'Where can I find Miguel?' she asked, and his uncle smiled.
'Not far away,' he said. 'You'll soon find him.'
Without a clue where to start looking for him, Kirstie automatically made her way round to the stable, but she hadn't quite reached the archway in the wall when he appeared. When he saw her he hesitated for just a second, then came striding on, while Kirstie stood and waited, her legs horribly unsteady, and her heart hammering away like a drum-beat that half deafened her.
That Moorish-dark skin showed like matt bronze against a white shirt and his long legs made nothing of the distance between them as he came across the patio to her. Kirstie looked up at him, speaking quickly before she lost her nerve.
'I have to apologise to you for—so many things, Miguel, but I didn't know, and you didn't say anything, not even when I was angry, and you could have put me right, you could have '
His mouth stopped hers with infinite gentleness and he held her arms as he looked down into her flushed face and evasive eyes. 'Who have you been talking to?' he wanted to know, and she moistened her lips anxiously before she answered.
'To Senor Montanes.'
'And he thought I'd mentioned the business of you staying on as my secretary,' he guessed, and something in the way he said it made her look up quickly.
'He—he said you were going to ask me, but you
haven't and ' Her eyes searched his face anxiously
and the thud of her heart made it almost impossible to think clearly. 'Miguel, I didn't know you were against the idea of a par adore, you didn't tell me that it wasn't your idea, and Luis didn't tell me when I spoke to him about you.'
His hands moved lightly on her arms, stroking the soft skin and bringing an even more urgent beat to her pulse. 'I was rather hoping he'd tell you himself,' he said in the deep quiet voice that could wreak such havoc on her senses. *But you were so determined that I was the villain that you probably wouldn't have believed him anyway, would you, my pigeon?'
It was the very first time he had addressed an endearment to her, and she was trembling, she realised, as if she was about to break down. 'I would have believed you,' she said in a shivery small voice.
His dark eyes scanned her face for a moment. *Yes, I believe you would have,' he said.
He kissed her again, so lightly and gently that she longed to feel that fierce, hard pressure on her mouth again, and shivered at the recollection. 'I—I didn't know you were helping Abuelo to get back at least a small share of Casa de Rodriguez either,' she told him, and wondered how she resisted the temptation to lean towards him and make contact with the lean, passionate body that seemed to be taunting her with its nearness. 'I don't know how to thank you, Miguel, he's so—so happy about it.'
*rd like you to know that selling me your grandmother's jewels was not my idea,' he said with a touch of dryness. *So please don't blame me for it, I'd much rather not have taken them.'
'But Abuelo would never accept '
She hesitated to say charity, but Miguel was shaking his head, as if he knew perfectly well what she had in mind. 'It would have been a loan only,' he insisted. 'I like your grandfather and I was prepared to advance him the small part he has and wait for profits to pay for it, for there will be good profits from Casa de Rodriguez, Kirstie, without resorting to tourism. But your grandfather is a proud man, and I respect that. As for your grandmother's jewellery, you need have no fears about that, it will still be yours when the time comes.'
'You think we'll be able to redeem it so soon?' she
asked, and felt a curious trickling sensation along her spine when he smiled.
Take my word for it, little one,' he said softly. 'You shall have it when the time is right.'
Kirstie stirred in the infinitely gentle hold he had on her, wanting to respond as she always did, but inhibited by the constant reminder of her grandfather's matchmaking. Looking up at him, she shook her head despairingly. 'Oh, why did Abuelo have to have that silly idea of talking to you about—How can I feel at ease with you when you know what he has in mind?'
i think we'll straighten out that question next,' said Miguel, and drew her into the shade of a magnificent oleander. His hands were tight about her arms and there was a gleaming blackness in his eyes that sent the fam-iHar sensations shivering along her spine. 'First and foremost, the idea of my marrying you was mine, not Don Jose's, as I would have told you, if only you'd given me the opportunity.'
Kirstie was staring at him wide-eyed, and her mouth was partly open, her lips soft and rounded in disbelief.
'But ' she began, and Miguel once more silenced her
with a kiss.
'Your grandfather complained about the way Luis was behaving and that was what made me so angry; that and the fact that you seemed not to be able to make up your own mind whether you objected to his behaviour or not.' His eyes burned between their thick lashes and she no longer looked away from them but met them steadily as if they hypnotised her. 'You seemed so often to be deliberately taunting me that I could have broken your lovely neck, because I was never sure enough of you to take a definite step and you were— you still are so very young. From the very beginning you got under my skin. Why do you think I let you have the run of the estate, and let you have the mare? I wanted you where I could see you, dote on you, and in the beginning you were so violently against me that I saw no chance of you ever changing.'
A flush warmed her cheeks and there was an incredibly yielding feeling in her legs as she stood not quite touching him. 'Abuelo always liked you/ she reminded him in a whisper, and Miguel took her face between his hands and breathed his words close to her Hps.
'But I wasn't faUing in love with your grandfather,' he told her softly, and the words stirred a wild exultation in her heart. 'I think my uncle thought I was losing my wits, I was so wrapped up in you, but he didn't laugh at me as he could so easily have done.'
'Laughed at you?'
She looked at him in sudden startlement, and Miguel shook his head, moving his thumbs lightly over her lips as he talked. 'You're not yet twenty-one, my lovely,' he reminded her, 'and at thirty-four I've had more than my share of loving. I took a chance in throwing you and Luis together, but somehow I knew in my heart that you weren't going to be swept off your feet by him, no matter if you did claim to prefer romantics.'
'I was never in love with Luis.'
She could say that because it was true, and she had never thought it was otherwise. She had come much closer to loving Miguel than ever she had to loving Luis, and she knew now that she would never love anyone as much as she did him. Miguel's black eyes gazed down hungrily at her mouth and she yearned for the feel of his arms about her and the touch of the strong, virile body with its demanding masculinity taking possession of her senses and her will-power.
He stroked her cheeks with his hands, then slid them down to her shoulders and pressed the long fingers into her flesh. 'I was wildly jealous of him, my darling, however often I assured myself you wouldn't fall in love with him.'
'You had no need to be—ever.'
Her voice was so light and husky that it was barely more than a whisper, and when he slid his arms around her and drew her close at last she lifted her arms to put
them around his neck. *So often you've caused me to doubt myself, my love,' Miguel murmured. 'When you responded so warmly to my kiss that evening I came down to the cottage, I thought you knew how I felt about you; I was stunned when you turned away and seemed so—disturbed because I'd tried to tell you I wanted to marry you.'
'Because I thought Abuelo had talked you into it.'
'No one talked me into anything,' Miguel told her, and his voice had the warning harshness of passion. 'I asked Don Jose's permission to speak to you because you were so young, that was all, although I met with no opposition at all.'
Kirstie swept the black fringe of her lashes upward and gazed at him with bright shimmering eyes. 'Ask me,'' she whispered, her mouth parted and half-smiling. 'I can answer
for myself, my love, I don't need anyone to speak for me.'
Miguel folded his arms about her so hard it was almost impossible to breathe, but she revelled in his strength and looked up at him with her blue eyes gleaming as brightly as his. 'I love you,' he whispered hoarsely, and the hard virility of him fired her senses as always. 'I love you, my little pigeon, and I want you desperately! Marry me; in the name of all that's holy say you'll marry me and put an end to this torture!'
It was like a cry of pain when he pleaded with her, and Kirstie felt she had no resistance at all. She loved him, and she had loved him for far longer than she realised; her need was as urgent as his and she parted her lips in surrender, her words only a murmur against that possessive mouth.
'I love you, I want to marry you—oh, so much I want to marry you, my darHng!'
His mouth was at her throat, her neck and fiercely hard and passionate on her lips, every muscle of his body straining her to him as if he wanted to make her part of him, and if anyone could see them from the house it didn't matter at all. Not at all.
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Table of Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Pages
Back Cover
The Black Invader Page 19