LITMIR.BIZ

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powerful, athletic body as his easy stride ate up the distance across the field. Riding lessons had never been like this before. He returned with a mild grey pony and, tacking up, showed her how to hold the reins. Cupping his hands, he offered her a leg up. She was careful not to touch any part of him she didn’t have to as she lowered herself gently onto the saddle.

       ‘Are you listening, Maxie?’ Diego demanded after they had been walking for a while.

       ‘Of course I am.’ She dragged her gaze from his wild, thick hair.

       ‘Then loosen the reins,’ he said impatiently.

       She did so as she took in the wide sweep of his shoulders. Diego was such a big man. If a man that size made love to her would she enjoy it, or would he prove too big for her?

       ‘Put your heels down,’ Diego rapped in a voice that definitely suggested she had missed something. ‘Aren’t you listening to a word I say?’ he demanded.

       ‘I’m hanging on your every word,’ she said solemnly, and for the pony’s sake she would try. She was enjoying the gentle rocking movement of the horse—enjoying the chance to be close to Diego too, without the need for combat or conversation.

       ‘You’re a good pupil,’ he remarked when he drew the pony to a halt.

       ‘With an excellent teacher—even if he is a little impatient.’

       Diego’s glance sent heat streaking through her. She should know better than to challenge him. ‘Well,’ she said, turning in the saddle to gaze back at the house, ‘I should be getting back.’

       ‘I thought you said you had finished your work?’

       ‘I have, but—’

       ‘You have calls to take?’ Diego suggested.

       Warning signals flattened her enjoyment of the last hour. ‘I’m due to ring Holly with a report,’ she said quickly.

       Diego released the pony into the field, and they were walking back to the house when he started to ask her more questions about her family. She didn’t want to lie, but she wasn’t going to betray her father’s trust, either. ‘There’s just me and my father.’

       ‘And that’s it?’ Diego pressed, frowning. ‘No husband? No partner? No special boyfriend?’

       She laughed. ‘No one. Don’t look so surprised. It works for me.’

       ‘I think what you mean is it’s all work for you,’ Diego remarked dryly.

       Just when she had relaxed into a laugh, he went on, ‘So, no brothers or sisters, Maxie?’

       ‘That’s it,’ she confirmed. ‘You only think it’s odd because you grew up in a crowd. What was that like, by the way?’ she added, determined to steer the conversation away from herself.

       ‘Noisy and chaotic.’ Diego shrugged. ‘Nacho brought us up. We gave him a hard time. No privacy—’

       ‘No wonder you like it here,’ she said. ‘And it must have been fun when your friends came round—all this space?’

       ‘Yes, it was,’ Diego agreed gruffly. ‘So what about your father, Maxie? Do you see a lot of him?’

       ‘No,’ she said quickly. Too fast. Alarm bells were ringing loud and clear now. Why the sudden interest in her father? She had done everything she could think of to protect his anonymity—booking him into a private nursing home under a different name where the staff was both loyal and discreet. ‘Why are you so interested in my father?’

       ‘Just curious.’

       Her father’s bungled business interests had never stretched to South America, of that much she was sure. He’d been ill for years, so he could never have met Diego—unless Diego had been just out of school.

       ‘His name isn’t Peter, is it?’ Diego prompted lightly.

       Maxie’s heart stopped, and then began racing uncontrollably. ‘No. Why?’ That was not the name her father went under at the nursing home. She hated lying to Diego, but tell one person a secret and they told the next one, who told the next one, and in no time the whole world knew.

       ‘I knew someone once with the surname Parrish,’ he said with a dismissive shrug. ‘That’s all.’

       ‘Common name,’ she confirmed. She didn’t know a lot about her father’s business interests, other than to say he’d used to run a small and not very successful investment outfit. She couldn’t imagine a wealthy South American from a polo playing family having anything to do with such a small-time broker, and it was a relief when Diego started to talk about a swimming machine for horses that strengthened their legs.

       But just when she was relaxing into that topic he threw another curve ball. ‘So you don’t like talking about your home life, Maxie?’

       ‘Only because there’s nothing to tell…’ Diego was way too perceptive, and she only now realised that her hands were clenched so tightly she was in danger of drawing blood from her palms.

       When they got back to the house he made some excuse to put some space between them. He wanted to call his investigator. He had lots of gaps to fill in now.

       ‘Thanks for the riding lesson,’ Maxie said when they parted in the courtyard.

       The blush in her cheeks suggested Maxie was remembering more than riding his horse. It made him keener than ever to find out the truth, and for his investigator to confirm that Maxie had nothing to do with Peter Parrish. She stood up to him like no other woman apart from his sister, and he liked that. He liked it a lot. In fact, Maxie Parrish was turning out to be the most intriguing and complex woman he had ever met.

       If only he could bury the past once and for all…

       He was confident Ruiz was right. There were countless people with the surname Parrish—and he hated the dark, twisted part of him that said nothing in life was ever that easy.

      * * *

      Diego’s mouth firmed even as his heart lifted when Maxie walked into the kitchen that evening. He stared at her, hunting for something dark beneath those clear grey eyes, but there was nothing outwardly to suggest that Maxie might have any connection with Peter Parrish. He had still had no answers from his PI yet, but despite Ruiz’s belief that the two were unrelated Diego still held a niggling doubt he could not explain.

       ‘Good evening, Diego.’

       ‘Good evening, Maxie…’

       Putting down his newspaper, he registered the smell of soap and some light scent she was wearing. Fresh jeans and a long-sleeved white top made her look young, casual and relaxed. Her hair was still a little damp from the shower, and the thought of burying his face in the silky flesh above her shoulder was intoxicating. There were so many ways he could put his dark thoughts behind him…

       He settled for leaning back in his chair and putting the first part of his plan into action. ‘I imagine you have plenty of work waiting for you in London?’

       ‘Yes,’ she said.

       Actually, there was quite a gap in her schedule, Maxie silently acknowledged. Not knowing what she would find when she reached the island, she had built in some extra time to allow for a change of venue had that proved necessary.

       ‘Good.’ Diego’s lips pressed down with approval. ‘I’m very pleased to hear it.’

       Was he? Something in Diego’s voice wasn’t quite right. This thought was followed by a shiver of foreboding for which she had no explanation.

       ‘Supper,’ he announced as Maria came bustling between them with steaming plates of hot food.

       ‘Yes,’ Maxie murmured, accepting everything was indeed normal as she shook herself round.

      * * *

      He spent

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