Читать книгу Honor Bound - B.J. Daniels, B.J. Daniels - Страница 13

CHAPTER SEVEN

SAWYER RODE NEXT to Ainsley, debating telling her who he was and why he’d shown up the way he had. But just minutes ago she’d made it clear that she didn’t like the idea of him riding along because he thought she needed saving.

But damn if she didn’t need saving. That note he’d found on her door had been nagging at him all morning. Her secret admirer was more than a little obsessed with her. Following her from town to town meant he had some means of support rather than a regular job. It also showed how determined he was. A sane man didn’t follow a woman around like that unless...

He looked over at Ainsley. He could see that she was at home in a saddle. There was something so strong and self-assured about her, not to mention beautiful and smart and funny, he thought, remembering this morning when she’d been hiding under the covers. He smiled to himself. He could see where a man might become infatuated with Ainsley Hamilton.

She glanced over at him and smiled as if content with the silence between them. He felt the same way. It was another remarkable fall day. A clear brilliant blue sky hung over the pine-covered mountains. Patches of golden-leafed aspens rustled in the breeze, and an occasional hawk would sweep past overhead, casting a winged shadow over them before disappearing behind a rocky bluff.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she said, looking out at the Western landscape as they rode along.

“Beautiful,” he said, his gaze on her.

She glanced over at him as if she’d felt his stare on her and knew he wasn’t talking about the country. Her smile was warmer than the sun on his back.

They found several locations that Ainsley thought might suit Gunderson.

“I think that’s enough options,” she said.

“One of the kitchen girls told me about a hot spring up this way,” Sawyer said, not wanting their time together to end just yet. “I’m not sure it would make a location for the commercial, but if you want to see it...”

Ainsley glanced at her watch. He could tell that she was torn. The old Ainsley who always did what was right and prudent needed to get back to Gunderson with her latest ideas. The new Ainsley?

“Are you trying to lead me astray, Mr. Nash?” she asked when she looked up and saw the way he was studying her.

He grinned. “Is it working?”

Again she hesitated. “I suppose we better check it out.”

They rode in silence a short way up a narrow valley until they came to a rock formation set against the mountain. Sawyer could feel Ainsley’s excitement. He assumed it was because this would be a beautiful place for the commercial shoot since the canyon had fallen through, so to speak.

He dismounted, tying his horse to a pine tree, and started to reach for Ainsley, when she swung a leg over her saddle horn and slid down next to him. Feeling like a kid, he took her hand, excited to see the spring.

It was better than he could have imagined. Steam rose from an oval pool of clear water surrounded by large boulders.

“Why didn’t I know about this?” Ainsley demanded of herself.

“I overheard one of the girls who work in the kitchen talking about it. They are planning to ride up here tonight with some boys they know.” He looked up at Montana’s big blue sky overhead. “I bet it is beautiful at night.”

Ainsley was still looking guilty that she hadn’t been aware of it. As if being the location scout, she should know everything about the entire state. She finally looked over at him. “What are you doing?”

He removed his coat, then began unbuttoning his shirt. “Going skinny-dipping.”

“You wouldn’t.”

He laughed as he stripped off his shirt. “You were all for it last night.”

“That was different. I was—”

“The new Ainsley Hamilton, the adventurous, the woman who was bound and determined to do everything she’d missed out on.”

She lifted her chin as he reached to unsnap his jeans. “If you think you can tempt me to—”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. I don’t mind going in alone.”

She opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. “You think I won’t do it.”

Sawyer cocked his head at her. The buttons on his jeans popped out one after another. As he began to shrug out of the denim, she turned her back. He smiled to himself as he stopped to watch her toss aside her jacket, then slowly unbutton her shirt.

He stepped into the warm pool. It quickly became deep. He sank into it, relishing the heat. “It’s perfect!” he called to her. She had taken off everything but her bra and panties. He could see she was about to chicken out. “You won’t want to ride back in wet underwear. I’ve already seen you naked, but I’ll turn around if you like. I can be a perfect gentleman. If that’s what you want.” His words were apparently sufficient.

“I’m not as big a prude as everyone thinks I am,” she called to him without turning in his direction.

He saw her unhook her bra, and he turned around as promised. He heard her enter the water a few moments later. He felt small ripples move against him. “Is it safe to turn around now?”

“I guess so,” she said. She was neck deep in the water. Had the water been clearer he might have been able to see her below the surface. But he didn’t need the view. He’d never forget what she looked like after last night in the moonlight.

He stayed where he was, sensing that’s the way she wanted it. But he was smiling to himself. He was damned proud of whichever Ainsley Hamilton was sharing the pool with him. He admired a woman who accepted a challenge, especially for something out of her comfort zone.

“Have dinner with me tonight.”

* * *

SARAH HURRIED DOWN the hospital hallway, reaching Russell’s hospital room as the doctor came out. “How is he?”

He recognized her from all her other visits and like most people in the county, knew that she had been Russell’s fiancé not all that long ago.

“It is nothing short of a miracle,” the doctor said, closing the door behind him. “He’s still a little confused. We’ll need to run more tests, but it appears he will have a full recovery.”

She breathed a sigh of relief that brought tears to her eyes again. “Thank you. Can I see him?”

“Just keep your visit short.”

Sarah took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The first time she’d come to see Russell was right after his attack. He’d been so badly beaten that he hadn’t been expected to live. The doctor had worried that he would have brain damage. So it really was a miracle.

As she entered the room, she let the door close behind her. Russell lay on the bed on his back, his eyes closed.

She moved quietly to his side and took his hand. His eyes opened at her touch, and he turned his head toward her, a smile coming to his lips.

“I am so glad to see you’re awake,” she said, unable to hold back the tears.

His smile wavered. “I’m sorry, I thought for a minute you were my daughter, Destry.”

“I’m sure the doctor has called her.”

He nodded and looked toward the door. “I thought the two of them would be here by now.”

She stared at him. Now she was the one confused. “Destry and her husband?”

“Destry and Judy, my wife.”

Judy? His deceased wife?

She stared at him. The doctor had said there was some confusion after such major injuries. “Russell, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I know you were just trying to help me. If I could take any of it back—”

He pulled his hand free, his frown deepening. “I don’t mean to be rude, but do I know you?”

She was momentarily stunned. “Russell, it’s me, Sarah.” He still looked puzzled. “Sarah Hamilton.”

His eyes widened as he finally seemed to recognize her. “I’m sorry, but I thought you were... That is...” He looked around the room as if now not sure where he was. When his gaze came back to her, he looked more frightened than confused. “I’m sure I recall going to your funeral.” He fumbled for his call button to alert the nurse, all the while he just kept frowning at her.

Sarah stared at him, almost too shocked to speak. “You don’t remember finding me on the road outside Beartooth months ago?” she asked, her voice breaking.

“Finding you?”

“You don’t remember...” She couldn’t bear to say the words. You don’t remember falling in love with me, asking me to marry you? You don’t remember promising to help me? The door opened behind them. Sarah turned as a nurse came in.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to leave,” the nurse said, glancing from Sarah to Russell and back again. Russell was visibly upset.

Sarah nodded. Russell was still frowning at her, looking scared since his last memory was going to her funeral all those years ago.

“I was just leaving.” She forced a smile. He didn’t remember her. She’d heard about head injuries where there was memory loss. His had apparently wiped out everything they had been to each other since she’d returned.

She thought of her own loss of memories due to Dr. Venable eradicating them. At least for Russell, forgetting her was a blessing. “I’m so glad you’re better,” she said, her heart breaking.

* * *

AINSLEY PLAYED THE conversation over in her head, mentally kicking herself. She still couldn’t believe that she’d actually gone skinny-dipping—again! It was so not like her and yet... She smiled to herself. She’d felt a sense of freedom like none she’d ever experienced. And Sawyer had been a man of his word. He’d behaved like a perfect gentleman.

So what had made her say she would have dinner with this cowboy? He’d caught her at a weak moment, she told herself.

“I thought you might enjoy getting away from here for a while,” he’d said. “I feel like I’m in a fishbowl up here, you know what I mean?”

She knew that feeling only too well. But then she’d felt like that for months. “Not much goes on out here that someone doesn’t witness. That’s why there is so much gossip.” Fortunately, she hadn’t heard anything about her and Sawyer, given his early-morning exit from her cabin.

Ainsley had been ready to leave it at that. Going into town with him would only get tongues wagging. She had opened her mouth hoping a good excuse would come out.

“Unless you’ve gone back to being the old Ainsley Hamilton, the one who isn’t allowed to have fun...”

She had groaned. Did he really think he could dare her into having dinner with him? “Last night I was—”

“Drunk?”

“A little overdramatic.”

“So you don’t think going into town with me to the local café would be living too dangerous for you?”

Right then she couldn’t imagine anything more dangerous. There was something about this man beyond his good looks, his obvious charm, his way of making her feel safe.

“You’re making fun of me.”

“Not at all. Like I told you, I like both the old and the new Ainsley. It will be interesting to see which one comes out with me tonight.”

She’d laughed. It had felt good. It also felt good to be asked out by this handsome cowboy. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken a man up on an offer for dinner. No way was she going to let that Ainsley Hamilton from last night out, but what would it hurt to let down her hair just a little?

“Okay, cowboy,” she’d said. Only later back in her cabin did she worry. Sawyer brought out a woman in her she didn’t know. It scared her, but it also excited her. Something told her that she should keep her distance from the man.

* * *

SAWYER HAD MADE up his mind that he would tell Ainsley the truth at dinner tonight—if she went out with him. He feared she might change her mind. He didn’t like keeping the truth from her, now that he’d met her.

But at the same time, she’d made it clear that she prided herself on her independence. As she’d said, she could take care of herself. The rock slide yesterday, though, had shaken that solid foundation she’d built her life on. She seemed to think she’d contained that urge she’d had to do things she’d never done. He wasn’t so sure about that, given that he’d talked her into going into the spring with him.

Truthfully, he’d love to see the new Ainsley come back. Had she been sober, he would have gone skinny-dipping with her last night. But then again, had she been sober, it would probably have never crossed her mind.

On the ride back to the stables, Ainsley had asked, “I’m curious. What do you do when you aren’t playing a cowboy extra?”

He’d avoided the truth. “I was raised on a ranch, so me and horses are a given. But I promise to tell you anything you want at dinner.” He made an x over his heart with one finger. “Scout’s honor.”

Ainsley had seemed to relax a little. He knew she was still suffering from a bad hangover. He had no idea how much alcohol Kitzie had put in the drinks, but enough to down an elephant, he was betting. Kitzie. He pushed all thoughts of her away.

He wished he wouldn’t have to tell Ainsley the truth until he’d found her stalker. That was why as soon as they got back to the stables, he’d set out to find the person who’d left the note on her cabin door last night. He had it narrowed down to the security guard, Lance Roderick. He fit the profile.

The rest of the crew seemed okay, since, according to Kitzie, almost all of them were from California and had been on the road during the months that someone had been following Ainsley in Montana.

He wondered again what assignment Kitzie was on but told himself it apparently didn’t have anything to do with Ainsley’s stalker. That was all he had to concern himself with. If Kitzie needed help, she knew where to find him.

* * *

THE TRAMP! WHAT HAD happened to the woman he’d adored from afar? From the shadows, he watched Ainsley and the cowboy ride back from wherever they’d been for hours. She laughed at something the long, tall cowboy had said, her laughter coming to him on the breeze.

He felt bile rise in his throat. She was flirting with the man as if she had no morals at all. Look at how she threw her head back when she laughed. Look at how she touched her hair. Look at how she gazed at the cowboy shyly from under her lashes. How could she behave like this? Wasn’t last night bad enough?

The thought of her standing naked by the creek filled him with a burning anger. To take off her clothes with a man she didn’t even know? He’d been so disappointed in her, but last night he’d excused her behavior. While staying back in the blackness beyond the campfire, he’d heard her talking about her life passing before her eyes because of the rock slide. He had attributed her lack of decorum to her near accident—one he had caused.

So he had excused her even when the cowboy had bundled her up and taken her back to her cabin. He had waited outside, counting the minutes. But the cowboy hadn’t come back out. He’d moved closer. Ainsley had been drunk. If that cowboy laid one finger on her...

But at the cabin window in the back where the bedroom was, he’d heard only Ainsley’s faint snores. He’d stayed there, listening. He’d learned how to move around the place without anyone paying him any attention. No one had been able to see him in the trees behind the cabin, and if the cowboy had tried anything, he would hear it and wake up, should he doze off.

Nothing had happened. Not that he was happy about the cowboy spending the night in Ainsley’s cabin. What if someone else had seen the cowboy come out of there this morning? Her reputation would be ruined. People would talk. He thought of his mother and shook his head. She would not have approved. She would have demanded that Ainsley be punished.

The thought made his heart beat faster.

This morning he’d asked the girls in the kitchen about him. Sawyer Nash was nothing but an extra, some dumb cowboy who had a couple of ride-on parts in this ridiculous commercial.

Still, he’d been willing to let last night be forgotten if Ainsley came to her senses today. She had seemed to be her old, proper self this morning when he’d watched her with the director. He’d been cheered by that, and forgiving. Whatever she’d done last night, it wasn’t her fault, so he would overlook it.