At The Ruthless Billionaire's Command. Кэрол Мортимер

mouth before eating with relish.

      More colour returned to her cheeks the more she ate, and there was now a sparkle to her eyes. Evidence that she really had been starving herself the past two months? Not deliberately, but because food had simply become unimportant to her with her life in such turmoil.

      Gregorio intended to ensure that didn’t happen again.

      Lia was enjoying the food so much, and Gregorio seemed to be enjoying watching her, that there had been very little conversation between the two of them as they ate together.

      Which was perhaps as well. Lia felt the need to argue with this man every time they engaged in conversation.

      She finally placed her knife and fork down on her empty plate. ‘I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the food at Mancini’s.’

      Past tense, Gregorio recognised with a tightening of his mouth. Because Lia’s world had been turned upside down and she could no longer afford to eat in such exclusive restaurants.

      Which was his cue to resume their conversation about her father’s death. A subject guaranteed to bring back the contention between the two of them, but also one that stood between them as an invisible barrier.

      Gregorio would accept no barriers between himself and Lia—invisible or otherwise. He intended knowing everything there was to know about this woman. Inside as well as out. Intimately. And he intended her to know him in the same way.

      ‘That was delicious. Thank you,’ she added awkwardly. ‘But it’s been a long day, and now I think what I really need is to get some sleep.’

      She did look tired, Gregorio acknowledged. Well-fed, but tired. And what did a delay of one more day or so matter when he had already waited this long for her?

      He glanced at the disorder about them. ‘Would you like me to come back tomorrow and help you with the rest of your unpacking?’

      ‘Why are you being so nice to me?’ Lia frowned her puzzlement, more confused than ever now that she had satisfied a need for food she hadn’t realised was there until she’d begun eating.

      Her stomach and her appetite had perked up at the very first taste of the food from Mancini’s—a restaurant she had enjoyed going to several times in the past, alone and with David or her father.

      ‘You are a person it is easy to be nice to,’ Gregorio dismissed with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

      Shoulders that looked even wider and more muscular now that he was no longer wearing his jacket. In fact the whole casual thing he had going on—losing the jacket, taking off his tie, unfastening the top button of his shirt and rolling back the sleeves—had succeeded in making him more approachable and even more lethally attractive.

      Which was perhaps his intention?

      Lull the poor befuddled woman into a state of uncertainty and then pounce?

      Cathy was never going to believe her when the two of them spoke on the phone tomorrow as they usually did, and Lia told her friend about Gregorio’s visit and the fact the two of them had eaten dinner together.

      Lia wasn’t sure she believed it herself.

      It was becoming more and more difficult to continue thinking of this man as the monster who had helped to destroy her father when he was being nothing but attentive and kind to her. No matter how rude she was, he continued to treat her with respect and kindness.

      It’s just his way of worming his way into my good graces before he goes for what he really wants!

      Which Lia had now realised appeared to be her.

      He was obviously a man who enjoyed a challenge if he thought he was going to win that battle.

      ‘No, I’ll be fine, thanks.’ She stood up as indication that he should leave.

      A hint he ignored as he remained seated at the breakfast bar. ‘We have not eaten dessert yet.’

      ‘Take it with you,’ she dismissed. ‘I couldn’t eat another thing.’

      ‘I could not deprive you of Mancini’s celebrated chocolate cake.’

      Lia gave a soft gasp. ‘He really sent you some of his famous chocolate cake?’ The dessert was Mancini’s secret recipe, and it had always been Lia’s choice when she had dined at the restaurant. It was rich and decadent, and the taste of the cake was orgasmic.

      ‘He sent us some of his chocolate cake,’ Gregorio corrected.

      ‘He didn’t know I would be dining with you.’

      ‘Oh, but he did. I spoke to Mancini personally and requested he send all your favourite foods.’

      She widened her eyes. ‘You told him we were having dinner together?’

      Gregorio studied her from beneath hooded lids. ‘Is there a problem with that?’

      ‘Not for me, no.’

      ‘Or for me.’

      He certainly didn’t look concerned at having announced to a third party that he was having dinner with the daughter of Jacob Fairbanks. Considering the speed with which some of her so-called friends and her fiancé had disappeared in a cloud of smoke, she found Gregorio’s behaviour odd to say the least.

      ‘You’re a very strange man,’ she said slowly.

      ‘In a bad way or a good way?’ he prompted as he stood up.

      ‘I haven’t decided yet.’

      The grin he gave softened the harshness of his features. ‘When you do, let me know, hmm?’

      ‘You’re different than I imagined.’

      ‘In what way?’

      ‘That night at the restaurant when you—when you kissed me, I thought you were just another arrogant jerk who doesn’t like to hear the word no.’

      ‘One out of the two, certainly,’ he mused.

      Lia didn’t need him to tell her it was the word no he didn’t like to hear. There was no doubting he was arrogant too, but there was something else. Something she couldn’t quite equate with the ruthless bastard she’d labelled him. Perhaps it was the fact that, whatever his reasons, he was actually attempting to take care of her.

      ‘You said you weren’t always rich?’

      ‘No.’ He settled more comfortably on the bar stool. ‘When I graduated from university with a business degree and returned to Spain it was to find that my father had allowed the family vineyard to decline. Several years of bad harvest...diseased vines.’ He shrugged. ‘There were still my two brothers to go to university. I put my own life on hold and set about ensuring that happened.’

      ‘By founding the de la Cruz business empire?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘And is your life still on hold?’

      He looked at her admiringly. ‘Obviously not.’

      Lia gave a shake of her head. ‘I don’t think it would be a good idea for the two of us to meet again.’

      He looked displeased. ‘Why not?’

      Lia avoided meeting his gaze. ‘Besides the obvious, I don’t belong in that world any more.’

      ‘The obvious...?’

      ‘I hold you partly responsible for my father’s death.’ There—she’d stated it clearly, so there could be no lingering doubts as to her reason for staying away from this man.

      Was she protesting too much?

      Because of her earlier reaction to him?

      Maybe. But that didn’t change the fact that she really didn’t want to see or be alone with Gregorio again. He...unsettled her. Disturbed her. In a deep and visceral way Lia