Carpathian 15 - Dark Secret

if he might be a wicked sorcerer bent on casting a spell on her.
    Colby shook off the sexual web Rafael was weaving, silently cursing. This man was truly dangerous. He would own a woman, make her a sexual slave with no thought but to please him. He was an erotic temptation no woman could ever afford to succumb to. They had sent the first brother to order her to turn over the ranch and the children to the Chevez family and when that didn't work, they obviously sent the first string in to deal with her. She lifted her chin in challenge. "What message exactly were you supposed to deliver?"
    "Joclyn would appreciate you meeting her later this evening at the saloon." The voice was so beautiful she ached to hear more. She forced her hands to stay at her sides instead of pressing them to her ears. "I believe she wanted to do you the courtesy of speaking to you herself."
    Colby found herself clutching at Ginny's hand for solace.
    Rafael De La Cruz was capable of casting spells, a dark sorcerer weaving black magic, and she was highly susceptible. She wanted him gone before she fell into the depths of his black eyes. He was leaning so close to her she could smell his masculine scent. Outdoors. Sexual. Definitely male. "It seems to be important to her."
    "I'm very busy this time of year," Colby said a little desperately. She couldn't look away from him, not for a moment. His eyes were so hungry, so needy, so demanding. And damn, her body actually ached for his. Crippled little niece. She couldn't let the image go.
    "Then I will have to stay and convince you," he said, his accent very much in evidence. Everything in him, every cell, his heart and soul, his brain, even the buried demon roared at him to chain her to his side. He could do it, just take her. There was no one capable of stopping him. He was used to nothing, no one Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    opposing his will. Certainly not a little slip of a woman. A human woman.
    "Eight o'clock then," she said impatiently, trying not to look as frightened as she felt. No one had ever made her feel confused and edgy as he did. There was something possessive in his eyes, something that seemed to claim her. She had never been truly afraid of anyone before. "If you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to work." He was the enemy. Closely associated with a family who hadn't wanted her or her mother. Someone who would consider her brother and sister servants in a land they knew nothing of.
    She had to remember that. She had to remember how hard their father had fought to give his children a legacy of their own. Rafael De La Cruz had that Latin charm she'd heard so much about but had never experienced. The man was lethal. Deliberately Colby looked at Louise. She was obviously drowsy and purring like a domesticated cat. She looked very much as if the two had just made love. Louise was stroking his arm and looking up at him with a singularly rapt expression on her face, one that turned Colby's stomach.
    Rafael gestured imperiously toward the pickup, and Louise sent him a smile, her face lighting up at his attention, and she obediently went to the truck. The motion set Colby's teeth on edge. Why didn't you just snap your fingers? The De La Cruz brothers had a way of acting as if women were inferior to them and it irritated the hell out of her. That wasn't altogether true. It was more like every man or woman, every human being on earth, was considered inferior to them.
    Rafael turned his head and looked at her almost as if he could read her thoughts. For a moment she froze, almost afraid to move. She had never seen eyes so hard or cold. If his eyes were a mirror to his soul, this man was truly a monster. He made no move to follow Louise; instead his gaze swept over Colby's slender figure, his merciless features devoid of expression. "Why do you persist in this nonsense?
    This is work for a man, not one such as you. It is obvious you have spent most of the afternoon on the ground."
    "It's none of your business, De La Cruz." Colby's pretense at good manners was thrown to the wind.
    Colby had no idea why she felt so threatened but she had the impression she was caught in the crosshairs of a powerful scope.
    "I believe that is one of my horses you are breaking. How did you get him?" He asked it softly, as if he could not be bothered becoming disturbed by their disagreement.
    "Like a thief in the night I crept into your corrals and made off with a