To Win His Heart

Once she reached Nice, she would take a taxi to the Falcon Villa in Monaco and surprise Luc. If her plan was going to work, it was imperative she catch him off guard. Forewarned and he might disappear on her. She couldn’t let that happen.

CHAPTER TWO

“PLEASE wait for me.”

The chauffeur de taxi nodded while Olivia approached the front door of the villa. It was seven-thirty on a hot August evening. She could still feel the heat rising from the street.

A maid answered. She recognized Olivia from her previous visit in June. When Olivia asked if she could see Luc, the other woman explained he didn’t live there with his parents, yet Olivia distinctly remembered Luc claiming that he did!

Cross because it had been a deliberate ploy on his part to keep his private life private, she was forced to ask the maid where to find him. She learned he had his own home, the Mas de Falcon. Olivia wasn’t familiar with the word.

The maid wrote down the address for her. Olivia thanked her, then gave it to the taxi driver. He nodded and they took off once more, heading for the region above the city.

In a few minutes they drove down a private road that opened up into a charming courtyard filled with pots of flowers. There she discovered an exquisite pale pink, two-story villa with light blue shutters at all the windows. Apparently this was the back of the house.

Like an eagle’s eyrie, the mas sat perched on a hill overlooking Monaco-Ville. The view would be magnificent.

In front of the garage at the side of the house were two vehicles: a truck that had to be several years old, and a black sports car. Hopefully that meant Luc was home, but she wouldn’t know until she rang the doorbell.

Assuming he employed staff who could call another taxi for her in case he wasn’t there, she paid the driver, then waved him off.

Determined as she’d ever been in her life, she walked up to the back entrance with her suitcase. “Be home, Luc.”

With her heart pounding out of rhythm, she pushed the buzzer and waited. When there was no answer, she rang again.

On the third try, she heard noise like someone swearing. Shivering a little, she was glad she didn’t understand French.

Then the door opened to reveal Luc himself, dressed in low-slung cutoff jeans and nothing else. Though she could see scarring on the shin bone of his leg beneath the knee, he looked so blatantly male with the dusting of black hair on his well cut chest and physique, she couldn’t think or talk.

In that dizzying moment, she didn’t notice that his mouth had formed a white line of anger. Not until her eyes wandered helplessly up his hard-muscled body to his striking face.

“What in the hell are you doing here?” Despite the anger in that low, grating voice, she loved his French accent when he spoke English.

“What are you doing answering the door without your cane?” Olivia fired back. She wasn’t about to be intimidated by him. “You don’t have to prove how macho you are in front of people, especially me. We’re family now,” she added just to irritate him.

His hands went to his hips, a gesture that emphasized his total masculinity. “Is that your unsubtle way of telling me you and Cesar ran off and got married after the race?”

She laughed. “Wouldn’t you hate it if I said yes, thereby proving that I’m the ultimate groupie who was out for everything I could get from your brother, and did!”

His silvery eyes had narrowed to slits. “Why are you here?”

“What?” Her expressive brows lifted in question. “Not even a ‘won’t you come in and make yourself comfortable’?”

“You’re not an invited guest.”

“Not even when we’re related through marriage?”

He stiffened. “Whatever it is you have to say, make it fast. I’m in a hurry.”

“Is that why you were cursing on your way to the door?” she taunted him with relish. “If you don’t have the time to be civil to me right now, I’ll be happy to wait.”

If looks could kill… “Then you’ll have a long one because I’m on my way out and don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“That’s no problem. I’ll go with you and keep you company. As you can see, I brought my suitcase with me so I’m ready to travel.”

He rubbed his chest in a motion he probably wasn’t aware of. The fact that his first cousin Max was married to her sister was undoubtedly the only reason he hadn’t slammed the door in her face yet.

“What’s this all about?” Talk about a forbidding tone—

Standing her ground she said, “The trip my sisters and I never went on of course! The trip you and your cousins ruined for us. The trip that cost us over twenty thousand dollars after the bills we incurred by being forced to buy new bikes to try to get away from you.

“Shall I count the ways you destroyed the dream?” Her fingers started to tick everything off. “First, Max had us detained by the police in Genoa the second we got off the plane, then he stalked us while we walked around Portofino.

“After that, he inveigled you and Nic to take over as the crew aboard the Piccione. At that point the three of you sabotaged our itinerary, stole the family pendants our parents gave us on our sixteenth birthday, threw us in jail, prevented us from boarding a plane home and then forced us to show up at your family’s villa to help draw out the real jewel thief.

“The thief you didn’t catch by the way!” she mocked. “All this because you thought we’d stolen an identical pendant from the palace, which we didn’t!”

Her fists went to her waist, drawing his piercing gaze to the curves beneath the leaf green cotton dress molding her body. “You were totally unfair to us, and now I’m here to collect. Since Max is on his honeymoon, and Nic left for London after the wedding, that leaves you to pay up.

“You owe me, Luc! So I’ve arrived to inform you that you’re taking me for a ten-day trip on the Piccione before I go back to New York.”

He shifted his weight, a sign his leg was probably bothering him. “You make a compelling case, but I don’t buy any of it. Why don’t you try telling me the truth for a change. What’s the real reason you’ve come to my home on a Sunday night, uninvited? Where’s Cesar?”

“I haven’t a clue. Well, that’s not exactly true. The last time I saw him, he was at the winner’s podium kissing one beautiful groupie after another, having the time of his life.”

For just a moment she thought she saw a shadow cross over his face, but maybe it was a light plane passing overhead, hiding the rays of a setting sun for a moment. Then he smirked. “What’s the matter? Couldn’t you take the competition?”

“That question doesn’t deserve an answer. The truth is, I had other things on my mind. Remember the Husband Fund?”

“What about it?” he practically snapped.

“I’m afraid I may have hooked the wrong playboy without meaning to, and I need an out.”

“Which playboy would that be? There’ve been so many.” His insulting remark was meant to sting. Well, she would sting him back!

“Cesar,” she admitted.

Luc eyed her with disdain. “I don’t see him anywhere around. Now you’ll have to excuse me.” He started to close the door.

“Last night he said something about buying me an engagement ring after the race.”

She’d purposely slipped in that last tidbit before he could shut her out completely. Olivia was a hundred percent sure Cesar had been joking, but Luc didn’t know that.

“I left Monza as soon as it was over and came straight here.”

To her satisfaction she didn’t hear the click that would have severed all contact. The door opened wider again. A stillness had stolen over Luc.

“He asked you to marry him?” his voice grated with incredulity.