Cowboy to the Rescue

by Stella Bagwell

  Lex sighed. No one had ever accused him of looking unhappy before. Is that what Christina had done to him? If so, that was added proof that it didn’t pay to concentrate on just one woman.

  “Yeah,” Lex replied. “I realize I took a chance on him, but I think he’ll pay off in the long run.”

  They rode in silence for a few moments while behind them, the last fiery rays of sun slid below the flat horizon, leaving the whole countryside bathed in golden twilight. The day had been hot, and both men were covered in dust. Lex didn’t know what he wanted most, food or a long, cold shower.

  “So how is the investigation going into Uncle Paul’s death?” Matt asked.

  Up until now, Matt had hardly mentioned Christina or the reason she’d come to the Sandbur. His cousin had always been astute about not butting into private matters unless he was invited. Lex was glad he’d brought it up. He had been wondering what the other man was thinking about the whole situation.

  “Christina has begun going through Dad’s papers and things, but she’s not said much about what she’s found so far,” Lex told him. “Hell, after nearly twelve years, how can anyone figure out how something happened?”

  “Clue by clue, I suppose. How long do you expect this private investigator to hang around the ranch?”

  Lex shrugged. That was something he’d been wondering, too. He’d just been getting used to Christina being in the house and around the ranch yard when she’d announced she had to return to San Antonio for a few days to do some follow-up work on another case. Supposedly, she would be back this evening, and he was amazed at just how much he wanted to see her again. While she’d been gone, the place hadn’t been the same. He hadn’t been the same. And that was an unsettling thought. Lex didn’t want his happiness to depend solely on a woman.

  “I have no idea. Christina hasn’t mentioned any sort of timetable to me. And Mom is gone so much, I haven’t had a chance to ask her. Maybe that’s a good thing. I don’t like talking to her about any of this.”

  Matt quietly studied him. “Why is that?”

  Lex bit back a curse. “Because I think Mom should leave things alone. Let Dad rest in peace.”

  “But what if things didn’t happen as the police think?” Matt asked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  Dead or alive, I want, need to know! Christina’s emotional statement about her missing brother drifted through Lex’s mind like a whispered plea.

  “I suppose. But digging up the past is painful to me. Dad is gone. Whether he was killed or died from a heart attack, the truth won’t bring him back.”

  “No. But it might bring justice to his memory.”

  Lex stared, with surprise, at his cousin. “Justice? You say that like you think he might have been murdered! Is that what you really believe?”

  “I remember back before it happened, Lex. Uncle Paul seemed very distracted, and he’d lost so much weight that I was beginning to worry about him having some sort of disease.”

  All had not been right with your father.

  His mother’s remarks only reinforced what Matt was saying, and Lex felt shaken right down to the heels of his boots. He didn’t want to think that anyone could have intentionally harmed his father. Paul had been such a gentle, caring human being. He’d loved everyone. Why would anyone have wanted to hurt him?

  “He must have had a disease,” Lex mumbled. “Coronary disease.”

  “But he’d just gone through a complete physical with his family doctor,” Matt pointed out. “They would have discovered if anything was physically wrong with him.”

  Lex tugged on the brim of his dusty straw hat. “You’re only thinking in sinister terms because of what happened to Uncle Mingo. You think because someone nearly killed your own father that it must have happened to mine, too.”

  “I’m not thinking anything of the sort!” Matt retorted. “The thugs who attacked Dad didn’t have murder on their mind, obviously. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have left him breathing.”

  Releasing another long breath, Lex lifted his gaze toward the pink and gold sky. “There must be something about the Sandbur, Matt, that draws misfortune,” he said pensively. “Our grandfather was murdered. Your first wife was killed in a horse accident. Your father was mugged, beaten and left for dead. Then my father died in a suspicious accident. Little Marti was kidnapped. What next?”

  “Lex, it’s not the Sandbur that causes these things,” Matt said sagely. “It’s life. Pure and simple.”

  Lex grimaced. “Then you ought to tell Mom that,” he said sourly. “Then maybe she’d send Christina Logan back to San Antonio—for good.”

  Matt’s black brows pulled together with confusion. “What’s the matter? Don’t you like the woman?”

  Hell, why had he said such a thing? Lex wondered. He didn’t want Christina to go anywhere. The past few days without her had been awful. He’d gotten attached to her company and for the first time in his life, he missed being with a woman. And that reluctance of hers was getting to him more than anything. He didn’t want to have to seduce her. He wanted it to be her own idea to want him. But there was no need to let his cousin know how soppy he was beginning to feel for the private investigator. After all, nothing would likely come of it. Especially when she seemed dead set against having any sort of relationship with him.

  “I like her well enough,” Lex said shortly. “Now do you think we can kick up these horses? I’m damn nigh starving.”

  It was after eight o’clock that evening before Lex finally showered and then headed down to the kitchen to find himself something to eat. Cook was already gone for the evening, but she’d left him a covered plate on the stove, with a note containing instructions on how long to leave it in the microwave.

  He’d bring her a rose in the morning, at breakfast, Lex decided as he waited for the fried chicken and accompanying vegetables to heat. Hattie would like that. And he liked letting the woman know how much he loved her.

  And what about Christina? he asked himself. Why didn’t he try offering her a rose? Because she wouldn’t want it, he thought dourly. She wanted things between them to be proper and platonic. Damn it. He had to change her mind. Somehow. Someway.

  Once the plate of food was heated, he decided he didn’t want to eat alone in the kitchen. Memories of the last meal he’d shared with Christina were still too fresh in his mind, so he stepped out a back door, with intentions of eating on the patio.

  To his surprise, he found Christina and his mother sitting in the semidarkness, exchanging words in a low tone, which became even lower when they spotted his approach.

  Lex watched his mother exchange an odd look with Christina, then straighten upright in her chair.

  “I see you finally made it back to the house,” Geraldine said to him. “Did you find the bull?”

  Lex greeted both women, then carried his plate over to a nearby table. As he pulled up a redwood chair, he answered his mother’s question. “We found the bull. He was down in the river bottoms, minding his own business. Didn’t appear to be a thing wrong with him. I guess he just needed to be away from the womenfolks for a while.”

  “Maybe they needed to be away from him,” Christina suggested dryly.

  He rested his eyes on her and felt his heart thump with pleasure at seeing her again. “Believe me, they’ll want his company sooner or later.”

  He picked up a chicken leg and chomped into it, while a few feet away from him, Geraldine cleared her throat, then abruptly rose to her feet.

  “If you two will excuse me,” she said, “I have things in the house to do.”

  Lex stared after his mother as she quickly walked away, then turned his attention back to Christina. “It’s nice to have you back on the ranch. Did you make any headway on the other case you’re working?”

  She nodded. “Thanks for asking. I found the man I was looking for, and thankfully, he’ll be able to testify for a person my friend is defending.”

  His brows peaked with interest. “You
have a friend that’s a criminal lawyer?”

  “Yes. Olivia Mills. You’d like her.”

  Lex grinned. “Is she pretty?”

  “She’s beautiful and intelligent.”

  “Like you, then.”

  She glanced away from him, and Lex could see that his simple comment troubled her. But why? He thought women were supposed to like compliments, but he was learning more and more that Christina wasn’t the norm.

  When she failed to make any sort of reply, Lex turned his attention to eating, but after a few bites, he couldn’t remain silent. “What’s the matter with Mom? She practically ran back into the house.”

  “She has a lot on her mind.”

  Grimacing, he reached for the beer he’d carried out with him. “You two were discussing something when I walked up. What was it? Me?”

  She groaned. “You must think everything revolves around you.”

  Odd that she should say that. If anything, Lex had always thought exactly the opposite. He was the middle child and the only male, at that. Lex had always felt that his mother focused more on his two sisters. In spite of all her good qualities, Geraldine could be a hard woman. Sometimes she could make Lex feel as if he was little more than a glorified ranch hand, rather than her son.

  “Not hardly. I got the impression that she was talking about something she wasn’t keen on me hearing. What was it? Dad’s case?”

  She let out a heavy breath. “Yes. But she was too upset to go into it with you tonight.”

  He took several bites of food as he waited for her to elaborate. When she didn’t, he finally prompted, “So? What about Dad’s case? You’ve uncovered something that upset her?”

  Rising from the rattan chair, he watched her move aimlessly across the brick patio. Tonight she was a slim picture in white slacks and a black-and-white tropical-print blouse. Her bright copper hair was fixed in a curly mass on the crown of her head. She not only looked beautiful, he realized, but she also moved with a lithe grace, which only intensified the sexual aura surrounding her. He took a minute to just admire her, enjoying the chance to watch her again after the too-long days she’d spent away from him.

  She said, “I told Geraldine that the more I study the police reports and couple them with what you’ve told me about Paul’s friends, the more suspicious I get about his death.”

  Mixed feelings swirled through Lex as he considered Christina’s suggestion. Since he’d talked with Matt on the ride home, he’d been telling himself he needed to keep an open mind about this whole matter. Yet to think the three men that he remembered as friends of the family might have done his father harm was almost too far-fetched to imagine. He hated the uneasy feeling in his stomach, and it made him lash out.

  “So why was she upset about this news? For the sake of Dad’s memory? Or because it might ruin her marriage plans to Wolfe?”

  Christina stopped in her tracks long enough to glare at him. “What a horrible, cruel thing to say!”

  Disgusted with himself and with her, he reached up and swiped a heavy hand through his hair. “Maybe it was,” he admitted, “but I’m only trying to be honest with you and myself. If she’s going to dig up this painful time in our lives, I wish she’d do it for herself and her family. Not for Wolfe Maddson.”

  Even in the dim lighting he could see disappointment on her face. It was not the sort of expression he wanted to garner from this woman.

  “It’s obvious you don’t understand anything about being in love.”

  “And you do?”

  She stared at him for a few long, awkward moments and then turned her back to him. “Look, Lex, right now you need to put Wolfe Maddson out of the equation. Yes, Geraldine loves him, but she also loved your father. It’s very upsetting to her to think that people Paul trusted might have harmed him.”

  Ignoring the last bites of food on his plate, Lex rose to his feet and went to stand behind her. “We’ll talk about Dad’s case in a minute. Right now, I’d like you to answer my question,” he said quietly.

  As he waited for her to reply, he could hear a nearby choir of frogs warming up for their nightly performance. Down by the bunkhouse, faint sounds of laughter mingled with accordion-laden Tejano music. A warm, heavy breeze rustled the honeysuckle vines above their heads and swirled the sweet aroma around them like a soft cloud.

  It was a hot, humid night. Just perfect for making love. His thoughts drifted to the woman standing next to him and he felt his libido begin to stir.

  “My love life doesn’t pertain to any of this,” she finally said.

  “It does when you start lecturing me on the subject.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at him. “It’s obvious that you resent the idea of your mother loving a man other than your father.”

  In spite of her jarring words, Lex found his senses distracted by her nearness. Even as he told himself not to touch her, his hands itched to settle on her shoulders. “I didn’t realize you were a psychologist along with a private investigator. When did you acquire that degree?”

  Slowly, she turned to face him. “Cutting me down won’t change the facts, Lex.”

  “All right, I’m a selfish bastard. Is that what you want to hear me say? That I have no compassion or understanding for my mother’s feelings?”

  “Do you?”

  He muttered a curse in frustration. How could he explain that it felt better to let himself believe his father had died accidentally? How could he make her see that he couldn’t bear to image his father dying violently, at the hands of someone else? “Of course I do. I want her to be happy. But I also have to wonder if she’s stopped to think what this digging into the past is doing to the rest of the family. Does she care?”

  “Perhaps you should ask her that.”

  He shook his head. “When my mother gets her head set on something, there’s no changing it. No matter the consequences. And you being here isn’t helping matters. Especially when you throw out little tidbits to make her believe you’re onto something.”

  “I didn’t throw her any tidbits! I only expressed my thoughts to her, which she asked for! What am I supposed to do? Lie and try to dissuade her from searching for the truth? Tell her that it’s an impossible task and to forget it?” She shook her head. “I can’t do that. And I don’t know why you would want me to. Unless you’re scared.”

  Lex stiffened. Of all the things he’d been accused of, especially by a woman, being cowardly wasn’t one of them. Was she right? Was he scared? Scared of learning his father had been murdered. And scared of being around her every day and feeling himself falling deeper and deeper under her spell.

  But he wasn’t about to admit any such thing to her. He didn’t even want to admit it to himself. “You’re wrong,” he insisted. “If you think I’m worried that you’re going to dig up something criminal about my dad, you couldn’t be more off base. He was a good man through and through. Deep down, I’m more certain of that than I am of my own name.”

  She tilted her chin a fraction upward. “If that’s the case, then you must be making all of this fuss because you want me gone from here. Why?”

  Desire wrapped around his frustration and finally pushed him to reach for her. As he folded his arms across her back and lowered his lips to hers, he whispered, “Maybe because I’m tired of not being able to do this.”

  Chapter Five

  For the past week, Christina had been telling herself over and over that she was never going to kiss the man again. That she wasn’t even going to give Lex Saddler the chance to kiss her a second time.

  Yet the moment his arms had come around her and his lips had fastened over hers, she’d been as lost as a raindrop in a downpour.

  Without stopping to think at all, she angled her head to match his and latched her fingers over the tops of his shoulders. Her response was countered with his hands on her back, drawing her tight against the front of his body.

  The intimate contact swamped her body with heat, and she was certain her bl
ood had turned to liquid fire as it swam through her veins at lightning speed. The taste of him was dark, wild and exciting, and too good to resist. With a tiny moan deep in her throat, she opened her mouth and accepted the insistent prod of his tongue against her teeth.

  Sweat began to dampen her skin, then roll in tiny rivers between her breasts and into the waistband of her slacks, while the air in her lungs was slowly but surely disappearing. At the same time she could feel his hands kneading her back, then slipping lower and lower, until his palms were cupping the curve of her rear.

  It wasn’t until he hauled her hips tightly against his that reality hit her. Their kiss had gone beyond a meeting of lips. It was a sexual embrace that was rapidly leading her to a total meltdown.

  Mustering all the strength she could find, she finally managed to drag her lips away from his and twist out of the heady circle of his arms.

  Long moments passed before Christina was composed enough to speak, yet even then her voice was raw and husky.

  “You like going against my wishes, don’t you?”

  He chuckled softly, and she felt his fingers tangling in the loose tendrils of hair sticking to the sweat on the back of her neck.

  “Who are you trying to kid?” he asked in a low voice. “You wanted that kiss as much as I did.”

  The fact that he was so right only made her feel more frustrated with herself. Yet even as she told herself she should step away from him, the touch of his fingers was luring her, seducing her. “Okay. Earlier you were trying to be honest with me,” she said huskily. “So I’ll admit that I—” She forced herself to turn back to him. The dark shadows slanting across his face gave his rough-hewed features an even more rakish look, and she was forced to swallow hard before she managed to finish speaking. “I find you very attractive. And there must be some sort of—chemistry between us.”