The Wrangler (19 page)

The tears in her eyes made it hard to count out the rest of her winnings. "That's too much. I can't accept—"

"Sure ya can. It's our gift, Howie," Skinny said. "You fit right in, young man. We're fond of ya."

"I'm fond of you, too." A lump lodged in her throat. It had been a long time since she felt as if she belonged somewhere. Now she had friends, a home and Dakota.

Dakota. An incredible tenderness rolled through her like a fast moving summer storm, leaving her weak from the power of it.

Her hand shook as she added a few more greenbacks to the stack. "Tannen, this is the balance due. Two hundred dollars. Hubert's debt is paid."

"You won this one." A sick smile twisted Tannen's mouth as he grabbed the stack of money. "But you and I have a score to settle,
Howie
. No one crosses me."

The threat was drown out by her friends moving in, talking about the match and the discovery of Tannen's cheating. Dakota stayed back, keeping an eye on the unwelcome men heading out the door. He followed them. She did her best to focus on the conversation, but her gaze wouldn't leave him. He stood on the boardwalk in front of the window, keeping an eye on Blue, just in case. He was always there for her. It wasn't only tenderness she felt. It wasn't only gratitude.

He'd given her everything he had. This man, who'd told her he wasn't good for her. No one could be better.

She pocketed her winnings and thanked everyone again. Skinny's jaw was slightly swollen, but it didn't stop him from sitting down to shuffle his cards. Baldy patted her on the back on his way to the bar to ask the owner for another deck of cards.

The night air breezed across her over-heated face when her boots hit the boardwalk. Dakota turned toward her and smiled. She wished they were alone. She wished she could tell him how grateful she was and how she yearned to be close to him. To never let him go.

"I thought Tannen was gonna win." Dewayne stepped out of the shadows. "I'm glad he didn't.

"Thanks, Dewayne." She remembered the way he'd helped her when Dakota had been shot. "You saw the man scaring Blue, didn't you?"

"I was strolling down the boardwalk and minding my own business." He shrugged. "I couldn’t get them to stop, so I ran and fetched Outlaw."

"Dewayne fetched the sheriff, too." Dakota's voice sounded gruff, and he didn't look at her. He untied Blue, held out the reins to her. "I'd better get you home before anything else happens."

"It was an eventful night. Maybe next time I come—"

"Next time?" He arched one eyebrow.

"I can have fun and play with friends."
After the round-up,
she thought. Baldy and the gang had come to mean a lot to her.

"The new mustache is an improvement," Dewayne said, lowering his voice. "What? You didn't think you fooled me, did you?"

"I was hoping I had." Did everyone know? Was she wearing this itchy mustache for nothing?

"You've gotten a lot better since we first met," he informed her. "You're moving more like a man. Besides, most folks in the saloon are too drunk to notice. Most of us usually see what we expect to. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

"Thanks, Dewayne. Good night."

"'Night." He ambled into the saloon. He'd helped her tonight, he'd been there when Dakota had been shot. Dewayne was a good guy. Maybe there were more trustworthy men in this world than she'd first thought.

"How did you know Tannen was cheating?" she asked, mounting up.

"I suspected it the first night we were here, when he was upping the stakes on you. I've seen that technique before." Dakota untied Jack's reins from the hitching post and swung into the saddle. "Tonight, when I realized his men had distracted me to get me away from you, I watched him carefully. I saw him make the switch. He's good, I'll give him that. If I had blinked, I would have missed him sliding the cards from beneath his sleeve."

"He threatened me by saying he would hurt you." She kept alert, watching the shadows along the boardwalk and between buildings, in case Tannen was out there. "Blue and Mindy, too. I had no choice, but then you stepped in. You saved everything."

"Hey, you're my boss. It's my job to help you out." He was cloaked in the night shadows, but the tone in his voice revealed feelings he might think were hidden.

They were not.

Affection filled her up. There was no need for words. They rode in silence beneath a sky strewn with a thousand stars—white, blue, yellow, red. The faint pinpricks of color and light sparkled overhead, as they did every night. Nothing had changed, but her.

Because of Dakota, she was never going to be the same.

 * * *

He was starting to think of this place as home, he realized as they crested the slope that brought the yard, barn and house into sight. That was always risky, in the past that feeling had never lasted. But tonight, the sheriff hardly looked at him. There had been no long, curious looks trying to place him, no head-scratching, nothing.

Maybe his luck really was changing. Finally.

"I'll put the horses up." He dismounted and reached for Blue's reins. "You go in and get some sleep. Tomorrow's a big day."

"I owe you forty-one dollars." She swung down, landing in the dark beside him. "I'll pay you back."

"I'm not worried about it. I've seen you play poker."

"I won't forget what you did for me tonight."

He wanted to believe in the affection he heard in her voice. He wanted her with a need he couldn’t rationalize or explain. "It was nothing you didn't deserve, Kit. I've never met anyone like you."

"Good thing, too." She might be teasing, but he heard what she didn't say. Maybe what she couldn’t. It was hard to open up when you've been guarded for so long.

He knew exactly what that was like. It was why he didn't reach for her when he wanted to.

Blue whickered low in his throat, an affectionate sound, and tried to examine Kit's mustache with his lips. She laughed. "I forget I left it on. No wonder my lip is hot."

She said her goodbyes, leaving him alone. He watered and curried the horses, stabled them with the palomino mare. When he was done, he grabbed his bedroll, pillow and Winchester and dropped them in the grass within eyesight of the corral. With the wild life around, he had to keep an eye on Renegade and her filly. Not to mention possible trouble from the two-legged variety of predators.

"Hey, girl." He leaned his forearms against the corral rails, peering in between the slats. The mare flinched, fear radiated from her. Her nostrils flared as she scented the air, poised to break into a run should he move. She was beautiful, this wild thing. She watched him, taking him in, but her spirit wasn't open to his. Not close to trusting, but curious. She lifted her head, as if she were debating stepping closer, but her ears swiveled and she broke into a hard run to the far reaches of the pen.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt the spell you were putting on her." Kit traipsed closer. "Is there anything you can't do?"

"Sure. Lots of things."

"You tame wild animals. Handle Tannen with ease. You've even made me think that having a man around isn't such a bad thing." Her long hair shimmered, luminescent in the star shine, cascading freely over her breasts, which swayed slightly. She wore no corset beneath her nightgown, and his physical reaction was immediate and strident.

She wasn't making this easy on him. He cleared his throat and kept to the shadows. "Didn't you once say you could take better care of yourself than any man could?"

"I do remember making that statement." She flashed him a sweet smile with dimples, coming ever closer. "But I could have been slightly wrong."

"Only slightly?"

"Slightly is all I'm admitting to." She swayed closer, carting the folded blanket she carried. "I sort of like having you around."

Her soft smile gave her away.

"Sort of, huh?" He felt his mouth twist up in the corners, and he wanted her. Desire surged through him. Yes, he wanted her. He wanted to believe she could always be his. He wanted to be the man she looked up to—just like this. "Why are you out here?"

"It was lonely in the tent. Everyone was asleep." She shook out the blanket and spread it on the grass next to his bedroll. "After everything that happened tonight, I can't settle down and sleep. I thought we could talk until I start to get sleepy."

"Talk." That wasn't what he wanted to do with her. He swallowed hard, trying not to shatter with need.

"I know you like being a mystery, but where did you come from, Dakota Black?" She sat down and patted the blanket beside her.

"I was born and raised in Virginia." That one truth felt torn out of him. He didn't want to admit that much. He didn't want the past to find him, the way it always had, destroying anything he'd tried to build. He had to believe it might be different now.

Maybe because he cared about her. Maybe this time the sheriff wouldn't remember. There would be no one visiting from his hometown or no one who recognized him from the newspaper long ago. Maybe this time around he wouldn't talk during a nightmare and be overheard. He had to hope. Hope was all he had left. Losing her would be to lose everything.

"Virginia? That explains it." She sparkled up at him. "Your gentlemanly charm."

"I have charm?" He settled down next to her.

"More than you realize."

Her tender words teased his poor lonely heart, making him wish, making him dream. Heck, he had no more will. She shattered it, cracked it into little pieces.

"I don't know what happened to you." She framed his face with both hands. "I can see someone hurt you once."

"Hurt me?" Muscles worked in his jaw, a struggle between holding in and letting go. "Worse. Someone couldn’t see the man I was. The man I am."

"I can." Her gaze turned luminous, unprotected, as if she were opening to him completely. "I don't know much about you, but I see the good in you. It's all I see."

She defeated him. Her words touched him where he was most vulnerable. Emotion shot through him and he hauled her against him. His mouth covered hers with an urgency he couldn't control. She clutched his shirt, clinging to him. She kissed him with a matching need, the satin heat of her lips caressing his own.

This had to be a dream. He deepened the kiss, and she opened to him with a soft moan. The sound fractured him, and he lifted his lips from hers, pressing her back onto the blanket with him.

"I've never been like this—" she whispered. Although it was too dark to see, he could hear the shyness in her voice.

"Me, either." His lips brushed hers, speaking instead of kissing. He ran a hand along her face, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "I've never let anyone this close."

"Or me." Her hand trailed up his throat to rest against the line of his jaw. Comforting and claiming and tender all at once. "I'm glad it's you."

He brushed soft tendrils from her face, searching her eyes to make sure she wanted more. Her answer, silent and sure, came as her lips found his, her free hand resting on his shirt.

Nothing he'd known had ever compared with kissing her in the night. Her fingers twining in his hair, pulling him closer to her and he covered her more completely with his body. There was no way to hide his rock-hard shaft pressing into her stomach. He felt her intake of breath, perhaps startled by the feel of it but her kiss became a smile.

And he smiled, too.

There was no need for words as they kissed under the stars. Every stroke, every kiss, every sigh deepened the connection he felt for her. He went slow, his lips stroking and nipping hers with excruciating pleasure along the curve of her chin, the line of her throat and the hollow between her collarbones.

"Maybe this is as far as you want to go." He eased up on one elbow, breathing hard. "I want to make you promises, Kit. Swear to you I'll never leave. But I can't."

"That's okay. One day you will trust me enough to tell me why." She pressed her mouth against his neck, tasting salt and hot male skin. "Right now there's only one promise I need."

"What's that?"

"To be gentle with me."

"You can count on that." He slipped one hand beneath her nightshirt. His breathing hitched, proof of how much he wanted her as his hand swept slowly across her belly, rising higher with each half-circle.

 It was the dark flash of caring in his eyes that held her captive, more than his touch, more than the addictive pleasure as his fingertips feathered over her breasts. She held her hand to his whiskered jaw, locked in his gaze. When he lowered his mouth to hers, she shivered, soul deep.

Her pulse skipped two beats when she felt her buttons give. He pushed the fabric away, exposing her breasts to the night air. He studied her, drinking in the sight as if she were the most awe-inspiring thing he'd ever seen. She shivered in anticipation as he lowered his mouth to her nipple. The first tug of sensation coiled tight from breast to womb. She wound her fingers through his hair, holding him to her. She wanted more of this, more of him. As if of its own accord, her body strained, arching against the press of his arousal. She parted her thighs, bringing that part of him against her. A moan tore from her throat at the contact. Sharp, spiraling pleasure throbbed through her.

He rose up to shuck off his shirt and trousers.
Wow
, she thought, mesmerized by the impressive sight. Not sure how that was going to fit, but she decided not to worry about it. She had other things on her mind. Like the way he skimmed her drawers over her hips and down her legs. She quivered, naked before him. She'd always thought she would be too embarrassed to lay like this before anyone, but with Dakota it felt natural, comfortable, utterly safe.

He stretched over her, between her thighs, to press a soft kiss to her stomach. His hands stroked over her hips and then
oh
, lower. Her toes curled at the exquisite caress, there, where she'd gone wet for him. His fingers parted her, and with each stroke, a fire began burning inside her. Her hips rose from the ground, her hands fisted in the blanket and she cried out for him. She needed that part of him, she needed his weight over her, pressing her down.