One Of A Kind

“Harley’s nice,” Marilee murmured. “He’s Cy Parks’s head foreman now, and everybody says he’s got what it takes to run a business of his own.” What Marilee didn’t add was that Harley had asked her out several times before his raid on the drug lord with the local mercenaries, and she’d turned him down flat. She’d thought he bragged and strutted a little too much, that he was too immature for her. She’d even told him so. It had made her a bitter enemy of his.

Now she was rather sorry that she hadn’t given him a chance. He really was different these days, much more mature and very attractive. Not that Leo wasn’t a dish. But she felt so guilty about Janie that she couldn’t even enjoy his company, much less the party. If Janie showed up and saw her with Leo, she was going to know everything. It wasn’t conducive to a happy evening at all.

“What’s wrong?” Leo asked when he saw her expression. “Janie’s never going to get over it if she shows up and sees me with you,” she replied honestly. “I didn’t think how it would look…”

“I don’t belong to anybody,” Leo said angrily. “It’s just as well to let Janie know that. So what if she does show up? Who cares?”

“I do,” Marilee sighed.

Just as she spoke, Janie came in the door with a tall, good-looking, dark-haired man in a dark suit with a ruffled white shirt and black bow tie. Janie had just taken off her black velvet coat and hung it on the rack near the door. Under it, she was wearing a sexy white silk gown that fell softly down her slender figure to her shapely ankles. The spaghetti strips left her soft shoulders almost completely bare, and dipped low enough to draw any man’s eyes. She was wearing her thick, light brown hair down. It reached almost to her waist in back in a beautiful, glossy display. She wore just enough makeup to enhance her face, and she was clinging to Harley’s arm with obvious pleasure as they greeted the Ballengers and their wives.

Leo had forgotten how pretty Janie could look when she worked at it. Lately, he’d only seen her covered in mud and flour. Tonight, her figure drew eyes in that dress. He remembered the feel of her in his arms, the eager innocence of her mouth under his, and he suddenly felt uneasy at the way she was clinging to Harley’s arm.

If he was uncomfortable, Marilee was even more so. She stood beside Leo and looked as if she hated herself. He took another long sip of his drink before he guided her toward Harley and Janie.

“No sense hiding, is there?” he asked belligerently.

Marilee sighed miserably. “No sense at all, I guess.”

They moved forward together. Janie noticed them and her eyes widened and darkened with pain for an instant. Leo’s harsh monologue at the hardware store had been enough to wound her, but now she was seeing that she’d been shafted by her best friend, as well. Marilee said Janie didn’t know her date, but all along, apparently, she’d planned to come with Leo. No wonder she’d been so curious about whether or not Janie was going to show up.

Everything suddenly made perfect sense. Marilee had filled Leo up with lies about Janie gossiping about him, so that she could get him herself. Janie felt like an utter fool. Her chin lifted, but she didn’t smile. Her green eyes were like emerald shards as they met Marilee’s.

“H… hi, Janie,” Marilee stammered, forcing a smile. “You said you weren’t coming tonight.”

“I wasn’t,” Janie replied curtly. “But Harley was at a loose end and didn’t have a date, so he asked me.” She looked up at the tall, lean man beside her, who was some years younger than Leo, and she smiled at him with genuine affection even through her misery. “I haven’t danced in years.”

“You’ll dance tonight, darlin’,” Harley drawled, smiling warmly as he gripped her long fingers in his. He looked elegant in his dinner jacket, and there was a faint arrogance in his manner now that hadn’t been apparent before. He glanced at Marilee and there was barely veiled contempt in the look.

Marilee swallowed hard and avoided his piercing gaze.

“I didn’t know you could dance, Harley,” Marilee murmured, embarrassed.

He actually ignored her, his narrow gaze going to Leo. “Nice turnout, isn’t it?” he asked the older man.

“Nice,” Leo said, but he didn’t smile. “I haven’t seen your boss tonight.”

“The baby had a cold,” Harley said. “He and Lisa don’t leave him when he’s sick.” He looked down at Janie deliberately. “Considering how happy the two of them are, I guess marriage isn’t such a bad vocation after all,” he mused.

“For some, maybe,” Leo said coldly. He was openly glaring at Harley.

“Let’s get on the dance floor,” Harley told Janie with a grin. “I’m anxious to try out that waltz pattern I’ve been learning.”

“You’ll excuse us, I’m sure,” Janie told the woman who was supposed to be her best friend. Her eyes were icy as she realized how she’d been betrayed by Marilee’s supposed “help” with Leo.

Marilee grimaced. “Oh, Janie,” she groaned. “Let me explain….”

But Janie wasn’t staying to listen to any halfhearted explanations. “Nice to see you, Marilee. You, too, Mr. Hart,” she added with coldly formal emphasis, not quite meeting Leo’s eyes. But she noted the quick firming of his chiseled lips with some satisfaction at the way she’d addressed him.

“Why do you call him Mr. Hart?” Harley asked as they moved away.

“He’s much older than we are, Harley,” she replied, just loudly enough for Leo to hear her and stiffen with irritation. “Almost another generation.”

“I guess he is.”

Leo took a big swallow of his drink and glared after them.

“She’ll never speak to me again,” Marilee said in a subdued tone.

He glared at her. “I’m not her personal property,” he said flatly. “I never was. It isn’t your fault that she’s been gossiping and spreading lies all over town.”

Marilee winced.

He turned his attention back to Janie, who was headed onto the dance floor with damned Harley. “I don’t want her. What the hell do I care if she likes Harley?”

The music changed to a quick, throbbing Latin beat. Matt Caldwell and his wife, Leslie, were out on the dance floor already, making everybody else look like rank beginners. Everybody clapped to the rhythm until the very end, when the couple left the dance floor. Leo thought nobody could top that display until Harley walked to the bandleader, and the band suddenly broke into a Strauss waltz. That was when Harley and Janie took the floor. Then, even Matt and Leslie stood watching with admiration.

Leo stared at the couple as if he didn’t recognize them. Involuntarily, he moved closer to the dance floor to watch. He’d never seen two people move like that to music besides Matt and Leslie.

The rhythm was sweet, and the music had a sweeping beauty that Janie mirrored with such grace that it was like watching ballet. Harley turned and Janie followed every nuance of movement, her steps matching his exactly. Her eyes were laughing, like her pretty mouth, as they whirled around the dance floor in perfect unison.

Harley was laughing, too, enjoying her skill as much as she enjoyed his. They looked breathless, happy—young.

Leo finished his drink, wishing he’d added more whiskey and less soda. His dark eyes narrowed as they followed the couple around the dance floor as they kept time to the music. “Aren’t they wonderful?” Marilee asked wistfully. “I don’t guess you dance?”

He did. But he wasn’t getting on that floor and making a fool of himself with Marilee, who had two left feet and the sense of rhythm of a possum.

“I don’t dance much,” Leo replied tersely.

She sighed. “It’s just as well, I suppose. That would be a hard act to follow.”

“Yes.”

The music wound to a peak and suddenly ended, with Janie draped down Harley’s side like a bolt of satin. His mouth was almost touching hers, and Leo had to fight not to go onto the floor and throw a punch at the younger man.

He blinked, surprised by his unexpected reaction. Janie was nothing to him. Why should he care what she did? Hadn’t she bragged to everyone that he was taking her to this very dance? Hadn’t she made it sound as if they were involved?

Janie and Harley left the dance floor to furious, genuine applause. Even Matt Caldwell and Leslie congratulated them on the exquisite piece of dancing. Apparently, Harley had been taking lessons, but Janie seemed to be a natural.

But the evening was still young, as the Latin music started up again and another unexpected couple took the floor. It was Cash Grier, the new assistant police chief, with young Christabel Gaines in his arms. Only a few people knew that Christabel had been married to Texas Ranger Judd Dunn since she was sixteen—a marriage on paper, only, to keep herself and her invalid mother from losing their family ranch. But she was twenty-one now, and the marriage must have been annulled, because there she was with Cash Grier, like a blond flame in his arms as he spun her around to the throbbing rhythm and she matched her steps to his expert ones.

Unexpectedly, as the crowd clapped and kept time for them, handsome dark-eyed Judd Dunn himself turned up in evening dress with a spectacular redhead on his arm. Men’s heads turned. The woman was a supermodel, internationally famous, who was involved at a film shoot out at Judd and Christabel’s ranch. Gossip flew. Judd watched Christabel with Grier and glowered. The redhead said something to him, but he didn’t appear to be listening. He watched the two dancers with a rigid posture and an expression more appropriate for a duel than a dance. Christabel ignored him.

“Who is that man with Christabel Gaines?” Marilee asked Leo.

“Cash Grier. He used to be a Texas Ranger some years ago. They say he was in government service as well.”

Leo recalled that Grier had been working in San Antonio with the district attorney’s office before he took the position of assistant police chief in Jacobsville. There was a lot of talk about Grier’s mysterious past. The man was an enigma, and people walked wide around him in Jacobsville.

“He’s dishy, isn’t he? He dances a paso doble even better than Matt, imagine that!” Marilee said aloud. “Of course, Harley does a magnificent waltz. Who would ever have thought he’d turn out to be such a sexy, mature man…”

Leo turned on his heel and left Marilee standing by herself, stunned. He walked back to the drinks table with eyes that didn’t really see. The dance floor had filled up again, this time with a slow dance. Harley was holding Janie far too close, and she was letting him. Leo remembered what he’d said about her in the hardware store, and her wounded expression, and he filled another glass with whiskey. This time he didn’t add soda. He shouldn’t have felt bad, of course. Janie shouldn’t have been so possessive. She shouldn’t have gossiped about him…

“Hi, Leo,” his sister-in-law Tess, said with a smile as she joined him, reaching for a clear soft drink.

“No booze, huh?” he asked with a grin, noting her choice.

“I don’t want to set a bad example for my son,” she teased, because she and Cag had a little boy now. “Actually, I can’t hold liquor. But don’t tell anybody,” she added. “I’m the wife of a tough ex-Special Forces guy. I’m supposed to be a real hell-raiser.”

He smiled genuinely. “You are,” he teased. “A lesser woman could never have managed my big brother and an albino python all at once.”

“Herman the python’s living with his own mate these days,” she reminded him with a grin, “and just between us, I don’t really miss him!” She glanced toward her husband and sighed. “I’m one lucky woman.”

“He’s one lucky man.” He took a sip of his drink and she frowned.

“Didn’t you bring Marilee?” she asked.

He nodded. “Her wrist was still bothering her too much to drive, so I let her come with me. I’ve been chauffeuring her around ever since she sprained it.”

Boy, men were dense, Tess was thinking. As if a woman couldn’t drive with only one hand. She glanced past him at Marilee, who was standing by herself watching as a new rhythm began and Janie moved onto the floor with Harley Fowler. “I thought she was Janie’s best friend,” she mentioned absently. “You can never tell about people.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “I overheard her telling someone that Janie had been spreading gossip about you and her all over town.” She shook her head. “That’s not true. Janie’s so shy, it’s hard for her to even talk to most men. I’ve never heard her gossip about anyone, even people she dislikes. I can’t imagine why Marilee would tell lies about her.”

“Janie told everybody I was bringing her to the ball,” he insisted with a scowl.

“Marilee told people that Janie said that,” Tess corrected. “You really don’t know, do you? Marilee’s crazy about you. She had to cut Janie out of the picture before she could get close to you. I guess she found the perfect way to do it.”

Leo started to speak, but he hesitated. That couldn’t be true.

Tess read his disbelief and just smiled. “You don’t believe me, do you? It doesn’t matter. You’ll find out the truth sooner or later, whether you want to or not. I’ve got to find Cag. See you later!”

Leo watched her walk away with conflicting emotions. He didn’t want to believe—he wouldn’t believe—that he’d been played for a sucker. He’d seen Janie trying to become a cattleman with his own eyes, trying to compete with him. He knew that she wanted him because she’d tried continually to tempt him when he went to visit her father. She flirted shamelessly with him. She’d melted in his arms, melted under the heat of his kisses. She hadn’t made a single protest at the intimate way he’d held her. She felt possessive of him, and he couldn’t really blame her, because it was his own lapse of self-control that had given her the idea that he wanted her. Maybe he did, physically, but Janie was a novice and he didn’t seduce innocents. Her father was a business associate. It certainly wouldn’t be good business to cut his own throat with Fred by making a casual lover of Janie.

He finished the whiskey and put the glass down. He felt light-headed. That was what came of drinking when he hadn’t done it in a long time. This was stupid. He had to stop behaving like an idiot just because Fred Brewster’s little girl had cut him dead in the receiving line and treated him like an old man. He forced himself to walk normally, but he almost tripped over Cag on the way.

His brother caught him by the shoulders. “Whoa, there,” he said with a grin. “You’re wobbling.”

Leo pulled himself up. “That whiskey must be 200 proof,” he said defensively.

“No. You’re just not used to it. Leave your car here when it’s time to go,” he added firmly. “Tess and I will drop Marilee off and take you home. You’re in no fit state to drive.”

Leo sighed heavily. “I guess not. Stupid thing to do.”

“What, drinking or helping Marilee stab Janie in the back?”

Leo’s eyes narrowed on his older brother’s lean, hard face. “Does Tess tell you everything?”

He shrugged. “We’re married.”

“If I ever get married,” Leo told him, “my wife isn’t going to tell anybody anything. She’s going to keep her mouth shut.”

“Not much danger of your getting married, with that attitude,” Cag mused.

Leo squared his shoulders. “Marilee looks really great tonight,” he pointed out.

“She looks pretty sick to me,” Cag countered, eyeing the object of their conversation, who was standing alone against the opposite wall, trying to look invisible. “She should, too, after spreading that gossip around town about Janie chasing you.”

“Janie did that, not Marilee,” Leo said belligerently. “She didn’t have any reason to make it sound like we were engaged, just because I kissed her.”

Cag’s eyebrows lifted. “You kissed her?”

“It wasn’t much of a kiss,” Leo muttered gruffly. “She’s so green, it’s pathetic!”

“She won’t stay that way long around Harley,” Cag chuckled. “He’s no playboy, but women love him since he helped our local mercs take on that drug lord Manuel Lopez and won. I imagine he’ll educate Janie.”

Leo’s dark eyes narrowed angrily. He hated the thought of Harley kissing her. He really should do something about that. He blinked, trying to focus his mind on the problem.

“Don’t trip over the punch bowl,” Cag cautioned dryly. “And for God’s sake, don’t try to dance. The gossips would have a field day for sure!”

“I could dance if I wanted to,” Leo informed him.

Cag leaned down close to his brother’s ear. “Don’t ‘want to.’ Trust me.” He turned and went back to Tess, smiling as he led her onto the dance floor.

Leo joined Marilee against the wall.

She glanced at him and grimaced. “I’ve just become the Bubonic Plague,” she said with a miserable sigh. “Joe Howland from the hardware store is here with his wife,” she added uncomfortably. “He’s telling people what you said to Janie and that I was responsible for her getting the rough side of your tongue.”

He glanced down at her. “How is it your fault?”

She looked at her shoes instead of at him. She felt guilty and hurt and ashamed. “I sort of told Janie that you said you’d like her better if she could ride and rope and make biscuits, and stop dressing up all the time.”

He stiffened. He felt the jolt all the way to his toes. “You told her that?”

“I did.” She folded her arms over her breasts and stared toward Janie, who was dancing with Harley and apparently having a great time. “There’s more,” she added, steeling herself to admit it. “It wasn’t exactly true that she was telling people you were taking her to this dance.”

“Marilee, for God’s sake! Why did you lie?” he demanded. “She’s just a kid, Leo,” she murmured uneasily. “She doesn’t know beans about men or real life, she’s been protected and pampered, she’s got money, she’s pretty….” She moved restlessly. “I like you a lot. I’m older, more mature. I thought, if she was just out of the picture for a little bit, you… you might start to like me.”

Now he understood the look on Janie’s face when he’d made those accusations. Tess was right. Marilee had lied. She’d stabbed her best friend in the back, and he’d helped her do it. He felt terrible.

“You don’t have to tell me what a rat I am,” she continued, without looking up at him. “I must have been crazy to think Janie wouldn’t eventually find out that I was lying about her.” She managed to meet his angry eyes. “She never gossiped about you, Leo. She wanted you to take her to this party so much that it was all she talked about for weeks. But she never told anybody you were going to. She thought I was helping her by hinting that she’d like you to ask her.” She laughed coldly. “She was the best friend I ever had, and I’ve stabbed her in the back. She’ll never speak to me again after tonight, and I deserve whatever I get. For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry.”

Leo was still trying to adjust to the truth. He could talk himself blue in the face, but Janie would never listen to him now. He was going to be about as welcome as a fly at her house from now on, especially if Fred found out what Leo had said to and about her. It would damage their friendship. It had already killed whatever feeling Janie had for him. He knew that without the wounded, angry glances she sent his way from time to time.

“You said you didn’t want her chasing you,” Marilee reminded him weakly, trying to find one good thing to say.

“No danger of that from now on, is there?” he agreed, biting off the words.

“None at all. So a little good came out of it.”

He looked down at her with barely contained anger. “How could you do that to her?”

“I don’t even know.” She sighed raggedly. “I must have been temporarily out of my mind.” She moved away from the wall. “I wonder if you’d mind driving me home? I… I really don’t want to stay any longer.”

“I can’t drive. Cag’s taking us home.”

“You can’t drive? Why?” she exclaimed.

“I think the polite way of saying it is that I’m stinking drunk,” he said with glittery eyes blazing down at her.

She grimaced. No need to ask why he’d gotten that way. “Sorry,” she said inadequately.

“You’re sorry. I’m sorry. It doesn’t change anything.” He looked toward Janie, conscious of new and painful regrets. It all made sense now, her self-improvement campaign. She’d been dragged through mud, thrown from horses, bruised and battered in a valiant effort to become what she thought Leo wanted her to be.

He winced. “She could have killed herself,” he said huskily. “She hadn’t been on a horse in ages or worked around cattle.” He looked down at Marilee with a black scowl. “Didn’t you realize that?”

“I wasn’t thinking at the time,” Marilee replied. “I’ve always worked around the ranch, because I had to. I never thought of Janie being in any danger. But I guess she was, at that. At least she didn’t get hurt.”

“That’s what you think,” Leo muttered, remembering how she’d looked at the hardware store.

Marilee shrugged and suddenly burst into tears. She dashed toward the ladies’ room to hide them.

At the same time, Harley left Janie at the buffet table and went toward the rest rooms himself.

Leo didn’t even think. He walked straight up to Janie and caught her by the hand, pulling her along with him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she raged. “Let go of me!”

He ignored her. He led her right out the side door and onto the stone patio surrounded by towering plants that, in spring, were glorious in blossom. He pulled the glass door closed behind him and moved Janie off behind one of the plants.

“I want to talk to you,” he began, trying to get his muddled mind to work.

She pulled against his hands. “I don’t want to talk to you!” she snapped. “You go right back in there to your date, Leo Hart! You brought Marilee, not me!”

“I want to tell you…” he tried again.

She aimed a kick at his shin that almost connected.

He sidestepped, overbalancing her so that she fell heavily against him. She felt good in his arms, warm, delicate and sweetly scented. His breath caught at the feel of her soft skin under his hands where the dress was low-cut in back.

“Harley will… be missing me!” she choked.

“Damn Harley,” he murmured huskily and the words went into her mouth as he bent and took it hungrily.

His arms swallowed her, warm under the dark evening suit, where her hands rested just at his rib cage. His mouth was ardent, insistent, on her parted lips.

He forced them apart, nipping the upper one with his teeth while his hands explored the softness of her skin. He was getting drunk on her perfume. He felt himself going taut as he registered the hunger he was feeling to get her even closer. It wasn’t enough….

His hands went to her hips and jerked them hard into the thrust of his big body, so that she could feel how aroused he was.

She stiffened and then tried to twist away, frantic at the weakness he was making her feel. He couldn’t do this. She couldn’t let him do it. He was only making a point, showing her that she couldn’t resist him. He didn’t even like her anymore. He’d brought her best friend to the most talked-about event in town!

“You… let me go!” she sobbed, tearing her mouth from his. “I hate you, Leo Hart!”

He was barely able to breathe, much less think, but he wasn’t letting go. His eyes glittered down at her. “You don’t hate me,” he denied. “You want me. You tremble every time I get within a foot of you. It’s so noticeable a blind man couldn’t mistake it.” He pulled her close, watching her face as her thighs touched his. “A woman’s passion arouses a man’s,” he whispered roughly. “You made me want you.”

“You said I made you sick,” she replied, her voice choking on the word.

“You do.” His lips touched her ear. “When a man is this aroused, and can’t satisfy the hunger, it makes him sick,” he said huskily, with faint insolence. He dragged her hips against his roughly. “Feel that? You’ve got me so hot I can’t even think…!” Leo broke off abruptly as Janie stomped on his foot.