Daniela refilled their glasses. She was going to sit down on the armchair beside Laha, but he took her wrist and drew her onto his lap.
Laha took a sip of the wine and looked at Daniela with desire in his eyes. She leaned toward him and drank from his lips. Laha half closed his eyes, and from his throat, a purr of pleasure sounded when he felt the warmth of Daniela’s hands on his face, in his hair, on his neck. He rested a hand on one of her hips so he could hold her tighter, put the other under her sweater, and began massaging her stomach, rising slowly until he reached her breasts. Daniela moved away a few centimeters and looked at him expectantly. When he began to slowly caress her breasts, she bit her bottom lip, and her breathing got faster. Laha fixed his eyes on her face. Her porcelain cheeks were tinged an intense pink. Her enormous eyes looked at him with a mixture of desire and anticipation. Under normal circumstances, the young woman’s gaze was disconcerting. At that moment, a mysterious force surged from the depths of those two sources of light to draw him in like a defenseless insect. He wanted only to hover eternally around those beams, enjoying the challenge and the temptation before submitting to certain death . . .
A short time later, in the guest bedroom, Daniela studied Laha’s bare chest. There was a huge difference between the boys in her past and this fully fledged man. She had known she wanted to spend her life with him, even before sleeping together. Laha moved closer till his body joined hers. No more words were necessary. There were no nerves, nor awkward laughs, nor superfluous pauses, nor confused thoughts. Their hands knew what they wanted to feel. Their lips and their tongues knew well how to sate their desire. It only took one glance into each other’s eyes to be sure that one felt the same intimate hunger as the other.
Laha had made a tremendous effort in delaying the moment when he would take her. He wanted to enjoy every second of exploration. It was the supreme celebration of all the senses. He had traveled half the world, had slept with many women, but he had never experienced pleasure like this, with a young woman whom he had just met in a forgotten corner of the coldest mountains he had ever known. If at any stage he had worried that age difference would be an obstacle, he was now certain he had been completely wrong. His body no longer belonged to him. It would no longer be able to feel anything away from her. He was sure of it.
Daniela moved under him, more than ready to welcome him. If he did not enter her soon, she would scream, even if it woke half the village. Laha positioned himself tenderly between her legs and began moving, stroking her hair with his hands. Daniela moaned and arched her back. She needed to feel him in the deepest part of her being, to rock with him, to melt into the complete union, to explode in unison.
Laha, completely out of breath, collapsed on his back, with his heart beating at a dizzying speed. Daniela placed her arm on his chest. Laha wrapped his arms around her.
“This has never happened to me before,” he said in a low voice. “It was as if . . .”
She finished his sentence before submerging into a deep sleep, “. . . as if someone were manipulating us at will, wasn’t it?”
Clarence returned two days later. The holidays were coming to an end, and her mother’s convalescence would coincide with the start of classes, so it would be a while before she returned to Pasolobino. There had been no progress made on the subject of Laha. For one reason or another, it was never the right moment. It was difficult enough for her father to look after his wife in the flat in Barmón without having to hear such an accusation from his daughter. With regard to Daniela, she was not going to wait one minute more: the moment Laha got on the bus, she would tell her everything.
Clarence watched the quiet and affectionate farewell between Laha and Daniela at the stop in Cerbeán, which was nothing like her complicated good-bye from Iniko on Bioko. Did this mean that Daniela and Laha meant to see each other again?
When her turn came, Laha hugged her tightly.
“Dearest Clarence. Thanks for everything! I’ve had a marvelous holiday!”
Clarence was overcome by a sudden burst of sincerity. “Ah, Laha! A few months ago, you and Bisila and Iniko were strangers. Now, it’s like we have known each other all our lives! As if our lives had been intertwined!”
“Do you mean,” he whispered jokingly, “that you have the strange feeling that you can’t fight the spirits?”
Clarence loosened her hug with a sudden jerk and moved away. Laha planted a quick kiss on Daniela’s cheek and got on the bus. Daniela did not stop waving her hand in the air until the vehicle disappeared from sight.
“And now you and I are going for a beer,” said Clarence. It came out more as an order than a suggestion. “How long has it been since we’ve had time alone?”
When Clarence finished recounting her version of the facts—leaving out her special relationship with Iniko—she lowered her eyes and sighed deeply. At a few points during the story, Daniela’s eyes had filled with tears, but she never let them roll down her cheeks. She pursed her lips, arched her eyebrows, rested her chin in her hands, peeled off the label from the beer bottle, and shredded it into a thousand pieces, but she did not say a word.
“Even the note I found has more meaning than ever,” finished Clarence. “It said that one was working and the other studying hard. It’s obvious. The two brothers, Iniko and Laha.” She lit a cigarette. Her hands were trembling. “The only thing I don’t understand is the relationship between Dimas of Ureca and Manuel in all of this . . . And you? Have you anything to say?”
“And what could I say?” answered Daniela, still in shock. “You yourself have said you don’t have conclusive proof, apart from the coincidence in names and other details.”
They went over all the dates and information once again, but always came to the same point. It was very probable that Laha and Clarence were brother and sister, but only Jacobo could confirm that.
And even if it is true, thought Daniela, that wouldn’t change how I feel about him in any way.
A long silence followed.
And I had thought that my cousin was jealous . . . Daniela shook her head.
“And now what?” Clarence asked, finally free of the secret that had tormented her for months.
“I can’t believe it.” Daniela let out a small, nervous laugh. “Laha could be my . . . cousin!”
Just then, she felt a tightness in her chest.
“What’s the matter?” Clarence asked. “You’ve gone very pale.”
“Oh, Clarence . . . What if . . . Are you sure there isn’t the slightest possibility that Laha’s father could be . . .” She ran out of breath before finishing the question. “My dad?”
Clarence shook her head in certainty.