COWBOY WITH A BADGE

by Margaret Watson

  "Did she give you a hard time?"

  Ben gave her an actual smile. "She loved every minute of it. Said that it reminded her of one of her favorite television programs. She even asked me for a second set that she could keep." He reached for her hand and expertly rolled each finger in ink, then onto a card.

  "Melba seems to be taking it real well."

  Ben's smile faded. "She's a tough old bird. But she's still old. I don't like the fact that this happened to her. And neither does Dev."

  "Speaking of Dev, is he around?" Carly hoped her question was casual enough.

  Ben shook his head. "He had some business out on one of the ranches." He handed her a towel to clean her fingers, then turned around. "He asked me to give you this when you stopped in."

  Carly took the note and thanked Ben, then hurried out the door. When she was standing on the sidewalk, alone, she took a deep breath and opened the note.

  I'll pick you up at five. Wear comfortable shoes.

  He'd scrawled his name and nothing more in a bold, masculine line. So he hadn't forgotten his dinner invitation. She looked down at the note again and a smile curled her lips. Wear comfortable shoes. She wondered what he had in mind.

  She found out when he came to Melba's door promptly at five o'clock. He'd changed his khaki uniform shirt for a soft flannel, but he certainly hadn't dressed for dinner. She was glad she'd worn a pair of jeans and a blouse. And her new hiking boots.

  "Thanks for taking my advice," he said, his eyes softening.

  "It sounded more like a command." Her voice was teasing as she pulled the door of Melba's house closed behind her, then checked to make sure it locked.

  He shrugged. "I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable. City-girl shoes would be a definite liability."

  "At Heaven on Seventh?" She raised her eyebrows.

  "We're not going to Heaven for dinner," he said, opening the door of his truck. She noticed that it was his police Blazer. "I had a better idea."

  He didn't say anything more until he stopped in front of the restaurant. "I'll be right out."

  He emerged a few minutes later with a large box, which he stowed in the back of the truck. When they were headed out of town, he said, "I thought you might enjoy a picnic. You haven't seen much of the area."

  "You showed me a lot of the area the other day."

  He shot her a look. "You never even got out of the car. How can you say you know an area if you haven't stepped foot on the ground?"

  "Where are we going?" She settled back as a sizzle of excitement raced through her. A picnic. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been on a picnic.

  "We're going to the Red Rock Ranch. We have a lot of land up in the mountains, land that isn't much good for grazing. We use it mostly for recreation. You'll be able to see what this part of the country is really like."

  "That sounds wonderful."

  His eyes softened as he glanced over at her. "I thought it would be a good idea. You've spent almost all your time in Cameron since you've been here."

  "Is this supposed to be a propaganda trip?" Her voice was light. "Show me the great, unspoiled land and convince me not to force it to become a tourist haven?"

  He shrugged, but didn't seem to take offense. "Look at it any way you like. I haven't had time lately to get up into the mountains, and I miss it." He paused. "I wanted to share it with you."

  She thought the last sentence had been dragged out of him unwillingly, but she was still moved. "Thank you, Devlin. I can't think of anyone I'd rather share a picnic with, either."

  He slowed the truck and turned into a long driveway that curved around a cliff. When the road straightened out again, she saw a white house and several other, smaller buildings in front of her. A red barn stood off to her left. Behind the buildings, green pastures undulated into the distance, and red cliffs rose up to tower over pastures and buildings.

  "This is lovely," she said, and meant every word.

  "I think so."

  He was driving past the house when a blond woman jumped off the porch and hurried toward them. Braking, he lowered the window as she crossed in front of the truck.

  "Hey, Shea."

  "Hey yourself, Dev." The woman peered into the window. "You must be Carly." She reached across Devlin to shake Carly's hand. "I'm Shea McAllister, Dev's sister. Welcome to Cameron."

  Shea's grip was firm and her hand felt hard and callused. Carly smiled at her. "Thank you. It's nice to meet you." She hesitated. "I'm sure Dev's told you why I'm in Cameron. Are your feelings about my job as strong as your brother's?"

  Shea grinned at her. "The only thing I feel strongly about right now is getting a bunch of calves branded." She looked back at Dev. "When will you have some time?"

  Dev ran his fingers through his hair. "I can probably spare a half day tomorrow or the next day. I'll let you know in the morning."

  "Great." She stepped away from the truck. "Have a good time up there." She shot a grin at Carly. "Make him show you his hiding place."

  Dev waited until Shea had run into the house again, then he started the truck. Carly turned to him. "What hiding place is she talking about?"

  His face softened. "When I was a kid, I hated doing ranch work. I understood that we all had to do chores, and I did mine without complaining, but I wasn't interested in anything extra. Unlike Shea." His mouth curled into a smile, and Carly saw his love for his sister shining out of his eyes. "She followed my father and the hands around from sunup until sundown. She couldn't get enough of the Red Rock. I couldn't wait to grow up and get away from the place."

  "So you found a place to hide?"

  He grinned again. "I found a dandy place to spend my extra hours and dream about what I would be when I grew up. Shea found it, of course, but she never told anyone else."

  The truck bumped up a rutted path, steering around rocks. The trees were very close to the edge of the road, and at one point she looked out over the edge of a cliff. The bottom seemed a long way down.

  "This doesn't make you nervous, does it?" Devlin asked.

  "Not at all." She answered too quickly, and he shot her an amused glance.

  "No one's fallen off the road yet," he said.

  "Thank you for pointing that out."

  "Any time." He grinned at her, then swung onto another road, this one even more rutted and full of rocks. At least they were driving away from the cliff's edge.

  A few minutes later, Devlin stopped the truck next to a deep blue lake. On the other side of the lake she saw what looked like a tiny cabin tucked into a thicket of dark green trees. The rest of the lake was surrounded by red rock, the remains of once-steep cliffs eroded into fantastic formations and shapes.

  "This is my favorite part of the ranch," Devlin said, getting out of the truck. "When I was a kid, I thought you could see forever from up here."

  "It looks like you still can," she said softly, gazing at the vista in front of them. Range after range of mountains fell away in front of them, the rocks a wild palette of colors. Purple, pink, red and orange stood out against the blue sky and the occasional patch of green pasture below them. "This is breathtaking."

  "It's home." He spoke without looking at her, still staring out at the magnificent vista, but his reverent voice told her how deeply he felt about this land.

  His words hung between them, and Carly knew that if she had really been in Cameron to write a story to attract tourists, she would have turned around and gone home. Standing here, in the late afternoon sun, staring out at this awe-inspiring sight, she understood exactly how Devlin felt about Cameron. And why he didn't want it to change.

  But she wasn't here to write about Cameron as a tourist destination, she reminded herself. So she moved away, clambering over the rocks, determined to get away from the feelings bubbling too close to the surface.

  "Was your hiding place around here?" she asked.

  Devlin turned to look at her, then stepped back from the edge of the rock. "No, it's on the other
side of the lake, closer to the house. I'll show you later."

  He reached into the truck for the box and a large blanket, and when they had settled on the ground he opened the box and removed the picnic food. "It looks like Janie outdid herself," he said with a smile as he handed her smaller boxes of food.

  Carly leaned back against a rock and watched Dev as they ate. She had never seen him so relaxed. The watchful tension that was so much a part of him had disappeared.

  "Is this where you go to get away from your job?" she finally asked.

  Smile lines around his eyes crinkled as he answered her. "Yeah, I can hide up here. No one will bother to come this far to get me unless it's really important. As much as I didn't want to be in charge of a working ranch, I love the Red Rock. It's a part of me, and it always will be."

  "You're lucky," she murmured, almost against her will.

  "Where's home for you, Carly?" Dev set his food down and leaned toward her.

  She stared at the cliffs in the distance, cliffs that had been part of Devlin's home for his whole life. Then she thought about the nomadic existence she and her mother had followed after they left Cameron. "A condo in New York is home for me," she finally said.

  "No, I mean where did you grow up? Where are your roots?"

  "I guess I don't have any." She shrugged and tried to make her voice light. "It was just my mother and I, and we moved around a lot when I was growing up."

  "I'm sorry," he said after a moment.

  "Don't be." She gave him a bright smile. "We did just fine."

  Sympathy and understanding filled his eyes, then Dev scrambled to his feet. Apparently he was no more eager than she was to explore the bonds that seemed to be forming between them. "Are you ready to explore my hiding place?"

  "Lead on." She took the hand he'd extended, then let him go as soon as she was standing. She didn't need any more connections to Devlin. She was afraid there were too many already.

  He loaded the remains of their picnic into the truck, then drove around the lake, stopping at what looked like a sheer wall of red rock. "Here we are."

  Carly eyed the rock dubiously. "It doesn't look like a rabbit could find a place to hide in that. Are you sure we're in the right place?"

  He grinned at her. "Come and see."

  Taking her hand, he scrambled up a short slope and stopped in front of a boulder. It looked like the rock had tumbled down the cliff and come to a precarious rest in front of them. Devlin dropped her hand, ducked down and disappeared.

  A moment later he reappeared, grinning at her. "Care to join me?"

  Carly edged closer to the boulder, then saw where Devlin had gone. The huge rock wasn't sitting against the cliff, as it appeared from a distance. There was a small opening between the boulder and the cliff. Devlin reached for her hand.

  "Come on in."

  The opening was plenty big for her to slip through, although it must be a tight fit for Devlin. Once she'd gotten through the opening in the rock, she found herself in a small cave. It extended back into the darkness, but it was tall enough for her to stand upright. Devlin had to keep his head bowed.

  "What a great hiding place!" When she looked back at the opening, she could see the boulder, outlined by the blue sky. The light illuminated the front of the cave, but the back was still in darkness. "How did you ever find this cave?"

  "Luck, I think." He squatted down on the floor and reached into the darkness. Pulling an old, battered pair of saddlebags into the light, he reached into one of them and drew out a blanket, then spread it on the ground. "I was climbing these rocks one day when I saw the opening." He grinned at her, and his smile seemed to brighten the dimly lit cave. "What kid can resist a cave?"

  "So you would come up here and hide from the world?" she asked.

  His smile dimmed as he sat down on the blanket, then pulled her down next to him. "My father, mostly. He wanted me to take over the ranch when he retired, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. Shea was far better for the job than I was, but he wouldn't hear of it. Said it wasn't a job for a woman." He stared out at the brilliant blue of the sky. "We had a lot of fights about it when I was a teenager, and this place was a haven for me."

  Carly pictured Devlin as a lonely teen, escaping up into the mountains to recover from yet another fight with his father, and her heart stirred in sympathy. She knew something about problems with parents. She touched his arm. "I'm sorry."

  He gave her a smile. "It's okay. I'm all grown up now."

  There was no question about that. His skin was warm, the coarse hairs surprisingly silky under her fingers. As her fingers lingered, she felt him tense. Slowly he turned to look at her.

  "Carly?" he whispered. He looked down at her hand, still resting on his arm, and her heart began to pound. The dry, aromatic desert air filled her head, swirling together with Devlin's scent, and suddenly she forgot about why she was in Cameron, forgot about her suspicion that Dev's father had killed her brother. Her whole world shrunk to the man sitting next to her, and when he leaned toward her, she closed her eyes and reached for him.

  * * *

  Chapter 7

  «^»

  "This isn't why I brought you up here into the mountains," he whispered, his mouth hovering over hers.

  "I know." Carly searched his eyes and found the truth in their gray depths. He didn't want this to happen, any more than she did, but he was just as powerless to stop it. "I swore I wasn't going to get involved with you."

  "It would be stupid," he agreed.

  "I'm leaving Cameron in a couple of weeks," she murmured as his lips skimmed over hers.

  "I'm not interested in getting involved with anyone." He leaned around to nip at her earlobe.

  "Neither am I."

  His mouth lingered on her neck, nuzzling the velvet cord out of his way. "I'm glad we're both realistic."

  "There's no future for us." She touched her tongue to his lip, and felt him shudder.

  "You're right about that." His hands tightened on her shoulders.

  "We can't agree on anything." She skimmed the plane of his cheek, let her hand linger.

  Devlin leaned back, his eyes gleaming. "I can think of one thing we seem to agree on."

  "That's just hormones."

  He drew her closer, until her chest was pressing against his. "Works for me."

  And, heaven help her, it worked for her, too. He'd done no more than touch her, and her whole body cried out for him. She knew it was foolish, knew it was only lust tormenting her, but a part of her deep inside, a place that had been empty all her life, needed Devlin. He completed her in a way that was profoundly frightening. She wanted to run, to get away from the threat he posed to her peace of mind, but she was unable to move.

  Her breasts ached where they pressed against his chest, throbbing and needy. She wanted to feel his hands on her, on all of her, taking, caressing, touching her. And she wanted to feel him. Wanted to shape the muscles of his back, wanted to let his hair trickle through her fingers, wanted to know the strength of him.

  He pressed her down onto the floor of the cave, the rough blanket beneath her. His shoulders blocked out the light, but she didn't care as her eyes drifted closed. His name was a chant pounding through her blood, and his hands trailed fire wherever they touched.

  Slowly he pulled the tails of her shirt out of her jeans, then began to unbutton it. A breath of air caressed her as her shirt fell open, then he bent down and took her mouth. Desire crashed through her, a need to be joined to him. When he cupped one breast and slowly drew his finger across her nipple, she arched up to meet the slash of sensation. He repeated the caress on her other breast, and she moaned into his mouth.

  Desperately her hands scrabbled at his shirt. She needed to touch him, to feel his skin against hers. Her hands trembled as she tried to unbutton the impossibly small buttons, and suddenly the clasp on her bra was freed and her breasts spilled into his hands.

  Clutching his shirt, she couldn't move, couldn't t
hink as he bent his head to her breasts. As his tongue circled first one nipple, then the other, she could only moan his name as sensation crashed through her. The throbbing between her legs became all-consuming, and she felt herself begin to shake.

  "I need to touch you," he whispered, and he unfastened her jeans. She reached for him, needing to touch him, too, but he moved away. "Not yet. If you touch me now, I won't be responsible for what happens."

  As he eased her jeans down her legs, she felt exposed and vulnerable. She tensed, and Devlin moved back up to kiss her again. "It's all right," he murmured, touching her face. "It's all right."

  He swept his hand down her chest, touching her nipples, then drifted down to the juncture of her thighs. Cupping her through her panties, he murmured her name as he bent to kiss her again.

  Shocks of pleasure and need ricocheted through her, and she couldn't stop herself from moving against his hand. He slipped his fingers inside the thin silk barrier and touched her again. When he took one nipple into his mouth at the same time, a shattering climax rocketed through her.

  "Devlin," she cried, shocked and embarrassed.

  He scooped her up and held her against him until the sensations subsided. When she stopped trembling, he kissed her one more time, then deliberately moved away from her.

  "What are you doing?" she asked. Her loss of control, and the knowledge that she'd bared her soul and her vulnerability to him, disturbed her deeply. Especially since he was apparently unwilling to do the same.

  Desire still filled his face, and when he reached out to touch her, she saw that his hand was trembling. "I didn't mean for this to go so far," he said. His hand slipped down and pulled her shirt together, then he clumsily tried to button it. "I don't have any protection. And I won't take any chances with you."

  She knelt in front of him, her shirt gaping open. "So this was a one-sided affair?"

  His face tensed, then he pulled her against him. "I didn't mean for it to be an affair of any kind. You're not a one-night-stand kind of woman, and I'm not a long-term kind of guy." He bent his head and brushed his lips along her neck, and she shivered. Desire curled inside her again.