Too Close To The Fire/Too Hot To Handle (Montana Men 3) (15 page)

Yes,
that was then, this was now, and a bad situation had taken a turn for the worse
and was about to get even worse—and he knew it.

Danger
might be the ex-husband. He might be married to another woman, but Rafe knew,
as sure as there were stars in the sky, new bride or no new bride, the man still
loved Lacey. Rafe stood squarely between.

And
he had no intention of budging.

Damn.
Rafe shook his head.

The
tightrope he’d walked to keep a lid on his feelings for Lacey had stretched so
thin after three years of holding everything in, he’d finally let go. Now, he
didn’t know how to hold them back.

Once
he’d hit bottom, he’d tossed all consideration of remaining friends with Danger
aside. How could they possibly remain friends when he wanted the man’s wife?
Refilling his cup, he stood there staring out the same window he’d seen Lacey
stare out of many times. In his mind, he saw her slender back, the way her long
hair fell to her waist in variegated shaded of gold. She was right there, so
plain he could reach out and touch her…

* * * *

Triangle, Texas

Six Months Earlier

August 18, Monday

6:00 a.m.

“Hey,
Rafe, why don’t you come up to Montana and spend the last two weeks of your
summer vacation with us? Lacey would be glad to see you. You haven’t seen
Joseph in months. He’s into everything.”

Rafe
frowned, knuckled his eyes, and sat up on the side of the bed. The phone’s
incessant ringing had dragged him out of a deep sleep, the first he’d managed
for any length of time in months.

“I
don’t know, Danger. I have plans.”

He
tried to ignore the way his heart skipped beats at the mention of Lacey’s name,
ignore the way his belly clenched and his cock jumped.

“Plans?
Ah, you finally got a woman?”

Rafe
smiled into the phone and ran fingers through his sleep-tousled hair. “No. No
woman, just—”

“What?”

The
thread of impatience he heard in Danger’s voice surprised him. Rafe frowned.
He’d never known the Montana sheriff to be anything but laidback. “Hey, you
okay?”

“Yeah.
Why?”

“I
thought I heard you groan.”

“Uh,
yeah, you’re giving my headache a headache by hem-hawing around about coming
here. Damn nose is bleeding again.”

Rafe
frowned. “Are you ill?”

“No.
I’m fine.”

“The
weather’s starting to cool off some here. I thought I’d get some hiking in.”

“You
can hike here. Besides, it’s much prettier scenery. I won’t take no for an
answer. Lacey and you can go horseback riding on the days I’m too busy to
entertain you. There’s plenty to do, horseshoes, cookouts. We’ll grill fresh
trout. You won’t have time to get bored. You can help me break a couple of the
Pintos I’m having trouble with.”

“Hell
no, I’ll be on vacation. I’m not about to bust my ass breaking green horses.”

“Then
you’ll come? Great. I’ll tell Lacey to get the guestroom ready.”

“Wait,
Danger, I don’t know—”

“Oh,
no, you’re already committed. We’ll expect you tomorrow.”

Rafe
sighed. He knew he was going to cave. He wanted to see Lacey too badly.

Weak bastard.

“Do
I need to bring anything? Wine? Steaks?”

“Yourself.
We have plenty of everything else. Oh, you might pick Lacey up some flowers or
something nice, since she’ll be doing most of the hostessing.”

Rafe’s
brows furrowed. “Okay. Flowers it is. White daisies, those are her favorite,
right? ”

“That’s
right. She’ll love you for bringing them to her.”

Love
him?

His heart skipped a beat. If only—

Rafe
hung up the phone. Odd request. Bring Lacey flowers? He would have done so
anyway. He always did. Rafe ran his fingers through his hair and swore softly.
He’d tried hard to stay away from the Blackstone Ranch, stay away from Lacey,
but Danger wasn’t helping matters one whit. His constant invitations only
shredded Rafe’s good intentions.

Bring
her flowers?

How
could Danger make such a request? Couldn’t the man see he wanted to fuck his
wife?
Shit!
It wasn’t like he was
good at acting or hiding how he felt. Danger had to suspect—

Jesus.
He was in trouble here, but staying away from Lacey any longer was impossible.
He’d be content just to see her, hear her laughter, her voice, and see her
smile. Rafe picked up the phone and booked a flight to Havre, Montana for the
next afternoon.

* * * *

Lacey
waited for Rafe at the airport the next day. She grinned when he handed her the
bouquet of white daisies. “My favorite. Thank you, Rafe. You didn’t have to do
it. I love them.”

“Yes,
I did. Danger threatened to shoot me if I didn’t.”

She
laughed. “He did? I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately. He’s always so
busy. He’s tired all the time. He’s been having bad headaches. I keep telling
him he needs to take some time off, but he won’t.” She smiled and hugged him.
“Welcome back. We’re always glad to see you. With you here, maybe Danger will
slow down a bit and relax.”

Rafe
grabbed a black duffle off the luggage carousel and paused to hug her back. He
loved the clean smell of her skin, the hint of country flowers in her hair.

The
innocent press of her soft breasts against his chest nearly undid him. She
didn’t come on to him, and the hug she gave him was strictly impersonal, but he
pulled her a little closer, and she let him. He knew she thought nothing of it,
but he needed every bit of the closeness.

Rafe
laughed, released her, and stepped back. “Wow, I swear you get prettier every
time I see you.”

Bright
color stained her cheeks. “Aw shucks, sugar, I bet you say that to all the
ladies.”

“Maybe.”
He let his carry-on slide down to conceal the thick bulge pushing against the
front of his jeans. He hadn’t been around her two minutes, and already he had
the beginnings of a hard-on. Every time he got near her, everything in his body
tightened. His gut clenched. His balls ached, and his dick throbbed like a
fucking toothache.

He
didn’t tell every female she got prettier every time he saw her, either, only
Lacey, with her sexy, sultry Southern drawl that wrapped around him like sin
and good sex. Her voice drove him to madness with images of the two of them
tangled together on hot afternoons.

“Danger
has so many plans for you,” she said. “Hunting, fishing, camping, you name it.”

Smiling,
he fell into step beside her. “How can I resist all those lures? Hunting,
fishing, camping?”

She
laughed. “You can’t. Come on. I’m parked in a no-parking zone. If we don’t
hurry, they’ll tow away the Jeep, and we’ll have to spend the night in Havre.”

He
choked and glanced at the front of his jeans. Nothing could be better than
spending a night alone with Lacey Blackstone. Or more dangerous. He might not
be able to resist the lure to return to the Blackstone Ranch, but it had
nothing to do with all the activities Danger had planned for him.

Damn.
He was crazy in love with her, and after so long, he didn’t think it was going
away. Lacey was it for him, the one he wanted to spend his life with. An
impossible dream. She belonged to Danger.

As
she settled behind the wheel, she
slid
her sunglasses
in place and grinned at him. “So what have you been doing since you were here
last? Gosh, what’s it been? Six months?” She adjusted the rearview mirror,
stuck the key in the ignition, and fastened her seatbelt.

“Eight,”
he replied quietly.
Ten days. Twelve
hours. Thirty minutes.

Eight
miserable fucking months in which he’d counted off every single day, hour, and
minute. Eight months since he’d heard her voice, listened to the sound of her
laughter. Eight months of imagining Danger touching her and doing all the
things to her he yearned to do, months of walking the floor at night, his dick
hard as a rock, the only relief, his fisted hand.

His
body burned with the need to simply hold her in his arms.

“You
shouldn’t wait so long between visits.” She steered the Jeep into the proper
lane and left the airport and city of Havre behind. She hit highway two and
headed east toward Chinook. “What have you been up to these past months? You
haven’t even called.”

He
shrugged. “You know, shooting bad guys. I joined a rattlesnake roundup,
captured several and managed not to get bitten. Cooked those babies up and had
a real Texas feast.”

“Really?”
She wrinkled her nose, laughed, and patted his hand where it rested on his
thigh. “Please don’t say it tastes just like chicken.”

Rafe
laughed. “Never. I wouldn’t dream of comparing rattlesnake to chicken. It’s a
delicacy, but an acquired taste, I’m sure. You’ll have to try it sometime.”

“Rattlesnake?”
She shuddered. “You and Danger are a pair. I can picture him doing something
like that.”

She
didn’t notice he flinched beneath her touch. And didn’t notice when his thumb
grazed her wrist. His cock must be a glutton for attention. It noticed
everything she did. Rafe shifted in the seat and eased the pressure inside his
jeans. Damn it, he should have stayed in Texas. This was never going to work.
He couldn’t be around her or touch her without his body responding.

Last
time he left Montana, he swore never to return. When he arrived home, he ripped
his phone off the wall so he wouldn’t be tempted to call Danger in hopes Lacey
would be the one to answer the phone.

Of
course it had been a stupid thing to do, ripping off the phone. In his line of
work, he had to have it. He’d forced his mind to accept the woman he desired was
another man’s wife and ignored the absent phone for as long as possible. It was
too hard on his heart to love Lacey and know he couldn’t have her. A little
more of him died every time he had to leave and return to Texas.

Here
he was, back again. When he left, he’d be shredded inside just like all the
other times, his heart in pieces, a bleeding wreck—his body in torment and
need.

“No
girlfriend?” she teased and brushed a strand of hair out of her mouth.

The
movement and rush of wind flowing around them in the open-top Jeep plastered
the soft material of her white T-shirt against her rounded breasts. He fastened
his gaze on the fine curves and lingered on the impression of her baby-pink
areolas and firm nipples stabbing the material. Hell, his mouth went dry.

Jesus,
I need a little help here.

Rafe
glanced at his lap.

And you behave! You can’t have her.

“Did
you say something?”

“Nah,
just spitting in the wind.”

The full shape and
size of her breasts delineated against the soft material left nothing to the
imagination. His fingers twitched with urgent need to stroke what he knew lay
bare underneath the shirt, what he knew he had no right to lay a hand on.

His mouth suddenly
watered. He hadn’t thought he possessed a drop of moisture inside his mouth,
but he did. Sweet. She’d taste like an aphrodisiac on his tongue.

Rafe
smothered a groan. Damn, he was a dying man here. The pressure behind his
zipper increased. His cock was in urgent need of action.
Shit!
This was going to be a long, miserable two weeks, just like
the last time. He squirmed and tore his gaze from her breasts.

“You
never did say if you have a girlfriend or not.”

He
felt like an utter fool for listening to his heart and coming to Montana.
Nothing could come of it. Nothing. Lacey was his best friend’s wife. Out of
reach. Untouchable.

“Rafe?”

“No.
No girlfriend,” he answered in a strangled tone. “I don’t have time for a
girlfriend.”

“You’d
better make time before you grow too old to father children.”

He
forced a grin to his mouth and wiped a drop of sweat from his brow with his
thumb. “At thirty-four, I have plenty of time yet.”

She
laughed and turned her attention to the winding, mountainous curves, flipped on
the blinker, turned right at Chinook, and headed south on County Highway 236 to
Rimrock.

His
gaze dropped to her flat stomach. He visualized it rounded with his baby. It
was something he’d pictured many times. A man had to be a goner if all he
thought about was making another man’s wife pregnant.

He’d
never given much thought to having children. He risked his life daily on the
job, but when he had sex, protecting a woman against pregnancy was something he
took care with. He never accepted a woman’s word she was on the pill.

But
with Lacey, the thought of making and having a baby with her never went away.

The
smart thing to do would be to tell her to turn around and take him back to the
airport, make up some excuse about urgent paperwork he forgot to send off and
hop on the first flight to Texas. Something.
Anything.
But he didn’t.

“Are
you hungry?”

Rafe
jerked at her question.

Hungry?

Couldn’t
she see how starved he was for her? “Yeah. I didn’t eat breakfast or lunch, and
they didn’t serve a meal on the plane.” He glanced at his watch. Four-thirty.
No wonder his stomach rumbled.

“There’s
a little café in the next town that serves the best buffalo burgers around,
maybe not as good as Texas rattlesnake, but damn good. You wanna stop?”

“Sure.
Sounds delicious.”

Plus
it gave him extra time alone with Lacey, time before he had to face Danger and
pretend he didn’t have the hots for the man’s wife. Time he decided to spend
wisely. She was right—if he was going to have a wife and family, he needed to
get started.