A Devilishly Dark Deal. Maggie Cox

       “Mr Aguilar …” she began.

       He raised an eyebrow. “Marco,” he corrected gently.

      Her incandescent summer-blue gaze slid away for a moment. He saw her take a deeper breath, as if to centre herself.

      “I was wondering if you’d made a decision about whether you might be able to help the children or not?”

      Marco took a few moments to marshal his thoughts. He hadn’t embellished the truth when he’d told her at their first meeting that there were many charities he supported. Yet none of them was directly helping orphaned children. The subject was apt to bring back memories of a childhood he had striven hard not just to forget but to hide from the world at large.

      “In truth, Grace, I would like a bit more time to give the matter some proper reflection before I decide. Is that all right with you?”

      “Of course … It’s just that …”

      She leaned forward and he saw conflict in her eyes—maybe trying to press him for a decision was warring with her innate impulse to be polite. Even so, he wasn’t above using whatever weapon he could from his personal armoury to get what he wanted. His success in business hadn’t come about without a propensity to be single-mindedly ruthless from time to time. Pretty little Grace wanted something from him, and likewise he wanted something from her, he realised. He didn’t doubt there was a way of gratifying both needs.

      About the Author

      The day MAGGIE COX saw the film version of Wuthering Heights, with a beautiful Merle Oberon and a very handsome Laurence Olivier, was the day she became hooked on romance. From that day onwards she spent a lot of time dreaming up her own romances, secretly hoping that one day she might become published and get paid for doing what she loved most! Now that her dream is being realised, she wakes up every morning and counts her blessings. She is married to a gorgeous man, and is the mother of two wonderful sons. Her two other great passions in life—besides her family and reading/writing—are music and films.

       Recent titles by the same author:

      THE LOST WIFE

      THE BROODING STRANGER ONE DESERT NIGHT

       Did you know these are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

      A Devilishly

      Dark Deal

       Maggie Cox

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Sheila, my romantic sister.

      You had the best laugh and the most beautiful voice and not a day goes by when my heart doesn’t ache because I miss them both so much.

      CHAPTER ONE

      TIPPING up the brim of her wide straw hat, Grace Faulkner settled back in her deckchair, glanced through her over-large sunglasses at the glinting aquamarine ocean and sighed. She should be making the most of the tranquil scene and just relaxing, but it wasn’t easy when her insides were deluged with querulous butterflies.

      She was so besieged because very shortly she planned to confront one of this elite area’s most revered and wealthy entrepreneurs and petition him to become a patron of the children’s charity in Africa that was dearest to her heart. And not just to become a patron—but also to make a much needed generous donation so that essential building could commence on a new orphanage. The present one was all but being held up by hope and prayer alone.

      What had fuelled her aim was hearing the owner of the café she’d been sitting in the day she’d heard the buzz that Marco Aguilar was visiting the area telling an American tourist that he’d known him as a young boy—that he’d grown up in a local orphanage and hadn’t he done incredibly well for himself when you considered his start in life?

      That overheard snippet had seemed more and more like divine providence to Grace as she’d mulled it over, and she didn’t intend to let it go to waste. She knew she would probably only get the smallest window of opportunity to catch the businessman’s eye before she’d be hauled off the premises by one of his security guards, and she should be prepared for that. But when it might mean the difference between helping to improve the lives of the children who had moved her so unbearably and returning to Africa with the news that she’d failed to secure them the funds they were so desperately in need of, a security guard trying to eject her seemed a small price to pay. Having recently seen for herself the squalor in which those orphans lived daily—a squalor that only the chance of a good education and caring patrons could help them out of—Grace had vowed to her charity worker friends before she left that she would do everything she could to help make that chance a reality. But first they had to rebuild the children’s home.

      The drowning noise of a helicopter coming in to land alerted her. It had to be him. Because she’d been so troubled and exhausted after her return from Africa, her parents had persuaded her to stay at their holiday home in the Algarve to take a much-needed break. For once she hadn’t resisted their steering of her movements, and she was glad she had not—because on only her second day there she had heard the local buzz that Marco Aguilar was due to make a visit to one of his myriad exclusive hotels for a meeting. That particular hotel was situated in the resort complex right across the road from where she was staying, and if the rumours were at all to be relied upon today was the day. The arrival of the helicopter—the first she’d heard in three days at the resort—surely confirmed it?

      With her heart pounding, she got up from the canvas chair positioned on the baking hot patio and quickly returned inside to the villa’s pleasantly cool interior. Flying into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator, she dropped it into her straw bag, repositioned her sunglasses on her nose, then pulled off her hat and threw it onto a nearby chair. Checking that she had her keys, she hurriedly left the building …

      The helicopter had landed on a discreet pad somewhere amid the lush pine trees, and now there was a bank of sleek cars—mostly black—parked in front of the hotel. The impressive modern façade was edged by a pristine emerald lawn, and already there was a bevy of reporters and photographers running across it—a few that were ahead were moving swiftly through the revolving glass doors into the lobby. By the time the mêlée had disappeared into the hotel, and just as Grace was stealing a few apprehensive moments to decide what to do next, a gleaming black jaguar drew up at the front of the lawn. A burly cropped-haired bodyguard exited the car first then smartly stood holding the door wide as the man who was clearly his boss climbed out of the vehicle.

      Due to his phenomenal success in business, and the purported enigmatic nature that was so indisputably appealing to admirers everywhere, photographs of Marco Aguilar were a regular feature in newspapers and magazines round the world, including the UK. There was no doubt that it was him.

      Grace’s first impression of the businessman that had made his fortune in the field of sports and leisure—in particular exclusive golfing resorts like this one—was that his physical presence was as commanding as his much-admired reputation. The impeccably stylish linen suit he wore was a perfect foil for his hard-muscled physique, and the moneyed air that radiated from the top of his shining black hair down to the tan-coloured Italian loafers he wore on his feet definitely suggested that the man had an unerring eye for the very best of everything. As he leaned over to speak to his bodyguard she saw even his eyes had the luxurious sheen of the finest dark chocolate. The sweltering Mediterranean sun was all but baking everything in sight, but in contrast he appeared ice-cool.

      Narrowing her gaze to view him more clearly, she saw with trepidation that his hard jaw was undeniably clenched and the set of his well-cut lips formidably serious …