Free Mistress of His Revenge (Bought by the Brazilian #1) by Chantelle Shaw

wear it loose when you are with me.’
    She longed to tell him to go to hell, but the memory of her brother’s excitement when he’d announced that he had been accepted for pilot training made her take a deep breath and she schooled her features into an expression of cool composure. ‘What is your proposition that you invited me here to discuss?’
    ‘All in good time,’ Cruz said urbanely as he strolled over to the bar. ‘Would you like some champagne?’
    It might calm her nerves, Sabrina decided as she accepted the long-stemmed glass Cruz offered her. She noted that the champagne was an excellent vintage and once again she felt a sense of surrealism that the Cruz she had known ten years ago had drunk beer from a bottle, but now he seemed completely at ease with his millionaire lifestyle.
    He waited for her to sit down before he lowered his tall frame onto the sofa facing her and stretched his arm along the backrest. The action caused his shirt to tighten across his chest so that Sabrina could see the delineation of his pectoral muscles. Although he presumably no longer worked down mines his physique was even more toned and powerfully muscular than when he had been a young man. Images filled her mind of his naked, bronzed body and she licked her suddenly dry lips and took a gulp of champagne.
    ‘I have shown the top gemologist at my jewellery company Delgado Diamonds some photographs of the Estrela Vermelha,’ Cruz said. ‘He estimates its value to be in the region of one and a half million pounds, but of course he will need to assess the diamond properly and I suggest that you have your own independent valuation carried out.’
    Sabrina wondered where the conversation was leading. ‘It was valued at one point four million pounds for insurance purposes. But why are you interested in what the diamond is worth?’
    ‘Because I want it, and I am prepared to buy it from you.’ Cruz’s expression hardened. ‘I wish to give my mother the Estrela Vermelha as tribute to my father. Vitor wanted to give his family the chance of a better life away from the slums, but in doing so he lost his own life and was cruelly snatched from my mother, sisters and I.’
    The sudden huskiness in his voice evoked an ache of sympathy in Sabrina and without thinking she leant forwards to put a comforting hand on Cruz’s knee, before it occurred to her that she was the daughter of the man he blamed for his father’s death and perhaps he hated her as much as he hated Earl Bancroft. Flushing, she shoved her hand into her lap, and in the tense silence she brooded on Cruz’s offer to buy the diamond. Her disappointment was acute even though she had told herself not to get her hopes up. She had clung to the possibility of a respite for Eversleigh, but now she knew there was none and it was hard to bear.
    ‘I can’t sell you the red diamond,’ she said flatly. ‘My father is its registered owner and it is listed as one of his personal assets, which, as I have already explained, I am unable to use as a means of raising capital.’
    So that was that. She put her glass down on the coffee table in front of her, gathered her handbag and stood up. ‘I’m truly sorry about your father’s accident,’ she blurted. ‘I wish I could sell you the diamond, but I can’t and I have nothing else to offer you.’
    ‘That’s not quite true.’ A curious nuance in Cruz’s voice made Sabrina hesitate as she was about to walk over to the door. ‘There is something else I want and I am willing to pay the same amount that I offered for the Estrela Vermelha.’
    She turned to look at him, her finely arched brows drawn together in a frown. ‘I’ve told you I have nothing, apart from Eversleigh Hall.’
    He stood up and towered over her. He appeared relaxed but his eyes glittered with a fierce gleam that caused Sabrina’s heart to slam against her ribs. ‘I don’t want an ancient pile of bricks. I want you, Sabrina.’
    Shock rendered her silent for