Читать книгу The Barons Of Texas: Kit - Fayrene Preston, Fayrene Preston - Страница 7

Des.

The name of her stepcousin broke the peace of the cold winter morning and eased its way into Kit Baron’s consciousness.

She didn’t even flinch. As much as she hated the fact, Des Baron was never far from her thoughts, especially when he was in residence at the ranch, as he was now.

Like an apparition that haunted, Des—his dark eyes, his enigmatic smile, his long, lean body—seemed to hover, waiting for an opportunity to infringe upon her thoughts. It was crazy, and she had no answer for it. She simply had learned to endure until he once again left the ranch and she was able to breathe more freely.

As she continued toward the saddle barn, the gravel crunched beneath her feet and she forced her thoughts elsewhere. The dawn was just beginning to break over the horizon. All over the ranch, activity had been going on for hours. There had been a freeze during the night, but the day would warm up with the sun, and in the meantime, she didn’t mind the cold. It cleared her head.

She loved winter mornings on the Double B, but then, she couldn’t think of a day or a season she didn’t adore. She had been born on it, and despite the harsh way her father, Edward Baron, had raised her and her sisters there, she had fallen in love with the land at an early age. Tess and Jill had gone in other directions, eager to be gone from the place and make their fortunes elsewhere. But now that their father was dead and Kit had had time to put her own personal stamp on the ranch, it was more than her home, it was her life.

Its wildness and unpredictability suited her down deep in her bones. She identified with the land that remained untamed, despite man’s best efforts. It was her own personal kingdom.

As she drew closer to the barn, her steps quickened.

The saddle barn was a constant in her life. As a child, it had served as a place to hide from her domineering father, a place to dream of a happier life.

But even there, Des had managed to imprint himself on her memories. One summer evening, when she had been seventeen, she had fled to the barn after her father had verbally torn her to shreds over something so inconsequential she couldn’t even remember what it had been. But she did remember Des Baron.

Coming into the barn, he had heard her crying. Following the sound, he had found her up in the loft in the farmost corner. Without a word, he had gathered her into his arms. But soon the comforting strokes had turned more urgent, and murmurs had turned into kisses. Soon heat was coursing between them. If he hadn’t finally torn away from her…

But he had. And that night she had learned that Des was a danger to her like no other. With incredible ease he could make her want him to the point that nothing else would be important, make her fall beneath his spell until he was her entire world.

She couldn’t allow it to happen.

Living under the heavy thumb of her father had made her vow she would never again allow herself to be dominated by a man. Once in a lifetime was more than enough.

And so, in public and on the surface, she had competed in an idiotic contest with her sisters to win Des’s agreement to marriage. She and her sisters had each wanted to marry him because of business reasons that had to do with their father’s will and, ultimately, control of Baron International, the family business. Privately, though, she had remained extremely wary of Des.

Damn the man.

Why wouldn’t he stay out of her mind?

Just inside, she flipped on the light and started down the wide hall between the stalls. Immediately the scent of the sweet hay and straw, and the commonplace smell of saddle soap, leather and horses, enveloped her. Since childhood, she had equated the smells with comfort, with home, with safety.

She could hear Dia already moving restlessly in his stall, kicking out and whinnying nervously. Something had upset him.

With a frown, she made a fast stop by the tack-and-feed room, snatched an apple from the refrigerator, grabbed his halter off a peg and hurried to him. His head came up, his neck stretched out of the stall, and he nickered a greeting.

“Mornin’, Dia,” she said softly, giving him the apple and reaching up to stroke his neck. “What’s wrong, boy? Did one of the barn cats get in your stall and spook you? Or are you just overly anxious for our run this morning?”

She knew she was. Whenever Des was home, she remained constantly on edge. And he had come in last night.

She rubbed Dia behind the ears, trying to soothe him with her presence and their well-known routine.

A sorrel quarter horse stallion with a blond mane and tail, Dia had been named Diablo by his former owner, who had cautioned her against buying the “crazy devil.” Early in his life, Dia had been put into bad hands that had left him traumatized, with a hatred of all men. His former owner had been about to put the horse down. When she had found him, she bought him immediately.

She had spent two-thirds of her life under the thumb of her father, who had been a devil of a man. In comparison, Dia was a lamb, though no one else on the Double B thought so. But then, no one else understood him as she did. Some men had the ability to crush a person’s soul. Dia’s soul had been crushed. She had restored it.

She opened the stall door and walked in. Dia practically pranced in place with eagerness. “I know, my beauty,” she murmured as she slipped the halter over his head.

He loved their early morning ride as much as she did. It was their one guaranteed hour together, when no one bothered them and they could be alone with each other, the wind and the land. But it was more than eagerness for their ride that had him going this morning. Something else was up.

She cast a critical eye around the stall, then went outside again for a shovel. Turning the straw over, she failed to see anything obviously wrong.

She walked Dia out into the hall and crosstied him in the aisle. He pawed the sand beneath his hooves, and the other horses, sensitive to his mood, moved and nickered restlessly.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

The gruff voice sent a chill down her spine. She whirled around as Cody Inman stepped out of an empty stall three doors down. Suddenly Dia’s nervousness made sense. “What are you doing here?” If there was a choice, no one ever entered the barn before she took Dia out.

“Like I said, I’ve been waiting for you. We need to talk.”

Cody was a compact, muscular guy with dark curly hair, somewhere in his late twenties. He had been working on the ranch for about eight months. A couple of times he had been in the group she had gone dancing with. But last night it had inadvertently worked out so that it had been just the two of them.

With Cody at her side, she had flown one of the ranch helicopters into the nearest town, where she had heard there would be a good band playing, and for a short while she had enjoyed herself. But he had ended up drinking too much and had come on to her. As a result, she had been forced to cut the evening short.

Now she studied him, irritated that he had intruded on her private time. From the rumpled look of him, he hadn’t been to bed, and from his slurred words, he had been drinking ever since they had returned.

As head of the Double B and everything on it, she was in charge of what was basically a man’s world. She sometimes walked a fine line between boss and woman, but she was in no position ever to forget who she was. And she never did.

She had two rules. She played only with those who knew she was playing, and she never allowed the situation to get serious. She had thought Cody understood her rules. She had thought she could use their night of dancing as a shield to protect her from dwelling on Des and speculating on the reason he was home. She had been wrong.

Yesterday morning she had received an unexpected message from Des, saying he was flying in and wanted to see her. She had panicked and set about to make sure she was busy.

Trying to avoid Des was a knee-jerk reaction with her, one she should have outgrown years ago. Still, going out dancing was something she had done a hundred times before with a hundred different ranch hands.

But no more.

No more.

If nothing else, this situation with Cody had taught her it was not a wise thing to do.

“Back away, Cody. You’re making Dia nervous.”

“Everything makes that devil nervous.”

“I don’t know where you’re supposed to be working this morning, but it’s not here.” Though there were always exceptions, generally speaking only the ranch’s longtime, most trusted hands were allowed to work around the main homestead, which was comprised of the main two homes and their support buildings. “Go sober up, then get to work.”

She strode to the tack room and returned with a bucket of grooming tools.

He caught her elbow. “No way, sweetheart. I’m taking the day off. Besides, I’m with the boss. No one is going to get too bent out of shape over it.”

His grip hurt. “Cody, you’re drunk. Go do as I say.”

“Don’t tell me what to do! I’m not some common ranch hand. You and I clicked last night, and I’m not going anywhere until we’ve settled a few things.”

She jerked away and went to Dia. At her touch, he calmed, but his skin twitched and the white rims of his eyes showed. “There’s nothing to settle. Last night was fun, until you began to drink too much, but it’s not going to happen again.”

“Last night was special, you know that. But then you gave me the brush off, and that’s not right. There can be something really sweet between us if you’ll just let it happen.”

She gave a sound of exasperation. “Tell me something. Am I speaking a language other than English? Pay attention. Nothing is going to happen between us.”

“Come on, baby. You’re a wild one, but I’ve made up my mind—I’m going to be the one who tames you.”

“Tame me? Are you for real?” She used both brushes on Dia’s back in an effort to hurry his grooming.

“Look, Kit, all I want is to go out with you again. What’s so bad about that? We can have some more good times, get to know each other better.”

“Do yourself a favor, Cody. Get out of my sight—now.

Even though she had done her best to keep her tone level, Dia must have heard something in her voice. He reared, kicked his hind legs out, then returned to pawing. “It’s okay, boy.”

She was able to get Dia’s blanket and pad on without incident, but when she returned from the tack room with the saddle, Cody intercepted her.

“Come on, honey,” he said coaxingly, blocking her path and grasping her shoulders. “We were hot last night. You were hot.”

At his touch, true anger flashed through her. “Get your hands off me or you’re going to be very sorry.”

She pushed against him, using the weight of the saddle to throw him off balance. He staggered backward but quickly recovered. She turned away, but then heard him give a yell of anger. Before she had time to respond, his weight hit her back and she fell forward onto the saddle, hitting the ground and knocking the air out of her.

Dia gave a scream of fury and reared, but there was nothing she could do about him now. She rolled off the saddle just as Cody came down on top of her.

“Get off me, you bastard.”

“No way, Sugar. You’re mine now.”

His lips crushed down on hers with bruising force, and she tasted blood.

She forced herself to relax for a moment, until she felt him loosen his grip and shift his legs. Then she jerked her knee up into his groin. He gave a loud groan and fell off her.

She scrambled to her feet and wiped the blood from her lip. “Collect your pay and be off the ranch by noon. You’re fired.”

Cody groaned again.

She quickly saddled Dia and led him out of the barn. By the time her weight settled into the saddle, Dia was moving forward. She reined him in, attempting to hold him to a walk. “Easy, boy. Let’s warm up first.”

She flipped her hair free of her jacket collar, and as they passed the next barn, she saw Tio, one of the ranch’s longtime cowboys, and lifted her hand to him.

“Kit?” he called out. “What’s wrong? You’re lookin’ like thunder this mornin’.”

“Just a guy who can’t take no for an answer.”

“Well, now, that ain’t right, no sir. You want me to handle him for you?”

“Don’t bother. I took care of him.”

Free of the outbuildings, she eased Dia into a lope, then gradually into an easy gallop. When she thought he had warmed up enough, she let him run flat out.

The whole unpleasant scene with Cody could be traced back to her reaction to the news that Des wanted to see her. How incredibly stupid of her.

Des.

Where was he?

What was he doing?

Why did he want to see her?