“So you offered to buy the ranch,” Lucas said.
“Si. It was the perfect solution. I would buy it, the money I paid would loose the bank’s hold. And then, mi hijo, and then the two of us realized we could do more.”
“That stipulation.”
“Of course. I wished you to have the right wife. Aloysius wished Alyssa to have the right man, one who would cherish her and the land she loved.” Felix threw out his hands. “And here was the perfect solution.”
Silence settled over the room, broken only by the electronic pings of the machines. After a moment, Lucas sighed.
“The two of you thought to play God,” he said quietly.
Felix nodded. “I suppose you could say that, yes.”
“You suppose?” Alyssa’s voice shook. “Playing God is exactly what you did, Your Highness. First Aloysius took it upon himself to keep the truth of my birth a secret. Then you toyed with two lives. If that isn’t playing God—”
“Alyssa,” Lucas said softly. “Amada, please, don’t weep.”
“I’m not weeping,” she said, while tears rolled down her cheeks.
Lucas’s heart filled. He wanted to sweep his Lyssa into his arms and carry her away with him to a place where she would never have reason to cry or feel anything but joy. He wanted to make her smile, make her laugh, he wanted to tell her—to tell her—
“I am tired,” Felix said. “That is enough for today.”
“More than enough,” Lucas agreed, a little coldly. He turned Alyssa to him, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, and to hell with having an audience. “Wait for me outside, chica. Will you do that? I’ll only be a minute, I promise.”
He waited until she’d left the room. Then he went to his grandfather’s side and looked down at the old man.
“Some might say you played at being the devil,” he said quietly, “not God.”
“Si,” Felix said wryly. “Anyone can see how the two of you despise each other.”
“That is not the point, Grandfather.”
The old man sighed. “I know.”
“You did an awful thing, adding that marriage clause.”
“I know.”
“You cannot force strangers to want each other.”
“I know, I know, I know. What else do you want me to say?”
Lucas reached into his pocket and took out the contract signed by his grandfather and Alyssa’s father.
“I want you to scrawl your signature here, at the bottom, where I have put an addendum.”
“Which says?”
“Which says,” Lucas said grimly, turning the document toward Felix, “you agree that the Reyes Corporation should pay the arrears and whatever’s due the bank for El Ranch Grande.”
“If that is what you wish, mi hijo.”
“And,” Lucas continued, pointing to the addendum, “that you agree that the Reyes Corporation will deed the ranch over to Alyssa McDonough.”
Felix sighed. “My glasses and a pen are on the table.”
“And,” Lucas said, “you agree, as well, that the marriage stipulation is null and void.”
“All of that is what you wish, Lucas?”
“All of that, Grandfather.”
The old man held out his hand. Lucas slapped his eye glasses and his pen into the palm.
Seconds later, the signed amendment, together with the original contract, was safe in Lucas’s pocket.
“You did a terrible thing, old man,” Lucas said. Then he sighed, bent down and pressed a soft kiss to Felix’s white hair. “But I love you all the same. Get some rest, yes? I will stop by again later.”
Alyssa was waiting for him beside a pond that was home to a pair of swans.
Her back was to him. Lucas took advantage of that and slowed his steps so he could watch her.
She had taken an awful blow today, discovering she’d not only judged Aloysius wrong but that he was also her father.
She’d wept, yes. He would have, too, if such news had been dropped in his lap. But she’d maintained her composure, kept it well enough to strike back at Felix with courage and dignity.
He smiled. Dios, she was amazing.
Beautiful. Intelligent. Courageous. Passionate.
His smile broadened. And, though he’d be damned if he’d admit it without a fight, she could ride a horse as well as any man.
And he would never have met her, if his grandfather had not conspired to make it happen.
Lucas’s smile faded.
Still, what had been done to her was wrong. To him, too, but somehow, that didn’t seem important. It was his Lyssa who had suffered in all of this.
Not anymore.
Lucas slid his hand into his pocket and felt the heavy vellum on which the contract and the addendum were written. It was over now. His Lyssa would get her land, free and clear. He would add a substantial check so she could start the process of building it back to what it had been. She’d protest, of course, so he’d have to come up with some plan she’d find acceptable. That he wanted to invest in the ranch, maybe.
Something like that.
More to the point, the stipulation had been rendered invalid.
She didn’t have to marry him. He didn’t have to marry her. He could tell his pilot to take her back to Texas. They could put this behind them, remember it as just a brief, hot interlude.
Alyssa turned, saw him and smiled.
Was that how he’d remember it? As sex? Would he only recall his Lyssa as she’d been in his bed? Incredible was the word for that but his heart told him he would remember these days, and his Lyssa, as more than that.
She started toward him. He watched the way she walked, that proud stride that he loved. The way her hair bounced against her shoulders. The tilt of her chin, the glow of her blue eyes.
Would that glow dim, if only a little, when she said goodbye?
A thought burned its way into his brain. A crazy thought. Something he could say that would keep her here…
When she reached him, she lay her hand lightly on his arm. “Is your grandfather all right?”
“He’s fine.” Lucas took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb lightly over the delicate knuckles. “A little tired, that’s all.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what, chica?”
“For being so hard on him.”
“You?” Lucas smiled. “You were gentle, amada. More so than he deserved.”
“What he did—what he and Aloysius did—was wrong but they meant well. And he’s so frail…”
“Trust me, chica. He’s a tough old bird.”
“He is,” she said with a little smile. “I could see you in him in another fifty years.” Her smile tilted. “But I was disrespectful and I shouldn’t have been. You love him and he loves you. He thought he was doing the right thing or he wouldn’t have done it.”
“Si. But it does not excuse it.”
“Still, I could have—”
“You could have called him a meddling old fool, but you didn’t. You could have treated him to one of those right crosses you tried on me.” Lucas brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I’d say my grandfather got off easy.”
“Honestly?”
“Si. And he knows it. So don’t feel guilty. If anything, he respects you all the more for standing up to him.”
She let out a long breath. “I feel better.”
“Good.” He slid his arm around her waist. How right it felt there, he thought, and pressed a kiss into her hair. “So, amada. What would you say to a drink at a little café with a view of the sea?”
“I’d say yes,” she said, tilting her head back and smiling at him.
“And then dinner. Paella, in a little inn about an hour from here.”
“Is there a fireplace?”
He grinned. “Absolutely.” He drew her closer. “And, after, a drive to Monroy. It’s a small town where—”
“—where some of the finest Andalusians are bred. I know about it. T
he first Andalusians sent to America were from Monroy.”
“Si. That’s right. I have a ranch there, too. I want you to see it.” His arm tightened around her as they began walking. “It’s my favorite place in all the world.” He looked down, saw her give a quick little laugh. “What?”
“Nothing. Everything. It’s just—I feel as if I’ve known you forever, and then something comes up and I realize that impossible as it seems, we’re still strangers.”
Lucas stopped and turned her into his embrace.
“In that case,” he said huskily, “we’ll just have to keep exploring each other.”
Color heightened her cheeks. “I love the idea of exploring you,” she whispered.
Lucas bent to her and gave her a long, deep kiss. She curled her hands into his shirt. When he raised his head, she swayed within the circle of his arms.
“Are you dizzy again? The doctor’s office is only a block away—”
“I’m fine, Lucas. Really.” She smiled, and the sheer intimacy of her smile made him want to drag her into his arms and ravish her right here, in the secluded little park. “It’s you,” she said softly. “You make me dizzy.”
“I like making you dizzy, amada.”
“Dizzy—and forgetful. I should have asked…Did you talk to your grandfather about the contract?”
Here it was. The moment they’d both waited for.
“Yes. Yes, I talked to him about it.”
“And?”
And, her worries were over. The contract was null and void. She would have her ranch, the money to bring it back to life…
“Lucas? What did he say?”
That she was free. Free of debt, free of him, free to leave him…
“Lucas? For heaven’s sake—”
“He said he won’t change the agreement. Not any part of it.”
“Then—then the ranch is gone.”
The expression on her face tore at his heart.
“No. No, it isn’t, amada. I have the solution.”
“You do?”
Lucas framed her face with his hands. The words that had been in his head for the past ten minutes, maybe for all his life, tumbled from his lips. “Marry me.”
She stared at him as if he’d lost his sanity. Maybe he had, or maybe he had just found it.
“What?”
“Marry me, amada. El Rancho Grande will be saved. And I’ll deed it over to you.”
“I couldn’t let you do that! You don’t want to ma—”
“Is marriage such an awful idea? People marry, create homes, have children, many of them with less in common than you and I.”
“But—but we don’t know each other.”
“Of course we do. Didn’t I just say how much we have in common? Ranching. Horses.” His voice grew husky. “We’re incredible together in bed.” His eyes narrowed. “Unless there’s someone else.”
“There’s no one else,” she said quickly, and stopped herself before she could tell him the truth, that she loved him, that there would never be anyone else but him…
“We’re right for each other, amada. Those two meddlers knew what they were doing.” He lifted her face so their eyes met. “Marry me, chica. Say yes.”
She wanted to. Oh, she wanted to, with all her heart. But was it enough for them to have the same interests? To be good in bed? Most of all, was it enough for her to love him when what she wanted, what she longed for, was for him to love her, too?
“Lyssa.” Softly, tenderly, he brushed his lips over hers. “We can make a good life together. I promise it. Say yes, amada. Say yes.”
Alyssa rose on her toes and kissed him.
And said yes.
Who would have imagined that the interference of two men on opposite sides of the world could result in such happiness?
Lucas had honestly thought he had everything. The land he loved. The horses he bred. A far-flung corporate empire he had created. All the women a man could want.
Surely that was everything.
Dios, how wrong he’d been.
On a soft June evening, watching Alyssa as she went from table to table in the candlelit garden of the house in Monroy, chatting easily with the guests at the engagement party he’d insisted she must have, he knew how poor he had actually been.
Until now, he’d had nothing.
His Lyssa was everything.
They had been together three weeks. Three wonderful, amazing weeks. Initially he’d wondered if he had rushed her into a situation she hadn’t really wanted. For instance, there was the first time he told her he had to go to Paris on business.
“Will you be gone long?” she’d said politely when what he’d wanted her to do was beg him not to leave her or, better still, ask if she could go with him.
Why not simply tell her that’s what you want? a reasonable voice inside him had whispered.
But reason had little to do with pride or idiocy or whatever in hell it was that made him so mulish and finally he’d cursed himself for a fool, swept his Lyssa into his arms and said the question was not how long would he be gone but how long would she want them to spend in Paris.
Her smile had warmed his heart.
“Do you want me to go with you? I thought—I mean, I know this isn’t exactly how you’d intended things to be, Lucas, and I don’t want to be in your way. I don’t want to, you know, change your life.”
“Amada,” he’d whispered. “You have already changed it. And I love—I love the result.”
Then he’d carried her to their bedroom and made gentle love to her until her whispers, her caresses had driven him half out of his mind, and he’d taken her with wild abandon while she cried out his name and shattered in his arms.
His beautiful virgin had become a gifted student. She could arouse him with a smile, a touch, and he never tired of it or of her.
In Paris, he’d introduced her to all his friends. She was shy at first but not intimidated, not even when they went to a party and his former mistress arrived with her new lover, saw him and literally threw herself into his arms.
“Lucas, darling,” Delia had shrieked.
“Delia,” he’d said, disentangling himself and drawing Alyssa forward. “I’d like you to meet my fiancée.”
Delia had turned white. Alyssa had simply smiled and held out her hand.
“I think we met once before,” she’d said sweetly. “In Texas, perhaps?”
“Meow meow,” he’d whispered when they were out of earshot.
“Why, Lucas,” his novia had purred, “whatever do you mean?”
He’d pulled her close and kissed her, and the laughter in her eyes had turned to desire.
“Amada,” he’d said in a husky whisper, and he’d drawn her out into the garden of his friend’s home and made passionate love to her in the gazebo, the skirt of her silk gown bunched at her waist, his mouth drinking from hers, her soft cries sighing into the warmth of the night.
At the end, when she’d trembled in his arms, he’d thought something must be happening to him, that he’d never felt this way before, so happy, so complete, that having Alyssa in his life was wonderful, wonderful—
“Lucas.”
Alyssa’s voice brought him back to the present as she slipped her arm through his and smiled up at him.
“I’ve asked Dolores to wait a little before serving dessert. I thought she might object because she’s timed everything so perfectly but she said it wouldn’t be a problem.”
Of course it wouldn’t. His staff would do anything for his Lyssa. He’d fooled no one by pretending she was his novia when they’d first come to Spain so he’d gathered them together three weeks ago and made the formal announcement to polite applause, which he’d expected, and then cheers, which he had not. Dolores had even kissed him, something that had never, ever happened before.
“Lucas?”
“What is it, amada?”
“It’s a wonderful engagement party. Thank you.”
He smiled. “I’m g
lad you’re enjoying it.”
“A minute ago, you looked as if you were a million miles away.”
“I’m right here,” he said, embracing her. “Where else would I be, if not where you are?”
Alyssa laced her hands at his nape and leaned back in his arms.
“I want you to know,” she said softly, “that I am very, very happy.”
“As am I.”
Had he actually said that? So stuffy. So formal, when what he wanted to say, wanted to tell her, was—was—
“There. It’s happening again. That distant look in your eyes. What are you thinking, Your Highness?”
He smiled at her teasing. “I’m thinking about next week, mi princesa, when we are married,” he said huskily, “and you are truly mine.”
Alyssa sighed and lay her head against his chest. “It still seems so impossible. That we should have met. That we should have—that we should have come to care for each other despite the way Felix and Aloysius trapped us.”
Trapped us.
The words hurt his heart as well as his conscience. More and more, it troubled him that he had not told her the truth.
Felix had voided the contract. She was free to leave him.
He had proposed marriage when he knew she couldn’t afford to say no. That was how badly he wanted her. And what he’d done was selfish. It was immoral.
It was a lie.
How could they build a life on a lie like that, and never mind that it was a lie of omission and not commission? He’d spent three weeks telling himself that and it was time to face facts.
A lie was a lie, no matter what you labeled it.
Alyssa had to know she would lose nothing if she left him. If she stayed with him, became his wife, it had to be because it was fully her choice. Why had he been such a coward, thinking the only way he could keep her was through subterfuge?
He could tell her later, when they were alone. When they were in bed, when he could take her in his arms and show her with his mouth, his hands, his body how much he wanted her. Needed her. How much he—how much he—
“Lucas, look!”
There was a little stir among the guests. Several had risen to their feet.
“It’s your grandfather.”
They had invited Felix, of course, though Lucas had never expected him to come. The old man had moved into a spacious apartment on the grounds of a rehabilitation center. Lucas visited him daily; Alyssa had twice gone with him and Lucas had asked Felix, in advance, not to mention the contract.
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