The Cowboy and the Lady (20 page)

He watched her quietly. “Know something?” he asked gently.

She peeked up at him over the rim of the cup. “What?”

He smiled. “I’m going to like having you for a sister-in-law.”

The tears came unbidden and started rolling down her cheeks. It was the last straw. Duncan, dear Duncan, didn’t understand. Jason didn’t want a wife—he wanted a mistress, someone to satisfy his passions but not to share his life. And if he ever did marry, it wouldn’t be Amanda.

“Mandy!” Duncan burst out, aghast at her reaction.

“What relation will you be to his mistress, Duncan?”

she whispered brokenly. “Because that’s all he wants me for!”

She turned and ran out onto the dark patio, leaning over the balustrade while she wept like a child.

Duncan stared after her, only dimly aware that someone was standing beside him.

“What the hell did you say to her?” Jace demanded, his eyes blazing.

Duncan blinked at him. “Too much, I’m afraid,” he said quietly. His eyes searched his brother’s. “I told her I was going to enjoy being her brother-in-law. I guess I jumped the gun, but the way you two have been looking at each other lately, it was a natural assumption.”

The older man’s face hardened. “You’ve got a big mouth,” he said curtly.

“Amen,” Duncan said miserably. He frowned. “Are you serious about her being your mistress?” he asked suddenly, his gaze hard.

Jace’s eyes flashed wildly. “Mistress?” he burst out.

“That’s what she thinks you want,” was the cool reply. “She said you think she’s a gold digger.”

Jace’s eyes closed on a harsh sigh. “Oh, my God.”

“What is it?” Duncan asked curiously.

“History repeating itself,” Jace ground out. But he wasn’t looking at Duncan. His eyes were on the patio through the open doors. He started toward it without another word.

* * *

Amanda brushed at the hot tears, her heart weighing her down. She wanted nothing more than to get on a plane and fly away from Casa Verde forever. She needed her head examined for having agreed to stay until tonight. If only she had been well enough to leave with Bea. Then at least she would have been out of Jace’s way, out of reach of his sarcasm, his contempt. She never should have offered herself to him. The gift of love she’d thought to make him had only lessened his opinion of her. The tears rushed down her cheeks once more. She’d have to stop this. She’d have to stop crying. Somehow she was going to walk back into that party and smile and pretend she was the belle of the ball, and then she was going to get Duncan to take her to the airport…

“It’s quiet out here.”

She stiffened at the slow, deep voice behind her. Her hands gripped the stone balustrade, but she didn’t turn.

“Yes,” she murmured coldly.

She felt rather than heard him move behind her. She could feel the warmth of his body against her back, feel his breath in her hair.

His fingers lightly touched the wispy curls over her shoulders and she tensed involuntarily.

“Amanda…” he began heavily.

“I’m going home,” she said without preamble, brushing away the rest of the tears with the back of her hands. “And you can have the dress back, I don’t want it. Give it to one of your other women,” she added curtly.

“There hasn’t been another woman,” he replied, his voice clipped, measured. “Not since you were sixteen years old and I felt your mouth under mine for the first time.”

She froze against the cold stone. Had she heard him right? Surely her ears were playing tricks on her! She turned around slowly, and looked up into his shadowed eyes. Their silver glitter was just faintly visible in the light from the noisy ballroom.

He rammed his hands into his pockets and glared down at her, his legs apart, his body tall and faintly arrogant in the stance. “Shocked?” he asked shortly. “Are you too innocent to realize that the reason I was so hungry for you was that I hadn’t had a woman in years?”

“Not…for lack of opportunity, surely,” she managed unsteadily.

“I’ve had that,” he agreed, nodding. “I’m rich. Women, most of them, would do anything for money.”

“Some of them must have wanted just you,” she said quietly.

He half smiled. “Desire on one side isn’t enough. I don’t want anyone but you.”

Her eyes searched his in the sudden stillness. Inside, the band was playing a love song, soft and sweet and achingly haunting.

He moved closer, still not touching her, but close enough that she had to look up to see his face.

“Damn it, do I have to say the words?” he groaned out.

Her lips fell open. She hung there, trembling, her eyes like a startled fawn’s, wide and unblinking.

“I love you, Amanda,” he said in a voice like dark velvet, his gaze holding hers, his face taut with barely leashed emotion.

Tears burned her eyes again just before they overflowed and trailed down her cheeks, silver in the dim light.

She lifted her arms, trembling, her lips trying to form words and failing miserably.

He didn’t seem to need them. He reached out and caught her up against his taut body, his arms crushing her to him as his mouth found hers blindly and took it in a wild, passionate silence that seemed to blaze up like a forest fire between them.

Her fingers tangled in the cool strands of hair at his nape, her nails lightly scraping against the tense muscles there, her mouth moaning under his, parting, inviting a penetration that caused her slender, aching body to arch recklessly toward his in blatant sensuality.

“Say it,” he ground out against her mouth, his voice rasping in the darkness.

“I love you, too,” she whispered breathlessly. “Hopelessly, deathlessly…” The rest became a muffled gasp as he kissed her again, his mouth rough and then gentle, tender, as it asked questions and received sweet answers all without a word being spoken.

His mouth slid against her soft, tear-stained cheek to come to rest at her ear, his arms contracting warmly at her back, his breath coming as hard and erratic as her own.

“Let’s get something straight right now,” he whispered gruffly. “When I said you were mine, I meant for life, and I’m going to put two rings on your finger to prove it. Oh, God, Amanda, I want so much more than the pleasure we’re going to give each other in the darkness. I want to share my life with you, and have you share yours with me. I want to hold you when you hurt and dry the tears when you cry. I want to watch you laughing when we play, and see the light in your eyes when we love each other. I want to give you children and watch them grow up on Casa Verde.” He drew back and looked down at her with a light in his eyes that she’d waited for, prayed for. “I love you almost beyond bearing, did you know that? I’ve hurt you because I was hurting. Wanting you, needing you, because you were forever running away. Don’t you think it’s time you stopped?” His arms drew her up closer. “Marry me. Live with me. You’re the air in my lungs, Amanda. Without you, I’d stop breathing.”

She smiled at him through her tears. “It’s that way with me, too,” she managed brokenly. “I want everything with you. I want to give you everything I have.”

“All I want is your heart, love,” he said softly, bending. “I’ll gladly trade you mine for it.”

Her lips trembled as they welcomed his, and the stars went out while she kissed him back as if she were dying, as if they were parting forever and this was the last kiss they would ever share.

She could feel his body taut with longing, feel his heartbeat like muffled thunder against her softness as his hands moved lazily, tenderly on her body and made it tremble with sweet hungers. Her fingers tangled in his black hair and clung, holding his mouth even closer over hers, feeling the smooth fabric of his evening jacket against her bare arms as he shifted her and brought her even closer.

“Are you sure my heart’s all you want?” she whispered unsteadily against his devouring mouth, bursting with the joy of loving and being loved, the newness of possession.

He chuckled softly, his face changed, his eyes soft with what he was feeling. “Not quite,” he admitted. “The only thing that’s saving you right now is that I can’t make love to you here.”

Her teeth nipped lovingly at his sensuous lower lip. “You could take me home and love me.”

“Oh, I intend to,” he murmured with a wicked smile. “But not,” he added, “until I can get Duncan and Mother out of the way for a few days. And that won’t happen until after the wedding, Miss Carson, if I know my mother.”

Her dark eyes laughed up at him, loving him. “Back seats are very popular,” she pointed out.

“Not with me,” he informed her.

“There are motels…”

He looked down his arrogant nose at her and lifted an eyebrow. “Trying to seduce me, Amanda?”

She flushed lightly. “As a matter of fact, I am.”

He studied her soft, slightly swollen mouth, and his arms wrapped around her in warm affection. “You came pretty close to it last night,” he reminded her, letting his darkening eyes drop to the bodice of her gown. “I’ll carry that memory around in my head like the dog-eared picture of you I’ve carried around in my wallet for the past seven years.”

Her eyes widened. “You have a picture of me?”

He nodded. “One Duncan snapped of you, running, with your hair in a glorious tangle and your skirts flying…smiling with the sun shining out of you. I’d like to have you painted like that. My God, it was so beautiful I stole it right out of his room, and felt guilty for a week.”

She managed an incredulous smile. “But why didn’t you just ask him for it?”

“He’d have known why I wanted it.” He brushed his lips gently against her forehead. “Doe-eyes, I’ve loved you for so long,” he whispered. “Even when I told myself I hated you, it was only because I was hurting. Every time you ran, it hurt me more. And then you made that crack about Duncan, the day I got hurt. I’d have done anything to get the truth out of you. I couldn’t live with the thought that he’d touched you the way I wanted to.”

“You kissed me,” she recalled with a lazy smile, reliving that delicious interlude.

“It was like flying,” he said gently, his eyes searching, loving. “Holding you, touching you…I’d waited years, and it was worth every one of them, until I let the doubts seep in again and scare you off. I’ve never trusted women very much, Amanda. It’s been hell learning to trust again.” His hands caressed her back gently.

“I’ll never betray you,” she said firmly. “You’re all I’ll ever want, Jason, despite my mother…”

He silenced her with a quick, rough kiss. “We’ll go to the wedding—would you like that?” he asked curtly. “Amanda, if you were already married, I’d like to think I could keep my hands off you, but I don’t know. I’m not sure I could. Maybe it was like that with your mother.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I never dreamed I’d love you like this,” he said, his eyes narrow. “I never realized how much I did until that night you and Duncan flew back late from New York. I prayed like I’d never prayed, and when you were back and safe all I could do was yell.”

“But you came to me,” she whispered, flushing with the memory.

“And we loved each other,” he whispered back, bending to brush his mouth against hers tantalizingly. “The sweetest, slowest, softest loving I’ve ever known with a woman. The first time between us is going to be like that,” he murmured, holding her eyes, watching the shy embarrassment flush her high cheekbones. “I’m going to take all night with you.”

“Jason!” She hid her hot face against his chest, hearing the hard heavy beat of his heart under her ear.

“I’ll make it beautiful for you,” he whispered, cradling her against him.

“Every time you touch me, it
is
beautiful,” she said breathlessly, her eyes closing. “I do love you so, Jason!”

“Just don’t ever stop,” he murmured. His arms tightened. “Don’t ever stop.”

“
Now
can I tell her how glad I’ll be to have her for a sister-in-law?” came a humorous voice from behind them.

Jace laughed, letting Amanda turn in his possessive arms to face Duncan. “I’ll even let you be the best man,” Jace promised.

“On a temporary basis, of course,” Duncan amended with a wry grin. “Mother’s already planning the wedding. She, uh, happened to pass by the window a couple of minutes ago.”

“You dragged her there, you mean.” Amanda laughed.

“Not dragged, exactly,” the younger man protested. “More like…led. Anyway, when are you going to make it official?”

“In about five minutes,” Jace said, feeling Amanda tense. “Before she changes her mind.”

“That will be never,” she promised over her shoulder, melting at the look in the silver eyes that met hers.

Duncan laughed softly. “I was just remembering back a few years,” he explained, noticing the puzzled looks. “When Amanda was calling you ‘cowboy’ and you were calling her ‘Lady.’ Ironic.”

“She is quite a lady,” Jace murmured, smiling at her, and it was no insult this time.

“And as cowboys go,” Amanda returned, “he’d be my choice to ride the range with.”

“Well, if you two will excuse me, I think I’ll go and have a toast with that cute little Sullevan girl. Uh, you might stay away from that window, by the way.” Duncan grinned as he turned away. “I think Mother’s standing there.”

“Duncan,” Amanda called.

He turned, “Hmmmm?”

“Why did you really ask me down here with Terry? Why did you offer us the account?”

Duncan grinned from ear to ear. “Because when you left here six months ago, I just happened to notice that Jace walked around in a perpetual temper and swore every time your name was mentioned. I figured he had it so bad that a little helping hand might improve his disposition. So I gave your very helpful partner a call.” He looked from one of them to the other. “And they say Cupid carries a bow. Ridiculous. He carries a telephone, of course, so that he can get people together. See you later, big brother,” he added with a wink at Jace.

Jace returned it with a smile, and Amanda saw, not for the first time, the very real affection that existed between the two brothers.

“Feel like breaking the news now?” Jace asked at her ear. “I want to tell them all that you belong to me.”