“Yes, of course. The first time you came to the hospital. You left, and Lucas asked me to do it.”
“Lyssa,” Lucas said in the desperate tones of a man who sees his life flashing before him, “Lyssa, listen to me—”
“I was glad to. By then, I knew Aloysius and I had meant well but that we’d done the wrong thing. So I agreed to abrogate the contract and let Lucas handle things on his own. You know, pay the arrears owed the bank and deed the land to you. And, of course, that invalidated that marriage stipulation but you know all this, dear child.” Felix smiled. “And, to my delight, you chose to marry my grandson anyway.”
For a long moment, Alyssa didn’t move. Then she swung toward Lucas and he knew he would never forget what he saw in her face.
“You lied to me,” she said in a shocked whisper.
“No. Yes. I mean…” Lucas shook his head. “I wanted you. That was all I could think of, that I wanted you and that without the stipulation, you might leave me.”
“So you lied.”
“Amada. It was not that simple.”
“Oh, it’s very simple. And very understandable. Why wouldn’t you lie? That’s the way people deal with me, isn’t it? My mother. My father. And now you.”
“Damn it, you’re not listening. I wanted you to marry me.”
“You wanted.” Her voice shook. Lucas reached for her, tried to draw her into his arms, but she jerked free of his hands, her head high, her eyes glittering with tears. “You wanted, and that made the lie appropriate.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re overreacting.”
“You lied, Lucas. Everyone lies, and nobody gives a damn what effect those lies have on my life.”
“All right. I made a mistake. That doesn’t change the fact that you’re happy with me. That you want to marry me. That we belong together.”
The minutes slipped away. Then Alyssa took a steadying breath.
“Did it ever occur to you that I’m as happy as possible under the circumstances, Your Highness? That given a choice, an honest choice, I might just as well have told you to go to hell?”
“You don’t mean that.”
“You’re the one who lies, Lucas. Not me.”
Her words were like a slap in the face—but a welcome one. The land. The ranch. That was all she’d ever wanted. Maybe he’d known that, in his heart. Maybe that was why he hadn’t told her the truth.
She’d wanted everything he could give her…
But not him.
When she ran for the house, he took his time. And when he finally reached their bedroom and found her already dressed in trousers, boots and a T-shirt, he looked at her and wondered why he’d thought she was the center of his life.
It made it easy to reach for the phone and arrange to send her home.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THERE were certain absolutes in life.
Not many. A man learned that early on. Still, there were a few things that never changed.
New York in August was one of them.
In those hot, sticky dog days of summer, the city turned into a different place.
The streets were still crowded but with tourists, not New Yorkers. The city’s residents fled to the Hamptons or Connecticut. The ones with reason to be in town stayed indoors, where air-conditioning provided merciful relief.
Unless it stopped working, Lucas thought grimly as he pounded along the indoor track at the Eastside Club, where the AC had given up an hour ago.