Kay David - Obsession

“Nothing,” Raul said. “Absolutely nothing.” Taking her elbow in his, he began to walk along the edge of the terrace. Sooner or later, Raul had expected a confrontation, and it didn’t really bother him. Whatever Kelman’s plans were, he wouldn’t risk them to stop and send Raul on his way.

Raul hadn’t been as prepared as he would have liked, though, and Emma’s overhearing the exchange complicated things even more. He had to distract her and quickly.

Within minutes, he had her away from the noise and confusion of the party. They stopped on the lowest level of the stone terrace and looked out over the valley. It was almost dark, and the low-lying hills were slipping into the shadows. Without the benefit of light to mark the boundary, the jungle vista seemed endless.

Before he could even begin to distract her from her questions, she turned to him in the darkness. “How do you know Kelman?” she asked. “What’s going on between you two?”

He thought about not answering, but that would only make her more suspicious. He had to tell her something. “We knew each other a long time ago,” he answered carefully. “He’s a former DEA agent. I was a attorney in Washington. It’s basically a small town-our paths crossed on occasion.”

She looked slightly startled at his revelation of Kelman’s former job. “And you don’t like him,” she said.

“Am I that easy to read?”

“No, not at all.” She shook her head and confessed what her expression had already betrayed.

“I overheard your conversation-part of it-and your feelings were obvious.”

He shrugged casually. “We crossed swords over what men usually cross swords over.”

“A woman?”

“That’s right.”

“Was it Wendy, the woman you were with the other night?”

He looked into her eyes with a steady expression. “No” was all he said.

Before she could probe any further, Raul turned the tables. “I answered your question, now you answer my mine. What happened to you right before I came to get you tonight? You seemed upset.”

She reacted with a flinch of pain, then cleared the emotion from her face so quickly he could tell she’d done it a thousand times.

“C’mon,” he said. “Turnabout’s fair play. I shared with you…”

She took a long time to answer, then the words came out reluctantly; she had no other choice. “I had a call from the States,” she said finally. “It was my ex-husband. He’s getting remarried.”

Raul didn’t expect to have a reaction, but it came, anyway. A moment’s disappointment, maybe, a curl of displeasure? He wasn’t sure what to call it, but it didn’t matter. Surely he didn’t care if she was still in love with her ex. “I’m sorry,” he said in a neutral voice.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. Those things happen. People move on.”

“I’m sorry the news hurt you,” he found himself saying. “That’s what I meant.”

She looked up at him, her eyes full of shadows, the hazel edging into a deeper green color. He got the feeling his words surprised her, but maybe that was because they’d surprised him.

“We’ve been divorced for more than two years,” she said. “I expected him to have found someone before now.”

“Why would you think that?” Raul met her gaze, turning so that he faced her fully. “I’d think he’d have a hard time.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You’re a very beautiful woman,” he answered before she could finish. “You’d be a hard act to follow.”

“Thank you,” she said simply. “That’s a nice thing to say, but Todd didn’t see it that way.”

“Then he was a fool.”

Her gaze skittered away from his, then back before she spoke again. “I have my flaws.”

“We all do.”

Suddenly the urge came over him to kiss her. Not a simple touch of the lips, either, but a deep kiss that would make them both forget why they were here and what they were doing. The feeling was totally unexpected and caught him by surprise. Would her lips feel as soft as they looked? Would they taste as sweet as he imagined?

With no further thought, he reached toward her, his fingers drawing a line down her cheek. Her skin was soft and smooth, but before he could pull her nearer, she stepped backward and out of reach, her expression remote, her voice cool.

“I think it’s time to go back inside.”

He wanted to disagree, but he couldn’t.

She was right.

THEY RETURNED to the party, and Emma found herself glad to be back in the light and confusion. Being outside with Raul had made her even more nervous than being in the middle of the crowd, especially after she’d read the intention in his black eyes. He’d wanted to kiss her, and for just one second, she’d wanted him to. The realization shocked her, but when she thought about it some more, she understood. He’d listened to her and wanted to know more about her. He cared. The unexpected knowledge made her heart thump with something that felt way too much like longing.

When they stopped at the bar inside, Emma excused herself and made her way to the lounge. She had to have a bit of time alone or she’d never make it through the rest of the evening.

The quiet moment wasn’t to be. Reina caught up with her just as she entered the powder room. They’d already exchanged a quick hello, and Reina had managed to let Emma know she didn’t approve of her date for the evening. Emma had tried to explain that it wasn’t a date, but Reina hadn’t bought the story.

“Are you leaving soon?” Reina asked.

“I hope so,” Emma replied. “I’ve enjoyed this about as much as I can stand.”

“Let me take you.” Reina’s dark eyes met Emma’s. “I’ve got to go to your side of town, anyway, and we could talk on the way home-”

Emma interrupted her. “Reina, I can’t abandon Raul. I know you don’t like the man, but he is my guest. I have to ride back with him.”

“No, you don’t.”

Emma stared at her curiously. “Are you that worried about this guy? Just because you heard some gossip?”

“I don’t like the way he looks.” She threw a glance around the room. “And…”

“And what?”

A group of women, chattering like the parrots overhead, interrupted them as they swooped past and entered the lounge behind them. Reina pulled Emma to the side, out of their hearing and away from the traffic. “I’ve heard more,” she said mysteriously. “And I like it even less than what I heard before.”

His compliments still ringing in her ears, his touch under the moonlight still fresh in her mind, Emma asked slowly, “What did you hear?”

“I can’t tell you right now. I don’t want to risk being overheard, but it came from a reliable source. Very reliable.”

Emma stared at her friend, then it clicked. “Did William Kelman tell you something?”

Reina’s eyes widened. “How did you know it was him?”

Emma explained the confrontation she’d heard between the two men. “There’s bad blood there,” she said. “Tell me what he said. Tell me now.”

“He said Santos is a crook, that’s what he said!” Reina glanced over her shoulder. “But I don’t want to say more right now. Not here. Just call me when you get home, okay?”

Feeling uneasy but having no other choice, Emma nodded unhappily. A moment later, as she reentered the open-air room, she spotted Raul. He was standing exactly where she’d left him, near the bar. With the crowd swirling around him in a tangle of noise and exuberance, he was all alone, and she studied his unguarded expression. Wearing expensively tailored clothes and holding a drink, he regarded the room with a certain amount of boredom. Behind the gaze, though, was a sharpness, a kind of on-guard attitude totally at odds with everyone else. He wasn’t there to party, he was there to work. Just like her.