“I believe this is my dance, Spence.”
Spencer Womack wheeled around, his face paling at the steely edge to Gabe Cooper’s voice. His arms fell from Sarah and she quickly moved away. Gabe smiled down at her, then looked back at the other man.
“You know, Spence, I don’t much care for your conduct. But we’ll keep it between you and me if you promise to stay away from Sarah the rest of the evening. If not, maybe Cord will have to hear about it.”
“I-I didn’t mean any harm, Gabe.” Womack began to back away. “I was just flirting a little with a beautiful woman. That’s all.”
Disgust darkened Gabe’s rugged features. “Yeah, sure you were. Just get out of here, will you?”
He turned his back on the retreating man and smiled down at Sarah. “Cord and Nick are fools to turn you loose in here, looking like you do.” He took her into his arms as the music began again. “I guess I’m just going to have to take you into protective custody.”
Sarah giggled. “Whatever you say, Sheriff.”
“I’m sorry about Spence’s behavior just now. I don’t know what’s gotten into him of late.”
She shook her head and sighed. “I gather there are a lot of rumors floating around about me and what I’m doing at the Wainwright ranch. He must have chosen to believe some of the more filthy ones. Not that I can blame anyone, I guess. No matter how good a life I tried to live before the robbery, being accused of such a crime must make it hard for people to think kindly of me anymore.”
“Not everyone thinks poorly of you, Sarah. Actually, from what I hear, it’s only one person spreading these rumors, and only her friends who are believing it.”
Sarah instantly knew who he was talking about. “Allis, of course.”
Gabe nodded. “Of course. Well, don’t let Spence’s tales ruin your evening. He’s so busy panting after Allis he can’t see straight most of the time anyhow. Not that he has a snowball’s chance with her, leastwise not as long as Cord’s still a free man. So, consider the source and let it go at that.”
“No sooner said than done,” she replied with a smile, though a dubious tone lingered.
“So,” he said, obviously deciding it best to change the subject, “when’s the wedding going to be?”
Sarah’s smile faded. “Uh, we’re still trying to work that out.”
“And does this delay have anything to do with Cord?”
A slow flush stained her cheeks. “Is . . . is it that apparent?”
“Well, take a look at Cord over there,” he said, cocking his head in the direction of the punch table. “He hasn’t taken his eyes off you since we began dancing, and if I don’t miss my guess, he looks pretty annoyed.”
Sarah’s glance swung to where Cord stood beside his brother. Their gazes briefly met, just long enough for her to note the glowering look he sent her way. Then Gabe whirled her by and out of Cord’s view.
Wild hope swelled in her breast. Is . . . is he jealous? Oh, let it be so!
She turned back to the sheriff. “I don’t know what to think anymore. The way he acts toward me is so confusing.”
“I’d say he’s pretty confused himself.” Gabe hesitated. “This may be none of my business, but if you love Cord, why are you marrying Nick?”
“Because I thought Cord didn’t want me . . . He even pushed me to marry Nick. And . . . and I care very much for Nick.” Sarah searched his face. “I know I must sound like a calculating opportunist, but it’s not really that way. I . . . I need a good home for Danny. Besides, Nick and I aren’t actually engaged anymore, though no one knows that yet but you—”
He cocked his head, then nodded. “Well, your secret’s safe with me. And you don’t have to explain a thing, Sarah. It’s your business. I only want you to be happy. God only knows you deserve a better life than you’ve had up to now. You and Danny both.” Now, since this might be my last chance to dance with you as an unmarried woman, whomever you end up married to,” he added with a twinkle in his eye, “I intend to savor the experience.”
He then proceeded to guide her about the dance floor for two exhilarating waltzes, and Sarah enjoyed herself immensely. Gabe Cooper was a dashingly handsome man in his own right, and she couldn’t help but revel in the warmth of his quite evident admiration. Like a flower opening itself to the rays of the sun, Sarah bloomed, her eyes sparkling, her face glowing, her laughter tinkling across the room. Finally, though, she pulled back from the circle of his arms.
“I need to get back to Nick,” she said. “It’s not proper to ignore him all evening.”
Gabe nodded and offered her his arm. “Something cool and wet would taste right nice about now.”
He escorted Sarah to the table for a glass of punch. Sarah couldn’t help but notice, however, as they approached Cord standing beside Nick, that Cord’s fists were clenched at his sides. He shot the sheriff a seething look.
Nick glanced at his brother, a smile of quiet satisfaction on his lips. “Having fun, Angel?” he asked, turning back to Sarah.
“Oh yes, Nick,” she replied a little breathlessly. “It’s all so delightful. I’m having a wonderful time.”
“Well,” Cord muttered under his breath, “then you’re the only one doing so.”
Sarah looked to him. “And why do you say that, Cord?”
He glared at her. “You came with Nick, and you’ve all but ignored him from the minute you walked in the door. I find that rather rude, not to mention thoughtless. He is your fiancé, after all.”
Nick cut in before Sarah could respond. “Now, little brother, don’t go getting riled over nothing. I don’t mind at all. I want Sarah to have a good time. She looks beautiful, and I want everyone in this room to notice. This is her night to shine. I won’t have anyone taking that from her.”
“But you’re engaged, Nick! I just want her to respect that, rather than act like some—”
“Cord! Cord, darling!”
Allis Findley’s melodious voice carried across the room. The quartet’s eyes reluctantly turned toward her. Dressed in a puffy-sleeved pink confection, she paused quite dramatically at her father’s side as she made her grand entrance—until her glance fell on Sarah. Then her eyes narrowed and, with no more than a word of farewell to her sire, she made a beeline straight across the hall toward them.
At her approach, Nick groaned and Gabe breathed an “Oh no.” Cord shot them an enigmatic glance, then turned his attention back to the pink bit of fluff determinedly heading toward them.
Allis flounced up, bestowing her prettiest smile on him. “I do believe you’re the handsomest man at this party, Cord Wainwright.” She paused to lay her small, beringed hand on his arm. “I know I’ve just arrived, but I’m so thirsty, darling. Would you please fetch me a cup of punch?”
“I’d be honored,” he replied before heading off toward the punch bowl.
“I see you managed to worm your way into the dance,” Allis then purred, her gaze critically raking Sarah’s slender form. “Where did you get that dress?”
“Why, imported straight from Paris, of course,” Sarah smoothly shot back. She scanned the other woman’s gown. “Yours too, I assume?”
Allis’s mouth tightened in anger. “I hardly think we share the same couturier . . .”
She halted, apparently realizing how ludicrous arguing about dressmakers must sound to the two men standing there. Obviously deciding a snub was a more effective ploy, she turned her attention to Nick, and Gabe, completely ignoring Sarah until Cord finally returned.
“Oh, darling, I’ve changed my mind.” Allis accepted the cup of punch from Cord and immediately shoved it at Sarah. “Sarah looks so damp and mussed from dancing. She needs this much more than I. What I need,” she continued, taking his arm, “is a romantic waltz in your strong arms.”
Cord quirked a dark brow. “Is that a fact?” He turned toward the others. “If you’ll excuse me, it appears I owe Allis a dance.”
Sarah watched him lead the woman out onto the da
nce floor, then turned from the scene. The pain of seeing Cord hold another woman was suddenly too much to bear. To hide her misery, she forced herself to take a sip of her punch. The trembling of her hands as she raised the cup to her lips, however, wasn’t lost on the two men with her.
They exchanged a concerned glance, then Gabe firmly removed the cup from her hands. “Come on, Sarah,” the sheriff said. “We can’t have you whiling the night away standing on the sidelines. That music’s calling us.”
Before she could protest that she wasn’t in the mood, Gabe whisked her back onto the dance floor. Surprisingly, the next few hours passed with whirlwind speed. Sarah could hardly complete a set with one partner before another was stepping forward to claim the next one. Cord soon surrendered Allis into Spencer Womack’s waiting arms, and once more took up his position beside his brother. Yet the more he glared at her, the happier and more lighthearted Sarah’s actions became.
It was hopeless, she morosely told herself even as she kept up the happy façade. Cord would never declare his love, if that was even what he truly felt. His actions tonight had hardly been that of the besotted swain.
Well, let him get angry, she thought as she twirled about the floor in the arms of yet another man. He’s bound and determined to think the worst of me no matter what I do, and I’m not letting him ruin this evening for me. I’m tired of trying to please him. Nick’s not upset and he’s the only one whose feelings I need worry about. Let Cord stand there and fume until he explodes. It serves him right!
Almost as if her thoughts had drawn him toward her, Cord suddenly headed across the dance floor. The hard glitter in his eyes made Sarah momentarily quail before she turned her attention back to her partner. Cord wouldn’t dare cause a scene. Would he?
“This is my dance,” Cord cut in just then, firmly tapping the town pharmacist on the shoulder.
One glance at his smoldering look was enough for the other man. He released Sarah and backed away.
She glared up at the dark-haired man towering over her. “That was rude. And this isn’t your dance.”
An iron grip settled on her arm as she turned to walk away. “Oh yes it is.”
Something in the tone of his voice warned her not to argue. Sarah relented, going stiffly into the circle of his arms.
“Have it your way, but only for one dance.”
“We’ll just see about that,” he growled before leading her off in time to the music.
They danced silently for a while, the tension arcing between them with crackling force. Finally Cord spoke, his words harsh and brutal.
“What in the blazes do you think you’re doing, flaunting your flirtations here tonight in front of Nick? Don’t you have any feelings for him, to embarrass him like this? I swear, Sarah, if you don’t start acting like a lady, I’ll see to it that—”
“That what, Cord?” All the frustration of the evening watching him from the sidelines, glowering at her, was suddenly too much to contain. “That I don’t marry Nick? But I thought you wanted me to marry Nick.”
“Don’t play games with me,” he growled. “The issue here isn’t your marriage to Nick. It’s your behavior.”
She laughed unsteadily. “And who are you to dictate my behavior? You have no claims on me.”
As she spoke, reality finally broke through the fragile hopes and dreams for the evening, shattering her brave composure. Sarah jerked back, tears flooding her eyes.
“Why do you persist in constantly picking at me? Oh, I don’t care what the rest of them say! You hate me, don’t you? You hate me, and it’s never been anything more than that.”
Cord stared down at her, apparently oblivious to the fact they were now standing in the middle of the floor, the other dancers circling around them in time to the music. “I don’t hate you, Sarah. I . . . I only want for Nick to be happy. And I don’t want you to hurt him.”
For a tear-blinded instant, she stared up at him, her whole world crumbling around her. Then she took a step back. “Go to blazes, Cord Wainwright!”
Before he could respond, Sarah fled the hall, running out into the dark anonymity of the night. She stumbled once, a sharp stone ripping a hole in her gown, but she was past caring. All she wanted was to run away—far from the now false gaiety of the town hall, far from the man who once again had so cruelly dashed all her hopes onto the hard, unforgiving rocks of reality.
Silver moonlight illuminated the path out of town. Sarah ran on, seeking shelter from its prying light in the shaggy firs that clung to the hillside. All she wanted was to hide and cry her heart out once and for all, to rid herself of the last vestiges of her dreams—and bury forever her love. Then she’d return to the hall and face her future with no looking back, no regrets.
A sound—her name—whisked by on the vestiges of a breeze. Sarah froze.
“Sarah,” the low voice called again, and she knew it was Cord. She halted and turned to face him.
He drew up to her, his dark eyes glinting shards of onyx in the moonlight. Before she could say anything, he pulled her to him.
“When we first met in town I called you a little wildcat,” he said, his voice barely more than a throaty rasp. “But I was wrong. You’re a little witch, and you’ve put every man here tonight under your spell. Every man . . . including me.”
“Well, don’t let it worry you,” she retorted with cold sarcasm. “The spell fades at sunrise. It’ll have no lasting effect.”
“You think so, eh?” Cord pulled her closer, his gaze hungrily scanning her, his words rough with unbridled desire. “Well, I’m not so sure anymore.”
At the husky timbre of his voice, Sarah’s pulse quickened, her skin tingling with the awareness of his perusal. Warmth flooded her. With it came a strange surety in what she must do.
Standing on tiptoe, she molded her slim frame to his hard-muscled one. With both hands, she cupped his face and pulled his mouth down to hers.
“Then let me end the uncertainty,” Sarah murmured. “For the both of us . . . once and for all.”
10
She kissed him softly, tentatively and, for a moment, feared his response as he stood so stiffly before her. Something inside her quailed, but Sarah forced herself to go on.
Her lips traced the firm contours of his mouth, then moved to the strong line of his jaw and down the side of his neck. Burying her face in the corded hollows, she breathed a kiss there. Only then did she feel him tremble, know at last with any certainty that she’d pierced his defenses.
“Curse you, Sarah,” Cord groaned, whispering the words into her hair as he lowered his head in defeat. “This isn’t right . . . You’re not mine . . .”
“Hush, my love.” She looked up, silencing him with a gentle finger. “It is right. I’ve always been yours.”
He stared down at her, the battle of wild hope over disbelief playing out in his dark eyes. “Then why . . .” Cord paused. “It was me all along, wasn’t it? I was too blind to see what was right there in front of me.”
She angled her head back and smiled. “Well, I guess you could say that. Being too blind to recognize the truth, I mean. Guess that was why Nick felt compelled to stage our sham engagement.”
“A sham engagement?” Understanding slowly dawned, and Cord’s mouth twisted ruefully. “Guess I should’ve listened to him to begin with. Instead, I was so intent on forcing you on Nick, that I never . . .” He sighed, his hands slowly moving up her arms. “So, what do we do now?”
An impish grin played about her mouth. “Oh, I don’t know. Want to get to know me better, cowboy?”
The light of remembrance flared in Cord’s eyes. “And what exactly did you have in mind, little lady?” he replied, repeating the words of that first hot September day.
Sarah chuckled softly. “Anything you like, cowboy. I only want to make you happy.”
“Well, then how about a kiss?” His ebony head lowered to her.
She came to him willingly, eagerly this time, melting into the hard contou
rs of his body. “I thought you’d never ask,” Sarah whispered, her lips a warm breath from his.
This time there was no doubt of his desire. Cord’s mouth slanted over hers with demanding mastery. A shock of delight coursed through her.
Sarah responded, returning his ardor with equal ardor of her own. Her hands moved to the sinewy strength of his upper arms, reveling in their taut power, before rising to entwine about his neck.
Cord’s kiss deepened, taking on a savage intensity. His breath rasped hard and heavy now.
“Oh, Sarah, Sarah,” he breathed on a sigh. Gently, he disengaged her arms from him and pushed her away.
She stared up at him, all the old doubts rushing back to coil their clammy tendrils about her heart. She knew it wasn’t right to take this any further but feared he was also telling her he still intended to step aside in deference to Nick.
He must have seen the uncertainty in her eyes. “Calm your fears. I’m not fool enough to think I could ever deny my feelings for you again. I just think a proposal of marriage might be the next step, don’t you? If you’ll have me, of course.”
Pure, sweet bliss surged through Sarah. A proposal? Cord wants to marry me?
Sudden doubt followed quickly on the heels of her happiness. Cord had yet to speak of love. But surely he loved her. His actions hadn’t been those of a man not in love. Or had they?
Everything paled in light of that last, lingering doubt. Passion she knew he felt, but that could never be enough for her. A comfortable life, better than she’d ever known or hoped to know, he could offer her. But so could Nick, and at least the absence of that love wouldn’t hurt as much as it would with Cord. No, she had to know, and know now, or there was little hope for a life together.
Sarah stepped back. “Do you love me?”
For an instant Cord stared down at her, taken aback by the unexpected bluntness of the question. She never ceased to amaze him with her sharp changes in mood. One minute she was a warm, passionate woman and the next, somber and strangely withdrawn. But then, he hadn’t mentioned anything about love, had he? The realization sent a small twinge of unease spiraling through him.
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