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‘You suddenly fear for your safety?’ He couldn’t help but mock.
Her chest rose and fell in a steadying breath. ‘I fear for the mood you’re in. I prefer for us to continue this conversation when you’re more rational.’
‘The only thing that would make me irrational is you choosing to remain in this car one moment longer. Get out, Suki.’ He jerked his chin towards the door his driver was holding open for her and waited, teeth clenched, as she slowly stepped out.
Grabbing his own handle, he threw the door open, the space suddenly too small to contain the power and might of his volatile emotions.
Striding across the tarmac behind her, he wondered how he would bear to be in close proximity to her during the helicopter ride when everything in him wanted to shake answers out of her. No, not everything. A small, intensely illogical part of him wanted to curl his hand over that delicate nape of hers, stop her in her tracks and demand that she stop shaking. That she stopped being so damned pale and fragile. Demand to know why she was no longer as curvy as she’d once been.
Madre de Dios...
Ramon was half thankful when his driver helped her into the helicopter. The same part watched her scramble to the farthest seat and buckle herself in, her body throwing up keep off signs.
Climbing in beside her, he saw to his own belt, then nodded to his pilot.
Despite the state-of-the-art noise-cancelling interior and the headphones with microphones they donned, he chose silence over continuing their conversation. He needed time to collect himself.
Losing control now would be counterproductive. He’d set a specific plan in motion when he’d instructed his lawyers to bring her here. And he would carry those plans through.
They completed the twenty-five-minute air ride in silence but he noted that she continued to tremble, her fingers twisting one way then another in her lap.
They landed at the purpose-built heliport at the south end of his villa’s garden. Emerging to the small gathering of people at the edge of the tarmac, he caught the questions in her eyes although she refrained from speaking.
Ramon addressed them, shook hands, accepted hugs and fought debilitating emotions that bubbled up when heartfelt condolences were offered up. All through it, Suki stood by in silence, her hands clutching her purse in front of her.
Eventually, when the last of the visitors left, he continued towards the house.
‘Who were those people?’ she asked as she hurried to keep up with him.
His jaw clenched. ‘Our neighbours and Luis’s childhood friends.’
The shadow that crossed her face could’ve been real pain. Or a carefully crafted gesture meant to fool him into thinking she had genuine feelings. Dios, he’d had it with calculating women. He clawed his fingers through his hair.
He needed a drink. Badly.
But first there were the lawyers to deal with.
Striding across the terrace, he made a beeline for the hallway that led to his study.
Three of his trusted legal team waited, suits sharp and pens poised to carry out the plan he’d formulated. But first he had to sit through listening to his brother’s last words to the woman who had cheated him out of something he hadn’t even known he craved until it was gone.
He made quick introductions, ignored the curious stares his lawyers cast her way as he sat at his desk and indicated the chair opposite.
She strode forward, her slimmer hips swaying in the simple but stylish black dress.
Ramon found his gaze lingering over her neatly tied caramel-blonde hair, then lower, scrutinising other areas where her body had changed. Her jawline was more pronounced, her cheeks hollower. Her lightly glossed mouth was still full and attention-grabbing, but her waist was even trimmer, its slightness easily spanned by his hands...
Realising what he was doing, he ruthlessly reeled himself in, but not before he caught the lingering gaze of the youngest member of his legal team on her. A sharp look redirected the man’s focus to the papers he held.
‘We will conduct the meeting in English. Miss Langston doesn’t speak Spanish...’ Ramon paused, one eyebrow raised at her ‘...unless I’m mistaken?’
She shook her head as she sat down, summoned a whisper of a smile. ‘Nothing beyond hello and goodbye.’
Neither of which she would be using on him any time soon. They were light years beyond cordial greetings and he had no intention of letting her out of his sight for a very long time.
His chief legal representative opened the folder before him. ‘The reas
on you’re here, Miss Langston, is because of the late codicil attached to the personal will Luis had drafted earlier this year.’
