“You might not believe this, but I cared for Auguste. I’m not proud of trapping him into an affair. He was a lonely man, a man who’d gone too long without a woman’s love. His wife was cold to him and had long since stopped sleeping with him. Yes, I wasn’t truthful with him. I wanted his money, position. I needed to save my father’s ranch, as I needed someone to love me. And Auguste did love me and knew I wasn’t wildly in love with him, but he didn’t mind. We gave comfort to one another, and he loved me enough to risk the scandal. I’d have made him a good wife. I owed him that much.
“But I didn’t kill him, as you think. If I’d known who you were long ago, I’d have told you that. Auguste died in his sleep. I don’t really know what happened to him. He’d been strong and healthy only an hour before. I didn’t harm him, Tony, and I won’t get on my knees and beg your forgiveness. I’ve already suffered more than any punishment you could mete out to me.”
A lump of pride stuck in Laurel’s throat at seeing Lavinia stand up for herself. Somehow she doubted that Lavinia would have been able to do this before now. Evidently the strength of Jim’s love had sparked courage in Lavinia. The cowering woman who had begged Laurel to accompany her to Texas and agree to a disguise to save her life was gone. In her stead was a fearless, strong woman.
Lavinia stood with shoulders thrust defiantly back. Tony was quiet and regarded her with a quirked eyebrow, seemingly not certain she was telling the truth but impressed with her nevertheless.
An uneasy silence fell across them broken only by the sudden crack of gunfire. Tony pushed Laurel to the ground and instantly covered Lavinia with his body as a bullet whizzed past their heads. Before Tony could draw his gun, Jim had pulled his rifle from his saddlebag and fired at the fleeing form of the gunman. The man dropped to the ground and lay lifeless beside a large rock.
Tony waited until he was certain no other gunmen watched from the hillside or waited behind equally large hiding places before he helped Lavinia and Laurel to their feet. He made certain they were both all right before he and Jim went to examine the dead man.
“Who is he?” Laurel asked when they returned to the women.
“He’s a Mexican named Pedro, one of a group of hired guns who worked for a man named Ortega in San Antonio,” Jim explained and gathered a trembling Lavinia in his arms. “Evidently he had orders to stop anyone on the rustlers’ trail.”
“Seth owed money to a man named Ortega.” Laurel remembered the listings in the account ledgers. “Seth is involved in all of this,” she said. Tony nodded.
“Jim and I believe he has been rustling cattle from the Little L for Ortega as a means of paying off his debts. Seth needs cash, and that’s where the problem comes in. If Ortega is taking the cattle, then what is Seth going to do for money? He left the Little L in a hurry.”
“No. Seth must have stolen the money I had in the drawer in the study. But it wasn’t that much. He should have waited for the sale of the ranch to go through.”
“Wouldn’t be enough.” Tony strode to his horse and untied the animal from a tree. “He owes Ortega money, but he’ll need a lot more to get out of Texas and make a life for himself. I’d bet he has another plan altogether and is just waiting to set it into motion. You and Lavinia are to ride back to the house before the storm breaks. We’ll post men there for your safety.”
“I’m not going back to the ranch. I’m going with you,” Laurel insisted. “Arthur gave me the responsibility of running the Little L. I’m in charge here until the sale is final.”
Tony’s stormy eyes swept across her face like the black clouds in the sky. “You’re going home, and that’s the last I want to hear on the subject.”
“I’m going with you!”
“It’s too dangerous for a woman.”
“Damn it! Forget I’m a woman. In your eyes I’m only good for one thing.”
Tony smiled seductively, his dark eyes glowing with feral light. “You said that. I didn’t.”
“You’re an impossible man, Tony Duvalier. But this is one time I won’t let you manipulate me or have your way. You can’t stop me from going with you. I intend to buy the Little L from you, and my interests are tied up until the rustlers are caught. If you don’t let me ride with you, I’ll simply follow you on my own. Either way, I’m coming with you.”
Before Tony could say another word, Laurel strode to her horse and climbed onto the saddle. She turned in Tony’s direction and waited until he mounted. Tony breathed a heavy sigh of resignation and told Jim to take Lavinia back to the house before the storm started, that he and Laurel would no doubt return before nightfall if the rustlers’ trail proved cold. Then they rode toward the open countryside.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Unable to outride the approaching storm, Tony and Laurel took shelter in a ramshackle hut soon after leaving Jim and Lavinia. The large raindrops pelted the tin roof and streamed steadily through the overhead cracks to wetly splotch the hut’s mud floor. Laurel sat huddled in a corner, and Tony crouched near where the front door had leaned.
The late afternoon appeared night-like. Jagged lightning strokes crisscrossed the blue-black sky. Thunder barreled in the heavens to echo across the sodden range.
“We should have returned to the ranch,” Tony commented.
“Then Seth and his cohorts would have gotten away.”
“Maybe for now. Seth’s time is numbered in days, because I’m going to make him pay for what he’s done.”
A hard edge crept into Tony’s voice, and it chilled her. Not even in his vengeance against Lavinia had he sounded so cruel and calculating.
“What has Seth done to upset you, Tony? I know he’s probably involved with the cattle rustling and stolen cash from the Little L, but I think there’s something you’re not telling me.”
“That’s right” was all he said, and Laurel noticed he gritted his teeth.
She wasn’t going to ask him anything else. Evidently he didn’t want to tell her the reason he hated Seth. She felt suddenly chilled and clasped her arms around her to ward off the cold dampness that surrounded her.
“Let me unroll the blanket for you,” Tony offered, immediately attuned to her need. He withdrew a bedroll containing a rough, woolen-blanket from his saddlebag and also a small sack of biscuits, now hard and stale, from that morning’s breakfast.
Laurel hadn’t eaten lunch, and a ghost of a smile hovered on her lips as she gratefully took a biscuit from Tony. She devoured it as she watched Tony smooth out the bedroll in a dry area of the room.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear you smiled at me, Laurel. Could it be that you’re softening up a bit?”
“Maybe,” she replied noncommittally and wiped the crumbs from her mouth with slender fingers.
“And just why is that?”
“You know very well why.”
Tony finished the bedroll and sat upon it. Dark hair spilled across his forehead, emphasizing the ebony eyes, fringed by even darker lashes. His pale blue shirt was opened and revealed the curly mat of black hair on his chest, which disappeared beneath the silver buckle of his belt. Laurel caught her breath at the wakening response of her own body. She wanted to look away from him, but she felt powerless to tear her gaze from his.
“Tell me,” he said in a silky voice.
“Because…” She found herself barely able to speak and heard her heart hammering in her ears. She was only able to continue by taking a deep breath. “You saved Lavinia’s life today. She might have been killed if you hadn’t thrown yourself across her. I know you dislike her, and maybe your reasons are valid, but Lavinia is my sister. If she’d died, I think part of myself would have died with her. Thank you for saving her, Tony. God knows, you didn’t have to risk your life for her.”
Tony watched her intently. “Perhaps I was wrong about Lavinia. Believe me, I think she can be a conniver when the situation warrants it, and I still think she only wanted my uncle for his money and would have taken advantage of him
if they’d married. But I don’t think she killed him. Auguste died of causes other than Lavinia. She wasn’t responsible.”
“I’m glad you realize that now.
“I realize something else, too.”
“What?”
“I love you, and I won’t let you stay in Texas without me.”
“But Simone—”
“Forget Simone, forget all of it. Hell, Laurel, if I’d loved Simone, do you think I’d have come all the way to Texas just to humor a dying man I never knew? I came for you. I don’t know what you believe about Simone any longer, but I never loved her and wasn’t her child’s father.”
Tony had told Laurel this after she lost their baby and had continued to tell her, but she hadn’t believed him. Why, suddenly, did she know he was telling her the truth? But the letter from Jean gave the impression that Tony grieved over the woman’s sudden death. Was there something more to the whole incident with Simone, to her sudden tragedy, that Tony hadn’t yet told her?
Tony opened his arms to her. “Come to me, Laurel. Trust me. I love you and that love can’t hurt you. If you love me, and I think you do, you’ll come to me now. This time you must decide.”
Her body shivered from cold and growing passion. Tony’s arms held warmth and desire. She realized that his revenge against Lavinia was over, and Simone was dead. No matter what had happened with the woman, Tony loved her. She knew that now. More importantly, her own life, her future, was tied to him as it had been from the moment they met. They were two parts of the same whole, and without the other, each was adrift in the world. Only in Tony’s arms did she possess a sense of belonging, of coming home. Since her parents’ deaths, she had been alone, but in Tony’s embrace, she was never lonely.
Sliding toward Tony, Laurel was soon pulled into his strong arms. He wrapped her in an embrace of steel tempered with tenderness. Lips of fire and velvet joined in an all-consuming kiss. The beating of their two hearts sounded as loud as the thunder overhead, and their desire glowed in brilliant sparks, competing with the lightning that flashed across the heavens.
The beauty of the moment shook them with its intensity of feeling. His tongue parted her lips, and a low moan of pleasure broke from Laurel. Threading her arms around his neck, she pulled him closer to her as a deep burning ache grew within her. They kissed for a long moment before Tony’s hand slipped beneath her shirt, and then he broke away.
“You’ll come home with me, Laurel. Tell me you will, chérie.
“Yes, yes, I belong only with you.”
Pure love and desire shone within the depths of Tony’s eyes. His hands moved deftly along her rib cage to seek the aching fullness of her breasts. Each breast filled his palms when he cupped them, nearly driving her mad with his touch. Laurel wanted all of him and needed him quickly. It had been so very long since they made love that just to imagine such pleasure was enough to rouse her passion.
With trembling fingers, she reached for his shirt, already open, and removed it from his broad shoulders. Her fingers trailed a wanton path filled with fire and promise along his shoulder blades to the taut muscles of his upper arms before snaking across to the hairy expanse of pectoral muscles. He grabbed her wrists before she could move lower.
“I think it’s my turn to take off your shirt.”
His words sent shuddering spirals of delight down to her toes. Deftly he unbuttoned her blouse, and within seconds it lay beside her. His mouth then sought the valley of her breasts and gently placed a kiss there before moving to the target of his passion. Each coral-tipped nipple was gently laved with his tongue in endless circling motions. Laurel held onto Tony’s shoulders as rapturous waves built within her.
His kisses upon her flesh were like a heady wine and set her body aflame. Never had Laurel felt so feverish to have him inside her or know of such ecstasy building within her that she thought she would burst before he took her completely. Her lips trailed answering kisses along the side of his neck and across his shoulder blade. She thought she would die if he stopped kissing her breasts, but she knew she couldn’t wait much longer for him.
With a husky moan on her lips, she broke away and kissed his forehead. “I can’t wait much longer, Tony. I want you now.”
Tony’s dark head lifted from the creamy globes. His eyes filled with amber lights when he looked up at her. Without a word he began removing his pants, and Laurel followed suit, fumbling with the buttons on her own pants until both of them were naked and clasped in each other’s arms. By some unspoken consent Tony sank onto the bedroll, taking her with him. Laurel’s hands stroked his thighs and wantonly moved to the warm, hard shaft of his manhood. Tony’s groan of pleasure told her that he enjoyed her touch and would have welcomed more, but Laurel needed his length within her now, needed to know that he was as starved for her as she was for him.
Moving from his embrace, she straddled his thighs. Her fiery fingers reached for his hardened desire and sheathed his manhood within the silken folds of her body. He filled her eagerly, holding her hips in place as she rode him, her dark head thrown backward in ecstasy. The lightning flashed around them like a million fireflies, and Laurel resembled a silver goddess, naked and uninhibited as she took her pleasure. Finally in one swift and searing plunge, Tony arched toward her and drove deeply within her. She ceased moving and her eyes grew wide, almost totally unprepared for the undulating waves of intense rapture that lapped through her as Tony spilled forth his love.
Their moans of completion were smothered when Tony pulled her head down and their lips met in a molten kiss. It seemed that hours passed before their hearts stopped their erotic beating, but their hands were never still on each other’s bodies. Once more they were in passion’s paradise, somewhere above themselves in the heat of the storm.
“The rain’s stopped,” Laurel mumbled, feeling saddened that their time together had come to an end. By nightfall they would have returned to the ranch, the rain having washed the rustlers’ trail away. She felt certain that their earlier passion would ignite again when alone in their bedroom. But would Tony hold her to their agreement to return home with him? She had more or less agreed in the heat of desire. Yet she didn’t know if she could forget Simone.
Somehow reading her thoughts, Tony gently turned her face away from the open doorway. He gazed at her with troubled eyes. “You’re not certain any longer that you want to come home with me.”
“Yes.”
“I told you that I hold nothing against Lavinia now. She’s safe from me. I was stupid to try to hurt her, to hate her as I did. I can’t change the way I felt, but believe me when I tell you that I’m sorry—”
Her fingers on his lips stilled his words. “It’s not Lavinia. It’s Simone. I don’t want to take second place in your heart, Tony. I don’t think I can live in the woman’s shadow. You told me her child wasn’t yours, but can you be sure? I read Jean’s letter to you, and apparently you’ve been grieving over her death … and the child’s. If Simone and her baby meant nothing to you, then why do you care so much?”
Tony sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. His hand raked through the thickness of his hair. His eyes were filled with such pain that Laurel shivered in the belief that he had loved Simone.
“I should have told you sooner about what happened the night Simone died, but I couldn’t talk about it. In fact I’ve spoken only once to Jean and even then, I couldn’t find the words to say how awful I felt, how depressed.”
Laurel didn’t know if she wanted to hear more. “You don’t have to tell me.” She made a move to get her clothes, but Tony stopped her.
“Nothing’s as you think, Laurel. Hear me out.”
She became quiet, and satisfied that she wouldn’t leave, Tony continued, a frown marring his forehead.
“The night Simone died, a very bad rainstorm passed through the area. It was late, and Jean and Denise had dined with me. They were getting ready to leave when a pounding started on the door. It was Simone. She’d ridden from Cler
mont in a fragile buggy and was drenched and chattering from the cold. I offered her some tea, but she refused. In front of Jean and Denise, she accused me of taking my responsibility lightly as far as she and her child were concerned.
“I was dumbfounded and aggravated with her lies. Up until this night I wasn’t certain whether I had fathered the child or not. I believed I hadn’t, but she kept insisting I had made love to her. I had been so drunk I didn’t remember, yet I knew that if I had been that drunk, I wouldn’t have been able to make love to her or any woman. I attempted to reason with her, but she became enraged and acted like a mad woman. She threw an expensive vase at my head, called me all sorts of names. I truly think she wanted to embarrass me so much that I’d have admitted to anything just to shut her up.”
Tony took a deep breath here, almost unable to go on. He clasped Laurel’s hand and stared ahead, lost in his own memories.
“By this time, the rain had stopped. I had had enough of Simone’s ravings. I asked her to leave, and she wouldn’t. She planted herself on the sofa in the parlor and refused to budge. She said that if I didn’t seek a divorce soon and marry her, she’d drag my name through the parish and would cause such a scandal that no one would associate with me. I told her to go ahead, that I owed nothing to her and that the child wasn’t mine. This angered her more, and before Jean’s and Denise’s terrified eyes, she lunged at me with a knife she pulled from her reticule. I forced it from her, and then I picked her up and bodily hauled her from the house to her buggy.
“She was wide-eyed with loathing and hatred. I’ve never seen such a wild, crazy person. It was as if Simone had lost her good sense. Jean begged me not to cast her into the night like this, but I didn’t care. I wanted her gone from Petit Coteau and out of my life. Jean, as you know, is a kind and caring man. He jumped in the buggy beside Simone as she whipped the horse into action. They literally seemed to fly down the mud-slicked road. It was half an hour later that a servant came for me and told me he’d found the buggy overturned on the road. Jean had been injured, and Simone lay unconscious.”
Midnight Flame Page 34
