A Lady of the West Read online

  “I heard Ben say—” she began raggedly, and he held up a warning hand to stop her.

  So he hadn’t planned to kill her. That was nice to know, but what she really needed to hear was that he had married her because he loved her, not because it was the only way he could get the ranch. Her throat hurt with the strain of holding back the words, but she wouldn’t beg. “Yes, I understand,” she finally said. “You planned this from the beginning?” She swept her hand in a gesture that meant everything: the ranch, McLain … herself… everything he had done, even making love to her the night before. Had he thought that she would go more docilely to the wedding if he had already taken her to bed? If so, he had perhaps been right. She didn’t want to believe that his passion had been calculated, but she couldn’t deny that she felt irrevocably bound to him.

  “Pretty much.” He saw no reason not to tell her. “I was thirteen and Ben was eleven when McLain killed our parents and took the ranch. He thought he’d killed us, but we hid, and somehow lived. Ben was shot up worse than I was, and I thought he was going to die, too. We planned this for twenty years, working, saving money, practicing for hours and days and years with guns so we’d be good enough to take it back. Nothing was going to stand in our way.”

  “And nothing did.” She added softly, “I do understand. The ranch is more important to you than anything else.”

  She waited, hoping he would deny it, that he would kiss her in that quick, fierce way of his and tell her that she was more important to him than any ranch. But he didn’t, and she closed her eyes. It was a moment before she trusted her voice enough to speak again. “What would you have done if I hadn’t agreed to marry you?”

  He shrugged. “It didn’t happen. No need to worry about it.”

  A cold wave swept over her, making her shiver. He misinterpreted the cause and pulled her closer, stroking his hand up her side.

  “Cold?”

  “No.” Not on the outside. Inside, she felt frostbitten, but the words she needed still remained unsaid. “I’ll get you warm.”

  She heard the heat in his deep voice and her heart immediately began beating faster. Her body, it seemed, had already learned to anticipate the pleasure of his possession. She tilted her head back against his shoulder and gave him a pleading look.

  “Jake .. .”

  He didn’t answer. He caught her thigh and pulled her leg over his hips, then angled inward. This time he entered easily, but her breath still caught in her lungs at the shock of penetration. The muscles in her entire lower body tightened and clamped down in eager anticipation, holding him, shaping themselves around him. She had no power to do anything else but cling to him.

  Later, content, he lay on his stomach and went to sleep. Victoria stared up at the ceiling, the ashes of her very personal defeat bitter in her mouth.

  The next day Luis entered the barn and caught sight of a bit of cloth as someone darted into an empty stall. He paused, waiting until his eyesight had completely adjusted to the relative dimness of the barn. Whoever it was had been near the stallion, Rubio, who was a fine-looking horse but also one of the meanest ones Luis had ever seen. Jake had big plans for that horse; he wouldn’t take it kindly if anyone was foolin’ with it.

  Luis bent down and stuck a length of straw into each of his spurs to keep them from jingling. He silently pulled iron and eased down the center of the barn, cat-light on the balls of his feet.

  He heard a sound, only the slightest of rustles, and moved toward it. His thumb eased the hammer back. He looked between the slats of the gate and stopped, puzzled. What was that patch of material? It looked like a skirt.

  With a sigh he returned pistol to holster and walked forward to prop his arms on the top of the gate.

  “Miss Waverly,” he said politely. “Do you need help with something?”

  The girl had been holding herself painfully still; he could see it in the taut lines of her body. Some game she was playing? But she jumped when he spoke, and the face she turned toward him was stark with fear.

  “No,” she said, scrambling to her feet. Bits of hay clung to her skirt. She stood in the middle of the stall, and the fear didn’t leave her face. She was like a cornered fawn poised for flight.

  Luis, though only twenty-two, had been earning his way with his gun for a long time. He was as lethal as a diamondback rattler, as too many men had found out to their cost. He couldn’t remember, ever, any softness or love in his life, but in his early childhood there must have been a loving mother, one who had cradled her infant to her breast and crooned sweet songs to him, because Luis loved women. He loved the way they looked, smelled, tasted, walked, sounded, felt. Young or old, whore or spinster, slim or plump, from giggly schoolgirls to bawdy saloon girls to starchy matrons, he reserved for them, one and all, his sweetest smile and most liquid voice. He was used to all of them responding to him, even if it was only an involuntary softening of the eyes.

  So why was this incredibly beautiful young girl staring at him in terror?

  It piqued him. It hurt his ego. It softened his heart, because he didn’t want her to be frightened of anyone or anything. Women, to Luis, were put on earth to be enjoyed and cherished. He wanted to put his arms around the girl and swear to her that everything would be all right, that he, Luis, would protect her with his life.

  Instead he smiled, exerting his considerable charm, and held himself very still. “Were you looking at the horse, chica? He’s beautiful, isn’t he?”

  Her eyes were dark blue, like the deep depths of the ocean. Luis had been to California and had seen that wonderful color. His entire body tingled in reaction to her beauty. But still she stared blankly at him, not responding to the warm reassurance in his voice and smile.

  Luis moved back a step, giving her more room. “My name is Luis. Luis Fronteras.” He had no idea what his real last name was, but had chosen, when he was still a child, the name of the village where he lived in the streets.

  Her eyes flickered a little.

  “It was very brave of you to try to escape across such land,” he continued soothingly. “Three women alone, and at night! I admired you very much. I wished to tell you that you were safe now, that we wanted only to protect you, not harm you.”

  “I wasn’t brave,” Celia finally said in a thin little voice. “I was terrified. Victoria is the brave one.”

  Ah, the older sister, Jake’s new wife. She was indeed formidable, with her haughty chin and cool blue eyes.

  “Yes, she is very brave,” he said with real admiration. “Where were you going?”

  “We wanted to go south toward Santa Fe, but we knew riders were coming in from the south so we couldn’t. Victoria said that there are Indians to the east, so we went west and were going to turn south in the morning, when we were well away from the ranch.”

  A plan, Luis thought, that could well have worked if they had been more used to the land. He nodded his head and reached out to open the stall door, sweeping it wide and standing back to give her plenty of room. “And the other pretty lady, the one with the beautiful brown eyes—she is your cousin?”

  He knew well enough she was, but he wanted to keep her talking.

  Celia nodded, taking a couple of steps toward the open gate but halting before she got too close to him. “Emma. She came to live with us in Augusta several years ago, during the war. Uncle Rufus and Aunt Helen had died, and Emma’s fiancé was killed in the war, and she had nowhere to go. Emma is brave, too.”

  “All three of you are very brave.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not brave at all. I was so scared and all I wanted to do was hide. Victoria and Emma said we must leave, so that Garnet and the Major couldn’t… couldn’t hurt me.”

  The blind look was back in her eyes and with a spurt of anger Luis understood. It was inevitable, really. She was so beautiful, how could any man look at her and not want her? Like everyone else in the territory, Luis had known McLain and Garnet by reputation, and he could guess what they must ha