die.
“Maybe Lilith switched sides. My mother might not even be involved,” she pressed.
“She would never flip. That’s not a possibility.”
A stronger gust of wind swirled into the courtyard, bringing the smell of rain with it. The sunshine had disappeared, and he hadn’t even realized it until now.
He leaned forward and forced Rose to meet his gaze. Her eyes were troubled and dark with concern.
“Reina is dead straight on one thing. Your mother, my agent, Ortega, Juan Enrique… In some ways it doesn’t really matter who’s behind any this.” He gripped the arms of Rose’s chair so tightly he was surprised they didn’t bend under his fingers. “West Texas is on fire with the evil that’s being spread. It has to be stopped. Until that happens, we’re all in danger.”
Chapter Twelve
Rose failed in her attempts to ignore Santos the rest of the day. She felt his hooded gaze follow her every move, and when they accidently touched at lunch, his hand lingered on hers way too long. A brush of their bodies as they’d passed in the hall finally made her accept that no matter how hard she tried, she wasn’t going to succeed in looking the other way. He was there. They’d made love. They were probably going to do it again.
Obviously sensing the tension between them, Reina came into the living room late that afternoon and announced she and Jonathan were going to a friend’s house for a few hours. The woman had a child Jonathan’s age, and she’d called unexpectedly asking if they’d like to come over and see their new puppy. Jonathan had begged to go, Reina explained with a knowing expression, and she didn’t have the heart to say no.
Santos walked his sister and the little boy to the door then came back to where Rose sat, a magazine on her lap. She’d been trying to distract herself with it for half an hour. She’d had as much luck with that as she’d had avoiding Santos’s gaze. He sat on the couch right beside her.
“There’s another place to sit right over there.” She pointed to one of the matching chairs that flanked the couch.
“I’d rather be here.”
She dropped the magazine and her pretense. “Why? You know this can’t go any further, Santos. We made love, we both enjoyed it, now let’s move on. I told you it meant nothing more, and it doesn’t.”
“Don’t lie, Rose. We’ve known each other too long for those kinds of games.”
“It’s not a game,” she protested, turning to look at him better. “It’s the truth.”
He leaned over and lifted her chin. He locked his eyes on hers. “If you want the truth, then you need to think a little harder about last night. What happened between us in that bedroom was the truth, and you can’t deny that, no matter how much you want to.”
Her automatic protest sounded lame, even to her. “You’re making too big a deal out of thi—”
Santos drew her toward him and kissed her, his lips silencing her better than his words. She felt her arguments dissolve before they could even form. Who was she trying to kid? She wanted it as much as he did. Her arms lifted and she wrapped them around his neck, her fingers pushing their way into his hair. A trace of the soap she’d found in Reina’s bathroom came to her, and beneath it, even stronger, she smelled the achingly familiar scent that belonged to Santos alone. Blindfolded and helpless, she would always recognize that incense. It created a visceral response in her that she couldn’t stop if she tried. She was ashamed to admit she’d found one of his shirts after they’d parted, and she’d slept in it. After two nights of torture, she’d thrown it away in a fit of pique, upset with herself for acting so needy.
His hands slipped off her arms and trailed down the length of her spine. Through the fabric of her blouse, she could feel the heat of his touch. When his fingers reached the waistband of her jeans, they slipped inside and caressed her back with a feathery lightness. She shivered, and he flattered his palm against her skin as if to reassure her.
She felt anything but comforted.
She transmitted her emotions, and he raised his face. She thought he was going to ask her if she wanted him to stop. The question wasn’t necessary. He read the answer in her eyes, and he dropped his lips to her neck, his kisses soft as