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  Dominic just stared at her.

  She flushed and looked away. “I know, it was a stupid thing to do. Except I thought…Condesta had told me Gran was refusing to pay. We’d disagreed about me making this trip, and I wasn’t sure…Well, obviously I made a mistake. “She bit her bottom lip.

  “You don’t think maybe you should have mentioned this to me before now?”

  Her head came up at that. “I did—or at least, I tried. It was back at Las Rocas, when you asked about the bruises. Remember? I started to tell you, but….”

  But I cut you off. Their exchange was suddenly crystal clear in his memory. He remembered the tentative tone of her voice, the diffident way she’d said she’d been in a car accident. Not surprisingly, he’d been totally focused on making sure she wasn’t trying to avoid telling him she’d been sexually abused.

  Lilah laid a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I honestly didn’t think it was important. If I had, I would have insisted you listen, but the truth is, I was embarrassed. By then, I’d figured out that even if I’d been able to make good on my getaway, I didn’t have any place to go, much less any way to get out of the country. Not to mention that my freedom probably wouldn’t have lasted very long—” she gave a little gurgle of self-deprecating laughter, “—given the flags flying from the car’s bumpers. Call it a hunch, but I think they would’ve made me pretty easy to spot.”

  Maybe it was that chuckle, but Dom suddenly realized he’d been deluding himself.

  Okay, so he didn’t foresee any long-term future for them. He simply wasn’t the kind of guy to settle down. But by the same token, nobody was ever going to accuse him of being a boy scout. And when it came to Lilah, with her soft laugh and her silky skin and her unexpected little displays of bravery, the chances of him keeping his hands to himself between now and the time they got back to Denver were nil.

  So he might as well quit second-guessing himself and simply enjoy whatever amount of time they had left together. After all, it wasn’t as if he was going to give his heart to Lilah.

  Hell, if everything went as planned, he’d have them out of San Timoteo as soon as tomorrow.

  Nine

  “I won’t be long,” Dominic said, gently cupping Lilah’s shoulders in his powerful, long-fingered hands. “Just wait here, keep out of sight and I’ll be back before you know it. All right?”

  Lilah looked up into his compelling face. After walking for hours, they were standing on a slope above the narrow slash of the road, hidden from prying eyes by the combination of elevation and the thick foliage that continued to be both a blessing and a curse.

  Half a mile back down the road, out of sight but the focus of their current conversation, lay a cluster of tin-roofed huts. The meager village was the first outpost of civilization they’d encountered since leaving Las Rocas and if Lilah had been allowed a vote, she would have chosen to give it a wide berth.

  Dominic had a different plan, and it centered on securing them some sort of motorized transportation. “All right?” he repeated.

  She shook her head, deciding she had nothing to lose by being honest. “No. It’s not all right. What if something goes wrong?”

  “Nothing is going to go wrong.”

  “But what if it does?” she persisted, not entirely sure herself of the cause of her misgivings. She ought to be thrilled at the prospect of getting off her feet and having a chance to rest. Because between that initial swim in the ocean, several days of hard walking, nearly drowning and two nights mostly spent making love instead of sleeping, she was down-to-the-bone tired.

  And still she didn’t want him to go. “You can’t just steal a car and expect nobody to notice,” she pointed out.

  “I’m not going to steal anything,” he said with remarkable patience. “I’m going to buy with good old American currency, at what will probably be several times more than the regular asking price. And that will not only make the seller exceedingly happy, but should also act as a deterrent to him sharing news of his good fortune with anyone—like the area police or one of Condesta’s search parties. And even if another one of the villagers does talk, we should be long gone by then. Trust me. It’ll be fine.”

  Knowing she wasn’t being entirely reasonable but unable to stop herself, she shook her head. “But what if it isn’t?”

  He pursed his lips, then unexpectedly conceded. “All right. If I’m not back by noon, empty everything nonessential out of the pack, follow the road and head for Santa Marita. We’re only about thirty miles away. It’s a hard thirty miles, but once you’re there—”

  “Dominic.” Horrified, her voice rose. “Stop.”

  Maybe it was her obvious distress, but amazingly, he actually fell silent. “What?”

  “Leaving without you isn’t an option. So maybe you could give me an idea about the best way to help if there’s a problem?”

  He shifted back on his heels. “You’d do that? Come after me?”

  How could he even ask? “Of course.”

  For an instant, his face softened, and then he seemed to catch himself. “Good thing you won’t need to.”

  “Damn it, Dominic—”

  He raised a hand to silence her. “Listen to me, Lilah. Could you take a knife and cut a stranger’s throat? Or shoot to kill someone whose only mistake was that they were set to guard me?” Her sudden uncertainty must have shown on her face. “Yeah. That’s what I thought. The point is, if something happens, either I’ll be beyond rescuing—”

  Lilah flinched; that possibility hadn’t even occurred to her.

  “—or you’ll be giving El Presidente two hostages instead of one. The man’s got a reputation for being vicious when he’s crossed and if you think I’d just sit back and let him or anybody else hurt you…well, think again. So for both our sakes, if I’m not back by noon, get yourself to Santa Marita and call the number I gave you earlier. Whoever answers will get a message to Gabe, and he’ll take care of everything. Okay?”

  She nodded, not particularly concerned about her own potential safety, but not about to do anything that would put him at further risk. “Okay.”

  “Good girl.”

  A glimmer of approval warmed his face. It wasn’t an emotion she’d seen much of in her life, and she savored it. With sudden insight, she realized the only gift she had to give back was peace of mind; he had enough to deal with without worrying about her. With an exaggerated toss of her hair, she gave him her best duchess-addressing-the-riffraff look. “What did you call me?”

  His mouth tipped up. “Okay, I take that back. Pretend I called you a wise woman or an admirable adult or some other idiotic but politically correct thing.”

  She laughed, the sound soft but genuine. “An admirable adult? You can’t be serious.”

  He hitched one shoulder, the smile suddenly dancing in his eyes. “Hey, you’re the one with the problem.” And forestalling further comment, he leaned down and kissed her.

  The warm pressure of his mouth had the effect it always did, clouding her mind and stealing her breath. Lilah leaned against him, her hands spread flat on the hard planes of his chest, her palms absorbing the heavy thud of his heart.

  She wished…what? That she could make this moment, this feeling, this connection, last forever? That she had the words—and the courage—to tell him how much he mattered to her?

  As if sensing the tenderness threatening to overwhelm her, he slid his hands from her shoulders to her face, his warm fingers gently cupping her jaw, his thumbs resting lightly against her cheeks. Slanting his head, he unhurriedly kissed the corners of her mouth, the bow of her lips, before once more molding his mouth firmly to hers.

  A sudden fierceness twisted through her. With absolute clarity, she knew in that moment that she could and would do whatever was necessary to keep him safe. He was her sun, her moon, her stars, her…heart. Without him, tomorrow would cease to matter. She loved him. With everything she was and would ever be.

  She swayed, her
hands bunching in his shirt as a mixture of certainty and wonder filled her. She leaned into him, wanting to feel the tall, warm, solid length of his body pressed against hers.

  “Whoa.” With a faint, rusty chuckle, he raised his head, then stroked his finger down her cheek before firmly setting her away from him. “I’d better go. While I still can.” Before she could form a response, he stepped back and in less time than it took her to blink, her generous, demanding, heart-stealing lover was gone.

  In his place was a warrior, his green eyes hooded, his sculpted mouth set, his expression resolute. “Be good, princess,” he murmured, slipping into the trees. Before her very eyes, he appeared to simply vanish in the same unnerving way he had the night he’d ministered to her feet.

  She stood motionless for a moment, overcome with a sense of loss and struggling with a selfish urge to call him back. Then the enormity of her feelings for him struck her anew and her heart seemed to stutter. She was abruptly glad to be alone, to have time to think.

  I love him. With knees that were suddenly weak, she stumbled over to the nearest good-sized tree and sank to the ground, pressing her back against the trunk and linking her hands around her legs.

  Merciful heaven. She loved Dominic. It was so obvious that it was almost funny that it had taken her until now to figure it out, she thought a little wildly. Her only excuse was that so much had happened in such a short time she’d been more than a little distracted.

  But still…As if she’d been wearing a pair of blinders that had abruptly been torn away, she suddenly understood her reluctance to see him go into the village had as much to do with her selfishness as her worries for his safety.

  Dominic himself had touched on it. Santa Marita was a mere thirty miles away. It would take them a few more days to get there on foot; it would take them mere hours to get there by car.

  They could be out of the country, on their way home, as soon as tonight.

  And then what? The question gnawed at her.

  It hadn’t escaped her notice that while Dom couldn’t seem to get enough of her physically, he hadn’t uttered a single word that might be mistaken as a declaration of love. Nor had he said anything that suggested he wanted a future with her.

  And while she realized she hadn’t made any declarations either, it wasn’t the same thing. Her reluctance to address their future sprang from the fear that if she told Dominic that she wanted to be with him—not just now or back in Denver, but forever—he’d respond with the unwelcome news that he didn’t feel the same way.

  Oh, that’s rich, Lilah. I thought you were done being a coward. And maybe I’m wrong, but wasn’t it your fear of being rejected that made you end things with him before? And haven’t you regretted your behavior every day since?

  She squeezed her eyes shut, finding it hard to breathe as she remembered how she’d felt that long ago summer evening when everything had gone so wrong.

  It had been the day before Gran had been due back, less than a week before Lilah had been scheduled to return to school in California. She and Dominic had spent a heated few hours at the estate pool, lazing in the hot afternoon sun, sliding through the cool aqua water, kissing and laughing and competing to see who could drive the other past the point of restraint first.

  Yet beneath Lilah’s flirtatious smile was an escalating sense of desperation. She’d never been in love before. She’d never before let anyone get so close to her, physically or otherwise. She’d never wanted to be wanted the way she did with Dominic, and the intensity of her feelings frightened her. She’d grown up being warned against giving in to passion, and now she’d gone ahead and done just that. Suddenly, disaster—in the form of Gran’s expectations and her own obligations—was about to strike. In a frighteningly short time she was leaving Denver and either Dominic had forgotten—or he didn’t care.

  She tried several times over the course of the afternoon to broach the subject, but he simply brushed away her attempts, changing the subject with a joke or a kiss or a skin-heating touch. By the time they finally succumbed to the blaze they’d been feeding for hours and retreated into the pool house, Lilah was feeling every bit as hurt and confused as she was frustrated.

  They made love the first time with reckless urgency, so aroused they barely made it through the door before Dom was shoving down his swim trunks and snapping the ties holding her bikini bottom up, all without breaking the greedy fusion of their mouths. He lifted her blindly onto a bar stool, and Lilah feared she might pass out from the sheer pleasure of touching him, feeling all that sun-kissed skin and rock-hard muscle pressed up against her, warm beneath her fingertips. Her climax started to ripple through her with his very first thrust.

  The next time took considerably longer. By then, they’d managed to get both naked and horizontal and spent a long time exploring each other—fingers reaching, mouths teasing and tasting. As if by tacit agreement, they didn’t talk, just touched, slowly taking the embers of their mutual fire and building it relentlessly higher until it once again burned out of control and reduced them to ashes, leaving them both limp and breathless.

  When Lilah finally had the presence of mind to notice, she was shocked to discover that the light was already fading outside, a reminder she didn’t need that summer was giving way to fall.

  “I leave Tuesday.” She didn’t plan to say it; the words simply seemed to slip out of her mouth without her making a conscious decision to utter them, prompted by her escalating need for him to tell her he cared about her and that her departure wouldn’t change that.

  Just for an instant, his arms seemed to tighten around her; then he rolled away and climbed to his feet. “Yeah, well, I have the feeling that with your grandma home, you won’t need me to give you a ride to the airport,” he drawled with a flippant smile.

  The careless words were like a stake driven into her heart. And even so, she didn’t have the sense to give up and just let it go. She scrambled onto her knees and reached for the oversize beach towel they’d tossed over a chaise longue pad to cushion the floor, wrapping it around herself. Lifting her chin, doing her best not to look as needy as she felt, she said, “I can come home at Thanksgiving, if you want.”

  He’d paused in pulling on his swim trunks and glanced over at her. “You don’t have to do me any favors. And—” he shifted his attention back to tying the drawstring at his waistband and gave an indifferent shrug “—I don’t even know if I’ll be here.”

  “What?” Panic took a brutal grip on her. “But…where would you go?” Until that moment she hadn’t realized how completely she’d been counting on him being here, waiting for her.

  “I haven’t decided. But tuition’s going up at the community college and I got laid off from the garage last week, so…” He propped himself against the long counter of the wet bar. Folding his golden-skinned arms across the sleek, tanned expanse of his chest, he shrugged again. “I’m pretty much free to do whatever—or go wherever—I want.”

  The news that he’d lost the best-paying of his three jobs and hadn’t bothered to tell her until now seemed to emphasize the suddenly yawning divide between them. Feeling frantic, Lilah spoke without thinking. “I have money,” she blurted out. “I can pay your tuition. Better yet—” the idea popped into her head, prompted by his last words, and was so seductive it made her throat catch “—you could come to California and go to school. I don’t think I can manage Stanford tuition, but there must be all kinds of first-rate community colleges. We could find you an apartment close to campus…” She trailed off, belatedly realizing from his rigid posture and the frigid look on his face that she’d made a serious misstep.

  “And that’d be what, exactly?” he asked in a caustic tone she’d never heard from him before. “A loan? Something I’d repay by taking you to bed?”

  Stunned that he’d suggest such a thing, for a second she couldn’t seem to breathe. “No! Of course not—”

  If anything, his expression grew even more remote. “So I guess that mea
ns I’d be your personal charity case, instead. And just think—not only would you have your own boy toy, but I bet you could write the whole damn thing off on your taxes.”

  This was all going so wrong, she thought wildly, even as she felt the first stirrings of temper. “Well, excuse me,” she retorted, the coolness of her voice in inverse proportion to the sick sense of betrayal growing steadily inside her. She climbed to her feet and tugged the towel more securely into place before giving a dismissive shrug of her own. “Sorry if I offended you. I was simply trying to help.”

  “I don’t need your help,” he said flatly. “And I sure as hell don’t want your money.”

  “Yes. You’ve made that perfectly clear.”

  And then, because he seemed so totally sure of himself while she was a mess of seething emotion, and because she wanted desperately to turn back the clock and return to the closeness they’d shared just ten minutes earlier, while he didn’t look as if he gave a damn one way or another, she did what she’d been taught to do since she was a very small child. She deliberately pushed away the very thing she wanted most. “I think, under the circumstances, it would be best if you go.”

  He jerked as if she’d struck him, and for a second she thought that perhaps he wasn’t as composed as he wanted her to believe. But then his face took on an expression of such utter indifference she knew she was only kidding herself. Drawing himself up, he gave one last, careless shrug. “It’s your loss, princess.” Clearly having said all he intended to, he strolled out of the pool house and out of her life.

  And Lilah simply stood there and let him go.

  The labored sputter of an approaching vehicle insinuated its way into her recollections. She sat frozen for a moment, welcoming the interruption even as she struggled to get a grip on her emotions.