Читать книгу Wyoming Fierce - Diana Palmer - Страница 9

CHAPTER TWO

“DAMN IT, CANE,” TANK, aka Dalton, muttered under his breath as he helped Bodie get his brother out of the truck and up onto the porch. “Why do you do this to yourself?”

“He does share,” Bodie replied. “He did it to the bar also.”

Dalton groaned.

“I paid the bar tab, and extra.” Cane sighed. He pulled away from his brother. “I want her to take me upstairs.” He pointed to Bodie.

“No way. I have to go home. I’m studying for biology finals.”

“Won’t go if you don’t go with me,” Cane said obstinately.

Dalton grimaced. He looked at Bodie, pleadingly.

“Oh, all right. But then I have to go home, and somebody will have to drive me.”

“I’ll take you home,” Dalton promised. He smiled. “Thanks.”

She shrugged. “You’re welcome.”

She got under Cane’s good arm, shimmering all over at the feel of that powerful body so close to hers, and guided him up the steps.

“You owe me, pal,” she muttered.

His hand slid over her arm, his fingers accidentally brushing the rounded underside of her breast in the process, and dragging a helpless shock of pleasure that echoed from her throat.

“Mmm-hmm,” he murmured.

She got him into his room. He pushed the door closed behind them and let her guide him to the bed, but when he went down, he pulled her with him.

“Now,” he breathed, his hand under her back. “I want to find out something....”

She opened her mouth to ask what and his was suddenly teasing around it, nibbling at her upper lip, teasing the underside with his tongue. The mastery of the caress left her helpless. She just lay there, shocked, tempted…tingling all over with new sensations.

He unsnapped the bra and, leaning on the stump of his left arm, proceeded to unbutton his shirt while his lips were playing with hers. Seconds later, he’d pushed up her shirt and bra and his bare, hair-matted, muscular chest was pressing down against skin that had never been touched.

“Small,” he groaned, “but firm and soft and sweet.”

His thumb and forefinger were teasing the nipple, making it hard. She shivered.

“Yes.” He bent his head and his mouth suddenly opened, hot and moist, right on top of the nipple. He pulled at it tenderly, rasped it against his tongue and finally took all of her into his mouth and suckled her.

She came up off the bed shuddering, trying to contain the hoarse, pulsing cry of pleasure that accompanied the action.

His lean hand was behind her, pushing into her jeans as he shifted, so that he could bring her hips into intimate contact with him. She felt him swell, felt the size and power of him, in a contact she’d never shared with a man in her whole life. Repressed, raised religiously by a grandfather whose morals were still Victorian, she’d kept herself chaste. Now this man, this playboy, was trying to use her like one of his women, make her into his toy, to salve the ego that another woman had hurt.

She was trying to remember all that while one long leg curled around her and his mouth grew more insistent. She was so engrossed in new sensations that she barely heard the knock on the door until it was repeated, loudly.

“Cane! Bodie needs to go home!”

Bodie sat bolt upright, gaping down at Cane, whose expression was a cross between shock and shame.

“On my way!” she called, hoping her voice didn’t sound as unsettled as she felt. She fumbled her bra back in place, pulled her shirt down and stared at Cane in shock.

His mouth was swollen from its long contact with her body. His breathing was fast. But the alcohol suddenly seemed to catch up with him. He stared at her, blinked, started to speak and fell back onto the bed, snoring.

She got up and opened the door.

Tank looked in past her and sighed. “Thank God,” he mused. “I was afraid he might try to get out of hand.” He looked her over, and apparently didn’t see anything to concern him. She was mussed, but that could have come from manhandling Cane into bed. Or so she guessed.

“He’s a handful all right. I thought I’d never get him into the bed. He’s heavy!” she muttered, trying to bluff.

“Yes, he is.” He shook his head. “I wish he’d stop picking up women in bars,” he added coldly. “At his age, he should be thinking about a family.”

“Some men never settle down,” she replied, going ahead of him downstairs. “He seems to be one of those.”

“You never know. We’re in your debt, again,” he emphasized, and smiled gently. “Isn’t there something we can do for you?”

She smiled and nodded. “Yes. Drive me home, please. I still have to study.”

“Come on. Yes, I remember finals. No fun.”

“Yes, but I only have one more semester to go. If I pass everything, I get my degree.”

“Then what?”

“Then, on to my master’s.” She sighed. “With digs in between and a nice full-time job this next summer to help pay for it all.”

“We could…”

She held up a hand. “You’ve done so much for Granddaddy. You don’t need to do anything for me. I’m happy to help out, any way I can. You’re a nice family.”

He smiled. “Thanks. Your granddad was one of the best wranglers we ever had. Shame he had to go and get old,” he added gently.

“I feel the same way!”

* * *

HE DROVE HER HOME. She went inside, just in time to catch her grandfather in a conversation on the telephone.

“But where would I go, Will?” he was asking heavily. “This was my daughter’s place…yes, I know you own it. But I can’t pay that much in rent! My little monthly check from the Kirks helps, but I’m still trying to get on disability…yes, I know. I know. All right, I’ll try to come up with it. You wouldn’t really…? Hello?”

She walked into the dining room. He was standing by the telephone table that had belonged to her great-grandmother, with the freedom phone held in his hand, frozen.

“Granddaddy? What is it?”

He glanced at her, started to speak, thought better of it and just hung up the phone. “Aw, nothing. Nothing at all. You go back and work on that biology. I’m going to read a book. See you in the morning.” He even managed a smile.

“You sleep well,” she said.

He hesitated. “Oh, did you get Cane home okay?”

She nodded. “Tank drove me back. Cane passed out.”

He sighed. “Cane’s a good boy. Tragic, what happened to him.” He shook his head. “Just tragic.” He went into his room and closed the door.

Bodie went into her own room and sank down on the side of her bed, speechless from what had happened in Cane’s bedroom. He’d never once touched her. He’d told her things, shocking things, like the intimate details of his dates. But this was different. This was the first time he’d treated her as an adult woman.

She didn’t know whether to be outraged, angry or flattered. He was much older than she was. He was rich and handsome. He had a disability that made him forget how dishy he really was to women. But she couldn’t forget the look on his face just before he sank back into the pillows unconscious. That had been shame. Real shame.

She sighed. Her whole life had changed in the course of one night. She’d had her mind on education, on getting degrees, getting a job in her field, making some worthy and famous discovery that would set the world of anthropology on its ear. Now, all she could think about was the feel of Cane’s mouth on her body.

She couldn’t afford to let those thoughts continue. She was poor. Her grandfather was even poorer, and it sounded as if her stepfather had been making threats to him about raising the rent. She grimaced. Will Jones was horrible. He kept all sorts of explicit magazines around the house, and her mother had been furious at the cable and satellite bills because he watched pornography almost around the clock. She’d kept a close eye on Bodie, made sure that she was never alone with the man. Bodie had wondered about that, but never really questioned it, until her mother’s death.

The day after the funeral, which her stepfather had actually attended, dry-eyed, he made an intimate remark to her about her body. He said he knew about college girls and he had a new way to make money, now that her mother wasn’t around to disapprove. If she’d cooperate, he’d share the proceeds with her. He was starting an internet business. He could make her a star. All she had to do was pose for a few photographs....

Shocked and still grieving for her mother, she’d left his house immediately and gone to her grandfather’s rented home with only a small suitcase containing her greatest little treasures and a few clothes. Her grandfather, grim-faced, had never asked why she’d moved in with him. But from then on, they were a team. Her stepfather had tried to coax her back, but she’d refused and hung up on him. He had a friend who liked her. The friend, Larry, wanted to go out with her. She didn’t like the look of him, or the way he spent time with her stepfather. She imagined that he had the same taste in reading matter and film viewing as the older man. It gave her the creeps. She opened her biology textbook and sprawled on the bed. She wasn’t going to think of these things right now. She’d face them when she had to. At the moment her priority was passing biology, a subject she loved but was never really good at. She recalled her first biology exam. She could understand the material; her professor was an excellent teacher. But she ground her teeth together during the oral biology lab. Her professor, a kind but terrifying man in a white lab coat during orals, had grinned when she rattled off the information about circulation through the lymphatic system. It had been harrowing. But that was only a test. She was certain that the final would be much worse.

She sighed, closing her eyes and smiling. Her physical anthropology class was her favorite. She was actually looking forward to that final. Her roommate, Beth Gaines, a nice girl with whom she lived in a small apartment off campus, was in the same anthropology class. They’d spent days before Bodie came home for the weekend, grilling each other on the material.

“Bones, bones, bones,” Beth groaned as she went over the dentition yet another time. “These teeth were in this primate, these teeth were in a more refined primate, this was in homo sapiens…aaaahhhhhh!” she screamed, pulling at her red hair. “I’ll never remember all this!” She glared at Bodie, who was grinning. “And I’ll never forgive you for talking me into taking this class with you! I’m a history major! Why do I need a minor in anthropology?”

“Because when I become famous and get a job at some super university as a professor, you can come and teach there with me.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “I’ll have connections! Wait and see!”

Beth sighed. Her expression was doubtful.

“Only a few more years to go,” Bodie teased.

Beth’s green eyes narrowed. “I’m not taking any more anthropology classes, period.”

Bodie had only grinned, as well. Her best friend was like herself, out of step with the world, old-fashioned and deeply religious. It was hard to be that way on a modern college campus without getting hassled by more progressive students. But Beth and Bodie stuck together and coped.

Bodie opened her eyes. She was never going to get this biology committed to memory by thinking about other things.

She frowned as music started playing. She got up to answer her cell phone, which was playing one of the Star Trek themes.

Bodie opened it. “Hello?”

There was a pause. “Bodie?”

Her heart skipped. “Yes.”

She moved to the door and pushed it shut, so she wouldn’t disturb her grandfather.

“About earlier tonight,” Cane began slowly.

“Yes?” She was beginning to sound like a broken record.

He cleared his throat. “If I said anything out of the way, I’m sorry.”

She hesitated. “You don’t remember?” she asked.

He laughed softly. “I was pretty much drunk out of my mind,” he said with a long sigh. “Honest to God, I remember getting into the truck with you. The next thing I remember is waking up with a pounding headache and so sick that I had to run to the bathroom.” He hesitated again, while Bodie’s heart fell like lead. All that, and he didn’t remember anything?

“You should stop treeing bars,” she said quietly.

“If I’m going to have memory loss like this, yes, I guess you’re right.”

“And more specifically, you should stop trying to pick up women in bars,” she said with a bite in her soft voice.

He sighed. “Right again.”

“You need to get back into therapy. Both kinds.”

There was a long hesitation.

“You’re not doing yourself or your brothers any favors by behaving like that, Cane,” she told him. “One day, paying off the damage won’t be enough and you’ll have a police record. Think how that would look in the newspaper.”

There was a sound, like a man sitting down in a leather chair. The sound leather made was no stranger to Bodie, who’d wished all her young life for a chair so fancy for her grandfather. His easy chair was cloth, faded and with torn spots that Bodie kept sewing up.

“You’re not the only person who came home from the military with problems of one sort or another,” she continued, but in a less hostile tone. “People cope. They have to.”

“I’m not coping…very well,” he confessed.

“You have to have a psychologist that you like and trust,” she said, recalling her friend Beth’s entry into therapy over a childhood incident. “I don’t think you liked your last one at all.”

“I didn’t,” he said curtly. “Smart guy, never had a pain or injury in his life, said you just had to pull yourself together like a man and face the fact that you’re crippled....”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” she exclaimed. “You should have walked right out the door!”

“I did,” he muttered. “Then everybody said I wasn’t trying because I quit therapy.”

“You should have told why you quit, and nobody would have said anything,” she shot back.

He sighed. “Yes. I guess I should have.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on the road in the morning with Big Red for that cattle show?” she asked suddenly, naming their prize bull who was on the show circuit. He’d won all sorts of awards. Cane took one of the ranch cowboys along with him on the road, to help manage the big bull who was, however, gentle as a lamb on the lead. Having another man who could help if Big Red got out of hand was a smart precaution.

“I’m headed out later, in fact. I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t abused your trust,” he added gently. “Not good policy, to alienate your only caretaker.”

“Tank or Mallory could save bars from you if they had to,” she pointed out.

“Well, yes, but not without some broken teeth. You can do it with fewer bruises.”

“Nice to know I’m useful,” she replied with a smile in her voice.

There was another pause. He didn’t like talking on the telephone. He did it reluctantly at best. “You dating anybody from that college you go to?” he asked suddenly.

Her heart jumped. “Why?”

“Just curious.”

“I’m too busy studying to run around with men,” she muttered. “I wasn’t blessed with the size brain all you Kirk boys have. I have to dig for my grades.”

“We all have degrees,” he admitted. “But we had to dig for ours, too. Well, maybe not Mallory. He’s just smart.”

“He is.”

“When do you go back to school?”

“Tomorrow morning before daylight,” she said heavily. “My first final is after lunch tomorrow. It’s finals all week.”

There was another pause. “You coming back home after you finish those?”

“Yes. I’ll be here until the first of the year, through the holidays. Granddaddy would be all alone without me. We only have each other.”

“And your stepfather,” he said, but without any warmth in his tone.

“Will Jones is not part of my family,” she bit off. “Not at all.”

“Can’t say I blame you for not claiming him,” he admitted. “None of us ever understood what your mother saw in him.”

Not for worlds would Bodie admit what her mother had said, that she knew she was dying and it was worth putting up with her new husband’s quirks because he was well-to-do and was willing to pay her medical bills and take care of Bodie. It had been a little more complicated than that. Bodie had spent the past two years getting undressed in bathrooms and locking her door at night to prevent any unwanted attention from her mother’s husband. Then when her mother died, everything had come to a head just after the funeral and she’d gone to Granddaddy’s home for good.

“There’s no accounting for taste,” Cane said.

“Truly.”

“It was money, wasn’t it?” he asked suddenly. “She was sick for a long time and couldn’t work.”

Bodie’s heart skipped. Her bow lips made a thin line. “Something like that.”

“She was proud,” he said unexpectedly. “Not the sort of person to ever ask for help.”

She didn’t reply.

“All right, I won’t pry,” he said after the silence. “So, I guess I’ll see you when you come home.”

“Yes,” she said, hesitant.

“If I said or did anything to upset you, I’m sorry,” he added. “I wish I could remember, but the whole night’s a blur. Tank said you looked a little ruffled when he drove you home.”

“I should have looked ruffled!” she replied with spirit. “Trying to wrestle a huge, heavy man onto a bed when he’s deadweight would cause most people to look ruffled! And then you passed out…”

“Oh.” He laughed, softly, deeply. “Okay. That’s really what I wanted to know.”

She was blushing. Thank goodness he couldn’t see. “So, you don’t owe me any apologies,” she said.

“I guess not. I had this really crazy dream tonight…but it was just a dream, I guess, after all.” He laughed, while Bodie bit her tongue. “Damned woman hurt my feelings so bad,” he said in a heavy tone. “I take things hard.”

“Women come in all shapes and sizes and dispositions,” she pointed out. “I don’t think women who hang out in bars looking for men are particularly sensitive. Just my two cents.”

“You want to know what they’re looking for, I’ll tell you…”

“Don’t!”

“It’s money,” he said flatly. “It was a five-star hotel, and a lot of rich men have a nightcap. She was waiting for a patsy to show up, and I walked in. If she’d seen an empty sleeve, she probably never would have come near me, with her hang-ups about disability,” he said curtly. “I guess I should toss that damned prosthesis in the trash can. I would, except I could buy a car with what it cost.”

“They’re working on prosthetics that can be directly connected to nerve endings, so they work like real hands,” she told him. “The whole field of prosthetics is very exciting, with all the advances....”

“And why would you be reading up on that?” he asked suddenly.

She hesitated. “Because I have this idiot friend who thinks he’s disabled,” she fired right back.

He burst out laughing. “Are we friends?”

“If we weren’t, why would I be rescuing you from bars and certain arrest?” she wondered out loud.

He sighed. “Yeah,” he replied. “I guess we are friends.” He paused. “You’re barely twenty-two, Bodie,” he said gently. “I’m thirty-four. It’s an odd friendship. And just so you know, I’m not in the market for a child bride.”

“You think I’d want to marry you?” she exclaimed.

There was a hesitation. She could almost feel the outrage. He’d be thinking immediately she didn’t want to marry him because of his arm.

“Just because you know a tibia from a fibula when you dig it up, right?” she continued quickly in a sardonic tone. “And because you know how to pronounce Australopithecus and you know what a foramen magnum is!” she said, referring to the large hole at the base of the skull.

He seemed taken aback. “Well, I do know what it is.”

“You wait,” she said. “When I finish my master’s work and get into the PhD program in anthropology, I’ll give you a run for your money.”

“That’s a long course of study.”

“I know. Years and years. But I don’t have any plans to marry, either,” she added, “and certainly not to a man just because he can tell an atlas from a sacrum. So there.”

He laughed softly. “I used to love to dig.”

“You can get people to dig for you, and still do it,” she suggested. “In fact, when you’re doing the delicate work, it doesn’t really require two hands. Just a toothbrush and a trowel and no aversion to dust and mud.”

“I suppose.”

“You shouldn’t give up something you love.”

“Bones and mud.”

“Yes.” She laughed. “Bones and mud.”

“Well, I’ll think about it.”

“Think about the therapist, too, would you?” she asked. “I’ve already lined up a summer job at a dig in Colorado next year after graduation. I’ll be away for several weeks. Nobody to rescue you from bar brawls,” she added pointedly. “And depending on which specialization I choose, I might go overseas for PhD work, do classical archaeology in the Middle East....”

“No!” he said flatly. “Don’t even think about it. I’ll talk to your grandfather if you even consider it.”

She was surprised and flattered by the protest. She knew he was remembering what had happened to him in Iraq, with the roadside bomb. “Cane, I wouldn’t be working in a combat zone,” she said softly. “It would be at a dig site, with security people.”

“I’ve seen the quality of some of their security people,” he came back. “Rent-a-Merc,” he said sarcastically. “Not even real military—independent contractors who work for the highest bidder. And I wouldn’t trust them to guard one of our culls!” he said, alluding to the non-producing cows who were sold at auction each breeding season.

“Selling off poor cows because they can’t have babies,” she muttered. “Barbarian!”

He laughed roundly. “Listen, ranches run on offspring. No cow kids, no ranch, get it?”

“I get it. But it’s still cow insensitivity. Imagine if you couldn’t have kids and somebody threw you off the ranch!”

“I imagine they’d have a pretty hard time harnessing me,” he admitted. “Besides, that’s not something I’ll ever have to worry about, I’m sure.” He hesitated. “You want kids?”

“Of course, someday,” she qualified, “when I’m through school and have my doctorate and have some success in my profession, so that I can afford them.”

“I think it might be a problem if you wait until you’re moving around with a walker,” he said.

“It won’t take that long!”

“Generally speaking, if you wait to have kids until you can afford them, you’ll never have any.” There was a pause. “I hope you don’t plan to do what a lot of career women do—have a child from a donor you don’t even know.”

She made a huffing sound. “If I have kids, I plan to have them in the normal way, and with a husband, however unpopular that idea may be these days!”

He laughed. “Statistically, married people still have the edge in childbearing.”

“Civilization falls on issues of religion and morality,” she stated. “First go the arts, then go the morals, then go the laws and out goes the civilization. Egypt under the pharaohs, Rome…”

“I have to leave pretty soon.”

“I was just getting up to speed!” she protested. “Where’s my soapbox…?”

“Another time. I studied western civ, too, you know.”

“Yes. Sorry.”

He hesitated. “You’re sure that nothing…happened?” he asked again.

“Cane, you were too drunk for anything to happen,” she replied. “Why are you so concerned?”

“Men get dangerous when they drink, honey,” he said, and her heart jumped and skipped in a flurry of delight, because he’d never used pet names. “I wouldn’t want to do anything out-of-the-way. Maybe it’s a bad idea to let my brothers keep calling you when I go on a bender. One day, I might do something unspeakable and we’d both have to live with it.”

“The answer to that is that you stop getting drunk in bars,” she said in a droll tone.

“Spoilsport.”

“You can drink at home, can’t you?”

“It’s the ambiance of bars. I don’t have that at the ranch. Besides, Mavie would throw me out the back door and pepper me with potato peelings if I even tried it.”

“Your housekeeper has good sense.”

“Good something. At least she can cook.

“Well, I guess I’ll let you go,” he said after a minute.

“You be careful on the road,” she said softly, in a tone far more intimate than she meant it to be.

“You be careful, too,” he added. His own tone was oddly tender. “Wear a coat when you go out. Temperature’s dropping.”

“I noticed.”

Soft breathing came over the connection. “I guess I should go.”

“You said that,” she replied, and her own tone was as reluctant as his.

He laughed softly. “I guess I did. Well…good night.”

“Good night, Cane.”

“I like the way you say my name,” he said suddenly. “Bye.”

He hung up abruptly, as if he regretted what he’d just let slip. Her heart was pounding like mad when she put up the phone and opened her bedroom door. She felt as if her feet weren’t even touching the floor.

All the same, she did manage to get the material memorized for her biology final. She got up very early the next morning to drive back to school in her battered old vehicle.

She kissed her granddaddy goodbye.

“Good luck on those finals,” he told her as he hugged her.

She grinned. “Thanks. I’ll need it. I’ll see you next weekend.”

He managed a smile. “Miss you when you’re not here, girl.”

She was touched. “I miss you, too. I won’t be away that long, and then we’ll have the Christmas holidays together. I’ll make cakes and pies…”

“Stop! I’m starving already,” he teased.

She grinned again and kissed him again. “See? Something to look forward to.”

* * *

FINALS WERE EVERY BIT AS grueling as she’d imagined. Her first was biology. A lab rat was laid out on a dissecting board with pins stuck in various portions of its anatomy, designating which parts were to be labeled and discussed on the exam.

She felt that she’d sweated blood on the written portion, however, especially trying to recall the methodology of the Punnett Square, used to predict heritability of genetic traits. That was one part of the textbook section that she had problems with. But she hoped she remembered enough of the material to slide by.

The next exam was physical anthropology. That one didn’t worry her. She loved the subject so much that she was in her element when she studied it. She breezed through the test. Only two to go at that point, English and sociology.

* * *

FINALLY THE EXAMS WERE finished, the teacher evaluation forms at the end of each class were filled out and turned in and she was packing to go home.

“You should stay here tonight…come out with us to celebrate,” Beth told her with a grin. “Ted’s got this friend Harvey. He’s really nice, you’d like him. You never date,” she accused.

Bodie just shook her head as she went back to her packing. She wasn’t going to tell her friend anything about Cane, for fear of being teased. It was too early in her changed attitude toward him for that. “I have a career in mind. No time for romantic activities.”

“There’s the holidays, we could go out then,” Beth persisted.

Bodie shook her head again. “I’m going home for the holidays and it’s just too far to drive back with gas prices what they are. I’m really sorry,” she said when her friend looked disappointed.

“Well, I’m going home, too, to Maine,” she agreed. “But after the first of the year, when the new semester starts, you really should meet Harvey. He’s just so cute!”

“Poor Ted!”

“No! I mean, he’s cute. My Ted is gorgeous,” she added, wiggling her eyebrows. “He wants to marry me.”

“Really?”

“Really.” She sighed. “I don’t know what to do. I really want to go on to do my master’s work in history, but Ted wants to get married now.”

“You should do what you want to,” Bodie advised.

“Marrying Ted is what I really want to do. Ted and several babies and a nice house with a fence,” she said dreamily.

“Babies.” Bodie laughed. “I want one, too, but not for years yet. I’m going to be successful first.”

Beth gave her a look that she didn’t see; her nose was in her suitcase.

“That’s why you won’t date,” Beth guessed. “If you fall in love, that career’s going on hold for a while.”

“Mind reader,” Bodie said. “Now go dress for your date and let me finish packing.”

“Ted wants to go dancing. I love to dance!”

“I didn’t notice,” Bodie said dryly, because it was a familiar theme.

“Okay. Well, you drive safely. I’ll see you in January. I hope you have a great Christmas and New Year.”

“Thanks. I hope you do, too. And that Ted buys you a nice big diamond,” Bodie teased.

“On his salary? Fat chance. But the ring doesn’t matter.” She sighed. “All I want is Ted.”

Bodie just smiled.