The parlor was intended to be cozy. With the four of them sitting there, it was almost crowded. She sat in the wing chair next to the one Beaufort occupied and eyed Cruz, who shared the tiny brocade-covered settee with Angelique. If looks could kill, Sloan would already have planted Angelique six feet under.

“As I was saying,” Beaufort continued once he was settled again in his chair. “I’ve heard public opinion here in Texas is leaning toward annexation.”

“Whether it is independence and the Republic or annexation and statehood, I think Texans just want the promise of peace with Mexico and an end to the uncertainty,” Cruz replied.

“Well, it seems to me you can blame Sam Houston and Anson Jones for the uncertainty,” Beaufort said.

“What do you mean?” Sloan asked.

Cruz answered, “I think Beaufort is referring to the fact that Texas is negotiating both with Mexico for independence and the United States for annexation at the same time.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Angelique asked, her blue eyes wide and innocent.

“Nothing’s wrong with it, my dear,” Beaufort said, “so long as the politicians choose the correct alternative in the end.”

“Which is?” Sloan asked.

“Why, annexation, of course,” Beaufort said with a smile.

“This has all been very interesting,” Angelique said, “but I must admit I would rather take a pleasant walk along the river before the sun sets. Would you care to join me, Don Cruz?”

“I must regretfully decline,” Cruz said. “I have only just arrived with my wife and my ward, and I need to be certain they are settled comfortably before I can do anything else.”

Which left him open to accept an invitation later, Sloan thought dourly.

“If you will excuse us, Beaufort, I will take my wife back to the house.”

“Certainly, Don Cruz. I’ll look forward to talking more with you later.”

“And I with you.”

“I think I’ll walk back to the house with you,” Angelique said, “if you don’t mind.”

Sloan noticed that this time Angelique didn’t give Cruz a chance to decline. She claimed Cruz’s arm the moment he stood up, and there was no way he could gracefully get out of the situation.

When Cruz offered his other arm to Sloan, she wasn’t so stupid as to refuse it. But she wondered if he was making a comparison between the sweet-smelling, blue-eyed blonde, in her lavender muslin de laine dress, on his left arm, and his wife, with her dusty pants and shirt and flyaway hair, on his right.

As soon as they entered the house, Sloan turned to Angelique and said, “I know you’ll excuse us. Cruz and I have some private business to discuss.” She grasped Cruz’s hand and started up the stairs to her old bedroom.

Halfway up the stairs, Sloan turned and smiled smugly back over her shoulder at Angelique, who had been left tapping her toe at the foot of the stairs.

“That was neatly done,” Cruz said as Sloan closed the door behind them in her bedroom.

She pulled her boots off and jumped onto her bed, lying back with her hands crossed behind her head. “I thought so,” she said with a smirk. She sat up, cross-legged. “That witch can find herself another man. You’re taken!”

The smile on Cruz’s face as he crossed to Sloan gave ample evidence of his pleasure at her possessiveness.

He pulled off his own boots and joined her on the bed. He playfully pushed her backward, untangling her crossed legs as he lay down beside her. “I like being taken by you,” he teased. “How would you like me? With or without clothes?”

Sloan laughed. “You’re crazy, you know that?”

“Crazy with love for you.” He had her vest off and his hands were busy unbuttoning her blouse.

“Cruz, don’t. Everyone will know what we’re doing if we don’t go back downstairs soon.”

“Is that not exactly what you wanted? For Angelique to know I belong to you?”

She couldn’t deny there was a certain pleasure in that thought. But the feel of his mouth on her throat made it hard for her to think at all.

He pulled off his shirt and her chemise and they were suddenly flesh to flesh. She arched her back and rubbed her breasts against the crisp black hair on his chest. Cruz grabbed her buttocks and pressed her into the cradle of his thighs.

“Querida,” he murmured. “Alma de mi vida.”

His mouth was hot on her, his tongue claiming the softness of her mouth in a rhythmic accompaniment to the dance of his hips. She parried his thrust with her tongue and claimed what was hers.

His callused hands deftly unbuttoned her trousers, and he slipped his hand beneath her pantalettes, cupping the heart of her. She followed his lead and slipped her hand into the front of his trousers, cupping the heat of him. He was iron-hard, filling her hand, and she teased him mercilessly even as he returned the favor.

His mouth set out on a journey over her face and shoulders, laving her skin, nipping, and then kissing the hurt. Meanwhile, his fingers spread her silken petals and slipped inside as she flowered for him.

“I want you inside me,” she gasped, shoving his trousers down over his hips.

He freed her from his loving grasp long enough to strip her as well, and when they were both naked, he pushed her gently back into the feathered mattress, spread her legs wider with his knees, and mounted her.

She captured him with her thighs and arched upward, urging him deeper inside, taking the fullness of him and demanding more.

He rolled them both over so she was on top of him and growled “You are mine, Cebellina.”

She looked down into his blue eyes, dark with avidity, at his nostrils flared to bring air to his heaving chest, at his raven black curls, wild where her hands had thrust through them. She smiled. “And you are mine.”

The sense of power was immense. She lifted herself nearly off his shaft and then, ever so slowly, settled back down again. She watched his teeth clench as the air hissed from his chest.

“You are playing with fire, Cebellina,” he warned.

“I know.” She grinned, fully aware of the danger in taunting him. He grasped her thighs in an attempt to keep her down on him. She allowed him his small victory but rocked her hips against his, increasing the friction until they were both aflame with pleasure. One of his hands left her hip and slipped between them, fanning the flames.

She was lost in her own deep well of pleasure when he at last turned her once again so she was beneath him. He tilted her hips and thrust before withdrawing, teasing, taunting, and thrusting again.

She was beyond being rational. She wanted. She needed. She demanded.

And he gave… and took.

Sloan felt the rising crest of pleasure and at the last instant fought against being overwhelmed by it. But it was too late. She cried out as her body shuddered against his, and heard his cry of triumph as their bodies and souls became one.

Gradually, she became aware of his heavy weight on top of her, of their chests heaving with equal effort to bring air to tortured lungs, and of the musky smell of their sex.

Cruz started to move off her, and she tightened her arms around his sweat-slick body. “Don’t go yet. Stay where you are.”

“I am too heavy.”

“It feels good.”

And so he stayed with her.

She closed her eyes, feeling for the first time truly content. This was what she needed. This was what she wanted. Dear God, she loved this man. Despite everything, she loved him.

And she would stick by him, no matter what. If that was unwise, if that was making the same mistake twice in one lifetime, so be it. She was committed. She would follow him through fire, race with him through hell, and never look back.

It was dark when Sloan awoke, and Cruz was gone. It took her a few moments to realize it was still daytime. A storm had darkened the sky until it was almost black. For a moment she feared another tornado, but realized the air didn’t feel the same-it was less oppressive.

She heard the limbs of the live oaks slapping against the house as the rising wind whipped through them. Then came the slight whistling sound the wind made as it forced its way through the nooks and crannies of the house.

The eerie whisper of the wind had always made her shiver, even when it wasn’t cold. She smiled as she felt herself shiver right on cue. She reached out and pulled the covers up more snugly over her shoulders.

The sudden spring storms were wild and fierce in Texas. This wasn’t anything she hadn’t experienced dozens of times before. In the past, seeing the sky darken so forbiddingly had always left her with a feeling of high anticipation for the powerful raging of the elements. After the tornado she had just experienced, she had a new respect for its power.