Susan Stephens - The Acostas Box Set - The Shameless Life of Ruiz Acosta / The Argentinian's Solace / A Taste of the Untamed / The Man From her Wayward Past / Taming the Last Acosta / Christmas Nights with the Polo Player

Animal instincts battled with his common sense, while his leg screamed in protest . ‘Buenas noches, señorita,’ he ground out as she left the room.

CHAPTER FOUR

SHE had had the worst night’s sleep ever. Was it wrong to want a man who looked like a pirate to behave like one? Was it crazy to lie in bed wondering what would happen if she crept to the door and left it temptingly ajar? As if she’d be so stupid. She wouldn’t have the first idea of what to do if she had done something so ridiculous and Diego had walked in. She had heard him coming upstairs and remained absolutely still as she’d listened to the water run while he took his shower. She had imagined him standing beneath the spray naked. No wonder she’d had a sleepless night.

Leaping out of bed, she drew the curtains on a brand-new day. The sun was shining and it was hard to believe she had been greeted yesterday by stormy skies and a glowering man. Opening the window and leaning out, she dragged in the scent of blossom and grass, intensified by the refreshing rain and now the warmth of the sun. So where was Diego? She glanced round the empty gardens, guessing he’d be with his horses. She’d take a shower, make her calls, and then she’d check the agenda she’d given him. She had no time to waste on fantasies involving dangerous men sweeping sensible girls off their feet and carrying them away to make passionate love to them until they couldn’t stand.

But she was only human, and Diego Acosta was one heck of a man.

* * *

He had been up before dawn, after a restless night spent tossing and turning at the thought of a woman he wanted in his bed sleeping in a room just down the landing.

So what had held him back?

Slamming his cane against the wall with a vicious curse, he took a shower and changed into clean jeans, desert boots and the first top that came to hand. Opening his bedroom door, he found her walking down the landing towards the stairs.

‘Good morning, Diego,’ she called to him, oblivious to his black mood. ‘I hope you slept well?’

‘Maxie,’ he said briefly.

‘Are you coming down to breakfast?’ she asked as she ran down the stairs.

Was he supposed to follow at a snail’s pace?

‘Maria has promised to make pancakes today,’ she called back to him as she hurried across the hall towards the kitchen.

She looked so fresh-faced and innocent in her simple top, blue jeans and sneakers. ‘I’m going to check on the horses,’ he said, craving fresh air and the empty pampas.

‘No problems, I hope?’ she asked, pausing with her hand on the kitchen door.

Problems? What? More than she could see as he moved stiff-legged down the stairs? ‘One of the ponies kicked my best horse last night,’ he ground out.

‘Oh, no!’ she exclaimed with concern. ‘I’m so sorry. No lasting harm done, I hope?’

‘I don’t know yet,’ he snapped, frowning. Socialising was good for recovering horses, but there was always the risk they might get hurt, and he felt responsible for what had happened. It was another black mark on the day.

‘Perhaps I can see your horses later?’ she suggested.

Before he had a chance to refuse this request she had disappeared inside the kitchen. His black mood thickened when he heard her laughing with Maria. She was really making herself at home.

* * *

Thanking Diego’s housekeeper for the delicious breakfast, Maxie reflected on the many amusing tales Maria had told her about Diego growing up. It was probably just as well he hadn’t joined them in the kitchen, or Maria almost certainly wouldn’t have opened up the way she had. Maxie had been her usual guarded self. She never talked about her childhood, and preferred to look to the future and build rather than waste time thinking about what couldn’t be changed. She had spent too many nights barricaded in a room with her mother when her father had returned home drunk after yet another failed business deal to want to look back. Her own relationships with men had scarcely fared any better. She seemed to have the knack of finding younger versions of her father. No wonder creating events for other people suited her so well. She had long preferred to view the world from a safe distance.

She was scarcely back in her bedroom when her father called her on her mobile. ‘What a great surprise,’ she said, her face wreathed in smiles.

‘Don’t ring me now,’ he howled. ‘It isn’t convenient!’

‘But you called me,’ Maxie pointed out, all her elation evaporating.

‘Can’t you remember the simplest thing, Maxine?’ her father bellowed, as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘I have a board meeting at nine. I’ve got no time for your jabbering now!’

‘Dad, I’m sorry—’ But the line had already been disconnected. He was as confused as ever, she realised. Her father hadn’t attended a board meeting in his life, as far as Maxie knew, and he wasn’t about to start now.

She took a moment to compose herself, and then sniffed and straightened up. Checking her reflection in the mirror before she left the room, she remembered her father’s nursing staff telling her to get on with her life. They were probably right, but it had been so long since she had pleased herself, without making her responsibilities top of the list, she had almost forgotten how.

Or maybe not, Maxie thought. A faint smile touched her lips when she spotted something interesting in the courtyard. It wouldn’t hurt to take a closer look.

* * *

Diego had checked the horse and was satisfied the wound was superficial. Having returned to his room to take a shower, he was rubbing his hair dry when the messaging service on his phone trilled. It was a text from an anxious Holly, wanting to know what he thought of Maxie. Were his feelings supposed to have changed towards Maxie since Holly’s last call?

He texted back: She’s here. She’s fine. Doing her job, as far as I can tell.

Holly texted back immediately: Is that it?

That’s it, he confirmed, stowing the phone. What else should there be?

He was just easing his leg when he heard something that made him lurch across the room as fast as he could to stare out of the window. With a violent curse he left his bedroom in such a rush he forgot his cane. With his stiff leg lagging behind, he used the brute strength of his upper body to swing down the stairs, and, limping across the seemingly endless stretch of hallway, he launched himself at the front door and flung it wide. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

‘Oh, hello,’ Maxie replied, turning on the seat of his prized custom-built Harley. ‘I hope you don’t mind. I saw your bike and I couldn’t resist!’

She looked pretty hot on his bike…

And she was making no move to dismount.

She caressed the controls.

‘I hope you weren’t thinking of taking my bike for a ride?’ he derided, making what, without his cane, was embarrassingly slow progress down the steps.

‘I have ridden a bike before.’

‘Not like this, you haven’t,’ he fired back at her, cursing beneath his breath as he closed the distance between them at a limp.

‘I’m not a child, Diego…’

That much he could see for himself. And there wasn’t so much as a trace of guilt in her eyes. ‘Do you normally take things that don’t belong to you?’

‘I wasn’t taking it. I was sitting on it,’ she protested.

A flashback to his past fuelled his anger. He had first started riding bikes with a friend who was dead now. That thought led to the name Parrish banging in his head. ‘Don’t you dare,’ he warned as Maxie’s fingertips strayed dangerously close to the controls.

She had never done anything like this before. She had never rebelled or taken anything that didn’t belong to her without asking permission first. She had been all business, all correctness and restraint for so long she couldn’t imagine what she was doing.