Desert Jewels & Rising Stars

by Sharon Kendrick

  “You don’t understand—”

  “You don’t have to be scared. We’ll be with you every step of the way. Me. Your family—”

  “I’m in love with him, Brandon,” she blurted out. At his intake of breath, she lifted her eyes miserably. “I love him so much I think I might die of it. Every day all I can think is that I would do anything, absolutely anything, to make him love me back.”

  Brandon stared at her, his face pale. His Adam’s apple bobbed then he looked at his feet as he said in a low voice, “I remember that feeling.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Reaching out, she pulled him into her arms as she wept. “Forgive me.”

  For a moment, he accepted the comfort of her arms. They held each other, like kids dodging a storm.

  “How can you love a man like that?” Brandon said in a low voice. “I accept that you can’t love me. All right, fine. But a man who keeps you prisoner? Of all men on earth, you choose Cruz? A cruel, selfish beast of a man?”

  Her heart lifted to her throat. “You don’t know him, Brandon. He’s been hurt in the past. But he’s not selfish and he’s not cruel. If you only knew. He has such a good heart—”

  Her voice ended in a gasp as Brandon was violently wrenched from her arms.

  “Don’t touch my wife!”

  Turning in shock, Callie saw Eduardo’s handsome face distorted with rage. A beam of blood-red light covered his black, civilized business suit, from the sun setting fire to the west.

  “No, Eduardo, no!”

  But he didn’t hear her. Drawing back his fist, he punched Brandon so hard across the jaw that the other man, totally unprepared, dropped like a stone into the dust.

  “No!” Callie shrieked. Around the souk, people stared at them across the busy, crowded market, speaking in a cacophony of languages. Fist raised, Eduardo started for Brandon again.

  Callie ran between them, so fast her hat fell off her head. Holding up both her arms, she cried, “Don’t!”

  Eduardo whirled on her, his black eyes so hot that she should have burned to ash. “You told him to meet you here!”

  “No, of course I didn’t!” Looking at him, all Callie could suddenly think of was how he’d been lying to her face for months. How he’d caused her family pain. Forcing herself to take a deep, calming breath, she knelt down in the dust and checked on Brandon, who was knocked out cold but seemed otherwise fine. Rising to her feet, she glared at Eduardo. “Brandon couldn’t contact me. A fact you know well.”

  Eduardo stared at her, breathing heavily. “What did he want from you?”

  She lifted her chin. “To help me go back to North Dakota and file for divorce.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “What do you think I said?” she cried. “I said no! Because I’m married to you. I have a child with you. I love you! Of course I told him no. Are you out of your mind?”

  Baring his teeth, Eduardo grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the staring eyes of the souk and down the warren of streets to the parked car. Pushing her inside, he started the engine. It was only after they were back on the road that he spoke to her through gritted teeth.

  “I found you in his arms.”

  Callie whirled on him. “I was comforting him!”

  “I trusted you,” he ground out.

  “Trusted me?” She looked at him, tears in her eyes. “That’s a joke! You never trusted me. You kept me a virtual prisoner, locked away from my family. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”

  Eduardo looked at her, his handsome face pale beneath his tan. Setting his jaw, he didn’t answer.

  “When I think of all the time I spent,” Callie whispered. “Sending them picture after picture, letter after letter.” She looked up at him fiercely. “And the whole time, you were keeping them away, and me, locked away in your own little cage!”

  He turned his eyes grimly back to the road. As he drove from the fortified gates of the medina toward the sprawling palm desert, he was silent, his jaw tight.

  “You’re not even trying to deny it,” she said, tears streaming down her face.

  He changed gears with more force than necessary. “I was going to tell you about it,” he retorted. “It’s why I told Sanchez he could leave you there. I wanted to surprise you at the market, and take you out to dinner just the two of us, so we could talk in private. So I could try to make you understand.”

  “I understand, all right!”

  His hands clenched on the wheel. “I was trying to protect you. To protect all of us.”

  “Brandon said he was followed. Did you have me watched, too? What about my family?”

  Eduardo looked at her then looked away.

  “Keith Johnson had the detail,” he said flatly.

  The hot Moroccan air blew through the car window, whirling over her skin. “Keith Johnson?” she faltered. “But you use him to gain information on your rivals. On your enemies.” She looked at him. “Which one am I?”

  “You’re my wife,” he said tightly. “I was trying to keep you safe.”

  Her emotions were so jumbled she felt numb. “Safe!”

  He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “What was I supposed to do?” he said roughly. “Let another man destroy our marriage?”

  Callie’s throat hurt. She closed her eyes, hearing the purr of the engine and soft whirr of the tires against the road.

  “No,” she whispered. “You destroyed it yourself.”

  She looked at him, and his dark eyes burned through her. Then wordlessly, he looked back at the road as the car turned into the gatehouse and drove up the sweeping entrance to the riad.

  “We left Brandon,” she cried. “Injured in the medina …”

  “I’ll send someone to check on him,” Eduardo said coldly, not looking at her. “I wouldn’t want your best friend in all the world to be left abandoned and alone.”

  Parking the car, he turned off the ignition and got out. Callie didn’t move. She stared at the beautiful tile work of the grand home, at the green gardens and swaying palm trees above the blue-water pool. This place truly was paradise.

  Her hands were shaking. She felt chilled to the bone.

  The car door opened.

  “Come, querida,” Eduardo said quietly, reaching for her hand. She did not resist as he pulled her from the SUV and into the house. Inside the riad, all was quiet. Perhaps her parents and baby were sleeping. Callie heard only the soft burble of the fountain from the courtyard garden.

  She felt her husband’s hand in her own, as strong and protective around hers as it had ever been. But everything had changed. Was it only that morning that she’d been so happy, feeling like all her dreams were coming true? As Eduardo led her through the cloistered walk around the interior courtyard, she felt cold in the fading light of the sun.

  “Why did you do it?” she rasped. “Why?”

  Eduardo stopped.

  “I’m tired, Callie,” he said wearily. “Tired of trying to keep you. Tired of feeling like I’m failing. Tired of knowing, whatever I do, it won’t be good enough.”

  “I did nothing but love you.”

  “Love is nice.” His eyes glittered like hot coals as the edges of his lips curved. “Love changes nothing.”

  She stared at him, her heart chilled. “Is that what you think?”

  “It’s what I know,” he said grimly, and that was the end. Her heart frosted over.

  “You were right about one thing,” she said. “Brandon was in love with me. But you’ve been so wrong about the rest. You are a wonderful father, Eduardo. But—” she gave him a trembling smile “—a terrible husband.”

  Hearing the noise of servants down the hall, he pulled her into their bedroom, closing the door behind them. Looking down at her in the shadows, he spoke in a low voice.

  “I always knew that someday you would see through me.”

  She felt trails of ice on her cheeks and lifted her hand to discover she was weeping. She loved him. But she wouldn’t be
his prisoner. Not anymore.

  “I loved you, Eduardo.” Her voice choked. “I loved you so.”

  His handsome face was hard with anguish. “Loved?”

  “I would have done anything to make you love me,” she whispered. “Anything.” With a deep breath, Callie looked up at him through her tears. She squared her shoulders. “But I won’t be your prisoner.” Pulling off her diamond ring, she held it out to him with a trembling hand. “So I can’t be your wife.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  IT WAS like a punch through Eduardo’s gut, a blow so deep it reverberated against his spine.

  When he’d found Callie embracing McLinn, it had been like walking into a nightmare and seeing his worst fear come to life. He’d felt fury that he’d never known. He’d wanted to kill the man with his bare hands. And he might have done it, if not for Callie.

  Now, sinking down on the bed, Eduardo stared at the ten-carat diamond ring twinkling in his palm. And realized that seeing Callie with another man had only been his second-worst fear.

  Somehow, he’d always known this day would come. It was almost a relief to get it over with, rather than always wondering when it would happen. When she would leave him. His hands tightened over the ring, feeling the hard diamond bite into his palm. He spoke over the razor blade in his throat.

  “I will start divorce proceedings tomorrow.”

  Her lips parted. “What?”

  “I’ll do what I should have done a long time ago.” He looked at her. “Set you free.”

  Tears streaked her pale, beautiful face like stardust in the fading red twilight outside the latticed window. “I just can’t live with a man who doesn’t trust me. Who tries to control every aspect of my life.”

  “I understand.” He gave her a grim smile. “I told you on our wedding day that when our marriage ended, the prenuptial agreement would see us through.”

  His wife looked white and wan, standing beside the bed. She looked like a ghost. “I didn’t think you would let me go so easily.”

  He tried to ignore the fierce, white-hot blade of pain that entered his body.

  “I am tired,” he said harshly, “of always wondering what you’re thinking. What you’re doing. Tired of waiting for the day you’ll wise up and leave.” Rising to his feet, he cupped her cheek. She shuddered a little, turning toward his touch like a flower. He said hoarsely, “It’s almost easier this way.”

  “And Marisol …” she whispered.

  The knife twisted in his chest. Dropping his hand, he stepped back. “We will always be her parents. We’ll be respectful of each other, for her sake. I will pay child support. We will share custody.”

  “Right,” she said, looking dazed. “Right.”

  “And if there is another child …” His lips curved humorlessly. “This time, you will tell me, sí?”

  “Yes. Yes, I will.” Callie’s lovely, round face looked bewildered as she swayed where she stood, like a drunk who’d lost her balance.

  “You and your family can return to North America tomorrow.”

  She turned, walked two steps then looked back at him. He could see her shaking. “And Brandon?”

  “Ah, yes.” He smiled grimly. “Brandon. As you said, he is a member of your family, is he not? As I,” he added lightly, “never was.”

  She swallowed then looked up at him pleadingly. “You won’t … won’t do anything to hurt him?”

  Reaching out, Eduardo brushed some long wavy tendrils of light brown hair off her shoulder. Even now, saying goodbye, he was mesmerized by Callie’s beauty. Now more than ever. When he was losing her forever.

  “Of course I will not hurt him. I’m not the monster you seem to think.” He remembered how he’d been tempted to kill the man just hours before, and shook his head with a hard laugh. “Well. I have no reason to hurt him now. Our marriage is over. We are free.”

  “Free …” she whispered.

  McLinn’s harsh words from long ago went through Eduardo’s mind. You can’t keep me from her. We both know you’re not good enough for her. You’ll never make her happy. And he realized that he’d always agreed. But he’d tried to keep Callie just the same. Selfish and wrong, when he knew he’d never be able to love her the way she deserved. Christ—he couldn’t even sleep in the same bed.

  “Yes. You’re free.” Eduardo turned away, making his voice deliberately casual as he said, “Marisol fell asleep in her playpen, in your parents’ room. Do you want to see her?”

  Callie did not answer. She just looked at him, her green eyes dark as a midnight sea. Her beautiful, grief-stricken face was more than Eduardo could bear. It had to end, he thought heavily. So let it end. Merciful and quick.

  Taking his wife’s limp hand, he pulled her out of their bedroom and through the deepening shadows of the courtyard. Midway through the garden, she stopped. He looked back at her in the twilight, surrounded by the shadows of palm trees and the soft cool burble of the fountain. Crystalline tears sparkled down her pale cheeks, glimmering in the fading moonlight.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her eyes luminous. “So sorry.”

  Exhaling, Eduardo slowly pulled her into his arms. She pressed her face against his heart, which felt like it was breaking beneath his ribs.

  Her voice was sodden, muffled against his shirt. “I didn’t want it to end this way …”

  His arms trembled around her. He thought of all his mistakes, everything he’d done wrong from the beginning, all the things he would have changed if he could. But the truth was he didn’t know how. He couldn’t trust anyone—especially not someone he loved. Because deep in his heart, he didn’t believe in happy endings, only bad ones. Ones that felt like this.

  “It was never your fault,” he said, stroking her hair. “Just mine. All mine.”

  Hearing Callie sob, his throat constricted, and he wanted to cut out his ears, his eyes, rather than be faced with the pain he’d caused her. Desperately he pushed his feelings away, just as he’d done his whole life. Lifting her chin, he gave her a crooked smile. “Our marriage wasn’t all bad, was it?”

  “No,” she whispered, searching his gaze in the shadows. “Most of it was wonderful.”

  “We gave our daughter a name. We will still give her a good home.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “But two homes. Apart.”

  He gave her a single unsteady nod then looked away, afraid of what she would see in his eyes. Afraid to speak and have her hear weakness in his voice. For long moments, he held her in the deepening shadows of the courtyard, listening to the water of the cool fountain as they stood in silence. Above them, palm trees waved against the deepening violet night.

  Eduardo closed his eyes, breathing in the scent of her hair. Feeling the sweet softness of her body against his, knowing he was holding her for the last time.

  It was best for her to leave. It was the only way to spare them both unnecessary pain. But the thought of it felt like death.

  “It’s all right,” he said, gently brushing the tears from her cheeks, though he knew it would never be all right again. “You’ll go home. You’ll be happy there, just like you were.”

  “Yes, I will.” She wept.

  He heard the hoarseness of her voice, and knew what the words cost her. Emotion rushed through him, and before he could stop himself, he cupped her face in both his hands. “But before you leave, there’s one thing you have to know. One important thing I’ve never said.” He looked down at her. “I love you.”

  Callie sucked in her breath, her eyes wide.

  “I love you as I’ve never loved anyone.” He looked down at the flowers at his feet. “But I can’t love you without hurting you. Without hurting both of us. Without being a man I don’t want to be.” Looking at her stricken face, he whispered over the razor blade in his throat, “That’s why I’m letting you go.”

  In the shadows of the garden, Callie’s eyes were deep emerald, like an ancient forest older than time itself. Her beauty was like an ache in his heart.
Unwillingly he lifted his hand to her cheek, touching the softness of her skin as he looked into her eyes, connecting them soul to soul. Beneath the violet-tinged sky swept with stars, he heard the howl of the wind, shaking the palm trees above.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t love you as you deserve,” he said hoarsely. “I always knew I didn’t deserve you. And I knew, from the beginning, that it was a matter of time—”

  Standing on her toes, Callie cut off his words by covering his mouth with her own.

  Her lips were soft and sweet, trembling against him. He felt the warmth of her body against his, and a surge of anguished need rushed through him like an overflowing river. A gasp came from the back of his throat, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him tightly as he returned her kiss hungrily. On her lips, he tasted salt with the sweet and no longer knew if they were her tears, or his own. All he knew was that he was kissing her for the last time and he had to make it last forever. He had to kiss her so deep and hard that he’d possess this memory for all time, not just on his lips, but in his heart.

  Eduardo’s fingers twined through her long hair as they embraced, their bodies pressing together as they clutched each other mindlessly in front of the courtyard fountain. He felt the tangled smoothness of her hair, breathed in her scent of flowers and vanilla that mingled with the exotic spices of the desert wind. He stroked down her back, marveling at her shape as he wrapped his far larger body around the small woman who’d conquered him so completely. Looking at her, touching her soft skin, feeling her breasts against his chest, he kissed her with anguished passion. Need burned away every other thought or desire of his soul, except to possess her.

  With a gasp, he pulled away. Looking down at her beautiful face, he saw the shadows of the rising moon move against her skin; saw the breathless, aching need in her eyes. Without a word, he lifted her up into his arms. He carried her silently to their bedroom.

  For the last time, he took Callie to bed.

  Setting her down on the mattress, beneath the pattern of moonlight through the latticed window, Eduardo pulled off her blouse, kissing her neck, her shoulders, her arms. He pulled off her skirt, stroking the length of her legs, kissing the sensitive spot behind her knees with a flick of his tongue. He pulled off her lacy white bra, cupping her breasts, suckling her until she gasped.