Temptation on His Terms

by Robyn Grady

  “Thumbscrews couldn’t drag it out of me.”

  “When I left…I was crying.”

  Wishing he had known her and could have been there for her, he rubbed her arm.

  “I wasn’t thinking straight,” she went on. “When I got into the pickup, somehow I put the gear in Reverse instead of First. Kurt’s car was parked behind me. A spruced-up ’67 yellow Mustang that he was always crowing about.” She took a breath. “I slammed right into the hood.”

  Dex only smiled.

  “I revved and the pickup crunched out, but my hands were shaking. I couldn’t seem to work the gears right.”

  “You hit it again?”

  “Hard this time.”

  He grinned wider then sobered. “But someone must have heard the smash.”

  “It was storming. Lots of thunder. And, as I sat there wondering what on earth to do now, a lightning bolt ripped down, right out of the center of the black night sky. When it tore into the tree beside me, I stepped on the gas. This time the pickup leaped forward. At that same moment, the tree toppled and smashed Kurt’s car like a toy.” She gnawed her lower lip. “I should have told someone.”

  “About the collision or the tree?”

  “I found out later he wasn’t insured.”

  Dex leaned back against the rail and folded his arms. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”

  “My father is honest to his core.” She closed her eyes as if unable to bear a thought. “If he knew I left the scene of an accident, he would be so ashamed.”

  Dex didn’t think so. Dex thought that if Zeb had been in the same situation, he’d have accidentally put that pickup in Reverse way more than twice.

  “I should have gone to the sheriff,” Shelby was saying. “Turned myself in.”

  Imagining the hand of God in that lightning bolt, Dex comforted her. “Greater powers than yours were at work that night.”

  Not that the score was anywhere near even.

  The hoot of an owl echoed out from the shadows. When the moon slid behind a silver cloud, Shelby yawned then shook herself. “Suddenly I feel as if I just want to curl up and sleep.”

  “It’s called catharsis.” He took her hand. “I’ll take you in.”

  He saw her to her bedroom, which was on the opposite side of the house from his guest accommodation. At the doorway, he gathered her in his arms and kissed her, light and tender. As she pressed in against him, he thought again of how they’d made love on the blanket in their abandoned barn this past week. Then he remembered how tense she’d been bumping into that no good ex-friend of hers.

  But most of all, he thought of Kurt’s Mustang and how much it must have pained him to see the wreckage. He’d like to have dropped the damn car on that jerk’s head.

  As he drew away, she stayed close, twining her arms around his neck and urging his mouth down again.

  He smiled. “We don’t want to start something we can’t finish.”

  “Can you stay with me tonight?”

  “In your room? Shelby, I want to, but…”

  “I just want you to hold me.” She peered up into his eyes. “I want to wake up with you holding me.”

  He wondered how many mornings she had woken up remembering that her ex was playing under the sheets with her best friend. That had to be one of the all-time worst kicks in the gut. No one deserved that, especially Shelby.

  He grazed his lips over hers and murmured, “I’ll leave at dawn.”

  Then she took his hand and, once inside the room, he watched as she peeled off her dress, bra and underwear until she stood naked before him, glowing in misty lamplight.

  Joining her beneath the sheets, reaching for the lamp switch, his hand grazed a DVD—a rerelease of one of her silent screen idol’s films. Dex wasn’t Valentino, a national heartthrob who could sweep his heroine away to his tent in the desert or leave her breathless holding her cheek-to-cheek in a tango. But he could help Shelby smudge away her past. Balm the scars.

  With his arm around her, he stroked her hair until her breathing was deep and even. When he woke at dawn, which had to be some kind of first, he dropped a quiet kiss on her forehead and didn’t move again until her father’s hammer started up outside; Zeb had found another leak.

  Then she stirred, stretched, looked into his eyes and gave him a smile that was worth every bit of pain from the cramp in his arm.

  When she whispered, “Thank you,” and cupped his jaw, something shifted and squeezed inside of his chest. Something he hadn’t known existed until that moment. He found himself wondering about leaving…not Mountain Ridge but the movie-making fast lanes of L.A. He smiled at the thought of Dex Hunter, country boy.

  Then he pondered the predicament of perhaps getting himself in too deep.

  Twelve

  “We have dances every month,” Shelby told him as they walked up the path that led to the brightly lit community hall, which was already pumping with music. “Those big movie nights, too. Sounds old-fashioned, I know.”

  “Not at all.” Dex’s face turned a little pained. “Well, a bit.”

  “In a tight-knit community, there’s always something to celebrate.”

  “And tonight it’s a solider coming home. A reason to celebrate, if ever there was one.”

  When, she hesitated, one foot on the hall’s bottom step, he stopped, too.

  “Walking up these steps…” she murmured.

  She didn’t have to say the rest. Facing all those people who knew she’d been dumped and replaced by her best friend had to be hard.

  Yesterday, after bumping into Reese Morgan in town, Shelby had relayed the full story behind her sudden departure from Mountain Ridge. Dex remembered Reese asking about the town dance. When he mentioned it, Zeb recalled that this month the town had a special reason for coming together—a returned solider.

  Dex had offered to take Shelby, if she wanted to go. Zeb said he’d be here with Tate and, as far as Dex was concerned, it seemed like a fitting, full-circle way to end this visit. This time Shelby would leave with her head high, showing them all that her future was bright.

  It might not have seemed like it at the time, but she was lucky to have fallen ill and sidestepped a life with a man who could let his fiancée lie in a hospital bed while he fooled around with the best friend. But clearly, this minute, Shelby was swamped by bad memories.

  With a knuckle, he gently lifted her chin. “We don’t have to go in.”

  “I need to.” Her face lightened. “I want to.”

  He snatched a peck from her lips. “Good girl.”

  With his hand on the small of her back, they took the rest of the steps.

  Inside, the music was loud but not over-the-top. The giant room was packed with people of all ages; some danced while others were happy to talk. Dex wasn’t surprised to see the local band—the Mountain Ridge Rascals, according to the drum skin—doing a fine job on stage; the guy shaking his maracas seemed particularly enthusiastic.

  “Big turnout,” Dex said over the noise.

  Tacking up her smile, Shelby agreed, but that pulse hammering in the side of her throat told him she was on tenterhooks, waiting for some kind of bomb to fall.

  “Recognize anyone?” His palm slid higher up her back, lightly bracing her. “Or should I say everyone?”

  She scanned the room, her gaze hunting out at least two someones: Reese Morgan and the mysterious Kurt Lowlife. But Reese had said Kurt was sick; they probably wouldn’t be attending.

  Dex was tapping his foot to a recent pop rock tune when a prickly sensation scuttled up his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He checked to his right then his left. It was like a sci-fi film where the aliens were tuning into the fact there was another among their kind. In a rippling wave, person after pers
on looked their way, and kept right on looking.

  Beside him, Shelby stiffened. He was laid-back as far as manners were concerned but this was plain rude. He’d wondered if Shelby’s anxiety about facing this crowd had been exaggerated. Now he knew it wasn’t. She deserved a medal for coming here at all.

  Some of the couples were nodding, looking pleased, supportive. Others’ expressions said they were stunned. Appalled. Because of a breakup that wasn’t her doing?

  Having woven through the mob, Mr. Oberey from the hardware store appeared in front of them.

  “I was just saying to my wife,” he said, swirling a cup of punch, “I hoped you two would make it tonight.”

  “Is Mrs. Oberey here somewhere?” Shelby cast an uninspired glance around.

  “Putting the finishing touches to the cake.”

  As Mr. Oberey talked on, Dex’s senses homed in on one particular guest who seemed mesmerized by their presence. Standing by a speaker beneath a swag of red, white and blue streamers, Reese Morgan held a tray of finger food. Her face was as ashen as her hair.

  The man who sauntered up to her wore a naval officer’s JAG jacket teamed with jeans and white sneakers. In Dex’s opinion, bad form. They were here to celebrate a soldier’s return. Fair bet this guy—his guess it was Kurt—hadn’t served time in the military and that the costume had been bought online. The jacket—and its stripes—was a fake, just like the jerk wearing it.

  Reese’s focus had stayed glued on Shelby. When her lips moved, Kurt’s attention shot over, too. Reptilian eyes narrowed and shoulders went back before a leer spread across his face. Dex’s jaw set as anger bubbled up inside of him.

  It took him a moment to realize that someone on the stage had called for everyone’s attention. When the soldier’s father began to talk about how proud he was of his boy, Dex paid attention.

  The soldier took the mic and a round of applause went up. Sergeant Hugh Evans said a few words—Great to be home, thanks for being here. Then he asked everyone to bow his or her head and remember those who would never again share this kind of time with friends and family.

  When Dex looked up, Kurt and Reese had vanished and an old dear was handing him and Shelby cake. As the band kicked off again and the lights faded, he forced Kurt further from his thoughts, forked in a mouthful and hummed over a smile. He nudged Shelby. “This is almost as good as yours.”

  She’d opened her mouth, most likely to deny it, when a third person joined their little circle.

  “Hi, Shelby,” the soldier said. Then he nodded cordially at Dex. “Don’t believe we’ve met.”

  Introductions were made and Dex heard how Sergeant Evans had gone all the way through school with Shelby, how he’d always wanted to serve his country.

  “But tonight I’m letting my hair down.” The sergeant rubbed a palm over his buzz cut. “Or what I can of it. Dex, do you mind if I ask Shelby for a dance?”

  Shelby looked torn but there was no need. This wasn’t Rance wheedling in on his territory. This was her old classmate, a hero.

  Dex stepped back. “I was about to get some punch anyway.”

  Moving to the counter, he set down his cake and was handed a cup. Standing off to one side, he sipped and smiled, watching Shelby dance and catch up with Evans. Her dress was simple, but that tinkle of laughter drifting over was rich. She might have run away from this place and yet some part of her would always belong here.

  That’s when the man he assumed to be Kurt sidled up alongside him.

  “Nothing like these small-town get-togethers,” said the man in a baritone voice.

  Dex turned to him. JAG jacket. Stupid smile. The urge to smack this pretender in the jaw leaped up again. But he pushed the impulse back down as he drank the rest of his punch and told himself this was not the place.

  “It may be a small town,” Dex said levelly, “but there’s nothing small about this occasion.”

  Hands clasped, Kurt rocked back on his sneaker heels. “Agreed. I told Reese we need to invite the sergeant over for a meal. They went to school together.” He tilted his head at the couple dancing. “Both of them, too. Although, right now, they look a little closer than friends.” If a snake could chuckle, it’d make the same sound Kurt did now…asthmatic and slimy. “I’d keep an eye on that. It could turn into something more serious.”

  A hand twitched and a fist formed at Dex’s side.

  Over the music, Kurt chuckled again. “Aw, I’m just fooling with you. Everyone’s talking about how great she’s doing in the land of the stars. Word is that Shelby minds your kid, right?” Kurt dashed a look behind Dex’s back. “Did you bring him?”

  Dex listened to this man bleat on like they were old friends catching up; the idea turned his stomach.

  But then he caught sight of Shelby dancing with her soldier, laughing at something Hugh Evans had said, and Dex knew a good portion of her apprehension over her coming back was gone forever. No matter what had happened in the past, she was over the hump and that made Dex smile to his core.

  As far as the vermin standing next to him went… he’d wasted too much time on Captain Kurt as it was. Even so, before he left, it would be remiss of him not to point something out.

  “You deserve my thanks,” Dex said.

  Kurt paused then looked him up and down. “What for?”

  “I know you weren’t being generous. I suspect the only word in your vocabulary is “me.” But I’m glad you latched on to Shelby when you did. I’m pleased you dumped her when she needed you most. Because you sent her to me and that’s something to be grateful for. Oh, and don’t go near her tonight.” Before heading off, he added, “Don’t ever go near her again.”

  The song ended. Dex moved forward as Hugh delivered Shelby over to him.

  “My folks are putting on a lunch tomorrow,” Hugh said. “Be great to see you both there.”

  Dex shook the soldier’s hand. “Sounds great.”

  As Hugh sauntered off, Dex held both Shelby’s hands in his. “Having fun?”

  “Yeah. I am. But I think I’m ready to go home.”

  “All this excitement wore you out after spending a week sitting on a porch, listening to owls hoot and counting the stars.”

  “I like sitting on the porch with you.” They strolled toward the door. “Must be getting boring for you, though.”

  “A change of pace is good.”

  But he could admit, other than the music tonight, generally it was super quiet around Mountain Ridge.

  Before stepping out onto the landing, she gave one last look at the party then leaned her head against his arm as they walked down the stairs.

  “I told you that I came to Reese and Kurt’s engagement party,” she said as they crossed to the rental car. “It was held in this hall.”

  “The night you smashed up JAG boy’s pride and joy.” Dex hoped the S.O.B. rode a moped now.

  “Want to hear the rest?”

  He did a double take. “There’s more?”

  “You might call it the climax.”

  Walking still, he wound one arm around her back and let out a breath. “Go ahead.”

  “Well, I was focused on being positive—generous—even when everyone was rubbing my hand and asking if I was okay. I was the woman who’d almost died and lost a fiancé all in six months. Before the speeches, I came out here in the fresh air to compose myself.” She indicated a rotunda in the near distance. “Over there, with these two eyes, I saw Kurt getting up close and ‘let’s get naked’ with a woman I hadn’t seen before. I went hot then icy-cold all over. Maybe I was in some kind of shock. All I know for sure is that something inside of me snapped. Then I made a complete fool of myself.”

  He remembered the night at Rance’s and how she’d fixed that story. He cupped her shoulders. “Listen. No one would judge you for
letting Reese know what you’d seen.” He recounted, “You went up on the stage, on a gracious note congratulated them and then later…”

  She was shaking her head. “The way I told it the night I helped you and Rance with that script…it didn’t happen like that. I didn’t handle myself with dignity and leave a crowd awed by my capacity for forgiveness. I stole the microphone, ordered the music down and blurted out what I’d seen to everyone who could hear within a twenty-mile radius. Then I went on to divulge every detail of our affair, highlighting how Kurt had tricked me into caring for him before dropping me like a virus when I lay in bed close to death and he realized he wouldn’t be able to get a hold of my land.

  “I explained in great detail how he’d swapped his affections for my very best friend’s. The woman I’d grown up with and had loved like a sister.”

  “And then people came up to comfort you while others strode off to lynch the gold-plated jerk?”

  “Kurt calmly walked up onto the stage, gave me a sympathetic smile and announced that he understood about those kinds of sisterly relationships. He said that the woman I had seen him with, the same woman who was standing mortified along with the rest of the crowd, was, in fact, his very own flesh and blood.”

  Dex groaned. “Damn.”

  “And then I remembered that long-lost sibling he’d spoken about all those months ago, someone he hadn’t seen in years and missed badly. Apparently he’d contacted her about his engagement and she’d shown up to surprise him. I left Mountain Ridge the next day.”

  Bringing her close, Dex rubbed her back while she rested her cheek on his shoulder. “Yeah, well, he’s still a slime bag.”

  “You don’t know how many times I’ve lived that scene over in my head, wishing I could change it.”

  “You had guts. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. Much better than holding your tongue if you’d been right.”

  Maybe if he and Cole had risked telling their father about Eloise and her games, it’d save Guthrie a whole pile of trouble later on. Or maybe he’d only look at his sons like a pair of fools.