Texas Lucky (38 page)

He worried, too, about the consequences should they be found out.

Wendell would want to kill him and might even try. Curt would not want to draw against him but would have no choice unless he was willing to die instead.

And if Wendell didn’t get wind of his wife having an affair, sooner or later the hired hands would, and Curt did not want her branded as a whore.

In addition, there would be a few so bold as to try for her favors, which, Curt grimly knew, might get him in a whole lot of trouble.

He didn’t want that.

And he also didn’t want Tess to suffer all the shame and humiliation sure to be heaped upon her.

Neither was he looking forward to facing again what he had when he had left Mary Lou. Only this time it would be worse, because he had never loved her as he loved Tess.

Worse, he knew he could never love anyone that much again.

He had been brooding about the situation, and Caleb and the boys were starting to ask what was eating at him. He shrugged them off, trying to come to terms with what he knew had to be done.

And soon.

Only he didn’t know how to go about it and found himself wishing he had not let it get started in the first place.

Hell, he hadn’t planned it, but when she came to the barn amid the heat of the horses mating, it had been too much for him—
for any man
—to resist.

He even wondered sometimes what would have happened if
she
had resisted.

He did not like to think he would have taken her by force, but damn, he had wanted her something fierce.

Only she hadn’t fought it, and from then on there was no holding back for either one of them.

She had not spoken of love, and neither had he. It was, he supposed, part of their silent agreement that meeting to feed their carnal hunger was the only claim they had on each other.

Curt was also well aware of how lonely she was. It was common knowledge Wendell had become so addicted to poker that nothing else mattered. Curt had even made it a point to seek him out in Dallas and try to renew his interest in raising quarterhorses—not that he really gave a damn. He supposed it was just his way of attempting to get him home more, for Tess’s sake.

But Wendell no longer cared about horses. He seemed perfectly content with his life like it was—big-stakes games every night at the cattlemen’s club, sleeping the whiskey and the days away at some hotel, and, once in a while, out of a sense of duty, riding out to see Tess and make sure she didn’t need anything.

Then, too, there was the sad matter of her brother. No one had reported seeing him and it wasn’t likely anyone would, because those who got close enough to Quanah Parker’s raiding savages usually didn’t live to tell about it.

But Tess still clung to the hope that he would be found, and when she wanted to talk about it, Curt listened and tried to comfort her, not daring to point out how the odds were against her ever seeing Perry again.

Curt was also painfully aware that giving up Tess also meant having to leave his ranch and go elsewhere. He was afraid if he didn’t he would never be able to stay away from her, loving her as he did.

As for how he thought she felt about him, he figured she probably didn’t know herself. With all she had on her shoulders, she clung to him like a drifting log in a flooded arroyo, hoping he could keep her from drowning in the despair of her life, and he didn’t like thinking about that part of it—how hurt and lonely she would be after he was gone.

But it couldn’t be helped.

They were headed down a one-way road to destruction unless he stopped it before they reached the end.

The week passed, Saturday rolled around, and Curt settled in his study to work on his ledgers until Tess arrived.

After morning chores were finished, Caleb and the boys drove Sanchina crazy with their demands of more hot water as they washed off a week of dust and dirt.

Then when they were done and shaved and dressed in clean clothes, their pay in their pockets, they rode off to find cold beer and, they hoped, women to share the wild night ahead.

From where he sat behind his desk, he would be able to see Tess when she came riding up. He had left the front door open. All she had to do was walk in and find her way back to the study.

They would, he knew, fall into each other’s arms and probably succumb to desire on the sofa, or maybe even the floor, never making it to the bedroom.

Afterward, they would have supper. He had asked Sanchina to make some of her special enchiladas before she left. He had also been saving a bottle of sangria for the occasion he looked upon as bittersweet, because it was, without Tess knowing, the beginning of the end.

This time, he would not set a time to meet again, which would concern her at first, then begin to annoy her as days passed with no word.

But he would try to be strong, to stretch out the time between their trysts in hopes of preparing her for the time when he would be gone.

He got up and poured himself a drink, something he knew he was going to have to watch during the miserable time to come, but he needed it after the scene with Sanchina.

She had become very upset when he told her not to come back from her visit with her family. Explaining he could not afford to keep her on—which was not altogether a lie, though he was sure as heck going to have to find somebody—he had even given her an extra month’s wages to soften the blow.

She had argued, saying she would take a cut in pay because she liked working for him, and he had feared he was going to have something on his hands for a minute till Pete started yelling for more hot water.

She had rushed to yell back through the open window that she was busy, he could get his own water, but Curt gently steered her out and said there was nothing else to talk about. His mind was made up.

All was quiet in the house. He could smell the spicy aroma of enchiladas and was grateful Sanchina had not been so upset as to refuse to make them.

As he pored over figures in his ledger, he wondered whether Caleb would want to take over the ranch. It would be another two years till cattle could be sold to make sure there was no more disease in the herd, but Caleb could keep things going and have the profit for himself. All Curt was interested in was seeing that Tess’s loan was repaid. He figured with leaving the mare, as well as the foal when it was born, that she would be compensated and then some.

All he wanted for himself was enough to get him wherever he was going, though he had no idea where that might be. Montana, maybe. Cattle were booming up there. Or maybe he’d venture to California, do a little prospecting just for the hell of it. He’d always said he wanted to see as much of the country as he could, and since he didn’t plan on settling down because he knew he’d never love again, he figured he might as well plan on drifting from place to place.

Hearing footsteps in the hall, he smiled in anticipation.

Lost in thought, he hadn’t heard Tess ride out, and, as always, his pulse quickened to think about seeing her, and…

“Señor. Look what I have for you.”

He could not hold back a groan at the sight of Sanchina walking into the room and carrying a tray.

Hearing him, she hesitated—but only for a second—before continuing and setting the tray on the desk and proudly announcing, “We are going to celebrate my good news for you.”

He saw that she had found the bottle of sangria and had opened it and brought two glasses along with the platter of enchiladas.

Curt bit back the harsh words he longed to speak. There was still time to get her out of there because Tess wasn’t due till four and it was not quite three.

“Sanchina, you should have already left,” he said tightly. “And I’m not ready to eat now, anyhow, so you’d best be on your way.”

“I said I have good news.” She shoved the tray over and sat down on the desk, her knees touching his.

He was losing patience—fast. “Then out with it and go.”

She was wearing a white peasant blouse, scooped low, her shoulders bare. As she leaned forward, her large, fleshy breasts spilled out to reveal the pink edge of her nipples.

“My good news is that I am not leaving you.”

Curt gritted his teeth. “What are you talking about?”

She grinned, red lips pulled back from glistening white teeth. “You say you cannot afford me. I do not care. I stay anyway. You feed me. That is enough.

“And with this”—she boldly reached to caress his crotch—“it is even more.”

“Sanchina, no—”

He tried to push her away, but she quickly settled onto his lap, and wrapping her arms about his neck, began to shower him with kisses.

“Take me, Señor—
Curt
. Take all of me. I have so much to give. Here…see”—she unwound her arms and scooped out her breasts, thrusting them in his face—“and taste…”

With her fingers twining in his hair, she attempted to force a nipple between his lips as he struggled to recover from the shock of it all and to get her off of him without dumping her on the floor and possibly injuring her. All he needed was for her to get hurt and laid up for him to have to tend to, and—

A movement caught the corner of his eye, and his heart slammed into his chest to see Tess through the window.

She was dismounting, tying Saber to the hitching post. If he didn’t get Sanchina off of him, she might glance up and see him and—

And what?

Think he was making love to Sanchina?

And what if she did?

What would she do?

Ride away mad
, the rational part of him silently shouted.

Ride away and never look back and hate him with every breath she drew till the day she died.

Which would be best for both of them.

And quickly, before the irrational part of him that so recklessly loved her could win out, he put his arms around Sanchina, opened his mouth…and sucked in her breast.

He closed his eyes.

He did not want to see Tess’s face but, with a stab to his soul, heard her soft gasp of horror as she saw him.

Or maybe he only
thought
he heard it because he expected to.

But there was no mistaking the sound of hoofbeats thundering away a few seconds later.

He pushed Sanchina away—roughly—and she did fall to the floor. But she was not hurt as she bounded up with eyes wide to screech, “What are you doing? You know you want me.”

“No, Sanchina, I don’t,” he said wearily. “I never did.”

“But just now—”

“I did what any man would have done but stopped in time, because this is no good for either of us. Now get out of here, please.”

She left, but not before picking up the plate of enchiladas and sending them flying through the air to smash against the wall, followed by the glasses.

She would have thrown the bottle of Sangria, too, but Curt had quickly snatched it from the tray to uncork it and take great, gulping swallows.

He would worry about his drinking later.

Because, for the miserable time at hand, he had to ease a pain deeper than any he had ever known.

The great horse was heavily lathered by the time Tess finally got back to her ranch. She had galloped him wide open all the way.

Her blood had turned to boiling rage, and she was sweating profusely, heart pounding so hard she feared it would tear from her chest.

How could he?

Dear God,
how could he?

True, Sanchina had boasted he was her lover, but Tess had been so stupid as to believe anything between them had ended once she and Curt began seeing each other. She had even teased him about her in the beginning—without letting him know of the horrible encounter, of course—and he had vehemently denied there was anything between them. He even said he might have to get rid of her because she had become a nuisance with her flirting.

Flirting, indeed
, Tess fumed as she gave Saber a rubdown to cool him.

He had been feasting on her breasts, damn him, probably about to make love to Sanchina so he could take his time with her later.

Thank God she had decided to surprise him by going a bit earlier than planned after Granger had mentioned seeing Caleb and the boys headed toward Gilley’s when he had first left for Dallas. Granger had forgotten something and come back for it, and that was when he told her.

And Tess had not worried about running into Sanchina. Not after Curt had said she would be gone by two o’clock.

Only he had taken the time for one last tumble with her, damn him.

The sound of a rider coming in hard sent Tess scurrying for the shotgun.

Curt had probably heard her leave and realized she had seen him with Sanchina. If he had the audacity, the arrogance, to think he could sweet-talk her into believing whatever lie he thought she was dumb enough to swallow, a back end full of buckshot would show him otherwise.

She flung the door open, pointed the gun, and yelled, “What the hell are you doing here, damn you?…”