Nobody's Dream (17 page)

Next week, Eduardo said he would be speaking at a university conference in California. He must be some kind of international expert.
Impressive
.

“When I heard there had been an avalanche on Cassie’s mountain, I decided to check on her between my two conferences rather than after the last one as planned.”

“You could have called.” Cassie hadn’t said much until now, but her mood hadn’t improved.

“I tried, but there was no answer.”

She furrowed her brow at first. “Oh! I received a couple of missed calls with an area code I didn’t recognize, but there was no message so I assumed they were telemarketers.”

Eduardo shrugged and went back to eating, but Cassie had barely touched her meal. Luke removed the spoon from her hand and scooped up some soup. “Open wide.”

“I do not need you to feed me, Lucas.”

“I won’t if you feed yourself.” He placed the spoon back in her bowl and stared pointedly at her until she picked it up and began eating. She was way too thin from what he’d seen after she’d removed that damned bulky poncho and gone skin to skin with him in the shed.

Satisfied she would continue to eat, Luke turned his attention back to her brother, who scrutinized him more closely for some reason.

After she’d taken a few bites, he asked her, “So it was just the two of you as siblings?” Eduardo nodded. “I was an only child, but my wife was one of five. They drifted apart when she left home after college.” Okay, Luke was rambling, but he didn’t know what else to talk about. Obviously, the two of them weren’t going to talk to each other, and he only knew so much about earthquakes and volcanoes.

Cassie kept her gaze on her bowl and whispered, “That happens sometimes between siblings.” She glanced at her brother with longing before focusing on her soup again.

Clearly, something had caused the two to drift apart even before Eduardo had arrived on her doorstep. Why was her brother giving her a hard time for helping him recover from hypothermia? Hell, she’d rescued him—twice. While their sibling relationship problems were none of his concern, he hated seeing the yearning for acceptance and love just now in Cassie’s eyes. Apparently, she hoped in vain for something her brother couldn’t—or wouldn’t—give her.

Was he the reason Cassie didn’t want to visit her homeland again?

Luke kept Eduardo talking while surreptitiously watching Cassie empty her bowl.

Good girl.

The two siblings maintained their silence, but after a few more minutes, Luke’s curiosity took over. To no one in particular, he said, “Tell me what it was like growing up in Peru. Sounds exotic.”

*     *     *

Cassie smiled at Lucas. “Peru and the Andes in particular are very beautiful. The mountains are higher than here. That is probably the only thing exotic about the place. Where we lived, there were mostly miners—all men—and the women were domestics who worked for the mine owners or wives and mothers taking care of their own households.” She shrugged. “Not very exotic, I am afraid. Our father owned one of the smaller mines, but he is retired now.
Mamá
, who is Quechua—a member of a local native tribe—kept house for our family. She also performed shamanistic ceremonies for anyone interested in the old ways.”

“Shaman like the Native American healers?” Luke asked. Cassie nodded. “Perhaps you have some of your mother’s healing ways about you.”

Before she could negate his words, Eduardo interrupted. For a moment, she had forgotten he was here. “Casandra was raised Roman Catholic, the same as I.” Eduardo did not embrace his Quechua background.

But then Eduardo surprised her. “Cassie is a healer. She saved my life her last winter at home.” Eduardo had never acknowledged her helping him overcome the unexplained fever the month before the rape.

Lucas smiled at her. “I couldn’t agree more. She’s sure healed me a couple of times now.”

Embarrassed by their praise, she focused on her empty bowl without saying anything more. At least the conversation had turned to subjects other than—

“What are your intentions toward my sister?”

She sighed.
Intentions? Really, Eduardo?
The man refused to let it go. He was worse than a wolf feeding on a fresh carcass.

Rather than become defensive, Lucas smiled and turned to Cassie. “We have a lot in common. I think we’re becoming good friends.”

Sorry, Lucas. I cannot be friends with you.

“I found you naked and asleep with her.”

Enough!
Cassie slammed her spoon onto the table. “Eduardo, stop it! I explained to you why we were together that way.”

Eduardo glared at her. “I have seen how familiar he is with you—enticing you to eat, causing you to blush when he looks at you, calling you pet names.” Eduardo paused, and she hoped he would stop. But no. “There is something you are not telling me.”

He turned his focus on Lucas. “Have you taken advantage of my sister’s innocence?”

Well, that was a loaded question. Eduardo had found them naked in each other’s arms. Of course, nothing had happened, but Lucas paused too long, whether from shock or trying to find the right words, which only fueled Eduardo’s suspicions. Guilt and something she could not read were evident on Lucas’s face.

“I knew it.” Eduardo’s breathing grew shallow and rapid as he fisted his hand.

Would he attack Lucas? He would have to go through her to do so. Why did Lucas not simply reassure him that nothing had happened? Cassie set her lips in a straight line. She was not sure now if she wanted to deck her brother or Lucas before running to hide from both of them. Her chest rose and fell several times as her own breathing became more agitated.

In Spanish, Eduardo directed his next words at her. “As your brother and guardian, it is my place to make sure that your honor is upheld and that you are protected.”

Cassie glanced at Lucas, but he resumed eating without making eye contact. Did he understand Spanish and know what Eduardo had said? Was his lip twitching as if he fought bursting into laughter? Perhaps this was funny to him, but certainly not to her.

She decided to respond in Spanish, as well, just in case. “I am no longer under your protection. I have lived alone now for five years. The only way anything about me will be learned by our parents is if you take your lies back to them. I suggest you keep your conclusions to yourself and let me live my life as I see fit.”

Could this conversation make her any more uncomfortable—or angry? If only Eduardo knew he was too late to preserve something that no longer existed. Her innocence, honor, and reputation had been destroyed long ago—the night she snuck out of the house to go out with Pedro, looking for a little excitement after having so much fun clubbing with Kitty in New York City.

But she had no intention of enlightening him. Even if Pedro’s and Diego’s threats against her and her parents were idle ones, she would not take the chance of shaming her family with the knowledge of what she had allowed to happen by her own stupidity. Too much time had passed for her to prove she had been anything but a willing participant.

Cassie did not want to relive those memories by having to tell the story anyway. She had left that behind in Peru. Her honor could never be avenged, but she had no desire to have the filth smeared in her face again.

No man. No sex. No marriage.

She shuddered, speaking under her breath in Spanish, as rude as it was to Lucas. She feared her brother would say something about what he thought had happened that night with Pedro, only to embarrass her further. “Eduardo, if you say another word, I will kick you out of my house and never permit you to return. Do I make myself clear?”

Her words reverberated in her head as if through a megaphone. Had she really just stood up to her brother? Her hand shook from the enormity of it.

Lucas set his spoon down and took a deep breath before glaring at Eduardo. She had never seen him angry, but something seethed beneath the surface. “Cassie’s a grown woman, and what she chooses to do is up to her.”

No!
Now he made it sound as though they
had
been doing something they shouldn’t. “Lucas, tell him what happened. We have not been alone to corroborate our stories. As long as you tell the truth, he can see that I have not been lying to him.”

He grinned at her. “I’m coming to that part, darlin’.”

Stop calling me that, especially in front of Eduardo!

“Listen, your sister has done nothing to dishonor herself since the day we met last year. She—”

Instead of responding to him, Eduardo addressed her with steely eyes. “You have known him for a year? I thought you said you just met with some friends a couple of weeks ago.”

Cassie slammed her fist on the table, rattling the spoons in the bowls. “Eduardo, stop this immediately! Nothing happened! We hardly know each other!”

“But I found you in bed together. There is something you are not telling me.”

Fine time for his psychic abilities to surface. There were a lot of things she had not told Eduardo, but when it came to Lucas, she had been completely honest.

Now he twisted her words, attempting to trip her up. She glared at him before venturing one more time to prove her innocence. Through gritted teeth, she explained again. “We first met last September through my friend and college roommate Kitty. You remember her from your visits to me at Columbia?”

“The Goth singer?”

“Yes, but she is not as Goth anymore. She will soon become a mother and sings at her husband’s um…private club in Denver now.”

Best not to mention what kind of club.

“Anyway, some friends of hers were hanging out near here recently, and Kitty asked me to join them. We do not see each other very much anymore. I told you about this gathering already. Lucas happened to be among them. He and I had not seen each other since last October. No, I mean, December.” He flustered her to the point she had completely forgotten about their brief encounter at her first gallery opening.

Eduardo opened his mouth to pounce at her slip of the tongue. Why was he being so accusatory? Why assume she was being anything but honest with him?

Did he know she had lied to her family about the rape?

Her soup refluxed into her throat.

“Stop badgering your sister.” Lucas’s hand reached out to hers, but she pulled away. This was no time for him to display what Eduardo would interpret as Lucas being her solicitous lover.

Cassie glanced at Lucas, imploring him not to make matters worse, but he was not finished with Eduardo yet and ignored her. “She’s told you what happened. Why do you refuse to listen to what she’s saying?”

Eduardo stood and stared down at him. “If you were any kind of man, you would protect her reputation by doing the right thing.”

Lucas also stood, more slowly, his chair scraping on the linoleum floor. Her brother was several inches shorter than Lucas, but drew himself up to his full height in an attempt to intimidate Lucas anyway.

Without success. “I think you owe your sister an apology.”

Goddess, they are going to come to blows.

“Please, Lucas. Sit down. I can handle this.” Not that she was making any headway with her stubborn brother, either. The two men’s demeanors infested her home with negative energy. Well, not Lucas so much as Eduardo.

After a long, tense moment, Lucas complied and sat. She faced her brother and smiled, hoping to diffuse his anger. “I realize you think you saw something inappropriate this morning, but it was not what you think. I have explained what happened. If you choose not to believe me…”

Eduardo narrowed his gaze at Cassie and addressed her in rapid Spanish. “If
Papá
had seen what I saw this morning, he would demand that you marry this man immediately to save your honor and reputation.”

Cassie stood so quickly her chair tumbled backward.
No one
would coerce her into marrying against her will. She had avoided one such arranged marriage already. Thank the Goddess she had never told Eduardo or her family about the rape. Otherwise, she might have found herself married off to Pedro by now, her life—no, her very soul—destroyed.

Her family did not control her actions any longer. Of course, her parents’ generous monetary gifts helped pay her living expenses. Because it was still early in her career, Cassie needed time to build up her savings. She had hoped last year’s gallery exhibition would be more successful than it had been and had been forced to schedule another one next month. Peddling her artwork was a necessary evil. She found much more joy in her studio creating the works than smiling at people as they scrutinized her art and decided whether they would pay to take something home.

What if the upcoming gallery showing was unsuccessful? And her parents cut her off because she refused to return home or to marry Lucas?

The walls closed in around her. Her hands grew damp, and she fisted them at her sides. In Spanish, albeit with false bravado, she spoke through her clenched teeth, “Lucas will not be forced to marry me. And I will not be returning to Peru.”

She hoped to keep Eduardo from further intimidation tactics. Lucas struck her as the kind of man who would defend a woman’s honor if he thought he had been responsible for damaging it.

But nothing immoral had happened between them! What man would allow himself to be coerced into marriage without anything in it for him? Eduardo would never be able to shackle Lucas with a defective, unwilling, frigid wife.

No, marriage for her was out of the question. End of discussion.

Memories of being held in Lucas’s arms last night—touching him even—left her confused. What if…

No. Out of the question.

She had no interest in marrying—ever.

Chapter Five