Give Me Tonight

by Lisa Kleypas

  Russell was not disposed to see their side of it. "I don't care what made ' em mad. They attacked three of my men, including my foreman, and cut up my fence! Well, it's goin' back up, with five strands instead of four. If Big George wants a war with me, he'll find out quick that he's bitten off too much this time!"

  There was a short silence. Then Ben spoke, and although he sounded casual, there was an undertone in his voice that commanded attention. "We fenced in some public land along with our own, Russ, not to mention a considerable amount of water. That makes us unpopular with just about everyone. There's a lot of sympathy out there for Big George. They all need water and grass for their cattle, and some figure we've got more than our share."

  "Is that what you think, boy?" Russel demanded furiously. "You think we've got more than our share?"

  "I think you know when it's time to be diplomatic. I've seen you slick down a lot of ruffled feathers when too many tempers were high. We're the biggest outfit around here, and that makes us an easy target. It's going to get worse, Russ. Fence-cutting is just the beginning. "

  "We're not some greasy-sack outfit they can push around. We can take whatever they're fixin' to dish out!"

  "Possibly. But do we want to? We've got enough on our hands just taking care of our own business." Ben's voice softened as he spoke persuasively. "The system's always worked without fences. We all depend on each other. You can't turn us into an island. We can't survive alone. I say we start putting that money we've been spending for reels of barbed wire and kegs of staples into hiring more line riders. We can't afford the trouble those fences are going to earn us."

  Addie could almost see the bullheaded expression on Russell's face as he replied, "I say I'm the top man around here, and I decide where to put my money. Tomorrow I want those cedar posts stuck back in the ground and strung with five strands of wire. "

  Ben swore softly, and then there was the sound of his booted feet as he walked toward the door. The family scattered, all darting out of the hallway and finding various tasks to busy themselves with. Addie met Ben at the front door as he started to leave the house. She felt a reluctant twinge of pity as she saw the bruise on his jaw and the faint shadow underneath one eye.

  Ben looked at her stonily. "I've had about enough of the Warners for one afternoon. So if you'll excuse me-"

  "You're going to have a black eye."

  He pulled the handkerchief from around his neck and dabbed at the bloody corner of his mouth. "Lady, that's the least of my problems."

  "I know." She risked a smile and inclined her head toward the kitchen. "Come with me. I'll get you something cold for that." As he followed her into the kitchen, she picked up a clean dishrag and threw a glance over her shoulder. "Stay. I'll be back in a minute. "

  While he waited in the kitchen, staring after her restlessly, she went downstairs to the stone-floored ice cellar, where the perishable food was packed tightly with ice, straw, and sawdust. It was dark and blessedly cool down there. Addie wasted no time in filling the dishrag with ice and hurrying back upstairs. Ben took it from her, hesitating before applying it to his face.

  "Put it on your eye," she said impatiently, and indicated a nearby chair. "And sit down. I want to see to your jaw, and you're too tall." She wet another cloth at the sink. "How are the other two men?"

  "About the same." Ben sank down in the chair with a sigh, while the aches and pains in is body began to make themselves known. "They visited Cook and had him see to them as soon as we got back. I didn't have time." He turned his face into the ice, relishing its coldness. "We were lucky it didn't turn into gunfire. Ow!" He winced as Addie pressed the cloth to the comer of his cut lip. "Careful with that thing!"

  "I'm sorry. I know it must hurt. "

  "Damn right it does. "

  She smiled into his baleful green eyes and took care to be even more gentle in her ministrations. She knew from her nursing experience that men were stoic and silent about their wounds until they were assured of a woman's attention. Then they started complaining and demanding to be fussed over.

  "Would you like something to drink?"

  "I had a drink when I came in to talk to Russ."

  "I… we… couldn't help overhearing some of your conversation."

  He smiled sardonically. "With your ears pressed to the keyhole, I guess you couldn't."

  "When he calms down and thinks about things, he might change his mind. A little common sense will make him see that-"

  Ben snorted at the suggestion. "You know him better than that. This isn't a matter of common sense to him. It's a matter of pride. He won't back down."

  "What are you going to?"

  He shrugged, looking away from her. "Put the fence back up."

  "Even though you don't believe in it?"

  "I've told Russ what I think. That's my job. He's made the decision. That's his job. Whether or not I like his decision, I'm going to live by it. The alternative is to leave, and I'm not ready to."

  "Why not? There are other ranches that would hire you in a minute."

  "I get the feeling you're hoping I'll go." Ben didn't miss the way she blushed and looked away. His eyes were cool and watchful as he continued, "Why won't I? Because I like Sunrise. And I gave my word to Russ that I'd stay as long as he needed me."

  "You're very loyal to him, aren't you?" Addie asked. There was a fine edge to her voice that must have been unfathomable to him.

  “He's one of the best men I've ever known. And one of the few I've ever met who deserves complete honesty. It would be easier just to tell him what he wants to hear. But I respect him too much for that."

  "He thinks of you as an adopted son." The way she spoke made it sound far from a compliment. "What about your own family? What about your own father?"

  "I've got a nice family in lllinois. And a respectable father, who's worked at a bank for the past twenty-five years." Ben grinned, his mood lightening. "Every time I'm anywhere near my father, he goes into the early stages of apoplexy. We don't have much in common, he and I."

  "With a Harvard education-if you really got one you could have gotten a job back east. Why did you decide on Texas?"

  "The only place I'm not wanted by the law… yet." His deadpan assertion was so close to what she had been thinking that Addie started. Then she saw the dance of mischief in his eyes. He was taunting her. She scowled at him, unamused, forgetting her intention to be sweet to him.

  "I never know when to believe anything you say!"

  "Poor Addie. And here you are, dispensing your charity and goodwill to a wounded man-"

  "Oh, stop it," she said, thoroughly disconcerted by his sarcasm. "I don't know why I tried being nice to you. And you're not wounded, either. You're just a little beat-up."

  "A real angel of mercy, aren't you?" He reached up experimentally to touch the comer of his mouth, which had stopped bleeding. She bent closer to peer at it.

  "It doesn't look too bad to me."

  "Only because you're not the one wearing it." His mouth tilted roguishly at the comers. "Don't I get a kiss to make it better?"

  She snorted at the question, knowing he didn't really mean it. "You’d probably die of shock if I did."

  Slowly he set the ice down on the table. He decided to take a gamble. "Try it and see," he invited softly.

  Addie stared at him in amazement. Her heart jerked as if it danced on the end of a string. Surely his last words had been the ultimate mockery. She knew she was staring at him, but she couldn't help it. He didn't mean it… oh, he couldn't mean it. But… he looked as if he did.

  I can't. I just couldn't. He 'd make fun of me if I took him up on it. He 'll make fun of me if I don't, too. He 'll say I was afraid… he has too much of an ego to accept that I just didn't want to kiss him.

  But she did want to.

  Look at him sitting there, just daring me to make a move. He looks good even when he s dirty and messed up. Leah always said she figured the Devil would be a mighty handsome man.

&
nbsp; Why is he so tempting? It s the bad in me. The bad in him appeals to the worst part of me.

  What would it feel like?

  Ben appeared to be relaxed, but she knew he was as alert as a cat. She wished he didn't look so predatory. He had issued the challenge; now he was waiting for her response. She forced herself to smile carelessly. Bending quickly, she brushed her lips across his in the lightest of touches, too fast for him to respond.

  "Feel better?" she asked in a sugar-coated voice, and he eyed her sardonically, the moment of tension almost broken. But not quite.

  "Hardly."

  "Well, what were you expecting?"

  Now the challenge was thrown to him. He accepted it without hesitation. Standing up in a swift movement, he caught her waist in his hands and backed her up until the edge of the table pressed into her buttocks. She didn't know what to do or where to put her hands. Her palms came to rest on his upper arms, on the hard swell of muscle that tightened at her touch. And she looked up at him, confused and excited, and curious. Just this once it wouldn't hurt. She would let it happen, and she didn't care what he said or thought afterward. He lowered his dark head and nuzzled her ear, and the touch of his hot breath in the hollow behind her earlobe made her shiver.

  "That's a good question," he said. "What should I expect from a woman like you?" He heard her swallow convulsively, felt her body tense as he drew closer. She wasn't trying to move away, although they both knew he would have let her go easily had she made a move to be free. The skin of her arms was soft underneath his fingers.

  Suddenly she seemed very fragile to Ben, someone to be handled gently and treated with tenderness. He'd never felt that for anyone in his life, or held a woman who trembled at his touch. He was accustomed to women who were comfortable with men, well-versed in the ways a man liked to be pleased. But there was a vast gulf between their knowledge and this woman's. Despite her attempts at sophistication, she didn't have much actual experience, of that he was fairly certain. There was no way her shyness, her uncertainty, could be manufactured. Why did it arouse him so?

  “Addie, " he murmured, and her breath caught as his mouth began to wander to the edge of her jaw. "Don't pretend with me. Not ever."

  "Wh-what? "

  "I hope I'm not imagining you. Am I, Addie?"

  "No-"

  "It doesn't matter if I am." His hands urged her upward, gently forcing her to rise on her toes. "Don't pull away, Adeline."

  She wanted to pull away, but her body was thrilling with exhilaration, guilt, and fear. Her face turned that necessary half-inch, to an angle that aligned with his. She was lost in the deep green sea of his eyes. His arm slid around her back, trapping her, keeping her close, and suddenly both of them were aware of her breasts pressed snugly into his chest.

  As he bent his head to kiss her, she held her breath and her eyes closed. Just as their lips met, there was the sound of footsteps outside the kitchen door, and Russell's imperious voice.

  "Addie? Addie, where are you?"

  They broke apart in a startled movement. Addie flushed and spun away from Ben, touching her mouth with her fingertips as if he'd left a brand. There had been no time to feel anything but a delicious hint of warmth… but that was more than she ever should have known of Ben Hunter.

  "We're both in the kitchen," Ben replied, swiping up the dripping cloth full of ice and holding it to his face as he sat down abruptly. He and Addie stared at each other for one burning moment until Russell strode into the kitchen.

  "I see she's got you fixed up good," he said, seeming not to notice Addie's discomposure. "Adeline, there's a thing or two we got to talk about."

  "Oh?"

  "That Johnson boy-well, things hafta change between you and him."

  "What do you mean?" she asked warily. "The quarrel is between you and Big George. That doesn't have to affect my friendship with Jeff. "

  'The quarrel's between the Warners and the Johnsons. Which means there's no more friendship between you and Jeff. You're not goin' to see him anymore, or even talk to him. Understand?"

  If he had approached her in a different way, she might have tried to understand his viewpoint. But the way he said it, as an order for her to follow, a command for her to obey, fired her temper as quickly as if he'd set a match to gunpowder.

  "It looks like we have a few things to discuss," she said evenly, trying to keep calm."

  "There's nothin' to talk about."

  Ben cleared his throat. "Looks like it's time for me to leave."

  "Stay," Russ commanded without looking at him.

  "This won't take long."

  "But then again, it might," Addie said tersely.

  "Because you seem to think that all you have to do is dictate orders and watch me rush to obey. But I'm an adult, and I have some say in this."

  "Now, Addie, don't be stubborn, or-"

  "Or you'll send me to bed early? Or give me less pocket money? I'm not a child to be disciplined. I'm an adult."

  "You're my daughter."

  “I have the right to take part in the decisions that affect me."

  "You sure as hell don't!" Russell exploded. "Because I'm the one who makes the decisions, and I'm damn well not going to come to you for advice about my business-"

  "This is my business too! You and Mama have been pushing Jeff at me for weeks. Half the time I've gone to see him only because I wanted to please you. Now suddenly I'm supposed to turn my feelings off and give him the freeze because of some arbitrary whim of yours. But I can't do that."

  "Dammit, why are you so all-fired anxious to cross me?" Their eyes met in challenge, and Addie saw his anger increase as he realized she wasn't going to bow down easily. But he was canny, and he decided to change tactics. "Honey," he said in a conciliatory voice, "we'll get someone a lot better than Jeff for you. Any man in Texas would give his left… would give a lot to have you. Ain't that right, Ben?"

  "Don't drag him into this!" Addie snapped, saving Ben the necessity of replying. "And I won't be pacified by having the prospect of some other man dangled in front of me like a new toy."

  "Then what the hell do you want?"

  "For you to stop treating me like I'm something to be moved around and managed and maneuvered, just like your cattle. Just like Mama and Caroline. "

  His face turned purple. "As long as you live under my roof, eat at my table, and live off my money, you'll do what I say. Just like they do."

  Addie felt tears of fury spring to her eyes. "And talk to whom you tell me to? And marry the man you choose for me?"

  "That's right."

  "It's not right," she said huskily, thinking in a split second of Caroline and the man she had lost. "It's not right at all. You wouldn't let someone run your life like that. Why do you expect it of me?”

  Russell's face was hard. "Because you're a woman. Smart, yes. Too smart for your own good, and damned spoiled. But you're still just a woman, and there's no gettin' around it. I 'll give you rein when I can, Adeline, but not this time."

  “But-”

  "You want a woman's privileges and a man's rights too. But you can't have both. Look at you. Tears ready to fall. You can't hold 'em back-that's because you're a woman. Do you think a man would do that? You stick to your female weapons, honey, and let me make the decisions. You got your place and I got mine. "

  "Don't you think I have a sense of honor? Of pride?" she demanded hoarsely, struggling to hold back the humiliating tears. It was a sign of weakness, one he had taken good advantage of. "Being a woman doesn't mean I don't have sense and intelligence. It doesn't mean I don't need freedom." There was a terrible pressure behind her eyes. She wadded the back of her sleeve against her nose, needing a handkerchief. Although Ben was silent, she was afraid she would see mockery in his eyes. She didn't look at him. As she stared fixedly at Russell, her heart burned with resentment. 'I'll see Jeff if I want to," she said in a muffled voice.

  "You do that, little girl, and I'll bring you to heel so damn quick you w
on't believe it."

  Addie was too angry and humiliated to say anything. She felt trapped as she stood there, cornered, and she had to break free or choke on her own helplessness. Striding through the kitchen, she yanked open the door and fled down the back steps. It was dark outside, and the shadows offered refuge.

  Ben looked at Russell, his green eyes expressionless.

  "What are you gonna say?" Russell demanded hotly. "She's my daughter, damn you. You think I wasn't fair to her?"

  "You already know," Ben said, turning to leave.

  "You stay away from her. Let her lick her wounds in private. I won't have you two commiseratin' behind my back. And I just might be tempted to fire you if you take her side against me!"

  Ben arched an eyebrow, turning his head slowly and staring at him. They both knew he was completely indifferent to Russell's blustering. "I'll leave whenever you give the word, Russ."

  Russell cursed under his breath as the other man went to follow Addie.

  She stopped in the shelter of a storage shed, leaning against the rough wooden planks and crying wretchedly. She had never felt so lonely or helpless. If only there was some sanctuary she could find, even a temporary one! If only she could go to sleep, and wake up to hear Leah calling to her… her Leah, not that little girl!

  It was an intolerable idea to be sentenced to stay here forever. But it was intolerable, also, to think of going back to a place where she had no one at all. What am I going to do? she thought, and pressed her wet cheek against the shed as she began to cry even harder.

  She heard a voice right behind her ear, a voice laced with sympathy. "It's not that bad, darlin'."

  Turning around, she looked at Ben while the moonlight silvered the watery trails down her cheeks. You don't know how bad it is, she wanted to say, but she couldn't. He was so close they were almost touching, his powerful body casting a large shadow. The earth seemed to shake under her feet as she reached out for him blindly, and then he pulled her close into the protection of his body. Her head fell against his shoulder, and she wept at the infinite relief of it. Senseless, to feel safe and warm in his arms, but the sweetness of it flowed through her veins like strong wine. Illusion or not, every moment of it was something to treasure-the heat of his body, the smell of him, the abrasion of his unshaven jaw against her temple. After a while she tried to explain herself, feeling somehow that he would understand.