Wyoming Rugged

by Diana Palmer

  Niki was shivering. Was that what Blair had thought, too? That she was offering herself up with no strings?

  She didn’t know what to do. She had no self-defense training. There was nobody around that she could look to for help, although any of the hotel’s employees would come running if she screamed. She was about to, when suddenly, a miracle happened.

  “Oh, go away, you festering little fly,” a harsh female voice said from behind her. A woman moved into view, in a one-piece bathing suit with a long, gauzy coverup over it. “Shoo! Go inflict yourself on someone else!”

  The young man hesitated, as if he was shocked to be spoken to in such a manner.

  Janet raised a hand toward a hotel steward and motioned him to the beach. She smiled at the worried young man. “How do you like jail, sweetie?” she purred. “I’m sure they’ve got a nice cell, but I’ll bet you’re already on parole, aren’t you?”

  “Damned woman!” The man took off running, going fast enough to almost overturn the steward on his way off the grounds.

  “That man, he was bothering you, señorita?” he asked Janet.

  “Not me. Her.” Janet indicated her flushed companion. “Do you know who he is?”

  “Yes, I know,” the employee said coldly. “He comes here to sell drugs to the tourists. We know, and when we see him, we run him off. He has been most offensive to our female guests. I am very sorry. I will speak to the police.”

  “That would be a good idea,” Janet said. “Thank you.”

  “Yes,” Niki added. “Thanks very much.” She was almost shivering with the upset. She turned to Janet as the hotel man left. “Thank you. I...I’ve never been spoken to like that by a man. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “You’re very young,” Janet said gently, and she was thinking that this poor child had been sheltered overmuch by her father. Blair had said as much the night before. “You don’t know much about the world, do you, honey?”

  Niki grimaced. “I know a lot more this morning than I ever did before. You took a terrible chance,” she added worriedly. “He might have hurt you.”

  She shrugged. “Tae Kwon Do. Brown belt.” Her eyes twinkled. “If he’d touched me, he’d be on his back, unconscious. You might benefit from a self-defense class or two.”

  “I might. But...I’m not sure...it would help...” All of a sudden, Niki couldn’t breathe. She looked in her small fanny pack for her inhaler, took it out and used it. Her breath came back, but very slowly.

  “Asthma?” Janet asked worriedly.

  Niki nodded. She waited a minute and used the inhaler again. “I’m on preventative meds, and I always carry my rescue inhaler.” She smiled weakly. “I’m not in good health.”

  “I can see that.” Janet had a very different picture of Niki than she got this morning. She wondered if Blair really knew much about her.

  The medicine finally worked. Niki picked up her towel, which she’d dropped in the sand during the episode with the man.

  “Don’t go,” Janet said. “Don’t let that fungus spoil the day for you. Come lie down and talk to me. I don’t know a soul at the hotel, except Blair.” Her smile was full of sweet memory. Niki tried her best to hide the pain it gave her.

  “My father’s here for a business meeting,” she said, without mentioning Blair. “Are you part of that, too?”

  “Oh, no. I’m in film. Well, in filmmaking,” she laughed. “I’m down here with my company making a commercial for a soft drink company. We’ve got five world-class models and an A-list actor doing it for us. I worry that the cameraman will forget to put film in the camera. He actually drools when the girls are lining up.”

  Niki laughed in spite of herself. “It must be a very good job.”

  “It is. I’d hoped to marry and have children, but Blair wasn’t ready in those days. I never thought he’d marry at all. And then he found Elise.” She ground her teeth together. “She should be hanged for what she did to him.”

  Niki knew more about that than Janet probably did. “He loved her,” was all she said. “Or at least, that’s what Dad said,” she added, to make sure she wasn’t telling Janet too much.

  “He thought he did. She cured him of that illusion pretty quickly. You know that old saying ‘what you see is what you get’? Well, that certainly wasn’t the case. He had no idea what he was getting until it was too late. Now she holds him up for more money while she carouses around the world, mixing with the jet set. Her father was a plumber, and her mother cooked for a restaurant.” She hesitated. “I guess I sound like a snob.” She smiled at Niki. “I’m not. My dad was a cop. My mother worked in social services. I didn’t move in the fast lane, either.”

  “How did you meet Blair?” Niki asked, trying to sound only mildly interested.

  “I met his mother,” she corrected, laughing, “in a Starbucks. We talked and she must have liked me, because she sent Blair down to the photography studio where I was working to have a portrait done. We dated for a few wonderful weeks.”

  “He didn’t want to get married, you said.”

  “No,” Janet replied wearily. “I ran out of ways to try to convince him. He was very stubborn. Business was all he lived for. That, and his mother, whom he loved dearly. He spent the rest of her life trying to make up to her what her husband did to Blair.”

  “His father, you mean?”

  “Harrison wasn’t his father,” she said coldly. “His father died even before he was born. Harrison was rich and had oil wells. He fell in love with Blair’s mother, who was pregnant, exquisitely beautiful and cultured, and moved in the same social circles as him. He charmed her into marriage. Then, when she had Blair, his true colors began to show. He hated having to raise another man’s child, especially when he learned that he was sterile and couldn’t have children of his own. He made Blair, and his mother, pay for that.” She hesitated. “He punished Bernice by hitting Blair when she did something he didn’t like. At least, until the day Blair grew big enough to turn the tables and use the belt on him. After that, things were quieter at home. They were better off when Harrison died while trying to show one of his workers the right way to set up a rig. Sadly, or not so sadly, he did it while dead drunk and oblivious to the fact that he didn’t have the foggiest idea what he was doing.”

  “What a life he must have had,” Niki said, wincing inside.

  “Blair’s never seen a good marriage, I guess,” Janet said. “Even so, any man can be tricked into it by an unscrupulous woman. Every time I saw Blair and Elise together, she was wrapped around him like ivy, playing on his senses and pulling away when he tried to get her into bed.” She shrugged. “I guess it finally worked. But she made him as miserable as his stepfather made his mother.”

  “She’s still around, too, isn’t she?” Niki asked absently.

  “At every benefit he ever attends, trying to get him back,” came the shocking reply. Niki’s expression spoke for itself. “You didn’t know?” Janet asked with an amused smile. “I guess not. But your father’s his best friend. I expect he knows.”

  “I hope he has sense enough not to be taken in twice,” Niki said heavily.

  “Me, too. But then, I have some ideas about that,” she added with a smile. “I thought you might invite me to have dinner tonight with you and your father, if you don’t mind,” she added coyly. “And if Blair just happens to show up, too...well, better me than Elise.” She sighed and lay back on her towel, oblivious to Niki’s pained expression. “At least she showed me one foolproof way to get him to the altar. This time, maybe I’ll have better luck!”

  * * *

  NIKI DID INVITE Janet to dinner. Then she phoned the airport, got a seat on a commercial jet, packed her bags, left a note for her father and went home. She left the gold swimsuit in the trash can in her room. She knew that she’d never have the nerve, or the stomach,
to wear it again.

  * * *

  TODD AND BLAIR came back to their rooms after a long day of discussions about drilling for oil in the Yucatán. It had been favorable, because Blair’s reputation in the oil industry was well-known. He wasn’t a polluter. Todd ran a business that supplied equipment to oil corporations, so he was in talks for the same reason. Mexico had its own oil interests, and Todd was hoping to branch out into a bigger market.

  “That went well,” Todd said with a weary smile. “Now maybe we can enjoy the rest of our vacation without business intervening.”

  “I hope so,” Blair said. He was dreading seeing Niki. Neither of them was going to be able to hide their discomfort from her father, and that would lead to questions he didn’t want to answer.

  They stopped by Blair’s suite when they reached their floor. They were sipping whiskey and discussing dinner venues when there was a knock at the door.

  “That’s probably Niki, looking for me,” Todd said with a laugh. “The meetings did run late.”

  “Yes, they did.” He steeled himself not to react when he opened the door.

  But it wasn’t Niki. It was Janet, in a slinky silver cocktail dress, looking very expensive and pretty.

  “Am I late?” she asked.

  “Late for what?” Blair asked.

  “Dinner, of course. Niki invited me to eat with all of you,” Janet said and smiled.

  Blair’s heart skipped a beat. “Where did you speak to her?”

  “On the beach, this morning. There was a little unpleasantness,” she added. “One of the local drug dealers made an obscene play for her on the beach. I made him leave her alone, and I called one of the hotel stewards to run him off. Poor thing,” she added softly. “She was shocked. It brought on an asthma attack. Thank God she had her rescue inhaler on her.”

  “Who was it?” Blair asked, barely able to contain the utter fury he felt.

  Janet saw the expression on his face, and all her hopes died. He was livid. In all their time together, he’d never been like that when Janet was badly treated by anyone, although he’d been supportive. This wasn’t supportive. It was homicidal.

  “The hotel steward knew him,” she said uneasily. “He’s a local drug dealer.”

  Blair jerked out his cell phone and started punching in numbers. His eyes were blazing like black coals.

  “Thank you, for what you did for my daughter,” Todd said with a smile. He was reeling from Blair’s reaction to what had happened. It told him things Blair never would.

  “I like her,” Janet said. “She’s very fragile, isn’t she?” she added gently. “Like thin porcelain. Just as brittle, just as beautiful.”

  “Her mother was like that,” Todd said, the pain of loss still in his eyes after so many years. “I lost her when Niki was very young.”

  “You never thought of remarrying?” Janet asked.

  He shook his head, smiling softly. “Never. I have memories that will last me until the day I die. And her name will be the last thing on my lips, even then.”

  Janet tamped down hard on her feelings. She couldn’t imagine an emotion that deep, that lasting. Even with Blair, whom she’d loved, there had never been such intensity. She glanced at him covertly. He was giving somebody hell on the telephone, in perfect Spanish. He finished the call, hung up and made another.

  “I almost feel sorry for the drug dealer,” Janet said, tongue in cheek.

  “So do I. Blair’s like a train going down a mountain when he wants something badly enough. I should probably be making those calls. But my Spanish isn’t half as good as his.” He grimaced. “My poor Niki. She’s so unworldly...”

  “That’s not a bad thing, in this day and age,” Janet told him.

  “I suppose not. But I’ve sheltered her. Maybe too much. She’s twenty-two, but her experiences with men have been pretty daunting. Blair saved her from a very bad experience some years ago and sent the perpetrator running. I had my attorneys run him out of the state.” He leaned toward her, laughing softly. “I thought Blair might hurt him if I didn’t. He didn’t let Niki see, but he was furious. He knocked the guy around a bit before he threw him out the front door. When I got home, Niki was curled up in his lap in an armchair. That was when he was just engaged to Elise and looking forward to a happy marriage.” He made a face. “Some happiness she gave him!”

  “I know. His mother would have hated Elise,” she added.

  “He was staying with us and got sick just before Christmas one year, while they were married. Niki made me call Elise and tell her how bad he was. She said she had a party to go to and sick people disgusted her.”

  “True to her nature,” Janet said coldly.

  “So Niki nursed him, risking pneumonia, just to take care of him. The doctor and I protested, but it did no good at all.”

  Janet was getting a clear picture of the relationship between Niki and Blair, and it did nothing for her ego or her plans for the future. There was something powerful between the two of them. Apparently, Blair was fighting his own feelings tooth and nail. Niki had pretended not to care when Janet told her about her plans to seduce Blair. It must have hurt her.

  Blair was off the phone. He put it back into the holder on his belt. His eyes were still blazing. “I’ve got the police looking for him. He’s on parole for assault. He’ll go back. I promise you he will, no matter what it takes! Nobody treats Niki like that!”

  Todd moved close to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Calm down,” he said gently. “They’ll find him and he’ll be dealt with. But we need to talk to Niki. I’m sorry now that I suggested this trip,” he added sadly. “I only wanted to give her a holiday.”

  Blair felt the guilt all the way to his toes. He had hurt Niki, probably more than the drug dealer had. He dreaded facing her.

  “I suggested some martial arts training when I ran the drug dealer off,” Janet said as they left Blair’s room and walked toward Todd’s suite. “I’m a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do. It might help build up her self-confidence, toughen her up just a little.”

  “You ran him off?” Blair asked.

  She nodded. “Poor little thing, she was too shocked by the things he said to her. It was painful to watch.”

  “Thank you for helping her,” Blair said quietly. He could hardly bear the pain he felt at letting Niki out of his sight. The way he’d behaved had hurt her, he knew. Now this only added to her pain. He had to find some way to apologize, to explain, to smooth over what he’d done to her. He never should have touched her in the first place. He’d blamed her, blamed the bathing suit that showed so much of her creamy skin. But in the end the only blame was his own. He had nothing to offer her, and he’d let his body dictate to his brain. It had been, in many ways, the sweetest interlude of his life. But Niki couldn’t know that. He had to find a kind way to keep her at arm’s length, to protect her. To protect her from himself.

  * * *

  “NIKI?” TODD CALLED when he walked into the suite. There was no answer. The door to her room was closed. “She said she had a headache. She might have gone to lie down. I’ll check.”

  He opened the door. Blair was right behind him. But the room was empty. Blair’s eyes looked around it and landed on the chest of drawers. There was a note. Beside the chest, in the trash can, was the gold bathing suit she’d worn to the beach. Blair’s teeth ground together.

  Todd had spotted the note, too. He read it with a grimace. “She’s gone home,” he said heavily. “I guess it was too much for her, what happened this morning.” He walked back into the sitting room. “I’m going to call and make sure she’s getting home okay.”

  Blair was staring at the trash can, his face hard and lined.

  Janet moved beside him. “I told her that we’d been an item once,” she confessed in a dull, quiet tone. She looked up at h
im, her keen eyes not missing the expression that drifted across his face. “Do you know how she feels about you, Blair?”

  “She’s a child. The daughter of my best friend. That’s all she is.” He managed a cool smile. “She’s infatuated with me. Last year it was a singer in a pop band. After that the actor in a lawman series on TV.” He chuckled, making a joke of it. “There will be somebody new by Christmas.”

  “Oh. I see.” She brightened. “Well...”

  Todd came back into the room. “She’s landing in Billings now. I sent Tex there to pick her up.”

  Blair’s eyes narrowed. “Tex is sweet on her.”

  “Yes, he is,” Todd laughed. “For all the good it will ever do him. He doesn’t get out much, and Niki’s usually around, especially during roundup. She actually goes out with the men to watch the branding.” He grimaced. “Dust everywhere, and I can’t stop her. At least I convinced her into wearing a surgical mask.”

  Blair turned away. He glanced at the bathing suit and sighed.

  “Well, we might as well go to dinner,” Todd said. “Janet, you coming?”

  “Yes, if you don’t mind,” she said.

  “We’re happy to have you.”

  Blair took a breath. “You two go ahead. I’ve got another phone call to make.”

  “We’ll wait to order until you get there,” Todd said.

  “Just order me a steak and salad. Rare, mind you,” Blair said. “No dessert.”

  “Okay. Will do. Janet?” Todd took her arm and led her out into the hall.

  Once they were gone, Blair picked up the gold bathing suit out of the trash. He looked at it, remembering how Niki had looked in it, how sweet it had been to touch her, to hold her, to kiss her. He touched the suit tenderly with his lips. Then took it back to his own suite and stuck it in his suitcase.

  * * *

  DINNER WAS QUIET. Very quiet. Blair was brooding. Todd was worried about Niki and couldn’t hide it. He was worried about Blair, as well. Before he made the phone call, he’d gone back to ask him what sort of dressing he wanted on his salad. Blair had been standing by the dresser, with Niki’s discarded bathing suit in his big hands. As he watched, the younger man touched his lips to it with a tenderness he’d rarely ever seen in him.