Page 74 of Tempting as Sin
“Are you aware that Antonio Carrera is saying that he had an affair with Kylie, too, during your engagement?” That was a woman. Lily couldn’t tell who. Rafe still had her hand, and they were almost at the porch.
“Did you and Antonio wife swap?” That one hit Lily like a club, and she stumbled. Rafe had his arm around her, and his face had lost the cold, closed expression. She saw fury, and there was nothing controlled about him as he turned to face the crowd.
“Get the hell off this property.” It was full-on Australian, and it was impressive. He lowered the shotgun from his shoulder and laid it across his forearm. “And stay out, or you won’t just have a trespassing charge to deal with. This isn’t California. This is Montana.”
They fell back, but they didn’t run. They didn’t evenwalk.She could hear Chuck barking from inside the house. Barking and barking and barking, an endless, hoarse chorus. And then she forgot to notice it, because she saw something else.
There was a man in her porch swing. A man who stood up now. Slowly. Insolently. White dress shirt. Black trousers. Black custom-made boots. Dark hair. Every inch of him impeccable.
He ignored the crowd. He ignored the shotgun. He absolutely ignored Rafe. He fixed his gaze on Lily and headed down the stairs, every step perfect, like a dancer.
All the glossy perfection, in fact, that was Antonio Carrera.
Lily was still standing beside Rafe. Still holding her bag. But she’d gone somewhere else. Behind the curtain.
At least he knew why none of the reporters were at his house. This was where the story was.
Let it be here, then. Let it. He was more than ready.
Carrera was clearly choosing his moment, stretching things out for dramatic tension, so Rafe upstaged him. He stepped in front of him, blocking the cameras’ view, and stepped on his line, too. “I know your box office is rubbish just now, mate,” he said just as Carrera was opening his mouth to speak. “Always a pity when your star starts falling and you can’t seem to push it back up again. This isn’t any kind of way back, though. Pure tabloid stuff. Yeah, we have a film coming out, but that’s only going to take you so far. Scorpio’s never going to get you more than Best Supporting Actor, and probably not even that. Superhero movies are for the paycheck, not Oscar love. You’re not getting a feature, either. The character’s too cold to begin with, and you’re too good at playing cold. A superhero can be tortured. Heshouldbe tortured. But he can’t be cold. Sorry and all that.”
It was casual. It was light. It was no kind of news to anybody in this business. And, he saw with satisfaction, it had worked. Carrera had been going for a pissing contest, and he wasn’t getting it, because Rafe had cut him off at the knees. Meanwhile, Lily had found her voice. Unfortunately, what she said was, “Why are you here?”
“Nah,” Rafe said. “Not worth the conversation.” He still had the barrel of the shotgun across his forearm, and Carrera was eyeing it. Good.
“You can only talk to me holding a gun?” Carrera said, rallying again. “Not quite a superhero, then.” His dark voice was tinged with the Italian accent that Rafe would swear he practiced in front of a mirror.
Rafe set the shotgun down against the steps. Carefully, as if it were loaded. “Now I’m not holding anything,” he said. “All I can do is kick your arse the old-fashioned way.”
“With your stunt double?” Carrera said with a perfect villain’s sneer, Best Supporting Actor all the way. “Pity I don’t see him.”
Rafe looked at him, and Lily asked again, “Why are you here?” Rafe wanted to tell her to stop asking that, not to give Carrera the confrontation he was so clearly itching for, but then, you couldn’t always get what you wanted.
“I bought this land,” Carrera said. “It was mine, remember, until you took it? Maybe I wanted to see it again. Maybe I wanted to see my wife, too. Kylie says hello,” he told Rafe. “At least I think that was what she said. She was breathless at the time.”
“Right,” Lily said flatly. “Because you’re such a great lover. Try again. Poor Kylie, going downhill like that.” She held up a hand, away from the cameras, moving fingers and thumb delicately apart. Measuring off, Rafe judged, about five inches.
Oh, bloodyhell.He was going to have to fight the bastard in front of half the tabloids. Which meant he couldn’t hurt him nearly as badly as he wanted to. Carrera had better not actually have taken up with Kylie. Rafe was going to have to ring her up and warn her.Damnit.
“This ismyland,” Lily said while Carrera was still doing some nostril-flaring. Rafe had a new saying for that, courtesy of his new role. All hat, no cattle. “This is my house, too,” she went on. “My land, and my town. My name, and my body. All mine. None of it has anything to do with you. I can’t imagine why you’re here. What could you possibly be thinking? Camera time? Really? Surely you’re not that desperate.”
Rafe saw the flash of something hot and dark in Carrera’s eyes. Nothing that went deeper than a narcissist’s rage at being mocked, but that could be a powerful motivator.
“None of it has anything to do with me?” he asked. “You could be right. Perhaps, though, I didn’t come to fight for you. Perhaps I don’t care about you at all, and merely came to warn Rafe. Out of fellow feeling, one man to another.”
Rafe eyed him. “Perhaps? Nice accent, mate. I’ve got an accent as well.”
“Australian,” Antonio said. “Convict.”
“That’s what you’ve got?” Rafe asked. “Weak.” And saw the flash again. “I could do this all day,” he added, “but it’s getting boring.”
“You don’t wish to be warned,” Antonio said, “but I’ll warn you anyway. Use a condom. You don’t know where she’s been. Or maybe she provides her own? Hold it to the light. Check for the little pinpricks. She is full of surprises.”
Beside Rafe, Lily had gone stiff. Now, she said, in a voice that had a faint tremble in it, “You want me to cry. You want me to hurt. You want me to run. You aren’t going to get any of it. I’m not that woman anymore.”
“No?” Antonio said. “And yet you were always that woman. Crying. Running. Weak.” A pause, and then he dropped his final word into the pool. “Diseased.”
Rafe hadn’t been in a fight for years. He had a feeling one was coming, but he kept his voice casual. The winner was the one who cared the least. Also the one who hit the hardest. “Do me a favor, mate,” he said. “This is about Lily? Take a look at her. Look at how beautiful she is. Look at her house and her shop. She left you. You had all this, and you lost it. Do you really want to remind everybody of that?”
