Patriot Threat. Steve Berry
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Название: Patriot Threat

Автор: Steve Berry

Издательство: Gardners Books

Жанр: Шпионские детективы

Серия: Cotton Malone

isbn: 9781427258069

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ person,’ Teresa ventured. ‘And my dear friend Adriana has issued an invitation for us to join her and a few close friends for lunch later in the week.’

      ‘Whatever pleases you—providing you don’t become overtired,’ Raúl cautioned.

      ‘Please, I’d be much happier simply spending time here with you,’ Gianna added quickly.

      Teresa merely smiled. ‘And so you shall. But occasionally we will venture out a little. A change of pace, to share time with friends.’ She caught her son’s hooded gaze. ‘You have my word I will rest for a few hours each afternoon.’

      ‘We shall personally see that you do.’

      We… What did he think he was doing, coupling them together? Another thing to add to the growing list of issues she intended to take up with him when they were alone.

      Lunch was a convivial meal Elena prepared for them, followed by the siesta. Time which Gianna used to access her laptop, e-mail Ben, Annaliese and update her father as to her whereabouts.

      It was after dinner, when Teresa had retired for the evening, that Gianna questioned Elena as to where she might find Raúl.

      ‘The señor is in the office.’

      Perfect. It took her only minutes to reach it, and she knocked once as a courtesy before entering the spacious room.

      Raúl glanced up, inclined his head, indicated a chair, then continued talking on his cellphone as he keyed data into a laptop.

      It was a terse conversation in Spanish, most of which she understood. Not entirely pleasant, she perceived as he cut the connection and met her gaze with unwavering attention.

      ‘You have something on your mind?’

      ‘Yes,’ Gianna acknowledged succinctly, and glimpsed his wry smile as he eased back in his office chair and folded his hands behind his head.

      ‘Which you intend to spell out in detail?’

      ‘Put money on it.’

      His slightly arched eyebrow had her launching into speech.

      ‘What’s with coupling my name with yours?’ Her eyes flashed blue fire. ‘There is no we.’

      ‘You have a problem agreeing Teresa should conserve her energy and rest?’

      ‘Of course not.’

      ‘Therefore your objection is…?’

      She wanted to throw something at him, and she briefly weighed up a few possible items on the desk, caught the way his eyes darkened in silent warning…and refused to be intimidated.

      ‘Dammit, I don’t need you to speak on my behalf.’

      His eyes seared her own, watchful, assessing. ‘It bothers you that Teresa requested I join her in spending time with you?’

      Teresa had? ‘You could have told me.’

      His eyes didn’t move from her own. ‘To what purpose?’

      Because I could have prepared myself.

      How stupid was that?

      Nothing she did would have made a difference…not before or now.

      Raúl was a force unto himself, with the power to damage her emotional heart. And she hated him for it. What was worse, she hated herself for being so foolishly vulnerable.

      ‘Just know I’m not happy about it,’ she said at last. ‘The less time we spend in each other’s company, the better.’

      He inclined his head. ‘Anything else?’

      Whatever made her think she could verbally best him?

      ‘Not at the moment.’

      ‘Are you sure about that, querida?’ he taunted softly, and watched faint pink colour her cheeks as she looked at him in stark disbelief.

      ‘If you think…’ Words temporarily failed her. ‘Are you mad?’

      Yet the thought of his mouth on her own…his hands shaping her body…Oh, God, she had to get out of here.

      ‘Go to hell.’ She hated that her voice sounded shaky as she turned and walked from the room.

      Damn him. The curse pounded silently in her mind as she crossed the hallway and entered her suite. She was so impossibly angry…with him, herself.

      The temptation to pack a bag, call a taxi and take the first flight to Madrid, then home was almost impossible to ignore.

      Yet how could she leave when she’d committed to spend time with Teresa? The analogy caught between a rock and a hard place seemed incredibly apt.

      So simmer down—do a few calisthenics to work off the anger, shower, then retire to bed with a book.

      It was a feasible plan and she went through the motions, donned sleep trousers, tank top, and slid into bed to read until the words blurred.

      CHAPTER FIVE

      IT WAS a beautiful morning, Gianna noted as she checked the scene from her bedroom window. Lush green lawns provided a lovely background to the meticulously shaped shrubs which stood like miniature rounded sentinels in perfect symmetry.

      She opened the window and heard soft cascading water from the fountain, felt the slight breeze whispering in from the sea with its faint salty tang.

      Heaven.

      Almost, she qualified, if it wasn’t for Raúl’s presence at the villa. He bothered her in a way she was loath to examine in any depth.

      From a distance of several thousand kilometres, on the other side of the world, she’d been able to convince herself she was over him and had moved on.

      Up close and personal, such convictions were proved totally erroneous. Something that was becoming more glaringly apparent with every passing day…and there were still twelve to go.

      Teresa and Raúl were already seated out on the terrace when Gianna joined them, and although Teresa’s smile was bright she looked tired and quite pale.

      Not such a good day, Gianna surmised as she leant forward to bestow a light kiss to the older woman’s cheek.

      ‘Coffee?’ It was Raúl who posed the query, and who moved to fill her cup with the steaming aromatic brew.

      His close presence stirred her senses, and for an instant she was transported back to a time when it had seemed a natural gesture to lift her face to receive the teasing brush of his lips on her own, the intimate smile in acknowledgement of the night spent in each other’s arms…her body still vibrantly alive from his possession.

      Now there was only СКАЧАТЬ