To Love and Cherish (6 page)

“And what's Danny going to say about that?” he asked contemptuously. He threw a faint smile at her while he lit a cigarette, and she watched him silently, noticing the mussed hair her fingers had tousled, the swell of his lower lip where hers had clung. It embarrassed her a little to remember how completely she'd responded to his rough ardor.

“I don't care what he says,” she managed.

“I do.” His eyes darkened menacingly. “You walk out that door
again like you did the last time, and I'll make your life hell, Shelby. You're not running out on Danny. You're going to tell him the truth. Or I will.”

“And what is the truth?”

“That you want me,” he said bluntly. “That I could have you any time I wanted you.”

“That isn't true!” she cried, horrified.

“The hell it isn't.” His gaze dropped to her mouth and an unreadable expression flickered for an instant in his eyes. “If it wasn't for the respect I have for my brother, you'd be in my bed right now, and you damned well know it!”

Her eyes closed under a wave of anguish, because she did know it. Her small hands clenched at her sides and she felt a wave of shame washing over her in the silence that throbbed
between them. She could feel King's eyes on her downcast face.

“You think of some way out of this farce of an engagement, Shelby,” he told her, “and you do it before you and Danny leave the ranch. You know by now that I don't make threats. If you don't break the engagement, I'll tell him the truth. And you won't like what comes next.”

Mutinously, her big dark eyes met his with a rare flash of spirit. “And what's that?” she asked bravely.

“I'll finish what we started here tonight,” he replied with deadly confidence. “And I promise you he won't want what I leave of you.”

Her face went beet red. “You brute!” she whispered brokenly.

“Even when you fight back, you're lukewarm,” he scoffed. “Is that the most insulting thing you can think of to call me?”

“No!” she replied.

He smiled unpleasantly. He crushed out his cigarette in the ashtray on his desk. “I may make a woman out of you yet,” he laughed softly. “Come on, Shelby, bed. I'm tired even if you aren't, and I've got a hard day ahead of me.”

She flushed. “I won't!”

“Why, Miss Kane,” he said with mock surprise, “what did you think I was suggesting?”

Flushing, she whirled and ran out of the room and back up the stairs, hating him as she'd never hated anyone before.

S
helby didn't see King all the next morning. Danny remarked casually that his big brother had flown to Austin on business and wouldn't be back for at least a couple of days.

Shelby breathed a sigh of relief. After last night, it was going to take some time for her to even be able to look King in the face again. How could she have yielded to him so ea
gerly? Surely she could have held out against his charm if she'd tried…

Who was she kidding? She fell into step beside Danny as they walked through the rose garden behind the house, heading toward the river. She wanted King in a way she'd never be able to want another man, and he knew it. Even now she could feel the hard, warm crush of his mouth, the strength of his arms, and she felt as if she'd been torn in half, missing him already. Was it going to be like this from now on when he was out of her sight? Why did she feel this way? It was almost as if she was in love…

In love. A torrent of emotion raged through her as she savored the words. In love. With King? With a man who'd been nothing but an enemy from the day they'd met, who'd hurt her at every turn, who'd admitted that he'd do anything to keep her from marrying his brother. Last night had
just been part of his overall plan to tear her away from Danny. He'd admitted as much. So why did she feel this aching hunger to be in his arms again?

“Oh, King,” she whispered breathlessly as the pain surged up in her.

“What?” Danny asked absently.

“Nothing,” she replied. “Tell me about the flood they had here last year.”

But before Danny could open his mouth, a familiar honeyed voice called out, “Oh, there you are, Danny! Do you think your fiancee would let me borrow you for a few hours?” Mary Kate Culhane asked with a cold glance in Shelby's direction. “I need some legal advice.”

“I really shouldn't leave the ranch, Mary Kate,” Danny said with a smile. “King's flying back just for a few hours before he heads back out
to that sale in North Georgia, and I need to discuss a few things with him.”

Shelby felt her heart bounce against her ribs. So King's few days away weren't quite started yet. Her pulse ran away and she couldn't keep up with what Danny and Mary Kate were discussing for worrying about how she was going to face King. It wouldn't be the same between them ever again. Not after what she'd felt in his arms. And she wasn't any good at hiding her emotions, she never had been.

“Danny, I'm going home,” she said suddenly, without preamble, and turned to go back to the house.

He caught her arm. “Now? But you can't!”

“Danny, don't be that way,” Mary Kate exclaimed with barely contained glee. “Shelby knows what's she's doing.”

“Shut up, Mary Kate,” Danny shot at her, and for an instant he looked just like King in a bad mood. He turned back to Shelby. “You can't go yet. I…uh, I can't leave to take you!” he finished smugly.

“I'll get a cab. A bus. I'll walk.”

“All the way to San Antonio?” he burst out. “Shelby, what's the matter? Afraid to wait until King gets here?”

“What makes you say that?” she choked, paling.

“Brilliant deduction,” he said proudly. “And I'm not going to let you mess up my carefully thought out plans. Plans, Shelby, remember?” he asked with a hasty glance toward Mary Kate. “Hmmmm?” he persisted.

“What we thought would work, isn't,” she said stubbornly, with a glance of her own toward the puzzled blonde.

“You don't know how well it's working,” Danny corrected with a grin. “Be a sport. Two more days, then we'll both go, okay? Deal?”

“Now I know what they mean by plea bargaining,” Shelby said wearily, but with a smile. “It's a synonym for blackmail.”

“That's libelous,” he warned.

“Oh, what are you two talking about?” Mary Kate grumbled.

“Nothing at all,” Danny lied. “Want to go for a ride, Mary Kate?” he asked with a grin.

Her small face lit up. “Oh, could we?” Her face fell. “What about your fiancee?” she asked in a subdued tone, and for the first time Shelby saw through those cold green eyes, all the way to a very warm little heart that was hurting terribly. It was staggering. Shelby even understood how she felt, because she was begin
ning to experience similar feelings every time King came to mind.

“I…I have some phone calls to make,” Shelby said quickly. “Do go ahead.”

Mary Kate gaped at her. “You—don't mind? Really?”

Shelby smiled. “I don't mind, really. Have fun.”

Danny tugged a short lock of straight, silky dark hair. “I hope I can tell you that before long.”

She turned away. “I wouldn't bet on it. Why don't you tell Mary Kate the truth?” she asked over her shoulder. “You aren't very convincing, anyway.”

Danny chuckled. “Maybe you're right.”

Shelby walked the rest of the way back deep in thought. What was Danny up to? Surely not protection from Mary Kate, from the look of it. But…what?

Instead of going straight back to the house, she went down by the river and sat down under one of the huge oaks at the water's edge, leaning back on the grassy bank to listen to the hushed roar of the river.

She crossed her legs in their well-fitting jeans, pushed at the sleeves of her blue print cotton blouse. She loosened a button to let the breeze get to her heated skin and stretched back out on the grass, with her hands under her head. Her eyes closed with a sigh. It was so peaceful here. So quiet and green and cool. In seconds, she was asleep.

She heard her name called a first time, and then a second and third. She thought she was dreaming until she felt the hand on her arm.

She opened her eyes quickly and found Kate Brannt standing over her with relief in every line of her aging
face. Around her, the sky was a dusky orange.

“Thank goodness you're all right,” Kate sighed. “Danny said you'd started back toward the house when he and Mary Kate went riding, and then when you still hadn't come home after King got here, we sent out the search parties.”

Shelby scrambled to her feet, brushing off bits of grass from her slacks and the back of her blouse, her heart tumbling as she picked up on what Kate had said.

“King's home?” she asked apprehensively.

“Oh, my dear,” Kate said compassionately, “King's very much home, and turning the air blue, and he's already jumped all over Danny. He's cancelled his Georgia trip.”

“Jumped…on Danny? What about?”

“You, Shelby,” Kate smiled. “He
was furious because my youngest went off with Mary Kate and left you behind to get lost. Not that he isn't mad because you're lost. He and his ranch hands have been combing the ranch,” she added with a grimace, “and when I decided to play a hunch and look down here, he was fixing to change horses. I think we'd better get home fast before the fireworks get any worse.”

“Oh, I'm so sorry!” Shelby said genuinely, her face ashen as she dreaded seeing that temper of King's unleashed at her. She was really going to catch hell now. “I'm sorry, I didn't sleep last night and I just meant to close my eyes for a minute…I never meant to fall asleep and cause so much trouble.”

“Not so much,” Kate said with a secretive smile. “I had a feeling you'd be here. I saw your light on early this morning. Early last morn
ing, too. You don't sleep at all lately, do you, my dear?”

“It really isn't Danny's fault…” she began.

“I know.”

“You do?” she blinked.

“Never mind, Shelby, you'll understand it all one of these days,” Kate told her. “But right now, we've simply got to get King calmed down.”

“Do you think it would help if I wore sack cloth and ashes down to the barn?” Shelby asked tremulously.

“I think it would help more if you didn't go near the barn until my son has a chance to cool down,” Kate laughed. “King in a temper is a force to behold.”

“I know,” she said miserably.

“Yes, I suppose you do.” Kate glanced at her. “He does get upset over you, doesn't he?”

“Only for Danny's sake,” she
murmured. Her eyes happened to catch a glimpse of movement out of one corner and she felt her knees going weak. King was walking toward them with that slow dangerous stride she remembered so well from her last visit here. His hat was pulled low over his eyes, and even at the distance, she could see the set of his jaw, the anger that lined his dark face.

She stopped at the entrance to the garden, her fingers nervously clutching at a big white rose on its thorny stem.

“Now, King,” Kate began as he came up to them.

“Goodbye, Mother,” he said curtly.

Kate looked at Shelby apologetically, but she was too wary of King's temper not to do as he asked. She went into the house and closed the door gently behind her.

“You scare everybody, don't
you?” Shelby asked nervously. She spoke to the front of his half-open tan shirt, not his face. She couldn't bear to meet his eyes.

She swallowed nervously when he didn't answer. She studied the soft, cool petals of the rose, tracing them with her fingers.

“Well?” she whispered unsteadily. “Aren't you going to yell at me?”

He still didn't say anything, and she licked her lips nervously as she finally mustered enough courage to lift her eyes up to his. She winced at the expression in those furious dark eyes.

“You might as well let it out before you explode, King,” she said softly.

“Damn you, Shelby!” he growled, and his lean hands shot out to grasp her upper arms painfully as he shook her once, hard. “Do you know how
big this ranch is? Do you realize how long we could search until we found you if you got yourself lost for real? Where in hell were you?”

“I…I fell asleep by the river,” she said unsteadily. “Oh, please, you're hurting me!”

His jaw clenched, but he loosened his tight hold and took a harsh breath. “You little fool, I could beat you!”

“Yes, I know. I'm sorry.”

“Sorry,” he scoffed. “I had half my men on the range hunting you, after they'd put in a twelve-hour day already, and you're sorry!”

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she lowered her eyes to his chest, the brown print shirt blurring in front of her.

“Don't do that!” he growled.

But his harsh voice made the tears run all the harder. A sob broke from her lips.

“Shelby,” he bit off, “oh, God, honey, don't cry!”

He brought her up close to his arms and held her, rocked her against his hard body, soothing her with words she didn't hear, his hand gentle in her hair. The action surprised her so much that suddenly all the frustrated longing poured out. With a sense of wonder she felt the crush of his arms and pressed even closer.

“You little fool,” he murmured at her ear. “We didn't even know where to look, Shelby!”

“I'm sorry, King,” she whispered like a disobedient child.

He buried his face in her silky neck, his lips hard and warm against it. “It's one hell of a big ranch, Shelby,” he said in a strange, deep voice. “We lost a hand once, during the floods. It was three days before we found his body.”

Chills swept over her. “I didn't re
alize…Oh, King, I didn't mean to upset everybody. I was just so sleepy…”

“Don't you sleep at night, little girl?”

“No. Yes,” she corrected quickly. But not quickly enough.

He drew back and looked searchingly into her eyes. His own were bloodshot, and there were weary, worn lines in his hard face, as if he hadn't had much sleep himself.

His gaze dropped to her mouth and his hands, where they rested on her back, became subtly caressing. “I didn't sleep last night, either, Shelby,” he said quietly.

She flushed at the memory and pressed her cold hands against him.

“What is it?” he asked deeply.

“Danny…”

“Let Danny look out for himself,” he said gruffly. “He's so damned wrapped up in Mary Kate, he can't
see you for dust, and you know it. Why the hell don't you give him back the ring, Shelby?”

With a thrill of pleasure she felt his arms contract around her, and she lifted her head to look into his deep-set dark eyes.

His glance flickered over her face and then down to her mouth again. “You burned for me,” he whispered sensuously. “Like a candle flame touched by wind.”

Her face reddened, but she didn't lower her face. “You…Danny said you were going to Austin.”

“I turned around and came back,” he said. He glanced over her shoulder and back down at her again. “I couldn't stay away from you.”

Her eyes widened. “From…me?” she whispered.

“From you,” he murmured. “You missed me, didn't you, honey?”