Emerald Ecstasy (52 page)

“Then make love to me. Now.”

Her pleading nearly pushed him over the edge. He wanted to love her then and there, but he resisted. Carmen deserved to be his wife when he loved her, and he hoped he might erase the ugliness of Diego's memory when he made her his.

“Carmen, when I make you my wife, it will be in all ways, but I want the experience to be beautiful for you. I want our love to blossom in a special place, a place filled with flowers and sunshine. When I love you, my ring shall be on your finger. Then I'll know you are truly my wife. I have relatives in Vera Cruz. We can make a life there.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Carmen said. “I love you, Felix. But what about El Lince? How will we escape from him?”

“El Lince is my friend and yours, also. He'll let me leave with you today. I think it's time you knew all about the man who calls himself El Lince.”

Lianne couldn't believe Carmen and Felix were gone. She stared in disbelief at the cave entrance an hour later, unable to grasp the fact that El Lince had allowed them to leave. She remembered Carmen's hug and parting words to her, whispered in her ear, “El Lince isn't what he seems to be. He had been badly hurt. Remember that when you learn the truth. He'll need you.”

At the moment Lianne didn't care what El Lince needed, she yearned to be free of him, but she felt his gaze upon her though he pretended to be occupied with wolfing down a piece of bread he had taken from his saddlebag.

“Your supper's waiting,” he said and nodded toward her bread.

She turned gleaming green eyes upon him. “That's not food fit for a pig!”

“It's the best I could do,” he said.

Lianne shivered though the fire still blazed. She envied Carmen her freedom, but it seemed that El Lince wasn't about to free her. Did he really intend to return her to Raoul, or was he playing a perverted game with her? She shivered again and El Lince noticed.

He got up and went to the bag which hung over his horse and took out a small silver flask. “Here.” He threw it to her, and it landed in her lap. “Drink some of this. It will warm you.”

“What is it?”

“Whiskey, of course.”

“Of course,” she said, as if she were somehow supposed to know he preferred it. Lianne opened the flask and drank the warming brew. She coughed, unable to catch her breath.

“You never could get the taste for it,” he said.

When she finished her coughing spell, she eyed him. “How do you know that I dislike whiskey?”

“I don't.” He practically growled at her and finished eating his bread.

Lianne, however, began to get used to the whiskey and she swallowed a bit more than she had intended. After a while, she didn't feel cold any more, but she was unaware that her face was becomingly flushed or that her voice was rather thick when she spoke.

“You're a strange man,” she said to El Lince.

He didn't say anything to her, but she hadn't expected him to. She suddenly felt talkative and lonely for her child, for Daniel. What was there about this man that made her feel familiar? At the moment she didn't bother to question it, she only wanted the chance to say what had been in her heart for so long.

“I loved someone once, too,” she told him. “But Raoul snatched me away from him. Then when I thought I might find happiness, the man I loved was killed … by banditti.” She involuntarily sneered.

“What parted you and the man you loved?” he asked and startled her with his question.

“My husband.” Lianne sighed and rested her head against the wall of the cave. “He arranged it so that Daniel would think I didn't love him. I did love him, and tried to tell him Raoul drugged me, but he wouldn't listen to me. So…” She heaved another sigh. “I lost him.”

El Lince retreated into silence again, then he said, “Your Daniel was very stupid.”

“No, only human.”

Lianne felt sleepy, and she closed her eyes. Before long she slept. When she opened her eyes again, it was nearly daylight. Small streaks of sunlight poured into the cave's opening not covered by the brush. She looked around but didn't see El Lince. Standing up, she moved to the opening, pushing brush aside, and looked out. She still didn't see him.

The thought struck her that this was the perfect time to make her escape. His horse was only feet from her. She could ride away and return to the hacienda. He'd never be able to catch her, but for a reason she never knew, she turned back into the depths of the cave and picked up the torch Felix had used the day before. She put it into the fire until it glowed brightly and she made her way deeper into the cave's dark confines.

From a short distance away. she heard the slight rush of water. Walking toward the sound, she halted when she saw El Lince's naked body immersed in the sparkling water. Another torch was attached to the wall, and she wondered why he hadn't bothered to inquire if she wished to bathe. From where she stood, she observed him without his knowing it. On the ground beside the clear water his clothes and his sombrero were in a pile. Now she would see if he was as handsome as she thought.

Inching closer but hidden behind a rock, she saw the broadness of his back, the sleek wetness of his dark hair against his neck. But she gave a quiet gasp to see a long scar which ran in a diagonal direction from his right shoulder blade to the waist. Was this another wound inflicted by one of Raoul's henchmen? Had Diego done this? That would account for his hatred of both men. She wondered this in silence as she watched him.

When El Lince turned toward the torchlight and faced in her direction, she saw other scars on his broad chest. Though dark chest hair covered them, the scars could be clearly seen. Pity filled her, and she almost decided to leave him in peace when she stopped short.

Lianne blinked. El Lince had light-colored eyes. Why would a Mexican bandit have eyes that gleamed like gray crystal? Her heart began to beat faster. She had known only one man with ocean gray eyes, only one man who could make her pulses race, her body feel like jelly. But he's dead! she screamed to herself. However, at that moment, she realized he wasn't. Daniel bathed in the pool. He was alive!

Why has he done this to me? she asked herself. However, she knew it was done out of pain. Carmen must have known the truth when she left and told her in the only way she could. Had she, herself, suspected El Lince was Daniel the whole time? Is that why she had melted when he touched her, why she hadn't fled when she had the chance?

She wondered if he had forgiven her for acting like a whore in Raoul's arms in San Augustin de las Cuevas. He had said “your Daniel was very stupid.” Did that mean he now understood she had never stopped loving him? She must know the truth.

Stepping from behind the rock, she slowly walked to the side of the pool. Daniel looked up but seeing her, he turned his face away.

“You didn't tell me you were going to bathe,” she said.

“Sorry, but you were asleep.”

The gruffness of his voice shook her for an instant. Daniel had had such a warm voice, and now it was gone because of Raoul. But she still loved Daniel, and nothing mattered to her at the moment but that he see she loved him.

Lianne laid the torch against the wall and pulled off her poncho. This was followed by the peasant blouse, her sandals and then the pants. When Daniel heard the soft splash in the pool, he turned.

He watched her, and for the moment, he had apparently forgotten she could see his full face. She moved her hands in the waist-deep water, then sensuously entangled them in the mat of hair on his chest. Her mouth began a slow deliberate trail of kisses along one of the scars.

“What are you doing?” he rasped.

“I'm seducing you, El Lince.”

He grabbed a handful of auburn hair but didn't push her away. “You had a chance to escape, I gave it to you; but since you didn't run, I'll give you what you're begging for, Dona Lianne.”

“I know,” she said weakly and her body melted when his lips claimed hers in a kiss so hard and filled with fire, she drooped against him.

Lianne moaned when his mouth moved from her lips to the sensitive cord along her neck, then lower until his mouth suckled at her breasts. She threaded her fingers through the darkness of his hair.

“You like this,
chica
?” he asked.

“Yes, yes,” she moaned.

“Then I'll give you more.”

Lianne gasped when he lifted her from her feet and carried her to a blanket which lay on the ground. The pool's surface was almost even with the ground, and after he laid her on the blanket, he stayed in the water. Pulling her toward him, her calves dangled in the cool depths while he opened her legs. She felt his lips moving along her knees, then up her inner thighs until she felt his tongue lap at the inner core of her.

Lianne moaned and writhed, almost pulling from him, but he held her hips in place while he pleasured her. Tiny sparks ignited within her, threatening to explode, and when she would have, he lifted her head from her softness.

He moved out of the water and positioning himself on his knees, he slipped into her and then pulled her up so that she sat upon his lap as he worked his sensuous magic over her body. Within the glow of the torches, they rode the crest of desire, and when his love spilled into her, she clawed at his back as she found her own ecstasy.

“Daniel! Daniel! I love you so!” she cried.

He sighed. “You knew it was me.”

“Yes. Oh, Daniel, why have you done this?”

“Because I saw you making love to Raoul and heard you say you loved him.”

“But I told you what happened. Can you forgive me?”

“Do you love him, Lianne?”

She sighed and kissed his mouth. “I love only you, Daniel. Forever. I nearly died when I thought you had been killed.”

“Raoul's orders, Diego's handiwork. I was ill for months afterward. Theresa found me and nursed me to health.”

“I'm grateful to her,” Lianne said. “But a body was found.”

“I don't know about that. Apparently Diego hadn't done his job well and didn't wish Raoul to know. So, he must have killed someone else. I wish I had had the chance to kill Diego. But I will kill Raoul. I swear it!”

Lianne still sat on his lap and held onto him, afraid he'd leave her. “What will you do about me? I don't want to return to Raoul. I love you, Daniel. We can be together now.”

In the light she saw Daniel's eyes gleamed. “Yes, Lianne, we can be together now. But I have to face Raoul to free you from him. I owe him a great deal and I wish to repay him.”

“I want only you,” she whispered and kissed him.

The click of rifles broke the silence and startled them. “
Querida
, how good to see you, and Daniel.” Raoul stood in front of them, his men lined up behind him. “I hate to break up this amorous coupling, but I fear I must.”

Striding forward, Raoul pulled Lianne's naked body from Daniel's and threw the blanket at her. “Cover yourself!” he ordered, but before she could pull the blanket around her, his men encircled Daniel.

He turned toward Daniel. “Take a long look at my beautiful wife,” he told him. “This is the last time you'll see or sample her flesh. Lianne is mine, and I intend to keep her as mine. But you've committed the worst sin, Daniel. You coupled with my pregnant wife, so your suffering shall be greater than anything you can imagine.”

Raoul pulled the blanket around her and picked her up. She screamed as he carried her from the cave.

“I want to see Désirée!” Lianne demanded.

“You're insane if you think I will bring your bastard to you after this. If I choose to keep you locked in here until Doomsday, I will!” Raoul eyed Lianne in contempt. He was forbidding as he stood in the center of their bedroom with whip in hand. The ruffled white shirt and black breeches and boots only enhanced the diabolical image. Lianne had never seen him this enraged before, but she had no fear he'd hurt her. She carried his child, and he wanted the child more than anything. However, she hadn't bargained on being tied to the bed like a trussed hen, but she knew he was taking no chances she'd escape him. She also knew his wrath wouldn't touch her as long as she was pregnant, but Daniel wouldn't be so lucky. Even now she wondered if Raoul had killed him yet.

Almost as if he read her thoughts, he peered down at her. “Are you concerned about your paramour?”

“You know I am. Where is he? What have you done to Daniel?”

“Nothing, but he shall suffer the punishment he deserves. I once wished to be rid of him, and would have succeeded if stupid Diego hadn't botched things, but now I shall enjoy watching Daniel Flanders die a long, painful death. And you will witness his last hours, Lianne.”

“No!”

“
Si
, and if you cry out, he'll suffer more.”