by Diana Palmer
“She looks pretty sick to me,” Cag countered, eyeing the object of their conversation, who was standing alone against the opposite wall, trying to look invisible. “She should, too, after spreading that gossip around town about Janie chasing you.”
“Janie did that, not Marilee,” Leo said belligerently. “She didn’t have any reason to make it sound like we were engaged, just because I kissed her.”
Cag’s eyebrows lifted. “You kissed her?”
“It wasn’t much of a kiss,” Leo muttered gruffly. “She’s so green, it’s pathetic!”
“She won’t stay that way long around Harley,” Cag chuckled. “He’s no playboy, but women love him since he helped our local mercs take on that drug lord Manuel Lopez and won. I imagine he’ll educate Janie.”
Leo’s dark eyes narrowed angrily. He hated the thought of Harley kissing her. He really should do something about that. He blinked, trying to focus his mind on the problem.
“Don’t trip over the punch bowl,” Cag cautioned dryly. “And for God’s sake, don’t try to dance. The gossips would have a field day for sure!”
“I could dance if I wanted to,” Leo informed him.
Cag leaned down close to his brother’s ear. “Don’t ‘want to.’ Trust me.” He turned and went back to Tess, smiling as he led her onto the dance floor.
Leo joined Marilee against the wall.
She glanced at him and grimaced. “I’ve just become the Bubonic Plague,” she said with a miserable sigh. “Joe Howland from the hardware store is here with his wife,” she added uncomfortably. “He’s telling people what you said to Janie and that I was responsible for her getting the rough side of your tongue.”
He glanced down at her. “How is it your fault?”
She looked at her shoes instead of at him. She felt guilty and hurt and ashamed. “I sort of told Janie that you said you’d like her better if she could ride and rope and make biscuits, and stop dressing up all the time.”
He stiffened. He felt the jolt all the way to his toes. “You told her that?”
“I did.” She folded her arms over her breasts and stared toward Janie, who was dancing with Harley and apparently having a great time. “There’s more,” she added, steeling herself to admit it. “It wasn’t exactly true that she was telling people you were taking her to this dance.”
“Marilee, for God’s sake! Why did you lie?” he demanded.
“She’s just a kid, Leo,” she murmured uneasily. “She doesn’t know beans about men or real life, she’s been protected and pampered, she’s got money, she’s pretty....” She moved restlessly. “I like you a lot. I’m older, more mature. I thought, if she was just out of the picture for a little bit, you...you might start to like me.”
Now he understood the look on Janie’s face when he’d made those accusations. Tess was right. Marilee had lied. She’d stabbed her best friend in the back, and he’d helped her do it. He felt terrible.
“You don’t have to tell me what a rat I am,” she continued, without looking up at him. “I must have been crazy to think Janie wouldn’t eventually find out that I was lying about her.” She managed to meet his angry eyes. “She never gossiped about you, Leo. She wanted you to take her to this party so much that it was all she talked about for weeks. But she never told anybody you were going to. She thought I was helping her by hinting that she’d like you to ask her.” She laughed coldly. “She was the best friend I ever had, and I’ve stabbed her in the back. She’ll never speak to me again after tonight, and I deserve whatever I get. For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry.”
Leo was still trying to adjust to the truth. He could talk himself blue in the face, but Janie would never listen to him now. He was going to be about as welcome as a fly at her house from now on, especially if Fred found out what Leo had said to and about her. It would damage their friendship. It had already killed whatever feeling Janie had for him. He knew that without the wounded, angry glances she sent his way from time to time.
“You said you didn’t want her chasing you,” Marilee reminded him weakly, trying to find one good thing to say.
“No danger of that from now on, is there?” he agreed, biting off the words.
“None at all. So a little good came out of it.”
He looked down at her with barely contained anger. “How could you do that to her?”
“I don’t even know.” She sighed raggedly. “I must have been temporarily out of my mind.” She moved away from the wall. “I wonder if you’d mind driving me home? I...I really don’t want to stay any longer.”
“I can’t drive. Cag’s taking us home.”
“You can’t drive? Why?” she exclaimed.
“I think the polite way of saying it is that I’m stinking drunk,” he said with glittery eyes blazing down at her.
She grimaced. No need to ask why he’d gotten that way. “Sorry,” she said inadequately.
“You’re sorry. I’m sorry. It doesn’t change anything.” He looked toward Janie, conscious of new and painful regrets. It all made sense now, her self-improvement campaign. She’d been dragged through mud, thrown from horses, bruised and battered in a valiant effort to become what she thought Leo wanted her to be.
He winced. “She could have killed herself,” he said huskily. “She hadn’t been on a horse in ages or worked around cattle.” He looked down at Marilee with a black scowl. “Didn’t you realize that?”
“I wasn’t thinking at the time,” Marilee replied. “I’ve always worked around the ranch, because I had to. I never thought of Janie being in any danger. But I guess she was, at that. At least she didn’t get hurt.”
“That’s what you think,” Leo muttered, remembering how she’d looked at the hardware store.
Marilee shrugged and suddenly burst into tears. She dashed toward the ladies’ room to hide them.
At the same time, Harley left Janie at the buffet table and went toward the rest rooms himself.
Leo didn’t even think. He walked straight up to Janie and caught her by the hand, pulling her along with him.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she raged. “Let go of me!”
He ignored her. He led her right out the side door and onto the stone patio surrounded by towering plants that, in spring, were glorious in blossom. He pulled the glass door closed behind him and moved Janie off behind one of the plants.
“I want to talk to you,” he began, trying to get his muddled mind to work.
She pulled against his hands. “I don’t want to talk to you!” she snapped. “You go right back in there to your date, Leo Hart! You brought Marilee, not me!”
“I want to tell you...” he tried again.
She aimed a kick at his shin that almost connected.
He sidestepped, overbalancing her so that she fell heavily against him. She felt good in his arms, warm, delicate and sweetly scented. His breath caught at the feel of her soft skin under his hands where the dress was low-cut in back.
“Harley will...be missing me!” she choked.
“Damn Harley,” he murmured huskily and the words went into her mouth as he bent and took it hungrily.
His arms swallowed her, warm under the dark evening suit, where her hands rested just at his rib cage. His mouth was ardent, insistent, on her parted lips.
He forced them apart, nipping the upper one with his teeth while his hands explored the softness of her skin. He was getting drunk on her perfume. He felt himself going taut as he registered the hunger he was feeling to get her even closer. It wasn’t enough....
His hands went to her hips and jerked them hard into the thrust of his big body, so that she could feel how aroused he was.
She stiffened and then tried to twist away, frantic at the weakness he was making her feel. He couldn’t do this. She couldn’t let him do it.
He was only making a point, showing her that she couldn’t resist him. He didn’t even like her anymore. He’d brought her best friend to the most talked-about event in town!
“You...let me go!” she sobbed, tearing her mouth from his. “I hate you, Leo Hart!”
He was barely able to breathe, much less think, but he wasn’t letting go. His eyes glittered down at her. “You don’t hate me,” he denied. “You want me. You tremble every time I get within a foot of you. It’s so noticeable a blind man couldn’t mistake it.” He pulled her close, watching her face as her thighs touched his. “A woman’s passion arouses a man’s,” he whispered roughly. “You made me want you.”
“You said I made you sick,” she replied, her voice choking on the word.
“You do.” His lips touched her ear. “When a man is this aroused, and can’t satisfy the hunger, it makes him sick,” he said huskily, with faint insolence. He dragged her hips against his roughly. “Feel that? You’ve got me so hot I can’t even think...!” Leo broke off abruptly as Janie stomped on his foot.
“Does that help?” she asked while he was hobbling on the foot her spiked heel hadn’t gone into.
She moved back from him, shaking with desire and anger, while he cursed roundly and without inhibition.
“That’s what you get for making nasty remarks to women!” she said furiously. “You don’t want me! You said so! You want Marilee. That’s why you’re taking her around with you. Remember me? I’m that gossiping pest who runs after you everywhere. Except that I’ll never do it again, you can bet your life on that! I wouldn’t have you on ice cream!”
He stood uneasily on both feet, glaring at her. “Sure you would,” he said with a venomous smile. His eyes glittered like a diamondback uncoiling. “Just now, I could have had you in the rosebushes. You’d have done anything I wanted.”
He was right. That was what hurt the most. She pushed back her disheveled hair with a trembling hand. “Not anymore,” she said, feeling sick. “Not when I know what you really think of me.”
“Harley brought you,” he said coldly. “He’s a boy playing at being a man.”
“He’s closer to my age than you are, Mr. Hart!” she shot back.
His face hardened and he took a quick step toward her.
“That’s what you’ve said from the start,” she reminded him, near tears. “I’m just a kid, you said. I’m just a kid with a crush, just your business associate’s pesky daughter.”
He’d said that. He must have been out of his mind. Looking at her now, with that painful maturity in her face, he couldn’t believe he’d said any such thing. She was all woman. And she was with Harley. Damn Harley!
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Dad that you tried to seduce me on the patio with your new girlfriend standing right inside the room,” she assured him. “But if you ever touch me again, I’ll cripple you, so help me God!”
She whirled and jerked open the patio door, slamming it behind her as she moved through the crowd toward the buffet table.
Leo stood alone in the cold darkness with a sore foot, wondering why he hadn’t kept his mouth shut. If a bad situation could get worse, it just had.
4
Janie and Harley were back on the dance floor by the time Leo made his way inside, favoring his sore foot.
Marilee was standing at the buffet table, looking as miserable as he felt.
“Harley just gave me hell,” she murmured tightly as he joined her. “He said I was lower than a snake’s belly, and it would serve me right if Janie never spoke to me again.” She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Do you think your brother would mind dropping us off now? He could come right back...”
“I’ll ask him,” Leo said, sounding absolutely fed up.
He found Cag talking to Corrigan and Rey at the buffet table. Their wives were in another circle, talking to each other.
“Could you run Marilee home now and drop me off on the way back?” he asked Cag in a subdued tone.
Corrigan gaped at him. “You’ve never left a dance until the band packed up.”
Leo sighed. “There’s a first time for everything.”
The women joined them. Cag tugged Tess close. “I have to run Leo and Marilee home.”
Tess’s eyebrows went up. “Now? Why so early?”
Leo glared. His brothers cleared their throats.
“Never mind,” Cag said quickly. “I won’t be a minute...”
“Rey and I would be glad to do it...” Meredith volunteered, with a nod from her husband.
“No need,” Dorie said with a smile, cuddling close to her husband. “Corrigan can run Leo and Marilee home and come right back. Can’t you, sweetheart?” she added.
“Sure I can,” he agreed, lost in her pretty eyes.
“But you two don’t usually leave until the band does, either,” Leo pointed out. “You’ll miss most of the rest of the dance if you drive us.”
Corrigan pursed his lips. “Oh, we’ve done our dancing for the night. Haven’t we, sweetheart?” he prompted.
Dorie’s eyes twinkled. She nodded. “Indeed we have! I’ll just catch up on talk until he comes back. We can have the last dance together. Don’t give it a thought, Leo.”
Leo was feeling the liquor more with every passing minute, but he was feeling all sorts of undercurrents. The women looked positively gleeful. His brothers were exchanging strange looks.
Corrigan looked past Leo to Cag and Rey. “You can all come by our house after the dance,” he promised.
“What for?” Leo wanted to know, frowning suspiciously.
Corrigan hesitated and Cag scowled.
Rey cleared his throat. “Bull problems,” he said finally, with a straight face. “Corrigan’s advising me.”
“He’s advising me, too,” Cag said with a grin. “He’s advising both of us.”
All three of them looked guilty as hell. “I know more about bulls than Corrigan does,” Leo pointed out. “Why don’t you ask me?”
“Because you’re in a hurry to go home,” Corrigan improvised. “Let’s go.”
Leo went to get Marilee. She said a subdued, hurried goodbye to Cag and Rey and then their wives. Leo waited patiently, vaguely aware that Cag and Rey were standing apart, talking in hushed whispers. They were both staring at Leo.
As Marilee joined him, Leo began to get the idea. Corrigan had sacrificed dancing so that he could pump Leo for gossip and report back to the others. They knew he was drinking, which he never did, and they’d probably seen him hobble back into the room. Then he’d wanted to leave early. It didn’t take a mind reader to put all that together. Something had happened, and his brothers—not to mention their wives—couldn’t wait to find out what. He glared at Corrigan, but his brother only grinned.
“Let’s go, Marilee,” Leo said, catching her by the arm.
She gave one last, hopeful glance at Janie, but was pointedly ignored. She followed along with Leo until the music muted to a whisper behind them.
* * *
When Marilee had been dropped off, and they were alone in the car, Corrigan glanced toward his brother with mischievous silvery eyes and pursed his lips.
“You’re limping.”
Leo huffed. “You try walking normally when some crazy woman’s tried to put her heel through your damned boot!”
“Marilee stepped on you?” Corrigan said much too carelessly.
“Janie stepped on me, on purpose!”
“What were you doing to her at the time?”
Leo actually flushed. It was visible in the streetlight they stopped under waiting for a red light to change on the highway.
“Well!” Corrigan exclaimed with a knowing expression.
“She started it,” he defended himself angrily. “All these months, she’s
been dressing to the hilt and waylaying me every time I went to see her father. She damned near seduced me on the cooking table in her kitchen last month, and then she goes and gets on her high horse because I said a few little things I shouldn’t have when she was eavesdropping!”
“You said a lot of little things,” his brother corrected. “And from what I hear, she left town in a dangerous rush and had to be slowed down by our new assistant chief. In fact, you called and asked him to do it. Good thinking.”
“Who told you that?” Leo demanded.
Corrigan grinned. “Our new assistant chief.”
“Grier can keep his nose out of my business or I’ll punch it for him!”
“He’s got problems of his own, or didn’t you notice him step outside with Judd Dunn just before we left?” Corrigan whistled softly. “Christabel may think she’s her own woman, but Judd doesn’t act like any disinterested husband I ever saw.”
“He’s got a world-famous model on his arm,” Leo pointed out.
“It didn’t make a speck of difference once he saw Christabel on that dance floor with Grier. He was ready to make a scene right there.” He glanced at Leo. “And he wasn’t drinking,” he emphasized.
“I am not jealous of Janie Brewster,” Leo told him firmly.
“Tell that to Harley. He had to be persuaded not to go after you when Janie came back inside in tears,” Corrigan added, letting slip what he’d overheard.
That made it worse. “Harley can mind his own damned business, too!”
“He is. He likes Janie.”
“Janie’s not going to fall for some wet-behind-the-ears would-be world-saver,” Leo raged.
“He’s kind to her. He teases her and picks at her. He treats her like a princess.” He gave his brother a wry glance. “I’ll bet he wouldn’t try to seduce her in the rosebushes.”
“I didn’t! Anyway, there weren’t any damned rosebushes out there.”
“How do you know that?”
Leo sighed heavily. “Because if there had been, I’d be wearing them.”
Corrigan chuckled. Having had his own problems with the course of true love, he could sympathize with his brother. Sadly, Leo had never been in love. He’d had crushes, he’d had brief liaisons, but there had never been a woman who could stand him on his ear. Corrigan was as fascinated as their brothers with the sudden turn of events. Leo had tolerated Janie Brewster, been amused by her, but he’d never been involved enough to start a fight with her, much less sink two large whiskeys when he’d hardly even touched beer.