Kings Will Be Tyrants

Kings Will Be Tyrants by Ward Hawkins is a 1959 novel about fighting in Cuba. Bernardo Manuel Patrick O'Brien is a former U.S. Marine who winds up fighting for Castro. Though a Marine, he has to deal with the conflict of his heritage, both Cuban and American.

REBELS AND LOVERS

They sat side by side on the bank of the stream. In the moonlight, O’Brien could see the oval of her face, the brushed-back hair, the level hazel eyes and the soft mouth. He could see the swelling of her breasts in the open front of her shirt, the slender bare feet dangling in the water, and he could smell the many small odors that named her woman.

She was very desirable. It was only in the matter of politics that they were on opposite sides. “I believe there is one matter in which we could agree,” he said softly.

The girl met his searching look with a tentative smile.

He reached out and put his big rough but oddly gentle hands on her shoulders and pushed her back until she was lying on the ground. She did not resist.

But when he bent to put his mouth against hers, she whispered, “I have not done this before.”

O’Brien tightened his arms around her. “Then it is time,” he said.

Not since Hemingway’s FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS has there been such a gripping novel of love and war… “Dramatic, entertaining, highly readable…”—Los Angeles Times