Masquerade

by Hannah Fielding

  It was five minutes to midnight. Luz moved swiftly to the veranda and, from there, down the steps into the garden. She was aware of exotic scents emanating from the sleeping flowers and of the unruly beating of her heart that thumped so hard that she thought it might break like glass. It was cooler now and the breeze caused the leaves to rustle in the trees, making her think of smothered footfalls.

  Luz didn’t notice the pair of eyes watching her from behind dark branches as she wandered silently along the path like a spirit of this enchanting night. Her observer glanced furtively over his shoulder to make sure no one was following her or watching him. But all was still in romantic silence. His lips curled in a satisfied smile. He moved quietly and just as rapidly, keeping up with her on a parallel footway screened by a tall hedge of oleanders.

  The lake lay dark, except for a wide golden path reflecting an expansive arc of moon hanging among myriad blinking stars in the inky sky. A stone plinth bench was tucked behind a lilac tree further up from the water, conspicuously empty. Luz looked around her. With a sickening lurch of her heart, she noted Gemini was not there. Indeed the place was deserted. An owl hooted, making her jump, and a branch cracked behind her. She turned sharply.

  ‘Is someone there? Andrés, is that you?’ she called out uncertainly, slightly unnerved by the silence and darkness.

  There was a rustling in the coppice. Her eyes widened in alarm as a man wearing a Tuareg costume suddenly materialized in the shadows from behind a bush. He was clad in a long, loose-fitting dark robe, a turban and a veil that covered his entire face except for his eyes. He took a few steps forward. Luz froze and felt the colour drain from her face.

  ‘Stop right there,’ she ordered, battling to control the tremor in her voice. ‘Who are you and what do you want?’ Her heart was pounding wildly against her ribcage. At all costs she must retain a semblance of calm. The man did not stop, nor did he answer, but continued to move purposefully towards her.

  In the distance the church clock boomed the first slow, sonorous strokes of midnight. As the vibrations died away upon the air and once more silence reigned, the scarf covering the stranger’s face fell.

  Luz breathed in sharply and now her pulse had a new reason to hammer violently as she met Leandro’s green eyes and recognized the glitter of raw desire that mirrored her own.

  The next moment the gypsy drew her strongly into the circle of his arms. His head came down and, like a bird of prey, he claimed her mouth with a passion that took her breath away. She did not struggle; it would have been useless for he was stronger than her. Besides it was what she wanted.

  All evening Luz had ridden a wave of exhilaration, tension and frustration, and now her warring emotions blazed in her blood. Her lips parted under the skilful persuasion of his kisses and the expert wandering of his hands over her young curves as their softness brushed up against his hard thighs. His tongue coaxed hers more urgently as one of his hands came up to tangle in her hair. She pressed closer and closer against him, her nipples hardening, her body responding and promising as the floodgates opened still further and all the suppressed need that had haunted her for weeks surfaced in a rush.

  Through the open French windows, spasmodic clapping broke out into the night as masks fell and prizes were announced, bringing Luz reluctantly back to earth. She drew away, her heart pounding, though her body was yearning for more. As she stared at the man standing before her, confusion and doubt shadowed her eyes. The breath caught once more in her throat as she looked at him. Faced with his sexual magnetism, her head was swimming … she felt weak … but characteristically, something stronger and proud stepped up in her defence.

  ‘How dare you! What are you doing here? How did you get in?’ she demanded, staring at him in disbelief, still incredulous at his presence at El Pavón and at the situation she found herself in.

  He did not answer, but simply gave her one of his slow, lazy smiles. A shaft of moonlight touched his face. Once again Luz was reminded of how devastatingly attractive she found him. He was a restless creature with eyes as secretive and deep as the ocean, reflecting the fire that burned silently within him. It was definitely those eyes that revealed Leandro’s gypsy blood: wild, flashing, magnificent. Still, as she looked deeper into them for the first time, Luz was aware of a trace of dreamy softness concealed behind his devil-may-care attitude.

  ‘What do you want?’ she went on.

  He stared into her dark-blue eyes without comment and was silent for so long that she began to wonder if he intended to say anything at all.

  He moved away a little and, taking out a packet of thin paper and a small box of tobacco, proceeded to roll a cigarette. Once he had lit it, he inhaled deeply, leaned against a nearby tree and surveyed her idly. ‘I want to make love to you,’ he said coolly.

  Luz blinked and looked away from him so he couldn’t see the effect of aching tension his boldness had produced in her. Hopefully, the semi-darkness would hide the flame sweeping her cheeks. She could still feel his passionate embrace, his feverish kisses burning her lips, and the tautness of his arousal that had made her innermost parts pulsate with a desire of which she had never thought herself capable. Still, she remembered how easily he had dismissed her at the fair when the redheaded gypsy girl, Rosa, had appeared on the scene and she searched for a cutting response.

  ‘Don’t you think you’re being a little brazen?’ was the only phrase she could come up with, making her inwardly wince.

  Leandro favoured her with a long, speculative look through the smoke of his cigarette. He laughed deep in his throat. ‘No, I do not. There’s no shield from the forces of destiny. I think you want it as much as I do – it was there from the first moment we laid eyes on each other. When two consenting adults are in agreement, where is the problem?’ His gypsy intonation had a questioning lift as he voiced his forthright challenge, but his eyes were watching her steadily.

  Luz frowned. For a few moments she was lost for words.

  ‘I see,’ she said evenly, still evading his gaze. ‘But I don’t believe I’ve given my consent to anything of the sort so I think your presumption is a little misplaced.’

  She looked directly at him and saw that his sparkling green eyes held mischief.

  ‘We’re going to have to do something about your old-fashioned ways, Luz.’

  ‘I’m not old-fashioned, I simply don’t …’

  ‘Don’t what, Luz?’ As before, his eyes travelled up and down her in a way that made her legs go weak and her stomach fill with butterflies. ‘I think you are a little tense, then.’

  ‘I’m not tense,’ she lied, instinctively taking two paces back and crossing her arms against her chest. She needed some distance between them; to put their relationship – such as it was – back on a more formal footing. ‘What you’re so casually suggesting is not something a decent woman does lightly, that’s all. And no decent man should demand it either.’

  ‘It’s not gallant, you mean?’ His green gaze was twinkling again.

  She couldn’t help but smile at that quaint description she’d once used with regard to him. ‘It’s a question of la honra as even rogues and bandits know.’ She arched a brow, batting his own words back to him.

  He tilted his head to one side. ‘Are you now playing with me, Doña Luz?’ He grinned with a flash of white teeth, making her marvel again at how stunningly handsome he was. As he leant his forearm against the tree trunk, she imagined how his muscled shoulder might look beneath his dark Tuareg robe. She blinked rapidly.

  ‘Decency is irrelevant to passion and even la honra bows to the laws of love and destiny,’ he continued.

  ‘Is that the convenient mantra of all gypsies?’

  ‘We gypsies have many mantras, but that one is my own.’ His comment was accompanied by a twisted smile. She couldn’t make out whether or not he was amused. Still, she wanted more of that smile, she craved it, and in that craving, she knew, was a danger more extreme than any other.

  ‘I’ve
been warned about gypsies …’ Perturbed, she blurted it out before she could stop herself.

  He arched a brow. ‘And what warnings would those be? That we are wild and untrustworthy? That rich, fine girls like you will be corrupted by our wicked ways?’

  ‘Well, you certainly seem free with your affections.’ Her voice was low and husky and she regarded him warily. That was exactly the impression she had been given.

  ‘I am not free with anything, believe me, Luz,’ he murmured, tossing his cigarette to the ground and stubbing it out with the heel of his boot. He was still watching her.

  Luz took a breath, her heart in her throat almost choking her. ‘Not even Rosa, I suppose?’ She stood staring at him defiantly, a pang of jealousy mixing uncomfortably with the butterflies that had returned to her stomach. Why did he have this effect on her?

  Leandro finally pushed away from the tree, his lips quirking in a half smile as he took a step towards her. ‘Does she bother you, Luz?’

  ‘Why should she bother me? What you do with women is none of my concern.’ She shrugged, trying to feign indifference as she met his gaze. ‘You and I do not own each other.’

  ‘Don’t we, querida?’ he said softly. He stood observing her with a scrutiny she found unnerving. ‘You want me as much as I want you but you’re too afraid to admit it. Afraid to give in to your passion, afraid of your own nature.’ He paused, his eyes still searching her face, dropping suddenly and settling on her mouth. ‘Rosa is nothing to me.’ He took another step nearer and her legs felt disinclined to hold her up. ‘You have yet to understand that submitting to your passion is your destiny. Not only that, it is what you really want.’

  ‘You do have some nerve, you know,’ Luz breathed, turning away to break the hold he had on her. She wanted to run back to the terrace but somehow she couldn’t move, her heart was pounding so hard. She was so aware of him behind her.

  Muffled voices and strains of violin music from the orchestra trickled into the garden as a tango started up, eventually sweeping towards them into the deepening night.

  He must have covered the space between them silently and with agile swiftness because Luz was stunned when she felt his hands slide over her shoulders as he came to stand behind her. She longed to lean against his lithe, vigorous body, but instead she turned sharply to face the young gypsy with all her efforts concentrated on resisting him. As she drew new breath to argue, she collided with the blaze of those hypnotic, devouring eyes.

  ‘Please don’t look at me like that,’ she whispered in earnest, her courage deflated. ‘When you do, I find it hard to behave as I know I should. It’s not fair.’

  She drew away with a little shake of her head. Luz’s deep sapphire eyes reflected the uncontrollable desire churning inside her but the struggle to suppress it was also written on her face, as was her resolution to reject him.

  A deep groove appeared between Leandro’s brows as he took in her refusal. He straightened, and his chin lifted a little with resigned determination. The devil-may-care look that earlier glittered in his eyes and the faint smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth had now disappeared. They were replaced by a stark expression she couldn’t understand, as if his pride was battling with some far more complicated melancholic emotion. His voice dropped to a husky note.

  ‘I will not pressure you,’ he said ruefully, tracing a finger across the beautiful curve of her cheekbone. ‘I’ll go now and not bother you again.’

  His reaction took Luz by surprise. She had no intention of surrendering to him at the drop of a hat, and yet nor was she expecting him to give up so easily, or for it to be so final. While her mind grappled with the right thing to do, Luz’s body had already betrayed her and the words he clearly wanted to hear were there, quivering on the tip of her tongue: a longing to tell him how she felt, how this yearning for him consumed her. She only needed a little more time; he was being absurd.

  He started to turn away. Her heart sank and panic struck her as a thousand conflicting thoughts fought for sovereignty. Her upbringing, her parents’ hints and Agustina’s plainer words surfaced and nagged away at her but her restless heart and chaotic hormones chanted a different tune. He’ll disappear like gypsies do, never to be seen or heard of again. He’ll never hold you like he did tonight … His burning kisses will be just a memory, never to return. The terrible finality of it suddenly struck her. No, she couldn’t bear that.

  ‘Leandro …’

  It was the first time she had uttered his name out loud and her cry resonated in the night. Drawn from within her, it was an anguished reflex, not heeding of consequences, and it stopped him in his tracks. He turned. For a brief moment in the moonlight the consuming, raw passion they felt erupted between them as they held each other’s gaze and then there was no stopping them. Swept away by the current of their aching desire, they sailed tumultuous waves of eroticism into a world of their own.

  Luz had been held and kissed before, but never like this. In fact, she had often wondered what all the fuss was about. Now she understood. In Leandro’s arms she felt feminine, wanted, alive. The strength of his arousal sent sensations spinning through her like liquid fire and scorched every intimate part of her. His mouth was voracious on hers, probing and enticing her with his tongue, and when she shyly pursued with hers, hot and moist, he gave a low groan in his throat. As he teased, kissed and caressed, she shivered and burned, gasping with need and pleasure. Luz was equally fierce, freeing the shackles of repressed longing, holding nothing back. They knew nothing of each other yet still their bodies were perfectly attuned: he led and she followed. There was no tenderness either in his kisses or his caresses. They were wild, like everything about him, and Luz revelled in his touch with an ever-growing hunger as she responded blindly, giving as much as she took.

  So it came as a bolt from the blue when fireworks began to explode, loud enough to shock them out of their ecstasy and bright enough to transform the natural wonder of El Pavón’s garden into a surreal world bathed in bright kaleidoscopic colours.

  They gazed at each other with their hearts in their eyes, still trembling with the passion that had rocked them so. Leandro lifted Luz up urgently and carried her to the stone bench at the edge of the lake. Though the flowers were asleep for the night their heady scent filled the air. A soft breeze had started up its occasional whisper, rushing eerily through the waterside plants. They were quiet for a while, a little subdued by the quick passion that had shaken them both and dazed by the last of the lights bursting and falling to nothing in the night sky. There was no need to talk. Together, in silence, they watched the golden shafts of moonlight blazing on the rippling black expanse of water that lay at their feet.

  Luz was the first to speak. ‘How were you able to get your message to me?’ She lifted her dark-blue eyes to him.

  Leandro fixed his gaze on her face, and then down the long and graceful line of her throat, beautiful as a swan’s neck, without decoration of any kind. His laugh was deep and hoarse; the yearning for her still burning like flames in his eyes while he seemed to ponder his answer.

  ‘We gypsies rise from the mist like an illusion, a dream. We ride the wind and, like the wind, we breeze in and out of places at our leisure, anywhere and at any time,’ he said with that slow smile that was becoming familiar to her.

  True enough, she thought. In Cádiz, after her fall, not only had he been able to bring her back to L’Estrella but he’d also managed to find his way to her bedroom. And then today he had somehow managed to get a note to her table.

  She gave him a bright, direct smile. ‘Very resourceful, very enterprising.’

  ‘I believe that if someone wants something enough, he must reach out and take it, don’t you think?’ he said calmly, the arrogant gleam returning to his eyes.

  ‘Erm … Yes, I suppose so,’ she muttered awkwardly.

  ‘Don’t be afraid, relax, let yourself go,’ he whispered as his head came down and he claimed her lips once more. It was a different
sort of kiss now, Luz thought dreamily, her body flooded with warmth as his mouth moved slowly and lovingly from her lips to her cheeks and down to the hollow in her throat where a tiny nerve pulsed almost imperceptibly, a manifest giveaway of what he was doing to her senses. His hands swept over the curve of her breasts, lingeringly. She felt them swell beneath her costume and knew he could feel it too, which sent another rush of heat down between her thighs. Luz shuddered and her arms moved up to his neck as fire raced through her. She pulled him down towards her on the bench and he covered her with his body. Arching her back wantonly to mould herself to him, she could feel the strength of his virility. Her obvious arousal made Leandro lose control. His fingers moved urgently, impatiently seeking an entrance to her bodice. He buried his face in the warmth of her neck, enveloped in the sweet scent of her silken hair.

  ‘Yo te quiero, yo te quiero, I want you, querida,’ he groaned as he found and began to undo the three buttons that protected the intimate upper part of her from his scorching touch.

  The loud noise of shrill klaxons and roaring motors brought them down to earth again with a bang, their breathing fast and uneven as they drew back from each other in alarm. Leandro looked at Luz enquiringly, still exhaling heavily.

  ‘Oh, no,’ she protested, her hand to her mouth, ‘it must be one o’clock. The guests will be leaving. You must go, Leandro! I have to get back to the hacienda before I’m missed.’

  A faint smile crossed his handsome face as his eyes stroked her mouth but it was edged with frustration. ‘Pity, querida. We were getting on so well.’

  ‘Will I see you again?’ A shadow darkened her eyes. Why was he suddenly looking so desolate? ‘Where can I find you? Where can we meet?’ she asked desperately. Luz surprised herself, realizing only too well how forward she must sound and how far she had wanted – and still wanted – to go with this man who had so bewitched her.