Date with a Cowboy: Iron Cowboy / In the Arms of the Rancher / At the Texan's Pleasure

Harley sighed. “It must be nice to have a little money. I wouldn’t know.” He leaned on the counter with his forearms. “The Parks are having a barbecue at the ranch Saturday. Lisa said you might want to sketch the pups one more time before they’re old enough to adopt. She says they’re growing like weeds.”

“A barbecue?” she echoed, smiling. “I love barbecue.”

“I know,” he returned, grinning. “Suppose I come and pick you up about eleven Saturday morning? I know you’re still sore and all. I can drive you home whenever you need to go.”

“I’d love to go, Harley,” she said with genuine affection.

He smiled. She wasn’t beautiful, but he liked being with her. “That’s a date, then.”

“Will there be dancing?” she asked.

“Oh, yes. They hired a Mariachi band to play. I understand there’s going to be a major competition between the Caldwells and Cash Grier and his wife. A tango.”

“Wow,” Sara breathed. “Matt and Leslie were our champions hands down until Cash Grier got out on the dance floor with Christabel Gaines—I mean, Christabel Dunn, but that was before she married Judd. Can Tippy Grier do a tango?”

“Apparently. It’s going to be a night to remember.” He hesitated. “Your adopted family’s invited, too.”

“Mr. Cameron?” she asked warily.

“Yes, and the hit man, too.”

“Tony is not a hit man,” she said, laughing when she realized that it was her own description of him that was making the rounds in town. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“He does sort of remind me of a hit man,” he replied dryly. “He’s big and slow-looking, though. He can’t be that good a bodyguard.”

Sara had doubts about how slow-moving Tony was. She had the distinct impression that he was quick as lightning and sly like a fox, hiding his light under a barrel. But she didn’t say so.

“Saturday at eleven,” he repeated.

“Yes.” She grinned at him as he waved and went out the door.

Sara pictured the band and Jared Cameron. She wondered if he’d ask her to dance. She wondered if he could dance. It was thrilling to consider.

Harley came for her exactly at eleven. She was wearing a full skirt with a simple white cotton peasant blouse and silver jewelry. She looked like a pixie.

He was in jeans and a clean plaid cotton shirt, Western cut, with polished black boots and a cowboy hat to match.

“You look nice, Sara,” he told her. “Are you feeling okay?”

She nodded. “The stitches catch a little when I walk too fast, but I feel fine.”

“Can you climb up by yourself?” he added when they reached his pickup truck. It had a running board, but it was higher than a car.

“Sure, I can,” she said. She held on to the inside handle over the door facing, put one foot on the running board and pulled herself up and into the passenger seat. It hurt a little, but she didn’t let that show. “Piece of cake,” she told him, smiling while she fastened her seat belt.

He grinned back. “Then we’re off!”

Cy Parks’s ranch was huge, even by Texas standards. The yard was full of tent pavilions complete with oilcloth-covered long tables and benches for people to sit on. The cowboys had barbecued a steer and their wives had prepared huge tubs of baked beans and coleslaw, and there were baking sheets full of homemade rolls and fresh butter. For dessert, there was everything from cakes to pies to soft-serve ice cream. Cy had really pulled out the stops. Across the fences, his Santa Gertrudis cattle grazed peacefully and stared at the crowds of people who’d come to enjoy the food.

All the powerful people in the county had shown up for Parks’s legendary barbecue. Even the children were invited. It resembled, more than anything, a family reunion.

“Is that the Coltrains’ little boy, Joshua?” Sara exclaimed, indicating a blond-headed little boy in jeans and cotton shirt and boots running from another small boy with dark hair and eyes.

“Yes, and that’s J.D. and Fay Langley’s little boy, Jon, chasing him.”

“They’ve grown so fast!” she exclaimed.

“They have,” he added, smiling at their antics. “Children must be a lot of fun. Their parents seem to dote on them.”

“I imagine they do.”

She was staring after the little boys when she spotted a familiar face. Jared Cameron was standing by one of the long tables talking to Cy Parks. With him were Tony the Dancer … and the female attorney, Max, standing with Jared’s arm around her.

Sara felt as if she’d just walked into a nightmare.

Seven

At the same time Sara spotted him, Jared glanced her way and saw her with Harley Fowler. His green eyes, even at the distance, were blazing.

She averted her eyes and kept walking with Harley to where Lisa was sitting with Gil on her lap. She didn’t dare look the way she felt. Jared Cameron had every right to hang out with his gorgeous attorney. It shouldn’t have made Sara feel betrayed. But it did. The realization shocked her.

Lisa smiled as they joined her. “Have a seat. I could have left Gil in his playpen, but I don’t really like being away from him, even for a few minutes.”

“I wouldn’t, either,” Sara said. “He’s a little doll.”

Gil smiled at Sara shyly and said, “Pretty.”

Sara and Lisa burst out laughing.

“Horsey, Mama, horsey!” Gil demanded, bouncing.

Lisa put him on one knee and bounced him while he laughed happily. “He’s going to be a ladies’ man when he grows up,” Harley drawled. “He’s starting early!”

Lisa laughed. “You may be right. He likes Sara.”

“Everybody likes Sara,” Harley said smoothly, winking at her.

“Not everybody,” Sara murmured as Jared Cameron walked toward them with Max curled close in his arm. He was smiling at Max, but his green eyes shot daggers at Harley and Sara when he came closer.

“Should you be up so soon after major surgery?” Jared demanded, glaring at Sara.

“Major surgery?” Sara gasped. “I had my appendix out! The incision was barely four inches long!”

Jared’s eyes narrowed. “It ruptured,” he pointed out.

“Why does he get to make comments on your surgery?” Lisa asked innocently.

“Because I took her home with me and Tony and I nursed her back to health,” Jared said curtly. “We have a vested interest in her recovery.”

“Like it put you out! Tony did all the work!” Sara retorted.

Jared held up his hand with all the plastic bandages on it.

“You didn’t try to pick up Morris, did you?” Lisa asked the newcomer.

Jared looked around him, exasperated. “Am I the only person in this town who didn’t know that he bites?”

“Looks like it,” Harley chuckled.

“I hate cats,” Max muttered. “They’re scary, and they have fangs, like snakes.”

Sara wished the other woman had been around when Morris was staying at Jared’s house. She’d have loved watching him stalk the slick lawyer. He loved to attack people who were afraid of cats.

“Hi, Sara,” Tony said, thickening his drawl for the group.

He was wearing his suit and his sunglasses, and he looked really big. “You doing okay?”

Sara had gotten used to him being as articulate as Jared in the privacy of the Cameron ranch. Only now did she realize what a compliment he’d paid her by not putting on what was obviously an act for the masses.

“I’m much better, Tony, thanks,” she replied, and gave him a genuine smile.

Max was looking more uncomfortable by the minute. “We aren’t going to eat outside, are we?” she asked uneasily. “I mean, there are flies!”

“They only land on bad people,” Sara promised.

Seconds later, two huge black flies came to rest on Max’s arm.

She screamed, hitting at them. “Get them off!” she exclaimed.

Tony glanced at Sara and grinned. “Sound familiar?” he teased.

She burst out laughing, remembering her own horror at the yellow hornet that had landed on her shoulder at Jared’s house.

But Max thought Sara was laughing at her and, without a pause, she swung her hand and slapped Sara in the face.

There was a sudden silence around them. Cy Parks, who’d been directing the cowboys cooking the beef, strode up to the small group with blood in his eye.

“Are you all right, Sara?” he asked in a menacing tone.

“I’m … fine,” Sara replied. She had a huge red mark on one cheek.

Cy turned to Max. “I’ve never asked a guest to leave my home until now. I want you off my property.”

Max fumed. “She laughed at me! I was covered up in flies and she thought it was funny!”

“She was laughing because the same thing happened to her at our place with a yellow hornet,” Tony said, and he looked menacing as well. “I reminded her of it.”

Max flushed. “Oh.”

Jared hadn’t said a word until then. But his eyes spoke volumes. “You can apologize to Sara before I take you back to the ranch,” he told Max, and he wasn’t smiling.

Max backed down at once. “I’m very sorry,” she told the younger woman. “I hope I didn’t hurt you,” she added in a condescending tone.

Cash Grier joined the small group. He wasn’t smiling, either. “If you’d like to press charges,” he told Sara while he glared down at Max, “I’ll be delighted to arrest her for you.”

“Arrest me!” Max exclaimed.

“For assault,” he replied coldly. “In Jacobsville, you don’t strike another person physically unless you’ve been attacked physically. It’s against the law.”

“Yeah, you’d think a lawyer would know that, wouldn’t you?” Tony put in his two cents’ worth.

Max seemed to be suddenly aware of her whereabouts and her vulnerability in this small town. She laughed nervously. “Surely that won’t be necessary …?”

Cash looked at Sara. “Sara?” he questioned softly.

Sara took a deep breath and gave Max her best glare. “I won’t have you arrested,” she said quietly. “But if you ever touch me again, I’ll show you how much I learned in Chief Grier’s self-defense course last fall.”

“It won’t happen again,” Jared replied. He took Max firmly by the arm. “Thanks for inviting us,” he told Cy, “but we have to go.”

Tony grimaced. “Yeah. Sorry,” he added, smiling at Sara. “That barbecue sure smelled good.”

“Can’t you stay?” Sara asked Tony gently.

He lit up like a Christmas tree at her tone.

Jared muttered something under his breath and Max protested as his hand tightened bruisingly on her arm.

Tony glanced at his boss and sighed. “No. I got to go, too. See you, Sara.”

She smiled. “See you.”

The three walked away with stiff backs. Sara could have kicked Max. She’d ruined everything.

“Thanks, Chief Grier,” Sara told the town’s police chief.

He shrugged. “You were my star pupil,” he replied. He grinned. “I wish you’d pressed charges, though. I would have enjoyed locking her up.”

“Locking who up?” Tippy Grier asked curiously, joining her husband. The “Georgia Firefly” as she’d been known in modeling circles was still gorgeous, with long reddish-gold hair and green eyes. She smiled at Sara, and then frowned when she saw the red marks on her cheek. “What in the world happened?” she exclaimed.

“Jared Cameron’s lawyer hit her,” Harley said angrily.

“A man hit you?” Tippy gasped.

“A woman,” Sara corrected. “It was because of the flies.”

Tippy stared at her, wide-eyed. “Flies. Right.”

“No,” Sara laughed. “I mean, she thought I was laughing at her because she attracted flies.”

“Good riddance, I say,” Harley muttered, watching Jared’s Jaguar peel out and roar away. “The poor flies will probably drop dead now.”

Sara was disappointed, because she’d hoped that she might have a chance to dance with Jared. But she hated herself for the thought. He’d been horrible to her about Harley, and now he’d sided with Max. But Tony had defended her. Sweet Tony.

“Who was the big fella with Jared?” Cash asked curiously.

“Tony the Dancer,” Cy answered before Sara could.

Everybody looked at him.

He realized at once what a slip he’d made. “I heard Jared call him that,” he said at once.

They still looked at him. He’d used Jared’s first name, something he never did with strangers.

He cursed. “Just pretend I didn’t say a word, and let’s go and eat barbecue,” he muttered. He bent to Lisa, smiling, and picked his little son up in his arms.

“Daddy!” Gil enthused, hugging his father around the neck.

The burned arm was still a little weak, but it didn’t show. The look on his face as he held the little boy was indescribable.

“Gil’s growing,” Tippy said, smiling at the child.

“So is our Tris,” Cash replied. “She’s two now. Rory’s twelve. He’s crazy about his niece.” Rory was Tippy’s younger brother.

“Speaking of Tris,” Tippy grinned, looking past her husband’s shoulder.

Rory had little Tris up in his arms and was carrying her around, laughing. She looked just like her mother, with red hair and green eyes, and she was wearing a pretty little green-patterned cotton dress with white shoes. She was holding on to Rory for all she was worth, talking to him.

Rory, taller now, had dark hair and green eyes, and he obviously doted on the little girl.

“She can walk, you know,” Cash told the boy with a smile.

“She likes it when I carry her, though,” Rory replied, grinning. “Isn’t she just the neatest thing in the world?” he added, kissing the little girl’s hair.

“You’re spoiling her,” Tippy laughed.

Rory shook his head. “No, I’m not. I just carried her away from the ice cream. She talked Randy into giving her a bowl of it, but I made him take it back.”

“Wanted ice cream, Rory,” Tris pouted. “Bad Rory.”

He only chuckled.

Tippy held out her arms for Tris, who got a tighter hold on her uncle. “No!” she said. “Want Rory!”

Cash looked down at his wife musingly. “So there.”

She laughed, pressing close against him. “All right, Tris,” she told her daughter. “Rory, when your arms get tired, bring her back.”

“Okay, sis.” He went off toward the fenced pasture where horses were grazing.

Harley excused them and drew Sara along with him to the tables where plates of barbecue and beans and rolls were being served up.

“You sure you’re all right?” Harley asked, concerned.

Sara nodded. “It was a shock, that’s all.”

“I don’t like that smarmy lawyer,” he muttered darkly. “But she and her boss do suit one another. They’re both bad company.”

Sara didn’t answer him. She was remembering the hard look Jared had given Max. He hadn’t liked the woman’s reaction to Sara. That was comforting. But her face still stung.

The Latin music played by the Mariachi band had everyone who could walk streaming up onto the wooden dance floor Cy had built for the occasion. Strings of large Japanese lanterns provided light, after the sun went down, and there was a crowd swaying to the rhythm.

Matt Caldwell and his wife, Leslie, were doing a spirited paso doble while Cash and Tippy Grier looked on from the sidelines. They exchanged mischievous glances, got up, held hands and moved onto the dance floor.

“Bet you can’t do a tango,” Cash chided.

Matt gave him a wicked grin. “You lose. Hey, Paco!” he called to the band leader. “Tango!”

The band leader and his band all laughed, stopped playing, measured the rhythm and then sailed into a Tango number that was all fire and passion.

Everybody except the two couples evacuated the dance floor, expecting a real competition.

They got one. It was a duel, and both couples put on their best form for it. As the music built to a crescendo, both couples stopped at the same time, in lingering poses, as the band finished the number.

But it was a draw, as the dancers had figured it would be. They laughed and shook hands as the audience went wild with clapping and cheering.

“Pity we don’t have trophies,” Cy Parks drawled.

“Next time, we have to have a waltz contest!” Harley called. He’d been studying the dance for months, and he was good at it.

“I learned to waltz in Austria,” Cash called to him.

Harley flapped his hand at the police chief.

The music started again, this time a lazy two-step. Just as Harley turned to take Sara onto the dance floor, he was bypassed.

Jared Cameron lifted Sara gently into his arms, carried her onto the wooden dance platform and eased her to the floor.

“My turn,” he said softly, and he smiled in a way that made her heart race.

She slid her free arm around his neck and looked up at him with her breath catching in her throat.

Harley, for one instant, thought about separating them. But when he saw Sara’s face, he knew it would be almost a betrayal to interfere. Subdued, he went back to the buffet table for a beer.

“I didn’t think you’d be back,” Sara said to his chest. He was so much taller that her head barely came to his chin.

His big, warm hand contracted around hers. “Didn’t you?” He tilted her chin up so that he could see her cheek. “At least it isn’t bruised,” he added quietly. “I’ve never wanted so badly to manhandle a woman. Max needs to take some classes in anger management.”

“She thought I was laughing at her.”

“Tony explained it.” His hand tightened. “You keep your distance from Tony,” he added firmly. “He’s not what he seems to be. He could hurt you.”

“He would never lift a hand to me,” she protested at once.

He stopped dancing for an instant and looked down into her wide eyes. “I don’t mean physically.”

She frowned. “He’s very sweet to me.”

He started dancing again. “You remind him of his sister.”

“Yes. He said she died.”

He made a slow turn, one that drew her very close to his hard-muscled body and made her tingle all over. “Tony has issues you’re better off not knowing about.”

“Cy Parks knows both of you.”

“I’ve lived here several weeks,” he said carelessly.

“That isn’t what I mean.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve known Cy for a while.”

She was really curious now. Most people knew that Cy Parks, Eb Scott and Micah Steele had been professional mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, before they settled down in Jacobsville. She knew next to nothing about Jared Cameron. She wondered what secrets he was keeping.

He saw that curiosity in her eyes and just smiled. “Never you mind,” he told her, drawing her closer. “I don’t plan to waste the evening with walks down memory lane. I’m much more interested,” he added huskily, “in making new memories.”

His hand slid gently up and down her spine in sensuous little forays that made her feel boneless. It worried her that she didn’t want to protest the near intimacy of his hold. If he ever turned up the heat, she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist him. She couldn’t help but remember what Max had told her about Jared’s easy conquests and his indifference to them afterward.

“I had Tony drive Max to the airport,” he said after a minute.

Her heart skipped. “She’s gone?”

“Yes. She’s gone.” He didn’t mention the vicious things Max had to say about Sara and Jared’s interest in her, or the threat he used to get her out of town. Tony wasn’t too keen on leaving Jared alone while he escorted the lawyer to the airport, either. It had been a battle.

“Is Tony coming over, then?” she asked.

He stiffened. “Yes,” he said, but he didn’t sound happy about it. “I meant what I said. You don’t need to start looking at Tony as a prom date.”

“I didn’t go to the prom,” she said absently. “And it’s not your business who I look at. I came with Harley,” she added firmly.

He drew back so that he could see her eyes. “And you’re going home with me,” he said softly.

How she wished that her excitement hadn’t shown when he said that. She couldn’t walk off with another man when Harley had brought her here. It would have been unthinkable …

“Sara,” Harley said from beside them, grimacing, “I’ve got something to do for the boss. It can’t wait.”

“I’ll drive her home,” Jared told the younger man. “No problem.”

“Sara, is that all right with you?” Harley asked gently.

She nodded. “It’s okay. What is it? Or can’t you say?”

Harley shrugged. “I really can’t,” he replied. He forced a smile. “We’ll do this again, Sara.”

She smiled back. “Of course.”

He nodded to Jared and walked off toward the parking lot, looking forlorn even from behind.

Jared was smiling.

Sara frowned. “Did you have anything to do with that?”

“You mean, did I ask Cy to occupy Harley so that I could take you home? Of course I did. I don’t like competition.”

She was gaping. “Excuse me?”

His arm contracted. His eyes were strangely darkened as he met her own. “I’m possessive,” he said softly. “Territorial.”

“About … me?” she asked, unbelieving.

“Of course about you,” he muttered.

“But Max is beautiful,” she began.

“Max is the past,” he said bluntly. “She knows it.”

That was thrilling. Exciting. Her whole face lit up. He was serious!

He stopped dancing and traced her mouth with a long forefinger, teasing her lips apart in a sensuous tension that grew by the second. “You’re tired,” he whispered. “You’ve done too much. You need to go home, and I have to take you because Harley left early.”

She nodded, wordless.

He caught her by the hand and tugged her to Cy and Lisa. They said their goodbyes. Jared asked Cy to tell Tony where he’d gone. He put Sara in the Jaguar, buckled her up and revved off toward her small house.

They didn’t exchange a single word during the short drive. The tension between them was so thick it was almost tangible. Sara felt hot all over. The feel of Jared so close to her had removed all her inhibitions. She couldn’t think past wanting to kiss him until her mouth hurt.

He cut off the engine in front of her house and turned to her. “We’ve reached the point of no return,” he said curtly. “Either we go ahead, or we stop seeing each other. I’m too old to stop at kisses.”

She stared at him helplessly, all her upbringing urging her to tell him to leave, to go inside by herself. All her life, she’d done the right thing, the safe thing. But she loved this man. If she said the wrong words now, she knew she’d never be in his arms again. The thought was torture. Then she caught herself. She was being overly worried. He wanted to do some heavy petting. Of course. He wasn’t a kiss-at-the-front-door sort of man. And if things got too hot, well, she’d just find an excuse to get up. Easy.

He got out of the car, opened her door and locked the sleek vehicle before he followed Sara up onto her porch. Nervously she unlocked the door and went inside. She reached for the light switch, but he was right behind her. He stayed the movement, locked the dead bolt and suddenly swept her up into his arms and brought his mouth down on her soft lips.

The sofa was only a few feet away. It was long and wide, just right for two people to lie on. Sara felt his weight with a sense of destiny. It was the most glorious thing she’d ever felt, all that hard, warm muscle down the length of her body. She seemed to throb like her own runaway heartbeat while Jared made a midnight snack of her mouth.

Before long, she was as anxious as he was to have her blouse and bra out of the way so that his hands, and then his mouth, could explore the softness of her warm skin. By the time he slid his hands under her skirt and against her bare legs, she was shivering all over.

She felt his body vibrate, as if he was as electrified as she was. He whispered something under his breath that she didn’t understand. Apparently it wasn’t too important, because only seconds later, she felt him against her in a way that was as new as it was frightening.

She started to protest, but it was already too late. His mouth ground into hers as his body suddenly invaded the most secret place of her own. The delicious sensations she felt when they began were now absent as she felt him insistent and demanding, his big hand under her hips, holding them steady as he pushed down hard. He groaned as he felt the soft barrier give. His control was gone at once. He drove for fulfillment; abstinence and too many beers had robbed him of self-control. He felt the rush of pleasure like a hot wave over his body, leaving him to shudder in a tense arch that was like rain after the baking desert.