Sweet Silken Bondage (58 page)

"When I found him at the saloon, shortly after
his fight with Nathan, he told me he was just on
his way out here to see you. On the ride here,
when I tried to persuade him, in a not so subtle
fashion, to do the right thing by you, he got very
angry. That was when he told me that he didn't
need to be coerced into marrying you. That he had
loved you from the first time you met."

"Clay really said that?" Her eyes were still brimming with tears, but they were tears of happiness
now.

"Yes, he did. He loves you, Reina, and he's a
fine man...a man of honor."

"I know ...Oh, yes, I know," she told him, a
happy laugh bubbling up inside of her. "Father, I
have to go after him! I have to find him quickly
and tell him I'm sorry!"

Luis chuckled as she moved out of his embrace.
"Get dressed then, while I have the carriage brought
around."

"I don't want the carriage! That's too slow! Have
them bring my horse. I've got to get to Clay as fast
as I can."

"It is the middle of the night, you know."

Reina flashed her father a triumphant smile as
she headed for the doorway on her way to her room
to get dressed. "Would the lateness of the hour have
stopped you from going after Mother, had she left
you?"

"No," he answered, remembering how he'd felt
about his dear wife.

"Then how can you expect me to sit here and
wait for a suitable hour? I am your daughter, you
know."

"Yes, Reina, my love, you are my daughter."

With a light-hearted laugh, she raced from the
room, leaving her father smiling happily behind her.

Clay sat at a table in the nearly deserted Perdition, an open bottle of bourbon and a half-empty
glass before him. Reina had lied. Everything had been a
lie...The words kept tumbling through his mind,
taunting him, scalding him with the white-hot truth
...the truth that had been burned into his consciousness by his mother long ago and that he
should never have forgotten.

He realized now that he'd been wrong to ever
have imagined things could be different. There was
only one kind of woman that could be trusted, and
that was a woman like Frenchie or Josie. They, at
least, were honest and upfront about their motives.
You paid ahead of time in cold, hard cash, and you
got exactly what you paid for. Involvement with
them didn't cost you your very soul as it did with
women like his mother or Reina.

Clay felt isolated. It was difficult enough dealing
with Reina's deception, but now he didn't even have
Dev. He thought of home, of his father. He understood then that they were far more alike than he'd
thought. For all his vows that what happened to his
father wouldn't happen to him, it had.

The recognition of his weakness was not a soothing one, and he took another stiff drink. As he
downed the liquor, he thought it odd that he'd been sitting there, trying to drink himself to forgetfulness
for the better part of an hour, and he had yet to
feel any effects from his efforts. Reina still dominated his thoughts ...Reina and his love for her.
It irritated him. He poured another glass.

Frenchie had been surprised when Clay had returned to the saloon that same night. She hadn't
expected to see him again so soon. She'd figured
he'd be on his way to the altar with the rich
Alvarez girl by now, and she found herself wondering if something had gone wrong. The temptation
to approach him was powerful, but his earlier coolness kept her waiting at the bar.

"What do you think, George?" she asked the
bartender quietly. "Think I should go talk to him?"

George turned pale. "I wouldn't mess with that
man, if I were you, Frenchie. He's a hard one, and
he looks plumb mad to me."

She glanced over at Clay, seeing the hard set of
his jaw and the tense line of his body that was not
betrayed by the way he was sitting slumped in his
chair.

"You always were a coward," she told him with a
soft laugh. "I like Clay, and I'm going to find out
what's going on" Taking her own drink with her,
she moved off across the room to come stand beside
Clay. When he didn't look up right away, she slid
into the chair opposite him. Her greeting was a
sultry, "Hi, Clay."

"Hello, Frenchie," he answered distractedly, his
thoughts preoccupied.

"You're looking lonely, sitting here all by yourself.
You want some company?"

Clay was of a mind to decline, but then thought
better of it. Frenchie was a good-hearted woman.
He knew what was on her mind. "Sure, why not?"

She leaned forward, giving him a clear view of
her cleavage as she spoke. "Is everything all right with you? The way you rushed out of here before
with old man Alvarez, I kinda thought we'd seen
the last of you."

Clay forced a smile. "I'm fine. Why?"

"You look a little down, is all, but I'm glad there
isn't anything troubling you."

"Not a thing," he lied. "Want a drink?"

"Sure." She held out her glass while he poured
her a healthy shot. She took a drink, then gave him
a flirtatious smile. "Good stuff, I like your taste in
liquor."

"Thanks."

"I like you, too, Clay." Frenchie paused, her eyes
meeting his, letting him read there exactly what she
was wanting. They had had a good time together all
those weeks ago before he'd left town, and she was
eager to have him back in her bed again. "You
want to bring the bottle and come upstairs with
me? We could have some fun..."

Clay wanted to go upstairs, but he wanted to go
to his own room, alone just him and his bottle of
bourbon. He liked Frenchie, but Reina was the
only woman he desired. In spite of everything, he
still loved her. There would be no point in trying to
erase her memory with another woman. He knew
without even trying that it wouldn't work.

"I think I'll go on up, but I'm going alone,
Frenchie," he told her affectionately. "You're a gorgeous woman, but tonight I just need to be by
myself." He pushed his chair back and stood up.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure." He picked up his bottle and glass and
started to leave.

Frenchie wasn't about to let him go that easily.
She got up, too, and grabbed his arm when he
would have moved off.

"Good night, Clay," she said as she looped her
arms around his neck and planted a warm kiss on his lips.

Clay accepted her embrace. He felt no rousing
passion, no driving need. When she let him go, he
gave her a sweet-sad smile.

"Good night, Frenchie." With that, he headed up
the stairs to his rented room.

The saloon girl watched him mount the steps,
thinking it might be worth her effort to wait a few
minutes and then go knock on his door. Worst that
could happen would be that he'd tell her good night
again.

Reina rode like the wind through the starlit early
morning hours. Her heart was pounding excitedly
as she anticipated seeing him again and telling him
that she loved him. The miles melted away as she
gave her horse full rein. She knew she was driving
her mount hard, but she didn't care. Only Clay was
important now... only Clay.

When the lights of Monterey appeared ahead of
her, she was thrilled. Soon, they would be together!
Soon, she would tell him the truth and everything
would be fine.

Her father had told her that Clay had taken a
room at the Perdition Saloon, and so she rode
directly there. She knew she was going to have to
be brazen to enter the place. Lord knows, ladies of
her stature in the community did not frequent these
types of establishments, but she knew the prize
waiting for her there was worth it.

Reina reined in before the saloon and slipped
from the saddle. She was trembling as she hurried
toward the entrance. As she neared the swinging
doors, she paused, wanting to get a look inside
before she went rushing in. As she peeked over the
top of one door, she gasped. There in the middle of
the room stood Clay, and one of the saloon girls was kissing him!

Anger seared her. But it was not anger with Clay,
it was anger with herself. It was all her fault that he
was kissing someone else. She'd driven him to it.
She'd be damned, though, if she was going to let
that other woman have him. Clay was hers!

A hideous prospect penetrated her indignation.
She might claim Clay as hers, but what if he didn't
want her? She almost wouldn't blame him, after all
the trouble she'd caused him, but she intended to
make it up to him, just as soon as they talked and
straightened everything out.

Reminding herself that Clay had told her he
loved her when he'd proposed, bolstered Reina's
confidence. She glanced inside again, just in time to
see Clay disappear upstairs, alone. The saloon girl
was watching him from the foot of the steps.

Reina wasn't sure if his going upstairs ahead of
the girl was good or bad. Was he really going to
bed for the night or was he expecting her to follow
him a little later? She wasn't sure how these things
were arranged by men in this type of situation.
When she saw the girl start up the steps after him a
moment later, she knew she wasn't going to wait
around to find out. If Clay wanted a woman, he
was going to get one-Her! Assuming her proudest,
most arrogant manner in the hopes that no one
would dare interfere with her, Reina walked right
on into the saloon.

"Which room is Mr. Cordell's?" she asked George,
regally.

The bartender looked up, shocked, to find the
fine Miss Reina Alvarez standing in the middle of
his saloon. He had seen her from a distance before,
but never up this close, and he decided that she was
even better looking than he'd thought. She was
wearing a white blouse, leather riding skirt, matching vest and riding boots that hugged her shapely calves. The outfit emphasized her luscious curves,
and her hair ...oh her hair! What a man
wouldn't want to do with those silken tresses...
George gulped twice trying to find his voice to
answer her.

"Well?" Reina demanded, wondering at his
speechlessness. Her brown eyes were flashing at him
now in impatience.

"Twenty," he finally answered.

"Thank you," she said curtly.

A moment before Reina had entered, Frenchie
had started up the steps just to see if she couldn't
change Clay's mind. Seeing the Alvarez girl now,
though, she knew she didn't have a chance. She
stopped, hand on the railing, and waited for Reina
to pass by.

Reina, her head held high as if daring anyone to
stop her, strode purposefully across the room. As
she passed the saloon girl on the steps, she'd intended to give her a frosty look, but the other
woman's expression was so friendly and so amused,
she found she could only smile at her.

"It's on the right, three doors down," Frenchie
offered helpfully.

"Thanks," Reina whispered in reply.

"Make him happy..."

"I'm going to try," she promised, then hurried the
rest of the way up to the top and moved out of
view down the hall.

Frenchie returned to the bar and waited patiently
while George poured her a drink. "Lucky woman,"
she sighed.

"Lucky man," the bartender answered.

They both took one last glance up the staircase,
then turned their thoughts to other things.

Clay lay on the bed, the lamp turned down low, his mood even lower. The knock at the door both
startled and irritated him. He'd thought he'd made
it plain to Frenchie that he wasn't in the mood. He
didn't want to be bothered right now. He just
wanted to be left alone.

"Yeah?" he called out, not even wanting to get up
and answer it.

"It's me, Clay," came the muffled woman's voice in
answer. "Open the door."

He expected it to be Frenchie, therefore, he
didn't even consider that it could be anyone else.
Exasperated by her persistence in the face of his
refusal, he got up and went to open the door so he
could tell her that it was nothing personal, but that
he just wasn't interested tonight.

"Frenchie, I told you downstairs that I needed to
be alone tonight. Why -" He stopped in mid-sentence as he swung the door wide and came face to
face with Reina. His eyes widened in shock. She
was absolutely the last person he'd expected to see,
and the one person he'd longed to see. His heart
leapt at the sight of her. "Reina?"

Reina's heart nearly burst with joy at his words.
He hadn't wanted the other woman! She was
thrilled.

"Hello, Clay," she said softly. "May I come in?"

He studied her for a moment, not wanting to
question his good fortune, then stepped aside and
waved her in. "Why the hell not?"

"Clay..." She heard the coldness in his voice
and turned to him beseechingly. "Clay ...I came
to tell you that I love you, and I'm sorry."

He looked profoundly stunned by her announcement.

"Look," Reina rushed on. "I know you have absolutely no reason to believe me, but it's true."