Staking His Claim Read online

  STAKING HIS CLAIM

  by

  Lynda Chance

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  Twenty-one-year-old Elaina Ruiz has only just begun college when she meets Raul Vega for the first time. Recognizing his ruthless intensity for what it is, she doesn’t correct him when he assumes she is an eighteen-year-old freshman.

  Raul Vega has never met a woman he couldn’t do without. Until he meets Elaina Ruiz and knows she has to belong to him—even if it means waiting for her to grow up.

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  SMASHWORDS EDITION

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  Staking His Claim

  Copyright © 2012 by Lynda Chance

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.

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  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ***

  Dedication

  To Rita,

  Whose help has been like gold dust sprinkled around me.

  And to Clayton,

  Because … just because.

  ***

  CHAPTER ONE

  Raul Vega leaned against the wall and surveyed the scene around him. Condensation from the ice melting in his mixed drink soaked the red and gold napkin wrapped around the transparent green cup in his hand.

  What the hell was he doing here? He wasn’t into the social scene at all, his time eaten up with running his ranch and the everyday minutiae that went along with it. He didn’t have time for this shit.

  But Brian and Janie Canton were the closest thing to neighbors he had, and if truth be told, the closest thing to friends, as well. Janie had made it known to all and sundry that Raul would be at their Christmas party, and in the end, as cold and icy as his heart was, he still hadn’t been able to say no.

  So now, here he stood, his back to the wall, and watched the beautiful blond couple entertaining what felt like the whole damn county. The house was beautiful, richly decorated and spilling over with lights and greenery that reflected Janie’s passion for all things holiday.

  It was nauseating.

  He took a drink of the bourbon he had been nursing for the last hour and wondered how quickly he could leave without coming off like the rude fuck that he was.

  His eyes travelled around the circle of people standing near him. Two women stood side by side, one blonde, one red-headed, playing up the other’s charms, both vying for his attention. He had felt their shrewd, calculating eyes coming back to him over and over since he arrived. They were both over the top glamorous, with long hair and manicured hands. Both had attempted to draw him into conversation, and after his second heated glare, had given up momentarily. He knew from experience they would try again.

  They always did.

  Raul wasn’t interested in either one of them. They both looked like they wanted the same two things. Getting him exclusively in their beds, and then getting to his bank account. He’d met their type before, many times, and as distracting as taking one of them to bed would be, he knew he’d regret it tomorrow. Neither held enough appeal for him to have to suffer the ordeal of extricating himself from the situation after.

  He had to admit, the selection of available women this far out in the rural countryside was limited. Driving to San Antonio was always an option, but the pleasures of mindless sex were always mitigated by the long drive and the irritation of having to take time away from the ranch.

  These days, he didn’t think it was worth it. The women that he had met lately were all transparent. They all had an agenda. He didn’t know when or how he’d become so cynical, but recently, there hadn’t been a single woman to cross his radius that seemed genuine.

  He didn’t exactly know where to slot Janie. His neighbor’s new wife seemed okay. She was pretty enough, and in her mid-thirties, she hadn’t been married before. She was blonde and vivacious and he knew Brian doted on her. Raul figured she wasn’t as bad as the rest, and was glad his friend had found her. But still, when Brian had returned from his trip to Houston last year with a bride in tow, it had been a shock to the whole county. But Janie had eyes only for Brian, and her gaze constantly found her husband’s across the crowded room and flashed wickedly. Raul was floored that her apparent love for her husband seemed to be authentic and if she had an ulterior motive, he couldn’t see it.

  There were probably fifty people crowded through the house, laughing and mingling around the kitchen and living areas. He had parked himself in this corner and hadn’t moved since he arrived.

  John Garrett, another neighbor, walked over to speak to him. John’s wife had died a couple of years before, and the guy was almost as anti-social as Raul was.

  “What’s up, man?” Garrett asked in a smooth drawl.

  Raul lifted his chin in a small, imperceptible nod of greeting. “Humoring Janie. Ready to leave.”

  Garrett nodded his agreement. “County sure doesn’t know what to think since Janie came. Parties and bullshit.”

  “Yeah.”

  Garrett had stayed true to his wife for twelve months, but Raul knew from the small town gossip that since then, his neighbor had been screwing everything far and wide. Garrett was sandy blond, in contrast to Raul’s own dark-haired, Spanish heritage.

  Everybody around town was blond. It was an anomaly being so close to Mexico. People should have been dark, but in this small forty or so square miles close to the Texas Hill country, most were blond. Raul’s coloring always attracted attention. And now, standing straight and tall next to his equally tall neighbor, the two females who’d been watching him since he’d gotten there were practically salivating. Raul saw the two women eyeing them up, not even attempting to hide it anymore.

  Garrett spoke in a sneer. “Unless you got dibs buddy, the one on the left goes home in my truck.”

  Raul knocked back the rest of his drink and casually glanced over at the woman in question. He studied her intently, waiting to feel something other than sheer boredom. He saw her eyes flare with a heated, predatory look that left him cold. Nothing had changed since the last time he looked. She seemed exactly like all the rest. Out for a good time. Out for a rich man. Out for some sex. She did nothing for him. “Be my guest.”

  Raul knew Garrett was about to make his move on the woman when Janie breezed back into the room, her arm wrapped tightly around a young, dark-haired girl carrying a backpack. The girl was wearing jeans and a pink t-shirt, with her hair in a ponytail and her face free of make-up. She was pretty, couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen, and he felt Garrett freeze beside him.

  Raul didn’t know who the girl was, but he vaguely remembered Brian telling him something about a niece who had lost her mother recently. She was small and looked Hispanic and some protective instinct he never realized he had rose up within him. He felt his body tighten and hissed a warning to the man standing next to him. “Don’t even fucking think about it man, she’s just a baby.”

  The other man’s e
yes stayed narrowed on the girl, and Raul held himself stiffly until Garrett seemed to think better of it and turned his attention back to the two women.

  Raul took a calming breath, using the moment to excuse himself from getting caught in a social foursome that he had no intention of allowing. Relieved that Garrett had moved his attention away from the younger girl, he spoke both to reward the man and to extricate himself from the clutches of the two women. “Take ‘em both. I’m getting another drink.”

  He walked into the den where his host stood mixing cocktails and socializing with his friends and neighbors. Raul caught Brian’s eye and in moments the other man was pouring him another drink. All the while, Raul felt, rather than saw, Janie leading the young girl around the guests, casually introducing her.

  New drink in hand, Raul was checking his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time when Janie came up behind him and spoke, “Raul, sweetie, look what I’ve got here.” Janie’s voice was melodious and filled with sincere, sweet southern honey.

  Raul shifted around and his gaze ran over the girl with Janie. He stiffened imperceptibly when brown eyes lifted to his and he was ensnared by the exotic beauty of her young face. Immediately, he was swamped with unwanted heat. A raw, basic hunger pulsed through his system he had no right or desire to feel for a girl this young. But nonetheless, it was there, and it was beating forcefully through his bloodstream.

  She was small with silky dark hair and a skin so porcelain-fine his eyes narrowed in on her and studied her intently, looking for a flaw, any flaw.

  There wasn’t one that he could see.

  Her eyes were sexily slanted, dark brown and intense, and her nose was straight with a slight upward tilt that only enhanced her delicate beauty.

  Of their own volition, fighting everything his brain was advising, his eyes dropped and slid down her body. Her hips were narrow below a sharply indented waist. The pink t-shirt clung to her frame and accentuated the slight feminine mounds of her breasts.

  A fierce arrow of arousal and an alarming need to possess slammed through him and he tightened his body to rein in control. Total heat swamped him and he had to force words out of his mouth. “Who’s this?”

  “This is my sweet baby niece, Elaina. She’s home for Christmas. Elaina, meet our neighbor and very dear friend, Raul.”

  As Raul studied the girl in front of him, someone called Janie’s name from the other room.

  “I’ve got to see what that’s all about. I’ll be right back.” She floated off and Raul was left alone with the young girl.

  He felt the need to touch her and couldn’t stop himself, so he offered her his outstretched palm. “Raul Vega.”

  ****

  As the deep, commanding voice lacerated her insides, Elaina tentatively reached out to give her palm to the tall, dark man standing in front of her. His hand encapsulated hers completely and didn’t let go. A searing moment of shock hit her as she glanced at the rough, masculine hand holding hers captive before her eyes slowly climbed back to his face.

  His hand was lean and strong, gripping hers with enough force to momentarily hold her immobile without actually hurting her. The calluses she felt only emphasized his masculinity; the combination of his hand gripping hers and his eyes swallowing her whole were almost more than she could handle at the moment.

  Her heartbeat accelerated and blood pulsed through her veins. Heat swam down her body and she prayed her face didn’t show the effect he had on her. As he continued to hold her hand in a tight clasp, she silently studied him.

  The man was magnificent. There were no other words.

  She guessed his age around thirty, and his surname was indicative of the looks he carried. He was dark and swarthy, his features chiseled and defined in a way that was very much Castilian. He was tall, probably a couple of inches over six feet, with a steely magnetism that ran through his body.

  She realized through a haze of disconcertion that he was studying her as intently as she watched him. She sucked in a breath and held it in her tight throat as her body trembled beneath his too-close observation. A tiny blossom of what felt very much like fear unfurled inside her and mingled with the sharp bite of attraction. Her reaction to him unnerved her.

  He wasn’t dropping her hand, and Elaina waited silently to be released so she could get the hell away from him. She was seriously out of her depth, and she didn’t want or need his searing attention.

  “You don’t look like your aunt.” His voice was deep and smooth and rattled her already frayed nerves. The drive had been long, it was getting late and she was tired and hungry. The very last things she needed right now were to deal with a man that reeked machismo and everything his searing gaze implied.

  She needed to escape, but somehow, she managed to be polite. “No, sir. I favor my father’s side of the family.” She wanted to put space between them and hoped the small inflection she put on the word ‘sir’ would do the trick.

  Right after the slightly accented word came from her lips, her hand was dropped, but his intense scrutiny didn’t leave her.

  “What’s your last name?” he asked.

  “Ruiz.”

  “Hispanic.” It wasn’t a question.

  She replied automatically. “Si.”

  “Home from where?”

  “School.”

  “College?”

  “Yes.”

  The need to know her age was paramount. “What year?”

  “First year.”

  Raul felt a deep hit of disappointment when he received that answer. She was just a baby. And he needed to remember it.

  “What are you studying?”

  “Nursing.”

  “What school?”

  “University of Texas.” She elaborated, “San Antonio.”

  “So you’re close by.” In the wide expanse of Texas, anything less than seventy-five miles was close by. “I assume that’s why you’re staying here for Christmas?”

  Her bottom lip trembled. “That and because Janie’s the only family I have left.”

  “I’m sorry, baby.” His rough voice dropped an octave.

  She felt his heated sympathy wash through her. The presumptuous way he called her baby ignited both agitation and weakness within her. She couldn’t afford to be weak so she steeled her spine and lifted her chin. “Not your fault, Mr. Vega, but thanks anyway.”

  Her words were sharp and didn’t leave room for more questions of an intimate nature.

  She lifted her backpack to her shoulder. “It’s late and I’m not up for a party. It was nice to meet you.” She turned to go.

  His eyes continued to watch her. “Goodnight, Miss Ruiz. It’s been a pleasure.”

  His dark voice was still clamoring in her brain as she walked down the hallway to the bedroom that now belonged to her. She wearily sank down on the bed and dropped her backpack beside her. She was intensely tired, her body physically and mentally worn out by the struggle of living through the months and years just passed.

  Her mother had developed breast cancer at the end of Elaina’s senior year in high school. With the help of Aunt Janie, Elaina had managed to stay in school and graduate. But her mom had been in and out of the hospital after that, and Elaina had taken on the responsibility of her care as her mother fought the fight that had ultimately taken her life.

  Elaina had wanted to do anything she could for the woman who had single-handedly raised her after her dad had died fighting in Iraq. Nursing her mother as much as she could from home had been a loving chore that she had eagerly undertaken.

  Her mom hadn’t wanted her to delay college, but there had been no other option in Elaina’s mind. The love she had for her mom was too strong to let her care go to strangers. Elaina knew, rightly so, that whether her mom won the fight or not, that her own life could always continue later. This might be the only time she had left with her mom, so she had effectively put her own life on hold, and for over three years she’d virtually stayed at home and nursed her ailing mot
her.

  When exactly she had promised her parent that she would become a nurse, she couldn’t remember, but she had promised, and now that pledge was weighing heavily on her heart.

  She’d never had an affinity for the sick room, and admitted to herself she never had the calling to become a nurse. She’d promised her mom solely because the older woman thought she’d make such a good health-care professional, and it seemed to put her mind at ease visualizing what her daughter’s life would be like when she was gone.

  And now Elaina was trapped, with just one semester of nursing school under her belt, she knew she didn’t want to go back. She’d been struggling with it for several months now. She didn’t want to be around sick people any longer. If push came to shove and she had to nurse another loved one, she knew she could find the inner strength somewhere, but as a career choice, it wasn’t going to work. She didn’t want to be around death and sickness; she desperately needed a break.

  The semester had started only two weeks after her mother had died. Before she had time to think or plan, with the urging of Aunt Janie, she had found herself enrolled and going to school. Going to school for something that she didn’t aspire to be. There were many wonderful nurses; she knew that and was thankful to them all for the care her mother had received in the hospital. But it was a calling that unfortunately, she didn’t have.

  She was just so tired. Tired of it all.

  She needed some time off, some time to herself, where she didn’t have to constantly be going to school and studying. She didn’t mind getting a job, and in fact was looking forward to earning her own money, but she needed something that would give her the evenings free, so she could just be herself and chill.

  Was that too selfish a thing to want? Guilt ate at her knowing it would be going against her mom’s hopes and dreams for her. But what about her hopes and dreams? What about having friends, being young, dating? She hadn’t even had a date since high school.

  She’d met a few people at college, young men who had been interested, but for the first few months her grief was still too fresh to even consider it. And lately, the crushing workload left no time for a social life.