by Diana Palmer
“Trust me,” he whispered at her mouth. “But not...too far.”
He pulled up the hem and before she realized what he meant to do, his mouth opened on her breast, taking all of it inside, working the nipple hard with his tongue while he suckled her.
She cried out, a sound that penetrated his spinning brain as if from a distance. She tasted like the sweetest sugar on earth. His free hand went down her back, into the waistband of her jeans and around, over the soft flesh on her hip, around to the front, to her belly.
“Dal...ton?” she whimpered.
“Dear God,” he groaned.
He stood up, carrying her down the hall to her bedroom. He kicked the door shut behind him.
“Mama will be home...soon,” she choked out in a voice that she almost didn’t recognize.
“I’ll hear her,” he lied.
He slid her down on the bed and stripped her to the waist, throwing off his own shirt at the same time.
He smoothed his body down over hers, shifting her legs so that he could sink down between them, while his hair-roughened chest buried her soft breasts under it.
His hand went under her hips, lifting her into the sudden hard thrust of his body. “Beautiful,” he whispered, looking at her breasts as he moved roughly against her hips. “So beautiful!”
He was causing sensations within her that she’d never known. The pleasure was shocking. It lifted her body in an arch as she struggled to get even closer. She hadn’t the will to protest what he was doing to her. She loved the weight of him, the feel of him so intimately close.
“It feels...so sweet,” she gasped as he fed on her breasts.
“Imagine how it would feel inside you,” he whispered at her mouth. “Hard, and deep...”
She cried out. He smothered the sound under his devouring lips while his hips moved insistently on hers. She could feel him growing even more potent by the second.
“Merissa,” he groaned. “It’s been so long...!”
He unzipped her jeans. He was pulling them down when the sound of a car pulling up out front with its roaring engine shocked them into stillness.
“No,” he groaned again, shivering.
She held him tightly, kissing his neck. “It’s all right,” she whispered. “It’s all right.”
“That’s what...you think.”
He managed to roll off the bed and went into her bathroom.
She got dressed quickly, opened the door and went into the kitchen. She peered into the window, seeing her disheveled reflection. Well, it might look as if they’d been kissing, but her mother wouldn’t suspect anything more. She hoped. She dabbed water on her face and wiped it with a paper towel.
The front door opened.
“I’m back,” Clara called.
“I’m in here,” Merissa called. She smiled at her mother. “Dalton’s in the bathroom,” she whispered.
“Ah.” Clara put the walnuts on the counter. “The car’s making funny noises,” she said sadly. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I do,” Dalton said from the doorway. He didn’t look disheveled at all. His hair was combed and he was smiling. “I’m sending one of my mechanics over tomorrow to have a look at it. But this time, he’ll come with Darby Hanes. So if anybody else shows up and claims to be sent by us, you call the ranch house first. Okay?”
“Okay. Dalton, you really shouldn’t,” Clara began worriedly. “I mean, you’ve done so much already...”
“We take care of family,” he told her. And he looked at Merissa in a way that made her cheeks go red.
Clara started to speak but didn’t.
Dalton just chuckled. “I’m going to be a pest,” he told her. “Sorry. But your daughter is like flowers to a bee. Can’t stay away,” he said, and his voice dropped an octave as he looked at her.
“I don’t mind,” Merissa said, her own voice full of soft meaning.
Dalton winked at her. He checked his watch. “I have to go,” he said. “I need to pack to get ready for the Texas trip.”
“You’re going to Texas?” Clara asked.
“Yes. I’m going to talk to Sheriff Carson and a couple of feds about my run-in with the drug cartel.”
“Not alone?” Clara continued, concerned.
Tank chuckled again. “Rourke’s got a buddy who’s going to cover me like tar paper,” he told her. “I’ll be fine.”
“In that case, I won’t worry.” She smiled. “Have a safe trip.” She lifted her head and groaned. “He’s still at it!”
They heard the tapping on the wood outside Clara’s bedroom window.
“The woodpecker.” Clara laughed. “I’d better go feed him before he breaks into the house.”
She took a package of walnut halves, opened it and walked toward the back of the house.
When they heard the back door slam, Tank pulled Merissa close and kissed her with a new tenderness. He drew back, smoothing his big hand over her blond hair.
“We’re going to be very good together,” he whispered.
She flushed. “Listen, I’m very... I mean I...I can’t...”
He hugged her tight. “I won’t ask you to. That’s a promise. I have something more permanent in mind.”
“Permanent?” she asked at his chest.
He smiled and drew back. “We’ll talk about it when I get back from Texas. Okay?”
She brightened. “Okay.”
He laughed and shook his head. “I wish I could take you with me. Listen, you watch where you go. Be aware of your surroundings. Rourke will be watching, but he can’t be everywhere.” His eyes pinned her. “I want you safe.”
“I will be,” she promised him. “You be careful, too,” she added. She bit her lower lip. “Airplanes are scary.”
“I’ve been riding around in airplanes half my life.” He laughed. “It’s safer than driving. Really.”
“Okay. Have a good trip.”
“I will.”
He kissed her again, hungrily, let her go and went out without looking back.
Merissa was still staring after him when her mother came back into the kitchen.
She put a comforting arm around her daughter. “He’s the one.”
“Yes,” Merissa said, hugging her back. “He’s the one.”
* * *
TANK WAS DISCONCERTED by his powerful reaction to Merissa, and, especially, hers to him. She really was hungry for him; that was evident. He should probably take a step back before rushing in headfirst, but caution was the last thing on his mind.
Then he remembered Vanessa. She’d come to work for the brothers, babied them, petted them. Tank had gone overboard for her. And then they found out that she was a thief, a woman with no particularly fine feelings at all. He’d trusted her and he’d been, like his brothers, betrayed by her.
But Merissa was different. People locally knew her. She might have a strange reputation, people might even think she had supernatural leanings, but she was respected. She wasn’t the sort of person who’d betray him. Of course she wasn’t.
He had to stop thinking that way. He’d learned the hard way that women couldn’t be trusted. Before Vanessa, there had been another heartbreak. He was a sucker for a sweet smile; that was the problem. But this time was different. Very different.
“You look pensive,” Mallory said when he came in the door.
Tank made a face. “I’m getting in over my head,” he said.
Mallory smiled. “Happens to all of us. And then you get a baby and you go all crazy and buy closets full of baby clothes and furniture and big plastic toys...!”
“Oh, stop it, I’m not even married yet.” Tank chuckled.
“She thinks you’re hot,” Cane remarked as he entered the room. “Mavie says Merissa looks at you like she could eat you with a spoon.”
Tank actually flushed. “She did? She does?”
They laughed.
“It’s nice to see you with somebody we approve of,” Mallory commented.
“Pe
ople call her a witch,” Tank reminded him.
“She’s uniquely talented,” he replied. “There are some unusual people in the world. We got lucky and found one in our neighbor. Well, two of them, Merissa and her mother,” Mallory added. “You know,” he said thoughtfully, “we might have lost Darby if Merissa hadn’t had that premonition.”
Tank nodded. “That was pretty shocking. Until then, I never really believed in any of that psychic stuff.”
“Neither did I, honestly,” Mallory said. “But she knew about your attacker, too. You might be dead as well if she hadn’t interfered.” He shook his head. “She’s quite a woman.”
“Not bad-looking, either,” Cane added, laughing. He held up both hands when Tank glared at him. “Hey, I’m happily married and about to become a father.”
Tank laughed. “Sorry.”
There had been a bit of a rivalry between Cane and Tank over Bolinda, Cane’s wife, before they were married. It had been a rocky relationship, and at one time Tank had even flirted with her. But once he knew how Cane felt, he backed off.
“I like her,” Cane added, smiling gently.
“When you get back, Morie wants to have her over for dinner one night, after Christmas,” Mallory said. “It would be nice for the wives to meet her.”
“I agree,” Tank said. He sighed. “Well, I’d better get packed. I hate leaving. And Merissa was nervous about my flying. I usually enjoy it, but now it makes me concerned.”
“Driving takes longer,” Cane pointed out.
“So it does.”
“He just doesn’t like being out of control,” Cane told Mallory. “He’d fly the plane if they’d let him.”
“I can drive a tank,” Tank protested. “If I can do that, I’d be able to pilot a plane. I’d just need a few lessons.” He grinned.
They shook their heads and walked off.
* * *
HE WONDERED WHO Rourke had watching him at the airport. He waited on the concourse gate to board. The man would probably be on the plane with him. But most of the passengers seemed to be families. There were a couple of businessmen in fancy suits. One of them was carrying a laptop in a case.
He drew Tank’s eyes. That man was tall, streamlined but muscular. He walked with a peculiar gait. Funny, to notice the way a man moved, but Tank had worked with a special forces group in Iraq that was assigned to a mission near his unit’s command post. He’d seen that walk before. It was common among men who hunted men. It was hard to put into words, but he recognized it when he saw it.
The man carried himself perfectly erect, no slumping there. He had jet-black hair that he wore in a ponytail down his back. It was as black as a raven’s wing. He wasn’t bad-looking. Women seemed to find him interesting. He smiled at one, a sophisticated woman by the look of her, and she seemed absolutely mesmerized by him.
He noticed Tank’s covert scrutiny and glanced at him from black eyes under heavy dark eyebrows. He had a lean face, deep-set eyes and a chiseled mouth. He looked dangerous. Odd, for a businessman.
Tank lifted his eyebrows, refusing to be intimidated. The man pursed his lips and actually grinned before he turned his attention back to the woman who was approaching him with a big smile.
Even in his best bachelor days, Tank had never been able to attract women like that. Well, some men just had the gift.
He thought about Merissa and smiled to himself. He wasn’t going to be interested in attracting women again, he decided. He had his own. His own. That made him feel warm inside, safe, protected. It had happened so suddenly that he hadn’t had time to think about the impact it was going to make on his life.
Merissa was innocent, a person of faith with high ideals. She wasn’t a woman for casual relationships. But he liked that. He wasn’t a rounder. He was feeling his age, although he was only thirty-two. He was growing used to the idea of having Merissa around. Maybe a child. A little boy who’d look like him, or a little girl who’d look like her. He recalled the very hot and heavy intimacy they’d shared on her bed, and how he’d almost died from the agony of having to walk away from her. Yes, they were going to be explosive together in bed. And he liked her. That was an important part of marriage.
Marriage! There. He’d actually said the word in his mind, the word he’d avoided for years. But it didn’t seem to hold the quiet terror it once had. Settling down seemed as natural as kissing Merissa’s soft mouth. He actually looked forward to it.
He wished he could have taken her to Texas with him. But she had her work, and she’d told him she was behind. There would be plenty of time for trips later on.
They were boarding business class now. He went onto the gangway, smiling at the flight attendant who was waiting down the ramp at the door of the plane. She checked his ticket and indicated his seat assignment.
He hadn’t planned to go business class, but his brothers had insisted. He didn’t fly anywhere enough to make it exorbitant this once. In the spring he’d be on planes a lot, going to seminars, visiting other ranches, visiting congressmen to lobby for better laws for the cattle industry. He’d be working on brochures for their own spring sales and planning the big twice-a-year cattle sale on the ranch. He was going to be busy. So this trip would be something like a working vacation for him. He’d talk to the sheriff, but he also had plans to visit a ranch in Jacobsville to check out some Santa Gertrudis cattle to add to the brothers’ breeding stock. They had a very small seed herd of the native Texas strain. He wanted to pursue it. A good bull wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. New blood every two years kept their breeding herds viable.
As he took his seat, he noted that the ponytailed businessman took a seat across from him. The flight attendant made a beeline for him and offered him anything he wanted. She was also grinning from ear to ear, like the woman who’d flirted with him in the airport.
Tank just shook his head. The man had a real gift.
* * *
IT WASN’T A long flight. At least, it didn’t seem long to Dalton. He read a couple of magazine articles, dozed for an hour or so and listened to the flight attendant telling the businessman across from Dalton about her whole life. He smiled to himself. The guy really had something. The flight attendant was very pretty.
When they landed, Dalton hefted his carry-on from the overhead compartment and got in line to baby-step out the door. No matter how organized the crew was, it was still a free-for-all trying to get off a plane.
As he approached the exit, he noted the flight attendant slipping a piece of paper to the businessman. He chuckled to himself.
* * *
A DRIVER WAS waiting for him at the entrance to the concourse, holding up a sign with “Dalton Kirk” on it.
He raised an eyebrow. His brothers, no doubt. He wondered why they thought he needed a limo to get to his hotel. San Antonio wasn’t that large a city, but apparently it was large enough to house a limousine service or two.
But as he started toward the man holding up the sign, the businessman suddenly bumped against him.
“Sorry,” he said loudly. But under his breath, he said, “Don’t go near the guy with the sign, it’s a trap.”
“My fault,” Tank replied.
He kept walking, not even looking toward the man with the sign. Once they were outside the airport, the businessman drew him to one side.
“Rourke sent me,” he told Tank. His face was very somber. “He didn’t say anything about a driver waiting for you here.”
“I thought my brothers did it for a surprise,” Tank replied, looking around.
“If they’d done that, I’d know about it,” the other man replied. “I left my car in overnight parking. I’ll drive you down to Jacobsville. Boss is expecting you. You’re going to stay with him.”
“Boss?”
“Cy Parks,” the man replied. “He owns one of the biggest...”
“...Santa Gertrudis cattle ranches in south Texas,” Tank finished for him. “In fact, he was on my list of people to see. I want to talk
to him about a new bull.” He hesitated. “But I promised to check in with the local FBI office...”
“Later,” the man replied, looking around them with narrowed eyes. “If they sent someone to the plane, they’ll be watching. Let’s go.”
For the first time, Tank noticed a bulge under the man’s jacket.
“You packing?” he asked as they moved quickly toward the parking lots.
“Yes.” He didn’t say anything else.
* * *
JACOBSVILLE WAS JUST a few minutes drive down the road, through some beautiful country. “It must be really pretty here in the spring,” Tank remarked as he looked across the flat horizon with small groves of trees and the “grasshoppers,” or oil pumpers, dotting the landscape.
“One landscape’s pretty much like another,” his companion replied. He glanced at Tank. “You should have questioned who I was, you know,” he said. “If that rogue agent is on the job, he’ll know Rourke is working for you and that he said he’d have somebody at the airport.”
Tank was very still. His eyes narrowed as he looked hard at the man driving the car.
There was a patient sigh. “I am the real deal,” he replied. “I’m just saying that you shouldn’t have assumed I was.”
Tank chuckled. “Okay. Point taken.”
He turned off the main road down a long ranch road between two white-fenced pastures with two levels of electrified wire in between. There were sleek, red-coated cattle eating at several points where hay had been provided.
“Nice cattle,” Tank remarked.
“Boss only stocks the best” was the reply. “We had to put out surveillance cameras here as well because somebody walked off with one of his prize bulls in the middle of the night.”
“Did they catch the perp?”
The tall man pursed his lips and glanced at Tank. “I caught him.”
“With the bull?”
“Fortunately. Rustling still carries a heavy penalty here in Texas, and we had proof. He’ll be serving time for the indefinite future.”
“You’re a tracker,” Tank murmured with narrowed eyes, and nodded when the other man glanced at him with surprise briefly visible. “I served in Iraq,” he explained. “There was a spec ops team assigned to my unit. Funny, the things you remember in a combat zone, but I remember how one of those guys walked. It’s a gait you don’t see in many people.”
