“Enough!” Ginny whirled to glare at him. “You are entirely too bold. I insist you leave at once. What are you doing—”

“Taking what you offer with your eyes…your lips. Do you think I do not hear what you want me to hear? It is not what you say, but what you do not say that intrigues me most, perdida. Ah, did you think I do not know everything about you by now? I do. I have made it my business to find out.”

Ginny’s muscles tensed as he held her arm tightly, his fingers squeezing cruelly. There was a frightening intensity to his grip and his words, and his dark eyes were almost black as he stared down at her. She forced her muscles to relax, and saw an almost imperceptible shift of his body as he reacted.

“My, my, General Luna, you are very intense tonight. Whatever has happened to unsettle you?” Her head tilted slightly to one side and her mouth curved into a deliberately teasing smile as she lowered her lashes in a flirtatious glance sideways. “Surely you are not going to let our difference of opinion matter? I have my opinion, and you have yours. It should not be allowed to come between us.”

As she talked, she leaned back so that her hip rested against the wall by the window. Light slanted through the open shutters, glinting in Luna’s eyes and illuminating a faint scar that curved across one high cheekbone. A handsome man, admittedly, but cruel beneath his suave exterior. It was a perception she had learned far too well at the hands of men like Tom Beal, who had not had Luna’s sophistication. There had been others, with all the surface veneer of wit, education, intelligence and sophistication, men who had been just as ruthless and brutish as Beal beneath the facade they showed the world.

Luna was one of them. She knew it, felt it in every fiber of her being.

Rafael Luna put his hand on her throat, forcing her chin up so that she had to look into his eyes, his fingers a light clasp that was vaguely threatening.

“I hope you are not planning anything foolish, chica, for it would make me very angry.” His grasp tightened the smallest bit, restricting her breathing. “I am afraid that I would have to punish you were you to misbehave….”

A spurt of fear rendered her momentarily unable to do more than stare up at him, eyes wide and absorbing light from the windows so that she felt dazed, blinded by it. Her right arm dropped to one side, fingers curling into green silk like claws. The outline of the dagger hilt was buffered by her skirts. It fit snugly against her thigh. She touched it lightly for reassurance.

Luna’s eyes narrowed fractionally. She forced herself to go still, returning his stare with what she hoped was a cool gaze.