Vistaria Has Fallen (The Vistaria Affair/Vistaria Has Fallen #1)(35)

His hand settled around her neck, curled around it as if he would draw her to him. She held her breath, her heart leaping and her pulse fluttering. He gazed into her eyes.

“Nick,” she whispered. “Nicolás Escobedo. El leopardo rojo. I have seen you all ways. I want them all.”

He closed his eyes. She knew he battled temptation and his own better judgment. Right now she didn’t care about prudence and good sense. She only cared about the truth in her heart—and damn the price of speaking it aloud.

“Se?or!” came the imperative call.

Nick growled under his breath and opened his eyes. He pushed her toward the waiting soldier. “Go,” he told her.

She was hurried away, toward the military helicopter, with no answer, not even hope to cling to.





Chapter Eight


For the first time since she had landed in Vistaria, Calli slept the sleep of the dead. They had been dropped at the apartment a little past midnight, after being checked over and given a shower and a change of clothes. Calli was barefoot. They could find no shoes that fit her. She dropped into bed as soon as she had seen Minnie tucked into hers and slept dreamlessly for ten hours.

Minnie woke her just after eleven a.m. Her cousin bubbled over with happiness, for Duardo had phoned and assured her he was okay. Now Minnie was doing her best to work the stiffness out of Calli’s shoulders. Calli had found herself unable to move for the soreness.

“Calli, the way the men deferred to Nicolás Escobedo yesterday...he’s the one they call the Red Leopard, isn’t he?” Minnie asked.

“Why do you think that?”

“Red hair, red leopard. And Duardo said ‘rojo’ yesterday just before you spoke to him. He’s the one that helped you in the jail. That’s how you know him.”

“Yes.”

“You know who he is, don’t you?”

Calli sighed into her pillow. “Yes.”

Minnie kneaded and worked at a knot by her right shoulder blade. “He would be a dangerous man to get involved with.”

Calli jumped a little at her unexpected statement. “I rather doubt he’d trouble with the likes of you and I, Minnie. He’s virtually royalty here, or so your dad keeps telling me.”

“Maybe. He wants you, anyway.”

This time the leap of her heart made her whole body twitch. Calli rolled over and drew the gown back around her shoulders. “How do you know that?” she asked her cousin.

“I know men. Much better than you, Miss Academic. I saw him watching you, and later when you talked, just before the explosion. He wants you. Most people wouldn’t see it. It came off him in waves. He barely held himself in.”

Calli chewed at her lip. “No one else would guess?” she repeated.

Minnie wrinkled her nose. “Unless they could tune into that sort of thing, like me.”

“God, I hope not,” Calli muttered.

“You can’t get involved, Calli. Not with him.”

“I know.”

“You told him no, didn’t you?”

“Well, more or less, but...”

“But?” Minnie pounced on the prevarication.

“Afterwards...” She shook her head. “After the explosion, Minnie, nothing mattered. I cut through all the bullshit and told it like it is. I told him how I feel.”

Minnie drew her knees to her chest and hugged them, resting her chin on them. “What did you tell him? That you’re in love with him?”

“It’s more in lust. I go a little crazy when he’s near. I can’t breathe properly. The ache to have him is overwhelming and I can’t think of anything else. It’s the first time I’ve felt that since...”

“Since Robert,” Minnie finished.

Calli shook her head. “I’ve never experienced this, not even with Robert. Not this way.”

“You don’t believe that could be love?”

“I don’t even know him,” Calli protested.

“You don’t have to know him,” Minnie whispered and Calli was alarmed to see two big tears roll down her cheeks. She brushed them away impatiently.

“What is it?” Calli asked. “Duardo?”

Minnie laughed, even as she cried. “I’m such an idiot. Watching him hanging there yesterday… I would have died if he’d let go, if you hadn’t been able to hold on for as long as you did, if Nick hadn’t come along.”

Calli’s eyes welled with tears, in reaction to Minnie’s genuine distress. She rubbed her cousin’s shoulder, trying to find something appropriate to say. “It could just be the stress of the occasion,” she offered.

Minnie gave a gigantic sniff, like a little girl. “Yeah and tell me that the way you want Nicolás Escobedo is just the stress of the moment.”

Calli stayed silent.

“There you go, then,” Minnie said.

*

Uncle Josh listened in total to silence to all Calli had to say and even Minnie repressed her natural tendency to slide in shocking side commentary. He remained silent for long moments after she had finished, absorbing it all.

He blew out his breath, making his cheeks pop. “I’m glad you were there, Calli. For Minnie’s sake. Thank you for that. What concerns me more, though, is Escobedo’s airy assurance that Americans are safe. Why would we be safe?”