Dark Secret - Feehan Christine. Страница 21

He leaned close to her so that his thigh rubbed against hers. "Do you flatter all men, or am I the only one so privileged?"

"I'm sorry, that was rather rude. I'm usually not rude." She rubbed her forehead. "At least I don't think I am. Okay, maybe I am sometimes. What are you doing here?"

"I am courting you." He sounded very old-fashioned.

Her vivid green eyes jumped to his face. "Courting me? Whatever for?"

He turned the power of his black eyes on her face. Mesmerizing. Hypnotic. Sexier-than-sin eyes. "Why do men usually court women, Colby? I think you can work it out for yourself." His voice was velvet soft and slightly husky, the accent giving him a tremendous advantage.

Colby could feel her skin burn. Little flames seemed to be licking along every nerve ending. She sent him a quick reprimand from under her long lashes. "I think you are so used to women falling all over you that you can't stand it when one doesn't. I'm a practical person, Rafael. Men like you do not court women like me."

His black gaze slid over her from head to toe like a whisper of velvet, leaving her skin on fire and slow color creeping into her face. "See, right there, that's what I'm talking about," she accused. "You've spent your life seducing women, and I just think of men as friends, colleagues. You wouldn't know how to relate to a woman as a friend. And I wouldn't know what to do with one who wanted to seduce me."

His teeth were whiter than ever, his smile slightly mocking. "I do not think you quite understand the situation you find yourself in, pequena. I am courting you as a man would his bride, not looking for a mistress to spend a few nights in my bed. You do not have to know what to do with seduction. I have enough knowledge for both of us."

The breath rushed right out of her lungs and she gaped at him, silently appalled. For a moment she could only stare at him. "Do you even hear yourself when you spout this nonsense?" She leapt up to put a couple of feet between them so she wouldn't wring his neck with the bridle. "Is that supposed to be a compliment, that you would choose me to be your bride and not your mistress? How many mistresses do you have exactly? Is there a set number after you're married or do you just wing it?"

She looked so beautiful she robbed him of breath. There was a steel thread running through her small soft body, a fierce pride, hard-earned. He looked at her and saw himself through her eyes. What had he done with his life? She knew nothing of him other than the image they had so carefully cultivated of powerful, rich playboys.

Who did he love? Members of the Chevez family had lived with him for centuries, running his affairs during the daylight hours; his own brothers, loved only through dim memories-he felt it now, that intense, protective emotion; but Colby had seen him cold, uncaring. She had seen he had little interest in others. People were thought of in the same vein as his cattle, his property. It was necessary to protect them, but it was his duty, a matter of honor, nothing more. Women were to be seduced, fodder, really, easy prey for a man as alluring and as seductive as Rafael. Colby Jansen was looking at him as if he were a rather useless ladies' man. She thought him handsome, sexy, but rather cold and cruel. Useless. There was the slightest curl of contempt in her mind when he managed to slip past her guard. A Latin lover. She thought his life one of endless parties and women. Rafael's long fingers tightened on the old leather.

Colby knew what it was like to love fiercely, passionately, protectively. She worked hard without complaining, without thought for anything but those she cared about. Rafael found he wanted desperately to be one of those few she counted as her own. Taking her to his lands and claiming her would not earn him her genuine love. She was his lifemate, and her body had all the responses to him of a lifemate, but her heart and mind viewed him as a rather useless individual. He found he didn't like her assessment of him at all and, more importantly, that her opinion mattered to him.

Rafael and his brothers had been sent from the Carpathian Mountains in times of turbulent war and massacres. It had been long after they had lost their ability to see in color, to feel all emotion, but they had served their prince to the best of their abilities in keeping with their rigid code of honor. It was all they had left to them in a gray, barren world of endless existence. But through the long, long centuries, memories dimmed and more and more the darkness had crept up on them.

Colby's eyes suddenly flashed fire at him. "And have you forgotten my rather unfortunate parentage? As I recall, I was the reason the Chevez family could not find it in their so-called hearts to accept Armando back into the family fold. I believe I am illegitimate. A De La Cruz shouldn't associate with someone like me, let alone court me. It might ruin your good name."

His black eyes went from a sheer black intensity to icy cold so fast she shivered. "Where would you get an idea like that?" His voice was very soft, yet carried a wealth of menace. He didn't move, but all at once he was far too close, looming over her.

Colby stood her ground, but suddenly it seemed to be shifting out from under her. "I read the letter. The letter from the family patriarch ordering Armando to get rid of my mother and me before I brought disgrace to the name of De La Cruz. It was in my mother's drawer. I found it after she died."

He stared at her a long moment hearing the hurt she tried so hard to hide. Feeling her hurt. "Ah, I see. That does explain quite a bit. Just to set the record straight, my brothers and I have our own strange reputations; we do not much care what others say of us or anyone else." He waved a graceful, dismissing hand and Colby had to believe him. He was too casual, too arrogant and sure of himself to worry about what another might say gossiping. "Old Chevez was a man much taken with his position in the community. He believed if he brought disgrace to us we would retaliate against his family in some way. It was not so."

Rafael sighed. "We did not intervene when we should have," he admitted heavily. He ached inside her, for that young girl who had found a letter written by a proud old man who didn't understand the ways of the new world.

She could have sworn there was a fleeting tenderness in his expression when he looked at her. "Somehow I don't think that old man would have listened to you," Colby conceded, slightly ashamed of herself. "Maybe your father, but certainly not you."

He had forgotten for a moment to be careful about time sequences. He was always pointing it out to his brothers, to be cautious about talking of things in the past as if they had all been present and had lived it. He chose his words, his voice very soft.

"I am sorry your familia was hurt by the pompous attitude of an unbending man. When he died, and Armando's brothers discovered the letter, they would not rest until they had come in person in an attempt to right this terrible wrong. To their credit, they did not know Armando had married and had children. They didn't know his wife was killed in a plane crash or that he was injured so severely. Had they known, or had my brothers or I known, we would have come at once." That was true. The De La Cruzes considered Armando a member of their family. Had they been informed of his need, they would have come in full force. They should have known, should have cared enough to monitor him from a distance. Rafael would have to live with that knowledge.

"That makes me feel much better, but I'm still not letting perfect strangers run off with my brother and sister." Even to her own ears she sounded defiant.

"You did not really read the entire letter the lawyer sent you, did you?" he asked gently, his black gaze on her face.