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

tenuous hold on her emotions cracked and she did something unforgivably stupid like agree to any demands he made if only he would take her in his arms.
    Without saying another word she walked swiftly across the room, but her sense of relief as she gripped the door handle turned to panic when Cruz caught hold of her arm and swung her round to face him.
    She flashed him a steely glare, which he returned with an amused smile.
    ‘I’m fascinated by the contrasts in your personality,’ he drawled. ‘As I’ve said before, you give the impression of being cool and controlled, but beneath your ice there is fire and passion and a depth of sensuality I’ve never known in any other woman.’
    She did not want to hear about his other women. ‘Take your hands off me.’
    ‘Don’t push my patience, gatinha . I am your only hope of saving your precious Eversleigh Hall. I know you have applied to various banks for a loan and been turned down.’
    Her temper simmered. ‘How can you possibly know personal information about me?’
    ‘Information isn’t difficult to obtain if you pay the right people.’ When she did not reply, he continued in a hard voice. ‘What I’m offering is a simple exchange. My money, which you can spend on maintaining your family’s ancestral home, and in return you will be my mistress for six months.’
    ‘Six months !’
    He shrugged. ‘That’s somewhere in the region of one hundred and eighty nights, for which you’ll get paid one and a half million pounds. Not a bad return surely, querida ?’
    The Portuguese endearment transported Sabrina back in time to when Cruz had called her darling as if he had meant it. She searched his hard-boned features for any sign of softening but found none. ‘Why do you want to humiliate me?’ she whispered. ‘Once we created a child together and you asked me to be your wife. Did our relationship ten years ago mean so little to you?’
    ‘It meant little to you,’ he said harshly. ‘If it had meant anything you would have accepted my marriage proposal. But you would have preferred our child to have been born illegitimate than to marry a man you considered below your social class.’
    ‘That’s not true.’ She was shocked by his accusation. ‘I never thought you were below me. My decision not to marry you was because I had seen how unhappy my parents’ marriage had been. My mother once told me that the only reason she had married my father was because she had fallen pregnant with me. I didn’t want history to repeat itself.’
    ‘The argument about marriage became obsolete after you suffered a miscarriage,’ Cruz said flatly.
    His comment confirmed what Sabrina had already guessed—that he had only asked her to marry him because he had wanted his child.
    ‘I’ll find a way to save Eversleigh that doesn’t entail having to have sex with you,’ she told him fiercely.
    ‘If I only wanted sex I could obtain it for a lot less than I am willing to pay you.’
    She frowned. ‘What else do you think I can provide?’
    ‘Class,’ he said succinctly.
    ‘You’ve got a hang-up about class. A person’s position in society doesn’t matter.’
    ‘It shouldn’t matter, but it does.’ Cruz’s expression became cynical. ‘It doesn’t matter how much money I have in the bank, or how many yachts or penthouse apartments I can afford to buy. I will always be regarded as an outsider by the aristocracy because I wasn’t educated at one of the top public schools and I can’t trace my family tree back hundreds of years to show that my ancestors were linked to royalty like you can, Lady Bancroft.’
    Sabrina gave him an impatient look. ‘Having a title means very little these days.’
    ‘It is an invaluable commodity in business, and especially to a business like Delgado Diamonds. My jewellery company is aimed at the top end of the market. My boutiques in Dubai, Paris and Rome have received acclaim, but the success of the company will be measured by sales at