An Irresistible Temptation (31 page)

His facial muscles actually hurt a few hours
later because he’d been smiling so much for the first time in ages.
He made sure the lamps were down and the medicine all locked away,
and then he secured the door behind him.

Riley paused. He wanted to run straight to
the Sanborn house, but he knew what would happen. He’d take her in
his arms and then they’d be goners. It would be easier to catch a
weasel asleep than to keep his hands off her, and it would be
entirely his fault. She would only be here a couple of days, and
he’d have to live with breaking her heart all over again. Not to
mention his own.

He went to Drakes where his horse was stabled
and saddled him quickly. With supreme effort, he rode right past
where Sophie was staying and out toward his own homestead, unable
to keep from turning his head, though, and looking for a sign of
her. Sure enough, lights were on and smoke was coming from her
chimney. As he rode, he pictured her inside, playing on the upright
piano. Maybe waiting for him to stop by.

Hell!
How could it hurt to go say
hello and hear the news from . . . He nearly thought of San
Francisco as home again. He had to stop doing that. Anyway, he’d
promised to tell Sarah that Sophie was in Spring, and he hadn’t yet
done so; that meant, she probably had nothing to eat. He could at
least take her to Fuller’s for supper. No harm in that, was there?
He turned his horse around.

Sophie had been waiting in the utter
quietness of the house, tense as a cat on a floating log. She
hadn’t changed from her traveling clothes or hardly moved from the
piano bench in hours. She missed the sounds of the city and
wondered how she would ever sleep that night with so much vast
emptiness around her.

Then he knocked.

She took a breath to steady herself and let
it out slowly. He didn’t love her. Plainly, he lusted for her, but
he didn’t love her and without that, she could be strong enough to
resist him. Then why was she really in Spring City?

She opened the door and the sight of him was
electric. Just jeans and a shirt and a sturdy corduroy jacket, but
it was the way his shoulders filled out the jacket and the way the
shirt stretched over his muscled chest, and the way, she gulped,
the

way his jeans fit over his rock hard thighs.
Lord, have
mercy!
He clutched his black hat in his hands and stared back
at her.

“Come on in,” she stepped aside, ignoring the
clamoring of her body. It seemed the whole brass section was
sounding at once.

“I thought you might be hungry,” he said, not
moving an inch forward but putting his hat firmly back on his
head.

Surprised, she nodded. “I am. This place is
completely cleaned out.”

“Keeps away the rodents,” he said, rocking
back on his booted heels, hands in his pockets.

Hm.
Silence, just staring at one
another.

“So, did you bring me something to eat?” she
asked into the charged atmosphere.

“Nope.”

She blinked. “Thanks.”

“No, I mean, I thought we could go to
Fuller’s. Or even Ada’s saloon. She makes some good chicken.”

She took a couple steps backward.

“What about . . . I mean, everyone knows you
were only recently engaged a couple months ago. What will they say
if they see us together?”

“Hell, Jessie’s already told everyone by now
what she saw today. They’ll figure we were having a flirtation when
you were here before, or that we waited until I was free and are
having one now.”

She blushed. “A flirtation?”

“Whatever they’ll call it. I guess we were,
at that.”

“And now?” She bit her tongue. Why did she
ask him that so blatantly? Was she inviting another
“flirtation”?

His eyes darkened. “And now we’re not. Look,
Sophie, I’m sorry I grabbed you earlier at Doc’s. I wasn’t thinking
straight, if you know what I mean. I was so shocked that you were
here.”

She watched him swallow hard and his jaw
tighten, before he continued, “I’m offering you dinner between
friends. All right?”

Well, no, not all right.
But she’d
come all this way, and she’d helped him with Jack and with Jessie.
Perhaps, he did need a friend and would open up to her about
whatever was eating away at him and making him the scourge of
Spring City.

She was so very happy with her own position
in the symphony, that it was a joy to go to the concert hall even
when it was to practice for hours. Even when her heart hurt.
Especially when her heart hurt! Apparently, that’s what Riley
lacked.

“All right. Let’s go have some dinner, seeing
as you’re all scrubbed up.”

She poked her hand into his stomach teasingly
as she passed him, stopping to get her cloak from the hall stand.
That was the sole contact she permitted herself, except when he
gave her his hand to climb into his wagon. She felt him squeeze her
fingers ever so lightly before he released her and they went in
companionable silence to Ada’s Saloon.

Sophie had not been inside before. A few men
sat at the bar, leaning over, nursing their glasses of beer or
whiskey, but no one was at the tables, which were small with
mismatched chairs. A bartender wiped glasses on a rag, and a woman
stood by the bar, young, scantily dressed with her face heavily
made up, who simply stared at them as they entered.

“Riley,” called a female voice and another
woman rose from a stool at the end of the bar. Sophie assumed this
was Ada, who sauntered over, dressed provocatively, though with
kitchen stains on her satin gown.

“You got your pick, tonight,” she said, eyes
only for him, gesturing at the tables behind her, as if on other
nights the tables would be full. She jerked her thumb toward one of
them, not taking her gaze off Riley, and then led them over to it,
her rear end performing an exaggerated sashay, no doubt for his
benefit.

Sophie didn’t miss the way Ada eyed him
appreciatively. How could she blame her? It wouldn’t take long
before another woman stepped into his fiancée’s shoes, one whom he
could share passion with in the way he hadn’t with Eliza.

“I know what you’re having, Riley,” Ada said,
familiarly, leaning down and exposing her ample cleavage above her
low neckline.

Well, it was a saloon after all, Sophie
mused.

Ada finally glanced at Sophie “What’ll you
have, honey? Chicken or chicken?” She laughed at her own joke.

“We’ll both have the roast chicken and
potatoes,” Riley said. “And a bottle of red.”

Ada gave him a long look, then she sniffed.
“Coming up.” She strolled away.

“I don’t get a choice in the matter, I
suppose,” Sophie said.

“Not here.”

“She likes you,” Sophie offered.

Ada was older than them, but not by much.
Perhaps she wouldn’t make a good doctor’s wife—at least, not one
who greeted the patients and ran the office—but at least Ada
wouldn’t want to leave Spring City, not with her own business
establishment.

He looked at her curiously. “Ada likes every
man,” he assured her. “And if you weren’t with me, she’d be
offering me dessert in her room upstairs later. Hell, she might do
that anyway,” he added, shooting her a lopsided grin.

Sophie bit her bottom lip. “Would you go?
Upstairs, I mean, if I weren’t here?”

Thunderstruck, he grimaced. “Jesus, woman,
that would be begging for trouble. The answer is absolutely not,
not if I know what’s good for me and for my health.”

Sophie got the message. But some men in this
town had to partake of Ada’s “dessert.” Otherwise, with so few
customers, how could she afford to keep the place open?

“Are you sure the food is safe to eat?”

He chuckled. “I’ve been eating here since I
was in my teen years. Hasn’t killed me yet. Ada takes pride in her
one dish.”

“Chicken,” they both said at the same
time.

Then they laughed. Sophie loved hearing his
laughter. This was the Riley that Spring City knew and loved.

She let Riley pour her a glass of wine and
then she folded her hands around the stem and decided to take the
bull by the horns. “Why have you been such a bear?”

“A bear?” he asked, casually, but he put his
head down to sip his wine, not looking her in the eye.

“Yes, you know all growly and mean, so half
of Spring City hates you and the other half fears you.”

He shrugged. “I don’t think I’m that
bad.”

“Bad enough for Sarah to mention it in a
letter to me. Bad enough that Doc is cancelling their trip.”

He looked surprised. “I’ll talk to them
tomorrow. No sense them doing that. People are simply used to Doc.”
He drummed his fingers on the table. “They’ll get used to me.”

“To you yelling at scared little boys?”

“That was a . . . mistake.”

“Speaking of which, it sounds as though
you’ve been making some of them, too. Medical ones.”

“I’m a good doctor,” he flared, raising his
voice.

“I didn’t say you weren’t.”

“Apparently, the people here don’t think so.”
He gave the table a thump with his open palm. “And I’m giving up
everything for them.”

Now, that was an interesting statement. “What
do you mean, Riley?”

He took a long swig from his wine glass and
shut the conversation down.

“Nothing.”

The food came and they lapsed in to silence
for a bit.

“You were right, the chicken is good here,”
she said.

“Not quite The Palace dining room, but . .
.”

“Definitely not,” she agreed. Back to neutral
ground. “I didn’t tell you, Carling and Egbert are getting
married.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “They seem made for
each other.”

“That’s what I think, too. And we stayed with
David and Julie Burris, as you recommended, when we went to Sonoma.
They were lovely people. Very helpful to Egbert.”

“So they’re really going to start a
winery?”

“That’s their dream, or at least, it’s
Egbert’s. And Carling is more than happy to share it. Wherever her
man goes, she goes,” Sophie said teasingly, but the shadow that
crossed Riley’s face drove the smile from her own.

“What’s wrong?” Unthinkingly, she reached
across the table and touched his hand.

He jumped but didn’t pull away. Instead, he
stared down at her pale white hand over his own larger, rough one,
and then he stroked her knuckles with his thumb, sending shivers
racing through her.

It was too easy to imagine him stroking other
parts of her. Too easy to remember being in his arms, nearly
helpless with the pleasure he gave her. She pulled her hand away
slowly, resting it in her lap. He hadn’t answered her question, and
it appeared he didn’t intend to.

“I better get you home,” he said, standing up
abruptly.

*****

“Sophie, are you in there?” A voice carried
up the stairs waking her. Carling, she thought, confused for a
moment. No, Sarah! She glanced outside to see the sun was high in
the sky. Grabbing her housecoat, she raced downstairs and found
Sarah standing in the middle of the hall.

“Sorry to barge in, but you didn’t answer the
door. Riley said you were here. No food, no bed made up.” She
looked distraught.

“I’m fine,” Sophie assured her. “I found
clean sheets and blankets last night. And I ate at Ada’s . . . with
Riley.” She wondered if Sarah would have an opinion on that.

Sarah wrinkled her nose. “I haven’t been
inside for years. How was it?”

“The chicken was good. The atmosphere was
not.”

“How about the company?”

So, Sarah was interested in her dining
companion.

Sophie hesitated. Did Sarah hold any
animosity toward her for her “flirtation” with Riley while he was
still engaged? She didn’t know, but Sophie knew she trusted this
woman, who plainly cared about Riley and about her town.

“He is miserable, from what I can tell.”

Sarah nodded. “I’ll put the kettle on. Why
don’t you go upstairs and dress. I’ve brought some food. We can
have lunch and a good chat.”

Sophie hoped it wasn’t going to turn into a
lecture or a scolding. But she went up the stairs obediently and
was back down in minutes to find the tea made and sandwiches on the
table.

“I guess I slept through breakfast this
morning. That’s not like me,” Sophie began, feeling a bit shy
suddenly.

“I bet you had a lot on your mind last
night.”

That was an understatement. Sophie was
grateful for what Riley had done after he’d brought her home. He’d
practically shoved her through Charlotte’s front door and pulled it
firmly closed behind her. She’d heard his boots go crashing down
the steps and then he was gone.

She’d made up the bed and then taken a very
long soothing bath, knowing sleep would evade her if she lay down
immediately. Even so, it had been the wee hours before she’d
finally drifted off.

“Thanks for writing me the letter, Sarah. I
don’t like to think of him being unhappy. He’s a good man and a
good doctor.”

“You wouldn’t know that by the people of
Spring.”

“But remember how he was during the train
accident?” Sophie pushed.

“Of course, I do, and many years before that.
But he’s been a changed man since he got back from San Francisco.
It’s as if he doesn’t care about anything or anyone, not even
himself. He doesn’t even ride that blasted horse of his
anymore.”

That did shock Sophie. Riding long and hard
was Riley’s primary enjoyment.

“Well, that’s the answer. He probably has all
sorts of energy pent up and needs time galloping out in the open
spaces or riding up in the foothills.”

“Doc told him that, but he doesn’t listen.
When Riley’s not on duty, he stays in his house. That’s why I wrote
you the letter. You have to put him out of his misery.”