“That’s right,” Billy exclaimed. “I thought you seemed familiar.”
“Is that so?” Ilano asked with a new measure of interest.
Tim moved his arm down Maya’s back and fastened it around her waist. “That’s the night I saw her for the first time, yes.” He gave her a passionate look. “I bribed the bartender for her business card.”
Ann’s voice was laced with sarcasm. “What a sweet story. Aren’t you two the happy couple?”
“A wonderful coincidence. Although…” Ilano’s eyes turned hard when they fell on Maya. “There are no coincidences in this world.”
Tim tightened his fingers on her hip. He sounded barely short of hostile. “What are you saying, Ilano?”
Ilano kept Maya’s gaze for another second, but then he smiled at Tim and shrugged with practiced politeness. “Only that everything happens for a reason.” He held a hand out to her. “May I have the honor of a dance, Maya?”
She wasn’t fooled by Ilano’s performance. Neither was he by hers. He was giving Tim a message. He suspected her. Despite the danger pulsing off Ilano like waves, she needed that dance with him to find out what she could. She was about to agree when Tim said, “Sorry, my friend, but she promised the first dance to me.”
Ilano inclined his head. “Later then.”
Frida had been watching the exchange with a growing expression of concern. “Mr. Silver, there are some guests who’d like to meet you.” With a quick glance over her shoulder at Tim, she guided Ilano away.
“Excuse us,” Tim said to Ann and Billy, “but I have a waltz to collect before Maya’s dance card gets full.”
He took her arm and dragged her inside the hall where dinner tables were set up around a dance floor. A band was playing The Blue Danube. Instead of guiding her to where other couples were dancing, Tim pulled her up a staircase with a landing that overlooked the hall. He yanked open a side door and pushed her into a cold computer room filled with monitors and cables. Goosebumps broke out over her arms.
Gripping her hips, he backed her up against the wall. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Shit. Tim got Ilano’s message. Bracing herself for his interrogation, she kept her panic in check. “What are you talking about?”
“Talking to Ilano,” his eyes turned hungry when his gaze moved down her body, “looking like this.”
Tim was jealous? That was what this outburst was about?
He clenched his jaw. “I’ve got to get you out of here.”
“I just got here,” she exclaimed.
“You’re going home.”
If she didn’t calm him down, this whole night and her opportunity to talk to Ilano were shot to hell.
She laid her hand on his shoulder. “If you’re jealous, I can assure you—”
“You’re leaving. Now.” He held her in place with a hand on her hip while he removed a phone from his pocket and flicked over the screen.
“What the hell is going on, Tim?”
If he suspected her, this would be his chance to get her home so he could interrogate and kill her.
Instead of answering, he spoke into the phone. “I need you to take Maya home. We’re upstairs, in the control room.” He disconnected the call without easing his grip on her hip.
“Talk to me, Tim.”
He was so upset he shook. Before she could speak again, the door banged against the wall and Cesar rushed inside. Dressed in a black suit and white tie, he looked more like a bodyguard than ever.
“Take her home,” Tim said through thin lips, finally releasing her. “Carry her if she resists. I give you permission to touch her.”
Cesar nodded. He locked his fingers around her arm and pushed her toward the door. “We’ll take the back stairs.”
