Page 12 of A Diamond for My Forbidden Bride

‘You’re not going back to Madrid.’ He didn’t smile this time, his hand dropping away. ‘You’re not marrying him, Olivia. I forbid it.’

‘What do you mean, you forbid it?’ I stared at him in outrage as he turned away, going back out onto the deck to grab the white towel from the sun-lounger.

‘You heard me.’ He dried himself off with brisk strokes, then casually draped the towel around his neck, gripping the ends in his large, long-fingered hands, still making no effort whatsoever to hide his nakedness. ‘You can’t marry him. I won’t let you.’

‘You...won’tletme?’ For a minute all I could do was blink in astonishment at his arrogance, his sheer audacity. ‘As I recall, no one died and made you king.’

Amusement glittered in his eyes. ‘There’s still time.’

There was an edge to him I could see. An edge that hadn’t been there before, or maybe I’d just never noticed, but one thing was for sure: that edge was razor-sharp.

I took a breath. This wasn’t the boy I’d known. This was someone different, a harder man, a man infinitely more dangerous than the boy had ever been.

He’s fascinating...

The thought crossed my mind and instantly I pushed it away. No, I definitely wasn’t going there. No matter that my heart was a guarded fortress these days and men were of no interest to me at all; he’d kidnapped me and dragged me halfway across the world without asking, and all because he didn’t want me to marry his brother.

He was mad and there was nothing fascinating about that.

‘I’m going to the police,’ I said coldly. ‘And when I tell them—’

‘You’re not a prisoner, Olivia,’ Valentin interrupted. ‘You may leave whenever you want.’

‘But you just said—’

‘Admittedly you’ll have to fly yourself home, since I only have one pilot and he’s not here. But you’re welcome to try it.’

The fury inside me leapt again and I moved, striding past him, still clutching my sheet, stepping onto the deck outside the bedroom and into the dense tropical heat.

The deck seemed to wrap around the entire house so I kept on walking, determined to figure out where I was and how I could get away.

I was right about the deck, it did wrap around the entire house, which was built over the clear, turquoise-blue water. A tiny island, a jewel-bright stud of green with crystalline white sand surrounding it, lay behind the house. The deck led onto a jetty that stretched from the island right into the deeper waters of the lagoon.

But there was nothing tied up at the end of the jetty. No boats. No planes. And there was nothing in the sea, just endless blue water, the sun striking sparks from the surface, the scented air warm and humid.

I was breathing hard, sweating in the heat, an anger I couldn’t fight burning in my chest like a hot coal.

He’d lied. Iwasa prisoner. There was no way off this tiny island and he knew it.

I turned back to the house, though ‘house’ was too simple a word for the sprawling, luxury villa built over the water that looked like it was hanging suspended over the lagoon.

It had been a long time since I’d been to the tropics. I didn’t like the sun or the heat, or the sand that seemed to get everywhere; not these days. I burned easily and I loathed having to constantly put on sunscreen and wear a hat to stop from getting sunburned.

I didn’t want to be here.

I wanted to be back in Madrid. Or, no, what I actually wanted was to be back in London, in the gracious old home in Hampstead where my mother still lived. Back where everything was familiar and I was in control of things.

A thought flashed through my head.

What about Wintergreen? What about the debts? What about the board? What would they do when they discovered I’d been kidnapped by Valentin?

And Constantine? What about him?

My stomach lurched. Constantine... He’d known Valentin and I had been more than friends when we were teenagers, but he’d never mentioned it to me, not once. He’d never even spoken his brother’s name. Would he come searching for me? Or would he think I’d gone with Valentin willingly? And, if he did, would he still want to marry me?

You’d better hope so otherwise you can say goodbye to Wintergreen.

The hot coal in the centre of my chest burned hotter, brighter. Those debts needed paying and the board had been looking for a way to get rid of me ever since Dad had died. They didn’t like the fact that I was a woman and they liked the changes I wanted to institute even less. This would give them the perfect excuse to let me go.

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