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CHAPTER
EIGHT
Chewing on her lower lip, Isabella sat at Benedict’s dining table, holding a cup of coffee. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Their coming together had been explosive, but he had questions.
Questions she hoped she could answer to his satisfaction.
Bull took a deep breath and sat down across from Isabella. “You know, I heard you call me Benedict before I left Terra Dura. Right before I got the phone call about Luke.”
“I slipped up.” She searched his face, so afraid he was about to send her home that she didn’t know what to do.
Bull drained his cup, setting it down on the table a little harder than necessary. “Why the deception? Why did you lie to me?”
She winced at the word. Lie. “I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to.” Isabella could feel panic rising in her chest. This was important, she had to make him understand. “When we first met, I was all swept up in trying to show people that bullfighting didn’t have to be a blood sport. My father and mother died for this.”
Bull shook his head. “I heard you say they were murdered. Were you serious?”
“Yes.” She told him how her father and mother had been found. “No one was ever arrested, but many believed a rival could have killed them. My father was influential in the sport and I think they were killed because he was laying down his sword, changing the way he fought the bulls. His entourage knew this, those closest to him knew this, but the public did not. He was to make the announcement at a major bullfight in Mexico City. There would’ve been a great uproar, many would have been affected. I always thought someone who felt their own success would be damaged stopped him. I think it was one of his own men.”
Bull frowned. “Did you ever share your suspicions with anyone?”
“Yes, I have talked to the authorities and to my uncle.” She traced the top of her coffee cup with her fingertip. “There was no proof.”
“Your father would have fought the bulls the way you do, if he had lived?”
“Yes, my mother felt strongly about this, as did I. He grew to share our beliefs and wanted to change his life and the sport, if he could.” Isabella nodded sadly. “He was a good man.”
Bull searched her beautiful face, a better understanding of her motives dawning. “This is why La Diosa was born, to honor your father and to pick up the mantle he dropped when he died?”
“Yes, exactly. The sport is changing. Already some cities are banning the killing of the bulls. Many still hold onto the old ways, but there is a movement to overturn tradition.” She gave him a small smile. “I am trying to change the world.”
“By placing your life in danger, every time you get in the ring,” Bull growled. “I don’t like it.”
“I am good at what I do.”
“Yes, you are. You saved my ass, but I don’t think I could survive watching you do much more of that.”
She might be grasping at straws, but he almost made it sound like he intended to keep her around. “I tried to keep La Diosa separate from Terra Dura. I didn’t want my uncle to find out, he would’ve used it against me.”
“I wouldn’t have betrayed you, Ca…Isabella.” He was finding it hard to let loose of Carmen. “Why didn’t you tell me when I came to Terra Dura?”
Isabella blushed. “I started to. The moment I saw you, I was floored. I almost ran to your arms. But…”
“But what?” Bull pushed.
“You didn’t recognize me. You treated me with disdain.” She folded and refolded a dishtowel she found lying on the table. “I could see the dislike in your eyes. I thought you were only attracted to Carmen and only because her face was covered by a mysterious mask.”
Bull laughed. He threw back his head and laughed hard. “My God.” Dry-scrubbing his face, he shook his head. “I was so attracted to you that I was practically blind with lust. Don Luis talked about you like you were off-limits, a teen-ager. I was trying to stay out of prison!”
“Do I look so different?” Isabella gestured toward her face and body. “Is the real me not enough for you?”
“The real you is perfection, Isabella, you know that.” Bull stood and walked to the window, jamming his hands into his front pockets. “I guess we see what we expect to see. Several times I had this funny déjà vu feeling when I was around you, but I discounted it. I was hopelessly attracted to you both and felt like a heel because of it.” He glanced back at her. “I was half in love with Carmen and I didn’t want to betray her…with you.”
Isabella could hear the censure in his voice. “Well, I am here now. I am me…and I am La Diosa.” She stood to go to him. “Can we not be together?”
Bull knew she had no idea what she was doing to him. To have everything he wanted in life offered to him was almost impossible to resist. But it wouldn’t work. Even though she was looking at him with these big, doe eyes, pleading – he knew it wouldn’t work. Oh yea, she wanted him now. She might even fancy herself to be in love with him.
But Carmen Isabella La Diosa Cortez was too young for him. Not illegal, just too young. She’d tire of him. Even if they were to marry, he’d grow old and she’d grow more beautiful.
