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  Emilio waved a red bandana to one of Hernandez’s guards, signaling that he was a friend come to do business. The guard recognized Emilio, not so much by his appearance but by the young woman who rode with him. A man didn’t forget a body like that, or the sight of her long hair flowing in the wind. It was Nina Juarez, and there were few men who did not fantasize about getting that one in their bed. He watched her ride past, provocatively straddling her black gelding, sitting a horse as good as any man, a six-gun on her hip and a rifle in its boot on her saddle.

  Nina and Emilio approached the house. Hernandez, not a man to sleep late, was already up. He came out onto the porch to greet them, grinning broadly. His even, white teeth stood out against the dark skin of his round, puffy face, and his black eyes showed their pleasure at the sight of the horses. They showed even more pleasure when his gaze turned to Nina. He had been hoping the two of them would show up soon, for he never tired of the sight of Nina’s youthful, virginal beauty.

  “Emilio!” he called out, stepping down to shake the young man’s hand after he dismounted. “I was wondering when I would see you and your beautiful sister again.”

  Emilio took his hand while Nina trotted her horse around the Appaloosas to keep them bunched together. “Are they not the finest you have seen?” Emilio asked Hernandez. “They should bring good money, amigo.”

  “That they will,” Hernandez answered. He motioned for one of his men to open a gate. “Get them into that corral,” he told Nina. “Sid, you help her,” he called to another man.

  Nina and Sid herded the horses through the gate, and Hernandez and Emilio followed, Hernandez keeping his eyes on the way Nina’s bottom swayed in the saddle. He climbed on the fence to watch the horses then, huffing and puffing as he did so. The short man enjoyed his food, and it showed in his heavyset body. “Ah, they are fine animals,” he told Emilio, wiping the sweat that had beaded on his brow from the effort of climbing up only three rungs on the fence.

  “I knew you would be pleased,” Emilio told him.

  Nina rode up to the fence and dismounted, tying her horse to the fence and climbing up beside Hernandez. “If they were not stolen I would keep one for myself,” she told the man.

  Hernandez eyed her appreciatively, thinking how he would like to keep Nina Juarez for himself. “Sí, I can understand,” he told her. He turned to look at Emilio then. “Both of you, come inside. I will have my cook make you some breakfast; then you can rest here for a day before you leave us. I have plenty of room. You must be very hungry and tired.”

  “Thank you, Hernandez,” Emilio answered. “You are very generous.” He climbed down from the fence, and Hernandez ordered one of his men to take care of their horses.

  “Thank you so much,” Nina told the man.

  Hernandez bowed to her. “Anything for you, señorita.” His fat cheeks puffed out when he grinned, and Nina felt an odd warning when his eyes moved over her. She had never felt uncomfortable around Hernandez, wasn’t even sure if Hernandez was his first or last name. It was all he was ever called. He was no better than an outlaw, but then, she reasoned, wasn’t that what she and Emilio had become?

  Hernandez led them to the front door of his sprawling stucco ranch home, stepping back to let Emilio and Nina go inside first. He walked behind Nina, studying her slender waist, the long, blue-black hair, the movement of her hips beneath her suede riding pants. This was the fifth time he had seen her, and each time he wanted her more. He knew she was at least eighteen, plenty old enough for a young girl to become a woman. He had much to offer a woman. Perhaps…

  He showed them a room where they could wash. Nina took her wide-brimmed hat from where it hung around her neck and set it aside, then removed her bolero jacket. Hernandez breathed deeply at the way her full bosom filled out her red shirt. As she washed her hands, he noticed they looked amazingly delicate for a young woman who was always around horses and lived half the time under the sun and stars.

  He led the two of them into the kitchen then, where an old Mexican woman had cooked a grand breakfast. “Did you have any trouble?” he asked Emilio as they all sat down at the table.

  Emilio drank some coffee and leaned back in his chair. “Not this time. Those gringos must have been very surprised when they woke up yesterday morning to find their horses gone. They slept through the whole thing.” He grinned. “It was so easy. But we ran them hard, Hernandez. They need a good rest, as do Nina and I. We hardly stopped for the last two days.”

  “I understand. I will pay you well, Emilio, twenty dollars a head for all eight horses. That is a hundred and sixty American dollars. Such money goes a long way.”

  Emilio nodded, wondering how much profit the man would make on the palominos when he resold them. He had thought often lately about eliminating the middleman and selling his stolen horses himself. Surely there would be more money in that, although it was much more dangerous. He was not about to tell Hernandez his thoughts, worried the man would be upset that he was considering going around him. He knew Hernandez was the type who could be a man’s best friend or his worst enemy.

  “That is fine,” he answered. “When we are finished eating, we will get some sleep and then take our money and leave. We will probably be back in a few weeks.”

  “You are always welcome. You do a good job, Emilio.” Hernandez’s eyes moved to Nina. “And he could not do it without you, eh, Nina?”

  Nina smiled. “I am just as good as my brother at stealing and herding horses,” she answered proudly.

  The old Mexican cook set plates with generous helpings of steak, potatoes, and eggs in front of Nina and Emilio.

  “I have no doubts about that,” Hernandez told Nina with a grin. “Eat up, my children. When you are finished, I will show you where you can sleep. Nina, in your room there is even a separate little room where you can bathe. I will have Rosa bring you some hot water.”

  “Gracias, Señor Hernandez. I would very much like to take a bath.”

  “Your wish is my command.” Hernandez chuckled deep in his throat.

  Nina and Emilio ate as though they were half starved; then Hernandez led them to separate bedrooms, showing Nina a tin bathing tub. “Rosa will be here soon with the water,” he told her. His eyes moved over her strangely again, and again Nina felt a light shiver, but she dismissed the warning. Hernandez had always been good to them, almost fatherly. He smiled kindly and left, and moments later the woman called Rosa showed up with two buckets of hot water.

  After two more trips, the tub was filled, the steam it generated putting the smell of scented soap into the air. Nina closed the curtain, thinking how good a bath would feel. She undressed and stepped into the warm water, breathing deeply from the ecstasy of sinking into the perfumed suds. She lathered herself slowly with the same expensive soap Rosa had used to make the suds, then leaned back and closed her eyes to soak for a while. She drifted off to sleep unaware someone had entered the outer room and walked quietly on bare feet to the curtain to peek through one end of it and watch her. Nina’s head lolled forward and touched the water. The movement awakened her, and she decided she had better finish washing and get into bed. She dunked her head, soaping her hair, as Hernandez, unseen, watched her from the other side of the curtain.

  It was all Hernandez could do to keep from groaning as he watched the beautiful Nina lather her body, her breasts, and private places. He drank in the sight of her dark, slender body as she rose from the tub. He studied the firm roundness of her bottom when she turned to step out. The sight made him grin and lick at his lips, every desire in him alive with ecstasy.

  Nina wrapped her hair in a towel and dried herself off, then rubbed at her hair, tossing her head and running her fingers through it before picking up a brush to get out the tangles. Hernandez moved a hand to grasp himself, on fire at the sight of her full breasts and the soft hairs between her legs. Yes, this was the wife for him! This was the woman he wanted! He would wait, though, wait until she had gone to bed. He would wait
until she was sleepy and confused. Before she had time to think, he would be in her bed, touching her in ways that would ensure she would not want to refuse him. And when they were through, she would belong to him and would have agreed to marry him, but that was really no problem. After all, he reasoned, what woman would not want to marry such a rich man?

  He quietly left the room before Nina might draw the curtains away. His mind reeled with the memory of the sight of her, and he hurried to his own room to wash and shave. This time he was determined that Nina Juarez had come to his home to stay. He could not bear to let her leave again. Nor could he bear to wait to enjoy her virgin body. He was a rich, successful man. No woman had ever refused him. Surely Nina Juarez would be just as willing as the others, especially when she realized that he wished to make her his wife.

  Chapter Two

  Nina crawled into the soft bed, delighted that Hernandez had given her the chance to rest in such luxury. He always fed her and Emilio whenever they were here, but never had he offered an overnight stay in his fine home. The bath had made her even more relaxed, and the fine linens on the bed felt cool to her skin. She breathed deeply in exhaustion, staring for a few minutes at the heavy pine beams of the stucco ceiling, thinking how this time she would save some of the money she and Emilio made from the horses. Their dream was to one day live like Hernandez lived; to have a fine home and maybe a ranch of their own in Mexico. It was time to begin planning for that dream.

  It worried her that Emilio was not good at saving money. She knew she would have to do it herself. Perhaps she could convince her brother to give her part of his share of the money Hernandez would pay them. If she held it, he couldn’t spend it. Emilio was not as serious about settling down as she, and she wondered sometimes if he had begun to like this way of life, if he intended to always live like an outlaw.

  She sighed, dismissing the thought as foolish worry, deciding it was her own anxiousness to settle down that made her concerned. Weariness from two long days and nights of riding overcame her then, and she curled into the soft covers. Soon she drifted into dreams…

  She was riding a shiny black horse, and many more beautiful horses ran ahead of her. Suddenly her parents appeared on two of the horses, laughing. Just as suddenly they fell from the animals. In the dream Nina tried to scream, but in reality she only uttered a little whimper. She struggled to get to her parents as the horses trampled them, but the horses turned into men, who began beating her father and doing horrible things to her mother. They touched her in bad places, and suddenly they were touching Nina, too. No! This could not be! She was just a little girl! She tried to stop them, screamed again. Another little wail came from her lips as she was startled awake then, perspiring because of the dream, unable to utter a sound when she realized that someone had been touching her! She finally managed a gasp and turned to see Hernandez in her bed!

  “My sweet Nina,” he said softly, one hand running up her bare leg and under her gown. He hovered over her, resting on one elbow. “I have wanted you for so long. You will stay here with Hernandez, no? I can offer you a good life, pretty dresses, servants—”

  Nina let out a startled cry and tried to scoot away, but he grasped her bottom firmly, moving on top of her, grinning…grinning the way the Texans had grinned when they raped her mother, with the same evil glint in his eyes. “Get away from me,” she whimpered. “Get out of my room!”

  “Your room?” The man chuckled. “This is my home, lovely Nina. I am telling you that I find you the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I have wanted you since the first time you rode into my life. Marry me, Nina, but let us not wait for the ceremony. It is time for you to be a woman!”

  His hand moved between her legs, and her eyes widened. “Stop it,” she screamed. He only moved more of his weight on top of her, and she felt the ugly hardness, knew he was swollen like those hideous Texans had been for her mother, displaying their manparts in front of young Emilio and Nina like some kind of trophies.

  Nina began screaming Emilio’s name, reaching up and scratching at Hernandez, drawing blood across one cheek. His eyes widened in shock, and he grasped both her wrists, squeezing them painfully as he pushed them down into the feather mattress. “Ungrateful little bitch!” he growled.

  She arched and continued to scream, trying to get free of his heavy body. Finally she butted her head upward, smashing it into the man’s nose. He cried out and rose up, grasping the front of her gown with one hand while he put his other hand to his bleeding nose. “Look what you have done!” he nearly screamed himself.

  Nina saw then that he was completely naked. Her eyes widened at the sight of that part of man that was to her most ugly. She knew he had intended to shame her the way the Texans had shamed her mother. He sat straddled across her, suddenly jerking her up and raising a hand to hit her. Nina thought quickly, reacting in the brief second it took for Hernandez to raise his hand. She punched hard at the thing she hated most, wanting to hurt it and make it small again. Hernandez froze in place, his hand still in the air. He let go of her, shuddering, grasping at his privates as he rolled off her and drew up his knees.

  Nina quickly jumped up from the bed, staggering back from it, staring at a cringing, moaning Hernandez. She had no idea that hitting a man there could cause so much pain.

  “Bitch!” Hernandez growled. “I will…not forgive you…for this!”

  The door burst open then, and Emilio entered, brandishing a handgun. His eyes widened at what he found, and he looked from Hernandez to Nina.

  “He…tried to rape me,” she told her brother in a shaking voice.

  Rosa came to the doorway, as well as one of Hernandez’s hired hands, both of them staring in shock at the sight of a naked Hernandez holding himself and rolling around on the bed in pain, one side of his face bleeding from three deep scratches.

  “Get out!” the man growled at the hand. “Get out of here!”

  “The kid here has a gun, boss,” the hired hand protested.

  “Just get out!”

  The man took Rosa’s arm, and the two of them left. Hernandez managed to get to his knees, breathing deeply, perspiration breaking out on his face and body. “I…offered to marry her,” he told Emilio, who stood there in his long johns.

  Emilio cocked his gun. “This is your idea of courting my sister? Climbing into her bed unwanted?” His eyes blazed. “I should kill you!”

  Hernandez glared at him. “Kill me, and you and your sister will never make it past my front door! My men will see to that, and they will take their turns with your sister. Is that what you want?”

  Emilio hesitated, glancing at Nina, noticing the tears on her cheeks. He knew the horror this must have been for her. “Get dressed and pack your things,” he told her. “We will leave right away.”

  Nina quickly obeyed, moving behind the curtains as Emilio looked back at Hernandez. “You have shamed and insulted my sister. We will never do business with you again!”

  “Fine,” Hernandez growled. “Do you think I survive from what you bring me? I do not need your business, Emilio! And it is I who have been insulted! I intended to marry Nina. I can give her a much finer life than you will ever give her! I am a rich man! No woman has ever turned me away! There are many who would be honored and eager to be my wife and share my bed.”

  “Then get one of them!” Emilio sneered. “My sister is too good for the likes of you!”

  Hernandez grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around himself. “I will let you and your sister go, but I cannot forget this insult! Rosa has seen me naked, and my men will laugh behind my back! I want you both out of my sight! I would not marry Nina now if she was the last woman in Texas!”

  “And she would not marry you if you were the last man!” Emilio moved the gun closer to Hernandez’s head as Nina came out from behind the curtains fully dressed. She held her saddlebags, packed and ready to go.

  “I am sorry, Emilio,” she said, moving closer to her brother.

  “You hav
e nothing to be sorry for.” He waved the gun in Hernandez’s face. “I want our money, Hernandez.”

  The man managed a sneering smile in spite of his pain. “What money?”

  Emilio blinked. “The money you owe us for the palominos!”

  Hernandez deliberately leaned closer to the gun, grinning wider. “I owe you nothing, my friend. Not now. The horses are payment for the insult you have shown me. You are lucky now to get off my land with your lives!” He moved his dark eyes to Nina. “And with your sister’s precious virtue!”

  “You owe us a hundred and sixty American dollars, Hernandez!” Emilio nearly shook with rage.

  “I told you I am paying you nothing! If your sister would like to reconsider sharing my bed, perhaps then I will pay you! Let her be a whore for me and get your money, or you can both leave! If you harm me or try to steal the money, your sister will be a whore for every man on this ranch! Make up your mind, Emilio!”

  Emilio breathed deeply, wanting badly to pull the trigger. “Tu eres un malo hombre,” he sneered.

  “Sí, Emilio. I can be very bad when it is necessary! I have much power and importance, and the two of you are nothing! And that is how your sister will be treated if you do not leave—right now! I do not forget an insult. If you ever come back here, you will not leave here alive…and Nina will be wishing she was dead!”

  “We need that money, Hernandez! We did not come here to make trouble for you. We delivered those horses in good faith! What has happened is your fault, not ours!”

  “Get out now while you still can.” Hernandez backed away, getting off the other side of the bed and holding the blanket around himself. “Go on! I will tell my men to let you saddle your horses and go.”