Gambling on a Dream

by Sara Walter Ellwood

  “Damn.”

  He nodded and drank more of his beer. “I thought we lost her. What the fuck was she thinking?”

  Wyatt often cursed, but his use of the f-bomb scared her as much as his being here. She set her bottle on the end table and moved to sit beside him. Although she had no idea why he’d come to her, he obviously needed comfort. Was she willing to provide it?

  The pain in his startling baby blues had her heart seizing. She’d do anything to relieve his hurt.

  Anything?

  She slipped her arm around his waist. “She feels helpless.”

  Sweet Jesus, what would she do if she were in Rachel’s shoes? She may have lost her baby, but Rachel would never know what it is like to have a baby grow inside of her. She would never have a child of her own.

  What would Dawn have done if she hadn’t stopped the bullet and it had hit Wyatt all those years ago? Would she have been as helpless and lost as Rachel losing the man she loved? But Dawn lost him anyway, and the child they’d created.

  “I know she’s hurting, but she has to stop holding in the pain. I know the timing of Audrey’s announcement the other day was terrible, and I know she’s grieving, but there has to be something that can be done to make things better.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I was just settling in at the ranch, now I think it’s best if I stay at Mom and Dad’s to help with Rachel a little longer.”

  One of the many things she’d always loved and admired about Wyatt was the way he loved his sisters. But sometimes love wasn’t enough. “I don’t think that’s the answer.”

  He met her gaze again. “What?”

  For several moments, they stared at each other. Her sinuses burned from both fear and sorrow for her friend.

  She averted her gaze to the fisted hand on her thigh. What had helped her get through her loss? “She needs to get out and around people. Your parents and you mean well, but I can only imagine she feels like a burden on you all. If you delay your move, you’ll only manage to make her feel more stifled.”

  He shifted beside her and rested his hand over hers. She snapped her eyes to him.

  “I suppose I see your point.” Swallowing so hard his Adam’s apple bobbed, he set his empty bottle on the table beside him. When he turned back to her, he wrapped his arm around her. “What do you think we should do?”

  He was asking her? She shrugged, feeling strangely comforted by his touch and agitated by it at the same time. “She’s a nurse. Why not see if she can volunteer either at the hospital or at one of the nursing homes? Maybe if she’s working again, she will be able to heal.”

  “In other words, if she’s busy, she doesn’t have time to dwell on the rotten things going on with her?”

  She shrugged. “Not really, but she has to feel like she’s needed. Like she’s in control of her life again.”

  After she’d lost their baby, she’d come back to Colton, and as soon as her doctor released her to go back to work, she’d begged her dad to give her a job with the sheriff’s department. Keeping busy helped her deal with not only the loss of her baby, but her broken heart.

  He searched her face and eyes as if he demanded to know all of her secrets. Dawn couldn’t breathe as she watched him close in, then she gasped when his lips landed on hers. The kiss was nothing like the one from the other night. This one was tender, but passion sizzled under the surface.

  She turned into him. He pulled her into his lap, and gripped her waist, holding her close. Licking her upper lip, he demanded entrance. Taking his face between her hands, she straddled his legs, pushed him into the back of the couch, and took his onslaught with welcome fervor.

  * * * *

  “Wyatt,” Dawn whispered against his lips, but unlike the other night, she didn’t stop him. She opened the snaps of his shirt and shoved it aside. He hissed between his teeth when she kissed down his neck to his pulse point.

  His heart thumped in his chest with a hungry need he didn’t realize was possible. He’d never wanted her more than he did right now. He wanted the fiery sensations of her hands caressing over his chest to help him forget the pain he carried for his sister and anger at his not being able to protect her.

  How could he ever forgive Dawn for her betrayal? And yet, here he was, seeking comfort from her. Was he willing to make love to her?

  Was he going to use her like this?

  She moaned in his mouth and ground against his hardening cock, and his desire took over any conscious thought.

  He groped for the buttons of her uniform blouse. When he couldn’t get them open with his trembling fingers, he gripped the edges and pulled. Buttons flew to the left and right, but he didn’t care. And apparently, neither did Dawn. She shrugged out of the shirt.

  The small pucker above her left breast had his breath freezing in his lungs. He touched the scar, and she trembled as their eyes met.

  Had she taken a bullet for him?

  Why on God’s Earth would she have done that? He’d had things under control that night.

  He couldn’t bare thinking about the pain and shock he’d been consumed with when the doctor had come out of the OR of the Dallas hospital to tell him Dawn would be okay, though the bullet grazed her heart. However, the child she carried couldn’t be saved.

  If he’d been a few minutes later, Rachel would have been beyond saving. He’d have failed his sister as he’d failed saving his baby.

  “Stop thinking,” Dawn whispered, as she leaned in and kissed him, plunging her tongue deep into his mouth setting him on fire all over again.

  As he stripped her of her bra, she worked open his belt and fly. When she wrapped her hot hand around his erection, he broke the kiss with a curse. He opened his eyes when she slipped off his lap. Her dark brown eyes burned, scorching him as she kissed down his chest, stopping to lick over his erect, sensitive nipples. All the while, she pumped his cock. She stroked her thumb over the sensitive head of his penis, and the electric shock zapped through him and landed in his balls.

  “Dawn.” He lolled his head back, but couldn’t tear his gaze from hers.

  She shifted to her feet, took off her boots, and pushed her tan slacks and panties to the floor. As he watched her, he toed off his boots, then removed his jeans and underwear.

  She slid her gaze over his body, and her breathing came in quick spurts as she reached up and pulled the band from her hair. The long black waterfall landed around her shoulders and reached the curve of her ass.

  Dear God in heaven, she was beautiful.

  Blood rushed so fast out of his head, his vision fuzzed, causing him to blink. He filled his lungs with air scented by Dawn’s distinct fragrance of honeysuckle and spice.

  She crawled back into his lap. He gripped her waist and held her in place. “I don’t have any condoms.”

  He wheezed as if he’d run a twenty-mile race. At this point, if they couldn’t follow through, it would about kill him. He was beyond a cold shower.

  Touching his face as she had earlier, with both hands caressing his cheeks and jaw, she smiled. “It’s okay. I’m on the pill. And I trust you.” She swallowed and her smile wavered a little. “I haven’t been with anyone since we were together.”

  Then why was she on the pill?

  She must have sensed his question. “After…” Again she swallowed and the smile disappeared completely. “After I lost the baby, I went on the pill to regulate… things.”

  He nodded and pulled her to his mouth. At the moment, speech was as beyond his capabilities as were regret and anger at her reminder of the child he’d never know. As their lips melded, she took him deep into her body and moaned into his mouth.

  Tight, wet heat engulfed him. The shock hit his balls and light flashed through his head. He was going to come before things even had a chance to get started. He broke the kiss, and air rushed out him, hissing between his gritted teeth as he got a grip on his control.

  She arched her back into a beautiful
bow. Her breasts rose high as she lifted up and slid back down, starting a relentless rhythm that had him panting. She opened her eyes and met his gaze as the first ripple tightened around him, cutting through his fragile control like a knife.

  She closed her eyes again and a long gasp escaped as her orgasm shattered her.

  He couldn’t hold back. The fireball barreling down his spine and through his groin was too much. Squeezing his eyes closed and gritting his teeth, he gripped her hips, taking over, and thrust into her deep and hard. She quaked around him as he exploded into her.

  She fell onto him and buried her face into his neck. He brought his hands slowly up her back and threaded his fingers into her honeysuckle-scented hair. He had no idea how long they stayed like that, the only sounds being their rapid heartbeats, ragged breathing, and the refrigerator kicking on and running.

  Then reality smacked him between the eyes.

  What the hell had he done?

  Chapter 8

  Oh, hell.

  Dawn shivered from the cool air hitting her naked back as much as from the realization she’d had sex with Wyatt.

  Had she used her body to comfort a man who could never love her?

  Shifting off his lap, she reached for the afghan folded over the arm of the couch. She turned her back to the man she’d just played cowgirl with and wrapped the soft wool around herself.

  She closed her eyes and tried to forget the intense pleasure she’d experienced with him and the hollow emptiness that now replaced it.

  She suspected the rustling sounds behind her were from Wyatt getting dressed. During the intervening eternity of dead silence, she remembered she still had to feed her horses, and poor Taco scratched at the screen door.

  Thinking about the mundane was easier than concentrating on the sensations of his essence on her inner thighs and the chill settling in where only moments before there had been burning heat.

  He cleared his throat, and she forced her eyes open, then looked over her shoulder. Wyatt stood completely dressed, but his cheeks were still flushed from the strain of what they’d done.

  Handsome as the devil her people had long considered the White Man of being.

  “Some white men still think all we are good for is lying on our backs with our legs open.”

  But what if he was the one on his back? She could almost hear her mother’s response. Semantics.

  “I… eh…” He stabbed all ten fingers into his tussled hair.

  God, if he said he was sorry, she’d break right here and now.

  The phone rang, but she ignored it, letting the machine pick up.

  She turned, gripping the ends of the blanket that covered her from shoulders to feet, but she was still naked to him in a way going beyond nudeness. Her soul was on display.

  She closed her eyes and waited for him to leave.

  “Sheriff, this is Tilly. I convinced Tyler Demello to talk to us. He’ll be here in an hour. I notified the DA and the Rangers. Call the station.”

  “Hey.” She swallowed, hoping her tongue would form the words she needed it to. “I’ll see you around. I have to feed the horses and call Tilly to find out what’s going on.”

  Her legs threatened to crumble, but somehow she managed to sound normal as if they’d spent the afternoon sipping beer and talking motorcycles.

  His gaze slid from hers, and he nodded. “Dawn… Thank you for being here.”

  Oh, sweet God, that was worse than I’m sorry.

  Slipping in past Wyatt when he left, Taco barked, then pressed against Dawn’s leg. As Wyatt’s Harley roared to life outside, Dawn sniffed and shook herself into action. Looking down at the dog, she realized how lonely she was and how much she wished things could be different between her and Wyatt.

  That was the reason she so easily gave herself to him. He’d come to her during what was a painful time, and she’d let the feeling of connecting emotionally with him carry her away.

  Dawn… Thank you for being here.

  Her mother was right. All he would ever want from her was sex.

  And like the damned fool she was, she easily gave it to him.

  “C’mon, girl, let me get you some dinner. Then it’s back to work for me.”

  Thank God. If she was lucky, tomorrow, she’d be there all night and day too. When she finally came home, she’d be so tired she wouldn’t have the energy to think about how stupid she was, or how good Wyatt McPherson felt buried within her.

  Taco wiggled her tail and let out a happy bark.

  Too bad her life couldn’t be as easy as her faithful old puppy’s.

  * * * *

  An hour and half later, Dawn walked into her office, with Tilly trailing behind. She picked up Demello’s file from her desk and turned to face her second in command. “Is he in the conference room?”

  Tilly nodded. “The DA will be here in a few minutes.”

  “What about the Ranger?” She fished in her desk drawer for a pen. As she scribbled on a scrap of paper to make sure it worked, she looked up, and her stomach folded in on itself.

  “I’m here.” Wyatt entered and removed his hat. He must have gone home and showered, because his hair was still a little damp and curled at the ends. He’d also changed into dark jeans, a white western shirt, and leather vest. His silver peso star pinned to the left side of the vest winked brightly when it caught the overhead light.

  Tilly pursed his lips. “What are you doing here? I thought you were on vacation. I heard about Rachel. She’s in mine and Barb’s prayers,” he said, referring to his wife as he patted Wyatt’s shoulder.

  He cleared his throat and looked everywhere but at her as he spoke. “As for the vacation, Captain Rider called me and told me he yanked my request this afternoon. Said, since the sheriff and I have worked together before and drugs are involved, I’m too perfect for the case to let loose.” He rubbed his neck. “As for Rachel, thanks. She needs all the prayers she can get.”

  Tilly nodded and clearly wondered by the narrowing of his eyes what Wyatt was doing here and not at the hospital, but he didn’t ask.

  She wasn’t that polite. “Why are you here… and not with your family?”

  He shrugged and fiddled with his hat by turning it around in his hands by the brim. “Only Mom and Dad could see her tonight. Audrey and Lance are with them, and I hate hospitals too much to hang out there. I figured I would be of better use here.”

  Dawn’s legs threatened to give out. She sat in the chair behind her desk and opened the file, although her vision was too blurred to see the paper of the report, let alone the writing on it.

  How was she going to work with him after her performance earlier?

  Would he expect a repeat?

  Was she strong enough to resist if he did?

  She was vaguely aware of Tilly speaking, but she couldn’t comprehend his words.

  Fisting her hand around the pen she’d fished out of her drawer until her fingers hurt, she forced herself to get a grip. She couldn’t let Wyatt know he rattled her so much. When she could speak, she stood and rounded the desk.

  “Get Wyatt up to speed on Demello. I’ll go meet Pete,” she said, referring to the DA, then escaped as fast as she dared.

  She found Peter Grant talking to his cousin, Deputy Doug Grant, outside of the conference room. As she approached, Doug cuffed Pete on the arm and headed back to his desk.

  Pete nodded at her. “So, what do you think will come out of this little meet and greet?”

  “Hopefully, a confession and the identity of the thug killing these kids.” Dawn sensed Wyatt before he stopped beside her. She glanced at him and Tilly. “Ready?”

  “Yep. Let’s go.” Wyatt was close enough to touch as he reached for the door handle. “After you, Sheriff.”

  He met her gaze, and her belly clenched at the memory of his lips on her as their bodies melded. She hurried through the door into the conference room, the men following her.


  Tyler Demello sat next to a man who stood as they entered. He wore an expensive suit, his short brown hair gleaming of high dollar Dallas salons. His calculating dark eyes easily took her in with a glint of disdain. “Sheriff Madison. I’m Greg Meyer, Tyler’s attorney.”

  Dawn hit Record on the recorder on the table and shook the Dallas lawyer’s hand. His gold Rolex gleamed in the fluorescent lights overhead. “Yes, I remember you, Mr. Meyer. We’ve eh… worked together before.”

  He gave her a tight-lipped smile and settled his jacket sleeve back into place. He got her meaning. High priced defense lawyers and the police never worked together. The cops wanted to tar and feather the rich scum the attorneys were getting paid mega bucks to save from the vat.

  She indicated the men standing beside her. “This is Lieutenant Wyatt McPherson of the Texas Rangers, Lieutenant Tillman Kennedy, and Forest County district attorney Peter Grant.”

  Wyatt nodded toward the tall, well-dressed woman standing behind the teenager. “Ma’am.”

  “Elizabeth Raines. Tyler’s mother.” She crossed her arms over her silk blouse and pursed her carefully painted full lips. She didn’t look old enough to have a seventeen-year-old son. Then again, according to the grapevine, she was married to a man five years older than her son, and half her own age. “Are you charging my son with this preposterous charge, Sheriff?”

  Laying the folder on the table, Dawn pulled out a chair and sat directly in front of Tyler. He’d sat with his arms crossed before him throughout the entire greeting. He might have agreed to this meeting, but he hadn’t left his attitude at home. “I have no choice, Mrs. Raines. Tyler was caught with six ounces of coke. We think he’s a dealer, if he’s a user with that much product… Well, either way, we have a problem.”

  The woman’s surgery-perfected face paled, and she slid into a chair beside her son. “Tyler?”

  He glanced at his mother before looking back at Dawn, and swallowing so hard his protruding Adam’s apple moved up and down in his scrawny neck.

  “I have to warn you, Tyler. Whatever you say here, can and will be used against you.” His lawyer interjected before Tyler had a chance to confess to possession. Despite the sheriff’s department having already established the fact by finding the drugs on the boy. “I have to advise you to allow me to answer your questions.”