by Jeanne Allan
Elizabeth waited for uneasiness or dread to trickle down her spine.
Oddly enough, her heart wanted to fly. Squeezing Worth’s waist, she returned his smile and lifted her face.
He bent his head and pressed a light kiss on the corner of her mouth. “Keep looking at me like that,” he said against her lips. “You’re very convincing.”
“I assume Jamie is fine.”
Elizabeth jumped as Cheyenne’s sarcastic comment came from behind her. Worth’s grip tightened. Elizabeth thought she might be sick. She’d totally misinterpreted his behavior. There had been nothing caring or genuine about the look in his eyes or the kiss he’d given her. He’d seen Cheyenne coming and been acting for her benefit.
Worth gave his sister an easy grin. “Turns out he didn’t want his mom after all.”
As if she were standing outside her body watching a play, Elizabeth saw herself smile at Cheyenne and the bachelor she had in tow. Behind them the setting sun spiked the western sky with yellow.
How stupid she was. Allowing herself to think, even for a split second…Ruthlessly she slammed the door on the thought before she could complete it and turned her attention back to Worth and Cheyenne.
Cheyenne spoke first, in a challenging voice. “I wanted Elizabeth to meet the fitness expert at St. Chris’s new health club.”
The tall, muscled, blond Greek god beside Worth’s sister flashed a dazzling smile at Elizabeth. Worth slid his hand down to spread his fingers possessively over Elizabeth’s hip. The Greek god’s gaze flew straight to Worth’s hand. Elizabeth pinched Worth’s waist hard. He didn’t even flinch. The Greek god looked at Elizabeth’s hair, took a second look at Worth’s hand, gave a lopsided smile and took a polite leave of them.
“I don’t know what hole you’re dragging all these men out of, Cheyenne, but quit harassing Elizabeth.”
His sister gave him a considering look and stalked away with an unladylike snort. The look on her face, however, had been remarkably satisfied and complacent.
Worth chuckled softly, leaving his hand where it was.
“Would you like me to pinch you again?” Elizabeth would dearly love to. Pinch him hard. How dare he act as if he really cared about her? Putting on a performance for his sisters was one thing, but he had no right to fool her. Not that Elizabeth had been fooled. She’d known all along he was putting on an act.
Worth raised an eyebrow a scant millimeter. “Don’t tell me you didn’t want me to get rid of him? The diameter of his biceps probably exceeds his IQ.”
The arrogant, supercilious look on his face washed over her like a bucketful of cold water. He was so stupid he didn’t even know what he’d done. Not that he’d done anything. She didn’t want him to care for her. She certainly didn’t care for him. She’d never care for someone so dumb. “A man with a minus IQ like you has no business throwing stones. He could be another Einstein for all you know.”
“If he had a brain he wouldn’t be on steroids.”
For a second her voice failed her. Now he was acting as if he were jealous. No doubt that was for Cheyenne’s sake, too. He’d made it all too clear what he’d meant by his comment about his sister playing into his hands. Now that Cheyenne was convinced, totally erroneously, that something existed between Worth and Elizabeth, she’d cease matchmaking.
Worth pretending to be jealous was absolute overkill. “You have no idea if he’s on steroids,” Elizabeth said. She knew darned well the issue wasn’t steroids, but she wasn’t about to explain to Worth she was furious because he’d tricked her. Not that he had. She’d known he was pretending. She didn’t want him to be doing anything but pretending.
“With that muscle-bound body, he’s sure to be. They all are.”
“They all are? Better a muscle-bound body than a muscle-bound brain that can’t think beyond stereotypes.”
“This from the woman who talks about cowboys as if they were a lower form of life.”
“If the shoe, excuse me, if the cowboy boot fits…” Suddenly remembering his hand still resting on her hip, Elizabeth, with exquisite self-control, removed it with the tips of her fingers in a blatant display of fastidious distaste.
The black look on Worth’s face almost sent her racing for safety as he leaned down so his nose practically touched hers. “You might want to remember I know all your secrets, Red,” he drawled, menace coating every word.
He didn’t know all her secrets, and she couldn’t believe after what he’d done, he dared to threaten her. “You are the lowest of the low, Worth Lassiter. Pond scum has more redeeming qualities than you do.” She refused to so much as blink. “I’d rather—” Swallowing the word kiss just in time, she dredged up other words, too angry to care if they made sense. “I’d rather touch what you shovel out of the barn than touch you.”
He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.
She didn’t care what he thought. She didn’t care about him. She refused to care. “You can go on television with my secrets and I don’t care anymore. What do you think of that, Mr. Blackmailer?” Elizabeth snapped her fingers under his nose. “That’s how much you scare me. What’s more, I don’t care if Cheyenne marries you off to ten women. I’ve had it with you and your blackmail. From now on, you hide behind somebody else. I don’t want you to ever speak to me again.” She was so angry with him, she shouted her last words.
It felt good to scream and shout. Liberating. She realized she’d wanted to shout at someone, anyone, from the moment she’d read Lawrence’s letter.
Spinning around, Elizabeth took two quick steps and came to a dead halt. Every pair of eyes in the vicinity was locked on her and Worth. The shock on their faces made it clear they’d all heard her shouted words. It was less clear how they’d interpreted what they’d heard.
Knowing her face was crimson, Elizabeth took a deep breath, and looking straight at Cheyenne, met their speculation head-on. “Want to flip a coin to see who gets to push him in the stock tank?”
“I suppose you want an explanation for Elizabeth’s temper tantrum last night,” Worth said.
“Not particularly.” Mary set a mug of coffee on the porch railing and sat in the chair next to Worth. “This visit’s been good for Elizabeth. She was so pale and wan when she arrived. Lifeless. As if her spirit had died when her husband did.”
Worth tried again. “Cheyenne’s been matchmaking again.”
His mother gave him a vague smile and looked down at the interminable lists which seemed a part of her hand these days.
“You’re such a challenge for her,” she said absently.
He doggedly tried again. “I’m not interested in getting married now, and if I was, which, I repeat, I am not, Elizabeth is hardly the woman for me.” He clamped his lips shut before he added a woman who was afraid of horses had no business on a ranch.
His mother made a tiny check on the paper. “You’re the one who always claims Cheyenne usually knows what she’s doing,” Mary murmured without lifting her head.
“Not this time.”
“I wonder…Was I supposed to check in with the hotel staff about the prenuptial dinner, or was Cheyenne doing that? Since Russ is hosting the dinner, maybe Elizabeth would want…I better phone Cheyenne.” His mother picked up her mug and wandered back into the house.
Worth propped his feet on the porch railing and scowled at an early robin digging for worms under the cottonwood tree. Water droplets clung to flower stalks, the only visible sign of an early morning rain shower. The air smelled clean and refreshed.
Elizabeth always smelled clean and fresh. Like a baby after his bath.
He shook his head, trying to put one totally exasperating redhead out of his mind. Even though Russ had had red hair in his youth, he was calm, easygoing, slow to rile, a man who took his time making judgments and who believed in compromise. How he’d fathered a hot-tempered, know-it-all, uncompromising, stubborn redhead defied Worth’s imagination.
He couldn’t believe the way she’d erupted last night. Afte
r he’d gone to bed, he’d gone over in his mind again and again what had taken place, and for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what had set her off. She’d agreed to their little pretense.
He frowned at a sudden thought. Maybe Elizabeth had wanted those idiots nosing around her like she was a mare ready to mate. Worth made a disgusted sound as the truth hit him. He’d been trying to bolster her confidence and help her recover from her husband’s death, and he’d obviously succeeded all too well. Elizabeth was apparently eager to remarry.
Which meant their little arrangement had become inconvenient for her. Too bad. She could look for a husband back in Nebraska.
The robin worked at pulling a fat worm from the ground. The worm kept coming and coming. It must go clear to China. China, now there was a subject a man could happily think about.
The Great Wall. Worth had seen pictures of the markets. Lots of red items. Silks, quilts, flags. Red.
He’d never been particularly attracted to red hair.
She’d love the Chinese babies. She loved all babies. All children. Even when she’d arrived, prickly and plastered with “Keep Away” signs, she’d responded lovingly to the children. Smiled at them. Warm, generous, accepting smiles.
Had she smiled at her husband like that? At the breakfast table? Over dinner? Before sex? After?
What difference did it make to him? The crazy redhead. Her husband must have been a saint. Imagine living with a volcano, never knowing when she was going to erupt. A man could get scorched. All that heat and passion focused on him.
He felt sorry for any man who was fool enough to fall in love with her. Just thinking about it made Worth glad he wasn’t that man.
Disgusted with the way his body hardened at the thought of sharing a bed with a woman no man in his right mind would be attracted to, Worth slammed his feet to the floor and took off for his office.
Much of the day a nebulous anger which he refused to analyze simmered on the edges of his consciousness. It wasn’t until he called the dealer’s shop about the big hay baler he’d taken in two weeks ago for repairs and the shop foreman continued to give him the runaround that Worth found a worthy target for venting his spleen. Without raising his voice, he took the man apart, bone by bone.
Reducing the man to apologetic gibberish made Worth feel so much better, he went in search of Elizabeth.
He found her coming out of Jamie’s room. She put a finger to her lips for silence. Silence suited Worth. “Put jeans on,” he said quietly. “We’re going riding.”
“I’m not—”
His finger over her mouth hushed her. Her eyes shot darts at him. Worth grinned. “Be at the corral in five minutes.”
He gave her fifteen minutes. If she wasn’t there by then, he’d haul her out.
She showed up in seven. “I am not riding.”
Looking at the jeans she wore, he said nothing as he handed over Rosie’s reins.
Elizabeth accepted them without looking. “I can’t keep going off leaving Jamie for your mother to take care of.”
“We’ll be back before he wakes up from his nap. I told Mom where we were going.”
“I’m not riding today.”
Worth wondered when she’d notice Rosie stood right behind her. Judging from the look in Rosie’s eye, not long. Rosie thrust her long nose at Elizabeth, knocking her hat to the ground.
Elizabeth whirled around, her hand at her throat. “Oh. Rosie. You scared me half to death.”
Rosie lowered her head, picked up the hat and presented it to Elizabeth. Elizabeth laughed as she accepted the hat. “Where did you learn to do that?” She scratched the mare’s neck.
Worth swung up into his saddle. Hands resting on the saddle horn, he gazed at the mountains. Not until he heard the creak of saddle leather behind him did he signal his horse to move.
Elizabeth had made up her mind to apologize to Worth. Not because she was wrong, and not because she cared what he thought of her, but because she did not want to be the cause of any unpleasantness in the midst of wedding festivities.
The only reason she’d agreed to ride was so she could apologize in private, but she had no intention of shouting her apologies to his back.
He sat tall in the saddle. As one with his horse. Elizabeth didn’t think she’d ever seen a man so in tune with his surroundings, his life. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but Worth seemed to flow through life instead of fighting it.
She eyed his broad shoulders. Hard work had put strong, solid muscles on his frame, yet his large, calloused hands could be gentle. With the foals. His nieces and nephew. With Jamie.
A jay called from a patch of scrub oak, his feathers bright blue against the new green leaves. The trail widened and Elizabeth urged Rosie to quicken her step until she walked even with Worth.
He slanted her an questioning look.
Elizabeth had to say something. “I noticed you at the computer all morning. Your mom said you sell horses over the Internet.”
“I don’t sell them over the Internet. I list what horses we have available. If a buyer is interested, he can e-mail or phone me. We try to put as much information on our site as we can, along with photographs of the horses, but buyers usually want to know something specific we haven’t included. If my answers satisfy them, and they live a distance away, I’ll send a videotape of the horse working. If they are still interested, I expect them to come to the Double Nickel and see the horse in person. We also advertise our stallions if someone has a mare he wants to breed. On another part of our site we sell cows and advertise our bulls.”
“Sounds like a lot of work.”
“Don’t you mean you’re surprised a cowboy is computer literate?”
He didn’t make apologizing easy. “I’m sorry I got a little upset last night,” she said, forcing out the words. “Our argument could have ruined Allie’s party. I’ve already apologized to her and your mother.”
“Apology accepted.”
Where was the part where he returned her apology? She wouldn’t have lost her temper last night if he hadn’t pushed her too far. “After I thought about it,” she said from between clenched teeth, “I realized you couldn’t possibly have meant to act as selfishly as you did. It was very embarrassing having you paw me in front of a crowd of people which included my father.”
Worth stopped his horse and pushed his hat to the back of his head. “When you think about it, I did you a favor.”
“Did me a favor?” Hearing her voice rising, Elizabeth took a deep breath and forced herself to speak calmly. “You weren’t doing me a favor. You were reinforcing Cheyenne’s belief that we are interested in each other. Although how anyone in their right mind could possibly think…” There was no point in discussing that with him. “How you can call that doing me a favor, I can’t imagine.”
“Easy. It chased away the riffraff hanging around you. I assumed you weren’t ready to replace your husband. I guess I should have asked if you wanted Cheyenne to fix you up with one of her friends.”
“Yes, you should have.” As if anyone could replace Lawrence.
It all came down to trust.
Loving again might not be so difficult. Trusting a man with her inner secrets was another matter altogether.
Elizabeth scowled at Worth. “Whether or not I’m looking for a husband is absolutely none of your business.”
“Fine. You want my sister to set you up, so be it.” He turned his horse. “Let’s go back and I’ll call her right now. Tell her we were just acting. Tell her you’re free as a bird. Which so-called gentleman do you prefer? Name him and I’ll tell her to bring him right out.”
He was being deliberately obtuse. She wasn’t looking for male companionship, and if he didn’t know that, he should. “I am not the least bit interested in any of them. That is so absolutely not the point. You didn’t care what I wanted and you weren’t doing me any favors. All you thought about was using me to outmaneuver your sister.”
Reining in his hors
e, he gave her an exaggerated look of surprise. “I thought we had an agreement to help each other out until the wedding.”
“I didn’t agree to pawing.”
Worth studied her face. “Pawing? Or public pawing?”
She opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. Worth had kissed her more than once and she hadn’t exactly objected.
Worth waited, an expression of polite interest on his face. No wonder he drove his sisters crazy.
Elizabeth was not his sister. “I’m canceling our arrangement.” Looking down at her hands clutching the saddle horn, she gave him the arguments she’d painstakingly worked out last night when sleep wouldn’t come. “We no longer need it. The prenuptial dinner is tomorrow night. The wedding the next afternoon. Cheyenne will be too preoccupied to worry about you until after the wedding. As for me, Russ has become so nervous about the wedding, he can barely remember his name, much less remember I’m around. He certainly won’t be paying any attention to whether or not I’m riding horses.” She took a quick peek at Worth.
His face gave no clue to his thoughts. Elizabeth resisted an overwhelming urge to fidget. “I’m not going to let you blackmail me anymore. If you want to tell Russ I’m afraid of horses, go ahead.” She stared straight ahead at Rosie’s ragged ear. Rosie was a survivor. Elizabeth intended to be one, too. “I can deal with the fallout.”
After a bit she heard Worth take a deep, slow breath. “Yes, I know you can, but there won’t be any fallout. I won’t say anything to Russ.” Leaning toward her, Worth adjusted her hat to better shade her face. “No more arrangement. Let’s finish our ride.”
She straightened her spine. “Yes, let’s finish our ride.”
Later, she couldn’t have said where they rode. She had no memory of what they’d talked about. If they’d talked. What she’d seen.
She only remembered feeling better about herself. About life. Maybe the hope in Hope Valley was contagious. All she knew was that, overcoming one obstacle at a time, she was going to make it.
Worth sat in front of his computer, staring blankly at the dark screen. The sound of Elizabeth’s voice drifted down from overhead. Jamie must have finished his nap.
