Modern Romance January Books 1-4. Кейт Хьюит

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СКАЧАТЬ I dream, it’s all screaming. Horses and women.”

      The words sounded black and blank, and hopelessly pathetic. He didn’t talk about this. Not to anyone. Not ever.

      “Matías,” she said softly, wrapping her arms around him, resting her cheek against his chest. “You had to be strong and good, so much more than anyone else, because you were the only one who could be. It’s not fair.”

      She was trying to...comfort him. He could not remember the last time anyone had done that. If they ever had. Probably, his mother had done it, but he couldn’t remember. All he remembered was the fighting. All he remembered was his mother hiding from his father. All he remembered was hiding from all of it.

      “When Fuego kicked you...” Those words broke off, and he found himself unable to speak. His throat was tight. His lungs burned. He waited. Waited for the wave to pass. For the pressure to release. “It reminded me of when she died,” he choked out. “Even if they don’t mean to, they’re large animals, and they can cause so much harm.”

      She stroked his arm as though he were a pet and not a man and he couldn’t even muster up any anger over it. “It’s amazing to me that you want to continue working with horses. That you want to keep the rancho. All things considered. I know why. At least, I know what you told me. About wanting to be the one that controls it. About wanting to redeem it all. But...no one would blame you if you decided you didn’t want any of it.”

      That had been his intention in his twenties. His fortune elsewhere. Why he had left Spain and centered his business in London. But he had found that there was no getting away from his past. And that the farther he got away from his home, the farther away he went from the rancho, the more his dreams plagued him.

      “That place has become a mission,” he admitted. “Unfinished business, in many ways. Once it’s all settled, I don’t intend to spend too much time there.”

      “You’re so good at it, though,” she said, continuing to caress him with those lovely fingers. “I can’t imagine you simply disappearing into a desk job. It isn’t you.”

      “Maybe it is,” he said, reaching down and putting his finger beneath her chin, tilting her face upward. “Perhaps I prefer this,” he said, looking around the penthouse. “Perhaps I prefer evenings spent at galas to quiet evenings in rural libraries. Perhaps I prefer spending my days in glass and steel skyscrapers to dusty arenas.”

      “You don’t.” She said those words with such confidence that he wanted to laugh at her, except he could not because her dark eyes were so serious. So sincere. She reached up, grabbing hold of the hand that was beneath her chin, and drawing it down. She smoothed her thumb over his palm, her eyes never leaving his. “I can tell, because of your hands. You don’t have the hands of a man content to work at a computer. Content to work at a desk. These calluses are thick, worn in from years of work. It’s your heart. Right here. This is what you choose to do when you’re not doing the thing you must do to increase your fortune. A man who does ranch work in a casual capacity is not going to have hands like this.” Then she shocked him, placed his hand against her breast, a slow smile curving her lips, deep satisfaction etched into her expression. “You have just the kind of hands that I like.”

      “Tell me, then,” he said, feeling driven to know the answer all of a sudden. “If I am the kind of man you like, then why didn’t you do this with any of the other men who worked on your father’s rancho? Why didn’t you end up with them when you could have?”

      “Because they weren’t you. That was the missing piece. Rough hands were never going to be enough.”

      He was so aroused he could hardly think anymore. But before he took her again, he needed to know something. “Tell me,” he said, “your dream. Your biggest dream.”

      When all of this was over and he set her free again, he was determined to see it done. The Alvarez rancho would be returned to her ownership, and he would be sure that her mother had no claim on it. Would be sure that it was entirely for Camilla.

      He was going to give her Fuego, as well, in addition to the rest of the horses. He was determined on that score, too. Yes, the horse would have been an amazing asset for his own ranch, but he knew now that the animal had to go with Camilla. There was no other option.

      But anything else, whatever else she desired, he was determined to ensure she had it. He would not be a man who left a woman broken. Not as his father had done.

      He would ensure that whatever he had taken from Camilla tonight, he would restore it as best he could.

      She looked blindsided by that question, confused. “Just the rancho,” she insisted.

      “That is something you already had. Is there anything more you want? Anything?”

      She looked down. “No. I can’t think of anything else. All I want is my normal life back. I couldn’t... I couldn’t begin to want anything else.”

      He had a feeling that she was lying, but whether to him or to herself he didn’t know. And he was past the point of talking. Because her skin was soft and sweet beneath his touch, because her nipple had grown hard beneath his palm and his own body was growing hard in response.

      He took the plate of meat and cheese and set it aside and pulled Camilla into his arms. “Whatever you want,” he said, “I will see that it is yours. You have my word.”

      The word of a Navarro had never meant much. But Matías was determined to change that.

      He was determined to change it for her.

       CHAPTER TWELVE

      THE DAY OF the wedding began like any other day, which surprised Camilla to a degree, as the entire thing loomed large in her mind. There was no reason to be nervous, and she knew that. She and Matías had been over this, and over it and over it. How it would all go, how long it was going to last.

      It was not going to be a terribly formal affair.

      She had been presented with a small selection of gowns earlier in the week, and she had chosen one that best suited the outdoor event.

      She had a feeling it was very different to the dress that Liliana would have selected, but it was right for her. Simple, white and with clean, elegant lines.

      Though, as Matías had pointed out, a bit wickedly—while holding her arms above her head, his hips locked against hers as his weight pressed her down into the mattress—she was no longer a virgin, and therefore, did not have to wear white.

      She had scoffed at him and said that the symbolism of the white dress had long since gone out of fashion.

      And then he had kissed her and done something with his tongue that had made it impossible to think. And after she’d had to concede—to herself—there was no point in pretending that she was anything near a virgin now. One week spent in his bed and he had introduced her to a great many sensual delights.

      Just thinking about that made her face hot. But not from embarrassment. Nothing the two of them did together embarrassed her. And she wasn’t anywhere near finished with him.

      She СКАЧАТЬ