Rancher's Deadly Risk (11 page)

“I hope so.”

She stopped and faced him. “What?”

He shrugged. “If someone wants to get even with you for this, they’ll try to provoke another situation.”

“I’m not that easy to provoke. Usually.”

Then she leaned back against the counter, wrapping her arms around herself as if they could protect her. As upset as she had been by the bullying she had stumbled on, she was even more upset now. “I was just trying to do the right thing, Linc. Not infuriate half the town and threaten a championship.”

“I know.”

Her eyes felt hot as she looked at him. “I’m the one being bullied now. I just hope I diverted them from James.”

Linc was touched by her concern for James, but he couldn’t deny that she was the victim now. Someone was deliberately exaggerating this entire affair and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. He suspected at least one of the bullies’ parents was mad about the detention and unwilling to believe their son could have pushed a teacher. Parents had that kind of blind spot as he knew only too well, but this seemed extreme. Then, too, the fact that the initial bullying of James had gotten out, when Les had tried so hard to keep it under wraps for the kid’s sake, left him wondering about the dimensions of this storm.

Cassie stood there, looking lost and alone and upset, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to make her feel better. She’d have to ride this storm out or leave town. She’d already mentioned the possibility herself, a reminder that had left him feeling warned.

Knowing he was being a fool, but doing it anyway, he rose and went to gather her into his arms. The instant he drew her close, he realized he might have just made the biggest mistake of his life.

Those luscious curves he’d been trying to ignore felt even better than he’d imagined. Womanly and welcoming, they seemed to meld right into him. She smelled so good and after the briefest hesitation, she leaned into his embrace and rested her head in the hollow of his shoulder.

“You’re not alone in this,” he said, hating the way his voice had thickened, giving away the surge of desire that roared through him. He tried to keep his hips away from her, afraid his body was revealing too much as he hardened. Damn, he’d meant to offer comfort, and if she felt his arousal she might be completely put off.

Although that would be for the best, said some nagging voice he didn’t want to hear. Being deserted once by a woman who couldn’t handle life here had been enough. He couldn’t endure that again.

But neither could he refuse Cassie whatever comfort he could offer. It wasn’t in him to ignore another’s distress. He just wished his whole body hadn’t started humming with need. It made the comfort he was offering seem like a sham, and it reminded him of his own terrible weakness.

He wanted this woman, had wanted her since he first laid eyes on her. She had begun to haunt his thoughts and sometimes even his dreams. If he could be sure a simple roll in the hay would settle it...

But he couldn’t be sure. It wouldn’t be fair to her anyway.

She leaned farther into him, almost resting in the shelter of his arms. Then, slowly, her own arms found their way around his narrow waist.

God, he’d forgotten how good it felt just to be hugged. The warmth of her embrace reached deep inside him, adding to the heat he already felt, but even more dangerously filling some empty hole in him.

Damn, life could be unfair, making him want what he was pretty sure he couldn’t have. Making him want another woman he probably couldn’t trust. Making him want all kinds of things that weren’t his to take or enjoy.

A better man would have stepped back then, feeling he’d made his point that she wouldn’t face this alone. But he was not a better man. The desire pounding in him weakened him, and drove caution to the background.

He was certain he’d pay for this, but that couldn’t stop him. Need brought him to his emotional knees so fast he couldn’t grasp at the straws of sanity.

He needed. He wanted. Before he even knew what he was doing, he tipped her face up and kissed her.

She tasted faintly of the wine she had sipped. Running his tongue along her lips, he felt their full, silken smoothness and then, so unexpectedly, she opened to him and he dove in like a bee seeking nectar. Warm, almost hot, soft like her secret depths. The pounding in his body grew until he could hear the throb in his ears.

It was as if hot ocean waves washed over him, carrying him farther and farther from the security of land. Her breasts, full and inviting, pressed against his chest, and his hands wanted so badly to wander her curves, learning each and every one of them. He could have happily drowned in her.

But at that instant, her body wormed closer and made full contact with his pelvis. The ache that shot through him was overwhelming, but just as they made that intimate contact, she gasped and arched backward. His eyes snapped open and he gazed into hers, seeing surprise, seeing his own heat answered.

It was the surprise that tossed him back on shore to safety. This shouldn’t have happened. No way. Nor did he need to review his sensible reasons once again.

He loosened his hold on her, slowly so she wouldn’t feel rejected, but as he backed away, he couldn’t mistake the brief flicker of hurt in her green eyes.

Well, damn him all to hell for a fool. All he was trying was to keep either of them from being hurt, and he’d gone and hurt her anyway.

He didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t exactly explain that a momentary madness had overtaken him. Couldn’t possibly tell her he didn’t trust her to stay in this town and he wasn’t traveling that painful path again. Couldn’t say, “Gee that was nice, how’s the weather?”

If he’d ever had any finesse, he’d just blown it.

But then she rescued him. A smile, a bit uncertain, a clearing of her gaze, a toss of her beautiful hair. “Wow,” she said. “But I only just met you.”

The line was so obviously intended to lighten the moment of near-disaster that he felt a load lift. “True,” he agreed.

She walked back to the table and settled as if she intended to eat. “Don’t worry about it,” she said calmly. “A kiss is just a kiss and I have no expectations.”

That, he thought, as he returned to finish the cooling dinner with her, sounded as if it went beyond a dismissal to a deeper emotional truth for her.

She had no expectations? What did she mean by that?

Then he reminded himself it was better if he never found out.

Chapter 5

C
assie awoke in the morning feeling half-dead. It hadn’t helped that she’d lain awake half the night bouncing between remembering an incredible kiss and worrying that people were talking about her and that they suspected she had lied about a student.

The worst of it was she couldn’t tell which upset her more. Along about two in the morning, she decided it was the kiss. Bad enough to know the man didn’t really want to get close, but now she knew indelibly just how his hard body felt against hers, which only fed the fire of desire he awoke in her with such ease. Darn, it had been like opening Pandora’s box.

Come morning, she sat bleary-eyed over her coffee, not at all eager to get to school. She tried to sort through an emotional tangle that seemed to be knotting ever tighter. She wanted Linc, admittedly. He didn’t want her. The kiss had astonished her, coming after all the distance he had tried to dig between them like a canyon gorge, but it wasn’t the first time someone had been attracted to her and then dropped her like a hot potato.

Story of her life, she thought dismally. Somehow she attracted men, and then she turned them off. She didn’t know how or why, but they never stayed long. It seemed they found her initially sexy, and then their interest stopped. Boom.

So it shouldn’t surprise her Linc had reacted like every other guy who had made an advance. In some way she couldn’t discern, and that none of her friends had ever been able to explain, she put men off after the initial attraction.

She ought to be used to that fact by now.

Then there was this mess at school. Sighing, she stared into her coffee and decided to add some milk to it. Her stomach felt uneasy and the coffee was giving her heartburn. She knew better than to try to go without it, though. Coffee had for years been the thing that stood between her and some very bad headaches. A doctor had even recommended it when she didn’t want to take something stronger.

So she swallowed her coffee reluctantly with some dry rye toast and pondered how everything could look so different in such a short space of time. At her age that should come as no shock, but it was still surprising.

A week ago she’d been practically buzzing with happiness about teaching and living here. Now she was dreading the day ahead. She had been confronted by a parent, had seen disapproval from people she didn’t even know, and now she wondered what she was going to run into in the classroom today. How many of her students would take a cue from a parent or friend?

Well, there was only one way to find out. Rising, she rinsed her dishes, grabbed her book bag and a jacket and set out.

Conard County offered her another absolutely gorgeous day, although it had grown considerably chillier than a week ago. Ordinarily the air would have invigorated her, but this morning her feet felt like lead.

Lack of sleep, she told herself, only half believing it. Then a thought occurred to her and she quickened her step. It was time to find out
exactly
what Les had told those parents. If he had told parents she had been shoved, she wanted him to take care of it. If he hadn’t, then she would know the problem stemmed from elsewhere. How that would help, she wasn’t certain, but she didn’t want to also wonder about Les.

She knew Gus, the janitor, would be waiting for her outside her classroom. He was there every morning now, a kind of sentinel, and he always checked out the room before she entered. Unlike some around here, he didn’t seem to suffer from an overwhelming belief in the goodness of everyone.

That was a cynical thought, and she yanked herself sharply away from it. One person. A small handful. No more than that. If people had heard a lie about her, then their disapproval wasn’t a bad thing. They were rallying around neighbors. That was good, right? Eventually, after this mess was over and enough time had passed, she hoped to be one of the neighbors folks around her would want to protect.

Linc wasn’t outside. Evidently he’d completed his turn at bus duty and an English teacher, Carl Malone, had taken over. He greeted her pleasantly. Whatever was going around on the grapevine, it hadn’t affected him yet.

For the first time she wondered how many of the teachers might start turning frosty, even though the situation had been explained at the meeting this past Monday.

She was not in the best of moods by the time she reached the principal’s office and her mood didn’t improve when she saw Linc already inside with Les.

Memories of the kiss came rushing back, and with it an unwanted warm weakness between her legs. Damn, she hated that he could make her want him so much when he clearly didn’t reciprocate the feeling. He saw her through the glass, though, and waved her in.

She trudged around the large reception desk and entered Les’s office.

“I guess you had the same idea I did,” he said. “I was just asking Les exactly what he told those parents.”

Les, seated behind his desk, looked both annoyed and defensive. “I didn’t tell anyone that those students shoved Cassie,” he snapped. “I don’t know where that’s coming from.”

“What exactly did you tell them?” Cassie demanded.

“That you had told them to report to my office for a legitimate reason and they refused. Not one word more than that, except to say we couldn’t allow students to defy a teacher’s legitimate authority.”

“You’re sure?” Linc asked.

“I’m not an idiot. Details aren’t necessary for the very reason you’re in here complaining about.”

Cassie looked between the two men. “Then what started it?”

“Probably one of the students involved, or one of their friends,” Les said. “A lie, pure and simple, exaggerating the matter.”

“I still think,” Linc said firmly, “that you should have told everything to the parents, including the bullying.”

“I was trying to protect James Carney from retaliation!”

“So now a good teacher’s reputation is being impugned. You need to call those parents back and tell them what Cassie saw.”

“No,” said Cassie, surprising herself. “No. It’s over as far as those students are concerned. They had detention and the case is closed. Telling the parents about the bullying will only make them madder, and I’ll probably be accused of lying about that. Leave James out of it.”

Linc faced her. “Are you sure? This thing has been handled poorly, if you ask me. We need to address all the issues involved with all the students involved.”

“Of course,” Cassie agreed. “But arguing with people over their current presumption isn’t going to help.” She shook her head a little. “I admit I wanted to know exactly what Les had told the parents, but obviously he didn’t say anything to start this kind of extreme talk. So it had to be a student or parent exaggerating the matter, claiming I lied about what happened. No one can prevent that.”

“I prefer to take most bulls directly by the horns,” Linc admitted. “But you’re right. We can’t call back the lies. At this point all we can probably do is avoid inflaming things until we get our presentation ready and get the new policy moving.”

“We have a policy?” Les said, bridling.

“We’re going to try to get students involved,” Linc said. “To get some of the most popular students to start frowning on bullying of any sort.”

“Oh.” Les stroked his chin. “I wonder if that will work.”

“It has in other schools,” Cassie said. “Unfortunately, it usually starts earlier than high school. It takes time to grow a culture.”

“Well, I don’t like the one that seems to have sprung up here at all. I’m going to take whatever action I deem necessary. You guys have a few weeks. If we have another incident of any kind, I’m cracking down.”