Counterfeit Bride(7)

She undressed slowly, and lay for a long time in the dark, tired, but  unable to sleep. It was a relief to know that she had to disappear when  they reached Monterrey. It was also a warning not to relax, or forget  even for a moment what she was doing on this journey. Playing a part,  she thought, and playing for time. Nothing else. And it's just as well  that I'm committed to vanish completely in a couple of days.                       
       
           



       

She breakfasted in her room early the following morning, enjoying the  sweet rolls and strongly flavoured coffee a maid brought her. Then she  dressed and made up with care and went to find Ramon. She found him in  the main reception area, just coming out of one of the private telephone  booths.

He said coolly, 'Thank you for being so punctual. We have a long and  tedious drive ahead of us. I hope you will not be too bored. Was it  explained to you that I had business calls to make on the way?'

'Yes.' She was puzzled by this sudden aloofness.

He gave her a swift sideways glance. 'I have been speaking to my cousin. I have a message for you from Don Luis.'

Her heart gave a little panicky jerk. She said, 'Is that so?'

'Don't you want to hear it?'

'No,' she said, 'I do not. If your cousin has anything to say to me,  then it can be said when we meet, and not relayed through a third  person.'

He said evenly, 'As you wish, señorita,' but she saw a muscle flicker in his cheek, and guessed he was annoyed.

This time the journey was very different from that of the previous day.  He sat in the back beside her, but there was a briefcase with him and  his attention seemed riveted on the papers it contained. There was a  distance between them that wasn't purely physical, and today she didn't  even need to use her shoulder bag as a barricade.

She sat and stared out of the window at the purple and grey shades of  the sierras in the distance. This was a region of Mexico she hadn't  expected to see, and normally she would have been fascinated by the  changing scenery, the unrolling fertile farmlands they were passing  through, but she was unable to summon much interest at all.

Nicola bit her lip. She was altogether too distracted by the presence of  her fellow-passenger, and while that might have been forgivable the day  before when he had apparently been deliberately making her aware of  him, there was no excuse at all today when he was doing quite the  opposite.

Clearly the conversation with Don Luis had reminded him of his obligations and responsibilities, she thought.

They made several stops on the way. Nicola wondered whether she was  expected to remain obediently in the car on each occasion, but the first  time Ramon glanced at his watch and said briefly, 'I shall be not  longer than twenty minutes,' which seemed to indicate that she was to be  left to her own devices.

And yet that was not altogether true, as she discovered when she left  the car and stretched her cramped limbs. Ramon had disappeared inside  some large official-looking building, and the car was parked between  this and a large ornate church.

Nicola strolled towards it and found Lopez behind her. She gave him a cool smile and said that he could remain in the car.

'This is a very small town,' she added ironically. 'I shall not get lost.'

But Lopez was civil yet determined. It was the Señor's wish that he  should accompany her, he said, and his tone made it clear that that was  that. She was a little disconcerted, to say the least. No watchdog had  been considered necessary yesterday, so why today? She visited the  church, first tying a scarf over her head as she guessed Teresita would  do, then wandered round the streets, examining pottery and fabrics on  roadside stalls, and looking in shop windows full of leather goods, but  conscious all the time of Lopez' silent presence at her shoulder.

And when the twenty minutes were up, he reminded her politely that they were keeping the Señor waiting.

That, she found to her annoyance, was to be the pattern of the day. The  swift and silent drive along the highway, while Ramon read documents and  made notes on them, then the brief stopover and the saunter round the  neighbouring streets.

At last, exasperated, she said to Ramon, as the car moved off once  again, 'Is it on Don Luis' instructions that I'm being taken round the  streets like a prisoner under guard?'

He glanced at her. 'I thought you were not interested in his instructions.'

'Am I expected to be?' she demanded. For months on end he behaves as if I  don't exist, and then on his command I must go here and there, do this  and that. What else can he expect but my hostility-and resentment?' she  added for good measure, sowing the seeds to provide an explanation for  her disappearance in Monterrey.

For a moment he was silent, then his mouth slanted cynically. 'I think  you will find that he expects a great deal more than either of those.'

'Then he's going to be be bitterly disappointed,' Nicola snapped. 'Now please call off your sentry!'

She wasn't just acting. She meant it. Having Lopez following her  everywhere was going to cause endless difficulties when she eventually  made her bid for freedom.

'Don Luis wishes you to be adequately protected,' the even voice said.

'Does he?' she asked bitterly. 'Then perhaps he should be informed that  I'm in far less danger wandering round the towns than I am in this car,  Don Ramon!'                       
       
           



       

He looked at her with open mockery. 'Then why don't you tell him so when you meet him? I am sure he would be fascinated.'

She hunched a shoulder irritably, and turned to stare out of the window, hearing him laugh softly.

'I am glad your travel sickness has not troubled you today,' he said  after a pause. 'Perhaps before the trip is over I may also he able to  persuade you to remove your glasses.'

Still with her back turned, she said calmly, 'That is quite impossible.'

'We shall see,' he said softly, and she turned and looked at him sharply, only to find he was once more immersed in his papers.

They ate lunch in a hilltop restaurant overlooking a lake. Nicola ate  fish, probably caught from the same lake, she thought, and incredibly  fresh and delicately flavoured. Ramon ate little, but he drank wine,  staring broodingly into the depths of his glass.

She had expected that he would instruct Lopez to stop at a motel again  before the siesta hour, but he did not do so. Instead the car sped on  through the heat-shimmered landscape, and eventually, lulled by the  motion, Nicola dozed.

She awoke eventually with a slight start, aware that she had been  dreaming, but not sure what the dreams were about. Until she turned her  head slightly, and then she remembered.

In his corner of the car, he was asleep, his lean body totally relaxed.  Nicola felt herself draw a deep shaken breath as the memory of her  dreams whispered enticingly to her mind. He had discarded his jacket,  and his brown shirt was half unbuttoned, showing the dark shadow of hair  on his bronzed body. The shirt fitted closely, revealing not an ounce  of spare flesh round his midriff or flat stomach.

Nicola moistened dry lips with the tip of her tongue, conscious of a  pang of self-disgust. She had never stared obsessively at a man like  this, not even Ewan whom she had loved. Still loved, she thought.

She looked back at him slowly, reluctantly. He wasn't her idea of a  rancher, she thought. His shoulders were broad, but his body seemed too  finely boned. Her eyes drifted downwards over the long legs and strongly  muscled thighs-the result, she supposed, of long days in the saddle.  Yet his hands were a mystery, not calloused and rough as she would have  imagined, but square-palmed with long sensitive fingers.

She caught back a sigh, as her eyes returned to his face, then gasped  huskily as she realised too late that he was awake and watching her.

She sat motionless, thanking heavens for the dark glasses which masked  any betrayal there might be in her eyes, but her breathing was flurried,  and she saw his eyes slide down her body to her breasts, tautly  outlined inside her dress, the nipples hard and swollen against the  softly clinging fabric. She saw the dark eyes narrow as they assimilated  this shaming evidence of her arousal.

He said softly, 'You overwhelm me, querida. Shall I tell Lopez to drive  further into the hills and lose himself for an hour or two?'

She felt the hot rush of colour into her face. She wanted to die.

She said icily, 'You are insulting, señor.'

'I thought I was being practical.'

'Your vile suggestions are an outrage!' she accused, her voice shaking.

'Of course.' He smiled slightly. 'What a lot you will have to tell Don Luis-when you meet him.'

'You can even think of him?'

'I have been thinking of him a great deal,' he said coolly. 'And always  with you, naked and more than willing in his arms, querida. A disturbing  vision, believe me.'