The Rawhide Man

by Diana Palmer

  “I hoped you’d like it. Thank you for mine,” she added, hugging the musical computer that Bess had given her.

  Jude reached out and tugged the big, rectangular package from its perch against the wall and handed it to Bess.

  “I…I didn’t expect anything,” she said, avoiding his eyes.

  “Neither did I,” he said, holding up the as yet unopened package that contained the nasty tie.

  She tore open the paper, and when she saw what he’d given her she couldn’t say a word. Her eyes filled with tears and she chewed hard on her lower lip to keep from crying. There, in the torn folds of the wrapping paper, was the painting she’d admired that first day at the San Antonio airport—with the windmill and ranch house against the flat horizon.

  “Cat got your tongue?” he taunted.

  She took a slow breath. “Thank you,” she said in a subdued tone, touching the painting lightly, lovingly. “I…I wanted it very much.”

  He didn’t say a word, but when he started to open his gift she touched his hand lightly.

  “No,” she said. “That’s just a tie. I have another…”

  She jumped up and ran all the way up the stairs to take the pocket computer out of her chest of drawers. She was breathless when she got back and thrust the small package into his hands.

  Puzzled, he unwrapped it with slow, deliberate movements of his lean hands, and when he saw what it was he just stared at Bess.

  “How did you know I wanted this?”

  She shifted uncomfortably. “The same way you knew I wanted this, I guess,” she said, touching the painting.

  He was leaning back against the armchair with one leg propped up, and his eyes were calculating. Half dressed as he was, he looked devastating.

  “Well?” he said curtly.

  “Well what?”

  “Don’t I get a kiss?” he asked with raised eyebrows. “You gave Katy one.”

  “You must, Bess!” Katy insisted, his willing co-conspirator, both of them ignoring the older woman’s blush. “It’s Christmas.”

  “She’s shy,” he told Katy. “Why don’t you go get Aggie and tell her to come and open her presents?”

  “Sure!” Katy laughed, leaping up to go in search of the housekeeper.

  Bess flushed wildly, lowering her eyes to the carpet when they were alone.

  “Shy?” he taunted. “There isn’t an inch of you I don’t know now.”

  “Oh, yes, there is,” she replied, lifting her eyes. “My mind. And my heart. You don’t know the first thing about either one.”

  “And I don’t care to,” he said flatly. “Your body is the only thing about you that interests me. Come here.”

  “Go to hell.”

  “It’s Christmas,” he reminded her, lifting his arrogant chin and smiling, but it wasn’t a friendly smile. “Come here, Bess, or I’ll tell Katy you don’t like me.”

  “Go ahead, it’s the truth,” she said, hating him.

  He leaned forward and caught her wrist, propelling her across his powerful legs and into his arms. He levered her down to the carpet, looming over her and pinning her there with his hands on her wrists.

  “Fight me,” he whispered with a husky laugh. “Fight me, Bess, and we’ll see who wins.”

  She drew in an angry breath and let her eyes tell him how furious she was with him. But she stopped struggling. He seemed to like subduing her. But that was like him, too.

  “That’s more like it,” he murmured as he bent his head. His lips were poised just above hers, so that she could feel and taste his smoky breath. “Now open your mouth the way you did last night, and let’s get drunk on the taste of each other all over again….”

  Her mind rebelled even as her body obeyed him. She tried to be cool, not to respond, but he was hungry and she liked the roughness and power of his embrace; she liked the way it made her feel to know that he was aroused.

  “Oh, yes,” he breathed as he felt her shy response. “Yes, like that. Hold me, Bess.”

  Her arms went up around him and she felt with a sense of awe the full weight of his body on hers.

  “Katy…” she whispered shakily.

  “I’ll hear them,” he whispered back. “Bess,” he breathed, and she felt his hand brush from her waist up over one taut, full breast to cup and caress it while his mouth made her want to scream with its slow, taunting arousal.

  His thumb was stroking her, driving her mad, and she twisted to escape it, but it followed, easing under her bra, taking fabric with it, to find the softness of her.

  His eyes were wild when he drew away, glittering like green fireworks in his taut face. “We’ll sleep together tonight,” he breathed huskily. “I’ll have you again. And again.” His mouth crushed down onto hers. “Oh, God, I want you!” he groaned.

  He moved, making her aware of the force of his passion, and she gasped.

  “You can feel it, can’t you?” he asked roughly. “A man can’t hide his hungers the way a woman can. I’ve tasted you and now I want more, I want to make a banquet of you. You knew I would, damn you. You’re just like every other damned woman….”

  She turned her head weakly away, closing her eyes. Would he never tire of hurting her?

  He rolled away abruptly and propped himself back up against the chair. He pulled a cigarette and matches down from the coffee table and lit one with fingers that weren’t quite steady.

  Bess sat up, straightening her hair.

  “You look tidy enough,” he said curtly, glaring at her. “Nothing ruffles you very much, society girl, not even rolling around on the floor with me.”

  She got to her feet with exquisite grace and turned away to pick up the wrapping paper and stuff it into one of the boxes Katy’s presents had come in.

  “No comment?” he taunted, his voice cold and hard.

  “What would you like me to say, Jude?” she asked quietly, turning to face him. “I’m vulnerable with you. I can’t help it. I don’t have the experience to pretend I don’t like what you do to me. But it isn’t kind of you to make fun of me.”

  He laughed shortly and averted his eyes. “But then, I’m not a kind man. I never pretended to be.”

  “If you hate me so much, then file for divorce,” she said proudly.

  “What kind of settlement would you like?” he asked with pursed lips and biting sarcasm. “An oil well or two? A new mink and a Ferrari every year?”

  “I don’t want money,” she said, bending to pick up a stray ribbon. “I never did. I can work for what I want.”

  “I can see you now, waiting tables,” he chided.

  She stood up, regal and cool. “There’s no disgrace about honest work. I could wait tables as well as anyone else. I’m not trained to do much, but I’m not afraid of hard work. Keep your money, Jude,” she added with a faint smile. “I don’t need it, or you.”

  His eyes began to glitter and he got to his feet slowly, menacingly. “Don’t you? I could make you beg for me.”

  She straightened. “Yes,” she agreed in a small voice. “I know you could.”

  His hand sliced through the air, making the cigarette tip glow wildly. “Damn you! So cool and untouchable!”

  “Here’s Aggie,” Katy called as she and the housekeeper joined them. She paused, glancing from Bess’s white face to Jude’s red-tinged one.

  “I…was just telling Jude that my sister is coming to spend some of the holidays with us,” Bess blurted out, flushing.

  Jude’s eyes widened. “Crystal?”

  “Yes,” she said with a nervous smile. “I meant to tell you sooner, really I did, but I kept wondering how to do it.”

  “I don’t mind having her here,” he said with a smile that only Bess saw. “She’ll be a nice decoration. How long is she staying?”

  “She didn’t say,” Bess managed.

  His eyes wandered over her face. “Afraid of the competition?” he chided.

  She turned away. “I’ve never been any competition for Crystal,” she s
aid with quiet dignity. “She takes what she likes.”

  Jude scowled at her, his eyes strange and intent. But he didn’t say a word. He only lifted the cigarette to his lips and turned back to Katy and Aggie, who were exclaiming over the scarf Aggie had gotten from Bess and the hand-crocheted shawl she’d gotten from Jude and Katy.

  Later, Jude went upstairs to dress for dinner and Katy and Bess helped Aggie set the table. It was overflowing with everything from Sally Lunn bread, which Bess had made from the old home recipe, to ambrosia and ham and turkey and dressing and giblet gravy with homemade potato rolls and Southern cornbread, cranberry sauce, green beans and mashed potatoes and sweet potato soufflé. For dessert there was fruitcake, and apple pie, and hand-dipped chocolates.

  Bess forced herself to eat, even though she’d long since lost her appetite. Jude managed to put away a filled plate, but his eyes kept lancing toward Bess, and she couldn’t meet them. He hated her, and she knew it. But there was nothing she could do or say in her own defense. She’d tempted him, all right. She’d wanted him desperately. She loved the horrible man, and he wanted no part of her.

  Her eyes drifted down to her black coffee in its delicate china cup. Why had he bothered to buy her the painting? she wondered. Had it been for Katy’s sake? To keep peace? She sighed, sounding so lonely and forlorn that everyone looked at her.

  “Bess, why are you so sad?” Katy asked gently.

  “Niña, the señora has no mother to celebrate this Christmas with,” Aggie said gently. “We must not mind if she feels a sadness.”

  Bess looked at Aggie and smiled. “Thank you, but I’m coping very well. I have another family now to celebrate with.”

  Jude abruptly threw down his napkin and got up from the table, strode away toward his study and slammed the door behind him.

  “What’s the matter with Daddy?” Katy asked, shocked.

  Bess shook her head. “He doesn’t like—” She almost said “me,’ but caught herself in time. “Christmas,” she said instead. “I’m afraid it’s all caught up with him.”

  “But he said he liked the tree,” Katy told her. She grinned. “And he told me how long it took him to find the painting you wanted. It had been sold and he had to find the man who bought it to get it back.”

  How strange that he’d gone to so much trouble for someone he disliked. But before Bess had time to reflect on Jude’s odd behavior, the phone rang. Aggie was back in a minute to get Bess.

  Bess picked up the receiver, feeling a sense of impending doom because there was only one person who might be calling her today.

  “Hello?” she said.

  “Hello, Merry Christmas!” Crystal’s bubbly voice was instantly recognizable. “Send someone to the airport to fetch me, love. I’ve come to cheer up your dreary holidays!”

  Chapter Seven

  The airport was bustling when Jude and Bess got there, but it only took a minute for them to spot Crystal. She would have stood out anywhere in the white satin blouse and black skirt she wore. With her exquisite face and figure and her tumble of long, straight blond hair, she was absolutely stunning.

  “Darling!” she called, running straight toward Bess and Jude.

  But it was Jude whose arms she ran into, and while Bess watched, horrified, Crystal kissed him on the mouth, her ardor real and sickening to watch. Worse, Jude didn’t seem to mind at all. His arms contracted and he laughed as he let her go.

  “Hello, bubbles,” he said, grinning at the younger woman. “How long can we keep you?”

  Crystal looked ecstatic, Bess thought. Already she had a captive male. And who cared that it was dry old Bess’s husband anyway? “As long as you’ll let me,” she told Jude, grinning gaily. “I’ve had a tiff with my count, and I may never leave Big Mesquite. How’s that?”

  Bess stood rigidly while Crystal hugged her. She was certain Crystal’s affection was all for show.

  “Hi, love,” Crystal murmured. “Bad Christmas for you this year, isn’t it, with Carla dead?”

  Bess’s eyes began to water and she turned away. “I’m glad you could come to visit,” Bess said tautly.

  Jude was glaring at her, but she didn’t look his way. “You just missed Christmas dinner, but Aggie can fix you a plate,” Bess said graciously, remembering her manners.

  “Lord, I couldn’t eat a bite!” Crystal said. “I had dinner on the plane, you know. Cardboard and all that, but it was filling, at least. And I never eat much. Have to watch my figure!”

  So did everyone else, Bess thought uncharitably, seeing the way male eyes followed her flamboyant stepsister as they weaved through the travelers on their way to the parking lot.

  “You’re very quiet today, Bess,” Crystal remarked when they were settled in the Mercedes—with Crystal, as Bess had expected, in the front seat and Bess in the back.

  “She had a bad night,” Jude said, straight-faced, and fortunately Crystal turned around before she saw Bess’s wild flush.

  “Well, I could have died when I read that note about the two of you getting married,” Crystal told Jude. “You used to swear you’d never let any woman get a hold on you.”

  “I meant it, too,” he said imperturbably, lighting a cigarette. “I married Bess because of those damned shares. I couldn’t get them any other way, thanks to Carla.”

  “Lord, she did hate you, didn’t she?” Crystal laughed. “Poor Jude. Is marriage awful?”

  Bess, sitting ignored in the back seat, could have shot them both. If only Jude had allowed Katy to come with them so she could have had someone to talk to!

  “It has its compensations,” Jude murmured, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Doesn’t it, Bess?”

  “Yes,” she said sweetly. “Katy is one of them.”

  He didn’t like that. His eyes glared at her. But Crystal laughed.

  “That sounds like you, darling,” she told her stepsister. “You always did love kids. Are you going to have some of your own?”

  “Yes,” Bess said curtly, and her eyes dared Jude to argue. He didn’t seem to want to.

  “Bess is good with Katy,” he said as he turned onto the main highway. “They’re already pals.”

  “I can’t wait to see Katy again,” Crystal said with a lazy smile. “She was just a baby the last time at that family get-together.”

  “You’ve missed them all for years,” Jude reminded her.

  “Oh, I’ve been busy.” Crystal sighed. “Traveling, you know.”

  And sleeping around and such, Bess thought venomously, but she didn’t say anything. She just stared out the window.

  When they reached the ranch, Bess showed Crystal up to the guest room. Hoping to take advantage of the moment of privacy, she lingered while Crystal unpacked.

  “Seriously,” Bess asked as Crystal dropped her cosmetic bag carelessly on the bed, “how long are you staying?”

  “Just a little while,” came the sunny reply. “You don’t mind, do you? I…need someplace to stay, just until I can get my life and my finances in order again.”

  Is that it, or are you after my husband? Bess wondered bitterly, but she was geared to keeping her worries deep inside. She fingered the door facing.

  “You’re welcome, of course,” she said.

  Crystal turned from the window and gazed at her. She made an odd little gesture with one manicured hand. “Marriage not going well?” she asked with faint humor. “Most relationships have rocky starts, darling.”

  Bess only stared at her. “How was Paris?”

  Crystal looked haunted. “Beautiful, of course,” she said, laughing nervously. She stared at the coverlet. “Bess, I wish…” She glanced toward her stepsister hopefully, but there was no softening. She shrugged. “Thanks for letting me come.”

  Bess turned. “Come on down when you’ve unpacked. Katy will be glad to see you.”

  “I wish you were,” Crystal murmured, but her stepsister was already out of earshot.

  Katy had been courteous to Crystal, but Bess sen
sed that the young girl really didn’t like her very much.

  “She’s not like you at all, is she?” Katy asked later that afternoon, when the two of them were walking around the ranch yard. Crystal had pleaded with Jude to explain his computer system to her, and she’d managed to get him all to herself.

  “No,” Bess said, tugging her leather jacket closer. “We were never really close. We had nothing in common.”

  Katy sighed, snuggling closer as the wind whipped around them. “Bess, are you going to have some babies?”

  “I hope so,” she replied. She glanced down. “Will you mind?”

  “Oh, no,” Katy said honestly. “I’d like to have a baby to help take care of. I like babies. They smell nice.”

  Bess laughed, daydreaming about how it would be to have a little pink baby to hold and kiss and share with Katy and…The smile faded. Jude hadn’t really meant it about wanting one. He’d only wanted Bess and had been ready to say anything to get her.

  “Want to go watch Blanket eat?” Katy asked. “She’s working out real well, Bandy says. She’s going to be a good saddle horse.”

  “If she ever stops falling on people,” Bess said, smiling. “Sure, let’s go look.”

  Blanket was munching oats when they walked down the long, wide aisle between the hay-filled stalls. She tossed her mane and stared at them with her big soft eyes as they approached the stall warily. Bess reached out a hand to her.

  “Careful,” Katy cautioned. “She bites.”

  “I know. But she’s got other things to eat besides me right now.” Bess laughed. She stroked the silky muzzle gently. “Oh, Blanket, you’re so pretty. I always wanted a horse, but I never had the time. Mama was sick for so long, and I had to take care of her.”

  “What was it like where you grew up?” Katy asked.

  Bess’s eyes were dreamy. “Green, darling,” she said wistfully. “With groves of big pecan trees and wisteria and Spanish moss hanging from the trees by the river, and fields of peanuts and soybeans. Our house was two-storied with columns, and a river-rock patio in the back. My great-grandmother was born in the front bedroom.”

  Katy was watching her, smiling. “Did you go to a school like I do?”