She’d said absolutely nothing about the broken relationship and shattered dreams when she’d come home to Los Pinos, after leaving Rob. Her family had seen her with him and the girls often enough to know exactly how much she had loved them all. They had come to adore Robin and Amy as well, though her father especially had always seemed to have reservations about Rob. At any rate, they had been able to guess the depth of her anguish and had left her alone to deal with it in her own way.
She glanced at Angela, saw the sympathy and concern in her cousin’s expression and decided it wouldn’t hurt to just tell her what had happened. Maybe it would put an end to these awkward moments that kept cropping up between them after so many years of being as close as sisters. She would keep the telling simple and dispassionate.
Once she began, though, the words began to pour out, words filled with far more rage than she imagined she had ever held inside.
“That beast, that terrible, awful beast,” Angela said fiercely when Dani was done. “How could he do that to you, to them?”
“Relationships don’t always work out,” Dani said objectively. “I mean now that I think about it, I can see how wrong we were for each other. Marriage would have been a disaster.”
“But what about those girls of his? Didn’t he take their feelings into account at all?”
Dani found herself trying to defend Rob’s decision to go along with Tiffany’s demand for a clean break, but she simply couldn’t muster any conviction.
“The man was a bastard,” Angela said. “Admit it.”
“Yes,” Dani said softly. “Yes, he was.”
“A little louder. I didn’t quite hear that.”
“He was a lousy, good-for-nothing, son of a bitch.”
Angela grinned. “Better. Want to try one more time?”
Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she shouted the words at full volume, adding a few more derogatory remarks for good measure. It was surprisingly cathartic, she concluded, laughing.
“I hope you weren’t talking about me,” Duke said, appearing out of nowhere at the end of the porch.
Dani couldn’t seem to find her tongue, but Angela grinned at him.
“Is that how people usually refer to you, Duke?”
“Some do,” he admitted.
“Well, you can rest easy. In this case, we were talking about someone else.”
His gaze settled on Dani, his expression thoughtful. “I see.”
Angela looked from Dani to Duke and back again. “I think I’ll run along now. Clint’s probably wondering where I disappeared to. He gets panicky when he thinks he’s going to have to change a diaper.”
Something that felt a whole lot like panic settled in the pit of Dani’s stomach as well as she watched her cousin disappear and saw Duke striding up onto the porch. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until she felt it slowly expel when he settled against the railing opposite her, rather than in the swing beside her.
“I’ve been looking for you,” he said.
“Why?”
“Just looking for a friendly face.”
“And you came looking for me?” she asked skeptically.
“Darlin’, you’re too polite not to manage a friendly face for a business associate of your father’s. Besides, you want me to keep those kittens, don’t you? You’re not going to risk offending me.”
“I’m sure Jenny—”
“I’ve talked to Jenny. I’ve talked to everyone here. I’d rather just hang out here with you for a while, if you don’t mind.”
“And if I do?”
“Then I’ll leave.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Would you really?”
“Absolutely.” He grinned. “But I’d be back.”
Dani sighed wearily. “Don’t tell me you’re the kind of man who only wants what he can’t have.”
“Are you saying you’re not interested?”
“I believe I told you once today that I’m not available.”
“Because of that jerk you were cussing out when I turned up?”
Oh, God, he had heard. “How much did you hear?” she asked, flushed with embarrassment.
“Enough to know you’ve been badly burned, that you’re gun-shy.”
She forced herself to meet his gaze evenly. “I’ve been around guns all my life. They don’t scare me.”
“Was that meant to be a warning?”
“Just stating a fact.”
“Duly noted, then. Which brings us back to you and me.”
“There is no you and me,” she said impatiently. “Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
He didn’t seem impressed by her declaration. “Bet I could change your mind,” he said.
“You’d lose.”
His gaze locked with hers and made her tremble, proving his point. Hopefully, though, he hadn’t noticed.
“Wanna bet?” he said softly.
Before she could guess what he intended, he’d clasped her hands and pulled her to her feet. In less time than it took to blink, she was in his arms and his lips were seeking hers.
When his mouth settled gently over hers, she thought briefly about struggling, about directing a well-aimed blow into someplace that would prove just how serious she was about being left alone. The thought vanished before she could act on it, lost to a sea of sensations so sweet, so wildly erotic that her knees went weak and all she could do was cling.
An aching need began to build inside her. Slowly she slid her hands into his thick, silky hair and opened her mouth to the endless, provocative kiss.
It might have gone on forever. She certainly wanted it to and Duke showed no signs of relaxing his embrace. It was the sound of voices nearby that forced them apart, both of them breathing hard and looking dazed. She was pleased to see that he looked at least as shell-shocked as she felt.
That was her ego talking, of course. When she managed to get her brain functioning again, she realized that she didn’t want him getting any crazy ideas from that kiss. One kiss, well, that was just a kiss. It didn’t have to lead to anything more. It couldn’t lead to anything more.
If she’d doubted that for an instant, the sight of his sons barreling around the corner of the house at full throttle, shouting for him at the top of their lungs would have convinced her. They were cute kids, wonderful, exuberant kids. Duke was quite obviously a great father. There was no room for her in that mix. She wouldn’t risk it for the boys. She didn’t dare risk it for her own peace of mind, either.
“Dad, we’ve been looking everywhere for you,” Zack shouted.
“And why is that?” Duke asked, his hand discreetly but possessively resting on her waist.
“It’s time for the fireworks,” Joshua explained, excitement sparkling in his eyes. “Can you believe it? They’re going to have their own show right here. Grandpa Harlan—he said we could call him that—he said we could sit with him and the guy who sets them off and see how they work. Come with us, okay?”
“You run along,” Duke said. “I’ll be there in a minute. If they start before I get there, do not touch anything. Understood?”
“Okay,” they chorused. The two boys regarded him worriedly. “You will be there in just a minute, right? Promise? I don’t think they’ll wait forever. It’s almost dark now.”
“I promise.”
When they’d gone, Duke drew Dani back around to face him. “Come with me.”
She shook her head. “No, you go. Share this with your boys. Obviously, they can’t wait to see the fireworks with you.”
“I don’t think they’d mind sharing them with you, too. In fact, once the show begins, I doubt they’ll even know I’m around.”
“Please,” she said. “Just go.”
He regarded her with concern. “Dani, do we need to talk about what just happened here?”
“Nothing happened,” she insisted.
“If you believe that, we don’t need to talk, we need another demonstration.”
She held him off this time, just as she should have done the first time he bent toward her. To her relief, he didn’t argue. He released her slowly, then trailed his knuckles gently down her cheek.
“Later, then,” he said, proving that it was only a temporary reprieve from the storm of emotions he’d set off inside her. He tucked a finger under her chin and lifted it until their gazes were even. “No fireworks could possibly match the sparkle in your eyes, darlin’. Remember that, okay? Remember, too, that I’m the one who put it there.”
Remember it? Dani thought it was quite possibly the most romantic, most dangerously seductive thing any man had ever said to her.
Her sigh was heavy and filled with regret. She was going to have to work very, very hard to pretend she’d never heard him.
4
Duke could still feel the tentative movement of Dani’s mouth under his, could still feel the shudder washing through her body and the sweep of her fingers through his hair when she finally surrendered to that Fourth of July kiss. The memories alone were enough to leave him hot and cranky with frustrated longing.
He’d never experienced such an instantaneous response to a woman before, at least not one that posed so many complicated risks. Attraction was one thing. He appreciated a beautiful woman as well as the next man. But what he’d felt during that impulsive kiss had unexpectedly rocked him, touched him on another level.
The kiss had been a mistake, a terrible, dangerous mistake, he concluded. She was clearly vulnerable. She was his boss’s daughter. He was in no position to, had no desire to, get serious with any woman. He was barely coping with a new job and being a full-time father. Adding a woman to that would just beg for disaster. The list of sensible reasons to stay the hell away from her went on and on.
Yet he knew himself well enough to realize that if the chance came, danger or no danger, he would take it again. She was as intriguing to him as a hint of oil beneath the earth, as alluring as the elusive scent of crude just out of reach.
He smiled at the thought. Dani might be a practical, no-nonsense kind of woman, but he doubted she would appreciate being compared to the search for an oil well. Yet for him nothing was more magnificent, more compelling than that particular hunt. Nothing got his juices flowing quicker than an oil strike.
Nothing except sex, of course. The thought of heated bodies and pleasurable sex brought him full circle, straight back to Dani. That totally uninhibited kiss had told him that Dani’s prim facade would disappear in bed. He wanted to make that happen. He wanted to watch the transformation, the flaring of passion in her eyes, the hardening of her nipples, the restless writhing of her slender, normally controlled body.
“Duke?” Lizzy Adams peeked around the edge of his door. “Jordan’s looking for you.”
He shook off his daze and stared. He could feel a sheen of perspiration forming on his brow, but resisted the urge to mop it off.
“Why didn’t you buzz me?” he inquired testily.
Rather than taking offense at his tone, she grinned. “I have been,” she said. “For the past five minutes.” She regarded him speculatively. “I guess you were lost in thought. Thinking about Dani, I’ll bet.”
Apparently, all of the Adams women were mind readers, he concluded, scowling at Harlan’s precious daughter, who was also Jordan’s baby sister. She was still in school and already so sexually precocious it was scary. She flirted with him outrageously or at least she had until she’d seen him with Dani at the family’s Fourth of July gathering. All day today she had merely regarded him with very grown-up amusement.
As he tried to gather his composure, he told himself he would be very glad when Lizzy went back to school in the fall and he got himself a real secretary. An old secretary, he amended. He wasn’t worried that the replacement would have as sassy a tongue. No one who wasn’t an Adams would dare to take the liberties Lizzy did when it came to bullying her boss and meddling in his affairs. That particular trait seemed to come with the Adams genes.
“Tell Jordan I’ll be right there.”
“Already told him. That was five minutes ago, though. You’re already late.”
“Any idea what’s on his mind?”
“Sure. He wants to know if you’re interested in Dani.” She shot him another unrepentant grin. “We all do.”
“It’s none of your business,” he grumbled as he passed her. “Remember that.”
She regarded him worriedly. “Can I give you just the teensiest piece of advice?”
“Can I stop you?”
“Don’t try telling that to Jordan. He’s just like our dad. They both figure it’s their God-given right to meddle in everyone’s life.”
“Not mine,” Duke said succinctly.
“Unless it happens to cross paths with Dani’s,” Lizzy pointed out, then shrugged. “I say go for it, though. She’s been sad for way too long. She needs somebody to shake her up, make her forget about that creep who dumped on her. Something tells me nobody could do that better than you. There’s not a woman on the premises who doesn’t swoon when you pass by.”
“I’m delighted to have your blessing,” he said dryly. “Unfortunately, it appears that’s not the one I need.”
“It’s a start,” she retorted cheerfully. “Good luck.”
Duke took his time walking down the short executive suite corridor to Jordan’s office. If he had his way, they wouldn’t have this conversation. Unfortunately, it appeared unlikely that he was going to get his way, which meant he’d better come up with some satisfactory answers for the questions Jordan was likely to ask.
In typical fashion, his boss didn’t waste time on small talk. Duke was barely across the threshold when Jordan scowled at him and asked, “What’s going on between you and my daughter?”
Duke took his time responding. He deliberately sprawled in a chair opposite Jordan, hoping that the casual pose would communicate in a way that words could not that he wasn’t going to be intimidated. Eventually, he shrugged. “Nothing as far as I know. Have you asked her?”
Unfortunately, Jordan was too sharp a businessman to be fooled by Duke’s tactic. “Oh, please, don’t give me that,” he shot right back. “I want a straight answer.”
Duke sat up a little straighter. He met Jordan’s gaze evenly. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, sir, but that’s the truth. We’ve barely met. She’s made it plain she’s not interested. What more is there to say?”
To Duke’s astonishment, Jordan actually chuckled at that. “I don’t suppose you see the contradiction in that, do you? According to your claim, you two hardly know each other, but already she’s felt it necessary to tell you she’s not interested. What do you suppose brought that on? You don’t expect me to believe it’s how she opens every conversation with a man, do you?”
He flinched at the direct hit. “I suppose not.”
“Could it have something to do with you kissing her the other night?”
Duke stared. “How the hell do you know about that?”
Jordan almost looked as if he felt sorry for him. “Son, you were on the front porch of my father’s house in the middle of a family picnic. The teenagers sneak around like budding operatives for the CIA. You can’t keep a secret with this clan if you bury it in a cave a thousand miles away. How do you expect to keep anything quiet when you’re right in the thick of things?”
“A good point,” Duke conceded. “I’ll have to be more careful next time.”
Jordan looked positively hopeful. “Then there’s going to be a next time?”
Duke gave up on the evasions. “If I have my way,” he admitted.
Jordan gave a little nod of satisfaction. “Good.” He studied Duke intently. “Dani’s had a rough time these past couple
of years ever since she broke up with her fiancé, Rob Hilliard. If I’d been more on top of things, maybe I could have done something to save her all that heartache.” He sighed with obvious regret, then looked directly into Duke’s eyes. “It won’t be easy getting her to trust you, you know that, don’t you?”
“Nothing worth having ever is.”
“Yes, you of all people would know that, wouldn’t you?”
“Then I have your approval to keep seeing her?”
“Would it matter if you didn’t?”
Duke met Jordan’s gaze with a steady, unblinking look of his own. “No, sir. With all due respect, it wouldn’t.”
“That’s what I thought,” he said, sounding pleased. “Just one thing, though.”
“Yes?”
“Hurt her and there won’t be a place on earth you can hide.”
“Understood.”
Contriving to see Dani again was a whole lot simpler than Duke had anticipated. He should have realized that a powerful man like Jordan wouldn’t be content to sit on the sidelines and let things unfold at their own pace. Less than an hour after their conversation, Duke had an invitation to dinner the next night.
“Nothing fancy. Just the five of us,” Kelly Adams told him.
“Five?”
“Jordan and I, you and Justin. And Dani will be here, of course.”
Of course, he thought. “I’ll give her a call and offer her a lift,” he said. He cursed the eager note that had crept into his voice.
“I wouldn’t, if I were you.”
Damn, did everyone in this family meddle? “And why is that?” he inquired.
“She doesn’t exactly know you’re coming,” Kelly confessed.
“And you think if she knew she’d find an excuse not to come,” he concluded.
“I’d say that’s a safe bet. You unsettle her,” Kelly said. “I could see that at the picnic. Now me, I think that’s a good thing. Dani wouldn’t.”
Duke didn’t like it, but he could see the wisdom in taking Kelly Adams’s advice. He doubted anyone knew Dani as well as her own mother. He supposed there was something to be said for the element of surprise. In fact, he couldn’t wait to see the expression on her face when she realized they’d been thrown together again.
The Heart of Hill Country Page 23
