by Diana Palmer
“Not if Grier can prevent it.” He reached for his truck keys and took her by the arm. “We’ll go out the back,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to know you were here with me tonight. It wouldn’t look good, even under the circumstances.”
“Don’t worry, nobody will know,” she assured him.
* * *
The next morning, Fred Brewster came into the dining room looking like a thunderstorm.
“What were you doing in Leo Hart’s bedroom last night when you were supposed to be working, Janie?” he asked bluntly.
She gaped at him with her mouth open. He was furious.
“How in the world...?” she exclaimed.
“One of the Harts’ cowboys went to get him about a sick bull. He saw Leo sneaking you out the back door!” He scowled and leaned closer. “And what the hell happened to your face? Leo said you had a troublesome customer and he was bringing you home! What the hell’s going on, Janie?”
She was scrambling for an answer that wouldn’t get her in even more trouble when they heard a pickup truck roar up the driveway and stop at the back door. A minute later there was a hard rap, and the door opened by itself.
Leo came in, wearing dressy boots and slacks, a white shirt with a tie and a sports coat. His white Stetson had been cleaned and looked as if it had never been introduced to a muddy truck mat. He took off the hat and tossed it onto the counter, moving past Fred to look at Janie’s face.
“Damn!” he muttered, turning her cheek so that the violet bruise was very noticeable. “I didn’t realize he hit you that hard, baby!”
“Hit her?” Fred burst out. “Who hit her, and what was she doing in your bedroom last night?!”
Leo turned toward him, his face contemplative, his dark eyes quiet and somber. “Did she tell you?” he asked.
“I never!” Janie burst out, flushing.
“One of your cowboys mentioned it to one of my cowboys,” Fred began.
Leo’s eyes flashed fire. “He’ll be drawing his pay at the end of the day. Nobody, but nobody, tells tales about Janie!”
Father and daughter exchanged puzzled glances.
“Why are you so shocked?” he asked her when he saw her face. “Do you think I take women to my house, ever?”
She hadn’t considered that. Her lips parted on a shocked breath.
He glanced at Fred, who was still unconvinced. “All right, you might as well know it all. Jack Clark made a pass at her in Shea’s and when she protested, he pulled a knife on her.” He waited for that to sink in, and for Fred to sit down, hard, before he continued. “Harley and I got there about the same time and heard yelling. We went inside to find Janie with a knife at her throat. We rushed Clark, but he put both of us over a table. Janie’s co-worker had phoned the sheriff, but none of the deputies were within quick reach, so they radioed Grier and he took Clark down and put him in jail.” He grimaced, looking at Janie’s face. “She was covered with blood and so upset that she could hardly stand. I couldn’t bring myself to take her home in that condition, so I took her home with me and cleaned her up and calmed her down first.”
Fred caught Janie’s hand in his and held it hard. “Oh, daughter, I’m sorry!”
“It’s okay. We were trying to spare you, that’s all,” she faltered.
Leo pulled a cell phone from his pocket, dialed a number, and got his foreman. “You tell Carl Turley that he’s fired. You get him the hell out of there before I get home, or he’ll need first aid to get off the ranch. Yes. Yes.” His face was frightening. “It was true. Clark’s in jail now, on assault charges. Of course nothing was going on, and you can repeat that, with my blessing! Just get Turley out of there! Right.”
He hung up and put the phone away. He was vibrating with suppressed fury, that one of his own men would gossip about him and Janie, under the circumstances. “So much for gossip,” he gritted.
“Thanks, Leo,” Fred said tersely. “And I’m sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion. It’s just that, normally, a man wouldn’t take a woman home with him late at night unless he was...well...”
“Planning to seduce her?” Leo said for him. He looked at Janie and his eyes darkened.
She flushed.
“Yes,” Fred admitted uncomfortably.
Leo’s dark eyes began to twinkle as they wandered over Janie like loving hands. “Would this be a bad time to tell you that I have every intention of seducing her at some future time?”
10
Fred looked as if he’d swallowed a chicken, whole. He flushed, trying to forget that Leo had loaned him the money to save his ranch, thinking only of his daughter’s welfare. “Now, look here, Leo...” he began.
Leo chuckled. “I was teasing. She’s perfectly safe with me, Fred,” he replied. He caught Janie’s hand and tugged her to her feet. “We have to go see the magistrate about warrants,” he said, sobering. “I want him to see these bruises on her face,” he added coldly. “I don’t think we’ll have any problem with assault charges.”
Janie moved closer to Leo. He made her feel safe, protected. He bent toward her, his whole expression one of utter tenderness. Belatedly, Fred began to understand what he was seeing. Leo’s face, to him, was an open book. He was shocked. At the same time, he realized that Janie didn’t understand what was going on. Probably she thought he was being brotherly.
“Don’t you want breakfast first?” Fred offered, trying to get his bearings again.
For the first time, Leo seemed to notice the table. His hand, holding Janie’s, contracted involuntarily. Bacon, scrambled eggs and...biscuits? Biscuits! He scowled, letting go of Janie’s fingers to approach the bread basket. He reached down, expecting a concretelike substance, remembering that he and Rey had secretly sailed some of Janie’s earlier efforts at biscuit-making over the target range for each other and used them for skeet targets. But these weren’t hard. They were flaky, delicate. He opened one. It was soft inside. It smelled delicious.
He was barely aware of sitting down, dragging Janie’s plate under his hands. He buttered a biscuit and put strawberry jam on it. He bit into it and sighed with pure ecstasy.
“I forgot about the biscuits,” Janie told her father worriedly.
Fred glanced at their guest and grimaced. “Maybe we should have saved it for a surprise.”
Leo was sighing, his eyes closed as he chewed.
“We’ll never get to the magistrate’s now,” Janie thought aloud.
“He’ll run out of biscuits in about ten minutes, at that rate,” Fred said with a grin.
“I’ll get another plate. We can split the eggs and bacon,” Janie told her father, inwardly beaming with pride at Leo’s obvious enjoyment of her efforts. Now, finally, the difficulty of learning to cook seemed worth every minute.
Leo went right on chewing, oblivious to movement around him.
The last biscuit was gone with a wistful sigh when he became aware of his two companions again.
“Who made the biscuits?” Leo asked Janie.
She grimaced. “I did.”
“But you can’t cook, honey,” he said gently, trying to soften the accusation.
“Marilee said you didn’t like me because I couldn’t make biscuits or cook anything edible,” she confessed without looking at him. “So I learned how.”
He caught her fingers tightly in his. “She lied. But those were wonderful biscuits,” he said. “Flaky and soft inside, delicately browned. Absolutely delicious.”
She smiled shyly. “I can make them anytime you like.”
He was looking at her with pure possession. “Every morning,” he coaxed. “I’ll stop by for coffee. If Fred doesn’t mind,” he added belatedly.
Fred chuckled. “Fred doesn’t mind,” he murmured dryly.
Leo scowled. “You look like a cat wi
th a mouse.”
Fred shrugged. “Just a stray thought. Nothing to worry about.”
Leo held the older man’s reluctant gaze and understood the odd statement. He nodded slowly. He smiled sheepishly as he realized that Fred wasn’t blind at all.
Fred got up. “Well, I’ve got cattle to move. How’s your bull, by the way?” he added abruptly, worried.
“Colic,” Leo said with a cool smile. “Easily treated and nothing to get upset over.”
“I’m glad. I had visions of you losing yours to Clark, as well.”
“He isn’t from the same herd as yours was, Fred,” Leo told him. “But even so, I think we’ll manage to keep Clark penned up for a while. Which reminds me,” he added, glancing at Janie. “We’d better get going.”
“Okay. I’ll just get the breakfast things cleared away first.”
Leo sat and watched her work with a smitten expression on his face. Fred didn’t linger. He knew a hooked fish when he saw one.
* * *
They swore out warrants and presented them to the sheriff. Clark had already been transferred to the county lockup, after a trip to the hospital emergency room the night before, and Leo and Janie stopped in to see Grier at the police station.
Grier had just finished talking to the mayor, a pleasant older man named Tarleton Connor, newly elected to his position. Connor and Grier had a mutual cousin, as did Grier and Chet Blake, the police chief. Chet was out of town on police business, so Grier was nominally in charge of things.
“Have a seat,” Grier invited, his eyes narrow and angry on Janie’s bruised face. “If it’s any consolation, Miss Brewster, Clark’s got bruised ribs and a black eye.”
She smiled. It was uncomfortable, because it irritated the bruise. “Thanks, Mr. Grier,” she said with genuine appreciation.
“That goes double for me,” Leo told him. “He put Harley and me over a table so fast it’s embarrassing to admit it.”
“Why?” Grier asked, sitting down behind his desk. “The man was a martial artist,” he elaborated. “He had a studio up in Victoria for a while, until the authorities realized that he was teaching killing techniques to ex-cons.”
Leo’s jaw fell.
Grier shrugged. “He was the equivalent of a black belt, too. Harley’s not bad, but he needs a lot more training from Eb Scott before he could take on Clark.” He pursed his lips and his eyes twinkled as he studied Leo’s expression. “Feel better now?”
Leo chuckled. “Yes. Thanks.”
Grier glanced at Janie’s curious expression. “Men don’t like to be overpowered by other men. It’s a guy thing,” he explained.
“Anybody ever overpower you?” Leo asked curiously.
“Judd Dunn almost did, once. But then, I taught him everything he knows.”
“You know a lot,” Janie said. “I never saw anybody move that fast.”
“I was taught by a guy up in Tarrant County,” Grier told her with a smile. “He’s on television every week. Plays a Texas Ranger.”
Janie gasped.
“Nice guy,” Grier added. “And a hell of a martial artist.”
Leo was watching him with a twinkle in his own eyes. “I did think the spinning heel kick looked familiar.”
Grier smiled. He sat up. “About Clark,” he added. “His brother came to see him at the county lockup this morning and got the bad news. With only one charge so far, Harley’s, he’s only got a misdemeanor...”
“We took out a warrant for aggravated assault and battery,” Leo interrupted. “Janie had a knife at her throat just before you walked in.”
“So I was told.” Grier’s dark eyes narrowed on Janie’s throat. The nick was red and noticeable this morning. “An inch deeper and we’d be visiting you at the funeral home this morning.”
“I know,” Janie replied.
“You kept your head,” he said with a smile. “It probably saved your life.”
“Can you keep Clark in jail?” she asked worriedly.
“I’ll ask Judge Barnett to set bail as high as he can. But Clark’s brother isn’t going to settle for a public defender. He said he’d get Jack the best attorney he could find, and he’d pay for it.” He shrugged. “God knows what he’ll pay for it with,” he added coldly. “John Clark owes everybody, up to and including his boss. So does our local Clark brother.”
“He may have to have a public defender.”
“We’ll see. But meanwhile, he’s out of everybody’s way, and he’ll stay put.”
“What about his brother?” Leo wanted to know. “Is Janie in any danger?”
Grier shook his head. “John Clark went back to Victoria after he saw his brother. I had him followed, by one of my off-duty guys, just to make sure he really left. But I’d keep my eyes open, if I were you, just the same. These boys are bad news.”
“We’ll do that,” Leo said.
* * *
He drove Janie back to his own ranch and took her around with him while he checked on the various projects he’d initiated. He pulled up at the barn and told her to stay in the truck.
She was curious until she remembered that he’d fired the man who’d interrupted them the night before. She was glad about the interruption, in retrospect, but uneasy about the gossip that man had started about her and Leo.
He was back in less than five minutes, his face hard, his eyes blazing. He got into the truck and glanced at her, forcibly wiping the anger out of his expression.
“He’s gone,” he told her gently. “Quit without his check,” he added with a rueful smile. “I guess Charles told him what I said.” He shrugged. “He wasn’t much of a cowboy, at that, if he couldn’t tell colic from bloat.”
She reached out and put her nervous fingers over his big hand on the steering wheel. He flinched and she jerked her hand back.
“No!” He caught her fingers in his and held them tight. “I’m sorry,” he said at once, scowling. “You’ve never touched me voluntarily before. It surprised me. I like it,” he added, smiling.
She was flushed and nervous. “Oh. Okay.” She smiled shyly.
He searched her eyes with his for so long that her heart began to race. His face tautened. “This won’t do,” he said in a husky, deep tone. He started the truck with a violent motion and drove back the way they’d come, turning onto a rutted path that led into the woods and, far beyond, to a pasture. But he stopped the truck halfway to the pasture, threw it out of gear and cut off the engine.
He had Janie out of her seat belt and into his big arms in seconds, and his hungry mouth was on her lips before she could react.
She didn’t have any instincts for self-preservation left. She melted into his aroused body, not even protesting the intimate way he was pressing her hips against his. Her arms curled around his neck and she kissed him back with enthusiasm.
She felt his hands going under her blouse, against her breasts. That felt wonderful. It was perfectly all right, because she belonged to him.
He lifted his mouth from hers, breathing hard, and watched her eyes while his hands caressed her. She winced and he caught his breath.
“I’m sorry!” he said at once, soothing the bruise he’d forgotten about. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he whispered.
She reached up to kiss his eyelids shut, feeling the shock that ran through him at the soft caress. His hands moved to her waist and rested there while he held his breath, waiting. She felt the hunger in him, like a living thing. Delighted by his unexpected submission to her mouth, she kissed his face softly, tenderly, drawing her lips over his thick eyebrows, his eyelids, his cheeks and nose and chin. They moved to his strong throat and lingered in the pulsating hollow.
One lean hand went between them to the buttons of his cotton shirt. He unfastened them quickly, jerking the fabric out of her wa
y, inviting her mouth inside.
Her hands spread on the thick mat of hair that covered the warm, strong muscles of his chest. Her mouth touched it, lightly, and then not lightly. She moved to where his heart beat roughly, and then over the flat male nipple that was a counterpart to her own. But the reaction she got when she put her mouth over it was shocking.
He groaned so harshly that she was sure she’d hurt him. She drew back, surprising a look of anguish on his lean face.
“Leo?” she whispered uneasily.
“It arouses me,” he ground out, then he shivered.
She didn’t know what to do next. He looked as if he ached to have her repeat the caress, but his body was as taut as a rope against her.
“You’ll have to tell me what to do,” she faltered. “I don’t want to make it worse.”
“Whatever I do is going to shock you speechless,” he choked out. “But, what the hell...!”
He dragged her face back to his nipple and pressed it there, hard. “You know what I want.”
She did, at some level. Her mouth eased down against him with a soft, gentle suction that lifted him back against the seat with a harsh little cry of pleasure. His hands at the back of her head were rough and insistent. She gave in and did what he was silently asking her for. She felt him shudder and gasp, his body vibrating as if it was overwhelmed by pleasure. He bit off a harsh word and trembled violently for a few seconds before he turned her mouth away from him and pressed her unblemished cheek against his chest. His hands in her hair trembled as they caressed her scalp. His heartbeat was raging under her mouth.
He fought to breathe normally. “Wow,” he whispered unsteadily.
Her fingers tangled in the thick hair under them. “Did you really like it?” she whispered back.
He actually laughed, a little unsteadily. “Didn’t you feel what was happening to me?”
“You were shaking.”
“Yes. I was, wasn’t I? Just the way you were shaking last night when I touched you...”
Her cheek slid back onto his shoulder so that she could look up into his soft eyes. “I didn’t know a man would be sensitive, there, like a woman is.”