One Tough Cowboy

by Sara Orwig

  Laurie was barely aware when he moved back against the wall and spread his legs, pulling her up tightly against him. But she was aware of his thick shaft pressing against her. His hands slipped beneath her T-shirt to cup her breasts, and she moaned, trembling as she kissed him hungrily. She wanted him, wanted him with a growing desperation, yet she couldn’t yield completely because she knew if she did, she would leave her heart behind with this tough cowboy who had come to mean so much to her.

  His fingers were calloused and rough, yet he touched her so gently, light caresses that were exquisite torment.

  He was the one who stopped abruptly, pulling her T-shirt down. She opened her eyes to look up at him, and the raw need revealed in his expression made her tug his head down again. He caught her arms, holding her away.

  “Here comes the man about the alarm.”

  Surprised, she blinked, and heard the rumble of an engine coming up the drive.

  “That blue-ribbon hearing of yours again,” she said. “How could you have heard that? Someday, I’ll kiss you until you don’t hear what’s going on, like you do to me.”

  “Do I now?” he drawled, studying her.

  “You know you do,” she snapped, straightening her shirt and moving away from him. “You’d better start trying to cool down yourself if you’re going to go meet him.”

  “I’ll cool down,” Josh answered with amusement in his voice. He started past her, then paused and leaned down to brush kisses across her nape. “I’m glad to learn that you have a little trouble cooling down.”

  She whipped around, but he was already striding toward the door, whistling a tune and acting as if nothing had happened between them.

  She, on the other hand, was tied in knots—hot, bothered, wanting him. Every kiss made her want him more, made her long for him when he was nearby. He had to know the effect he was having on her. She wasn’t certain of the effect she was having on him, but he responded. Saints alive, how he responded! When she left, would he remember these times together? Would he miss them? She had little idea of exactly how he felt, except on rare occasions when he let go and became earnest and open.

  All afternoon the workers drilled and hammered, installing the alarm system. When they finished, hours later, she watched Josh try it out, and then he wanted her to try it. Finally the men packed their tools and drove away.

  As they disappeared down the road, she saw Josh’s foreman approaching the house. “Here comes Drake,” she noted.

  “He’s coming up to do some repairs to the porch. I’m going to leave for a while.”

  “Why do I get the feeling I’ve got baby-sitters?”

  “Bodyguards is a better word,” Josh said, grinning. “I want to leave and I’ll feel better knowing someone I trust is with you. And I’ll get a porch step fixed all at the same time.”

  “And I didn’t have any say-so in the matter.”

  “Matter of fact, you didn’t. You don’t need a say-so,” he said, laughing as he dashed out of the room before she could reply.

  “Josh Kellogg!”

  Josh laughed, hearing her call his name as he closed the back door. His amusement faded when he went to meet Drake. They talked a few minutes, and then Josh headed toward the trees, in the direction the shot had come from. The local police had searched the grounds yesterday, and they would have trampled the undergrowth and smashed twigs, but Josh wanted to look himself. He still felt someone had been out there in the dark, watching him last night.

  He moved slowly through the woods, kneeling, looking at grass and weeds, picking up twigs, turning to study the house, finally deciding where the shooter had been standing when he took the shot at Laurie.

  Laurie…Ivy. He couldn’t think of her as Ivy. Out here, in his world, she was Laurie. She always had been Laurie to him and she always would be. When she went back to her world, she could be Ivy James again.

  Josh looked at the trees around him and then spotted one that would be easy to climb. He scrambled up, pausing to study the house and where he had walked last night.

  The man could have been in a tree.

  He felt certain someone had been in the woods last night, waiting, watching him as he prowled around. Josh needed to talk to Drake. They had to let the dogs out every night.

  Josh guessed it was a hired killer after her. The only reason the shot had just grazed her yesterday was because Josh had yelled at her to get down, and with that split-second warning, she had moved. It was a miracle she had survived the car crash. If Josh hadn’t been around, the guy would have come back to finish what he had started when he had run her off the road. Even with the incidents in Kansas City she had been lucky. Josh could see how she had escaped each time, but her luck was bound to run out any moment.

  Carter Dahl could have hired a killer in order to keep himself in the clear. If it was a pro, he would make the hit and then vanish, and Carter would have an alibi and that would be that.

  Something had to happen soon. Josh suspected the man had come back last night to watch and see if his shot had killed her, or if she was still alive. She had come out on the porch, and he was bound to have seen her, so he knew he would have to try again.

  A chill ran down Josh’s spine as he realized the killer would try again, and soon. If he were in the man’s place, what would he do?

  Sabotage the cars? Wait for another clear shot? The killer had tried to burn her apartment. He might set fire to the house.

  Josh climbed down and began to study the ground, moving slowly toward the road, seeing if he could pick up tracks. In a few minutes he found a strip of white rag tied to a low branch. He shook his head. The city guy couldn’t find his way through the woods. He headed back to get his pickup to go look for his men. He would ask a couple of them to stay in the woods and wait and watch tonight. Maybe someone would catch the guy, who was clearly unfamiliar with prowling around after dark in the country.

  The men who worked for Josh hadn’t been country boys, either, not one of them, but all had worked for him long enough now that they had grown accustomed to being outside, and they had learned about the land and about animals. He thought of Rudy and Hector—two who had taken to ranching as if they had been born in the country.

  Josh drove across the ranch, his thoughts jumping back to this morning with Laurie. He had let go when he had kissed her. She goaded him into losing control. She knew what she was doing. She had a wild, mischievous streak in her that pushed him to his limits.

  Her kisses were pure fire. She had almost incinerated him this morning. They were playing with dynamite each time they were together. So seduce the lady, he told himself, and his pulse jumped at the thought. Seduce her and then let her go back to her exciting city life.

  Except he didn’t want to find out when she had gone that he had fallen in love with her. Right now he knew he could walk away and forget her.

  “Yeah, right,” he said aloud to himself. How long would it take to forget her? Maybe never. He didn’t want to seduce her and find that every other woman forever paled in comparison. And he didn’t want to fall in love with the minx. He could imagine the broken hearts in her past.

  And tonight she was cooking dinner for him. Was she planning a seduction scene? He wouldn’t put it past her. He was getting hot just thinking about tonight and her. And maybe seduction would be the best thing—satisfy himself and get over her. She would goad and torment him if he didn’t. She was constantly throwing challenges at him, so if the beautiful model wanted seduction, that’s what the little minx would get.

  Josh took a deep breath, and realized he was driving aimlessly. He changed course and soon found some of his men, warned them about the intruder and asked them to keep watch.

  Driving home he stopped at the pasture with the white stallion. The horse trotted to the fence and eyed Josh, pawing the ground.

  Josh got out of the car and stared back at the horse. “I don’t have time for you and you don’t like being penned up, do you?” Josh approached the ga
te and the horse spun around, racing away. Josh unlocked the gate, drove inside, closed the gate again and went to check on the water tank.

  It was six o’clock when he pulled back into the garage, closed and locked the door. It was the first time he could ever remember locking his garage.

  As he strode to the house, anticipation rippled through him. Seven o’clock, dinner with Laurie.

  He ran up to his room to bathe, shave and dress.

  An hour earlier Laurie had left the kitchen to get dressed for dinner. All the time she bathed and dressed, she hummed a tune. Excitement bubbled in her. Eagerness for their dinner date made her tingle all over. She applied blush and mascara lightly, studying herself, looking at the new wound on her scalp and the white scar on her temple. The recent wound had a bandage, and she brushed her hair carefully, looping and pinning it to hide the fact as much as possible. She left some tendrils loose to curl around her face.

  “Try keeping that wall around yourself tonight, Josh Kellogg!” she whispered into the mirror. Then she stepped back, looking at herself. She wore a plain, black silk dress that Becky had bought for her. It was sleeveless, with a deep V in front and a slit in the side of the skirt. She wore high-heeled black sandals. Laurie dabbed on perfume, then went back to the kitchen.

  The table was set with candles. She had had to search to find any, and she’d found crystal candlesticks. She put on music, then went to check the pasta, which was keeping warm in the oven.

  “Wow,” Josh said, and she turned to find him looking at her, his gaze trailing slowly over her. “You’re gorgeous, but then you know that. That’s why you’re a model.”

  “And you’re sexy, but then you know that. That’s why you flirt.”

  “Want a glass of wine?”

  “Yes, please. Red this time.”

  He poured her wine and poured himself pop. He handed her drink to her and raised his. “Here’s to the return of your memory.”

  She touched his glass with hers. “I’ll drink to that.” She sipped her wine and raised her glass. “And here’s to the toughest cowboy of them all, the man whose heart is fiercely protected from love.”

  “And I’ll drink to that one.” He sipped his pop and studied her. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known, and that’s saying a lot, because Texas women are gorgeous.”

  “So are Texas cowboys.”

  “You’re going to turn my head.”

  “That doesn’t begin to describe what I’m going to do to you tonight,” she said in a sultry voice, and his green eyes darkened, pinpoints of fire in their depths.

  Without taking his gaze from hers, he took her drink and set it on the counter alongside his. Her pulse drummed, and she was mesmerized by the look in his eyes.

  “How about a dance before dinner?” he asked.

  Chapter 14

  T aking her hand, Josh pulled her close and started dancing slowly. He never shifted his gaze from hers, and she was lost. She wanted his loving, wanted to make love to him. Was she going to wind up back in Kansas City, having left her heart here in Texas?

  Deep down, she knew Josh had been right. They were planets apart. She couldn’t leave her life behind even if he were into commitment. If he proposed tonight, she would have to say no. The full realization sobered her, because she hadn’t faced it before. First, he had been totally off-limits to her because she hadn’t known about her past. Then, when her memory returned, she had been so jubilant she hadn’t given a thought to the future and leaving Josh.

  As they danced, moving together in unison, Laurie felt devoured by his gaze, which held the green of summer and the heat of sex.

  She could remember the men in her past. They had been few and disappointing, and had never come close to stealing her heart as this one cowboy had.

  “Why did this happen to us?” she asked quietly. “We couldn’t fall in love even if we both wanted to. You’re right. Our worlds are impossibly different. We can’t date. All we can do is say goodbye.”

  He nodded. “That’s right. You’ll go back to your life—which should be exciting enough to make you forget Texas completely. I’ll bet you’ve traveled all over.”

  She wanted to shake him, to stir him out of that cool, remote stance he could keep so easily.

  “Yes, I’ve traveled. So how long will it take you to forget me? A week? A day? A month?”

  His eyes darkened again, and her heart missed a beat as she gazed back steadily. “You know damn well I’ll never forget you,” he said gruffly. Joy flared in her. So maybe he cared more than his cool exterior showed.

  The music changed, and she wriggled away from him. “I’ve cooked all afternoon for you, so let’s eat.”

  He helped her remove from the oven a pasta casserole thick with golden, bubbly cheese and red tomatoes. She had hot, buttered garlic bread and tossed salads, and they sat facing each other to eat.

  In the flickering candlelight, Josh gazed at Laurie. He wouldn’t ever forget her. She was stunning tonight, tall, willowy, sexy. With her hair up, and dressed so sleekly, she looked sophisticated, cool, absolutely unreachable. Yet he wanted to peel her out of her dress and kiss every delectable inch of her.

  She must have finally faced the fact that under no circumstances could they have any kind of future together. Not even a few dates. Gone was her saucy flirting, and she kept looking at him with a solemn expression he had seldom seen. Yet he knew that when they’d danced, her pulse had been racing.

  They were dangerous to each other’s well-being, yet couldn’t stop the spontaneous combustion that ignited every time they were together. It didn’t keep him from wanting her and it didn’t keep her from responding to him.

  And she could cook. The dinner was fabulous and when he told her so, her eyes sparkled.

  “Thank you. I like to cook. I don’t get to cook very often and I’ve never eaten like I have since the crash. I can’t imagine how much weight I’ve gained, but I’m not sure they’ll want me back as a model.”

  “You couldn’t look any better than you do now,” he told her.

  “You don’t know the modeling world.”

  “You weren’t one of those sticks when I first found you.”

  “They’re not sticks. They’re slender, and clothes hang better on a slender figure,” she protested.

  “I don’t see how clothes could hang any better than they do on you tonight.”

  “Thank you! But I know what I’m talking about. I started eating more when I first left Kansas City, so I’ll bet I had already put on weight when you found me.”

  “If you’ll come over here and sit on my lap and let me squeeze a little, I’ll tell you whether you’ve changed since the wreck or not.”

  She laughed. “I’m not sitting on your lap tonight. I’m finally taking your warnings seriously.”

  “I’ll wager you on that one. I’ll bet you’ll be on my lap tonight. Loser has to cook dinner tomorrow night. No leftovers. I’m saving these for another time.”

  “I’ll take you up on that, but it doesn’t count if you use force.”

  “Now that pains me. Have I ever used force?”

  “Not physically, but you order me around sometimes.”

  “Yeah, like yelling to get down when someone is shooting at you.”

  “All right, I apologize for the remark about force. But the bet is on, and I saw some thick steaks in the freezer that I would like tomorrow night.”

  “Do you know how to cook them?”

  “I won’t have to know, but yes, I do.”

  He leaned back in his chair, watching her finish her dinner and then he took her hand. “We’re not cleaning up tonight. Come here and dance with me again.”

  She moved into his arms, and as they slowly danced, he watched her steadily. How long before he kissed her? she wondered. Earlier, she had wanted to make love tonight, but then she had thought ahead, and knew she was going to have to tell Josh goodbye soon. And never see him again. Was she already in love with
this tough cowboy who could be so sexy and appealing?

  “So you have the agency up for sale. What will you do when it sells?”

  “Invest, maybe open another agency where I don’t have to deal with Carter.”

  “If he’s behind the attempts on your life, you won’t have to deal with him anyway, once he’s caught.”

  “I don’t know whether it’s Carter or not. Carter definitely isn’t down here in Texas. He’s either hired someone or I have the wrong suspect in mind.”

  “So you ran the Dahl agency for over a year?”

  “Yes, and I liked doing it. I can’t model forever, so I have to find something else. I’m not fond of the family business. And I couldn’t possibly do what my sister Talia does.”

  “The news anchor?”

  “Yes. That’s not my field, either. I’ll have to do something in pubic relations or modeling.”

  “If it turns out that it’s not Carter, would you still sell the agency?”

  “Yes. We can’t work together. He hates that I’ve inherited, and he hates that I wouldn’t go out with him. No, I don’t want to work with Carter ever again. So many people think he’s delightful and charming, but there’s a darker side to him.” She tilted her head to study Josh. “Will you be lonesome here when I’m gone?”

  “Now what do you think?” he asked with amusement.

  “I don’t think you’ll miss me at all. You may be glad to have your house to yourself again.”

  “No, I’ll miss you very much. My life will go back to being quiet and dull.”

  “Right.”

  “So why are you suddenly taking my warnings about us seriously? You never have before.”

  “I didn’t think about it before. I wanted to break through that barrier you keep around you, but I didn’t think what might happen to me if I did.”

  “So now you’re scared?”

  She thought about his question. She had never met a man like Josh. Suppose she never did again? Suppose her future was filled with dull guys, as her past had been? Was she going to miss something here because she was afraid of falling in love?