Burned by a Kiss (3 page)

“I’ll get my brothers on it. It’ll be done faster than you can blink.”

Emma smiled. “Thank you.”

“No problem. That was an easy one.” He certainly didn’t look all that concerned, although it was a big project. Emma decided she’d save that detail for later. No reason to scare him off.

When had Santana ever been afraid of anything?

“Anyway,” Santana said, “it appears there’s been plenty of gossip going around about us.”

Folks in Star Canyon embellished if there weren’t solid details to work with. “It’ll blow over.”

“That’s just the thing. I’m kind of hoping it doesn’t. I was going to try that theory on you, see how you feel.”

Her heart kicked up uncomfortably. For some reason, her traitorous eyes wouldn’t stop staring at his nicely shaped mouth, his broad shoulders—oh, just all of him. “Why would you want to encourage gossip?”

He shrugged. “You and I will both know there’s nothing to the rumors.”

She
wanted
there to be something. The problem was, she was no sex kitten. This was as sexy as she got most days: springy wet hair, no makeup, rushing from home to clinic and back. She wasn’t the type of woman Santana would go for. Even in high school, he’d run with a faster crowd than hers—and sexy, athletic Donna Adams with the sleek blonde hair had been his steady.

Of course, Donna had three kids now and a job at Toby Smith’s Quick-Mart, so the sexy had worn off a bit. Donna was one of the sweetest people Emma knew, but back then, she’d been a little envious of Donna catching Santana’s attention.

Now he was offering her a relationship of sorts—but there were dangers for her.

“So you don’t want me to deny the gentle-natured ribbing and matchmaking of our friends.”

“Right.” He nodded. “They’ll just make up something if we discourage them, and what they make up might be worse. No harm, no foul.”

“You’re the guy who’s going to have no sex life if people have you heading to the altar with me. Fair warning.”

“What about your sex life?”

“
My
sex life?” she asked. Emma straightened her shoulders, trying to look like she remembered what a sex life even was.

“Sierra told me you and Foster are kind of a thing, but then I heard Foster’s getting married soon. Catch me up on the Star Canyon news.”

Emma wrinkled her nose. “Sierra told a tiny whopper.”

“Tiny?”

“I’m trying to be polite.”

“Ah. Good of you.” He looked at her so intently she wished she was in his lap, his mouth on hers—

Whoa. Stop that
, she told her frazzled, sex-deprived body.

“So you’re not pining for Foster?”

“Foster and I were a thing, a while ago. Long over.” She realized she’d never pined for Foster, not the way she’d pined for Santana. “He’s getting married soon, and I couldn’t be happier for him,” she said definitely. “Foster and I were more friends than we were soul mates.”

He smiled at her, and Emma felt it inside her soul. Her heart melted into a puddle of gooey mush.

“And you?” she said, hating that she asked.

“Nothing of any great interest.”

Oh, damn. There was that smile again, letting her know she’d have to dig harder to get more information out of him. He wasn’t going to make it easy, teasing her with mystery. He was here in her house, he’d accepted Joe with good grace, and okay, she’d always wondered if that graduation-day kiss had been that awesome, or if she’d just been innocent and shell-shocked by being kissed by Santana Dark.

They had to get off this topic. She drank some tea, deciding to go for nonchalant. “It won’t matter, since we’re not going to be denying any rumors, I guess.”

He leaned back and grinned. “I like the sound of that. Benefits for both of us.”

Benefits? She hadn’t had any benefits in a long time. “Here’s the thing,” Emma said, her heart racing like mad. She got up, crossed around the table, approached him. “Don’t let this scare you, but—”

“Sweetheart, there’s very little that scares me.”

She looked into his eyes. Santana gazed back at her, completely oblivious to what her traitorous body was urging her to do. It was now or never. Her courage was tiny, a fractional small voice of daring shouting at her to get her inner sex kitten on—so Emma leaned close, placing her lips against his, closing her eyes tightly.

Felt him freeze.

She was making an ass of herself.

She gasped as he hauled her into his lap, taking her mouth with his, holding her in his big strong arms, her face held gently in his hands. Eagerly she leaned into the kiss, sighing as she felt his hands roam under the waistband of her sweats. All the lightning bolts she remembered hit her all over again, only now she wanted more. She wanted him to kiss her and never stop.

He stopped. Looked into her eyes. Carefully set her out of his lap.

“I’ve got to get back for chores with my brothers. But you’ll have your fence by next week, and it’ll be digger-proof and jumper-proof.”

“Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say, she was on a limb she’d never been on before. He shoved his hat on, shot a last glance her way, and went out the door.

Just like that.

Suddenly she felt like she had the day he’d kissed her at graduation, practically having heart failure because the Big Man on Campus had kissed her.

Great, a little more awkward in my life is just what I needed.

But the kiss had felt wonderful while it lasted. Sweet and gentle yet somehow demanding, his hand pressing her tight against his body as their lips met over and over. Tingles shot over her, goose-pimpling her skin.

Yet he’d torn out of her house faster than Joe could grab a steak.

She didn’t have to wait for New Year’s to start her list of resolutions. Right at the top of the list was to stay away from Santana Dark’s sexy mouth and his hunky body. Be professional when he brought Joe to the clinic, and never, ever fall into his arms again.

By the weekend, Emma’s clinic had a fence so escape-proof it was like the canine version of Ft. Knox—no dog was breaking in or out of the new runs. The clinic patients could exercise to their hearts’ content. He’d kept his mind on Emma, and off anything to do with his family. And wasn’t that the reason he’d stayed out of the country so long?

But today’s meeting couldn’t wait any longer. There was no ignoring the fact that their father was never coming back, his body had never been recovered.

It felt weird as hell sitting in this huge room in a sumptuous office in Albuquerque. Santana and his siblings grouped around a long, oval, mahogany table that looked like it was shined daily. Wide windows revealed the bustling city below. Santana idly wondered why their father hadn’t used a less ostentatious firm to handle his estate. A local attorney in Star Canyon could have handled it, but then Santana realized that they hadn’t had a lawyer there in some years. Folks always wanted to move to the bigger cities with more lucrative clients.

If they could wrap this thing up fast, maybe he could get home in time to stop by and see Emma, Gus, Bean, the cat, the whole menagerie. He’d stop by and get Joe, take him along.

The thought made him smile in spite of the sadness of the occasion. Santana realized he’d needed that, needed to know that life was going to go on, and that there was something on the other side from this wrap-up of his father’s affairs.

I miss the hell out of Dad. Wish I could hear his voice one last time
.

A tall man with collar-length brown hair and slightly sunburned skin was shown in by the same cute receptionist who’d ushered the Dark family into the room earlier. He wore a suit, unlike the Darks, who were mostly clad in jeans, boots, and western shirts, their normal attire. He glanced around at them, clearly feeling as out of place as they did.

“Hi,” he said. “I guess this is the right room.”

“You’d have to ask the lady,” Santana said.

“She said this is the place.” He sat at the opposite end of the table, turned his head to stare out the window. The view was pretty good, but Santana had the feeling the guy wasn’t sure why he was here.

Which was a pretty damn good question. This was a private family dispersion of their father’s estate. He was surprised when the man turned his head, sending a fast peek Sierra’s way before focusing on the Albuquerque skyline again.

Santana glanced at Sierra. She shrugged, and rolled her eyes in true Sierra fashion, well aware the poor bastard had just checked her out. Sierra looked beautiful in a dress with purple flowers scattered over it, her silvery hair up high in a ponytail with only a purple rubber band to hold it there.

Santana tried not to smirk when the poor guy made the mistake of turning and gawking at Sierra once more. His brothers twisted in their seats, edgy and protective. Sierra glared at the poor guy—her typical demeanor when letting men know their attention was unwelcome.

The man’s ears turned a little red at the tops as he realized his error. But this time he stared back at all of them evenly, clearly not intimidated in the least.

Or if he was, he was a damn good bluffer.

Two suits hurried in, followed by two secretaries and a couple of other functionaries. Santana shrugged at his brothers, knowing they were equally surprised by the need for all these people to settle their simple, hardworking father’s trust. It seemed incongruous that a man who had lived and worked as hard and without fanfare as Sonny Dark would need this type of attention.

“Hello, everyone,” a tall, silver-haired man said to the room at large. “I’m Fairfax Morrow, and this is my associate, Darrow Smith.”

The two men sat in the leather chairs, and their secretaries settled papers at their elbows. Santana shifted, apprehensive.

“You must be Nick Marshall, I’m guessing,” Fairfax said to the stranger at the opposite end of the table.

“And you’re the Dark family, then. Sierra, obviously,” he said, nodding to her. “And you are?” he asked Santana.

“Santana. My brothers Romero, Cisco, and Luke.”

“Fine.” Fairfax studied the papers a moment, then looked up. “Your father was a client of our firm for twenty years, and we were privileged that he trusted us.”

Santana was astonished that his father had been coming here for twenty years. He could tell his siblings were as well.

“We were very sorry to hear of your father’s passing. He was a wonderful man. We respected him greatly.” Fairfax looked somber for a moment. “Please accept our condolences. Your father was a brave man.”

Santana shifted again, nodding to show that the family appreciated his words.

“As you know, your father had your family property put into a trust, which was created ten years ago.” He cleared his throat, and Santana realized Fairfax was uncomfortable. He glanced at Darrow, and noted he seemed intent on the papers before him. Neither man appeared happy, but that was the nature of their job. Santana just wanted them to get on with it so they could all leave. He glanced at Nick Marshall, realizing the man was staring at the skyline again. Like he wished he was anyplace but here. Santana knew how he felt.

“The estate, in its entirety, has been left to Nick Marshall,” Fairfax said. “All its contents, all the land.”

Nick’s head whipped around, and Santana saw that he was stunned, as stunned as he was. Dimly he heard Sierra gasp as the words sank in.

“I don’t understand,” Santana said.

“Your father had a business partnership with his brother, a Nicholas Marshall,” Darrow explained. “The business relationship began in the form of a loan, when Sonny Dark required a large sum of money.”

“For what?” Romero demanded, and Santana was glad to hear his brother asking the same question. His heart felt hollow, his stomach knotted tight. What the lawyer was saying was that they had no home, nothing—that wasn’t possible. Their father wouldn’t have cut them out of everything.

“For gambling debts,” Fairfax said.

Cisco snapped, “Bullshit. Our father didn’t gamble.”

“He did at one time, and thought he had it beat. Transferred his appetite for the adrenaline of fast money to the commodities market, as he told us the story,” Darrow said. “Lost his shirt, is how he relayed the facts to us. Soybeans and pork bellies, I believe. We can check the records—”

“This is crazy.” Sierra leaped to her feet. “Dad wouldn’t have left our home to a stranger!” She glared at Nick.

“Actually,” Darrow said, “your father’s name was not Sonny Dark. It was Santiago Quinto Marshall.”

Santana leaned back in his chair. “There’s a mistake. This whole story is completely false. People in our town would have known.”

“Your father was a CIA operative before he married your mother,” Darrow explained. “His life in Star Canyon suited him once he left that life behind. Unfortunately, he still craved excitement, and sought it in other ways. It was difficult living a life in witness protection, I imagine. At least that was the circumstance that he indicated to us, though he never directly told us he was in a witness protection program.”

Santana laughed out loud. “We were a lot of things, but hiding out wasn’t one of them. Dad worked his tail off, but he never…” His thought drifted away as he remembered their easygoing, though hardworking, childhood. They’d had a good, solid upbringing with a lot of love and support.

“Dad wasn’t much for going out,” Luke said, “but we weren’t in hiding.”

“It’s our understanding that your father enjoyed spending time at home with his wife and family,” Fairfax said. “Having a large family was a way to make a woman happy who had to endure the solitude of witness protection.”

“Our parents had a happy marriage. Dad didn’t have us just to make Mom happy. It’s ridiculous.” Sierra suddenly looked like she might cry.

“We misspoke, of course,” Darrow said carefully. “Your father shared that each of you were adopted over the years, and—”

“Just a damn minute!” Santana shot to his feet. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but you’re lying through your teeth. All anyone has to do is look at the five of us, and you can tell we’re the same gene pool!”

The secretaries rushed to bring glasses to the table, putting one beside each of them. Santana wanted to toss his through the huge windows overlooking Albuquerque. “For obvious reasons,” Fairfax said, when everyone had a drink, “your father didn’t want you to know this until after his death. Keeping his family together was paramount for Sonny. Which is why ultimately he opted to go to his brother for help.”