Staking His Claim by Lynda Chance Read Free Book Online Page A

teenagers and young
twenty-somethings. He imagined Janie had invited them for Elaina.
He glanced around as casually as he could and tried to break free
from a neighbor who had heard from the vet about the loss of his
animals. Word travelled quickly. It was the last thing he wanted to
talk about, and he pulled away as quickly as he could.
    Still, it was forty-five minutes after he
arrived before he found her. And when he did, his mood turned even
more black and ugly. The fire in his gut smoldered with feral
jealousy as his tortured gaze saw her and the animal inside of him
tried to break free.
    She was outside in the gazebo, holding a
glass of champagne, surrounded by a group of young people, both men
and women.
    That wasn't the part that made him see
red.
    Trevor stood beside her with his hand
playfully twirling in her hair. He wasn't touching her anywhere
else, but it was enough to send rage and jealousy spinning through
Raul.
    He stood on the pebbled pathway, downed half
his beer, and tried like shit to gain some fucking control. He
wasn't going to jump. Trevor was basically a good kid and Raul
absolutely couldn't go over there and kill the little prick. His
feet took two steps toward the gazebo and he froze.
    He was not fucking going to go over there and jump down that kid's throat. He wasn't .
    He lifted the beer, drained the rest and
crushed the can. His throat tightened and he waited for Elaina to
see him.
    When her eyes lifted and fell on him, she
stilled. Completely.
    He was twenty feet away but he could see the
tremble in the hand that held her champagne.
    It made him feel slightly better.
    Her head tilted to the side, away from
Trevor, and he watched as she surreptitiously lifted her hair off
her neck and made it fall from the younger man's hand.
    The kid let his hand drop as he turned away
to laugh at something one of the other girls in the group said.
    As Raul stood and watched the scene in front
of him, he heard the rumble of an engine and looked across the way
and saw Brian on a tractor, hauling a twenty foot trailer full of
hay around to the back of the house.
    One of the girls screamed, "Hayride!" and one
by one the kids took off toward the trailer loaded with hay and a
cooler full of drinks.
    Elaina stayed still and Trevor reached down
to pull on her arm. She hesitated, watching Raul.
    Raul shook his head at Elaina, giving her a
silent command to stay where she was.
    Another girl in the group, one Raul
recognized as one of the Monroe twins, began pulling on Trevor's
other arm, trying to get him to move in the direction of the
trailer.
    Raul walked toward the gazebo and looked at
Trevor and the Monroe girl. "You best get going. You're gonna miss
your ride."
    Trevor balked, obviously not wanting to leave
without Elaina. But the little Monroe girl was persistent, and
before long she won the fight and was pulling Trevor down the drive
while he threw looks of longing in Elaina's direction.
    The tractor rambled off and Raul wasted no
time. He picked up Elaina's hand and dragged her away from the
gazebo, away from the lights of the yard, and marched her twenty
yards from the noise of the party. He swung her around until her
back was against the implement barn, and he had her caged between
his arms in the darkness of the black night.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Elaina's breathing was coming shallow and
speedy. She hadn't seen Raul in two weeks, and the sudden sight of
him watching her like a predator in the night had the blood pulsing
through her veins in a loud, clamoring testament to the feelings
she'd been trying to understand. She felt a rush to her head as
within mere moments, she was propelled away from the party and held
hostage by the most uncivilized man she had ever encountered.
    He hung over her, his breath rattling out of
his lungs, his eyes brilliant in the dark night. They stood
together, breathing raggedly, eyes on each other.
    He reached down, took both of her wrists in
his calloused hands and pulled them over her