Chapter Six
Fire simmered in Rick’s gut. He clenched his jaw as he watched Lani dancing with Sal, her face flushed and her eyes bright. Watched her smile and blush at something Sal said. She was obviously enjoying being with him. She’d barely been giving Rick the time of day, yet there she was, dancing too damn close to his friend.
He’d studied Lani a while before she noticed him, and then their eyes locked. Until Sal said something in her ear.
Even though Rick knew he wasn’t thinking clearly, at that moment he would’ve liked nothing better than to smash his fist into Sal’s jaw. With grim determination, he tossed his Stetson onto a hat rack, then moved through the dancers until he was behind Sal. Lani was looking to the doorway, where he’d been standing.
He touched Sal’s shoulder, trying to not look like he was ready to kill him. His friend looked up and with a nod, let Rick cut in. Lani turned her gaze back from the door just as Rick replaced Sal, and her jaw dropped.
“Rick,” she said, her eyes wide.
“May I cut in?” he murmured, studying those incredible dark brown eyes. “Or do you prefer Sal’s company?”
“No. I mean yes.” Lani shook her head and turned a pretty shade of pink. “Yes, I would like to dance with you, and no I don’t prefer Sal’s company.”
“Good.” He smiled and eased his hands around her waist. “I’d hate to be out here all alone.”
The song ended, but they remained at the center of the floor as a mellow tune began. Rick drew Lani to him, her head under his chin, her body close to his.
She pulled away enough that she could look up at him. “I don’t know if this is a good idea.” Her voice was low and trembling.
“Trust me.” Rick leaned close to whisper in her ear. “It’s a great idea.”
She remained stiff in his embrace as they moved in time with the music, but gradually she relaxed, her head against his chest, his arms secure around her. He drank in the scent of her, reveled in the feel of her soft body against his. The swell of her breasts against his chest, the curve of her waist beneath his hands. Her hips and thighs were so close to his he was all but making love to her on the dance floor.
Well, hell
. Damn if he wasn’t getting rock-hard just dancing with her. He muttered another curse under his breath and eased away from her as the song ended and the band stopped to take a break.
“Did you say something?” she asked as they parted.
He took a deep breath and willed his body to behave. “Would you like a cold one?”
She nodded, her honey-blonde hair brushing her shoulders.
Rick put his hand to her elbow and guided her to the buffet tables. “Looks like the folks are getting ready to leave with Trevor.” He inclined his head toward where his parents stood talking to Stan and Marnie Torres, and their son Bobby. Sadie was holding her empty enchilada tray and Trevor was showing Bobby his snake rattle.
“Would you like to stay?” Rick asked, hoping she’d say yes. “I’ll drive you home.”
Lani glanced at him for a second before looking away. Was that fear mingled with desire in her eyes? “I should be getting back with everyone else.”
“Why?” Rick tilted his head and gave Lani that sexy smile that made her toes curl and her insides melt into pools of liquid silver. “Afraid of being alone with me?” His tone was low and husky.
Lani sighed. “Yes. I am.”
“Don’t be.” He took her hand, his incredible blue eyes looking at her like they were the only people who existed. “I’ll be the perfect gentleman.”
“I know. But…” Her heart pounded as she glanced toward his parents. “It’s late.”
He squeezed her hand, sending shivers throughout her body. “The dance won’t last much longer. I promise to take you right home.”
“Are you two staying?” Sadie asked as she came up behind them.
Lani jumped and snatched her hand away from Rick, and was sure she managed to turn ten shades of red for the umpteenth time.
“I was just convincing Lani to stay,” Rick said, never taking his eyes from Lani.
Lani glanced from Sadie to Rick. “Maybe a little longer,” she replied, despite her misgivings. “But not too long. I—I’m worn out from all this dancing.”
“Wonderful.” Sadie patted Lani’s arm and smiled. “We’ll leave the light on.”
“Thanks,” Lani murmured as Rick laced his fingers with hers and led her to the buffet.
He released her to ladle punch into a plastic cup and then handed it to her. She accepted it, her hand trembling a little as she swallowed the drink that tasted of pineapples and sherbet. When she finished, he tossed their cups into the garbage, then led her onto the dance floor.
A song with a fast beat was playing, and she said, “I just learned to dance to country western tonight, so I’ll probably stomp on your toes a few times.”
He smiled and slid his arm around her waist. “You can step on my toes all you want.”
“Stomp.” Lani gave a mischievous grin as they started to two-step. “I figure I owe you.”
Rick chuckled. “Thanks for the warning.”
By the time they’d danced to a couple of songs, she was relaxed and enjoying herself. Rick was an excellent dancer and teacher, even better than Sal, and she managed to only stomp on his boots two or three times.
At the end of one particularly fast number that she’d had a hard time learning, Lani was laughing so hard she stepped on Rick’s foot and she almost fell. He caught her and slid his arms around her waist. Her laughter died in her throat as the lights dimmed and a slow tune started, and she saw the look in Rick’s eyes. So intense. Burning with desire. For her.
She tried to back away, but he held her tight. “I—I’m all sweaty, Rick.”
“So am I.” He moved his lips to her ear and murmured, “Just relax and enjoy the dance.”
Lani nodded, the top of her head brushing his chin. She allowed him to hold her snug against him and rested her head against his chest. Rick felt solid and warm, his masculine scent so earthy, so potent to her senses.
His breath feathered her hair as her body merged with his and the heat of his body burned through her blouse. Her nipples ached as they brushed against his chest and a low thrill settled between the junction of her thighs.
If she wasn’t mistaken, he was very attracted to her, judging by his erection against her hip. Heat rose in her cheeks and she was glad he couldn’t see her face. Despite his obvious desire, she didn’t feel threatened. Deep within she knew he wouldn’t push her. He could have the one time they’d kissed—but he’d been the one to back away.
When the song ended, Rick lifted his head and lightly caressed her shoulders. “Ready to head on home?”
“Yes.” Lani let him take her hand and he linked his fingers with hers and smiled.
He plucked his cowboy hat off the hat rack as they left. A single light illuminated the small parking lot as he led her to his truck. Gravel crunched underfoot and music from the clubhouse filled the night. He opened the passenger door and helped Lani in, then closed the door behind her before getting in on his side and starting the vehicle.
Lani studied Rick in the amber glow of the dashboard lights as they headed back to the ranch. She was fascinated by the strength of his arms as he drove, the dark hair curling from his wrist along his forearm. His masculine profile, his strong jaw.
Yearning curled in Lani’s belly. It was more than lust. It was the desire to be wanted, needed and loved.
No. She knew better than to start thinking that way.
Warmth crept over her when he caught her watching him. “I had a great time,” she said, her voice slightly husky.
He reached across the seat to squeeze her hand, his touch electrifying her.
Releasing Lani’s hand to take the wheel, he brought his attention back to the road and the short drive to the Turner Ranch. When they drove up to the house, Roxie bounded out to the driveway. Rick parked the truck and Lani climbed out, only to be waylaid by the Rottweiler snuffling her greeting over the seat of her pants.
“Gee, thanks,” Lani muttered. “Just what these jeans needed. Dog slobbers.”
With a soft laugh, Rick came up beside her and leaned down to scratch the dog behind her ears. “Roxie’s a regular slobber monster.”
Rick took Lani’s hand before she could get away from him, and they walked hand in hand to the front door. He stopped beside the screen door, leaned against a pillar, and brought Lani into his embrace. “You drive me crazy, woman.”
She relaxed for a moment and then looked up at him. “I’m only going to be here a few weeks.”
He didn’t bother to answer. Instead he lowered his face, slow enough that she could turn away if she didn’t want what he was offering.
“Rick,” she whispered before he kissed the corner of her mouth and she sighed. He lightly nipped at her lower lip and she gave a little moan. She smelled of honeysuckle and her own unique woman’s scent and he wanted her so badly now it was all he could do to rein himself in.
He slipped his tongue into her mouth and she readily took him. He enjoyed Lani’s sweet taste mixed with the pineapple flavor of the sherbet punch she’d had before they left the dance. She leaned into him, her arms gripping his biceps like she was hanging on for dear life.
Damn but he wanted to palm her firm breasts, to suck them into hard peaks while he slid between her thighs. How could he keep his hands off her, as badly as he wanted her?
Lani suddenly pulled away, her lips parted and moist from his kiss, her eyes glittering in the dim light. “I can’t do this, Rick,” she said as she released him and backed away.
He hooked his thumbs in the belt loops of his Wrangler jeans. “Do what, Lani? Kiss?”
Even in the near darkness he could see a dark flush staining her cheeks. “A casual relationship. I’m just not a casual kind of gal.”
“And I’m not a casual kinda guy.” Rick tried to step toward Lani but she stepped back. “All right, darlin’. First things first. Let’s get to be friends and see if it takes us anywhere. Is that fair?”
“Friends.” Lani raked her hair away from her face. “O-okay.”
Rick held the screen door open. “Have you thought about dinner with me?”
“No.” Avoiding his eyes, she ducked past him and entered the house.
He shut the door carefully, keeping it from slamming. “Why not?”
Lani watched Rick kick off his boots and toss his hat onto the rack. “It’s not a good idea.”
“You keep saying that.” He caught her hand and pulled her to him. “But I haven’t heard a single good reason. We can go as friends.”
Lani studied her pink-painted toenails, struggling to calm her raging desires. She had to remember why she couldn’t develop a relationship with him.
He lifted her chin with his finger, forcing her to look into his azure eyes. “What does it take to cross your border, Lani?”
With a slight shiver, she stepped back and pulled her hand away from him. “This border is closed. Indefinitely.”
Rick smiled and gazed at her with a look that turned her heart inside out. “I can wait.”
* * * * *
Douglas had seen its better days, at least three decades ago. Memories from Rick’s childhood flickered through his mind like a series of postcards as he sauntered toward the place that had once been the town’s only drugstore.
The building had changed—hell, the whole town had changed—since those times he’d perched next to his father at the drugstore counter, drinking a malted milkshake. Every Saturday when he was a kid it’d been their routine, when the man who fathered him was still around.
Smoke and sour beer filled his nostrils as he stepped into the dim recesses of Mario’s Cantina, the drugstore-turned-bar. He waited for his eyes to adjust, and forced himself to focus on the upcoming meeting with Jorge Juarez, a flighty contact he’d been developing.
The seedy tavern/discothèque bore no resemblance to that sunny milkshake bar of Rick’s childhood. Bright red and chrome chairs had been replaced by black vinyl bar stools, cracked with neglect and pitted by cigarette burns. It was mid-afternoon, and the only denizens were a couple of habitual barflies he recognized from previous visits, who crouched on stools and nursed beers.
Rick slid into a corner booth where he could keep an eye on the front door, yet remain close enough to the bar’s back room, so that he could slip out the rear door if necessary. He laid one hand on the scarred tabletop, the waxy buildup under his palm a good indication the surface hadn’t received a decent scrubbing in a long time.
The waitress was new, younger than the woman who normally worked the day shift. With a practiced eye for detail, he sized her up in one glance—young and accustomed to using her body to get what she wanted.
Not much over five feet, she wore a tight blouse, unbuttoned just far enough to expose the tops of her full breasts. Her skirt stopped at her upper thighs and hugged her hips so high that little was left to the imagination. Black hair flowed to the middle of her back, and she’d applied her makeup with a heavy hand. If Rick didn’t know better, if he hadn’t noticed the fine lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth, he would’ve wondered if the woman was old enough to be employed in the bar.
She tossed her hair back and stood with one hand on her hip and her breasts pushed forward. “A drink?”
He nodded. “Give me a beer.”
Within a couple of minutes, the waitress returned with a hefty mug and slid it in front of him, her rows of gold bracelets clattering as she moved. She stood so close, he could smell the cheap perfume she wore. “You are alone?”
“Yeah.” With his drink in his left hand, Rick leaned back in the seat and felt his gun dig into his lower back. Out of habit, he kept his right hand close to his hip, within reach of the weapon concealed beneath an unbuttoned denim shirt that he wore over his T-shirt.
“Mari!” a man shouted from the back room.
The woman called Mari scowled but managed to brush one hip against Rick as she turned away. Amusement flickered within him at the not-so-subtle message.
His thoughts turned to Lani and he smiled. Damn, but she’d felt good in his arms when they’d danced. Too bad he’d had to work so late last night before dropping by the clubhouse. He would’ve liked nothing better than to have been with her the whole evening. She was fighting it, but he knew she was attracted to him. He could see it in her eyes, and the way she watched him when she didn’t think he was looking.
He glanced at his watch, and just as he wondered if his contact would show, Juarez slunk in through the open door.
With a nervous glance around the bar, the slight man hurried to Rick’s booth.
“Juarez.” Rick took a sip of his beer.
The man answered in Spanish, his black gaze darting around the room. “This is too dangerous. I could be killed.”
“Tell me what you know,” Rick replied in the same language, keeping his voice level and never taking his eyes off his informant. The man owed him too much to back out now.
Juarez shifted in his seat. “The smuggler is someone who has long been known in this town. I do not yet know his name, but I am afraid. I’ve heard too many stories of how he deals with those who cross him.”
“What do you know?” Rick repeated as he saw Sal Valenzuela and Don Mitchell walk into the cantina. Neither man did more than glance in Rick’s direction before taking seats at a table in the far corner of the bar. Both knew better than to acknowledge Rick and take the chance of disrupting his work.
Juarez licked his lips. “This man. He owns a business and has many friends. Few enemies because no one knows what he truly is.” He clenched his fist, and his dark features contorted, but he kept his voice low. “A monster who cares little if the people he smuggles die. Like they are nothing more than animal skins to lay upon the floor and trample.”
Rick gripped the handle of his still full beer mug. “I can’t bring back Maria, but I can bring this scum to justice. What else have you got?”
“One of the
coyotes
called him
El Torero
,” Jorge whispered. “The matador, a killer. I am very afraid,
amigo
.”
“What else?”
“
Nada
.”
The tap of heels on the scored linoleum alerted Rick to Mari’s return. Before Rick could thank him, Juarez slipped out the front door to vanish into the hot summer afternoon.
Mari stopped at Rick’s booth and pressed her pelvis to the edge of the table. “Do you need anything else?” The brazen look in her eyes told him exactly what she meant.
He stood, towering over the petite woman. “No thanks.” He dropped a ten on the table and headed out the door.
Later that evening, when Rick arrived home, he was disappointed to find Lani wasn’t back from her interview. He hadn’t realized how much he’d been looking forward to seeing her.
When he climbed into the shower, he ran it as hot as possible, cleaning the day’s grime from his body. All he could think of was Lani. That kiss the night they met and then the one after the dance. The flames that raged beneath her skin and set him on fire.
He had to switch the water from hot to cold. That or take care of business in the shower. Again.
After he’d gotten it about as cold as he could take, he finished up then toweled off. His thoughts never strayed from Lani, and his cock was standing at attention as he squared off in front of the mirror to comb his hair. He was buck naked when the door opened and Lani walked into the bathroom.
She froze, her gaze riveted below his waist and the erection he still had from thinking about her. Her eyes shot up to his face and she turned a deep shade of crimson.
Rick raised an eyebrow, and tried to hide a grin.
“Oh, my god,” Lani said with a horrified expression. “I—I’m so sorry.” She backed out the door and shut it behind her, and then he heard her own door close across the hall.
Rick dressed in clean jeans and a T-shirt, and felt a whole lot better—not to mention a whole lot more turned on after Lani had walked in on him. He was still smiling when he walked into the kitchen and saw Lani at the table. She had her gold-rimmed glasses on that managed to make her look even sexier.
He hitched one shoulder up against the door frame and just watched her as she scribbled notes into a notebook. A strand of golden hair fell across her forehead and her lips were pursed as she concentrated. Her nipples were hard beneath her pink blouse and he wondered if she was thinking about seeing him naked.
“Rick.” She glanced up from her notebook and turned red again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear the shower and I expected it to be locked if it was occupied.”
He gave her a lazy smile, taking in her curves and sensual lips. “No problem.”
“Another tough day?” She seemed desperate to change the subject.
“Yeah, but it’s been getting better by the minute.” He winked.
Biting her lip, she grabbed her notebook and recorder from the table and pushed back her chair to stand. “Do you have time for our interview?”
“I always have time for you, darlin’.” Rick moved away from the wall and stepped so close to Lani that she had to look up to see his face.
She placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her velvety brown eyes as if she was angry. “Listen, cowboy. You’d better behave.” But he saw the warmth and humor that warred with her desire to keep him at a distance.
“Come on outside, and I’ll show you Mom’s goldfish pond.” He jerked his head toward the front door. “We can sit in the swing, and you can ask whatever you’d like.”
She hesitated, then nodded. In comfortable silence, they walked through the house and out the front doors, and then the short distance to the pond.
The sky was overcast and the air was muggy and warm, the sun just settling above the Mule Mountains. Cattails and flowers sprouted from Sadie’s pond, and lily pads floated on the surface. Rick and Lani stopped before the small waterfall that tumbled into the pond, and water splashed over their shoes.
Lani knelt beside the pond. “I didn’t know goldfish grew to be that large.”
Rick squatted next to her and pointed to an almost translucent fish speckled with bluish-black. “That one and the black with gold stripes are Japanese koi.”
“This is all gorgeous.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “I love it here on the ranch. So relaxing and peaceful. What a difference from living in the city.”
With his head cocked to one side, Rick studied her. All he could think of was how much he’d wanted her from the time he caught her watching him in the Chinese restaurant. This wasn’t a woman to simply enjoy sex with. This was a woman to spend a lifetime with.
“Think a city girl like you could get used to living in the country?” he asked.
“Who knows.” Lani seemed oblivious to the desire that burned beneath his words, beneath his skin. She shrugged and stood. “I’ve only been here a few days, but I think I could easily fall in love with this part of the world. Though I’d probably miss shopping in the Embarcadero and going to the wharf for clam chowder and sourdough bread.” She ran her tongue along her lower lip, and it was all he could do to keep from leaning over and kissing her.
Rick more than liked the thought of Lani staying in Arizona. “Thinking about moving away from Frisco?”
Lani didn’t answer for a moment, as if deciding how much she should say. “Before I left, I considered moving to Tucson, but I wasn’t sure if I would like Arizona. Now that I’m here, I know I would, and I’m ready for a change. When I finish this feature, I plan to interview with
Tucson Today Magazine
.”
With a sigh, she turned to Rick. “Now about my questions for you…”
“Why don’t we sit in the swing and you can fire away?” He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops, forcing himself to keep his hands off Lani. He’d probably only scare her off, and that was the last thing he wanted.
She glanced to the swing and back to Rick.
He smiled. “I promise I don’t bite.”