To Love & Protect Her

“I am a little tired,” she said, and she heard the weariness in her own voice.

“Then come on, Blue. Close your eyes.”

She curled up on the seat, adjusted her seat belt, and leaned against his shoulder. His muscles were tense and hard beneath her ear, and when she shifted around, she felt him tremble. But the rumble of the truck’s engine soothed her, and the warmth of Griff’s body surrounded her—she felt herself relaxing.

“Why did you call me Blue?” she asked, her voice sleepy.

“It’s an Australian nickname for someone with red hair.”

His voice washed over her, and she snuggled closer. She felt him tense again, and then his hand stroked over her hair. “Go to sleep, Willa.”

“Keep talking to me,” she said, tucking her hand under his arm. “Why do Australians call people with red hair ‘Blue’? That sounds kind of contrary.”

“That’s because Australians are contrary.” She heard the smile in his voice. “Blue is also what we call an argument. I guess people think that redheads are more likely to get into arguments.”

“I think that’s unfair. I’m very even tempered.”

“Is that right?” He stroked her hair again, and she wanted to arch into his touch. “I’ll remember you said that next time you’re giving me grief over my protecting you.”

She imagined that he touched her hair again, very lightly, and she thought his hand lingered on her head. She wanted to beg him not to stop, but she clamped her mouth firmly shut. It was the blow to the head, she told herself. It was making her want things she knew she couldn’t have. It made her yearn for what couldn’t be.

Silence filled the car again. “Don’t stop talking,” she said, and her voice was drowsy with sleep. “I love to listen to you. Your accent is so musical.”

“I don’t have an accent, mate,” he said, exaggerating his drawl. “It’s you Yanks who talk funny.”

She smiled and allowed herself to drift to the place between sleep and wakefulness. “Tell me about your sister. I like her so much.”

“She’s something, our Matilda is.” Willa heard the love mixed with resignation in his voice. “She’s a handful. It took me and all four of my brothers to keep an eye on her.”

“I bet she loved that.”

“She’s a lot like you, Willa. She was sure she could take care of herself, too.”

“I know her well enough to know that she can.” She was too tired to rise to his bait. “Can you tell me about Australia?”

He hesitated, then he began speaking in a low, soothing voice, describing the beauty of his country. As she drifted off to sleep, she realized that he was deliberately lulling her, but she didn’t care. Her head still hurt, and she was exhausted. And although she was driving through the night to an unknown destination with a man she didn’t know all that well, she felt amazingly content.

She was with Griff, and that was all that mattered.

Two

“Wake up, Willa.”

The voice intruded on her dreams, and she closed her eyes more firmly and tried to hang on as the dream faded into the mist. She was dreaming about Griff, and his hand was drawing a long, lazy line down her back. She didn’t want to wake up, didn’t want the dream to end.

“Come on, Willa, it’s time to wake up.”

It was Griff’s voice, and his hand was touching her shoulder. Slowly she opened her eyes. She was lying on his lap, and his brown eyes were looking down at her, concern in their warm depths.

She scrambled to sit up. “Griff?” She pushed her hair out of her eyes and stared at him. “What are you doing here? And where are we?”

“We’re in El Paso—” he began.

“El Paso!” she gasped. “What are we doing in El Paso?”

He hesitated. “Don’t you remember what happened last night?”

Last night. Suddenly all the events of the night before came flooding back. “I had forgotten,” she whispered.

“How’s your head?”

She touched the lump on her left temple. “It hurts,” she said. “But I’m sure I’ll survive.”

He worked his jaw. “I’ll take care of it when we get to the cabin. I thought we’d stop in here first and get some groceries and other things we’ll need.”

She looked out the window of the truck and saw that they were in the parking lot of a store that advertised one-stop shopping. “All right.”

Before she could get out of the car, Griff laid his hand on her arm. Her skin heated and her heart raced, but Griff didn’t seem to notice a thing.

“I’m not going to say anything in the store,” he said. “We don’t want anyone remembering the bloke with the funny accent.”

Willa felt herself pale as she looked at him. “Do you think the kidnappers could have followed us from College Station?”

“No one followed us. I’m sure of that. But we don’t want to take any chances, so I’m keeping my mouth shut.”

He drew his hand away, and Willa felt bereft. She wanted to reach for him, but instead curled her fingers into her palm. She’d better get hold of herself. She was going to be spending a lot of time with Griff.

They went through the store quickly, loading their shopping cart with food and a couple of changes of clothes for each of them. Willa grabbed toiletries, as well as a handful of books to read.

In a half hour they were back in the truck. Griff’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, and he didn’t look at Willa. “I have to call Ryan and get directions to the cabin,” he said. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Are you having second thoughts?” she asked. “I didn’t even think to ask if you could spare the time to stay with me.”

“My time isn’t a problem,” he said, his voice short. “I want to be sure you understand that we’re going to be alone together, possibly for a while. Are you sure you don’t want to go somewhere else?”

She was too aware of Griff, sitting so close to her in the car. Surrounded by his male scent, his leather jacket still wrapped around her shoulders, her senses were overwhelmed with him. The air around them pulsated with tension. Spending time alone with Griff would be dangerous.

“I’m sure,” she said.

Griff studied Willa for a moment. Her eyes were heavy with fatigue and the bruise on her temple stood out sharply on her pale face. But he saw the resolution in her eyes and nodded with approval. “Good. I’ll call Ryan, then.”

Willa was a lot tougher than he’d suspected, he reflected as he listened to the phone connecting. She was a lady, and he hadn’t spent much time around ladies in his life. He had been prepared for tears and a quivering fearfulness. But Willa had just lifted her chin and given him a steady look. He was almost ready to believe her when she said she could take care of herself.

Almost, but not quite.

She was too trusting, too good-hearted to be as wary as she needed to be. She probably trusted anyone who didn’t actually wave a gun in her face, he thought cynically. If anyone needed a keeper, it was Willa Simms.

He wanted nothing more than to volunteer for the job.

And wouldn’t that be a sight. Wild Griffin Fortune, with his dubious personal background and his present unsavory job, involved with genteel Willa Simms, university professor.

If it weren’t so ludicrous, his fantasy would be good for a laugh. As it was, it was merely pathetic.

He had absolutely nothing in common with Willa. As if to remind him of that fact, his Uncle Ryan’s voice came on the phone.

“Ryan, it’s Griff. We’ve run into a bit of trouble.”

“What is it?” Griff could imagine Ryan sitting up straight in his chair, his eyebrows drawn together.

Griff quickly explained what had happened at Willa’s the night before. “We’re in another part of the state now,” he said, aware that it was all too easy to eavesdrop on a cellular phone call. “I remember you mentioned a cabin that Mary Ellen owns. The one that Jace used recently. Could you give me directions?”

“Of course.” Ryan told him how to get to the isolated cabin, being careful not to mention any names that could give away their location. And he told him obliquely where the key was hidden. Ryan was quick, Griff thought with appreciation.

“We’re going to stay there for a while. You might want to get some investigators into College Station, see what they can find out. I’d rather not expose Willa to another kidnapping attempt.”

“Thank God you got to her apartment when you did.”

Griff could hear the emotion in Ryan’s voice.

“Are you sure she’s all right?”

“She will be. Your goddaughter is tough,” he said.

There must have been surprise in his voice, because Ryan laughed. “Damn right, she’s tough. She gets that from her old man. He was one hard guy. Let me talk to her.”

He handed the phone to Willa and watched her as she listened to Ryan. Her eyes softened and her mouth trembled as she smiled. Finally she said, “I’m fine, Ryan, and so is Griff. I hope you don’t mind if we use Mary Ellen’s cabin.”

She smiled again as she listened, and a low laugh gurgled out of her throat. Its husky sound wound its way inside him and seemed to take hold. He wanted to hear that laugh of Willa’s again.

Smiling, she said goodbye and handed him the phone. “Ryan says he trusts you with my life.”

Griff scowled, irritated by his inability to control his desire for Willa. “He knows damn well he can trust me with your life. I’d never let a family member down.”

Willa’s smile faded a little. “I’m glad you take your family obligations so seriously.” She shifted to stare out the window of the truck, but he’d caught the hurt in her eyes before she turned away.

Griff watched her stiff back, felt the tension swirling through the cab of the truck, and sighed. “Hell, Willa, you know I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Do I? I know practically nothing about you,” she retorted. “And for the record, you don’t owe me any explanations.” Her voice was cool, and she didn’t turn around. “We’re in an unfortunate situation, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll intrude in your life. You can be sure I won’t be a burden.”

She was as far from a burden as he could imagine, and he wanted nothing more than to have Willa intrude in his life. The realization brought a knot to his gut. He gripped the steering wheel more tightly. “Willa, I wouldn’t have brought you here to El Paso if I didn’t care what happened to you. If I were just doing a favor for Ryan, I would have taken you back to the Double Crown Ranch. I didn’t mean it that way.”

Willa turned around and looked at him, but her eyes were carefully blank. “I’m sorry if I misunderstood, Griff. Shouldn’t we be on our way?”

He swore silently as he put the truck into gear and pulled out of the parking lot a little more quickly than he should have. “You’re right. We don’t want to stay here long enough to give anyone a chance to remember us.”

They rode in silence for a while, tension still thick between them. He was shocked to realize that he wanted to pull Willa into his arms and show her just how much he cared about what happened to her. Telling himself again that he was too rough and untamed for a woman like Willa, he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and listened to the hum of the tires on the asphalt.

Taking Willa to this cabin, staying alone there with her, was a huge mistake. He should have known better. He’d known from the first time he saw Willa that she would be trouble. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. And now he was going to be cooped up with her in a tiny cabin, with nothing else to do but look at her. And talk to her.

He should turn around right now and go back to the Double Crown Ranch.

But he couldn’t take any chances with her, so he continued on the route out of El Paso. When the road began climbing into the mountains, he forced himself to say to her, “Have you ever been to this part of Texas?”

“No,” she answered. Her voice was carefully even, and he couldn’t interpret her tone. “Before I moved to College Station, the only part of Texas I’d visited was the Double Crown and San Antonio.”

“Keep an eye on the area,” he said gruffly. “You never know when you’ll need to find your way around here.”

Her eyes widened as she stared at him. “What do you mean?”

She seemed more puzzled than shocked, and he sighed at her naiveté. “We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next several days. I want you to be prepared for anything.”

He felt her eyes on him, studying him. “I think I understand what Ryan meant,” she finally said slowly. “Don’t worry, Griff. I could get us back to El Paso if I had to, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“What did Ryan say?” he asked, unable to stop himself.

To his surprise, a faint smile played around her lips. “He said that you always think three steps ahead of everyone else. He said that you’d managed to surprise even him. Now I understand what he meant. I can practically see you thinking as you drive, preparing for any possibility.”

“I learned a long time ago that you only survive if you’re smarter than your enemy. And I intend for both of us to survive.”

“I already told you that I trust you,” she said softly. “I meant it, Griff.”

The coolness was gone from her eyes. Now there was only warmth, and a light that burned steadily as she watched him. It made an answering flame leap inside him.

Deliberately, he turned away to focus on the road. There was no excuse for becoming distracted from his job. And Willa was definitely a distraction.

“According to Ryan, we should be there in about ten minutes,” he said.

“And then what?”

“Then we wait,” he said grimly. “Ryan is putting some private investigators on the job in College Station to see what they can turn up. We’re going to stay here until we have some answers. Until we know who was trying to kidnap you, I don’t want to take any chances.”

“All right.”

He glanced over at her. “All right? As easily as that? What if Ryan doesn’t learn anything? You don’t have forever before you have to start teaching your classes again. What if we don’t know what’s going on, and you have to go back to the university?”

“I’m not sure,” she said slowly. “Right now, the university and my job there seem very far away. I haven’t thought about it once since we left College Station.” She turned to him again, and gave him a blinding smile that made his legs weak. “I’m not going to worry about that until I have to.”

“I thought you were a regimented, plan-everything kind of woman,” he managed to say. “You teach at a university, for God’s sake. How much more by-the-book can you get than that? I figured an open-ended stay here in El Paso would be a problem for you.”

“I guess you were wrong, then,” she said lightly. “Maybe underneath this mousy exterior, I’m really a wild woman.”

“Mousy?” He gave her an incredulous look. “You’re about as far from mousy as you could get.”

His response was instantaneous, and he saw her blush. “Thank you, Griff,” she murmured. “But my physical attributes aren’t the issue. My job is. And I have a month before I have to worry about it. So let’s just forget about it for now.”

“That’s fine with me,” he muttered. How was he supposed to forget her physical attributes? he thought to himself. Especially when she’d spent the night sleeping on his lap.

He hardened again just thinking about it. He’d seen that her head was bent as she slept on his shoulder, and knew she’d awaken with a stiff neck. So he’d eased her down until she rested on his lap. That had been a mistake. It had been a night of pure torture for him, but he wouldn’t have traded it for anything. The fragrant cloud of her hair had drifted over his thigh, and whenever he’d shifted, her scent had swirled around him. As she slept, she’d unselfconsciously slid her hand under his leg, and the imprint of her fingers still burned on his skin. Even the heavy denim fabric of his jeans hadn’t been a barrier to the sensations. He’d been in a state of arousal for the whole trip, and it still hadn’t receded completely.

Which was probably why he was acting like an idiot.

“Here’s the road that leads to the cabin,” he said, as they turned onto a rutted dirt track. He was relieved and grateful for the distraction. “It doesn’t look like anyone has been this way in a while.”

“Great,” she said fervently. “I can’t wait to get out of this truck.”

Neither could he. The atmosphere was too confined, too intimate. Especially after last night.

But he was afraid that living in the same house with Willa was going to be even more so.

Betsy Keene sat on the shabby couch in the small living area of her trailer near Leather Bucket and shrank back against the cushions. She stared at the man who had been her lover ever since he showed up on her doorstep six months ago, wounded and needing help. Clint Lockhart raged through the room, throwing papers onto the floor and overturning her tiny kitchen table and chairs. His blue eyes were black with rage, and his arrogant mouth, the mouth she’d come to love, was twisted into a frightening grimace.

“We should have had her!” he shouted, slamming his fist onto the counter. The jars and boxes on top of the counter jumped, and so did Betsy. “One more minute, and we would have had her.”

“We can try again, Clint,” Betsy said, her voice placating.

“When?” He turned on her, his eyes blazing. “When will we get another chance? That meddling son of a bitch Ryan Fortune is going to make sure we can’t get close to Willa again. He’ll swoop her up and bring her to the Double Crown Ranch, and that will be it. We can’t take her from that ranch. Everyone there knows me. And since you started working at the ranch house they know you, too.”

“Maybe there’s something we can do,” she said nervously, pleating the fabric of her dress with shaking fingers. Clint was frightening her. He’d lost his temper before, but this time there was a glaze of madness in his eyes. She prayed he wouldn’t turn his rage against her.

“What can we do?” Clint’s voice dripped with scorn. “Should I call her on the phone and ask her to meet us somewhere by herself? That snooty, stuck-up college professor is too smart for that.” He kicked over a table and sent a lamp crashing into a wall. “She won’t be so stuck-up once I get my hands on her.”

Fear filled Betsy’s mouth with a sour taste as she edged away from Clint. My God, what was wrong with him? Willa Simms had never harmed him, or her, either. In fact, Willa had always been pleasant to her, and very kind.

“Why are you so angry with Willa?” she asked, her voice tentative.

“Because she has what I should have,” he shouted at her, his eyes full of rage. “She has free run of the Double Crown. Ryan Fortune gives her anything she wants. That should be my ranch. And it would be, too, if Ryan’s father hadn’t swindled my dad into selling our neighboring ranch to him. I should’ve inherited the ranch from my father. I should be the one in charge. Everyone should kowtow to me. I should be the one with all the money. And I will be. I’ll get the ranch in the end. We’ll see who’s smarter, me or Ryan Fortune. He thought he was so smart trying to frame me for Sophia’s murder, but I’ll show him.”

“I know you’ll win,” Betsy said. She had to soothe him somehow. “You’re smarter than Ryan Fortune. Anyone can see that.”

“That’s right,” he said, seeming to calm down at her words. “At least you believe in me, Betsy.”

“You know I do, Clint.” She licked her lips and watched him carefully. The madness seemed to be fading from his eyes. “You wouldn’t really hurt Willa, would you?”

A crafty look came into his eyes. “Now, why would I want to do that? That would be like killing the goose that laid the golden egg, wouldn’t it?”

“I knew you were a smart one, Clint. I knew it right away.”

Betsy told herself she should be relieved, but fear ate away at her gut. Clint was getting more impatient, more angry every day. And he’d raged at her during the entire trip back from College Station.

“That’s right, Betsy. I’m smart enough to figure this out.” His mouth twisted again, and once more madness shone out of his eyes. “And who was that man at her apartment who chased us, anyway? Do you know?”

“N-no, Clint, I don’t.” He’d looked familiar, but she’d been trying to get away and hadn’t taken a good look. “He must have been intending to visit someone in the apartment.”

Clint’s eyes darkened. “I’ll teach him to meddle.”

“He’s probably long gone,” Betsy said, watching Clint, the fear roiling inside her. Had Clint gone completely mad? “We won’t have to worry about him the next time.”

But her words only seemed to infuriate him. “Next time?” he screamed. “Next time? How can there be a next time? We should have had her tonight.”

“Maybe she’s at the ranch already.” Betsy clutched the fabric of her dress more tightly. She was terribly afraid of what Clint would do to Willa. But she was more afraid of what he would do to her. So she took a breath and said, “If she’s at the ranch, I’ll get her to come with me. She’d have no reason to be afraid of me. I’ll bring her to you.”

“What if she’s not at the ranch?” Clint asked. Now his eyes looked calculating.

“I’ll stick close to Ryan’s office,” she said, desperate to find some way of appeasing Clint. “She’s bound to get in touch with him. I’ll listen whenever he gets a phone call. I’ll get the information for you. Haven’t I always done what you wanted me to do?”

He smiled at her, but there was no warmth in his face, and Betsy shivered. “Yeah, you’ve always done what I wanted you to do, Betsy. And I won’t forget it.”

He grabbed his coat from the door and stepped outside. “I need to think for a while. You figure out how you’re going to get that information for me.”

Clint slammed the door, and the trailer shook for a moment. Betsy slumped against the couch, staring at the door, as tears slowly trickled down her face. How did everything go so wrong? she cried to herself. She’d had such glorious dreams of a wonderful life with Clint. Now they were as old and dusty as the dirt of the Double Crown Ranch. And as unattainable.

She had to put Griff out of her mind, Willa told herself as they bumped along the rutted dirt trail that was supposed to lead to the cabin. The disturbing feelings he roused in her were nothing more than her hormones reacting to an attractive man. Griff wouldn’t be interested in a woman like her, a woman who wasn’t exciting or glamorous or sophisticated.

She stared out the window, trying to find something else to think about. “The trees along this road to the house are beautiful,” she said in a low voice, desperate for an innocuous topic to discuss.

“They’re a problem.” Griff sounded worried.

She couldn’t stop herself from looking over at him. “What do you mean, ‘they’re a problem’?”

“Too much cover.” His face was hard. “Anyone could sneak up on the cabin along this road, and we wouldn’t be able to see them until they were at the door.”

“Who’s going to come to the cabin, Griff?” she asked. “No one but Ryan knows we’re here.”

He glanced over at her, and she thought his eyes softened a little. “Remember what you said about thinking three steps ahead? That’s what I’m trying to do.”

“But it’s so quiet up here. Surely we would hear anyone driving up the road.”

“I hope so.” He glanced out the window again. “Damn trees. I don’t know why you Americans are so nuts about trees.”

“Don’t you have trees in Australia?” she asked, trying to keep the laughter from her voice.

“We have plenty of trees,” he muttered. “We just don’t put them where they don’t need to be.” When he glanced over at her and saw her smiling, he smiled reluctantly. “We don’t have a lot of trees on the Crown Peak Ranch. It’s mostly pasture and red dirt. And don’t mind me. I’m just worrying out loud.”

“I think the trees along the road are beautiful.”

He scowled again. “Yeah, they’re magnificent.”

She turned to look out the window again, her smile fading. Griff took his job very seriously. And she was grateful that he did. She needed to keep that in mind.