Heather Graham (14 page)

She walked past him stiffly. “Certainly.”

She was mounted on Cheyenne before he reached Thor. She was tempted to race down the trail but knew that he would ridicule her because it would be an act of foolish defiance and she might hurt Cheyenne.

Martine contented herself with urging Cheyenne into a quick, long-legged walk. But she couldn’t remain silent, not when she sensed that the bay was right behind her.

“I’d like to remind you, Kane, that I was in no hurry to be married.”

For a long moment he didn’t reply. Then he said between gritted teeth, “I said I was sorry, Martie.”

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t take back things already said.”

To that he didn’t reply.

The sun was going down, but the day didn’t seem to cool any. And thirty minutes later they were still riding in a miserable silence. Martine urged Cheyenne into a canter and heard the bay behind her follow suit.

She nudged Cheyenne into a gallop. Once again the bay followed suit.

All at once the breakneck pace was slowed. Kane came alongside her, grasped Cheyenne’s reins, and pulled him in. Martine gave her new husband a furious glare, swearing at him as she fought to regain control of her own mount. It did no good. Both horses slowed to a halt. Then Kane was on his feet and dragging her down to hers.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Martine asked heatedly. “Let go of me. Maybe the ranch became half your property, but I didn’t.”

“Oh, no?” he said, his eyes glittering. His hands remained locked around her waist. Martine pressed her lips together and tried to break his hold, realizing all the while that the whole thing was ridiculous yet being terrified that she was going to cry because it also seemed to be such a disaster.

“Martine, stop it!”

“You stop it! Just leave me alone.”

“No. I am not going back to the house like this.”

She ceased struggling, tossing back a wave of hair to stare into his eyes. “Why not? Aren’t others supposed to believe that there might be trouble in paradise?”

Kane gritted his teeth together, well aware that he was in trouble. Her eyes were sparkling like an array of emeralds, and her hair had never looked wilder or redder, highlighted by the falling crimson sun.

And then he smiled as he watched her stiff and rebellious stance and the proud and determined tilt of her chin. Fire in her eyes and her hair—it was part of what had fascinated him thoroughly. Allured him and then beguiled him and bound him. Inwardly he winced, aware that he was at fault. And he couldn’t think of any reason at all for jumping at her the way he had, except that she had come upon him exactly when he didn’t want her to know what he was doing. He was deeply in love with her—in a way he had never thought possible—and she was his wife. But not even that could change commitments and promises already made.

“Martine,” he said quietly, “you have a right to be angry. But please, let’s not make a major thing out of something so ridiculous. I don’t believe in quarreling like this. I love you.”

She continued to stare at him with the sun’s blaze in her eyes. Then she sighed, and her lashes fell like rich velvet to sweep away the defiant rage. She smiled slightly. “I’m not property, Kane Montgomery,” she said regally.

He laughed. “No, you’re not. I’m sorry for that too. It was just that I suddenly felt I was tangling with a wildcat.”

He wound his fingers into her hair, entranced by the sun’s play on it, and bent to kiss her, slowly and deeply. Her body melded nicely with his, so nicely that he had to remind himself that they were in an open field. He whispered huskily against her lips, “I guess we’d better get back.”

“Mmm,” she murmured. He grazed his knuckles lightly over her cheek and shivered slightly, marveling again at the depth of his need for her and the fact that she really was his completely. His wife.

If only he could remember his dual roles for a while, he reminded himself. He hugged her more closely to him, regardless of the heat, not caring that they both were covered with prairie dust and sweat. Touching her always had a shattering effect on him, like a blade of heat raging deep inside him, making him hunger and yearn, yet making him feel the greatest swell of tenderness. And protectiveness—and possessiveness, too, he thought, smiling over her head. No, she wasn’t property. But she was his, and he knew he would fight any battle to keep it that way.

“Do you forgive me?” he asked, lips nuzzling her forehead as he spoke.

“I suppose,” she murmured teasingly, leaning against him with a little sigh.

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Will you wash my back then?”

“Honestly, give a man an inch …” She was taunting him, raising her head to study him again. The emerald glitter was back in her eyes. But now it was an endless green beauty that beckoned and haunted.

“I’ll wash yours,” Kane told her innocently. He tipped his hat down low. “And I’ll wash your front, too, ma’am—and anything else you’ve a mind to have tenderly touched.”

She started to laugh a little breathlessly, and Kane felt a surge of dizziness. He groaned aloud. “Come on, my beloved bride. Let’s get home.”

She nodded, a little dazed. He gave her a boost up onto Cheyenne’s back, mounted Thor, and proceeded to lead the race back to the ranch.

Joe Devlin really had a nice setup spread out for dinner. Chinese lanterns had been hung over the patio, candles were set all about, and two Mexican guitarists were playing light ballads and Spanish love songs.

It was a small party, but not exactly as small as Kane would have liked. There were a couple of neighboring ranchers in attendance, and Ed Rice—to Martine’s obvious delight—had been picked up from the hospital for the night. Kane was touched to see her devotion to the man and a little humbled by her sheer pride in introducing the two of them.

It was the last of the senator’s guests who gave Kane the shock he wasn’t quite sure he managed to cover. And he was more than a little angry with Joe for not warning him ahead of time.

It wasn’t until he and Martine were over by the bar, sipping margaritas to a hail of congratulations, that Lisa made her appearance from the hallway. Joe seemed as disconcerted for a moment as Kane was surprised and annoyed. But then Joe seemed to gather himself together.

“Ah, Lisa, here you are. Uh, Kane, Martine, I’d like you to meet my goddaughter, Lisa Blank. Lisa, the newlyweds, Kane and Martine Montgomery.”

At age eighteen Lisa had been a mischievous and frighteningly sensual young woman. Now, at twenty-three, she was really perfecting her craft.

She gave Kane a wickedly voluptuous smile and accepted his handshake regally, then grinned at Martine. “Hi. I’ve heard lots about you. It’s a pleasure finally to meet you.”

Kane noted that Martine returned the greeting politely. He also saw that she appeared a little confused, as if she had realized that Kane and Lisa already knew each other and weren’t liking what was going on one bit.

Kane swallowed, trying not to wince visibly as a sharp pain seemed to tear at his gut. He wanted to wring Lisa’s neck, then grab Martie and swear that what it appeared she was thinking wasn’t true.

Except that he couldn’t do it because he couldn’t tell her the truth.

He moved closer to Martine and slipped an arm around her. He felt her stiffen, barely perceptibly, but she did stiffen. Kane silently cursed, only half aware of the conversations going on around them.

Joe himself seemed uncomfortable. Hell—they all were uncomfortable. And the more uncomfortable they appeared, the more he could sense that Martine was suspicious and angry.

“Let’s eat, shall we?” Joe said at last.

Kane was glad in more ways than one when Ed Rice, his bad leg propped up on a second chair, picked up the conversation ball at the dinner table. Joe asked him how in hell an old rancher like him had managed to get himself in such a predicament, and Ed seemed sheepish and dumbfounded for a moment before answering.

“Well, I tell you, it’s still the damnedest thing, far’s I can see. I was over by the cliffs, trying to round in a stray calf. All of a sudden out of nowhere comes a rock slide. Now I know dirt and rock falls from those little hills and crests all the time, but I also know that I’ve spent most of my life working the Four-Leaf Clover, and I ain’t never seen anything like that before! My horse spooked, reared, and fell over backwards on me. And I was so spooked myself I let him fall on me.” Ed shook his head with disgust and ran his fingers through the few wisps of hair that remained on the top of his head. “Must be gettin’ old.”

Martine set down her spoon in her fruit cup dish. “Old! Fiddle, Ed Rice!” she said with gruff emotion. “We’re just incredibly lucky that you came out of this without being injured too badly. The Four-Leaf Clover just isn’t right without you.”

Ed laughed and looked down the table at Kane. “I hear tell the Four-Leaf Clover’s doing great. I’m awfully glad you married that boy, Martine, else I’d be out of a job!”

The senator cleared his throat. Kane said smoothly that Ed would never have been out of a job. The fruit cups were cleared away, and Lisa very sweetly—too sweetly—asked both Martine and Kane questions about the Four-Leaf Clover.

It wasn’t until they were settled in the living room after the neighbors had departed with all good wishes for the newlyweds that Joe narrowed his eyes and asked Ed another question.

“Ed, do you think anyone might have been up in those cliffs, maybe trying to spook your horse on purpose?”

Ed shrugged in the midst of rolling a cigarette. “I’d say it was possible, Senator. But that’s all I can say because I didn’t see anything.”

Kane leaned forward tensely. “But you do say it’s possible.”

Ed looked up at both men and then at Martine. She shrugged.

“A mystery! I love it!” Lisa exclaimed.

Kane glared at her. “Ed, it’s important. You were hurt about the same time all the cattle were suddenly sick. And at the same time Martine was supposed to be paying back that loan.”

“A loan she could have paid if so many of the cattle hadn’t died off and others been ordered destroyed?” Ed asked.

“Yeah,” Kane said.

Ed shrugged. “Sure, like I said, it’s possible. But it isn’t making a lot of sense. What would someone be doing in the cliffs if they were after the cattle? And why hurt me? My hide isn’t worth anything on the open market.”

“You’re a damned good foreman—” Martie began defensively, but Joe Devlin interrupted her.

“Ed, Martie’s right, you are a damned good foreman. But say you were someone trying to steal the Four-Leaf Clover out from under her. Look at the whole picture. She’s got no savings to fall back on; they were depleted by medical bills. Knock off her cattle and her foreman, and she’s in a hell of a bind. She can’t pay a loan, and there goes her property. Ken Lander did it a few other times before he went for Martie.”

Martine took a long sip of her cognac and stared at Joe, feeling a little ill and wishing they’d never come for dinner. She was already convinced that she was somehow, for some reason being lied to. Kane and Lisa knew each other. And now it appeared that there was more to her hard-luck ranch story than poor judgment and the will of God.

She didn’t glance at Kane. She was feeling a little too uneasy to do so. Kane had spent a hell of a long time in the cliffs that morning. And he’d conveniently been there to apply for Ed’s job.

“Joe, there’s one thing you’re forgetting. No cattle came down with diseases on those other ranches Ken Lander picked up. Do you really think he would go so far as to poison mine? And like Ed was saying, the cliffs wouldn’t be the place to fool with the cattle. They’re never over there. Ed was going after a stray. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been there himself.”

Martine started as she heard Kane inhale sharply. She gazed at him and found his eyes on her speculatively. Then it seemed as if an opaque mist had fallen over the green and gold glitter of his eyes. It was as if he had stiffened and closed himself off from her.

He stared across the table at Lisa, and Martine saw that she was now silent and a little pale. She was returning his stare.

What the hell was going on? Martine wondered, not sure if she was furious or ready to burst into tears.

“There’s probably no connection,” Kane said thoughtfully, “between the cattle and Ed’s accident. Rocks do fall.”

“That they do, young man,” Ed said.

The senator, at Martine’s left, patted her hand. “Martine, don’t you worry about this any. I think Ken Lander was up to no good. I think he’s been up to no good for a long time, but I’m on his tail, and you don’t have to worry about it anymore. Give me half a chance, and I’ll prove something against him!”

“Yes, but it was my ranch and my foreman. I’ve got to try to give you all the help—”

“It’s our ranch,” Kane said sharply, drawing her attention to him. His face appeared very hard again; his mouth was a white line against his bronzed features, set and grim. “I’ll deal with anything that has to do with Ken Lander. You stay away from him—and from any involvement in this whole thing.”

His voice was so cool and curt that everyone went silent. Martine was stunned that he would speak to her so—especially in front of other people. She was tempted to dump her wine over his head—or burst into tears.

She swallowed carefully, determined not to make a scene, narrowing her eyes only to show Kane the depth of her anger. Then she rose with all the dignity she could muster. “Will you all excuse me, please? I feel the need for a little night air. And, Kane, if you don’t mind, I’ll worry about the ranch if I choose.”

Martine felt as if her face were burning as she hurried from the living room to the patio. She walked straight to the rim of the pool and stood there, staring sightlessly at the water, glittering with the lantern candles’ reflection. Eventually the breeze stirred to cool her heated flesh. She tried hard to think without letting her emotions cloud her view.

Kane …

He had been in such a hurry to marry. He had appeared at the ranch exactly when she needed him. Ed had broken his leg by the cliffs, right where Kane had spent the morning. And it didn’t take that long to set a trap for a cougar, not nearly as long as Kane had been out there today.