by Tina Leonard
Zach nearly spilled his coffee as he sat down in one of the hard, orange chairs. Annie’s pallor had concerned him, and for a moment, he’d wondered if she herself was strong enough to survive her father’s heart attack. Guilt ground in upon him. Any minute now, her initial shock was going to subside and Annie was going to realize she wouldn’t be sitting in this hospital if it weren’t for him.
“Your supper was cut short, so you’re probably hungry. Let me know if you want anything else,” Zach said. He took a sip of the bitter coffee, watching Annie nibble at her doughnut. Obviously she wasn’t going to say much, but there was something he just had to make sure she knew. “Annie,” he began carefully, “I want you to know how sorry I am. I wouldn’t have wished anything bad—”
“I know,” she interrupted with a sad smile.
He was acutely uncomfortable. “Is there anything I can do?”
“You’ve done enough, Zach.”
There was a trace of cynicism in her gaze for a split second—or perhaps remorse was making him look for things that weren’t there. Zach wasn’t sure. She had resumed picking at her doughnut, but he doubted she’d ever get past the glazed frosting. His appetite was nonexistent as well. The best course of action would be to stand up, shake off the blame, and take a taxi to the Aguillar homestead to wait on the replacement rental car. Another glance into Annie’s deepwater eyes decided him. “Will you be all right?” he asked, suddenly anxious to be on his way.
“We’ll be fine,” she said. “We’ve hit hard times before and survived them.”
Zach went very still, his curiosity overriding his desire to escape. “Is there a problem?”
“Well,” she began, looping her fingers casually through her coffee mug, “we don’t have much health insurance, of course.”
Zach couldn’t pull his eyes away from her lips. Why was she telling him this?
“I wish I could say Papa’s heart attack was unexpected, but truthfully, it could have happened at any time. He’s had a history of high blood pressure, high cholesterol. I should have increased our coverage…but foolishly, I didn’t.” Her voice faltered. “It’s hard for me to accept that my father is elderly, or in ill health.”
The fact that Annie felt her father’s heart attack could have occurred at any time washed a wave of relief over Zach. His portion of blame in the situation could be downgraded from major cause to unfortunate catalyst. The old man could have gotten angry tomorrow over birds pecking at the cornfields and the results might have been the same. Zach knew he was deliberately justifying his innocence in the matter. But he still wished Mr. Cade had waited just a little longer to have his coronary, even as he recognized the selfishness behind the thought. He’d have been back in Austin then, and Annie might have called him to say she’d experienced a serious financial setback and needed to sell. That was a situation he could have taken advantage of. But here he was, with a prime opportunity to make his case again—and yet he couldn’t do it. Something inside him wanted Annie to come out all right.
“Ah, well,” Annie said, appearing embarrassed. “I’m talking too much. My mind is running around in circles, and I guess my mouth just popped out with what I was thinking.”
“Annie—”
She shook her head. “I’d better get back to the waiting room.”
Annie stood up, and he followed her lead, not knowing what to say. They cleared away their trays before walking down the hospital corridor silently. The whole mess was so damned awkward, Zach thought, and there was no easy way out.
The waiting room was empty. Zach sat down but Annie paced around the room, shuffling through a magazine before tossing it back down. Plainly she was so distraught her concentration was shot. He wasn’t close to his own father—not that over the years he hadn’t tried to change the fact. Reaching out to his father was like reaching into a black hole in space—there was nothing there. But if he had ever been able to establish a bond, an emotional connection with his father, Zach knew it would have meant the world to him. Despite their lack of closeness, it would still hurt if anything happened to his father now.
He could imagine the depth of Annie’s pain, and he wished there was something he could do to ease it. Unfortunately, there wasn’t, and waiting around here wasn’t the answer, either. He rose to his feet, intending to tell Annie he was going back to Austin.
The waiting room door opened and Zach and Annie both immediately turned to see who was coming in. Surprised, Zach realized the newcomer was the same man who’d driven away last night with little Mary. Annie’s response even duplicated last night’s. She went rushing into the man’s arms.
“Cody! I’m so glad you came,” Zach heard her murmur against the man’s broad chest.
“Ma said she’d keep Mary for a while so I could come down. How are you doing, Annie?”
Cody tipped Annie’s chin to look into her eyes, and a small sting of unreasonable jealousy pierced Zach. Who was this character, anyway? If Ye Olde Store wooden Indian had suddenly come to life, he would look just like this man.
“Zach.” Annie’s soft voice cleared a path through the haze in his mind. “This is Cody Aguillar.”
The two men sized each other up warily. “So you’re Slick,” Cody commented.
“Slick?” Zach repeated.
Cody jerked his head in the direction of the hallway. “The old man calls you Slick.”
“Ah,” Zach said, the syllable not conveying much rancor for the insult. “And you must be Crazy Cody, infamous collector of rattlesnakes.” He couldn’t help wondering what the relationship between Cody and Annie was. They seemed very fond of one another, but something told Zach this man wasn’t Mary’s father.
“You’ve been talking to Papa, Cody?” Annie asked eagerly.
Cody didn’t take his eyes from Zach. “Yeah. He seems to be doing all right, all things considered.”
“Then I better hurry,” Annie said, not appearing to notice the uneasy sparks flying between the two men. “If he can still have visitors before his surgery—”
“He’s not supposed to,” Cody informed her. “I slipped in for a second. Your pa told me about ol’ Slick here.” He crossed his arms and leveled a hard stare at Zach. “What are you hanging around for anyway, city boy? You a vulture waiting to pick the old man’s bones clean?”
“Cody!” Annie protested. “Zach’s not…like that.”
The sudden uncertainty in Annie’s tone was a dose of reality for Zach. In his mind he’d known once her dazed and shocked state passed, she’d remember that they were on opposite sides; she’d easily believe the comfort he offered was to insinuate himself into her good graces, like the snake in the garden of Eden that wended its way into Eve’s trust. Zach wouldn’t trust himself either, if the truth were known.
“Come on, Slick. I heard you’re waiting on a rental car. I’ll give you a ride back to the farm. Sooner you’re out of here, the better for everyone involved,” Cody stated.
Annie was silent. As much as he might wish otherwise, Zach knew Cody was right. The Aguillar family couldn’t get back to normal while he was around, stirring up ill feelings.
“I appreciate the offer,” Zach replied. He stared at Annie for a moment. She met his gaze unflinchingly, pride obvious in her stiff height and crossed arms. They were two pieces on the chessboard again, the momentary closeness between them evaporated. “Goodbye, Annie. I hope everything turns out all right,” he said, ignoring Cody’s sarcastic snort.
“It will,” she replied calmly.
Zach realized she wasn’t going to say anything else. It was as if she’d never leaned on him for emotional support—certainly never pressed her lips to his seeking affection. Yet that moment by the pond was burned into his memory—Annie’s hungry acknowledgement that somewhere in the middle of their different worlds, desire had pulled them together just for a moment.
As he turned to follow Cody out of the waiting room, Zach Rayez, master manipulator, wondered who’d been checkmated.
“I missed you, darling.” LouAnn snaked her arms around Zach’s neck the moment she walked into his house. He breathed in her ever-present perfume while automatically lowering his lips to hers. This was sanity, this was safe, he told himself. Although he’d only left the Aguillar farm yesterday, Zach felt like a million years had passed since he’d held a bewitching woman named Annie.
He must have been out of his mind to let her get to him. She’d wrung sympathy out of him, sympathy he hadn’t even known he was capable of feeling. How it had happened, Zach wasn’t sure, but he’d allowed a long-buried sense of justice to get in his way just long enough for him to get suckered.
His fingers roved over LouAnn’s body, hungry for the familiar feel of her. She stepped back slightly and shook a finger at him. “Not so fast, Zach.”
He blinked, trying to clear the mind-numbing sexual attraction he was feeling. LouAnn’s pose was slightly antagonistic. For a moment, fear tingled Zach’s skin, fear that LouAnn knew his common sense had almost been overruled by another woman’s touch. Just as instantly, he knew that wasn’t true, and remembered why LouAnn had cause to be upset with him.
“LouAnn, I tried to make the party.” He guided her to a sofa, prepared to talk about the situation until she forgave him. The unhappy look in her eyes bothered him. “I got into a mess at a farm I was calling on. If I’d had any idea—”
“You’ve never not called before.”
He nodded, admitting that he hadn’t tried to call. “Let me tell you about it, because this was the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me. Carter was anxious for me to visit this farm, so I went. It was supposed to be an easy deal, almost cut and dried with a little persuasion.”
LouAnn patted his leg and smiled at him. “Carter is in awe of your ability to close difficult deals. He knows you’ll get the job done.”
Zach nearly smiled at the wifely pride in LouAnn’s voice. But she was far from the mark, unfortunately. “That’s just it. I didn’t get the job done this time, not anywhere close. The old man had a heart attack at the dinner table, and—”
“Oh, Zach. How horrible!”
“Yeah. The farm itself is in bad shape, too…and I guess I’ve been so happy lately…” he paused to brush a light kiss along LouAnn’s cheek, “…I didn’t have the desire to…to…”
Oh, he’d had plenty of desire—for another woman.
“To upset the old guy,” LouAnn offered. “Of course you didn’t. It was just bad timing, Zach, and when that man is feeling better, I’m sure you can talk to him again.”
Zach shook his head definitively. He wasn’t ever setting foot on the Aguillar land again. “My work is over in less than two weeks, and in six weeks I’ll be a part-owner in the Harrison family business.” He leaned his head back against the sofa cushion and sighed deeply. “I can’t wait.”
LouAnn was silent for a moment. Then she snuggled up against his side, leaning her head on his shoulder. “Don’t you think you should go back out there?”
“I don’t give a damn.” His voice was harsher than he intended, and Zach nearly apologized. LouAnn didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of his frustration.
“You’re just tired right now, sweetie. In a few days, you’ll be dying to get back out there and try again.”
Somehow Zach doubted it. But how could he explain why he felt that way without mentioning Annie? Changing the subject suddenly seemed very appealing. “How are the wedding plans coming along?” he asked. “Is there anything I need to do?”
LouAnn’s fingernails traced lightly along the hairs at the nape of his neck. The sensation was stimulating yet somehow relaxing, and Zach felt the tension go out of his shoulders as she caressed him.
“Plan on getting your tux fitted this weekend,” she instructed. “Oh, Zach, responses to the wedding invitations are beginning to pour in. Today we received a stunning crystal water pitcher from Tiffany’s, and yesterday four place settings of our sterling pattern were delivered.” He felt a flutter of excitement in her hands as her fingers brushed his skin more rapidly. Receiving gifts was one of his fiancée’s most fervent delights, and she was enjoying her position as affianced socialite to the hilt. Her bliss made Zach happy, made him want to drown himself in her pleasure. He turned to her, taking her hand from his neck and placing it where he more preferred it at the moment.
LouAnn giggled, reading his desire. “I didn’t know you’d get so excited about receiving wedding gifts,” she teased.
Zach pushed aside her blonde, fluffy hair, baring her neck to his mouth. Tiny nips along the slender column of her throat brought a sigh from LouAnn. “I don’t give a damn about gifts, and you know it,” he growled into her ear. One of the earrings he’d given her brushed against his chin, reminding him that he hadn’t seen her wearing them yet, just for him. Maybe, just maybe, some sexual fantasizing would help stir the passion he needed to feel to forget Annie. He pulled LouAnn up off the sofa and drew her into the bedroom. “Right now what excites me is seeing you wearing nothing but emeralds, LouAnn.”
She pulled him down upon her when he laid her on the bed. Their hands tangled in the urgency to shed each other’s clothes. Zach struggled mentally, then tried to ignore that same struggle as he tried to fan his desire into running so hot he would feel like he was on fire, feel like a runner who has run so long his muscles burn and ache with the effort.
The way he’d felt when Annie had given a piece of herself to him.
Desperately, Zach urged himself to forget what had happened and bury himself in LouAnn’s pale flesh the way an ostrich buries its head in the sand. He positioned himself above her, and almost tigress-like she bared her teeth. Winding her arms around his neck, LouAnn pulled him closer, licking her tongue over her lips.
Whatever desire he’d been trying to capture emptied out of Zach like water. Unbidden, the fervor of Annie’s kiss again came to mind. She had been so hungry, so willing to share her desire. He’d felt a part of her emotion, perhaps even understood it though he wasn’t free to share in it. LouAnn’s passion seemed single-mindedly lustful; although that had never bothered him before, it did now.
Slowly, carefully, Zach rolled off and lay staring at the ceiling. LouAnn laid her head on his shoulder and began stroking his chest, making noises about how she understood his tiredness, that it would pass and they’d try again. The air conditioner turned on, blowing across the perspiration on his chest in a sudden, chilling caress. The satin sheets beneath his back felt cold, and the woman beside him too close. Irritated, Zach wondered why the emotional relief he’d sought wasn’t as simple as a mere climax.
Several hours later, in the darkness of his bedroom, Zach tossed for the hundredth time. LouAnn had gone home and was probably asleep in her own bed even now, wrapped in wedding dreams, no doubt. In the past couple of years, the ability to sleep had all but deserted Zach. The problem plaguing him, he suspected, was stress related to his job, stress he was bringing on himself, but no less disturbing because it was self-inflicted. Getting into a new line of work was imperative, or he might never sleep again. In the last year, he’d noticed an occasional stray pain shooting across his chest. Zach didn’t doubt he was working himself up to pop a coronary like Mr. Cade had.
Zach’s mind drifted to Annie. He wondered how she was coping. A fleeting desire struck him to call her and check on how she was doing, but Zach decided against it. It would be unethical, he decided. And most likely an unwanted intrusion. Annie Aguillar would probably resent a phone call from him, since he was associated with the misfortune that had befallen her.
For a moment, he imagined helping Annie out financially. The knight in shining armor scenario played itself out in his imagination, complete with Annie gratefully kissing him for his largesse. Shoot, the money he’d spent on LouAnn’s earrings alone would represent a great deal of money to the Aguillars’ predicament. Zach could very easily imagine himself in the role of her savior, not just because he could help her,
but because he really would like to.
However, Annie would never allow it. Zach knew that, and he let go of the shining-knight fantasy. LouAnn would always take his gifts with a delighted smile. But he’d get no thanks from Annie. Her pride would be distressed by any attempt from him to help her. The only assistance he could give Annie would be simply to leave her alone.
With a sigh, Zach rolled over. The stress and guilt from what he did for a living already kept him up all night long, every night. Feeling confined by his relationship to LouAnn was a new sensation. But he’d never suffered a wilt in his desire for her before. Zach lay still, unsatisfied, watching the illuminated numbers on the digital clock by his bedside flip over, one by one by one.
“Maybe you didn’t try hard enough,” Carter remonstrated.
Zach ground his teeth. So far, Carter refused to accept that he was simply not the man for the Aguillar contract. “I did try, dammit.”
“Just because a small health issue popped up is no reason to give up on the deal,” Carter stated. “After enough hospital bills pour in, they’ll be glad to see you.”
“Well, I won’t be in this job long enough for the bills to hit their mailbox, Carter. Remember, I’m getting married soon.”
“I know, I know. Maybe you should just give it a few more days before you decide, Zach. For all you know, that girl might call you up, begging you to buy her land. This discussion would be moot then.”
Zach leveled a stare at his vice president. “I get the strangest feeling you aren’t taking my intent to resign seriously, Carter. But I am no longer going to be a part of Ritter in just a few short days.”
Carter sighed, shaking his head. “You’ve been a good friend to me, Zach, you know that. And you’re the best deal-maker around. I hate to break up our team. Naturally, I’m hoping you’ll change your mind in due time, maybe after a few honeymoon trips with your new wife.” Carter leaned back in the leather chair, lighting up a cigar. “Life is full of surprises.”