She actually grinned at that. “I don’t think yelling would accomplish anything, but thanks for offering.”
“What will help?”
“A good dinner, pleasant conversation, some dancing,” she said. “That and the company, of course.”
“I’ll do my best to cheer you up,” he promised, though for some reason he couldn’t fathom, she didn’t seem all that upset to begin with.
“Don’t worry, I won’t put all the burden on your shoulders.”
He regarded her curiously. The comment suggested she had plans for tonight that he knew nothing about. If she intended to torment him by dancing with every man willing to give her a spin around the floor, then she was in for a big surprise. Jake never shared. With his background, it hadn’t been a trait he’d learned. He saw nothing particularly admirable about starting now with Sara.
He was still mulling over her comment, when they walked into the already smokey, crowded interior of the Old West. He was about to suggest that Sara wait while he circled the room in search of a table, when she latched on to his hand and pointed across the dance floor.
“Over there.”
“You see an empty table?”
“No, Zeke and Mary Lou. They’re saving one for us.”
A tingle of dread slithered down Jake’s spine. That old familiar crowded feeling crept over him. “You knew they were going to be here?”
“Sure. I thought it would be fun to get together with them. You’re old friends, right?”
“Right,” Jake agreed tersely. At the moment, however, he was viewing Zeke as being a whole lot closer to a traitor, than a pal. The fact that Sara was still so chummy with him suggested that the lessons were on again. No wonder she was in such a terrific mood. She’d won another battle of wills. The victory must be tasting sweet about now.
Zeke stood up as they reached the booth. Jake shot him a sour look, then smiled at Mary Lou and leaned down to kiss her. It wasn’t her fault she’d hooked up with a dirty, rotten scoundrel.
“You’re looking more beautiful than ever, darlin’.”
“And you’re every bit as handsome as ever,” Mary Lou replied. “It must be a trial being so good-looking. Do women ever want you for your brains?”
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t waste time asking,” he countered just as he always did.
Mary Lou shot a look toward Sara, then said pointedly, “Maybe it’s time you did.”
“Okay, you two, enough,” Zeke grumbled. “Sit down. I’m starved. I’ve ordered ribs and beer. Hope that’s okay.”
Since there was very little else on the grill’s menu that was worth discussing, Jake nodded. People didn’t come here for the food. They came for the music and the noise and the camaraderie.
Jake let Sara precede him into the booth, then slid in next to her, close enough to be sure she wouldn’t be able to ignore his presence.
After one quick, amused glance, she countered his move, by making sure they were hip to hip and thigh to thigh.
Check and checkmate.
Jake leaned back and surveyed his three companions thoughtfully. “Okay, what’s up?”
Three innocent gazes met his. Mary Lou’s were the first lips to twitch with amusement. He leaned across the table and tucked a finger under her chin.
“Okay, you. What’s up?”
“Who says anything is up?” she replied, smiling sweetly.
“I didn’t just fall off a turnip truck, darlin’. You all look like a trio of cats that’ve been feasting on plump old canaries.”
They didn’t even have the decency to look guilty. Jake waited, but when not a one of them opened up, he tried again. “Should I assume from the way you’re acting that the riding lessons are on again?”
“Oh, definitely,” Sara said as if there’d never been any doubt about it at all.
Jake shot a look at Zeke. “No willpower, huh?”
“Well, she was mighty persuasive,” he agreed, “but I’m not the one who’s going to be teaching her.” He nodded toward his wife. “Mary Lou is.”
If Jake hadn’t spent a lifetime learning to disguise his feelings, his mouth would have dropped wide open. Mary Lou hadn’t been near a rodeo ring since she’d retired. He’d only seen her ride once, but the experience had been memorable. He’d always regretted that their paths hadn’t crossed sooner, so he could have watched her in her prime. She had epitomized all of the flowery descriptions of those riders who were at one with their horses, a single unit of grace and passion and power.
“Well, well, well,” he murmured. “Sara must have made quite a case for herself to drag you out of retirement.”
“Let’s just say I’m sympathetic with her desire to hold on to what’s hers,” Mary Lou responded tartly. “And I do look forward to someone bringing you down a peg or two.”
“And you think Sara can do that?” Jake asked.
“I’d stake one of Zeke’s prize horses on it.”
“Oh, no, you won’t,” Zeke replied heatedly. “I don’t want my horses mixed up in this foolishness.”
Jake slanted a look at Sara to see just how much she was enjoying all of this. Her smile suggested she was very pleased with herself. That smile was pure challenge as far as Jake was concerned, as much of a dare as if she’d spoken aloud.
After listening to be sure the music was slow and provocative, he leaned over and whispered, “Care to take a whirl around the dance floor, sweetheart? You did say you wanted to kick up your heels this evening.”
The dare in his invitation was unmistakable and they both knew it. Her startled gaze met his. The smile trembled on her lips before fading. As the sensual beat of the music registered, she swallowed hard, then shrugged.
“Sure, why not?” she said, her voice satisfyingly breathless.
Grasping her hand in his, he helped her from the booth, then promptly spun her into his embrace. Her body fit perfectly against his own, too perfectly for comfort.
Jake recognized his mistake instantly. Even the slightest contact with Sara had the power to arouse him. With her breasts snug against his chest, her hips molded to his and her thighs brushing his each time they swayed to the soft music, his entire body was on fire.
And so, he realized, was hers.
He might have taken some satisfaction in knowing that she was as hot and needy as he was, but it was difficult to get past his own aching yearning to strip away clothes and pretense.
Never in his entire life had a woman gotten under his skin so immediately and so effectively. Given his determination to avoid emotional entanglements, it terrified him.
But he was willing to overlook the fear. The feelings were too fascinating to ignore. Some perverse, daring, analytical part of his brain wanted to figure out why the chemistry between them was so explosive.
“Jake?”
“Hmm?”
“The music’s stopped.”
He gazed down and discovered amusement mixed with awareness in her eyes. He grinned impudently and tightened his embrace ever so slightly. He swayed with her to an unheard beat.
“Is that a problem?” he asked, his eyes locked with hers.
“It’s not a problem for me, if it’s not for you,” she said bravely. “We are attracting just the tiniest bit of attention, though.”
“Darlin’, I’ve been a sucker for attention ever since I rode my first bull into the ring and heard the applause.”
Defiance flared in her eyes. “Then by all means, let’s give them something to look at,” she said and twined her arms around his neck.
Lifting herself on tiptoe, she slanted her mouth across his in a no-holds-barred kiss that flat out left Jake weak-kneed. No woman ever had had that kind of power over him, not even that heartbreaking Sue Ann.
When Sara finally pulled away, he stared at her, dazed. “You are a very dangerous woman, Sara Wilde.”
A grin of absolute delight spread across her face, as if he’d just confirmed her own discovery.
“And
I’d advise you not to forget it,” she said, slipping from his embrace and sashaying back to the table in a way that had Jake’s blood pumping harder than a Texas oil rig.
Up until now, Jake had thought he was in control of whatever was happening between him and Sara Wilde. The last few minutes had proved otherwise. For a man who never, ever, let his control of a situation slip, the realization was damned disconcerting.
* * *
All of her life Sara had run to Dani with her problems. Something told her, though, that her big sister wouldn’t have the answers she needed to deal with Jake. For this, she needed the advice of an expert in the battle of the sexes. That meant Ashley.
Ashley had dated more boys in Riverton than all of the other girls in her class combined. Sara had no reason to think she wasn’t cutting an equally wide swath through the bachelors in New York. She was pictured in the tabloids with a different man on her arm practically every week, though none got more than a casual mention in her letters or calls home.
Ashley adored men. She reveled in their attention, but she would never let a man interfere with achieving her goals. Sara prayed her sister could give her some tips for maintaining that same focus when she was in Jake’s powerful presence.
It was after midnight in Wyoming when Sara dialed her sister’s number. Except when she had a crack-of-dawn photo shoot, Ashley was a night owl. Even with the time difference, it was unlikely she was asleep, and if she was, she never minded being awakened for some girl talk.
Sure enough, she answered on the second ring, sounding as alert as if it were two in the afternoon, rather than two in the morning.
“Is this the world famous cover model?” Sara asked.
“Depends on who you ask,” Ashley retorted. “What on earth are you doing up at this hour? I thought you got up with the chickens.”
“We don’t have chickens,” Sara reminded her tartly. “You should come home more often. You’d know that.”
“Okay, who’s the man?” Ashley asked, ignoring the pointed jibe about her unfamiliarity with the operation of Three-Stars.
The accuracy of Ashley’s guess was irritating. “Man? Who said anything about a man?” Sara demanded.
“That’s the only thing I can think of that would keep you up this late and cause you to call your baby sister at this hour.”
“Maybe I just wanted to hear the sound of your voice.”
“It’s Jake, isn’t it?”
The direct hit left Sara speechless. Ashley hadn’t even seen her for months now. Had she always been that obvious about her feelings for the ranch foreman?
“What’s he done to you now?” Ashley persisted.
“Why would you think this has anything to do with Jake?” Sara asked.
“Because not one single man other than Jake Dawson has caught your eye since the day he showed up at Three-Stars. Sooner or later, all that longing was bound to erupt. What happened? Did you finally lose control and make a pass at him?”
Trust Ashley to cut to the chase. “You could say that.”
“Well, hallelujah!” When Sara remained silent, Ashley quickly took the hint. “Uh-oh, did he reject you?”
“Not exactly.”
“Oh, my.”
“Oh, my, indeed,” Sara said fervently.
“How far has it gone?”
“That’s personal.”
Ashley chuckled. “That far, huh? So, what’s the problem? You should be in heaven. Or wasn’t he all you’d anticipated?”
“Oh, no, he was exactly the way I’d imagined he would be.”
“So?”
“I’m playing in the big leagues and I’m afraid I only have minor league skills,” Sara blurted.
“Which naturally made you think of me,” her sister said dryly. “Thanks a bunch.”
“Come on, Ash, you’ve never let a man tie you up in knots. You stay cool and calm and collected no matter what.”
“Is that supposed to flatter me? Maybe that’s because no one like Jake has come along for me.”
To Sara’s surprise, Ashley sounded wistful. “What about that guy, the one back in high school that no one knew you had a thing for?” she asked.
“I can’t imagine who you mean,” Ashley said in a defensive way that suggested she remembered every detail.
An almost forgotten image promptly came to mind. Sara described what she recalled. “Dangerous. Rebel. Sexy. I believe those were just a few of the words associated with him. Miss Perfect and the bad, bad boy. It always had a nice ring to it, if you ask me.”
The laughter that greeted her comment sounded a little forced. “You have a wild imagination, big sister,” Ashley protested.
“No, I have a long memory. Tell the truth. Are you regretting the choices you’ve made?”
Her sister sighed. “No, modeling was my ticket out of Wyoming. It’s been very good to me.” She hesitated, then added, “At least up until now.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning nothing,” Ashley said, suddenly brisk and businesslike. “You didn’t call to talk about me. Let’s figure out what to do about Jake.”
Sara wasn’t about to be put off so easily. “You know this giving advice stuff cuts both ways. I may not know much about the modeling business, but if you need to talk, I can certainly listen.”
“Thanks, but this is one problem I have to resolve on my own.”
Sara seized on the slip. “Then there is a problem.”
“Drop it, Sara,” Ashley ordered impatiently. “Now tell me exactly what you’re worried about with Jake.”
Pestering Ashley with more questions was obviously going to be a waste of time. Sara forced herself back to the reason for the call. “I’m worried that I’ve gone and fallen in love with him,” she said.
“And that’s bad?” Ashley asked, not sounding the least bit surprised by the admission.
“It is, when Jake has done everything but spell it out in skywriting that he positively hates the idea of marriage.”
“It’s men like that who end up falling the hardest,” Ashley said. “Give him time.”
Of course, in time, it was true that they could wind up walking down the aisle, Sara conceded to herself. Their bet might assure that, but Sara knew with every fiber of her being that Jake had never meant his impulsive proposal to be taken seriously. Now it hovered over them like some sort of dark and threatening cloud.
She sighed. She couldn’t tell Ashley any of that. It would mean getting into all of the hurt and betrayal she’d felt when she discovered their father’s plans for Three-Stars.
“Can you make a man fall in love with you?” Sara inquired wistfully.
“You can’t make a man do anything he’s set against,” Ashley said. “But you can be patient and loving and understanding, so you’re the one who’s there the day he wakes up and decides it’s time to get married. If the chemistry’s there, you’ve definitely got a jump start on the process.”
“Patient, loving and understanding?” Sara echoed. “What about just plain driving him to distraction?”
Ashley laughed at that. “Better yet. You don’t need advice from me, sweet pea. If you’re driving Jake to distraction, it sounds like you’re doing just fine on your own.”
“Don’t say anything about this to Daddy or Dani, okay?”
“We made a pact years ago to protect our secrets from Daddy’s meddling. As for Dani, I haven’t spoken to her in weeks now.”
“How come?” Sara asked, then guessed the answer before Ashley could reply. “She’s too good at seeing through you, isn’t she? She’d know right off that you’re worrying about something and you don’t want to get into it, right?”
“Goodbye, Sara. Good luck with Jake. He’s a lucky man.”
“Ashley Wilde, don’t you dare hang up on me.”
The edict came too late. Sara heard the phone click before she could complete the sentence. She could call back, but she knew that Ashley would only let the phone ring unanswered.
Of the three sisters, Ashley appeared to be the most open, the most outrageous, the most unflappable. But Sara knew better. Her younger sister was the most private, the most mysterious and the most vulnerable of all of them.
That night the memory of Ashley’s unspoken pain vied with Jake for Sara’s thoughts as she drifted off to sleep. But once her dreams began, it was no contest. Jake was at the center of every one.
Chapter Nine
For the next week Jake drove himself until exhaustion took over and numbed his mind. It was the most effective way he could think of to keep his growing feelings for Sara from luring him into doing something he’d regret.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t come up with any way at all to keep her out of his dreams. She plagued him like the very dickens from the minute his head hit the pillow and his eyes closed. She didn’t let up until he dragged himself awake in the morning, exhausted and disgruntled.
Why Sara? He asked himself that over and over again. Of all the women he’d ever known, why had she been the one to nag at him like a tantalizing, once-familiar scent?
She was lovely, but so were dozens of others.
She was sexy, but he’d never been drawn to the demure type. His relationships—if they could be called that—had all been blatantly sexual.
Was it as perverse as the fact that she’d always been so far out of his reach? Surely he was too old to be wanting a woman just because he couldn’t have her. Besides, Sara was hardly unattainable. She’d made her availability abundantly clear and he’d happily taken advantage of it.
For some reason he couldn’t fathom, it wasn’t enough. He wanted more, but he couldn’t put a name to the unfamiliar yearning.
After a week of denying himself the pleasure of seeing her, of touching her, he realized that abstinence wasn’t doing a darn thing except to put a more demanding edge on his need.
He told himself it was only curiosity that drew him to Zeke’s place late one afternoon when he knew Sara would be there for her riding lesson. But the truth was, the minute he laid eyes on her straddling a very restless bronco in the chute, his heart slammed against his ribs and then wound up in his throat.
The Bridal Path: Sara Page 10
