With Ramón, Bella saw. “He doesn’t deserve you,” she said quietly.
“He’s a good man, in his way,” Perlita almost whispered. “He is good to me.”
And that said it all, Bella thought. She loved him. And perhaps Ramón even loved Perlita. But he would marry a woman with money, just like Papa had. Making two women unhappy, just like Papa. And there was nothing she could do about it.
“Then if you are sure, we will leave in the morning. And if you ever change your mind—”
“I won’t.”
“If you do, the offer is always open.” Bella rose on her toes and for the first time in her life kissed her half sister on the cheek. “Sister.”
Perlita gave her an awkward, hurried hug and turned quickly away. Bella thought she saw the glitter of tears on her sister’s long lashes, but she couldn’t be sure because her own eyes were quite blurry, too.
“Do you think Ramón would mind if we rode out in Valle Verde? I would like to show my husband the place I grew up in.” She also wanted to bid it a proper good-bye. When she’d fled, as a child, she hadn’t realized how final her leaving would be, hadn’t realized what a wrench it would be to leave this land she loved so much.
Perlita lifted an elegant shoulder. “Go where you will.” Her voice sounded husky.
“Would you like to ride out with us, Perlita?” If her sister wouldn’t leave Valle Verde, Bella wanted to make the most of every hour with her.
“I was never taught to ride.”
Bella blinked. “Not at all?”
“Papa said I had no need to learn, that I was the sort of woman who would always be driven in a fine carriage.”
As Isabella and Luke rode up into the hills, she told him what Perlita had said. “It’s strange,” she concluded. “Papa trained me to manage the estate and to live as aguerrillera, off the land, and Perlita he taught to be a lady, to expect others to take care of her.”
“You are no less a lady for having unusual skills,” Luke told her. Her father had a lot to answer for.
She pulled a face. “But when it came to the crunch, Papa ordered me to a convent. But I don’t care,” she said as if continuing some argument in her head. “I could never regret learning to ride. It’s one of the joys of life, and much better than being cooped up in a stuffy old carriage. You have no idea how much I missed being able to do this when I was in the convent.” And with a mischievous glance she set her horse galloping along the valley.
She took Luke all over the estate, pointing out how things had changed and commenting freely on Ramón’s management, which more and more she had to reluctantly approve.
The depth of her understanding of estate management surprised him. He knew no other woman who found such things interesting. As they paused to admire a vista from one of the hilltops, Luke told her so.
She laughed. “It would have been different if Mama had given Papa a son. I would then be as ignorant as a lady should be of such matters.”
“Your father must have been very proud of you.”
She considered that for a moment. “Papa was not much given to praise. The best thing he ever said of me was that I was wasted as a female.” There was such a look of desolation on her face as she stared across the range of hills, Luke couldn’t help himself.
“I don’t agree,” he said. “As a man, you’d be in no way remarkable. As a woman, believe me, you’re… unique.” And he leaned across and kissed her.
It was meant to be just a light kiss, a gesture of comfort, but she leaned into him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and returned the kiss with such feeling that they both forgot where they were and almost fell off when their horses moved apart.
They laughed, a little self-consciously, but her eyes clung to his, and her mouth was damp and beautiful and slightly swollen, and before he knew it Luke had dismounted and pulled her off her horse into his arms.
Laughing, still kissing him, she slid slowly down the length of his body, twining her limbs around him, an agonizing, delicious friction. Her body was soft and pliant, the taste of her intoxicating.
They slid to the ground, and the fragrance of crushed, new grass mingled with the scent and taste of her as he pressed her down beneath him, covering her with his body, devouring her with his mouth. He pulled urgently at her clothing, eager to peel her out of it, to reveal her lithe body with the high, perfect little breasts, but she pushed his hands aside.
“You first,” she murmured, reaching for his neckcloth. She dragged it off, tossed it aside, and started on the ties on his shirt.
“No.” Luke pulled back abruptly.
She lay still, the grass against her back. “Why not?”
For answer he covered her mouth with his, trying to recapture the mindless passion of a few moments before. Her question lay between them. Luke ignored it. He reached for the fastenings of her bodice.
