Deborah Camp (29 page)

“Why, Cassie, you’re the most lovable woman I’ve ever met. I don’t see how any man could keep himself from loving you.”

His heartfelt admission made her own heart turn over. Cassie met his steady, honest gaze and believed him because she had no choice. Boone Rutledge believed he was in love with her, so she had to believe him too. She didn’t know why or how or how deep—only that he wasn’t being dishonest or saying things just to soften her up so he could get his way with her.

“That’s sweet of you to say, Boone,” she said. Then she smiled warmly and her voice became brisk. “Won’t you try some of this potato salad? It looks mighty good.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Boone said, holding out his plate so that she could spoon some of the salad onto it.

He returned her smile just as warmly, and in that moment Cassie’s feelings for him deepened, if not into love, then into an affection that was more comfortable and, perhaps, more lasting.

Twenty yards away, in the black pools of shadow cast by towering hickory and oak trees, Rook ran his hands up and down his face to wash away the sight of Romeo Rutledge stealing the affections that Rook had so patiently wooed from Cassie last night. The bandit!

Rook turned away from the two people and their sickening picnic and trudged in the direction of the cabin. The sneaky son of a bitch! he thought, kicking wildly at the mounds of wet leaves underfoot. He couldn’t quite make out what they’d been saying to each other, but he could tell by their expressions that they’d been talking love. Cassie hadn’t exactly slapped Rutledge silly—that wouldn’t have been possible, since Rutledge was already a blithering idiot—when he’d put his freckled paw on her breast, Rook thought darkly. Oh, no. She’d only pushed him away and scolded him in a tone that hadn’t been too threatening.

Rook was in a black rage by the time he reached the cabin. He flung himself on Cassie’s bed and waited. All
things come to those who wait, he told himself over and over until it became a feverish chant. Cassie would return from her picnic with Romeo, and Rook would be waiting … waiting to collect what was rightfully his.

Cassie sat on the porch steps and petted Slim until Boone was out of sight. Then she hugged the hound fiercely as she wondered what kind of foul mood Rook might be in. It was too much to hope that he’d have rediscovered the friendliness he’d shown her before passion had entered into their relationship. He’d treated her sorta like a sister, Cassie thought, but then decided that wasn’t quite right—it was more like an old flame whose time had passed. Reluctantly, she stood up and went inside the house, telling herself to face the situation like a man. Her Pa had told her that many a time when she’d done wrong and had to ’fess up to it.

“Cassie Mae,” he’d say, “take your medicine like a man, girl.”

She’d never known exactly how men took their medicine. The way she did it was to confess, apologize for the wrongdoing, and then stay outta everybody’s way till they forgot all about it. Men did it that way too, she reckoned, causen Pa had never showed her any different.

“Ro—” She started to call out to him, thinking he’d still be hiding in the bedroom, but there he was, sitting in one of the straight-backed chairs. He’d tilted it back so that only two legs were on the floor, and his hands were laced behind his head in that swaggering manner men adopted sometimes when they wanted to make folks uneasy. It was working on Cassie. When he grinned lopsidedly at her, the tiny hairs at the back of her neck tingled and she wished she could take this one like a woman, but she didn’t know how women took it.

“So your company’s gone, is he?”

“That’s right.” Cassie turned sideways and leaned against the door frame, casting her gaze outside where the afternoon sun was making the air undulate. It was getting dreadful hot. Slim lay sprawled on one side and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth and looked all dried. “You
should be more careful. He mighta come in here with me and seen you.”

“I figured you’d keep him as far away from me as possible. Common sense dictates that you keep bulls separated so they won’t kill each other.”

“Bulls?” She turned her head slowly toward him. “What crazy nonsense are you talking now?”

Running his hands up his shirtfront, he slipped his thumbs under his suspenders and pulled them out before letting them snap back against him. He didn’t even blink, but she did. She almost jumped out of her skin. “For a country girl, you sure have the teasing ways of your city sisters,” he drawled, his gaze drifting over her.

She made a sniffing, contemptuous noise. A fly buzzed close to her nose and hovered near her eyes. She waved her hand limply, disturbing the air just enough to discourage the fly. Her gaze slid liquidly to Rook, hovered there like the fly, and then took wing again. Rook felt as if he’d been shooed away with as little effort as had the fly. It infuriated him.

The two chair legs came down on the floor with a loud crack, and Rook propelled himself across the room, reaching her before she had a chance to bolt and run. He held her fast, his hands closing on her shoulders until he could feel the sharp bones under her skin. He pinned her body with his, pressing her back against the splintered door frame. His legs bracketed hers; he spread them far enough apart so that she could kick at them but could not make contact. She writhed against him and struggled for breath. Her eyes rolled wildly when he brought up one hand to cradle the lower half of her face and hold it still. She stopped fighting and put everything she had left in her eyes, making them a glassy, hard, glinting blue.

“He comes riding up and you fall all over him,” Rook rasped, leaning into her and trying to look through the blue glass and see the real Cassie underneath. “You know how that makes me feel, or don’t you give a good god damn about my feelings?”

“I … I don’t …” She was having trouble finding enough breath to speak, but she finally got the rest of it
out. “… give a damn.” Her lips pulled back to display small, straight teeth.

“I saw you and him. I saw how you let him touch you.” His gaze dropped to her breasts, then bounced back up to her face. “You don’t know him half as well as you do me, but you let him handle you.”

“I like him. I just put up with you for Jewel’s sake.”

Rook grinned in admiration. “Cassie, you’d sass the devil himself, wouldn’t you?” He looked at the long, graceful line of her throat and he traced it with his fingertips. The action soothed his anger and eased his injured pride. Before he let her go he kissed her left temple where her pale gold hair curled damply. “You’re a pretty liar, darlin’. A pretty poor one.”

He released her and she immediately lashed out at him. Her flat-handed slaps landed on his shoulders and chest, and he lifted his arms to ward off the last few while he chuckled at her attempts to hurt him. She’d never appeared as womanly to him as she did now, with her pinwheeling arms and her angry but harmless punches. She could cuss like a man, shoot like one, and crack a whip like one, but she fought like a girl in hoopskirts. It didn’t take long before she was all tuckered out, fighting only for breath and staring at him with wide-eyed fury.

“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded between gasps for breath. She pushed him aside and stomped out onto the porch. The sound of her heavy tread startled Slim, and he bounced off the porch and ran a few yards before he stopped to look back at her fearfully.

“You scared your watchdog,” Rook said, coming out on the porch and leaning a shoulder against a support.

“Quit looking like you never saw me before,” she shouted at Slim, which made the poor dog tuck his tail and head around to the back of the house where it was safe. Cassie glanced at Rook, who had pursed his lips to keep from grinning. “I come in from a nice visit and you ruin it!” She brushed her hands down the front of her skirt as if she were trying to wipe away a stain. “Handling me like I was some bought woman. Well, I’m not.” She frowned, angry at herself for having lost her temper so completely
in front of him and angry at him for finding it so amusing. She wished she could put some power behind her punch and knock him for a loop.

“I should have been the one getting those kisses off your mouth, Cassie Mae, and you know it.”

“You?” She glared at him again. “How do you figure that?”

The glare turned to a stare. There he stood, a picture of virile grace. He’d lifted one arm, bent at the elbow and loose at the wrist, against the porch support beam. One leg was bent, leaving the other to take his weight. For an instant Cassie was spellbound. What was it about Reuben Abraham that made her feel all gooey inside while at the same time she wanted to slap him? He was staring moodily at Shorty’s grave, but she didn’t think he was seeing it.

“I’m the one that primed the pump. Romeo Rutledge just came in and stole my water.” He leaned his head to one side and looked at her. “That’s how I figure it.”

It took her a few seconds to understand what he meant; when it came to her she could do nothing but laugh in his face.

“You think you’re cock of the walk, don’t you? Well, believe it or not, I like Boone. In fact, I think I’m falling in love and I think he already loves me.” She lifted her chin with more confidence than she felt. She wasn’t sure about her feelings anymore, and certainly not about those she had for Boone. She didn’t love him like a rock, of that she
was
sure but Rook didn’t have to know that—it wasn’t any of Rook’s business.

“You love him?” Rook mused aloud, looking at Shorty’s grave again as if he’d never seen it before.

“I’m getting there,” Cassie assured him.

He extended his free arm until his fingertips could brush against her clefted chin. Something changed in his face, something that cast a spell over Cassie. His gaze caught hers and held fast. The muscles around his mouth relaxed and his lower lip became soft and mobile. His eyes appeared somnolent and pitchy. Cassie knew he was moving closer by his fingertips, barely touching at first, then sliding across her jawline and into the hair at her temple. He
pushed away from the porch support and framed her face in his hands, and Cassie was sure she could feel heat radiating from him. She closed her eyes for a moment before his mouth melted over hers in a hot, moist kiss. The confluence of their mouths was sheer heaven, and Cassie lost herself in his arms. Time spun out of sequence; no longer did it pass in seconds but in drawn-out kisses and lips that clung and never quite let go.

At some point she slipped her arms around his back and flattened her hands against his jutting shoulder blades. She jerked involuntarily when his hands covered her buttocks, but she couldn’t bring herself to voice an objection. She loved the way his hands made her feel no matter what part of her they claimed—delicate and petite. She’d always thought of herself as a big girl—not plump but big boned and sturdy. Since she’d stood taller than Shorty, she’d seen herself as a big girl. With Rook she was a small boned, willowy woman, and she liked the new image of herself.

She also liked not having to give permission: Rook took charge from the start. Boone asked first, then took charge. But then again, Boone was a gentleman and treated her like a lady. Rook was no gentleman and he treated her like—like he couldn’t get enough of her.

Cassie was breathless, dizzy, trembling, burning with an inner fire she couldn’t begin to understand. All she could be sure of was that she had never thought that kissing could arouse such pleasure. When Rook’s warm mouth slipped across her cheek and down the side of her neck, Cassie thought she’d explode. Who’d have thought a man could make such miracles just by nuzzling and kissing and licking?

He carried her inside and kicked open the bedroom door. Cassie buried her face in the curve of his neck, convinced she should stop him but unable to find the willpower to do it. Maybe he was right about her craving for him and about the way he made her feel. Getting her to allow him to make love to her was like taking candy from a baby. So easy. So shamefully easy.

Setting her on her feet, he removed her clothing with eager swiftness. She sighed as the air cooled and caressed
her overheated skin, even though the day was sultry and still, disturbed only by an occasional breeze that hardly stirred the leaves or bent the grass.

“We shouldn’t be—”

He kissed her to stop her from finishing. “Don’t think. Feel,” he ordered, unbuttoning his shirt and then reaching for her hands to place them flat against his chest. “My heart’s galloping like a herd of wild horses. All because of you, lady.”

She could barely hear him over the drumming of her own heart. Cassie melted against him and pressed a slow kiss into the base of his throat. His hands covered her buttocks and pulled her against him, but she didn’t even think of objecting this time. Feeling him nudge against her made her blood sing and she could no longer deny the craving she’d come to know.

“I’m not myself when I’m with you,” she murmured as he walked backward toward the bed and she followed.

“Who are you?” he asked, smiling.

“Some shameless hussy who has not one ounce of moral fiber.”

“Awww, Cassie,” he scolded, sitting down on the bed and pulling her into his lap. “Don’t talk like that about yourself. If this is wrong, who wants to be right?”

She considered his statement for a few moments before agreeing with a sharp nod. “I’ve missed being close to you.” She ran her hands across his freckled shoulders and down to the bulging muscles in his arms. “You’re a good piece of work, but you already know that, so I shouldn’t keep feeding that fat head of yours.”

“Feed me, feed me!” He laughed and slid her off his lap so that he could remove his trousers and kick them into a corner of the room.

Naked he came to her, all glorious teak-colored skin stretched taut across bone and sinew. She ran her fingertips down his back, tracing the curvature of his spine, and then pressed them into his tightly muscled buttocks. Instinctively she pulled him to her and brought up her legs to embrace him.

“Do it now,” she urged, amazed by her own forwardness,
but Rook didn’t seem offended or shocked. He simply obeyed, thrusting into her and sending her off into mindless abandon.