Postcards From Rio: Master of Her Innocence / To Play with Fire / A Taste of Desire

CHAPTER EIGHT

CLARE RAN HER hand down her gold-sequined dress, relieved to find that the low-cut evening gown with a side-split skirt, which she had worried was too flamboyant and revealing, was a perfect outfit to wear to Diego’s nightclub and casino, Kasbah.

The club was a huge venue with numerous bars and dance floors, an enormous gambling suite equipped with poker tables, roulette wheels and slot machines, and in the centre of the club was a revolving stage lit by glittering chandeliers suspended from the marquee-like ceiling. The decor was over-the-top opulent and had been designed to represent a Sultan’s harem. Rich purple carpets, gold silk wallpaper and plush velvet seating gave the interior a sensual feel that was enhanced by discreet lighting and the throb of deep bass music.

Diego had arrived at the club before Clare. His PA had explained that he wanted to watch the final rehearsal by the dancers who would be performing during the evening. Juliana had also told her that the party was a fund-raising event for the Future Bright Foundation—a charity set up by Diego and his business partner Cruz Delgado to provide education and college funds for young people living in favelas.

It had been left to Miguel to drive Clare to the club. The bodyguard had obviously detected that she felt wary of him and had reiterated Diego’s assurance that he would protect her with his life if necessary.

‘Diego said you and he were friends many years ago. Where did the two of you meet?’ she’d asked, thinking that she might learn more about Diego’s past.

But Miguel had given her an odd look and murmured, ‘You’ll have to ask Diego that question.’

Clare told herself that the mystery surrounding Diego was none of her business. In a few weeks she would go home to England and never see him again. Unless she was pregnant with his child. The thought slipped into her mind and she felt a flutter of nerves in her stomach. There was no point worrying about it when the chances that she had conceived were so unlikely, but she couldn’t stop wondering if Diego’s baby was developing inside her.

She forced her mind back to the present. The guests would be starting to arrive soon and she was wondering what her duties as Diego’s hostess would entail. She caught sight of him up on the stage surrounded by a group of exotic female dancers whose costumes comprised of a few strategically placed ostrich feathers.

The girls crowded around Diego, and it wasn’t hard to understand why, Clare thought ruefully. He looked amazing in a black dinner suit and white silk shirt, and his tousled, over-long hair and the shadow of blond stubble on his jaw gave him a raw sex appeal that was dangerously attractive.

Although her stiletto heels made no sound on the thick carpet, he turned his head as she approached, as if a sixth sense had alerted him to her presence.

‘Clare.’ There was a strange huskiness in his voice and the glitter in his silver eyes sent a frisson of sexual awareness down her spine. He did not take his gaze from her as he clapped his hands and the dancers left the stage in a flurry of feathers and a flash of lissom thighs.

‘Juliana said I would find you hard at work,’ Clare said drily. ‘At a rough estimate, I’d guess that you have slept with at least ten of the twenty girls in the dance troupe.’

He grinned. ‘But not all at the same time.’ The expression in his eyes became feral as he studied her. ‘I knew when I picked that dress that you would look stunning in it.’

‘How did you know my size?’

‘I asked your sister.’ He stepped closer and murmured in her ear, ‘Besides, I have an excellent memory of your body, querida.’

Fortunately the guests began to arrive and Diego moved to greet them, but Clare’s hope that she would be able to disappear amongst the crowd was thwarted when he slipped his arm around her waist and kept her clamped to his side.

‘Tonight you are my hostess,’ he reminded her when she suggested he might want to circulate on his own and chat to the countless beautiful women who watched him hungrily as if they wanted to devour him.

‘Why do I get the feeling that you’re using me as a shield? Aren’t you flattered that you could have just about any woman in the room without even having to try?’

She looked up at his handsome face, expecting to see his mouth curve into an indolent smile, but he trapped her gaze and the heat in his eyes burned her. ‘There is only one woman I want but she told me she’s not interested,’ he said softly.

Clare was aware of the pulse at the base of her throat beating so hard she was afraid it was visible through her skin. She reminded herself that Diego was a womaniser and he was flirting with her because it was second nature to him. But sexual chemistry had sizzled between them in the steamy rainforest and it was no less potent in the semi-dark nightclub with the thudding beat of the music echoing the frantic thud of her heart. She opened her mouth to reiterate what she had told him in his office, that she would not be his mistress at any price. But instead she heard herself murmur, ‘I said I wasn’t for sale. I never said I wasn’t interested.’

* * *

What the hell had Clare meant by that? Diego wondered as he watched her walk away from him. He was damned sure she had deliberately made an excuse that she needed to visit the bathroom, and he was tempted to go after her, lock them both in a cubicle and take her up against the wall with all the finesse of a hormone-fuelled teenager.

He raked a hand through his hair, his eyes lingering on the sway of her hips and the taut curves of her bottom beneath her twinkling sequin-covered dress. He couldn’t remember when he had wanted a woman as much as he wanted her. But perhaps his inexplicable possessive feeling was because there was a possibility that she was carrying his child, he told himself.

His common sense urged him to put her out of his mind. As she had pointed out, he could take his pick from any of the single females at the party, and probably a few married ones, he thought sardonically. Money was a powerful aphrodisiac, but even before he’d become a multimillionaire women had desired him; strangely, and it was a funny thing, the less he had cared, the more they’d pursued him.

Clare was the only woman who had ever stood up to him. She had even stood up to the ruthless drugs lord, Rigo. He admired her, Diego acknowledged. Hell, he liked her as well as desired her, and he knew, because he always knew with women, that she was halfway to falling in love with him. What troubled him most was the realisation that he did not want to hurt her, which of course he would. He wasn’t looking for love. The blank space in his memory of what had happened when he was seventeen hid a truth about himself that he did not want to uncover. It was safer to be a playboy who did not give a damn about anyone.

Across the room he caught the eye of one of his ex-mistresses. Belinda was an attractive blonde, wearing a minuscule dress that showed off her long legs. Like most of his exes, Diego had parted from her on good terms and her body language sent him a message that she was available. He started to walk towards Belinda but then he noticed Clare standing by the bar and scanning the room for him.

The bright lights above the bar danced over her long auburn hair, which fell in rippling waves down her back and shone like silk. Santa Mãe, she looked as if she had been poured into the gold dress that hugged her tiny waist and framed her full breasts. She was tying him in knots, Diego acknowledged grimly. The only way to get her out of his system was to get her into his bed.

* * *

The finest champagne and exquisite canapés were served to Diego’s guests, who had paid hundreds of dollars for tickets to the party, with all the proceeds going to his charity. After the cabaret came the main fund-raising event of the evening, when donated items were auctioned. Earlier, Clare had looked at the variety of items for auction, which included fabulous jewellery, a number of valuable pieces of artwork and, most astonishing of all, a sports car. The only item she considered bidding for was a rare first edition copy of poems by English Romantic poet Lord Byron, but when she saw the starting bid price she realised it would exceed her credit card limit.

In fact, the poetry book was sold for three times the amount expected. ‘You looked disappointed that the bidding for Byron’s poems was so high,’ Diego commented.

‘Surprised, but certainly not disappointed because all the money raised at the auction goes to the Future Bright Foundation, doesn’t it?’

‘Every dollar,’ he said with quiet pride. ‘The money is put to good use. Cruz and I know from our own experiences growing up in a favela that education is the key to escaping poverty.’

Clare looked at him closely. ‘You donated the poetry book, didn’t you? And then won the bid to buy it back again.’

He shrugged. ‘I do the same at every fund-raising auction. When I was a young man and borrowed books from Earl Bancroft’s library, reading novels and poetry opened my mind to the realisation that there was a whole world waiting for me beyond working in a mine. I hope to give all deprived children not only a dream of a better life, but the means, by educating them, to turn their dreams into reality.’

His words touched something inside Clare. ‘Do you really not have any family who care about you?’ she asked softly, remembering what he had told the drugs lord Rigo. ‘You told me that your father abandoned your mother before you were born and you grew up living in a favela. Is your mother dead too?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I lost contact with her when I was seventeen.’

‘Have you never tried to find her?’

‘No.’ Diego’s brusque tone warned her not to ask any more questions.

‘Well, here is your book to put back on the shelf in your library,’ Clare said when a waiter delivered the leather-bound book to their table.

‘Actually, it’s yours,’ Diego murmured, sliding the book towards her. ‘I bid for it on your behalf.’

She shook her head. ‘I can’t take on any more debt when I already owe you a million dollars for the Rose Star diamond.’

‘You don’t owe me for the book. It’s a present.’

Diego saw Clare’s look of surprise and cursed himself. Why was he behaving like a damned fool in love? He was simply wooing her a little so that she would have sex with him, he assured himself as he opened the book at a random page, which happened to be Lord Byron’s famous poem, She Walks in Beauty.

It was a poem Diego had read many times, and his eyes were drawn to Clare’s lovely face as he quoted softly, ‘“She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes...”’

* * *

It was the champagne making her feel light-headed, Clare told herself, not Diego’s deep voice seducing her with Byron’s beautiful poetry. The two men had something in common; Byron had been notorious for his scandalous affairs and Clare had no doubt that Diego’s reputation as a womaniser was well deserved.

But when he asked her to dance with him she found herself being led on to the dance floor and swept into his arms. And when their eyes met and his mouth curled into a lazy smile that stole her breath she gave up trying to resist him.

They danced the night away, and by the time the party ended and Diego helped Clare into the back of the limousine before sliding in next to her, every nerve ending in her body felt ultra-sensitive. The brush of his hand on her bare arm seemed to scorch her skin, and the feel of his hard thigh pressed up against hers made her recall how thick and hard his erection had been when he had slowly entered her.

Her awareness of him intensified as they stepped into the lift, which would take them to the top floor of the Cazorra skyscraper. The doors closed, and as the lift began its smooth ascent her eyes were drawn to him. He had unfastened his bow tie and his streaked blond hair fell across his brow, adding to his rakish charm. She wondered why he suddenly looked tense. Maybe he was irritated because she was staring at him like countless women at the party had done, she thought uncomfortably.

The lift suddenly juddered to a standstill and the lights went out.

‘What the hell?’ Diego said tersely. The lights flickered and came on again, but the lift did not move.

‘Do you think it has broken down?’

‘No, I think we’re stuck between floors for fun.’

Clare frowned. ‘There’s no need to be sarcastic.’ She studied the control panel. ‘There’s an emergency button. Should I press it?’

‘Deus!’ Diego exploded. ‘Press the damn thing and tell the maintenance staff to get us out of here right now.’

‘Diego...are you okay?’ Clare stared at him. His jaw was clenched and he was oddly pale beneath his tan. When he pushed his hair out of his eyes she saw beads of sweat on his brow.

‘I dislike lifts.’ He caught her questioning look and muttered, ‘I have an irrational fear of confined spaces.’ Sweat ran down his face. He swore and wrenched off his jacket. A voice speaking in Portuguese sounded over the intercom and Diego answered with a few curt words, and Clare guessed it was lucky she did not understand.

‘The concierge says he has called the engineer and the lift will be repaired as soon as possible,’ he relayed to her.

She couldn’t disguise her shock that he had been fearless in the rainforest, and had even wrestled with a python, but he suffered from claustrophobia. ‘How did you spend years working underground in mines if you hate confined spaces?’

He shrugged. ‘It was the only way I could earn a living, so I had to do it or starve. Getting into a lift cage packed with men to be taken underground was hell—it still is—but fortunately the mine shafts in the Old Betsy mine are a reasonable size to work in.’ He wiped a hand over his sweat-damp face and said with an attempt at humour, ‘Anyway, your heart only feels like it’s going to burst out of your chest for the first few hours of a shift and, however bad you feel, you just have to get on with the job.’

The discovery that Diego had a vulnerable side to him evoked a curious tug on Clare’s heart. ‘Do you feel this bad every time you step into a lift? That must be difficult considering you live and work in the Cazorra skyscraper.’

‘I don’t usually take the lift; I use the stairs.’

‘But you live on the thirtieth floor.’

‘It keeps me fit,’ he muttered.

‘So did you only take the lift tonight because of me?’

‘I couldn’t expect you to climb thirty flights of stairs.’

Clare bit her lip. ‘You should have told me. I feel terrible. But probably not as bad as you’re feeling,’ she conceded, seeing the sheen of sweat on his face. ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’

‘Not...unless you can come up with a distraction technique to take my mind from the thought that we are trapped in a metal box,’ he said through gritted teeth.

An idea came to her, and she acted without pausing to question whether it was wise or not as she stepped closer to him and cupped his face in her hands. ‘Perhaps this will distract you,’ she murmured before she covered his mouth with hers and kissed him.

She felt the jolt of surprise that ran through him, but he responded instantly and opened his mouth to welcome the gentle probing of her tongue. He was content to follow her lead, and as she continued kissing him she felt the terrible tension that gripped his muscles gradually lessen.

‘Is it working?’ She finally had to stop and allow them both to breathe.

‘I’m not sure,’ he said thickly. ‘You’d better try again.’

He did not look quite so pale, she thought as she stood on tiptoe so that she could reach his mouth. This time he took control and deepened the kiss until Clare’s senses were swamped by the taste of him, the scent of his aftershave, the feel of his strong arms sliding around her waist to pull her even closer to him—so close that she could not mistake the hard ridge of his arousal.

‘Something’s definitely working,’ he drawled, sounding more like the laid-back Diego she knew—and did not love. Of course not. It was just a silly saying that had slipped into her mind.

The lift suddenly lurched and then continued its ascent. Clare sprang away from him, hot-faced with embarrassment that in trying to distract him from his phobia she had aroused him, and herself, she acknowledged ruefully as she glanced down at the outline of her nipples jutting beneath her dress.

Moments later the doors opened directly into the penthouse and she heard Diego exhale heavily as he followed her out of the lift. As they walked in silence along the hallway leading to their respective bedrooms she did not know what to think, or what was going to happen next. But she knew with sudden clarity what she wanted to happen. Becky had warned her that Diego was a heartbreaker, but Clare had no intention of letting him anywhere near her heart.

Disappointment swooped in her stomach when he walked straight past the door to his suite without trying to persuade her to sleep with him. Maybe he did not desire her as much as she’d thought.

Her room was next to his. He halted outside the door and casually swung the jacket that he was carrying over his shoulder. But there was nothing casual about the smouldering intensity in his eyes, and his voice was a rough growl that grazed her skin and sent a quiver of excitement down her spine. ‘Are you going to invite me in?’

‘Yes.’ Simple, direct. She was tired of playing games. ‘But there is a condition.’

His brows rose in silent query.

‘I won’t pay off my debt with sex and after tonight I will still owe you a million dollars. I’m inviting you into my bed because I want you. But I won’t be your mistress. You will be my...’ she had been going to say lover, but reminded herself that love was not involved ‘...stud.’

He gave a husky laugh that evoked a coiling sensation low in her pelvis. ‘You are something else, Clare.’ There was a curious note that she almost thought was admiration in his voice. He opened her bedroom door, placed his hand at the small of her back and pushed her into the room. ‘Be careful what you wish for, querida.’ He slid his hand down and caressed her bottom, his touch burning her through her dress. ‘You want a stud and, as you can feel—’ he pressed up against her so that his erection nudged the cleft between her buttocks and their clothes were a frustrating barrier ‘—I am very willing to oblige.’

* * *

Diego knew he was going to have to cool things down. He was fiercely tempted to drag Clare’s dress up to her waist, pull her knickers down and bend her over the end of the bed so that he could take her hard and fast, the way his body was aching to do. Adrenaline was still pumping through his veins from when they had been trapped in the lift, but his urgent need to make love to her was more than a primal urge to have sex.

Deus, she had been so sweet when she had kissed him to distract him from his stupid, irrational fear. If she knew the truth of why he hated confined spaces, maybe she would understand that his gut-churning terror of being confined was not irrational. But he had never told any of his mistresses that he had been to prison, so why would he tell Clare?

He realised she was watching him with a faint uncertainty in her eyes that made him dismiss his thoughts and focus all his attention on her. She’d said she wanted a stud, but her only experience of sex was when he had taken her virginity. What she needed from him was patience and tenderness. It occurred to him that he would enjoy teaching her the many and varied pathways of pleasure that she had never experienced with any other man. Diego frowned. This possessive feeling was a new experience for him and not one that he wanted to think about too deeply.

He threaded his fingers into her hair that felt like silk against his skin and lowered his head to claim her lips in a kiss that started out as gentle. But her eager response stoked the fire inside him so that he thrust his tongue into her mouth in an erotic imitation of thrusting his throbbing arousal into her.

She tugged open his shirt buttons and ran her hands feverishly over his bare chest. He gave a half-laugh, half-groan. ‘How can I make love to you slowly and gently when you are so damned hot?’

Clare curled her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers, pressing her curvaceous body up against him so that Diego could feel the hard points of her nipples scrape across his chest. ‘I don’t want slow and gentle. I don’t mind if you are rough,’ she whispered against his lips. ‘I just want you now, now.’

‘Deus, you will be the death of me, anjinho.’ He ran her zip down her spine and tugged the gold dress. She wasn’t wearing a bra and her bare breasts spilled into his hands, firm and plump like ripe peaches, and utterly delectable when he kissed the creamy mounds, before he closed his lips around one pouting nipple and then the other.

Her soft moans of delight nearly drove him over the edge, and when she fumbled with the zip on his trousers and her fingers brushed across his arousal he knew he had to take control. He swiftly dragged her dress over her hips so that it slid to the floor, leaving her in just a tiny gold thong and high-heeled strappy gold sandals. Diego knelt and removed her shoes and then scooped her up and deposited her on the bed, but he resisted her attempt to pull him down on top of her.

He stood at the end of the bed and pushed her thighs apart. ‘I’ll explain how this is going to work, querida. I am going to kiss every inch of your body, and I mean everywhere,’ he warned her softly. ‘Now lie back.’

* * *

He could not actually mean everywhere, Clare thought as she stretched out on top of the satin bedspread while Diego knelt above her and lowered his head to capture her mouth in a sensual kiss that added fuel to the flame of her desire. He trailed his lips over her throat and breasts, paying special attention to her nipples until she whimpered with pleasure. ‘Enough,’ she pleaded in a breathy voice she hardly recognised as her own.

‘I’ve barely begun,’ he told her as he moved down her body, kissing her stomach and the tops of her thighs. She trembled and instinctively tried to scissor her legs together, but he firmly held them open so that she was utterly exposed to him apart from a fragile strip of gold silk. He pushed her thong aside, and as Clare felt his silky hair brush against her inner thighs she suddenly realised that he really did intend to kiss every bit of her.

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