“I guess not.” She propped her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hands.
He couldn’t stop looking into her dark eyes. “Will you...write to somebody else in the magazine now?”
She shook her head.
“Why not?”
“At the risk of giving you a swelled head, I’ll tell you that you were the only one I wrote to, the only one I planned to write to.”
That made him feel way too good. He wanted to ask why but didn’t dare, for fear he’d show how interested he was. Then their dessert showed up, and the subject got shuffled to the side while they both dove into melt-in-your-mouth apple pie with ice cream dripping over the sides.
It was possibly the most perfect dinner Stony had ever had in his life. Daphne was so easy to be with that he felt as if he’d known her forever. As he paid the check and held the door for her, he caught a whiff of her cologne. That sweet scent reminded him of what would make this evening even more perfect. Unfortunately, that was out of the question.
6
SURE ENOUGH, a full moon lit their way home. In Daphne’s fantasy, she’d pictured them snuggled together on the front porch of Stony’s house looking at that moon and planning their future together. It looked as if the atmosphere would go to waste.
“Beautiful night,” Stony said.
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay, I just have to ask. What’s all this born-again virgin stuff? What made you get into that?”
She almost laughed. Obviously he was wishing they could go home and repeat last night’s events, and this was the obstacle in the way. “A man,” she said. “I met a guy in college, and I always assumed we’d get married some day. We decided to live together, to save money as much as anything, but of course we were...intimate.”
“Of course. You can’t expect a man and a woman to live together and not have sex. That would be weird. Well, except in our case,” he added quickly.
“It turned out that all we were having was sex,” Daphne said. “There was no love, at least not on his part. That became obvious when I got off work early one day and found him in bed with my best girlfriend. He said he had the right to do that, because we didn’t have any piece of paper saying he couldn’t.”
“That sucks.”
“I was pretty devastated.” But perhaps he’d hurt her pride more than her heart, she thought
“I’ll bet. The guy was a jerk.”
She appreciated his indignation. In fact, with every comment Stony made, he was endearing himself to her. She wondered if he realized how accurately Jasper had portrayed him, except, of course, about his wanting a wife. That was a huge exception, however.
“Anyway,” she continued, “I took stock and realized that a lot of women I knew thought they were making love to the man in their life, when in fact the man considered it just convenient sex. We weren’t valuing ourselves enough to save that important act for marriage, when you both promise to love, honor and cherish.”
“Getting married doesn’t guarantee the guy won’t mess around on you.”
“I know. And when you’re with someone you get carried away by hormones and kid yourself this is a trustworthy person. That’s what I liked about Texas Men magazine. Through the letters you could find out a lot about a person before sex scrambled your brains.”
He blew out a breath. “It scrambled mine last night. I shouldn’t have done what I did, Daphne.”
She closed her eyes as she remembered exactly what he’d done. A wave of longing swept over her, making her skin tingle and her body ache for him. Opening her eyes again, she forced herself to make a rational comment. “Not many men would have turned away, all things considered.” She swallowed. “I made it very easy for you to say yes.”
“But now you’ve wiped it out of your mind, as if it never happened?”
“I ... I’m working on it,” she admitted.
“If you figure out how to do that, let me know. I could use some help.”
She risked a glance in his direction. His hands were clutching the wheel for dear life, as if he had to hold on to something to keep from reaching for her.
“I understand your reasoning,” he said. “And I respect it. But now that we’ve...been together, I just naturally find myself wanting to repeat the experience.” He took a deep breath. “And we’ll be living under the same roof, so that makes things even tougher.”
She was really being tested, she thought. She was the one who’d put the restrictions on herself, and no one would know or even care very much if she lifted them. But then she’d be doing the very thing she’d vowed not to do again—make love to a man when all he wanted was simple sex. At least Stony hadn’t pretended to be in love with her in order to change her mind. She valued that about him.
“Maybe I can afford a room in town,” she said.
“I don’t think there’s much available. Besides, the shenanigans of my men got you into this, and as the boss, I’m responsible for what they do. No, I want you to stay. I even want you to fix up the place while you’re there. I’m just asking if you’ll...be careful. Try not to walk around in your nightgown in front of me, stuff like that.”
“I might ask the same of you.”
He gave her a sideways glance. Then he concentrated on the road again, but a smile twitched the corns of his mouth. “Are you saying I appeal to you some?”
“I picked you out of the magazine, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but you might have been disappointed by the real thing.”
“Did I act disappointed last night?”
Stony glanced at her again. “You could have been putting on a show. Women do that.”
“I don’t.”
He groaned softly. “You know, Daphne, I think we’d be wise to change the subject.”
SOON AFTER THEY GOT BACK to the ranch house, Stony asked for the letters and said he was turning in for the night. He hoped the letters would put him right to sleep. Reading about himself would undoubtedly be a very boring subject. He bid Daphne good-night, whistled low to the dog, went into his room and closed the door.
He’d no sooner undressed and settled in to read than the dog scratched at the door. “You would pick tonight to want out,” he grumbled, pulling on his jeans and opening the door. He started down the hall, expecting the dog to follow him, but instead she turned right and headed for Daphne’s room. Once there, she whined and scratched at Daphne’s door.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Stony said. “Okay, stay with her, then.” He refused to get his feelings hurt because the retriever had always preferred his company and now seemed to want Daphne’s instead.
Daphne poked her head out of the door.
“She wants to sleep with you,” Stony said. Then he chuckled and shook his head. So did he, but he was too civilized to go whine and scratch at her door.
“That’s fine,” Daphne said, opening her door wide enough that he glimpsed satin, lace and bare shoulder.
He turned and started down the hall to keep himself out of temptation’s way.
“Come on, Chi,” she said.
That made him turn back. “What did you call her?”
Daphne stood half in and half out of the door, revealing just enough of herself that he noticed her blue nightgown was one of those shorty types he was partial to. His body reacted.
“I called her Chi,” Daphne said, stroking the dog’s head. “I know you didn’t give her a name, but I... did.”
He watched her fondle the dog and desire raged in him. When he spoke, his tone was harsher than he intended. “So you won’t poke through my cupboards without permission, but you’ll name my dog.”
“It’s just my name for her, because I didn’t like saying ‘Come here, Dog’ all the time.”
Come here, Daphne. Please.
“Dogs should have a name, just like people,” she said. “But you don’t have to pay any attention to this one.”
I’m paying attention to you. I want you so much I can barely breathe.
He cleared his throat, fighting for control. “What—what does that name mean?”
“In the Oriental culture, it stands for life. She gives this house life, so I thought it fit.”
“Well, at least it’s short.”
“Yes. Good night, Stony.” She slipped back inside her room and the dog followed her. She closed the door with a gentle click that seemed to echo down the hall.
He’d never wanted a woman so ferociously in his life. He weighed the option of walking down the hall and opening that door. She might protest. She might even resist when he first took her into his arms. But he remembered how she’d responded last night, and she wouldn’t resist long.
But then where would they be? She’d have violated her code, and he’d feel like a jerk for taking what she wanted to save for her future husband. No, he couldn’t give in to this punishing need. Jasper had a hell of a lot to answer for already, and the list was growing.
Inside his room once more, he closed the door, took off his jeans and climbed back into bed. Reading the damn letters should take care of his problem. His mind would be so occupied with Jasper’s devious ways that he wouldn’t have any room left for thinking about Daphne’s sweet body.
The plan sort of worked. As he read, he fumed at all the details of his life that Jasper had revealed to Daphne. Jasper had painted a picture of a poor motherless boy raised by a grieving and drunken father, a boy who had grown to manhood starving for affection. What a line of bull.
True, Abe Arnett was drunk a lot, but he’d done his best to raise his son, teaching him everything he knew about riding bulls. He’d provided food and shelter, and that showed how much he cared, didn’t it? Life was tough, and Abe had prepared Stony to handle that. He hadn’t needed someone to fuss over him. He’d survived just fine, no matter what conclusions Jasper wanted to draw.
In fact, Stony hoped that one day his dad would decide to settle down on the ranch with him. It would be a way of paying him back for all he’d done over the years, and it would get him out of danger. At his age he shouldn’t be dressing in a clown suit and dodging bulls, in Stony’s estimation.
Last winter he’d talked Abe into paying him a visit, but he hadn’t stayed long, claiming he was too restless to make his home there with Stony. After Daphne’s reaction to the ranch house, Stony wondered if maybe it hadn’t been welcoming enough to tempt his dad to stay. When Daphne was finished redecorating, he’d invite Abe back, maybe for Christmas, and try again.
Daphne. He wondered if she was asleep yet in her virginal bed sprinkled with little purple flowers. How he would love to make the springs of that old iron bedstead sing tonight. With a sigh he returned to the letters.
Before he could get into them again, he heard scratching at his door. The dog was back.
“Tarnation, Dog,” he mumbled. “Or Chi, or whatever your name is.” He threw back the covers and got up. As he opened the door to let her in, Daphne’s voice floated down the hall.
“I think she wants the freedom to go back and forth between our rooms,” she called softly.
That makes two of us, he thought.
“I’m leaving my door open so she can do that,” Daphne said.
Great. Now he’d be able to walk down there without opening any doors. She sure knew how to make things tough on a guy. “Okay,” he called back. He wondered if he walked in his sleep. He almost wished he did and could claim that he’d been totally unconscious when he crawled into her bed and made passionate love to her all night.
“Good night, Stony.”
“Good night, Daphne.” He looked down at the dog, who definitely seemed to be smiling as she wagged her tail and gazed up at him. “You’re causing trouble, you know.”
The retriever shoved her nose against the palm of his hand.
Stony realized just how much trouble the dog had caused when he heard the creak of the iron bedstead as Daphne climbed between the sheets. With both doors open, he’d know every time she moved.
He got back into his own bed and tried to focus on the letters, but every squeak of Daphne’s bed reminded him that she was lying awake only steps down the hall His pesky imagination played with images of her in the satin and lace that barely covered the body he’d explored so thoroughly the night before. His only consolation was that every creak of the bedstead springs told him she wasn’t having any better luck forgetting that than he was.
THE NEXT MORNING, DAPHNE stayed in her room until she no longer heard Stony rustling around in the house. After a night of frustration and vivid dreams, she didn’t trust herself alone with him in the early morning hours, with two beds so handy. Better to let him get on his way before she appeared.
After she heard the front door close behind him, Chi came trotting into her bedroom.
“What? You didn’t get to go?” She ruffled the dog’s golden fur.
Chi just sat looking at her, panting and grinning.
“Okay, you’re right. We’re burning daylight.” She showered and dressed, taking one forbidden moment to take the cap off Stony’s after-shave and breathe in the minty scent that reminded her of being close to him. He kept the bathroom reasonably neat, but a peek into his bedroom revealed that he’d left the covers as tousled as they’d been when she’d first seen the room.
She fought an almost irresistible urge to fling herself into that tousled bed and wrap herself in the memories of loving Stony. But it was high time to get over the fantasy and on with reality.
In the kitchen she found a note propped against the coffeemaker, which was filled with freshly brewed coffee.
Daphne,
I’ll be back by about noon so we can go into town. I’ll give you a quick tour so you’ll be able to find your way around by yourself later, and we’ll pick up some groceries.
Stony
P.S. I left the dog with you. If you need me, send her to get me.
Daphne glanced down at the dog sitting by her feet “Well, I do need that cowboy, but not in the way he means,” she said. “So I guess we’ll leave him alone this morning. After I have some coffee and toast, you and I will measure this house and start making some real improvements.”
Shortly before noon Daphne stopped working and changed into a skirt and blouse, just in case she met any potential clients while she and Stony were in town. She was pleased with what she’d managed to achieve in a few short hours. An arrangement of wildflowers and dried grasses decorated the fireplace, and containers of flowers were scattered throughout the house, even in Stony’s bedroom. Consulting her reference book, she’d determined the boundaries of the nine principle feng shui areas.
She’d concentrated most of her efforts on her room, figuring that was the safest area in which to give her creativity free rein until Stony got used to her embellishments. Moving furniture by herself wasn’t easy, but she managed to angle the head of the bed against one corner. Then she hauled in a lamp table from the living room and set a candle, a vase of wildflowers and a couple of books on it Next she positioned an oak dining chair next to the window. Finally she knotted two of her silk scarves together and draped them around the window frame with a sprig of flowers tucked into the knot.
After she finished dressing she started out of her room and turned back for one last appreciative look. Her sprig of flowers was slipping out of the knot, and her perfec-tionistic tendencies wouldn’t let her leave it that way. Climbing up on the chair she’d used as a ladder in the first place, she reached up to fix the arrangement
It was almost out of reach, and the slim skirt she wore wasn’t as easy to maneuver in as her shorts had been. She stood on tiptoe, pressing her lips together in concentration as she stretched upward to adjust the flowers. Chi lay quietly nearby, watching her.
Then, without warning, Stony’s voice came from the doorway behind her. “Looks nice.”
With a gasp of surprise, she lost her balance. In the split second she knew she’d fall, she half turned and flung herself toward the bed. She kicked over the chair in the proce
ss, which knocked into the lamp table, sending the vase of flowers, books and candlestick crashing to the floor.
She heard Stony curse, her skirt rip and Chi yelp in pure terror as she hit the mattress so hard she bounced. Luckily the old iron bedstead held.
“Are you okay?” Stony hovered over her as she gasped for breath.
“Yeah,” she panted.
“Good. I have to go after the dog. I’ll be right back.”
Still breathing hard from the shock, Daphne pushed herself up on her elbows and surveyed the disaster. The vase and candlestick were broken, and water was seeping toward her books. She leaped up and rescued them. Then she ran into the bathroom for a towel to soak up the water. She’d righted the chair and was picking up pieces of broken pottery and tossing them in a wastebasket when Stony came back.
“I got her,” he said, crouching down to help her pick up the pieces. “Luckily she hadn’t gone too far by the time I chased her down. Last time it took me an hour to find her.”
Daphne glanced over at him. “What, she runs away?”
“Yep. Loud noises spook the heck out of her, for some reason The front screen wasn’t latched, but that’s probably a good thing. If it had been she’d have gone right through it. When she gets like that she runs until she’s exhausted, unless somebody heads her off and gentles her down. I figure something terrible happened to her when she was a pup, and it was connected to a loud noise.”
Daphne picked up the soggy towel and sat back on her heels. “You startled me.”
“Well, you told me not to bellow out your name when I came in the door.”
Daphne rolled her eyes. “There has to be a happy medium between that and sneaking up on me.”
“Like what?”
He really didn’t know, she thought. He’d never lived in a house with another human being. You didn’t have to call out greetings when you shared a camper shell with your father who was often drunk.
Her voice softened. “You could try calling ‘Daphne, I’m home.’”
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