Lover in the Rough (31 page)
Read Lover in the Rough Online
Authors: Elizabeth Lowell
Simon’s quick eyes caught the shadow of a smile on Ariane’s lips. The beauty of it reminded him of the first instant he had seen the Norman heiress. He had felt as though the breath had been driven from his body by a mailed fist.
He had never seen a woman he wanted more. Yet she had been betrothed to Duncan of Maxwell, Dominic’s ally and Simon’s friend.
Now Ariane was betrothed to Simon, almost within his grasp, more beauty than he had ever expected to hold within his hands.
“Ariane . . .” he whispered, reaching out to her.
She blinked as though she had forgotten he was there. When his hand touched her hair, she flinched away.
Slowly Simon lowered his hand. The effort not to clench it into a fist was so great it left him aching. Yet he made the effort without knowing it, for he had vowed never again to let lust for a woman rule his body.
“We will soon be man and wife,” he said flatly.
A shudder went over Ariane.
“Do all men disgust you,” Simon asked, “or is it just me?”
“I will do my duty,” Ariane said in a low voice.
But even as she spoke, she was grateful that Amber wasn’t touching her, testing the truth of her words.
Ariane had just realized that she couldn’t force herself to submit to rape again. The realization had come too late. The wedding was set. The trap was sprung.
No way out.
Except one.
How can I kill Simon, whose only crime is love of his brother?
How can I endure rape again, and then again?
“My duty,” she whispered.
“Duty,” Simon repeated in a low voice. “Is that all you will be able to bring to the marriage? Is your beauty like the whore Marie’s, a lush fabric wrapped around a soul of ice?”
Ariane said nothing, for she was afraid if her mouth opened, a scream of rage and betrayal would be all that came forth.
“Your anticipation overwhelms me,” Simon said. “See that I don’t have to send a man-at-arms to fetch you to the altar. For by Christ’s blue eyes, I will do just that if I must.”
Simon turned and stalked from the room.
Ariane had no doubt that Simon would do exactly as he said. He was, in all things, a man of his word.
No escape.
Save one . . .
Death
.
Without knowing it, her fingers closed around the harp strings. A despairing, dissonant wail was ripped from the harp.
It was the only sound Ariane made.
Too late.
No escape.
Save one . . .
The wedding would begin before the sun set, and end before the moon rose. Before the moon set once more, the bride must find a way to kill.
Or die.
An Excerpt from
Beautiful Sacrifice
By
Elizabeth Lowell
On Sale May 22, 2012
D
R
. L
INA
T
AYLOR DROVE INTO THE STAFF PARKING AREA
of Houston’s Museum of the Maya.
Good,
she thought in relief
. Nearly empty. I can park close to the back entrance. Thank God for winter break.
In a gesture that had become automatic over the past few months, Lina checked around the area before she turned off her little Civic. Nobody was paying any attention to her. There was no reason for the back of her neck to tingle in primal warning.
Yet it did.
Just before she opened the locked doors, her cell phone rang. The tone told her that it was her mother, Cecilia Reyes Balam— Celia to her friends, business associates, and family.
Is she calling for family or business?
Lina wondered, hesitating.
Some of both, probably. No doubt my great-grandmother is talking about a bad heart and a great-granddaughter who doesn’t visit often enough and should be long married, hip-deep in children.
It would be Celia, her mother, who carried the complaint. Celia orbited between family and business like a planet with two suns. Lina wished she could handle the balancing act with half of her mother’s grace. Lina was more like her father, an academic with a deep love of working in the field, discovering ancient cities and temples a single brushstroke at a time. Yet it was being one of the public faces of the Museum of the Maya that paid Lina’s salary, not working on the isolated Yucatan digs she loved.
For the third time, Lina’s cell phone burbled out its merry little jingle, a hot salsa beat. She thought about letting the call go to voice mail, but decided against it. If Celia wanted to talk to her daughter, she’d track her down in person. With a glance at her watch— plenty of time before she had to teach class— she opened the cell phone.
“Morning, Celia. Are you in town?” Lina asked.
“Not unless I have to be.”
“Is everything all right with the family?”
“Abuelita complains of her heart,” Celia said. “She calls me daily, asking when you will visit. So does
mi
primo
.”
“Your cousin Carlos has always done whatever Abuelita wants
.
”
“Do not disrespect him,” Celia said. “Without Carlos, you would not be surrounded by the artifacts you love more than anything else.”
Oh, I don’t know,
Lina thought.
Hunter Johnston might give the artifacts some real competition . . . if he ever stayed put.
Guiltily she yanked her attention back to her mother. “No disrespect intended. I don’t know Carlos as well as you do.”
“You do not see him enough.”
Lina couldn’t argue that. Growing up, she had never felt close to her mother’s cousin Carlos. She felt no need to pretend closeness now, despite his recent, repeated invitations to confer with him about Reyes Balam artifacts, and how they might be used to celebrate the coming baktun in a worthy way. The Turning of the Wheel of time was a great celebration among the Maya in general and her great-grandmother in particular.
If Carlos wants help decorating for the baktun, let him go to Philip. Neither one of them has asked me for so much as a nod in the past
.
No matter how hard she had tried to please her father, she’d never managed that feat.
“What’s up?” Lina asked, ignoring the past and its disappointments.
“Was there anything good in the Belize shipment Philip sent? The market is humming with rumors.”
“Define ‘good.’ ”
“Worth a great deal of money at auction, what else?”
Lina winced. “Please, Celia. Someone could overhear and misunderstand you. After the scandal— ”
“You and Philip,” Celia interrupted, “always harping on what turned out to be nothing.”
After many thousands spent to grease bureaucratic wheels,
Lina thought,
and academic reputations ruined. Philip’s and mine. It didn’t do the family export-import business any favors either.
“Sorry,” Lina said, trying to get the conversation back on track.
“Yes, yes,” Celia cut in. “You have a reputation to maintain. I understand. So long as Philip keeps discovering artifacts on our land and the Reyes Balam family keeps ‘donating’ some of the artifacts to the Museum of the Maya— and a lot more to Mexican museums— you have nothing to worry about.”
“Philip also supplies you with artifacts for your export-import business.” Lina’s voice was mild, though she knew trying to bridge the gap between her parents was useless.
Her parents might still be married, but they lived separately because they fought constantly.
“Each artifact I receive is thoroughly documented, with proper export papers, and all fees and taxes duly paid,” Celia said as though reciting from memory. “What other shipments have you received in the last few weeks?”
“It would be faster if you tell me what you’re looking for. Then I can tell you if I have it.”
“There are rumors. Many rumors.”
Lina waited.
“The rumors whisper of an obsidian mask carved from a single piece of stone, a god bundle never opened, a sacred scepter with obsidian teeth, a foot-long jade Chacmool, an exquisitely made obsidian knife created solely to let the blood of kings. Even an unknown codex. All and more, of the very highest quality, appearing and then disappearing again, like ghost smoke.”
Mind ablaze with possibilities, Lina could hardly speak.
“Separate artifacts?” she managed finally.
“Yes.”
“That’s . . . impossible.”
Celia laughed. “Not impossible. But very, very expensive. You’ve heard nothing?”
“No. Even one of those artifacts would create a sensation in the archaeological world. All of them together? A dream. Just a dream.”
“If you hear of anything, you will call, yes?”
“Call? I’d scream it from the rooftops.”
“No! You would keep it very, very quiet and call me.”
For a moment Lina didn’t say anything. She was remembering the feeling of being watched. Followed. Perhaps her mother wasn’t the only one who thought Lina had an entrée to some incredible black-market Maya finds.
“I’ll show you everything in the museum,” Lina said. “You’ll see that there’s nothing like what you’ve described. Please tell everyone you know.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Not one thing,” Lina said distinctly. “Then I won’t waste any more time. I have other sources to check, but you were my best hope. Promise you won’t miss Abuelita’s birthday. Only a few days.”
“Four.”
“Promise.”
“Yes, I’ll be there,” Lina said. “I can’t stay long because I have a lot of work to— ”
“So do I,” Celia interrupted. “Good-bye, see you soon.” The line went dead.
Lina laughed in the empty car. Celia in pursuit of exceptional artifacts was a force of nature.
After a glance around the parking lot— still alone— Lina popped the locks and got out of the car. Beginning a class at seven in the morning wasn’t Lina’s first choice, but many of her students worked for a living. The museum scheduled its classes accordingly.
Lina locked the car and headed quickly for the staff entrance. As she walked, she looked over her shoulder.
Twice.
There was nothing to see in the shadows and early sunlight, no visible reason for the haunted, hunted feeling that made the skin on the back of her neck prickle. There was no one behind her, no one on either side, nothing but a hot, lazy wind stirred on the grounds.
Maybe I’m getting paranoid, like my father.
But Lina didn’t feel crazy. She felt watched.
Hurriedly she entered the code on the electronic pad beside the staff door. It clicked open, a loud sound in the hushed acreage surrounding the museum’s ziggurat building. Such land was very expensive in metropolitan Houston, but the Reyes Balam family was nothing if not smart about where to put its money for maximum business impact.
She walked quickly through the open door and closed it firmly behind her. The second security door ahead of her was heavy glass, reflecting a young woman of medium height, dark hair, large dark eyes, full lips, and a black silk business suit that struggled to hide her curves.
Lina barely noticed her reflection. She had accepted long ago that she would never be tall, skinny, and blond. She punched in a different sequence on the number pad beside the glass door. It opened softly, closed with a solid sound behind her.
Slowly she let out a long breath. She didn’t feel as watched now. Or maybe it was just the two security doors between her and the city outside.
The inside air was cool, dry, comfortable for humans, and excellent for the artifacts that were the heart and soul of the museum. She glanced at her watch. She would be barely on time. She hurried toward the small wing that held meeting rooms and a cramped lecture hall.
She told herself that her bubbling impatience had nothing to do with the chance of seeing Hunter Johnston again, then admitted that it had everything to do with hurrying. The man was both fascinating and exasperating. In the past few months they had talked after her classes— when he managed to show up— occasionally shared coffee, and circled each other with equal parts desire and wariness.
Then two weeks ago Hunter had disappeared. He’d missed classes before, but not for so long a stretch. Maybe he’d tired of the subject matter. Or her.
She shook her head and told herself that Hunter didn’t matter. She had a class to teach. She was down to the home-stretch, racing toward the coffee and time off waiting at the finish line.
