Mistress of His Revenge (Bought by the Brazilian #1) Read Online Free

Tristan’s party?’
    ‘Tristan is away at university.’ Thankfully her brother was nothing like Hugo Ffaulk and his ilk, Sabrina thought to herself. Tris knew that to fulfil his ambition of being an airline pilot he had to gain a first-class degree. Of course there was also the little matter of the one hundred thousand pounds required for the pilot training. The merry-go-round of worries inside her head did another circuit. Somehow, she vowed, she would find the money for her brother to train for the career that he had dreamed of since he was a small boy.
    ‘So, are those people your father’s guests?’
    Sabrina had no intention of telling Cruz that giving parties at Eversleigh Hall was a business venture. No one apart from her and the bank manager knew of the financial catastrophe that was looming over Eversleigh, and so far she had managed to keep the news that Earl Bancroft was missing out of the media.
    ‘They are my guests, who I invited to my party,’ she said stiffly. ‘Some of them are just a little over-exuberant, that’s all.’
    Cruz gave her a sardonic look. ‘I’ve heard gossip on the London social scene about the wild parties you throw at Eversleigh Hall. What does Earl Bancroft think about his stately home being overrun by upper-class yobs?’
    ‘My father isn’t here. He’s away on a trip and I don’t know when he’ll be back. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.’ She tried to step past him and gave a startled cry when he caught hold of her arm.
    ‘That’s it?’ Cruz growled. ‘I see you haven’t changed in the past ten years, gatinha . You still think you can dismiss me as if I am dirt beneath your shoe.’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ She tried to jerk her arm out of his grip. ‘And don’t call me that. I’m not your kitten.’ Hearing him use the affectionate name he had called her when they had been lovers, in a sarcastic tone, hurt more than it had any right to.
    His gravelly, sexy accent brought her skin out in goose bumps. She wanted to stop staring at him but she could not tear her eyes from the sculpted planes of his face and his sensual mouth. ‘I never treated you like dirt,’ she muttered, startled by the accusation. Surely she had made it embarrassingly obvious ten years ago that she’d worshipped the ground he walked on?
    ‘The first time we saw each other you put your nose in the air and ignored me.’
    She gave a shaky laugh. ‘I was eighteen and painfully naïve. The nuns who taught at St Ursula’s College for Ladies never explained about handsome men who could make a girl feel...’ She broke off, flushing as Cruz’s gaze narrowed on her face.
    ‘Feel...what?’ he demanded. Sabrina recognised the predatory gleam in his eyes and she instinctively backed away from him until her spine was jammed against the desk.
    ‘You know how you made me feel.’ She silently cursed the huskiness in her voice. ‘And I didn’t ignore you for long. You made sure of that.’
    He’d had her in his bed within a week of her arrival in Brazil. Memories assailed her of blistering hot days when they’d had blisteringly exciting sex in the shade of the rubber trees, and sultry, steamy nights when Cruz had climbed up to her balcony at the ranch house and they’d made love beneath the stars.
    The rasp of Cruz’s breath warned her that he was also remembering their scorching passion. But sex was all they had shared, Sabrina thought. Their response to each other ten years ago had simply been a chemical reaction. Disturbingly, the mysterious alchemy of sexual attraction was at work again now. She could see it in the way his olive-green eyes had darkened so that they were almost black.
    Her spine would be bruised from where she was pressing against the desk. She searched her mind for something to say to break the simmering tension in the room. ‘Why do you want to see my father?’
    ‘I believe he has something that belongs to me, and I want what is mine.’
    * * *
    Cruz stared