Mail-order bridegroom (3 page)

His mouth settled into a grim line. 'You never knew what I wanted. You still don't.'

'Oh, no?' Did he really consider her so blind, so ignorant of man's baser motivations? Perhaps eight years ago she'd been guilty of such an oversight, but no longer. He'd cured her of that. 'It's the same then as now. You want my land. Well, get in line.'

'There is no line,' he bit out. 'Nor will there be. You'd better face that fact right here and now.'

He tugged her closer, as though to obstruct any chance of flight. Slowly, relentlessly, he gathered her in, trapping her in a grasp as binding and inescapable as a mist-net around a struggling sparrow. She pressed her hands against his chest, striving to keep some small distance between them. But instead she found that touching him only resurrected long-forgotten emotions, reminding her of all that had gone before. Tears threatened, but she ruthlessly forced them back. Tears wouldn't accomplish a thing. Not with this man.

'Why are you doing this?' she asked. 'Why now, after all this time?'

'Because it will give me what I want most.'

She laughed quietly, the sound one of pain and disillusionment rather than amusement. 'When you said that eight years ago, I foolishly thought you meant me. But now I realize you meant the ranch.'

His expression closed over. 'Did I?'

'Yes! Is that why you bedded me? Because it would give you your dream? It didn't work out that way, did it?'

'Bedded you? A rather quaint description for what we did together. Something a bit more elemental and a lot cruder would be closer to the truth. And, as I recall, we never did get around to using a bed.'

She refused to feel shame for an act that had been the most beautiful experience of her life. 'No, we didn't. Because you left before we ever had the chance. Of course, you didn't hit the road until Dad threatened to disinherit me. He offered me a choice. You or the ranch.'

'And we both know which you chose.'

She caught his shirt in her fists. 'How would you know that?' she demanded passionately, her distress breaking free of her control. 'You didn't stick around long enough to find out. But I can guarantee choosing you was a mistake I've lived to regret. It never occurred to me that, without the ranch, I wasn't much of a bargain.' Her pride had suffered from that knowledge. But her pride had handled the battering. Her heart hadn't been nearly so sturdy. 'So you took what you could and walked.'

A hard smile tilted his mouth to one side and his hands closed over hers, prying them free of his shirt. 'Let's be accurate. I didn't walk. I was dragged.'

'Don't give me that. I waited in the line-shack for hours. Does that amuse you?' Her breathing grew shallow and rapid, the dark recollections ones she rarely dredged from her memory. 'The afternoon was sweltering, but I waited inside the cabin for you anyway. I was so afraid one of the wranglers would stop by... that there'd be some unexpected strays to round up or fence to string and he'd decide to spend the night out there and I'd get caught. But I didn't leave. I kept telling myself you'd come. The hours became an eternity, as though the world had moved on and I'd somehow been left behind. Even after the sun set, I found excuse after excuse to explain your absence.'

'Stop it, Leah.'

But she couldn't. Once started, the memories continued to unravel, like a wind-up music-box grinding out its song until the music played down. 'It was a full moon

that night. I sat on the floor and watched as it drifted from window to window, inching a path across the sky.'

He stared at her, impassive and remote. 'It rained/

Surfacing from the remembered nightmare, she focused on his face. 'Not until two that morning/ she corrected, her voice dull and lifeless. 'The storm rolled in from the south and blotted out the stars as though an angry hand had wiped them from the sky. The roof leaked like a sieve but, fool that I was, I stayed/ She bowed her head, her emotions nearly spent. 'I stayed and stayed and stayed/

'Why? Why did you stay?* he asked insistently. 'Look at me, Leah. Look me in the eye and tell me the rest of your lies. Because that's all they are/

'How could you possibly know what's fact and what's fiction,' she whispered, 'when you weren't there to see?'

'Tell me!'

Forced by the relentless command, she lifted her head. He swept a wisp of ash-blonde hair from her face, and though he touched her with a tender hand his expression was anything but.

'I stayed because I was waiting for you to ride up and take me away like you promised,' she admitted, her voice breaking. 'At daybreak I finally realized you weren't coming. And I vowed that I'd never trust a man again. I'd never give him that sort of power over me or leave myself open and vulnerable to that much misery. So tell me, Hunter. Tell me the truth. What happened? What was so vital that it dragged you away and you couldn't be bothered to come back?'

'Sheriff Lomax happened.'

It took a long minute for his words to sink in. 'What do you mean?' she asked, dread balling in her stomach.

He laughed, the jarring sound slicing across her nerves like a finely honed blade. 'Cut the bull, Leah. All that

nonsense about waiting for me at the line-shack and sweltering in the heat and watching the moon. It didn't happen. I know it. And you know it. Though I did enjoy the part about the roof leaking. Very pathetic/

' What's the sheriff got to do with this?' she demanded, more urgently.

'I went to the line-shack, as agreed. You weren't there.' He paused significantly. The sheriff was. Along with a few of his men.'

'No. I don't believe you.'

'It took six of them to pull me out of there. You forgot to mention, in your heartbreaking tale of woe, about the smashed furniture or the broken window. Or the unhinged door. They might have taken me, but I didn't go easy.'

'I don't know...' She struggled to remember. Had the window and furniture been broken? 'Things were a bit of a mess, but '

He didn't give her a chance to finish. 'I guess you were so busy staring at the stars you didn't notice.' Catching hold of her long, silver braid, he wound it around his hand, pulling her close. His mouth hovered a hair's-breadth above hers. 'Or maybe you didn't notice because every word you've uttered is a lie. Admit it. You were never at that line-shack.'

'I was there!'

'Not a chance. Only two people knew about our meeting. You... and me. I didn't tell a soul. But, since the sheriff came in your place, there's only one explanation. You changed your mind. And, afraid of how I'd react, you spilled your guts to Daddy and begged him to get you out of a sticky situation.'

'No! It didn't happen that way.'

'Didn't it? Tell me this. If we had met that afternoon, would you have come away with me? Well...?' He pinned her with a hard, savage gaze. 'Would you?'

She'd never lied to him in the past and she wouldn't start now. No matter how it might look to him, no matter how he might react, she'd tell him the truth. 'No. I wouldn't have gone with you.'

For an instant his grip tightened and she waited for him to master his anger, unafraid, knowing with an absolute certainty that he'd never physically harm her. 'I didn't think so,' he said. He released her and stood, and she sensed that he'd set himself apart, distancing himself from her.

Her explanation wouldn't change anything, but she had to try. For the first time she deliberately touched him, placing a hand on his upper arm, feeling the rocklike muscles clench in reaction. 'There's a reason I wouldn't have gone away with you '

'Enough, Leah.' He turned flat, cold eyes in her direction. 'I've heard enough. It's water under the bridge. And, to be honest, your excuses don't interest me.'

There was no point in trying to force him to listen. Not now. Maybe not ever. 'Then why are you here?' she asked. 'Why cause more grief—grief neither of us needs?'

'Because what's important is today. Here and now. Your ranch and that ad.'

'I won't let you get your hands on this ranch... or on me,' she informed him fiercely. 'You might as well give up and move on, because I won't marry you.'

He laughed, the sound harsh and mocking. 'I don't recall asking, sweetheart.'

A tide of color washed into her face at his biting response. 'I assumed that was why you'd come. You had the ad and you implied '

He lifted an eyebrow. 'Implied what?'

"That you were interested in marrying me,' she maintained stubbornly. 'You came in response to my notice, didn't you?'

'Not to offer marriage, that's for damned sure. I came because you wouldn't have placed that ad if you weren't desperate, which makes it a powerful bargaining chip. So let's bargain. I want the ranch, Leah, and I mean to get it.'

They stared at each other for an endless moment. Before she could respond, a car horn sounded out front, and Hunter glanced towards the windows. 'Someone's here. Another applicant, perhaps?'

Slipping past him, Leah crossed to the window, recognizing the pick-up parked in front. The occupant leaned on the horn again and her mouth tightened in response. 'It would appear this is my day for surprises,' she murmured. 'Unpleasant surprises, that is.' She crossed to the picture wall where Hunter had left her rifle and snatched it up.

'What's going on, Leah? 5 Hunter demanded, picking up his hat. 'Who's your company?'

Intent on reloading, she spared him a brief glance. 'His name is Bull Jones. He's the foreman of the Circle P.'

Hunter's eyes narrowed. 'The Circle P?'

'A new outfit. Actually, they're now the only outfit in these parts, except for us. They're owned by a big conglomerate, Lyon Enterprises, and they're not particularly friendly. So do me a favor and stay out of this, okay? It doesn't concern you.'

He looked as if he might debate the issue. Then, with an abrupt nod, he followed her out to the porch. Propping his shoulder against a pillar, he tipped his hat low on his brow, his face thrown into shadow. Satisfied

by Hunter's apparent compliance, Leah turned her attention to the more immediate and far more menacing problem confronting her.

Bull Jones leaned negligently against the door of his pick-up—a pick-up parked directly in the middle of the tiny strip of flowerbed Grandmother Rose had painstakingly labored over these past three weeks. * Afternoon, Miz Hampton,' he said, grinning around the stub of a thick cigar.

She ignored his greeting, taking a stand at the top of the porch steps. 'Get off my property, you thieving rattlesnake,' she ordered coldly, 'before I call the sheriff.'

'In one of your feisty moods, are you?' She didn't bother responding and he sighed. 'Call the sheriff if it'll make you feel any better. But you know and I know he won't be coming. He's tired of all your phone-calls.'

She couldn't argue with the truth. Instead, she brought the rifle to her shoulder and aimed the hurting end exactly six inches below Bull's massive silver belt buckle. 'Spit out why you came and get the hell off my land before I send you home with a few vital parts missing,' she said.

He didn't seem the least intimidated. In fact he laughed in genuine amusement. 'You do have a way with words.' He jerked his head toward Hunter. 'This hombre one of your prospective suitors? Doesn't have much to say for himself.'

Hunter smiled without amusement. 'Give it time, friend.'

Leah couldn't conceal her surprise. If Bull considered Hunter a potential suitor, then he knew about her advertisement. But how had he found out? Before the two men could exchange further words, she hastened to ask, 'Is that it, Jones? That's what you came about? My ad?'

'One of the reasons,' Bull acknowledged. 'I even considered offering myself up as a possible candidate. But I didn't think you'd go for it.'

'You thought right.'

'As to the other matter ' He paused to savor his

cigar, puffing contentedly for a long minute. She knew it was a deliberate maneuver on his part—an attempt to drive her crazy. Unfortunately it was working.

'Out with it, Jones.'

'My, my. You are in a hurry.' He shrugged, a quick grin sliding across his face. 'You want it straight? Okay. I'll give it to you straight. I came to offer a friendly little warning.'

'Friendly? 9

'I'm a friendly sort of guy.' He took a step in her direction. 'You give me half the chance, you'd find just how friendly I can be.'

She didn't know whether it was the sound of her pumping home the shell in her rifle or the fact that Hunter suddenly straightened from his lounging position that stopped Bull in his tracks. Whichever it was, he froze. Then she glanced at Hunter and knew what had checked the foreman's movements.

She'd always found Hunter's eyes fascinating. One minute the blackness appeared, cold and remote, the next minute glittering with fire and passion. For the first time she saw his eyes burn with an implacable threat and for the first time she realized how intimidating it could be.

He leveled that look on Bull. 'If you have something more to say,' he informed the foreman softly, 'I suggest you say it. Fast.'

Bull Jones shot Hunter a look of fury, but Leah noticed he obeyed. 'Seems Lyon Enterprises is getting tired of playing games over this place.' His gaze shifted

to Leah. 'Thought you should know they've decided to call in the big guns/

'I'm shaking in my boots/ she said.

He removed his cigar from between his teeth and threw it to the ground. It landed amongst a clump of crushed pink begonias, wisps of smoke drifting up from the smoldering tip. 'You will be. From what I hear, this new guy's tough. You don't stand a chance/

His words terrified her. But she refused to crack. She wouldn't allow her fear to show. Not to this bastard. 'You've been saying that for a full year now,' she said calmly enough. 'And I've managed just fine.'

'That was kid-glove treatment.'

Anger stirred. The temptation to pull the trigger and be done with it was all too inviting. 'You call fouling wells and cutting fence-line and stampeding my herd kid-glove treatment?'

He shrugged. 'We were having a little fun, is all. But now the gloves are off. Don't say I didn't warn you.'