Spring Bride

Instead, she began babbling about her new pony and how she’d spent the afternoon learning to nde it. Slowly, the flush faded from her father’s face. Finally, she asked him to come and watch her ride.

She held her breath and waited.

Charles looked from her to his sons. After what seemed an eternity, he jerked his head toward the door.

“Go to your rooms,” he snapped, “and figure out how you’re going to replace that urn. You’re getting off easy this time.”

His hand had closed over Kyra’s, and it had taken all she had to keep smiling.

And just like that, she’d become the perfect daughter.

Her brothers had never guessed. As far as they were concerned, she was just a sweet little kid with an easygoing temperament who’d never realized what the old man was really like.

And why should they have believed anything else? Kyra thought with a sigh as she left the aspen grove behind and made her way toward the house. She’d found a way to make life easier for everybody and all it took was a little creative effort.

Except she’d never intended to play the role for quite so long. Her brothers were gone and she was of age. It was time—but the first, subtle signs of Charles’s failing health had brought her plans to an abrupt halt.

How could she have turned on him then, when he needed her? For all his terrible faults, he was her father. And if she hadn’t liked him, she had certainly loved him.

Her boot heels clattered on the steps as she made her way to the kitchen door and pushed it open With a sigh, she crossed the room, plucked a mug from the cupboard and filled it with coffee.

Well, there was nothing to hold her back now. Her father was gone. Grant, Cade and Zach had returned to their own lives. It was time to go about hers. But what kind of life did she want? Did she want a job? A career? A college degree?

Kyra didn’t have a clue. She only knew she needed to do something. Something she chose, for herself, by herself, with no advice from anybody—not even from her brothers.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love them. She did, with all her heart. It had been wonderful, having them home the week of the funeral, but it had only reminded her that, as far as they were concerned, she was still just a kid.

Cade had spent every moment—very sweetly, of course—telling her what to do and how to do it. Zach had asked a hundred times if she didn’t want him to take a look at the household accounts or show her how to balance her checkbook. And Grant had done everything but pat her on the head and call her his good little girl.

It had all come close to driving her crazy but she’d gritted her teeth and endured—until the reading of the will. In retrospect, she knew it was the will that had finally tipped her over the edge.

Charles had left his private fortune, the mansion and all its vast acreage to Kyra; he’d left Landon Enterprises, his multimillion-dollar empire, to his sons.

Anger had swept over her as the attorney’s voice faded to silence. Her father had done it again, she’d thought bitterly; even in death, he’d managed to keep her from the real world.

And, as soon as the attorney was gone, her brothers did it, too, giving her benevolent smiles and saying how happy they were that the mansion would be hers.

“We’re so happy for you, Princess,” Grant said, putting his arm around her shoulders. “We know how you love this house.”

And before she could say hell, no, I hate it, he turned to Cade and Zach and they began discussing the quickest way to divest themselves of Landon Enterprises. They wanted no part of the Landon legacy but she—she was expected to jump for joy over her inheritance!

The realization left her tight-lipped with fury but she said nothing. What could she say in the face of such damnable male insensitivity?

And then, just as she was getting over her anger, Grant met with Victor Bayliss, who’d been their father’s second-in-command at Landon’s, and came back with news that put a halt to her brothers’ plans to sell the company.

There were serious problems to deal with in Dallas, Hollywood and New York, Grant told Cade and Zach, ignoring Kyra even though she was in the room. She told herself it was understandable; thanks to Charles’s will, she didn’t have anything to do with Landon Enterprises. But the more she listened, the shorter her temper got.

Didn’t Cade or Grant or Zach see the obvious solutions to the difficulties facing them? She certainly did, but no one was asking her for her opinion. No one ever had.

That was when she exploded.

“For goodness’ sake,” she snapped, “are you all stupid? The answers to your problems are right under your noses!”

She pointed out how easily Cade could deal with the Dallas crisis, how readily Zach could handle the problem in California. There was a moment’s pointed silence and then, to her amazement, her brothers agreed

No, Kyra thought grimly as she remembered the scene, no, they’d done more than agree. They’d acted as if the ideas were theirs, not hers. Not a one of them had thought to say, wow, Kyra, that was pretty good thinking. Thanks for your help. We really needed it!

But how could they? The big jerks had been too busy flashing each other goofy grins and putting on that disgusting display of male bonding they’d called, since childhood, the Deadeye Defenders’ secret handshake.

“Damn,” Kyra muttered.

She could not, she would not, go on being treated like a child! She would not settle into the life that was expected of her, chairing dumb committees for causes she didn’t believe in, attending silly functions where she was supposed to smile prettily and pretend she was having fun…

…and where a man like the Spaniard could say the things he’d said and then vanish into the blue.

Her coffee mug clattered against the table top.

The Spaniard? What on earth had made her think of him? Not that it was the first time. Like it or not, the man had been lurking inside her head for days.

Well, it was understandable. It wasn’t easy to forget such a pretentious, self-important cretin.

Impatiently, she rose from the chair, kicked it back into place, and dumped her mug into the sink To think she’d let him get away with such rude behavior. Why hadn’t she told him he was a jerk? In Spanish, of course, Spanish every bit as perfect as his. Her mouth twisted in a wry smile. According to her father, learning to converse in three different languages had been part of the education of a proper lady.

So why hadn’t she hurled an insult straight back into his handsome, insolent face?

You are a toothless dog, she could have said. You are a worm. You are an animal…

Except he was none of those. That was the trouble. He was the best-looking hunk she’d ever set eyes on and he knew it. It was why he thought he could get away with eyeing women and then sidling up to them and insulting them…

“Hello! Anybody home?”

Kyra spun around, her eyes wide with surprise. “Cade?”

“Squirt?”

“Cade!” She gave a screech of delight, raced from the kitchen, and threw herself into her brother’s arms.

He laughed as he twirled her around. “That’s what a man wants,” he said as he set her on her feet, “a greeting that really makes him feel welcome!”

Kyra grinned up at him. “What a wonderful surprise! But why didn’t you phone and tell me you were coming? I’d have met you at the airport.”

Was it her imagination, or did his smile dim before he answered?

“Well, it was kind of a last-minute decision. Anyway, I figured I didn’t need to make a formal announcement that I was coming, now that the old ma—I mean, now that Father’s not…”

“Of course you didn’t.” Kyra looped her arm through his. “You’ll always be welcome—wherever I live.”

Cade smiled. “Thanks, Squirt.”

“What are you thanking me for?” She hugged him. “I love you, you big jerk. Now, come on. Tell me all about Texas while I get you something to eat.”

“To tell the truth, I’m not hungry.”

“Coffee, then. I’ll put up a fresh pot while you tell me what Dallas is like.”

There was no doubt this time; she could definitely see his smile dim.

“There’s nothing to tell It’s just a city.”

“Well, did you accomplish what you went there for? Was that oil company doing as badly as you’d thought?”

“Yeah,” Cade said in a flat voice. “It was a mess, thanks to—thanks to—”

“Thanks to ‘the old man,’ you mean.” Kyra smiled and touched his hand. “It’s all right to call Father that,” she said softly. “To tell the truth, it’s how I usually thought of him.”

Cade’s face went cold. “What do you mean? Did he give you a hard time, once we were all gone?”

Kyra hesitated. Now was the time to tell him, to say that there were all kinds of ways to mistreat someone, that she had been trapped in a golden cage all her life…

But Cade looked so tired. And there was a darkness in his eyes that she’d never seen there before.

She smiled brightly. “No, of course not. I was Father’s angel, remember?”

Cade let out his breath. “Yeah.” He smiled, then glanced wistfully at the stairs. “Sis, would you mind if I crashed for a while? I’m really beat.”

“Of course. You go on up and take a nap.”

“Just give me a couple of hours and then tell Stella to pile on the bacon and eggs.”

Kyra chuckled. “You will have to take your chances with my bacon and eggs, little brother. I gave Stella a couple of weeks off.”

“But you can’t cook.”

Kyra tried not to bristle. “Believe it or not,” she said lightly, “you really can teach an old dog new tricks.”

Cade laughed. “Old?” he said, ruffling her hair. “Old, at twenty-two?” He drew back, looked her over, and frowned. “Is that why you look different? Because you’re cooking for yourself?”

“Hey,” she said with mock indignation, “is that an insult?”

“I’m senous, Squirt. Are you eating enough? Maybe you need vitamins.”

“Cade,” Kyra said gently, “do us both a favor. Don’t think for me, okay?”

It was only a teasing throwaway line, but her brother’s face darkened with anger.

“What is this?” he said harshly. “The new female battle cry?”

Kyra blinked. Whatever had happened to him in Dallas, it wasn’t good.

“You really do need some sleep,” she said gently. She stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his stubbled jaw. “We can talk when you’re back among the living.”

Cade sighed and shot her a weary smile. “Good idea,” he said, and stumbled up the stairs.

When she heard Cade moving around, Kyra put aside the magazine she’d been reading, went into the kitchen, and laid four strips of bacon on the griddle. She hesitated, made a face, and added four more.

She’d done a lot of thinking the past couple of hours and she’d finally decided it would be silly not to ask his advice about her future. If anyone could help her with some ideas, her brother Cade was the one.

Just look at what he’d done with his own life, she thought as she began cracking eggs into a bowl. Cade had started out to be an engineer and ended up wildcatting for oil in all sorts of exotic places. He’d understand her need to shed her chrysalis and try her wings.

The Spaniard, on the other hand, would not. He’d want a woman to live in an ivory tower with a stove at one end and a bed at the other. The time at the stove might be worth it, though; he’d probably know how to keep a woman very, very happy in that bed.

One of the eggs slipped from Kyra’s hand and smashed against the tile floor. She looked down at the yolky mess, shook her head, and grabbed for a handful of paper towels.

What was wrong with her? Why had she thought of that man again? It was crazy. She was crazy, she thought grimly as she mopped up the egg. To waste even a minute of time thinking about somebody like that…

“What?” Cade said, plopping himself down at the table. “No groaning sideboard?” He grinned. “I’m disappointed.”

Kyra dropped the paper towels in the waste bin and wiped her hands on her jeans.

“I’m going to make lots of changes,” she said airily. “How do you want your eggs? Fried or scrambled?”

“Your choice, babe. I’m starved. If I’ve eaten in the past twenty-four hours, I sure as hell don’t remember it.”

She waited until he’d finished everything, including two cups of coffee, and then she sat down across from him.

“Great breakfast, Squirt.”

Kyra smiled. “Not bad for an amateur, huh?”

Cade smiled back. “Matter of fact, I’ll have one last cup of coffee before I head to the office.”

“The office?”

“Yeah. I’ve got to look for some papers.”

Well, Kyra thought, here was an opening. It had crossed her mind that there might be something for her to do there, at the Landon Enterprises office, until the business was sold. She could learn to do things. Operate a computer. File letters. Answer the phone.

“What kind of papers?” she said.

Cade shrugged. “Nothing you’d understand.”

“Try me,” Kyra said, still smiling.

“Look, Sis, I know you mean well, but—”

“Why do I have to practically beat you guys on the head to make you listen to anything I have to say?”

She spoke lightly, but Cade shot from his chair. “What in hell’s going on here?” he said furiously. “I’ve about had it with this crap.”

“Well, so have I,” Kyra said, just as furiously. She sprang to her feet. “Just because I’m your little sister-”

“You mean, just because you’re female! Well, let me tell you something, Kyra. I’m male, yeah, but that doesn’t make me the enemy! If a man didn’t love a woman he wouldn’t—” Cade clamped his lips together. “I’m going downtown. If Zach or Grant calls, tell them they can reach me at the office.”

Kyra nodded coolly. “Yes, sir.”

Cade started to answer, thought better of it, and stormed out the door.

Cade spent the rest of the week either at the office or on the telephone. Neither he nor Kyra referred to the harsh words that had passed between them.

Kyra knew something was bothering Cade. He wasn’t just short-tempered, he was restless. She could hear him pacing his room at night—but then, she paced hers, too

What was she going to do with her life?

Late one moonlit night, after she’d pounded her pillow flat, she gave up trying to sleep and slipped down to the kitchen in her long flannel nightgown. She curled up in the bay window that looked over the new snow that had fallen on the shores of Crystal Lake.

Moments later, she heard Cade coming down the stairs. He seemed surprised to find her in the kitchen, sitting in the moonlight and staring out into the night.

“What are you doing up?” he said.

Kyra didn’t answer. What could she say? I’m depressed? I’m down? I’m trying to decide if I want to study manicuring or brain surgery?

Cade frowned. “It’s late. And it’s cold. You should be…you should be…”

Kyra looked at him, her brows raised, and he frowned.

“Hell,” he muttered. “Do I do that a lot?”

“Do what?”

“You know. Do I tell you what to do? Am I overprotective?”

Kyra sighed. “You’re not like Father, if that’s what you’re asking.”

He drew back as if she’d struck him. “Of course I’m not! I’m nothing like him. I’d never be like him!”

“No. You wouldn’t. You’re not dominating, or unkind. And you’re certainly not selfish.” She smiled. “But sometimes you do like to control people you love.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Maybe, down deep, you think you have to control them to keep them from abandoning you.” She gave him a thoughtful look. “I wonder if it has something to do with what happened the night of your twenty-first birthday.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Come on, Cade, don’t play dumb. It was when you learned Father had bought off that girl you were so crazy about. You were so hurt—”

“You’re nuts! I wasn’t hurt, I was angry.”

“Losing her that way must have been awful. But someday you’ll meet a woman…”

Suddenly, she knew. He’d met someone already; it was the reason he paced the floor, the reason he looked haunted—the reason he was questioning himself.

“Oh, Cade,” Kyra whispered, “you’ve already met her, haven’t you? And you don’t know what to do about it.”

Her brother’s eyes snapped with anger. “Thank you for that brilliant, and useless, analysis!”

He pivoted on his heel and marched from the room. Kyra watched him go, and then she sighed and turned her face to the window.

Had she deepened his wound by telling him the truth? She didn’t think so. Cade was hurting, but at least he was feeling like something more than a self-sacrificing martyr, which was what she’d been feeling like lately.

Hell. It was what she’d been feeling like ever since she was five years old and she’d become everybody’s idea of an angel, and she was sick of it!

Kyra got to her feet. She had to do something soon or she’d go crazy! She had to experience life, to feel…

To feel.

Does it disgust you, to want a man like me?

She came to a dead stop, the deep, husky voice echoing inside her head.

What would have happened if she’d said no, no, wanting him didn’t disgust her at all? If she’d said that wanting him had terrified her even as it had thrilled her, that it had made her feel alive in a way she never had before?

Her breath caught in her throat. My God, she really was losing her grip!

A change of pace, that’s what she needed. But how did you manage that when you were trapped in a house you hated, in a life you hated, with nothing more important to do than go on being the perfect little princess you’d always been?

You could take a trip, Kyra thought suddenly. You could go somewhere you’d never been before. You could see new things, do new things, meet new people…

But where? Where did she want to go?

She hurried into the library, threw on the light, and snatched a leather-bound atlas from the shelf. Then she opened it to a map of the world, shut her eyes, and stabbed it with her forefinger.

Her eyes flew open and she looked down. Her finger was resting in the middle of the Caribbean.

How could you go for a vacation on an ocean?

You could take a cruise, she thought, and smiled. A cruise in the sunny Caribbean.

Kyra’s smile became a grin. “Why not?” she said jauntily, and then she slammed the atlas shut, turned off the light, and trotted up the stairs.

CHAPTER TWO

EMPRESS of the Caribbean was hardly the ship of anyone’s dreams. And autumn, with its potential for storms and rough seas, was not the best time to cruise the Caribbean.

But Kyra was having the time of her life.

It wasn’t as if this was her first trip away from home. She’d skied in Switzerland, gone to horse shows in Ireland, and Charles had even let himself be convinced that she could spend her last semester at Denver’s finest private school for girls as an exchange student in England.

But always, in her travels, there’d been her father or a chaperon at her side. And now here she was, thousands of miles from home, on a trip she’d planned, start to finish, all by herself.

Actually, no one even knew about this tnp. She’d thought of calling her brothers and telling them she was going away, but what for? Did Cade or Grant or Zach phone her when they were heading off somewhere? Of course they didn’t.

Then, why should she?

Stella, the housekeeper, knew. And Ted West, who oversaw the stables, had to be told, but that was it.

Kyra zipped up her white cotton skirt, then drew a pale yellow T-shirt over her head. For the first time ever, she was responsible to absolutely no one but herself.

Maybe that was why the Empress seemed such a dream ship, despite her dated accommodations. She had chosen the ship on impulse, from an advertisement in the Sunday paper.

Adventure! the ad had shrieked. Excitement! Romance on the High Seas!

All those capitals and exclamation marks had to mean something.

And they did, she thought, smiling as she slipped on a pair of white thong sandals. For her fellow travelers, adventure meant visits to sites of pre-Columbian settlements and museums. Excitement was wondering if the wheezing old tour buses that greeted the ship at each port would be able to get to the top of the next hill, then betting that their brakes were better than their engines as they rocketed back down to the harbor through one hairpin curve after another.

As for romance…it was sweet to watch white-haired senior citizens dancing cheek to cheek. It was also about as close to “romance” as she wanted to get, Kyra thought briskly as she screwed a pair of small gold hoops into her ears.

As far as she was concerned, the cruise advertisement had put things into exactly the right perspective. Adventure and excitement came first. There’d be plenty of time for romance somewhere down the line, but not for a long, long time.

Some women didn’t agree, and that was their privilege. Lots of girls she’d grown up with were engaged to be married. She knew that most of them hadn’t led lives as restricted as hers, but even so, as far as she could see, they’d simply traded their new freedom for chains of their own making.

Kyra brushed her hair, then put a white baseball cap on her head and adjusted the brim low over her eyes. Men—even her brothers—just seemed to be proprietorial as a breed. Of course, none of the men she’d ever known would be anywhere near as proprietorial as that good-looking Spaniard.

She could imagine what he’d be like! Expecting a woman to drop everything and come running if he crooked his finger, demanding her total attention be centered on him, jealous every moment she was out of his sight.

Not that there wouldn’t be compensations. Kyra’s breath hitched as she remembered the banked fires smoldering in his blue eyes, the harsh, almost cruel sensuality of his mouth. A man like that would know how to please his woman when she was in his bed at night. She’d lie beneath him eagerly, her lips parted, waiting for the brush of his lips, the touch of his hand…

Color poured into Kyra’s cheeks.

“Honestly,” she said, scowling into the mirror, “what on earth is wrong with you?”

Weeks had passed since that embarrassing night at the Arts Center. Why should she waste even a minute thinking about that horrible man? He certainly wasn’t anybody to fantasize about, not unless you were interested in setting feminism back a couple of centuries.

She swung briskly away from the mirror, looped the strap of her white purse around her wnst, and made her way out of her cabin.

Mr. and Mrs. Schiller, the elderly couple in the cabin next to hers, were just locking the door. Mrs. Schiller looked up and smiled.

“Good morning, dear. Don’t you look charming!”

Kyra smiled back at the white-haired woman. “Isn’t this exciting?” she said. “We get to spend almost a whole day in Caracas!”

Mr. Schiller nodded. “Excellent city, Caracas.”

Mrs. Schiller took her husband’s arm as the little group started toward the elevators

“Won’t you join us for breakfast, Kyra? There’s still half an hour before the bus leaves.”

“Thank you, but I’m not taking the tour. I thought I’d see the city on my own.”

Mrs. Schiller looked uncertain. “Are you sure you’ll be all right alone in a strange city, dear?”

“Big city, Caracas,” Mr. Schiller said, shooting Kyra a look from beneath his bushy white brows. “Got to keep your wits about you, young woman.”

Kyra smiled politely. “Thank you for the advice. I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.”

Like all the other ships that listed Caracas as a destination, Empress of the Caribbean actually docked at a port called La Guaira. It was grimy and unattractive, but no one—least of all Kyra—cared. A short ride in a taxi, and she was in the center of the bustling, modern capital of Venezuela.