Tender Triumph

by Judith McNaught

  "Do you have any idea, senorita, how much strength and courage it takes for a man to return to his birthplace, not as a success, but as a failure? Do you realize what it does to his pride when he must face people who all believed he had left them and achieved success—and who will now see that he has come back defeated?"

  "I don't think Ramon feels defeated or dis­graced," Katie protested.

  Padre Gregorio's hand hit the desk with a crash. "No, he was not disgraced—but he is going to be, thanks to you! Thanks to you, everyone in this village is going to be saying that his rich novia from the United States had to pay for the towels so he could wipe his hands!"

  "No one knows that I've been paying for half of everything!" Katie burst out. "Except you, and— no one," she amended quickly, protecting Gabriella.

  "No one, except you and I," he mocked scathing­ly. "And Gabriella Alverez, of course. And half the village who are this minute gossiping about it to the other half! Do I make myself clear?"

  Miserably, Katie nodded.

  "Gabriella has obviously kept it secret from Eduardo, or he would have told Ramon. You have forced her to deceive her own husband for you!"

  Apprehensively, Katie watched him trying to get control of his temper. "Senorita Connelly, is there the remotest, the slightest possibility that you thought Ramon would not object to what you are doing?"

  More than anything, Katie longed to snatch at this excuse, but her pride prevented her from cowering. "No, I had mentioned to Ramon that I wanted to share the cost of things, and he—he wasn't pleased with the idea." She saw the priest's eyes narrow. "All right, he was adamantly opposed to it."

  "So," he said in an awful voice. "Ramon told you not to, but you did it anyway, only slyly, is that it? You disobeyed him"

  Katie's temper flared. "Do not use the word dis­obey to me, Padre. I am not a trained dog. Second­ly, I would like to remind you that I have been 'slyly' spending a great deal of my money for Ramon which I think comes under the heading of charity, and is hardly a crime.

  "Charity!" he exploded furiously. "Is that what Ramon is to you—a charity case, an object of pity?"

  "No! Of course not!" Katie's eyes were huge with genuine horror.

  "If you are paying for half of everything, then you are spending twice what he can afford. Are you so spoiled that you must have exactly what you want right now, this minute?"

  Compared to this, Katie thought the Spanish In­quisition must have been a breeze. She couldn't avoid his question, and she certainly couldn't tell him she'd paid for half of everything so she wouldn't feel obligated to marry Ramon.

  "I am waiting for an answer."

  "And I would like to give you one," miserably. "Only I can't. I didn't do it for any of the reasons you think. It's too hard to explain."

  "It is even harder to understand. In fact, senorita, I do not understand you. Gabriella is your friend, yet you do not hesitate to involve her in your treachery. You are staying under Eduardo's roof, yet you feel no remorse for repaying his hospitality by forcing his wife to mislead him. You want to marry Ramon, yet you disobey him, deceive him and disgrace him. How can you do that to someone you love?"

  The color began draining out of Katie's face and Padre Gregorio, noting her stricken expression, shook his head in frustration. When he spoke again his voice was strained, but gentler. "Senorita, despite everything, I cannot believe that you are either selfish or heartless. You must have had some good reason for doing what you have; tell me so that I can understand."

  Speechless with misery, Katie could only look at him.

  "Tell me!" he said, his face angry and be­wildered. "Tell me that you love Ramon, and that you did not realize the village would gossip. I would believe that; I would even help you explain it to Ramon. Just say that, and we will finish mak­ing the arrangements for your marriage right now."

  Katie's stomach was cramping painfully, but her pale face was composed. "I don't owe you any explanations, padre. And I will not discuss my feelings about Ramon with you, either."

  His bushy white eyebrows knitted together into a thunderous scowl. Leaning back in his chair, he sub­jected Katie to a long penetrating stare. "You will not speak of your feelings for Ramon, because you have no feelings for him Is that it?"

  "I didn't say that!" Katie denied, but the con­vulsive clenching of her hands in her lap betrayed her inner turmoil.

  "Can you say you love him?"

  Katie felt as if she were being torn to pieces by raging emotions she could neither understand nor control. She tried to say the words he was waiting to hear, to give him the assurance he had a right to expect, but she could not. All she could do was look at him in frozen silence.

  Padre Gregorio's shoulders drooped. When he spoke, the terrible despair in his voice made her feel like bursting into tears. "I see," he said quietly. "Feeling as you do, what kind of wife could you possibly be to Ramon?"

  "A good one!" Katie whispered fiercely.

  The intensity of her emotion seemed to stun him. He stared at her again, as if he were truly trying to understand her. His gaze moved over her pale face, searching her blue eyes and discovering something in their agonized depths that brought a puzzled gentleness to his voice. "Very well," he said softly. "I will accept that."

  This astonishing announcement had an equally astonishing effect on Katie, who suddenly began to shake from head to toe with an unexplainable mix­ture of relief and alarm.

  "If you tell me that you are prepared to fulfill your duties as Ramon's wife, I will believe you. Are you willing to put his needs before your own, to honor and respect his—"

  "Authority?" Katie provided tersely. "Don't forget 'obey' him," she added mutinously as she stood up. "Isn't that what you were going to ask?"

  Padre Gregorio also arose. "Suppose that I was?" he queried in a tone of cool curiosity. "What would you say?"

  "Exactly what any other woman with a brain, a mouth and a backbone should say to such an outrageous insulting suggestion! I will not, will not promise obedience to any man. Animals and chil­dren obey, not women!" "Are you quite through, senorita?" Katie swallowed and nodded firmly. "Then allow me to tell you that I was not going to mention the word 'obey.' I was about to ask you if you were willing to respect Ramon's wishes, not his authority. And for your information, I would have asked Ramon for exactly the same commitments I asked you to make."

  Katie's lashes shadowed her pale cheeks, hiding her acute embarrassment. "I'm sorry," she said in a small voice. "I thought—"

  "There is no need to apologize," Padre Gregorio sighed wearily. He turned and walked over to the window that looked out on the little square and the church. "And you will not need to come back here again," he added without looking at her. "I will let Ramon know what I have decided."

  "Which is?" Katie managed. His jaw was set as he shook his head.

  "I want to think about it quietly for a while before I decide anything."

  Katie ran her hand through her hair. "Padre Gregorio, you can't prevent us from being married. If you don't marry us, someone else will."

  His back stiffened. Turning slowly, he gave her a look that was both angry and amused. "Thank you for reminding me of my limitations, senorita. I would have been very disappointed in you if you had not found some new way to antagonize me just before you leave, so that I will have the worst possible opinion of you."

  Katie looked at him in frustrated fury. "You are the most self-important, self-righteous—!" She drew a long, deliberate breath, trying to steady her­self. "I don't happen to care what your opinion of me is."

  Padre Gregorio inclined his head in an exag­gerated bow. "Thank you again."

  Katie pulled up a handful of grass and irritably flung it away. She was sitting on a large flat rock, her back supported against a tree, looking blindly out across three miles of gently rolling hills and valleys. The sun was setting in streaks of red and gold, but the view hadn't soothed her temper after this morning's meeting with Padre Gregorio. N
ei­ther had six hours of shopping with Gabriella. A hundred yards off to her right, the men working in the cottage were putting down their tools and leav­ing for dinner at their homes, after which they would return to finish their remaining tasks.

  Idly, Katie wondered where Ramon had been all day, but she was too frustrated and annoyed with herself and that prying priest to give it much thought. How dare that man question her motives and emotions, she thought, glowering ferociously at the looming mountains.

  "I hope," drawled a deep, amused voice, "that you are not thinking of me with that expression on your face."

  Katie's head swung around in surprise, sending her glossy hair spilling over her right shoulder. Ramon was standing less than a yard from her, his tall, broad-shouldered frame blocking the golden sunset. He looked as if he had spent the day in the office of the cannery, and had merely removed his suit coat, unbuttoned the collar of his crisp white shirt, and turned the cuffs up on his tanned fore­arms. His black brows were lifted slightly in inquiry, his gaze unwavering on her face.

  Katie gave him a plastic smile. "Actually, I was—"

  "Plotting a murder?" Ramon suggested dryly.

  "Something like that," Katie muttered.

  "Is the intended victim anyone I know?"

  "Padre Gregorio," she admitted as she came to her feet.

  Gazing down at her from his daunting height, Ramon shoved his hands into his pants pockets. The action stretched his white shirt over his muscular chest and wide shoulders, and Katie felt her pulse give a little leap in answer to the sheer, powerful masculinity he emanated. However, his next words snapped her attention back to the issue at hand.

  "I saw him in the village a few minutes ago, Katie. He does not want to marry us."

  Katie was perversely crushed that Padre Gregorio's contempt for her actually went that deep. Her beautiful face flushed with indignation. "Did he tell you why?"

  Unexpectedly, Ramon smiled; one of those sud­den, devastating smiles that always took her breath away. "Padre Gregorio seems to think that you lack certain attributes that he feels are necessary to make me a good wife."

  "Such as?" Katie demanded mutinously.

  "Meekness, docility and a respect for authority."

  Katie was torn between antagonism and guilt. "What did you say?"

  "I told him that I wanted a wife, not a cocker spaniel."

  "And?"

  Ramon's black eyes glinted with laughter. "Padre Gregorio thinks I would be better off with a cocker spaniel."

  "Oh, is that right!" Katie retorted heatedly. "Well if you ask me, that interfering old tyrant shows an unnatural concern for your welfare!"

  "Actually, he is concerned about your welfare," Ramon said wryly. "He greatly fears that after we have been married a short time, I may be tempted to murder you."

  Katie turned her back to him to hide her confu­sion and hurt. "Is what he thinks so important to you?"

  Ramon's hands settled on her shoulders, gently but firmly drawing her back against him. "You know it is not. But any delay in our marriage is im­portant to me. If Padre Gregorio will not change his mind, I will have to find a priest in San Juan to marry us, and the banns will probably have to be read again. I want to marry you on Sunday, Katie, and Padre Gregorio is the only one who can make that possible. You know that. Everything else is in readiness. Work in the cottage will be finished tonight, your parents already have plane reserva­tions for Saturday, and I have reserved a suite for them at the Caribe Hilton."

  Katie was vibrantly aware of his warm breath stir­ring her hair; of the intimate feeling of his hard, muscular body pressing against her back and legs as he continued: "Padre Gregorio has just left for Vie­ques Island. When he returns on Thursday I want you to talk to him and give him whatever reassur­ance he needs."

  Katie's resistance began to crumble as he turned her into his arms and covered her mouth with his. "Will you do that for me?" he murmured huskily when he broke the contact.

  Katie gazed at his strong, sensual mouth. She rais­ed her eyes and looked into those dark compelling eyes of his, and the rest of her defenses disinte­grated. He wanted her so badly, his thighs were already hardening against her. And she wanted him too—just as badly. "Yes," she whispered.

  His arms tightened fiercely as he claimed her mouth in a hungry searching kiss. When her lips parted eagerly to admit his tongue, he groaned with pleasure, and the sound struck some primitive re­sponse in Katie. Unashamedly she met his passion with her own, wanting to give him the same pleasure he was giving her. She kissed him as erotically as he kissed her, her hands convulsively sliding over his back and shoulders, her body arching to his.

  She gasped with dismay when he ended the kiss and raised his head. Still shuddering with after­shocks of desire, Katie opened her slumberous eyes.

  In the deepening dusk, his gaze held hers. "I love you," he said.

  Katie opened her mouth to speak and couldn't. Her stomach churned wildly, then clenched into an agonizing knot. She tried to say "I love you" but the words she had screamed again and again to David on that hideous night long ago, stuck in her throat now, paralyzing her vocal cords. With a low, anguished moan, she wrapped her arms around his neck and began kissing him with frenzied desperation, while every muscle in his body was tensing to reject her.

  Pain ripped through Ramon like a hot jagged knife. She didn't love him. God damn her! She didn't love him.

  "I—I can't say it," she wept brokenly, clinging tightly to him, her body molded to his. "I can't say the words you want to hear. I just can't."

  Ramon stared at her, hating her and hating him­self for loving her. Reaching up, he started to pull her arms from around his neck, but Katie wildly shook her head, tightening her hold, pressing even closer to him. Tears rushed from her beautiful blue eyes, sparkling on her long lashes, wetting her smooth cheeks. "Don't stop loving me," she plead­ed fiercely, "just because I can't say the words yet. Please don't!"

  "Katie!" he said harshly. Her soft lips trembled at the cold rejection in his voice, and he gripped her shoulders. He intended to free himself from her arms, to push her firmly away.

  Katie knew it. "Please don't," she whispered, and her voice broke.

  So did Ramon's restraint. With a groan, he drew her into his passionate embrace and smothered her lips with his. She melted against him, the fire in her response igniting the flames deep within him. "Katie," he whispered achingly, tightening his arms as she kissed him with a blazing ardor beyond any­thing she had ever shown him before. "Katie... Katie... Katie."

  She loved him, he knew it! He could feel it. She might not be able to say the words, but her body was telling him she loved him. No woman alive could give her body to a man the way Katie was giving him hers, unless she had already given her heart.

  He moved her down into the grass, and even while he did, Katie's lips clung to his, her hands feverishly caressing him. She was setting him on fire, and Ra­mon unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, willing to let himself be burned to ashes, so long as Katie went up in flames with him.

  His hands dispensed with her blouse and bra, then luxuriated in the feel of her naked breasts swelling eagerly against his palms. Bending over her, he cap­tured her mouth, the driving rhythmic plunging of his tongue boldly telling her what he wanted to do to her. And Katie welcomed the possessive invasion.

  His body felt like a furnace as he pulled her up to lie on top of him, his eyes devouring the sight of her pale breasts crushed against the dark hair on his chest. "I'm starving for you," he whispered thickly. "I want you so much that I ache for you." He curved his hand around her nape, pulling her mouth down to his, and said thickly. "Make me ache more, Katie."

  She did. She kissed him with all her heart and body, wringing a low, animal groan of pleasure from him as she moved sinuously against his rigid arousal. Ramon clutched her tighter to him, wanting to absorb her body into his, letting her drive him in­to agonies of desire before he finally rolled onto his side, tak
ing her with him.

  Katie's lashes flickered open. Ramon was brea­thing fast, his face hard and dark with passion. She lifted her lips to his, and he started to bend toward her, then checked himself. "Before this is over," he sighed hoarsely, "you are going to drive me out of my mind."

  Katie expected him to finish what they had begun. Instead he laid back and stretched out beside her, cradling her head in the curve of his arm and shoul­der, keeping her close against his side while he stared up at the night sky. Katie laid there, bewildered. She couldn't imagine why Ramon had suddenly stop­ped, unless he somehow thought it was what she wanted. But it wasn't what she wanted at all! How could he think that when her whole body was yearn­ing for his, when she wanted more than anything to give him pleasure? She rolled onto her side, fully in­tending to take matters into her own hands. "If I do drive you out of your mind, it's your own fault," Katie said, and before he could reply she began leisurely and seductively tracing the outline of his ear with her tongue.

  His free hand crossed over to lightly grip her waist, caressing it. His hand gripped her tighter and he shuddered with pleasure when she put her tongue into the hollow crevice and sensuously explored it. "Katie, stop it," he warned in a throaty growl. "Or I am going to do that to you."

  Undaunted, Katie continued her arousing exploration. "You already did," she breathed into his ear, "And I like it."

  "I like it too, that is why I want you to stop."

  Katie gathered all her courage together and leaned up on an elbow. For a moment she stared thought­fully at the shining silver chain and medal lying in the dark mat of hair on his chest, then she lifted her wide, questioning eyes to his. "Ramon," she said, tracing her fingertips down the chain, oblivious to the stirring effect this was having on him. "Has it occurred to you that we don't have to stop?"

  Ramon captured her wayward hand, holding it to prevent its further tantalizing descent. "It has oc­curred to me—" he murmured dryly, "—about two hundred times in the last ten minutes."

  "Then why are we? Stopping, I mean?"

  He turned his head and looked at the tiny stars twinkling shyly in the inky blue sky. "Because the men will soon be returning from their evening meal." It was the truth, of course, but it wasn't the reason he was holding back. If he could be absolute­ly certain Katie loved him, he would simply take her somewhere else where, they could have privacy now. If he had been certain she loved him, he would have been making love to her every day since they arrived to Puerto Rico. If Katie loved him, then the physical union of their bodies would strengthen and deepen that love.