Bride of the Tiger by Heather Graham (best large ereader .txt) 📗

She started to rise. The hands she was holding moved; fingers curled around hers.

She didn’t see his eyes opening to slits, still covered by the dark shadows of his lashes.

If she had, she would have realized that never before had he appeared so like a tiger.

Eyes glowing amber and gold, muscles corded, ready to pounce. He felt the greatest burst of triumph—and happiness—in his life.

“I love you.” He was careful to keep his words a whisper.

“I love you. Please, I’ll get help—”

“No!” he croaked, exerting more pressure against her hands when she would have risen.

“Rafe, you’re hurt!”

Guilt touched him. He opened his eyes a little more and saw the terrible anguish on her beautiful features, in her moon-silver eyes. The guilt was painful, but there was the rest of their lives to consider, and he couldn’t lose her now.

“Tara…you have to listen. Before God, I love you. I started falling in love with you the moment that I met you. The first night. And each time I saw you, I fell further under your spell. I thought at first that I was a fool, that you had bewitched Jimmy the same way, had led him into disaster. And then it didn’t matter. I’d have died a fool if that had been the case, because I love you so much. Tara—”

“Oh, Rafe! It doesn’t matter. Shh! You musn’t talk. I’ll get help. You need care—”

“No, no, Tara. Tell me you believe me. Tell me that—if I make it—you’ll marry me.”

“Rafe, you need—”

“I need your promise, Tara. Swear that you’ll marry me….”

“Yes, yes, oh, yes! Now let me get help—”

He wasn’t about to let her go. The tiger pounced.

He sprang up, sweeping her into his arms, kissing her lips quickly, pressing her against his chest and letting out a hoarse cry.

“Rafe…”

She accepted his hug at first, returned it with fervor and delight, but then, she realized that he was solid and warm and moving—and completely healthy.

“Rafe!”

Tara slammed her palm against his shoulder, pushing him away, her cheeks crimson. “You’re not hurt at all!”

“I do beg your pardon. Elliott had a very nasty punch, and I’ve got a mile-long cut inside my mouth.”

“Oh! You made me think—”

“Oh, yourself! Did you want me broken and bleeding?”

“No! No! Of course not! It’s just…”

Her voice trailed away, because he was grinning, with relief, with a smug happiness that caught hold of her just as his energy could, just as the need to be with him had infected her from the very beginning. She was dizzy with relief, ready to throttle him—and then so incredibly happy that everything could have come out all right when it had begun so bleakly and horribly.

“You’re terrible!” she accused him. “That was the most devious thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

He brought her down to the ledge, kissing her swiftly again, staring into her eyes, hovering above her.

“Would you believe me if I swore never to be devious again?”

“No.”

“Have a heart. You’re supposed to trust your husband.”

“Husband!”

“You just promised to marry me.”

“You tricked me!”

He smiled down at her ruefully, his knuckles tenderly grazing her cheek.

“I had to have your promise. I might never have had the opportunity again, Tara. I had to make you forgive me.” His smile left. He was suddenly, painfully serious. “Tara, when I knew that he had you, I almost went mad. And when I saw him with you, I think I did lose my mind. There were things I didn’t say to you, but I swear, I never said I loved you when I didn’t mean it with all my heart. I wanted to kill Tine. I felt like an animal. I wanted to kill him because he was endangering you.”

She reached up and touched his hair, studying his eyes with tears forming in her eyes because she loved him so much and because she knew, with all her being, that he loved her just as deeply and that it was a good love, honest and real, and that it could and should last forever.

“Oh, Rafe.” She smiled. “I do love you. And I’m glad you didn’t kill him.”

“In the end, I suppose, I’m not an animal. Just a man.”

“Just a man,” Tara repeated the words, a whimsical smile touching her lips. “Just the man who means everything in the world to me.”

Slowly, he started to lower himself to her again. To touch her lips with the reverence that the night and the moon and the mountain demanded. He was just able to touch her mouth and taste the sweet salt of tears and the hunger and the warmth, when their moment alone on the ledge in the darkness came to an end.

“Tara! Rafe! Where are you?”

It was Ashley—anxious, concerned.

Rafe lifted a brow to Tara. “We’re here, Ashley. Coming!”

“Are you all right?”

Tara answered her, curling her arms around Rafe’s neck, meeting his eyes with a promise deeper than words, her eyes softening to a misted silver.

“We’re fine, Ashley. We’ve never been better.”

Rafe rose and helped Tara to her feet, and his arms were around her all the way up the cliff, as if he would never let her stumble again.

CHAPTER 15

The mask was really unique. It was up high in a protective glass case, and there was a plaque beneath it, giving a few brief particulars: that it was Mayan; that it was ceremonial; that among its stones were forty-five diamonds, sixteen rubies, and nearly eighty small sapphires. It was on loan from a museum in Mexico City.

It was unique, probably beautiful in its way, but Tara shivered as she stared at the grinning golden face. It seemed to be an evil thing—and it had brought only evil. She didn’t think she was superstitious, but she’d be glad when the mask was returned.

She left the Mayan display and hurried down the corridor, knowing exactly where she was going. And when she reached the room she wanted, she paused happily, staring.

This sculpture really was magnificent.

It was in the Roman section