Master of El Corazon

‘Linda’s a child.’

‘Hah!’

‘I tucked her in when she was three.’

‘I don’t care what you did for her then or what you do for her now.’

‘Then why did it bother you to see us together?’

Arden spun around. A breeze blew her hair across her face, and she grabbed the strands and shoved them behind her ear.

‘It didn’t.’

‘Ah.’ His brows lifted. ‘I should have known. Your only concern is my uncle’s welfare.’

“That’s right, it is. Now, if you’re done intruding on my day off...’ She swung away, snatched up her things, and started across the sand.

‘Just a minute.’

‘Goodbye, señor,’ she called over her shoulder.

‘Damn it, I told you to wait!’

‘And I told you, this is—ouch!’ The breath whistled from her lungs as Conor’s fingers curled around her arm. “That hurts!’

He spun her around to face him. ‘Of course it does, you little fool. That’s what I’ve been telling you. You’ve gone and got yourself a hell of a burn.’

Arden’s smile was as warm and real as a shark’s. ‘Don’t get too excited about it. I’ll still show up at your uncle’s side, bright and early tomorrow morning.’

‘You’re damned right you will, so long as that’s what he wants.’

‘As for this,’ she said, raising her arm and looking at it, ‘it will fade to a tan by tonight. I never burn.’

‘Everyone bums down here, especially gringas.’ Conor’s mouth thinned with distaste. ‘You’re all convinced a vacation’s not a success until you’ve fried to a crisp.’

‘Aside from the fact that you’re hardly on expert on what gringas think or don’t think,’ Arden said, ‘you seem to have forgotten, señor, that I am not here for a holiday. I am an employee at El Corazon.’ She paused for emphasis. ‘Your uncle’s employee, not yours.’

His teeth glinted in a cold smile. ‘That’s a matter for some debate, since I am the one responsible for running this ranch.’

‘So Felix told me.’

‘Have you been snooping, Miss Miller?’ That icy smile flashed on and off again. ‘Making certain, perhaps, that the old man’s assets are all you hope them to be?’

Arden wrenched her arm free. ‘Your uncle told me about your arrangement.’

‘You mean,’ he said, almost lazily, ‘he told you that I’m just biding my time, waiting for the day El Corazon is mine?’ He grinned at the look of shock on Arden’s face. ‘What’s the matter, sweetheart? Did you think I didn’t know he’s been complaining about me to everyone who’d listen?’

‘He didn’t complain, he simply told me how you’ve taken over things here—’

‘Which distresses you no end, since that’s what you’d planned on doing yourself.’

‘Is that why you followed me here? To make accusations?’

‘Followed you?’ His brows rose. ‘I didn’t even know you were here until I saw you stretched out like an iguana, broiling in the sun.’

‘I’ll bet.’

‘Do you think you’re the only one who comes to this lake, Arden?’ He shook his head. ‘This is one of my favourite spots—I found it when I was just a kid, the first time my father sent me here to spend a couple of weeks with my uncle.’ He smiled. ‘Felix looked me over as if I were some species of animal he’d never seen before, said he hoped I knew how to behave in polite society, gave me the run of the place, and promptly forgot I existed.’