Showdown at Lizard Rock (10 page)

“You’re going to send a wounded man out into the darkness? Not Kaylyn Smith, the angel of mercy to all those at home and on the ships at sea? I think I’d better lie down instead—in your tent.”

“Cut the dramatics, Vandergriff. I’ll get you back to your trailer if I have to carry you.” She took his hand and pulled him up to a standing position, then slid her arm under his and around his back. With the Amazonlike strength of one used to lifting patients, she walked him forcefully across the campsite and back to his trailer.

“Careful, Smith,” he said teasingly, sliding his own arm across her body with an exaggerated need to steady himself. That his hand chose her breast to anchor itself was a fact she didn’t acknowledge as they stumbled up on his porch. “This time,” he went on, “I’m the one who could have you arrested for assault with a deadly weapon.”

“Arrested?” She chortled. “What kind of deadly weapon could I possibly have when I’m standing here wearing only a T-shirt?”

“Aside from the rocks under your control, there’s this.” He lowered his head once more, and before she realized what he was doing, he’d recaptured her nipple in his mouth and began to suck.

“Stop that, King! Get your lips off my—my body, or I’ll sic Matilda on you.”

“Tell Matilda to get her own man. I’m already taken.” He moved to the other breast and gave it the same kind of attention.

“King, please!” she whimpered. “Please! I want to
talk to you, not make love to you. At least not now. I mean … Oh, King.”

He was kissing her again. His robe had come untied, and her T-shirt was suddenly bunched above her waist. Her body was being cupped from behind and lifted into the evidence of his desire. And she was kissing him back. She felt his arousal slide between her legs and undulate hard against her. He didn’t enter her. He didn’t have to. He was bringing her to the full peak of desire without it.

“Oh, King. Please stop. We have issues to settle. Please.”

“We’re settling them,” he whispered. He opened the door and lifted her inside. “This is called negotiating a settlement. Cooperate, my darlin’ Kay. Please.”

“Are you saying that if I let you make love to me, you’ll give up closing the springs? Would that satisfy you?”

He stopped. His hands left her body. His head drew back, and the hard part of him between her legs slid away.

“You’d agree to that?” His voice was cold and strange.

“Yes! No! I—I don’t know. I just want to be certain I understand what you meant.”

“You would, wouldn’t you? You’d make love to me to settle the issue, wouldn’t you?”

Kaylyn was floundering now. Her body was protesting King’s sudden withdrawal. Her mind was trying desperately to reclaim control from her emotions. She wasn’t even sure what she was saying, certainly not what King was so harshly suggesting. She only knew that she had to get away before she ended up in his bed.

“Maybe,” she said breathlessly, “if you’d give me a guarantee that you’d live up to your word. Oh, I don’t mean that. King, I’m sorry. I don’t know what I mean. You move too fast for me. I never got past …” She began to laugh. “Can you imagine, I’m lying there in my tent trying to figure out how I can invite you to attend the Founders’ Day Picnic, and you’ve already got me in your bed? See how far apart we are? I’m planning to ask you for a date, and you’re planning an orgy. Silly me.”

“I accept.”

“You what?”

“I said, I accept. I’ll be your date for the picnic.”

“You will?”

“I will.”

“But why?”

“Why? Hell, I don’t know, and right now I don’t think we’d better start any long, drawn-out discussions. I’m holding onto my control by a thread, Kaylyn Smith, and I don’t think you’re in much better shape.”

“You’ll really go?” she asked in disbelief, watching him retie the sash on his red robe.

“Yes, I’ll really go. Now get your sweet tush out of here before I overwhelm you. I think you must be in touch with some leftover Indian spirits. I’m still not too sure about that runaway bulldozer. Mac swears he checked it. And now I’ve cut my foot on a rock? No, darlin’. I don’t think this little trailer could withstand a rock slide, and I don’t trust those boulders out there for one minute.”

Kaylyn smiled. “I tried to tell you that this place is special.” She gave the iron-faced man a quick kiss, then danced out into the night.

In the moonlight the rocks gleamed like polished silver. The springs gurgled in contentment, and in the distance the Lizard seemed relaxed in sleep. But Kaylyn wasn’t fooled for a minute. He was on her side. King was right. She’d always felt the benevolent presence of the Cherokee Indian spirits here. She’d sensed their approval from the beginning—even if nobody else did.

“He’s even sent a Bobcat over here to dig the mud hole for the tug-of-war,” Tom said to Kaylyn. Clipboard in hand, he was standing on the newly completed speaker’s platform watching the viewers’ stand take shape.

“A cat? Wouldn’t a shovel be easier?”

“A Bobcat is a little machine, Kaylyn. The Pretty Springs Founders’ Day Picnic has taken a giant leap into the twenty-first century, thanks to King Vandergriff. What do you think of the stands?”

“They don’t look like temporary structures to me,” she said. Mac and his construction crew were setting up massive pieces of lumber and nailing them into place, hurrying to get the work done before the celebration began that afternoon. She was beginning to get a bad feeling about the outcome she’d envisioned. “Why have you changed the direction of its view?”

“Because the stands aren’t temporary. King said
that if they were going to build seats, they might as well build something to last. It will be a gift from Vandergriff, Inc., to Pretty Springs. He’s even building a handicapped ramp for your wheelchair group.”

“Great!” Kaylyn said dryly. “Here I’m trying to present him to the world as someone only interested in commercialism, and he’s looking more and more like King Arthur. I don’t see him. Where is he, out shaking hands and kissing babies?”

“He took your soup-line crew out to breakfast.”

“The soup-line crew?” King Vandergriff’s actions were growing more bizarre by the minute. “To breakfast?”

“By the way,” Tom added proudly, “your idea about having the men from the soup line help with the picnic has worked out even better than you thought. The church members who’ve supplied the food have decided to cook and serve it in their kitchen from now on. So you don’t have to run a restaurant anymore. There’s even some talk about trying to find homes and jobs for these men.”

“Wonderful,” she said as she surveyed the picnic site with amazement. “You and I work year after year to make a few changes—without any substantial results, I might add—and King Vandergriff gets involved and things begin to happen. It must be nice to have so much power. I hope he enjoys the adoration.”

“What’s the matter, Katie? King turning out to have more of a heart that you’d expected?”

“I sound like the town’s most ungrateful citizen, don’t I? It isn’t that I’m not appreciative. I just wonder about motives.”

From the time the “soupies,” as they’d begun to
call themselves, and the construction crew had reported for work the previous day, the townspeople had welcomed them. Kaylyn had no doubt that their combined efforts would make this celebration the best Pretty Springs had ever had. One thing she hadn’t counted on was turning King into a hero.

She couldn’t find a single fault with either King or his crew, or the homeless who were finding a purpose and an acceptance that they hadn’t believed possible. Why, then, was she feeling so out of sorts? Everything was working out the way she’d wanted, wasn’t it? But she’d known that from the beginning. Why was it suddenly so hard for her to accept the very results she’d anticipated?

It was King. Why was he doing this? she wondered. Would his kindnesses to the town cost her Lizard Rock and the use of the springs? Was he sincere in what he was doing, or was this some kind of ploy? Since he’d hurt his foot a few days ago, he hadn’t come back to the springs for a swim. Harold had refused to discuss his employer’s health or his whereabouts. King was ignoring her completely. She didn’t know what she’d expected, but she hadn’t expected him to give up. He wasn’t the type. She’d thought he might at least speak to her, try to see her, maybe even attempt to kiss her again. Not knowing where he was or what he was thinking was making her as jumpy as a cat.

“Hello, darlin’.”

The Stetson and alligator boots were back. And the man wearing them was as heart-stoppingly gorgeous as he’d been that first day when she’d watched him approach Lizard Rock.

“Good morning, Mr. Vandergriff. Your men certainly are doing a fine job here.”

“Yes, they are, aren’t they, Ms. Smith? Since we got the site lined up properly, it’s been a piece of cake.”

“What do you mean, lined up properly?”

“No reflection on you, Kaylyn, darlin’, but whoever arranged the placement of the events had no concept of efficient design. The layout was a confusing mishmash. The tug-of-war in the middle of the walking space between the booths? We moved it over there so that the mud hole would be out of the way.” He pointed to a section near the wooden booths being erected for goods to be sold for various charities.

“But it’s always been in the center of the walking space,” she said, trying to curb the anger she felt at his high-handed interference.

“Why?”

“Because … because … oh, I don’t know. Tradition, I guess.”

“Well, it won’t be there anymore. And neither will the course for the three-legged race. We’ve moved it to the other side of the tug-of-war. That way we can build permanent stands that are perfect for viewing the fireworks, plus watching the street dance in the square. By turning slightly, the crowd can see the race and the tug-of-war as well. What do you think?”

“I think,” she admitted with a queer pain twisting her insides like an old-fashioned wringer washing machine, “that you’ve really got all this arranged. Nothing like having an engineer around to point out the errors of our planning. You’ve done a good job. I can’t see a thing for me to do, so I’ll take off. Thank you, Mr. Vandergriff.”

She managed a two-fingered salute of approval to Tom as she headed back to the nursing home van. She wasn’t needed here. With Harold manning the barbecue, Tom overseeing the activities, and King and his crew doing the physical labor, she could go back to her trailer and … and do what? She wasn’t quite sure. She’d never had the luxury of free time before.

She’d almost reached the van when she felt two strong arms circle her waist from behind and lift her easily from the ground.

“Now, darlin’, you just hang on there a minute. I’m wearing all my clothes. I’ve brought my entire crew over here to help out on your little project, and I’ve put Harold in charge of the cooking. I’ve done everything I could think of to please you, and you’re not leaving here with that burr under your saddle. What’s wrong?”

“Put me down, King Vandergriff. Everyone is watching.”

“Not until we talk. Let them watch. Now, either you come with me or I’ll carry you off with the approval of everybody here. You’ve never been shy before. Do you need a television camera on you before you’ll discuss a problem?”

“That’s cruel—and it isn’t true.”

He kept on walking, holding her feet off the ground.

“All right, King, put me down. We’ll talk.”

He lowered her to the ground, reluctantly sliding his hands away from her waist. She smelled like flowers. Her hair was tousled by the wind. The usual T-shirt she was wearing was spotted on the back with perspiration. He didn’t want to let her go. So
what was new about that? Every time he saw her it was harder to keep from touching her.

She turned to face him, smiled at the curious onlookers, and took his arm in hers, as if he were simply walking her to the van. “But,” she said, her lips curved in a false smile, “if you really wanted to talk to me, why have you avoided me for the past three days?”

“Oh, you don’t like being ignored?”

For the benefit of those watching, she widened her smile until her face hurt. She wiped a bead of perspiration that had rimmed her cheek and was about to run down her neck. “Leave me alone, cowboy.”

“Why, darlin’.” He returned her forced smile with one of amusement and tipped his hat to Esther Hainey, who was driving by in the Humane Society station wagon. As they reached the van he deftly dropped Kaylyn’s arm and leaned one hand against the door on the driver’s side, effectively preventing her from getting inside. “I believe you missed me.”

“Not a chance, buster. If you really wanted to talk, why wait until now? Does it take a public display of adoration to reach you?”

“The last I noticed, it was the same number of steps from my trailer to your tent as it was from your tent to my trailer. And so far you haven’t impressed me with your shyness. What’s your excuse?”

“It wasn’t shyness,” she said, moving away from him, “it was shock. You as much as made me a proposition that if I’d sleep with you, you’d let me keep the springs.”

Resting his other hand on the van, he imprisoned her inside his arms. His smile narrowed into a
straight line of displeasure. “Not sleep with me, Kaylyn. You and I will sleep together one day. But sleeping isn’t what we were talking about. Correct me if I’m wrong, but what we were discussing was your trading the use of your body for those springs, wasn’t it?”

One by one the sounds of construction behind them came to a stop. Kaylyn refused to look. She knew that every man and woman in the park was watching. Her pulse was racing, and her lungs felt as if she’d already taken in the last breath of oxygen in the atmosphere. And King? He stood over her, daring her to argue. He wasn’t touching her, yet her body felt every part of him as though it were pressed against him.

“Does this mean,” he asked, “that you’re more important to yourself than those springs are to your patients?”

King groaned silently at his own words. He knew better than that. Why was he doing this? He had expected her to be pleased with what he was doing. Dammit, what had gone wrong? He’d made all these charitable gestures for her. Why was she looking up at him with such pain in her eyes? He’d expected her to fling herself into his arms and rain kisses all over his face.