Into the Arms of a Cowboy

by Isabella Ashe

“Will you at least think about it?”

  “Of course.” She knew she wouldn’t do much else for a while. In just that one fleeting instant, she’d imagined a whole life for herself, like a vision of paradise.

  They’d arrived at Ruby Jamison’s shop. Cassie spotted Tanya inside and waved to her. The girl, her hair caught up in a pink scrunchie that matched her T-shirt, gestured enthusiastically for Cassie and Jess to enter the store.

  “You go on in,” Jess said. “I’ve got a quick errand to run.”

  “Where?”

  He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Just to the--Nowhere. I mean, it’ll just take a minute. Wait here.”

  He took off in a hurry, leaving Cassie to stare after him. She could have sworn he was hiding something, just then. He’d had a shifty-eyed look about him, and an air of deception that was most unlike the Jess she thought she knew. She frowned, puzzled, and then dismissed her worries as Tanya bounded out of the dress shop.

  “How are the kits?” the girl demanded. “Can I come by and see them tomorrow? Can I feed them again? Is Rascal still gobbling up Scamp’s milk, too?”

  Cassie laughed and let the girl take her hand and tug her inside. “One question at a time, please.”

  “Is she pestering you?” Ruby Jamison laughed and tugged at her daughter’s pony tail. “She’s got an extra day off school tomorrow--a teacher in-service--and she’s talked my ear off about how she wants to see the raccoons. Do you mind?”

  “Of course not. She can come over anytime.”

  “I’m going to visit my sister in Redding in the morning. How about if I drop her by around ten?”

  “Great,” Cassie said. She glanced around the shop. “Did you just get some of these things? I didn’t see them last time.”

  Ruby’s face brightened. “Sure did. I got a new shipment yesterday. Want to take a look?”

  Cassie was oohing and aahing over a sleek black leather miniskirt--and imagining Jess’s reaction to her wearing it--when a new customer stepped into the store.

  This woman was tall and muscular, with long brown hair in a braid down her back and vivid indigo eyes. “Hi, Tanya,” she said. “Ruby, I stopped by to check on those pants you were hemming for me. How’re they coming along?”

  “All done,” Ruby said. “I’ll just fetch them. Angela, have you met Jess’s friend?”

  “Not yet.” Angela took the hand Cassie offered. “Cassie, right? I saw you at Lorna’s the other night, but we didn’t get a chance to talk.”

  Cassie’s blood turned to ice in her veins. Horror closed her throat as she realized who the woman was. She hadn’t recognized her out of her uniform. “Y-you’re one of Jess’s deputies,” she said, almost choking on the words.

  “Right. Good memory.” Angela was studying Cassie’s face. “You know, you do look familiar. We haven’t met before, have we?”

  Oh, God. This is it. The end of the road.

  Cassie fought to maintain her composure. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “But I could swear I’ve seen you somewhere. Other than the diner, I mean.”

  Cassie swallowed hard. On “American’s Most Wanted,” probably. She forced a smile. “People say that a lot, actually. I think I’ve just got one of those common faces.”

  Angela narrowed her eyes and kept on staring. “No, it’s not that. It’s--”

  To Cassie’s relief, Jess chose that moment to burst into the store. He greeted Angela warmly. “Looks like you finally got to meet Cassie. You’ll have to get aquatinted later, though.” He grabbed Cassie’s hand. “Sorry, folks, but I’m going to steal her away now.”

  Tanya and her mother said goodbye. “Nice to meet you,” Angela added, a puzzled frown still creasing her forehead.

  Cassie was glad to escape. Then, just as she slipped out the door, Jess turned back and called out something that made her heart stand still in her chest: “Oh, Angela, by the way--I’ll be back in the office tomorrow, bright and early.”

  “You’re awful quiet all of a sudden,” Jess said, turning to glance at Cassie as she sat stiffly across from him in the cab of his Chevy. He’d just pulled off the main road and parked in the gravel between two tall Douglas firs.

  “Just thinking,” Cassie said softly. She stared out at the lake. Moonlight kissed the dark water and Cassie’s still, pale profile. With her upswept hair and proud, uplifted chin, she looked years older tonight, almost as if she’d said goodbye to the zest and enthusiasm Jess usually found so alluring.

  A breeze rippled the water and bent the silvery alders along the shore. Jess had picked the north side of the lake, a quiet, deserted place far from the beer-bottle strewn southern edge.

  “I’ve always liked this spot,” he said. He waited for Cassie to tease him about bringing other women here, so he could tell her she was the first--he’d never shared his private thinking place with anyone else. But she didn’t say a word.

  “What’s on your mind, Cassie?” he asked, half dreading the answer. The ring he’d bought in the antique store burned a hole in his pocket, but the time wasn’t right. Neither was the mood. Besides, he still had to put together the perfect combination of words. All the fancy romantic phrases bouncing around in his head came from movies, not from his heart.

  “Jess, do you absolutely have to go back to work tomorrow?” Cassie burst out, her eyes bright with worry. “I mean, your ankle--”

  Relief brought a smile to his face. Was that all? He reached for her hand. “Now, Cassie, honey, it’s sweet of you to worry, but the ankle’s fine. You saw how I’ve walked on it all day long without a problem. Besides, I’ll just be sitting at my desk tomorrow, catching up on paperwork.”

  If anything, her expression grew more frightened. Her lips pressed together into a tight line to match the one between her brows. “Darlin’,” Jess asked, “what’s really bothering you? Is it that you don’t want to stay alone in the cabin? You can always come to town with me.”

  Slowly, she shook her head. “No, forget it. It doesn’t matter. Besides, someone has to stay to feed the kits.” She smiled, an expression that didn’t quite reach her eyes. He ached to take her into his arms to comfort her. Instead, he leaned forward and switched on the radio. A Shania Twain song filled the cab:

  From this moment, life has begun

  From this moment, you are the one

  Right beside you is where I belong

  From this moment on. . . .

  Jess opened the driver’s side door, slid out, and rounded the pickup. He opened Cassie’s door, too. “You know what? We’ve never danced together, not once,” he said.

  She laughed, a genuine sound of pleasure that lifted a weight from Jess’s shoulders. “Maybe that’s because you’ve been on crutches almost as long as I’ve known you.”

  “Not anymore.” He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her from the truck. She slid into his arms like she belonged there.

  Pressed close together, they swayed to the music. Cassie’s eyes were closed tight, her soft cheek against his. Her hair smelled like his shampoo now, not the jungle flowers of the first night they’d met. Somehow, his own no-nonsense supermarket brand was even sexier than orchids and tropical rains. It marked her as his. But she wasn’t his yet. Not until she said yes.

  He reached into his pocket and fingered the ring. Would she like it? It wasn’t the traditional diamond solitaire. In fact, it boasted no gemstones at all. Two intertwined bands, one platinum, one yellow gold, symbolizing two lives woven together. It was simple, like Jess, and beautiful, like the woman he wanted as his wife.

  All of a sudden, the words were there. No flowery phrases. No long speeches. Just the truth from a man who’d never learned to embroider his feelings.

  “Cassie,” he whispered into her ear. “Darlin’, I love you with all my heart.” He caught her left hand and slid the ring into her palm, then squeezed her fingers tight around it. “Say you’ll marry me. Please.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Slowly, Cassie opened
her hand. She drew in a quick, surprised breath. The moon’s pale light glinted off the ring lying cool against her palm. Joy and pain tangled together in her chest like the twin bands of the ring itself.

  Jess loved her.

  He wanted to marry her.

  What a precious gift he meant to give her--everything she’d ever hoped for, and more--and yet it was a gift she couldn’t accept.

  “Say yes, Cassie. Say yes, and then everything will be all right.”

  If only it were that simple. She stared down at the ring, unable to speak. His hard, lean body pressed against hers made her dizzy. His lips grazed her cheek, and she grabbed onto him with her free hand, her burning face buried against his shoulder.

  Jess braced two fingers under her chin and lifted it up. She had no choice but to look him in the eye. “You do understand what this means, don’t you?” he asked. “I want us to share everything. Everything. Not just our future together, but the past, too. Whatever’s haunting you, whatever it is you’ve done or had done to you--none of that matters.”

  The depth of sincerity in his voice pushed her to believe him. But she couldn’t make up her mind to do it. She opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, then plunged ahead. “Jess, I--I need some time.”

  “I see.” Crushing pain shadowed his eyes and pulled down the corners of his mouth, but he nodded. “I’d hoped--never mind. There’s no rush, I guess. Take all the time you need.”

  “Tomorrow. I’ll tell you tomorrow.” By then, she would know what she planned to do.

  “While you’re thinking about it, will you wear the ring?”

  “Yes. All right.” She smiled weakly as Jess slipped the double-stranded band onto the fourth finger of her left hand. It fit as if it were made for her.

  They drove home in near-silence. Cassie sat in the passenger seat, absentmindedly twisting her ring on her finger. What she really needed was a magic ring, one that granted wishes. She didn’t need three. One would do just fine.

  I wish I’d never met Andrew J. Chabot III.

  Of course, if she hadn’t, she also would have never crawled into the back of Jess’s pickup truck. Oh, why did it all have to be so confusing?

  She needed to figure out her next step. Time to make a list. Cassie pictured a ruled pad, and the No. 2 pencil poised above it. No, make that heavy, gilt-edged stationary and a Mont Blanc pen. Okay, better.

  Option number one: agree to marry Jess, say nothing, and pray her past wouldn’t catch up with her.

  Bad idea. Sooner or later, it would. Sooner, probably, with Jess on his way into work the next morning. His deputy would remember where she’d seen Cassie’s photo, or one of the faxes on his desk would betray her secret. Heck, all he really had to do was turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper. She was too chicken to buy a paper and look for herself, but it was probably still a major story.

  Option number two: agree to marry Jess, tell him everything, and ask him to stand by her after she turned herself in.

  Much more appealing, but it wouldn’t work. First of all, Jess might run afoul of the law himself for sheltering a fugitive. Would the San Francisco DA really believe he hadn’t known his fiancee’s identity?

  Second, this wasn’t Jess’s fight. Cassie had gotten herself into trouble. Now she had to get herself out--or deal with the consequences. Did she really want to drag Jess into this whole sordid mess? If worst came to worst, would he wait for her while she served a prison term?

  Third. . .third, what if she told him the truth about that terrible night--and he didn’t believe her?

  Cassie slumped in her seat. She leaned her forehead against the cold window glass and fought back scalding tears. She might as well admit it. That’s what really scared her--the possibility of Jess’s rejection.

  She wanted to believe in unconditional love. With all her heart, she wanted that. But she’d spent too many years guarding her emotions, holding herself back from her alcoholic mother and temporary guardians. If she let herself love Jess with her whole body and soul, if she trusted him with the truth, she would give him the power to wound her beyond bearing. She couldn’t risk it.

  That left option number three: leave him.

  She would go home to San Francisco and turn herself in to the police. Get the best lawyer she could afford, and hope for an acquittal. Then, if she was very, very fortunate, she could come back with her name clear, her future open. And maybe, just maybe--if she was the luckiest woman on earth--Jess would still want her back.

  “Cassie? You sleeping?”

  “Hmm? Oh, we’re home.” She opened the door and slid to the ground. Home. What a beautiful word. A sharp pulse of sadness swept through her, leaving her unsteady on her feet.

  Jess took her arm, chuckling low in his throat. The sound vibrated through her body. “Need some help there?” he asked.

  “Thanks.” She leaned against him, glad to have his strong shoulder for support, and let him lead her inside. He had closed the door behind them before she spoke again, tentatively. “Jess?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you--” She hesitated. “Are you mad at me? For needing some time, I mean?”

  He dropped a chaste kiss onto her forehead. “No, Cassie. A touch disappointed, maybe, but not mad.”

  “Good.” She slid her arms around his neck and tipped her face up. “So you don’t mind if I do--this?” She brushed her lips against his, a feather-light touch.

  “Hell, no. Or this, either.” He caught her face in his hands and kissed her with more determination, parting her lips with his tongue. The fierce embrace ignited a fire in Cassie’s blood.

  Tomorrow, she would leave. Tonight she would give Jess every ounce of pleasure she could manage. And take her own pleasure, too, for what could be the very last time.

  “Darlin’? What is it?”

  “Kiss me again, Jess.”

  He complied, then pulled away and stared down at her. “You okay? For a minute there, you looked mighty serious.”

  She pursed her lips into a mischievous little smile, and gazed up at him through her lashes. “I was just thinking about all the things I plan to do to you tonight.”

  “The things you plan to do to me?”

  “Mm-hmm. Think you can handle it?” She took him by the hand and led him to the bed they now shared. Cassie adopted a mock Texas drawl. “Peel off them jeans, cowboy, and I’ll show you, if you’re good and ready.”

  Jess raised his brows, but amusement and anticipation made his eyes snap dark fire. He unbuckled the jeans and slid them down, slowly, making it into a show. He was ready, more than ready, and Cassie sucked in her breath as he shed his boxers, too.

  He heard her gasp and grinned. “You want me to take charge from here on out?”

  Cassie shook her head, shy but determined. She knelt before him, then ran her hands up under Jess’s collared shirt, caressing his chest, then unbuttoned the shirt and pushed it out of her way. Slowly, tantalizingly, she began to kiss his shoulders, his torso, his diamond-hard nipples.

  He closed his eyes, his face a mask of near-pain as she continued to tease and torture him. His breaths came in ragged gasps. She loved the way he smelled, the texture of his skin, even the way he tasted, clean and fresh but ever so slightly salty. “Jess, I--” she began.

  He opened his eyes and caught her hands in his own rough grasp. “What is it?”

  “I want--”

  “What?”

  She wanted to make him wild with need, as he’d made her the night before. She wanted to make him cry out, even beg. But there was so much she didn’t know. So much that was new to her. “I want to kiss you--” she began, before her voice cracked and broke.

  “Where?”

  “Everywhere.”

  His eyes slid closed again. His face twisted with exquisite agony. “What are you waiting for?”

  “I’m not sure. . .how.”

  He bent his head and kissed her, his tongue delving deep into the hot recesses of her mouth. “You didn’t
know how to weed a garden, and that didn’t stop you,” he teased, when he pulled away again.

  “This is--um, this is sort of different.”

  “Tell that to the tomatoes.” His hands found the buttons on her lacy shirt and undid them one by one. “You’re wearing too many clothes, Cassie.”

  She reached around and unzipped her skirt, stepped out of it, and knelt before him in nothing but her bra and panties. “Still too many,” Jess growled.

  “Wait,” she whispered. She felt an urge to please him, to get closer to him, and the need drove her to pull the bobby pins from her chignon, shake her head, and then pull her cascade of hair across Jess’s stomach and lower belly. “You first. Show me. . . .”

  She’d never seen him so aroused. He seemed to struggle for control. His abdominal muscles grew rigid, and his eyes burned like two dark flames in his tanned face. She gulped for air, her body heated by her own desire. She wanted to prove that she trusted him, that--just for tonight--there was no gift she would not give him.

  “Show me,” she repeated.

  He nodded and cradled her head into his hands, guiding her gently until she took him into his mouth. The softness of his skin surprised her, but beneath she felt a throbbing rigidity. She braced her palms against his thighs. The muscles there felt as taut as steel bands. She wasn’t nervous anymore. This was Jess, the man she loved. She tasted him again and again, until he groaned and said her name.

  She glanced up at him. “Is--did I do something wrong?”

  “Lord, no,” he said, through gritted teeth. “But I can’t take much more.” He pulled her up and skimmed off her panties, then took off her bra. “I need to be inside you.”

  Cassie had no objections. She was wet and ready, even anxious. But as he began to pull her down onto the bed, she stopped him. “Wait, Jess.”

  “Darlin’, I can’t wait.”

  “Just a second more. You lie down.” She set her hand against his chest and gave a determined push.

  “Good God, Cassie, you’re going to kill me.” But his tone was one of admiration rather than annoyance. He fumbled under the mattress, eased back onto the bed, and took care of the protection.