Sweet Promise

by Janet Dailey

The vague warning was no sooner spoken than Erica felt the touch of his mouth against hers. Lightly he explored her lips, warming them with the kindled flame of his kiss. Desperately she tried to be analytical in her comparison of his embrace and Forest’s, but the strange leaping of her senses made it impossible. His arms curled down her back and gently arched her towards him while her hands encountered the nakedness of his chest.

  In a blinding flash, she knew that her responses to Forest had been in answer to his ardency and not aroused by it as was the case with Rafael. Of their own volition, her arms had slipped inside his robe to wrap around his waist. Now she pulled them free and pressed her palms against his chest.

  But she didn’t have to struggle as Rafael gently let her step back, his hands supporting her trembling frame for a minute before he released her completely. The intensity of his gaze was too disturbing and her pulse was already behaving much too erratically.

  ‘I — I think I’d better leave,’ Erica whispered after she had taken a deep breath to restore air to her lungs.

  ‘It’s a pity you could not love me.’ His eyes studied the high colour in her face. ‘This thing between us could have been beautiful.’

  ‘It would have been the perfect answer for you, wouldn’t it?’ she agreed dryly. ‘Now you’ll simply have to find some other woman to bear your children and carry on your precious family name.’

  His lips thinned. ‘No other woman will bear my name or my children. You may have your freedom, but I will still be bound by my own chains.’

  ‘Aren’t you going to contest the divorce?’ she frowned.

  ‘The only condition that I make to your freedom is that you tell your father and Forest the truth.’ The gentleness that had softened his face in the previous moments was replaced by the mask of arrogant aloofness. ‘Not such a terrible price to pay, since it is one you would have paid if I fought the dissolving of our marriage.’

  ‘I don’t understand. Why are you giving in?’ She shook her head in confusion.

  ‘I never intended to force you to honour our vows,’ he replied, turning away from her and walking to the table to light another cigar.

  ‘I don’t believe you,’ Erica murmured, watching him warily and wondering what new ploy he was intending to use. ‘You simply thought you could succeed in bullying me into agreeing. You threatened me with scandal and made me break off with Forest. Why did you go through the deception of taking me out this last month if you didn’t intend to marry me in public?’

  ‘Foolishly I thought you might begin to care for me as a person,’ he said grimly. ‘I would rather sleep alone for the rest of my life than have a woman who resents my presence in the bed.’

  He meant every word he said. For the first time Erica knew that Rafael had been deadly serious that he would not marry again. There was a tight knot of guilt in her stomach that she could treat their marriage vows so lightly. She didn’t really. She wanted her marriage to be for ever, but with a man who loved her, who needed her.

  ‘Rafael, you must marry again,’ she whispered.

  ’do not pity me!’ he snapped. ‘I was aware of the risks I took when I married you. And like you, I will pay the price.’

  ‘I wish there was something I could do.’ Pain snatched at her heart.

  ‘There is,’ he sighed bitterly. ‘You can stay my wife.’

  Erica pivoted sharply away, rueing the damage she had done to both their lives. There was a muffled imprecation from Rafael, then silence. She glanced hesitantly behind her, only to find that she was the sole occupant of the balcony. The sound of impatient movements came from the bedroom and she walked slowly through the open French doors. Rafael was viciously yanking a shirt from a wire hanger as she entered. ‘What are you doing?’ The question sprang from her lips unexpectedly.

  ‘I am getting dressed,’ he replied coldly, pulling a pair of slacks from the closet.

  She stood motionless until she saw him unknotting the cord tie of his robe. Then she quickly turned around, his laughter mocking her movement.

  ‘You are still shy, Erica,’ Rafael commented unkindly.

  ‘I’d better leave,’ she murmured nervously, and started for the door.

  ‘Wait,’ he commanded, catching her by the arm before she reached the door. ‘Give me a moment and I will go with you.’ There was no request in his ordering tone.

  From the corner of her eye, she could see he had his trousers on, but his bronze chest was still bare. ‘I’m going home,’ she said curtly.

  ‘I’m going with you.’

  ‘Why?’ Her demand held accusation for his motives.

  His eyes narrowed into black diamonds, hard and cutting. ‘Because I want to be there when you tell your father about us.’

  ’don’t you think I’ll keep my word?’ she demanded in a choked voice, hurt by his lack of trust.

  His fingers tightened for a fraction of a second before he let her arm go. ‘I have no doubt you will tell him,’ he answered tautly. ‘I realise you believe that I have no mercy, but it is my place to be there to deflect some of his anger.’

  ‘Because you’re my husband?’ Erica taunted, tears stinging her eyes at his unexpected gesture.

  ‘Yes, because I am your husband. Do you think I would make you face it alone?’ He turned away from her in disgust.

  ‘Rafael?’ she said his name hesitantly.

  ‘What?’ he snapped as he roughly put on his shirt, showing a blatant disregard for the expensive material.

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

  He glanced at her over his shoulder, the rigidity leaving his expression. ‘You are welcome,’ he nodded, an enigmatic light burning in his eyes.

  Ten

  * * *

  After Rafael was dressed, he asked Erica’s indulgence for a few minutes so that he could make the telephone calls that were necessary to postpone his appointments for that morning. Then he followed in his own car as she drove back to her home.

  Parking her car in front of the garage, Erica waited nervously on the flagstone walk for Rafael to join her. As she watched the lean, dark figure approaching her, so composed and controlled, she was suddenly grateful for that underlying steel she had always sensed beneath his strikingly handsome face. Before when it had surfaced, she had fought it as an unruly, frightened horse would fight the commanding hand on the reins.

  No one, not even Forest, had ever guessed at her hidden desire to be protected. Independence had been thrust on her and Erica’s headstrong wilfulness had seized it as a shield to hide her weakness. Yet Rafael knew instinctively that she cringed from her father’s displeasure even when she deliberately incurred it. New emotions raced to the front as she viewed Rafael in this fresh light. He was no longer threatening her happiness but promising to guard it in some indefinable way.

  Her hand reached out for his physical support, strength flowing from his firm grasp of her cold, shaking fingers. She tried to conceal her dependence on his presence with a false smile of bravado.

  ‘Shall we go in?’ she suggested brightly.

  Rafael touched the edge of her mouth where the tremors of fear were betraying the lack of genuineness in her smile. ’do not be frightened, querida.’

  She wanted to tell him how safe she felt with him at her side, but the admission wouldn’t come out. It was as if, if she acknowledged the security she felt, she would have to confess something else.

  A firmness straightened the masculine line of his mouth as Rafael released her hand, letting his arm curve around the back of her waist. The guidance of his touch propelled her along the walk to the front of the house.

  A car pulled into the driveway as they neared the entrance. With a halt of surprise, Erica recognised the driver as Forest almost instantly. He parked the car and walked stiffly towards them.

  ‘What are you doing here, Forest?’ she asked, glancing hesitantly at Rafael’s unrevealing expression.

  ‘I thought for a minute I was going to be treated to another exhibitio
n,’ Forest answered grimly, flashing a look of open dislike at Rafael. ‘I received a telephone call at my office to come here immediately. What’s going on, Erica?’

  ‘I — ’ Her head moved uncertainly towards Rafael.

  ‘I left the message,’ Rafael stated, ignoring Forest’s obvious challenge to explain quietly to Erica. ‘I believed it would be best if you only had to tell your story once.’

  She pressed her lips tightly together, moved by his gentle understanding. She had never expected to find security in his embrace, but now she found she wanted to seek it in his arms. Before, the chemistry between them had only been the potent combination of male and female. Only this minute did she realise that his presence offered something more than sexual attraction.

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

  Rafael stared at the brightness of her violet eyes for a long moment, a curious intensity in his dark gaze, then he abruptly swung his attention from her face.

  ‘Shall we go in?’ he suggested curtly, the words directed at Forest.

  ‘By all means,’ Forest jeered.

  Suddenly, in Erica’s eyes, Forest turned into a stranger, someone she barely knew at all, and she found herself edging closer to Rafael. It was difficult to remember that she had despised him and his trickery only a few hours ago.

  Lawrence was in the hallway outside her father’s study as the trio entered the house. There was undisguised speculation in the look he darted at the three of them, but his voice was professionally calm when he spoke.

  ‘Mr Wakefield is expecting you if you would like to go right in,’ he said, motioning in the direction of the closed study door.

  Rafael had evidently contacted her father at the same time as Forest, Erica decided, experiencing a sense of relief that they weren’t barging in totally unexpected. The reassuring pressure of the hand on her back was removed as Rafael stepped forward to open the door. It wasn’t replaced as he allowed Erica and Forest to precede him into the room. Vance Wakefield seemed to be in an amicable mood as he rose from his desk to greet the two men and his daughter.

  The smile on his face didn’t cover the sharpness in his blue eyes when he turned to her. ‘I see I’ve evidently been chosen as a mediator in this lovers’ triangle.’

  Erica was perched on the edge of a leather chair. Her gaze skittered across the room to where Rafael was relaxing in the large leather armchair and on to Forest, who was sitting nearest her in watchful silence.

  ‘You’re not exactly a mediator, Daddy,’ she responded quietly, twisting her fingers together on her lap. She breathed in deeply, searching her mind for a place to begin. ‘I don’t know of any way to start without sounding melodramatic.’ She smiled weakly at the ice-blue regard. Her gaze darted immediately to Rafael and clung to the vague reassurance she saw in his eyes. ‘You see, Daddy, Rafael and I are married.’

  ‘Married?’ The expected explosion came from Forest instead of her father. ’do you mean you had me come over here just to learn that you’d married him? You cold-blooded little female — !’ he shouted as he pushed himself out of the chair.

  ‘Sit down, Señor Granger,’ came Rafael’s clipped order. ‘You will hear my wife out before you leap to condemn!’

  Forest glowered at him, then sat back in his chair. Erica turned away from the disgust in Forest’s expression, her heart leaping at Rafael’s quick defence.

  ‘This was a bit sudden, wasn’t it, Erica?’ her father said quietly with an underlying hint of disapproval. ‘Not that I have any objections to Don Rafael.’

  ‘Actually,’ she stared at her tightly clenched fingers, ‘I met him almost two years ago when we were in Acapulco. I didn’t know who he was at the time — that is, I thought I knew.’ The red of embarrassment stained her cheeks as she raised her head. ‘I believed he was a fortune-hunter. I married him the night you flew to Houston, Daddy.’

  An uncompromising coldness entered her father’s face. ‘Are you saying that you’ve been married to him for nearly two years?’ he demanded.

  She nodded, squarely meeting the anger building in his eyes. ‘I did it to spite you. I know it sounds childishly stupid now, but then I only wanted to make you sorry for ignoring me when it was supposed to be our vacation. When I found out you’d left, I was too frightened to tell you what I had done.’

  Vance Wakefield made no comment. He simply looked at her with icy displeasure as if saying that he wasn’t surprised that she had behaved so foolishly. She was a wilful female without an ounce of sense.

  ‘I suppose he’s been blackmailing you all this time,’ Forest muttered, glancing at Vance Wakefield. ‘We only have his word that he is who he says he is.’

  There was a thread of finely honed steel in Rafael’s voice as he responded to Forest’s implication. ‘Señor Wakefield has already made discreet inquiries with the local Mexican Consul to verify my identity.’

  ‘That’s true. I did,’ her father replied without any apology.

  ‘And he’s why you didn’t accept my proposal, isn’t he?’ Forest said grimly.

  ‘I couldn’t very well agree to marry you when I was already married to Rafael,’ Erica laughed bitterly.

  ‘At least you were sensible about that,’ her father murmured dryly. ‘I suppose I should be grateful that you didn’t get yourself into a bigger mess.’

  ‘Your criticism of Erica is unwarranted,’ Rafael inserted smoothly as Erica flinched at her father’s cutting remark. ‘Everyone is capable of mistakes.’

  ‘My daughter has a penchant for trouble,’ Vance Wakefield bristled, ‘and then expects me to get her out of it. I don’t think I would be wrong if I said that she’s made this confession today in order for me to arrange an annulment so that she’ll be free to marry Forest.’

  ‘An annulment isn’t possible.’ A stunned silence followed Rafael’s softly spoken voice, and Erica flushed under Forest’s accusing glare. ‘It is true that Erica ran away after we were married, but not until the morning after our wedding.’

  Forest cursed beneath his breath, while her father’s eyes narrowed into ice chips of polar blue. Erica couldn’t bear their joint censure and bounded to her feet, turning her back to them and hugging her arms about her churning stomach.

  ‘If your intention was to divorce him, why have you been seeing him constantly this last month?’ Forest demanded.

  Erica glanced over her shoulder at Rafael, strangely unwilling to tell of the way he had forced her to see him. He returned her look steadily and answered the question for her.

  ‘Because my wife believed that I would not grant her a divorce. I told her if she did not break off with you and begin seeing me, I would go to her father and tell him of our marriage, knowing how highly she valued his opinion of her. Erica came to me this morning and told me she was going to tell her father the whole truth and face the consequences.’

  ‘I would like to know why you married my daughter and kept silent about it?’ Her father’s sharp gaze swung from Erica to Rafael.

  But Rafael was immune to his disapproval as he studied Erica’s face before replying. ‘I married your daughter because I loved her, and for no other reason.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ Erica gasped. ‘You only married me so you could have children!’

  ‘You never asked why I married you,’ Rafael reminded her cynically. ‘You have never considered what my reasons might have been. Yes, I want children, but there were any number of women who would have married me and given me children. I guessed that you didn’t love me the night that I married you, or at least, not as fully as I loved you. But in my arrogance,’ he smiled in self-mockery, ‘I believed you would come to return my love in time. I never expected to find you gone in the morning.’

  Erica stared at him in wordless amazement, the knowledge that he loved her jolting through her like an electric current.

  ‘As you once pointed out, querida,’ Rafael continued, ‘I have a vast quantity of pride. When I found you in San Antonio, you demanded a d
ivorce and claimed to be in love with another man. I could hardly fall to my knees and declare my love for you under those circumstances.’

  ‘If you knew she loved me,’ Forest inserted, ‘why didn’t you do the decent thing and set her free?’

  Rafael’s aloof gaze swung arrogantly to Forest. ‘Because I knew you could never make her happy. Oh, perhaps for a little while.’ His hand moved in a short dismissive gesture. ‘But you are too much like her father. A few months after your marriage, you would begin taking her for granted, pushing her aside to further your career. You might have one or two children to occupy her time, but the love for a child can never take the place of the love that a man and woman share. I had hoped that Erica might begin to care for me in this last month, but she has not. So I have agreed to her request for a divorce and will not contest it.’

  He rose lightly to his feet and turned to her father. ’do not be harsh with Erica. The sensitivity you see as a weakness, I see as strength. She accepts your affection and returns it tenfold. Not many parents can say that of their children.’ His glance encompassed Erica and Forest. ‘There is no more of the story that needs to be told. My presence is no longer required. Buenos dias.’

  Silently, almost in a daze, Erica watched him walk past her to the door, with no more than a gracious nod in her direction. When the door closed behind him, she knew that she would never see him again. There was no elation, no sense of relief, no feeling of victory that she had finally achieved her freedom, in word if not yet in deed. There was only a frightening emptiness, a void as if some precious part of her had walked out the door as well.

  ‘I’ll call Jules,’ her father said gruffly. ‘He can start drawing up the papers for the divorce.’

  ‘No!’ The denial was spontaneous and firm. ‘No, there will be no divorce,’ Erica declared.

  ’don’t be idiotic!’ Forest cried angrily. ‘The man is giving you your freedom. We can be married.’

  ‘I don’t want to marry you.’ She looked into the strong square-jawed face, seeing beyond the rugged exterior for the first time. ‘I don’t love you, Forest. I’m sorry, but you’re just a shadow of my father. You’re so very like him that I’m surprised I didn’t see it before. I love my father, but I don’t want to be married to him.’