“It could be dangerous. You will not be welcome on del Robles land.”
“I do not care. I will wait for darkness, then go in. Somehow I will convince her to forgive me.”Perhaps one day you will discover the truth… by then it will be too late.
Ramon’s stomach knotted.Too late. Too late. Too late.As much as he prayed it wouldn’t be so, if it was, he could not blame her. Never had he brought her anything but grief. Silently he vowed that if she would forgive him, he would spend the rest of his life making up for the pain she had suffered since the day that she had first met him.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Carly sat at her dressing table, absently drawing the silver-backed hairbrush through her long dark auburn hair. The whale-oil lamp burned low, casting her face in shadows, flickering on the whitewashed walls of the low-ceilinged room.
She was thinking of the past, of her days at Las Almas and the people she cared for. She was worried about Two Hawks, hoping the marks on his back had healed. She wondered if Ramon’s mother and Tia Teresa had started making soap from the tallow they had rendered. She hoped the old women wouldn’t work themselves too hard. She thought of Rey del Sol and little Bajito, of Pedro Sanchez and Florentia and the others in the stronghold.
She thought of Ramon and wondered if, now that Miranda had gone, he was once more sleeping with Isabel Montoya… or perhaps he had found someone new.
The image brought a swift shot of pain. Carly forced her thoughts in another direction, unfortunately one not so distant from those she’d just had of Ramon. Tomorrow her uncle and a dozen of his men would be leaving del Robles to join Captain Harry Love and his vigilantes—Hounds, they called them. This time, they believed, they would find the Spanish Dragon and finally bring him in.
Carly shivered to think of it. She shifted on the stool and glanced in the mirror just in time to see the curtains billow. A long, lean leg encased in snug black breeches thrust over the window sill and for several long moments, Carly’s breathing ceased.
“Ramon,” she whispered as his head ducked through the opening. She was on her feet in seconds, rushing to the night stand beside her bed, jerking open the drawer and grabbing the old single-shot cap-and-ball pistol her mother had given her after her father had died and they had been left all alone. The gun she’d brought with her around the Horn.
With shaking hands she aimed it in Ramon’s direction, watched him straighten to his full imposing height, and a corner of his sensuous mouth kicked up.
“So, now you wish to shoot me.”
“Believe it or not, I know how. I also know what you want and I’m not about to let you drag me off to Llano Mirada. You’re not going to make me your whore.”
The smile slid away. “That is what you think?”
“Th-that’s what you said the last time. That Miranda was gone and you needed a w-whore.”
His expression grew grim. “Miranda has returned, but it would not matter. You are my wife, not my whore.”
“That isn’t what you said before.” The gun shook in her hands, her fingers suddenly damp and clammy, making it difficult to grip the handle.
He straightened even more. “Either pull the trigger, Cara, or put the gun away before one of us gets hurt.”
She clamped her jaw. The pistol shook a moment more, then she sighed and let the hand holding it drop to her side. “All right, maybe I can’t shoot you, but I still won’t let you drag me out of here. I’ll scream the house down if you take one step in my direction.”
His mouth curved faintly. “I have missed you,querida.It has been far too dull at Las Almas without you.”
“What do you want?” She glared at him, her body tense and ready to run if she had to. She wasn’t about to let him abduct her again, to use her body and humiliate her with the desire shestill felt for him, desire which already slid through her veins like melted butter just at the fact he was near.
“I came to talk, nothing more. There are things I wish to say… difficult things for a man like me. I only hope that you will listen.” Why was he looking at her that way, his dark eyes searching and full of tenderness? It made her insides quiver, make a soft ache swell inside her heart.
He took a step closer, but Carly backed away. “I mean it, Ramon. I’ll scream for my uncle. There’ll be a dozen men in this room before you can get near me.”
“Do it, then. Perhaps it is your wish to see me dead. If that is so, I would not blame you.” He started moving closer, his long strides slow but determined.
“I’ll scream, I swear it!”
He only kept walking until he stood right in front of her. “I do not think so.” He eased the gun from her limp hand, set it on the dresser behind him.
“Damnit—I hate you! I loathe you with every ounce of my heart and soul.” And in that moment she did. She hated him for making her love him. She hated him for making her blood pulse wildly at the sight of him standing there so tall and male.
“Perhaps you do. As I said, I would not blame you.”
“What do you want? Why did you come here?”
His hand came up to her cheek. She noticed that it trembled. “So many reasons… so much I want. Yet I will have none of those things if I cannot make you see.”