by Debra Cowan
Several explanations came to mind and they were all as flimsy as cheesecloth. She settled on the truth. “I promised I wouldn’t tell.”
Russ went stone-still. She thought she saw hurt in his eyes before it vanished and his gaze turned predatory.
“Is he in trouble? Someone in his family?”
No. Lydia didn’t answer. She was deliberately misleading him, but she couldn’t tell the truth. About the network or how Russ was the only man she wanted.
Angry color crested his cheekbones as he moved in on her. The wavering shadows made him appear even taller and more intimidating.
“I thought he was sweet on Deborah Blue. Dammit,” he muttered. “Were you already seeing Bram when you kissed me blind that night in the kitchen?”
“No!” It hurt that he thought she would do something like that.
His gaze moved insolently down her body and back up, causing a prickle of sensation beneath the surface of her skin. Then, as though he couldn’t help himself, “Did he kiss you?”
You’re the only man I’ve kissed! Her stomach quivered. She wasn’t sure if that was because of her anxiety or because of the way his voice had dropped, stroking over her.
“Answer me.”
If she stayed much longer, she would end up telling him the truth. “What I did with Bram is none of your affair.”
“Yes, it is. You’re my partner.”
“Which has nothing to do with my romantic life.” He didn’t appear to be any the wiser about her real reason for meeting Bram. Her apprehension edged into irritation. “Just because we own the hotel together doesn’t mean you get to decide who I see.”
He towered over her like a mountain. She tried to brush past him, and he finally moved enough for her to step outside.
“Lydia, wait,” he said huskily, curling a big hand around her upper arm. “It isn’t about that.”
“Then what?” Hands on her hips, she faced him. “I’m hardly going to ask your permission to keep company with a man. You’re out of your head if you think you can dictate—”
“It’s about doing things behind my back.”
“W-what things?” She froze, her spine turning to jelly. “What are you talking about?”
She stood only a couple of feet away, close enough to see shadows in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. And a fleeting pain. Even before he released her arm, she planned to hear him out.
“I was engaged once.”
Stunned, Lydia blinked. “You were?”
His face went carefully blank and she knew whatever he was about to tell her had hurt him deeply.
“She was carrying on with another man behind my back the whole time.” He dragged a hand across his nape. His voice was quiet, ragged with an edge Lydia had never heard. “I was crazy about her, but Amy only got involved with me to hide her relationship with him.”
Lydia could hardly take it in. Who wouldn’t want Russ? Not only was the man as handsome as the devil, he was honorable and sweet and smart. He had a good heart. “How did you find out?”
“My brother caught them by accident. When she found out I knew, she dropped me like a hot horseshoe and hightailed it out of town with her lover. Her married lover. She took me for a complete fool. Looking back, there were things I should’ve questioned. So when I think someone is hiding something, especially my business partner, I start questioning.”
“Perfectly understandable.” That woman must have been a fool as well as a liar.
Lydia’s stomach knotted. He had every reason to be suspicious, especially of her. Because Lydia was doing something behind his back. Maybe not something that would break his heart, but something that could put him in the middle of a fight that wasn’t his. If he ever found out, if he ever looked at her with the same cold emptiness in his eyes right now, she wouldn’t be able to bear it.
She realized she was brushing a thumb over her watch.
“Even though you and I aren’t engaged,” Russ continued, “we are partners. What you do affects me just like what I do affects you. If something’s going on, I deserve to know.”
“Yes, of course.”
“I apologize. I shouldn’t have bullied you.”
“It’s forgotten.” Lydia could barely get the words out. He was apologizing when she was the one lying. The earnestness in his blue eyes made her feel lower than dirt.
And connected to him in a way she hadn’t expected. She felt compelled to tell Russ about her past, as well. “I was engaged before, too.”
He nodded. “My pa’s talked about it.”
“Wade was a first-rate con artist.” When she thought about Wade Vance now, she felt more anger than hurt, but at that time, she had been skewered with pain. “He took me for a fool and tried to steal my father’s money.”
“What happened?”
Her gaze roamed over his rugged features softened by the hazy amber light. Glad she wore her gloves, she stepped back inside, out of the worst of the cold. “A couple of weeks before the wedding, I became suspicious. Something he said didn’t add up and he’d taken a few unexplained business trips. Stupid me, I was still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“So, I went to talk to him at the boardinghouse where he was staying. He and all his things were gone. Including the money my father had given him for an investment.”
Russ cursed, moving closer.
Lydia caught the faint scent of leather and his own dark spice. She quelled the urge to walk into his arms and be sheltered by his brawny chest the way she had that morning. When she saw Russ’s gaze was fixed on her breasts, she realized she was again stroking her watch.
She dropped her arm, retreating a step. “It finally occurred to me I’d been conned. I called off the wedding and hired a couple of Pinkerton men to find him. They warned me that they might not be able to get the money, so I was prepared for that, but not for what they found. During their investigation, they discovered he was engaged to three other women, all four of us at the same time. He’d stolen money from them and their families, too.
“My best chance of recovering any money and stopping him from doing this again was to sue him for breach of promise, so I did.”
She told Russ how she had been the scandal of Jackson for about two weeks, until someone else publicly did something more interesting.
Russ’s voice rumbled out. “Did he go to jail?”
“For a short time, but what made him stop were the warning posters the Pinkerton agency sent to every city or territory with law enforcement.”
He nodded.
“I felt like an idiot for a long time.”
“No way you could’ve known someone would do such a thing.”
There was admiration in his eyes, which flustered her. “Neither could you,” she said softly.
He shrugged.
“It’s true. You didn’t see what your fiancée was doing because you’re honest. Straightforward. You believed Amy was that way, too.”
“Doesn’t excuse my being so smitten that I didn’t figure out what she was doing. Matt’s the one who found out Amy was lying and cheating.”
“I blamed myself, too,” Lydia said. “Sometimes, I still get mad at myself when I think about it. It was hard to accept that I had been taken in by Wade’s slick charm, but even my father was fooled and he’s a shrewd businessman. Now I know it wasn’t my fault. You have to know that, too. About Amy.”
He nodded, reaching out to stroke a knuckle down her cheek.
She wanted to touch him, too, but she didn’t. Closeted alone with him like this, it was tempting to believe this conversation was only about the two of them. Not the operation. Not his suspicion.
Still feeling the warmth of his touch, her common sense began to slip away and she stepped back. “All I’m trying to say is I understand how you felt. We both learned through hard experience.”
“And now we’re both cynical.” Amusement glinted in his eyes.
“We’re both wiser,” she emphasized with
a smile.
Russ’s gaze trailed over her then came back to rest on her mouth. A shiver skipped up her spine. The memory of their kiss was there between them. Lydia could read it in the stormy blue of his eyes.
Tension arced between them and she couldn’t help wishing he would kiss her again. But he seemed to be fighting it as hard as she was.
He made a low sound of frustration and stepped back, clenching his hands into fists.
She gave herself a mental shake. What was wrong with her? She’d just led him to believe she was involved with another man then nearly invited him to kiss her.
He broke the pulsing silence by tipping his head toward the livery’s open door. “Let me walk you back to the hotel.”
“What about your horse?”
“I’ll tend to him in a bit.”
“All right.” She smiled and joined him outside. The air was sharp, the cold stinging her face even though the trip to The Fontaine was short.
They walked closely together. Lydia huddled into her gray wool coat, the hem of her skirts brushing against the leg of his trousers. They touched nowhere else and still she was aware of the warmth of his big body, his powerful arms, gentle hands. His mouth.
She wanted to feel the same sense of well-being she had felt that morning, but she didn’t. The tension between them had eased somewhat though she wasn’t naive enough to think it would stay that way.
Russ opened the outside door that was close to his office, propping it wide with an arm above her head. “Here we are.”
“Thank you.”
As she stepped inside, he touched her arm. “I plan to put a large window across the front of the new shops to display their wares.”
“What a good idea.”
“Would you mind taking care of the glass?” He smiled. “You seem to have a knack for that.”
“I’d be glad to.”
“Thanks.”
The fresh scent of the outdoors clung to him. She wanted to get closer to him, bury her face in his neck. But he was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to take her leave.
She did. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
Lydia watched his purposeful strides take him back into the darkness as he returned to the livery. When he was inside the small building, she pulled the door shut.
She’d been fooling herself all day, believing he was closer to trusting her. His following her said he wasn’t, and he had good reason not to. Not only because of her actions, but because of what his ex-fiancée had done to him.
She hated that he believed she was involved with his friend. As much as she despised the idea, it was better for him to think it. If he knew the truth, it could jeopardize the secrecy of the network.
A heaviness settled over her. The only man she wanted was Russ and she had probably just destroyed any chance of a relationship.
Because now, in addition to being suspicious of her, he believed she had a romantic relationship with another man. And she had to let him think it.
When Lydia told Russ it was none of his affair what she had been doing with Bram on the prairie, it had been all Russ could do not to back her into the wall of the livery and kiss the sass right out of her. She sure as hell hadn’t looked kissed by Bram.
No reddened lips, no hue of arousal on her creamy skin.
She hadn’t looked anything like she had after Russ had kissed her that night.
Not knowing exactly what had happened between the pair was one reason Russ hadn’t been able to stop himself from asking all those questions about the other man. He’d been blistered up enough over seeing them, but the threat of danger to her had made Russ as angry as a teased rattlesnake. At her. At Bram.
Since then, his gut had been in a knot and he’d done everything he knew to get her out of his mind, working himself to exhaustion on constructing the new shops.
It took him four days, but when Russ stepped into Haskell’s that afternoon, he’d simmered down. He stood at a barrel of nails, dropping a handful into the cloth bag he’d brought.
Hearing the thud of boots coming into the mercantile, he looked over his shoulder and saw Bram. By the time the other man walked over to shake hands, Russ had tamped down his resentment.
“Did you come into town to get some supplies?”
“Yes, and to pick up something Josie made for Molly.”
Molly was Bram’s adopted niece, half sister to his new sister-in-law, and Josie frequently made clothes for her and little Lorelai Holt, Riley and Susannah’s daughter.
“She keeps them in the latest fashions,” Russ noted.
“Emma and Georgia say it seems to help her deal with losing her and Davis Lee’s baby.”
Charlie Haskell interrupted to ask if Bram had a list, then he took it and went into the back for the items.
“Any cattle rustled from your place in the last week?” Russ asked.
“No, but I saw Matt and he said more of yours had been.”
“Yes, we and the Rocking H lost some, too.”
“Yeah, I heard that from Riley yesterday.”
“Holt’s been hurt as much as the rest of us by these thieves.” Russ shook his head. “Matt’s spent more nights with the cattle this month than with his lady friends.”
Bram chuckled. “He must feel as though he’s been doubly hit then.”
“I reckon. You planning to stop by The Fontaine while you’re in town?”
Russ had asked so he could gauge his friend’s reaction. Bram gave away nothing by his face, but a sudden stillness came over him. “I might if I have time,” he said carefully.
Russ figured the other man would make time. Judging by Bram’s guardedness when Russ had asked, Lydia must not have told her beau that Russ knew about the two of them.
He remembered the wounded look in her eyes when he asked her if she and Bram had already made plans to see each other the night she practically kissed Russ out of his drawers.
The store’s door opened and Charlie’s nephew, Mitchell Orr, walked inside. He greeted Bram and Russ as he made his way behind the counter to help his uncle.
Russ had as many questions for Bram as he’d had for Lydia. How often did he plan to see her? What nights had they been together? Why in the hell was he keeping his relationship with her a secret? Did the other man know about DeBoard, and if so, why had Bram agreed to let Lydia drive outside of town alone after dark?
Russ had known Bram his whole life, and if the other man had seen the terror in Lydia’s eyes that Russ had seen, he never would have asked or allowed her to go out on the prairie alone. He wanted to ask Bram about that, too, but she—they—were none of his concern. She’d made that plain.
A man and woman entered the store, prodding Russ to pay for his nails and say goodbye to Bram and Charlie.
As he strode down the planked walk past the newspaper office and cut across the street toward the hotel, he could feel himself getting lathered up again. The thought of staying inside the hotel right then, surrounded by walls, made him feel choked. After leaving the nails at his office, he made his way to Ef’s.
The fire blazed in the forge, and Ef stood over a cauldron of water, dunking a freshly hammered horseshoe. The black man looked up as Russ moved under the roof.
The sizzle of water, the mixed odors of smoke and metal filled the covered area. “I came by to see if those hinges and locks for the new doors were ready yet.”
“They need to cool a little longer.” Ef dragged a forearm across his perspiring forehead.
Russ watched as the black man used a pair of tongs to rotate a bar of iron in the fire.
Wondering when Bram planned to visit Lydia was enough to make Russ grind his teeth to a powder so he shifted his focus. He wondered if Ef knew about Lydia’s brother-in-law.
As close as the blacksmith was getting to her friend, it wouldn’t surprise Russ if the other man did know. Before he could ask, his attention was snagged by the sight of Bram striding down the street toward the hotel.<
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“Russ?”
He looked over, only then realizing Ef had asked him something.
“Is something goin’ on? You must’ve eyeballed the hotel ten times since you got here.”
Russ wasn’t going to admit to his friend that he had been waiting for Bram Ross to visit Lydia. As the rancher disappeared inside The Fontaine, Russ’s gut started churning.
He dragged his gaze from the hotel’s front doors and back to his friend. “I wanted to talk to you about Lydia and Naomi.”
Ef straightened, wiping grimy hands down his apron.
“Has Naomi shared anything with you concerning their leaving Mississippi?” Russ asked.
“Some.”
“About the brother-in-law?”
The other man nodded, looking relieved that Russ knew.
“Good, so you plan to keep an eye out for the bastard.”
“Yeah. I’m glad you know. I promised Naomi I wouldn’t tell anyone, but I feel better knowin’ we’re both aware of the threat.”
Russ thought about Lydia and Bram on the prairie, wondered if Ef knew anything about the pair of them. Russ was curious as to what they were doing in the hotel. Talking? Did it have anything to do with DeBoard?
“You spend a lot of time with Naomi,” he said to Ef. “Is she jumpy? It seems like Lydia is always at the ready, always looking over her shoulder.”
“Naomi’s the same way.”
“Think it’s all because of DeBoard?”
“Probably.” A rare anger crossed the black man’s face and his mouth tightened. “The bastard hurt Naomi and killed Miz Kent’s sister. It makes sense for the two of them to be on guard.”
“True.” The more Russ thought about it, the more certain he became that the situation with Lydia’s brother-in-law was what she had been hiding.
From the shadows of the smithy, Russ watched as Bram walked out of the hotel and back towards Haskell’s mercantile. His visit with Lydia hadn’t taken long. Maybe just long enough for them to arrange their next meeting.
Russ clenched his jaw. He hoped Lydia didn’t drive out after dark again to meet Bram, because Russ would go after her, secrecy be damned.
A half hour later, he paid for his door hinges and said goodbye to Ef. He returned to the hotel to resume his work on the lease space, took a short break for dinner, then began again.
