By the time Chance finally lifted his lips, the room was spinning around Lucinda’s head. Her breaths were coming in short pants and her knees were close to buckling beneath her.
“You say you don’t want a relationship with me,” Chance murmured, his lips pressing tiny kisses down the side of her throat. “But your body is telling me something else.”
It was telling Lucinda something, too. She wanted to make love to this man. That was bad enough. But even worse, she realized she not only wanted to give him her body, she wanted to give him her heart. Something she’d vowed to guard with her very life.
“Chance, you don’t know—”
Her words were smothered as his mouth found hers once again. At the same time, his hands delved beneath the hem of her sweater, spread upward against her back, then slowly inched forward to her breasts.
Once his fingers closed around their fullness, Lucinda was lost. Arching her hips against his, she urged him to deepen the kiss. Even though his teeth were grazing hers, his tongue was already exploring every intimate curve of her mouth.
Never had anything felt this good, or this right to her. And maybe that was the thing that frightened Lucinda the most. She was rapidly losing herself to Chance. She was letting another man take control of her again and she knew she must never let that happen.
Twisting away and turning her back to him, she gulped in deep, ragged breaths. “I’m not going to let you change my mind,” she whispered hoarsely.
Long moments passed without a word from him. Finally, unable to keep her eyes off him, she turned to see him smiling at her. It was a knowing smile, full of pleasure and a dash of smugness.
“I think I already have, Lucy.”
Terrified that he might try to prove it, Lucinda stepped around him and rushed out the door. She wasn’t going to give him another opportunity to work his charms on her, she vowed as she ran down the hallway to her bedroom. Because next time, she might not be strong enough to resist.
Chapter Nine
The next afternoon Lucinda held a pattern piece up to Sarah Jane and carefully eyed the fit.
“This will drape over to your left shoulder and tie in a knot like this,” Lucinda said to Sarah Jane.
“And that will make a collar?” the younger woman asked.
Nodding, Lucinda placed the thin piece of paper on the dining table, picked up another one and fitted it against Sarah Jane’s midriff. “The rest of the bodice will fit tightly. I think the whole thing will look young and romantic and flirty. What do you think?”
The younger woman sighed with pleasure. “Oh, Lucy, you’re a genius. You seem to have known exactly the sort of clothes I was looking for without me even telling you!”
“That’s why she does that for a living, Sarah Jane,” Dee spoke up from across the kitchen. “She’s good at it.”
“So what sort of fabric will this dress be made of?” Sarah Jane asked as Lucinda carefully continued to fit all the pattern pieces against her.
“Something that will give the skirt a pretty flow. Maybe silk georgette. A peach-colored print, I think. A solid color might make it look too severe. Unless you’d like something else?”
“No. Oh, no! Whatever you say, I trust you completely,” Sarah Jane assured her.
“Lucy, you’ve worked all morning and nearly half of the afternoon on those patterns,” Dee said. “Put them away and take a break. There’s no need for you to get them all done so quickly.”
“That’s right,” Sarah Jane said. “Like we told you, what you don’t finish you can mail back to us. Or better yet, you can stay with us longer. Like until my wedding in May.”
Lucinda laughed at the younger woman’s outrageous suggestion. “As much as I’d love to see your wedding, Sarah Jane, I’ve got to be heading on. It’s about time I found a place of my own and started back to work.”
“Well, I don’t know why you can’t just make your home around here, close to us,” Sarah Jane insisted.
“I’d like that, too, Sarah Jane,” Dee said as she poured flour into a big mixing bowl. “But how could Lucinda make a living around here?”
Sarah Jane hopped up onto a stool at the breakfast counter. “Easy,” she said. “Every few months she could take her things to Dallas. They have those big fashion buying shows over there all the time. And from what I’ve heard, everyone from department store buyers to small boutiques purchase merchandise at them.”
“Hmm. That’s not a bad idea,” Dee said thoughtfully as she dumped more ingredients into the bowl. “What do you think, Lucy? Think you’d like being a Texan?”
Lucy began gathering her patterns, scissors and silk straight pins and putting them away in her workbasket. Sarah Jane’s idea had caught Lucinda by surprise. Firstly, because it was such a good one, and secondly it was something she wished she could really do. It would be wonderful to live somewhere nearby, to have these two women for friends. She’d never been around anyone she felt more at home with. And she knew she was going to miss them terribly once she left here. But that was the way it had to be.
“I’ve never really thought about living in Texas,” she told Dee. “But I believe I’ll do better with my work on the West Coast.”
“I wish you didn’t feel that way,” Sarah Jane said to Lucinda. “I think you’d like it here.”
Lucinda knew she would like it here. But until she was certain that Richard wouldn’t harm her or her friends, she couldn’t really begin to make a home for herself. And right now she wasn’t sure of anything. He might be on the road looking for her, and if she led him here to this ranch, she would never forgive herself.
A few minutes later, after the women had shared a cup of coffee, they all got busy making Christmas cookies. Lucinda had never had a reason to do any baking for Christmas before and she was surprised at how much enjoyment she was getting from cutting the dough into stars, wreaths, and Christmas trees, then decorating them with sprinkles and frostings.
She was standing at the kitchen counter, flour on her face and in her hair when Chance came in the back door. The weather had turned cold and cloudy again and he’d been working in it for most of the day. Before he’d stepped into the kitchen he’d been wondering if he would ever feel warm again. But now the sight of Lucinda in a pair of tight blue jeans and a pink shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows was quickly filling him with heat.
He hadn’t seen her at breakfast. Then right before lunch, he’d gotten a trailer loaded with hay stuck in one of the back pastures. By the time Chance and one of the other hands had pulled it out, he’d skipped eating altogether. He’d also missed seeing Lucinda. And after what had transpired between them last night, that wasn’t something Chance had planned to do.
“What’s cooking?” he asked to no one in general as he pulled off his hat and wiped his muddy boots on a rug by the door.
“Christmas cookies,” Sarah Jane told him.
“Already?” he asked.
Lucinda could feel him coming up behind her, but she kept her attention firmly on what she was doing. She didn’t want to send any sort of signal his way. She wanted to give him the impression that last night and the moments they’d shared in each other’s arms were something she didn’t intend to repeat.
“It’s only two more days until Christmas Eve,” Dee pointed out to him. “We’ve got to get on with it, to finish all the baking I plan to do.”
Reaching over Lucinda’s shoulder, Chance dipped his finger into the stiff cookie dough. Lucinda twisted her head around to see him eating the raw dough from his fingers. It was the first time she’d seen him since last night. Memories of his kisses, the feel of his rough-skinned hands moving so tenderly against her flooded her thoughts and darkened her eyes with unbidden desire.
“Mmm. That’s pretty good stuff.”
She jerked her gaze back on the work in front of her. “It will be when it’s baked,” she told him while trying to keep her voice as casual as she could manage.
“And you’
re not to get into these, or the others,” Sarah Jane spoke up as she pulled a tray of freshly baked cookies from the oven. “These are going to the church tonight for refreshments.”
Chance frowned at his sister. “Tonight isn’t church night.”
“Charles Delacroix!” Dee scolded. “Have you forgotten about the Christmas pageant? Sarah Jane and I will be singing a duet. I know I told you this morning.”
She probably had, Chance thought wryly. But he’d had other things on his mind. Like what he was going to do about Lucinda and the way he was beginning to feel about her. He wanted her. And she wanted him, or so her kisses had told him. But did that mean he was really ready to put all the past behind him? He’d married one woman and lost her. And since then he’d vowed he would never set himself up for that kind of hellish pain again. But Lucinda was doing something to him. She was blurring his memories, making him believe the future could be different.
“I guess I didn’t hear you,” he told his mother, then winking at Lucinda, he reached over her shoulder once again and broke the point off a star she was sprinkling with red sugar.
“Chance! You’ve ruined that one!” she exclaimed.
He popped the point into his mouth and chewed with obvious pleasure. “It isn’t ruined,” he assured her with a chuckle. “Four-pointed stars taste just as good as five-pointed ones.”
Sarah Jane groaned as she arranged some of the already cooled cookies into a round tin. “Keep your paws to yourself, Chance. We don’t come down to the barn and interfere with your work.”
He crossed the room to the coffee machine and poured a mugful. “I wish somebody had come to help. I was stuck half the morning, then when I finally got the tractor back to the ranch, a water line had frozen beneath the horse barn. We’ve spent all afternoon digging it up.”
Dee handed him a freshly made ham sandwich. “Well, I don’t know which is worse. Winter, when everything is frozen. Or summer, when everything is dry and roasted.”
Chance swallowed a sip of the hot coffee and found himself wishing his mother and sister were out of the room. More than anything he’d like to go over to Lucinda and kiss the dab of flour from her cheek, nuzzle her neck and draw her back against him until every curve of her body was touching his.
“You are coming to the pageant tonight, aren’t you? Your sister and I are counting on you being there.”
Realizing his mother was talking to him, Chance turned his head in her direction. “Of course, I’ll go. I wouldn’t miss seeing you and Sarah Jane dressed up as angels.”
Dee smiled happily at him. “Good. Then you can bring Lucinda with you. Since Sarah Jane and I have to be there very early, there’s no need for her to ride with us and have to sit for more than an hour before the program starts.”
Hearing her name mentioned in their plans, Lucinda twisted around to look at the two of them. “I didn’t realize I was going anywhere.”
Chance smiled at her. “Sure you are. You’re coming with me. And make sure you’re ready by six.”
He put down the coffee mug and carried the rest of his sandwich out the back door.
Once he was out of sight, Lucinda released a long sigh. How in the world was she going to handle this?
*
A little after six that evening, Lucinda sat staring out the pickup window, her fingers absently toying with the pearl choker she wore around her neck. It had been a long time since she’d been to church, and she’d missed it greatly. But after Richard had begun threatening her and following her every move, Lucinda had stopped going anywhere that wasn’t absolutely necessary.
For the past months, she’d only left her apartment to go to work or the grocery market. And just doing that had made her a nervous wreck. It made her furious to think how her life had gradually been taken away from her, narrowed down to just the basic necessities. She’d nearly forgotten what it was like to dress up and go out to celebrate Christmas or any special occasion.
“If you’d quit frowning, you’d look perfect,” Chance told her as he turned the pickup onto the main highway toward Friona.
She glanced over at him and told herself not to be impressed. But she was anyway. He was wearing western-cut khaki trousers, a white shirt, and a brown leather jacket. None of which were special, or dressy. In fact, the jacket looked as if he’d had it for a long time. The leather was scarred and worn in several places. But it matched his old black hat, and with his dark, good looks and lean, rugged body, he made it all look special.
“I’ll do my best to look happier,” she told him.
“You didn’t want to come with me tonight. I can tell.”
Lucinda smoothed her hand nervously down the lap of her deep green skirt. “I haven’t said anything of the sort.”
“No. You haven’t said anything. That tells me a lot.”
Frowning, she turned her gaze back to the windshield in front of her. “It should simply be telling you I’m all talked out.”
“It’s funny how you should say that. For a long time now I’ve hated talking. Mother and Sarah were constantly chattering and they always expected me to join in. I would, but it was an effort at times. The ranch hands were always swapping stories and gossip and they would include me in their conversations. I gritted my teeth and said as little as I could get by with. Now you’ve come along and picked and prodded at me until you’ve got all sorts of words comin’ out of my mouth.”
She looked at him again, this time her lips parted with surprise. “I haven’t picked and prodded at you.”
“Then what have you done to me?”
A warm flush seeped into her cheeks. “Nothing. And I don’t intend to. I told you that last night.”
Chance’s gaze traveled over the beautiful picture she made in her white silk blouse and Christmas green skirt. “If we weren’t on our way to church, I’d pull this truck over and prove you wrong.”
Just the mention of being back in his arms shook Lucinda all the way down to her toes. “Well, we are on our way to church,” she reminded him primly, then shot him an annoyed glance. “You really want to know what I’ve done to you?”
“I’m all ears,” he said, enjoying this time alone with her.
“I’ve simply wakened your libido. And now you’re beginning to think I’m someone special.”
She sounded weary, even a little cynical. Chance wanted to shake her. “Oh, my libido was always awake. I just never wanted to acknowledge it. Till I found you.”
Lucinda started to point out that he hadn’t found her. But she stopped herself. He had found her. Rescued her. And now he thought they were headed toward something more intimate between them. How had this happened? she wondered miserably.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about last night,” he went on, “and some of the things you said to me.”
Her head bent, she fixed her gaze on the toes of her black dress boots. “I said them because I—meant them.” Suddenly she turned on the seat and allowed her eyes to glide over the shadowed angles of his face. It seemed incredible that this man had come to mean so much to her. She’d only known him for a few days. Yet she felt closer to him than she’d ever felt to anyone in her life. “And I do truly hope you can put Jolene and everything that happened back then, behind you. If you do, I know you can be happy again.”
Chance was becoming happy again and she was the reason. That much he already knew. What he didn’t know was how to make Lucinda believe that she could be happy with him.
So far she seemed determined to follow the course she’d mapped out for herself when she’d first left Chicago. But there were still a couple of days left until Christmas, he told himself, and from now until then he planned to use that time to do some mighty big persuading.
*
The church the Delacroix attended was some eight miles away from the ranch house. By the time Chance and Lucinda arrived, the parking lot around the brown brick building was almost full.
Inside, the wooden pews were quickly filling with peopl
e of all ages. The two of them found a seat next to James, Sarah Jane’s fiancé. He was a quiet young man with light brown hair and a slender build. Lucinda had never met him before, but from the few minutes of conversation they shared with him before the start of the program, she decided Sarah Jane was going to be in good hands.
The Christmas play turned out to be a much bigger production than Lucinda had imagined it would be. Several times throughout the program, she couldn’t help but remark to Chance on the beautiful settings, which had been made to look like the streets and buildings of Old Bethlehem.
Chance enjoyed watching the story of the birth of Christ being acted out in word and song on the small stage. Though he’d seen it many times down through the years, he always looked forward to seeing it again. Yet this time, with Lucinda sitting next to him, her face shining with awe and reverence, it had all taken on a special meaning to him.
When Dee and Sarah Jane stepped onto the stage to sing “Silent Night” Lucinda couldn’t stop herself from reaching over and curling her small hand around Chance’s.
“You must be so proud of them,” she whispered, her eyes suddenly misting over with emotion.
Tightening his fingers around hers, he smiled. “Very proud, Lucy.”
He wanted to tell her that he was proud of her, too. Proud that she was sitting here beside him, sharing this special time with him and his family. But the feeling was so new to him, so fresh and tender that he didn’t know how to put it into words. Instead, he held on to her hand, while inside him, the last haunting memories of the past faded away.
A few minutes later, the program ended and the socializing began. Chance took Lucinda over to the refreshment table, where they were immediately swamped by his friends and relatives. One being his cousin, Troy.
This time when Lucinda saw him, she knew there was nothing to fear and she smiled warmly as he shook her hand.
“It’s nice to see you again, Miss Lambert. Have you tried your car since Mike returned it to you?”
Lucinda glanced at Chance, who seemed to be watching her closely. “No. But Chance did. Other than having a tire blown out, he says it didn’t seem to be hurt.”
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