by Lisa Jackson
“How did Caleb take the news?”
“Not particularly well. It’s common knowledge that he owns several of the judges in this part of the state. I’m willing to bet that some have even invested in Summer Ridge. Fortunately I ended up with a judge who didn’t happen to be in Johnson’s back pocket.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just that Johnson has powerful friends.” Her small jaw was thrust forward and her eyes were guarded. “And I don’t trust any of them, including you.”
“I didn’t say I was his friend.”
“Partner. That’s good enough.” Standing, she cinched the belt of her robe more tightly around her waist. “Though Caleb Johnson didn’t end up with my land, he still put a noose around my neck. I had to go into debt to pay off my lawyer and mortgage this land. I got behind on my taxes and it took me two years to get back to even again.” Her blood boiled at the injustice of it all and her voice trembled slightly. “I offered to sell him part of the farm once. It wasn’t enough for him. He tried to wheel and deal and swindle me on that piece as well as the rest of the farm! So I’m through dealing with him. As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of buying one square inch of this property!”
“No matter what?”
“No matter what! So, if you’re entertaining any ideas of persuading me to sell, you’d better forget them.”
“That’s not why I’m here.”
She lifted a delicate dark brow and cocked her head to the side. “What then?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to see you again.”
Brace yourself, Dani, don’t fall for his line. You don’t know a thing about this McEnroe character, she told herself. She took a step backward, toward the door. “Why?”
“I only wish I knew,” he said shaking his head. “You’re a very beautiful woman. Intriguing.”
“A challenge, Mr. McEnroe?”
A crooked smile slid over his face. “Maybe—”
“Then forget it. I don’t like dealing with anyone associated with Caleb Johnson. I don’t know why you got roped into being his business partner . . . oh, yeah, it was something about giving your business a shot in the arm financially, wasn’t it? Well that doesn’t wash with me. There are lots of ways to raise capital. You don’t have to go crawling to the likes of Johnson!”
“He came to me.”
“Why?”
“A good question,” Chase remarked thoughtfully. How many times had he asked himself why Caleb had traveled all the way to Boise? It just didn’t make a whole lot of sense. And the answers Caleb had given him were vague, as if he were hiding something from Chase. The situation made Chase uneasy and restless.
“You were right about one thing,” Chase said, straightening from the rail and advancing upon her.
Dani stood her ground. “Just one?”
“Everything has a price,” he whispered. “And believe me, I’m paying for my partnership.”
As Chase slowly walked the few steps separating them; Dani felt her pulse begin to race. “I feel sorry for anyone who gets involved with Johnson,” she said.
“I don’t want your pity.” Chase stood inches from her and Dani was wedged between the screen door and the wall of Chase’s body. He sent her a sizzling look that seared through all facades to cut into the woman within.
“Then what is it that you want?” she asked, wincing at the breathless quality in her voice.
He placed one hand against the wood frame of the door near her head. “I just want to get to know you better,” he whispered, his head lowering and his lips brushing across hers.
Dani’s heart began to hammer in her chest. The feel of his warm lips against hers was enticing. Little sparks of excitement tingled beneath her skin. This is madness, her conscience screamed as the kiss deepened, but she didn’t draw away from him.
He placed his free hand on the other side of her head, trapping her, but he didn’t touch her except for the fragile link of his lips against hers. She smelled the rain in his hair, tasted the hint of salt on his lips....
Dani should have felt trapped and she knew it, but she didn’t. Instead she felt the wondrous joy of being wanted and desired—more a woman than she’d felt in years.
“I—I think you should go,” she said, clearing her throat when he finally lifted his head to gaze into her eyes.
“Why?”
“It’s late.”
“Not that late.”
“Chase—” Her voice caught on his name. “Look, I think it would be better if we weren’t involved.”
“Too late.”
The man was maddening! “I . . . look, I just can’t. I don’t have time—”
“Sure you do.” His lips captured hers again and this time he wrapped the strength of his arms around her body. She felt small and weak and helpless, emotions she usually loathed but now loved.
“Chase—Please—” she whispered, but her words sounded more like a plea than a denial.
His tongue slid easily through her parted lips and her hands, pressed against his chest, were little resistance to his strength. She felt the corded power of bunched muscles beneath his wet shirt and the exhilaration of his tongue tasting hers.
Moaning as his hands pulled her closer still, she didn’t realize that her robe had gaped open and that the swell of her breasts and the pulse at her throat were visible in the darkness. She was conscious only of the strong fingers holding her tight, the muscular thighs pressed against hers and the pounding of her heart as it pumped blood furiously through her veins.
When he lifted her head to gaze at her, his gaze had become slumberous, smoldering with a passion so violent he could barely keep his head.
Dani felt the rapid rise and fall of her breasts in tempo with her labored breathing.
Gently he kissed her cheeks and her neck before his mouth settled on the ripe swell of her breast Dani gasped. His lips and tongue felt hot and wanton.
“Dani,” he choked out, his voice rough, his breath warm against the cleft between her breasts.
She tried to think, tried to push him away, but couldn’t find the strength or desire to let him go. Crazy as it was, she wanted to be with him, to get to know him, to lie with him. He was like no man she had ever met and he sparked something in her that she had thought was long dead.
“Oh, God,” he whispered when he gently tugged on her robe, baring her breast. The dark tip pointed proudly into the night.
“Please, don’t,” she whispered, summoning all of her strength and pulling on her robe.
All of his muscles slackened and he leaned against her. “I can’t apologize for what’s happening, Dani,” he said, his breath ruffling her hair. “I’ve tried to fight my attraction to you and I’ve failed.” He sighed loudly before staring into her eyes and softly tracing her jaw with a long, rough finger. “I didn’t want any of this to happen, y’know.”
Swallowing, she placed her arms over her chest and stepped away from him. “Neither did I.”
“But it’s there.”
“Not if we don’t let it be,” she said, her head clearing a little. “Look, I really can’t get involved with anyone now. Especially not you.”
“Why not?”
“You’re Caleb Johnson’s partner, for God’s sake!”
“So you can’t trust me?”
“Would you?” she demanded, her eyes bright.
Tortured by the bewitching gleam in Dani’s gaze, the thick strands of her vibrant hair, the proud lift of her chin, Chase had to look away. “Maybe not.”
“Then we understand each other.”
“Not quite.” He turned to face her again and this time frustration contorted the shadowed contours of his rugged face. He balled a fist and slowly uncurled it, as if in so doing he could release the sizzling tension that twisted his insides and made him burn with lust. “What I don’t understand is why I can’t keep away from you, why I can’t quit thinking about you, why I lie aw
ake in bed with thoughts of you. I don’t want any of this, lady, and God knows I didn’t ask for it, but it’s there. I can’t get you out of my mind and, unless I miss my guess, you feel the same way about me.”
He reached for her and when she tried to pull away, he jerked her roughly to him. “You can’t deny that you want me just as much as I want you.”
“I don’t want you!”
“Liar!”
“Chase, don’t!” Dani felt like slapping him but when his lips came crashing back to hers, she kissed him hungrily and the fire in her blood raged wildly in her veins. An ache, deep and primal, awakened within her body and her fingers caught in the rain-dampened strands of his hair.
“Don’t what?” he rasped, once his plundering kiss was over.
“Don’t make me fall for you,” she whispered, surprised at her own honesty.
He let out a sigh and tried to control his ragged breathing, his thudding heart. He noticed the worry in her eyes and attempted a smile that failed miserably. “All right,” he finally agreed, wiping an unsteady hand over his brow. “I’ll leave you alone, if that’s what you want.”
“It’s what I want,” she lied.
“Because you don’t trust me,” he said flatly.
“Because I can’t, dammit!”
Chase looked up at the pouring rain before glancing back at Dani. “Just remember that you’re the one who set down the rules,” he said. “I can’t promise that I’ll stick to them, but I’ll try.” He gave her a scorching glare that touched the forbidden corners of her heart before he slowly walked away from the porch and into the pelting rain.
Dani clutched at the lapels of her robe, feeling more alone and desolate than she had in years as she watched Chase disappear into the darkness.
Chapter Four
All through the night, Dani listened to the sound of the rain running through the gutters and wondered what had happened to Chase. More to the point, she wondered what she was going to do about him. No matter which way she thought about it, Chase McEnroe was Caleb Johnson’s partner. Even though he was attractive, her reaction to him was all wrong and much too powerful to ignore.
“Of all the men in the world, why him?” she asked herself as she tossed on the bed and flung off the covers in disgust. Sitting upright, her hair tangled and messed, she stared out the rain-streaked window and thought about the way she’d melted inside when he’d kissed her.
Even in the darkness she could feel her cheeks burn in embarrassment as she remembered how her heart and breasts had responded to the warmth and tenderness of his touch. “Oh, Dani,” she sighed, flopping back on the pillows and trying to slow her racing pulse, “what have you gotten yourself into?”
* * *
Cody, hair still dripping from a quick shower, bounded down the stairs and took a seat at the kitchen table.
Hoping that the strain of the night didn’t show on her face, Dani looked up and smiled at her son. “Good morning,” she said as she placed a platter of pancakes in front of him.
“Mornin’.” He poured syrup on his pancakes before lifting his eyes to stare at his mother. “What was that guy doin’ here last night?”
Dani felt her back stiffen, but managed to pour a cup of coffee with steady hands, blow across the hot liquid, and meet her son’s curious gaze. “Chase?”
“If he’s that new guy who works for Caleb Johnson.”
“One and the same,” Dani admitted pensively. Thinking back to her intimate conversation with Chase on the back porch, Dani blushed and took a sip from her mug. “I didn’t know you were awake.”
“I couldn’t sleep. My window was open and I heard him talkin’ to you. What’d he want?”
Dani lifted her brows. “Didn’t you hear that, too?”
“I couldn’t hear what you said. Too much noise because of the rain. I just heard voices.”
Thank God.
“But I knew he was here.” He looked away from Dani and concentrated on the thick stack of pancakes and a bowl of peaches Dani had set on the ancient table.
“How?”
“Recognized his voice.”
Her feelings in an emotional tangle, Dani sat across from her son and toyed with her breakfast. She knew that she couldn’t trust Chase, but there was something about the man, something earthy and seductive, that she couldn’t forget. She glanced out the window toward the creek where Chase and at least one other man were working, and wondered again why he’d come up to her house in the middle of the rainshower.
“Mom?”
“What?” Dani turned her attention back to her son and realized he was waiting for an explanation. His dark eyes were round with concern. “Don’t worry about Chase,” she said, hoping to put Cody’s worries to rest. “He stopped by last night because he wants my permission to work on the creek where it cuts through our property.”
“Why?”
Dani lifted a shoulder. “Beats me . . . Caleb probably asked him to, I suppose.”
Cody made a sound of disgust and finished his pancakes. He took a long swallow of his milk, watched his mother over his glass and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“More?”
“Naw.”
“Next time, use your napkin,” she said automatically. She studied her son as Cody scraped his chair back from the table and carried his dishes to the sink.
How like his father Cody looked; the same curly dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. Except for the lack of cynicism twisting the corners of his mouth and the honest warmth of his smile, Cody was growing up to be the spitting image of Blake.
“Why’re you hanging out with one of Caleb Johnson’s men?”
“Hanging out with him?” Dani repeated with a laugh. “I’m not.”
Hopping up on the counter and swinging his legs, Cody looked at his mother and frowned. “But you don’t hate him—not the way you hate the rest of Johnson’s men.”
“I don’t hate anyone. Not even Caleb Johnson. As for Chase, I don’t even know him.”
“Doesn’t matter. You like him.”
Dani smiled and finished her coffee.
“You do like him, don’t you?”
“It’s not a question of liking him; I just don’t know him.”
“You didn’t throw him off the place last night or the other night, either,” Cody pointed out. He picked up a fork from the counter and began twirling it nervously between his fingers.
“That’s not as easy as it sounds.”
“It’s your land.”
“Well, yes, it is. And it means a great deal to me. Maybe more than it should.”
“Why?”
She hesitated a moment. Could Cody possibly understand her love and obligation to the family farm? Probably not. “I’m attached to this place for sentimental reasons. Lots of them. For quite a few generations someone from my family—your family, too, y’know, has lived here and worked hard to keep the land in the family. Even when times were hard; a lot harder than they are now. It just seems a shame to give it all up so that Caleb Johnson can build his resort.”
Still sitting on the counter, Cody dropped the fork into the sink. “Would a resort be all that bad?”
“I don’t know.” She stood and placed her cup and saucer in the sink. Bracing herself against the edge of the counter and looking up at her son, she tried to think calmly about the resort she found so threatening. But it wasn’t the resort itself; it was Johnson and his methods that made her blood boil. “Not really, I guess. A resort would benefit a lot of people and change the complexion of the town.”
“That would be good.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not really sure. It certainly would mean more money and economic development for the town. But with that would come people, tourists, new zoning, new roads and construction. Sleepy little Martinville would grow up. Fast.”
“Good!”
Dani smiled sadly and bit into her lower lip. “Maybe it’s selfish of me to want to keep the land.” She look
ed through the open window to the dry fields, across the silvery creek. past the few scrubby oak trees to the gently rising land near the mountains. In the distance the proud Rockies cut through the blue morning sky to be rimmed by a few scattered clouds.
“So why don’t you sell?”
“I was going to once,” she admitted, thinking back to how foolish she’d been to trust Caleb Johnson. “Right after Grandma died; you weren’t even in school yet. Johnson and I’d agreed on the price for the back fifty acres. However, when it got down to signing on the dotted line, Caleb pulled a fast one and said he’d decided he needed all my land. All or nothing. I just couldn’t sign away all of Grandma and Grandpa’s land. So it was nothing. Caleb’s been fuming ever since.”
“And causing trouble?”
“Which I can’t prove.”
“I think he’s behind everything that’s gone wrong around here,” Cody proclaimed.
“Not everything,” Dani replied. “Sometimes it was just fate or mistakes that I made.”
Cody shook his head firmly. “I think he poisoned the cows when they got sick and I’ll bet he stole our gas!”
“We don’t know that.”
“Who else?”
Dani’s brows drew together in concentration. How many times had she asked herself the same question? How many nights had she lost sleep wondering if Caleb were really as bad as she thought he was? “Good question.”
“What I don’t get,” Cody said with a look far wiser than his years, “is why he wants all of this land?”
“Another good question.” She rumpled his dark hair affectionately. “I wish I had the answers.”
Cody looked up at the ceiling and shifted uneasily, avoiding Dani’s gaze. “Isabelle Reece said her pa thinks you’re a fool.”
Dani laughed. A fool! Well, maybe she was. Judging from her reaction to Chase, she certainly felt the part. “So when did Isabelle Reece’s dad become an authority?” Dani teased.
Cody looked down at her and grinned. “On being a fool?” he repeated. “Oh, I get it: it takes one to know one?”
“Something like that.” Dani laughed and tapped him on the knee. “Now, if I’ve answered all of your questions, Detective Summers, why don’t you hop down and feed the livestock while I tackle the dishes?”