Big Sky Country

by Janet Dailey

  "And I'm supposed to have tricked you into coming with me for that purpose?" Jill demanded, her head thrown back, the sheen of her blond hair glistening palely in the moonlight.

  "You've picked a romantic setting," he taunted. "A walk in the moonlight on a path that takes us some distance from the house, just the two of us—alone."

  She swallowed involuntarily, glancing furtively around, not realizing how far they had walked from the ranch house. They were very much alone, surrounded by meadow and moonlight.

  "If that was my intention, I would surely have picked a man who at least was attracted to me. You've made your dislike of me very clear," she responded boldly.

  "On the contrary, I am attracted to you. I may think you're a scheming little witch—" his mouth curved into a humorless smile while he lazily inspected her upturned face "—but it doesn't lessen the desire to make love to you. You're a very beautiful woman."

  The bluntness of his declaration sent shivers of ice down her spine. "Save your compliments for Sheena. I'm sure she would appreciate them much more than I do," Jill answered sharply, averting her face.

  His thumb and finger caught her chin and turned her back. "Jealous?" Riordan mocked huskily, his eyes glittering over the deepening color in her cheeks that not even the dim light could hide.

  Her eyes blazing, she wrenched away from his touch. "You're conceited, arrogant—"

  The sheen in his eyes turned to metallic steel as he clamped a hand over her mouth, shutting off the tirade with the swiftness of a slicing blade. Her hands came up to tear his fingers away and she was crushed against his chest.

  "I wondered how long it would take before you lost your temper." Slowly he removed his hand. "You can scream all you want. There isn't anyone around to hear you."

  "Let me go!" Jill hissed.

  Riordan smiled coldly, lacing his fingers through her hair to prevent her from twisting her face away. His mouth descended toward her and Jill was helpless to avoid it. A gasp of protest was torn from her throat as he nuzzled the throbbing pulse in her neck.

  "Make your token resistance if you must," he jeered, raising havoc with her heartbeat as he nibbled at her ear, "but you know you intended this to happen all along."

  "No," she denied.

  His mouth trailed over her cheek to taste the corner of her lips, the warmth of his breath caressing her skin.

  "Why else did you want me to come with you?" Riordan smiled with arrogant conceit.

  The tantalizing closeness of his mouth, sensually touching without taking, was unnerving. A purely physical reaction started a trembling through her limbs.

  "Don't!" She spoke against his mouth, fire leaping somewhere inside her. "I left the h-house because I wanted privacy—"

  "Naturally," he agreed.

  "No. Privacy for Todd and Kerry," Jill explained desperately. "I…I thought they should have some time alone. That's why I wanted you to come with me."

  His head raised from hers, a brow arching in satisfaction. "Now I know the truth," he murmured, relaxing his hold so she could pull free.

  Staring at him, Jill bit into her lip still burning from the nearness of his. "You tricked me, didn't you?" she accused in a shallow breath. "You never intended to try to seduce me."

  "Could I have?" The grooves around his mouth deepened.

  "No!" She spun away.

  Her flesh still tingled from the imprint of his male form and there was a funny empty ache in the pit of her stomach. Could he, a tiny voice inside asked.

  "No!" The second vigorous denial was made to the voice.

  "We'd better head back to the house," Riordan said with silent laughter in his voice, "while you're still trying to make up your mind. If you aren't convinced, then I may become curious enough to find out for myself."

  It sounded very much like a threat to Jill. Sometimes it was better to retreat and lose a battle than to stay and lose a war. Right now Riordan was much too disturbing an influence for her to think straight.

  As they entered the house with Jill a hurried step ahead of Riordan, Kerry walked out of the living room. There was no inner glow to her expression as Jill had expected. For a moment she forgot her own haste to reach the safety of the bedroom.

  "Where's Todd?" Jill glanced curiously toward the living room. A frown appeared on her forehead as she tried to guess if the two had quarreled.

  "He's in the living room," Kerry answered tightly, her lips thinning in irritation. "He was so tired he fell asleep twenty minutes ago."

  Jill's lashes fluttered shut in sighing disbelief. A low throaty chuckle sounded behind her, rolling into outright laughter. She darted an angry look at Riordan, catching the crinkling of his eyes at the corners, the merry glint of gray in the pupils and the broad, laughing smile. It was a Riordan that she had never seen before.

  A wickedness entered the merry glint. "Ah, the irony of it, Jill," he concluded with a wry shake of his ebony dark head.

  "What's so funny?" Kerry frowned after Riordan had strode away, still smiling, toward the rear of the house.

  Jill put a hand to her mussed hair, a faint smile tugging the corners of her mouth. "Don't ask, Kerry," she answered with a short sighing laugh. "From your viewpoint, I don't think it would be very funny."

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  Chapter Six

  "WE'VE CHANGED THE BEDDING in all the rooms except Riordan's, Mary," Jill announced, tucking an escaping wisp of hair under her old-fashioned blue bandanna. "I'm afraid we couldn't figure out which room was his."

  Mary Rivers was on her hands and knees in the hallway cleaning and polishing the woodwork. She straightened stiffly upright, a hand pushing against the small of her back.

  "I already took care of his room. He sleeps downstairs in the rear…I didn't think to mention it. Old age, I expect."

  "Would you want me to put the sheets in the washer?" Kerry asked, holding the armload in front of her.

  "You girls have done enough. You're guests in this house, not daily help." The housekeeper shook her head in refusal of the offer.

  "We enjoy helping," Jill insisted.

  "It's much better than sitting around doing nothing. At least this way we can be useful," Kerry added. "Besides, what's involved in washing sheets? All I have to do is stick them in the washer, add detergent and push a button."

  "While she's doing that, I can help you with this woodwork." Without allowing time for a protest, Jill bent over to pick up the cloth and polish at Mary Rivers's feet.

  "I can't let you girls do this." The housekeeper tried to take the cleaning items from Jill's hand, but she held them out of reach.

  "How are you going to stop us?" Kerry asked pertly, turning down the hall toward the kitchen and the utility room beyond it.

  "Come on, Mary," Jill coaxed. "Let us help. You said yourself that by the time you do the cooking and regular cleaning, you're lucky to have the spring housecleaning done by fall. We've been here over ten days. We can't keep doing nothing while you work."

  "You make the beds and straighten your own rooms. That's enough of a help to me."

  "Let us help you with other things. Not all the time but every once in a while, like now. We've little else to do with our time," Jill pointed out.

  "I give up!" Mary lifted her hands in the air in surrender. "I'll get another polishing cloth and we'll both clean this entrance hall."

  "It's a deal," Jill smiled. "I'll do the woodwork near the floor so you won't have be getting up and down so much. You can do that carving around the wainscoting."

  After two hours of scooting along the floor on her hands and knees, Jill's muscles in her back, shoulders and arms started to protest. She hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt, if that was possible. The work was certainly an outlet for the restlessness that had been plaguing both girls.

  The evenings had returned to their former pattern with Riordan dominating, by his presence, the other three. Jill didn't make any more attempts to maneuver Riordan away from Todd and K
erry.

  Naturally Kerry had, bit by bit, wheedled an account of Jill's disastrous single attempt. Jill never admitted that she had actually thought Riordan intended to seduce her or that, for a few traitorous moments, her flesh had been tempted to respond to his teasing caresses.

  Without these pertinent facts, Kerry had seen the ironic humor of the event. While Jill had been ineffectually trying to fend off Riordan's advances—as Kerry believed they were—she had been listening to Todd snore.

  The end result of the episode for Jill had been an increasing awareness of her masculine host. She was certain that Riordan could, if he wanted to, arouse her physically as no other man had done. She had always been the one in control of all aspects of a relationship, and she didn't like the sensation of being so vulnerable. He didn't like butterflies. It was a possibility that he might some day decide to tarnish her wings.

  A shiver danced over her skin as she remembered the tantalizing warmth of his mouth just barely brushing hers. A dangerous curiosity kept wondering what it would be like to be kissed by him—not the degrading, punishing kiss he had subjected her to when they first met, but a kiss of passion.

  And there was the silent challenge, too. Every man she had ever gone after, she had got. But what about Riordan? Was he the exception to the rule?

  There was a jingling in the hallway behind her. Brushing a stray strand of hair away from her eyes, Jill started to turn around. What a silly time for Kerry to put on a bracelet, she thought. Then the jingling was accompanied by the sound of long, angry strides closing on her. There was a fleeting glimpse of Riordan's uncompromising and forbidding features.

  In the next second, Jill's wrist was seized in a vice grip and she was yanked to her feet, unaware of the startled gasping cry that came from her throat. Her legs were momentarily too numb from the crawling position to support her. She sought to steady herself against his chest with her free hand.

  "What the hell is going on here!" Riordan shouted. He pulled the hand from his chest to tear away the polishing cloth unconsciously still clutched in her fingers and hurl it to the far side of the hall. "Mary!"

  Jill stumbled heavily against him, her heart lurching as she came against the solid wall of muscle. His arm automatically released her wrist and circled her waist to catch her, taking her full weight as if it were no more than a child's.

  The suddenness of the forced movement had thrown her head back, her stunned gaze staring into his narrowed eyes darkened like turbulent thunderclouds. She shuddered at the violence contained within.

  "Mary, what's the meaning of this?" Thunder growled threateningly in his voice. "And you'd better have a damned good explanation!"

  His strong male scent was all around Jill, filling her senses to the exclusion of everything but his nearness. It seemed to take all her strength to look away from the compelling features so close to her own and focus on the housekeeper who was the recipient of his stormy gaze. Mary Rivers didn't appear intimidated by his anger. Instinctively Jill leaped to her defense anyway.

  "I was helping," she inserted breathlessly.

  Riordan's gaze slashed to her for a paralyzing second. "Shut up, Jill. Mary is perfectly capable of answering for herself." His attention was again riveted on the housekeeper. "Well?"

  "The girls offered to help," she answered simply.

  "You've been working, too?" An accusing glance was thrown over his shoulder. Jill could barely see Kerry hovering uncertainly near the stairs, her brown eyes rounded and stunned at the sight of Jill a captive of this snarling lion.

  "I…was doing the wash," she murmured.

  Riordan muttered an imprecation under his breath. "I am only going to say this once, Mary." A muscle worked convulsively in his strong jaw. "They are my guests in my house and I will not have guests crawling around on their hands and knees cleaning woodwork or washing clothes!"

  Mary Rivers stood calmly before him, straight and tall, her hands clasped in front of her. "They're strong, healthy girls, Riordan. You can't expect them to sit in this house day after day twidding their thumbs."

  "I don't give a damn what they do. I will not have them working like hired help in this house. Is that clear?"

  "How can you stop us?" Jill breathed in challenge. "Mary tried and she couldn't. You weren't even here. I took the cloth and polish away from her and demanded to help."

  The arm around her waist tightened, crushing her more firmly against his rippling muscles. The hard glint in his eyes that commanded her silence gave Jill the impression that he would like to snap her in two.

  "Stay out of this." Narrowed slits of steel sliced across Jill's flushed face, then cut swiftly back to Mary. "Have I made myself clear?"

  "I'm not to blame for this." The housekeeper held his gaze without flinching. "As you pointed out, they're guests in this house. It's your responsibility and not mine to see that they're entertained. If you choose to neglect that, you have no right to lose your temper because they found their own way to amuse themselves and fill the empty time."

  "And you would do well, Mary—" Jill was cast away from him, sagging limply against the wall like a rag doll as Riordan turned to tower above the housekeeper "—to remember that you are not a part of the family, but a paid employee!"

  The spurs on his boots jingled noisily again as long strides carried him to the door. Jill flinched at the explosive slamming of the door, half expecting the rattling windows to shatter from the impact. Her gaze shifted automatically to the housekeeper silently staring at the door.

  "I'm sorry, Mary," she offered sincerely, strength finally beginning to flow through her limbs. "We never intended to get you into trouble."

  "He'll get over it." Mary Rivers shrugged philosophically. A twinkle sparkled in her dark eyes. "But in the meantime I think you'd better leave the housework to me until he cools down at least!"

  The atmosphere in the house remained electrified. There wasn't any room that possessed an immunity to the invisible tension. Dinner that evening was an awkward affair.

  Riordan's disposition hadn't improved. A black mood seemed to hover about the house during dinner. Not even his unexpected departure from the house after the meal put any of them at ease. The tension remained in the house into the following day. Wanting to defy him, Jill was still hesitant to offer again to help Mary. She wasn't quite as convinced as Mary that Riordan was going to get over his anger.

  Perhaps that was why his announcement the following night at the dinner table came as such a surprise. Her lips were slightly parted in disbelief as she continued to stare at him.

  "A trail ride?" Todd echoed the words Riordan had just spoken.

  Riordan appeared indifferent to the stunned reaction his suggestion had met, "I thought we could leave first thing Monday morning. That will give the girls some time to get accustomed to the horses. We can only be gone two days."

  "Horses?" Kerry swallowed.

  A black brow arched briefly in cynical amusement. "Yes, horses," Riordan affirmed. "Unless you want to walk to the top of the mountain?"

  "No, of course not," Kerry rushed nervously, glancing to Jill to see her reaction.

  "You did say you could ride," he reminded Kerry pointedly.

  "She can ride well enough," Todd answered for her, reaching out to cover Kerry's hand. "I'll pick out a nice, gentle mount for you."

  "And you, Jill?" Riordan drawled, his impassive gray eyes shifting to her. "Can you ride, or will you require a nice, gentle mount, too?"

  Despite the casualness of his voice, there was a decided bite underlining the question, She tried to fathom his expression without success. She still couldn't believe that he sincerely meant to go through with it.

  "I can ride." Her reply was marred by uncertainty.

  "You don't sound very enthusiastic," he commented dryly.

  "Maybe—" Jill breathed in deeply, drawing on her reserve of bold courage "—because I don't think the invitation for this trail ride was offered willingly."

  "Ji
ll!" whispered Kerry in a shocked plea for caution.

  "You believe that Mary's little speech yesterday reminding me of my responsibilities as host blackmailed me into suggesting this?" Riordan challenged, leaning back in his chair and regarding Jill thoughtfully from his mask of aloofness.

  "Yes, I do," she nodded.

  "Well, you're quite right in believing that." The hard line of his mouth quirked briefly as he arrogantly inclined his head in acknowledgement. "The question remains, do you want to go?"

  Jill definitely wanted to go. Her brother had been the last one to take her on a trip into the high country around her home in Yellowstone. But this wasn't exactly Kerry's cup of tea. Of course, her friend would go to the moon if Todd asked.

  Her chin raised thoughtfully, as she met Riordan's narrowed gaze of watchfulness. He was very well aware of Kerry's timidity toward animals, especially something as large as a horse, and her lack of an adventurous streak that made Kerry prefer the security of a house to the unknowns of the wilderness. Jill had been the one who had prompted the exploring walks around the ranch.

  Kerry's only dissatisfaction in their stay here had been she hadn't seen as much of Todd as she wanted. She would have been content to potter around the house.

  Jill didn't condemn Kerry for being unwilling to experience other worlds, but Riordan did. He considered it a fatal flaw for his brother's prospective bride to have. It was time he learned that Kerry had a lot of spunk, Jill decided. However much Kerry wanted the security of a house, she would, without a grumble, go wherever Todd led her. Kerry was like a lot of pioneer women had been—she could make a home wherever her man was.

  If Riordan expected to hear Kerry complain about the hardships of the long ride and camping out, or give way to fits of terror at crawling insects and the night cries of wild animals, he was going to be in for a surprise. A secret smile teased the corners of her mouth.

  "Yes," Jill finally responded to his question with a decisive nod of her head, "I would like to go."