Читать книгу Montana Gold - Genell Dellin - Страница 9

CHAPTER FOUR

ELLE WATCHED CHASE take off his Hotel California cap and the sunglasses and drop them on the desk in the room as if he meant to stay awhile.

“I hope you don’t expect me to entertain you for the rest of the night in exchange for dinner,” she said. “I have to work tomorrow.”

He threw her a glance.

She felt her face redden again. Now he’d think she expected him to stay. Was hinting for him to stay. That she wanted him to kiss her again.

Well, she did want to know if he wanted to. And, to be perfectly honest, she did want him to, so she could find out whether she’d feel just as much the second time.

She slammed her mind shut on that thought and tried to think of something she could actually say to him.

“I have a costume suggestion for you,” she said, as he headed for the coffee table with the food. “You might stay away from the theme of bulls on your clothing if you don’t want to be recognized.”

He gave her a comical look. “You were wrong about the undercover cop deal,” he said. “I’m disguised as a PBR fan.”

“Evidently not very well,” she said dryly, and loved that he laughed, even though it wasn’t that funny. “Maybe get a cap with a slightly more current bull on it.”

They ate sitting on the little love seat, hardly talking, both of them ravenous. Once they’d consumed almost everything, the habanero salsa was burning them up.

“Milk,” Elle said, and went to get it from the small refrigerator. Chase got up and started clearing away the mess.

“Be careful not to throw out the sopapillas,” she said, rummaging for the paper cups. “How many of them did you say you have?”

He laughed. “I didn’t say. And don’t worry about it. You’ve eaten too much already.”

She turned to nail him with a look. “Well, what about you? Let’s see now, three tacos plus a whole plate of enchiladas? And that was after many, many nachos and a lot of guacamole.”

“Hey, what were you doing? Counting everything I ate? Hoping I’d drop a crumb so you could grab it, I’ll bet,” he said, stuffing trash into two of the Enrique bags.

Elle started for the table with the cups of milk, crossing his path on his way to the wastebasket. He stopped directly in front of her, so close his arm brushed hers.

“You’re just lucky you found me when you did,” he said, the words coming slow and low and sexy as his eyes laughed down at her. “Another hour and you’d’ve died of starvation, Elle.”

Her lips parted but she couldn’t quite think what to say. Couldn’t quite think at all.

She stepped around him. “Will you stop it? I burned up thousands of calories tonight in the arena.”

She set the cups down, went to check on the sleeping dog, then came back to the love seat.

You’re just lucky you found me when you did….

Her body must be insisting that his remark had a double meaning because it was trying to sit in the middle of the little sofa. Better not.

She dropped cross-legged onto the floor beside the table, took a drink of milk, then lifted the container of sopapillas out of the double paper bag. Chase came to sit down beside her, to her surprise.

He opened the box, set out the little tub of honey and removed its lid.

“About tonight’s performance,” he said. “I intended to tell you you were great.”

He really meant it. He said it with feeling. He was so sincere that a thrill shivered through her.

Which was ridiculous. She could care less what he thought of her work, after that unreasonable criticism of it in Austin.

“Are you taking back what you said about women bullfighters?”

He didn’t answer the question. Instead, he turned, smiled at her, and said, “I’m saying every move you made tonight was exactly right.”

She had to hold her arms down at her sides to keep from throwing them around his neck and kissing him like a crazy woman. Nobody, not even M.J. or Rocky or Junior had ever praised her work so extravagantly.

She blurted, “I was hoping you were watching.”

Surprise flickered in his eyes. “You were?”

She bit her tongue too late. “Well, yeah. I wanted you to know…I mean, I was hoping you were watching so I could prove I’m not…overprotective.”

Shut up, Elle. He’s gonna think you hang on every word he says. He’ll think he’s important to you.

Chase didn’t pick up on their old argument. He didn’t say a thing, but he wouldn’t let her look away from him.

Finally, she reached blindly for a sopapilla, bit the corner off, and ate it. He reached for the honey.

She grinned. “You better look at what you’re doing.”

“I am,” he said.

Every inch of her began to glow from the heat in his eyes. Dark and deep in the lamplight, his look went through her, powerful as the touch of his hand on her skin. The glow flared into fire when his hand folded around hers to help hold the sopapilla for the honey. She could feel every callus, every smooth place, every indentation of his warm, rough palm like a brand on the back of her hand.

How could he have such power over her?

“Chase, you’re gonna make such a mess….”

“Hush and don’t move.”

A big, sticky drop of honey hit her hand. Laughing, they both tried to feel where to pour it in.

“You’re getting it all over me.”

“What about me? It’s dripping on my leg.”

“Well, you’re the one doing it…uh-oh, too full. Stop, stop it, it’s dripping out the bottom…”

“Eat it fast. Here, I’ll help you…”

They gulped down the cinnamony, sugary pillow of dough as fast as they could, laughing the whole time because the honey went everywhere. Chase took the last bite.

“I never knew you could be so silly,” Elle said around her last mouthful.

He gave her a look. “And I never knew you could be so sweet.”

He brought her hand—stuck to his—to his mouth and began to lick the honey from it. His hot tongue was a flame on her palm.

“Chase…”

He leaned even closer. His eyes were burning her up. “You’ve got some there…on the edge of your mouth…” he said. “Elle.”

Her name on his lips, the simple sound of it in his low voice, melted her into him.

He took her mouth with his and she fell, helpless, into his kiss, one much hotter and deeper and more thorough and even more thrilling than the one in the elevator. Elle had only one thought—that first kiss wasn’t a fluke—and then her mind floated away. She had no need of it. She was all body now.

Chase pulled his sticky hand from hers and took her by the shoulder to draw her even closer, although she was kissing him back as hard as she could. Her tongue pushed even deeper into his mouth, teasing his, twining with it, then drawing away.

He groaned and moved his hand to her breast, which drew a gasp like a last breath from the depths of her soul. The next instant they were lying prone on the floor with him half on top of her, kissing like desperate, starving people. He slid his free hand into her hair to bring her nearer and she slapped her own sticky hand to the back of his neck to help. His mouth was a whole world of its own, hot and sweet and tasting of cinnamon and honey. And of Chase, the delicious taste of him that she couldn’t get enough of, and she wanted every bit of it now.

They ravaged each other’s mouths and started on their bodies, impatiently wiping honey onto shirts and pants before pushing the interfering cloth out of the way. Chase tore his mouth from hers to take her breast with it, the breast that his rough thumb was setting on fire, even through her shirt.

“No,” she gasped, “get it off…”

He peeled the stretchy tank top over her head and she felt a fleeting happiness that she wasn’t wearing a bra, then his tongue began to flick around her hard nipple and she rode a wave of sensation she’d never felt before. It shot all the way to the core of her. She saw colors on the backs of her eyelids.

She arched her back to rub against his hard groin.

Her mind flashed to life again, thoughts flickering like the glimpses of Chase when she opened her eyes, here and then gone when she sank into the feelings that filled her. She didn’t care if this was a good idea or not. She did have sexual feelings, that was what she needed to know. She was feeling this, actually liking this. Maybe she was normal, after all. Maybe she could be a real woman with a whole life.

But then all thought left her. Chase moved to the other breast and sent a new sensuality pulsing into her blood.

Then he was gone. Her eyes flared open and her arms reached to bring him back again. But he was on his knees, ripping off his own shirt, and she dropped her arms to her sides while she stared. Greedily.

He was gorgeous. Heavy-shouldered, broad-chested, muscled and scarred. She had to touch him. She had to feel him. He dropped the shirt and she grabbed it to wipe her hands, which made him grin, then she ran the flats of her hands up his arms, over his shoulders and down, slowly, slowly, into the hairy center of his chest where the sinews crossed under his skin.

His gaze was like molten chocolate in the glow of the lamp. It stayed on hers as if he’d never look away.

“I sure am glad you wiped the honey off your hands,” he drawled as she twined her fingers in the mat of hair.

She started tracing a path with one fingertip down the center of him to the waist of the baggy shorts and then underneath it.

“All right,” he murmured, and they laughed softly against each other’s lips when he bent down for another kiss.

It was a quick one that led to another on her throat, another farther down in the hollow of her neck, and one, just one, between her breasts. He kept dropping a trail of them, down and down, onto her abdomen, where he used his tongue as well. She felt the new, burgeoning thrill build into the pace of her pulse.

Chase lifted his head and she whimpered in protest, but he silenced her with another kiss on her mouth. And with his hand, sliding into the waist of her soft cotton pants, pushing them out of the way, caressing her abdomen more with his palm, working his way down and down until he was stroking the hot, wet center of her with his deliciously hard fingertips.

Then without warning, he stiffened and took his mouth away, lifted his head against the pull of her hands.

“Nooo,” she murmured, trying to pull him back to her.

He whispered, “Where’s your buddy, Missy Jo?”

She heard it then, a woman’s voice right outside the door. Saying, “Aussie!”

Elle hissed, “She’s supposed to be with Rodney! At his camper! Damn it.”

Then, “Oh, no! Is he with her?”

She reached for her shirt, every nerve strumming enough to make her hands shake.

“Aussie, leave that alone.”

The latch clicked and the door swung open. Missy Jo dashed in, watching Aussie running behind her. Elle had her head and one arm through the right holes in her sleeveless top when M.J. looked around…and down…and saw her and Chase.

The shock on her face was priceless. The delight that followed it was too terrible to watch. Elle knew she’d never stop saying, “I told you so.”

THE NEXT DAY, CHASE walked up to his buddy Travis Logs-don’s trailer where he’d left the rest of his gear. Trav, a team roper, was just saddling up to go practice.

“Sounds like you done good,” he said to Chase. “I heard ’em announce your score.”

“Yep,” Chase said, trying to dig his enthusiasm out of its hiding place, “I finally got past ol’ Crawdaddy.”

“Cowboy Stampede Poker Game,” Travis said.

Chase hesitated. He’d forgotten about the game. All he could think about was Elle and finishing what they’d started. He wanted to take her to dinner tonight. And to his room this time.

However, he couldn’t run out on his friends. This game was a long-running tradition with them. Well, he’d think of an excuse later. Nothing was coming to him right now and it’d have to be something big.

So he said, “Yep. Hope you’re ready to lose your money.”

“No, man. That’s you.”

They laughed and exchanged small talk about the game while Trav tightened his cinch and Chase checked his rigging for any sign of damage before he put it in his gear bag. Travis stopped talking in the middle of a sentence.

“We got company,” he finally said.

Chase turned around, and for a minute, he just stared. It took a second to get his mind around the fact that it was Shane staring back at him.

“Hey, Shane,” Travis said, but Shane didn’t answer.

“Shane?” Chase said, disbelieving. “What the hell? Why didn’t you tell me you were comin’ down?”

Shane didn’t say a word. He stood there looking at him with such a terrible expression on his face that a sudden coldness trickled down Chase’s spine. He dropped his gear, reached the kid in three long strides, and grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Talk to me,” he said. “Is it your mom?”

Shane tried to pull away, but Chase wouldn’t let him.

“My mom and you,” Shane said, his voice hard as the look in his eyes. “My parents. Who go ballistic if I lie to them.”

Chase knew then, but he asked anyhow. Stalling for time like the coward he was.

“What about us?”

“Oh, nothing,” Shane said, his voice sliding upward. “Nothing at all but just telling me the biggest lie in the universe.”

Tears sounded just under the surface. Clearly, the kid was about to lose it—and he’d be even more undone if he started bawling in front of Travis, so Chase let his hands drop to his sides and stood still, silently cursing the fact that Andie Lee hadn’t warned him this was coming.

The least she could’ve done was give him a heads-up.

The tears sprang into Shane’s eyes then and he narrowed his lids to hide them. He took a step backward that was like a hammer blow to Chase’s chest. He couldn’t lose him. He’d already lost Andie Lee.

And this was his kid, no matter who’d fathered him.

Control. Winning. He was older and supposedly wiser. He was known for his charm. He’d bring the boy around.

He took a deep breath. Now. Why did she have to tell him now?

Cowboy up, Lomax. Get a handle on it.

“How come you say we’ve been lying to you?”

“Andie Lee told me. She said my real dad is some other dude I don’t even know.”

Why now? She must be trying to tie up all the loose ends of her life before she got married. Married. Which she’d refused to do with Chase.

He felt twice betrayed. He should’ve been with her when she told Shane. Of course, he had to admit that he’d never volunteered to be. He’d always believed that she ought not to tell him at all.

And he’d been right. The stricken look on Shane’s face proved it.

Had that Blue guy she was supposedly in love with advised her to do this, after all the years she’d put it off? Couldn’t she think for herself?

Dimly, in the back of his mind, he remembered that she’d said she was going to do it, but goddamn it, he’d thought she would let him know when.

“You both lied to me,” Shane said, his voice cracking again. “You’re not my dad.”

“I am your dad,” Chase said, calm and forceful as he could be with such a chasm of fear opening in him.

He knew how kids could be. He knew how he had done his own dad when he was younger than Shane was now. He had left him without a word and never looked back.

Of course, his dad had been a drunk and a wife-and-kid beater.

Chase had always been good to Shane. Surely that’d make a difference here.

“It’s true I’m not your biological father but I am your dad, Shane, and you’d better remember that. I’ve got your back and I always will.”

A fire burned behind the wetness in Shane’s eyes and his voice scorned him for lying. “No way!”

He dropped both the bags he was carrying and balled up his fists.

“You could’ve told me but you didn’t. You let me believe it. That’s a lie just as much as if you’d told one. You lied to me, just like she did.”

The enormity of the anger coming from Shane dumbfounded Chase. And the hurt. That was the worst part. This kid was hurting and furious and he didn’t know what to do about it and he was dumping it all on Chase, wanting Chase to dispose of it for him.

I’m your real dad.

Pretty ironic. This was the kind of problem that real dads were supposed to take care of. How did they?

Resentment tamped down his fear. One minute he was minding his own business, putting up his gear and getting ready to head to the hotel and the next he had a hysterical kid on his hands.

By instinct, looking for help from anywhere, he glanced over his shoulder to see if Travis was still there. For all the good he could do, since he wasn’t a father, either.

All Chase’s own dad had ever done the one time Chase dared to tell him off was to give him a beating. And that was the day Chase left home—well, what had passed for a home—forever.

“I oughtta bust your face,” Shane said. “Liar.”

Chase stuck out his chin. “Take your best shot. It’ll make you feel better.”

Shane made a fist, drew back and slammed it with lightning speed into Chase’s jaw.

“You carry a pretty good punch for your size,” Chase said, working his jaw to loosen it enough to speak. It hurt.

“I’m not gonna fight you, Shane,” he said. “And I won’t try to defend myself except to say that I couldn’t be the one to tell you and you know it.”

He waited. Shane just glared at him for a long time, and then he wilted.

“Shit,” he said. “You’re already bleeding, don’t you know that?”

It was the first time Chase had thought of the slam to his head since the sports med guys had dabbed it with alcohol. As soon as he did, he could feel the sting and the ache again.

“You’re right. Andie Lee should’ve told me,” Shane said.

Andie hated it when Shane wouldn’t call her “mom.” The boy didn’t know how lucky he was to still have his mom.

“I’m not faulting her,” Chase said. “I was there all the time—I was your daddy—and you were too little for such useless news, even when y’all moved out. Your mom just kept putting it off until she thought you were ready.”

“Yeah, sure,” Shane said sarcastically.

“If it’d been up to me, you still wouldn’t know,” Chase said.

He just stood there and watched Shane’s face, wondering what he would do if the boy turned and walked away.

And what if he didn’t? Chase would have to deal with him. Damn. Shane could carry a grudge like nobody else, so this wouldn’t be over in a day or two.

To be fair, though, this really was a big deal and kids that age took even little things to heart like a tragedy.

“Why?”

“Why didn’t I want her to tell you?”

“Yeah.”

The question struck home. Why?

“Well…I don’t know,” he said. “I…I guess I thought… well, shoot—you had me, didn’t you?”

“Hey, Chase! See you at the table.”

Chase turned to see Travis riding away, headed for the practice pen.

“Don’t forget—nine o’clock,” Trav called to him. “Bring your money—you gotta have it if I’m gonna take it away.”

For a second, Chase had to think what Trav was talking about. Damn. This dust-up with Shane had rattled him good.

“Dream on,” Chase called back, forcing a smile.

To his surprise, when he looked at Shane again the kid was smiling, too.

“I’m sorry I hit you,” he said. “You didn’t tell me because you didn’t want me to have another dad.”

That made Chase stop and think.

“Yeah,” he finally said.

“I don’t, either. Not even Blue.” Shane scowled. “I can’t believe they’re getting married. That’s another reason I’m gonna live with you from now on.”

Chase felt his sore jaw drop. He damn sure wasn’t ready for this.

“Hey, now, not so fast, sport. I’m on the road all the time, you know that.”

Shane barely heard him.

“I’m gonna ride bareback and broncs and bulls, all of ’em.”

Chase clamped his lips together. Just when he’d thought they had the kid all straightened out.

“What about school? You’re doing good now.”

“Who needs it? I’ll be a rough-stock rider like you.”

“I went to high school,” Chase said.

“Mom said you left home when you were fifteen.”

“I did. But I lived at a buddy’s house and his mom made us go to school.”

Shane narrowed his eyes and judged that statement. Finally he nodded. Thank God he didn’t ask if Chase had graduated.

“Your mom would miss you something terrible, too,” Chase said. “Think what all she’s done for you these last couple of years. You’ve been a pain in the ass, Shane. Past that. She’s the main reason you’re clean and sober today.”

That tripped the boy off all over again. “Not,” he said, with the fury coming back. “She is not.”

“How do you figure that?”

Shane bent over to pick up his bags as if to signal it was time to move on from the subject of his mother.

Chase felt a touch of panic. The kid had lost his mind, and all because Andie Lee had done what he’d told her not to do.

“I decided to get sober on my own,” Shane said.

He started to step forward but Chase wouldn’t get out of his way.

“What made you decide?”

He had to make the kid see reason, get over his temper, and go back to his mother.

Shane shrugged. “Blue told me what it’s like in prison. I’m smart enough to know I don’t wanna go there.”

“Well, your mother introduced you to Blue, right? And she’s the one who arranged for you to ride with him, right? And she’s the one who brought you to rehab at the Splendid Sky in the first place, is what I’m thinking.”

Shane gave him a narrow-eyed look that said he couldn’t believe Chase’s stupidity.

“Maybe so, but I’m the one who made the choice.”

He had him there.

“You nailed it,” Chase said. “That’s the bottom line. What I’m pointing out is that your mother never gave up on you, which is what got you to the place where you could make that choice.”

Shane gave no indication he could hear. He just kept standing there holding the two canvas duffels that Chase now saw were packed to bursting.

The kid meant what he was saying. He had set his stubborn head to it.

And with the shape he was in, Chase couldn’t just order him to go home. Could he? Would that be the best way to handle it, just send him right back to the Splendid Sky and not even let him stay the night?

But what if that made him so mad it drove him back to drugs?

If he stayed very long, Chase would be driven to drugs—or drink, at the very least. It was nearly sundown. It was beginning to look like he could forget about the game and Elle.

He deserved a little fun. He’d stuck to his midnight curfew and slept his eight hours and kept to all the rest of his athlete’s regime for months and months. Wanting some fun didn’t mean that he was losing his desire to ride or getting ready to retire or anything like that.

“Look here, Shane…”

“Where are we stayin’?”

Hardheaded little idiot.

“At the Desert Rose,” Chase snapped. “For one night. We are staying there for one night and then you’re on a plane.”

Shane startled and stared at him.

“I’m your real dad, Shane,” he mocked, imitating Chase’s voice. “I’ve got your back, Shane. Oh, yeah. Always.”

Chase felt himself flush to the roots of his hair with anger, and then his blood cooled with fear.

How could the little turkey make him so mad so fast? He’d better get hold of himself.

“I do,” he snapped. “I am. But…”

“But I’m not your dad so much that you can do something normal like live with me,” Shane said, still in Chase’s voice.

“It’s a damnfool idea and you know it,” Chase said. “Now, come summer…”

“Come summer you’ll be on the road even more,” Shane said. “Are you my dad or not? By the way, where were you when I was growing up?”

Chase could not believe how the kid could push his buttons.

“I came to see you….”

“Every six months or so,” Shane said sarcastically. “So you could sleep with my mom.”

“Watch your mouth.”

It was all Chase could do to keep from decking him. He had to get a grip on himself. He turned on his heel and strode to his gear bag.

Shane followed.

“At the Desert Rose, do they have a casino?”

“The town’s full of ’em and you know it. But that’s nothing to you. You’re too young to get into any casino and you’re grounded anyhow.”

That took Shane back. “Grounded! You can’t…”

Chase opened his mouth to say, “I’m your dad,” but instead he said, “While you’re with me you’ll damn well do as I say.”

Shit. He’d better forget all this confusion about how to be a real dad and just try to hang onto Shane until morning.

“Yes, sir,” Shane said, and Chase couldn’t decide whether his tone was sarcastic or not. “But why am I grounded?”

“Runnin’ off from your mother.”

Chase bit his lip. He didn’t know that. What if Andie Lee had given her permission for Shane to come to him? Maybe just to give herself a break. But no, he’d guessed right. Shane didn’t say a word.

“My rental’s over there—that tan Impala,” he said. “Let’s go.”

He’d get Shane to the hotel, get some food into him, let him rave on about his mother and Chase and their big lie until he got it all out of his system and then he’d talk him into going back to Andie Lee where he belonged.

He could put him on a plane to Helena in the morning. He’d have to miss the poker game tonight, and he wouldn’t get a chance to call Elle, but that couldn’t be helped because there was no way he was turning the kid loose in this town. Or any other town.

If Shane fell off the wagon, Chase sure as hell wasn’t going to let it be on his watch.

Shane started talking again as soon as they were both in the car. Something about Blue.

Chase interrupted him. “Does your mother know where you are?”

Shane shook his head.

“Got your phone?”

Shane nodded.

“Use it.”

Shane glared, then arched up from his seat and snatched his phone from his front pocket. He dialed fast, as if the keys burned his finger.

His mother answered instantly.

“I’m with Dad,” he snarled. “I’m gonna live with him.”

Chase could hear Andie Lee’s voice, much louder than usual. It held a mix of equal parts fear, relief, frustration and anger.

“Forget that. You’re too young—”

Shane snapped the phone closed on the rest of her protest.