The Barons of Texas: Jill

by Fayrene Preston

  Like The Night, Their Dance Felt

  Magical To Jill.

  Colin moved them slowly around the terrace in a way that was as romantic as the music that filled the air.

  Their first dance had been rawly sexual and darkly dangerous. This was more like a dream, soft and sensual.

  At times they simply swayed together; at other times they did a slow, graceful waltz. But always, always, their bodies were in tune with one another. She didn’t even have to think to follow him. It was as natural as breathing, as sweet as the flower-scented night, as inevitable as the tides.

  She wasn’t even aware of her feet touching the ground. She was floating. She was intoxicated—not on champagne, but on the night, the music and, most of all, Colin.

  Dear Reader,

  This April of our 20th anniversary year, Silhouette will continue to shower you with powerful, passionate, provocative love stories!

  Cait London offers an irresistible MAN OF THE MONTH, Last Dance, which also launches her brand-new miniseries FREEDOM VALLEY. Sparks fly when a strong woman tries to fight her feelings for the rugged man who’s returned from her past. Night Music is another winner from BJ James’s popular BLACK WATCH series. Read this touching story about two wounded souls who find redeeming love in each other’s arms.

  Anne Marie Winston returns to Desire with her emotionally provocative Seduction, Cowboy Style, about an alpha male cowboy who seeks revenge by seducing his enemy’s sister. In The Barons of Texas: Jill by Fayrene Preston, THE BARONS OF TEXAS miniseries offers another feisty sister, and the sexy Texan who claims her.

  Desire’s theme promotion THE BABY BANK, in which interesting events occur on the way to the sperm bank, continues with Katherine Garbera’s Her Baby’s Father. And Barbara McCauley’s scandalously sexy miniseries SECRETS! offers another tantalizing tale with Callan’s Proposition, featuring a boss who masquerades as his secretary’s fiancé.

  Please join in the celebration of Silhouette’s 20th anniversary by indulging in all six Desire titles—which will fulfill your every desire!

  Enjoy!

  Joan Marlow Golan

  Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

  The Barons of Texas: Jill

  FAYRENE PRESTON

  Books by Fayrene Preston

  Silhouette Desire

  *The Barons of Texas: Tess #1240

  *The Barons of Texas: Jill #1288

  FAYRENE PRESTON

  published her first book in 1981 and has been publishing steadily ever since. This is her second novel for Silhouette Books, and she is delighted to be on board. Fayrene lives in north Texas and is the mother of two grown sons. She claims her greatest achievement in life is turning out two wonderful human beings. She is also proud to announce the arrival of her first grandchild: a beautiful baby girl. Now she has even more to be thankful for.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Begin Reading

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  One

  Jill Baron came to an abrupt halt. Her backyard was spinning around her. Slowly she took a deep breath and waited, knowing, hoping, logic would soon reassert itself. She’d owned her North Dallas home for the past ten years, and not once had its grounds ever moved, much less spun.

  In fact, not one acre of Texas’s vast land had ever moved. Sandstorms could whip large amounts of West Texas sandy topsoil through the air. Tornados could lift entire houses, trees and cars. But the ground always stayed still. She took comfort in the thought, and soon her backyard came to a stop.

  There…there. Everything was going to be just fine.

  “Can I do anything for you before I leave?”

  Jill flinched. She’d thought she was alone. She turned and made an effort to smile at her executive assistant. “Not a thing, Molly.”

  “Are you sure? You’re looking pale.”

  “Everyone looks pale at night.” She valued Molly for her quiet efficiency and organizational ability, but Molly occasionally showed the regrettable tendency to try to mother her. She hadn’t had a mother since she was three years old, and she certainly didn’t need or want one now.

  “You never look pale, Jill. Listen, I can run upstairs and bring down your medicine.”

  “No.” She briefly closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so abrupt, but you know how I feel about that stuff. Anyway, I’m fine, and you’ve worked hard today. The party went extremely well. Thank you for your part in that. Now go home and get some sleep.”

  “If you’re sure?” Molly still looked concerned.

  “I am.”

  “Then I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Good night.” Jill sipped again from the champagne bottle she carried, then stared down into the pool. Blue filters over its lights had created a lovely pale-blue oasis of breeze-rippled water with lotus-blossom-shaped candles floating on its surface.

  Her eyes narrowed. Bright. The flames were too bright. She poured champagne onto one of the candles, dousing its flame. Resuming her walk along the edge of the pool, she continued pouring until every candle flame was out, then drank more champagne.

  She wasn’t yet ready to go into the house. This was her favorite time of any party she gave. The last of her guests had gone. Both the band and the caterers had finished packing up and were also gone. She liked reclaiming her home and its grounds. She liked the return of the quiet and the order. But more than that, she liked the feeling of accomplishment she felt after a really successful party.

  The pool moved. The ground beneath her shifted. She stopped and frowned down at her bare feet, which peeked out from beneath the hem of her cream-colored designer gown. The ground wasn’t moving. Neither was she. Damn.

  Perhaps she’d had more champagne than she had realized, but just as fast as the thought occurred, she dismissed the idea. She’d never been drunk in her life, plus she rarely drank at her parties until the last guest had left. She didn’t like to give up control of anything, much less her mental faculties. She waited, and after several moments her patience was rewarded when everything stilled once again.

  With a mental shrug, she took another sip of champagne. It was going to be okay.

  The party had been extremely productive. She had been able to bring Holland Mathis to the point that one more visit with him would have him signing on the dotted line for those three buildings in the southeast corner of downtown Dallas she’d been trying to get for so long. She’d even been able to get Tyler Forster interested in renovating the buildings into residential condominiums. All in all, things had gone very well.

  Her business was booming. She should feel more than satisfied at all she was accomplishing. And she was.

  Except…

  The lit pool had an odd aura around it, she noticed, as if the blue lights had risen into the air to form a shimmering, transparent cloud. Shimmering, transparent cloud? That made no sense at all.

  Mind over matter, she told herself firmly. She refused to give in to this. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, let it happen again. She turned her back to the pool and strolled to a grassy area, where a border of red geraniums backed by white spring bells bloomed. The grass felt soft and cool to her bare feet. Yes, this was much better.

  Sipping at the champagne, she determinedly returned to her original train of thought, which was the feeling of fulfillment at all she was accomplishing. Her achievements were a source of great gratification to her.

  Yet…there was something missing.

  All her life, she’d set goals and met them. Th
is was the year that, according to her father’s will, if she was able to meet a certain financial criterion set by him, she would inherit one-sixth of the family company. But she’d met that goal several years ago, and her business was going better than it ever had. So what could possibly be missing?

  She came to a dead stop. Des. Of course. Des!

  To date, winning her stepcousin’s agreement to marriage was the only goal she had not been able to attain.

  “What’s the matter? Couldn’t find a glass?”

  Startled, Jill whirled around, in the process almost losing her balance. “Colin.”

  Colin Wynne smiled lazily and reached for the champagne. “If you’re going to drink from the bottle, this is the way you should do it.” He tilted his head back and downed the remaining champagne in a matter of seconds.

  “I don’t need lessons in drinking champagne.” She snatched the bottle back from him.

  “No, you don’t, which is why it’s so interesting to see you drinking straight from the bottle. I’ve never seen you do that before. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you barefoot before, either. Pale pink toenails—not a very strong statement, Jill.”

  He was talking uncharacteristically loudly, she thought. It was almost as if she was hearing his words in Sensurround sound. “I wasn’t trying to make a statement.”

  “That’s good, because you didn’t.” He shrugged in a way that clearly indicated he couldn’t be held accountable for her bad taste, goading her as he so frequently did, pushing her buttons until she lashed back.

  “There are a great many things you haven’t seen me do before, but that doesn’t mean any of them are interesting or, for that matter, that you’ll ever see me do them.”

  “Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong.”

  “Wrong?” She pressed her fingers to a spot above her right temple. He was confusing her. Of all her acquaintances, why did it have to be Colin who had returned? They moved in the same charity and social circle, but lately that circle seemed to be getting smaller and smaller, until every time she turned around, Colin was there. Tonight, though, she had only herself to blame, since she had included him on her guest list.

  “Everything you do interests me, Jill. Where are your shoes?”

  He still wasn’t making any sense. And now that he mentioned it, where were her shoes, and why did he care? “What are you doing here? I thought I saw you leave.”

  A memory flashed through her head of Colin escorting an attractive young woman around the side of the house toward the front and the driveway. She remembered thinking that the woman’s red hair had clashed violently with the unfortunate orange dress she’d chosen to wear. “You did leave. You left with Corine.”

  “I drove her home, which is exactly three blocks from here, as you know, then returned to wait out front until all the guests had left.”

  She frowned. “For heaven’s sake, why?”

  “Why did I take Corine home? Because the people she’d come with weren’t ready to leave, and she was.”

  “I meant, why did you come back here?”

  “To check on you.”

  “To check…?” Stunned, she barely managed to keep her footing when the ground starting whirling around her again. She closed her eyes, willing the ground to be still. This was not happening. It couldn’t be. She would not allow it, most especially in front of Colin. When the ground stabilized beneath her, she opened her eyes and saw a thoughtfulness and concern in his regard that completely unnerved her.

  But then, he unnerved her. On some level, and in some shape, form or fashion, he always had. As usual, he looked annoyingly handsome and self-confident, with his golden skin that constantly looked as if he had just returned from a vacation in some terribly exotic, sunny locale, and his golden-brown hair that never seemed combed. Every time she looked at him, she had to fight an incomprehensible impulse to finger-comb his hair into tidiness.

  And then there was that dimple in his left cheek. Even a half smile from him could bring it into play. She had seen grown, stone-cold-sober women become totally mesmerized by it, to the point that they would forget what they’d been saying or even where they were.

  As for his eyes, they were brown with golden streaks that radiated outward to create a star formation. Those eyes… She’d seen him flirt outrageously, until the woman caught in his sights was pink with delight and quiveringly ready for whatever he had in mind. It was absolutely disgusting.

  But the very worst was the way he treated her. No one teased her. No one except Colin, that was. Plus, often in the middle of a party or a meeting, she would turn to find him watching her with laughter in his gaze, as if he knew a joke she didn’t. On other occasions, she would get the strangest feeling that he knew exactly what she was thinking and why.

  But now his gaze was solemn and unwavering as he looked at her. She tried to remember what she’d been about to say and couldn’t. “What did you just say?”

  “That I came back to check on you.”

  “That’s right. I knew that.” She took a deep breath. “What I meant to ask is why you came back to see…” once again, she touched her forehead “… I mean, to check on me?”

  “Toward the end of the party, I sensed something was wrong with you, or bothering you. I thought I’d come back to see if there was something I could do to help.”

  She let the champagne bottle slip to the grass, not trusting herself to bend down in case the ground chose that particular moment to move again. It was like she was tipsy, except she knew she wasn’t. Maybe it was simply that her blood sugar was a little low. She should have eaten more at the party. “You could have saved yourself the trouble, Colin. Nothing was or is wrong.”

  “No?”

  “No, of course not.”

  When she’d first met Colin a couple of years ago at a charity function, he had shown definite interest in her, but when she hadn’t returned the interest, he’d immediately backed off. Since then, she only saw him in groups. They had mutual friends and business associates, and their shared circles were made up of people just like them—high-energy, high-achieving men and women of approximately the same age.

  She knew he watched her, though she couldn’t understand why. But even stranger, she often found herself watching him. He could actually be quite funny, charming and interesting at times. But most often, he disconcerted or annoyed her. Like now.

  She had no idea how he’d known there was something wrong when even she hadn’t. And she had no idea what to do with him now that he was there. She frowned. No, that was wrong. She did know. She had to get rid of him as soon as possible.

  “Look, Colin, it was very kind of you to return to check on me, but I assure you, it wasn’t necessary. In fact, I was just about to go, uh…” She glanced toward her house, but couldn’t think of the word, so she simply pointed. Oh, no. She silently groaned. Words were deserting her—definitely a bad sign.

  Planting one careful foot in front of the other, she started walking toward the house. He fell into step beside her, and before she knew it, his warm hand slipped beneath her elbow as if to steady her. The last thing she wanted was his help or for him to guess what was wrong.

  Up ahead, the path forked. Left led to the house, which wasn’t that far now. She was convinced she could make it with no problem. Right led around the side of the house to the front, where Colin’s car was no doubt parked. That was the path he needed to take.

  “You’re going inside to do what? Work?”

  She started to tell him it was none of his business what she was about to do. But if she did, he was bound to make one of his barbed remarks that would leave her no choice but to answer, and she really wasn’t up to it. “It’s been a long day. I’ll probably just go to bed.”

  “Pity.”

  Startled, she glanced around. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s a pity that such a beautiful woman as you is about to go to bed alone.”

  She stumbled. His hand on her elbow tightened to s
teady her. Damn the man. He never did or said what she expected. And she wanted his hand off her elbow.

  “Unless, of course, you’ve got Des trapped up there in your bedroom and I don’t know it.”

  There. He’d done it again, gotten to her with one of his barbed remarks. She jerked away from him, freeing herself from his grasp, and glared at him. “You know…you know nothing about Des.”

  “Ah, that’s where you’re wrong. I know a great deal about Des. He’s become a very good friend of mine. I also know he’s dead wrong for you.”

  “You…” She couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Plus, she realized, she could no longer see Colin’s entire face. There was a blank spot covering part of it. Her field of vision was narrowing.

  She couldn’t deny it any longer. She was in trouble. What was more, in only a few minutes, it was going to get worse.

  “Go home, Colin. Now. Good night.” She hurried her pace to try to get away from him, but her legs didn’t seem to work right, and she miscalculated a step. This time she would have fallen if he hadn’t caught her.

  “Something is wrong,” he said grimly, the loud volume of his voice beating against her in a way that was beyond excruciating. “What is it?”

  She gritted her teeth. All she had to do was make it to her bedroom. “Leave me alone. I—”

  He swept her into his arms and headed toward the back terrace. She couldn’t protest anymore. Piercing pain had struck one-half of her head. She closed her eyes and tried to relax against him, but he was walking too fast. The movement felt violent. Nausea threatened. When she felt him step over the threshold into her house, she managed to open her eyes a slit.

  “Just put me down here,” she whispered.

  He didn’t answer. “Is your bedroom up or down?”

  “Please—”

  “Never mind.” Apparently guessing, he took the stairs to the second story two at a time.

  She moaned. “Please…slow down.”