by Amii Lorin
“Yes, of course. I’ll help.” Selena frowned. “Your brother’s hard to buy for?”
Luke gave a quick shake of his head. “No, not Hank. But I’m uncertain about his wife, Laura.”
“Laura’s picky?”
Luke laughed. “Laura’s wonderful. She’s an interior decorator and she has impeccable taste. I’d hate like hell to send her something she detests but feels she must display, simply because it came as a gift from me.”
Wonderful, Selena felt a spark of anger spring to life inside her. Without thinking, she gave vent to her resentment. “I take it that Laura is one of the few exceptions whom you allow yourself to like?”
Unconcerned with the crowds of people streaming around him, Luke froze and pinned Selena to the sidewalk with a drilling stare. “Yes, Laura is an exception. She’s special, inside and out, and she’d die for Hank.”
Selena knew the feeling. For, in a place deep inside her, which she preferred not to acknowledge, she was dying a little for Luke at that very moment. It made no sense and it wasn’t very smart, but then, she had always known it wasn’t smart to fall in love. And Selena was failing in love. Damn him.
“And being willing to die for your brother makes her special?” In a bid to repudiate her own unwanted feelings, she lashed out with sarcasm against those of a woman she didn’t even know. “How utterly Victorian.”
“Selena, I told you—”
Tired of the subject and hurting unbearably inside, Selena interrupted him impatiently. “Oh, drop it! Let’s get your souvenirs and get out of here.”
In the end, they had no difficulty finding a gift for Laura, or for her two grown daughters from her first marriage, her son-in-law, her young granddaughter or her and Hank’s six-month-old son. It was finding something for Hank that nearly drove Selena to distraction, because Luke vetoed every one of her suggestions.
“I’m beginning to think you’re a little mixed up,” she grumbled after he rejected yet another of her selections. “I believe you’re the one who would die for Hank.”
Luke gave the idea serious consideration, then nodded in agreement. “I probably would. Hank’s one of the good guys of this less-than-perfect world.
He put me through college, helped set me up in business and gave me comfort when my life crashed around me. He’s a true, clean-to-the-bone gentleman, and I love him—no questions asked”
Feeling deservedly put in her place, yet encouraged to learn that Luke was capable of feeling the emotion of love, Selena lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry, Luke,” she whispered. “I have no right to pass judgment on you or anyone close to you. I’ll keep my mouth shut from now on.”
Luke treated her to his devil grin. “I’ll bet.”
The tension between them dissipated and, with the wave of relief clearing her mind, Selena got a brilliant idea. “Luke, I’ve got it!” she exclaimed.
“Is it contagious?”
She made a face at him. “I’ve got an idea for the perfect gift for your brother. You said Hank was one of the good guys, right?”
Luke nodded. She laughed.
“Buy him a white cowboy hat!”
It was while Luke was paying for the classic white Stetson that Selena’s attention was caught by a print of a Western painting. Oblivious to everything else, she was studying the print with delight when Luke strolled up to her.
“Find something interesting?”
“Look at this, Luke.” Eyes sparkling, she handed the print to him. “It looks like an artist’s rendition of the Indian cave paintings at Amistad Lake.”
Luke glanced at the print narrowing his eyes for a closer inspection. “I’ve heard about the wall drawings in caves around the Big Bend area,” he said. “But I’ve never heard anything about a cave at the dam. The colors and detail of these paintings are incredible.” He shot a glance at her. “Are there really paintings hike these there?”
“Yes,” Selena answered with authority.
“You’ve seen them?”
“Yes.”
He shook his head in amazement “They appear virtually untouched by time and the elements.”
Selena smiled. “They are.”
“They’re accessible?”
She nodded. “They have been ever since the dam was built, but you can only get to the cave by boat.”
“Too bad.” Luke sighed, disappointed. “I would have liked to see them.”
Selena thought for an instant, then made an on-the-spot decision. “I have a friend in Del Rio who owns a boat,” she said quickly, before she had a chance to change her mind. “And we don’t have rooms for tonight.” She shot a glance at her watch. “It’s 3:26 now. If we can get out of San Antonio before the worst of the rush-hour craziness, we could be in Del Rio by eight o’clock or thereabout Want to go?”
“Can we find a place to stay?”
Selena laughed. “I wouldn’t think there’d be any problem. They’re not having fiesta in Del Rio. And there are several very nice motels, one very close to the lake. Besides, I could call and find out.”
Clasping her by the elbow, Luke began walking. “Let’s find a phone.”
Less than thirty minutes later, they were on their way, Selena in the lead, Luke following close behind her. After making the call to the motel, she had told Luke simply that she’d made a reservation. What she hadn’t told him was that she had booked separate rooms for them.
Luke wasn’t going to be overjoyed when he learned about their sleeping arrangements—Selena was certain of that. But then, she wasn’t exactly thrilled over being thought of as a mere convenience for any man—especially the one she had been stupid enough to fall in love with.
She glanced at the rearview mirror and frowned. Luke’s Jeep was visible a safe distance behind her.
He was going to have a fit, Selena thought, a small, defiant smile curving her lips. If he protested, she might have to teach the devil some manners.
Chapter Nine
The weather was fine for boating. The sun was bright and hot, and a light breeze ruffled the lake waters into frothy whitecaps. The cabin cruiser cleaved a path through the waves, spewing sprays of tiny droplets into the air, where they glittered with crystallite rainbow hues in the sunlight.
Luke was immune to the tranquil beauty of the scene. He was in a foul mood that was a by-product of searing frustration and simmering anger. He had spent the night in a strange bed, alone, cursing his own careless mouth and his penchant for bluntness.
Separate rooms, for God’s sake! Luke’s senses and his masculine ego were still reverberating from the shock he’d received when he and Selena arrived in Del Rio.
Because they had stopped for dinner along the way, it had been after nine-thirty when they pulled into the motel. Nevertheless, the pleasant young woman behind the registration desk confirmed their reservation and said that their rooms were ready for them.
Rooms—plural, as in two located in opposite wings of the building.
Luke had been hard put to contain his confusion and anger until he had the opportunity to talk to Selena in private. Smoldering in silence, he had escorted her to her room and then, after telling himself he’d be calm and reasonable, he’d exploded like a rocket on Chinese New Year.
“What is this?” he’d demanded, stepping in front of the door to bar her way into the room. “Are you still nursing a grudge because I told you I don’t like most females?”
“No, Luke, I’m not nursing a grudge,” Selena said, meeting his angry stare. “You’re free to like or dislike whomever you please.” Her chin lifted a fraction. “The same as I’m free to sleep where and with whom I please,”
“But—dammit! You haven’t slept with anyone but me.”
“Yet,” she retaliated, successfully exacerbating his already fiery temper.
But, as always, when he had reached flash point, Luke didn’t blaze. He turned cold, his voice chilling, “I’m warning you, Selena, if you so much as consider taking another man into your bed and body
, I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” she’d cut him off in a tone every bit as icy as his. Raising her hands, she’d grasped his head to draw his face down to hers. “Let me tell you something, Mr. Women-are-beneath-me Branson. Until last night, I believed there wasn’t a man alive worthy of the gift of my body.” He could feel the breath shudder through her as she inhaled sharply. “And now, since last night, I’m convinced of it. But if and when I ever decide to bestow that gift again, I’ll decide with whom I’ll share it. And there’s not a damned thing you can do about it, and you know it”
Luke opened his mouth to argue...plead...beg. But Selena kept him silent in the most effective way imaginable. Tugging him closer, she covered his mouth with her own, Hope and anticipation sprang to riotous life inside him. It died an agonizing death when she released him and stepped back.
“Sleep on that, lover.” Her voice was flat, devoid of feeling. “Because that’s all you’re going to get from me. Now—” her tone grew a hard edge “—I’d appreciate it if you’d get the hell out of my way. I’m tired.”
Luke did as she ordered, not from intimidation, but simply because she suddenly did look tired— more than tired. All at once, Selena looked exhausted and on the point of shattering. And Luke wasn’t certain he could bear being the cause of her collapse.
Feeling an odd sense of alarm and a stirring emotion he refused to recognize or contemplate, Luke had gone to his room. Alone and aching through the night, he had buried the unwanted feelings sprouting inside beneath a smothering layer of frustration and anger.
“You okay, buddy?”
The call came from behind him, from Selena’s friend, Dan, who was seated in the shaded pilot’s chair beneath the protective covering of the boat’s canopy. Selena was ensconced in the chair opposite her friend.
“Yeah, fine,” Luke shouted over the noise of the powerful outboard engine. “Thanks, buddy,” he muttered in a growl under his breath.
Luke rested his head against the leather-padded divider between the pilot’s seat and the rest of the boat, and took a swig from the icy can he was clutching.
“How’s your beer holding out?” Dan yelled. “Ready for another?”
Since it wasn’t yet noon and he was working on his second beer, Luke was about to decline the offer. Then he thought, why the hell not? Maybe the brew would dull the ache clawing at his loins and the self-directed anger tearing at his emotions.
“Sure, I’ll have another,” he called back, tilting the can he held to his lips and draining it in two long swallows.
Selena brought the fresh can to him ...along with a frown of disapproval. “You’re going to get plastered,” she said, slapping the new can into his hand.
Luke stared at her from beneath the wide brim of the straw hat Dan had given him to wear. “Bag it, Green Eyes,” he snarled. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a man, not a boy. I don’t need a prissy, late-to-the-gate, oversensitive snip of a woman telling me what to do.” Luke regretted his spate the instant it was out of his mouth, and even more so as he watched a vulnerable, injured expression darken her beautiful eyes. Her breath made a hissing sound as she gasped. Then the hurt look was gone, replaced by a glittering sheen of fury.
“Prissy! Oversensitive! You—you egoistical jerk!” Her voice was pitched just high enough to reach him over the roar of the engine.
“Look, Selena, I’m sorry, I didn’t sleep well.”
Luke offered her a wry, self-deprecating smile. Her exquisite breasts rose and fell in time with her breathing, making his hands burn and itch with the need to touch, caress, stroke their silky fullness. “I was lonely, sleeping alone. I missed having you curled up next to me, needing me, warming me.” The admission hadn’t been easy for him to make, but she dismissed his discomfort with an angry toss of her head.
“You’re not sorry, you’re horny,” she said in scathing tones. “Well, I’ve got a news bulletin for you, bucko. I don’t particularly care if you drink yourself into the middle of next month. Because after we’ve seen the cave and are off this lake, I’ll be long gone.” She leaned close to his face to ensure that he heard every one of her caustic words. “And I don’t give a damn if you have to sleep alone forever. Because, Dark Eyes, you’ve earned your solitude.”
Luke didn’t watch her walk away from him—he couldn’t. If he had, he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from grabbing her, holding her, kissing her until, senseless, she surrendered herself, body and soul, into his possession.
His expression taut, he stared into the vastness of the lake and raised the can to his mouth. The tremor in his fingers caught his attention. Frowning, he set the can of beer aside untouched, thinking that all the beer in the world wouldn’t solve his problems.
Selena slid onto the chair and stared through the windshield. She couldn’t look back, wouldn’t look back at him. She couldn’t stand seeing him like this, so cold and bitter, withdrawn and sarcastic. What had become of the laughing man with whom she had made such joyous, glorious love?
Did that laughing man really exist, other than in her own beguiled imagination? Probably not, Selena reflected, recalling the aloof, sardonic, handsome devil of a man Will had introduced to her as Luke Branson.
Luke.
Selena swallowed a sigh of regret for the man he might have been and blinked against the sting of tears in her eyes. Why had she gone and done such a damn fool thing as fall in love with him? She berated herself. She hadn’t suffered the panic of sensing time running out on her biological clock. She hadn’t even felt the pressing need to fulfill herself as a woman. So why—what was the attraction?
He was the strong, silent type. The phrase whispered through her mind. A tear escaped her eye, and Selena brushed it away with an impatient flick of her trembling fingers. Luke was strong and silent, and she had proved herself a pushover.
It was enough to depress Pollyanna.
“Coming up on the cave.”
Dan’s cheery voice drew Selena from her fruitless self-examination. There would be time—years and empty years of nothing but time—to brood about her lapse of common sense. But for now, it was time to put on a bright face for Dan, if only to keep her old friend from the realization that she and Luke were now enemies.
Selena slid off the chair as Dan steered the craft alongside a narrow pier. “I’ll secure,” she offered, making her way to the rear of the boat. Looking none too steady on his feet, Luke was standing on the dock side of the boat. “I said, I’ll secure,” she shouted, just as the boat bumped against the pier.
Luke either didn’t hear her or didn’t want to. Without acknowledging her call, he leaped over the side, stumbled, then turned to catch the line she tossed to him. After securing the boat, he held out his hand to assist her. Ignoring his hand, Selena stepped with practiced ease onto the gently swaying pier.
“You should have let me do it,” she said, glaring at him. “You almost took a header into the lake.”
“I did not,” Luke retorted, obviously annoyed by her assessment of his condition. “But, even if I had, I’d have been all right,” he went on in a taunting tone. “The expert river guide would have rescued me.”
“Don’t bank on it,” Selena snapped. Turning away from him, she strode to the end of the pier, where it butted against a rock-strewn bank. “We have to climb this incline to get to the cave,” she told him when he came up behind her. She swung around to give him a doubtful look. “Think you can make it?”
“Dammit, Selena, I am not—” he began, but she cut him off with a soft command.
“Keep your voice down. I don’t want Dan to hear us.”
Reminded of their host, Luke shot a look at the boat. “Where is Dan? Isn’t he coming with us?”
“No.” Shaking her head, Selena turned and stepped onto the bank. “He’s preparing lunch in the galley.” With the agility of a veteran climber, she scrambled up the incline.
Grunting and cursing, Luke was right behind her. “Why didn’t you
tell me about this bank?” he grumbled. “I’d have worn my climbing boots.”
Stepping onto the narrow footpath, Selena paused to slant a bored look at him. “That little slope could hardly be referred to as a climb,” she said over her shoulder. “Little old ladies and small children do it without difficulty.”
“Not in heeled cowboy boots,” Luke muttered, trailing her along the path.
Selena came to a stop at the end of a chain-link fence, which stretched across the opening of a shallow cave. “You wanted to see the paintings,” she said, motioning to the area beyond the fence. “There they are. Quit grousing and look at them.”
Closing the distance between them, Luke came to stand beside her in front of the fence. He peered into the cave and frowned. “I don’t see anything.”
“Keep looking,” she said. “You’ll see them when your eyes adjust to the dimness inside. The lack of direct light is one of the reasons the paintings are still so vivid.”
Luke was quiet for a moment, face pressed to the fence. Then he exclaimed in quiet awe, “I see them! Selena, they’re fantastic!”
Selena felt emotion stir inside her. Against her will, she found herself sharing his wonder and excitement “Yes, they are. Tell me what you see.”
He answered without looking at her. “At the end of the cave, as if it were standing guard, there’s a huge cat—a mountain lion or leopard—painted blue. There are other animals—deer or antelope—and a bunch of symbols I can’t decipher.” He moved along the fence as he spoke, unmindful of the rocky, uneven ground. “I see what appears to be an elongated figure in flowing robes and a domelike structure. And...son of a gun!” he exclaimed as he reached the far end of the cave. “Selena, there’s another large cat at this end!”
“Yes.” Selena had paced in silence behind him, seeing it all fresh through his eyes. “Did you notice that both the cats face away from the cave?”
“Yes, of course,” Luke nodded. “It’s like they were put there to protect the mural between them.”
“That’s what I thought the first time I saw it”