Native Silver (12 page)

Her
hand went to her throat at the thought of how close
she’d come to an intimacy with David that was im
possible, always would be. It made her gasp to think of it. Somehow he had managed to weave a sense of a shared history between the two of them that had lulled her into an affection she couldn’t afford to hold. She would have to be
stronger in the future. She would have to toughen
up a little. She looked at him, and suddenly she
wasn’t horrified by what she’d done any longer.

He was so handsome, but more than that, he was
so—so irresistible. There was no other word for it. Just
looking at him made her heart melt. Was she in
love? She’d better not be!

Stepping away from David, Allison seemed confused and nervous. She pulled a silver cigarette case
from her pocket and then a lighter. David reached
out and took them both from her.

“You know you can’t smoke in here,” he told her
patiently.

She looked up and gave him a tremulous smile.
“Oh David, it’s been such a rotten day.”

He smiled back. “Relax, love,” he said. “We’ll go
back to the house and wash it away with a nice talk
over a cool drink. All right?”

In that short exchange, Shawnee saw just what
the
relationship between the two of them had be
come. Allison might have been like a mother to him
for many years, but now it was she who needed the nurturing, and he who was providing it. She could
see that they loved each other very much, and that Allison depended upon her brother for emotional
stability.
 

In other circumstances such mutual affec
tion would have touched her. It sure put a spotlight on a part of David’s character she never would have dreamed he had. But she had to remember--these were Santiagos, after all. And the people she had to beat.

“I should be getting home,” she told David
briskly. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you for
a lift.”

He looked at her as though he thought she’d
dropped an oar. “We’re on a date, remember?” he
told her. “That means I accompany you wherever
you need to go. You don’t have to ask for a special
ride home.”

She avoided his eyes. “I don’t think we can really consider this a date,” she said more firmly than she
felt. “A ‘meeting’ might be a better term for it.”

He’d turned all his attention to her again. “Why
not just call it a ‘preliminary weigh-in’?” he asked
ironically. “You seem to be preparing for some sort
of battle again.”
 

He reached towards her and she
flinched, pulling back, but he kept coming and all
he did was take a long piece of straw from her hair.
 

“So jumpy,” he taunted quietly, his eyes dark and
knowing. “What are you afraid of, Shawnee? What
do you think I’m going to do?”

Allison was forgotten as she stood, staring into
his gaze. What did she think he was going to do? Steal her heart away, that was what. And even as she thought of it, she shuddered uncontrollably. Her breath was coming faster.
 

He was right. She was afraid. She had to escape, and quickly. But he
was so close, so warm.

“David!” Allison’s sharp voice brought them both
back to reality. “We’ve been standing here talking all this time and I forgot to tell you what I came
for.”

David’s dark gaze lingered on Shawnee’s face,
skimming down the line of her cheek and pausing to
examine the full swell of her lower lip.
 

“I’m listen
ing,” he said, but he didn’t turn. He seemed to be
letting Shawnee know that though his sister had
interrupted them, he hadn’t forgotten what they’d
begun up in the loft. And he didn’t mean to let her
forget either.

“I was riding up on the Camden Acres,” Allison went on urgently, “and one of the men working on clearing the fields up there had been caught in a
landslide. His leg was crushed by a boulder. They
radioed for help, and were going to take him in to the hospital, but I knew you’d want to go along to
make sure he was taken care of.”

Shawnee watched as his eyes lost the dark in
tensity. Allison had obviously hit upon the one
thing that could divert his attention. His finger
touched her cheek for just a moment, then he turned away.

“Did they get a helicopter, or did they take him
by four-wheel drive?” he asked.

“I’
m not sure. I left before the rescuers arrived. I
wanted to get back here and let you know.”

He nodded abstractedly. “I’ll take you home first,” he told Shawnee.

Allison raised an eyebrow, looking suddenly
wise. “I could give her a lift home if you want to get
on out to the hospital.” There was just a trace of
triumph in her voice.

David hesitated. He looked at Shawnee, but
there was no longer any humor in his eyes. “No,” he said decisively. “I’ll drive her home.”

Allison gave one last slap of her crop against her leg. “Whatever you say.” She sighed. “Since you live
in the neighborhood, I suppose we’ll be seeing
more of you.” Her eyes sharpened as she thought of a warning that might just be an arrow for her side.
 

“We’ll be having a house-guest soon. A particular friend of David’s.
Megan Reilly. She’s just about your age. Perhaps
you’ll help us entertain her?”

The smile let Shawnee know the comment had been made more as information than invitation.
Allison turned on her heel and began to stride
toward the wide barn door.
 

“I’ll be at the house if you need me,” she called back over her shoulder. “So nice to have met you, Miss Carrington.”

Shawnee opened her mouth to reply in kind, but David didn’t give her a chance. Before she realized what he was up to, he’d captured her chin with one
strong hand and was holding her still so that his
mouth could claim hers in a kiss that was as wild as it was sweet. The gurgling protest she tried to utter
died in her throat and the hands that she threw up to ward him off ended curled against the
warmth of his chest. His kiss caught and held her
like a leaf taken up by a desert wind, tossing her higher, higher, until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think—and then he drew away and she
stopped in mid flight, plummeting back to earth.
 

“That was by way of an apology,” he told her, still
holding her chin in his grasp. His eyes searched hers
for a moment, then narrowed as the humor re
turned to his gaze. “As well as a promise of things to
come,” he added with a wink.

She knew she should tell him, and quickly, that there would be no “things to come” if she could help it, but somehow the words wouldn’t form in her mouth. She was stunned by him, stunned and groping for a way to
recover. As he pulled her close, hugging her, and then let her go, his arm still around her shoulders, leading her out of the barn, she didn’t say a thing.

“I have to apologize for something else,” he added
as they walked along. “Allison isn’t usually that inhospitable. She’s actually a rather nice person once you get to know her. But she’s got. . . prob
lems. Her life is rather a mess at the moment. And she tends to fly off the handle at just about anything
that crosses her path.”

Allison. What did she care about Allison? Her emotions were too tangled from the way David
made her feel. She had a lot of sorting out to
do before she had any energy left to expend on Allison.
 

“I understand,” she murmured, just to say
something.

The sun had fallen below the hills and the evening was a dusky violet. They were walking toward
the house. Allison, on horseback, was arriving at
the stables in the distance.

“You see, she’s going through a particularly nasty
divorce right now,” he went on. “And Santiagos
don’t get divorced, if you know what I mean. She put up with a lot before she brought herself to this step. And now she feels as though she’s let down everyone, her husband, me, the Santiago family.
And most of all, her daughter.”

^“
Her daughter?” That surprised her. She hadn’t given a thought to any children who might be involved. “I didn’t know she had a daughter.”

He nodded. “Petra is fourteen. She’s still with her
father, in France. And that’s another misery for Allison to bear.”

Shawnee didn’t want to hear any more. She
didn’t want to feel sorry for a Santiago. It was bad
enough that she seemed to have fallen under
David’s spell. She didn’t need anything else to help
complicate her life.

But David wasn’t ready to drop the subject.
“Allison’s all wrapped up in training for the horse-
show,” he went on. “It’s keeping her mind off
things.” His hand moved on her shoulder and she
could hear the affectionate amusement as he
added, “She seems to think that if she wins the
horse-show, that will in some way pay us all back
for what she’s supposedly putting the family
through.”
 

His laugh was low and indulgent.
 

“I’ve
tried to convince her that it’s unnecessary, but she’s
determined. Maybe, when she stands there at the
Californio Days ceremonies with the trophy in her
arms, she’ll feel like her old self again.”

Shawnee moved restlessly under his touch.
Should she tell him now? Should she let him know how much she wanted that very thing herself? That
beating his sister was her main goal, and would make her very happy? Maybe then he would see how impossible any sort of relationship between
them was.

She glanced up at his dark face, then looked
down at her feet, striding along the dusty road.
Not yet
, she told herself silently.
The sooner he knows,
the more likely something might go wrong. Better to wait until the sign-ups. Then everyone would
know.

“I can call my brother-in-law for a ride,” she suggested as they came out onto the drive
way. “That way you can go ahead to the hospital.”

“Not a chance,” he countered cheerfully, pulling
open the door to his car. “Get in.”

The drive back to her house was uneventful,
which was just fine with Shawnee. She sat on the edge of her seat, anxious to get home, to get away
from David’s influence so she could think clearly
and regain her sense of control.

“Just drop me here,” she said as they came in sight
of the rickety little house.

David didn’t bother to reply, ignoring her request completely. He pulled up in front of the
porch, stopping her before she could twist open the
door handle.

“Not so fast,” he said, his hand on her arm. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re trying to run away
from me?”

She swallowed, glancing towards the house, hoping Granpa Jim hadn’t heard the car drive up.
There was a light on in the living room, but no one
appeared at the door.

“Because you’re such a perceptive person, I
guess.” She tried to pry his fingers from her arm,
one by one. “That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.”

“Why?”

That was a straightforward question. Too bad she was incapable of a straightforward answer.
 

There were things she could tell him, but there w
ere other things she couldn’t even explain to
herself. She gave up on the fingers, but refused to
look him in the face. Instead she stared at the moon
less sky.

“Because you’re the enemy. Can’t you see that?”

“Ah. Yes, yes, I do see.” She could hear the grin in his voice. “You’re telling me that we’re destined to war against each other, the Carringtons against the Santiagos, for all time. Is that it? A sort of modern day version of the Capulets and the Montagues?”

She hesitated for just a moment. After all those names conjured up visions of a Romeo and Juliet story that she didn’t have any intention of recreat
ing. “A bit like that,” she ventured.

“The Hatfields and the McCoys?”

“Yes.”

“The Indians and the cowboys? The cattlemen
and the sheepherders?”

He obviously thought it was a good joke. She’d been avoiding his gaze, but now she turned and looked at him. It was dark but she could make out
his handsome features in the gloom. His eyes
flashed in the starlight. She looked away again.

“The city mouse and the country mouse,” she
supplied impatiently. “Whatever. Irreconcilable foes. That’s exactly what we are.”

“Doomed to fight forever.” His voice was low and husky and his hand was moving on the soft part of
her inner arm. “What delicious battles we’ll have.”
He leaned so close, she could feel his breath stir the
tendrils of hair that fluttered about her ear.