by Joanna Sims
Chapter Eight
Dallas couldn’t wait to get off Blue Holiday and get into Nick’s arms.
“You’re here!” She hugged him so hard that the muscles in her arms started to shake.
“That was way too long between dates.” Nick picked her up off the ground and hugged her back just as hard.
“I had these sent from Montana just for you.” He held out the bouquet of wildflowers out to her.
Moved by the sweet gesture, Dallas accepted the flowers and rewarded Nick with the quickest kiss on the lips. It was the first kiss she had initiated; she doubted the recipient had any clue how significant that one little gesture was for her.
“I’m so happy you’re here!” She knew her face must be beaming with happiness from her wonderful run and the excitement of seeing him again.
“I was trying pretty hard to convince you that I wasn’t going to be able to make it.” He walked beside her as she headed back to long rows of tents turned temporary stalls. “Are you really all that surprised?”
“Pleasantly.”
Nick seemed to be as happy to see her as she was him. They didn’t make a whole lot of sense on paper—they really didn’t. But did that matter when just being near each other was a source of happiness? Did it matter that they were different on just about every level when their hearts seemed to be so similar?
He asked her, so gentlemanly, for a third date. This time, she said yes with a condition—they had to wait until she was done with her competing the next day. It wasn’t Nick’s fault, but her focus hadn’t been what it should have been in Fort Worth or in San Antonio. Houston was her last chance to finish high in the money and ride a wave of success back to the competitions scheduled throughout Montana.
“Tomorrow, then,” Nick said before he leaned over and touched his lips to hers. He promised to watch her compete from the stands, cheering her on. “We’ll celebrate.”
* * *
Nick spent the morning enjoying room service in his luxury suite at the Four Seasons Houston. He checked and answered his work emails, glad that he could keep in touch without letting anyone know where he was for the weekend. He still didn’t know what he was doing with Dallas Dalton—he still didn’t know how to explain what he was feeling to his friends, his parents and his colleagues. He did know something with a high level of certainty: Dallas would not fit as easily into his life as he had with hers. He could sit in the stands surrounded by cowboy hats, Wrangler jeans, silver belt buckles and cowboy boots and no one really cared that he was dressed in “preppy” clothes. He liked his chinos, button-down shirts and stylish men’s shoes. He’d always been a good dresser and he could keep on wearing his “uniform” in Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth. On the other hand, Dallas wearing her cowgirl clothes at his country club? His mother would have an epic meltdown, which would prove to be annoying and inconvenient.
But in the end, he was a grown-ass man; he would date whomever he wished. He just needed to get his sea legs with this relationship first and then figure out a game plan to ease Dallas into his life.
“Are we all set for tonight?” Nick asked the concierge on his way to watch Dallas in her last day of competition.
“All set, Mr. Brand. I’ve booked you for two in the Cellar private dining room. Per your request, it’s the most romantic dining we offer.”
Nick slipped the concierge a neatly folded one-hundred-dollar bill and then waited for valet parking to bring the Porsche he had rented to the front of the hotel. He arrived at the rodeo just in time to catch the beginning of the women’s barrel racing.
He managed to find a decent seat where he could watch out for Dallas. There were a lot of really good barrel racers at this rodeo, but he only had eyes for Dallas. When he heard her named, the nerve endings in his body lit up like Christmas morning. He leaned forward, his hands clasped, all his visual attention aimed at the opening at one end of the arena where he knew that, any moment, Dallas and Blue would come flying out at a full gallop.
Man, did he want her to have a great race! The moment she came out into the arena, and the announcer mentioned that she was Davy Dalton’s daughter, the crowd cheered louder for her than they did for any of the other women. Davy Dalton was still a fan favorite, and Nick was proud to be the man who would be leaving the rodeo with Davy’s daughter on his arm.
“Come on, Dally.” Nick clasped his hands tightly in suspense while Dallas cut around the first barrel without clipping it.
Blue was running fast and tight, his footing solid on the turns. Dallas, unlike many of the women, rode close to the saddle throughout her run and seemed to be in total control of her body.
God, she was a beautiful thing to behold when she was racing the barrels. Just as much as the first day he had caught sight of her riding Blue, he was fascinated now. Maybe even more so.
When Dallas rounded the last barrel, free and clear, she leaned forward and gave Blue his head and they took off at a full gallop to the end of the course. Nick sprang out of his seat and pumped his fist several times in the air. That was a clean, fast run and Dallas, for the moment, was sitting pretty in first place.
At the end of the women’s barrel racing, Dallas ended in second place overall and won a nice chunk of change to add to her overall year earnings. Nick couldn’t have felt prouder if he’d been the one out there racing at breakneck speeds around those barrels.
When he saw the cowgirl, she was flushed red in the face from the thrill of competing and winning.
“Don’t think I’m being condescending when I say this, Dallas—but I’m proud of you.” Nick had followed her, as was his habit, back to the temporary barn that had been erected for the rodeo.
Dallas had stopped rinsing Blue’s body to let him play with the end of the hose and lap some water into his mouth. She looked over at him with happy eyes. “Heck no, I’m not offended! It’s nice to hear that someone’s proud of you. I’m proud of me!”
As she always did, Dallas made sure that Blue was clean and fed before she tended to her own needs. Nick took her hand in his and they walked together toward her trailer. They had been going back and forth about how the night would unfold. Nick wanted Dallas to grab her stuff—a change of clothing and some toiletries—and come to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Dallas was balking at the idea, but she was showing signs of being swayed.
“Just let me win this one, Dallas. You’ve won your race already, haven’t you?” he asked her.
Dallas reappeared in the doorway of her trailer. She looked at him, studied his face, really, and he could see those stubborn wheels turning.
“Fine,” the cowgirl relented. “We’ll do it your way for a change.”
* * *
Dallas knew she could get used to a swanky hotel like the Four Seasons without any difficulty at all. Of course, Nick had taken one of the best suites at the hotel with an amazing view of the downtown Houston skyline. She was well aware of his taste—he liked the best. And it was that great taste that actually made her feel good about being his date—he thought that she was the best. He wasn’t just after her to get her into bed; he genuinely liked her. He valued her. He listened to her and supported her in a way she’d ever really known with one person in her life, and that was Clint. Never with someone she had dated. Nick was in a category all of his own.
“How’s it going in there?” Nick knocked on the bathroom door. “We’ve got reservations in an hour.”
“It’s goin’ great,” Dallas called back from her immersed position in a giant spa tub. She had already washed her hair; she had also tackled the forest of hair on her legs and under her armpits—she had to use two disposable razors to get to smooth skin. Now she was totally submerged in a tub of clean, hot water, her second go-round; she had used the complimentary bath oil per Nick’s instructions. The water was so hot and it felt so good on her tir
ed, sore muscles that she wanted to soak until the water went cold and she was as wrinkled as a raisin.
“Hmm.” Dallas sank even farther into the water until her face was the only part of her body not submerged. “This is the life.”
She stayed in that sweet-smelling water until it started to feel too cold. It didn’t take her long to get ready once she got started and she emerged from the steamy bathroom with clean clothes, a little makeup on her face and her hair formed into damp ringlets down her back.
“That was possibly the most amazing bath I have ever had in my whole entire life,” Dallas told her host. “Thank you.”
Nick was dressed in a classic suit holding a glass of champagne. “My pleasure.”
Her companion handed her a glass of champagne. “I can’t believe I turned you down the last three times you offered. Were the other tubs as amazing as this one?”
“They were.” He smiled as he raised his glass to her.
“I knew you were going to say that.”
“Here’s to you, Dallas Dalton.” Nick looked at her with that admiring gleam in his Brand-blue eyes. “I love to watch you work.”
Dallas touched her glass to his and then took a sip of the champagne. It was bitter, which wasn’t really her taste, but it was the gesture that mattered to her. She walked over to the large window with a view out to the Houston downtown skyline.
“Everything looks better from up here,” she noticed.
Nick came up behind her; he was wearing cologne tonight—it had a woody, smoky scent that she liked very much.
“Are you ready for dinner?”
Tonight, there was something different in his voice—a sensual edge that she hadn’t heard him use before. Her body responded naturally to that unspoken desire in a tingling little shiver that danced across her skin.
“Are you cold?”
Nick actually saw her shoulders jerk a little as that shiver reached her shoulders.
“No.” She put her glass down on a side table near the window. “It was just the champagne.”
* * *
Nick had reserved a private dining room at the hotel’s Italian restaurant, Quattro, located in the cellar, in celebration of her success in Texas. But Dallas could feel the difference in the way this night was unfolding. Nick was signaling to her, loud and clear, that he wanted to take their relationship to a more intimate place.
How long had it been since she had let herself go there? She had gone through a couple of shallow relationships with cowboys. But she’d never been able to open her heart with any of them. So, she decided to focus on being the best single she could be. And other than the occasional moments of loneliness and the natural ebb and flow of sexual frustration, she had lived a very successful life as a single. What would it be like to let someone into her life in that way?
“I know you prefer beer, but I’d like you to let me introduce you to some of my favorite wines tonight.”
“I’m game.”
Dallas was fascinated by the setting Nick had chosen specifically for them. The private dining room was intimate with deep purple walls and unusual cork floors; the table was surrounded by bottles, and then more bottles, of wine. She felt as if Nick was trying to sweep her off her feet—and if that was his intention, it was working.
“I hope you like Italian.”
Dallas took the offered menu with a thank-you to their waiter. “Don’t often get it, but I love it.”
She looked at the menu; she had been expecting spaghetti and meatballs, manicotti, pizza. Nothing on this menu looked familiar to her, and the names of the dishes were in Italian.
“Is something wrong?” Nick must have noticed the confused wrinkling of her brow as she looked over the menu.
She leaned closer to him to whisper, “This isn’t my kind of Italian.”
“This is real Italian food,” he explained. “Trust me, you’re going to love it.”
That dinner with Nick sealed her growing feelings for the man in a way perhaps nothing could have. He made sure, in everything he said, in everything he did, to make her feel comfortable. Nick never acted superior or made her feel “less than” because she was unfamiliar with the food on the menu. He walked her through the options, ordered a full-bodied sweet red wine and started them with an antipasto for two. That was just the beginning. Several glasses of wine into the meal, the waiter brought her pollo Milanese, a breaded chicken breast with baby roasted potatoes, and an arugula-tomato salad. The plate was so beautifully designed that it seemed a shame to ruin the aesthetics by eating the food.
“Try this.” Nick held his fork out for her to taste his entrée. He had ordered the gulf wild snapper with asparagus and she had to admit that it had a strong but wonderful taste. Following his lead, she fed him a forkful of her entrée.
“I feel like I’m always saying thank-you to you,” Dallas noted between bites. “Like I’m not pullin’ my fair share in this deal.”
“That’s not true,” Nick said in a tone that was meant to dispel that notion from her head. “You give me more than a meal and a bath in a spa tub.”
“Oh, yeah? What?”
Nick hesitated as if he was being cornered into saying something that he wasn’t quite ready to say. He put down his knife and his fork; he looked at her face, he met her eyes without any pretense and said, “Dallas, I’ve been trying for a while to figure out what it is about you that makes me hop on a plane and fly to Texas just to eat a meal with you. And, I think I’ve finally figured it out.”
Nick paused, his eyes locked with hers. She couldn’t have looked away in that moment if she wanted to.
“I don’t know how you’re going to take this. But I feel more alive when I’m with you than I do anywhere else.”
* * *
They lingered over dinner and enjoyed the music and the candlelight that had been provided just for their pleasure. Dallas wanted to linger there, and she had never really been one for “lingering” around the dinner table. She liked to eat on the go more often than not. But this was a different kind of night with a different kind of man. This was the kind of man a woman could consider rethinking her future plans for.
That night, in the candlelight, sitting next to Nick Brand, Dallas did something that she hadn’t ever done in her life—she started to think about how handsome Nick’s children would be. And for a woman who had already decided long ago not to go that route in her life, thinking about Nick Brand’s children was a shock to her system. And it made her realize that her feelings ran much deeper for this man than she had previously imagined. It was very possible that she had fallen in love with Nick Brand.
The waiter cleared their empty wineglasses from the table and made a final offer for dessert, which they both declined. Nick charged the dinner to his room, signed his name and then looked at her as if she were more interesting to him than any sugar-based dessert could ever be.
“Dallas.” He reached for her hands. “Dallas. I want to take you back to my room.”
Nick held her gaze—she knew what he wanted from her. “Okay.”
Her simple response didn’t seem to satisfy him. So he added, “I can take you back to the arena if that’s what you want.”
“No.” Dallas squeezed his hand. “That’s not what I want.”
* * *
Nick had thought about making love to Dallas often—but it wasn’t the only thing that he thought about her. Making love to her would be an extension of the passion he felt for her in his mind and his heart. It had never been just about sex with her; he hadn’t really been “just about sex” with any women in his most recent years. He wanted the physical to mean something more than gratification alone. That, he had thankfully learned in his escapades abroad, was hollow gratification at best.
In the light cast off from the Houston skyscrapers, Nic
k took Dallas into his arms and kissed her lips. Alone, with this woman, was what he had craved. He wanted to hold her, kiss her, feel her body against his—how far she would be willing to go tonight wasn’t the point. He didn’t have to rush to the climax so quickly like a college kid. No—he wanted to lie with her and hold her in his arms. He wanted to fall asleep with her; he wanted Dallas to still be there when he awakened.
“Dallas,” he murmured as he dropped butterfly kisses on her neck. “Stay with me tonight.”
Her body stiffened, but she didn’t pull away from him. She wrapped her arms around his body and rested her head on his chest. Something had happened to this woman—Clint had alluded to it—and it was a barrier he was going to have to navigate, slowly, carefully, respectfully.
“I don’t think I’m ready to make love.”
Ever honest and blunt, that was the Dallas he had grown to love.
Love.
Nick guided her face upward so she could see his face, read the truth in his eyes, when he said, “I just want to hold you, Dallas. Let me hold you.”
* * *
Dallas was tired of letting her past dictate her future. It was time to lock the past away and embrace her future. She borrowed one of his plain white undershirts and rinsed out her mouth with the hotel’s complimentary mouthwash. Nick was waiting for her in the bedroom; good as his word, he was wearing his boxers. He stood on one side of the bed and she stood on the other. The several glasses of sweet red wine had relaxed her body; the large bed, with its high pile of fluffy pillows, seemed like the most comfortable bed in the greater Houston area.
Nick took the first step and climbed into bed. He turned on his side, held the covers up for her and waited for her to join him.
She was standing at the crossroads of her own life—the safe road was not the road that led into Nick Brand’s arms. It was time for her to take a chance; it was time for her to consider a life that didn’t require her to be alone.