Spring Bride

“Antonio is—he’s trying to get back at me through you. And I’m the one who has to put a stop to it.”

“See him, you mean?” Grant shook his head. “Absolutely not!”

“Don’t be ridiculous! You can’t tell me what to do.”

Grant’s jaw shot forward. “I forbid you to go within ten feet of Antonio del Rey.”

“You forbid me?”

“Yeah. That’s right.” Grant folded his arms. “Is that clear, Kyra? You are not to go near this man.”

Kyra forced a smile to her lips. “All right.”

“Don’t just say all right. You’d better mean it.”

“Have I a choice? I won’t go near him, Grant. Okay?”

Grant nodded. “Okay,” he said, and then he shook his head and pulled her into his arms. “We know what’s best, Sis. We love you.”

“I know you do.” Kyra drew back. “Look, this has been pretty upsetting. Would you mind if I passed on lunch?”

Grant nodded sympathetically. “Sure. Go on to your room, lie down for a couple of hours. And don’t worry about a thing. We’ll take care of this character for you.”

Kyra smiled. “I know you will.”

She threw Grant a kiss, left the room, and closed the door after her. She smiled blithely at Cade and Zach, then made her way upstairs.

As soon as she heard the library door shut, she flew down the stairs, grabbed a jacket from the hall, and raced out the back door to the garage.

It was easy getting Antonio’s suite number. Kyra used a trick she’d learned from a detective novel. She scribbled his name on a hotel envelope, sealed it, and asked that it be left in Señor del Rey’s box. The clerk turned, put it into the appropriately numbered slot, and she was in business.

Her mouth was dry as she knocked at the door to his suite. Her heart was hammering, too. With anger, she reminded herself, not with anything else. To think she’d wasted a moment of her life, thinking she loved this man! To think she’d ever devoted a minute to wishing she were still with him, on his island…

The door opened.

“Yes?” Antonio said coldly. “What is it, please? I did not order…”

She saw his eyes darken with realization and she began to tremble. How could the sight of him, how could just looking into his sapphire eyes, make her feel this way?

She took a deep breath. “Hello, Antonio,” she said. “May I come in?”

”Síi. Of course.” She could see him stiffening, recovering his poise. Good. She had caught him off guard; that would be some small advantage. “Come in. I—I did not expect you, Kyra”

“I know that.” She waited until he’d shut the door and then turned to him, her eyes cold. “You thought you could bring my brothers to heel and I’d let you get away with it.”

Antonio walked to the small bar across the room. He took a bottle of brandy from the tray and poured himself a drink. His hands were trembling; he could only hope Kyra had not noticed. How could the sight of her still move him so? She was even more beautiful then he remembered, more beautiful than when she haunted his dreams…

He took a deep breath. “Would you like a drink?”

“I didn’t come here for a sociable chat, Antonio.” He turned as she came toward him, her small, elegant face lifted in defiance. “I came to tell you that your scheme won’t work. You can’t use my brothers to get back at me.

“Have they explained the situation to you?”

“They’ve told me enough. I know that you want to bnng Landon Enterprises to its knees. What I don’t quite understand is why.”

He took a mouthful of brandy, swallowed it, and smiled at her over the rim of the glass

“I think you do.”

“I don’t. What do you hope to gain?”

He smiled unpleasantly. “You are pleading with me not to destroy your brothers, aren’t you?”

Kyra laughed. “Do I sound as if I’m pleading?”

He frowned. It was true, she didn’t. But that was why she’d come here, surely—to beg him not to ruin her brothers, perhaps even herself.

“Are you really still so angry that you didn’t win, Antonio? Angry enough to behave like a spoiled child?”

His face darkened. “I? I, a spoiled child?”

“I wouldn’t do what you wanted so you decided to get even. Isn’t that what this is all about?”

Antonio slammed down his glass and walked toward her, his eyes flashing.

“One of us is spoiled, Kyra, but it is surely not I!”

“Oh, come on!” Kyra glared at him. “You wanted me to agree to let you control my life and I said I wouldn’t do it. So you sat around and brooded and then you came up with this idea, a way you thought you could control my brothers’ lives instead.”

“This is not a matter of control,” he said coldly. “It is a matter of learning that one’s expectations are not always what one hopes they will be.”

“Well, you’re right about that. You see, you can’t ruin my brothers. They don’t need the Landon money.” She folded her arms. “Zach, Cade and Grant made their own way in the world. Whatever they get from the sale of Landon Enterprises will go to charity.”

“To charity?”

She smiled coolly at his puzzled expression. “It’s their way of throwing off the yoke of slavery.”

“I do not understand.”

“No. You wouldn’t. You’re a tyrant yourself, a domineering, coldhearted, controlling—”

She gasped as his hands closed on her shoulders. “Watch your mouth, Kyra. I will not permit you to insult me.

“You came to Denver to insult me! To humiliate me! As far as I’m concerned, that gives me the right to say whatever I damned please. This is a free country, Antonio. You can’t play at being emp—”

His mouth fell on hers. It was a hard, angry kiss, yet more proof of his need to dominate, but when it came to this, Antonio had always dominated her. He had always been the victor in this most intimate of games because by taking, he also gave.

And he was giving now. His kiss was changing, going from hard and angry to sweet and tender. ”Querida,” he whispered against her mouth, or was it only that she longed to hear the word from his lips? It didn’t matter. She couldn’t help her response, the way her arms were winding around his neck, the way she was lifting herself to him, fitting her body and her lips to his…

They broke apart, both of them breathing hard and flushed with emotion. Antonio swallowed, then turned and walked to where he had left his glass. He picked it up, put it to his lips, and drank down what remained of the brandy.

“It will not work,” he said. His voice was cold. “This little display is—amusing. But I will not change my mind, Kyra. Your brothers will accept my offer or the company will fail in bankruptcy. The decision is theirs.”

Kyra stood staring at him, at that rigid back and that too-proud angle of that dark head, and suddenly she gave a cry of fury and rushed toward him. Startled, Antonio spun around and caught her as she began pounding her fists against his chest.

“You bastard!” she panted. “How can you do this? It isn’t as if you cared whether I stayed with you or not. It isn’t as if you loved me. I was the one who made a fool of myself, falling in love with a man who didn’t give a damn for me! I was the idiot who tried and tried to explain!”

“To explain what? That you loved me?” Antonio caught her wrists and immobilized her hands against his chest. “Do not lie to me, Kyra. I was offering you my heart and my name and all you could think of were your precious expectations, the pointless accident of your birth that would forever keep you and your family from deigning to accept a man like me!”

“Are you crazy? Why wouldn’t my family accept a man like you? Someone who’s brave and gentle and generous and—and—”

Her mouth snapped shut, but it was too late. Antonio’s eyes darkened.

“Do you really think those things of me?” he said softly.

“No,” Kyra said furio

usly as she tried to jerk her hands free. “Of course not! Let go of me, dammit! I thought my father was impossible, trying to mold me to suit some image, but you’re worse! Now you’re accusing me of—of coming here to entice you into backing off.”

“That kiss, then, was freely given?”

“Yes, damn you! Not that I don’t regret it—”

Antonio kissed her again, his mouth moving gently against hers. Kyra held back, telling herself she must not respond, but it was like trying to stop the sun from rising in the morning She gave a little sob and leaned into his embrace, her hands clutching at his shirt.

Antonio looked down at her when the kiss ended. Gently, he brushed his knuckles over her cheek.

“What is this, about being forced to fit some image?”

“It doesn’t matter. Oh hell. Yes, it does matter! It’s what my father used to do. It’s what you wanted to do, telling me that you’d only want me if I’d agree to—to obey your rules and let you treat me like some hothouse orchid!”

Antonio’s eyes narrowed. “I never asked that of you, querida. Why would I, when your spirit is so precious to me?”

“Well, what else were you asking me?”

“I just told you. I was asking you to be my wife, despite the differences in our backgrounds.”

Kyra went very still. That was what he’d said, she suddenly thought, and her heart missed a beat.

“You mean—you were proposing to me?” she whispered.

A muscle knotted in Antonio’s cheek. “Yes.”

“Oh, Antonio. I didn’t—I thought…”

His hands swept into her hair and he tilted her face up to his.

“And what you said a few moments ago…” He took a breath. “Did you truly say that you loved me?”

Kyra felt the swift rush of happy tears rise in her eyes.