Читать книгу The Calamity Janes: Gina and Emma: To Catch a Thief - Sherryl Woods, Sherryl Woods - Страница 11

3

It had only been twenty-four hours since his arrival, and already Rafe was having a really hard time remembering why he had come to Winding River. For a man known for his razor-sharp mind and powers of concentration, it was a disconcerting experience. He’d certainly never had any trouble in the past when it came to focusing on the best interests of his clients.

Now, however, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the woman sitting beside him in the stands at the rodeo arena. That was truly saying something, given the level of activity going on in the center of the ring and the cheers sounding all around him. His mind was drifting in all sorts of wicked directions, just as it had the night before.

Okay, he told himself, all that proved was that he was a healthy, virile male who’d been without intimate female companionship for way too long. Whose mind wouldn’t wander just a bit around a woman like Gina? Pleased with the assessment of his state of mind as being perfectly normal, he gave himself permission to study her even more intently.

Gina’s dark-eyed gaze was fixed on the current bronc rider with total absorption. Her cheeks were bright. Her hair, which was caught up in a red and white bandanna, had surprising auburn highlights in it. At the moment, as some man she apparently knew tried to stay on the back of a particularly wild horse, she appeared to be holding her breath. When time ran out and he was still solidly in the saddle, her cheer almost deafened Rafe. Eyes shining, she faced him.

“Did you see that? He did it. That’s the toughest horse in the competition and Randy stayed with him. Amazing.”

“Amazing,” Rafe echoed, but his comment had nothing to do with the winning rider.

Her gaze narrowed. “Are you even paying attention?”

“Absolutely. Your friend won.”

“He’s leading, at any rate. There’s another round of competition,” she said, excitement still shining in her eyes.

It was the most unguarded she had been around Rafe since they’d met. Seeing her like that, filled with enthusiasm, her expression open, laughter glinting in her eyes, made him want things that were impossible. It had probably been safer all the way around when she’d kept him at a cool distance. The temptation to kiss her was almost too much to resist.

“Want something cold to drink?” he asked, needing to put some space between them. Being in a state of semiarousal for the past hour was beginning to get to him.

She feigned exaggerated shock. “You’re willing to go off and leave me here all alone for a few minutes? Are you sure you trust me not to steal the wildest horse in the stables and flee over the Canadian border?”

“Actually, no, but since the horses are otherwise engaged and I have the car keys, I’m not nearly as worried about it as I might be if the circumstances were different.” He was still rather proud of the way he’d managed to get those keys away from her and into his own pocket.

“How do you know I don’t have a spare set?” she retorted.

He gazed directly into her eyes, a look he’d perfected in the courtroom. It commanded total honesty. “Do you?”

She hesitated, then sighed. “No. And just for the record, I resent like crazy the fact that you manipulated those keys out of my possession.”

He grinned. “I didn’t wrestle you for them, Gina. You handed them over so I could drive.”

“Right, after you gave me some very sincere hogwash about how you’d been just dying to test-drive a car like my mother’s.”

“You bought it, didn’t you?”

“Long enough for you to get behind the wheel,” she agreed. “Then I remembered that my mother’s car is a very nondescript Chevy with eighty thousand miles on it.”

“And what I told you was the absolute truth,” Rafe insisted. “I’ve never driven anything like it.”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Yes, that I can believe.”

He chuckled. “Do you want something to drink or not?”

“A soda,” she said finally, fanning herself with the program. “Orange, if they have it.”

The action only drew attention to the perspiration beaded on her chest. Rafe’s gaze seemed to be riveted to the exposed skin. He swallowed hard and resisted the urge to nab that program and use it to cool off his own overheated flesh.

“Lots of ice,” she added. “I’m sweltering out here.”

“Want to come with me?” he asked, forgetting all about his intention to give himself a break from her nonstop assault on his senses. “Maybe we can find some shade somewhere and cool off.”

She seemed to debate that, then finally nodded. “Let’s go.”

Rafe let her lead the way to the refreshment stand, ordered large sodas for both of them, then glanced around until he spotted a spreading cottonwood tree with a patch of shade beneath.

“Over there okay?” he asked.

“Perfect,” Gina agreed.

Seemingly oblivious to the fact that the ground was more dirt than grass, she sank down, accepted her drink, then sighed. “This is heaven,” she murmured. She snagged an ice cube from the drink, held it at the base of her throat and let it slowly melt. The water trickled across her flushed skin, then ran between her breasts.

As he watched her, Rafe’s throat went dry as a parched desert. Not even a long, slow swallow of his drink had a cooling effect. He was beginning to regret inviting Gina to leave the stands with him. Hell, he regretted accompanying her to the rodeo in the first place. It was testing him to his limits to keep his hands to himself.

He could have been in a nice, air-conditioned motel room, a beer in his hand, and all those damning Café Tuscany figures right in front of him. That’s where he ought to be, not out here on the verge of sunstroke and filled with more lust than he’d felt in the past twelve months combined, all directed at a woman who was totally untrustworthy, perhaps even more so than his own mother.

“Something wrong?” she inquired.

Her expression was all innocence as she let another ice cube melt, holding it a little lower, a little more provocatively this time. She’d stripped off her blouse when they’d first arrived, giving him a bad moment or two before he’d realized that she was wearing a tank top beneath. Between her deliberately provocative actions with that ice and the perspiration, the already revealing tank top was damp and clinging in a way that left very little to Rafe’s overheated imagination.

“Not a thing,” he claimed. “Why?”

“You look a little flushed.”

“Is that so surprising? It must be ninety-five degrees out here.”

“But it’s a dry heat,” she countered.

“Heat is heat.”

Pure mischief lit her eyes. “I could help you cool off,” she offered.

Before he could respond or guess what she intended, she upended her drink over his head. Fortunately, it was mostly water and melting ice by now, but the splash of frigid liquid against his burning skin was a shock.

Gina was already up and dancing away by the time he caught his breath. Rafe was on his feet in a heartbeat, fighting indignation and—to his own surprise—laughter.

“You are in such trouble,” he said.

“Mighty tough words from a man who’s dripping wet,” she taunted. “I did you a favor. Try to keep that in mind.”

“Oh, I have no intention of forgetting what you did,” he said, regarding her with a deceptively lazy look as he halted his pursuit.

He waited until she stopped backing nervously away, gave her time to grow complacent, then moved so quickly she didn’t have time to react. He snagged her wrist and hauled her into his arms.

He captured her gasp with his first kiss, then settled in to discover exactly how she tasted, exactly how her lips felt beneath his. There was a lingering sweet taste of orange soda to her mouth, a willing pliancy to her lush lips.

Her body fit against his as if they’d been made for each other. Between the dousing his clothes had taken, the dampness of hers and the skyrocketing heat of that kiss, he was surprised they weren’t enveloped in steam.

It took a very long time—too long, by his own rigid standard of ethics—for him to discover everything he’d wanted to know about the taste and texture of her mouth. He released her suddenly and with tremendous reluctance, muttering a curse under his breath.

Wide-eyed and open-mouthed, she stared at him for a full minute and then the heat rose in her cheeks right along with a flash of temper in her eyes.

“You had no right to do that,” she snapped.

“No,” he said mildly. “You’re right. I didn’t. I’m sorry. It was a mistake.”

His admission and his apology seemed to throw her off stride.

“If you think that’s good enough to make me forget what just happened here, you’re crazy.”

Despite himself, he chuckled at that. “Yes, I imagine it will take a good deal more to make me forget it, too.”

“That is not what I meant, and you know it,” she said with a scowl.

“Okay, let’s take a step back and reassess what just happened,” he suggested reasonably.

“Oh, don’t use that lawyerly tone with me. We both know what happened. You kissed me.”

“You provoked me.”

“I dumped water on you. If anything, that should have cooled off your libido, not inflamed it.”

He shrugged. “What can I say? I obviously have a perverse streak.”

“How about saying ‘I’m sorry, it will never happen again,’” she suggested.

“I’ve already apologized.” He met her gaze. “And sadly I can’t promise it will never happen again.”

“You have to,” she said, sounding a little desperate.

“Why?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do, because you have no business kissing me, because I have no business kissing you.” She frowned at him. “You think I’m a criminal, for heaven’s sake. Are you beginning to get the picture?”

Unfortunately, Rafe was, though he doubted it was the same picture she was getting. The one in his mind had him carting her straight off to bed to finish what they’d started. Given his belief that she was a thief, he figured that was a really, really lousy idea...and way too tempting at the moment. His very recent lapse in judgment was proof enough he couldn’t be trusted within fifty feet of her.

He reached in his pocket, took out her car keys and tossed them to her. She regarded him with surprise.

“How are you getting back to town?” she asked.

“The old-fashioned way,” he said, turning his back on her and striding away.

“Rafe, you can’t walk all the way back,” she protested, chasing after him. “You’ll die of heat stroke.”

“Thanks for your concern, but I’ll be fine.”

“You will not be fine. Don’t be stubborn. I’ll drive you back.”

He faced her. “How do I know you won’t try to ravish me the second we get to my motel?”

She gave him a wry look. “Oh, I think I can pretty well guarantee that you’re safe.”

He shrugged. “Okay, then, I trust you.”

She regarded him skeptically. “Oh, really?”

“About that, anyway.” He tapped a finger against the sunburned tip of her nose. “We’ll have to see about the rest. I’ll think it over while I’m walking.”

“I don’t suppose you could keep on going all the way back to New York and ponder the evidence there?” she asked wistfully.

“Not a chance.”

Gina heaved a resigned sigh. “Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

* * *

That blistering, mind-boggling kiss was still very much on Gina’s mind when she walked into the high school gym that night for the reunion dance. Spotting Rafe sitting all alone at one of the tables along the perimeter of the floor only accentuated the memory. For a man whose arrogance she had experienced firsthand, he looked surprisingly lonely. For a brief second, sympathy almost drove her over to talk to him.

“I’m not going anywhere near him,” she muttered, even as she began to drift in his direction. When she realized where she was going, she added wryly, “I obviously have the willpower of a nymphomaniac.”

“Who’s a nymphomaniac?” Lauren demanded, startling Gina.

“Nobody, I hope,” Gina retorted glumly, stopping in her tracks. She wasn’t entirely sure whether she was relieved by the distraction, which was yet another fact that was worrisome. Was it moths that couldn’t resist a flame and wound up dead because of it?

Lauren followed the direction of her gaze, then grinned. “Ah, yes, I heard about the kiss.”

“Heard about it?” Gina asked, horrified. “How? From whom?”

“Half the town was at the rodeo. Word gets around. My source says it was more entertaining than anything that went on inside the arena.”

Gina groaned. “Why did I do it? Why did I let him kiss me? And right out in public, yet! Wouldn’t you think I’d learned my lesson about getting mixed up with smooth talkers after what happened a few years ago in Rome?”

“Could you have stopped him?”

“Not at first,” she admitted. “He caught me by surprise, but later...”

Lauren’s eyes sparkled with growing amusement. “Later? Then it did go on and on, just the way I heard?”

“Okay, yes, it went on a very long time. It was a very good kiss. In fact, it was a terrific kiss, which is why I am in more trouble than I ever thought it was possible to get into. I want to kiss a man who—” She cut herself off before she could finish the revealing thought.

“Who what?” Lauren asked, clearly fascinated by Gina’s slip.

“Never mind,” Gina said dismissively. “Have you seen Cassie? Did she come tonight?”

“She’s here. She’s busy hiding out from Cole. Seems to me she has her own problems with steering clear of intoxicating kisses,” Lauren said. “And before you ask, Karen’s on the dance floor, and Emma’s out in the hallway on her cell phone. There’s some kind of emergency back in Denver. Hopefully she’s telling her boss or her client or whoever it is to take a hike. The woman is in serious need of a break. She’s stretched so tight I’m afraid she’s going to snap.”

“Emma can take care of herself,” Gina insisted. “She’s always been totally levelheaded and sane compared to the rest of us.”

“Take another look. I was out at the ranch with her and Caitlyn earlier. I think even that little girl senses that her mother’s at the breaking point. Caitlyn’s birthday is coming up, and she told me the only thing she wanted was for her mom to move here because in Denver she never, ever sees her. How pitiful is that?”

Gina glanced toward the door and spotted Emma striding toward them, her expression grim.

“What’s wrong?” Gina asked, regarding her with concern.

“One of my major clients in Denver has a problem. He wants me back there tonight.”

“Are you going?” Lauren asked.

“What choice do I have?”

“You could tell him that you’re taking the first break you’ve had in years and that he can just wait until Monday,” Lauren retorted heatedly. “Sweetie, if you don’t start looking out for yourself, who will? Certainly not those partners who are raking in big bucks from all those billable hours you put in each month, and certainly not the clients who see nothing wrong in tracking you down when you’re supposed to be on vacation. How did he get your cell phone number, anyway?”

“All my clients have my cell phone number,” Emma said defensively.

Lauren removed the offending item from Emma’s grasp. “Which is a really good reason for shutting it off and letting me hang on to it for the rest of the weekend. If you’d like, I can call this client of yours back and tell him that you’ve consulted your schedule and you are tied up in a very important negotiation and can’t see him until the middle of next week. If it’s a real emergency, he can speak to one of the other partners.”

Emma stared at her in amazement. “You sound so convincing.”

Gina chuckled. “She is an actress, Emma.”

Emma shook her head. “Of course, she is. I just can’t quite think of Lauren as anything other than the girl who used to spend the night at my house talking about boys until dawn.”

“I had to talk about them. I certainly never dated them,” Lauren said.

“Because you scared them to death. You were the smartest person in our class,” Gina said. “That was very daunting, even to the boys with a B average.”

“A fat lot of good that’s doing me these days,” Lauren grumbled. “Most of the people I deal with now don’t even realize I have a brain.”

“Which must mean that they underestimate you,” Emma guessed. “Surely you can use that to your advantage.”

“Maybe you two can trade services,” Gina suggested. “Lauren can fend off your pushy, inconsiderate clients, and Emma, you can negotiate Lauren’s deals. Nobody ever mistakes you for a pushover.”

“Not a bad idea,” Lauren said thoughtfully. “But we still haven’t resolved this current situation. Shall I make the call?”

Emma hesitated. “Let me think about it.”

Gina thought of what Lauren had said earlier about Emma’s little girl. “Emma, think about Caitlyn. She’s having the time of her life with her cousins and her grandparents. Do you want to spoil that by running home early?”

Emma blinked at the reminder, proof that she too seldom considered her daughter’s feelings when work was involved. Then she drew herself up. “You’re absolutely right. Lauren, make that call. Tell Mr. Henley that he can contact one of the senior partners if he doesn’t want to wait for me to get back.”

Lauren beamed at her. “Punch in that number,” she said, relinquishing the cell phone temporarily to Emma.

As soon as the call had gone through, she stepped away from Emma and Gina, speaking quietly but firmly to the offensive Mr. Henley. After she’d hung up, she came back smiling.

“He’ll wait. By the way, what was that big emergency, or can’t you say?”

Emma grinned. “I can’t say, but I can assure you that it wasn’t life or death. Nor were any of his millions at risk.” She reached for her cell phone, but Lauren shook her head.

“I think I’ll hang on to this, at least for the rest of the night,” she told Emma.

“But Caitlyn—”

“If Caitlyn calls, I know where to find you. Otherwise, your new secretary can handle anything that comes up.”

Gina chuckled. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, Lauren?”

“It’s actually rather nice to do something so ordinary. Maybe I should chuck it all and become somebody’s secretary. I have terrific organizational skills.”

Both Emma and Gina stared at her.

“Have you lost it?” Gina asked.

“Okay, maybe not a secretary,” Lauren said. “Organizational skills aside, I’m a little too bossy to take orders well.”

“An understatement if ever I heard one,” Gina said.

Lauren sighed. “You know who I really envy? Karen. She has it all. A husband who adores her and a ranch.”

“Where she works too hard,” Gina pointed out.

“I guess nothing’s perfect, is it?” Lauren said. She glanced behind Gina. “For example, you have this absolutely gorgeous man staring at you as if you were more tempting than a banana split, and for reasons you refuse to explain, you’re avoiding the guy.”

All three of them turned to stare at Rafe, who was sipping on his drink, his gaze fixed on Gina.

“He’s not interested in me,” she protested. “Not the way you mean, anyway.”

“That kiss I heard about says otherwise,” Lauren said. “In fact, that kiss speaks volumes.”

Emma’s eyes widened. “Kiss, what kiss? That man kissed you? Did you want him to?”

“No,” Gina said. “Yes.”

A slow grin replaced the indignation on Emma’s face. “Not sure, are you?”

“Of course I’m sure. That kiss was totally inappropriate.”

“We can sue him for sexual harassment,” Emma suggested, looking a little too eager.

“Settle down,” Gina advised. “Nobody is suing anybody, and you are not taking on any cases in the middle of a dance, not after Lauren worked so hard to make sure you had the night off.”

“I suppose not,” Emma said, clearly disappointed. “But let me know if you change your mind.”

“Do you look at everything in life in terms of the legalities?” Lauren asked her.

“Pretty much,” Emma acknowledged.

“That has to stop,” Lauren said emphatically, then glanced at Gina. “And you and I have to see to it. Find this woman someone to dance with. Are there any eligible males in the room? Other than Gina’s guy, of course.”

“Rafe O’Donnell is not my guy,” Gina reminded her. “I’d be glad to turn him over to Emma.”

“Whatever.” Lauren surveyed the gym carefully. Finally her expression brightened triumphantly. “There,” she said. “He’ll do very nicely.” She snagged Emma’s hand. “Come on. Do you know him?”

“No,” Emma said, hanging back.

“Then I’ll introduce you,” Lauren said.

“Do you know him?” Emma asked.

“No, but that’s a technicality. Don’t be a spoilsport. It’s one dance, not the rest of your life.”

Emma cast a totally uncharacteristically helpless glance over her shoulder as Lauren dragged her away.

“I see your friend is matchmaking again,” Rafe said, coming up beside Gina and startling her so badly she almost dropped her drink. “Think she’ll have better luck with those two?”

“Don’t do that,” she said irritably.

“What?”

“Sneak up on me.” She avoided his gaze, pretending that his nearness wasn’t stirring up all sorts of wicked memories of the kiss they’d shared earlier. She deliberately watched the drama unfolding as Lauren introduced Emma to the stranger, then left them to their own devices. After an awkward moment the man must have asked her to dance, because Emma allowed him to lead her to the middle of the gym. Neither of them looked especially happy about being there, but Lauren stood by beaming her approval.

Apparently satisfied, Lauren came back to where Gina and Rafe were standing. Gina noticed she deliberately inserted herself protectively between them. Rafe noted her action with amusement.

“Still protecting your friend, I see,” he said.

“Of course.”

“Trust me, she can defend herself. Did you hear how she doused me with ice earlier today, then made me hike all the way back into town?”

Gina regarded him with indignation. “I did not! You decided to walk back. I tried to stop you.”

Lauren looked from one to the other, lips twitching. “But the part about the ice was true? Did that happen before or after the kiss?”

Rafe didn’t seem the least bit surprised or embarrassed by the fact that Lauren knew about that. “Before.”

“Interesting. I would have thought after.” She grinned. “You know, an attempt to cool you off, so to speak.”

“It would have taken more than a cup of ice to do that,” Rafe said.

Lauren waved her hand as if it held a fan. “Oh, my.”

Gina scowled at both of them. “If you two are enjoying yourselves so much, why don’t I just leave? There are a lot of people here I haven’t spoken to yet.”

Before she could take a step, Rafe grabbed her hand. “Not now. I was hoping for another dance lesson.”

She frowned at him. “The band’s not playing country-western tonight. It’s playing oldies. Surely you can slow-dance. Lauren, you dance with him.”

“Afraid not,” Rafe insisted with a perfectly straight face. “No offense, Lauren, but Gina’s a little more patient with my stumbling attempts. Dancing is one of those social graces I never had time to learn. Too much studying. It made me a very dull kid.”

“Then I’m amazed so many women invite you to society balls,” Lauren chimed in, drawing a startled look from both Gina and Rafe.

“How do you know that?” Gina demanded.

Lauren grinned. “The Internet is an amazing thing. You’d be surprised what you can find out. I only scanned a few editions of the New York papers, and guess whose name popped up over and over in the society columns?”

Rafe regarded her with admiration. “I underestimated you, after all, Lauren.”

“Many people do,” Gina said. “Lauren, I think maybe you and I need to have a little talk.”

“Tomorrow will be soon enough. There’s a handsome man who’s eager to dance with you. My hunch is he knows his right foot from his left, despite what he says.”

She winked at Rafe, then added for Gina’s benefit, “Just keep your guard up, sweetie. From what I’ve read about him, you don’t want to cross him.”

Unfortunately, Gina was already well aware of that.