Staking His Claim

by

Lynda Chance

***

Twenty-one-year-old Elaina Ruiz has only just
begun college when she meets Raul Vega for the first time.
Recognizing his ruthless intensity for what it is, she doesn’t
correct him when he assumes she is an eighteen-year-old
freshman.

Raul Vega has never met a woman he couldn’t
do without. Until he meets Elaina Ruiz and knows she has to belong
to him--even if it means waiting for her to grow up.

***

SMASHWORDS EDITION

***

Staking His Claim

Copyright © 2012 by Lynda Chance

All rights reserved. This book or any portion
thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the author or publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or
reviews.

***

This is a work of fiction. Names, places,
businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the
author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any
resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or
locales is purely coincidental.

***

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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of this author.

***

To Rita,

Whose help has been like gold dust sprinkled
around me.

And to Clayton,

Because . . . just because.

***

Raul Vega leaned against the wall and
surveyed the scene around him. Condensation from the ice melting in
his mixed drink soaked the red and gold napkin wrapped around the
transparent green cup in his hand.

What the hell was he doing here? He wasn't
into the social scene at all, his time eaten up with running his
ranch and the everyday minutiae that went along with it. He didn't
have time for this shit.

But Brian and Janie Canton were the closest
thing to neighbors he had, and if truth be told, the closest thing
to friends, as well. Janie had made it known to all and sundry that
Raul would be at their Christmas party, and in the end, as cold and
icy as his heart was, he still hadn't been able to say no.

So now, here he stood, his back to the wall,
and watched the beautiful blond couple entertaining what felt like
the whole damn county. The house was beautiful, richly decorated
and spilling over with lights and greenery that reflected Janie's
passion for all things
holiday
.

It was nauseating.

He took a drink of the bourbon he had been
nursing for the last hour and wondered how quickly he could leave
without coming off like the rude fuck that he was.

His eyes travelled around the circle of
people standing near him. Two women stood side by side, one blonde,
one red-headed, playing up the other's charms, both vying for his
attention. He had felt their shrewd, calculating eyes coming back
to him over and over since he arrived. They were both over the top
glamorous, with long hair and manicured hands. Both had attempted
to draw him into conversation, and after his second heated glare,
had given up momentarily. He knew from experience they would try
again.

They always did.

Raul wasn't interested in either one of them.
They both looked like they wanted the same two things. Getting him
exclusively in their beds, and then getting to his bank account.
He'd met their type before, many times, and as distracting as
taking one of them to bed would be, he knew he'd regret it
tomorrow. Neither held enough appeal for him to have to suffer the
ordeal of extricating himself from the situation
after.

He had to admit, the selection of available
women this far out in the rural countryside was limited. Driving to
San Antonio was always an option, but the pleasures of mindless sex
were always mitigated by the long drive and the irritation of
having to take time away from the ranch.

These days, he didn't think it was worth it.
The women that he had met lately were all transparent. They all had
an agenda. He didn't know when or how he'd become so cynical, but
recently, there hadn't been a single woman to cross his radius that
seemed genuine.

He didn't exactly know where to slot Janie.
His neighbor's new wife seemed okay. She was pretty enough, and in
her mid-thirties, she hadn't been married before. She was blonde
and vivacious and he knew Brian doted on her. Raul figured she
wasn't as bad as the rest, and was glad his friend had found her.
But still, when Brian had returned from his trip to Houston last
year with a bride in tow, it had been a shock to the whole county.
But Janie had eyes only for Brian, and her gaze constantly found
her husband's across the crowded room and flashed wickedly. Raul
was floored that her apparent love for her husband seemed to be
authentic and if she had an ulterior motive, he couldn't see
it.

There were probably fifty people crowded
through the house, laughing and mingling around the kitchen and
living areas. He had parked himself in this corner and hadn't moved
since he arrived.

John Garrett, another neighbor, walked over
to speak to him. John's wife had died a couple of years before, and
the guy was almost as anti-social as Raul was.

"What's up, man?" Garrett asked in a smooth
drawl.

Raul lifted his chin in a small,
imperceptible nod of greeting. "Humoring Janie. Ready to
leave."

Garrett nodded his agreement. "County sure
doesn't know what to think since Janie came. Parties and
bullshit."

"Yeah."

Garrett had stayed true to his wife for
twelve months, but Raul knew from the small town gossip that since
then, his neighbor had been screwing everything far and wide.
Garrett was sandy blond, in contrast to Raul's own dark-haired,
Spanish heritage.

Everybody around town was blond. It was an
anomaly being so close to Mexico. People should have been dark, but
in this small forty or so square miles close to the Texas Hill
country, most were blond. Raul's coloring always attracted
attention. And now, standing straight and tall next to his equally
tall neighbor, the two females who'd been watching him since he'd
gotten there were practically salivating. Raul saw the two women
eyeing them up, not even attempting to hide it anymore.

Garrett spoke in a sneer. "Unless you got
dibs buddy, the one on the left goes home in my truck."

Raul knocked back the rest of his drink and
casually glanced over at the woman in question. He studied her
intently, waiting to feel something other than sheer boredom. He
saw her eyes flare with a heated, predatory look that left him
cold. Nothing had changed since the last time he looked. She seemed
exactly like all the rest. Out for a good time. Out for a rich man.
Out for some sex. She did nothing for him. "Be my guest."

Raul knew Garrett was about to make his move
on the woman when Janie breezed back into the room, her arm wrapped
tightly around a young, dark-haired girl carrying a backpack. The
girl was wearing jeans and a pink t-shirt, with her hair in a
ponytail and her face free of make-up. She was pretty, couldn't
have been more than eighteen or nineteen, and he felt Garrett
freeze beside him.

Raul didn't know who the girl was, but he
vaguely remembered Brian telling him something about a niece who
had lost her mother recently. She was small and looked Hispanic and
some protective instinct he never realized he had rose up within
him. He felt his body tighten and hissed a warning to the man
standing next to him. "Don't
even fucking think about it
man
, she's just a baby."

The other man's eyes stayed narrowed on the
girl, and Raul held himself stiffly until Garrett seemed to think
better of it and turned his attention back to the two women.

Raul took a calming breath, using the moment
to excuse himself from getting caught in a social foursome that he
had no intention of allowing. Relieved that Garrett had moved his
attention away from the younger girl, he spoke both to reward the
man and to extricate himself from the clutches of the two women.
"Take 'em both. I'm getting another drink."

He walked into the den where his host stood
mixing cocktails and socializing with his friends and neighbors.
Raul caught Brian's eye and in moments the other man was pouring
him another drink. All the while, Raul felt, rather than saw, Janie
leading the young girl around the guests, casually introducing
her.

New drink in hand, Raul was checking his
watch for what seemed like the hundredth time when Janie came up
behind him and spoke, "Raul, sweetie, look what I've got here."
Janie's voice was melodious and filled with sincere, sweet southern
honey.

Raul shifted around and his gaze ran over the
girl with Janie. He stiffened imperceptibly when brown eyes lifted
to his and he was ensnared by the exotic beauty of her young face.
Immediately, he was swamped with unwanted heat. A raw, basic hunger
pulsed through his system he had no right or desire to feel for a
girl this young. But nonetheless, it was there, and it was beating
forcefully through his bloodstream.

She was small with silky dark hair and a skin
so porcelain-fine his eyes narrowed in on her and studied her
intently, looking for a flaw,
any flaw
.

There wasn't one that he could see.

Her eyes were sexily slanted, dark brown and
intense, and her nose was straight with a slight upward tilt that
only enhanced her delicate beauty.

Of their own volition, fighting everything
his brain was advising, his eyes dropped and slid down her body.
Her hips were narrow below a sharply indented waist. The pink
t-shirt clung to her frame and accentuated the slight feminine
mounds of her breasts.

A fierce arrow of arousal and an alarming
need to possess slammed through him and he tightened his body to
rein in control. Total heat swamped him and he had to force words
out of his mouth. "Who's this?"

"This is my sweet baby niece, Elaina. She's
home for Christmas. Elaina, meet our neighbor and very dear friend,
Raul."

As Raul studied the girl in front of him,
someone called Janie's name from the other room.

"I've got to see what that's all about. I'll
be right back." She floated off and Raul was left alone with the
young girl.

He felt the need to touch her and couldn't
stop himself, so he offered her his outstretched palm. "Raul
Vega."

****

As the deep, commanding voice lacerated her
insides, Elaina tentatively reached out to give her palm to the
tall, dark man standing in front of her. His hand encapsulated hers
completely and didn't let go. A searing moment of shock hit her as
she glanced at the rough, masculine hand holding hers captive
before her eyes slowly climbed back to his face.

His hand was lean and strong, gripping hers
with enough force to momentarily hold her immobile without actually
hurting her. The calluses she felt only emphasized his masculinity;
the combination of his hand gripping hers and his eyes swallowing
her whole were almost more than she could handle at the moment.

Her heartbeat accelerated and blood pulsed
through her veins. Heat swam down her body and she prayed her face
didn't show the effect he had on her. As he continued to hold her
hand in a tight clasp, she silently studied him.

The man was magnificent. There were no other
words.

She guessed his age around thirty, and his
surname was indicative of the looks he carried. He was dark and
swarthy, his features chiseled and defined in a way that was very
much Castilian. He was tall, probably a couple of inches over six
feet, with a steely magnetism that ran through his body.

She realized through a haze of disconcertion
that he was studying her as intently as she watched him. She sucked
in a breath and held it in her tight throat as her body trembled
beneath his too-close observation. A tiny blossom of what felt very
much like fear unfurled inside her and mingled with the sharp bite
of attraction. Her reaction to him unnerved her.

He wasn't dropping her hand, and Elaina
waited silently to be released so she could get the hell away from
him. She was seriously out of her depth, and she didn't want or
need his searing attention.

"You don't look like your aunt." His voice
was deep and smooth and rattled her already frayed nerves. The
drive had been long, it was getting late and she was tired and
hungry. The very last things she needed right now were to deal with
a man that
reeked machismo
and everything his searing gaze
implied.