Читать книгу A Cowboy's Temptation - Barbara Dunlop - Страница 11
ОглавлениеThree
Darby’s petition was printed, bound and sitting on the breakfast table in the mayor’s residence. Seth gazed at it while he sipped his orange juice and wondered about his next move. Some of the names he’d expected, others had surprised him, leading him to make some mental estimates about his chances in a full-on referendum. Would Darby be able to hold this level of support through a secret ballot? Or had they simply signed the petition to make a pretty woman happy?
Lisa appeared in her usual black slacks and dark blazer. She crossed the kitchen to the breakfast nook. There, she took a seat in the streaming sunshine, pouring herself a cup of coffee from the stainless vacuum pot.
“I have good news and bad news,” she opened.
“I’m staring at the bad news already,” Seth said.
“This is ironic,” said Lisa.
“How so?”
She pointed to the petition. “That’s the good news.”
“I love it when you play mind games in the morning.” It took Seth an hour or so for his brain to be firing on all cylinders. But Lisa could hit the mental ground running.
“They don’t have enough signatures.”
Seth sat up straight, shaking some oxygen into his brain cells to make sure he’d heard right. “What?”
“They have five hundred ninety-seven signatures. We’ve double-checked.”
Seth reached for the printout. “They actually lied?”
Darby was gutsier than he’d given her credit for. He found himself chuckling. After her accusing him of cheating, he couldn’t wait to toss this in her face.
“They don’t have the numbers.” Lisa took a satisfied sip of her steaming coffee.
“So that’s it.” Seth’s mood brightened considerably. “We’re good to go. We can implement the permits tomorrow.”
Finally, finally, he was going to accomplish something significant in this job. The hard work, the late nights, the compromises of his family—it was all going to be worth it.
“Not so fast,” said Lisa.
He held his optimism in check. “Why?”
“Mountain Railway called. Well, one of their lawyers called.”
“Don’t tell me they’ve changed their minds.” He tried to keep the fatalistic tone from his voice.
Seth knew the deal wasn’t nailed down until every single piece was in place, formally signed and witnessed. And the recent negative press had been worrying him. He was afraid it would scare off the railway.
“They haven’t changed their minds. During their legal review, they found a problem in a land survey.”
He shifted gears. Problems, he could solve. Well, most of them. At least in the long run. “What did they find?”
“There’s a discrepancy between the survey filed on the property title, and the survey filed in the Lands Office. And, in the case of a discrepancy, the Lands Office copy trumps anything else.”
Seth waited for the bad news.
“Darby Carroll’s land doesn’t sit next to the proposed railroad right-of-way like we thought. The right-of-way crosses her land.”
Frustration washed over him. “You have got to be kidding.”
Darby owned part of the right-of-way? Was the woman his curse?
“I wish I was.”
“By how much?”
“Her land goes over the right-of-way and half a mile past.”
“Half a mile?”
“All the way up to the cliffs.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Seth pushed back his chair. He’d seen the maps a hundred times.
“That’s record keeping in the 1890s.”
Lisa seemed far calmer than Seth felt, and it occurred to him that she might have a plan.
“Okay. Fine. If that’s what it is, that’s what it is. What’s our best path forward?”
“We can ask her to grant an easement.”
Seth scoffed his disbelief.
“I admit, it’s a long shot,” Lisa allowed.
“It’s a no shot,” he corrected. “Darby would laugh us into the next county.”
“As mayor, you can expropriate,” Lisa offered.
He was definitely willing to do that. After all, the woman had lied on her petition. As far as he was concerned, the gloves were off.
“How long will it take to expropriate?”
“If she draws it out?”
Seth set aside his napkin and came to his feet. “Oh, I think we can count on her drawing it out.”
The gloves were coming off on both sides, and he’d be willing to bet she’d give him a run for his money.
“Days for sure,” said Lisa. “Weeks, probably. It depends on the judge.”
“Do we have any control over the judge?”
Lisa drew back, her brows shooting up. “You want to influence the judge?”
“No.” Seth took a couple of paces across the kitchen. He hadn’t realized how that could sound. “Of course I don’t want to influence a judge. But I think it’s fair game to get it in front of the right judge.”
“Oh. Yeah. Maybe. If we time it right.”
“By all means, let’s time it right.” He moved back to the table, swallowing the last of his coffee, figuring he was going to need the caffeine. “Any chance we can subtly slip through an easement request without her noticing?”
Lisa cocked her head. “You mean, hope she doesn’t read the document before she signs it?”
“Good point. Okay, expropriation it is.”
“The sooner we inform her, the sooner the formal process gets underway.”
Seth picked up the petition. “I’ll inform her myself. And while I’m at it, I think I’ll ask her why she falsified a legal document.”
He’d love it if there was a stiff penalty for having filed a bogus petition. If there was, he’d threaten to have her charged with the crime, then offer to let it go if she signed off on the easement.
He wanted to see her unnerved when she found out she was caught, watch her squirm, watch those big, green eyes widen with—
He stopped himself short.
What he really wanted to do was kiss her senseless. And that wasn’t all he wanted to do to her. And his impulse had nothing whatsoever to do with any petition or railroad.
“Boss?” Lisa interrupted.
He shook himself. “What?”
“You faded away there for a minute.”
“I’m plotting my strategy.”
“Just don’t make her mad,” Lisa warned.
“She’s already mad,” he countered.
And then he was thinking about kissing her again, flattening her against a wall and pressing the length of his body against hers, delving into the sweetness of her mouth, making her pant and moan with—
Again, he pulled himself up short. “Cancel everything I have booked for today until you hear from me.”
His number-one priority was Darby. No, that wasn’t right. His number-one priority was the railroad. Darby was an obstacle to the railroad, and he had to get her out of the way.
* * *
Darby was halfway up a stepladder, rolling a coat of Summer Peach on the breakfast alcove wall, when a pounding threatened to cave in her front door. She’d been keeping herself busy all morning, trying to forget about the petition.
“Coming,” she called out, wondering why whoever it was didn’t just let themselves in. Her big foyer served as the lobby of the inn, and people were free to come and go.
She padded down the ladder, set the paint roller in the tray, wiped her hands on a rag and started for the great room.
The pounding came again.
“Come in,” she called out this time, giving the furniture a wide berth in her paint-splattered clothes.
Nobody responded, so she gingerly turned the handle, pulling the door wide, coming face-to-face with Seth.
“Can I help you?” she asked, struggling to banish the guilt she was feeling from their petition subterfuge.
“I sincerely hope so,” he answered, tapping a sheaf of papers against his palm.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what those papers were.
She kept her expression neutral, feigning innocence, inviting him to continue.
“There seems to be a small problem with your paperwork.”
“Oh?”
“Oh?” he parroted, gaze hard and accusing.
“What’s the problem?”
He cocked his head. “Are you really going to play innocent?”
“Innocent of what?”
He moved slightly closer. “You’re a smart woman, Darby. And you know how to rise to a challenge. You don’t have to cheat to get there.”
She recognized her own words from their coffee at the Fall Festival. Okay, now she really felt guilty.
“Are you suggesting we miscounted?”
His eyes glittered with triumph. “Who said anything about the number of signatures being wrong?”
The question tripped her up, and it took her a moment to respond. “What else could it be?” she asked airily.
“About a dozen other things.”
She could feel her face heat. “That seemed the most likely.”
“At least you’re a bad liar.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, of all your many flaws, I don’t have to add consummate liar to the list.”
“What flaws?” she asked before she could catch herself.
Why would she care if Seth thought she had flaws?
“You’re caught, Darby. Own up to it.”
“We may have miscounted,” she admitted. “But that’s hardly a crime.”
“Punishable by a ten-thousand-dollar fine and up to three months in jail.”
It took her a second to realize he was mocking her.
“Ha, ha.”
He shrugged. “That’s what it ought to be.”
“You actually think I deserve jail?”
“It would keep you out of my hair.”
“You just can’t stand the fact that I’m right.”
“You’re not right.”
She went for broke. “Then why does the idea of a petition scare you so much?”
“Do I look remotely frightened?”
She leaned her shoulder against the doorjamb. “If you weren’t afraid of what I could do, you’d have sent somebody else up here to complain about the signature count.”
“Wild speculation on your part.” He braced his hand against the wall, close to her shoulder.
“Why are you here?”
“I don’t need to send a minion to deal with you.”
She wondered again about the plan to flirt with him. Was it crazy? Would it work? Would it put him off his game?
She seemed to be out of other options, so she tossed her hair back and let her gaze go soft. “Exactly how are you planning to deal with me, Seth?”
He blinked.
She added a coquettish smile for good measure.
He inched ever so slightly closer. “You really think that’s going to work?”
“Do I think what’s going to work?”
He leaned closer still. “You can’t flirt your way out of the missing signatures. And what happened to you not flirting back?”
“Who’s flirting back?”
He reached forward, resting his palm on her hip, his intense blue gaze trapping hers. “You’re flirting.”
“In your dreams, cowboy.”
“Perhaps. But right now in real life, too.”
The timbre of his voice made her chest tighten. Her pulse sped up, and a warm flush made her skin tingle.
His tone dropped to a lower rumble. “How far you going to take this?”
Excellent question.
While she struggled to come up with a reasonable answer, he eased forward. She told herself to back off, but for some reason, she didn’t move. She told herself this was a terrible idea, but still, she didn’t move.
He whispered her name in obvious frustration, and then his hot lips came down on hers.
The searing power of his kiss zipped through her nervous system, bringing her entire body to instantaneous life. He wrapped his arm around her, pressing it against her back. The doorjamb dug into her shoulder but she barely felt it. Endorphins and who knew what else had formed a hormone-fueled cocktail that took over her senses. All she felt was Seth.
He didn’t let up. His lips urged hers open, while his tongue teased, and hers answered in kind. Her nipples tightened, and heat flooded her body, making her pliant and malleable.
When his hands moved to her bottom, urging her against his hard body, she came to him willingly. Her arms snaked their way around his neck, and she tilted her head while he deepened their kiss. His fingers then splayed into her hair, and the friction from his hard chest made her nipples tingle with desire.
Color and light swirled through her brain. The world tipped beneath her, and her equilibrium was lost. If not for Seth’s enveloping hug, she might have tumbled to the porch.
Her one small scrap of sanity was no match for the avalanche of passion flooding her body. She had a sudden urge to tear off their clothes and make love right there on the front porch.
He drew back, dragging in breaths, looking as dazed as she felt. “Another minute, and I’ll be swearing it’s six hundred names.”
Another minute and Darby would be sporting a train engineer’s hat.
He dropped his hands and stepped back. “This could get me into a lot of trouble at the office.”
“I’m sorry—” She stopped, not sure exactly what she was sorry about.
He laughed. “For being a great flirt? I’ve got to hand it to you, Darby. I didn’t think you’d go through with a kiss.”
Still feeling slightly unsteady on her feet, she forced out a casual laugh. There was no way she’d let him know how he’d affected her. “I figured it was worth a shot.”
His expression turned serious. “Take another shot, any old time you’d like.”
“We’re getting more signatures,” she told him, ignoring the urge to kiss him again right here and now. “Marta’s out there signing more people up.”
“You can’t do that. The deadline’s passed.”
“There’s nothing in the policy that says all six hundred have to be present at the deadline.”
“That’s the whole point.”
“Maybe,” she allowed. “Maybe not. But if you don’t approve the referendum, I’ll have to meet you in court so we can let a judge decide.”
“Fightin’ words, Ms. Carroll.”
“You have paint on your jacket, Mr. Mayor.”
He followed her gaze to the finger-shaped smears of peach where she’d gripped his sleeves. He blew out a heavy sigh.
“You’re a regular walking disaster.”
She stifled a smile. “I’ll pay for the dry-cleaning.”
He shrugged. “Sadly, the jacket barely registers on my radar today. There’s also a problem with your property survey on file at the Lands Office.”
The sudden change in topic took her by surprise.
“What problem?” She scrambled to figure out his new angle.
“Mountain Railway’s lawyers did some research—”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” she interrupted. “You are not going to mess around with my land—”
“I’m not messing around—”
“I don’t care who you are, Seth Jacobs.” She closed the space between them, tapping her index finger against his chest. “I will not be—”
“You own more land than you thought,” Seth all but shouted over her, grasping her paint-smeared hand and dragging it away from him.
“Huh?”
“The mistake is bad for me. I’m not here to cheat. Not that you don’t deserve someone who plays dirty.”
While he spoke, Seth suspiciously checked his shirtfront. “There was a mistake made in the survey record back in 1893. It turns out your land goes across the rail right-of-way. That being the case, we’ll be asking you for an easement.” He stopped talking.
The breeze gusted up from the lake, while songbirds darted from tree to tree.
“Are you saying I own more land?” She struggled to wrap her head around the news.
“Yes. The Lands Office will redraft your plan to match the one on the official file,” Seth said.
“So the train would come across my land?”
“If you grant an easement,” he confirmed.
“I don’t see that happening.”
“Neither do I,” he admitted. “So I’ll expropriate your land.”
“You can’t do that.” If it was her land, she should have a say.
“Yes,” he told her firmly, “I can.”
She believed him. “I’ll fight you.”
Their relationship was about to get more adversarial than ever.
“You can’t fight me on this one. And a petition won’t help.”
“Do you enjoy being the bad guy?” asked Darby.
“I’ve never been the bad guy. And I’m the good guy now. It’s what the people want, Darby. Accept it and move on.”
“A referendum will tell you what the people want.”
He shook his head and drew away, looking every inch in control. “The election already told me that.”
* * *
“What happens if they succeed?” Travis asked Seth from the passenger seat of the mayor’s official car.
“Succeed at what?” Seth asked, needing Travis to narrow the question down. Darby Carroll was uppermost on his mind, but as mayor, he was battling problems on a whole lot of fronts right now.
The two men were driving along the River Road on the way to a Rodeo Association dinner. Seth was at the wheel of his official vehicle, working hard at avoiding potholes.
“Succeed in getting the railway referendum.”
“They didn’t get enough signatures.”
“It might not matter,” said Travis. “Abigail read the bylaw, and Darby isn’t wrong. There’s nothing specifically stopping her from submitting additional signatures after the petition is filed.”
“It’s going in front of Judge Hawthorn.”
“So?”
“So, he grew up in the Valley. Half his family is still in ranching.”
Travis frowned. “You’re not saying what I think you’re saying.”
“I’m saying Judge Hawthorn will give us a straight-up reading of the bylaw and the intent of the bylaw. He’s not going to go looking for esoteric little loopholes to derail progress.”
“He’s honor bound to follow the law.”
Seth splashed the car through a puddle, knowing he’d have to get it washed yet again. “Exactly. I’m counting on that.”
Red and yellow leaves fluttered in bursts from the woods, ticking their way across the windshield. Seth rounded a corner and came to a rolling field where cattle dotted the golden wheatgrass. Snow was gathering on the high, distant peaks, and a chill blew down from the mountains.
He angled the car into the gravel parking lot of the association’s clubhouse, sliding it between a powder-blue pickup and a steel-gray SUV.
“Anything I can do to help?” Travis asked as they exited the car.
“I’m the one who ran for office,” Seth responded, knowing, for better or worse, he was getting what he’d signed up for, and it was his responsibility to deal with the problems.
“If you’ll recall, I tried to talk you out of it.”
“I recall,” Seth admitted.
He and his younger brother had had many lively arguments about his plan to become mayor.
“Are you saying I was right?” Travis pressed.
“I’m saying we’ve hit a snag.” A very beautiful, very compelling, very sexy little snag.
“What’s up with that expression?” Travis asked.
“What expression?” Seth focused on schooling his features.
“You looked kind of sappy there for a minute.”
“I’m not sappy. I’m nervous. I have to give a speech now.”
Travis scoffed out a laugh. “Liar. You’ve never been afraid of a podium before.”
“It’s been a tough week.” With no interest in explaining further, Seth left Travis behind and strode into the crowded room.
There, he immediately spotted Darby.
There were a couple hundred people in the clubhouse, but his attention seemed to zero in on her like a heat-seeking missile. He hadn’t expected her to be here.
Bad enough she was haunting his dreams. Did she also have to stalk his reality? The rodeo people were hardly her usual crowd. They were the ranchers, the hard-liners, the ones who were most angry at her stance on the railroad. She’d never get their support on a referendum or anything else.
But there she was, standing boldly in the lion’s den. She wore a short, steel-gray skirt and a soft, gray, sparkly sweater, with black tights and black ankle boots that had a distinctly Western flair. Her wavy, auburn hair, which cascaded past her shoulders, was tucked behind her ears to show off a pair of dangling black earrings.
“Looking sappy again,” joked Travis from behind him.
Ignoring his brother, Seth kept walking, moving closer to her.
As he made his way across the room, she was approached by Joe Harry. Joe was a big, ambling cowboy who’d barely made it through high school. He could work all day and party all night, but he wasn’t the sharpest nail in the toolbox, and social niceties had never been his strong suit.
He was clearly agitated, towering above Darby, face contorted, gesticulating as he spoke. Her expression became pinched under the onslaught, and Seth quickened his pace.
“...don’t know where the hell you get off,” Joe was saying, “messing around with the things in this Valley. My family has lived here for a hundred years.”
“As has mine,” she returned. “My aunt—”
“But not you, missy.” Joe waggled a finger in her face. “You’re as new and—”
“Hello, Joe.” Seth clapped the man firmly on the shoulder and held out his hand to shake. “I hear you gave Reed Terrell a run for his money in steer wrestling this year.”
The interruption seemed to rattle Joe. It took a moment, but then he put out his hand to shake Seth’s.
“Came second in overall points,” he confirmed.
“Way to go,” Seth said heartily. “That’s impressive.”
He gave Darby a fleeting glance. “Sorry to interrupt here, but I need to have a word with Darby.”
Joe frowned. “I was in the middle—”
“Don’t you worry about it,” Seth said, leaning in and lowering his voice to an overtly conspiratorial level. “I’ve got this one covered.”
“I’ve got some things to say to that woman.”
“I understand your perspective.” Seth nodded, his expression showing Joe he was taking this seriously. “And I do agree with you. My office is working on it.”
Joe gave Darby a disparaging look. “It ain’t right. She ain’t right.”
“I’m working to make it right,” said Seth. “Why don’t you go on over to the bar.” Seth fished into his pocket for the free drink tickets that had come with his invitation for the dinner. He handed Joe a red one. “Have a beer on me.”
“That’s kind of you, Mayor.”
“Enjoy the evening.” Seth turned from Joe to find Darby walking away.
“Hey.” He stepped fast to catch up with her, touching her arm.
“What the hell was that all about?” She shook off his hand.
Seth was taken aback by her tone. “Joe was obviously bothering you.”
“So you thought you’d rescue me?”
Seth’s brain scrambled to make sense of her words. He hadn’t expected outright gratitude, but he had done her a favor here.
“You’d rather I hadn’t?” he asked.
“One kiss does not make me yours to rescue. And I’d rather you gave me a little credit. I can handle a guy like Joe Harry.”
“I didn’t rescue you because I kissed you.”
“You don’t get to rescue me for any reason at all.”
