Tall, Dark, and Lonesome

by Debra Dixon

  Each time he entered her damp softness, tiny ripples of pleasure washed over her like the first waves of high tide. As Zach pulled away the sensation faded, only to wash over her again as his body surged forward. Anticipation spiraled through her as she waited for the wave that would spill her over the edge of control.

  “Zach,” she murmured urgently as her whole body hummed with the tension his passion created.

  “I know,” he whispered against her hair before his mouth possessed hers, and then he deepened his stroke and let passion take them.

  Niki clenched the fabric of his shirt as the pleasure of completion spilled through her, touching every sense and leaving her quivering with emotion. In the aftermath she was a city of a million lights that was slowly fading to darkness, to rest.

  Several moments passed before either of them moved. Zach finally broke the spell of contentment surrounding them and let her legs slide to the ground. When her feet touched, he reluctantly let her go, pulling her shirt closed before he adjusted his own clothing.

  Feeling suddenly shy and awkward, Niki turned her back to him as she buttoned her shirt and tried to think of something to say, something that wouldn’t lead to promises she couldn’t keep. She knew that getting on the plane wouldn’t solve her problems, but at least distance would keep Zach from making a mistake. Please don’t make me promise anything, Zach. Please don’t make me tell you about the baby. Just let me get on that plane with my pride intact.

  When Zach looked up, Niki’s back was still to him. The oversized shirt swallowed all of her except her incredible legs. Reaching out, he circled her waist with his arms, pulled her to him, and said, “Don’t worry. We’ll sort it all out in the morning. You just need time. Neither of us was expecting this.”

  Niki didn’t answer, but she rubbed her head against his chest. Here, in his arms, the choices seemed so simple. All she had to do was give in, fall so far in love with Zach that she’d never be able to give him up, and stay. Staying in Wyoming simply was not possible.

  Brass nudged Zach awake with a wet, cold nose. Pushing the dog away, he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but Brass was insistent. And when Snicker joined her mate, Zach had to concede defeat.

  “All right. All right,” he whispered. “Give me a minute.”

  Both dogs padded over to the tent flap and waited anxiously. Zach sat up, rubbed his eyes, and raked a hand through his hair. He’d survived the last two days on very little sleep and a lot of adrenaline. Waking up was going to take a minute longer than usual. He could hear the camp’s muffled conversation, the rustle of canvas and the clank of the coffeepot as someone set it on the rack beside the fire. He could use a cup of that coffee.

  Zach reached out to shake Niki’s sleeping bag and discovered … nothing. Computer, duffle, and sleeping bag were all gone. Swearing, Zach unzipped his bag and grabbed his boots. She was avoiding him again. It was a neat trick, but he didn’t think she could manage it all day.

  He must have been dead to the world not to have heard her as she packed her gear. No wonder she’d been so quiet last night on the way back to camp. She’d been too busy plotting how to get out of the tent without waking him. Zach’s imagination supplied a picture of her tiptoeing cautiously around his sleeping body, a finger across her lips to quiet the dogs.

  “You two could sure as hell have been more help!” he said angrily to the dogs as he threw back the tent flap and stepped outside. Quickly he scanned the camp for Niki. When he didn’t find her, he signaled John.

  “Morning, boss.” John saluted him with a coffee cup as he came over and leaned down to pull Snicker’s ear. “Morning, girl.”

  “Have you seen Niki?”

  “Sure. When she said good-bye.”

  Zach’s mind reeled. He hated the word good-bye. It was the only word with the power to end forever.

  Won’t this be wonderful? I’m your new mom.

  For how long?

  Forever, of course.

  “Good-bye?” Zach’s voice was dangerously soft.

  “Yeah.” John shifted his hat uneasily. “She left early with Hank in the truck.”

  “She what?”

  “Look, Zach. She said it was okay with you. She was by the fire before dawn when the truck came to take Hank back to the ranch.”

  “Who the hell’s idea was that?”

  John raised a puzzled eyebrow and answered, “Yours. You wanted him to help Bess organize dinner and set up the bunkhouse.”

  “I didn’t tell him to take one of the guests with him!”

  “We didn’t know it’d be a problem. Zach, Niki said she asked you. How was I supposed to know she was lying?”

  “Yeah, well you don’t know her like I do.” Zach instantly regretted the statement. Damn! Sighing heavily, he ran a hand over the stubble on his chin and made a decision. “Do me a favor, John. Get the herd moving and finish the drive.”

  John spread his hands agreeably. “On my way. But where are you going?”

  “Back to the ranch.”

  The younger man opened his mouth, obviously thought better of it, and closed it again.

  Zach slammed the phone down. For five days he’d called Niki at every conceivable hour of the day and night, but all he heard at the other end of the line was her damned answering machine.

  If you wait for the beep and tell me everything, I’ll call you back.

  Hearing Niki’s voice and not being able to talk to her drove him crazy. Her voice on the answering machine had the rich, smooth quality he’d fallen in love with that first day on the trail.

  Damn!

  He knew she was there when he called, knew she was hovering nervously when he left message after message. If it weren’t for his meeting with the nominating committee and the farm-dog class starting tomorrow, he’d be on the first plane to New York. If he didn’t get an answer soon, he might do that anyway. Niki certainly wouldn’t be able to ignore him if he camped on her doorstep.

  I’m not going to take good-bye for an answer this time, Niki.

  Niki plopped back into the red overstuffed sofa that dominated her living room and watched her best friend devour another piece of pizza. Margaret sat cross-legged on the large, multihued rug that covered most of the hardwood floor. Her head was up and mouth opened to catch a trailing string of cheese.

  So far so good, thought Niki. She’d been back in New York a week, but this was the first time she’d seen Margaret. With any luck at all, her friend would forget that Wyoming cattle drives were the topic of conversation now that she could concentrate on pizza.

  “How’s the new photography show coming?” Niki asked as Margaret reached for a clean napkin.

  “Terrible. I’m never doing another show. I don’t care how much they pay me.”

  “Right,” Niki said with just the right touch of sarcasm in her voice. Margaret hated every new show until she’d settled on a theme and rearranged the photos a hundred times.

  Tucking her shoulder-length auburn hair behind her ears before picking up another piece of pizza, Margaret said, “Don’t be snide, or I’ll be forced to ask you more questions about Wyoming.”

  “Why?” Niki asked as casually as she dared. “It’s boring. I went. I wrote a few columns. I came home.”

  “Right.” Margaret echoed Niki’s earlier comment with every bit as much sarcasm. “You were the only woman for miles, and you were surrounded by cowboys, starlight, and leather. Sounds boring to me. Especially the leather part.”

  Narrowing her eyes, Niki gave her best friend a disgusted look. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Margaret. It wasn’t like that.”

  “Okay. What was it like? You’ve been a little vague about the whole trip, and I smell a secret.”

  “All right! You win. I’ll tell you everything. It was hard work. Ten-hour days. When it didn’t rain, I ate dust for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My legs were so wobbly the first two days, I could barely walk when I got off my horse. And my horse! Now he was a piece of
work. His name was Chaos. I was chuck wagon cook the first day, and they never asked me again. Get the picture?”

  “I swear,” said Margaret, shaking her head. “You are the only woman I know who could screw up a dream vacation surrounded by macho hunks.”

  “It wasn’t a vacation for me. I was there on assignment. Besides, yuppie lawyers with spurs do not turn me on.”

  Margaret tossed a piece of crust into the cardboard box and got to her feet. “I don’t know why not. I’d kill for a crisply starched white shirt and a pair of suspenders. If you threw in a pair of wire-rim glasses, well-muscled thighs, and spurs, I’d walk over hot coals.”

  Gathering up the remains of dinner, Niki headed for the kitchen. “A minute ago you wanted cowboys and leather. Make up your mind.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s my problem,” Margaret acknowledged as she settled on a stool beside the butcher-block counter in the middle of the kitchen.

  Niki laughed. Making up her mind was indeed Margaret’s problem. She fell madly, passionately in love about every six weeks.

  The loud shrill ring of the telephone stopped Niki’s heart and wiped the grin from her face. It wasn’t Zach, she told herself. He hadn’t called since yesterday. She was safe. He’d given up. The phone rang again.

  “Aren’t you going to answer the phone?”

  “No! I mean yes,” Niki replied, but didn’t move. Why did the answering machine have to be connected to the phone in the kitchen? Why did Margaret have to be sitting here? Why don’t you pick up and tell him not to call anymore? Because you don’t know what you want, and you feel guilty about not having the guts to tell him about the baby or why you had to leave.

  Fourth ring! Too late. As the answering machine switched on, Niki closed her eyes and prayed.

  “If you wait for the beep and tell me everything, I’ll call you back.” Beep.

  “If you’d stop hiding behind this answering machine, I could tell you everything.” Zach’s slow, deep voice filled the kitchen. Even over the telephone, his voice had the power to stop her heart and speed her pulse. “Hell, I’d love to tell you everything. I’d tell you how strange it feels to be officially running for the Wyoming assembly. I’d tell you all about the seven people who are here for the farm-dog class. I’d tell you about the bearded collie puppy that’s all nose and feet and hair. I’d tell you how I felt when I woke up and you were gone. I’d tell you that no matter how hard I try, I can’t let go. You got to me, Cookie. And I got to you. This isn’t high school, and I’m not the football captain. Like it or not, I’m unfinished business, and you’re going to have to deal with me. I’m the bad penny who’s going to keep turning up. You’ve got my word on that.”

  When Zach hung up, the machine shut off with a loud click, and Margaret’s open-mouthed astonishment was replaced with a half smile. “Tell me about Wyoming one more time. I must have fallen asleep when you got to the part about the dreamboat on the phone.”

  Niki leaned heavily against the cabinet. “You didn’t fall asleep.”

  “No. I didn’t think I had.”

  “His name’s Zach Weston.”

  “Perfect.” Margaret nodded in satisfaction as she put her elbows on the counter and her chin in her hands. “Tell me all.”

  “He owns the ranch and runs the trail drive.”

  “Even better.”

  Niki shot Margaret a withering stare before she continued. “He also happens to be a Harvard Law School graduate, owns half of Wyoming, is the heir to Weston Industries, and a candidate for the Wyoming state assembly.”

  “How horrible,” Margaret said, slamming her hand down on the countertop. “No wonder you won’t talk to the jerk.”

  “That’s it.” Niki pushed away from the cabinet and left the room.

  “Wait.” Margaret groaned as she followed Niki to the living room. “I’m sorry, but you sounded like you were reading an indictment for a murderer. I’ll be serious. I promise.”

  Sighing, Niki curled up on the couch. She leaned her head back, contemplating the ceiling. After a moment she began telling Margaret about the trip.

  When she finished, Margaret said, “Tall, dark, and lonesome.”

  “Tall, dark, and lonesome,” Niki echoed, bringing her serious gaze to rest on her friend’s face. “Worked like a charm. I fell like a ton of bricks.”

  “Sounds like he did too. So what’s the problem?”

  “He lives in Wyoming, and he’s running for very public office.”

  “Niki! You’ve got to get over this thing you have about Wyoming. No one cares about your past. You don’t have a scarlet letter tattooed on your forehead. Wyoming’s just a bunch of ground in the middle of nowhere with nice scenery.”

  “I didn’t tell him about the baby,” Niki said quietly, as if that would settle everything.

  Frustrated, Margaret doubled her fist and banged the arm of the chair. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

  “Do you honestly think a man in his position can afford to become involved with a woman of my reputation?”

  “Get a grip,” Margaret said heatedly. “You don’t have a reputation. Here or in Wyoming. Good Lord, if the worst thing they can dig up on Zach Weston is that he fell in love with a woman who’d made a youthful mistake, then he should run for president.”

  “No one said anything about love,” Niki corrected.

  Margaret raised an eyebrow. “I listened to the same phone call you did, and I say the man’s in love.”

  “I slept with him. That doesn’t make it love. It makes it lust. That’s all it was.”

  “If that’s all it was, why did he wake up and find you gone? What’s wrong with a little honest lust? Why’d you run away?”

  A tear spilled down Niki’s cheek. Her voice was so low, it was almost a whisper. “Because I didn’t want to be there when he realized that’s all it was for him. I’m afraid he’ll listen to the damned old biddies in town who still love to talk about poor pregnant Nicolette Devlin.”

  “You’ve done your best to make sure he’ll believe what he hears,” Margaret scolded. “You swoop in from New York, make a little wilderness whoopie, and don’t even bother to leave cab fare on his pillow when you disappear. You use the man, refuse to talk to him, and then whine about what he thinks of you.”

  “Thanks for the analysis,” Niki said, and flung a pillow toward the end of the couch, more angry with herself than with Margaret.

  “I’m going to give you a piece of advice too. If you have any guts, you’ll go back to Wyoming and lasso that cowboy.”

  “Easier said than done,” Niki said, a smile creasing her face. “You haven’t seen me with a lariat.”

  TEN

  Zach absently pushed the last of his roast around the plate with his fork. “Good dinner, Bess.”

  “How could you tell? You didn’t chew a single bite before you swallowed it,” Bess observed dryly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were in love.”

  Looking up from his plate, Zach studied his grandmother, well aware that Bess Weston didn’t fit most people’s image of the grandmotherly type. She had an abundance of white hair that she wore neatly tied with a ribbon at the base of her neck, a few wrinkles, sharp gray eyes, and was as trim of figure as the day she’d married his grandfather. Her voice was strong and vibrant, and she could still cut a man down to size with nothing more than a few well-chosen words.

  “And when would I have found the time to fall in love?” Zach asked with a grin, hoping he looked innocent enough to fool Bess.

  “That’s what I’ve been asking myself,” she said as she got up from the chair. “My guess is that you’ve fallen in love with that woman reporter who came down for the trail drive.”

  “How’s your toe?” Zach asked, changing the subject and making a mental note to stuff a sock in John’s mouth.

  “Better. But we weren’t talking about my bunion.”

  “We weren’t talking about anything,” Zach said firmly. He had
a good idea where this conversation was headed, and he had no intention of discussing Niki and the cattle drive with Bess. “We weren’t talking about anything except dinner. Which was good, and I’m through.”

  “You quit,” Bess corrected as she walked slowly out of the formal dining room.

  Zach stood up abruptly, tossed his napkin onto the table, and followed her. “All right. What are you trying to say, Bess?”

  Drawing herself to her full height, which still left her about a foot and a half short of meeting Zach squarely in the eye, Bess turned toward him. “Don’t be coy with me, young man. I mean that you’re not through. You quit. You let her get away.”

  Goaded, Zach said angrily, “Niki didn’t get away. She ran away from—Dammit.” He let out an exasperated puff of air as he realized what he’d said.

  Bess held up her hand. “Follow me to the study and don’t say another word until I’ve finished. I promised myself years ago that I wouldn’t meddle, but I’m breaking that promise right now. I’m through biting my tongue.”

  Once she was comfortably settled on the leather sofa, Bess pointed her cane at a flame-stitched wing chair and said, “Sit.”

  Zach sat, and Bess nodded approvingly. “At least I’ve taught you respect for your elders. Which is more than I’ve been able to teach your father. He’s my only child, and I love him. Make no mistake about that. But he’s a fool. Always has been. Always will be. The Weston backbone skips a generation every now and again. And I’m afraid it skipped your father.”

  Bess rested the cane against her leg and continued. “I sat back and watched him drag woman after woman into his life. The man never knew how to have a casual affair. Every time he trotted a new wife in, I held my breath, hoping he’d love this one enough to fight for her. Well, he never fought for any of them, and they left him. Just as the new one will.”