He wasn't insensitive at all, that was the trouble. He was alert to every feeling that went through her, every response that she made to him. And he knew that she hadn't the strength to send him away.
She wasn't going to get involved with Leon Calveto, she told herself. He was just a temporary presence in her life—mentally stimulating, physically exciting, but, above all, transient. Mercedes was one stray fancy, now she was another. And his intentions were strictly dishonourable. To view them in any other light would be the mistake of the century. He had as good as told her so.
She knew it all. She had been over it in her head a dozen times and more. Yet she couldn't stop seeing him, couldn't turn his invitations down. As she dressed for the evening ahead Nita saw her glow of anticipation reflected in the mirror and cursed herself for letting herself get excited. What would Leon make of her flushed cheeks and over-bright eyes? The knowledge that he was close to getting his way with her, she suspected. Thank goodness for the outdated Mexican social code which frowned on anything but double-dating for unmarried girls! Old-fashioned and stuffy, she had called it once, but now she was almost glad of the protection it gave her.
The doorbell rang promptly at seven as she was still getting ready. Unlike most of her fellow-countrymen, Leon was invariably punctual for his appointments and he disliked being kept waiting.
Nita gave a quick, critical look at her reflection and decided that she would pass muster. She was wearing a vivid turquoise skirt teamed with a cream blouse, heavy with embroidery in the same colour, and round her neck she had clasped a turquoise chain, a souvenir of a trip she had once taken to Navajo Indian country. Her hair fell loosely over her shoulders: she had no intention of trying to ape Mercedes' sophisticated coiffures.
She picked up her handbag and a light shawl and left the room hastily. As she expected, Leon was with her father. The two men were deep in conversation, but looked up when they heard her at the door.
'I'm sorry to keep you,' she said politely.
'You were worth waiting for.'
The standard reply, but the lazy way that he studied her from top to toe, taking in every part of her, was far from conventional behaviour. With Leon a woman was never in any danger of forgetting her femininity; he was all appreciative male.
She wasn't going to let him get her flustered. She gave him a cool, poised look. 'Shall we go, then?' She walked over to her father and bent to kiss his cheek. 'You're quite sure you'll be all right on your own?'
'Quite sure,' he told her. 'Josefina is here if I need anything. Anyway, I've got my lawyer coming round to talk a little business with me tonight, so you needn't think I'll be sitting here on my own.'
'Business? But, Papa, you know what the doctor said—'
'The doctor's an old woman,' Diego Lopez grumbled. 'And you're hand in glove with him.' He registered the worry on her face and made haste to reassure her. 'It's all right, I'm not going to overdo it. I'll take care.'
Nita frowned, still unconvinced. 'Is that a promise?'
'Yes, it's a promise,' he agreed with mock resignation. 'That's daughters for you, Leon! Give them an inch and they take a mile. They run your entire life for you, if you let them take over.'
'And don't tell me that you aren't enjoying every minute of the process!' the younger man replied, and there was general laughter.
They took their leave then. Time was passing and they still had to collect Leon's friends from their hotel. They were a married couple, he told her, Emilio and Maria Moreno, and the trip to the capital was in the nature of a celebration for them.
'Maria's doctor has just confirmed that she's pregnant. They've been married for nine years and trying for a family for almost as long. Naturally they're over the moon at the news.'
'I can imagine.'
The Morenos were ready and waiting in the foyer of the hotel. Maria was an attractive, bubbly brunette in her late twenties. Her husband was a few years older, plump and balding, with a pleasant, open face. Nita took to them both immediately. Then, introductions made, they were soon under way again, heading out towards Teotihuacán.
The Morenos had been in town only two days, but already they seemed to have visited many of the sights, Nita discovered.
'Those beautiful murals in the National Palace, the Basilica of Guadalupe—that was wonderful, wasn't it, Emilio?—with that picture of Our Lady that they say appeared on a peasant's cloak all those years ago.' Maria ticked them all off on her fingers. 'And last night we saw the Ballet Folklorico—that was marvellous!' She went on with hardly a pause for breath. 'Then today we went to Chapultepec Castle—one of the guards there tried to chat me up when Emilio wasn't looking. He was. furious when he saw what was going on, weren't you, love? And then we saw the Museum of National Anthropology. Emilio is a bit of a culture vulture, you know. By far the nicest museum I've seen, though—displays everywhere and lots of nice seats around for when you get tired of walking.'
'Which Maria did in the first half hour,' her husband said teasingly. 'She ended up in the coffee shop inspecting the cream cakes.'
'Getting my strength together.'
'I was the one who needed to do that,' Emilio argued, pulling a face of mock horror. 'After lunch she took me shopping. You should have warned me, Leon. I think we went into every boutique in the Zona Rosa. You wouldn't think we had shops at home, the way she was carrying on!'
'Oh, the shops!' Maria sounded rapturous. 'I could have spent all day in them!'
'You very nearly did,' her loving husband pointed out. 'As well as most of my money.'
'Men!' Maria gave him a withering look. 'As if one could expect them to understand! Shopping is one of the few pleasures women have in life, isn't it, Nita? Deprived and downtrodden as we are, grant us a few happy hours.'
'You certainly had those,' Emilio interjected. 'I'm the one who suffered.'
'Rubbish, you enjoyed every minute.' She kissed him on the cheek. 'Didn't you, darling?'
'If you say so.'
The look he gave her made it quite clear how much she meant to him. Emilio obviously doted on his wife. His eyes rarely left her face. And, for all her talk of his supposed ill treatment of her, there was no doubt that she felt the same way about him.
That was how a marriage should be. Nita felt a sudden pang of envy. Would she ever achieve that kind of idyllic relationship with anyone? She found her eyes straying to Leon and pulled herself up sharply. He was the last man on earth that she could ever imagine lavishing devoted looks upon her!
In such lively company the journey passed quickly and the thirty or so miles to Teotihuacán were soon covered. Nita had seen the ruins, remains of an ancient ceremonial centre built by the earliest inhabitants of Mexico, before. But that had been by day. At night the floodlit shapes of the towering Pyramid of the Sun and its smaller companion, the Pyramid of the Moon, had an even greater majesty about them. As they took their seats in the spectators' grandstand overlooking the so-called Street of the Dead the atmosphere of the place reached out to them all, and even Maria's bright chatter dimmed slightly. Nita shivered.
'Cold?' Leon asked. He had been right beside her as they had walked up the steep stone path leading to the ruins, his hand firm on her elbow, guiding and directing her on the uneven surface in case she should stumble, while Emilio performed the same service for Maria.
'A little,' she admitted. The thin shawl that she had with her wasn't really adequate out here in the fresh air of the countryside. Perhaps she should have taken advantage of the chance to hire one of the blankets that were being hawked back at the entrance gate. 'But mainly awestruck.'
'The place where men become gods. That's what they called it, you know.' He looked across at the Pyramid of the Sun, his eyes narrowed against the cold brilliance of the floodlighting. 'One can almost believe it sometimes.' For a second his face was remote, expressionless. Then he glanced at her again. 'The awe I can't dispel, and I'm not sure that I want to try. But the cold—' He broke off to shrug off his
jacket in one lithe movement and draped it round her shoulders. 'Is that any better?'
The warmth of his body still clung to it, and Nita hugged it to her, suddenly aching for a closer contact. 'Much better, thank you. But won't you be frozen?'
'I don't feel the cold,' he said.
'You're lucky.'
'Yes.'
He turned away from her to answer some question from Maria on his other side, and Nita sat silent, lost in thought. No, Leon didn't feel the cold. He didn't seek the warmth of a close emotional tie, such as Emilio and Maria shared. What you never had, you never missed, so people said. But it wasn't true in her case. All through her lonely childhood she had been looking for love.
And what had that search brought her? Disillusionment over Antonio, estrangement from her father for all this time, and a useless hankering for something that was probably beyond her reach: a man who could satisfy her on every level: physical, emotional and mental. Perhaps Leon's practical approach to relationships did make more sense.
The light changed then, bathing the pyramids in a warm, fiery glow as the spectacle began, diverting Nita's mind from her problems. For a while the ancient stones came alive as music, voices and the ever-shifting colours, now red, now green, now icy blue, focussed on them, combining to tell the story of the people who had built this place and the beliefs that they had harboured.
Even the names of the gods that they had worshipped cast a spell. Tlaloc, the rain god; Coatlicue, mother of gods and men and mistress of death; Huitzilopotchi, the god of war; and, most famous of all, Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent and bringer of civilisation.
For a brief enchanted hour their deeds echoed round the temples that had been built in their honour, bringing it all alive again to those watching in the dark. And then it was over and the harsh floodlights were back again, the magic set aside for another evening.
All over the grandstand people were coming back to reality, complaining about the cold and their cramped limbs, grumbling about the time it would take to get home again. At the exits taxi drivers claimed their fares and coaches rumbled in to pick up groups of tourists.
Their party headed for a restaurant that Leon knew a few miles distant. It was only fifteen minutes' drive away, and the warmth of the welcome they were given dispelled the chill of the night air. Reluctantly Nita restored Leon's jacket to him with a whispered word of thanks and then went with Maria to the ladies' room so that they could restore some order to their windblown appearance.
'That was terrific, wasn't it? I wouldn't have missed it for anything,' the other girl said as she tugged her comb through her tangled hair and tried to arrange it neatly. 'It was good of Leon to take us. But he's like that, isn't he? Such a kind man.'
'Yes,' Nita agreed colourlessly. It wasn't a description that came instantly to mind. But she couldn't judge his treatment of others by his attitude to her.
'And gorgeous with it! He's got enough charm to sink a battleship, I always tell him. If I wasn't blissfully happy with my darling Emilio I'd be madly in love with him myself.' Maria dabbed powder on her nose and inspected the result. She sighed. 'But he wouldn't be remotely interested in an old married woman like me. He only has to crook his little finger and some super young thing comes running up adoringly.'
'Yes, they do, don't they?'
'Oops! Sorry.' Maria clapped her hand to her mouth. 'I put my big foot in it again, didn't I? Emilio says that I've less tact than a whole herd of stampeding elephants.'
She looked so comically contrite that Nita couldn't help laughing. 'It's all right.'
'Is it?' Maria sounded doubtful. 'I saw the way he was looking at you. He fancies you, doesn't he?'
Was it that obvious that he had designs on her? 'I know what Leon's like,' Nita said. 'I've got more sense than to get involved with him, I hope.'
'I hope so too.' Maria shot her a sharp glance. 'If you have, you'll be the first one ever. I've known him ten years—he was best man at our wedding—and I've lost count of how many women there've been. He changes them the way other men change their shirts. But that doesn't seem to stop them queuing up to be next in line. They can't seem to help themselves.'
'I can.' Nita spoke as much to herself as to Maria.
The other girl gurgled with laughter. 'Poor Leon! Does he know what he's up against?'
'I've told him so.'
'You're playing with fire there. Be careful, Nita.'
As if she didn't know it. Nita gathered up her bag and they went to join their escorts. She studied him under her lashes as they all took their places at the table and was annoyed at the way her senses stirred uncontrollably as she did so. What chance had she of resisting him when her body seemed to be fighting on his side? His eye caught hers and a dark brow lifted sardonically as if she had revealed the struggle that was taking place within her. Damn the man! Nita forced her glance away and made an effort to involve herself in the conversation.
Not that it was difficult. Maria's lively chatter was hard to resist and her husband, although quieter, displayed a dry sense of humour that was equally attractive in its way. Nita discovered that he owned and ran a tourist agency in their home town of Merida.
'You've never been there?' He shook his head in disbelief at her admission. 'You must come. The Yucatan is the jewel in Mexico's crown, the best part of the country. We have everything there—great pyramids built by the Maya people as impressive as anything we saw tonight at Teotihuacán. And then there are the resort islands off the coast. Cancun and Cozumel are within easy reach of us, and lots of fashionable people prefer them to Acapulco these days. You can go swimming, snorkelling, fishing, looking for shells. And Merida itself is a gem of a place. Marvellous colonial atmosphere—'
'You've sold it to me,' said Nita, smiling at his enthusiasm. 'If your sales talk is as good to your customers, business must be booming!'
'Not bad. Not bad at all.' Emilio was modest about his success. 'And Maria is a wonderful help to me. She supervises the office work and deals with the bills while I enjoy myself alongside the drivers, taking the tours out and showing our visitors the wonderful countryside. I'd be nothing without her.'
'You'll have to learn to manage when the baby comes along. I can't see myself organising feeding time with one hand and booking tours with the other,' Maria warned him.
He waved that aside. 'For a time, maybe. But then it'll be a family affair. Moreno and Son—I can see the sign now.'
'Don't count your chickens too soon,' his wife chided him. 'It might be Moreno and Daughter, you know.'
'Son, daughter—what does it matter so long as it's a healthy child?'
'Let's drink to that.' Leon signalled to the waiter and champagne arrived at the table, cold and bubbly, frothing in their glasses as it was poured out. He held his aloft and offered a toast. 'To parenthood.'
'When are you going to try it for yourself, Leon?' Maria asked him slyly after they had drunk.
'Parenthood?' He threw her a wicked look. 'Doesn't marriage come first?'
'You know perfectly well what I mean.'
'Maria—' Emilio said warningly.
'Well, he does.'
'Maria never gives up. Having found matrimonial bliss herself she never tires of recommending it to other people,' Leon told Nita with a brief laugh. 'And I make the same answer every time she brings it up. I tell her that if she can guarantee me a lifetime of happiness along with the marriage lines, I'll head for the altar quite willingly.'
'You can't guarantee anything in life. You should have learnt that by now,' Maria scolded him, half joking, half earnest.
'Perhaps that's why I stick to the areas that I know I can control successfully.'
Maria groaned. 'Like business, I suppose. I thought we'd get on to that some time or other!'
'It goes a fair way to keeping me happy, Maria. Are you going to grudge me that small satisfaction?' His eyes danced with wicked lights.
'You're never satisfied!' But the other woman laughed. 'Honestly
, Nita, these business tycoons are impossible! He has a property empire that covers practically half the country, but that's not enough for him—Oh no. He has to have fresh worlds to conquer. He was telling us on the phone this morning that he'd just swung the biggest deal of his life, acquired a whole chain of hotels to play about with. But is he satisfied? No. By tomorrow morning he'll have his eye on something else.'
'You may be right.' Maria's vehemence seemed to amuse him. He took another drink of champagne. 'Ambition's a hard mistress. One moment you think you have everything that you could possibly want and the next—' He paused.
'And the next?' Maria prompted him.
'The next moment you realise that it's not enough,' he said deliberately. 'There's always another challenge to be overcome.' His gaze rested for a second on Nita, the meaning in it unmistakable.
She felt the colour rise to her cheeks and hoped the others would put it down to the heat of the room. 'One day you'll meet your match,' she said.
'Perhaps.' His eyes held hers, dark and compelling, then he turned away. 'In the meantime, Maria, you'll just have to keep on nagging at me and hope that I'll reform my wicked ways some time in the near future.'
'That's usually how she gets results,' said Emilio, and amidst the ensuing laughter and Maria's indignant refutation of the charge, the discussion moved into other channels.
Time passed quickly and Nita was surprised to look around her and discover that they were practically the only people left in the restaurant. Her watch showed her that it was after midnight. It was nearly one in the morning by the time they reached the Morenos' hotel.
'It's been a lovely evening, Leon. Thank you.' Maria held out her hand to him and then turned to Nita while the two men had a final word. 'I've so enjoyed meeting you.' She kissed Nita affectionately, 'I hope it's not long before we see you again. If you can spare the time, come and visit us. We'd love to show you the Yucatan.'
'I'd like that,' said Nita, and meant it. After only a few hours in the other woman's company, she felt as if she had found a friend.
Lions Walk Alone Page 10