Rainbows and Rapture Read Online Free Page B

hard torso against her breasts caused an unfamiliar tingle to course through her again.
    “Bed. It’s where we’re going, isn’t it?”
    She shook her head, then nodded, then shook her head again.
    Her actions sent a spicy scent drifting around him. The fragrance brought him a vague memory. “What’s that smell?”
    She sniffed the air. “I don’t smell nothin’.”
    The scent meant something to him, but he couldn’t remember what it was. “Candy,” he muttered. “Do you smell candy?”
    “Candy? Oh. That’s peppermint.”
    Peppermint. A rush of bittersweet nostalgia hit him, the scent recalling a time in his life he hadn’t thought of in ages.
    The taffy. The peppermint taffy. The years fell away. He was six; his sister, Lupita, was fifteen. He held one end of the stringy taffy, and Lupita held the other. Together, they pulled it, but never long enough. Laughing over their impatience, they ate it before it was ready.
    Peppermint taffy. The memory, the pungent scent, made him ache with longing, sorrow, and regret.
    “I’m wearin’ it,” Russia explained. “Peppermint oil.”
    Her voice hurled him back into the present. “Wearing it? Why?”
    “Because I like it! Is that all right with you?”
    At her shouting, his eyes widened. Santa Maria , she was a saucy wench! And a brave one, too! No woman, no man, had ever dared raise a voice at him. “I’ve had enough of this chitchat on the stairway, woman.” Lifting her into his arms, he carried her the rest of the way up the steps and down the hall. When he reached the door of his room, one firm kick sent it flying open. Another shut it.
    He set Russia down. Sweeping past her, he flung his hat across the room.
    She watched it land neatly on the prong of a brass hatstand, then brought her attention back to him. Her eyes widened.
    The man was undressing! “You— Are you gonna git plumb nelly nekkid? ”
    His hands stilled on the fastening of his breeches. Looking sideways at her, he saw the crimson stain on her cheeks. Confusion stung him. “I’ve always done this without clothes. How do you do it?”
    She couldn’t answer; she could only stare. He’d removed his bullet straps and shirt. His smooth brown chest gleamed in the dim lamplight. It rippled up and down with each breath he took, and she felt an almost uncontrollable urge to run her hands across its muscled expanse. The thought both embarrassed and excited her. Noodles and green fly wings, what did the man do to her?
    Pulling off his boots and socks, Santiago frowned when he saw her look of dismay. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
    His gruff question startled her so badly that she bit her tongue. The pain dispelled desire. Touching her finger to her tongue, she looked at it and saw a smear of blood. “God! Oh, God, I’m bleedin’! ”
    Santiago stared at her in complete bewilderment as her blushing cheeks whitened. When she began to sway and her head lolled backward, he charged toward her and caught her just as she started to crumple to the floor. “ Santa Maria , are you fainting? ”
    “Blood,” she whispered, her eyes rolling. “It makes me sick. So sick I feel like throwin’ up my socks.”
    Muttering Spanish profanities, he took her to a plump settee and tossed her onto it. Irritated, he debated whether to throw her out of his room with a warning to never set foot close to him again.
    But as he watched the color return to her cheeks, he studied her delicate features. Though she wore a bit of paint, her beauty wasn’t masked by it. There was a wholesome look about her, one that belied what he knew her to be. She even had little-girl freckles across the bridge of her nose! How could a whore be wholesome? he asked himself. No strumpet he’d ever seen presented the kind of freshness this one did.
    His eyes mere slits, he glared down at her. Freckles or no freckles, she was a harlot.
    He hated her and all her kind.
    “’Course I didn’t eat no socks,” Russia told him