"I thought I'd find you here," Luke told her
in a low intimate rumble.
The vision of his perfect body and that
voice, smooth as dark chocolate, wrapped around her libido and all
the moisture left in her body flooded southward. She pushed up to
her elbows to glare at him. "What are you doing here, Luke?"
"Sunbathing, relaxing...looking for you," he
said then sat down on the towel beside her.
"Why?" She scooted over a few inches to put
some space between them. The temptation to reach over and rub her
hands over his smooth skin was too great. "Is everything okay at
the ranch?"
"Yeah, it's fine," he said lazily then
picked up her sunscreen and poured a glob in his hand and started
smoothing it over his chest. "Lay back down and relax,
darlin'."
How the hell was she supposed to relax
watching him rub lotion all over his delectable body? This was
torture of the highest form, and she didn't think she could take
much more without losing it. It was bad enough trying to resist him
when he was fully clothed.
Cassie licked her lips and tried to drag her
eyes away from him, but couldn't. As if pulled by a magnetic beam,
her eyes followed his hands down his chest to his chiseled abs then
to the waistband of his shorts. When he pulled the hem of his
shorts up to rub lotion on his firm thighs, she groaned then stood
and jerked her towel up from the ground.
Grabbing the handle of her tote, she said
angrily. "I'm leaving."
Luke looked up at her and she saw his throat
work a couple times before he said, "Well at least you're telling
me this time."
"And just like before, you'll have the
floozy you slept with last night to console you," Cassie spat then
turned her back to him and headed up the path into the woods.
She heard a fierce growl behind her, then
rustling and before she knew it she was on the ground and Luke was
on top of her, pinning her there. He rolled off of her then took
her shoulders and turned her over to face him. Cassie was so
stunned she couldn't do anything but stare at him like he'd lost
his mind. He most likely had, she thought. Luke had never been
rough with her. Not that his tackle had been rough, even when he
was subduing her she felt the care he'd taken not to hurt her.
Fierce emotion filled his icy brown eyes and
a muscle worked at his jaw. He grabbed her shoulders and leaned
down into her face to say in a grating hiss, "Listen to me well,
Cassandra Bellamy. I. Did.
Not
. Cheat. On. You! And it
pisses me the fuck off that you even
think
I did. And I
didn't sleep with that
floozy
last night." Luke shoved her
shoulders and then stood.
He put his hands on his hips and bent at the
waist. "Maybe you did me a fucking favor running off ten years ago,
because I would have asked a woman who thought I was a piece of
trash to marry me, and she would probably have laughed in my face.
Or if she'd said yes, I'd have found out what she thought of me too
late. So, thank you for saving me that humiliation....
goodbye,
Cassie
."
Luke stood up straight, his shoulders and
face hard and unyielding, then turned and walked back to pick up
his shirt, shoes and towel. Without another word, he gave her a
disgusted stare as he walked around her and then up the trail at a
fast clip.
His words and the solemnity of his tone
finally ripped through the confused stupor that had claimed her.
The fact that his goodbye rang with such finality settled in her
heart and she was afraid she'd never see him again. She vaulted to
her feet and ran after him. "Luke, wait!" she yelled, but he was
too far ahead to hear evidently, or he was ignoring her. "Luke,
don't just say that shit and run off. Please stop!"
She picked up her pace to a jog, but he
still he outdistanced her. His fists were clenched at his side and
he took long ground gobbling steps up the steep incline. "Goddammit
Luke,
stop
! I love you!"
She saw his step falter and he slowed down a
second, then he clenched and unclenched his fists, before he
started moving again at the faster pace and yelled back to her.
"That doesn't mean a damned thing to me now. Those are words, your
actions say something entirely different. I'm
done
,
Cassie."
"No, Luke don't say that! Just stop and let
me talk to you," she begged and then tripped on a tree root, her
ankle rolling painfully. She felt something snap, before she fell
on the soft packed dirt on her face, hitting her head on another
root in the process. The pain shooting up her leg was excruciating
and she rolled onto her back and grabbed her ankle, rocking back
and forth and moaning.
She heard Luke yell, "Fuck!" from down the
trail, and then he was at her side running his hands over her body
then down her legs to her already swelling ankle. It was obvious he
was beyond angry and didn't really want to help her, but he'd come
back and she was thankful. "I think it's broken," she told him and
moaned again.
"Oh, this is fucking perfect," he said
shortly then reached into his shorts and pulled out his cell phone
and dialed a number. "Cole, get your ass down to the lake. Cassie
needs you to take her to the hospital for an x-ray."
Cassie felt nauseous and rolled onto her
side away from Luke, just in case she had to throw up. He really
wasn't going to help her, she thought dejectedly. He was pawning
her off on Cole. Her heart shattered into a million pieces and
silent tears rolled down her cheeks onto the ground. She curled up
into a tight ball of misery and sobbed quietly. Luke finally
finished his explanations to Cole, then grabbed her shoulder to
turn her over.
"Just leave me alone," she said in a
whisper. "Go, ahead Luke. Cole will help me."
"Cassie stop being dramatic and turn over,
so I can look at your pupils. Did you hit your head when you fell?
Do you feel nauseated?"
"Yes and yes...but it's no big deal," she
told him weakly. "Cole will take me to the hospital...just
go
away
." Cassie closed her eyes against her pain and let the
black dots that had been filling her vision turn into a dark
curtain of peace.
When Cassie woke up she was being wheeled on
a gurney from an ambulance through glass double doors with big red
letters spelling EMERGENCY. The scent of antiseptic hit her in the
face when the two men beside the gurney pushed her inside. She
gagged and said, "I think I'm going to be sick," before putting her
hand over her mouth praying she wouldn't be. An IV tube pulled in
her arm and she dropped it back beside her.
One of the men walked away and spoke briefly
with a nurse. He came back and handed her a small rectangular pan.
"Here you go, hon. Use it if you need it. I told the nurse to see
if the doctor would order something for your nausea."
Cassie licked her dry lips then thanked him.
"Where's Cole?"
"Is that the Sheriff's deputy who was with
you when we got there?" She nodded and wished she hadn't, because
pain sliced through her head causing another wave of sickness to
surge to her throat.
"He was following us and will be here in a
few minutes."
"Thank you." Cassie gripped the pan the
medic had given her and turned her head to the side closing her
eyes to focus on not getting sick.
They wheeled her into a room, transferred
her to a bed carefully, then zipped a curtain around her. The other
medic that had helped her picked up a call button from the rail on
the bed and put it in her hand. "Ring this if you feel sick again,
or need anything. A nurse will come to help you." She nodded and
gripped the small white cylinder, her finger hovering over the
button. Cassie hated feeling helpless. She couldn't stand hospitals
or being sick. If anyone thought her daddy was a terrible patient,
they hadn't seen her down.
The curtain around her parted and an older
brunette woman in scrubs walked in with a long syringe filled with
liquid. She was followed closely by Cole, his face pale and his
lips pinched into a tight line. He stood over to the side to give
the woman room.
The needle was so big, Cassie cringed and
said, "If you think you're sticking that in my ass...you better
think again," she told her flatly with misery lacing her tone.
The nurse chuckled and walked around the bed
to the IV pole and slid the needle into the tube. "This is for
nausea, and it goes in your IV, not your, um..."
"Ass..." Cassie filled in the blank and then
said, "Good. When is the doctor going to get in here? If he can
patch up my ankle, I'm good to go." Just mentioning her ankle made
it throb. Her toes were cold and numb, and the pain was as intense
as an earache. Her head hurt just as bad.
"I'm afraid it's going to involve more than
that, sweetie. You probably have concussion, and your ankle looks
to be pretty badly broken. We'll have to wait for the doctor to
find out when you'll be released."
Cassie gritted her teeth and pushed on her
forearms to sit up. Pain sliced through her ankle and head a the
same time, bile surged up into her throat and her vision blurred
around the edges. She moaned and then laid back against the hard
bed and closed her eyes.
Cole was at her side in a flash, and leaned
over her. "Stop being a horse's ass, Cassie and let them take care
of you."
She swallowed hard and nodded gingerly then
opened one eye to look at the tall blonde man she considered a
friend. "Where's Luke?"
Pushing against the bed, Cole stood upright
then shoved a frustrated hand through his hair, anger pulsing from
him like heat from a woodstove. "Not here," he ground out.
She looked into his angry eyes and said in a
hurt whisper, "He really meant it then..."
Her throat went dry and she felt a hot tear
slip down her cheek.
Luke didn't love her anymore...he didn't
even care enough to make sure she was okay.
It was a hard pill
to swallow, and something she couldn't face right now. Turning her
face away from Cole, Cassie pulled the sheet up to her chin and
closed her eyes.
She felt a thumb gently rub her cheek and
then smelled the distinctive woodsy aftershave that Cole wore when
he leaned next to her ear and said fiercely. "He
loves
you,
Cassie. He's just hurt--he'll come around. Trust me, darlin'."
Well if he did, he sure had a fine way of
showing it. No, she had a bad feeling in her stomach that Cole
didn't know his best friend as well as he thought he did. Luke was
sending her a message by not being here. And she'd received it loud
and clear.
***
Luke paced back and forth in front of the
fireplace in his living room. His hair was standing on end from the
many times he'd run his hands through it waiting on Cole to call
and give him an update on Cassie's condition. He wasn't related to
her so the hospital wouldn't tell him anything.
It had been the hardest thing he'd ever done
in his life to leave her in his best friend's care and not go to
the hospital with her. But he'd had to do it. For his own sanity,
he could not keep going on this emotional merry-go-round with
her.
After he and Cole had a long talk about the
situation with Cassie when they got back here last night, his
friend had convinced him to give her another chance. To go after
what he wanted, because obviously their ten year separation had all
been a result of a misunderstanding. By the time they finished
talking, his anger and resentment toward Cassie had subsided, and
he was on board with trying to work things out with her. They'd
even formulated a plan to help him do that. He and Cole were going
into the cattle business together....buying Carl Bellamy's
herd.
Cole's intention was to invest his
inheritance wisely, and Luke's goal was to set himself up where he
made enough money to provide for Cassie properly...to feel like
they were equals financially. Then, Luke planned to sit her down
and explain what happened that night, and see if she apologized for
misjudging him. If she did, he hoped they'd be able to heal the
past and see if there was a future for them. He'd thought maybe
he'd finally be able to ask her to marry him, ten years too
late.
Carl Bellamy agreeing to sell him the herd
when he asked earlier today, meant he was able to check off his
first goal. The man had been more than willing to sell him the herd
and lease him the grazing land he'd need to work them. Truth be
told, the old man looked relieved.
Luke knew that buying the cattle would help
Cassie out and take some of the burden off her shoulders. That had
been part of what drove him to the decision. Her daddy was getting
on in years, and wouldn't be able to run the cattle part of the
operation for much longer anyway. He also knew from his
conversation with Bud and Carl that it was Cassie's dream to raise
horses...not cattle.
His deal with Carl would help her do that
much sooner than if they waited for the calving and sales. Carl and
Bud had both told him that if Cassie was able to start the horse
farm, she was planning on staying in Bowie. News that thrilled him,
and made him determined to make sure she could.
It was like the sun, moon and stars were all
aligning perfectly to help him.