“Positive,” Cisco replied.
Gillian turned and looked him straight in the eye. “Then I can’t explain it”
“Neither can I,” Cisco reiterated softly as he forced himself to forget how sexy and appealing she looked up close, and concentrate instead on her character, or lack thereof. “But I promise you this,” he told her deliberately, figuring there was more than one way to skin a mule. “By the time our forty-eight hours together are finished, there aren’t going to be any secrets left between us.”
This was where she was supposed to either give in to his gentle persuasion and tell all, or say to heck with marriage and run for the hills, Gillian knew. But the honorable Cisco Kidd, attorney-at-law, had another think coming if he thought he was going to dictate her actions so easily!
“Really?” Gillian taunted right back as she continued to regard him with a decidedly cavalier manner. “Then you’re going to have to do some fessing up, too.”
Cisco’s dark brows drew together like thunderclouds. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
Gillian offered a tight smile. “As soon as you started asking around about me, I started asking around about you,” she told him, vaguely aware her voice was rising. “It turns out your past contains more than a hint of mystery, too, Counselor. No one knows where you came from or what your personal history holds, prior to the point where Max brought you to the Silver Spur. All they do know for sure is that you were something of a delinquent when he found you, and that under his tutelage, you became the white knight you are today.”
Cisco’s lips tightened as he took a step closer. “It’s true. Max taught me how to protect and care for a lady—”
“Fortunately for both of us,” Gillian interrupted heatedly, “I don’t need protecting.”
Cisco edged closer yet, a taunting smile on his handsome face. “Sure about that?”
“Positive,” Gillian retorted, aware their short amount of time to work things out was swiftly running out. “I can take care of myself. Now, about the inheritances…” Gillian paused and cleared her throat before she met Cisco’s eyes and continued matter-offactly. “Max has held out quite a carrot to us.”
“And you want it,” Cisco said.
The fact was, for Gillian, that financial security— the funds to literally pick up and run on a moment’s notice if need be—would bring her peace of mind in myriad ways. And if she didn’t have to run, well, then, she would continue to have a home here. Surely, with the mountain views, deep forests and sparkling meadows…the abundance of land, cut through with the meandering Silver River and the picturesque Silver Lake…there wasn’t a more beautiful place to live in all of the world than the McKendricks’ vast ranch.
“Don’t you?”
Cisco shrugged. “I’m willing to abide by Max’s wishes during the next forty-eight hours if you are.”
Probably because he thought it’d be easier to unearth her secrets in close proximity, but he was wrong about that, too, Gillian knew. She had thoroughly covered her tracks.
Gillian shrugged and sent Cisco a self-satisfied smile. “Fine. As long as you understand, Cisco, that our spur-of-the-moment marriage is to be strictly a platonic one, because there is no way on this earth I’m falling either into bed, or in love with you, no matter what Max hopes,” she told him resolutely. “This is going to be a simple business arrangement, and nothing else.”
Cisco did not seem to think that would be the case, but before he had a chance to reply, there was a commotion outside. Gillian swung toward the sound. “What in the world is going on out there?”
“I don’t know,” he said, concerned, “but I’d like to find out.”
Gillian rushed from the tent, Cisco right behind her.
Max and Pearl were facing off on the edge of the dance floor. In his palm Max had a velvet box containing a large diamond necklace, but the obstinate Pearl was refusing to take it.
“Listen to me, you wily old broncobuster! You have been kicked in the head one too many times if you think I’m going to forgive you for letting me think you were dead!” Pearl was shouting furiously as Cisco and Gillian joined the crowd gathering round.
“Ah, Pearl, come on,” Max said in obvious exasperation. He spread his hands wide, pleading his case. “Don’t you see? I needed you to really be grieving, for my matchmaking plan to work.”
“I do not appreciate being a pawn in one of your games of chance!” Pearl stomped off in a huff.
Max came back toward Gillian and Cisco, looking a little sheepish. “Guess I’m going to have to give her a little time to cool off,” he supposed, rubbing the long drooping ends of his white handlebar mustache.
Cisco and Gillian turned to watch Pearl disappear through the crowd. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Pearl that mad,” Cisco murmured.
“Not to worry. She’ll see things my way eventually,” Max declared with a confident wave of his work-callused hand. That said, he took them in from head to toe. “So, what have you two decided?”
“We’ve agreed to your terms,” Cisco answered matter-of-factly.
Gillian nodded, letting Max know this was indeed so.
Max grinned victoriously, but did not look surprised. He snapped the velvet-lined necklace box closed and replaced it in his pocket, and pulled out another one. “Then you’re going to be needing these,” Max said as he handed them two matching gold wedding bands.
THANKS TO PEARL and the McKendrick women, a scant five minutes later Gillian was clad in a wedding gown and veil lovelier than anything she had ever dreamed. The air was redolent with the scent of flowers, and the orchestra Max had hired for the nowquadruple wedding was playing a rendition of Pachelbel Canon in D Major.
Gillian floated up the aisle to the white latticework trellis where the ceremony would take place, the bouquet of baby’s breath and roses clasped tightly in her hands. It was one of the most beautiful summer evenings she had ever seen, with the stars twinkling above the mountains in an indigo sky. The assembled guests were oohing and aahing over the latest Maxgenerated excitement taking place, but all Gillian could concentrate on was the ruggedly handsome groom awaiting her.
Cisco was dressed in an elegant black tux, crisply pleated white shirt and black bow tie. Incredible as it was, he looked completely at ease as though he had been waiting for this moment—for her—all his life. As she took her place beside him, he took her hand in his. And then the world fell away as the ceremony began.
“Gillian, do you take Cisco…to have and to hold…for better for worse…for richer for poorer…for the next forty-eight hours…and possibly beyond…?”
Gillian looked at Cisco. “I do.”
“Cisco, do you take Gillian as your lawfully wedded wife…?”
Cisco nodded seriously and sounded as if he had a frog in his throat, when he agreed. “I do.”
With hands that trembled slightly, they accepted the rings from young Mickey, Trace and Susannah’s son, who served as ring bearer for the ceremony, and exchanged the wedding bands Max had given them. And even though Gillian knew this was not a marriage destined to last, the vows were serious enough to make the union feel as if it were going to endure.
The next thing she knew, they’d been pronounced man and wife.
It was done, Gillian thought, feeling almost lightheaded with relief. She and Cisco had taken a giant leap of faith, and were actually wed in name only.
“Go on, son,” Max urged boisterously as the guests burst into a spontaneous round of applause celebrating their union. “Seal those wedding vows with a real humdinger of a kiss.”
Whistles and hollers followed.
Embarrassed beyond belief, Gillian felt a hot flush begin in her neck, move up her throat, into her face, through her cheeks, to her temples.
“Unless you’re afraid of what the two of you might feel if you do kiss,” Max teased them both with a knowing wink.
The crowd laughed, causing Gillian to flush even more. Cisco gave Gillian a
look that literally dared her to acquiesce. “I’m not afraid,” she vowed with a lofty toss of her head, aware her heart was already beating wildly in her chest.
“Then that makes two of us, darlin’,” Cisco drawled sexily. Regarding her with warm silver-gray eyes, he clamped a strong arm around her waist, and ever so deliberately brought her against him. Threading a hand through the wild, unruly tangle of her hair, he tilted her head back beneath his, lowered his lips to hers and kissed her long and hard and deep, taking her mouth with a thoroughness and an abandon that generated far too much heat, and even more fantasy.
Gillian had never experienced anything like this. Never had her mouth softened so abruptly or her knees gone weak, never had her entire body gone all trembly at just a kiss. But then she had never kissed a man quite like Cisco, either.
She pushed away, stunned at both the shocking intimacy of his kiss and the completeness of her longing to explore the unexpected chemistry between them even more.
It wasn’t like her to be so reckless! she thought, dazed and trembling, as flashbulbs went off, and the wedding photographer captured the moment on film for all eternity. It wasn’t like her at all!
Darn it, she realized shakily, Cisco was right, this was not going to be anywhere near as simple as they had wished.
THE LAST THING either he or Gillian needed, Cisco decided, as he reluctantly let Gillian go, was to let passion cloud their thinking while she was still in some sort of trouble.
Aware she was already casting a spell over him, a spell he seemed woefully equipped to handle, he struggled to forget the warmth of her lips and the way she had trembled in his arms and melted against him. And instead concentrate on what he did not yet know about her, but wanted very much to find out. One thing was increasingly clear. If he was going to help Gillian, he had to keep his wits about him.
Knowing everyone was still watching them and waiting for the next explosion of romantic fireworks, he gallantly took his new “wife’s” arm and led her toward the wooden floor next to the band. As far as he was concerned, the busier they were during the rest of the reception, the better. “Let’s dance,” he suggested abruptly as he threaded his way through the other revelers to an open spot in the middle.
Still looking a little stunned—from the potent nature of their kiss?—Gillian blinked up at him. “What?”
“Dance.” Cisco turned so they were face-to-face, and circled his arm about her waist. In an effort to lighten the tension between them, he looked down at her and explained with mock seriousness, “It’s a rhythmic form of moving your body, usually in a pattern of steps, often to the beat of music.”
Gillian rolled her eyes and blew out an exasperated breath. “I know what a dance is,” she murmured.
“Good,” Cisco said, effortlessly taking the lead. “Then let’s get to it.”
While the other guests all beamed at them from the sidelines, Gillian ever so delicately matched her steps to his. As with their kiss, they seemed a good match from the get-go. As he held her close, Cisco couldn’t help but note how soft and womanly she felt in his arms, even if she didn’t seem to be enjoying herself all that much. Aware he wanted her full attention— badly—he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Something on your mind?”
Gillian regarded him with an absent smile. “How’d you guess?”
“Easy.” Cisco tightened the hand around her waist. “Care to enlighten me?”
Gillian turned her glance to his and sized him up. For a moment, her breath hitched in her chest. “You’d do just about anything to make Max happy, wouldn’t you?”
Cisco shrugged uncomfortably, not sure he liked what she was getting at. “I owe Max a lot.”
“Enough to really put on a show for him,” Gillian concluded.
Cisco frowned, missed a step or two and loosened his hold on her. “What are you talking about?”
Gillian wrinkled her pert little nose at him and kept dancing to the hopelessly romantic strains of “Love Is All Around.” “That kiss you gave me a few minutes ago,” she replied dryly as the wedding photographer came by and snapped their photo again.
Cisco stiffened, very much aware his lower body was still throbbing hotly from the unexpected fireworks of their embrace. “What about that kiss?” he demanded gruffly, trying not to notice how pretty she looked in the white lace-and-satin wedding dress, or recall how soft and giving she had been as she melted in his arms.
If he wasn’t careful, he’d end up thinking she was his real—and not just temporary—bride.
Gillian tossed her head. Silky auburn curls flew in every direction. “I let you get away with it this time because you caught me off guard. Don’t expect me to cooperate with your attempts to show off again,” she said in a low, sexy voice only he could hear.
“That’s what you think our kiss was about?” Cisco asked, annoyed she accused him of feigning the passion he’d felt. “Showing off?”
Gillian gave him a look that said, What else could it have been? Then she answered, “Yes,” as twin spots of color swept into her cheeks. “And as you have now seen for yourself, I can put on a show just as well as the next person.”
She sure had, Cisco thought. He’d been completely taken in by the starry-eyed way she had gazed up at him and trembled in his arms. He’d thought the impact of their postwedding kiss had affected her as much as it had him. Boy, had he been wrong, he thought as the song ended to a lot of hooting and hollering and once again the floor filled with other couples.
Gillian studied him, a perplexed look in her eyes. “I thought that was what you—and Max—would’ve wanted,” she murmured as the two of them began two-stepping to the strains of “Boomerang Love.”
“You’re right,” Cisco countered, telling himself the last thing he needed to do was lose his heart to this vixen in white. “It is,” he said, giving her the slow, casual once-over. “And now that we’ve done our duty, I say enough of the dancing.” And anything else halfway romantic, he amended silently. “It’s time for a glass of champagne.” Taking Gillian’s elbow, Cisco guided them to the edge of the dance floor, and from there, slipped through the crowd. They’d almost made it to one of the white-coated waiters, when a pleasant-looking man with short brown hair and friendly brown eyes intercepted them. “Hey, Cisco.”
“Hey, Pete.” Cisco shook hands with the fellow in the lightweight tweed sport coat. Cisco grabbed two glasses of champagne from a passing tray, handed them both one and got a third for himself. “Have you met Pete Lloyd?” Cisco asked Gillian.
“That’s just what I was trying to figure out.” Pete smiled at Gillian as he sipped his champagne. “I don’t want it to sound like I’m laying a line on you, but I have the oddest feeling we know each other. I just can’t remember how.”
Gillian flushed and looked vaguely uncomfortable to be put on the spot that way. “Actually, I don’t think we have met.” She paused and bit her lip, then, still studying Pete, continued, “At least you don’t look at all familiar to me. Maybe we’ve seen each other in passing here on the ranch somewhere, or in the logging camp kitchen where I work.”
Pete mulled that over as he sipped his champagne. “I suppose that’s possible. I was last at the ranch three months ago—”
Gillian cut Pete off with a shake of her head. “I didn’t work or live here then.”
“Perhaps in Fort Benton, then,” Pete suggested.
“Maybe. I’ve been in town a number of times since I moved here three weeks ago,” Gillian admitted.
“But I haven’t.” Pete frowned. “I just arrived in Montana a week ago, and I spent the whole time getting settled in Missoula.”
“Pete’s recently accepted a position teaching cattle-management courses at the University of Montana,” Cisco explained. “Prior to that he taught at Kansas State University.”
Abruptly, a little of the color faded from Gillian’s face. “Really,” Gillian murmured, for a moment looking a little like a deer, caught in a vehicle’s headlights. �
��How did you get to know Max, then?” she asked around a sip of champagne.
Pete smiled as the wedding orchestra struck up yet another romantic, lively tune for the two-stepping crowd. “Max and I share the same theories when it comes to herd management and crossbreeding cattle. We’ve corresponded regularly over the years and Max has recently agreed to underwrite a work-study program for the Ag department at the University of Montana.”
“Pete’s going to be in charge of administering that. So you’ll be seeing him a lot here,” Cisco said.
Pete nodded. “Starting next week, I’ll be here most of the summer working out the details.”
Gillian paled a little more. “Congratulations,” she said, albeit a little hoarsely.
Pete grinned back. “Thanks.” He paused to take a closer look at Gillian, as did Cisco. “Say, are you all right?”
“You are looking a little pale,” Cisco agreed.
“A little too much excitement for one evening,” Gillian said, passing over the glass of champagne. She looked at Cisco. “Perhaps if we took a break from the festivities—?”
“Sure thing.”
“Nice to meet you,” Pete said.
Gillian smiled at Pete. “The pleasure was all mine.”
His arm wrapped protectively around her waist, Cisco led Gillian through the crowd. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yes. Absolutely. I just—I meant what I said about taking a break from the festivities. In fact, if it’d be okay with you, I really want to leave the reception as soon as possible.”
Cisco did a double take. “Now? The party’s not quite fully under way.” Knowing Max—and the rest of the McKendricks—the whooping it up would probably go on ‘til dawn.
“I know, but I’ve got some business to attend to back at the logging camp kitchen,” she said coolly.
Although he had known from the get-go they would not make love, or come anywhere close to it during their spur-of-the-moment matrimony, this was not what Cisco had expected from her on their “wedding night.” Furthermore, he couldn’t imagine what she had to do since Max had arranged for them both to have time off.
Spur-Of-The-Moment Marriage Page 3