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‘That sounds...unpleasant.’
He dismissed it with a hand. ‘It’s not important.’ He stood up, holding out that same hand. ‘Come on, I want to take you somewhere.’
Leonora stood up, conscious of his eyes running down her body in the cutaway swimsuit. She let him take her hand, hating the way her treacherous heart tripped. He instructed her to put on a caftan and shoes, and then he took her around to the front of the villa, where there was a sturdy open-top four-wheel drive with a wicker basket in the back. She threw a sunhat in the back with the basket.
‘Come on—jump in.’
Gabriel swung into the driver’s seat, his naked torso gleaming. He looked like a buccaneer.
Leonora got in and Gabriel took off down the winding path. She put her head back and looked at the canopy rushing overhead, the sun breaking through every now and then in a bright flash. She felt...free. Unencumbered.
She didn’t want to ruin the moment by saying anything so she let Gabriel drive, noticing his powerful hands on the wheel, the way he drove with speed, yet precision. There was a shadow of stubble on his jaw. His hair was messy in the breeze. He looked younger. Less...stern. When she’d seen him across that ballroom on that fateful first night she never would have imagined him in this kind of environment...carefree.
She had a sudden thought and hated herself for it. But she couldn’t help asking, as massive trees rushed past the Jeep on either side, ‘Have you ever brought anyone else here?’
She almost hoped he hadn’t heard, that the breeze whipping past their faces might have snatched her words away, but she saw his hands clench on the wheel, momentarily.
* * *
‘Have you ever brought anyone else here?’
The words landed straight in Gabriel’s gut. No. He hadn’t ever brought anyone else here. Because this was his secret private sanctuary, where he could get away from everything and everyone. And yet he hadn’t hesitated at the thought of bringing Leo here.
That question from any other woman would have made him feel as if there was a hand around his neck, squeezing slowly. But this was different. She was different. Which was why he’d married her, he told himself now. Because she didn’t induce that feeling of claustrophobia. The opposite, in fact.
Seeing the shock and awe on her face that first morning had been worth it alone. He was jaded, and the people around him were jaded. Yet Leo, even coming from the same world, was remarkably un-jaded.
He took her hand in his, slowing the vehicle as they veered off the road and onto a dirt track that ran deeper into the jungle. He looked at her. ‘No, I’ve never brought anyone else here.’
She couldn’t hide the relief on her face, even though she quickly masked it. And then she surprised him.
‘Good,’ she said. ‘Because if I thought this was just some routine you’ve done a thousand times I think I’d have to kill you. And those other women.’
Gabriel threw his head back and laughed. Leo was grinning and his chest tightened. She was so beautiful. The sun had added a golden glow to her skin. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders, its normally sleek glossiness untamed in loose waves. And he wanted her with a hunger that only seemed to grow the more he had of her.
On that unsettling thought he let her hand go, ostensibly to put both his hands on the wheel in order to control the car on the rougher terrain. But it was also because he’d just realised how far under his skin she’d reached. All the way so that for the first time in his life work wasn’t the first thought of his day. Or his last. It was her. And then, when he was sated, he thought about work again. As if he needed to take that edge off before he could think clearly.
He’d had to take a phone call with Lazaro Sanchez just now, and Sanchez had goaded him about using Leonora to score points in their rivalry. Just hearing her name on that man’s lips had made Gabriel see red, even as his conscience had pricked when he’d recalled being very aware of how it would look to be photographed with her leaving the hotel the night of the failed engagement.
That felt like a long time ago now. He’d never envisaged then, that Leonora would become his wife.
He’d told Sanchez that Leonora was where she belonged. And he’d really meant it. He felt a possessiveness that he’d never felt before—for a woman or anything.
Gabriel shoved aside the niggling prickling sensation that felt like exposure. He was on his honeymoon. It was natural and expected to be captivated by one’s wife. Possessive.
* * *
Leonora gasped out loud as they burst through the thick trees and onto the edge of the most pristine beach she’d ever seen in her life. Gabriel stopped driving and she stood up in the vehicle, scanning left and right. She could see nothing but sea, white sand and the line of trees bordering the beach. It was completely empty. The waves rolled in with a rhythmic whoosh.
Gabriel got out, picking up the wicker basket. Leonora got out too and stuck her sunhat on her head as she walked to the start of the beach. She slipped off her shoes and dug her toes into the soft warm sand.
It was beyond idyllic and there wasn’t another human in sight. Just her and this charismatic man who had come into her life only a couple of short weeks ago and comprehensively turned it upside down and transformed her, inside and out.
Impulsively, she pulled off her caftan and threw her hat down on the sand. She started running backwards towards the sea. ‘Last one in is a loser!’
Gabriel stood stock-still for a moment and then he put down the basket, kicked off his own
shoes and started running after Leonora. She squealed and turned around, but it was no use. Gabriel caught her all too easily and lifted her up, over his shoulder, and carried her into the crashing surf of the glittering Pacific Ocean, dunking her mercilessly under the foaming waves until she begged for mercy.
