Desert Heat (11 page)

She shrugged her shoulders, wishing she could really explain. “I know it’s insane. I know you’re the worst possible thing that could happen to me, but I can’t stop thinking about what it would be like if we made love.”

Dallas just stared. His eyes were as blue as she’d ever seen them. Finally, he sighed. “Well, at least I’m not the only one who’s going out of his mind.”

It was true. As much as she wanted to stay away from him, she was drawn to him as she had never been to another man. She had never been jealous a day in her life and yet when she saw him with other women, she wanted to tear out their hair. It was time to do something about it.

Patience took a shaky breath. Dallas wanted her. And God knew she wanted him. It was now or never.

Courage,
she told herself.

“I think we should…um…make love. Maybe if we sleep together, we can get over this…this…whatever it is that’s driving both of us nuts.”

Those intense blue eyes grew hotter, burned like the tip of a flame. His gloved hand covered hers where it rested on the fence. “God, I’d like to kiss you right now.”

That deep Texas drawl washed over her. Her heart did a slow sort of roll. He wanted to kiss her. She wanted that, too. More than anything she could think of. It was a little impractical, considering there was a fence between them and a grandstand full of people watching.

Patience grinned. “I’d love to take you up on that, cowboy, but I don’t think we have time. The rodeo’s about to begin.”

As if to prove it, Lobo nosed him in the back, nudging him toward the fence. Dallas smiled. “I guess you’re right.” He stroked the white strip on the horse’s nose. Patience watched his hands moving with such gentle care and her stomach quivered. The tips of her breasts began to throb.

“I’d better get going,” he said. “I’ll see you after the show.” He gave her a last warm smile, then turned and walked away.

Dallas surprised himself that night and took a first in the calf roping. He wasn’t all that good, but he only had to win a little to qualify for the All-Around title, which required earning money in more than one event. Fortunately, Lobo was a damned good cow pony, a registered quarter horse gelding, officially Doc’s Lobo, out of Doc’s Bandit, raised right there in Texas on the Circle C Ranch. Dallas mostly gave the horse credit for the win whenever he landed in the money.

Tonight he was amazed they had done so well, considering that on and off all evening his mind had wandered to the woman who had been driving him crazy for weeks. He still couldn’t believe she had suggested they make love.

Desire slid through him and his groin tightened. He hadn’t lied. He had wanted her from the moment he’d first seen her, but traveling together, his gut warning him this wasn’t a no-strings lady, he had forced himself to stay away.

Now he thought that maybe she was right. Maybe once they slept together they could get over their unwanted attraction and get on with their lives.

He hoped so. Tonight, just as he was climbing down into the chute, settling himself in the saddle aboard a big blue roan named Hellfire, an image of Patience had popped into his head. For an instant, he had forgotten where he was and nearly got unseated in the chute.

He’d forced himself to concentrate as the horse exploded out the gate. The cheering snared him then, the whistles, the rumble of feet in the stands, and he’d been determined to give them what they’d paid for. It was a decent ride, though he’d made better. He scored an eighty-four, high enough to keep him in the overall.

Still, thinking of Patience had affected his concentration. And he’d had Charlie on his mind, as well. His uncle had been brooding ever since his return from Texas. He didn’t like being away from Annie so much and the lawsuit he was involved in seemed to be heating up. Dallas wished there was something he could do, but Charlie was a proud man and aside from moral support, there didn’t seem to be any way to help.

The announcer’s voice drew his attention. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we hope you enjoyed the rodeo—the greatest show on dirt!” The old Roy Rogers tune, “Happy Trails,” blared out of the speakers and the crowd began to stand and start moving toward the exits.

Dallas spotted Patience leaving the auxiliary stands near the chutes and started walking toward her. For a minute or two, he followed her, watching the nice way her bottom filled out her jeans, his own beginning to fit too snug. He caught up with her, fell into step beside her. Together they walked back to his trailer to put Lobo up for the night.

“You made a great run in the calf roping,” she said.

“Yeah. I guess I got lucky. Most of the credit goes to Lobo.” She stopped as they reached the spot where the big palomino stood next to the trailer, but Dallas kept walking, pulling her into the shadowy darkness just beyond.

“What about your horse?” she asked as he hauled her into his arms.

“You first; then, we’ll worry about Lobo.”

She laughed the instant before he kissed her; then, she sort of melted against him and made a soft little mewing sound in her throat. She kissed even better than he remembered, her lips so damned soft, the taste of her filling his senses. He loved the way she sort of gave herself over to him, letting him take and take until he found himself wanting to give and give. She was slender but lusciously curved and she fit against him as if they were made for each other.

He nibbled the corners of her lips, slid his tongue inside her mouth, let his hands slide down her back to cup her bottom and pull her even closer. He was hard—uncomfortable in his jeans—and the buckle on his chaps was pressing in exactly the wrong spot.

He shifted, trying to find a better position, kissed her again, gently cupped her breasts, and felt her tremble. Her nipples were diamond hard and he desperately wanted to taste them. Damn it, he wanted to drag her into his trailer and down on his bed. He wanted to peel off her jeans and bury himself so deep she would never forget the first time he had taken her.

But he had waited weeks for this. And after the way Wes had treated her last night, he didn’t want her thinking he was anything close to that kind of guy.

A couple of cowboys walked by and he forced himself to let her go, though it was the last thing he wanted. “Easy, darlin’. Unless you want an audience, I think we’d better stop.”

She reached up and gently touched his lips, her big green eyes fixed on his face. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“You just kiss me and I feel…kind of like I’m melting.”

Dallas laughed. “Honey, if that’s what happens when I kiss you, we’ll probably set the room on fire when we make love.”

She flushed. In the moonlight, he could see the color creep into her cheeks. Maybe she really was old-fashioned. The notion was strangely intriguing.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” he asked.

“Traveling, I suppose.”

“I’m going to Houston for a couple of days. It’s my father’s sixtieth birthday. My stepmother is throwing a party for him. She called and asked me to come.” That was putting it mildly. Rachael had pressured the hell out of him to be there and after four years of staying away, he’d felt guilty.

Patience nervously wet her lips and he went instantly hard again. He ground his jaw against the subtle ache and tried to think of other things.

“I don’t know, I…”

“We wouldn’t be staying at the house with them. My father and I aren’t on the best of terms. The truth is, I haven’t seen him in quite a while. If you came along, it might make things easier. In a way, you’d be doing me a favor.”

She smiled. “Well, I certainly owe you a favor or two.”

“Great. I’ll take care of your plane ticket. We’ll fly down tomorrow morning.”

She nodded and smiled and it was all he could do not to haul her back into his arms. He didn’t dare. He liked sex—a lot. And he wanted to have it with her.

Instead, he walked her back to her little white trailer. Tomorrow they would take off for Houston. By tomorrow night, Patience Sinclair would be sharing his bed.

The Saturday night perf was over and Charlie was bone tired. Tomorrow he and the crew were hitting the road again. He wished he could squeeze in a couple days off and go home, but July was one of the busiest months of the year and he was feeling the pinch for money.

As soon as he could get away, he headed for the crew trailer, went inside, and picked up his cell phone. He punched an autodial button and a few seconds later, Annie answered. Damn, it felt good just to hear her voice.

“I sure do miss you, honey,” he said after the small talk that always helped him relax.

“I miss you, too. You’re coming home after Cheyenne, right?”

“A herd of wild elephants couldn’t keep me away.” They talked about the ranch, then caught up on what had been happening with the Circle C rodeos.

“How’s Ritchie doin’?” Annie asked. “I hear Junior Reese is fillin’ in for him till he’s back on his feet.”

“Ritchie’s doing all right, considering. He’s home, I hear. His wife’ll be glad about that. Where’d you hear about Junior?”

“You know I’m not about to reveal my sources.” But a lot of her old friends still rode the circuit and she pretty well kept up on what was going on. “So, what about Junior?” Though the words were light, he could hear the worry in her voice. Annie didn’t like Junior Reese any more than Charlie did.

“Junior’s all right. There’s no love lost between us, but as long as he does his job, we’ll do just fine.”

Years ago, Junior Reese had been one of the top bull riders in the country. Charlie had been young back then, riding broncs and clowning a little. Then, at a rodeo in Kansas, Junior got hung up in the rigging. Charlie was clowning that day. He tried to get him free, but he was inexperienced, mostly just working the barrel. When Junior finally got loose, he fell under the big bull’s hooves. Beneath his makeup, his face was badly disfigured.

And he blamed Charlie for it.

“Promise me you’ll keep an eye on him,” Annie said.

Charlie grinned into the phone. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, wishing more than ever he was home.

Patience got up early Sunday morning. Dallas stopped by for a couple of minutes after breakfast, said the plane would be leaving at 12:02 and that he would pick her up at ten so they would have plenty of time to get to the airport and get through the security check.

Shari was sitting in the dinette when he arrived. She didn’t say a word until he left.

“You’re actually going to Houston with Dallas? I can’t believe it.”

Patience tried for nonchalance. “Why not? We’re two adults. We’re attracted to each other. Why shouldn’t we do something about it?”

Shari looped a red curl behind her ear. “You know very well why you shouldn’t. Because Dallas is Dallas and you are you—and don’t pretend not to know what that means.”

Patience sighed. “Okay, I know what it means. But just this once, I’ve decided to be somebody else for a little while.”

Shari laughed. “Someone who has the hots for Dallas and plans to do something about it.”

Patience grinned. “Exactly.” As if to prove it, she knelt in front of her bunk and dragged out her suitcase, which was never completely unpacked in the tiny trailer. She took out the items she didn’t need, then tossed in several pairs of lacy underwear, a lavender shorty nightgown and a pair of low-heeled sandals.

“I’m meeting his father and stepmother. I wonder what I should wear. Do you know anything about them?”

“Not much. Dallas never talks about them. His father’s got money, though. That’s why he and Dallas don’t get along. He doesn’t approve of Dallas rodeoing. I get the impression he thinks rodeo people are beneath him.”

“Great. I can tell I’m going to love him.” She folded a pair of slacks and put them in the suitcase. “You’d think he’d be proud of what his son has accomplished.”

“From what Charlie says, Dallas takes after his mother’s side of the family—a long line of Texas ranchers. I guess that’s why his dad and mom never got along. Dad was a city boy. Mom was a country girl. There were just too many differences to make it work.”

The words put a damper on the morning. There were never two people more different than Patience and Dallas. A cowboy and a professor—or soon-to-be, at any rate. Inwardly she groaned.

At least she had a good idea what to take with her on the trip. She tossed in a pair of strappy, black high-heeled sandals, took out a short black sheath dress—one of her few concessions to fashion—and the string of pearls her mother had left her.

Shari was gone by the time she finished packing and she still had an hour or so to work. Her thesis was coming along nicely. She slid her glasses on, cracked open her great grandmother’s journal—the most interesting part of her research—and immediately became engrossed.

Lucky and Adelaide Holmes were still traveling the circuit together and their friendship seemed to be growing. Addie’s horse came up lame, but the colonel found her another mount and she seemed happy with his choice. After that, several pages were missing, or appeared to be. When the writing resumed, Addie talked about racing in a couple of smaller rodeos and Sam Starling’s name appeared again.

As she read the words, Patience felt an odd sort of connection. She liked Dallas Kingman—more than liked—though she definitely didn’t want to. Whatever she felt, she wasn’t about to let herself fall in love with him.

She turned the page, started reading, then sat forward in the booth.

Patience’s heart started beating. She flipped to the back of the journal and carefully removed the page that had fallen out the first time she had opened the book.

The first entry appeared to have been made right before the passage in the torn-out page.

Parts of the journal were dated but not all. The earlier page was marked
July 27.
Patience read the next several entries. The man continued to appear at a number of different rodeos, but the girls had become convinced that whoever he was, he was harmless.

But none of them knew his name and he always seemed to disappear as soon as the rodeo was over. Addie still had misgivings. Having been in a similar situation, Patience had misgivings of her own. She wanted to keep reading, wanted to find out what happened, but Dallas would be there to pick her up any minute and she needed to be ready when he got there.

Patience put the journal away and finished getting ready for the trip to Texas. She was excited, determined—and growing more and more nervous. She prayed she was doing the right thing.

The plane landed at Houston International Airport at 7:06 p.m. They hadn’t flown first class, though Shari said that on occasion, some of Dallas’s sponsors flew him around in their private jets. Shari said Dallas saved as much as he could, so she didn’t know what sort of weekend was coming up.

She certainly didn’t expect to see a black-haired chauffeur standing in the baggage area holding up a sign with Dallas’s name on it. Dallas walked over to talk to him and the man came over to the luggage carousel to help them carry out their bags.

As Dallas pushed open the terminal door and they stepped out onto the sidewalk, a gust of thick, damp air hit her, surrounding her in a solid wall of heat. It was definitely summer in Texas and this close to the gulf, Houston suffered unbearable humidity. Her hair began to curl in the dampness, forming ringlets around her face.

They crossed the asphalt and the chauffeur opened the door to a long black Cadillac limo.

“My stepmother sent it,” Dallas explained. “She told me she’d arrange for a car to pick me up.”

“Nice choice,” Patience said, sliding onto the deep, gray leather seat.

“Yeah, Rachael’s always had expensive taste.”

But Patience wasn’t complaining. As the All-Around champion, Dallas might be used to living high on occasion, but Patience rarely had the chance. She leaned back against the seat and smiled when she noticed a silver ice bucket holding a bottle of champagne.

“My, your stepmother treats you extremely well.”

“It’s taken her four years to convince me to come home for a visit. I guess she figured that was cause for celebration.”

Patience turned to look at him. “Four years? That’s how long it’s been since you’ve seen your family?”

Dallas reached over and plucked the champagne, an icy bottle of Dom Perignon, out of the bucket. “My father and I had a major falling out when I dropped out of college.” He wrapped a towel around the bottle and deftly popped the cork.

“You went to college?”

He flicked her a glance. “Pretty hard to believe, huh?”

But maybe it wasn’t. Dallas had never struck her as dumb. “Where did you go?”

“Texas A and M. I was on the collegiate rodeo team. That’s how I first got started riding broncs—that and Charlie, of course. He rodeoed when he was younger, before he met Annie.”

Questions swirled through Patience’s head. She opened her mouth to ask what subject he had majored in and why he had dropped out of school, but he pointed to the glasses and she held two of them up for him to fill. Dallas nestled the bottle back in the ice and Patience handed him one of the flutes.

“To us,” he said, clinking their rims together with a crystalline ring.

“To us,” Patience repeated and both of them took a sip. The questions returned to mind. “What about your father? Will you tell me about him?”

Dallas moved closer on the seat. Bending his head, he pressed his lips against the side of her neck, and a shiver went through her. “Yes—since it seems you’re going to meet him—but not tonight. Tonight I don’t want to think about my father or anyone else. I don’t want to think of anyone but you.”

He tipped her chin up with his finger, lowered his head, and very gently kissed her. The kiss grew hotter, deeper. He didn’t rush, didn’t hurry, just kissed her and kissed her. Patience forgot her questions.

At least for the night.

In her apartment in New York, Hope dragged her mind from the words she was typing onto the screen of her laptop, the ringing of the phone beginning to penetrate her senses. She lifted the receiver, coming out of her writer’s daze, and pressed the phone against her ear. “Hope Sinclair.”

“Hello, Hope…. It’s Tyler.”

Hope stiffened at the unexpected name. “Hello…Tyler. What can I do for you?”

“I was wondering if you could tell me where I could find your sister.”

Hope snorted a laugh. “Oh, sure, Tyler. I’m really gonna do that.” She had met Tyler Stanfield once when she had been visiting her family in Boston. She knew the trouble he had caused. “You’ve been driving my sister crazy for months. Why don’t you just leave her alone?”

It was late in New York City, the lights in the buildings outside her apartment window were beginning to wink out one by one. She’d been working on a human interest story for
People
magazine when the phone had started to ring.

“I love her, Hope,” Tyler said.

“You hardly even know her.”

“We’re perfectly suited. Both of us are graduate students and our interests lie in teaching. We like the same kind of people. Like to do the same things. She just hasn’t realized how good we are together.”

“That’s total bullshit, Tyler.”

“It isn’t bullshit, Hope. Deep down, I know she still cares.”

Hope sighed into the receiver. “Patience doesn’t give a damn about you, Tyler. You just can’t stand being dumped. Stay away from her or I’m going to call the police.”

“I hear she’s doing her rodeo thing, traveling with some female hillbilly from Oklahoma.”

“You knew what she planned to do this summer. In case you haven’t figured it out, there are hundreds of rodeos all over the country. You haven’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of finding her.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’ll surprise you.”

“You do, and maybe I’ll surprise
you.
Leave her alone, Tyler, I’m warning you.”

“…You really don’t think she cares?”

She gentled the tone of her voice, hoping she might actually reach him. “Look—be honest with yourself. You two only dated a few weeks. It just didn’t work—at least not for her. Do yourself a favor and find a woman who really does care about you.”

A long pause on the line.

“Listen, Tyler. You’re a good-looking man. You’ve got a great education, a promising future. You keep this up, you’re going to spoil everything you’ve worked for.”

“You really think so?”

“Yes, I do.”

“I’ll give it some thought.”

“You do that. You’ll be doing yourself
and
my sister a favor if you just get on with your life.”

The phone went dead on the other end of the line and Hope released a slow breath. She should probably telephone Patience. But if she did, it would put a major damper on her sister’s summer. Traveling, moving around as much as Patience was, odds were Tyler wouldn’t be able to track her down even if he tried.

And even if he found her, aside from being a royal pain in the ass, he seemed to be pretty much harmless.

Hope decided to wait. If he called again, she would warn Patience he was still on her tail. In the meantime, she would let her sister have the adventure she deserved.

Houston rose like the Emerald City out of the flat Texas landscape, a sea of tall glass buildings lit by beams of multi-colored lights. As they stepped out of the limo in front of the Four Seasons hotel, the humidity hit her as it had at the airport, making it hard to breathe and reminding her they had arrived in the southern portion of the country.

“Did you know that before this was Houston, it was a place called Harrisburg? It was a maritime trading post founded in 1824.”

“You don’t say.”

“Years later a couple of men tried to buy it, but the owners wanted too much money so they settled the actual town of Houston a few more miles up the bayou from the gulf.”

Dallas grinned. “Having you around is like having my own personal travel guide.”

Patience flushed. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Hey—I like it. I think it’s great you know all that stuff.”

They started walking toward the door of the hotel. The closer they got, the more her stomach churned with nerves. “The Four Seasons,” she said. “Pretty swanky.” Dallas pushed open the glass doors and she stepped into the marble-floored lobby. “This your stepmother’s doing as well?”

Dallas smiled. “This one’s on me. Rachael offered. I refused. I don’t like being indebted to them.” He glanced around the elegant interior, done in subtle shades of beige with Asian accents and huge bouquets of fresh flowers. “I wanted this to be special. I thought you might like it.”

She liked it, all right. She loved it. And it was very thoughtful of Dallas to choose a place like this. “I heard you were trying to save money.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “We’re only staying a couple of nights. I used Roy Greenfield’s name. Roy’s company gets a rate. It wasn’t really all that bad.”

It wasn’t cheap, either, but the ambiance was lovely, the hotel elegant and refined. Their room was equally spectacular, a small suite with Chippendale furnishings and huge bay windows that overlooked the city.

“It’s beautiful, Dallas.”

“I’m glad you like it.” There was another bottle of champagne in a silver bucket on the table in the living room. He went over and opened it, poured them each a glass, and handed one of them to her.