Welcome to Paradise (17 page)

She should have known he had an ulterior motive. Should have known she was not his type. She was beginning to wonder if she was anyone's type. What had he said? “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” Well, she'd been fooled twice and she felt the shame. Her whole body ached, her head throbbed with the shame.

In the morning she'd go to town instead of to the Bar Z Ranch. What good would it do to confront Zeb? He'd just lie to her again. She had to get the truth from another source. An unbiased source. Archibald Crane, the banker. It all came back to her now. Zeb hadn't wanted her to meet Archibald. Because he knew the truth. Everyone knew the truth but her. Wilma, the waitress, Barney, Sam, everyone. She felt so naive.

Before hiking out to her car, she looked around at the cabins and the rusted swimming pool, and finally at the bathhouse. Instead of self-pity, she felt proud of what she'd done there in such a short time. If she had longer, but she didn't. Her time in this beautiful spot was limited. Not just by the threat of the dam, but by her betrayal at the hands of her neighbor. She blinked back the tears that sprang to her eyes, lifted her chin and marched out without a backward glance. She knew the truth, but she had to hear the words spoken. Just once would do. Then she'd leave.

Archibald Crane was charming. He treated her with old-fashioned courtesy, telling her what she already knew in deep, sonorous tones. She only had to sign certain papers, waiving all claim to the property, giving it over to the Bureau of Reclamation, and she'd be in fine financial shape. She'd have more money than Horatio ever dreamed of.

“But, you knew him. Would my great-grandfather have wanted to sell?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Horatio was a gambler. He won and lost money, property, horses, cattle. I don't think he attached that much value to a piece of land. Made himself at home wherever the four winds blew him. Very adaptable.” The banker fingered his pocket watch and observed Chloe with one raised eyebrow. “I suspect you're much like him. You take things as they come.”

“I don't know. I'd like to be. Tell me, Mr. Crane, I suppose everyone in town knew about the dam being built and how much my property was worth, didn't they?”

“I don't know about everybody.”

“My neighbors, the Bowies?” she asked, scarcely realizing she was holding her breath.

“I believe Zeb mentioned it to me the last time he was in the office. Yes, he asked me if I'd heard any word on the dam and I assured him the deal was going through.”

The day he'd come to the bank. The same day she'd come to the bank. He'd discouraged her from sticking around to see Archibald. Instead he'd taken her on a picnic and made love to her. Made her forget all about getting a loan. Not him. He hadn't forgotten anything. He was thinking, always thinking about how to get her land away from her. Even while he was kissing her, holding her, telling her how beautiful she was. She felt the rage build inside her. Starting at the tips of her toes and rising to the top of her head, like a kettle about to boil over.

She could understand lying, cheating and stealing for land. She could forgive someone for falling in love with a piece of property. She'd done it herself. But he didn't do it for the land. He did it for the money he could make by reselling it. Just for the money. That was all. She wrapped her arms around her waist to keep from shaking uncontrollably.

“Are you all right, little lady?” the banker asked with a worried frown.

“Just fine.” She forced a smile, thanked him and left his office. There was only one place to go. Only one thing to do.

Chloe had never walked so fast in her life as she did on the trail to the Bar Z Ranch. But then she'd never been so mad in her life. Dry twigs snapped under her boots, quail scurried for cover. Like a homing pigeon she headed straight for the corral, though she'd never been there. Zeb was sitting on the top rail watching a calf and its mother with such intense scrutiny he didn't hear her approach.

She cleared her throat. He swiveled and almost fell off the fence.

“Chloe,” he said, jumping down and reaching for her. “You're here.”

She backed out of his reach. “I'm here, but not for long.”

“What do you mean?”

“I've decided to leave. I'm going home.”

“It wasn't a very practical idea to have a spa. You said yourself that it was too remote, too rugged. I finally realized that you were right.”

His broad forehead creased in a frown. “No, wait a minute. This doesn't make sense. The last time I saw you, you never said anything. You were talking about spending the winter here. The spa was your dream. Now you've changed your mind? I don't believe it.”

“Believe it. I realized that spending the winter here would be impossible. I can't imagine being snowed in. I'd go crazy.” Despite herself she couldn't help imagining being snowed into Zeb's ranch house with him, making love in front of a roaring fire while the snow piled up outside the window. But that was a dream. Another dream that wouldn't come true.

“We wouldn't have to stay here all winter. We could take a vacation, go to San Francisco if you wanted. We don't have that much to do in the winter.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“I'm talking about you and me,” he said, his eyes the intense blue of the sky. “I'm talking about you and me getting together, getting, getting...married.”

She shook her head sadly. So that's how desperate he was to get her land. What was it he'd said? “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Well, this was one fly who wasn't fooled by his honeyed tongue. “I thought you weren't marriage material.”

“That's what I thought. That's what I'd been told. But that was before I met you. Before I fell in love with you,” he blurted.

Her chest hurt, her hands shook. It was painful to see him lie right to her face. It was painful for him too, from the look on his face.

“You're getting carried away,” she said stiffly. It was better than saying what she wanted to say.
You're lying.

“Don't I mean anything to you?” he asked, grabbing her by the shoulders and staring into her eyes.

“Of course. You were my summer romance. And I was yours. Let's leave it at that, can't we?”

“No, we can't,” he said tightening his grip on her shoulders. “I can't. I want you around in the fall and spring and winter, too. All the time. If you don't like it here, we'll move to town, let Sam run the ranch. But don't leave. Give me a chance.”

She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. He looked so sincere. He sounded so sincere. And she wanted so desperately to believe him. But he was putting on the biggest act in the history of outdoor theater.

“For all the reasons you gave me the first day I arrived. I'm afraid of heights, you're not. I don't ride. You do. I'm a city person. You're not.”

“Of course I do. I feel grateful for all the help you've given me. All the good advice.” She clenched her hands into tight fists, digging her nails into her palms. Just a few more minutes and she'd be out of there. Away from him and his lies. Love, marriage. What did he take her for? A complete idiot?

“I'm afraid I just don't feel the same way you do, Zeb,” she said willing her voice to stay even. “It must be a shock to be turned down, after all those other women falling all over you. But we're too different, you and I. It could never work.”

“Okay, we're different. But that doesn't mean we can't work around our differences. Enjoy our differences.” He finally dropped his arms and began to pace back and forth. “I don't get it This doesn't make sense. You called your hospital. What did they say to make you change your mind?”

Chloe hadn't intended to bring up her ex-husband, but Zeb was proving more tenacious than she'd imagined. She thought he'd give up easier. Especially after he knew he could have the land.

“Did you miss him the night we made love in the hot tub?” he demanded, his eyes boring holes in her. “Did you miss him that day we had a picnic in the meadow?”

“No, of course not,” she said, proud of how matter-of-fact she sounded when her heart was beating like a tom-tom. “But as you said, it was just a summer romance. Let's leave it at that.”

“Let's not,” he said.

Alarmed by the fierce look in his eyes, she turned to go, but he grabbed her by the wrist.

She pushed against his shoulder with her free hand, afraid of the sparks igniting between them once again. He bent over and took her mouth in one desperate movement, crushing her lips with his, branding her forever with his mark. She could go back to San Francisco, she could go to Timbuktu, but she knew she'd never forget this kiss.

If only he'd let it go at that. One kiss. A farewell kiss. But he didn't. He deepened the kiss. Drugging her, filling her with such desperate longing that she responded as she'd never done before. Kissing him in return, with helpless abandon, with frustration, with pain and pleasure, knowing it would be their last embrace. Unable to resist, she gave in to the passion and the power of his kisses. While one hand tangled in her hair, the other slid down her hips and pulled her close, until she felt the heat of his arousal.

The power of the man thrilled her, excited her and scared her. She'd almost sacrificed her independence and her career to stay here with him. Just to watch him take over her property, for the money. Only the money. And still she wanted him. She could deny it from here to kingdom come, but deep down she knew the truth. She loved him and she always would, God help her.

Even knowing what she knew. Even knowing that he'd played her for a fool. That even now, after handing over the land, he continued to lie to her.

She moaned deep in her throat. Then, with every ounce of strength left in her body, she shoved him away, turned and ran. Ran for her life, for her sanity and for her future.

Zeb stood staring after Chloe for a long time, long after she'd disappeared around the corner of the barn. So long he half expected the calf he'd been observing for signs of foot-and-mouth disease would have grown up by the time he turned around. But it hadn't. It was still gamboling around the corral with the other calves. The sun was still high in the sky. Fleecy masses of clouds still floated in the upper air.

Everything was the same. Except him.

He was drained. Hollow. He leaned against the fence so he wouldn't fall down.

He felt nothing. Nothing but emptiness. She was gone. She didn't love him. She'd just left him for somebody else. So what else was new? It was his brother who'd told him he should take a chance, a second chance on love.

It was his brother who found him there still leaning against the fence as the sun sank behind the mountains in the distance. Still staring off toward Paradise Springs. In shock. In denial. In disbelief.

“What in the hell?” Sam said.

“She's gone,” Zeb said. “Gone home.”

“Didn't take the news well, then? About your lying to her?”

Zeb shook his head. “Didn't even get a chance to tell her.” He laughed but he felt like crying. “She's selling us the land, though. Doesn't want it. Wants to go back to her ex. It's déjà vu all over again, Sam.”

Sam put his arm around his brother's shoulder and they walked to the house. When they got to the kitchen through the back door, Sam shoved his brother into a chair and put the coffeepot on.

“Let's go over this again,” Sam said.

“Spare me.”

But Sam insisted. “She came over to say goodbye, right?”

Zeb nodded.

“Because she suddenly decided she was going to give up her dream of a spa and go back to her ex-husband?”

“Yes, I told you, yes.”

“I don't get it.”

“That's the way women are,” Zeb said bitterly.

Still hearing Chloe's words echo in his head.
Summer romance. I miss him, too
.

“It's okay,” Zeb said. “I understand, even if you don't. I'm fine with it, really.” He lifted his cup. “Thanks for the coffee. This is what I need. A shot of caffeine and I'll be okay. She just caught me off guard, that's all.”