Rancher at Risk (13 page)

Hadn’t she told him much more than she should have the day they hiked the trail? She needed to stay away from personal issues with Ryan. From telling him about her past. From Ryan himself.

And that was exactly why she had gone out with Jack tonight.

Dinner with him hadn’t been a much bigger step than one of their dessert dates—unless you counted the fact that she’d accepted that dinner invitation as the means to avoid thinking of another man.

They hadn’t made it past the appetizers before her mind raced right back to the ranch.

“You said, ‘Tony, for one,’” she repeated. “Who else stopped in?”

“Ellamae and Judge Baylor. They were telling me there’s a party at the community center next week. We should go.”

Suspicion flared again. “I don’t think attending a party together is quite the same thing as a couple of working buddies going out for coffee, do you?”

“It depends on the party. Practically all the folks in town will be at this one. I see it as a business function, a good chance to do some public relations work for the school.”

And a good chance to show everyone, but especially Ryan, how well she could handle that part of her job.

He did seem very businesslike tonight. No smiling. No flirting. No attempts to get closer. No touching…

Still, uneasiness ran through her. She shrugged and said finally, “It does sound like a good PR opportunity.” Through the thin fabric of her evening bag, she held on to the hard rectangle of her cell phone and considered.

They could keep things businesslike. Professional. They could keep their hands off each other and themselves to themselves. And at the Flagman’s Folly Community Center…in the middle of a crowd…what could happen?

She lifted her chin. “A business function?”

“Right.”

“A simple night out together?”

He nodded. “And a chance to get to know each other better.”

“Like when you go to the bar with Tony and the cowboys?”

“Yeah. Just like that.”

“And ‘just like that’ doesn’t involve kissing, does it?”

When his eyes went wide, she couldn’t keep from laughing.

“No, it damn well doesn’t.” One side of his mouth went up in a smile. “So, what do you say?”

* * *

A
LL
WEEK
LONG
, he’d looked forward to this night.

All week long, Lianne had kept reminding him this was a business deal. A chance to get to know one another.

Tables had been set at the back of the Flagman’s Folly Community Center, filled with food and drinks. Most of the food had long ago disappeared, but there was still plenty of punch left. Lianne edged around the dance floor and headed toward the tables.

Ryan followed.

He couldn’t have described one blamed thing in the room, even after hours spent in the place. He’d been too focused on Lianne. Tonight she’d dressed up for
him.
He couldn’t help the swelling of pride in his chest—or the sudden tightness in his jeans.

Her ruffled blouse hid the curves he’d seen in the bathroom mirror and in the yard the morning she’d gone through her exercise routine. But the color of the blouse brought out the blue of her eyes—a trade-off he had no trouble accepting.

As tired as he’d felt from a long day and a longer week, the sight of her colorful skirt flipping around her knees energized him enough to make him hurry across the room behind her. Made him fool enough to act as if he were a sugar-craving filly and she held a sugar cube on her palm, just out of reach.

Out of
his
reach, for sure.

He slowed to a crawl and, this time, gave himself the reminder.

Business.

Hell, Caleb wasn’t here tonight—wasn’t even in town—to see what his new foreman got up to. But word would get back to him if that foreman did something inappropriate with the project manager at the Memorial Day party.

Ryan had his reputation to protect. And Lianne’s.

Double the reason to be on his best behavior.

Lianne scooped punch, filling several plastic glasses. He frowned and then saw Ellamae and Roselynn had just come up to the drinks table.

From the other direction, Lianne’s sister and brother-in-law approached. When Lianne had introduced Kayla and Sam earlier, Sam had made a point of saying they had a son on the way.

Another month or so yet, he had guessed, which Lianne later confirmed.

“We’re heading out,” Sam said now.

“Are you okay?” Lianne asked Kayla.

“Yes. Just tired.”

“Better get her home,” Ellamae said.

“And to bed,” Roselynn added.

“That boy of yours, too.” Ellamae again.

“I’m planning to,” Sam agreed. “Ready, Kayla?”

“Yes. I’ll text you tomorrow.”

Kayla said this last bit to Lianne, who had missed most of the rapid-fire conversation. He frowned, watching her say goodbye to her family.

“Well,” Ellamae said to him, “I’m glad your thinking brought you here tonight. I thought it might. Having a good time?”

“Yeah.” And he was.

“I thought that, too.” She grinned. “Told you this would be a good chance for you.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“To talk up the school,” she added.

He nodded shortly. Her sharp-eyed stare must have missed the downside of the evening.

A few times when he and Lianne had been able to talk to some of the folks in the crowded room, he’d seen how she struggled to follow conversations, just as she had a minute ago. Maybe when things like that happened, she shrugged them off. Maybe she took them in stride. Yet the times when her eyes had met his afterward, he’d seen something he couldn’t quite figure out.

Ellamae and Roselynn walked off. Kayla and Sam had already crossed the room. He turned back to Lianne.

She stood alone by the punch table, staring off toward the doorway Kayla and Sam had just gone through. Or maybe at the couple dancing. Or just into space.

He couldn’t figure that out, either, but he had a feeling when she looked at him again, he’d see that same damn look in her eyes. And he didn’t know what to do about it.

He ran his free hand through his hair, turned to toss his empty punch cup away, and turned back.

Lianne hadn’t moved.

Damn the best behavior.
He grabbed her hand.

She looked up at him, her brow creased.

Before he could decide if he’d made a wise move—and he probably hadn’t—before he could wonder if she’d want to dance with him—and she certainly wouldn’t—before he could change his mind…he had stepped into the flow of dancers.

And the DJ had changed the music.

The beat had gone from loud, frenetic rock with a heavy bass to a slow ease-them-out-the-door ballad. He stood in the middle of the dance floor with Lianne, who couldn’t hear the singer’s voice.

Stepping in close, he wrapped his free arm around her. With his chin nearly brushing the top of her head, he smiled.

Just what were the chances she’d let him lead?

* * *

B
USINESS,
L
IANNE
REMINDED
HERSELF.

But how could she think about that when Ryan had his arm wrapped around her? When he wore a Western shirt that made his hazel eyes so blue?

He shifted the hand he held around her waist. She looked up.

“You okay?” he asked.

Now was the time to step away. To make it clear this was strictly business.

But she had come here tonight to show him—and everyone—how well she could handle herself. How could she let him think she couldn’t manage something as simple as a dance?

“Yes,” she said, looking down, using the sight of his broad, solid chest to help her focus on controlling her breath the way she did with her yoga postures.

She had already fumbled a couple of times tonight, had gotten lost in conversations, had struggled to read more than a few people. It happened.

But it had happened much more often than usual, because she’d been too aware of Ryan watching her. Assessing her?

His fingers moved restlessly at the small of her back. Slowly, she raised her gaze.

He smiled.

She had no control over the way her heart fluttered at the change that brought to his face. With all the time they’d spent arguing, going toe to toe, she hadn’t seen a smile like that often. But when she had, she’d noted every step of the transformation, just as she noted it now. The tiny grooves dimpled the skin on either side of his mouth. The cleft in his chin deepened. The skin around his eyes crinkled.

She wanted him to smile that way again, for her alone.

But if he did, she would never be able to resist…anything.

Business,
she told herself yet again.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and inhaled the delicious scent of his aftershave. On their ride here, she had added that scent to her mental wish list.

Cradled in his arms, she knew she’d already gotten the wish she had made last week.

All through dinner at the Double S with another man, her thoughts had drifted back to the ranch. To Ryan. He was the man she wanted to be with. The man she really wanted to get to know.

He stopped moving. She opened her eyes and looked across the empty dance floor.

Then she glanced up at him. He was smiling down at her again.

Business,
she warned herself.

Or pleasure?

* * *

T
HANK
HIS
LUCKY
STARS,
she’d taken him to her bed.

His suggestion to go to the party hadn’t been designed to get him here. He’d swear that on his custom-made saddle.

But after their turn on the community center’s dance floor and their good-night interlude in the living room, he’d been more than ready to follow when she led him toward the stairs.

Now he was ready to kiss her, to hold her, to go on to whatever happened from there—and he wanted everything to go right.

She wanted to chat.

He bit back a smile. At least they weren’t quite talking about the weather, the way she had the day of their hike. So far she had covered her sister’s family, which was what had brought her to Flagman’s Folly originally, her previous trips here, how much the environment had surprised her and how she liked to do her yoga at sunrise.

Oh, yeah, on that one.
He shifted on his elbow and smiled down at her. He reckoned her chatting came from nerves, and her nerves came from having some experience but not enough to make her treat this like just another roll in the hay. He appreciated the honor.

She wasn’t just another woman for him, either. The thought caused a funny tight feeling in his chest.

“I had only seen pictures of the Southwest before I came to visit Kayla and Becky,” she went on. “Other than cities, I’d expected to find nothing here but desert. Do you remember the trail?”

As if he could forget. He nodded.

“I’ve gone back there a couple of times. We didn’t climb high enough—” She paused, as if recalling what had ended their day, then rushed on. “Not far past the picnic bench, there’s a bridge that spans the stream. On the opposite bank, there’s an open space among the trees. It catches the light when the sun comes up.”

She laughed softly, that throaty chuckle he’d learned to look forward to hearing.

“These will sound like the worst cliches you’ve ever heard,” she went on, “but the sun rising in a place like that really makes it feel like a shrine. Or a temple. And pine needles really do make a soft carpet. It’s so beautiful there.”

He ran his finger along her soft cheek. “You’re beautiful.”

Her eyes gleamed. “It’s quiet there, too.”

“Quiet?”

“I know. That sounds funny to you. I can’t hear, so what do I know about quiet. But…I use my eyes all day long. To read signs and lips and faces. To catch movements and gestures so I’m aware of what’s happening around me. And for reading and the computer, of course. Sometimes all that visual stimulation wears me out.”

Smiling, he ran his fingertips along her jawline. “I’m hoping to wear you out. But with another kind of stimulation.”

He kissed her as thoroughly and completely as he knew how. And then he went back for more.

A while later he rolled over and reached up to turn off the bedside lamp. She put her hand on his arm. When he looked over his shoulder at her, she shook her head. He shrugged, rolled back again and took up where they’d left off.

It had been a long time since he’d made love with the lights on, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him.

A buzzing noise suddenly filled the room.

Lianne looked up, a smile on her lips. He lowered his head and took her mouth again. This kiss went on and on.

So did the buzzing.

He brushed his jaw lightly against her petal-smooth cheek, as if he could brush the noise away.

It kept going. What the hell
was
it?

He raised his head, followed the sound across the room and found the source. Her cell phone, its screen brightly lit, nearly danced as it vibrated on the dresser.

Lianne hadn’t noticed. He ignored it, smiled and kissed her again. The text or the email, whatever it was, would get saved.

The phone continued to vibrate, one message following another following another.

He slid his hand from her cheek to her jaw to her shoulder. Then he froze.

Damn. That thought he’d had—
Lianne
hadn’t noticed.

It had flashed into his mind, and he’d just as quickly let it go by.

He rested his palm on the pillow beside her head. From where she lay, she couldn’t see the light of the phone’s screen. From anywhere in the room, she wouldn’t hear the vibration of the plastic casing against the wood of the dresser.

He couldn’t ignore the buzzing any longer. He couldn’t
not
give her the option of answering the damned thing. Of jumping on the excuse to call things—call
them—
to a halt, if she wanted one.

And it seemed she did. When he pointed, she turned her head and saw the light from the phone. She slipped from the bed and padded across the room.