The Lies Uncovered Trilogy (Books 4, 5, and 6 of The Dancing Moon Ranch Series) (3 page)

"Juzz be quiet," Sophie mimicked, then cuddled against Rick and put her hand on his thigh.

Rick said nothing, but having Sophie draped against him for the first time in his life, and with her palm on his thigh and her knuckles against his crotch was definitely having an effect on him, although it wasn't the scene that had played over in his mind throughout the years. Never in his fantasies could he have imagined Sophie drunk and throwing herself at him. Throwing herself at any man, he corrected. He was no different from the rest.

Once back at the ranch, Rick said to Adam, "Drop us off at the cabin on the end. There's no one there until late tomorrow morning and this needs to be dealt with tonight."

Following Rick's instructions, Adam eased past a string of log cabins and pulled to a halt. Rick hopped out and caught Sophie up in his arms as she tumbled out the truck. He kneed the door closed and carried Sophie into the cabin, kicking the door shut. After dumping her on the bed, he went in the bathroom and turned on the light, then returned to the darkened room and said, "Either go take a shower on your own or I'll strip off your clothes and throw you in to sober you up, but after that we're going to talk."

Sophie sat up in bed and splayed out her arms. "Okay then…" she said, "you can strippet… strippeded… umm… do what you said."

Rick eyed her with uncertainty. "I'm not kidding Soph." 

Sophie let out a deep, throaty laugh. "I'm… not kidding… either," she said in a sluggish voice. "You dragged me from… something I was liking… and now I'm not liking it… and you owe me." She raised her arms high for him to strip off her shirt.

"Fine, have it your way." Grabbing her shirt, Rick tugged it over her head and tossed it on the floor then dragged off her jersey capris that came off with her underpants in one tug. Pulling her upright he dragged her, stumbling and laughing her low, throaty laugh, into the bathroom, shoved her into the shower and turned on the cold water. She let out a cry as the blast hit her and followed with a string of expletives Rick didn't know were in her vocabulary.

Shutting the bathroom door with force, Rick went to sit on the bed and try to figure out what to do next. This whole episode with Sophie was so unexpected he was at a loss how to deal with it. He was also uncertain about his feelings now. Until Sophie arrived this time he'd had things laid out for the summer, gradually changing a lifelong relationship from platonic to love, and ultimately talking marriage.

Sophie stayed so long in the shower, Rick was tempted to go in and see if she was okay. Then the water shut off and he could hear her moving around… maybe stumbling around, he couldn't tell. After a few minutes she opened the door and emerged, wearing one towel in a turban around her head, and another wrapped around her body and tucked down in front to hold it in place. From the look on her face he didn't know whether she was furious with him for carrying her away from the party, for stripping her and throwing her into the shower, or maybe angry with herself for the woman she was at the moment.

Whatever was going on inside her, she aimed it all at him in a voice that was still a little sluggish, but was also filled with venom. "Who the hell… do you think you are… dragging me… away from a party?"

"Maybe a friend who gives a damn," Rick said. "You were drunk and hanging all over a guy you didn't even know and acting like the woman you accuse your mother of being."

"Step-mother," Sophie corrected, then continued in slow, measured beats. "I take that back. She's my father's wife. And I want to go… to your mother's house. I'm comfortable there… and she's easy to talk to. And no… I don't want to talk about this with you… because you'll start sermonizing… like you always do… instead of listening. Your mother listens."

"You don't want to go to my mother's because she listens," Rick said, "you want to go because she won't stop you from doing whatever you want to do to screw up your life."

Sophie propped her hands on her hips, and Rick wondered for a moment if the towel might come loose and drop off. He was tempted to throw her clothes at her and tell her to go back in the bathroom and get dressed and come out when she was decent, but what she'd worn to the party was anything
but
decent.

Staring daggers at him, Sophie said, still in slow, measured beats, "Your problem is you just don't like your mother because she left your father."

"What's going on with you right now is not about my mother and father, so let's just stick to that," Rick said.

"What's going on with me is that for the first time in my life I'm finally free of restrictions that would choke a horse, and I'll thank you to leave me alone to enjoy it. Now, either drive me to your mother's place, or I'll walk."

A part of the woman who was facing Rick now was the Sophie he'd known for years, the one who held up the hoop for him to jump through, demanding he drive her to his mother's place. The woman he'd seen draped in a guy's lap with his hands all over her, and who was confronting him now wearing only a towel, he didn’t know. "I guess you'd better start walking then," he said, deciding he'd had enough hoop jumping. "You can stay in the cabin tonight and tomorrow I'll take you to get your car. You'll be staying at the ranch from now on."

The look on Sophie's face changed then, first to surprise that he was no longer her puppet, then to a subtle look of seduction. "If I stay, I'll expect you to stay with me," she said. "I told you I planned to get screwed and you took me away before it happened so you owe me."

Her words were more controlled, but Rick knew she still had enough booze and pot in her to shed her inhibitions. "You're not getting screwed by me or anyone else tonight," he clipped.

Her hand toying with the towel where it tucked into itself, she said, in a cynical voice, "Do you have some kind of a sexual hang-up, Rick? Has Mommy Dearest and her involvement with men made you so inhibited you can't get it up."

Rick held her challenging gaze. This wasn't the woman he'd grown to love over the years. It was as if a stranger had invaded Sophie's body. "When did you start talking like this?" he asked.

"I do have a vocabulary," Sophie replied. "I'm just learning to put the words together differently. Now, I'm getting cold, so either screw me or leave."

Eyeing her with disgust, Rick said, "I'll be back in the morning to take you to get your car. Be dressed when I come." He left abruptly, hearing her laughing as he shut the door.

***

While immersed in warm water, Sophie gazed around the darkened interior of the cavern where a hot spring bubbled up into a rock pool. When she awakened at dawn with a splitting headache and a queasy stomach, and with only a dim recollection of the party the night before, she knew she had to be somewhere other than the cabin. She wasn't sure she could face Rick again. Ever. Although the party was a blur, what happened after the shower was clear, but confusing. She couldn't explain her behavior with Rick. She still couldn't believe she'd challenged his virility and all but demanded he have sex with her. So the only place she could think to go was Whispering Springs, where she could listen to the eerie sounds sifting through the mountain and try to make sense of everything that had happened over the past two days.

She glanced at the pile of clothes she'd worn to the party. When wearing them she'd felt daring and defiant, and when Buzz came for her he looked her up and down, and she smiled seductively, like she knew he was coming onto her but didn't care. That much she remembered. But once at the party, after she had a couple of drinks and started dragging on a joint someone passed around to her, and some nameless guy pulled her onto his lap and started doing things that seemed to heighten the effects of the booze and pot, everything became a blur, until Rick's face swam into view, confusing her and making her wonder how he got there, then remembering nothing until she was hit with a blast of icy water...

A shadow fell over the entrance to the grotto. "I thought you might be here."

Sophie looked up to see Rick's tall frame blocking the entry. Odd, she'd never noticed how thick his shoulders were until now, or the extent of his chest, nicely-defined beneath his white tee shirt. Even in the subdued light she saw that he had well-developed biceps, like he'd been working out, which surprised her. It had been over a year since she'd last seen him and it was like she'd left behind a boy and returned to find a man, and it was a whole new experience.

"You gave me a hell of a scare," Rick said, making no move to come in. "I thought you took off walking to town. I drove half way there looking for you."

"After last night, I would've thought you'd be glad to be rid of me," Sophie said, while moving lower into the water so he wouldn't see her naked below the surface, yet finding it a little tantalizing too, Rick seeing her that way. It would be a strange new concept, wanting Rick to see her in a sexual way. That had not been the kind of relationship they'd had over the years.

Continuing to stand at the entry, Rick said, "You ready to talk now?"

"No," Sophie replied. "I came here to listen to the sounds and sort things out on my own. It works better that way." About the last thing she wanted was to rehash with Rick what happened at the party. She'd managed to block it out of her mind, or at least the pot and alcohol allowed her to do that. Accusing him of being impotent right before all but demanding he have sex with her, and talking about that, was another. But she did intend to set a few things straight. "Just for the record. I didn't like what was going on at the party," she said, "but I'm not going back to living like a nun either, so don't try to lecture me on that."

"Yeah, well, just for the record, I can get it up," Rick said, "but you're not where I'm going to put it, to lay it out to you in your new vocabulary, but that doesn't mean I'll turn my back on what's going on with you right now either, and we are going to talk."

To Sophie's shocked surprise, Rick shrugged out of his tee shirt, tugged off his boots and socks, stripped down to his briefs and started into the pool. Even in the dusky twilight of the cavern she could see he was aroused beneath his briefs, which elicited a strange feeling low in her belly, which disturbed her. They'd been friends since they were kids and it never occurred to her to look at him in any other way. The odd thing was, after the cold shower, when she stood in front of him wearing only a towel, she'd wanted him to take her virginity because she felt rebellious and defiant and was determined to go against everything her parents had preached over the years. Now, things were different. Having sex with Rick wasn't an option. It took her out of her comfort zone with him. She also suspected he'd stripped down to his briefs to prove he wasn't what she'd accused him of.

Eyeing him across the water, she said, "I'm sorry about what I said last night. Obviously you don't have a problem. But it bothers me that you're like that with me. That's not the way it's supposed to be with us."

"I'm a man," Rick said. "It happens, so forget what's going on and either listen to the sounds or talk things out."

"I'll listen to the sounds," Sophie said, wondering why she hadn't countered Rick with the kind of verbal sparring she had in the past. Instead, she closed her eyes and rested her head against the rock sidewall and said nothing. Still, she couldn't seem to let go of the image of the well-muscled man Rick was now, and she became preoccupied with him in a totally new way. It was disturbing and confusing.

After a while she was able to quiet her mind, and before long, eerie, haunting sounds began to emanate from the bowels of the mountain. The whole legend of voices driving away evil spirits was nothing but legend, but as she listened to the ethereal sounds, she felt a calmness that was unexpected for such a disturbing time in her life. She also felt a need to verbalize things she never intended to talk about.

Letting out a little audible sigh, she said, "I'm tired of having to fit into the box Justine and my father built for me. My whole life has been one of restrictions. Dress modestly. No dating in high school. Go to an all-girls' college where men won't be a distraction. Kissing leads to necking which leads to other things so don't single date, and on, and on."

"Which they did so you wouldn't follow the path your mother took," Rick pointed out. "They care about you and now you resent them for it. You really owe them an apology."

"Please don't start on that again," Sophie said. "Maybe I won't screw the first guy I meet, but I'm not going back to living like a nun either."

"Yeah, I kind of got that impression," Rick said, "but a whole lot can go on short of being screwed. Do you even remember what that guy was doing when you were on his lap?"

"No, and I don't need a reminder."

"I think you do," Rick said. "You were about to let some nameless guy have sex with you because you were having a tough time at home. But this thing with you right now isn't about sex. It's about you destroying yourself to get back at your mother. And yes, Justine is your mother. She's been there for you since you were five."

"You just don't understand," Sophie, said, "and I don't feel like trying to explain it. It's too complicated and too exhausting."

Rick didn't respond, but after a stretch of silence, he said, "If you don't want to talk to me about this then I suggest you get counseling."

"I suggest you get counseling," Sophie mimicked in a sing-song voice, then wondered why she reacted to Rick that way, when all he was doing was trying to help. But she didn't want Rick as a psychologist or a brother. The problem was, she didn't know how she wanted him.