by Diana Palmer
She drew in a breath. “I can’t say I’m sorry about that. He wasn’t what he seemed.”
“Most men aren’t. And the next time you accept a date, I want to know first.”
She stared at him. “I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me. You may not consider me good husband material,” he murmured, “but I’m going to look out for your interests just the same.” He studied her seriously for a moment. “If I can’t seduce you, nobody else can, either.”
“Well, talk about sour grapes!” she accused.
“Count on it,” he agreed.
“And what if I want to be seduced?” she continued.
“Not this week,” he returned dryly. “I’ll have to look at my calendar.”
“I didn’t mean you!”
His black eyes slid up and down her body in the torn dress that she’d covered with his shirt. “You did earlier,” he murmured with a tender smile. “And I wanted to.”
She sighed. “So did I. But I won’t propose, even if you beg.”
He shrugged powerful shoulders. “My heart’s broken.”
She chuckled in spite of herself. “Sure it is.”
She turned and reached for the doorknob. “Tess.”
She glanced back at him. “Yes?”
His face was solemn, no longer teasing. “They told you about her, didn’t they?”
He meant his brothers had told her about his doomed engagement. She didn’t pretend ignorance. “Yes, they did,” she replied.
“It was a long time ago, but it took me years to get over it. She was young, too, and she thought I was just what she wanted. But the minute I was out of sight, she found somebody else.”
“And you think I would, too, because I’m not mature enough to be serious,” she guessed.
His broad chest rose and fell. “That’s about the size of it. You’re pretty green, honey. It might be nothing more concrete than a good case of repressed lust.”
“If that’s my excuse, what’s yours?” she asked with pursed lips. “Abstinence?”
“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it like glue.”
She laughed softly. “Coward.”
He lifted one eyebrow. “You can write a check on that. I’ve been burned and I’ve got the scars to prove it.”
“And I’m too young to be in love with you.”
His heart jerked in his chest. The thought of Tess being in love with him made his head spin, but he had to hold on to his common sense. “That’s right.” His gaze went homing to her soft mouth and he could taste it all over again. He folded his arms over his broad chest and looked at her openly, without amusement or mockery. “Years too young.”
“Okay. Just checking.” She opened the door. A crash of thunder rumbled into the silence that followed. Seconds later, the bushes outside his window scratched against the glass as the wind raged.
“Are you afraid of storms?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Are you?”
“I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
She looked puzzled.
“You’ve spent enough time around livestock to know that thunderstorms play hell with cattle from time to time. We’ll have to go out and check on ours if this keeps up. You can lie in your nice, soft dry bed and think about all of us getting soaked to the skin.”
She thought about how bad summer colds could be. “Wear a raincoat,” she told him.
He smiled at that affectionate concern, and it was in his eyes this time, too. “Okay, boss.”
She grinned. “That’ll be the day.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “You’re big on songs these days,” he murmured. “That was one of Buddy Holly’s. Want me to sing it to you?”
She realized belatedly which song he was talking about, and she shook her head. “No, thanks. It would upset the neighbors’ dogs.”
He glowered at her. “I have a good voice.”
“Sure you do, as long as you don’t use it for singing,” she agreed. “Good night, Callaghan. Thanks again for rescuing me.”
“I can’t let anything happen to the family biscuit chef,” he said casually. “We’d all starve.”
She let him get away with that. He might not believe in marriage, but he was different after their ardent interlude. He’d never picked at her, teased her, before. Come to think of it, she’d never teased him. She’d been too afraid. That was ancient history now. She gave him one last shy, smiling glance and went out the door.
He stood where she left him, his eyes narrowed, his body still singing with the pleasure she’d given him. She was too young. His mind knew it. If he could only convince the rest of him…
Surprisingly Tess slept that night, despite the storms that rippled by, one after another. The memory of Cag’s tender passion had all but blotted out the bad memories Gaines had given her. If only Cag wanted her on a permanent basis. At least they’d gotten past the awkwardness that followed that physical explosion of pleasure. It would make things easier for both of them.
She made breakfast the following morning and there was nobody to eat it. One of the men, wet and bedraggled looking, came to the back door to explain why breakfast went untouched.
It seemed that the high winds combined with drenching rain had brought down some huge old oak trees, right through several fences. While she slept soundly, in the outer pastures, cattle had gotten loose and had to be rounded up again, and the broken fences had to be mended. Half the outfit was soaked and all but frozen from the effort. The brothers had dragged in about daylight and fallen asleep, too tired even for their beloved biscuits.
It was almost noon before they came wandering into the kitchen. Breakfast had gone to the ranch dogs and the chickens, but she had beef and potatoes in a thick stew—with biscuits—waiting.
Rey and Leo smiled at her. To her astonishment, Cag gave her an openly affectionate glance as he sat down at the head of the table and reached for the coffeepot.
“It amazes me how you always keep food hot,” Leo remarked. “Thanks, Tess. We were dead on our feet when we finally got back this morning.”
“It was a rough night, I gather,” she murmured as she ferried butter and jam to the table.
Leo watched her curiously. “We heard that you had one of your own,” he said, regretting the careless remark when he saw her flush. “I’m sorry we didn’t get our hands on Gaines before he ran for the border,” he added, and the familiar, funny man she’d come to know suddenly became someone else.
“That goes double for me,” Rey added grimly.
“Well, he had plenty of attention without counting on either of you,” Cag remarked pleasantly. “I understand that he left tire marks on his way out in the early hours of the morning. The sniveling little weasel,” he added.
“Amazing, isn’t it, that Gaines actually walked away under his own steam,” Leo told Rey.
Rey nodded. “And here we’ve been wasting our time saving people from him—” he indicated Cag “—for years.”
“People don’t need saving from me,” Cag offered. “I’m not a homicidal maniac. I can control my temper,” he added.
Leo pursed his lips. “Say, Tess, did the chocolate icing stain ever come completely off the wall…?”
She was fumbling with a lid that wouldn’t come off, flustered from the whole conversation and wishing she could sink through the floor.
“Here, give me that,” Cag said softly.
She gave it to him. Their hands touched and they looked at each other for just a second too long, something the brothers picked up on immediately.
Cag opened the jar and put it on the table while she went to get spoons.
“At least he’s stopped throwing cakes at people,” Rey remarked.
Cag lifted the jar of apple butter and looked at his brother intently.
Rey held up a hand and grinned sheepishly as he fell to eating his stew.
“If it’s all right, I thought I’d go ahead and apply to the local technical school,” Tess sa
id quickly, before she lost her nerve. “For fall classes in horticulture, you know.”
“Sure,” Leo said. “Go ahead.”
Cag lifted his gaze to her slender body and remembered how sweet it had been to hold in the silence of the study. He let his gaze fall back to his plate. He couldn’t deter her. She didn’t belong to him. She did need an occupation, something that would support her. He didn’t like the idea of her keeping house for anyone else. She was safe here; she might not be in some other household. And if she went as a commuter, she could still work for the brothers.
“I could…live in the dormitory, if you want,” she continued doggedly.
That brought Cag’s head up. “Live in the dormitory? What the hell for?” he exclaimed.
His surprise took some of the gloom out of her heart. She clasped her hands tight in front of her, against her new jeans. “Well, you only said I could stay until summer,” she said reasonably. “It’s summer now. You didn’t say anything about staying until fall.”
Cag looked hunted. “You won’t find another job easily in the fall, with all the high school seniors out grabbing them,” he said curtly. He glanced back at his plate. “Stay until winter.”
She wondered why Rey and Leo were strangling on their coffee.
“Is it too strong?” she asked worriedly, nodding toward the cups.
“Just…right.” Leo choked, coughing. “I think I caught cold last night. Sorry. I need a tissue…”
“Me, too!” Rey exploded.
They almost knocked over their chairs in their rush to get out of the room. Muffled laughter floated back even after the door had been closed.
“Idiots,” Cag muttered. He looked up at Tess, and something brushed against his heart, as softly as a butterfly. He could hardly breathe.
She looked at him with eyes that loved him, and hated the very feeling. He wanted her to go, she knew he did, but he kept putting it off because he was sorry for her. She was so tired of being pitied by him.
“I don’t mind living in the dormitory at school, if you want me to leave here,” she repeated softly.
He got up from his chair and moved toward her. His big, lean hands rested on her shoulders and he looked down from his great height with quiet, wondering eyes. She was already like part of him. She made him bubble inside, as if he’d had champagne. The touch of her, the taste of her, were suddenly all too familiar.
“How would you manage to support yourself, with no job?” he asked realistically.
“I could get something part-time, at the school.”
“And who’ll bake biscuits for us?” he asked softly. “And worry about us when we’re tired? Who’ll remember to set the alarm clocks and remind me to clean Herman’s cage? Who’ll fuss if I don’t wear my raincoat?” he added affectionately.
She shrugged. His hands felt nice. She loved their warmth and strength, their tenderness.
He tilted her chin up and searched her quiet eyes. Fires kindled deep in his body and made him hungry. He couldn’t afford to indulge what he was feeling. Especially not here, in the kitchen, where his brothers could walk in any minute.
But while he was thinking it, his rebellious hands slid up to frame her face and he bent, brushing his mouth tenderly over her soft lips.
“You shouldn’t let me do this,” he whispered.
“Oh, I’m not,” she assured him softly. “I’m resisting you like crazy.” She reached up to link her arms around his neck.
“Are you?” He smiled as he coaxed her lips under his and kissed her slowly.
She smiled against his mouth, lifting toward him. “Yes. I’m fighting like mad. Can’t you tell?”
“I love the way you fight me…!”
The kiss became possessive, insistent, feverish, all in the space of seconds. He lifted her against him and groaned at the fierce passion she kindled in him so effortlessly.
Only the sound of booted feet heading their way broke them apart. He set her down gently and struggled to get back in his chair and breathe normally. He managed it, just.
Tess kept her back to the brothers until she could regain her own composure. But she didn’t realize that her mouth was swollen and the softness in her eyes was an equally vivid giveaway.
Cag was cursing himself and circumstances under his breath for all he was worth. Having her here was going to be an unbearable temptation. Why hadn’t he agreed to letting her live in at the school?
Because he ached for her, that was why. He was alive as he hadn’t been in seven long years and the thought of going back into his shell was painful.
His black eyes settled on Tess and he wondered how he could ever have lived from day to day without looking at her at least once. He was getting a fixation on red curly hair and pale freckled skin. She was too young for him. He knew that, but he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off her. He didn’t know what he was going to do. If he didn’t find something to occupy him, and quickly, he was going to end up seducing her. That would be the end of the world. The absolute end.
Tess borrowed one of the ranch trucks the next morning after breakfast and drove herself to the campus of the Jacobsville Vocational-Technical School. The admissions office was easy to find. She was given forms to fill out, a course schedule for the fall quarter, and advice on financial assistance. From there, she went to the financial office and filled out more forms. It took until lunch to finally finish, but she had a sense of accomplishment by the time she left the campus.
On her way back to the ranch, she stopped in at the local café and had coffee and a sandwich while she did some thinking about her situation.
Cag said he didn’t want her to move out, but did he really mean it, or was he just sorry for her? He liked kissing her, but he didn’t want to keep doing it. He seemed not to be able to stop. Maybe, she thought, that was the whole problem. She made him forget all the reasons why he shouldn’t get involved with her, every time he came close.
If she was gone, of course, he wouldn’t get close enough to have his scruples damaged. But he’d said that he didn’t want her to leave. It was a puzzle she couldn’t seem to solve.
The sandwich tasted flat, although it was roast beef, one of her favorites. She put it down and stared at it without seeing.
“Thinking of giving it its freedom, huh?” Leo asked with a grin, and sat down across from her. He took off his hat, laid it on the chair beside him and gestured toward the sandwich. “I hate to tell you this, but there’s absolutely no way known to science that a roast beef sandwich can be rejuvenated.” He leaned forward conspiratorially. “Take it from a beef expert.”
She chuckled despite her sadness. “Oh, Leo, you’re just impossible,” she choked.
“It runs in the family.” He held up a hand and when the waitress came to see what he wanted, he ordered coffee.
“No lunch?” Tess asked.
He shook his head. “No time. I’m due at the Brewsters’ in forty-five minutes for a business meeting over lunch. Rubber chicken and overdone potatoes, like last time,” he muttered. He glanced at her. “I wish you were cooking for it instead of Brewster’s daughter. She’s pretty as a picture and I hear tell she had operatic aspirations, but she couldn’t make canned soup taste good.”
He sounded so disgusted that Tess smiled in spite of herself. “Are you going by yourself, or are the brothers going, too?”
“Just Cag and me. Rey escaped on a morning flight to Tulsa to close a land deal up there.”
She lowered her eyes to the half-finished sandwich. “Does Cag like her…Miss Brewster?”
He hesitated. “Cag doesn’t like women, period. I thought you knew.”
“You said she was pretty.”
“Like half a dozen other women who have fathers in the cattle business,” he agreed. “Some of them can even cook. But as you know Cag gave up on women when he was thrown over for a younger man. Hell, the guy was only three years younger than him, at that. She used his age as an excuse. It wasn’t, really. She just d
idn’t want him. The other guy had money, too, and she did want him.”
“I see.”
He sipped coffee and pursed his lips thoughtfully. “I’ve told you before how Cag reacts to women most of the time,” he reminded her. “He runs.” He smiled. “Of course, he’s been doing his best to run from you since last Christmas.”
She looked at him with her heart in her eyes. “He has?” she asked.
“Sure! He wants you to go off to school so you’ll remove temptation from his path. But he also wants you to stay at the ranch while you go to school, in case you run into any handsome eligible bachelors there. I think he plans to save you from them, if you do.”
She was confused and it showed.
“He said,” he related, “that you shouldn’t be exposed to potential seducers without us to protect you.”
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He held up a hand when she started to speak. “He thinks you should commute.”
“But he doesn’t want me at the ranch, don’t you see?” she asked miserably, running a hand through her short, curly hair. “He keeps leaving to get away from me!”
“Why would he leave if you weren’t getting to him?” he asked reasonably.
“It’s still a rotten way to live,” she said pointedly. “Maybe if I go to school I’ll meet somebody who’ll think I’m old enough for them.”
“Oh, that’s just sour grapes,” he murmured dryly.
“You have no idea how sour,” she replied. “I give up. I can’t spend the rest of my life hoping that he’ll change his mind about me. He’s had almost a year, and he hasn’t changed a thing.”
“He stopped throwing cakes,” he said.
“Because I stopped baking them!”
He checked his watch and grimaced. “I’d love to stay here and talk recipes with you, but I’m late.” He got up and smiled at her. “Don’t brood, okay? I have a feeling that things are going to work out just fine.”
That wasn’t what she thought, but he was gone before she could put the thought into words.
Chapter Eight
It was inevitable that Leo would bring up the matter of the Brewster girl’s cooking the next day. Breakfast was too much of a rush, and they didn’t get to come home for lunch. But when two of the three brothers and Tess sat down to supper, Leo let it fly with both barrels.