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

affair with a groom who worked at the Eversleigh estate.
    As Sabrina replaced the photo in the drawer she mused that her parents’ shotgun marriage had not been a good advertisement for wedded bliss. It was why she’d turned down Cruz’s proposal, but she was surprised to learn he believed she’d refused because she’d thought he wasn’t good enough for her.
    Was her rejection of him years ago the real reason for his humiliating proposition that she could sell herself to him for the price of the red diamond? Back then, Cruz had been far more bothered than she had by what he had perceived as the difference in their social status and he’d refused to move to England and live at Eversleigh Hall with her in case he was labelled a gold-digger. Now that their financial situations were reversed and she could be seen as a gold-digger if she accepted money from Cruz, Sabrina had a new insight into how he must have felt when he had been a poor miner in a relationship with an earl’s daughter.
    * * *
    She still had not called! Cruz checked his phone for new messages and felt a mixture of frustration and disbelief when Sabrina’s name did not appear in his in-box.
    He put his phone back down on the boardroom table and forced himself to concentrate on the details of the launch party for his new Bond Street store that the event planner was explaining. Opening a Delgado Diamonds shop in the heart of London was the biggest gamble he had ever taken. As he’d explained to Sabrina, the success or failure of his whole jewellery company depended on whether the new store would attract the super-rich clientele who could afford to live and shop in exclusive Mayfair.
    This was what he had been working towards for years, ever since he had created Delgado Diamonds. For months he had focused on little else, but for the past three days he had barely given a thought to his business expansion plans, his mind preoccupied with Sabrina. Not just his mind, Cruz acknowledged with savage self-contempt, recalling his erotic fantasies about her.
    He had been certain she would accept his offer of financial help in return for becoming his mistress. She had reacted furiously when he had set out his terms, but he had given her a few days for her temper to cool and he’d been convinced that she would agree to his demands, which would allow her to safeguard Eversleigh Hall. He knew how much the stately home meant to her and he could not understand why she was delaying her inevitable capitulation.
    He glanced at his watch. Five hours left until the deadline he had given her expired. Would she come to him? His gut twisted as he faced the possibility that she would thwart him. He drummed his fingertips on the polished table and acknowledged that he couldn’t take the risk that Sabrina might decide to sell Eversleigh Hall to a hotel chain and deny him the chance to search for the map of the diamond mine.
    ‘Would you like to accompany me to the party venue to make sure you are happy with the arrangements, Mr Delgado?’
    Cruz forced himself to concentrate on the matter at hand and smiled at the young woman from Party Perfect who was organising the launch party.
    ‘I’m sure that you and your team have done an excellent job, Miss Simms.’ He stood up and slipped his phone into his jacket pocket. ‘Something urgent has come up and I’ll be busy for the rest of the afternoon, but I’ll be back in time for the party at eight this evening.’
    * * *
    It was the third day! Sabrina could not dismiss the thought and she was finding it hard to concentrate on the intricate restoration work on the Georgian cabinet. She now understood why Cruz had given her an ultimatum of seven o’clock this evening to decide if she would sell herself to him. Several of the daily newspapers had carried full-page advertisements announcing the opening of Delgado Diamonds’ flagship store in Bond Street, and Cruz had been a guest on a morning television programme, speaking about the