Dorothy Garlock - [Route 66] (34 page)

Resisting the pressure about his neck, Yates lifted his head to look at her. His breath came quickly and was cool on her lips, made wet by his kiss.

“You are one sweet woman,” he confessed in a raspy whisper. Their mouths met and were no longer gentle. They kissed deeply, hungrily. His fingers moved lovingly over the breast he was holding. He cradled her in his arms, and with smoothing motions of his hands caressed up and down her rib cage and over her breasts.

Leona suddenly realized that she was in danger of losing her ability to think rationally. She caught his wrist and moved his hand away from her.

“No! I can't do this!” She turned her face and tried to push away from him. “I can't… I can't—”

“You can't kiss me? You just did.” His voice was slurred with an obvious effort to control his breathing.

“I can't… be just an …amusement.” Hurt made her voice sharp.

“Amusement? What the hell are you talking about?” Irritation made his equally as sharp.

“Well…you've been stuck here for a while and you're bored. I understand your need for a little …excitement.”

“Bored? There's been so much going on around here that I've not even had time to ride my horse until tonight.”

“I doubt that it's been very exciting for you.”

“Exciting enough,” he said dryly.

“Yates, I'm a girl who has never been on a date, who has never gone to a dance or a picture show with a man. I've never been kissed in a dark car and never before on a front porch. A so-called decent man wouldn't be seen walking down the street with me. I really can't blame you for thinking that I'd be willing to do …this … to help while away the time until Andy comes home and you can leave.” By the time she was finished, tears were on her cheeks.

“Whiling away the time, huh? That's why you think I want to hold you and kiss you?”

“Yes, and so do you, if you'll admit it.” She sniffed, trying hard to make it a small one, but he heard anyway.

“You're crying.”

“I'm not!”

“Yes, you are.” His fingers tried to turn her face to him, and when she held it firmly away, they stroked her cheeks to wipe away the tears. “So you thought I was amusing myself with you?”

“Weren't you?”

“I thought it was mutual. Didn't you enjoy it?”

“You know I did.” She looked into his face, and there was something there that she had dreamed of but never hoped to see. Was it a little like loving concern for her? No, she simply was seeing what she wanted to see.

“Then why did you cry?”

“I don't know. I've cried more lately than I've cried in years.” She hesitated, then began again honestly. “You'll be going away. I don't…want to fall in love with you. I already have enough grief in my life.” She moved out of his embrace and stood for a moment looking at him, then turned to go into the house.

“Don't go in. Let's talk about this, Leona.”

“No. I can't think straight when you …when I'm with you. Goodnight.” She slipped inside the darkened house.

Well, hell.

Yates left the porch and went to stand beside his car and lit a cigarette. For a moment or two, he was ashamed of how much he wanted to bury himself in her and ease his need for physical release. He would see that she enjoyed it, too. He wasn't that selfish. He puffed on his cigarette and thought of how she had responded to his kisses.

Had she expected his confession of undying love? He hadn't planned to
love
any woman. He liked her, liked being with her. She calmed the restlessness in him for now, but that wasn't enough to make him give up his plans and take a wife when he wasn't ready.

Guilt swamped him, even as he told himself he had nothing to feel guilty about. Leona was a grown woman. She could have gotten up off that bench and gone into the house when he'd kissed her the first time. She'd had the perfect excuse when the car came in for gas.

But she'd stayed.

She didn't want to fall in love with him.
Well, that was all right with him. He hadn't planned to take a wife for quite a few years and when he did, she didn't have to love him, just like him. She would have her duties, and he would have his. The kids would come as the natural result of her being a good bed mate.

A woman like Leona was exactly the kind of woman he would consider … if he were ready to settle down. But he wanted a woman with no strings attached.

Leona was not that woman.

The next phase in his life was to go home and take over his ranch and see what remained after Arnold Taylor and his wife had been in charge of it for the past ten years. That would be most any day now, if his San Angelo lawyer was to be believed.

He dropped his cigarette and ground it into the dirt with the toe of his boot. Then, not liking at all the empty feeling in the pit of his stomach, he went to his cot in the garage. Leona was right. He hadn't taken their petting seriously. He knew the events of her life, but that wasn't the reason he had kissed her. She was pretty and he'd wanted to kiss her. It occurred to him now that he had that urge every time he was with her.

He stared off into the night. Remembering her small waist, rounded hips and soft breast caused his palms to sweat. When her nipple had responded to his touch and became like a pebble against his palm, his erection had become so big and so hard he wasn't sure the buttons on his pants would hold it.

Well, hell.

Leona would never leave Andy and the girls if he did decide that she was the one. He didn't know why he was even thinking of the possibility. Yet, deep in the back of his mind was the disturbing thought that maybe he'd not be able to leave her without looking back.

For all her sassiness, there was a vulnerability about her that tugged at him. It was why he had felt so possessive toward her. Why he'd wanted to kill Virgil for the things he'd said to her and why he resented even Deke touching her. Where had the insane idea come from that she was his?

He felt sorry for her. Yes, that was it. He'd always had a soft spot for
defenseless
creatures. He smiled in the darkness. When riled, she was about as defenseless as a cornered cat. She'd do whatever she had to do to protect herself and those she loved. She was one of the gutsiest women he'd ever met.

Hell, Yates. Who are you trying to fool? You're falling in love with that girl!

Virgil was waiting for Deputy Ham when he parked the police car in front of his house a little after midnight. It was a quiet, dark, moonless night. He came out of the bushes at the side of the house before the deputy reached the porch. Abe was with him, but stayed out of sight.

“Wayne—”

“Jesus Christ! Don't ever come at me like that. I could have shot you.”

“I've got to talk to ya.”

“It's midnight. I just got off work. Go home, Virgil.”

“Did ya hear anythin' about the girl?”

“Only that she's home. I'm worn out. I'm going to bed.”

“Hold on, now. That feller, Yates, was in talkin to the sheriff. What'd he say?”

“How the hell do I know!”

“Ya got to quit that swearin, Wayne, or yo're headin' straight to hell,” Virgil wailed.

“You're enough to make a preacher cuss. I've told you all I know. No one has tied you or me to Andy's kid. Now are you satisfied? Keep your mouth shut and you'll be all right.”

“I'm losin' control, Wayne.” Virgil continued to whine. “Hazel ain't mindin' me no more. She's a talkin' back and sassin'. Next the little boys'll be takin' her lead. She's sent off for the two ungrateful curs that left home. They been off workin' at a CCC camp somewhere. They've done gone to the dogs, a drinkin' and chasin' after loose women.”

“Your family problems are not mine, Virgil. If you got to talk about it, talk to Brother Muse. I've got to go in. My wife will have heard the car and wonder who I'm talking to. If she knew it was you, I'd be in deep shit!”

“What's McChesney sayin 'bout Andy's kid?”

“Not much. If you can believe what Yates says, the girl didn't say where she'd been.”

“Why is that, Wayne? There somethin' wrong here—”

“Ya dumb-ass. Course there's something wrong. You shouldn't of tied her up.”

“Hazel's got to be the one who let her out. Maybe the kid got home by herself. But she couldn't of got loose and outta that shed by herself.”

“I don't want to hear any more about it. I'm going in.” Wayne started for the house. Virgil followed.

“You knew when you brought her out to my place that I would put her in the shed. She'll tell the sheriff. She'll tell that Yates feller. I know she will.”

“If she does, it's your own fault. You were so all fired determined to get the girls to spite your sister.”

“It weren't for spite. It was to save their souls—”

“Holy shit, Virgil. Little kids'd go to heaven anyway. You know that.”

“Little kids has got to have a good example set before 'em or they'll grow up wild and sinful. The devil will get them in his clutches and it's hard to get out. Ya ought to know 'bout that. He had a good hold on you, till ya shook him off.”

“I'm not going to argue with you, Virgil. Believe what you want to believe. I told you when I took the girl out to your place that you'd better take her home.”

“Ya never said nothin' of the kind. All ya said was, 'Here she is. You owe me.' I figured it out, Wayne. Ya wanted me to keep my mouth shut about your smokin so the brothers wouldn't throw you off the church council.”

“It'll be your word against mine, Virgil. Don't drag me into it. I warn you.”

“Wayne?” Livy was at the screendoor. “Who's out there? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing's wrong. Just tying up some loose ends from work.” Then in a low tone to Virgil, “Stay away from here.” He tromped across the porch and went into the house.

Virgil went back across the yard. “Come on, Abe. That bird's gettin too big for his britches.”

Chapter 28

B
ARKER FLEMING STOPPED AT THE GARAGE
on his way to Oklahoma City. He had already picked up the package Doctor Langley wanted him to take to the clinic along with a letter from him to Andy's doctor in the city

“I'm sorry that I'll not be able to get back tonight,” he said to Leona and the girls, who had come out onto the porch when Yates brought Mr. Fleming to the house. “I have business to attend to in the morning at nine o'clock. If everything goes right, I'll be finished with it, and we can leave around noon and be here by supper time.”

“Is there a chance the doctor won't let Andy come home?” Leona asked.

“Doctor Langley seems to think that he'll be released and that he'll be able to give him the rest of the shots. Andy will be terribly disappointed if the doctor insists that he stay. He's pretty tired of being up there away from his family.”

Barker Fleming patted Ruth Ann on the head. “Marie wants you to come out to the ranch for a day or two before school starts.”

“I'll ask Daddy when he gets here. I think he'll let me come.”

“He's anxious to get home. He told me how much he misses his girls.”

“Mr. Fleming,” Leona said. “I didn't get a chance to thank you for your help the other day. It's a comfort to know that we have friends we can call on in times of trouble.”

“No thanks are necessary, Miss Dawson. I'm more than glad to help you or Andy whenever I can.”

Fleming smiled fondly at Leona, and Yates's suspicious mind suddenly became alert to the fact that the Indian was a good-looking man, rich and a widower. Deke had told him that the mother of Fleming's children had died a few years back. Was he looking to replace her with Leona? He was at least twenty years her senior, but to some women his assets would more than make up for the age difference.

Yates's eyes narrowed and honed in on Leona's face in an attempt to assess her interest in the man. She was gazing at him as if he had just handed her the world!

Dammit to hell! Didn't she have better sense than to flirt with a man of Fleming's obvious experience? Was she willing to take on another family to raise because Fleming was rich? He was part Cherokee. Didn't she know that in his Indian culture a wife would never be an equal partner with a husband?

She deserved more than a second-hand family.

“After Andy gets home I'd like to bring you all out to the ranch for a picnic.”

In polished boots, tailor-made fringed jacket and tendollar Stetson, Barker Fleming would stand out in any crowd, not only because of his dress, but because of his bearing and self-confidence. Yates had to admit that a woman would be foolish to turn him down.

“Goody, goody!” JoBeth jumped up and down and clapped her hands. Ruth Ann gave her a quelling glance. “Can Aunt Leona come?” JoBeth asked.

Fleming laughed. “Of course, she can, little tadpole.”

“Yates and Daddy will come. What's a tadpole?”

“I'll explain it to you later. Mr. Fleming probably wants to get on the road. It's a long way to the city.” Leona smiled up at the man so sweetly that something tightened in the area of Yates's heart.

He waited impatiently while Fleming took his leave, got into his car and pulled out onto the highway. The girls ran back in the house to tell Margie about the picnic. Leona, not wanting to be alone with Yates, opened the door to follow the girls into the house.

“He's too old for you.” His crisp voice stopped her in her tracks.

She turned. “Are you talking to me?”

“You know I am. I said he's too old for you.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Fleming, dammit. Marry him and you're taking on another bunch of kids to raise. Kids that aren't yours.”

“What in the world? Mr. Fleming is a gentlemen. It's more than I can say for you.”

“Yeah, and he's got money. He'd move you out to the ranch where you'd not have to go into town but once or twice a year. When you did, no one would dare turn their noses up at you because of the Fleming influence. That's what you're angling for, isn't it? You want the protection of a man like Fleming, and you'd marry him to get it.”

“You …are out of your mind. Mr. Fleming is a friend, has been a friend since long before my sister died. He has no more romantic interest in me than he does in JoBeth.” Leona's temper was rising as fast as her awareness of what Yates was insinuating.