“I’ve never really known any other way of life,” Colby mused. “My earliest memories are of my father putting me in front of him on his horse and riding all over the ranch. It’s amazing to think all these years I’ve taken it for granted. I’d be lost in a city.”
“And I’m lost here,” Joclyn attempted a little laugh that didn’t fool either of them.
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t throw you on the back of just any horse. I have a couple of wonderful, very steady animals. You may as well take lessons with Tanya; that is, if Tanya would like to ride once she actually meets me.” Colby made her commitment, trying not to think about what Paul was going to say.
“It’s all she’s talked about, learning to ride, I mean.” The relief on Joclyn’s face was so apparent Colby had to look away. As she did so, she encountered a pair of coal black eyes, an eyebrow raised in a kind of mocking male amusement.
At once her heart slammed hard against her chest and her mouth went dry. She could actually hear her heart pounding overloud in alarm. “Why didn’t you tell me he was here?” Colby couldn’t look away from those unblinking eyes. She had seen many predators, both bear and mountain lion. Rafael De La Cruz had the same uncanny stare. Her internal warning system had failed to let her know he was watching her, yet now it had kicked in and was working overtime so that every nerve ending was shrieking in trepidation.
“Rafael? I’m sorry, Colby, I know it must be difficult for you when you feel as if the Chevez family is trying to take your brother and sister away, but Sean has to entertain them somehow. They are business associates. Rafael insisted he come along tonight and Sean didn’t have a good enough reason to deny his request.”
With tremendous willpower, Colby tore her gaze from Rafael’s mesmerizing one. He could hypnotize the entire room with his glittering black eyes, she decided as she stood up and shoved ineffectually at the unruly hair spilling around her face. “Three o’clock on Wednesday sound okay?” Even her voice was shaking. Colby knew when to cut her losses and run. Rafael De La Cruz was more than she could handle.
“Thank you, Colby.” Joclyn was sincere, intuitively not attempting to detain her any longer. Whatever was between Colby and Rafael put Colby visibly on edge.
Colby had made it nearly to the door when Rafael’s viselike fingers circled her upper arm. He had moved with all the silence and stealth of a hunter, swiftly, unerringly, bringing his prey to ground. “Dance or a scene, you have your choice.” His voice whispered over her skin like a velvet glove, tempting, taunting, a sinful male enticement when his words were so at odds with the seduction of his voice. He didn’t care if she struggled, if every man in the bar leapt to her defense; he was not going to relinquish his hold on her. She knew it instinctively. People—her friends—would get hurt if they tried to interfere.
There was an edge to Rafael tonight, a distinct warning in the very way he held her. His body was as hard as a rock, his skin hot. There was raw possession in the depths of his eyes, in the enormous strength of his arms. Colby was used to men who were ranchers, strong men who thought nothing of tossing hay bales around. Rafael De La Cruz was deceptive in his looks. Long and lean, steel ran through his blood and bones. As soon as Colby felt the heat of his chest through the thin silk of his shirt where her cheek brushed his body, she knew dancing with him was a big mistake. Her heart gave a crazy lurch and she stiffened, tried to hold herself away from him.
Rafael simply pulled her that much closer, so close she could feel the warmth of his breath against her temple. Felt the hard thick thrust of his arousal pressed against her. Honestly. Casually. As if it didn’t matter in the least that she knew the urgency of his body’s demand for hers. His fingers curled around her wrist, held her hand tight against his heart. “Sssh,” he cautioned, his accent very deep, his voice so husky her entire body trembled with need. “You would not want these men to rush to your rescue.”
“They would, too.” She forced the words out of her mouth. For one terrible moment she thought her vocal cords were paralyzed. He was too potent up close like this. She had never seen such a sensual man. But it was more than his good looks. More than his raw sex appeal. There was a dangerous untamed aura clinging to him. She smelled it on him, felt it up close to him. Like an animal, a wild marauder. He was very dangerous, not only to her, but also to others. The knowledge was deep inside her, elemental, certain. She didn’t know where it came from, but she trusted her instincts.
He leaned his dark head toward hers while the music beat through their bodies and rushed through their bloodstream. “What if I told you I could read your mind?” He whispered the words, his lips against the pulse beating so frantically in her neck. Little flames began licking along her neck and shoulder.
Colby closed her eyes. The music surrounded them, encasing them like satin sheets so that she burned with need. They burned together, she felt it in his body. Dancing with him was a kind of sexual torment. She could hear her blood pounding in her ears and her body felt molten with liquid fire. “I would have to call you a liar, Mr. De La Cruz. If there is one thing I know for certain, you can’t read my mind.” And for that she was eternally grateful. Because she wanted him with every cell in her body. She wanted to feel that perfectly sculpted mouth crushing hers, his hands moving over her, needing her, possessing her.
Rafael held her close, his body painful in its new demands. This woman was the one who belonged to him. He would have her. He had never denied himself a single thing he wanted in centuries of living. Nothing, no one, had aroused his interest in well over a thousand years, longer even. Now his every waking moment was occupied with thoughts of her. Torment. Pure and simply she was torment. Colby Jansen was his and no one would take her from him. Not now, not ever.
What she said was true. And it was shocking. He could read minds easily, yet hers was partially closed to him. And she knew it was. The fact maddened him, sent temper drifting through his bloodstream to mingle with the sexual hunger and lust rising so acutely. He would have her. All of her, no matter the cost. He would keep her for his own, make love to her when he chose. Feed his hunger, possess her. Own her. She would obey him and she would never close her mind to his once he unlocked her secrets.
Rafael bent even closer to the temptation of her satin skin. When he inhaled her scent, she smelled of spring and forest. The high mountains. Colby was different, far different from any other human he had met. An intriguing puzzle he would enjoy working out. He would take his time, feel his way through the unfamiliar situation. If it became necessary, he would simply take her and go to his homeland. Rafael’s family ruled there; no one would attempt to interfere. Either way, she would not escape him.
Colby made the mistake of looking up at his sensual, handsome features. There was a ruthless set to his jaw, a merciless stamp to his mouth. At that moment his eyes were flat and hard and cold. She shivered and immediately he pulled her even closer so that her soft body was imprinted against the hardness of his. “I can’t breathe.” She meant it to come out sarcastically, but her voice betrayed her, a whisper of sound, husky, breathless, fearful.
Rafael guided her expertly through the traffic of drunken cowboys on the dance floor, straight into the deeper shadows. His dark head bent closer until his mouth rested against her tempting pulse. Their bodies were swaying together to the music, a dark erotic tango they shared together. He inhaled deeply, taking her scent into his lungs, his body and soul, so he would know her anywhere, find her anywhere. Deep inside him the demon raised its head and roared for supremacy. She could sate his ever-present hunger. She stopped the emptiness, the cold gray world, she could quench the firestorm burning out of control in his blood. He would have her at any cost. She belonged to him.
“You can breathe, querida.” His voice was soft, gentle even when his arms were like steel bands. “You are afraid to take me inside your body, afraid of my possession, but you will come to accept it.” His accent was thick, sexy, a temptation, and no one had ever tempted her b
efore. She gave a small gasp at his choice of words, but the pad of his thumb brushed a caress over her lower lip, effectively halting her protest. His mind was working on the secret of hers. What protected her from his invasion? It wouldn’t protect her forever. If he took her blood, he would have her. She would never escape him. “You will not, you know, not ever.” He said it aloud, as if she might read his thoughts, testing her, even as he bent his head to her neck.
She felt his teeth tease her pulse, scraping back and forth, nibbling, caressing. Her entire body clenched in response. Her womb throbbed and ached. Her breasts swelled, nipples tightening into hard peaks. Gasping in sheer shock at her own response, Colby tilted her head to look up at him. His face was dark with desire, his eyes smoky with a raw intense hunger now. He had the look of a natural born predator. He didn’t try to hide it, or soften it, he simply stared into her horrified gaze. She had the strange sensation of falling again, of moving toward him, embracing him, asking him into her mind and soul.
“Let go of me!” She hissed the words between her small clenched teeth, suddenly terrified in a room filled with people. A room filled with tough cowhands, every one of whom would fight for her protection. Deep down, where it counted, Colby knew they wouldn’t win against him. No one would defeat him. Not alone or together. No one would be able to save her from him if he decided to forcibly take her. Rafael De La Cruz was truly a dangerous man under that very thin veneer of civilization. The knowledge was there, strong in her mind.
He held her for another long moment, savoring the feel of her body pressed so close to his. Her eyes were beautiful, sparkling with a hint of temper, but mostly fear. “You think to escape me, pequena, but there is no chance for you. You may as well accept it as you accept the air you breathe into your lungs. And I don’t like you saying no to me. No one says no to me, least of all you.”
It wasn’t even what he said that disturbed her, it was the way he said it, the sound of his voice, sexy, husky, heavily accented. It was the intensity in his black eyes as they moved so possessively over her face.
“You’d better get used to it, then. Go back to your home, Mr. De La Cruz. You can’t have my brother and sister and you certainly won’t get them by trying to seduce me,” Colby said insultingly, her words muffled by the thin silk of his shirt.
He let her go, his soft laughter a mocking male amusement that filled her ears with a kind of menace, with a promise. She lifted her chin at him, her expression defiant as she turned on the heel of her worn boots and stalked across the crowded floor. Halfway to the door, Joe caught her up in his bear grip. Joe, the perpetual clown. She’d known him all of her life. Easygoing Joe. Safe Joe. Joe didn’t move the earth or shatter mountains with one touch. She went into the safety of his arms, allowing him his dance, acutely aware of a pair of mocking eyes following them around the dance floor. She didn’t talk, she couldn’t, so shaken was she by her encounter with Rafael. She just wanted to snuggle with someone familiar and safe.
Never once did those black eyes leave her face. They had gone back to hiding all emotion. Ice cold. Hard. Flat. The direct, focused gaze of a hunter locked on its prey. There was something very dangerous in those eyes as they touched on Joe’s face. She shivered, suddenly afraid for the great bear of a man who had always been her friend. She pulled out of his arms, driven by fear. Colby tried to appear as normal as possible as she stood on tiptoe to kiss Joe’s cheek before slipping outside into open air.
Crossing the parking lot to the sanctuary of her beat-up pickup truck, Colby swore under her breath, lots of unladylike things the cowhands had taught her at an early age. It was impossible—she had seen Rafael on the other side of the bar when she went out the door—but he was there, lounging against the hood of her truck. He looked lazy and contented, not a mass of nerves like she was. His long legs were stretched out and crossed at the ankles, his clothes were impeccable, black jeans and black silk shirt, his arms folded across his powerful chest.
“Do you know what harassment is?” Nobody should look that good. Nobody. It wasn’t fair. Colby didn’t fall all over herself staring at good-looking cowboys; she was a busy woman, she didn’t have time to faint at their feet. Besides, she was the independent bossy type, according to Paul, and every man within a hundred-mile radius was afraid of her sharp tongue. “I don’t know about your country, but in mine, it is against the law.”
“And you have much faith in these laws?” His voice was very quiet, a mild question, gentle almost, but she heard the edge of humor.
“I suppose you’re above the law,” she snapped, yanking open the door to her truck. It wasn’t going to start; she knew it wouldn’t. It never started first time out.
He moved then, a ripple of muscle, but he was standing beside her, crowding her body with his superior height, the heat from his skin causing her bloodstream to catch fire. He seemed to glide across the ground, as silent as any cat, his attention fixed on her with the same intensity as a jungle beast hunting night prey.
“We have a code of honor my family lives by. That is the law that binds me.” He touched her hair with his fingertips, drew strands of fine silk into his palm almost as if he were mesmerized. “Have you ever felt your hair? Really felt it? It is truly beautiful.”
She stood there, afraid to move or speak, her body restless with unfamiliar demands. As hard as she could, she gripped the door of the truck, needing something solid. “I have to get home to my brother and sister.” Colby wasn’t entirely certain, at that moment, whether she was asking his permission or not. He was that potent, that powerful.
His perfectly straight white teeth flashed. There in the darkness he seemed a lord of the night. His realm. Invincible.
“Miss?” The voice was soft, but it pulled Colby out of her mesmerized state. She spun around to see a young woman standing hesitantly near them. “Do you need help?”
Colby recognized her as the new waitress, only because she was a stranger in a small town filled with people Colby knew very well. She didn’t once look at Rafael, even when there was a small surge of power and Colby knew he was influencing the woman to walk away.
Rafael reached out and settled his fingers around Colby’s arm. You wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.
The woman turned her head then and focused wholly on Rafael. “You could try to hurt me,” she said, as if he’d spoken aloud to her, “but you’d get more than you bargained for. If you try to hurt her, I’ll find a way to make you pay.”
Colby looked at the woman’s face. She was young, but her eyes were old. A startling green, almost sea green, deep and fathomless. “Thank you,” Colby said, meaning it. “I can handle him. He’s from Brazil where women fall at his feet all the time. It’s shocking to him that I don’t. I’m Colby Jansen, by the way.”
Rafael’s fingers tightened on Colby, but he was watching the other woman with a dark, disturbing look. Colby was suddenly frightened for her.
“Maybe I’ll see you around, Colby,” the woman said. She turned and walked slowly away without giving out her name.
“She heard you,” Colby said. “When you spoke, telepathically, she heard you. In my life, you and your brother were the first people I ever met who were like me. Now there’s this woman. Isn’t that such a strange coincidence?”
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Rafael said. His hand slid from her arm as he stared after the other woman.
Colby felt a sharp tug of jealousy. It was unreasonable, stupid—it possibly bordered on insane and plain made her mad at herself. She wanted away from Rafael De La Cruz more than anything. She ducked into the cab, clutching the steering wheel for support. The truck would start. Absolutely would start. She took a deep breath and turned the key. The starter made its usual grinding protest. She stared hard at it, determined that it would start. Nothing defied Colby Jansen in this mood. The engine turned over and she revved it carefully, a swift, triumphant smile crossing her face. She couldn’t help but glance at him smugly as she backed out of t
he lot and headed home.
Rafael watched thoughtfully as the old rickety pickup disappeared around the corner. The sudden surge of power vibrating in the air as she started the engine had been impossible to miss. Had she known what she was doing? Colby Jensen was unique among humans. She possessed qualities, talents he had not expected. There had been rumors that his family was not completely isolated. He had heard, although none of them had ever really believed until Riordan had found his lifemate, that there were human women possessing certain rare gifts that deemed them lifemates to the males of his race. Colby not only was telepathic, but she could do a variety of other things as well. And who was the mystery woman who would have challenged his authority over Colby? Friend or enemy?
Rafael and his four brothers were immortal. From their home in the Carpathian Mountains, they had gone willingly to South America when it was a wild, lawless land plagued by vampires, far from their homeland and their kin. The ancestors of the present-day Chevez family had eventually been chosen to run their vast estates during the daylight hours. In exchange, the De La Cruz brothers provided protection and wealth for those members of the Chevez family who remained loyal to them. In the intervening years, Rafael had certainly hunted countless vampires, males of his race who had deliberately chosen the darkness and had become wholly evil.
He glanced around the parking lot, blurred his image so that the few stragglers wouldn’t see him, and, with the ease of long practice, launched himself skyward. Shape-shifting on the wing, he circled once and then flew across the night sky. Colby Jansen was unlike anything he had ever experienced. It was the first time in his long life he could remember being uncertain how to proceed. Emotions were new and raw, colors were vivid and blinding, his body was alive and crawled with relentless sexual hunger. It was amazing to be in her company, to have her in his world. He wanted to spend every moment with her, yet he could not control her as he did everything and everybody in his realm of existence. But I will. He sent that thought winging ahead of him into the night. A promise. A need. A vow.
Christine Feehan 5 CARPATHIAN NOVELS Page 41