That Woman in Wyoming

by Sherry Lewis

  She rested her cheek against his shoulder and breathed in his scent. She wanted to stay like this forever. “Thank you.”

  His hands slowed, and the circles grew slightly larger. He took a deep breath, and she thought he might say something else. Instead, his lips brushed her hair again and the feeling of comfort gave way to slow-burning desire.

  Reagan slowly unclenched her hands. She inched closer, needing to feel him, touch him, to imprint this moment on her memory. The lonely future stretched in front of her, but she wanted desperately to keep it away. She lifted her head to say something—anything—and found his mouth hovering just above hers.

  He lowered his lips to hers hesitantly, as if unsure whether to take advantage of this moment or not, but Reagan rose to meet him and trailed her fingers across his chest, circling the hard nubs of his nipples through the thin fabric of his shirt.

  He groaned and tightened his arms around her, intensifying his kiss and tracing the outline of her mouth with his tongue. Reagan parted her lips and took him inside, the taste and scent of him mingling, overwhelming her senses. Her breath came in shallow gasps as his embrace loosened and his fingers slowly, slowly inched toward her breasts. And when his fingertips teased her, flicking across the bottom of her breasts, skimming the swell above her bra, and then finally settling in place and oh-so-softly caressing her through the fabric, she knew she needed more.

  His tongue continued to explore her mouth. His fingers started a wildfire in her abdomen and sent it swirling outward. Her body seemed to take on a life of its own, pressing up against him as it sought relief from the craving.

  Max’s lips left hers and traced a path to her neck. She arched against him, moaning aloud when his thigh slid between her legs and he nipped at the soft skin of her neck. She slipped her hands beneath his T-shirt and ran them along his stomach and around to his back.

  She felt as if she was floating, completely free of life and its problems. She was ready to offer herself to him, to give and take, to love completely. She needed this. Tomorrow could take care of itself.

  His hands shifted again, moving slowly down her sides until he cupped her bottom and pulled her against him. He pressed against her, hot, demanding, and finding an answer in every feminine part of her.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, please. Make love to me, Max.”

  His hands stilled without warning. She opened her eyes slowly, and his horrified expression brought her back to earth with a resounding crash. He pulled away sharply, looking at his hands as if they’d betrayed him. Shaking his head, he put some distance between them. “We can’t do this, Reagan. It’s not right.”

  She felt cold and empty without his arms around her. Needing to touch him again, she took a step toward him. “I don’t care what people say anymore,” she whispered. “I’ve moved way beyond that.”

  “It’s not that.” He lifted his eyes to look at her and the agony she saw there stunned her. “I can’t make love to you. God knows I want to, but I can’t. And when you hear why, you’ll be glad I didn’t.” He ran a hand across the back of his neck and turned away as if he couldn’t bear to face her.

  After Travis’s announcement, she didn’t need any more surprises, but she forced herself to ask. “Why?”

  “I’m not who you think I am.” Max darted a glance at her. “I’m not who I told you I was.” When she didn’t speak, he added, “I’ve lied to you, Reagan. From the first time we met.”

  MAX WATCHED HER, waiting for her reaction. A dozen emotions flitted across her face—horror, disbelief, denial, to name a few. She backed a step away and narrowed her eyes. “Who are you, then?”

  His stomach churned, but he forced himself to answer. “I told you the truth about my name,” he said. “But not about what I do or why I came to Serenity.” She looked wounded, and he had to clench his hands to keep from reaching for her. “I’m here because of Travis.”

  “Because of—” She lifted one trembling hand to her forehead. “What do you have to do with Travis?”

  “I came here looking for him,” he said gently. “He skipped bail, and I was sent to return him to San Diego so he can stand trial.”

  “You’re a bounty hunter?”

  “An enforcement officer,” he said, wanting to dilute the ugly sound.

  “Will you get paid if you take Travis back?”

  “Yes. We collect a portion of the bail.”

  “Then you’re a bounty hunter.” She backed away from him, eyes wide and filled with disgust. “Don’t try to make it sound better than it is.” She ran into a chair and came to a stop. “So, you were using me to find my brother?”

  “No. Not that. Never that.” Max leaned against the dresser, relieved that she wasn’t going to bolt out the door before he had a chance to explain. “If I’d known who you were when we met, I would have told you. But I didn’t know, and I make it a policy not to come blasting into town for several reasons—protecting the fugitive’s family is one of them. I wouldn’t have wanted to start gossip about you and your children by announcing to the world that I was after your brother. We had those two chance meetings the first day, and then I ran into you the next morning. When you asked me what I did, I gave you my standard answer because I had no idea who you were.”

  “You could have told me after you found out.”

  “I could have.” He dropped his gaze to his fingers. “But by that time, I was already half in love with you. I didn’t want you to hate me.”

  Her eyes turned a clear, cold green. “So you accepted my hospitality, met my children and pretended to care about me because you thought that would somehow keep me from hating you?”

  “I didn’t pretend to care about you, Reagan. The only thing I’ve lied about is what brought me here in the first place.”

  “You knew about Travis. You knew what he’d done. You knew he was wanted by the police, but you didn’t tell me. And you expect me to believe that you care about me?”

  “I do care. And more. I’ve fallen in love with you. I didn’t plan to. I didn’t even know what was happening at first. I’ve never felt like this before—”

  “But you didn’t tell me.”

  “I couldn’t.” He caught himself and mopped his face with his hand. “No, that’s not true. I could have told you. I should have told you. I thought I could keep an eye on all of you and make sure Travis didn’t put you in danger. I started hoping that I could convince him to turn himself in. For a while, I even thought I could arrest him and disappear without ever telling you. But I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to lose you.” He shook his head harshly. “All of this sounded good while I was pacing around here on my own. Now it sounds stupid as hell.”

  “Yes,” she said harshly. “It does.” There was no softness in her face, no welcome, only anger and distrust.

  “After our argument the other night, I decided that I had to tell you the truth. I was just trying to figure out how to do it.”

  “You expect me to believe that?”

  He rubbed his forehead with his fingers and fought down a wave of panic. He was losing her, just as he’d known he would. “It’s true. But why should you believe me? I’ve proven myself to be anything but trustworthy.”

  Her eyes flew to his face, wide, round, wondering. For a moment, he thought she might actually believe and forgive. “You still haven’t explained why you didn’t tell me when I first came here today. Why did you almost make love to me?”

  “Almost, Reagan. I didn’t make love to you. I’m the one who pulled back, remember? I’m the one who stopped. At least give me credit for that. I did tell you, just not soon enough.”

  She swept her hair over her shoulder and lifted her chin. “So now what?”

  “I’m going to have to take Travis into custody. If I don’t, someone else will, and considering the charges against him—”

  She cut him off. “What are the charges?”

  This just kept getting worse and worse. “He didn’t tell you?
”

  “He told me that he’s been accused of stealing something.”

  “He was arrested for armed robbery.”

  The fire in her eyes died and a deep sadness replaced it. “He used a gun?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you sure it was him? Maybe the police made a mistake.”

  “They didn’t. He was caught on video by the surveillance cameras. I haven’t seen the tape, but according to the information I have, there’s no doubt it was him. And it isn’t his first offense, either. He’s been in and out of jail half a dozen times in the past few years.” Max chanced a step closer. “I have to take him back so he can face trial.”

  Tears shimmered in her eyes, and Max would have given anything for the right to hold her, to be the one giving comfort, not the one inflicting pain. “I wish I didn’t have to tell you this,” he said. “Knowing that I’m hurting you is killing me.”

  She didn’t move for a long time. Her eyes roamed across his face and he didn’t know which of them was hurting more. After what felt like eternity, she turned away and let herself out the door, and Max was left listening to the sound of her receding footsteps.

  He argued with himself about going after her. But what good would that do? Anything he could say would just sound lame. He wished she’d yelled at him. That stony silence had nearly ripped his heart in two.

  The sooner he arrested Travis, the quicker he could put the whole ugly episode behind him and get on with his life. Maybe he’d even forget about her in time. She’d probably waste no time putting him out of her mind.

  He should get it over with right now, but he knew Reagan had a lot of information to process, too many emotions to work through. He couldn’t add Travis’s arrest to the mix right now. And he couldn’t make himself arrest Travis while she and the girls looked on.

  He’d pick Travis up tomorrow, he promised himself, when Reagan was at work and the girls were at school. When he wouldn’t have to look into their eyes and see the hurt and anger there.

  Tonight, he’d work on getting over her.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  AN HOUR LATER Reagan was still shaking with cold and anger. She toweled her hair dry and stepped into her slippers. Her wet shirt and pants lay on the bathroom floor and a pool of water slowly formed beside them. How could she have been so blind? How could she not have recognized the coincidence in timing that brought Max to town at the same time Travis warned her people might come looking for him?

  It was simple, she realized. She hadn’t wanted to see. She’d wanted to believe that Max found her attractive, that she was still woman enough to appeal to a young, handsome, virile man. She’d wanted that so desperately, she’d closed her eyes to everything else.

  She pulled the towel away from her hair and studied her reflection in the mirror, not sure whether she was more angry with Max or herself. She should be furious with Max. She should hate him. He’d lied to her, used her and treated her like a fool…hadn’t he?

  Memories of moments they’d spent together drifted through her mind—the interest when they first met, the sparkle in his eyes when he laughed, the desire that darkened them just before they kissed. The agony she’d seen on his face that afternoon haunted her. Could she really believe that she meant nothing to him?

  He’d said he loved her. Even overwhelmed by anger, Reagan knew he wasn’t the type to say that if he didn’t mean it. And she couldn’t lie to herself. She loved him more than she’d ever known it was possible to love.

  Gathering her wet clothes, she carried them to the laundry room, then hurried back to her bedroom to change. She couldn’t let herself think about Max right now. She had to decide what to do about Travis. No matter how she felt about Max, the fact remained that Travis was in serious trouble. Trouble he’d brought upon himself.

  That, at least, was not Max’s fault.

  What if Travis came back here before Max picked him up? What would she say to him? Did he still have the gun he’d used in the robbery? Had he brought it into her house?

  She dressed quickly, tugging on a pair of thick, warm socks with her jeans and snuggling into her favorite sweater. She moved quickly down the hall toward Travis’s room, knocked to make sure he hadn’t come back, then let herself inside.

  Half an hour later, she sat back on her heels and lowered the bedclothes back to the floor. If Travis did have a gun, it wasn’t in this room. She sat on the foot of the bed and looked at the pile of clothes he’d left on the floor. The thought of him going to jail made her ache all over, but according to Max it wouldn’t be anything new for Travis.

  For the first time in her life, she realized Travis had problems she might not be able to solve. Problems that were too big, too serious to be cured by an extra dose of love and a listening ear. Travis needed more help than she could give him, and maybe she’d been doing him another disservice by agreeing not to tell their father about what he was doing. She’d certainly done Charlie Carmichael a disservice. She knew how much he wanted to repair his relationship with Travis, but she was making it almost impossible for him to do it.

  She let herself out of Travis’s room and closed the door behind her. Travis had gotten enough mileage out of their father’s pain, and Reagan was suddenly tired of being in the middle.

  In the kitchen, she fixed herself a cup of tea, carried the phone to the table and dialed her father’s number. Travis would be furious with her, but this wasn’t a game anymore, and he really had no right to be angry after the things he’d done.

  “Hi, Dad,” she said when he answered. “Are you busy?”

  “Never too busy to talk to you. How are you, honey?”

  His warm, deep voice filled her with comfort and convinced her she’d made the right decision. “Not so good,” she admitted. “We have a problem.”

  “What’s wrong? Is it one of the girls?”

  She could almost see her father’s thin face, the wrinkles around his eyes, the short-cropped white hair, and she wished he could be here with her instead of so far away. Once-a-week phone calls just weren’t enough. “We’re all fine. It’s about Travis.”

  “You’ve heard from him?” There was no denying the concern in her father’s voice. “Where is he?”

  Reagan wished Travis could recognize how much their father cared. “He’s here, with me. At least, he was until this morning.”

  “How is he, Reagan? Is he doing all right?”

  “He’s in trouble, Dad. Apparently, he committed an armed robbery in California and then skipped bail. There’s a bounty hunter here who’s going to take him back.”

  Her father let out a heavy sigh filled with frustration and sadness. “Did Travis tell you that?”

  “Not all of it. He finally told me that the police were accusing him of stealing something. The bounty hunter filled me in on the rest.”

  “Is he under arrest now?”

  “I don’t know. He stormed out of here earlier, and he hasn’t come back. He doesn’t want you to know anything about this. I promised I wouldn’t even tell you he was here, but that was before I knew the whole story. Now I think you should know.”

  “I’m glad you told me.” Her father’s voice sounded weary.

  “You should also know this isn’t the first time he’s been in trouble with the law. According to Max, he’s been in jail several times.”

  “Max? Is he the bounty hunter?”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t make herself tell him any more.

  “I see. Guess I’ll have to tell Estelle I’ll be gone for a little while.”

  Reagan smiled at the mention of her stepmother. Marrying Estelle ten years ago was the smartest thing her dad could have done. “Are you coming here?”

  “Either there or California, wherever Travis is going to be in the next few days. I’ll have to get someone to watch things at the shop before I can leave.”

  Reagan traced the pattern on her teacup with a fingertip. “What if he doesn’t want to see you?”

  “The
n I guess he’ll tell me so. It won’t be the first time.”

  “I know, but—Travis has said some horrible things to you in the past and I hate the thought of you stepping into the line of fire again.”

  Her father laughed softly. There was silence for a moment. Then she heard, “He’s delivered a few zingers, that’s for sure, but he’s my son. You’d do the same thing if it were Jamie or Danielle. I can’t make Travis behave the way I want him to. He’s his own person. All I can do is my best. What Travis does after that is up to him.”

  “You make it sound so easy.”

  Her father laughed. “I wouldn’t say that. But when it gets hard, I just remember your mother. She understood about people better than anyone I’ve ever known. When Travis was just a baby and throwing a fit at being put on his swing, she told me he’d probably be bucking against the reins his whole life.”

  Reagan could almost hear Max telling her the same thing. “Even so, I keep thinking that if I’d…”

  “You’re not still blaming yourself for the way Travis turned out, are you?”

  “Not entirely.” Reagan looked through the rivulets of rain on the window at the daffodils nodding as the drops hit them. “But you have to admit that Travis changed after Mom died.”

  “Travis changed, but so did you. So did I. Have you forgotten that?”

  “But Travis hasn’t changed back. He’s still so angry it hurts just to be around him.”

  “And you’re still feeling guilty. I think you’re half convinced you could have prevented your mother’s death if you’d done something different. And I’m pretty sure you’ve been carrying Paul’s death on your shoulders, as well. But if anyone should be shouldering the blame for Travis, it’s me. I pulled away from you kids when you needed me most. If I had to do it over again, I’d do everything differently. But that’s not possible, so now we have to move on from where we are, regrets or no. You can’t hold your breath for the rest of your life to prevent bad things from happening, honey.”

  “I know that, Dad.”

  “Do you really? One of the hardest things to learn is that there are some things you can’t control.”