LITMIR.BIZ

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and wait for you to reveal yourself by going after her.”

      He gaped at him. “You actually believe such nonsense?”

      Richard shrugged. “The world, especially this part of it, is full of inexplicable things. Just like this compulsion that came over you when she walked in.”

      “That’s called attraction. That’s supposed to be an inexplicable magic, at first at least. Then I touched her, talked to her, and all was explained. To me, she’s...perfect.”

      It was Richard’s turn to gape at him. “See that? That’s not you talking. I’m starting to think a curse breaker is in order.”

      “We’ve progressed from spell to curse? What we shared...”

      Richard gave a harsh snort. “Dear Lord—shared? You’ve had what with that woman? Three, four hours?”

      “Time is irrelevant when something is that powerful.”

      Richard shook his head, regarding him with a mixture of dismay and disparagement. “Seems I’ll have to dig deep to find someone who specializes in such potent curses. And there I’d hoped hers was broken when you took off with that redhead. What did you do with her anyway?”

      “What redhead?”

      Richard stared at him. “You really don’t remember her?”

      Suddenly, he vaguely recalled something. A woman talking while he’d heard nothing but the cacophony of his own thoughts, saw nothing but Eliana across the ballroom. Then the woman was clinging to him and dragging him out of the ballroom. Once outside, he’d shaken her off without a word and stormed to his study from another path that didn’t traverse the ballroom.

      “No wonder you don’t remember that temptress who was wrapped around you. You were still wrapped around Ferreira’s daughter’s pinkie even as you walked away from her.”

      It had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. He’d felt as if his heart was being dragged out of his body with every step he took away from her. Then he’d reached the ballroom’s threshold and had been unable to go farther. Every cell in his body screamed to get away, but screamed louder to stay close, to not lose sight of her. Everything inside him still rioted, demanding that he return and spirit her away to their promised night....

      “Lower the volume, mate.” At his start, Richard smirked. “I can hear you thinking of going back for her. But before you go any further down that road, let me underscore that she’s the daughter Ferreira lavished his love on while he deprived you of your family and them of you. He sent you to hell where you could have been killed after untold abuse. You can’t let that daughter interfere with your revenge on him.”

      He knew that, but it was all too much to take in....

      Richard snapped his fingers. “Snap out of it, mate.”

      “Get your hand out of my face, mate.” Suddenly, his fury was back at maximum. “And you actually thought I’d walk away from Eliana and take that woman to bed? Just like that?”

      “I would have. But then you’re not me. You’re no longer you, for that matter.” Ice-cold deliberation entered Richard’s eyes. “But this Ferreira’s-daughter thing can work in your favor.”

      “What the hell do you mean?”

      “Think about it. What have you learned about her?”

      Rafael glowered at him. If he thought he was going to share anything that had happened between them...

      Then he realized. Richard was asking about Ferreira’s Eliana, not his.

      He exhaled heavily, recalling the details he’d archived in his mind as extraneous about Ferreira’s then-unknown only daughter. “She was born in the States, and her mother, an Anita Larsen, was an American born to Scandinavian parents.” He now understood it was that amalgam of ethnicities that had produced her unique beauty. “Her parents named her Eliana, believing that God had answered their prayers when she was born, after her mother had two early miscarriages....”

      He’d said almost the same thing when he’d commented on her name, but hadn’t made the connection then when he should have.

      Yet, if he had, would it have made a difference? Would he have aborted their intimacies? Could he have? Or had it already been too late from the moment he’d laid eyes on her?

      At Richard’s go-on gesture, he exhaled again. “She attended university in San Francisco, double majored in business management and child psychology, already has an MBA in the first and is earning another in the second.” Which was exactly what she’d told him minus her exact specialties. And he hadn’t had a inkling of realization. “But why are you asking? You must have found all this out yourself.”

      “I did. But you’re not mentioning the relevant part. That Ferreira’s wife died, leaving him their three-year-old daughter as all that remained of her. That’s what makes this such a golden opportunity. Using his daughter against him would make your revenge a hundred times more potent.”

      Instant abhorrence of the very notion made bile rise to his throat. “If I wanted to involve his family in my revenge, I would have used his sons. They’re the ones who don’t see eye to eye with him.”

      Richard again looked at him as if he feared he had permanent brain damage. “You got that in reverse. Those sons are from a loveless marriage of convenience that imploded after years of cold war. They’d long drifted into their own lives and would make very dull blades. But the daughter he had with the only woman he ever loved—his most beloved person in the world—now, that’s a lethal weapon.”

      “No.”

      At his adamant rejection, Richard shrugged. “I guess it’s just as well you’re vetoing the idea. You probably wouldn’t be able to use her now, not after you took another woman to bed.”

      “I did no such thing!”

      “Not according to what she now believes.”

      Rafael gaped at him for long, mute moments. Then he exploded. “You made her believe that.”

      Richard met his apoplectic anger with calm disregard. “When you walked away, I thought your episode of insanity was over and you’d take that woman to bed to cleanse your palate. So when Ferreira’s daughter ran out after you, I took it upon myself to make sure she didn’t try to insinuate herself under your skin again.”

      She’d run after him. Even after he’d left her without a word. And Richard had...

      “For full disclosure’s sake,” Richard added, “I also offered to have sex with her in your stead.”

      The next second, Richard was flat on his back, and Rafael’s hand felt broken.

      Coming to stand over Richard, who’d pulled himself to his elbows, he growled with rage and pain, “Stay down.”

      Richard struck out one leg, swiping both of Rafael’s from under him. He twisted in midfall, coming down in position to launch into a fight.

      Richard did that elastic rebound move that no one his size should be able to do, landing in a crouching stance. The right side of his jaw was already swelling.

      “I don’t feel like sending you to intensive care, Numbers, but touch me again and I will.”

      “You can try, bastard.”

      Richard unfolded to his full height just as Rafael did, his gaze exasperated. “You got it that bad, huh?”

      “If you touched her, Cobra, I swear...”

      “Please. I just wanted to see how she’d react. She fled from the monster sobbing, predictably.” Richard suddenly took him by the shoulders. “You can’t let her derail you. Forget her.”

      “I can’t. I have to have her. Whatever the cost.”

      “Even

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