sound like much," she said with a frown. Even with coffee prices high, as they had been when she left New Orleans, she couldn't see how he could make enough money to live. "How many trees do you have?"
"Why do you ask so many questions?" he asked impatiently.
"Why do you hate answering them so much?" she challenged, tilting her chin stubbornly.
"I'm not used to—" He didn't have to explain himself to anyone, least of all her. He'd almost admitted a weakness, that he didn't have a lot of experience with inquisitive females. In fact, his experience with women rarely involved conversation. And he wasn't interested in conversation now, just in getting this damned tour over with. "I've got a thousand acres of land under cultivation right now and probably four hundred trees per acre that are mature enough to yield coffee this year."
"Why that's four thousand trees or four hundred thousand pounds of coffee per year. With coffee at twenty-one cents a pound, that means this year's harvest should be worth eighty-four thousand dollars on the American market. That's a fortune!"
Jason's eyes narrowed. Her quick calculations displayed an intelligence beyond anything he'd expected or wanted in a wife.
"It would be if it were all profit," he told her, wondering why he bothered when the last thing he wanted to do was discuss business with his wife. "It takes a lot of money to run a plantation of this size."
"Especially one so isolated."
Jason stiffened, taken aback yet again. Damn her. She had an uncanny ability to put him at ease and make him say more than he intended. Somehow, she'd managed to turn the tables again.
The orchards gave way to jungle. As they emerged into a clearing, the beneficio came into view.
"You are familiar with the beneficio," he commented dryly to cover his embarrassment at the memory of yesterday's encounter.
Caroline's insides churned as she looked at the familiar building and remembered the last time she'd seen it.
"Yes," she said, her gaze fixed on the white building, "and a very fine beneficio it is, so straight and tall and firm. I would have to say that it is one of the finest beneficios I have ever seen." She didn't know why she'd said that. It was as if someone else had taken control of her speech as well as her emotions.
"So, you have a wide range of experience with beneficios?" he retorted.
Caroline smiled, enjoying the game more than she should. "Not really. But I am sure beyond a doubt that, as beneficios go, this is a most splendid one. But, then, I've only seen the outside. I have no idea what goes on inside. Those hard, thick walls must hide some interesting secrets."
Jason pulled his horse to a halt. At the same time, he reached over and jerked the reins from Caroline's hands, forcing her mount to a stop beside his and moving so that their legs were sandwiched between the bodies of the horses. They were so close she could feel the heat and unrelenting power of his body.
"You are a very daring woman!" he said, a hint of disbelief in his voice. His hard, unyielding eyes pierced her self-control, and she glanced away uncomfortably, irrationally afraid that he would see through to her very soul if she didn't break the gaze.
"I—I'm sure I don't know what you..." she stammered, hating herself for allowing him to bully her.
"Don't play games with me." The menacing tone in his voice sent a shiver up her spine. "I won't be toyed with. You would do well not to challenge me."
"Know my place, is that what you're saying?" Perhaps he wasn't so different from the men she'd come into contact with in New Orleans and at medical school. All her life she'd been confronted by ignorance and narrow-mindedness. Why had she thought Jason Sinclair would be different?
He drew himself up to his full height and gazed down at her with eyes that glared a warning. "That's exactly what I'm saying."
"And what if I refuse?" she asked, quelling the fear that threatened her composure.
"It would not be wise. No one defies me or intentionally provokes me here, and certainly not a—"
"A woman? Is that what you were going to say? A woman?"
He grabbed her so quickly she didn't have time to react. He pulled her out of her saddle, halfway across his lap. His hard chest crushed her breasts as his mouth found hers in a kiss that sent currents of heat down her torso, scorching