“You’re amazing.” His mouth captured hers. His hips flexed forward, and he buried himself deep.
“That’s good,” she moaned. “Good, good, good.”
She wrapped her arms around him, while his moved beneath her, holding her tight.
He turned onto his back. She straddled him, pressed tight, shocks of sensation exploding through her body. He moved, and she answered. His hands went to her breasts, strumming over her nipples, adding to the cacophony of sensations bombarding her brain.
She leaned over him, bracing herself, kissing his chest, his neck, his hot, moist mouth. Their bodies slammed together, harder and faster, lights swirling behind her eyes. Time sped up, then stopped, as she hovered on the precipice of ecstasy.
Then Seth shouted her name, and the world roared down around her. Her muscles contracted, and she collapsed onto his chest. His arms went immediately around her, and he groaned her name over and over in her ear.
Darby wanted to make a joke, or a flip comment—something to keep her intense emotions at bay. But she couldn’t find any words. She couldn’t form a single thought except that she’d never felt like this before. She wanted to hang on tight to Seth and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist.
So she did.
Just for a few moments.
She squeezed her eyes shut, reveled in his warm, slick skin next to hers, inhaled his spicy scent and let her breathing and heart rate sync up with his.
He stroked his palm along the back of her head, smoothing her riotous hair. He wordlessly gathered her close, his forearm across the small of her back, keeping their bodies fused.
His breathing gradually slowed down. His heart steadied in his chest. And he pulled her quilt over both of them, enveloping them together in a warm cocoon.
Warm against him, she felt consciousness slip away. She was weightless, riding waves of smooth, random thoughts that took her from her bed to a warm pool, to a sunny beach.
“Sometimes you frighten me.” He broke huskily into her meandering brain waves. “If this is a secret plot to control me, I think you just succeeded.”
“It’s not a secret,” she managed to echo back on an exhale. “I told you that’s been my mission all along.”
“You are a dangerous woman, Darby Carroll.”
“Give up, Seth Jacobs. Give in, and do things my way.”
“This is a bad time for me to make that decision.”
She found herself smiling. “It’s the perfect time for you to make that decision.”
Instead of answering, he gathered her more closely in his arms, kissing her softly and cradling her against the warmth and strength of his body.
* * *
In the morning, Seth expected to find Darby in the kitchen, but he was shocked to find Lisa there, as well.
“Morning?” he ventured, wondering what Lisa could possibly be doing at Sierra Hotel.
“Mayor,” said Lisa, her tone crisp as she stood up from the breakfast bar where she’d been drinking coffee. “We need you back at City Hall.”
Darby handed Seth a stoneware mug of hot coffee.
“You couldn’t have called my cell?” Seth took a reflexive sip of the beverage, appreciating the hit of caffeine. Maybe if his brain was functioning, this would start to make sense.
“I’ve been trying since six a.m. You turn it off?”
“No.” Seth extracted the phone from his inner-suit-jacket pocket. “Battery’s dead.”
“Rather than have people mount a full-blown search party, I thought I better track you down. It was Abigail who guessed where to look.”
“I’d have come in on time.” Seth wasn’t sure whether to thank her for being discreet or to strongly suggest she and his sisters mind their own damn business.
“We need you right away. I’ll explain in the car.”
Darby had parked herself against a counter, her expression neutral. He hoped she hadn’t confessed anything to Lisa.
“I drank too much wine last night,” Seth told Lisa easily. “Stayed over. It’s a hotel.”
Lisa’s lifted eyebrow suggested that she challenged the story, and she glanced at Darby. But Darby didn’t flinch.
“I’ll meet you in the car,” Seth told Lisa.
“We need to go now,” she reiterated, but she moved toward the great room.
Seth crossed to Darby. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“She doesn’t know anything.”
“She knows everything.”
Seth paused, working up an argument. But there was really no point. Darby was right and they both knew it.
He sighed in resignation. “She’s discreet.”
“It’s was a mistake for you to stay.”
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s a mistake for me to go.”
“Seth, it’s time for you to go.”
Her calm conviction gave him pause. Most women would be upset by such an abrupt departure. Things had changed for him last night. Had they not changed for her?
“I thought we could at least have breakfast together.”
“I understand you’re a very busy man.”
He searched for a trace of sarcasm, but couldn’t find any. “What do you mean by that?”
She cocked her head sideways. “Let me see. I mean you’re a busy man, and I’m aware of that fact.”
“Are you upset?” he couldn’t help but ask.
“Are you feeling guilty?”
“About leaving, yes. But not about anything else.” He didn’t regret a single moment they’d spent together. His sisters could speculate, and Lisa would have to be discreet. He’d date Darby openly if he could. He’d love nothing better than to date her.
“Good. Then go with Lisa. Get back to your regularly scheduled life, and don’t worry about me.”
“We gotta go,” Lisa called from the front door.
“Be right there,” Seth called over his shoulder. “You sure you’re okay?” he repeated to Darby.
“Perfect,” said Darby.
Unsatisfied, but unable to think of anything else to do, he turned for the door.
“Let’s take your car,” said Lisa. “I can come back later for mine.”
“What’s going on?” Seth asked as he fished his car keys from the pocket of his slacks.
It was nearly 8:00 a.m. The sun was up, temperature rising as they headed into another clear, fall day.
“Clive Loring called this morning,” Lisa began. “He’s in town and wants to meet with you.”
Seth paused with his hand on the driver’s door handle. Clive Loring was the president of Western Railroad, and he didn’t tend to show up when things were going well.
“Do you know why he’s here?” Seth asked.
“We’re trying to find out, but he insists on seeing you right away.”
Lisa’s phone chimed. She pulled it out as she climbed into the car.
Seth got in and turned the key, his mind going through possible scenarios. Had Clive heard about the escalating feud in Lyndon? Was he worried about the negative publicity for Mountain Railway? Was he getting impatient? Was he unwilling to wait through the referendum time period?
“Uh-oh,” said Lisa, as she read the text on her phone.
“What?” asked Seth, swinging the car around and heading down the gravel road.
“I’ve got some new information. Wadesworth County has submitted a counter-proposal. They want the railroad to parallel Jimmydee Road.”
“How’d they pull that off so fast?”
Lyndon City had been working on their final proposal for months. Years, if you counted all the preliminary work.
“Looks like they’ve quietly been at it for a while now. The
ir permitting is already in place.”
Seth frowned. “Waiting in the wings, just looking for an opportunity to pounce.”
“Arguably, both lines could eventually be constructed,” said Lisa.
“Mountain Railway only needs one shorter link to Ripple Ridge.”
Darby hadn’t been wrong about that being the obvious long-term plan.
Seth stepped more firmly on the accelerator. “If they get it through Wadesworth, our project is mothballed indefinitely.”
“There’s more than a month left until the referendum.”
“Call Mandy,” Seth told Lisa.
“You think Mandy can help?”
“Tell her we need Danielle Marin to fly in.”
“Caleb’s lawyer?”
“Caleb’s laywer,” said Seth. “She’s a tactical genius.”
Lisa looked doubtful. “You think a Chicago lawyer is going to help us in Colorado?”
“We’re running out of options. If we don’t do something quick, Darby won’t need to win the referendum. We’ll lose the railroad by the end of the week.”
Nine
Marta arrived shortly after Seth left. She’d brought several packages from the post office. After lugging them inside, the women blended some fruit-and-yogurt smoothies and sat down at the breakfast bar.
“Seth spent the night,” Darby began bluntly, bracing her feet on the crossbar of the high chair.
Marta’s spoon came to a halt midscoop. “Say what?”
“He came by yesterday. We had some wine. It got late, and he ended up staying.”
“Do you mean staying, or staying?”
“He slept in my bed.”
“Just to be completely clear before I react to this, you slept there, too?”
Darby laughed, wheezing as she inhaled some of the fruit smoothie. “I wasn’t trying to be oblique.”
“I was all for flirting, but this… Wow, you’re putting your heart and soul into distracting the man.”
Darby drew a heavy sigh. “He’s doing a pretty good job of distracting me, too. He’s not what I expected, Mar. He’s more complicated. He’s actually a pretty decent guy.”
“You mean, aside from the fact that his railroad will ruin your business?”
“Right. If you were to take that little flaw away…”
Marta arched a brow.
Darby realized she’d give a lot to take that one little flaw away.
“A little flaw can be a big flaw,” said Marta. “You need to be careful. You don’t want to lose Sierra Hotel and your heart in one fell swoop.”
“I don’t think—” Darby stopped. She was sure her heart wasn’t at risk. At least she was pretty sure. Okay, she’d make sure her heart wasn’t at risk.
She regrouped. “I don’t mind losing in a fair fight.” At least she didn’t think she’d mind. Maybe “mind” wasn’t the best word. “I could live with losing in a fair fight,” she amended.
“Could you live with Seth after he won the fair fight?”
“Are we getting ahead of ourselves? I slept with the man. I didn’t offer to have his children.”
“Only once?” Marta asked, watching her closely.
“Twice. Well, it depends on how you count. But on two separate occasions.”
“But your heart’s okay?” Marta asked skeptically.
“I like him. But it’s nothing past that. He showed up last night to give me a check. On another topic entirely, expropriation went through.”
“Unfortunately, that was inevitable. But I’m not seeing a straight line from that to sleeping with him.”
“It wasn’t a straight line. It’s never been a straight line with Seth. It was a strange day all around. First I visited with his sisters, all three of them. They’re pretty nice, too.”
“Are you losing your appetite for the fight?”
“No. No,” Darby repeated with determination. “If I lose the fight, we lose Sierra Hotel, and some of the greatest women in America lose an important emotional support system.”
“Agreed,” said Marta. “So what are you going to do next?”
“I don’t want to lose my edge.”
“Then stay out of Seth’s bed.”
Darby reluctantly agreed. “And I don’t want any more vandalism or bar fights.”
Marta came to her feet, taking her empty glass to the sink and filling it with water. “I’ve been thinking about this.”
“Good.”
“And I’ve come up with another idea.”
“I’m all ears.”
“There are two tacks you can take here. You can make it harder for him to win, or you can make it easier for him to lose.”
Darby followed suit, rinsing her own glass and placing it in the dishwasher. “I’m not sure I follow.”
“Up to now, we’ve been pointing out the dangers of the railway, how Lyndon will be negatively impacted if it’s built. What if we do a one-eighty? We gather some information on shipping alternatives for the ranchers. What trucking companies are out there that they might not have used in the past. Could a local company be set up, maybe even a co-op that could offer shipping at a reduced rate?”
“We give the other side a path forward.” Darby nodded.
“Giving someone a workable and dignified exit is often a good strategy, especially if you’ve developed feelings for them.”
“I can cope with my feelings,” Darby assured her, determined that it would remain true.
“I don’t think either of us sees a win-win here,” said Marta. “But maybe we can pull off a win–not-so-ugly lose.”
* * *
“We need to take them out of the game before they even know what hit them,” Danielle Marin said. She was seated in the Jacobses’ ranch house living room. “We can’t waste a few more weeks waiting on the referendum.”
She’d flown straight into Lyndon on Caleb’s jet. Having obviously studied the issue in flight, she now sat with Caleb, Mandy and Seth, strategizing their next move.
Seth was all for making this swift and decisive. His council members agreed; they couldn’t afford to let Wadesworth County get a toehold on the project.
“Any ideas on how?” he asked.
“Your judgment to grant the referendum is from a district court,” said Danielle. “We appeal the decision to the state. From what I can see, there was no point in law for granting the referendum.”
“Then why did they get it?” asked Seth.
“The final few signatures were definitely late. We can argue the judge made an error in letting the referendum go ahead on the basis of ‘what was good for Lyndon City.’”
“It was the judge’s opinion only. That’s always shaky ground.”
“Darby will fight at the state level,” said Seth. He had no reason to believe she’d back down from that.
“She can’t,” said Danielle. “She may be a party to the matter of the late signatures on the petition. But she’s not technically a party to the matter of the referendum being ‘in the public interest.’ The wording of the judge’s ruling leaves her out.”
“So we can fight it without telling her?” asked Caleb.
“She has no legal right to know,” Danielle clarified.
“I liked Darby,” Mandy put in.
Seth found himself shifting in his chair. He liked Darby, too, but that didn’t change his obligations as mayor. He couldn’t sacrifice the good of his city to make a woman happy.
The front door swung open, and Travis appeared.
“What’s all this—” He stopped, his gaze coming to an abrupt halt on Danielle.
“Hello, Travis,” Danielle said.
Travis’s body stiffened. “I didn’t know you were here.”
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Since Travis had rescued Danielle from an embarrassing escapade with a barn and a bull, the two had been oil and water. But there wasn’t time to indulge in their little feud now.
“How fast can you get a decision at the state level?” Seth asked Danielle.
She pulled her attention back to Seth. “I can leave for Denver tonight.”
“How confident are you?” asked Caleb.
“Ninety-nine percent,” said Danielle. “I’d give it a hundred, but lightning might strike the courthouse before I can get there.”
“Do it,” said Seth, forcing Darby from his mind.
“Mandy and I’ll drop you off in Denver,” Caleb offered, rising. “I need to get back to Chicago.”
Mandy came to her feet, looking closely at Seth. “Damn the torpedoes?”
He wasn’t sure he got her point.
Taking in his expression, she clarified. “You’re throwing Darby under the bus.”
“Darby always knew the score.” He felt like a heel uttering the words. But they were true. He might like her, but he’d never promised to back off from the fight.
Mandy stopped beside him, speaking in a lower tone. “So nothing’s changed?”
He peered at her quizzically. “Why would anything have changed?”
“She told me you found her attractive.”
Seth wished he dared ask about the rest of that conversation, about Darby’s feelings for him. But he wasn’t about to do that now, maybe not ever.
“She’s a beautiful woman,” he allowed.
“Are you sending her mixed signals?” his sister demanded.
“No.”
He honestly wasn’t sure if he was lying about that. Was sleeping with her a mixed signal? Was letting her know she was getting under his skin a mixed signal?
“You’re going behind her back on this,” Mandy said.
“She knows I’m out to win.”
“Maybe so. But if you’ve given her reason to believe you care about her…”
He hadn’t. It wasn’t like either of them had kept their priorities a secret. Hell, she’d made jokes about sleeping with him in order to distract him from their fight. She wasn’t about to turn into a wounded deer because he’d found another avenue to fight her, he was sure. She was tougher than that.
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