Valaquez Bride

• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Chapter Nine
  
• Chapter Ten
  
• Chapter Eleven
  
• Chapter Twelve
  

"Raul, Please, I Can't."


Juliet murmured tremulously, tugging at his hand even as
conflicting emotions tore through her.


"Juliet, you're driving me crazy," he muttered roughly as
he brushed her tousled hair back from her face, his narrowed eyes dark
and searching. "You wanted me to make love to you but you couldn't go
through with it. Are you afraid of me ?"


Chewing her lower lip, feeling a great need to cry, she
could only nod.


"You won't always be afraid of me," he promised huskily.
"We could have something wonderful together, and we will. You know as
well as I do that it's inevitable."

DONNA VITEK is a prolific Silhouette Romance author, and
Valaquez
Bride
is her first Special Edition. The mother of two, Ms.
Vitek lives with her husband, Richard, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Dear Reader,

Silhouette Special Editions are an exciting new line of
contemporary romances from Silhouette Books. Special Editions are
written specifically for our readers who want a story with greater
romantic detail.

Special Editions have all the elements you've enjoyed in
Silhouette Romances and
more
. These stories
concentrate on romance in a longer, more realistic and sophisticated
way, and they feature greater sensual detail.

I hope you enjoy this book and all the wonderful romances
from Silhouette. We welcome any suggestions or comments and invite you
to write to us at the address below.

Elaine Shelley

Silhouette Books

PO Box 703

Dunton Green

Sevenoaks

Kent

TN13 2YE

Copyright © 1982 by Donna Vitek

Map by Tony
Ferrara

First printing 1982

ISBN 0 340 28582 6

The tortuously winding road led down Spain's Sierra Nevada
mountains. Below, nestled in a valley fringed with forests of austere
pines and chestnut trees, the city of Granada shimmered in the golden
light of a setting sun. On a high plateau of solid rock stood the
Alhambra, ancient Moorish castle, which sparkled like a topaz gems
tone, encircled by emerald cypresses and pines.

As the ramshackle and rusting orange Volkswagen van
followed the twisting road, Juliet McKay gazed pensively out the
window. Twirling a silken strand of sunstreaked auburn hair around and
around her finger, she breathed a silent sigh. Despite the beauty of
the scene below, she wasn't looking forward to returning to Granada.

"I still can't believe it," Benny Talmadge interrupted her
reverie though keeping his eyes on the winding road. "After we finish
our two nights in Jaen, we're actually booked for a whole week in
Seville. And in the same coffee house! The smartest move I ever made
was to make friends with you last year, Juliet. You're a regular
miracle worker. That's the only explanation for it. I'll never
understand how you persuaded the manager to book us for the entire
week."

"Trade secret," Juliet quipped, smiling fondly at him. "If
I told you my methods, you might not think you needed me anymore."

"Fat chance," Benny answered with a grin. "As a business
manager, I'm a dismal failure."

Juliet dismissed his words with an exaggerated sweep of
her hand. "But you are an
artist
," she said
teasingly. "You don't have to be practical, just talented."

Frowning as her accompanying smile seemed unusually
forced, Benny turned his troubled gaze back to the road again. "You can
still back out, you know," he announced abruptly. "It isn't too late.
Just say the word and we'll drive right through Granada without
stopping and head straight for Jaen."

"No." Shaking her head, she tossed her small determined
chin up slightly. "No, we'll stop. I've come this far now so I may as
well go all the way."

"Why?" Benny snorted, brushing back the reddish brown
shock of hair that habitually grazed his forehead. "Are you sure you
know what you're doing?"

"Sure, I'm sure. I at least owe Uncle Will a visit."

"You don't owe him a damn thing," Benny growled. "After
the way he tried to manipulate you, I'm surprised you'd even consider
speaking to him again. He was so anxious to become part of Spain's
aristocracy that he was trying to coerce you into marrying Pablo
Valaquez. I hope you haven't forgotten that."

As Juliet shrugged, Holly, Benny's wife, who sat between
the other two, turned on him with an exasperated sigh. "Of course she
hasn't forgotten that, you big nitwit," she chided. "So try not to be
so tactless."

"I'm not being tactless, just truthful," Benny defended
himself impatiently, color rising in his cheeks. "I just don't see how
she can…"

"And I don't see how I can just ignore what I read in the
newspaper this morning in Malaga," Juliet interrupted firmly. "For
heaven's sake, Uncle Will's been in a car accident. I have to go see
him. After all, he didn't desert me nine years ago when I needed him.
After my parents were killed in that plane crash, he took me in without
a moment's hesitation and it couldn't have been easy for him. Fifty-six
year old bachelors just aren't accustomed to dealing with twelve year
old girls. But he was very good to me; he cared about me and provided
security when I was feeling very much alone in a suddenly crazy world.
You
seem to be forgetting he didn't have to do any of that for me. He could
have let me become a ward of the state but he didn't."

"I know but still, he had no right to try to force you
into marrying that spoiled little rich boy, Pablo Valaquez, now did
he?" Benny argued vehemently. "Answer me that. Did he? Of course he
didn't and you know it. That's why you left Granada eleven months ago,
isn't it? So you wouldn't have to argue with him?"

"Yes, but…" Shrugging again, Juliet turned to
gaze out the window once more, her expression musing. "I'll never
understand it, I guess. Uncle Will always seemed like the last person
in the world who would believe in arranged marriages. He's always been
such a romantic. After all, he sold a prosperous art gallery in
California and risked immigrating to Granada to open one, simply
because he was so infatuated with Spain's old world atmosphere. That
certainly makes him a romantic, don't you think?"

"I think it makes him as bad a business manager as I am,"
Benny retorted bluntly. "Obviously, things weren't going too well in
the gallery here if he had to sell half-interest in it to the high and
mighty Raul Valaquez, who's already so influential he can make any
artist famous just by showing his work. He needed another art gallery
in Spain like he needed another hole in his head. He owns one in just
about every town, doesn't he? I'm surprised he didn't already own one
in Granada before he bought your uncle's."

"Oh, but he did," Juliet announced. "Now he owns two
there."

Benny jerked his head around to stare at her, his eyes
glittering with suspicion. "Why does he want two galleries in the same
town? It doesn't make sense unless—unless your marrying that
immature little brother of his was part of the deal. Maybe he agreed to
save your uncle's gallery if you'd marry Pablo."

"Now that's just ridiculous!" Juliet countered, laughing
softly as she shook her head. "You make Pablo sound like some kind of
booby prize who has to be foisted off on some unsuspecting female.
Maybe I didn't want to marry him but I assure you there are young
señoritas all over Spain who'd love to wear his ring on their fingers.
He's rich, handsome and boyishly charming most of the time. So, I don't
think it's likely that Raul was desperate to find a bride for his
little brother."

"But he didn't object to the arranged marriage," Benny
argued. "Did he?"

As Juliet's smile faded, Holly eyed her perceptively, then
interceded again. "Don't let Benny upset you. You know what a vivid
imagination he has. Raul made no deal with your uncle, I'm sure of it
and you are too. Aren't you?"

"Yes. Of course I'm sure," Juliet murmured, her delicate
facial features losing some of their usual animation. She spread her
hands in a resigned gesture. "But Benny's right about one thing. Raul
didn't object to the idea of my marrying Pablo. In fact, Pablo said
Raul thought it was an excellent idea. So I just hope I don't see him
while I'm in Granada. I don't think he'll give me a very warm
reception. And let me tell you, he can be a very intimidating man, when
he wants to be."

"So? Why should that bother you?" Benny scoffed, then
frowned again and threw her a speculative suspicious glance. "Or was I
right last year when I thought maybe you were a lot more interested in
Raul than his little brother? Is that the real reason you don't want to
see him while you're here?"

Wishing Benny would keep his embarrassing theories to
himself, Juliet felt a blush rise warmly in her cheeks. She turned
hastily to look out the window again, refusing to answer, then half
smiling in gratitude when Holly came to the rescue.

"Really, Benny, you have the biggest mouth," his wife said
bluntly. "Don't be such a busybody."

With those fighting words, the marital spat of the day
commenced. While the couple engaged in their exaggerated bickering,
Juliet tuned them out, chiding herself mentally for still thinking
about Raul after all these months. Yet, he had fascinated her since the
first time they met and as time had passed, he had seemed to become
genuinely fond of her. They had spent many companionable hours
together, simply talking about anything and everything, but while her
feelings for him had swiftly taken a romantic turn, he had treated her
with tender indulgence, as if he saw her as a very young child.
Except
that one time .
. . She and her uncle, Raul and Pablo had
gone out to dinner one evening and when Raul had graciously asked her
to dance, she had been delighted. It had been intoxicating to be held
by him for the first time, in his firm, oddly protective, embrace. Her
heart had beat with fluttering irregularity as he had enfolded her in
strong arms and the soft contours of her slight body had yielded to the
hard lean line of his. His warmth emanated outward, enveloping her in a
distinctly masculine lime scent and she had detected a hint of latent
power in him, that had both excited and frightened her. When the dance
ended, she tilted her head back automatically to smile up at him and
some indefinable emotion in his mesmerizing green eyes captured her
bemused gaze. For a breathtaking moment, as he lowered his dark head
slightly, she felt sure he was going to kiss her but he hadn't, and
thereafter, he had never again given any indication that he thought of
her as anything other than a rather amusing child. Yet, she had still
felt betrayed somehow when she had learned Raul agreed that Pablo
should marry her. "Simpleton," she called herself now. A sophisticate
like Raul could never have been romantically interested in an ingénue
like her anyway. Still, even that realization didn't prevent her heart
from beating erratically as she thought about him and started morosely
out her window. At last, she managed to convince herself that she was
only in the throes of a rather schoolgirlish infatuation and if she had
good sense, she would forget about him. For an unworldly girl like her,
a man like Raul was as unattainable as the pot of gold at the end of
the rainbow.