Spring Bride

by Sandra Marton

  “Antonio is—he’s trying to get back at me through you. And I’m the one who has to put a stop to it.”

  “See him, you mean?” Grant shook his head. “Absolutely not!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous! You can’t tell me what to do.”

  Grant’s jaw shot forward. “I forbid you to go within ten feet of Antonio del Rey.”

  “You forbid me?”

  “Yeah. That’s right.” Grant folded his arms. “Is that clear, Kyra? You are not to go near this man.”

  Kyra forced a smile to her lips. “All right.”

  “Don’t just say all right. You’d better mean it.”

  “Have I a choice? I won’t go near him, Grant. Okay?”

  Grant nodded. “Okay,” he said, and then he shook his head and pulled her into his arms. “We know what’s best, Sis. We love you.”

  “I know you do.” Kyra drew back. “Look, this has been pretty upsetting. Would you mind if I passed on lunch?”

  Grant nodded sympathetically. “Sure. Go on to your room, lie down for a couple of hours. And don’t worry about a thing. We’ll take care of this character for you.”

  Kyra smiled. “I know you will.”

  She threw Grant a kiss, left the room, and closed the door after her. She smiled blithely at Cade and Zach, then made her way upstairs.

  As soon as she heard the library door shut, she flew down the stairs, grabbed a jacket from the hall, and raced out the back door to the garage.

  It was easy getting Antonio’s suite number. Kyra used a trick she’d learned from a detective novel. She scribbled his name on a hotel envelope, sealed it, and asked that it be left in Señor del Rey’s box. The clerk turned, put it into the appropriately numbered slot, and she was in business.

  Her mouth was dry as she knocked at the door to his suite. Her heart was hammering, too. With anger, she reminded herself, not with anything else. To think she’d wasted a moment of her life, thinking she loved this man! To think she’d ever devoted a minute to wishing she were still with him, on his island…

  The door opened.

  “Yes?” Antonio said coldly. “What is it, please? I did not order…”

  She saw his eyes darken with realization and she began to tremble. How could the sight of him, how could just looking into his sapphire eyes, make her feel this way?

  She took a deep breath. “Hello, Antonio,” she said. “May I come in?”

  ”Síi. Of course.” She could see him stiffening, recovering his poise. Good. She had caught him off guard; that would be some small advantage. “Come in. I—I did not expect you, Kyra”

  “I know that.” She waited until he’d shut the door and then turned to him, her eyes cold. “You thought you could bring my brothers to heel and I’d let you get away with it.”

  Antonio walked to the small bar across the room. He took a bottle of brandy from the tray and poured himself a drink. His hands were trembling; he could only hope Kyra had not noticed. How could the sight of her still move him so? She was even more beautiful then he remembered, more beautiful than when she haunted his dreams…

  He took a deep breath. “Would you like a drink?”

  “I didn’t come here for a sociable chat, Antonio.” He turned as she came toward him, her small, elegant face lifted in defiance. “I came to tell you that your scheme won’t work. You can’t use my brothers to get back at me.

  “Have they explained the situation to you?”

  “They’ve told me enough. I know that you want to bnng Landon Enterprises to its knees. What I don’t quite understand is why.”

  He took a mouthful of brandy, swallowed it, and smiled at her over the rim of the glass

  “I think you do.”

  “I don’t. What do you hope to gain?”

  He smiled unpleasantly. “You are pleading with me not to destroy your brothers, aren’t you?”

  Kyra laughed. “Do I sound as if I’m pleading?”

  He frowned. It was true, she didn’t. But that was why she’d come here, surely—to beg him not to ruin her brothers, perhaps even herself.

  “Are you really still so angry that you didn’t win, Antonio? Angry enough to behave like a spoiled child?”

  His face darkened. “I? I, a spoiled child?”

  “I wouldn’t do what you wanted so you decided to get even. Isn’t that what this is all about?”

  Antonio slammed down his glass and walked toward her, his eyes flashing.

  “One of us is spoiled, Kyra, but it is surely not I!”

  “Oh, come on!” Kyra glared at him. “You wanted me to agree to let you control my life and I said I wouldn’t do it. So you sat around and brooded and then you came up with this idea, a way you thought you could control my brothers’ lives instead.”

  “This is not a matter of control,” he said coldly. “It is a matter of learning that one’s expectations are not always what one hopes they will be.”

  “Well, you’re right about that. You see, you can’t ruin my brothers. They don’t need the Landon money.” She folded her arms. “Zach, Cade and Grant made their own way in the world. Whatever they get from the sale of Landon Enterprises will go to charity.”

  “To charity?”

  She smiled coolly at his puzzled expression. “It’s their way of throwing off the yoke of slavery.”

  “I do not understand.”

  “No. You wouldn’t. You’re a tyrant yourself, a domineering, coldhearted, controlling—”

  She gasped as his hands closed on her shoulders. “Watch your mouth, Kyra. I will not permit you to insult me.

  “You came to Denver to insult me! To humiliate me! As far as I’m concerned, that gives me the right to say whatever I damned please. This is a free country, Antonio. You can’t play at being emp—”

  His mouth fell on hers. It was a hard, angry kiss, yet more proof of his need to dominate, but when it came to this, Antonio had always dominated her. He had always been the victor in this most intimate of games because by taking, he also gave.

  And he was giving now. His kiss was changing, going from hard and angry to sweet and tender. ”Querida,” he whispered against her mouth, or was it only that she longed to hear the word from his lips? It didn’t matter. She couldn’t help her response, the way her arms were winding around his neck, the way she was lifting herself to him, fitting her body and her lips to his…

  They broke apart, both of them breathing hard and flushed with emotion. Antonio swallowed, then turned and walked to where he had left his glass. He picked it up, put it to his lips, and drank down what remained of the brandy.

  “It will not work,” he said. His voice was cold. “This little display is—amusing. But I will not change my mind, Kyra. Your brothers will accept my offer or the company will fail in bankruptcy. The decision is theirs.”

  Kyra stood staring at him, at that rigid back and that too-proud angle of that dark head, and suddenly she gave a cry of fury and rushed toward him. Startled, Antonio spun around and caught her as she began pounding her fists against his chest.

  “You bastard!” she panted. “How can you do this? It isn’t as if you cared whether I stayed with you or not. It isn’t as if you loved me. I was the one who made a fool of myself, falling in love with a man who didn’t give a damn for me! I was the idiot who tried and tried to explain!”

  “To explain what? That you loved me?” Antonio caught her wrists and immobilized her hands against his chest. “Do not lie to me, Kyra. I was offering you my heart and my name and all you could think of were your precious expectations, the pointless accident of your birth that would forever keep you and your family from deigning to accept a man like me!”

  “Are you crazy? Why wouldn’t my family accept a man like you? Someone who’s brave and gentle and generous and—and—”

  Her mouth snapped shut, but it was too late. Antonio’s eyes darkened.

  “Do you really think those things of me?” he said softly.

  “No,” Kyra said furio
usly as she tried to jerk her hands free. “Of course not! Let go of me, dammit! I thought my father was impossible, trying to mold me to suit some image, but you’re worse! Now you’re accusing me of—of coming here to entice you into backing off.”

  “That kiss, then, was freely given?”

  “Yes, damn you! Not that I don’t regret it—”

  Antonio kissed her again, his mouth moving gently against hers. Kyra held back, telling herself she must not respond, but it was like trying to stop the sun from rising in the morning She gave a little sob and leaned into his embrace, her hands clutching at his shirt.

  Antonio looked down at her when the kiss ended. Gently, he brushed his knuckles over her cheek.

  “What is this, about being forced to fit some image?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Oh hell. Yes, it does matter! It’s what my father used to do. It’s what you wanted to do, telling me that you’d only want me if I’d agree to—to obey your rules and let you treat me like some hothouse orchid!”

  Antonio’s eyes narrowed. “I never asked that of you, querida. Why would I, when your spirit is so precious to me?”

  “Well, what else were you asking me?”

  “I just told you. I was asking you to be my wife, despite the differences in our backgrounds.”

  Kyra went very still. That was what he’d said, she suddenly thought, and her heart missed a beat.

  “You mean—you were proposing to me?” she whispered.

  A muscle knotted in Antonio’s cheek. “Yes.”

  “Oh, Antonio. I didn’t—I thought…”

  His hands swept into her hair and he tilted her face up to his.

  “And what you said a few moments ago…” He took a breath. “Did you truly say that you loved me?”

  Kyra felt the swift rush of happy tears rise in her eyes.

  “You foolish man,” she answered softly. “I not only love you, I adore you. But I couldn’t agree to be a good, obedient, docile cow. And I thought that was what you wanted.”

  Antonio laughed as his arms went around her. “A cow? What a thought, querida. An Arabian, perhaps, high-spirited and beautiful, but a cow? Never!”

  He drew her close and kissed her again, long and deeply, and then he smiled into her eyes.

  “So,” he said gruffly, “you will agree to become Señora Antonio del Rey, yes?”

  Kyra smiled back at him. “I will agree to become Señora Kyra del Rey. Sí.”

  “And to love me for the rest of your life?”

  “Only if you make the same promise.”

  ”Sí, mi amor. I will love you till the end of time—but you must not turn into a cow. That, I could not bear.”

  Kyra laughed and wrapped her arms around him.

  “I should warn you, my brothers are going to need some fast talking to calm them down. They’re a little upset at the thought that you took advantage of me.”

  Antonio chuckled. “I will explain to them that you gave me no choice, that you dragged me into your bed.”

  He bent and kissed her again and again until her mouth was sweetly swollen, and then he smiled into her eyes.

  “I will tell you what we must do, quenda. We must go to your brothers and assure them that I am not a pirate come to steal their company. And that we wish to set a date for our wedding.” He smiled. “That will calm them, sí?”

  Kyra caught her breath as Antonio lifted her into his arms.

  “But first,” he said, his voice husky, “first, we will make up for the weeks and months we have wasted. Does that live up to your expectations, mi amor?”

  Kyra’s answer was in her kiss.

  EPILOGUE

  EARLY morning sunlight streamed through the arched windows of the Landon mansion, spilling golden brilliance over the oyster white walls and brightly colored rya rugs that were scattered over the bleached-oak floors.

  In the room that had so long ago been his, Cade Landon’s arm tightened around the woman nestled beside him. She sighed and moved closer to him; her tumble of fiery copper curls brushed softly against his cheek.

  Cade blinked his eyes open. He lay still, getting his bearings.

  It was a long time since he’d awakened in this room. For just a moment, the old feelings of childhood swept over him—the pent-up anger, the unhappiness, the despair…

  And then he became aware of Angelica lying in his arms, of her warmth and her scent, and all the memories were swept away. Carefully, so as not to wake her, he rose up on his elbow and gazed down at her.

  A smile curved across his mouth. She was so beautiful. So wonderful. And she was his—his partner, his companion, his lover…

  His wife.

  Gently, he reached out and stroked the copper curls from her cheek.

  It was still a wonder to him, not just that he had found her, but how she had changed his life. Until Angelica, his pleasure had been measured by the exotic places he’d been and the beautiful women he’d found in them, and by the rushing geysers of black gold he coaxed from deep inside the earth.

  Now, his wife was all the pleasure he needed, all he would ever need. He could not imagine life without her, without her sweetness and her passion. He smiled a little. And without her fiery temper.

  “Good morning.”

  Angelica’s beautiful green eyes were open; her mouth was curved into the gentlest of smiles. A feeling so potent it made his throat tighten swept over him, and he took her into his arms almost fiercely, claiming her lips with his.

  After a long moment, he drew back. Angelica’s face was flushed; she smiled as she linked her hands behind his neck.

  “Mmm,” she sighed, “what a nice way to start the day.”

  Cade grinned. “I’m better than an alarm clock, am I?”

  Her laugh was soft and wicked, “Especially since I never get alarmed”

  “Angel,” he said, “I’ve been thinking…” He hesitated, then took a deep breath. “You know that project we’ve been considering in Kuwait?”

  Angelica gave a mocking sigh of distress. “That’s what happens when you’re an old married couple. Here I am, in my husband’s arms, and all he can think of is bus—”

  Cade laughed and kissed her to silence. Then he drew back and looked at her.

  “What if we passed on Kuwait and took up that Alaskan offer?”

  “For you to head up that company? But—but you’d have to stay in one place, Cade, and you’ve never wanted to.”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” He was trying to sound casual, despite the knot growing in his gut. “It might be nice to settle down. Build a house, put down roots…”

  Angelica’s eyes widened. “You? Put down roots?”

  “Well, yeah. A guy should put down roots before he starts a family, shouldn’t he?” He saw the stunned look on her face and cursed himself for dropping something like that on her without any warning. “Forget it,” he said quickly. “It was just a crazy thought, and—”

  “It’s a wonderful thought,” Angelica said, her voice breaking a little.

  Cade felt his heart lift. “Do you mean it?”

  “You foolish man! Of course I mean it! I love you, Cade Landon. What more could I possibly want than to settle down with you and have your babies?”

  Cade kissed her, gently at first and then more passionately.

  “Any objections if we start on our new project nght away?” he said, smiling.

  Angelica smiled back at him. “Every textbook I’ve ever read says that taking immediate action is the sign of a topflight CEO,” she whispered.

  Laughing, Cade rolled her beneath him. Without a doubt, he thought, he was the happiest, luckiest man in the world.

  Down the hall, in the room he’d once thought of as a prison cell, Grant Landon woke from a deep, dreamless sleep and reached for his wife.

  The bed beside him was empty. Grant shot up against the pillows, his heart hammering in his throat—and then he saw her, standing at the window, wrapped in his old flannel robe with her black ha
ir streaming down her back like heavy silk.

  Grant shoved back the blankets and got to his feet.

  “Sweetheart?”

  Crista turned, her beautiful face lighting with happiness when she saw him.

  “Good morning,” she said. “I’m sorry if I woke you.”

  “Darling?” Grant held out his hands. “Are you okay?”

  She laughed as she put her hands into his. “Of course.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe you shouldn’t be up so early. You need your sleep, you know. And your feet are bare. You’re liable to catch a chill—”

  “Grant.” Crista moved closer to her husband and smiled up into his eyes. “I’m not sick, darling. I’m pregnant.”

  “Exactly. You’re pregnant. And—”

  “And I’m absolutely fine.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe you should ask the doctor if-”

  “I did,” Crista said gently. “I asked him every question you came up with, and then you asked him every one of those questions all over again, and the answers were always the same.” She smiled. “I’m as healthy as a horse, Grant. There’s not a thing in the world to worry about.”

  Grant frowned. “Sure. But—”

  “In fact, I’ve never felt better in my life.”

  “That’s fine. But-”

  “Women have been having babies ever since the world began. It’s not as if we invented this ourselves.”

  Grant sighed. “I know.” His arms went around her and he drew her close. “It’s just that I love you so much…”

  “And I love you,” Crista said. She shut her eyes and laid her head against his chest, luxuriating in the sure beat of his heart. “I don’t think you’ll ever know how much.”

  Grant drew back, putting his wife from him just enough so he could look down into her beautiful violet eyes.

  “You’re everything to me, Crista,” he whispered. “When I think of how empty my life was without you…”

  She grinned. “Remember that the next time Annie decides to pretend your favorite pair of moccasins is a doggy toy.”

  Grant gave a despairing sigh, but his eyes sparkled with laughter.

  “Serves me right,” he said, “marrying a woman who insisted a cat and a dog had to be present at the ceremony.”