by Lass Small
She had abandoned the coat after some time. She was held tightly against him as he turned her and moved her around the floor. His body was hard against hers.
There was a slow dance, and he held her to him as he breathed. She’d had men who’d danced with her, held her and breathed that way. Was he stimulated? Enough? How could she discreetly inquire if he had a condom?
Being a woman was tough.
The dancing led to talking, and he could talk. He seemed slow. He chose his words. Did he clean them up? Was he so used to talking with men that talking to a woman was a verbal chore? She could handle men’s words. Some women she knew said such words quite easily.
On rare occasions, Lauren had even said some forbidden words. Not around other people, but under her breath in trying times.
Everybody has trying times. Frustration. Irritation. Exasperation.
She looked up into Kyle’s green eyes.his eyes were really green! How amazing. She’d never known any green-eyed men. So she mentioned, “Your eyes are green!”
“Yeah.”
Well, he would know the color of his eyes.
He told her, “Yours are brown.”
She’d known. So she just smiled.
He mentioned, “Most people I know have blue eyes.”
She agreed. “Around here.”
“How’d you get brown eyes?” He smiled a little as he waited for her reply.
She explained, “My momma’s great granddaddy was brown-eyed.”
“And it took all that time to turn up in you?”
She laughed.
He teased, “You got brown-eyed sisters?”
She hesitated just a tad. “How did you know I have sisters?”
“Everybody talks about Paul Davie and his beautiful daughters. Are they all pretty as you?”
Hmmm. So he knew who she was and who was her daddy. That was sobering. It also entirely canceled her anonymous seduction.
She said, “My sisters are prettier. How did you know about us?”
“Like I said, everybody knows you. You walk down Houston Street and people look at you. I was with a guy who knew you. He said hello to you. But you just smiled at him and went on along.”
“If I didn’t call him by name, I probably didn’t recognize him because he thought he saw one of my sisters instead of me.”
He turned her in a swirl to the music before he asked, “That happen a lot-getting taken for one of your sisters?”
“All the time.”
So he inquired, “Where are you in that bunch of sisters?”
“I’m second oldest.”
“And you’re not married?” Even he thought he was getting a trifle pushy.
She was used to being asked that. She was patient. She agreed readily enough, “Not married.”
“Somebody hunting you down?”
And she was forbearing, “No.”
He laughed with real humor. Then he chided her. “I don’t believe that for a minute.”
Bored with the whole collapse of the seduction, Lauren took a patient breath and told him, “On my honor, no man is interested.”
He grinned and his eyes were filled with humor. He really tried to smother his amusement but his humor continued without his permission.
With some hostility and a feeling for self protection, she inquired in a rather deadly way, “What could possibly be so funny?”
He chided, “You don’t even see all the guys who yearn after you.”
“Balderdash.”
“You’re like my momma with mice,” he explained kindly. “She doesn’t ‘see’ them in the fall when they come inside. That way the mice don’t upset her.” He turned her to the music with some skill.
“Upset.” Lauren rolled the word on her tongue as she tasted it in a narrow-eyed manner.
He didn’t recognize hostility and explained logically, “My momma doesn’t like mice. Pretending not to see them is her defense.”
So curiosity nudged her to ask, “What happens—with the mice?”
Aggressively, but within the limits of dancing, he walked her backward across the kitchen as he replied, “My brothers and I go clean them out of the house. My sisters are a whole lot like my mother.”
“How many of you are there?”
He turned her carefully so that she didn’t hit the opened oven door. “In numbers? Just five. Like you all.”
“And…where are you in the lineup?” She found she was curious.
He was concentrated on a slight dip and turn. He told her, smugly serious, “Top dog. I was first.”
Yeah. And he probably ruled them all. He was the pushy type. She found herself saying, “I don’t believe I’ve thanked you for rescuing me from the storm.”
He shook his head. It had scared him when he realized she was lost. “I was rounding up the horses. I almost missed you dressed in that sand color like you are.”
She had to thank the gods for his horses. If he hadn’t gone for them, she’d have frozen.
So he’d had reason to have gone out there. They’d dropped the pod on his land?
As if his thinking paralleled hers, he asked, “What’s in the gourd-pod you chased down?”
How had he known only she had chased down the pod? How long had he been aware of her? “I have no idea.”
He turned her with some élan. “Who’ll open it?” His question was casual, but he was then silent as he waited for her reply.
“Somebody else.”
He moved her backward. “I’m curious.”
With a shrug she told him, “It’s like Dungeons and Dragons.” She’d blurted it before her carefulness took hold.
“A game?”
And she could be honest. “Yes.”
“Who gets the pod?”
“I’ll be called.”
“I’m really curious,” he said with interest. “Will you tell me about this?”
And she asked, “Are you really renting this land and this house, or are you just here?”
He smiled and twirled her gently as the music stopped. “This is my land.”
“Tell me your full name.”
“I’m really and truly actually Kyle Phillips. This land was a part of the old Turner estate?” The TEXAS questioning statement. “I was there, at the auction, and I got the bid on this part. It is exactly what I wanted. I know this place.”
She asked, “How much land did you get?”
“Enough.”
“And you have milk cows?” she questioned.
“Cows are a good cash means.” He was watching where their steps took them in the limited room.
She realized he was speaking differently again. “Where’s your po’ boy language?”
“I was trying to see if you knew me.”
“From—?”
And he told her quite easily, “When you were Queen of the Fiesta, I was one of your escorts.”
“Really?” The Fiesta was a week-long celebration of spring. There was a parade called the Battle of the Flowers with decorated floats and marching bands.
He guessed, “But you’ve forgotten me.”
She shook her head with a big sigh. “I was petrified.”
“Why?”
“I’m not the Queen type at all!”
He asked with logic, “Then why did you accept it?”
She shrugged. “Daddy.”
“He got you in?” The questioning statement.
“Yes.”
And for some reason, he pushed it. “But it wasn’t your idea?”
“Never. I’m a shrinking violet.”
He laughed. “All shrinking violets go alone out into empty land looking for pods.”
“I was bored.”
“What…stimulates you?”
She shrugged. “By now, not much.” Well, actually, he did, but a lady doesn’t mention such things. And since he knew who she was and who her family was, any idea of seduction was useless. The whole shebang was a lost idea, a thwarted temptation.
&nb
sp; Disgruntled, she thought it could have been such an adventure, with him. Such an interesting time. Now the whole scenario was lost.
She became a little wistful. Her eyes were sad.
“What’s wrong?” His voice was earnest.
She looked up in surprise. No one had ever asked that of her before then. How was she to reply without spilling her guts and all the family secrets? Whatfamily secrets? Well, her daddy’s ambition for them. Her grandmother’s push for their work in social endeavors. Her mother’s calm regard.
Distracted, she turned away from Kyle. It wasn’t easy being in the Davie family. It wasn’t easy being a female who was up for grabs by ambitious men who wanted to elevate themselves with Davie backing.
Her family was picking at her to decide on a husband. By now, more and more of the men over her age were married. Now those bringing her flowers and looking around to greet her father were more her own age and two were younger and looking past her at her younger sisters.
It was a nuisance being a woman. Or was it all just because she was a daughter of her father?
She considered Kyle. How had he happened to be where she needed him so handily? Had he bribed the others to leave her there alone? How had he known about the pod? Had he paid Jack to miss the drop area? By then, Lauren had survived so many clever plots to lure her into nets that she couldn’t be surprised by anything.
How could she ever know if a man married her and not her father’s clout? Such a thought was diminishing to a woman.
She broke gently from Kyle’s arms and went to a window to look out on the storm. There was one inside her, too.
Four
Kyle said, “How about some cribbage? We can play here in the kitchen where it’s warm.”
Lauren smiled. “I haven’t played cribbage in a hundred years!”
He put a hand to his chest and exclaimed in hambone exaggeration, “I had no idea you were older than a hundred.”
She confessed, “It’s the modern makeup.”
He nodded as he looked at her and his smile was just under his skin. He went into another room for the playing cards and pegboard. On the round kitchen table, he set up the cribbage board and put the pegs in the middle. “I’m very good at this. How are your hundred-year-old eyes?”
She was smug. “My eyes are like a hawk’s.”
He sighed in defeat as he said, “I’ll probably lose the game.”
“More than likely,” she responded with smug cheerfulness.
And they played very competitively. They objected and groaned and laughed nastily. How interesting that two such opposite people could spend an evening so innocently.
She was especially surprised. She was sure the game only delayed him. When he’d gotten her on his horse, he had groped her. Of course, she had thought it was an accident by whom she’d thought was an innocent man. She recalled his hands’ slippings quite vividly. Even then he’d known who she was! How dared he grope her daddy’s daughter?
She speculated as to whether his plot to isolate her was to compromise her. After the storm released their isolation, did Kyle think her daddy would bless her marriage to him?
Over her dead body.
With her mind going eighty miles an hour, she played the cards with complete honesty. It was a genetic curse to be honest.
Kyle was tricky. She had to watch every move he made. When he advanced his peg on the board, she had to be sure he hadn’t sneaked in another hole or two. Once he’d tried for three holes extra.
And he’d laughed!
She told him quite seriously, “How could I trust you in anything now that I know how you play cribbage?” And she watched him.
He grinned. “This is money-free cards. In anything else, I’d play it straight.”
She regarded him in silence. Her face was serious. She asked in a level way, “Would you?”
And he looked up at her with some interest. “On my honor.”
But she then asked, “How good is your.honor?”
He shrugged as he looked at her. Quite easily, he told her, “It’s pristine.”
With some irony, she mentioned, “Your language has changed considerably since my arrival here.”
His smile came slowly as he watched her. He admitted, “I was testing you.”
“And now? You’re cheating, so you are still. testing?”
“No. I’ve been teasing you.”
And she questioned, “You’re cheating so that I can trust you?”
He was easy. “You would know the difference.”
“Would I?”
“Of course!” He was puzzled and serious. “We’re only playing cards. No money. No honor. No rules.”
“No…rules.”
He put down his cards and folded his arms along the table in front of him. “What’s that ‘no rules’ mean?”
And she replied coolly, “I understand.”
“And what is it you ‘understand’ about?”
She gestured openly, hiding nothing, saying it exactly. “Your game and your-adjusted-rules?”
He shook his head and looked at her seriously. “No.”
She tidied her cards, lifted the pack and lay her cards underneath them. “I believe I will find a place to rest. Thank you for the supper. You’re an excellent cook.”
He rose from his chair. “I’ll show you to your room.”
Yeah. She said levelly, “Just point. I can find it okay.”
“The lights are out.” He gestured.
“And how would you know that?” She lifted her chin.
“The refrigerator went off.”
She looked around. Hmmm. She mentioned, “The stove is still on.”
He nodded once to agree. “It’s gas. The house could become quite cold with the storm. I’ll build a fire in the living room fireplace. Those sliding doors close, and it’ll stay warm enough there, too. You can have one sofa. I’ll take the other.”
Share a room with him? So he could keep an eye on her? How would she ever escape his probable animal lust?
She considered her plight. It was exactly that. a plight. While her mind was stem and logical, there was something very wrong with her errant body. It had behaved quite well in all the years she’d shared it, but now it was in revolt with her brain.
Her attitude was stern and staunch.
Her body was a writhing mass of want. How vulgar of it.
But the really startling bit came when her logical mind said through her shocked lips, “Why not?”
Kyle smiled. He busily went to structure the slowburning night fire in the living room.
Lauren was appalled. If she could still be appalled, it must be her conscience against her mind and her distracted, wicked, restless, squirming body!
Who would ever believe she could be so out of control? A strict and staid person who had rubbed shoulders with loose women and not only had not understood them but had been unaffected? One who had avoided interested men for so long? How could her discipline so suddenly collapse? Kyle knew her family. He knew who she was!
This could become a study for her master’s degree. She ought to keep notes. She looked over at Kyle.
He was watching her very like the eyes of the predators on TV’s Nature studies. On those programs, all anyone could see were hungry eyes. and fleeing victims.
She was…a…victim…of a greedy man…in a snowstorm. Little Nell of the silent films? She?
How many women had Kyle had that he knew enough to be that greedy? He looked on her as a bear after a honeycomb. He would make his move soon now. He would begin to gather the honey to himself. Her.
And down deep in her there was the most startling reaction to the very idea of being his honey and being consumed by him!
Well, he wouldn’t actually eat her, but he would use her for his body’s pleasure. Oh, yes. Her breaths changed to pants.
Then her conscience scolded her brain and her body. You really don’t know this person well enough to be this way. Behave!
&nb
sp; And she recognized the sound. That caught her concentration. She’d heard just that lecture before then! She had a monitor inside her, implanted in her conscience, that was triggered by the excited part of her body! She did! That damned monitor had interfered before!
She narrowed her eyes as she recalled one of those times. She was twelve, and Phillip had her in the garage. He was about sixteen. Why, she remembered that! She had on a dress. She’d always worn jeans or shorts.
He’d told her once that he liked dresses better than pants. That was a clue, so she’d worn a dress to please him.
Around the others, he hadn’t acted pleased. He’d hardly looked at her, but the time came when Phillip had lured her into the garage, to see the doodlebug holes, he’d said. She’d been very interested…in the doodlebugs.
She’d seen doodlebugs all of her life up until then. Doodlebugs are no big deal. But she was there with Phillip and excited that he’d chosen her to go with him to see the little dirt funnels. He wanted to be with her.
So, not having one clue, she had squatted down and taken a leaf and brushed a bit of dirt into a doodlebug trap. With acquired skill, she made it appear the leaf was a careless little ant. As the bits of earth went into the hole, the waiting doodlebug kicked dirt over it to entrap the foolish ant.
Phillip had squatted beside her-and he was naked! Where were his clothes?
How had he done that so quickly? Why was he naked?
Lauren was so mature at twelve and had such control that she hadn’t—looked. That had taken some discipline for a budding woman who lived in an overwhelmingly female household. She’d asked, “What are you doing?” She was curious as to why he’d taken off his clothes.
He’d replied, “You’ll like it.”
Now, how many times had she heard the very same line since then? It seemed to Lauren that every male was taught that line from puberty. Maybe even before then.
But, being as she was, and quite literal, when Phillip had said they were going to see the doodlebug traps, she hadn’t considered any sidelines. Like sex.
They had stared at each other, then they heard the arriving sisters and friends coming toward the garage.
Phillip had instantly disappeared.
Coming through the side door of the garage and seeing Lauren, her sisters had logically asked, “What are you doing in here?”
