Satin & Saddles (9 page)

But now she had been unfaithful, fucking the cowboy when she should have been fucking him.

Cameron would pay. Geoff would see to it that Carly would have nothing to do with the cowboy. Once he got through with Cameron, Carly would hate the bastard as much as Geoff did.

It would be simple, really. Geoff smiled grimly. He would enjoy unseating Cameron—he’d never know what hit him.

Geoff started his SUV and backed out from the cover of the tree. He needed to go home and plan his next steps carefully, so that they were foolproof.

He drove the few blocks to the home he’d rented. Carly didn’t know yet just how close he was to her, but she would soon. He pulled his vehicle up to the little house. It was nice enough, but a dump compared to his home in Tucson. He couldn’t wait to get back and out of this shithole. And she would be coming with him.

After he parked, he climbed out of the SUV and slammed the door shut. Like Carly, he’d picked a home set back away from the road with no neighbors. He didn’t need any prying eyes, no one coming over to make small talk and welcome him to the neighborhood.

He walked down the short path to his front door and unlocked it before heading into the house and slamming the door shut behind him. He shot the bolt lock then used his key to secure the additional lock he’d installed on the door. It couldn’t be opened without a key… Keeping in anyone he might not want to allow out and keeping out anyone he didn’t want to come in. Not only did he have the locks, but the door was metal. It was one door that couldn’t be busted down.

He walked into what was now his office in one of the spare bedrooms and sat behind his desk. He booted up his computer and started laying plans for what he intended to do next.

With a smile and the first sense of peace he’d felt all day, he set to work.

Carly woke, wrapped securely in a pair of strong arms, a rigid cock pressed against her backside. She smiled and snuggled more firmly against Dillon. They’d made love twice last night and she couldn’t believe he was so hard once again.

It felt so good being in his arms. Somehow it gave her a sense of security, the feeling of being cared for. His scent seemed to wrap around her, filling her, and his skin was warm against hers.

He adjusted himself so that he was resting on his elbow, slightly above her so that he was looking over her shoulder. He lowered his head and nuzzled the nape of her neck. She sighed and squirmed, desire starting in her all over again.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead.” He brushed hair from her face and kissed her temple. “I’ve got to get back to the ranch. Didn’t want to leave until you woke.”

“Thank you.” She rolled over in his arms and kissed him. “It was so much nicer waking up in your arms than waking alone.”

“I wouldn’t do that to you, darlin’.” He kissed her one more time then eased her out of his embrace. He sat and swung his legs over the side of the bed then got to his feet and looked down at her. “Even if I had to wake you up I wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.”

Smiling, she looked up at him, marveling in his male beauty, appreciation making her sigh. He was so damned gorgeous. His hair was sleep-tousled and he had a day’s stubble. Altogether one hundred percent sexy male.

He held out a hand when she scooted up in bed and he helped her up. When her feet were on the rug beside the bed, he took her into his arms and kissed her one more time.

They took a quick shower together and Dillon grabbed some breakfast to go—Carly gave him a couple of chocolate chip scones from the batch she’d bought at a bakery in Sierra Vista last time she went. He hadn’t planned on being away from the ranch this morning and there were chores to take care of.

He kissed her again before heading out the front door. She stood in the doorway, still wearing her robe, watching him, and she waved when he backed up his truck and left.

With a smile she closed the door behind her and padded back into the kitchen where she poured herself another cup of coffee. She sipped it while reading the news on her laptop to keep up with current events. She might be in the middle of nowhere, but she had a handle on what was going on in the world.

When she finished, she meandered back into her room, a smile still on her face. Her night with Dillon had been amazing. Maybe she should still be concerned about her heart, but with him she wasn’t sure she had to. Her gut told her he was a good man and her heart told her she was already falling for him. So she ignored her mind that seemed to be holding her back when it came to knowing a good thing when she found it.

And Dillon was a good thing.

After she’d dressed in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, and prepared herself for the day, she got busy working on her latest book. This one was a paranormal involving vampires and witches. She sat on her porch trying to concentrate on what she should be doing but her mind kept wandering back to Dillon.

Dillon, Dillon, Dillon. She was going to drive herself crazy thinking about him.

She groaned and rubbed her temples. This wasn’t going to do. She couldn’t allow herself to get so distracted.

With ever ounce of effort she could muster, she shut out the outside world and concentrated on her story. Soon the outside world fell away and she was lost in the middle of witch magic and vampire bloodlust.

Around three in the afternoon, satisfied that she’d gotten in a good day of writing, she saved her document and backed up her hard drive to an external drive. She emailed her doc to a critique partner in Kentucky who she’d been working with for years. They read each other’s work and gave feedback where needed.

When she was finished, she allowed herself to think about Dillon. He’d never fully left her thoughts, but she’d managed to do what she needed to do and have a productive day.

Dillon had said he would call her about getting together another day. He wanted to take her to dinner at the new Italian restaurant in town, or to the steakhouse.

She checked her email, went to her Facebook pages—her author page and her personal page. On her personal page she found a friend request from Geoff. She frowned, wondering if she really wanted him to have insight into her life that she shared with friends and family, and decided for now that she would ignore the request. Maybe later when she’d had a chance to see how things would go with him being around in Patagonia.

A dinging sound told her that she had email. She opened the program and saw Dillon Cameron in the header.

Her heart beat a little faster and she smiled. The message had an attachment. She opened up the email and read virtually the same message he’d sent to her last week. Except that he addressed it to someone else.

Sue,

You look amazing. Had a great time with you the other night and I wish we were together now. Really looking forward to this week when I see you again. I love this picture of us and wanted you to have it.

D

Sue? He’d called her Sue?

A ringing sound started in her head and her skin prickled. She clicked on the attachment and a picture opened up.

It was a picture of Dillon with a beautiful blonde woman who was laughing at the camera. He had his arm around her waist, holding her close.

Carly’s belly clenched and bile rose in her throat. Dillon was seeing another woman.

Anger followed the pain and she was contemplating throwing her laptop across the room. Instead of pitching it she set it aside and picked up a small crystal vase. With everything she had, she flung it at the front door.

It shattered into a thousand crystal fragments that looked like tears sparkling on the floor. Real tears began rolling down her cheeks. She wanted to throw one thing after another at the door but she gripped her hands into fists at her sides

She ignored the broken crystal and ran to her room. She wanted to curl up in bed and cry but that’s where she’d been with Dillon only hours ago.

She turned and ran to one of the guest bedrooms and flung herself on the bed, grabbed a pillow, and hugged it tight to her. One tear after another rolled down her cheeks.

While she lay there she heard her cell phone ring, but she didn’t care who it was. If it was Dillon, he could go to hell.

When she was spent, and her tears had dried, she sat up on the bed and gritted her teeth. She wasn’t the crying type. She wasn’t one to wallow in misery. So what was she doing right now? Exactly that. Well, she’d gotten it out of her system and now it was time to move on.

This morning she had woken to a feeling of peace and security, as if she could be loved and as if she could love in return. A forever kind of love.

Yeah, right. Obviously, that kind of love wasn’t in the cards for her. Being cheated on four times made her one hell of a fool.

She’d made a mistake by letting Dillon into her heart. She’d never make that mistake again, with any man.

Her cell phone rang again and she picked it up and saw Dillon’s number and a sick feeling went through her belly again. She sent the call straight to voice mail. A few moments later the phone beeped, telling her she had a message. Well, she wasn’t going to waste her time listening to whatever the jerk wanted.

After she cleaned up the glass, she got out her laptop to try and get some work done and get her mind off of him. Even as she tried to focus on her writing, thoughts of Dillon kept invading her mind. Their talk yesterday, the time they’d spent together, their night…

Tears burned at the backs of her eyes and she clenched her fists at her sides. She’d been through this enough that she should be able to chuck it over her shoulder and move on. A lesson finally learned?

Hell yes.

She’d rather go through the rest of her life alone than go through heartache like what she’d been through in the past and what she was going through right now. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, this hurt like hell.

As she stared at her document, Dillon called her two more times that day and she sent both calls to voice mail. An email from him also popped into her email program and she deleted it without reading it.

It was late afternoon when she finally gave up working on her next book. In the time since she’d received those emails from Dillon, she’d gotten virtually nothing accomplished.

She closed her laptop and set it aside and started cleaning. She scrubbed her kitchen, did the laundry, and straightened the house.

While she worked, her phone rang another couple of times and she didn’t bother looking to see who it was. She didn’t care and she wasn’t in the mood to talk with anyone.

About seven in the evening there was a knock at her door and her heart started pounding. What if it was Dillon?

She went to the door and looked through the peephole.

It was him.

Anger slashed through her like a knife and she wanted to open the door and scream at him. Instead, she backed away from the door and went to her kitchen where she started scrubbing the countertops again.

He knocked again. “Carly, I’m worried about you,” came his voice. “Are you all right?”

She scrubbed the counters harder. Her phone rang. She ignored it.

Everything went quiet. Then Dillon said, “Your Jeep is here and I heard your phone ring when I just called it. I’m worried about you. If you don’t answer the door I’m going to break in.”

She stared in the direction of the door. He wouldn’t.

“One…”

Damn, he would.

She strode through the kitchen.

“Two…”

She rushed to the door, leaned against it, and shouted, “Go away, Dillon Cameron. I don’t want anything to do with you.”

A moment silence then, “What the hell? Open the door and tell me what’s going on.”

“Just get out of here.”

“Not until you tell me what happened to make you upset with me.”

“Don’t play stupid with me.” She clenched her hands against the door. “You know what you did and you can just go to hell.”

“Carly, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He lowered his voice. “Please open the door and we can talk about whatever it is.”

“No.” She stepped back from the door. “I’ve got things to do. Just get out of my life.”

There was quiet for a moment and then she heard the squeak of the porch followed by the sound of boot steps going down the stairs.

For some reason his resignation made everything hurt even more, which made no sense because of what he’d done to her and how angry she was with him.

But as she heard the sound of his truck start and then the crunch of gravel beneath tires, her heart ached even more and tears rolled down her cheeks.

More than anything right now, she needed to talk with a friend. Keeping this all bottled inside was only making her feel worse by the moment.

She picked up her cell phone and dialed Sabrina’s number.

“I need to talk,” Carly said when Sabrina answered. “Do you have a moment?”

“For you, anytime,” Sabrina said. “You don’t sound good. What’s wrong?”

“Dillon accidentally sent me a picture of himself with another woman and addressed the email to ‘Sue’.” Carly’s throat hurt as she spoke. “He wrote that he was looking forward to seeing her again and some other crap.”

“He did what?” Sabrina said with clear surprise in her voice.

Carly repeated what she’d just said, then added, “When he stopped by, I told him to never bother me again, and that he knows what he did. He acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about.”

 “Are you sure you’re not mistaken?” Sabrina sounded like she was having a hard time believing Carly. “That just doesn’t sound like the Dillon I know.”

“How well do you really know him?” Carly clenched her hand around the phone. “It wasn’t that long ago that you married his brother.”

“You know I lived with Wyatt for a while before we were married,” Sabrina said. “I really thought I’d gotten to know Dillon better. I guess I didn’t.” She didn’t sound convinced as she said the words.

“What I know is all in this email.” Carly shook her head. “And it’s pretty damning.”

“Would you mind forwarding it to me?” Sabrina asked. “It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s just not clicking with me.”