Native Silver (21 page)

She froze in horror, one hand on the curtain cord, the other at her throat, desperately praying
that she’d made a mistake but afraid to look to see if
she had. In the meantime, David woke up.

“What the hell . . . ?”
 

He sat up in the bed,
pushing a hand through his ruffled hair with the thrust of a very annoyed man. She looked at him,
then away again, quickly. The way he was sitting,
she couldn’t see Megan beside him.

“You lied to me,” she forced out throatily. She
was hanging on to the curtains now, instead of
ripping them open. They were all that was holding
her up. “All you do is lie . . .”

“Shawnee?”

He was getting out of bed and he had absolutely
nothing on.

“Don’t come near me!” she cried, turning away but still clinging to the curtains, and still clinging to her anger. “How could you be so cruel to a de
fenseless old man? What kind of a monster are you?”

“Shawnee . . .” He was padding up behind her on
his bare feet and she closed her eyes, jerking her
face away. Her feelings were getting muddled and
she didn’t know if she was more angry for what
was going on at home, or for finding Megan in his
bed.

“How can you do this in front of both of us?” she
hissed, referring to his nakedness. “Put something
on!”

“Both of us?” He stopped, grabbed a robe from a
nearby chair, slipped his arms through the cloth
and turned to her again. “Maybe I’m still asleep,” he
growled, coming up behind her and taking both
shoulders in his hands, “but I only see you and me.
Did you bring someone else along?”

She whirled, glaring at him, refusing to look at
the bed, even though she could see the blonde hair, still spread out across the pillow, out of the corner of her eye. “You know very well who I’m talking about,” she said evenly. “And this time I’ll say what I came to say right in front of her!”

“Him,” David’s eyes were sober, but that devil was gleaming in them again.

“Him?” she asked suspiciously, sure he was pull
ing something over on her. “What are you talking
about?”

“It’s a him, not a her,” he said pleasantly, his
hands on her shoulders again, massaging gently.
“Just correcting your grammar, that’s all.”

He was teasing her, and she was furious. She wrenched herself out of his grasp and turned fully to face the woman on the bed. The blonde hair moved slightly and one small, bugged eye peered out from beneath, blinked, and closed again.

“Hank!” she breathed in shock. “It’s that dog of yours!”

“Of course.” He grinned wickedly. “Who did you
think it was?”

She stared at him in confusion. He’d tripped her
up again, destroying the urgency of her anger. She
couldn’t let it be diffused. “You . . . !” she began
angrily, but he waved her to silence.

“Let’s do this in private, shall we?” he suggested.
He scooped up the dog, who still pretended to be asleep, deposited him gently but firmly out on the
hall carpet, and closed the door to his bedroom.
When he turned back to her, his eyes were glitter
ing in the gloomy light.

“Now,” he said silkily, “What was it you wanted to
see me about so early in the morning?”

He was walking towards her, the light robe bare
ly tied about his waist, exposing a deep slash of
well-tanned chest. She fumbled for the curtain
cord, wanting to open the thick curtains and fill the
room with new sunshine. Somehow, she thought
that might protect her.

“You broke your promise,” she said at the same time. “You lied to me. You never intended to keep
your end of the bargain.”

“What do you mean?” He reached her before she
found the cord and pulled her into the room, his hands on her upper arms. “You’re babbling,
Shawnee. I don’t have a clue as to what you’re so
upset about.”

“The men!” she cried, anger flooding back. She stared up at him, tears shimmering in her eyes. “The
surveyors. They arrived this morning, ready to
mark off my grandfather’s land and put a road
through the middle of his soul.”

“You knew that was inevitable,” he said, pulling
her slowly closer. “I never said he could keep that land.” He shrugged in what seemed to her a callous way. “The agreement is up and my commitment to
my father is overdue.”

“But you promised!” she cried, staring up into his
dark eyes.

“No. I never promised that.”

“Then what was your ‘bargain’ all about?”

“Come here.” He drew her towards the bed and
she followed, slightly dazed, not really paying
attention to what he was doing, only to what he was
saying. “I’ll explain it all.”

“You said you’d do what I wanted most, if I would do what you wanted.”

He nodded, running a hand down the length of
her bare arm. “That’s right,” he agreed huskily. “You wanted your grandfather taken care of, protected. Isn’t that true?”

She took a deep breath, shivering under his touch. “What I really want is for him to have
Rancho Verde back,” she reminded him. “But I am a realist. He’s lived on that little slice of the ranch
for forty years. He should at least be allowed to die
there.”

“Don’t talk about dying,” David said, frowning. “Let’s give him something to live for.”

She shook her head, trying to read his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ve bought him a ranch of his own,” David said
simply. “It’s on the other side of the valley, near Clear Springs. It’s small, but it’s a working ranch
with a full crew of hands and a manager, a nice little
ranch house with a full staff of servants. He can run
things to his heart’s content, and when he doesn’t
feel like running them, he can leave it to the manager I’ve hired.”

For a long moment she was sure he must be
teasing her again. What he’d outlined was insane, totally unworkable. Did he really expect her to
believe he’d done such a crazy thing?

“You’re not serious.”

“I’m very serious. He can move in right away.”

“Why …. . why would you do something like this?
It must have cost you a fortune.”

His grin was lopsided. “Santiagos have fortunes to spare. Aren’t you always telling me
that?” The grin faded as he realized she wasn’t
smiling back. “Besides, I wanted to prove to you that it isn’t the money that’s involved here. I know
my family can afford to leave your father where he
is for years to come. But that’s not the point. My father had plans to develop that side of the valley, and his dreams must go forward.” His gaze darkened, and he grimaced, forcing back emotions of his own. He cleared hi throat and went on. “The last thing he
said to me on the night he died was, ‘David, I leave
the valley project in your hands’.” He looked
away for a moment, blinking rapidly. “I can’t fail
him.”

She closed her eyes. Was there no hope, then?

“I’ll help you get your grandfather moved this
afternoon.”

She shook her head slowly. “No,” she whispered.
“He won’t go.”

“Sure he will.”

“No. Don’t you understand?” She looked at him bitterly. “It’s not having a ranch. It’s not ordering a
bunch of men around. It’s living on a piece of land that’s full of your own sweat and blood. Take him
away from his land, and he will die.”

David frowned. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he was afraid that she was probably right. He’d known all along this would be a long shot. And in truth, he’d done it more to prove to her that his heart was in the right place than anything else. So if it blew up in his face, who was the loser?

He was. Oh yes, he was. And he knew it.
 

“I think you’re being a bit melodramatic.”

“Melodramatic? I’ll show you melodramatic!”
She turned on him in fury. “Don’t you understand
the kind of love he feels? Don’t you know anything
about that sort of passion?”

“Maybe not.” He took hold of her. “Maybe I’m
blind in that area.” His eyes were smoldering with
a fire she’d never seen there before, startling her. “But there’s a type of passion I do understand. And I think you
do, too.”

She knew what he was talking about and her heart, already pounding from her anger, began to drum to a new beat, a tune that sang with excite
ment. She was angry with him—in a way, she
almost hated him for what he was doing to her
grandfather. And yet, another part of her loved
him. She’d admitted it to herself, and knew it was
something she was going to have to learn to live
with. She loved him, and with that love came a
powerful yearning for his touch, his closeness, his
love in return.
 

She ached for him. How could she
ever resist his lovemaking?

She thought she wanted to avoid his kiss, but when his mouth
lowered to hers, she was waiting, breathless, as
though she’d been waiting this way all her life. And
maybe she had.

She hadn’t meant to let this happen—this wild ascent into the danger zone. In fact, when she’d
first come, she would have said there was no way it
could occur at all. That her defenses were strong,
much too strong for any sort of sensual assault
David might plan. But she would have been wrong.

It was no use telling herself that she hated him, that she was angry and determined to fight. His warm mouth was caressing the tender skin of her neck and her heart refused to hear her protests. It
listened instead to the persuasive music of his
ragged breath in her ear, his thundering heartbeat
against her chest.

His large hands moved across her with hypnotiz
ing certainty, numbing her fears, stirring her
senses. She gasped at the unerring accuracy of his
quest for her most sensitive spots, gasped and
turned in his arms, opening herself to his embrace.

She heard the zipper of her sunsuit slide down as
far as it would go, and then the two sides were open, peeling back like the skin of some exotic
fruit, displaying the tempting delicacy hidden underneath. She was lying on the bed now, and David was beside her. As though in a dream, she put out her hand and watched his robe fall away at
her touch. His body was long and lean, black-edged
with silver in the dim light of the still-curtained room, a jungle cat gathering strength for a plunge into the mysterious darkness.

And then she couldn’t see anything any longer. Her eyes were closed, her head was thrown back, and every other sense was alive to the movement of his tongue across her skin, teasing her nipples into taut peaks, tickling the valley between her breasts, filling her navel with warm delight.

“Oooh, David,” she moaned, digging her fingers into his thick hair. “Hold me, hold me.”

“I’ll hold you, my Indian maiden,” he whispered, his voice low and husky with desire. “I’ll hold you so tightly, you’ll never get loose again.”

He touched her nipples again, making her writhe, then his hands fell and cupped her bottom, pulling her close into the heat of his hips, pressing her nakedness to his, throwing his head back and groaning as his own passion rose.

“Tell me you love me,” he whispered huskily, very close to her ear.
 

“What?” She tried to look at him was the red heat of desire was filling her gaze and she was all hunger, all confusion. “What?”

“Tell me you love me. Say it.”

Of course she would say it. There wasn’t anything in her but love for him. That was all she was, all she wanted. She would live for him, die for him.
 

“Oh, I love you! I love you. I need you. Oh please…”

He came inside her with a strength and a slashing flair, like a pirate taking over a tall ship and she arched high, accepting him with wonder. He groaned, his breathing a rasp against her ear as he shuddered in a rhythm of love, moving in a crescendo of exquisite sensation that sent her spiraling into a starry sky of ecstasy. "Oh!" she cried out with a fulfillment she’d never felt before. She’d waited so long, and now that she had him, she would never let him go. She would hold him and caress him and love him and pleasure him forever and ever and …..
 

Her mind was hardly conscious, a mere jumble of color and sound. But slowly, as her writhing stilled, the events of the morning came back to haunt her, one by one. She was dimly aware that she’d lost sight of her purpose here. Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, she was lost, tumbling, head over heels, into an alien land. If she didn’t do something to stop her fall, she might never find her way to the top again. She pushed at him, staring blearily. She wanted him to hold her forever—but she couldn’t reign in her anger. This was all his fault. She closed her eyes and tried to make sense of it all.
 

“David! Are you awake?”

There was a loud pounding on the bedroom door that almost bounced them off the bed. Shawnee’s eyes flew wide open and suddenly everything was all too real.

David’s muffled curse held not a hint of humor. “Not now, Allison,” he called out. “Go away.”