Red Leopard (The Vistaria Affair Series) Read Online Free

exception, any warm-blooded male in her vicinity would respond to that mysterious element in her.
    In Vistaria, during Fiesta , it could cause trouble. Minnie didn’t always know when enough was enough. Calli had had a tiny taste of the different attitudes here and her gut clenched. No wonder Uncle Josh looked harried.
    She hurried over to her cousin. “Minnie, for heaven’s sake. There you are.”
    Minnie smiled up at the soldier before looking at Calli. “Just having a chat,” she said with another big smile. “Dad said it might take a while, so I stayed outside to listen to the music. Calli, this is Eduardo...right?” she asked the soldier. He had straightened up.
    “Friends call me Duardo. I insist. Eduardo , I like not,” he said, his voice low. His eyes almost twinkled, as if he laughed mentally. He held out his hand to Calli.
    Not one of the men that had been in the holding cell room. Good.
    She took the offered hand and disguised her surprise when he turned hers a little and brought the back of it up to his lips. They felt hot against her skin. He watched her over the back of her hand.
    “My pleasure to meet you, Miss Calli,” he purred. His slow smile showed off white teeth.
    “...er...thank you,” Calli murmured and pulled her hand away the moment he released it. His old-fashioned courtesy had completely bamboozled her, she realized with a touch of amusement. She couldn’t help feel a little more feminine and appreciated as a result. No wonder Minnie had succumbed so quickly.
    She grabbed Minnie’s arm. “Say goodnight, Minnie.”
    “Yeah, course. Okay. Duardo, it has been a blast.”
    “Most certainly, Minnie,” he replied, his smile widening.
    Calli yanked on her cousin’s arm, just as Uncle Josh reached them.
    “Minnie, when are you ever going to remember you just can’t go wandering off by yourself here?” he said.
    “ Adios! ” she called out to Duardo as he walked away, then looked at Josh. “Dad, I was just talking! I didn’t wander. I’m ten feet from the door.”
    He pushed his hand through his hair again. “Okay, can we please leave now?” he asked, sounding very tired. “The car is on a side street. No parking here tonight. Come on. I don’t know about you two, but I need a good stiff belt of scotch.”
    “Me, too,” Calli agreed with feeling.
    * * * * *
     
    The scotch and soda slid down her throat, hissing all the way. Calli sighed. She put the heavy crystal glass down on the coffee table and sat back to look around the apartment the Bennings had rented in a very old but well-maintained building in the hilly section to the south-west of the city center.
    It had taken barely ten minutes to reach here by car, despite the slow drive through narrow, winding streets. Josh had ushered them inside, checked on her aunt, who dozed in their bedroom recovering from a bad migraine, while Minnie headed for her room to ‘scare up’ some clothes and essentials for Calli.
    When Josh reemerged from the bedroom he’d gone straight for the silver tray and decanters on the sideboard and poured them both the promised stiff belt of scotch, then dropped onto the sofa opposite Calli’s with a heavy sigh. In the quiet room, she could still hear music from the streets, filtered and distant.
    The apartment had white adobe walls, hung with Vistarian art and interesting textiles in the same jewel colors the women had been wearing tonight. Rooms led off from this central room, but the big kitchen area adjoined the central room at the back, separated only by a huge chopping block island. Terracotta tiles covered the floor throughout, including the big balcony beyond the sliding doors. Blue wisteria-like flowers hung in big clusters from the tangle of vines that climbed up the adobe walls arching over the balcony.
    “What are those flowers?” she asked as Josh gulped back half his glassful in two big swallows. “They almost look like wisteria. I’ve been seeing them everywhere.”
    “Yes,