The Cowboy and the Princess (13 page)

She had a terrible feeling that she was going to be crying over Owen for a long time after she left here.

H
E NEEDED
to put emotional brakes on, Owen told himself a few days later. His attachment to Delfyne was growing too strong. It was to the point where he hated to leave the house anymore, and he had to leave the house. He couldn’t desert the men to run the ranch themselves. Already they were starting to look at him as if he had lost his senses.

What’s more, going to the house and seeing her wasn’t helping, because in the house he ran into Ben, who had taken to hanging around looking moon-eyed and desperate. Lydia was just as bad. Even the pregnant Timbelina looked content and homey and in love with something, even if it was just her belly and the prospect of being a mother. All that contentment when he was so discontented was driving him mad.

The truth was that, like it or not, Delfyne was going to leave soon. The days and weeks had gone flying past. He should welcome that. Life could get back to normal then. He could stop thinking about her so much.

But not today. Not yet. And every time he saw her, every time she told him she wanted to see more of his ranch he just…

“You’d think I could be happy over her enthusiasm,” he found himself telling Jake and Alf as he walked, the dogs at his heels. “But you and I know about ranch virgins who are just here for
the short term. That enthusiasm is selective. It’s not real and…she’s going, boys. I don’t want her to get too attached and feel sad when she leaves.”

Already he had taken her on a couple more trips with him. He’d let her pound some nails and get some grease on her hands, but the novelty of it all and her own lack of exposure to anything like the real world of work had left her entranced.

“Won’t last much longer,” he told the dogs. “Sooner or later she’ll see a bug or a snake or end up muddy or bloody—or even worse, she’ll experience the tragedy of a calf that doesn’t make it, or a mother losing her baby and…”

He slammed in through the door and stuck his head in the kitchen. Lydia was nowhere to be seen. But Delfyne was definitely there. She was bent over the stove, her pretty little rounded rear end right there for him to see. Sweat broke out on his forehead just like that. Desire sluiced through his body, and he suddenly couldn’t get enough air into his lungs.

But when she straightened up and turned around, she looked so sad that he forgot all about the ache to bed her. Owen was next to her in two long strides, his boots clattering on the wood of the kitchen floor. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

She blinked those entrancing violet eyes. “Owen, I—oh, nothing happened really and no, I’m not hurt. I’m just…I’m so angry.” As if to demonstrate she put her hands on her hips.

“You’re angry? You want to explain that?”

She held out one hand, indicating the pan on the stove. No, make that four pans. “Four times today I have attempted to make your cake, that chocolate surprise devil of a cake. And four times it’s come out all wrong.”

Owen felt his lips twitching. He peered around her at four cakes. One completely flat, two lop-sided and one…

“That one looks just fine to me,” he said.

She closed her eyes. “It’s not. It’s not. It’s so wrong. It’s not nearly as high as Lydia’s and…” She looked up and tears were in her eyes. “Andreus called,” she whispered.

Owen didn’t wait. He didn’t ask what he wanted to ask. He just stepped forward and tugged her into his arms. He kissed her. He stroked her back. Then he kissed her again. His heart was shattering, his mind was gone, he could barely see, he was so upset, but he focused on her because she was all that mattered in this moment.

“You have to go?”

“Not yet, but…soon. He called so we could make the arrangements. I have two weeks. Just two weeks and…” She looked at the sad little cakes. “I didn’t do half the things I wanted to do here.”

“It’s all right,” he said, kissing her hair, stroking her.

And suddenly she was on her toes. She was kissing him back. “It’s not all right,” she whispered fervently. “Not at all. I have so many things I’ve planned, so many things I want to do, so many things I—I want.” She kissed him again. She twined herself around him until she was almost a part of him and still he wanted more of her. He wanted to be all for her, to console her and be her shoulder. “I—oh, Owen. I want so much.” She kissed his lips, his chin, the underside of his jaw.

He dragged her back up, his fingers curled in her hair as he found her mouth and tasted her deeply, fully, trying to get inside her. When he finally released her, they were both breathing hard.

“Owen, I—” A low moan escaped her. “Just look at me. I’m doing it again. That impulsive thing. Saying and doing all kinds of things without thought to who you are and who I am and what I should be doing. I’m just pulling you into my sadness when it isn’t your fault at all that I have to go home soon.”

“But not yet,” he said. “You don’t have to go yet. And a lot can still happen in two weeks if we plan carefully. So we’ll do
as much as we can in the short time you have left. I’ll get Ben to help out around here. He knows the ropes of ranching and he pretty much lives here nowadays anyway.”

Delfyne looked up at him with glowing eyes. “You’ll be with me all day?”

A part of him knew he should say no. He shouldn’t even have started this whole thing. When she left, he would be in too deep, she would be entwined too tightly into his life at the ranch. Her leaving would rip him apart and leave him torn.

Right now, torn seemed like a good risk. It was the only way he would have it. “All day,” he said.

“What will we do?” she asked.

And for the first time today his smile was genuine in spite of the sadness that filled his heart. “Everything,” he told her. “We’ll do everything.”

For the next three days Delfyne had almost too many things to do. The hours weren’t long enough to cram in all the activities that Owen had planned for her, but this morning, Owen had insisted on a break, and the darn man felt he had good reason.

Delfyne stood on the lawn in front of the house while Owen eyed her critically. “I know what you said. You’ve practiced, but I need you to show me what you know,” he said. “It’s not enough for you to watch some videos.”

Delfyne frowned. “Owen, I don’t want to attack you.”

He crossed his arms. “Yeah, I got that message. You’ve already said it three times, but let me repeat myself again. Or maybe I should rephrase it. Delfyne, Princess,” he drawled in that low, sexy way that made her knees wobble and her heart ache and the rest of her go on full desire alert, so that she didn’t even care that he had gone and called her
Princess
as if it were her name. “I just don’t want—” he said. “No, I
can’t
be stuck here
half-crazy with worry that some guy’s going to try something you haven’t invited when I’m not there to help you. I need to know you’re safe, Delfyne, so come on and do it. Please.”

All right, so she just couldn’t resist Owen when he asked her nicely.

She blew out a breath and shook herself to relax. “Okay, come at me as if you’re going to loop your arm around me and choke me.”

“Like this?” He loosely slung his arm around her neck from behind. Now his skin lay against hers. She breathed in the scent of him for a second. She felt his heartbeat against her back.

And his touch was…gentle, not the touch of an attacker. “Delfyne?” he said in a voice that didn’t sound a thing like that of a man who wanted to steal her bag.

She shook her head.
Focus, focus
, she told herself. This wasn’t about her and Owen. It couldn’t be. Neither of them wanted it to be.

“You have to seem like you really mean to hurt me,” she commanded.

He tightened his hold slightly. She touched the corded muscles in his arm and pushed a little, but he didn’t let go.

“Attack me,” he said. “Protect yourself. Push me away. Do it.”

Yes. She had to. Not just because she needed to protect herself from caring too much, but because she knew that he really was going to worry if she couldn’t show him that she’d never again become some man’s potential victim.

“All right, I bring my elbow down into your side,” she said, her voice strong. She demonstrated the move but didn’t make full contact. “Then I tuck my chin so you can’t choke me any more, I grab your arm firmly with both hands, stomp on your instep as hard as I can, and shove your arm forward to free myself while turning and side-kicking hard into your groin.” She moved as she spoke, showing him what she’d learned, moving fluidly.

“Good. You’ve practiced a lot,” he said. “What else?”

“Well, if that doesn’t work, I tuck my chin and drop my body completely so that my weight drags my opponent off balance. Then I shove back hard with my hips, using as much force as I can manage. The trick is to throw him off balance so that I can break free and get away.”

“But you haven’t tried it in a real situation,” he mused.

Delfyne closed her eyes and shook her head. “No, and, Owen, don’t even ask me to try. I’ve forced myself to memorize all the moves, to learn to use my brain to figure out what my weapons would be in such a situation, but I will
not
attempt to hurt you or throw you. Don’t ask me to. What if I did throw you and you broke something? How do you think I would feel about that? Just trust me, please. I’ve never forgotten that fear of having a man turn on me. I
know
I would do what was necessary. I’ve lived my whole life learning and training to do whatever is necessary, and when the time comes I’ll do it.”

And suddenly they weren’t talking about self-defense anymore.

She looked up at him, pleading with her eyes. “I understand what’s required,” she said. “Even if I don’t want to think about it.”

Owen swore. “Well, you’re not going to have to think about it. At least not today. We’re going to visit the parts of the ranch you haven’t yet seen. Plan for an overnight trip. For the rest of today you don’t have to think of anything but being yourself.”

Delfyne’s heart filled as she looked into his eyes. She wanted to throw her arms around his neck, but instead she just smiled and gave him a very inadequate, “Thank you. I’ll get ready.”

Soon they were bumping along the road in the Land Rover, headed for the far reaches of the Second Chance.

“It’s such an energizing place, your ranch,” she couldn’t help saying.

Owen’s face was transformed by a wry smile as he drove. “That’s an interesting way to describe it. What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know. Some parts of it are very stark, but some parts are bold, almost too much even to take in, with towering pines and the mountains looming in the distance. But all of it is open and so big. It’s a bit like taking a constricting garment off and finally taking a really deep breath of air.”

A low, masculine chuckle had Delfyne turning toward Owen. “I didn’t mean it to be funny.”

“It wasn’t. It was…I don’t know. Right, I guess.”

But as the day passed and they hiked and picnicked, waded through the creek and traced the outer edges of the Second Chance as the sun began to set, Owen looked less than happy.

“Night’s coming soon,” he said.

“I know. It does tend to follow day.”

But he didn’t laugh. “Out here, night tends to emphasize how alone a person is. It folds you into a cocoon and shuts you off from the world. Mostly I like the feeling, but alone with you and cut off from the world, with darkness all around…” He shook his head. “Coming out here with you and staying this late was a bad idea,” he said. “I know what I promised, but I must have been crazy to think it would be okay. I should take you back to the house.”

Delfyne knew what he meant. The dark made everything more private and personal and tempting, and Owen was already far too tempting. She itched to touch him all the time already. Fighting her desire was a constant trial. “You’re right. We should go. But…” She frowned and sighed. “If we do go back to the house…”

“What?”

“Well, I told Lydia and Ben that I wouldn’t be home tonight and…”

Owen rubbed one hand over his jaw. “Are you telling me that if I go home I’m liable to walk in on Lydia and Ben…having sex?”

“Oh, well, I think it’s love. They would be making love, Owen.” But she couldn’t keep the smile from her face.

“Damn, Delfyne, why did you have to go and tell me about that? There are just certain things that a man doesn’t want to know about…about…”

“A woman who is like a mother to him,” she finished. “Yes, I know. That is, I can’t be sure they would be doing that. It’s not really like Lydia, but…”

“But I’ll bet it’s just like Ben. He probably couldn’t wait for us to leave.”

“I wouldn’t know about that. Actually, it’s good that he’s there, isn’t it? You wouldn’t want her to be alone at night.”

Owen made a grumbling sound. “No. I wouldn’t, but…”

“Owen, look, see the moon?” Delfyne pointed upward, and, of course, Owen looked. “It’s so very beautiful here tonight,” she whispered. “Your ranch is amazing, Owen.”

To her surprise he didn’t answer right away. When he finally did, it was with a dull look of resignation in his eyes. “I know exactly what you mean. I’ve witnessed this phenomenon before. A visitor comes here, and everything they see is amazing at first, yes. This is a totally exciting and
different
world from what they’re used to. But different gets old when it goes on for too long.”

She knew that by
different
he meant this land and the demands of his world, but…people had told her all her life that
she
was different. Maybe it worked that way with people, too. Maybe after he’d known her for a while, her mystique and entertainment value would wear off and he’d want someone more like the women he’d always known. He’d realize that he preferred women who didn’t do silly, impulsive things and who didn’t need to have keepers watching over them so that they wouldn’t do something foolish.

So, when he urged her back into the SUV and took off down
the road, she didn’t say anything at first. Until the tension and the not knowing what was to come got to be too much for her. “Are we going back to the house, then?” she asked.