Trouble in Texas

by Leann Harris

  “You’ve put in a lot of hours over the past few days,” he said, trying to think of a way to draw out her feelings.

  “So have you. Has anything turned up out at the airfield?”

  “Not a thing. It might be another three weeks before whoever is smuggling decides he needs another load of drugs. That’s why I had to drive to Alpine this afternoon. The sheriff’s department and DEA wanted to plan how to handle the rest of this investigation.”

  Derek felt her body relax under the warmth of his hands. But as the tension drained out of her muscles, another kind of tenseness replaced it. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

  “Give it a month. If we can’t catch them in that time, then we’ll junk the surveillance.” His fingers ran up into her scalp, causing shivers to dance down her spine. “I’m sorry I couldn’t go with you to the school today.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. You had your job to do.”

  He grunted. “Is that the list of who you’ve tested so far?”

  “Yes.”

  He moved around the couch and sat beside her. Taking the yellow tablet from her hands, he surveyed the list.

  “Good night, Dad, Alex,” Sarah said, coming into the room.

  Derek set aside the tablet, opened his arms and gave Sarah a big hug. He placed a kiss on the top of her head, and his actions went straight to Alex’s heart. How could she shield herself from a man who so tenderly kissed his daughter good-night?

  She couldn’t and there was no use lying to herself.

  Sarah paused in front of Alex. “‘Night.”

  Alex caught Sarah’s hand, pulled her close and hugged her. “Sweet dreams.” Her voice brimmed with emotion.

  Sarah smiled shyly, then left the room.

  At that moment, watching Alex give Sarah the love she’d never had from her mother, Derek decided he’d fight for Alexandra’s love. No matter what it took.

  “Thank you,” Derek whispered. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

  Her gaze dropped to her hands, resting in her lap. “There’s nothing to thank me for.”

  His fingers stroked down the side of her neck. “But there is. You forget that all the love and care Sarah’s known at the hands of a woman comes from my ex-wife and it isn’t much.”

  Derek silently cursed his stupid remark about his ex-wife. He didn’t want to remind her of his failed marriage.

  “With this TB outbreak, Sarah needs more than I could give her. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t been here.”

  She shrugged. He leaned closer and kissed the soft skin behind her ear.

  She turned her head, obviously prepared to tell him now was not the time for this. Her lips grazed his. Framing her head between his hands, he lightly traced the outline of her bottom lip with the tip of his tongue. Her gaze flew to his and he read her passion and need.

  His mouth sipped from hers, finally coaxing from her a moan. He deepened the kiss, his tongue tangling with hers.

  In the small part of his brain that still functioned he heard a door close and realized that Sarah was still awake. Alex must’ve heard it too, because she jerked away from him.

  “We’d better look over that list.”

  As he glanced at the tablet behind him on the cushion, Derek realized that Alex was trying to slide out of this emotional encounter the way she did other emotional issues in her life. She was hiding from it. Well, he wasn’t going to let her. “Alexandra?”

  “What?” she answered, avoiding looking into his face.

  His fingers captured her chin, bringing her gaze to his. “Come to me later tonight. I need you, and I think you need me.” He held his breath. It was a gamble to issue the invitation, but he didn’t know any other way to make her choose.

  “I—”

  “For once, sweetheart, give in to your heart.”

  Chapter 12

  As Alexandra lay alone in her bed several hours later, Derek’s words continued to play over in her head, again and again and again.

  He was wrong, she thought crossly. She’d given in to her heart many times. She could name several examples: med school was one, falling in love with Vince was another. Even her service with the Red Cross had come from her heart. It certainly hadn’t come from an instinct of self-preservation.

  And yet, if she was honest with herself, she’d have to admit those instances were actually a reaction to something. Her choice of career had been fashioned by her younger sister’s accident, but her marriage to Vince had been a heart matter.

  Was it really? a traitorous little voice in her head asked. If she compared her feelings for Derek against those she’d had for Vince, her feelings for Vince were a pale echo.

  She stilled.

  Another ugly and treacherous thought occurred. If Vince had lived, they would’ve probably divorced. She and Vince had had nothing in common except medicine. Vince hadn’t understood about her convoluted relationship with her father, or her passion to escape west Texas. He wasn’t comfortable with horses or cowboys, and despite being born in Texas, he’d never understood why his fellow Texans gloried in their past. But the most crucial point was that, although he’d been a thoughtful lover, he’d never created in her the depth of passion that Derek did.

  And since she was being painfully honest with herself, she might as well admit her real motive for going to Bosnia. Yes, she had wanted to help those people, but in helping others, it was the best way to ignore the loneliness in her own life. If she was busy with other people’s problems, she wouldn’t have time to deal with her own.

  This time, though, her heart demanded to be heard, and she couldn’t ignore it. What she had with Derek was precious, something that needed to be nourished and fed.

  But if she gave in to her heart’s demands, and things didn’t work out, what then? Could she live through that final, crippling blow? If she didn’t give in to her heart’s demands, would she ever be a whole person again?

  She remembered Derek’s kissing Sarah good-night, then recalled his fierce tenderness when he had touched her and made love to her several nights ago.

  Was it worth the risk? Yes, it was.

  Alex threw back the covers and pulled on her robe. Swallowing her rising nervousness, she slipped out of her room and walked the half-dozen steps down the hall to Derek’s room. By natural measure, the distance was only several feet, but for Alexandra, those steps represented the longest journey of her life.

  Her fingers shook as she turned the brass knob and pushed open the door.

  Moonlight streamed through the open curtains, giving the room a pearly glow, and making Alex wonder if she was dreaming.

  “I’m glad you came.”

  Alex’s gaze flew to the bed. The opalescent moonlight fell across the lower part, and she saw Derek’s legs outlined under the covers. His face and upper body were in the shadows.

  “I was worried you wouldn’t.”

  She squinted and saw that he was sitting up, a pillow propped behind his back.

  “I—” She fell silent. Nothing appropriate came to mind. She didn’t want to admit the argument she’d had with herself.

  “Are you going to stay by the door all night?” There was a lightness in his voice that eased her nervousness. She started toward him, but then stopped. She had come this far, but she needed him to meet her. She’d given in to her heart. Now it was time for him to do the same.

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  He leaned forward, bringing his face into the light. His elbows rested on his knees, his hands clasped together. His brow wrinkled as he studied her. After a moment his sexy grin split his face. “If you want to make love standing up, Doc, I’m more than willing to accommodate you.”

  Before she could sputter a protest, he threw back the covers and was striding toward her, every inch of his glorious nude frame outlined by the light. Logical thought fled her brain as she was enveloped in his strong arms and hauled up off the floor and against his chest. The only thought she
had was that she had come home.

  When his mouth came crushing down on hers, she welcomed his fierceness. It matched the need in her. She felt the solid wood of the door behind her back as he whispered in her ear, “Put your legs around my waist.”

  She looked into his eyes. “You can’t be serious?”

  That grin appeared again. “Can’t I? Put your legs around my waist, Alexandra. Let me show you how it can be between us.”

  The intensity of his words rocked her. She obeyed, compelled to experience the promise in his eyes. His fingers tugged her gown and robe out of the way and then she felt him slide home. She moaned and her head rolled back against the door.

  “Feel that, sweetheart. We’re one.”

  The truth of his words sang through her veins.

  “Look at me, Alexandra. I want to see your eyes go dark with passion when you touch heaven with me.”

  Her eyes fluttered open and locked with his. Their souls were one as surely as their bodies.

  As they moved together and plunged into ecstasy, Alex knew that her heart had been right.

  * * *

  Later Derek held Alex while she slept, and he allowed himself to believe that maybe there was a future for them. As he had lain in bed waiting for her, he’d prayed she would listen to her heart. When she finally slipped into his room, it had taken him several moments to realize that she wasn’t a figment of his wishful imagination.

  He frowned as he remembered her refusal to walk across the room to his bed. Had she been trying to tell him something important and he missed it? Tonight she had yielded to her heart, but would she tomorrow? And what about the day after that?

  If he had anything to say about it, she would. Whatever had bothered her, he was determined to discover it and deal with it.

  After their incredible lovemaking, he wanted to whisper in her ear that he loved her and intended to marry her, but he feared it was too early to press that issue.

  He was gambling that, over the next month or so, the bonds they were building both inside the bedroom and out would be so strong that she would never want to leave him. He would hold her here with bonds of passion and friendship.

  Yes, it was a gamble. But he’d just won the first hand.

  * * *

  Alex studied the scribbling before her, charting the percentage of TB cases within family groups. Norma was at the center of the chart. Her family had had fifty percent of the individuals with active TB.

  The next circle, like concentric rings in a pool, was the co-workers and friends of Norma, Billy and Lorraine. For each of those individuals who tested positive, their family group would have to be tested. Any family group that had a percentage of positive results above thirty percent had to be suspected as the source of this outbreak.

  “What are you doing?”

  Alex looked up from the desk to see Derek standing in the doorway to the clinic office. She ruffled the papers before her. “Trying to figure out who our ground zero patient is in all this mess.”

  He strolled around the desk and lightly kissed the particularly sensitive spot on the side of her neck that he’d found last night. Shivers skated over her skin.

  “Stop that,” she admonished him. “We don’t know who will walk in.”

  He wagged his brows and gave her a sensual, knowing smile.

  “How many people can you threaten to punch, aside from Billy, and be sure they won’t talk?”

  He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the desk. “Would it be so bad if people knew about us?”

  And what would people say? The doc is sleeping with the deputy. Alex didn’t like the sound of that. Call her Victorian, but being named a man’s lover didn’t set well with her. “Do you want Sarah to know about us?”

  His gaze remained steady as he studied her. After a long silence he opened his mouth, then closed it. He nodded toward the chart on her desk. “Do you want me to look over your list to see if we’ve missed anyone?”

  “Yes.”

  He pushed away from the desk. Looking over her shoulder, he scanned her chart. Alex pulled the list of patients she had tested thus far. “Here’s the list of who’s been in, but I don’t have all the results of those tests yet.” Her finger ran down the column by the names. “I have five people coming in today for results, and seven tomorrow.”

  He rubbed his hand over his chin.

  “Am I missing any major group of people? Are all the ranches represented?”

  “No. I don’t see anyone from the Moore ranch. Also, the Davis ranch. I don’t see anyone on the list from there.”

  “Do members of these two ranches come into town to get their mail?”

  He placed his mouth next to her ear. “That’s the only way they get their mail, Doc.”

  “Okay.” She knew she’d asked a stupid question. “I’ll need to call both ranches and have the contact person come into town.” She glanced up at him and found his mouth less than an inch from hers.

  “I dare you,” he whispered.

  There was something in the challenge that Alex couldn’t resist and her mouth met his. A little imp inside made her want to rock Mr. Deputy Sheriff back on his heels. Her tongue ran over the seam of his lips, then slipped inside when he opened to her. Her hands ran over his shoulders then up into the hair at the back of his head.

  A growl rumbled in Derek’s chest and he pulled her to her feet.

  “Hello.” A voice drifted down the hall. “Anyone here?”

  They broke away from each other.

  Derek cursed. “It’s not easy trying to romance a doctor,” he muttered.

  Alex bit back a smile. “It comes with the territory.”

  “Hello,” the voice called again.

  “Back here,” Derek shouted back.

  A tall man in his early forties appeared. He looked at Derek and nodded. “Derek.”

  “Hi, Marv. The doc and I were just discussing you.”

  “Oh?”

  Derek turned to Alex. “Alexandra, you won’t have to make one of those calls this afternoon. This is Marvin Davis.”

  “Fred over at the feed store told me to come over here and get tested for TB. What’s going on?”

  “Sit down, Marv, and Dr. Courtland and I will explain it to you.”

  * * *

  “Okay, Beavins, I’ll think of a way.” Derek glanced up when he heard a noise. Alex stood just inside the doorway of his office watching him talk on the phone. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He hung up. “What can I do for you, Doc?”

  “I thought I’d come by and tell you that your brother and sister-in-law had negative results. Both are well.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief.

  She walked to the desk. “I also got hold of Simon Moore. He said he’d try to wander in sometime in the next few days.” She grinned. “I told him to make it as soon as possible.”

  “That’s it,” Derek said, jumping to his feet. “You’re brilliant, Alexandra.” He kissed her cheek.

  She frowned and looked at him as if he’d lost his marbles. “Care to tell me what you consider brilliant?”

  “Why don’t you sit down?”

  She took the chair in front of the desk. He sat on the corner of the desk.

  “Remember when the DEA agents discovered the airfield?” She nodded. “It borders three ranches. Mine and my brother’s, the Schullers’ and the Moore ranch. Now we’ve eliminated my ranch as one of the suspects. Stan Schuller is in his seventies and there’s no reason to suspect him of smuggling. That leaves the Moore ranch. Beavins wanted me to think of a way to get on the ranch without Simon Moore becoming suspicious.”

  “Is he a suspect?” she asked.

  “Not officially. But since the landing strip is situated between the ranches, the logical step is to check out the owners to see if any are involved with the smuggling.”

  “How does that tie in with me?”

  “The TB testing. I can drive you out this afternoon and you test everyo
ne there. We’ll use the excuse that because of the public health concern, you couldn’t wait for Simon to wander in. Isn’t that right?”

  She pursed her lips. “That’s right.”

  He squatted on his haunches before her. “I can tell from your expression that you weren’t too thrilled with Simon’s response. This would be a way to get the testing out of the way, and—” he leaned forward and whispered in her ear “—get back at him.” His lips caressed the lobe of her ear.

  She jerked her head back and glared at him.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  After a moment her expression softened and her lips twitched. She bit her bottom lip to stop the movement. “When did you want to go?”

  “How about now?”

  “Don’t you want to say hello to your brother and his wife? They’re at the feed store getting their mail.”

  “I’ll go by and ask them to stay with Sarah until we get back from the Moore place. You go to the clinic and get several tests. I think there are four people at Simon’s ranch, but he might have more help since I was out there the last time.” He paused. “So how about it, Doc? You want to go?”

  “I’ll meet you at the clinic in five minutes.”

  She started to rise, but he reached out and cupped her chin. “You know what, Alexandra?”

  “What?”

  “Excuse me.” Todd Grey’s familiar voice interrupted from the doorway.

  Derek released Alex’s chin, closed his eyes and let his head roll forward.

  He felt Alex slip out of the chair. “I’ll see you in five minutes,” she said as she left his office.

  “Did I interrupt something?” Todd asked.

  Derek stood. “No, brother. Alexandra and I were just talking about you.”

  “Oh? What were you saying lip to lip?”

  With a sigh of resignation that Alex had again slipped away before he could tell her how he felt, Derek explained the situation to his brother. It occurred to him a few minutes later, as Alex climbed into his Jeep, that maybe she still wasn’t ready to hear what was in his heart.

  He hoped she reached that point real soon.

  * * *

  Alex stared out at the rugged horizon. The volcanic mountains in the distance looked as if someone had taken an old-time can opener and cut jagged peaks from a huge mass of rock. An unexpected shower had dumped just enough rain on the area to make the dirt roads messy. But the rain had also filled the air with a refreshing herbal smell.