by Diana Palmer
Everybody except the two couples evacuated the dance floor, expecting a real competition.
They got one. It was a duel, and both couples put on their best form for it. As the music built to a crescendo, both couples stopped at the same time, in lingering poses, as the band finished the number.
But it was a draw, as the dancers had figured it would be. They laughed and shook hands as the audience went wild with clapping and cheering.
“Pity we don’t have trophies,” Cy Parks drawled.
“Next time, we have to have a waltz contest!” Harley called. He’d been studying the dance for months, and he was good at it.
“I learned to waltz in Austria,” Cash called to him.
Harley flapped his hand at the police chief.
The music started again, this time a lazy two-step. Just as Harley turned to take Sara onto the dance floor, he was bypassed.
Jared Cameron lifted Sara gently into his arms, carried her onto the wooden dance platform and eased her to the floor.
“My turn,” he said softly, and he smiled in a way that made her heart race.
She slid her free arm around his neck and looked up at him with her breath catching in her throat.
Harley, for one instant, thought about separating them. But when he saw Sara’s face, he knew it would be almost a betrayal to interfere. Subdued, he went back to the buffet table for a beer.
“I didn’t think you’d be back,” Sara said to his chest. He was so much taller that her head barely came to his chin.
His big, warm hand contracted around hers. “Didn’t you?” He tilted her chin up so that he could see her cheek. “At least it isn’t bruised,” he added quietly. “I’ve never wanted so badly to manhandle a woman. Max needs to take some classes in anger management.”
“She thought I was laughing at her.”
“Tony explained it.” His hand tightened. “You keep your distance from Tony,” he added firmly. “He’s not what he seems to be. He could hurt you.”
“He would never lift a hand to me,” she protested at once.
He stopped dancing for an instant and looked down into her wide eyes. “I don’t mean physically.”
She frowned. “He’s very sweet to me.”
He started dancing again. “You remind him of his sister.”
“Yes. He said she died.”
He made a slow turn, one that drew her very close to his hard-muscled body and made her tingle all over. “Tony has issues you’re better off not knowing about.”
“Cy Parks knows both of you.”
“I’ve lived here several weeks,” he said carelessly.
“That isn’t what I mean.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve known Cy for a while.”
She was really curious now. Most people knew that Cy Parks, Eb Scott and Micah Steele had been professional mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, before they settled down in Jacobsville. She knew next to nothing about Jared Cameron. She wondered what secrets he was keeping.
He saw that curiosity in her eyes and just smiled. “Never you mind,” he told her, drawing her closer. “I don’t plan to waste the evening with walks down memory lane. I’m much more interested,” he added huskily, “in making new memories.”
His hand slid gently up and down her spine in sensuous little forays that made her feel boneless. It worried her that she didn’t want to protest the near intimacy of his hold. If he ever turned up the heat, she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist him. She couldn’t help but remember what Max had told her about Jared’s easy conquests and his indifference to them afterward.
“I had Tony drive Max to the airport,” he said after a minute.
Her heart skipped. “She’s gone?”
“Yes. She’s gone.” He didn’t mention the vicious things Max had to say about Sara and Jared’s interest in her, or the threat he used to get her out of town. Tony wasn’t too keen on leaving Jared alone while he escorted the lawyer to the airport, either. It had been a battle.
“Is Tony coming over, then?” she asked.
He stiffened. “Yes,” he said, but he didn’t sound happy about it. “I meant what I said. You don’t need to start looking at Tony as a prom date.”
“I didn’t go to the prom,” she said absently. “And it’s not your business who I look at. I came with Harley,” she added firmly.
He drew back so that he could see her eyes. “And you’re going home with me,” he said softly.
How she wished that her excitement hadn’t shown when he said that. She couldn’t walk off with another man when Harley had brought her here. It would have been unthinkable…
“Sara,” Harley said from beside them, grimacing, “I’ve got something to do for the boss. It can’t wait.”
“I’ll drive her home,” Jared told the younger man. “No problem.”
“Sara, is that all right with you?” Harley asked gently.
She nodded. “It’s okay. What is it? Or can’t you say?”
Harley shrugged. “I really can’t,” he replied. He forced a smile. “We’ll do this again, Sara.”
She smiled back. “Of course.”
He nodded to Jared and walked off toward the parking lot, looking forlorn even from behind.
Jared was smiling.
Sara frowned. “Did you have anything to do with that?”
“You mean, did I ask Cy to occupy Harley so that I could take you home? Of course I did. I don’t like competition.”
She was gaping. “Excuse me?”
His arm contracted. His eyes were strangely darkened as he met her own. “I’m possessive,” he said softly. “Territorial.”
“About…me?” she asked, unbelieving.
“Of course about you,” he muttered.
“But Max is beautiful,” she began.
“Max is the past,” he said bluntly. “She knows it.”
That was thrilling. Exciting. Her whole face lit up. He was serious!
He stopped dancing and traced her mouth with a long forefinger, teasing her lips apart in a sensuous tension that grew by the second. “You’re tired,” he whispered. “You’ve done too much. You need to go home, and I have to take you because Harley left early.”
She nodded, wordless.
He caught her by the hand and tugged her to Cy and Lisa. They said their goodbyes. Jared asked Cy to tell Tony where he’d gone. He put Sara in the Jaguar, buckled her up and revved off toward her small house.
They didn’t exchange a single word during the short drive. The tension between them was so thick it was almost tangible. Sara felt hot all over. The feel of Jared so close to her had removed all her inhibitions. She couldn’t think past wanting to kiss him until her mouth hurt.
He cut off the engine in front of her house and turned to her. “We’ve reached the point of no return,” he said curtly. “Either we go ahead, or we stop seeing each other. I’m too old to stop at kisses.”
She stared at him helplessly, all her upbringing urging her to tell him to leave, to go inside by herself. All her life, she’d done the right thing, the safe thing. But she loved this man. If she said the wrong words now, she knew she’d never be in his arms again. The thought was torture. Then she caught herself. She was being overly worried. He wanted to do some heavy petting. Of course. He wasn’t a kiss-at-the-front-door sort of man. And if things got too hot, well, she’d just find an excuse to get up. Easy.
He got out of the car, opened her door and locked the sleek vehicle before he followed Sara up onto her porch. Nervously she unlocked the door and went inside. She reached for the light switch, but he was right behind her. He stayed the movement, locked the dead bolt and suddenly swept her up into his arms and brought his mouth down on her soft lips.
The sofa was only a few feet away. It was long and wide, just right for two people to lie on. Sara felt his weight with a sense of destiny. It was the most glorious thing she’d ever felt, all that hard, warm muscle down the length of her body. She seemed to throb lik
e her own runaway heartbeat while Jared made a midnight snack of her mouth.
Before long, she was as anxious as he was to have her blouse and bra out of the way so that his hands, and then his mouth, could explore the softness of her warm skin. By the time he slid his hands under her skirt and against her bare legs, she was shivering all over.
She felt his body vibrate, as if he was as electrified as she was. He whispered something under his breath that she didn’t understand. Apparently it wasn’t too important, because only seconds later, she felt him against her in a way that was as new as it was frightening.
She started to protest, but it was already too late. His mouth ground into hers as his body suddenly invaded the most secret place of her own. The delicious sensations she felt when they began were now absent as she felt him insistent and demanding, his big hand under her hips, holding them steady as he pushed down hard. He groaned as he felt the soft barrier give. His control was gone at once. He drove for fulfillment; abstinence and too many beers had robbed him of self-control. He felt the rush of pleasure like a hot wave over his body, leaving him to shudder in a tense arch that was like rain after the baking desert.
When he regained his control, he felt her trying to get away from the crush of his body. He was aware of broken sobs. Trembling. Audible misery.
He lifted his head. He couldn’t see her in the darkness of the room, but his hand touched her face and felt the wetness.
“Please,” she sobbed, pushing at his chest.
He was shocked at his lapse. He hadn’t really meant to go this far, not the first time they were intimate. But it was too late now. He moved away, fastening his slacks. He heard her move, heard fabric against skin. At least she’d stopped crying.
“I’ll get the light,” he said gruffly.
“No!” She was standing now. “No,” she added in a more controlled tone. “Please don’t.”
“Why not?” He moved closer to her. “We made love. What’s so horrible about it?”
She was shivering with self-revulsion. “Please go,” she whispered.
“Sara…”
“Please!” she sobbed.
He drew in an angry breath. “Small town girls and their damned hang-ups,” he muttered. “What now? Do you think you’ll go to hell for sleeping with a man you haven’t married?”
It was so close to what she’d been taught all her life, that she didn’t even bother to reply.
“I don’t believe this!” he raged. “I can’t be the first man to—” He stopped dead, remembering the barrier that he’d dealt with. “I was the first,” he said slowly. “Wasn’t I, Sara?”
“Please go,” she pleaded tearfully.
He drew in a long breath. “Tell me you’re on birth control,” he demanded.
“I never needed to be,” she bit off.
“Great!” he burst out, furious. “That’s just great! And you see me as a meal ticket, don’t you? If I made you pregnant, you’ll have a free ride for life! Except you won’t,” he added coldly. “I don’t want children ever again. You’ll have a termination or I’ll take you to court and show everyone who lives here how mercenary you are!”
He was talking about a possibility she hadn’t even considered. She’d tried to stop him. Why did he expect every woman to be prepared for sex? Was that the way people thought in big cities? Were they all prepared, all the time?
“Don’t worry,” she said through her teeth. “I promise you, there won’t be any horrible consequences. Now will you please go home?”
He started for the door, still furious. But he paused with it open and looked back toward her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said uncomfortably.
She laughed hollowly. “My whole life has been nothing except pain. Why should this be any different?”
She turned and went into a room down the hall, closed the door and audibly locked it.
He left, frowning, curious about the remark. He didn’t want to think about how much he’d hurt her. He honestly hadn’t planned to seduce her, but she wouldn’t believe him. She was hurt and shocked and outraged. Probably she’d been taught that premarital sex was a sin, and now she was going to punish herself for falling victim to demon lust.
He turned the lock on her door so that it would engage when he went outside and pulled the door shut.
He stood on the porch, feeling the cool breeze touch his sweaty face, cooling him. He’d never lost control like that in his life. He was furious at himself.
While he was debating his next move, the ranch truck pulled up beside his car. Tony leaned out the window.
“She okay?” he asked his boss.
“She’s fine,” Jared lied, unlocking the Jaguar. “Let’s go home. I want a drink. It’s been a damned long day.”
“You can say that again,” Tony replied. “You won’t believe the hell Max raised at the airport.”
He’d believe it, he thought. His whole evening had gone from bad to worse, and he wasn’t about to tell Tony any of the details. Two women in his life, and he couldn’t deal with either of them. He wished that this whole charade was over.
Eight
Sara didn’t sleep at all. She took a shower and changed into a clean nightgown. Then she sat in front of her mirror and looked at the fallen woman there. Her grandfather would be ashamed of her. So would her father. They hadn’t raised her to be careless with her morals.
She wasn’t sure what to do. She knew there was a morning after pill, but she’d have to go to a doctor she knew to ask for it. Everybody in town would know what she’d been doing. The shame was too great for the risk. But what if she conceived? She was only at the beginning of her cycle. Wasn’t that a bad time to get pregnant? But some women weren’t regular. She wasn’t. Would that make a big difference?
Jared hadn’t even asked first. He’d taken what he wanted. Maybe she’d done something to make him think she was willing. She should have told him in the car that she was innocent. She’d thought he meant that he wanted to have a nice petting session in her house, not that he expected her to go the whole way with him. Had he thought she was agreeing to sex?
She was sickened by her lack of protest. It had been so sweet to lie in his arms and feel him wanting her. Nobody had ever wanted Sara, not in that way. Her grandfather had cherished her, but she’d been in such a condition when she and her mother first came home from overseas that she wasn’t really expected to live in the first place. The group that had sponsored the family’s trip had been kind enough to arrange for a medical flight back to Texas for Sara. As a result of her injuries, she had slight brain damage. People who knew her were aware of it. They never made fun of her when she couldn’t match socks or clothes, when she forgot little things as soon as she learned them. She had trouble remembering much of the past as well. The doctors had said she was very smart and that she would be able to compensate. But now she wasn’t so sure.
Maybe, she comforted herself, nothing would happen. She really hadn’t enjoyed what Jared had done to her. Didn’t that mean she wouldn’t conceive?
She should have read more books, she told herself firmly. She knew too little about her own body, or what men and women did in the dark. At least she knew now what women had been talking about in whispers all her life. Sex was painful and quickly over with. It was only fun for men. Women endured it to have children. Now she knew that she’d never want it again. She knew the truth.
She went to bed. For the first time in years, though, she didn’t have nightmares.
Jared felt guilty all day. He was shocked at his loss of control. He was sorry for the things he’d said to Sara, but she should have told him up-front that she had no experience of men. Most women knew how to take care of themselves in intimate situations. If he’d known Sara was completely innocent, he’d have used something and he wouldn’t have hurt her so much.
He laughed coldly. Sure he would have. He hadn’t had control of himself for those few, electrifying minutes on her sofa. He’d wanted her so
much that he couldn’t contain it.
Tony hadn’t said anything to him about it, but he kept looking at Jared as if he suspected something. It didn’t help to remember how fond Tony was getting of Sara. Sara liked Tony, too.
“You aren’t yourself today,” Tony commented at lunch, for which they had a nice paella that he’d concocted.
Jared moved restlessly, but he didn’t reply.
“Max didn’t leave town.”
That got his boss’s attention. “What?!”
Tony compressed his lips. “She’s upstairs.”
“I told you to take her to the airport!”
“I did,” Tony said shortly. “But short of bodily carrying her onto the plane, I couldn’t think of a way to get her out of the terminal.”
Jared almost exploded. Just as he started to speak, Max lounged into the dining room in a gray silk pantsuit.
“Lunch? I’m starved.”
“I told you to leave,” Jared shot at her.
“You didn’t mean it,” she said complacently. “You’re always throwing me out. Then the next day you call to apologize and ask me back again. I saved you the steps in between.”
She was right, and Jared hated knowing it. She helped herself to paella and coffee. Nobody said anything else at the table.
Jared wasn’t a drinker. He hardly ever touched alcohol. But remembering what he’d done with Sara sent him to a liquor bottle. Halfway through the afternoon, he was well on his way to staggering.
Max cornered Jared in his study, surprised at the amount of whiskey he was consuming. It had to be something rough, she thought. He hadn’t had this much to drink since his daughter’s death. “Something’s gone wrong, hasn’t it? Come on,” she coaxed. “Tell me.”
He glared at her. “I can handle this myself.”
“Handle what?” She pursed her lips. She knew him very well. There was a pattern to his behavior that she recognized. A new woman. The hunt. The seduction. Then the need to extricate himself from the woman. “Don’t tell me,” she purred. “You let that hick girl seduce you, didn’t you?”
