Spanish Nights
Jennifer Taylor
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ONE
SHE had known that he would find her, known that unbending pride of his would demand he seek her out. All she had hoped to gain by running away was a few months’ breathing space, time to gather her strength so that when he did come she would be able to make him listen to her. Now, however, as she saw him standing on the doorstep, his face cold and set, Laura wondered if she was equal to that task yet.
‘You’d better come in.’ She held the door wide, forcing herself not to flinch as he brushed past her to step inside the narrow hallway. Closing the door, she took a slow breath then turned to face him, letting her eyes linger on the leanly powerful lines of his tall frame, the gleaming blackness of his hair, the smooth pale olive of his skin. He looked little different from when she’d last seen him two months before, his handsome face showing no signs of strain or suffering. Had he missed her, or had he come to find her purely out of a sense of duty? She wished she knew, because maybe then she would know how to handle this meeting.
‘You are looking well, Laura. Obviously the English climate agrees with you far more than the Spanish one.’ There was faint mockery in his voice and in the dark gaze which traced her soft oval face in its frame of long blonde hair, the huge grey eyes under delicately arched brows, the full curve of her mouth. Laura flushed, self-conscious under the intent scrutiny and achingly aware of the effect those lightly accented tones were having on her. Luis had been educated in England as all his family had, and spoke the language perfectly, but there was always that faint inflection in his deep voice which gave the words a disturbingly foreign flavour. Now Laura let the rich deep tones flow through her, trying desperately to stem the shudder which followed them. She had always found the sound of Luis’s voice sensuously stimulating and it seemed that hadn’t changed.
‘I am very well. However, I doubt you came all this way just to enquire after my health.’ She glanced up the stairs, realising that the hall wasn’t the best place to hold a conversation, then led the way into the small, old-fashioned sitting-room.
Luis followed her, his eyes skimming the shabby furniture with a hint of distaste which she took immediate exception to.
‘I know these aren’t the surroundings you are used to, Luis, but if you wish to speak to me then I am afraid that you will have to put up with them. Can I get you anything—coffee, perhaps?’
‘No, thank you. I had lunch before I drove down here.’ He sat down on one of the over-stuffed chairs, crossing one long leg over the other as he looked up at her with glittering dark eyes. ‘Shall we cut out all the pretence of politeness, Laura? It isn’t necessary, is it?’
She sat down opposite him, forcing herself to meet his icy gaze. ‘No, of course not. So why have you come, Luis?’
He laughed softly, leaning back in the chair so that his head rested comfortably against the cushions as he studied her. ‘That is what I like about you, querida. You exhibit no shock, ask none of the questions another woman would ask, like how did I find you?’
She arched a brow as she pushed the silky fall of hair back from her face, feeling the tension coiling and uncoiling inside her. Luis might be playing this very low-key at present but she wasn’t fool enough to underestimate him in any way. She had hurt him in a way he would never forgive, struck what he saw as a blow against both him and his family, and while she might nurture the hope that the past two months had cooled his anger and made him more responsive to her explanations, she couldn’t afford to forget what he had said to her then.
‘Why should I ask that? You have the money and the power to accomplish anything you want to, don’t you, Luis? It just surprises me somewhat that it has taken you this long to track me down. Surely the name of Rivera isn’t losing some of its potency?’
His eyes narrowed, glittering like black ice as they met hers. ‘Careful, querida. Don’t make the mistake of pushing me too far or too hard, will you? Or you might not enjoy the consequences of such an action.’
She laughed bitterly, pain tearing at her heart. ‘Could it be any worse than how you treated me a few months ago? Could I be made to feel any lower, any more unworthy of the great honour you bestowed upon me? I am your wife, Luis, yet you treated me like a leper!’
‘And is it any wonder? How did you expect me to react, Laura? What did you think I would say when you made your confession?’ He leant forwards suddenly, his face set into lines of icily controlled anger as he glared at her. ‘Did you really imagine that I would forgive and forget that easily?’
‘I thought you loved me! I thought that even though you would be upset, maybe angry at first, that you would listen and try to understand. But you didn’t do that, did you, Luis?’ She got up and walked to the window, rubbing her hands up and down her arms to ward off the chill that seemed to be seeping deep into her bones. How many times had she imagined this meeting, worked out what she would say, how she would handle it? It didn’t matter now because it was all going wrong, all the bitterness reawakening inside both of them. The plain, unpalatable fact was that Luis hadn’t loved her enough to accept something that had been a part of her past, and it seemed he still wasn’t prepared to do so.
She swung round, her long blonde hair floating around her shoulders as she moved. Impatiently she pushed it back and stared at him, trying to subdue the agony she felt. ‘I really can’t see that we have anything to discuss, can you? It’s obvious that you aren’t any more prepared to listen to me now than you were two months ago. I shall be grateful if you would just leave.’
‘I’m sure you would but that would be too easy, my sweet wife.’ He got up slowly and came towards her, stopping just a few feet away as he subjected her to an insultingly thorough scrutiny. ‘You seem to have lost weight, pequeña. Have you been pining for me? Maybe it is a good thing that I decided to come now. I had toyed with the idea of leaving our meeting a while longer but...’ He shrugged slightly, his shoulders moving briefly under the smooth grey cloth of his expensive suit. As always he was immaculately dressed, the white shirt tailored especially to fit his leanly muscular frame, his hand-made leather shoes gleaming despite the fact that it had been raining when he’d arrived. It was part of the image he projected and part of the man, a man who expected perfection in everything he did or touched, even his wife. That had been at the root of the trouble, the reason why their brief marriage had foundered; she hadn’t been perfect and Luis hadn’t been able to accept that.
She roused herself with an effort, pushing the painful memories to the back of her mind. ‘If you are asking if I missed you then the answer is yes. I have missed you, Luis, but not enough to want to go through all the heartache you put me through before. So either tell me what you want or leave. I don’t think there is anything left to say, do you?’
‘On the contrary, I think we have a lot to talk about.’ He reached out to lift a long strand of hair from where it had snagged on her navy sweatshirt, twining it around his fingers in a gleaming, silky chain. ‘Do you know that I could have come here weeks ago, Laura, but I didn’t. It didn’t take me long to discover where you had run to.’
‘Then why didn’t you come?’ She jerked her head, wincing at the painful tug on her roots as the hair remained coiled around Luis’s fingers. ‘Do you mind?’
‘Of course not.’ Slowly he unco
iled the strand then smoothed it behind her ear, his fingers brushing lightly against her cheek. Laura shivered then silently berated herself when she saw the knowing glitter in his eyes. Deliberately, she turned her back on him, forcing a cool, impersonal note to her voice to hide her increasing nervousness.
‘Look, Luis, if this is some sort of a game then I shall be grateful if you would stop. Rachel will be back soon and I don’t want her to be upset by anything she might overhear.’
‘I am sure you don’t. However, it will be some time before your friend returns. She has an appointment in town, I believe.’
His voice was bland, so why did she feel a sudden flurry of unease, a sense that there was more to that cool statement than there appeared? She swung round to search his face but could find little there to help her. Sunlight was spilling through the window now that the rain had stopped, highlighting the sharp planes and angles of his patrician features, tinting his skin to gold. He was the most handsome man she had ever seen, yet Laura was less aware of that then than she’d ever been as she felt the fear start to run coldly down her spine.
He must have sensed how she was feeling because he smiled with cool arrogance, one dark brow lifting fractionally. ‘Aren’t you going to ask how I know where Rachel is, querida? Or do you imagine that it was a lucky guess?’
His laughter was soft and dark, somehow menacing and Laura felt her heart start to beat faster—too fast. She forced herself to breathe slowly, knowing that she had to hold on to her control until she found out what Luis was planning. ‘Nothing you do is luck, Luis. You plan everything, don’t you? You don’t believe in trusting to luck.’
She was unaware of the bitterness in her tone but he heard it. His face tightened, a nerve beating a furious tempo along his jaw. He took one slow step towards her then stopped so close that she could feel the heat of his body against her breasts.
‘And do you blame me, Laura? I trusted you, didn’t I? And look how wrong I was to do so.’
She turned her head away, hating to see that icy contempt in his eyes. This man had been her whole world, her moon and stars, everything she’d ever wanted from life, yet it hadn’t been enough that she should love him like that. She had made one mistake years ago and he would never forgive her for it.
‘I don’t see how our quarrel has anything to do with Rachel,’ she said quietly. ‘She isn’t involved in any of this. All she has done is offer me a home since I came back to England.’
‘I agree, but sometimes even the most innocent victims find themselves caught up in events. Rachel isn’t involved in our “quarrel”, Laura, but she will be instrumental in helping us sort out our future life together.’
‘I don’t know what you mean!’ Shock widened her soft grey eyes, stole the colour from her cheeks. ‘We don’t have a future together, Luis!’
‘You are my wife, querida. Naturally our two lives will mesh until the day one of us dies.’
His voice was harsh, the accent more pronounced now unless it was merely that her senses had been heightened to an unbearable degree. When she made no response he smiled faintly, catching her chin to tilt her face so that he could stare straight into her eyes. ‘No protests, Laura? No cries of horror? Maybe this will be easier than I anticipated. Perhaps I should not have wasted so much time these past weeks taking safeguards to ensure your compliance? I should have come to you and told you that I wanted you to come back to me.’
‘I...no!’ She twisted her head away from his hold, her whole body trembling with shock. ‘You don’t really want me to be your wife, Luis! You made that more than plain two months ago.’
‘We cannot always have the things we want. You are my wife, Laura, whether you or I like it or not. And that is the way it shall remain.’
‘But why? Are you saying that you love me, Luis? That you want me back because of that?’ Hope was like a warm flame in her cold heart, burning brighter and brighter only to be snuffed out when he spoke.
‘I am saying that you are my wife and that you shall remain as such. My religion doesn’t allow for divorce, if that is what you had been expecting.’
It was hard to stand there while every sweet dream she’d harboured these past lonely months crumbled into dust. It was only pride that stopped her from breaking down, only pride that she had left to see her through. ‘What about an annulment? Surely that could be arranged?’
‘Perhaps. However, none of my family has suffered the disgrace of such a thing and I have no intention of being the one to cheapen the name of Rivera in the eyes of my countrymen. I expect you to keep the vows you made at our wedding, Laura.’
‘Vows?’ She laughed bitterly, welcoming the pain the memories carried with them, using it to strengthen her courage. ‘Yes, I made vows to you, Luis, and I meant them. But what about you? How long did you keep your promises? One week, two...possibly three? After that they were forgotten. You didn’t feel that you had to uphold any promises you had made. I would have kept all my marriage vows if you had given me the chance to do so!’
His eyes were black as coal from the fires of hell as he glared down at her. ‘You dare to say that to me after what you did?’
‘I did nothing deliberately! Why won’t you accept that?’ She was shaking so hard now that she could hardly speak, but she forced the words out.
‘Why? That is easily explained. You tricked me, Laura. You deliberately misled me as to your innocence, let me believe that you had slept with no man before you met me so that I would marry you to get you into my bed.’
‘No! That isn’t true. I didn’t try to trick you. I...I just didn’t know how to tell you when I was so afraid of what it might do to our relationship. You had built up this picture of me in your mind and I couldn’t find the words to tell you the truth, that I had slept with a man before. I loved you so much, Luis. I didn’t want to lose you, nor did I want to make the same mistake again by sleeping with you before we married. If I am guilty then it’s of once making a mistake I’ve paid dearly for!’
‘A mistake? That’s how you see it, is it? And do you see your decision not to tell me the truth as another mistake? Something else you regret but can do little to rectify?’ His voice dropped an octave, grating with anger. ‘How convenient for you, mi esposa, to be able to class all your failings in such gentle terms. You make a mistake but it can all be cleared up without too much heartache by means of a simple confession?’ He caught her by the shoulders, his fingers biting through the sweatshirt, bruising her flesh so that she murmured in pain, but he seemed oblivious to the sound as anger claimed him. ‘Can you imagine how it felt for me, Laura, to suddenly learn about your mistakes, to discover that my pure and virginal little bride who had determinedly rejected all but the most innocent of advances had slept with another man, maybe other men?‘
He shook her hard, his eyes pure black with anger now, glittering in a face that seemed set like a mask. ‘I have never experienced such anger before, querida. I wanted to kill you, do you realise that? I wanted to wring that slender little neck of yours for the way you had deceived me so cleverly. And now you have the audacity to take me to task about not keeping my vows!’
He flung her from him as though he couldn’t bear to touch her a moment longer. Laura stumbled back against the wall, leaning against it as she tried to control the pain that was tearing her heart to shreds. ‘There weren’t other men, Luis, just one man! I thought I was in love with him, thought he loved me too, but...’ She swallowed down the broken sob, willing him to understand how afraid she’d been both of losing him and of making the same painful mistake again. She had loved him so much but it hadn’t blinded her to the differences in their backgrounds. Luis’s family had held a position of great standing in his country for centuries, something that his mother had pointed out to her on innumerable occasions. While she had believed that Luis loved her there had always been that fear at the back of her mind that it would all go wrong and she would be left to deal with feelings of both guilt and loss once again
.
Now with the knowledge of hindsight she knew that she had been wrong not to tell him about her past before their wedding. It had been love that had made her not do so, and fear, yet he had never been prepared to listen to her pleas.
‘Luis, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I...’
He cut her off, his anger under control now. ‘Bastante! Enough. I do not wish to discuss this any further. It will serve no purpose.’
‘And I am just expected to accept that, am I? Once again? Well, I’m sorry, Luis, but I want to discuss it. I want to talk about it until you finally listen to what I have tried to tell you so many times before!’
‘What is there to tell? Do you imagine that I want to hear the intimate details of your affair?’ Sarcasm slid like ice through the rich tones, cutting her. It shone in the depths of his eyes as they traced her slim figure, lingering meaningfully on the thrust of her breasts beneath the soft sweatshirt. ‘I think I can fill in any gaps, querida. It isn’t that long since you lay naked in my arms while I made love to you for me to imagine what it was like.’
‘That wasn’t what I meant! You know it wasn’t!’ Her face filled with colour as heat flowed along her veins. It was the way he was looking at her as much as what he’d said. She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see his expression, but that was a mistake as her mind took full advantage of the moment to unroll a series of shockingly intimate scenes behind her lids: Luis bending to kiss her as his hand slid down her body to caress her breasts; the fire in those devil-dark eyes as he had finally possessed her, his body joining with hers in the ultimate act of love.
Her eyes shot open and looked straight into his for a moment, unguarded, and she felt fire lick along her veins as she saw the echo of all she’d been recalling in those dark depths.
‘Luis, I...’ She was barely aware of speaking, barely aware of reaching out to him until he turned away with an abruptness that shattered the spell. Her hand fell to her side and she looked down to hide the tears that misted her eyes at the deliberate rejection.
Spanish Nights (Harlequin Treasury 1990's) Page 1
