Texas Woman

Chapter One Republic of Texas 1844 "I see you've taken your brother's whore for your woman, Don Cruz. Is she as hot-blooded as Antonio boasted she was?" "Keep your tongue to yourself or I'll cut it out, Alejandro." Sloan Stewart blanched at the malicious words that had been spoken by the grizzle-faced Mexican bandido bound hand and foot in the stinking San Antonio jail cell, and the equally savage retort from the tall, lean Castilian Spaniard who stood rigidly at her side. Humiliation drew the skin tight over her cheekbones as she restrained the bitter denial that sought voice. Yet what could she say in her defense? She could not deny that she had been Antonio Guerrero's lover. In fact, she had borne Tonio's bastard son. Nor could she deny that Tonio's elder brother Cruz desired her, and had sought--without success so far--to possess her. But it was a hideous thing to hear her relationship with the two brothers put in such contemptible terms. She laid a hand on Cruz's arm and felt the corded muscles of a feral animal tighten and form beneath the layers of fashionable cloth. A narrow strip of sunlight flashed off the wide silver-and-turquoise bracelet Alejandro wore on his right wrist, drawing Sloan's attention once more to the man before them. "Are you sure this bandido is the same man who murdered Tonio four years ago?" she asked Cruz. "The same." "Antonio Guerrero was a traitor and a fool!" Alejandro snarled. "If I had not shot him, the Texas Rangers would have hung him for plotting with the Mexican government to overthrow the Republic." "You are going to hang, Alejandro. If not for murdering my brother, then for stealing my cattle and my horses and for raping the women of my pueblo," Cruz said. The bandido's hostile eyes glittered in the darkened cell. "I admit to nothing--except that I enjoy the first tearing thrust into virgin flesh." He eyed Sloan and added, "You are not, it seems, nearly so fastidious, Don Cruz." "Enough!" Cruz said from between clenched teeth. Sloan unconsciously backed away from the bandido's malevolent stare until she felt Cruz's implacable strength behind her. She straightened her shoulders and said with outward calm, "I'm ready to leave. I've seen all I need to see." Alejandro nodded his head in mock obeisance to her. "Adi-s, puta. Until we meet again." Sloan recoiled from the cruel smile on Alejandro's sharpboned face. His pitiless eyes undressed her, exposing the full breasts with dusky nipples he would pinch and fondle, the slender waist and wide, child-bearing hips he would mount, the triangle of dark curls at the juncture of slim, strong legs that would grip his hairy thighs. She closed her eyes to shut out his visual rape of her, but the sound of Alejandro's low, grating laugh forced them open again. She shivered as his eyes insolently skimmed her body one last time. "I will not be here long enough to hang," he promised. "I will escape, as I escaped from the Rangers four years ago. And when I do, I will see for myself whether Antonio spoke the truth about his whore." Sloan didn't wait to hear Cruz's response to the bandido's taunt. She left the dank room of tiny cells filled with frontier riffraff, murderers and thieves and walked outside onto San Antonio's dusty central square. She squinted her eyes against the sun's midday glare and leaned her hand against the rough brown adobe building, fighting the dizziness that overtook her. She inhaled a deep breath of air to clear her nostrils of the stench of the jail. The smells outside were equally pungent, but not so offensive--frijoles cooking, a freshly laid pattern of horse dung, tiny wild roses climbing the adobe jail wall, and overlaying it all, the tangy smell ofJohnston, Joan is the author of 'Texas Woman', published 2003 under ISBN 9780440236849 and ISBN 0440236843.