“I’d never get that deeply involved.”
His pals shared another glance.
“No,” Damian said, “we understand that.”
“I’m finalizing a deal with a banker. Very hush-hush. He wanted some verbal hand-holding. He suggested flying over to Spain.” Lucas reached for his ale, saw that the bottle was empty and signaled for another. “But I said, why go to all that trouble? I can be in New York in just a few hours.”
“Absolutely,” Nicolo said carefully. “Far better to hold your meeting here, where you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, than to sit on the patio at Marbella enjoying a breeze from the sea.”
Lucas looked up, his eyes flat. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s only an opinion.”
“Yes, well, your opinion is way off the mark.”
“Dio,” Nicolo said dramatically, “you mean there is no more sea breeze at Marbella?”
Damian started to laugh, saw Lucas’s face and changed the laugh to a cough.
“Very amusing, both of you.” Lucas waited until the bartender put the new bottle of ale in front of him and removed the old one. “It was simpler to hold the meeting here.” He paused. “And if you want to fry eggs on sidewalks, the place to do it is the southwest.”
“Florida, from what I hear. I once read an article and this guy said—”
“It’s so hot in Texas,” Lucas said, “you could definitely fry an egg on the sidewalk.”
His friends blinked. “Texas?” Nicolo said.
“If they had any sidewalks in Texas, that is.”
“Hey, Austin and Dallas and a lot of other places would be pretty upset to hear you say—”
“Texas,” Lucas said coldly, “is nothing but sagebrush and rattlesnakes baking under the sun.” He took a long swallow of ale, frowned and signaled to the bartender that he needed another bottle. “If I never see it again, it’ll be too soon.”
This time, the look Nicolo and Damian exchanged began with What’s he talking about? and ended with Maybe we better find out.
“You have something personal against Texas?” Nicolo asked with caution.
“Why the hell would I?”
“Well, I don’t know, it’s just that you sound as if—”
“I met a woman in Texas.”
Just like that, what had been gnawing at Lucas’s gut all day, hell, all day every day since Alyssa left him, was right there in the open.
Nicolo looked at Damian. Your turn, the look said. Damian sighed, then cleared his throat.
“And?”
“And,” Lucas said, nodding his thanks at the bartender when the guy delivered a new bottle of icy ale, “and, nothing. Just, I met a woman a couple of months ago. In Texas. That’s all.”
Damian folded his arms and glared at Nicolo, who gave an imperceptible nod.
“That’s all? You met her a couple of months ago and now you hope you never see Texas again?”
“Damn right.”
“Does she have a name?”
“Alyssa. Alyssa Montero McDonough. Look, forget I said anything. The lady’s history. She doesn’t mean a thing to me.”
“Oh. Well, in that case—”
“We met because my grandfather said he wanted me to buy a horse, except it turned out what he’d wanted me to buy was a bride.”
Damian opened his mouth. Nicolo kicked him in the ankle.
“Well, of course, I’m not an idiot. I wasn’t about to get trapped into marriage. I told that to Alyssa. I kept right on telling it to her, even after I took her to Spain.”
This time, it was Damian who kicked Nicolo.
“I ended up doing some stupid things. Incredibly stupid,” he said, his voice turning husky. He looked up, jaw set, clearly ready for trouble. “And then Felix said something he shouldn’t have and the lady in question showed her true colors and left.”
His friends waited. Lucas drank some ale. After a couple of minutes, Nicolo took a breath, then expelled it slowly.
“She went back to Texas?”
Lucas nodded.
“And you said, good riddance.”
“Of course.” Lucas frowned. “Well, I thought it.”
“But you never said it to her face.”
“No.”
More silence. Damian knew it was his turn to take a stroll on the exceedingly thin ice.
“So, is that the problem? I mean, is that why you’re in this mood?”
“Mood? What mood?” Lucas demanded, and then he shrugged. “Yes. Maybe. Probably. Idiot that I was, I let her tell me off but I never—”
“You never reciprocated.”
“Exactly.”
Nicolo and Damian looked at each other.
“You know,” Nicolo said slowly, “not that it’s any of my business, but—”
“Right,” Damian said. “I mean, I’m pretty sure Nicolo’s going to give you the same advice I would.”
“Closure,” Nicolo said, and Damian nodded.
Lucas looked at them. “Closure?”
“Sure. Go to Texas. Confront the lady. Tell her what you should have told her when she walked out.”
Lucas said nothing. He lifted the damp bottle and made interlocking circles on the tabletop.
“You think?”
“Of course,” said Damian. “Fly to Texas, tell the lady what’s on your mind. Right, Barbieri?”
Nicolo gave a quick nod. “Abso-freaking-lutely.”
A muscle jumped in Lucas’s jaw. “You’re right. I should have thought of it myself. I need closure. I need to tell Lyssa—”
“I thought it was Alyssa,” Damian said, and waited for a kick in the ankle that never came.
The muscle in Lucas’s jaw twitched. “I called her Lyssa when I thought…Never mind that. Thanks for the advice, both of you.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what friends are for.”
The three men got to their feet, shook hands, clutched shoulders, threw friendly jabs at each other’s biceps. Lucas reached for his wallet and they waved him away.
“Just go,” Damian said.
They watched him stride through the bar and out the door. Then Nicolo grinned.
“The poor bastard,” he said softly. “He’s in love!”
Damian grinned back at him. “And another one bites the dust,” he said, and waved the bartender over for celebratory shots of Grey Goose.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ALYSSA was not in a very good mood.
Even that assessment was generous.
She was in a miserable, horrible, don’t-even-talk-to-me mood, and there was no good reason for it.
Life was definitely on the upswing.
The bank and the tax collector were off her back. El Rancho Grande was hers. She’d wasted all of two minutes debating whether or not to let the Reyes deal go through and accept the deed from the Spanish prince.
Her mouth thinned as she slipped the bridle over Bebé’s massive black head.
Two minutes had been too long.
Felix Reyes had agreed to buy El Rancho Grande; Aloysius had agreed to sell it. The arrangement had been legitimate enough except for the ridiculous marriage clause. There were times she still felt as if she’d been the victim of a tasteless joke but so what?
In the end, the Spanish prince had at least done one decent thing.
Damned right, he had.
The land was hers. It would always have been hers if Aloysius hadn’t lied to her all her life and never mind all that nonsense Felix had spouted about Aloysius wanting the best for her.
This was the best for her. The ranch, George and Davey working it with her, the half a dozen horses she’d taken in to board and train…
Not the Spanish prince.
Never him.
Bebé snorted and tossed his head. Alyssa smiled and stroked the stallion’s arched neck.
“Of course,” she told him. “You’re what’s best for me, too.”
Yes, life was definitely good and getting bette
r, and if she could just stop thinking about the miserable, arrogant Spanish prince and all the things she should have said to him and hadn’t, she’d be in a much better mood.
She certainly didn’t think about him for any other reason.
“What’s the matter with Alyssa?” she’d overheard Davey whisper to George the other day.
She’d heard the thwack of George’s tobacco juice hitting the dirt and then he’d said, well, he weren’t sure but mebbe it had somethin’ to do with her missing the Spanish guy.
“I do not miss the Spanish guy,” she’d said, stepping into view, “and don’t you two have anything better to do than gossip?”
Later, she’d apologized by making apple pie for dessert because it wasn’t George’s fault, thinking she missed Lucas. He had no way of knowing she hated Lucas. Despised him. That she never, ever wanted to see him again…
Alyssa’s throat tightened. She blinked; her eyes were suddenly damp. A cold. A damned cold coming on, that was what it was. Just what she needed, with two more horses due this afternoon.
She led Bebé into the August morning for their usual early ride before things got busy—6:00 a.m. and it was already hot. Well, that was Texas, she thought as she swung onto the stallion’s back.
It was night now at the Monroy ranch. At the estate in Marbella, too. It would be warm but the breezes would be cool, one from the lush trees, the other from the sea.
And who gave a damn?
Heat or no heat, she preferred Texas.
People were honest here, if you omitted Thaddeus who had greeted her by saying he’d be happy to buy the ranch, now that it was hers, so she could make a fresh start…and hadn’t bothered mentioning he’d wanted to sell it to the developer.
And you’d have to omit her mother, too. And Aloysius. They’d lied to her in the worst way imaginable, though the more time went by, the more she grudgingly admitted she understood.
Right or wrong, they’d lied because of love.
Look what she’d done because of love.
No. Not love. She’d never loved Lucas. She was a liar, too, when you came down to it, but a woman had to tell herself something when she gave her virginity to a coldhearted stranger.
Bebé snorted. Alyssa did, too, and leaned over his neck.
“You’re my one and only love,” she whispered as they headed down the long dirt road that led away from the house.
She urged him into a trot, then a gallop and felt some of the tension drain out of her. She belonged here, on this land, riding her own horse, not playing bedmate for a man who had never even pretended he loved her. Not that she’d wanted him to…
What was that? Something big and black, shimmering with heat waves from the sun. A bull, broken loose from the neighboring ranch? A horse?
A truck. An SUV, big and black and shiny. It was angled across the road with the damned fool driver standing beside it.
Alyssa drew back on the reins. Bebé snorted. He didn’t want his morning run spoiled by an outsider and neither did—
Oh God.
Even at this distance, there was no mistaking the identity of the man. That straight, I-own-the-universe stance. The folded arms. The proud angle of his head.
The Spanish prince was back.
She thought about turning Bebé around but that would be the coward’s way out. Or she could spur him into a gallop again, ride straight on by just like the first time—but the prince, arrogant fool that he was, had walked around the SUV and was standing right in front of it.
She couldn’t ride past him and while riding through him seemed a rewarding idea, spending the rest of her life in jail didn’t. Lucas Reyes wasn’t worth such a sacrifice.
“Come on, sweetie,” she whispered to the stallion, and moved him forward at a slow walk. When she reached the prince, she stopped.
“This is private property.”
“No,” he said politely, “it is not.”
“There’s only one ranch at the end of this road and you’re not welcome there.”
“That does not make this private property.”
Bebé pawed the ground and tossed his head. Alyssa leaned forward, crooned softly in his ear and he quieted.
“You have a nice touch,” the Spanish prince said.
Alyssa said nothing. Did he actually think his compliment had any meaning?
“Especially with stallions.”
A flush rose in her cheeks. She thought of half a dozen rejoinders and ignored them all.
“How did you know I’d be riding this road at this hour?”
“George was most cooperative.”
“George is an old fool. What do you want here, Your Highness?”
What, indeed? Lucas knew why he’d come. Closure. The problem was, seeing Alyssa, he was no longer sure of what that meant.
He’d spent most of the flight thinking of what he’d say when he confronted her, that he knew she’d never given a damn for him, that she’d only stayed with him so she could get what she wanted…and trying to work around the fact that he’d basically suggested marriage on precisely the same terms.
When he didn’t respond, she eyed him coldly. “I’m not returning the deed.”
“I do not want the deed.”
“Then what do you want? Quickly, please. I have work to do.”
“I heard. You’re boarding and training horses.”
“George has a big mouth.”
The prince smiled. She hated that smile. So knowing. So self-righteous.
“Yes, I am boarding and training horses. Not Andalusians like yours but then, some of us are interested in more than what’s written in a stud book.”
It was a low blow and she knew it. The Spanish prince’s horses were all magnificent; she had ridden them with him.
“You have Bebé.”
“According to you, he’s a tyrannosaurus.”
Lucas smiled again. “A brontosaurus, but perhaps I made a hasty judgment. He’s a fine animal, now that I take a second look.”
“Don’t patronize me!”
“I’m not patronizing you, I’m being honest. Beauty. Courage. Heart and intelligence. Those are the qualities a man—”
Lucas frowned and fell silent. Were they still talking about horses? And what had happened to the little speech in which he’d tell her what he thought of a woman who’d use a man to get what she wanted?
True, the argument was flawed. He was the one who’d suggested marriage on pragmatic terms. They cared for each other, he’d said. And, if they married, the contract terms would be met and she would get her land.
Why blame her for leaving him once she knew there no longer was a contract?
Why blame her for leaving him after finding out he’d lied?
Why blame her for anything except breaking his heart? Didn’t she know he loved her? Adored her? That his life had no meaning without her?
Didn’t she feel the same way?
He knew that she did. All the times they’d made love…she’d given herself to him in ways he’d never before known, ways that surely involved the heart and not just the body.
The stallion snorted impatiently. His Lyssa was impatient, too. He could see she’d had just about enough of this foolishness.
So had he.
“Goodbye, Your Highness.”
Her heels touched the stallion’s sides. Lucas lunged forward and grabbed the bridle.
“Get off that horse!”
She laughed. Laughed, damn it! He had not come all this distance for her to laugh at him.
“I said—”
“I heard what you said. I suggest you let go of that bridle or I’ll ride straight through—”
She cried out as Lucas lifted her from the back of the stallion.
“Put me down! What do you think you’re doing? Damn you, Lucas—”
“I am damned. I will be damned for all eternity and so will you if we go on lying to ourselves and each other.”
“You have the nerve to talk about
lying?” Alyssa flung back her hair, her cheeks bright with color, her eyes glittering. “You’re the biggest liar of all.”
Lucas set her on her feet. “I admit, I should have told you the truth. That the contract no longer existed, but—”
“But, you always have to get your own way. You wanted a wife and I was handy.”
“You cannot really believe that.”
The trouble was, she didn’t. It was the one thing she’d never been able to make sense of. If Lucas Reyes had wanted a wife, he had hundreds of women to chose from—and that left her with the same question that kept her awake nights.
“Why else would you have kept the truth from me?”
Lucas drew a long breath, held it, then let it out. He was a man stalling for time and he knew it but there had to be a way to say what he had to say without giving everything away.
He had never felt as vulnerable in his life.
“You see? You can’t give me any other reason because there is none. You figured, it’s time to get married and here’s this—this compliant female—”
Lucas grinned. “Compliant? You, amada?”
“Whatever. I was available and you—”
“And I,” he said, forgetting that giving everything away could be dangerous, “and I,” he said, cupping her face, tilting it to his, gazing deep into her eyes, “I had fallen crazy in love with you.”
Her mouth opened, then shut. Amazing. He had, for once in his life, said something his Lyssa could not counter.
“Why do you look so surprised, chica?” His tone softened, as did the touch of his hands. “Did you never realize what was happening to me?”
God, such arrogance! “I should have realized what was happening to you?”
“I love you,” he said softly. “I adore you, amada. Coward that I was, rather than admit it, even to myself, I clung to that damned contract, that impossible marriage stipulation to keep you in my life.”
Alyssa felt her eyes filling with tears and that would never do. She would not let the prince see her cry because—because then he would know the truth, that she loved him, had never stopped loving him—
“And…” She swallowed hard. “And that’s it? You love me and I’m supposed to say, that’s wonderful, I forgive you for lying to me because I love you, too?”
The Spanish Prince s Virgin Bride Page 15