by Janet Dailey
'I don't make a very good rodeo fan,' she laughed nervously. 'My heart is in my throat too often. Are you all right?'
'A few bruises and pulled muscles.' Lije dismounted and led the horse into the stall. 'It's all a part of rodeo.'
'Like Lefty's broken arms,' Diana concluded for him. 'Have you ever been hurt seriously?'
'Cracked some ribs a couple of times. I broke my wrist once.' He unsaddled the bay and carried the saddle to its rack. His hand came up and touched the bump on his nose. 'I broke this once, too. But on the whole, I've been lucky.'
Diana shuddered, visualizing the horror of seeing Lije being carried from the arena on a stretcher. 'I couldn't shrug it off that easily,' she said. 'I'm not that brave.'
'You didn't panic until after it was over, I noticed,' Lije smiled. 'I saw you in the stands when I stood up. You were afraid, but you waited until you found out I was all right before you collapsed. Bravery is fighting back fear until there isn't any more reason to be afraid. You did fine, Diana.'
There was comfort in his words even if she didn't look at it the same way he did. She had been terrified. Her whole world had been on the verge of collapsing.
'Don't think about it any more,' he ordered grimly, his gaze seeing through her mask of composure. 'You'll only make it seem all out of proportion.'
'I know you're right,' she agreed weakly.
'While I'm brushing down Red, you look out at those stars and see if you can find the Little Dipper without me there to distract you,' Lije mocked, changing his tactics and winking at her.
It had the desired effect of changing her thoughts to the night before when the stars had brought her into his arms. The night was deceptively clear, making the stars appear so close that she could reach out and touch them. The cold spell was over and the air was pleasantly warm. After Lije's teasing and affectionate words, it was easy for Diana to give herself up to the magic of the evening. When Lije finished grooming the horses, she was even able to point with pride to the Little Dipper with its brilliant North Star.
'I'll have you navigating by the stars in no time,' Lije laughed, pulling her down on to a bale of hay next to the stable door. 'Have you ever slept outside underneath the stars? Jim and I used to do it every summer, except when it rained.' He was leaning back against the building, gazing out into the night. Diana leaned back, too, but she was covertly studying the faraway expression on his face. Contentment was blended with a hint of wistfulness. 'I miss the scent of pine that was always in the wind at the ranch. And the taste of piñon nuts that Jim and I used to spend hours gathering.'
'It all sounds like a new world to me,' Diana mused.
'A ranch isn't without dangers, too. There's always rattlesnakes, the odd mountain lion, the risk of getting lost if you don't know the area, or thrown from your horse and injured.'
'At least, you don't invite injury like you do in the rodeo,' Diana answered defiantly, but Lije just chuckled.
'I'm very careful.' His arm curled around her shoulders and drew her against his chest. She snuggled comfortably against him, relaxing under the soothing caress of his hand in the silken fineness of her hair.
'How did your meeting go with Cord?' she murmured.
'I think he'll probably buy a couple of yearling fillies I have,' Lije answered softly. 'That will really help along with the stud fees to service four of his mares. I have a Hereford bull all picked out to improve the blood line of my cattle. With Cord's money and what I've earned so far this season, it will just about cover the cost of him.'
'What else do you want to do at the ranch?'
'Well, I need another couple of wells sunk for water, a new tractor and a stacker for the hay. The list is endless.' His lips brushed her forehead, and Diana made a little moue of pleasure as she lifted her face for his kiss. It was tender and controlled, but still satisfying. Lije shifted her in his arms and her eyes caught a wince of pain on his face.
'You're hurt!' she accused him, pulling herself out of his arms.
'It's nothing that a little liniment wouldn't cure,' smiling and shaking his head at her disbelieving look. 'My muscles are just stiffening up a bit.'
'It won't get any better if you don't do something about it.' The tone of authority in her voice amused him, but she refused to let the mockery in his eyes deter her.
'Come on.' Lije took her hand and pulled her to her feet. 'It might be a welcome change to have someone other than Lefty rub my back and shoulders!'
Blithely Diana followed him to the pick-up camper. The efficiently compact interior was amazingly tidy considering the accepted opinion of a bachelor establishment. Lije's tall frame seemed to barely fit in the close quarters. Diana glanced hesitantly around her, wondering where he found room to stretch out.
'The liniment is in the top right-hand cupboard,' Lije told her as he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled its tails out of his tan denim levis.
Diana averted her head quickly. The sight of the tanned chest with its cloud of dark curling hairs had a very unsettling effect on her equilibrium. The bottle of liniment was sitting at the front of the cupboard. Ignoring the rapid beat of her heart, she turned around and opened the bottle with an air of calm briskness.
'Whew!' she exclaimed as the strong scent of the lotion seemed to explode in the air. 'This smells terrible!'
'It isn't used as a cologne,' Lije chuckled, turning his back to her and sitting crosswise on the couch that did double service as a chair for the small table.
The broad lean back mocked her hesitancy at touching the sinewy ripple of muscles. Resolutely Diana stepped forward, pouring the lotion on her hand. The odour acted as smelling salts, driving away her jittery nerves. There was still something remarkably sensuous about massaging the smooth tanned skin of his back.
'You're very good,' Lije observed after several minutes had passed in silence. 'Do you do this often?'
'No,' she answered, glad his face was turned so he couldn't see the pink in her cheeks. 'I just imagine what would feel good if someone were rubbing my back and do that.'
Her hands and arms were beginning to ache, but she was enjoying this unrestricted touching of his skin. It was an intimacy that she wanted to prolong. But Lije moved away. 'Any more of that and I'll fall asleep,' he said, taking her hands and holding them between his own.
'Are you still sore?' she asked.
The old breathlessness had attacked her voice as she stared down at his strong face and the bared chest. He shook his head at her slowly, his gaze straying to her trembling lips. Slowly he pulled her down on to his lap. His fingers captured a lock of her hair that had fallen across her cheek.
'You're very beautiful, Diana,' he said huskily.
'I'm glad you think so, Lije,' she breathed as his mouth moved closer to hers.
It was a soft, persuasive kiss, not matching the ardour of last night. Yet its very gentleness and tenderness was oddly more satisfying and more sincere. It had the taste of honey and all the sweet things in life. Another dimension of her emotion opened up as Diana discovered a different facet to her love for him. The golden tan of his skin beneath her fingers was more precious than any metal or material wealth.
Lije gently held her away from him, his grey eyes holding the same reflection of mystery and awe that hers did. A furrow cut across his brow and his eyes narrowed. When he cupped his hand behind her neck and drew her to him, he kissed her with savagery and hunger. The ruthless barbarism was equally potent. The iron bands of his arms held her so tightly she could barely breathe while twin hearts hammered as one.
Then his hands were digging into the flesh of her arms as he firmly set her feet back on the floor. He raked his fingers through his wavy chestnut hair and rose to his feet, pushing past her to yank a shirt out of the small closet. Diana waited. Lije was in charge. She would do whatever he wanted.
'Wait outside for me,' he ordered crisply. 'I think it's time we went out for coffee.'
Diana meekly obeyed and Lije followed almost immediatel
y, taking time only to comb his rumpled hair into order and button his shirt. The café they had stopped at the first night was closed. It was after midnight, the witching hour. Lije turned file truck in the direction of her hotel;
'It's just as well,' he said grimly. The grey eyes were uncompromising as he glanced over at her. 'We would only be prolonging the inevitable.'
Diana swallowed as tears burned the back of her eyes. All evening she had been avoiding facing that this was their last night. The bliss-filled moments with Lije had succeeded in wiping it from her mind until now.
'When will you be in Houston? I thought I'd drive down to see you.' It was hard forcing those casual words through the lump in her throat.
'Have you forgotten so soon the agony you went through tonight?' Lije sneered. 'How much more hell do you want to put yourself through? It will be the same every time I get into the arena.'
Unable to answer his knife-sharp questions, Diana blinked unseeingly at the fights of the hotel shining ahead of them. She still couldn't speak when he parked in front of it and sat silently behind the wheel.
'It has to be goodbye, Diana.'
Her chin quivered, but she firmly raised it from her chest. 'Maybe I'll see you in Dallas?' she smiled brightly.
'I won't be going there this year,' he told her. His coldness made it clear that he was severing their relationship completely. In one quick movement, he reached across her and opened the door. 'Goodbye, Diana.'
'Goodbye,' she answered in a choked voice as she scrambled out of the truck. Before she had time to turn around, Lije was driving away.
Diana didn't sleep that night. Nor did she toss and turn in the bed. Her frozen body was immobile, as were the tears in her eyes. Lije liked her. He cared for her, but not to the extent that she did. Otherwise he couldn't have shoved her out of his life. But where had her tenacity been? Fate had denied her many things parents, a home, childhood memories of family love. Was Fate denying her the man she loved as well? Or had she grown so used to accepting the cruel blows of life that she had no strength of will to fight?
Not until Stella called her did Diana open the eyes that had been feigning sleep. She went through the motions of packing, her continued silence drawing curious looks from the other girl.
'Is your cowboy coming this morning to say goodbye?' Stella asked.
'I don't know,' Diana replied with studied indifference, but it was the wish foremost in her mind to see him just once more.
But as she stood in the lobby with Stella waiting for Rick to bring the station wagon around to the front, Diana knew Lije wouldn't come. Her suitcases and cosmetic bag were in her hands. In another few minutes she would be on her way to Dallas. Stacy Harris's words came drifting back to Diana. 'Don't be afraid to tell him you love him.'
'Bring your bags. We're ready to go,' Connie ordered, walking into the lobby and waving towards Stella and Diana.
Together Diana and Stella walked out the door. Rick took the suitcases from Stella and loaded them in the rear of the wagon. Just ahead of the car was a taxi cab. As Rick walked back to take Diana's things, she stepped away from him.
'I'm not going,' she said unblinkingly.
'What do you mean?' Connie demanded, but Diana was already hurrying towards the vacant taxi.
Her mind was made up. She was going to the rodeo grounds. She was going to find Lije and tell him that she was in love with him. If … if it didn't matter to him, then—well, she'd decide what to do then.
The first place she went after the taxi dropped her off was to the stables. The buckskin was in his stall, but the red bay was gone and so was Lije. Diana paused to steady her trembling legs, then proceeded towards the arena. He was there, standing next to a group of cowboys, his back to her as he tightened the cinch to his saddle. She walked slowly towards him, the big horse blocking her from the view of the other cowboys.
'Hey, Lije!' one of them called. 'You gonna see that pretty blonde again tonight?
'No!' Lije answered sharply, giving a vicious tug on the cinch and causing the horse to move nervously.
'I'd be more than glad to stand in for you,' another man replied, drawing sniggering laughs from the rest of the group.
'Shut up, Rafe.' Lije's order carried an ominous threat in its softly spoken words.
'He's been like that all morning.' Diana recognized Lefty Robbins' voice. 'That little blonde put a burr under his saddle, I think.'
'That's enough out of you, too, Lefty.' Lije gathered the reins and turned to lead the horse away. As he turned, he came face to face with Diana. His head came up slowly as the arrogant grey eyes surveyed her.
'Hello, Lije,' she murmured. Her movement was frozen by the coldness in his gaze.
'What are you doing here?' he demanded. 'You should be half-way to Dallas by now.'
'I couldn't leave,' Diana swallowed, feeling her courage fast deserting her. She inhaled deeply. 'I'm in love with you, Lije.'
He took a step towards her, then another. His eyes were smouldering dark fires with what Diana mistook for anger.
'I didn't mean to, Lije,' she hurried her words. 'It just happened. Love isn't something you can turn on and off at will.'
Her eyes pleaded up at him to understand, to stop looking so arrogantly down at her. His hands reached out and dug into the flesh of her shoulders. Diana steeled herself to endure the shaking that was coming, but instead, Lije lifted her into the air above his head, then slowly lowered her to eye level. With her feet still dangling off the ground, he proceeded to kiss her. He kissed her so thoroughly that when he lowered her to the ground amid the scattering applause from the onlooking cowboys Diana could barely stand on her shaking legs.
'Let's get out of here,' he muttered, picking up her cases that had at some time tumbled to the ground.
'Lije?'
Her hand touched his arm, and he smiled down at her. It was a miracle. That was love shining out of his eyes. An arm swept around her waist as he hustled her out of the arena.
Lije didn't stop until they reached his pick-up camper, then only long enough to open the door and push Diana inside. She would have gone back into his arms then, but he held her at arm's length.
'We have to talk first, Diana,' he said firmly. 'And I can't think straight when I hold you.'
'There's nothing to talk about,' Diana smiled, supremely confident in the face of his love for her. 'I'll follow you all over the country or all over the world.'
'No. I meant what I said last night. I couldn't put you through the agony of wondering every time I was in the arena whether I was going to come out in one piece.'
'Then I'll wait for you. Two years, three years, whatever it takes.'
'I can't wait that long for you.' There was no mistaking the reason for the burning look in his eyes.
'I'm in love with you, Lije. I can't let you go.' Panic crept into her voice, and involuntarily she moved closer to him.
'There is an alternative,' he said, gripping her shoulders to halt her movement. 'But it won't be easy. I can quit the rodeo and go back to the ranch. It will mean some lean years where we'll have to do without a lot of things, but we could make it.'
'You said you needed another two years at least,' she murmured. 'How can you do it?'
'I can sell Red,' Lije sighed grudgingly. 'I had hoped to keep him for a second stallion. As it is I'll only get half what he's worth, but it will give me the money to make the necessary improvements to the ranch to get us by for a couple of years.'
'I could keep on working, Lije,' Diana offered. Her heart going out to him because of the sacrifice he was making for her. 'I have a little money saved now. Not much really, but … '
'No! Absolutely not!' he barked. 'Listen, darling,' he went on more calmly. 'I'm the original male chauvinist, but my wife is going to be with me wherever I am, not off posing for some guy with a camera. We'll make it together.'
'That's the way I want it, too,' she whispered earnestly.
'I love you, Diana.' The han
ds that had held her away now drew her to him as Lije proceeded to rain kisses on her lips, nose, eyes, and neck. 'Tonight will be my last rodeo, darling,' he murmured against her cheek. 'Tomorrow we'll drive to El Paso. We can get married in Juarez, Mexico. By Tuesday, we'll be at my ranch … our ranch … our home. Is that too long to wait?
'I would wait a lifetime if you wanted me to,' Diana breathed, her happiness knowing no limits when he held her like this in his arms. His mouth covered hers quickly, letting her know without words that that wasn't necessary.
With a shaky laugh of exaltation, Lije lifted his head from hers. 'The first thing we'd better do is get you checked back into a hotel for tonight.'
'Do I have to?' she asked impishly.
'Yes,' he growled mockingly. 'This afternoon you can go out and buy yourself a wedding dress while I handle a few other things.'
'You're the boss!' Her blue eyes twinkled up at him demurely. She was rewarded for her meek acceptance with another kiss and a promise of more.
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Chapter Six
'WELL, Mrs. Masters?' Lije looked at her lovingly. 'You're now in New Mexico, the land of enchantment. Are you happy?'
'Very happy,' she answered, snuggling closer to him as she gazed out the window of the pick-up truck at the thinning marks of civilization.
It was all too wonderful to believe it had happened, Diana thought, sneaking a glance at the man who, last night, had become her husband in every sense of the word. She still marvelled at how tender and gentle he had been with her when he had discovered that she had never been with a man before. And she had been astounded by her own response. Lije had always been able to arouse her, but Diana had never believed that she could be transported to that level of rapture.
'Darling, are you sure you don't mind not having a honeymoon? We could spare a few days in El Paso. We aren't that far away that we couldn't turn back.' The concern and desire to please in Lije's gaze made Diana's heart leap with love.
