One Last Chance

by Sherryl Woods

  He beamed at her. “I’ll take that pie now. Make it a big piece with lots of ice cream on top.”

  “Not a chance. It’s too late for that. I want to know what went on out there today or that pie goes straight into the garbage.”

  Grady sighed heavily. “You’re a very persistent woman, you know that?”

  “Yes,” she said proudly.

  “It’s a very annoying trait.”

  “I suppose that depends on your point of view,” she countered.

  “I imagine I could distract you, if I wanted to,” he said, eyeing her thoughtfully.

  “I doubt that.”

  “Are you challenging me to try?”

  Karen spotted the spark of mischief in his eyes and realized that she’d just made a serious tactical error. Before she could correct it, he was on his feet and reaching for her.

  With a look of grim determination, he slanted his mouth across hers. Whatever his intention, though, whether to silence her or challenge her, it quickly became something else entirely. The coaxing kiss turned greedy. Gentle persuasion became breath-stealing hunger.

  All thoughts about winners and losers in their battle of wits fled as they set a new, common goal: passion. Karen’s head went spinning, her pulse ricocheted wildly, her blood heated and pooled low in her belly.

  This is wrong, she thought. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

  And yet she couldn’t seem to stop, couldn’t seem to pause even long enough to catch her breath. A frantic neediness was making her breasts ache and her body eager. Grady had moved beyond kisses now. His hands were everywhere, gentle, persuasive, provocative.

  Karen felt the buttons on her dress give way, felt the cool air against her overheated skin, then the warmth of Grady’s clever caresses as they streaked fire in their path. She wanted things she had never expected to feel again, wanted to feel gloriously alive and loved and irresistible. Grady was giving her all of that with his wicked kisses and increasingly intimate touches.

  “Not here,” she pleaded, when her dress was in a tangle around her feet and her bra was across the room.

  “Tell me where,” he said, scooping her into his arms.

  “Upstairs.”

  At the top of the stairs, he hesitated, and so did she. Not in her room, not in the bed she’d shared with Caleb.

  “Over there,” she said, gesturing toward the guest room with its colorful quilt on an antique iron bed.

  There were no memories in this room, no personal mementos of her years with Caleb.

  The sheets were crisp and smelled of sunshine, not the lingering—or imagined—scent of a familiar aftershave. The mattress was firm, not shaped by years of accommodating two bodies that slept curved together in the middle.

  She couldn’t help thinking of the contrasts as Grady lowered her onto the bed, then slid in next to her, his gaze tender as he slowly stripped away her remaining clothes. The trip to the second floor had eased the tension, the frantic need, but with one glance, one touch, he was able to bring it back until she was lying there trembling and desperate for the feel of him deep inside her.

  She tugged at his shirt with impatient fingers, pushing it up and over his head, then setting to work on the snap of his jeans with total concentration. She couldn’t seem to manage it, though. Her fingers trembled and, next to the heat of his bare belly, they felt icy cold. He rested his hand atop hers, then met her gaze.

  “It’s okay. There’s no rush,” he reminded her.

  “There is,” she insisted, struggling to free herself from his grasp so that she could finish what they had begun.

  She almost missed the flash of wariness in his eyes, it came and went so quickly. But it had been there and for an instant, she felt a flicker of shame.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice ragged.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t want you to think I’m using you, that I just want this to be over with.”

  His smile was tinged with unmistakable sadness. “Isn’t that the truth, though? At least part of it?”

  “Maybe,” she finally confessed in a small voice. “I want you, Grady, but I’m scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “That it’s for all the wrong reasons, just like you said.”

  He rolled away from her, locked his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling until his breathing steadied. Karen felt bereft, but she didn’t pursue him, didn’t dare touch him the way she desperately wanted to.

  Finally, when she thought she wouldn’t be able to bear the tension building inside her for another second, he reached for her hand, pressed it to his lips. “Another time,” he said quietly and without rancor.

  Tears stinging her eyes, she reached for the sheet, clutched it to her bare breasts. “Are you sure?”

  His gaze met hers. “Oh, darlin’, if I am sure of anything in this world, it’s that. There will be another time for this, for the two of us. And when it happens, we’ll both be sure it’s the right thing for the right reasons.”

  A smile curved his lips. “Now come over here and cuddle up beside me.”

  Sheet firmly tucked in place, she slid closer until she could feel his heat warming her and the steady beating of his heart beneath her ear. And in that moment, her heart filled with gratitude and maybe something else, something that felt an awful lot like the first amazing moments of falling head over heels in love.

  CHAPTER 10

  With Karen curved securely against him, Grady was having a hard time thinking straight, but he forced himself to concentrate on that severed barbed wire. It was about the only thing sufficiently fascinating to distract him from the warmth of her body curled next to his.

  First chance he got, he was going to track down Tate McDonald and then get his private investigator doing checks on all of the neighboring property owners. One of them was holding a grudge against Karen, or against him. Since he’d never even met McDonald and barely knew the Fletchers or the Oldhams, it seemed likely the dispute was with Karen. Either way, it needed to be settled before things got ugly.

  Karen sighed softly, her breath stealing across his bare chest and ruining his concentration. He thought he’d been rather clever at distracting her from all of her questions earlier, even if the outcome had been less than what he’d anticipated. He could wait until she was ready to make love, even if it was getting more and more difficult.

  She moaned and snuggled more tightly against him. The sheet slipped away, revealing way too much of an alluring breast, a taut dusky nipple. His breath caught in his throat as he struggled yet again against temptation. He was more sinner than saint, and this was too much.

  Gently he shook her awake, tugging the sheet back into place as her eyes blinked open, registering first surprise, then sleepy delight, then worry as she realized she had fallen asleep in his arms. The reactions pretty much summed up their relationship, a curious mix that had kept Grady off guard for weeks now. He’d tried staying away twice now, but it hadn’t worked. He’d concluded he was going to have to see this through to whatever ending it was headed for.

  “I must have fallen asleep,” she said, gathering the sheet more securely around her. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. There is nowhere I’d rather be.”

  “Really?” she asked skeptically. “You seemed to be in an awfully big hurry earlier. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that.”

  He sighed. “I was hoping you had.”

  “Not that the distraction wasn’t fascinating,” she said, “but I have a very good memory.”

  “Apparently,” he agreed, thinking of more than her interest in his earlier activities. She also had a very long memory when it came to her late husband’s prejudices.

  “So?” she prodded.

  He regarded her with feigned innocence. �
��So?”

  She nudged him sharply in the ribs with her elbow. “Don’t play dumb, Grady. I want to know what had you so distracted over dinner. What happened when you were with Hank and Dooley? Did it have something to do with the fence?” Sudden understanding spread across her face. “Was it deliberately cut?”

  The woman was too smart for her own good and Grady wasn’t about to lie to her. “Yes,” he said tersely.

  “But who…?”

  He noticed that she didn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that he might be responsible. That was progress, he supposed.

  “We’re going to find out,” he told her. “As soon as I get home, I’m going to start making calls.”

  “Which explains why you were so anxious to get out of here earlier,” she concluded.

  “Exactly.”

  “Make the calls from here,” she said. “I want to know what you find out.”

  He nodded and reached for his jeans. When he was dressed, he glanced back at her tousled hair and the rumpled sheets. It looked as if much more had gone on in that bed, he thought with regret. Apparently Karen could read him even better than he’d realized. Her expression faltered.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  He bent down and kissed her thoroughly. “You don’t ever have to be sorry for not doing something you’re not ready for. I can wait.”

  Her gaze searched his. “Can you?”

  “For you? Absolutely.”

  She returned his gaze, her expression earnest, her brow puckered. “I can’t promise I will ever be ready.”

  “You will be,” he said with total confidence. He believed that as he hadn’t believed in anything else in a very long time.

  * * *

  Karen took her time before following Grady downstairs. She needed to think about what had happened…and what hadn’t. She also wanted to absorb Grady’s easygoing acceptance of all of it. The lack of pressure—the willing restraint—had been a surprise. She’d always believed him to be a man who simply took what he wanted. In fact, hadn’t she counted on it earlier, expecting him to ride roughshod over her doubts, leaving her no choice but to make love?

  But, then, there had been a lot of things she’d thought about Grady that she was discovering to be untrue. He was kind and thoughtful and unfailingly decent, at least in his treatment of her. She was beginning to doubt that he had ever been the thief and scoundrel Caleb had accused him of being.

  More surprising than Grady’s behavior in the past few hours was her own. She had nearly made love with a man she’d been taught to distrust. More significant, she couldn’t seem to make herself regret it. In fact, if she was feeling any regrets at all, it was that she had faltered along the way and still didn’t know what sort of magic she might have found in Grady’s arms.

  She moaned and covered her face. What was happening to her? How had she let this happen? How had she allowed it to go so far? And why didn’t she feel the least bit guilty about any of it?

  Because she had no answers—and was fairly certain she wouldn’t like any of them, anyway—she hopped out of bed, took a quick shower, then joined Grady downstairs just as he hung up the phone. His expression was grim.

  “What?” she said at once. “Have you found something?”

  “Only that Tate McDonald is a very wealthy absentee owner, that your other neighbors are in debt, but no more so than any other small rancher, and that if anyone has a vested interest in ruining you, it’s me.” He shrugged. “That’s the consensus, anyway.”

  “Well, we both know that’s not true,” she said.

  He gazed into her eyes. “Do you know that?” he asked, his expression intent.

  Karen nodded slowly, her gaze never shifting from his. “I do,” she assured him, startled to find that she meant it.

  Satisfaction spread slowly across his face. He touched her cheek. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me. You’ve more than proved yourself to me.” She reached for the pot of still-warm coffee and poured two cups. “Now we just have to determine who’s out to destroy me and ruin your reputation at the same time.”

  He grinned. “Simple as that, huh?”

  “I didn’t say it was going to be easy,” she said, getting a notebook and pen from a drawer by the refrigerator. “We just have to be systematic and logical.”

  “In that case, I need that pie you promised me,” Grady declared. “I can only be logical on a full stomach.”

  When she started to stand, he waved her back to her chair. “I can do it. Do you want some?”

  “Of course.”

  He cut two big slices, retrieved the ice cream from the freezer and added huge dollops on the pie. She grinned at the size of the portions.

  “Obviously you’re planning on a long night,” she commented.

  “A very long night,” he agreed.

  One they wouldn’t be spending together in bed, she thought with more than a little twinge of regret. Oh, well, the die had been cast earlier in the evening, anyway, and it was for the best. They’d both decided that. At least for now.

  She took a bite of pie, savoring the burst of apple and cinnamon and sugar on her tongue, then picked up her pen. “Let’s start with this McDonald person, since he’s a stranger. What have you found out about him?”

  “Just what I told you, that he has a lot of money and he’s dabbling in ranching.”

  “You’ve never had any dealings with him?” she asked.

  “None at all.”

  “Then we can assume for the moment that there are no grudges.”

  “How about you? Have you had any run-ins with him?” Grady asked.

  “Never met him.”

  “Okay, then, how about the Fletchers? They’ve been the Hansons’ neighbors for years. Have they always gotten along?”

  “Always,” Karen said, but her expression turned thoughtful. “Of course, there might have been a problem when Caleb decided to marry me. I think Maggie Fletcher had her eye on him, and her father really wanted the match.”

  Grady nodded. “Jealousy. That’s always a good motive for revenge, but Maggie doesn’t strike me as the type of woman to go around poisoning cattle or cutting fences. How about you? What do you think of her?”

  Karen considered the woman who’d made no secret of her infatuation with Caleb. Tall and slender, with a no-nonsense manner, Maggie had always been polite, if distant, with Karen. There had never been any question of them becoming close friends. Even if Caleb hadn’t stood squarely between them, their personalities were unsuited. Maggie wore a perpetually dour expression, made worse by the realization that she would never have the man she loved.

  “I feel sorry for her,” Karen said. “I think she really did care for Caleb. I know she was distraught at the funeral.”

  “Would she have tried to ruin him for not marrying her?”

  “No,” Karen said slowly. “She might go after me, but never Caleb. I was the one she blamed for destroying her chances with him.”

  Grady’s expression turned thoughtful. “Then she could be seeking revenge on you now,” he suggested.

  “But why? Caleb’s gone. What does she have to gain?”

  “She might still be hoping for some sense of satisfaction that she was right all along, that you were wrong for Caleb and that she would have been the better choice,” Grady said.

  “I suppose,” Karen said, but it didn’t ring true. “But that wouldn’t explain the earlier incidents. Remember, those happened before Caleb died.”

  “What about Maggie’s father? Would he have wanted to get even with Caleb for spoiling his plan for uniting the two families?”

  “Possibly,” Karen admitted, though she had a difficult time imagining either of the Fletchers deliberately trying to sabotage her cattle. “Let�
��s think about the Oldhams for a minute. There was a feud between them and the Hansons a zillion years ago. Something about water rights, I think.”

  “Is it still going on?”

  She shook her head. “It was settled ages ago. They have access to the creek that flows through our property. Caleb’s grandfather wrote up the agreement himself.”

  “But if they had this land, the issue could never come up again, right?”

  “True.”

  “I’ll visit them tomorrow,” Grady said. “Maybe they don’t want to take a chance that you might renege on the agreement.”

  “If you go, I’m coming with you,” Karen insisted. “This is my ranch that’s being targeted.”

  “Fine. We’ll go right after we get the chores done in the morning.”

  Once again, Grady’s assumption that the chores were his to share took her aback. At the same time, it gave her a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach to know that she was no longer facing everything—not the daily grind, not the battle to keep the ranch afloat—alone.

  Grady rubbed a hand across his face. “It’s late. I’d better get out of here.”

  Karen considered offering to let him stay in the guest room, the room they had almost shared earlier, but thought better of it. Her resolve where Grady was concerned was weak enough. It wasn’t fair to keep putting him in the position of having to hold back whenever their hormones got the better of them. She couldn’t let him stay here until she was ready to let him share her bed.

  “It’s a long drive,” she said eventually. “How about another cup of coffee before you head out?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll be fine, and the sooner I go, the more rest I’ll get, and the sooner I can get back here in the morning.”

  She walked him to the door. He reached out and cupped the back of her head, then bent to kiss her gently on the forehead. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this. I promise you.”

  But then what? she wondered when he had left. Was he only helping her to solve the puzzle, to tie up loose ends, so that the land would be free and clear of problems when he got his hands on it? That was possible, she told herself. Even likely. And yet, somehow she could no longer make herself believe it.