Champagne Girl

She let out a furious cry and aimed a kick at his shins with one hard-booted toe. He sidestepped with lightning grace, and she went down flat on her back in the wet grass and mud.

He grinned at the shock on her face, then flashed a look at two of his men who were riding by with curious looks on their faces.

“Better get up quick, honey, or Ben and Charlie there will think you’re trying to entice me into making love to you,” he said outrageously.

“Matthew…Dane Kincaid…I hate you…!” she sputtered as she tried to get to her feet.

He was trying to stop laughing, but without much success. His white teeth flashed and black eyes were alive in his swarthy face. He reached down to grab her wrist and jerked her to her feet. His strength was a little frightening. He looked lithe and limber, but he could have forced her to her knees if he’d flexed his hand, and she knew it. Her angry eyes scanned his hard face, her fury kindling all over again at the traces of humor she saw lingering there. She drew back a hand, but it hovered in midair.

“Hold it right there, honey,” he said, chuckling. “I don’t mind a little dirt, but if you connect with that muddy hand, I’ll hit you where it hurts most.”

“I’ll tell Mama!” she threatened.

“Betty would hold you still for me.”

He loosed her wrist, and she rubbed it, surprised at the tingling sensation that lingered after his hard fingers had withdrawn.

She tugged her long-tailed shirt out of her jodhpurs and used the hem of it to wipe off the mud. He stuck his hands on his lean hips and watched her with the infuriating superiority that clung to him like the faint mud stains on his shirt.

She sighed. “I hate you, you know.”

“No you don’t, Kit.” He grinned. “You just want your own way. And this time, you’re not getting it. I’d never forgive myself if I turned you loose in that big city all alone, fresh out of college in Forth Worth.”

“And that’s another sore spot,” she threw back at him, shivering a little in the cool air. “You hardly even let me go off to college. Not me, oh, no, I had to commute on weekends! It’s a wonder you didn’t come with me and hold my hand as I crossed streets!”

“I did think about it,” he murmured dryly.

“I’m grown up!”

“Not yet,” he corrected. His eyes went down to her breasts and lingered there, where the hard tips were visible through her thin shirt, and he smiled slowly. “But you’re getting there.”

She stared at him unblinkingly, surprised at the remark, at the way he was studying her breasts. Boys had looked at her that way when she wore swimsuits or low-cut blouses, but Matt never had. It shocked her that he’d even bothered to look. Perhaps it was just another way of getting back at her. She folded her arms over her breasts as a scarlet flush covered her cheeks. She avoided meeting his eyes.

“Hey,” he commanded softly.

“What?”

“Look at me.”

She forced her embarrassed eyes up, but he wasn’t teasing her. He looked faintly kind, for Matt.

“If you want to practice public relations, I’ll put you to work,” he said. “You can publicize my foundation sale month after next.”

“Matt, that’s not a job!”

“It’s a job,” he said firmly. “A lot of work goes into that annual sale, and a lot depends on its being a success. I usually hire an outside agency to handle it, but since you’re here, you can do it. I’ll even let you design the brochure.” He eyed her closely. “That’s a challenge, honey. Show me how capable you are, and I’ll make you a present of an apartment in New York and find you another job to boot. I’ve got some contacts of my own.”

She wavered. It was tempting. Very tempting. And if he hadn’t been trying to bend her to his will, she might have accepted his offer. But he was calling the shots, and if she made a success of the job, he’d probably find some way to make her keep working for him. She’d never get away.

So, he wanted his sale publicized, did he? She smiled faintly. Okay. She’d do it. And in such a way that he’d be more than delighted to send her on her way.

“Okay,” she agreed after a minute, her green eyes sparkling. “I’ll just take that dare.”

“I’ll start you off tomorrow morning. Be at the office eight-thirty sharp,” he replied. “Now you’d better get home and change into something a little more decent, or Betty will come after me with a shotgun.”

“I can just see you now, running for the border,” she returned dryly.

He smiled wickedly. “This far away?” he said with a chuckle. “Hell, no, I’d drive.” He pulled his hat low over his eyes. “Hadn’t you better go home and change?”

She knew when she was defeated. Green eyes glared up at him. “You’re just stifling me,” she ground out. “Smothering me! My gosh, you tie me to the house.

You grill every man I date. You won’t let me go to New York and find my own way in life—Matt, I’m a grown woman,” she said, trying to reason with him. “You’re an old bachelor…!”

His eyebrows lifted as he lit another cigarette. “Honey, I’m just thirty-one.”

“And someday you’ll be fifty-one and all alone, and what will you do then?” she asked haughtily.

He smiled slowly. “I guess I’ll start seducing kids your age.”

She opened her mouth, started to speak, thought better of it and closed her mouth with a snap.

“My, my, the fish aren’t biting today,” he said conversationally. Boldly, his dark eyes wandered slowly down the length of her slender body, assessing her; then suddenly they shot up to catch her eyes. She stared back, and the world narrowed to Matt’s face. Cows bellowed all around and cowboys whistled and called, moving them along, but she no longer noticed them. A wild tingling feeling raced through her body as she studied Matt. Never before had she looked at him so intently.

He touched the cigarette to his chiseled mouth, breaking the spell. “No comeback, Kit?” he murmured dryly.

She sighed. “I can’t fight you,” she muttered. “You just laugh at me.”

“It’s less dangerous than doing what I’d like,” he returned, his dark eyes sparkling.

“Try slinging me over your knee, cattle baron, and I’ll make you a legend in your own time with that brochure you want drawn up,” she threatened.

“No you won’t.” He threw down the cigarette and ground it out. “We’re buddies, remember?”

“We used to be. Then you started being so horrible to me,” she reminded him. She dusted off her stained jodhpurs. “God knows what I’ll tell Mama about the way I look,” she added, giving him a mischievous glance.

“Tell her you tried to seduce me,” he suggested with a wicked grin.

“That’ll be the day,” she said darkly, turning back toward her horse.

“Don’t you think you could?” he teased.

She mounted, feeling odd at the suggestion, and glanced down at him. “Actually,” she told him, “I don’t know how.”

“No experience?” he asked mockingly, but there was a serious note in his deep, drawling voice.

“I’ve been saving myself for you, didn’t you know?”

He laughed softly. “Have you?”

It was new and heady to flirt openly with Matt. She’d never done it before. She wrapped the reins gently around one hand and stilled the nervous little mare, patting her neck as she talked softly to her. Her amused eyes met Matt’s. “Better lock your door at night.”

His dark eyes twinkled with new lights. “I do. I’ve been terrified of you since you graduated from high school.”

“Have you really?” She grinned. “I did notice all the women you gathered around you to protect yourself from me.”

He didn’t smile. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

“Your suitors have been conspicuous by their absence the past few months,” he remarked.

She lifted her shoulders. “Jack gave me up in the early summer,” she said. “He was afraid you’d kill him if he tried anything with me. He even said so.”

He looked toward the cowboys, who were starting to drive cattle through a nearby opening in the fence. “I’ve got work to do, honey.”

“Conference over.” She sighed. “You never talk to me.”

He looked up, and something in his black eyes made her nervous. “I may do that—sooner than you think, little Kit.” His gaze grew piercing, searching. “After all, you’re straining at the bonds for the first time. You’ll fly away if I’m not careful.”

“I’m not a bird, you know,” she said pleasantly.

“More of a tadpole,” he murmured.

“You call me a frog again, and I’ll tell Hal and Jerry,” she threatened.

“Tadpole, not frog. Go ahead and tell them,” he challenged, smiling. “Remember me, Kit? I’m the black sheep.”

“Some black sheep. You’re the one with the brains and the strong back,” she had to admit, softening as she looked down at him. His face was creased with harsh lines that neither of his brothers had. It was always Matt who’d had the lion’s share of the responsibility. Hal did what he pleased, and Jerry did what he could, but he didn’t have Matt’s business sense and was intelligent enough to admit it.

“Was I asking for a vote of confidence?” he asked with mock astonishment.

“You never would. But you’ve got mine,” she said with a soft smile.

He seemed to tauten at the softness in her voice. “Risky, Kit, looking at me that way,” he said with a faint smile. “I might go crazy right here.”

“You, go crazy over a woman?” she asked with a laugh. “That’ll be the day. Anyway, it would take someone with experience and pizzazz. I’m just your pesky stepcousin.”

“You’re a beauty, young Catherine,” he returned, and seemed to really mean it. She colored gently at the masculine appreciation in the look he gave her. “Quality, all the way.”

“You’re not bad yourself, cowboy,” she murmured demurely. “I have to go home and change. I thought I’d go see a movie later.”

“Did you? What kind of movie?”

“There’s one of those very adult shows at the drive-in,” she confided. “I thought I’d take Hal and educate him.”

His face went hard all at once, and the sudden eclipse of humor surprised her. “No,” he said quietly. “Not Hal. If you go to any drive-ins, I’ll take you. And not tonight. I’ve got a date already. I’ll take you Friday.”

It was like sticking her finger in an electric socket. She simply stared at him. “What?”

“I said I’ll take you to the movies Friday, Kit,” he replied, and grinned at her. “I’m not letting you corrupt Hal. Besides, he’s too young for you.”

She burst out laughing. She must have imagined his sudden anger, she told herself. Matt had only been teasing all along.

“I suppose he is,” she had to admit. “Are you?”

His mouth curled. “What do you think, honey?” he asked in a tone he’d never used with her before. It was like velvet. Soft. Honey smooth. Seductive.

She stared down at him curiously. “You’re too old for drive-ins,” she said slowly.

He shook his head. “We’ll take the pickup and I’ll buy you a pizza. It will rejuvenate me,” he added with a grin.

“I can just see you at a drive-in,” she murmured. Her green eyes flirted with his dark ones. “Okay. But I won’t kiss you if you drink beer.”

His eyebrows lifted and something flashed in his eyes. He laughed gently. “Okay.”

She’d shocked herself with her impulsive remark, and now she felt embarrassed. As if Matt would want to kiss her! But her eyes fell to his hard mouth as if of their own accord, and she stared at his lips with unexpected curiosity. She looked up in time to see a wildness in his eyes. A shock of electric current linked them, making her want to dive down into his arms and kiss his hard, sexy mouth until the aching of her young body stopped. And that shocked her enough that she dragged her eyes away.

“You did mean what you said, about letting me go to New York if I do a good job on your sale?” she persisted.

He turned back toward his men. “I meant it.”

“Matt—”

“Hey, Charlie, bring the truck for this one!” he called to an old cowboy and he gestured toward a downed cow farther along the trail.

She sighed in irritation. Well, that was that, he’d just forgotten that she was alive. That was his response to discussions he didn’t want. He just walked away from them. She glared at his back for a long moment before she suddenly wheeled her mount and started toward the ranch.

Well, at least she had a chance to escape now. Her face burned as she remembered what she’d said to him about the drive-in. She’d probably shocked him with that silly remark about kissing him.

She shifted in the saddle, thinking about going to a drive-in with Matt. Her body tingled with delight at the prospect. He’d never taken her anywhere alone. And probably he wasn’t going to now, either. He’d invite one of the family to go with them. And why would he take the pickup?

Matt bothered her. He puzzled her. He was a cutup, a wild man—except when he was being Mr. Kincaid. She’d seen him do that. She’d watched him put down men who thought they could walk all over him because he seemed easygoing. There was a white-hot temper and a will like iron underneath his good humor.

Worrying about things wasn’t going to help, she told herself. She’d do better to concentrate on how to promote the cattle sale. It was her only chance of escape from her family. And from Matt. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life waiting for him. She couldn’t live near him and watch him marry someone else—and he would eventually. The corporation would have to have an heir, and he was in control. Probably it would be some sophisticated socialite with holdings of her own. A merger more than a marriage.

She leaned forward over the little mare’s mane and gave her her head as they went toward the barn.

Chapter Three

Jerry and Barrie were at supper that night. Jerry, like Hal and Matt, had dark eyes, but he alone of the three had sandy-blond hair and a receding hairline. He was taller than Hal, but not as tall as Matt. Barrie was redheaded and blue eyed and very petite and mischievous. Catherine had always adored her.

As Annie waddled in with the salads, Catherine allowed Hal to seat her, and she noted his thoughtful glances. Matt hadn’t made an appearance yet, and Catherine found herself watching the doorway, waiting. She knew he was going out, that he wouldn’t be joining them for the evening meal, but she couldn’t help watching for him. Habits were hard to break. She looked down at her blue shirtwaist dress and imagined I Adore Matt written all over it with a felt-tip marker. That was vaguely amusing and she laughed.

“That’s better,” Hal murmured. “You were looking solemn, little cousin.”

“Who, me?” She gaped. “I’m never solemn.”

“I know,” he returned.

“Betty said you were trying to go to New York to work,” Jerry said, glancing at her. He smiled absently. “I knew you’d only come to grief.”

“How?”

“I know my brother. Matt keeps you on a short leash, doesn’t he?”

Catherine glared at him. “I can do what I please. As it happens,” she said to save face, “Matt’s offered me a job. I’m organizing the foundation sale.”

“Darling, how lovely!” Barrie exclaimed. “You’ll do a grand job.”

“You and your cattle hang-up,” Jerry growled at her. “I can see you now, leading that prize bull of yours around, with the baby under one arm—when you ever decide to have a baby.”

“Don’t be silly, my love,” Barrie murmured, peering up at him. “I’ll have the baby in one of those carry things they wear these days. He’ll learn the business from the ground up.” She elbowed her husband. “Anyway, what do you mean, ‘when I decide to have a baby’? How can I? You’re never at home. It takes two,” she added with a poisonous smile.

Jerry cleared his throat and offered Betty the rolls.

Catherine and Hal exchanged amused glances just as Matt walked in. It was obvious he’d changed for his date, because he was wearing a dark dinner jacket with a red tie. He looked so devastating that Catherine had to drop her eyes.

“Hal, I’d like a word with you,” he said without preamble.

Hal looked uncomfortable and made a face, but he got up and went with his stern older brother out into the hall. The door closed and everyone exchanged puzzled glances.

“He didn’t move those cattle like Matt told him,” Barrie volunteered with a grimace. “At least four of them drowned.”

So that was what Matt had been doing on the flats, Catherine thought suddenly, amazed that she hadn’t connected the mired cattle with Hal’s disobedience. Poor old Hal, she thought. Matt would eat him alive.

“Will he ever grow up?” Jerry grumbled. “He plays at life.”

“He’s very young, dear,” Betty intervened.

Catherine was just about to rush to his defense, too, just as a loud voice broke the silence in the hall, followed by a thump and a hard thud. Catherine jumped to her feet and opened the door to find Hal just picking himself up from the floor. Matt was standing over him, unruffled, his face like stone, his eyes blazing with anger. He glanced at Catherine, and he was a stranger again, all authority and bristling masculinity. He laughed curtly.

“Florence Nightingale to the rescue,” he chided. “Pick him up and pet him, if you like, but do it damned fast. He’s leaving for Houston. And if he doesn’t straighten out his priorities while he’s there,” he added with a cold glare at Hal, who was gingerly touching his jaw, “he can damned well stay in Houston.”

“My God, it was only four head—” Hal began.

“One head would have been one too many,” Matt replied.

“Jerry and I have a stake in the corporation, too,” Hal shot back. “You’re not the whole show!”

“I am until you can carry your share of the load,” Matt returned. “Grow up!”

Hal got to his feet and glared at the taller man. “The iron man, aren’t you?” He laughed mirthlessly. “No chinks in your armor, no human weaknesses. Not even a weakness for a special woman.”

“You’d better phone and see if you can get a flight out of here tonight,” Matt said, ignoring the little speech.

Hal inclined his head. “Whatever you say, boss.” He fingered his jaw and glanced ruefully at Catherine. “Be sure to duck, cousin.”

Catherine watched him turn toward the stairs. She started back toward the dining room, but Matt caught her arm.

The light touch was indescribable. He came up behind her and was so close that she could hear his heavy breath as it sighed out over her hair. His fingers were steely through the soft jersey of her dress sleeve, and she couldn’t seem to get her breath.

Someone had closed the door to the dining room after she’d gone through it. Probably Jerry, she thought dazedly; he wasn’t one to eavesdrop.

“Afraid of me?” he asked at her back.

She turned and looked up at him with soft green eyes.

“No. Not really. It’s just that you seem like a stranger sometimes, Matt.”

“Hal has to learn responsibility,” he said.

“I won’t argue that,” she replied. “But he won’t ever be you.”

He sighed half-angrily. His dark eyes searched hers in the sudden stillness of the hall.

“Don’t you have a date to rush off to?” she asked pointedly.

“I have a social engagement,” he replied. He pulled out a gold cigarette case—the one she’d given him for Christmas last year—and casually lit a cigarette, as if he had all the time in the world.

“Same difference,” she said.

He shook his head, then lifted the cigarette to his smiling mouth. “It’s a formal dinner. And women weren’t included, except for the wives of the organizers.”

“You don’t owe me any explanations, Matt.” She started toward the dining room, but he drew her back with the lightest pressure of his fingers.

“No, I don’t,” he agreed. She stared at his red tie.

His fingers moved to her throat and stroked its soft elegant line, and her mouth trembled. She looked up at him with her breath sticking in her throat.

“Don’t,” she pleaded breathlessly. It was the first time he’d ever touched her like that, and it frightened her. All her wild dreams went into hiding at the reality. The uncontrolled pleasure she felt was unexpected.

“Why not?” he murmured. “Bachelors are entitled to play a little, honey,” he said with a slow smile, and his fingers stroked over a larger area, edging under the neck of her dress and onto her shoulder.

“Not with me, you don’t,” she said. She reached up to catch his fingers. “It’s not fair, Matt. Shooting fish in a barrel.”

“Why not, when it’s the only way you can get the fish at all?”

“Matt…”

He looked down at her soft, full mouth, outlined carefully with a delicate lipstick. He moved closer, the hand that held the cigarette sliding around her waist to draw her body to the length of his.

She couldn’t breathe at all now. She looked up into dark, secretive eyes and felt her body begin to throb. He’d held her before, of course, to comfort her when she cried and once to carry her over a rising stream bed. He’d even carried her to bed once when she was sick. But it had never been like this before, with his dark eyes hungry as they looked into hers and a nameless awareness between them that grew by the second.

“Have you ever been kissed properly?” he asked in a deep, gruff whisper.

Her lips parted under a rush of breath. “Of…course.”

“I like it hard,” he whispered, bending his head. “I may be rough with you at first. Don’t be frightened.”

“Matt!” Her voice sounded wild.

His fingers tilted her chin, and there was a sensuality in his face that she’d never seen before. “What are you so nervous about?” he breathed against her lips.

Her mouth felt the threat of his, and her hands clenched on his lapels as the images in her mind overwhelmed her. Her body was trembling, and he was so close to her that he had to feel it.

“So hungry,” he whispered, threatening her mouth with his without ever coming close enough to take it. “Aching for me. And all it would take is another fraction of an inch, like this,” he whispered, moving his head down so that she could breathe the minty scent of him, “and I could have you, Kit.…”

“Please,” she whimpered, stiffening as the words and his cologne and the warmth of his whipcord body all weakened her. “Matt, please, please…” She didn’t realize that she was reaching up, her cold and trembling hands at the nape of his neck, her body at fever pitch with wanting.

“Oh, no.” He laughed softly. Both hands caught her by the waist. “Not yet.”

Her eyes widened. She was shaking. Shaking! And he was smiling at her with such worldly amusement.…

“Damn you,” she said under her breath, tears threatening.

“I’m late already,” he said. “Go eat your dinner, honey. We’ll put everything on hold until tomorrow night. The movie,” he reminded her in a low whisper. “And I won’t drink beer.”

“I won’t go!” She stared at him, eyes enormous in her face, her body shaking with what he’d aroused and not satisfied.

“Yes you will.” He brushed back a strand of chestnut hair from her shoulder. His eyes held hers.

She moved away from him, fighting for composure. “I won’t be just one in a line,” she said. “I won’t let you seduce me. You’re just after a new thrill. And I’m not going to be it,” she said firmly.

He laughed deep in his throat, and his eyes were bright with amusement. “Coward,” he murmured dryly.

She flushed, and almost ran back into the dining room. Catching herself, she slowly opened the door and left him standing in the hall.

* * *

Catherine didn’t hear another word that was said to her for the rest of the night. She smiled and talked automatically, and all the while she felt Matt’s hands, the sigh of his breath on her mouth. She ached all over with strange new hungers, feeling oddly restless and irritable. And in the morning she was going to have to pretend she felt nothing because Matt was astute and it would be suicide to let him see how she felt. If only she knew what kind of game he was playing! Would he really go that far? Would he tease her just to keep her under his thumb? She lay awake until the early hours, worrying about it, more determined than ever to break free before she fell victim to his dark, sensuous charm.