The Dragon's Cave (25 page)

‘I’m not going to
!
’ he retorted. ‘And don’t look at me like that, or I shall kiss you again, and if I touch you again I shan’t be answerable for the consequences
!’

She chuckled.
‘
Darling
!
’

His eyes lit with mocking amusement
‘
You must learn to say it in Spanish,’ he told her.

‘
Mmm,’ she agreed.
‘
Spanish is the loving tongue.’ She hesitated,
s
uddenly shy.
‘
Amado
,’ s
he experimented, rolling the word off her tongue.

‘
Alma mia
!’
he responded.

‘
Mi corazon,
my heart, I love you very much,’ she whispered. Her eyes darkened with emotion. ‘How soon can we be married?’ she asked
him.

‘
If you go on looking at me like that it had better be soon,’ he answered ruefully. ‘I am not sure your Tony wouldn’t be a more suitable husband for you,’
he added thoughtfully. ‘He is English like yourself—’

Megan reached up and kissed him on the lips. ‘I’m tired of hearing about Tony,’ she complained. ‘Nor do I want you to ask my permission before you kiss me.’ The ready colour ran up into her cheeks. ‘I want you to take them, because they’re all yours, if—if you want them?’

‘
My dearest beloved,’ he answered,
‘
why else do you suppose I brought you to Mallorca? You were mine from the first moment I saw you
!’

‘
In the Witch’s Cauldron?’ she said, surprised.

‘Singing some spell that bound me to you,’ he accused her, laughing.
‘
My only defence was a poor
little
dragon whose breath was supposed to frighten you into my arms.’

‘Perhaps that’s why I came to his cave,’ she said idly. She looked suddenly anxious. ‘Carlos, I’m not too young for you, am I? I’ll try to be everything you wish me to be, but be patient with me, and love me, even when I annoy you and you want to—to slap me!’

He kissed her hard on the mouth and then put her firmly away from him, his hands trembling sligh
tl
y as he started up the engine.

‘You are everything I want,’ he said. ‘Everything. For you, my sweet, I’ll buy off Margot and let her go to England, if that’s what she wants to do. And I’ll give Pilar and the others whatever they want. But you,
alma mia,
will stay with me wherever I am and give me what
I
want, whether you like it or not, because I can’t do without you
!
’

Megan tucked her left hand into the crook of his arm, loving him with her eyes. With her other hand she buttoned up her coat and smoothed down her trousers over her legs.
‘
Yes, Carlos,’ she said demurely. And they laughed delightedly together.