Sophie Weston - More Than A Millionaire

She drank.

‘Choose what you want,’ he said, handing her the plate and beckoning the man bearing the tray to her side. ‘I know the English like their meat rare.’

He picked up an instrument that looked like a toy devil’s pitchfork and turned a couple of substantial steaks over. He speared a particularly red one and held it up for her inspection.

Abby shuddered. She drained the rest of the champagne and put her glass down.

‘N-no thank you. I’m not that hungry. Perhaps some chicken?’

He put back the steak and gave her what looked like half a chicken.

‘What else? Filet steak? Sirloin? Lamb?’

‘No, th-that’s fine,’ said Abby, recoiling.

A group of dancers had broken off and came over. One of them was Rosanna. She looked at Abby’s plate with concern.

‘Are you feeling all right, Abby?’

‘Abby,’ said Emilio Diz softly.

Abby felt he had speared her with that pitchfork. She looked up at him quickly, shocked. Their eyes locked.

How could a man who was married look at her like that? Look at anyone like that?

The group did not notice.

‘You need some meat,’ said the voluptuous beauty who had been painting her nails in Rosanna’s bedroom.

‘I’ve got some.’

‘No, no. Meat.’

‘On an Argentine estancia, chicken and pork do not count as meat,’ explained Emilio, amused.

‘Of course not. Beef is what you need. Wonderful Argentine steak and wonderful Argentine red wine. Strength,’ breathed Rosanna’s friend sexily, ‘and passion.’ She was looking at Emilio as if she would like to eat him, too, thought Abby.

He looked even more amused. Amused, maybe just a little wary—and appreciative.

I don’t understand these people, thought Abby in despair. How can that woman pant over him like that, quite openly, when he has a family? His poor wife must be at home waiting for him right now.

‘Do you tango, Emilio?’ murmured Rosanna’s friend.

It did not, thought Abby, sound as if she was talking about a dance. Is this what Pops means about learning to hear what people mean, not what they say? She’s not asking him anything. She’s telling him she’s available.

The realisation stabbed like a stiletto. Abby could feel herself getting stiffer by the minute. She was turning back into the English schoolgirl they all dreaded, in spite of the sexy dress. She nibbled a piece of chicken, trying to pretend she was at ease. She felt it would choke her. So she chewed hard, smiling.

‘Of course,’ Emilio said calmly.

Rosanna’s friend licked her lips. Definitely wanting to eat him, thought Abby, repelled and fascinated in equal measure.

‘But not,’ he went on softly, ‘in the open air, to a Paraguayan band, at a family barbecue.’

So he wasn’t talking about a dance, either. Abby thought her heart would break. Which was crazy.

And then he did something which really did break her heart.

He took the plate away from her. Put it down on the grass with her discarded wine and took her hand.

Smiling straight down into her eyes he said, ‘No tango. But come and hop about the Paraguayan way.’

Abby went. She could feel all the eyes burning into her exposed back. She clutched the glittery scarf round her like a security blanket.

He took her among the dancers and put his arms round her. His hands were powerful, experienced and utterly indifferent. It made no difference. Abby was as tense as a board.

‘Relax,’ he said, smiling down at her.

‘I don’t know how to do this dance,’ she muttered. She knew she sounded sulky. She couldn’t help it. Oh, would this evening never end?

‘Listen to the music and trust me. All you have to do is march in time. Just put a bit of a hop into it as you land.’

She did. It worked. She forgot her wretchedness for a moment, looking up at him with a grin of pure triumph.

His hands tightened. Suddenly she thought he was not so indifferent after all.

One of the other dancers, an older woman with kind eyes, spoke as she jigged sedately past.

‘You’ve got the bachelor of the evening there, Abby. Don’t hang on to him too long. You might get lynched. You’re too young to die.’

It was a warning. Veiled. Kindly meant. But a warning none the less. Emilio knew it. His mouth tightened as he looked down at her.

But the warning went straight past Abby. All she could think was: bachelor? And then she remembered the conversation between the Montijo women. Emilio was putting his brothers and sisters through college? Something like that?

So the family he had spoken of did not include the wife she had imagined sitting at home waiting for him.

‘Thank you,’ she said. To the woman, who had danced away. To Emilio, guiding her through the dance, with a hold that even unsophisticated Abby knew was a little too tight.

She tipped her head back and looked straight into his eyes. And smiled, dazzlingly.

It was quite dark now. The flambeaux illuminated the party but there were plenty of shadows if you wanted them. Emilio, it seemed, wanted them. He danced her out of the light.

‘Careful,’ he murmured. ‘There are a lot of people out there watching.’

He was trying to sound cool but his breathing was uneven. Abby could have hugged herself.

‘So?’ she said naughtily.

What she did then was utterly out of character. Maybe it was the unaccustomed champagne she had drunk too fast, suddenly catching up with her. Maybe it was the night, the stars, the music. Maybe it was because she had danced for a good ten minutes with a man who actually wanted to dance with her. She hadn’t actually felled anyone or fallen off her high heels, either. Both were firsts.

Or maybe it was, quite simply, the man himself.

But in the darkness Abby leaned into him.

He went very still.

Oh, Lord, he had brought this on himself, thought Emilio. Why had he not seen what he was doing? She was so young, his little crane fly. So innocent. He had not thought—

It was going to be like Paris, all over again. Only with the daughter of one of Felipe Montijo’s influential business contacts.

Great stuff, Emilio! He congratulated himself silently. Just what you need to start the new career off with a bang.

More important, it was just what little Abby did not need, with the Montijo girl and her cronies circling like vultures. His sister had taught him just how cruel teenage girls could be.

He had thought he was doing her a favour by dancing her out of the spotlight. But it seemed he was leading her into something worse. Now, how was he going to stop her making a fool of herself? She would never forgive herself.

Abby stood on tiptoe, and brought his head down to meet her kiss.

Hell, thought Emilio.

Her mouth tasted of the wine but her skin smelled of flowers; those roses she had talked about, perhaps. She did not know how to kiss and she was quivering like a newborn colt. His heart turned over. This was dangerous!

He caught hold of her hands and held them away from him, not gently.

‘I think not.’

Abby could not believe it. He sounded so casual, so indifferent. Yet for a moment—surely?—his mouth had moved under hers. Or had she imagined it?

It was as if he had driven that little silver pitchfork right in under the third rib. For a moment Abby literally could not breathe.

Wanted to dance with her? Who was she fooling? Men did not want to dance with plain, awkward schoolgirls who broke things and fell over their own high heels, not for pleasure. He was being kind. Kind like Rosanna and Señora Montijo. Kind like her father.

They all knew she was a disaster. They all tried to help. They all failed.

She wrenched her hands out of his hold. And then, of course, the inevitable happened. The thing that had been threatening all evening. The danger she had skirted so closely ever since Emilio found her among the roses.