Dalton's Undoing

by RaeAnne Thayne

  "Good. He worked hard at everything I asked him to do and some of it wasn't very appealing. I can't ask for more than that."

  She relaxed the fingers she hadn't realized she'd clenched tightly in the pockets of her sweater. "Was he…" her voice trailed off and she couldn't figure out how to ask the question in a way that wouldn't make her sound like a terrible mother.

  "Rude and obnoxious? Not much, surprisingly. He digs cars and we spent much of the afternoon working on mine, so everything was cool."

  "I can't tell you how relieved that makes me."

  "You should probably know I did throw him up on a horse for a few minutes. He actually seemed to enjoy it. Even smiled a few times."

  She blinked, trying to imagine her rebellious city-boy "I-hate-everything-country" son on the back of a horse.

  "You're sure we're talking about the same kid? He wasn't possessed by alien cowboy pod people?"

  Seth laughed, his blue eyes crinkled at the corners, and she could swear she felt warm fingers trickling down her spine just looking at him.

  "Not a UFO in sight, I swear."

  She shouldn't be here, sharing laughter or anything else with Seth Dalton. With sharp efforts, she broke eye contact. "Thank you for all the trouble you've gone to," she said after an uncomfortable moment. "It would have been less work on your part if you had just turned him over to the authorities."

  "I'm getting free labor with my horses and with my car. Not a bad deal. I'm no saint here."

  "So they tell me."

  Had she really said that aloud? She mentally cringed at her rudeness and Seth looked startled at first, then gave her one of those blasted slow smiles that ought to come with a warning label as long as her arm.

  "Who's been talking about me, Ms. Boyer?"

  Her nerve endings tingled at his low, amused voice, but she ignored it, turning her own voice prim. "Who hasn't? You're a favorite topic of conversation in Pine Gulch, Mr. Dalton."

  He didn't seem bothered by town gossip—or maybe he was just used to it.

  Looking for all the world as if he planned to make himself right at home, he leaned a hip against the door frame and crossed his arms across his chest. "That must tell you what a quiet town you've settled in, if nobody in Pine Gulch has anything more interesting to talk about than me. So what's the consensus?"

  That you're a major-league player. That you flirt with anything female and have left a swath of broken hearts behind you. That half the women in Teton Valley are in love with you and the other half are in lust.

  She so didn't want to be having this conversation with him. She thought longingly of the paperwork she'd been putting off all afternoon and would have given just about anything right then to be sitting at her desk filling out federal assessment forms. Anything but this.

  "Nothing I'm sure you haven't already heard," she finally said. "You're apparently a busy man."

  A purely masculine, absolutely enticing dimple appeared in his cheek briefly then disappeared again. "Yeah, starting a full-fledged horse ranch can take a lot of hours."

  He had to know she wasn't talking about his equine endeavors, but she decided she wasn't going to set him straight.

  "I'm sure it does," she murmured drily. Dating a different woman every night probably tended to fill up the calendar, too. But not this woman, even if she wasn't four years older than him and the exact opposite of all the tight, perky young things he was probably used to.

  She knew all about men like him. She'd been married to one, a man compelled to charm every woman in sight.

  She had worked hard to rebuild her heart and her life and her family in the last three years. After a great deal of hard work and self-scrutiny, she had finally become someone she could respect again.

  She was a strong, successful woman who loved her work and her family, and she wasn't about to let a man like Seth Dalton knock her on her butt again.

  Even if he did make her hormones wake up and sing hallelujah.

  "Thank you for taking the time away from your horses to bring Cole back," she said, in what she hoped was a polite but dismissive tone.

  He either didn't pick on it or didn't care. "No problem. How's Morgan doing now?"

  She didn't want him to be interested in her daughter or for the simple question to remind her just how kind and patient he had been during Morgan's flare-up.

  That was the problem with charmers, she supposed. They seemed instinctively to know how to zero in on a woman's weak spot and use that to their advantage. He'd already slipped inside her defenses a little by being so decent about Cole crashing his car. She would have preferred if he ignored Morgan altogether.

  How was she to pigeonhole him as a selfish womanizer when he showed such genuine concern for her daughter's welfare?

  "She's fine. By the time we returned home, her peak flow was about seventy percent. After we nebulized her, it went up to about eight-five percent."

  "Good. I hope the flare-up doesn't discourage you from bringing her out to the ranch again. She's welcome to tag along with Cole anytime. You both are."

  She smiled politely, though she had absolutely no intention of taking him up on the invitation. "Thank you. But I'm sure the very last thing you need underfoot—with you being so busy and all—is a wheezing nine-year-old girl."

  "I'd like to have her back. Both of you. Pretty ladies are always welcome at the Cold Creek."

  His smile was designed to reach right into a woman's soul and she felt it clear to her toes. Darn him. No, darn her for this ridiculous crush, the weakness she had for handsome charmers.

  She couldn't endure his light flirtation, especially knowing he didn't mean any of it, it was all just a game to him.

  He couldn't possibly be seriously interested in a stuffy, overstressed thirty-six-year-old elementary school principal with no chest to speak of and the tiniest bit of gray in her hair that she only managed to hide by the grace of God and a good stylist.

  He wasn't interested in her, and he had no business smiling at her as if he were.

  "Do you stay up nights thinking of lines or do you just come up with them on the fly?"

  He raised an eyebrow, though amusement still lurked in his blue eyes, even in the face of her frontal attack. "Was that a line? I thought I was simply extending an invitation."

  She sighed. "Look, you've been incredibly understanding about what Cole did to your car. If I had been in your shoes, I can't imagine I would be nearly so magnanimous. He's going to be working with you to make things right for at least a few months and I suppose we'll see a great deal of each other in that time, so let's get this out of the way."

  "I'm all ears."

  And sexy smiles and gorgeous eyes and broad shoulders that look like they could carry the weight of the world.

  She frowned at herself. "I'm not interested in being charmed," she said bluntly.

  "Is that what you think I was doing?"

  "Weren't you?" She didn't give him a chance to answer. "I doubt you're even aware of it, it's so ingrained in your nature. The flirting, the slow bedroom smiles. Even if you're not attracted to a woman, something in your blood compels you to conquer her, to find her weaknesses and exploit them until she surrenders to your charm like every other woman."

  He gazed at her, obviously taken aback by the sudden attack. She heard her own rudeness and was appalled but couldn't seem to stop the words from gushing out.

  All she could think of was Ashley Barnes crying her eyes out when Seth never called her back and Richard murmuring lies and promises while he was already sleeping with another woman and planning to abandon his children.

  "It's different if a man is genuinely interested in a woman," she went on. "If he truly wants to know about her, if he might feel some spark of attraction and want to follow up on it. That's one thing. But you're not interested in me. Men like you charm just because you can."

  He straightened from the door jamb, a sudden fiery light in his eyes that had her stepping back a pace. "That's qu
ite a scathing indictment, Ms. Boyer, especially since you've known me less than a day. I thought good teachers and principals weren't supposed to rush to snap judgments."

  His words gave her pause and she had to wonder what in heaven's name seemed to possess her around him.

  "You're right. Absolutely. I'm very sorry. That was completely uncalled-for. I'll make a deal with you. I won't rush to any snap judgments provided you refrain from trying to add me to your list of conquests."

  Before he could answer, she held open the door in a pointed dismissal. Cold air rushed in, swirling around her like a malicious fog, but she knew it wouldn't be enough to take care of her hot embarrassment. "Thank you again for bringing Cole home. I'll be sure to send him out to your ranch on the bus Tuesday."

  Seth gave her a long, hard look, as if he had much more he wanted to say, but he finally turned around and walked outside.

  She closed the door and leaned against it, her hands clenched at her sides.

  How had she let him get her so stirred up? He hadn't done anything. Not really. Sure, he'd flirted a little, but she had always been able to handle a mild flirtation. He seemed to push all her buttons—and several she hadn't realized were there.

  How on earth was she supposed to face him again after she'd all but accused him of trying to seduce her?

  She would simply have to be cool and polite. She would be gracious about what he was doing for her son but distant about everything else. She had no doubt she could keep him at arm's length, especially after she'd just slapped him down so firmly.

  Keeping him out of her head was a different matter entirely.

  Chapter Four

  Seth stood on the porch of Jason Chambers's red-brick rambler, the November evening air sharp with fall, and tried to figure out what the heck had just happened in there.

  He wasn't at all used to being on the receiving end of such a blunt dismissal, and he was fairly certain he didn't care for it much. He had only been talking to the woman, just trying to be friendly, and she was treating him like she'd just caught him looking up her skirt.

  He wasn't quite sure how to react. He had certainly encountered his share of rejection. It never usually bothered him, not when there were so many other prospects out there.

  He had to admit, he just wasn't used to rejection accompanied by such blatant hostility.

  He ought to just march right back in there and ask Jenny Boyer what he had done in the course of their short acquaintance to warrant it. He lifted a hand to the doorbell then let it fall again.

  No. What would that accomplish, besides making him look foolish? She had the right to her opinions, even if they were completely ridiculous.

  Even if you're not attracted to a woman, something in your blood compels you to conquer her, to find her weaknesses and exploit them until she surrenders to your charm like every other woman.

  That wasn't true. He didn't need to charm every female he came in contact with. He just happened to be a sociable kind of guy.

  Where did she get off forming such a harsh opinion on him when they'd barely met?

  More to the point, why did it bug him so much?

  It was no big deal, he told himself as the cold wind slapped at him. Better to just forget about Ms. Uptight Jennifer Boyer and head over to the Bandito, where he could find any number of warm, willing women who didn't think he was so objectionable.

  His boots thudded on the steps as he headed off the porch toward his truck. He climbed in and started the engine, but for some strange reason couldn't bring himself to drive away from the house just yet, too busy analyzing his own reaction to being flayed alive by a tongue sharper than his best Buck knife.

  He ought to be seriously pissed off at the woman and not want anything more to do with her. He was, he told himself.

  So why was he somehow even more attracted to her?

  He liked curvy women who played up their assets, who wore low-cut blouses and short skirts and towering high heels that made their legs look long and sexy.

  His brothers seemed to think that was just another sign that he needed to grow up and get serious about life. He had to wonder what Jake and Wade would say if they knew about this strange attraction for the new elementary school principal.

  Yeah, he liked looking at her—the tilt of her chin and the flash of her green eyes and those lush lips that seemed at odds with her starchy appearance.

  And she smelled good. He had definitely picked up on that. Her perfume had been soft and sweet, putting all kinds of crazy images in his head of wildflowers and spring mountain rain showers.

  And her hair. A man could go a little crazy trying to figure out just how to describe it. It was red, yeah, but not just red. Instead, it was a hundred different shades, from gold to something that reminded him of the first soft brush of color on the maples in fall.

  He let out a breath. Oh, he was attracted to her all right. Curiously more so now than he'd been even before he walked inside with Cole.

  More than that, he was also intensely curious to know whether he could change her opinion of him.

  The challenge of it seemed irresistible suddenly.

  He shook his head at himself, wholly aware of the irony. He was sitting here pondering how to change the mind of a woman who thought he was nothing more than a womanizer. That was all fine, except for the reason he wanted to change her mind—because he wanted to seduce her, exactly like the womanizer she thought he was.

  He ought to just drive away and leave her alone. But the thought of that was as unappealing as riding a steer. He had to try. Something about her prim, buttoned-down beauty appealed to him more than any woman in longer than he could remember.

  He didn't even want to think what insight someone could get into his brain that the first woman to really intrigue him in a long time was the one woman who apparently wanted nothing to do with him.

  Was she right, that it was all about the challenge to him?

  Maybe.

  But what was life without a little challenge?

  * * *

  Jennifer Boyer was a tough nut to crack, Seth thought two weeks later outside the Cold Creek horse barn.

  He'd seen her a handful of times since that first evening when he dropped Cole off. Though he'd been tempted to pour on the charm, he decided on a more low-key approach. She told him she wasn't interested in a flirtation and he had a strong feeling she would automatically reject any blatant overtures so instead he had tried to be warm and friendly, carefully suppressing any sign of his increasing attraction.

  Whatever he was doing wasn't working. She wasn't interested. Worse, she seemed more distant each time they met than she had the time before. She responded politely enough, all the while looking at him out of those green eyes that he discovered could turn to ice chips in an instant.

  He should have given it up for a lost cause a week ago, but the more she pushed him away, the harder he tried to find a foothold. He was determined to change her mind about him, but after two weeks he was beginning to fear it was a lost cause.

  The only chink in her hard shell appeared to be Lucy, he had discovered. The stiff, distant principal seemed to melt around his puppy. Her whole demeanor relaxed and her face lit up in a smile that took his breath away.

  Though it was no doubt ruthless of him, he had to admit, he flaunted his single advantage without scruple.

  He wasn't a stupid man—he always made sure Lucy was awake and nearby, looking her adorable self, whenever he knew Jenny was due to arrive at the ranch with Cole.

  If nothing else, Lucy served the purpose of keeping his quarry around a little longer, when he was sure she would otherwise have rushed off in a second. She always seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere, unless the puppy happened to be around.

  He watched her and Morgan now tossing a ball for Lucy. The late-autumn sunlight glinted off that magnificent hair and she looked fresh and soft and beautiful.

  He wanted her with a heat that continued to baffle him.

&
nbsp; Morgan was the one throwing the ball, so by rights Lucy should have been returning it to her. But she couldn't seem to get the message and kept dropping it at Jennifer's feet, to the amusement of all of them.

  "You silly girl. What are we going to do with you?" Jenny said after several repeats of the neat little trick he would have taught the puppy, if only he'd thought of it. She picked Lucy up and brushed noses with her and it was all he could do hide the naked longing he knew must be obvious on his face.

  He turned his attention to Morgan instead. "You're really great with her. You ought to think about being a vet."

  Morgan beamed at him with none of her mother's reserve. "That's just what I told my teacher I want to be! I wrote a paper about it in school. Me and Natalie both want to be veterinarians."

  This was new. Last he heard, his niece wanted to be a rodeo queen, but then he figured Nat would probably change her mind a hundred more times before she even reached middle school.

  He tugged at one of her ponytails. "Tell you what. The next time the vet is scheduled to come out to look at my horses for some reason on a weekend or holiday, I'll give you a call and you and Natalie can tag along and watch him. If it's all right with your mom, of course."

  Morgan's face lit up, making him feel about a dozen feet tall. Now if only he could get her mother to look at him the same way….

  "Oh, please, Mom!" she begged. "It would be so awesome to watch a vet work with real horses. We wouldn't get in the way, I swear."

  Jenny didn't look thrilled to be put on the spot. "We'll have to see," she murmured in that cool, noncommittal tone every parent seemed to have perfected.

  In his limited experience, a "We'll see" was just the same as a "No" but Morgan didn't seem to see it the same way. She looked ecstatic at the possibility. He wanted to tell her most of the time the vets just came out to give shots, not do anything exciting or dramatic, but he didn't want to spoil it for her.

  The girl threw the ball for the puppy one more time just as Cole came out of the garage.

  "Finished putting the tools away?" Seth asked.

  The boy nodded. "You know, I bet she's looking better now than she ever has, even when she was new."