The idea sounded stranger than anything he’d done with Leigh so far, but, heaven help him, as soon as the notion had hit him, he’d realized how much he wanted to see the color of her eyes without a blindfold. Yet a more perverse side had wanted to know how she would react to seeing him, the guy from college. And as soon as he’d thought of it, he’d known that this would give him some peace of mind, tying up the loose ends of his fascination for her and allowing him to let go of it once she went home.
No harm in it, he’d thought.
So he’d told Jerry, the regular groom, that he could spend the rest of the day off. Adam had easily taken over his position on the ranch since he was more than familiar with how one ran. But first he’d changed his shirt, which had gotten wet during his latest rendezvous with Leigh.
The hot tub...the bubbles...the nail marks she’d left on his arm, causing him pleasurable pain....
But he could just hear his best friend and conscience now if she knew what he was up to.
“Unbelievable,” Beth would say. “Now I know for certain that you’ve got a heart of stone.”
But he could withstand the lash of words. He would merely tell his confidante that there was nothing romantic going on with Leigh.
God, even in his head his excuses sounded flat. Maybe he did have a heart of stone these days. Granite, more likely.
He didn’t need Beth to tell him that, or that he was probably pulling this stunt because he wanted Leigh to know that this was him without really telling her. In a way, he was even reliving that party from his freshman year, and he wanted to see if she would get a sparkle in her eye if she recognized him.
In some bent way, games like this allowed him to keep a canyon between him and any woman he was attracted to.
See? He didn’t need a shrink to tell him what was what. He already knew damned well.
But what the hell had possessed him to make this date even more dangerous than it already was? It was probably because he wanted to see if his real name rang any kind of bell in Leigh. And as she’d run her gaze over him, Adam had thought for a hot moment that she had recognized the college boy he’d been then.
Yet in the aftermath of that first gaze, he hadn’t seen any sign of recognition on her face at all, and with a combination of disappointment and relief, he’d made his way to her, holding out his hand in greeting.
When she introduced herself, her cheeks were flushed, just as they had been in the bedroom after he’d put the blindfold on her the first time. And her eyes...
They were the most astonishing shade of dark green he’d ever seen.
Altogether, she was a breath of fresh air with her smile and that playful little dimple in her chin, and it was nearly surreal standing in front of her like this—two people under normal circumstances meeting each other. A cowgirl and a cowboy—one who dressed this way only when he retreated to this ranch.
Suddenly, taking this chance as Adam was worth every bit of risk.
They shook hands, and as his skin met hers, fire burned between them—and it had nothing to do with sexual innuendo or kinky expectation. This was Leigh and Adam finally meeting, just as he wished they had all those years ago.
But if that had happened, he might not have met Carla.
Just thinking about that made his heart dive, and he let go of Leigh’s hand. A laden instant hung between them, and he noticed that her flush was still going strong.
Was she...interested in Adam?
A gnarled flash of jealousy struck him even though Adam was Callum and Callum was Adam. Still, something green and spiky revolved in his belly.
He gestured toward Bessie Blue, who’d been hanging her head over her stall gate, checking out Leigh. “We bought her at an auction a few months ago. She’s got a gentle disposition with some fire.” He knew all this because he’d been the one who’d purchased Bessie.
“Sounds like a girl I could get along with.” Leigh couldn’t keep her hands off the horse, and the animal adored her right back.
Something in Adam’s chest seemed to expand at the connection between the two. It’d been forged quickly and easily. But why not, when both were bighearted?
She didn’t seem all that much in a hurry to wander around, lingering instead with Bessie. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
“Whose house is this?”
Adam held back a smile. This woman didn’t give up. Or was she so perceptive that she’d taken one look at his dark hair and allowed her imagination to assume that he might be Callum?
Adrenaline gave him a jolt, so he dodged the question. “I’ve been warned not to answer your more direct queries, miss.”
“Call me Leigh. And damn. It sounds like you’ve been recruited to the dark side. Callum has some real loyal people on his payroll.”
He got a bit of a glow from that. Her opinion mattered. “Callum can be pretty persuasive. And,” he added just for good measure, “a nice guy to boot.” He hadn’t been able to help himself.
“You must have some kind of Christmas bonus coming,” she said, laughing.
This close to her, that laughter sounded crystal clear, and it cut straight through to his gut, just as it had the night at the college party. He held on to his resolve, though, planting his hands on his hips, smiling. From the corner of his eye, he realized that the sun was starting to scoop down in the sky. Leigh would be off to the house for dinner all too soon, and she’d probably expect Callum to be there, chatting with her on the phone.
“So how long have you worked here?” she asked.
“About as long as Bessie Blue’s been in that stall.” Even Adam needed a fictional story. “In short, not very.”
Bessie Blue looked as though she was in paradise as Leigh kept petting her. “Then you really don’t know much about Callum.”
He chuckled. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re doing something undercover here. Are you a reporter?” Or was she trying to catch him in a lie and finger him as Callum?
“I’m just a guest.” She seemed surprised that he didn’t know the reasons for her stay.
Her phone dinged, probably with a text message, and he almost shouted a hallelujah. But he’d gotten himself in this position, and he should’ve expected that she’d put a lot of heat on him.
She checked out her screen. “A message from one of my producers. I can get to this later.”
“Don’t mind me. You go on ahead.”
“Nah. I’m on vacation. It’s unfortunate that it’s probably too late to go on a ride here with Bessie Blue, huh?”
The horse nickered.
“’Fraid so. If you want to saddle up tomorrow, I can arrange that, but it’ll get dark fast, and you don’t want to be caught out there alone on trails you aren’t familiar with.”
For a second he thought that she might ask him to join her on a ride, and he wasn’t sure that was a good idea.
So he scrambled.
“How about I walk you down to the house?” he said instead. He needed to get back into Callum’s shoes anyway. “And we’ll talk about what time is good for you to hit the trails tomorrow.”
“Sounds good, Adam.”
As she shared a fond goodbye with Bessie Blue, Adam took a moment to wallow in how good it felt for her to say his real name.
* * *
AS LEIGH WALKED by Adam’s side to the house, she left a space between them.
Most of her suspicions about him being Cal
lum had abated when he’d started talking in that drawl. He didn’t even move as Callum probably did—like a panther in the night. And Adam didn’t seem to have half Callum’s confidence. Besides, Callum had brown eyes, not gold like Adam’s.
But she’d asked him questions anyway, and he’d answered convincingly enough. It was the drawl that made her think he was just a guy who worked on the ranch, though. It was far from Callum’s tenor.
At any rate, Adam was rugged, handsome...a dish that she had no business eyeing. And she’d been trying not to do it ever since she’d met him in the stables.
What had Callum done to her hormones anyway? Shifted them into high gear? God help her if he’d given her so much sexual va-va-voom that she couldn’t compose herself around any handsome guy she happened to come in contact with over the next few days.
Callum was her host, and she wasn’t about to two-time him, even mentally. Even if there was nothing serious between them. Lusting after some other guy just wasn’t...decent.
When they came to the deck that overlooked the pool area, Adam, who’d kept his chatter to the subject of riding during the entire walk, paused.
“This is where I leave you,” he said.
She grinned at him in thanks, but he glanced away before she blushed too hard, damn her.
Get it under control, she thought. Callum’s your date, and frankly, you can barely even handle him.
What would someone like Adam think if the Mystery Man decided to call her on the disposable phone right now? Was he even privy to how Callum operated? She almost wished Callum would call, just to see the look on Adam’s face—and to know for sure if the groom was in on current events.
He’d taken off his cowboy hat, holding it low in both hands. She noticed that his hair was boyishly ruffled, but she ignored that little detail.
“Well,” Adam said, “you have a good night.”
“No doubt I will. You, too.”
Silence. He didn’t seem in a hurry to get anywhere.
Just as she was about to leave, he spoke up.
“I hear you’re a celebrity.”
Ah. So the staff did know a bit about her. “Not really. If they had a Z-list, that’s what I’d be on.”
Adam was frowning, as if he wanted to say something. It reminded Leigh of how Callum had told her earlier that she should be proud of her accomplishments.
He was right.
“I guess I make the home crowd proud.” She smiled. “And a few others.”
“You guess?”
Leigh tried not to let his drawl seep into her. She’d always had crushes on the more down-to-earth type growing up. Being attracted to a rich man like Callum, whose tone was so smooth and polished, proved the exception.
“Actually, my parents have never been grand with their praise,” Leigh said, and although her tone was light, she felt a faint heaviness. “But that’s okay. To tell the truth, I dedicate my show to my sister. If you ever watch and then look hard enough, you’ll always see her name in the credits.”
“Your sister...”
“Died years and years ago.”
Adam’s golden gaze was soft as he looked at her, then looked away again.
“That must’ve been an awful time for you,” he said.
There was something about him that made it okay to say, “It was. She’d just gotten home from college for summer vacation, and she was getting together with old friends at the swimming hole on our property. She was a good swimmer, so her drowning was a shock. But someone brought beer, and her friends said she’d never had a drink before. She went into the water for some reason, and no one even noticed as they carried on with the party. When someone did see her, it was too late.”
There’d been so many dark days after that, her parents almost forgetting that Leigh was still alive. Everything she’d done—graduating as the valedictorian, acing her college classes, winning community-service awards with the sorority—had paled next to perfect Hannah and what she could’ve accomplished.
Always second place. The only time Leigh had felt as if she’d pulled out of it was with Callum, who was giving her a new lease on life.
Adam glanced toward the stables, as if she’d gotten too personal and he wanted to get back. His tone was flat as he said, “It seems there’s no getting through life without losing someone precious at some point.”
Leigh waited for him to offer more, but he never did. Instead, he put his hat back on and nodded to her, walking away.
It wasn’t until she was inside the house that she realized that his tone had been just as dark as his boss’s was, but she brushed away the thought when the phone Callum had given her rang.
9
AFTER ADAM HAD gone a safe distance away, near the guesthouse he’d holed up in, he’d called Leigh to let her know that his housekeeper, Mrs. Ellison, was cooking dinner and Leigh was welcome to have cocktails at the fully stocked bar in the study while she waited.
Then he’d ventured back to the stables to close up shop for the night while Leigh ate. But there was an even better excuse to retreat there.
For the second time that day, he’d given out too much information: first he’d used his own name with Leigh; then he’d commented about losing someone precious.
It was just that he’d felt for her. He understood that kind of pain, especially when the person left you when she was still so young and vital.
Two years and counting since Carla had gone, he thought, sitting in the stable office with the lights on dim, the horses content in their stalls. Except for Bessie Blue, who kept looking at the entrance as if hoping Leigh would come back.
“I know how you feel,” he murmured, thinking of Leigh, thinking of how his body missed her and how he couldn’t go another hour without her. Sure, the feeling would pass, but while she was here, he couldn’t stay away.
And, as it ended up, he didn’t.
When he checked in with Mrs. Ellison a couple of hours later, she told him that she was off to her nearby home. Leigh had enjoyed the pan-fried steak with marsala sauce and all the trimmings, but she was pretty sure his guest had been lonely eating by herself.
Duly chided, he thanked her for her work, then hung up. He’d decided not to call Leigh during dinner. That was all a part of the game, wasn’t it? Make her wait, make her anticipate until she couldn’t stand it anymore. It’d worked with her earlier, bringing her to a climax in the hot tub so provocatively that he had the nail marks on his arm to prove it.
So why wouldn’t it work now?
After he’d cleaned up, he stood in the guesthouse cottage, with its cream-and-beige upholstery and dark wood. He looked out the window toward the big house, where Leigh would be, yes, waiting.
He dialed his disposable phone and, as if making him suffer a bit, too, she picked up after several rings.
“Who is it?”
“You don’t know by now?”
“Oh. I thought Callum had disappeared off the face of the earth.”
He laughed, mostly because he deserved her feistiness. “The meal was to your satisfaction?”
“Yes. Your Mrs. Ellison can cook. But I have to say that there was one thing to complain about.”
He waited again, damn her.
“Dessert,” she finally said. “I didn’t get enough of it. And here I am in my room wishing I could have more.”
Funny, he thought. Leigh was getting pretty good at playing him as well as he played her.
“What’re you in the mood for?” he asked, his voice gravelly.
Now it was her turn to pause. And by the
time she answered, his heartbeat was double-timing.
“I was thinking,” she said softly, enticingly, “that you might have something new for me to taste.”
And that was all it took. He asked her if she had a blindfold handy, and when she said yes, he told her to put it on, then hung up, shoving the phone into his pants pocket, snatching the tablet where he’d transferred the film of Leigh he’d taken earlier. As a precaution, nothing else was stored on it, only their liaison.
He went to the house, taking care to stick to the shadows so she wouldn’t see him if she was looking out her window. He sneaked in through a side door, turning off any lights that were on as he went. Taking the stairs, at one with the darkness, he came to her door, slowly easing it open a crack.
“Is it on?” he asked.
She didn’t have to ask what he meant, and that was when he knew that she was just as tied up in their fantasies as he was, that they did something for her that she’d never felt before, and she didn’t want to ruin the illusion.
“It’s on,” she said, and he took her meaning more than one way.
The blindfold was over her eyes.
And the night was definitely on.
Not that he didn’t trust her, but he peered into the room before he stepped all the way inside. There she was, sitting on her bed blindfolded, her back to the door as she faced the window. The curtains were open only a sliver, allowing in a peek of night. It was dark, no moon, and all he could see were shadows and outlines. But her silhouette was what caught his eye.
Curvy yet slim, she was wearing a darkly sheer short negligee that she must’ve brought with her. The ties from the blindfold he’d used earlier trailed down her back, skimming the blond flow of her hair.
He closed the door behind him, and he could hear her exhale.
“I’m glad to see you didn’t go against my wishes,” he said. “You put the blindfold on as I asked.”
“Maybe I like what you do to me, so I obey.”
His cock was already thudding, agonizing him. He’d held back from entering her thus far for the sake of Carla’s memory.
Mystery Date Page 12
