The Heart of Hill Country

by Sherryl Woods

  “Sorry,” Sharon Lynn said, not sounding the least bit sorry. She made a relieved dash out of sight.

  “That’s probably Jenny now,” Duke speculated. “Checking to see how things are progressing.”

  When Sharon Lynn was gone, Dani regarded Duke apologetically. “I’m the one who’s truly sorry. They shouldn’t have put you in this position.”

  He grinned and popped the last bite of pie into his mouth. “The way I see it there’s nothing wrong with the position I’m in. The pie was great. The coffee’s the best in town. The company’s not bad. What about you? Enjoying your sundae?”

  Dani considered lying, but decided it was a waste of time and good hot fudge sauce. “Yes,” she admitted.

  “Then eat up.” He leaned closer. “Then we’ll sneak out without paying. That’ll serve ’em right.”

  She grinned at his notion of revenge. “I don’t think the cost of a hot fudge sundae and some pie and coffee is going to teach those two a lesson. For that matter, they can probably get Grandpa Harlan to ante up for it. I detect his fine hand in here somewhere. I can just see the three of them in his den out at White Pines plotting and scheming.”

  “Maybe we should give them something to think about,” Duke suggested, a worrisome glint back in his eyes.

  “Such as?”

  Even as she spoke, she realized she should never have asked. Those two words were as good as asking for trouble.

  Duke swiveled her stool around until their knees were touching. His gaze locked with hers. Dani felt the sizzle of that look all the way down to her toes. If hot fudge was a vice, this was pure sin, she concluded.

  She told herself she was going to look away any second now. She was going to move away from the graze of chinos against her knees and the lure of Duke’s body heat. Any minute now, she promised herself.

  Her breath caught in her throat. This was a dangerous game they were playing. In fact, they were flat-out flirting with disaster. If it could be called flirting, when the man looked as if he were one heartbeat away from scooping her up and hauling her off to bed, she amended. They were way beyond flirting.

  When his callused fingertips skimmed along her cheek, her pulse zoomed straight into the stratosphere. When his thumb brushed over her lower lip, she felt the jolt in every cell from head to toe. She swallowed hard and willed herself to look away, move, get up and haul butt out of there.

  Instead, she seemed to sway toward him, just when his head was swooping in and his lips were taking dead-on aim for hers. The kiss, which she was so sure had been the last thing on her mind, turned out to be as inevitable as breathing. Soft and sweet and tender, it left her feeling cherished in a way that she’d never, ever felt before.

  “Oh, boy,” she whispered, when he had pulled away. She was in trouble, hip-deep and sinking fast.

  “Nice,” Duke assessed. “But I’m thinking that’s not enough to convince them we don’t need their help.”

  “Hmm?” she murmured, too dazed to follow his thinking. She blinked as he slowly rose to his feet, gasped softly when he lifted her until she was standing toe-to-toe with him, close enough that his heat surrounded her, beckoned to her.

  His fingers tunneled through her hair. His breath whispered against her cheek. And then his mouth covered hers again.

  This time there was nothing soft or sweet or tender about the kiss. It was demanding and hungry and possessive. And it took her breath away. It dazzled her. In fact, in her personal range of experience, this was the mother of all kisses, the kind that could lure a woman into thinking she was in love.

  That four-letter word slipped into her consciousness even as Duke deepened the kiss to a whole new level of bone-melting bliss. Love. LOVE? Whoa, baby.

  Dani felt the emotional brakes slam on. She spun away from Duke so quickly she left both of them off balance and shaky. Clearly surprised, he regarded her intently.

  “Dani, talk to me.”

  Embarrassment flooded over her. She had practically come apart in Duke’s arms right in the middle of a public place. It was the kind of behavior that started rumors and caused pain. All they needed was for Joshua and Zachary to get wind of the incident. They were clearly eager for a new mom. One whiff of this and those fertile eight-year-old minds would start manufacturing all sorts of happily-ever-after scenarios that just weren’t going to happen. She forced herself to look directly into Duke’s eyes.

  “This is never going to happen again,” she said bluntly. “Never.”

  Apparently, her tone was more convincing than usual because for once he didn’t argue, didn’t make some teasing remark or offer up a challenge that would have turned her vow into a joke. In fact, he nodded solemnly as if he’d gotten the message loud and clear.

  “Never,” he echoed.

  “Promise me,” she said, just to be sure.

  “This will never happen again, I swear it,” he said.

  He sounded sincere enough, she supposed, but for some reason she trusted him about as much as she trusted Sharon Lynn and Jenny at the moment. She glanced at his hands, checking for crossed fingers. If she could have she would have checked his toes as well. Nope, there were no overt signs that he was intentionally lying through his teeth.

  “I’m taking you at your word,” she said. “My father says you’re an honorable man. I’m counting on it.”

  That seemed to make him uneasy, but again he nodded dutifully. “You can count on it, darlin’.”

  He said it so easily that she was vaguely insulted. Didn’t he want to kiss her again? Had it been awful for him? What the heck was the matter with him that he was giving up so easily?

  No, what was the matter with her that she wasn’t taking his promise at face value and hightailing it back to the safety of the clinic? Hormones evidently played havoc with logic.

  She stiffened her spine, picked up her purse and inched away from Duke, careful not to brush against him. She was being absurd. It wasn’t as if the man was going to grab her and throw her on the counter and have his way with her. He’d just promised he wouldn’t even kiss her again, for heaven’s sakes.

  Of course, there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t be the one doing the throwing and the having. Maybe that was why it was very wise not to come within a mile of Duke Jenkins for at least the next forty or fifty years. Maybe by then her hormones would be in check. If they weren’t, it would probably be some sort of medical miracle and they could go on TV on some X-rated sex channel for seniors. The thought of it made her smile.

  “Dani?”

  She blinked and met his gaze, fully aware that color was flooding her cheeks again. She had blushed more in the past few weeks than she had in her entire life before meeting Duke. “Yes?”

  “Want me to walk you back to your clinic?”

  “No,” she blurted at once, then winced at the rude tone. “I mean, really it’s not necessary.”

  He regarded her doubtfully. “You seem a little wobbly.”

  “I am not,” she said emphatically. “Once I’m out in the fresh air, I’ll be just fine.”

  “It’s a hundred degrees out there.”

  So what? she thought. It had to be darned close to that inside when they were in the middle of that kiss. In fact, she probably ought to speak to Sharon Lynn about fixing the thermostat on the air conditioner. It was way too hot in Dolan’s. In fact, she was tempted to pick up a menu and fan herself right now, but she could see how Duke might misconstrue that and turn it into some sort of admission that he affected her.

  “The heat doesn’t bother me,” she insisted, backing away an inch at a time as if she were trying to slip away without him noticing.

  “If you say so.”

  “I do.”

  “Then I guess I’ll see you around.”

  “Right.”

  “Bye.”

  “Bye.”
<
br />   “Have a pleasant evening.”

  “You, too.” Dani sighed. Much more of this polite leave-taking and she was going to throw up. Before she added that to the list of her most embarrassing moments, she bolted for the door.

  The blast of humid heat should have slowed her down. She barely even noticed it as she practically ran all the way back to the clinic. She headed straight for her own part of the house. She’d left the air conditioning set at a pleasant seventy-five degrees. She turned it down to sixty and went and stood in front of a register and let the cool air blow over her.

  Even when her body was shivering and the cats were trying to crawl under an afghan on the sofa, she still felt hot. Only then did she admit to herself that as long as Duke remained at the center of her thoughts it wouldn’t matter if she bathed in ice water. She’d still be burning up.

  * * *

  Duke didn’t glance away from the door through which Dani had exited until he heard a whisper of sound behind him. He turned to find Sharon Lynn regarding him warily. After a moment, she bravely forced a smile.

  “More coffee?” she inquired cheerfully.

  “I think maybe I’d better switch to iced tea,” he said. “With lots and lots of ice.”

  “I noticed it got pretty warm in here,” she said.

  “I’m delighted we were able to provide the entertainment. Now maybe you can tell me something.”

  “What?”

  “Exactly what were you and Jenny up to? It’s fairly obvious to me that Dani does not want a new man in her life, especially not one who’s a single father, right?”

  “That’s what she thinks.”

  Duke’s gaze narrowed. “Am I missing something? Isn’t what she thinks important?”

  “Not if it’s different from what she feels,” Sharon Lynn explained patiently. “This afternoon proves what we suspected all along. She’s attracted to you. She’s just scared to death of doing anything about it. That’s understandable, of course. But you can’t stop living just because you’ve been burned by an idiot, right?”

  “I suppose.”

  “Let me ask you something. Are you interested in Dani? I mean beyond a quick roll in the hay or something?”

  “Isn’t that an awfully personal question?”

  Sharon Lynn shrugged off the implied criticism. “I’m an Adams,” she said as if that were explanation enough. “We’re nosy, especially when it comes to one of our own. Now stop avoiding the question. Are your intentions serious?”

  Duke shook his head, amused by the persistence, if not by the prying. “I think Dani’s the only one who deserves an answer to that question and she’s not asking it.”

  “She won’t, either. It’s up to the rest of us to protect her.”

  “Would she appreciate you doing that?”

  “Of course not,” Sharon Lynn conceded airily. “But she’d expect it just the same. When it comes to providing backup, we’re better than the Texas Rangers.”

  “I see. Well, let me give you just a little bit of advice from an outsider’s perspective. The game is underway. Stay on the sidelines from here on out and watch. I think Dani and I can take it from here.”

  Sharon Lynn grinned. “Yes, I imagine you can do just about anything you set your mind to.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “Of course you will,” she said. “And I will stay out of it, unless I think you’re getting out of line. Then I can pretty much guarantee someone in the family will call the foul.”

  He regarded her with amusement. “And the penalty?”

  She returned his look solemnly. “You don’t want to know.”

  Duke shook his head. “Your uncle Jordan said practically the same thing.”

  She grinned. “As long as you’ve gotten the message.”

  “Loud and clear, sweetheart. Loud and clear.”

  But the only signals he was really worried about were the ones Dani was sending him and those were very, very mixed.

  9

  Duke was constantly revising his strategy where Dani was concerned. After that last kiss, he concluded that she needed time to think about it, lots of time. He made himself so scarce that the only people who saw him regularly were his sons, Paolina, Jordan and his secretary. September eased into October, then November. Let Dani start to wonder what he was up to. Maybe it would force her to admit she was intrigued by him.

  At least that was his theory. In practice, he was the one going stark-raving nuts. The boys weren’t doing especially well with the forced confinement, either. They’d been plaguing him daily about going out to White Pines to see the horses or into town for ice cream. They were getting to be almost as restless and cranky as he was. He might not be experienced at this parenting business, but he sensed that something was going to have to give very soon.

  Sitting in his study, he tried to focus on the paperwork he’d brought home from the office, but his mind wasn’t on it. He was downright ecstatic when Joshua came to stand in the doorway, regarding him solemnly.

  “Hey, son, what’s up?”

  “Are you busy?”

  “Not too busy for you. Come on in.”

  Joshua bounded across the room and to Duke’s astonishment climbed into his lap and burrowed his face against Duke’s chest. His narrow little shoulders heaved with barely contained sobs. Duke had never felt so helpless in his entire life. He wrapped the boy in his arms and held on tight.

  “Josh, what’s going on?” he asked eventually, when the crying had abated somewhat.

  “Nothing,” Joshua replied, sniffing.

  Duke smiled, grateful that Josh couldn’t see it. “That’s an awful lot of tears over nothing. Did something happen at school today?”

  “No.”

  “What then?”

  Joshua pulled back and looked straight into Duke’s eyes. His little face was streaked with tears. “Dad, how come Mommy doesn’t love us?”

  Oh, boy, Duke thought, biting back a sigh. “What makes you think she doesn’t love you? We’ve talked about this before, remember? It’s me she’s mad at, not you guys.”

  “I don’t think so. I think she hates all of us. Me and Zack, too.”

  Duke began to get a sneaking suspicion about the cause of the tears. “Did she call here today?”

  Josh hesitated, then sniffed and nodded. “She told us not to tell you, Dad, I didn’t mean to break the promise, honest.”

  “That’s okay. Some promises should never be made in the first place. You should always be able to come to me. If someone tells you not to, always ask yourself why. Now tell me what your mom said that upset you so much.”

  “Zack and me asked her to come home. We told her we missed her a whole lot, but she said no.” Fresh tears welled up in his eyes. “She said she was never, ever coming back.”

  Duke mentally cursed Caroline for being so blunt with the two boys, then swearing them to secrecy. Did she expect them to keep all the hurt bottled up inside? Or were the secrets just meant as payback for him?

  He wiped away Josh’s tears and tried to coax a smile from him. “Now you listen to me, half-pint. We’re getting along okay, just the three of us, right?”

  “Yeah, but it would be nice to have a mom again,” Josh said wistfully.

  Duke immediately thought of Dani. She might not be able to replace Caroline in their hearts, but she could fill an obvious void in their lives. It was time to move on to the next step in his strategy. If nothing else, this conversation with Josh had proven that it was time to start courting Dani in earnest.

  Duke had given Dani so much space she was about to spit. Not even reminding herself a hundred times a day that she had asked for it seemed to help. Work took up most of her time, but there were always a few hours late at night when she had nothing to do but think and remember the way she had felt in Duke�
�s arms smack in the middle of Dolan’s.

  That kiss was the most impulsive, uninhibited thing she’d ever done. Naturally, she couldn’t get it out of her head, she consoled herself. It had nothing to do with Duke per se. It was the outrageous risk she’d taken that was plaguing her.

  So why did she glance hopefully at the door to her office every time it opened unexpectedly? Why did she spend a solid hour primping before every single family gathering on the chance that Duke would be invited? Why was she so disappointed when he never turned up?

  Perversity was one possibility. Insanity was another. Admitting that she was falling in love with the man despite her best intentions was not an acceptable explanation. A few breath-stealing kisses didn’t amount to a hill of beans in the overall scheme of life. She would forget all about them soon enough. She just had to concentrate on other things.

  “Such as?” she muttered testily to herself.

  “Such as what?”

  The masculine voice, which surely she had conjured up, sent a shiver dancing down her spine. Obviously, the attraction hadn’t worn off, she thought glumly as she glanced up at the man filling the doorway to her office. He was back in a business suit and more devastatingly handsome than ever. Just the sound of his deep, husky voice was enough to make her pulse skitter crazily. If anyone took an EKG right now, it would land her in the hospital. She forced herself not to drag in a deep breath, sigh, swallow or otherwise indicate that he’d rattled her by popping up when she least expected him.

  “Just talking to myself,” she said, pleased with her calm, casual tone. “What brings you by?”

  “An emergency. Well, two emergencies, actually.”

  Her professional mode kicked in. She was on her feet and halfway around her desk, when he put out a hand to stop her.

  “Whoa! I didn’t mean medical emergencies. Sorry.”

  She frowned at him. “It’s not a word we take lightly around here.”

  “I know. I should have realized that.”

  “There are no half-drowned kittens, then?”