Texas Brides: The Rancher and the Runaway Bride & The Bluest Eyes in Texas

by Joan Johnston

  Then her mother had been killed, and her life had been turned upside down. For the past five years she had lived as celibate as a nun. Perhaps it was those years of deprivation that had caused her to respond so wildly to Burr. Or maybe grown-up hormones were more powerful than the teenage ones. All she knew was that what she had felt with Burr far surpassed anything she had ever experienced in the past.

  Lindsey felt confused and still half-aroused and wasn’t sure what her next move ought to be. Maybe the smart move was to make no move at all. She would let Burr set the tone for the rest of the day. Much as it irked her to concede any battle, she knew when she was outgunned. It would be better to retreat while she still could.

  She spent the next hour carting firewood into the house and wondering where Burr was. When he returned, she realized he must have gone swimming. His hair was slicked back and his skin was pearled with drops of water. She had a fierce urge to taste his skin, to lick up those crystal drops. She forced herself to stay where she was.

  “You took a swim.”

  “Yeah.”

  They stared at each other for a moment without speaking. Then Burr said, “It’s time for me to call in. If we’re lucky, Hector’s been picked up, and you can go home.”

  Lindsey was torn between wanting to go home and wanting more time with Burr. She had been attracted to him because he was so different from the men she usually met. She felt certain that if she didn’t discover the man behind the mask before Burr Covington, Texas Ranger, dropped her off in front of the governor’s mansion and said goodbye, she never would. Lindsey found that a very painful thought.

  “You won’t get any crazy ideas while I’m gone, like walking to the road, will you?” Burr said.

  “No. I’ll wait here.”

  “I shouldn’t be more than an hour. You’ll be safe here.” He reached out a hand and tucked an errant curl behind her ear. The instant he realized what he had done, Burr withdrew his hand. A moment later he captured her head between his hands and kissed her hard on the mouth. “Be here when I get back.”

  “I will.”

  Chapter 5

  LINDSEY STEPPED OUT onto the porch as Burr shut off the Jaguar’s engine. “What’s the news?”

  Burr joined her on the porch, his face solemn. “Hector escaped the trap that was set for him. The captain thinks he may have left the country for South America.”

  “Now what?”

  “The captain says we stay here,” Burr said flatly.

  “How long?”

  “Until the Turk’s sentence is carried out.”

  “That’s four days!”

  “I know.”

  Lindsey was amazed that she didn’t feel more disappointed. In fact, what she felt was elated. She had four more days to find out everything there was to know about Burr Covington. Four more days to figure out the source of the riotous feelings that had bombarded her when Burr had so solemnly announced they were stuck together for a while longer.

  To her consternation, Burr completely avoided her the rest of the day, which wasn’t easy, since they both had to eat and sleep in the cabin. Somehow, he arranged it so she ate before he did and retired to bed before he returned from taking a late evening walk.

  Lindsey lay in bed chewing on a fingernail. Maybe Burr had the right idea. Maybe it was better if they didn’t get to know each other. She tried to imagine introducing Burr to her father as someone she cared about and had a pretty good idea what he would say: she was suffering from some kind of kidnapping syndrome and had fallen for the man who had rescued her from the bad guys.

  Lindsey admitted she had something like an adolescent crush on Burr. She refused to dignify her desire to have him kiss her and hold her in his arms with any other label. How could it be more than infatuation? She had only known the man for forty-eight hours. She wasn’t even sure she liked him. But there was no doubt she was physically attracted to him.

  It occurred to her that perhaps the best way to get over her physical attraction to Burr was to find out what kind of man he really was. Personality flaws were bound to show up that would make him repugnant to her as a lover. Her crush would die a quick death under the weight of his unattractive character traits.

  However, her plan required her to spend time in Burr Covington’s company, discovering the unattractive man behind the fascinating “bad boy” facade. Which meant she had to find a way to keep Burr from disappearing before she had a chance to ask him a few questions. She decided to rise early the next morning and make a breakfast he wouldn’t be able to resist sharing.

  THE SMELL OF FRYING BACON woke Burr.

  “Breakfast is ready!” Lindsey called from the kitchen. “Come and get it!”

  Burr wasn’t a morning person. His mind didn’t start functioning until he had washed the cobwebs out with a shower, and he needed several cups of coffee before he could face the day. He met the call to come directly to the breakfast table with wariness. He needed his wits about him to deal with Lindsey Major.

  He had managed to avoid any contact with the governor’s daughter the previous day, but if he was any judge of the situation, he wasn’t going to be allowed to repeat his disappearing act. He rubbed a weary hand across his bristly jaw. He hadn’t gotten much sleep because he had spent the night dreaming in lurid detail of what it would be like to make love to her.

  He struggled upright, shoving the afghan off his bare legs. He pressed his palms against eyelids he would have sworn were endowed with spikes the way they scraped against his eyeballs. Maybe if he got up on the wrong side of the bed—make that couch—and let Miss Major see him at his worst, it would discourage her.

  Burr felt a grin struggling to break free. If Miss Major wanted him, she was going to get him. Warts and all.

  He pulled on his jeans and zipped them, but didn’t bother buttoning them. They caught on his hipbones. He headed for the kitchen barefoot, scratching his naked chest, his hair stuck up every whichaway and a dark stubble on his cheeks and chin.

  When he reached the kitchen doorway he grabbed hold of the molding above his head and held on, letting his body sag slightly forward. “Got any coffee?”

  Lindsey turned toward him, and he nearly laughed out loud at the look on her face. Her features ran the gamut between disappointment and delight. Clearly she was glad he had joined her for breakfast. Equally clearly, she hadn’t seen a man in his condition at the breakfast table.

  He let go of the molding and took the three steps necessary to sit at the table, which had been adorned with china and silverware—his mismatched plates, chipped cups and stainless-steel flatware—in a way that would have pleased Miss Manners. He leaned his head on his hand and blatantly stared at Lindsey while she filled his coffee cup. “Thanks.”

  “How would you like your eggs?” she asked.

  “Over easy.”

  She cracked a couple of eggs into the pan she had used to cook the bacon. He noticed she watched the eggs as though they might run away and ignored his presence in the room.

  “This is a nice surprise,” he said.

  She looked over her shoulder at him somewhat nervously. “I thought this might be a way to repay you in some small measure for all you’ve done for me.”

  Burr grunted. “You don’t owe me anything. I’m just doing my job.”

  “It may not seem like much to you, but I can’t help thinking what might have happened to me at the hotel if you hadn’t been there.”

  He saw her hands were trembling but resisted the urge to get up and go comfort her. Black knights didn’t comfort ladies fair. He watched her visibly calm herself.

  “I thought maybe we could walk down to the pond after breakfast,” she said.

  Burr knew why he wanted to spend time with her. What made no sense was why she apparently wanted to spend time with him. He had already warned her what would happen if she exhibited an interest in his attentions. She was damn well going to get them! Well, she was a big girl, and she knew the consequences of playing
with fire. He figured he might as well enjoy her company while he could. It was a choice he might not have made if he hadn’t still been fuzzy with sleep.

  Almost a full minute after Lindsey had asked him to go walking with her to the pond, he replied, “Yeah, I’ll go with you.” After all, he was supposed to be keeping an eye on her.

  “Do you suppose it would be all right if I went for a swim?”

  Burr had just taken a gulp of hot coffee, and he choked and sputtered as a vivid picture rose before him of what Lindsey would look like with water dripping off her naked body. He felt his groin tighten with anticipation. “Sure. Why not?”

  Burr was surprised when Lindsey set a plate of eggs, bacon and toast in front of him that were cooked to perfection. He gave her a look of admiration.

  “I took some classes in French cooking. We practiced a lot with eggs,” she explained as she joined him on the other side of the table with a plate of her own.

  They ate in uncomfortable silence, which Lindsey finally broke when she said, “I was wondering how someone who belonged to a street gang ended up as a Texas Ranger.”

  Burr hadn’t told the story to very many people. Maybe if Lindsey knew the truth about him, she would back off and leave him alone. Maybe a dose of reality would cure what ailed her.

  “My father died when I was two,” he began. “My mother went to work as a waitress in a truck stop outside Houston. She didn’t have any family, so she brought me with her to work and kept me behind the counter. I sort of grew up there.”

  “In a truck stop?”

  Burr’s lips curved at the look of horror and disbelief on Lindsey’s face. It was just dawning on her that they came from two different worlds.

  “It wasn’t such a bad place. The truckers sort of adopted me, but none of them ever stayed around very long, so I never got attached to any of them. The problems started when I turned fifteen. The Cobras—that was the gang I eventually joined—all showed up one day at the truck stop. I was fascinated by them. They talked hip and looked cool. Most of all, they were a family.

  “At the time, I needed to belong. So I joined up. I had to do a lot of things, initiation rites, before I could be a part of the gang. It was mostly petty thievery, vandalism, that sort of thing. And they beat you up to see if you could take it.”

  “That’s terrible!”

  Burr shrugged. “That part wasn’t any fun. But afterward I was one of them, so it seemed worth it. Once I was in, I got the tattoo.” He brushed his fingertips absently against the coiled black snake.

  “There’s no telling what might have happened to me if my mother hadn’t married a Houston cop.” He smiled in remembrance. “Joe Bertram came into the truck stop to investigate the theft of some video equipment—which I had stolen. The minute he and my mom laid eyes on each other they fell in love. I’ve never seen anything like it.

  “Joe became my stepfather a month later. You could say my life of crime came to a rather abrupt end. He laid down the law and made me toe the line. He forced me to quit the Cobras. When I look back on it now, I can see he was a pretty terrific guy. At the time, I hated his guts.

  “The long and the short of it is, the week after I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in business, he was killed in the line of duty.”

  He paused and swallowed hard.

  “I didn’t even know I loved him till I heard the news.” Burr turned away so she wouldn’t see the tears that stung his eyes. “I felt cheated that I had lost him just when I was starting to appreciate him. And I felt bad that I hadn’t ever thanked him. I figured one way I could repay him for all he’d done for me was to become a cop myself.

  “Fortunately, the Rangers provide a natural stomping ground for renegades and loners like me. I put in my time as a cop and applied for the Rangers as soon as I was eligible.” He spread his hands wide. “Here I am.”

  Burr had spent his life trying to make up to his stepfather for the trouble he had given him. In all these years he had never forgiven himself for the hateful things he had said to the man who had given him such tough love, even though his mother had assured him that his stepfather had forgiven him—had known his stepson cared for him—long before his death.

  “Where’s your mother now?” Lindsey asked.

  “She died two years ago.”

  “So you’re all alone?”

  “I don’t have any family left, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Why haven’t you married?”

  “I suppose I never found the right woman.”

  “What would she be like?”

  “I haven’t really thought about it. There’s no such thing as perfection, so I guess I’d settle for a woman I loved who loved me back.”

  “Sounds pretty simple.”

  “Not many women want to be married to a law enforcement officer.”

  Lindsey nodded. “I suppose they don’t want to wind up widows. I can understand that.”

  “And agree with the sentiment?”

  “I lost my mother to violence. I live every day with the fear that an assassin will kill my father. So, no, I don’t think I’ve ever imagined myself marrying a man whose life would constantly be on the line.”

  Burr rarely pondered his mortality. He couldn’t afford to because it might distract him from the job he had to do. But he couldn’t deny he was involved in a dangerous profession, and he couldn’t blame a woman who considered that risk when choosing a husband. Even if it put him squarely out of the running.

  While they were talking, Burr had finished the food in front of him and drunk a second cup of coffee. When Lindsey started clearing the table, he rose and took his plate from her. “You cooked, I clean, remember?”

  She gave him a quick look from lowered lashes before saying, “I’ll go change into something I can swim in.”

  Burr wondered what she would find to serve as a swimsuit and was rewarded when she arrived back in the kitchen a few minutes later with a sight that made his whole body go taut.

  Her face looked fresh and innocent as she glanced quickly up at him from blue eyes masked by dark, lush lashes. Her mouth was slightly parted, and he could see her breasts rise and fall in a T-shirt that made it plain she wasn’t wearing a bra. Her hair was a silky mane of gold that spilled over her shoulders and begged for a man’s hands to grasp handfuls of it to pull her close. The T-shirt was tied in a knot above a pair of his cutoff jeans that revealed the length of her tanned, shapely legs.

  It was an outfit designed to drive a man’s imagination wild. Burr turned toward the sink so she wouldn’t see that his body had promptly responded to the sexual invitation she had unconsciously thrown out.

  “I’ll be finished here in a minute and we can go,” Burr said in a voice that was surprisingly husky.

  “I’ll wait for you on the porch.”

  Burr was grateful for the respite to get his libido back under control.

  Whoa, boy! That sexy little siren is the governor’s daughter!

  She’s also a very desirable woman.

  Who’s off limits!

  Why?

  You know damn well why! She wouldn’t look at you twice if the circumstances were other than what they are. What kind of future could the two of you have together?

  So what’s wrong with a little fling?

  With the governor’s daughter? Get a grip, man. Think of the consequences!

  Burr tried to imagine the possible consequences of slaking his lust with Lindsey Major. The mind boggled. Better to grit his teeth and bear the pain of unsatisfied passion. In the long run that was the smart move.

  His resolve lasted until Lindsey came up from her first dip in the creek in the wet T-shirt. Her nipples had peaked from the cold, and he was treated to a sight that made idiots of adolescent males at beach parties. Burr told himself he was an intelligent grown man who knew better than to succumb to such riveting sights.

  When Lindsey called, “Why don’t you join me?” he respon
ded with a muttered oath and stood his ground.

  “I promise the water isn’t too cold,” she teased.

  Maybe that was what he needed, Burr thought, a dip in some cold water. He yanked off his black T-shirt and sat down to remove his boots and socks. Then, still wearing his jeans, he strode into the icy water.

  He wasn’t consciously heading for Lindsey at first. Not until she began to back away from him. She should have known better than to run. A hunter could never resist the chase.

  He saw the teasing smile on her face begin to fade as she realized he was coming for her.

  “Burr…Burr…”

  When she turned and raced for the bank, he ran after her. He caught her in the grassy verge and pulled her down. They rolled several times before he pinned her beneath him.

  She didn’t fight, but lay panting, her eyes wide, her body pliant. She slicked her tongue over her lips, leaving them wet. Her gaze met his, and he waited for a sign that she wanted to be freed. It didn’t come.

  He lowered his mouth to hers, tasting the dampness, and heard her moan low in her throat. He pressed his hips down and felt her arch upward to meet him. This time he groaned.

  “Lindsey, if you don’t want this, say so now.”

  “I want you, Burr. Please, don’t stop.”

  He had the wet T-shirt and shorts off her moments later and shimmied out of his wet jeans a moment after that. He settled himself between her thighs and then raised himself up on his elbows to look at her.

  “You’re so beautiful!” He watched the flush steal up her throat to stain her cheeks. Her eyes were closed, the lashes a fan of coal across rose-petal skin. “Look at me, Lindsey.”

  Lindsey had closed her eyes on purpose, not wanting Burr to focus on them because she had been judged for so long by their uniqueness. She wanted to be appreciated for who she was inside, not because she had the bluest eyes in Texas. She raised her lids slowly, first to a slit, then wider as she saw the admiration and approval in his tender gaze.

  He brushed his thumb across her cheek and then slid it across her parted lips. She dipped her tongue out to taste him and heard his hiss of pleasure. His dark eyes seemed to bore into her, seeking the person within. She willed him to see her as she was—innocent, needing him, wanting him, not quite frightened, but anxious about the unknown.