He nodded, his sand-coloured hair gleaming gold in the late afternoon sun. ‘You have a standing invitation to stay any time you want. Least I can do to repay you for the free PR and advice on how to get the stud farm up and running.’ His glance slid past her to a bristling Alejandro. ‘You better hop to it before something catches fire around here.’
She glanced over at Alejandro. His jaw was locked. His eyes mere slits as he observed them. Sucking in a breath, she darted into the century-old two-storey ranch house Steven had inherited along with the farm. Her room was at the top of the stairs.
As she packed her meagre belongings into the single suitcase, she accepted that her stay here had only ever been a stop-gap. She’d been marking time until she could come alive again.
But while she felt alive now, her heart dipped with wrenching anguish to also accept that in a few short weeks she would need to continue feeling alive, without Alejandro.
The man in question was stalking the porch when she opened the front door. And he kept right on coming. Once he had possession of her suitcase, he caught her arm and started to lead her away.
‘Wait.’ She ignored his growl, and crossed over to Steven, giving him a quick hug. ‘Thanks for everything.’
‘No problem. Seriously. Now go before he tears me limb from limb,’ Steven muttered.
She went, her heart racing as she slid into the seat beside Alejandro. His exit from the ranch was aggressively fast and dusty. Hanging on, Elise fought the urge to roll her eyes. And failed.
‘If I lived in an alternate universe, I’d say you were jealous.’
The SUV swerved to the side of the deserted road and screeched to a stop. Tension mounted until she was sure she could reach out and touch it. For the longest time, he stared at her and just breathed; heavy, chest-filling breaths that vibrated right through her.
‘For the sake of my ability to function, Elise, tell me you haven’t spent the last six months in his bed?’
Her mouth dropped open. Her body flushed with heat. Then cold. ‘I... Why on earth should that matter to you?’
A harsh laugh wrenched through the vehicle. ‘Because contrary to the laws of common sense and everything that should dictate otherwise, you continue to rage like a damn fever in my blood.’ The delivery was intense. A lethal blade cutting through everything he’d said in the last hour. Striking the heart of his presence here. ‘I want you. I crave you. Despite everything.’
Her low gasp dissolved before it’d even fully emerged. ‘Despite everything? You hate yourself for feeling the way you do about me, don’t you?’
Another ragged exhalation. ‘A lot of things have ceased to make sense to me. Including this.’
While she was trying to compute that, he lunged for her, buried his fingers in her loose hair and gripped her tight. ‘Por el amor de Dios, tell me!’
‘Why should I?’ she hissed, anger and hurt scything through her despite the intoxicating proximity of him. When his breath feathered hot and decadent over her mouth, she almost lost her ability to think. ‘There’s nothing between you and I, Alejandro.’
His nostrils flared with towering rage, before he let out a harsh laugh. ‘You made sure of that by falling into another man’s arms!’ he charged with a quiet fury that was no less volcanic for its rumble.
She pulled away, at once afraid of the depth of her feelings and the temptation of him. ‘I was—’
‘Dios mio, you were kissing another man, when I couldn’t have made it clearer that I wanted you to be mine!’ One hand spiked through his hair before it balled into a fist.
‘Yes, you wanted! Did you ever stop to think about what I wanted?’
His features tautened. ‘What are you talking about? Nothing excuses what I saw.’
‘In that case why are we having this conversation?’
He seethed for tense seconds.
‘Because I can’t get you out of my head.’
The words were stark. Rough. Jagged.
Her heart lurched as they stared at each other across the console. ‘Tell me you’ve gotten me out of yours.’
She shook her head, the words clogging her throat.
‘I want to hear the words, Elise,’ he stressed.
Her mouth parted, ready to issue lies. But they locked, strangled, morphed into other words. Words that she knew before she uttered them would doom her. She’d wished for the door she’d slammed shut to open one more time. She was getting her chance. ‘I haven’t been able to get you out of mine,’ she murmured.