Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (6 page)

“No thank you,” she said at last, politely,
turning toward the greenhouse again.

But he wasn’t about to give up so easily. With one
quick step he erased the escape route, blocking her
path. “Why not?”

She blinked, her bright gaze warning him to leave
well enough alone. But he wouldn’t. She could see that. Politeness wasn’t going to make any progress
with him. She might as well be blunt. “Because I don’t
want to.”

He didn’t seem surprised, but he didn’t seem vanquished either. “What? Why?” He glanced down at himself as though thoroughly baffled, but he was
mocking her, playing with her all the time. “Is it my
clothes? My haircut? My grammar?”

She looked at him. There was certainly very little to
complain about on the surface. Her attention was
caught by the turquoise ring on his dark hand, and she quickly shoved her own hands into her dress pockets.
She’d bought Tim a turquoise ring once, but he’d
laughed and never worn it. “Rings are dangerous,”
he’d said. “Might get caught on the machinery.” That
had been his excuse for never wearing a wedding band,
either. But it hadn’t been rings that had killed him.

She glanced back at where Cody stood, still waiting
for an answer. “Let’s just say all of the above and
leave it at that,” she exclaimed, a little more roughly
than he deserved. She saw the reaction in his eyes and she regretted her tone right away.

“I...I’m sorry,” she temporized
quickly. “What I mean is, we’re from different worlds,
you and I. We don’t have anything in common. Why
try to force a...a friendship? Why not leave well enough
alone?” She hesitated, searching his dark eyes. She could see she’d made her point, and that he’d known
it himself all along. “Goodbye,” she said softly. Slipping past him, she made her way back into the green
house, hoping he wouldn’t follow.

And for a moment he didn’t. He watched her go, the skirt of her checkered dress swirling as she flounced
around the corner, and his hand slipped into his
pocket, taking hold of the car keys he’d recently put there. He tapped the plastic case with his forefinger as he took a look around the shop. The acrid smell of dirt and fertilizer made him twitch his nose. A telephone
rang, and somewhere unseen he heard Sadie answer it.

“Hello, Sadie’s Nursery.... Oh, Glenn? She’s busy
with... someone right now. Can I have her call you
back? Okay. Will do.”

Cody’s shoulders sagged and he chuckled softly. He
wasn’t sure just what it was—the sense of competi
tion, the challenge of the bluff, or something deeper— but he couldn’t give up yet. He shoved the keys back
into his pocket and made his way into the greenhouse.

Kelly looked up accusingly from where she was moving pots of African violets. What was the matter with the man? Was he a glutton for punishment? She hated treating someone this way. It hurt her, too. Why did he keep
making her do it?

He met her eyes and nodded a resigned agreement with the exasperation he could read in her face. “Bad penny syndrome,” he concurred, standing before her,
legs spread and hands on his hips. “But I’m not fin
ished humiliating myself.”

His eyes were full of a mocking warmth and a
quick, perceptive intelligence. He knew too much,
could read her mind, could tell what her plans were
before she knew them herself. She felt surrounded,
hemmed in. He grinned and she felt even worse. He made her want to laugh. That was dangerous. If he could get her to laugh, he could get her to do most
anything.

His grin faded and his glance skimmed down her
cheek until it came to rest on the simple diamond that
hung on a gold chain and rested at the pulse point at the base of her throat. Involuntarily she reached up
and covered it, then wished she hadn’t as he raised his
smile to meet her eyes.

“If not lunch,” he said softly, “how about dinner?”

She wanted to glare at him, but somehow she
couldn’t manage it. Speechless, she shook her head.

“Okay, I’m not demanding,” Cody went on, his
voice deepening into another sensual assault on her
senses. “Let me stand you one lousy little drink at the
Marquis.”

He terrified her. She had to get away before he
broke down her carefully guarded defenses once and for all. Kelly started to turn away, groping blindly for
a way out, but he caught hold of her arm, forcing her
to face him.

“Listen,” he said softly, holding her closer than she
wanted to be held, his face very near hers, his tone very
intimate. “You did me a great big favor the other day,
and I don’t feel that I’ve properly thanked you for it. Let me buy you a drink, at least.” His tempting smile
beguiled her again. “Indulge me,” he murmured.

His hand seemed to burn into the flesh of her arm—but in a good way. Looking up into his face, she was aware of his male
aggressiveness, the body heat that sent her pulse racing and made her knees feel wobbly. Lord, but he was gorgeous! She wanted to touch him, to rub her cheek
against his, to slide her hand beneath the pristine starched shirt and search out the excitement of his
heartbeat. It had been so long.

Swallowing hard, Kelly hid the longing in the depths
of her flashing eyes and reminded herself of what else she was aware of—his sleek, easy charm and the assurance that he would get his own way eventually.

“
Only not this time
,” she promised herself silently.
With cool deliberation, she pried away his fingers and
stepped back.
 

“Look,” she said aloud, her voice rising with her emotions. “I think I can be honest. After all, you’ve asked for it.” Her chin rose defiantly.
“Nothing personal, but you’re from a side of this
town I try to stay away from. You make your living doing something I don’t approve of. I wish your type would clean up their act, and in the meantime I don’t want to have anything to do with you.”

Cody winced, thrusting his head back as though
he’d been hit. “Whoever said honesty was the best
policy?” he muttered.

“Not a gambler, that’s for sure.” She straightened
her shoulders, glad she’d been brutal. Surely he would
go now!

But he didn’t budge. He leaned back against the
doorway instead, his eyes narrowed assessingly. “If
that’s the way you feel, maybe you should have left me
in that alley,” he drawled.

She clasped her hands together, feeling desperate.
“Maybe I should have,” she said.

“But you didn’t.” He grinned. “And now you’ll have to deal with the consequences.”

Panic was rising in her chest. What was she going to
have to do to get rid of him? “The only way I’ll have
anything to do with you is business wise,” she in
sisted, her voice high and shaky. “You want to buy a
plant? If so, we’ll talk. About that, and only that. If
not, please leave.”

She made a grand gesture toward the exit, and at that same moment Sadie appeared in the doorway, attracted by the raised voices. “Something wrong here?” she asked, her bright gaze flitting from Kelly
to Cody and back again.

Kelly stared at Cody, not saying a word. He stared right back. “No,” he said at last. “I was just about to
buy a plant, that’s all.” An idea came to him and his
face cleared. “Or better yet, some flowers.” He turned and smiled at Sadie, using the charm that made most women melt on contact. “Kelly can take
care of that, can’t she? I’ve got a big order to make.”

Sadie didn’t melt, but she did smile back. “Sure she
can. The bigger the order, the better we like it.”

“Good.”

“Go ahead, honey,” Sadie said to Kelly. “Write it
up. Anything the gentleman wants.” With another smile at Cody, she turned on her heel and disappeared.

Cody turned slowly to look down at Kelly. “Did you
hear that?” he purred. “Anything I want.”

Sadie’s choice of terms was unfortunate. Kelly groaned. Was everything, even luck, against her today?
Walking
quickly over to the cutting table, she slapped down the
order pad and pulled out a pencil.
 

“As long as it’s
flowers,” she reminded him evenly. “Now—what do
you want and where’s it going?”

He came toward the table slowly, pulling a small black book out of his vest pocket as he approached
her. Pressing it open, he set it down before her.

“Let’s start with the A’s,” he said simply, swinging
up to sit on the corner of the heavy stone table. “And
go from there.”

She stared down at the crisp, clear writing in the book. It was filled with the names and addresses of women. He was going to order flowers for all the
women he knew—and something told her he knew a
lot of them.

“Why
not
start with the A’s?” she agreed wryly.
“Just like the telephone book.”

“Tanya Allen,” he said, ignoring her dig and slid
ing his index finger down the list, stopping at the
name. “Now this is a lady who looks best under neon. You should see her head of red hair. It glows in the dark.” He frowned, considering carefully. “Let’s send
her a dozen long-stemmed, dyed carnations.”

Kelly wrote down his order, gritting her teeth at the “Let’s.” This was not a community effort as far as she
was concerned. In fact, she was chagrined at how
much she resented the vivid descriptions he gave for
each of his choices.

All in all, it took almost an hour to take his order.
No one disturbed them. Tammy had been picked up by her friend and her friend’s mother to go to a sleep-over. The attendants who took care
of the watering had all gone home for the afternoon
and Sadie was busy in the retail shop. Kelly called to
her a couple of times, making sure she wasn’t being swamped, but Sadie told her to take care of Cody,
which made him smile happily.

In the end, he narrowed his recipient list down to
ten names. As he went through each one, remembering little things that made each one special, she be
gan to wonder how much was true and how much was
made up for her benefit. At times, he actually coaxed
a smile from her, despite it all.

He was funny. He was sexy. He was entertaining.
But
he was also a gambler with the standards of a dilet
tante and the instincts of a shark. While she was the
mother of a ten-year-old girl. A softball coach. And a person who cared about right and wrong—cared, in
fact, about too many things. She couldn’t let him get
to her.

“Number ten,” she announced at last. “You put
the limit at ten, and we’ve finally reached it. Who’ll be your last victim?”

Ignoring her crack, Cody turned a page in his book and let his gaze run down the list of names. “Ah yes, Stacy Vance.” He leaned back with a smile of sweet memory. “Daisies for Stacy. They’ll remind her of one
night we had in a high mountain meadow…”

A frown cut into his thoughts. “No, wait. I think she’s
allergic.”

Kelly gurgled with sudden glee, pencil poised. “That
must have been some evening in the meadow,” she
couldn’t help but tease. “I can see it now. You quoting Browning and maneuvering for a kiss—Stacy
sneezing and groping for a tissue.” She laughed at his
look of mock outrage.

“You don’t believe that my charms could overcome allergies?”

She shook her head, still laughing.

Though he pretended to be seriously affronted, his
dark eyes were laughing back. “Listen, lady. My
lovemaking has been known to make a woman change
her religion.” He swung around so that he was on her
side of the table. “I’ve kissed blondes until their hair
turned red.”

Laughter was bubbling up her throat. She couldn’t stop it. He was saying the most ridiculous things as
though he meant every word, and moving closer to her
all the time. A part of her knew exactly what was
coming. But she couldn’t stop laughing and she couldn’t move away.

“I’ve known good women to go bad after a sample of what I’ve got to offer,” Cody told her confidently,
his dark eyes sparkling.

“You’re crazy,” Kelly accused, still laughing.

He raised an eyebrow. “You don’t believe me?”

She shook her head, looking into his eyes.

Slipping to the floor, he stood before her. The smile
slowly faded from her face, but still she couldn’t
move. His eyes seemed to deepen, darken. Her face lifted as though she were in a trance, her lips slightly
parted and trembling.

“I guess I’ll just have to prove it to you,” he was
saying, his voice a soft, delicious rumble. Then he pushed back the hair that covered her shoulder, and slowly leaned down, his lips softly tracing a design
across the skin he’d bared.