‘This one time I give you the benefit of the doubt and I forgive you.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
He surveyed her with cynical dark eyes. ‘Bella… I’m not a fool. I can add two and two. Less than forty-eight hours ago you handed me a cheque for a considerable sum of money. Today the article appeared. Obviously you were paid for that interview.’
She sprang back from him in consternation. ‘That money came from the sale of a painting!’
Rico elevated an ebony brow, clearly unimpressed. ‘I don’t have you on a pedestal, gatita. So you don’t need to worry about falling off one. I don’t expect perfection but I do expect honesty. Who would pay that much for the work of an unknown artist?’
‘It wasn’t one of my paintings!’ she flared back at him, both angered and hurt by his lack of trust in her. She would not even have considered accepting money for talking about him to the Press. ‘It was one Ivan did of my mother—’
‘Qué dices?’ Rico interrupted, abruptly jerking up out of his lounging position, his attention fully arrested.
‘And, before you ask me why I didn’t think of selling it that day I came to the bank to tell you I had no insurance, I’ll tell you why,’ Bella said tightly. ‘I forgot about it. I’ve had it all my life. It didn’t occur to me until a few weeks ago that it was a valuable asset which could be sold.’
His incandescent golden eyes bored into her. ‘You sold a painting of your mother by your father… to pay me back? Are you crazy?’ he launched at her.
Bella blinked at him in bewilderment. ‘What else could I do?’
‘Where was it sold?’ he demanded.
‘What does that matter?’
‘Where?’
She told him.
‘If it’s already been sold, you’ll only have yourself to thank!’ he shot at her furiously after he had instructed his chauffeur to head for the art gallery. ‘Por Dios…you don’t need to take lessons on how to make me feel bad!’
‘I owed you money. It had to be repaid somehow.’
‘We were lovers! What do you think I am?’ he blazed back at her. ‘A debt collector?’
‘You are in banking,’ she retorted helplessly, infuriated by the reaction she was receiving. Selling that painting had been a considerable sacrifice and she resented the assurance that it had been an unnecessary one. ‘And if you think that I was content to believe that just because we had briefly shared a bed I no longer needed to worry about the fact that I owed you thousands of pounds you don’t know me at all! I also had to cover the repairs to Hector’s Skoda—’
Rico said something incredibly rude about the Skoda.
‘We don’t all slink about in status-symbol cars!’ Bella hissed. ‘Why did you tell your driver to go to the art gallery?’
‘If the painting’s still there, naturally I will buy it back for you.’
‘You buy that painting, it’s yours,’ Bella warned him fiercely.
She sat in the car fuming while he was in the art gallery, having flatly refused to accompany him.
If he hadn’t been so damned suspicious and cynical, he would never have known where she’d got the money from! A debt was a debt. She didn’t want it written off. Maybe the money didn’t mean much to Rico but it was the principle that mattered.
He swung back into the car and he wasn’t empty-handed. He settled the small canvas on her lap. ‘Here… take Mummy back,’ he said very drily.
Bella squinted down at Cleo’s familiar features. Her throat ached but she was stubborn. ‘I told you I wouldn’t accept it.’
‘Madre de Dios…’ Rico bit out with raw impatience. ‘I could shake you until your teeth rattle!’
‘What did you pay for it?’
Grudgingly he told her.
‘They saw you coming. You were ripped off. It isn’t one of Ivan’s best.’