Jan Colley - In the Arms of the Rancher

“Sure,” he said in honeyed tones. “You mean it every time, which only tells me you don’t mean it.”

Kate drew a deep breath in an attempt to control her anger. How in the world had she ever thought that syrupy tone was attractive? Now it repulsed her. He repulsed her.

“I have only three words for you, Jeff,” she began.

“Yeah, I know,” he replied smoothly, interrupting her. “Like I told you, you love me.”

“Go to hell.” She hung up on him.

Kate stood trembling, staring warily at the phone as if it might attack her.

Damn him. Damn him. Damn him.

She had had enough. Tomorrow morning she would see a lawyer about reporting him to the authorities and would take out a restraining order against him.

Although Kate had never done so before, in case there happened to be an emergency in her family, she was so uneasy that she disconnected the landline and turned off her cell.

After she was ready for bed, she still felt shaken by the call and so she checked the locks on the front door, even though no one could go beyond the lobby without a card key. Then she double-checked the locks on the patio door and on every window.

Kate lay in bed for some time, unable to sleep. When she finally drifted off, she drifted right into a dream. Not of Jeff and fear, but of Hawk and unbelievable pleasure.

He came to her softly, murmuring of the exciting delights to be found in the joining of their bodies. She sighed in her sleep, her body moving in sensual restlessness.

She wanted, needed, ached for his touch, the feel of his mouth taking passionate control of hers, for his hard body possessing, owning, her own.

Kate woke, trembling, quivering deep inside her body, her breathing harsh and uneven. She kicked the covers away from her perspiration-slicked body. Never had she had a dream so real, so vivid that it actually brought her close to release in her sleep.

Her breathing slowly returning to normal, she sat up, staring into the dimness of her bedroom, her mind and senses still reeling.

While it was true that it had been some time since she had been intimate with a man—she would not think his name—it seemed unreal to Kate that a dream of a man she had so recently met and knew practically nothing about, not simply a dream of a fantasy man, could affect her to her very core. Her thoughts ebbed as sleep claimed her once more.

To her surprise, Kate woke later refreshed, if still a bit anxious.

What was with her, anyway? Kate asked herself, musing on her unusual reaction to Hawk. Yes, he was extremely attractive and fun to be with, not to mention sexy as hell. But he was just another man…wasn’t he?

Shying away from the thought, Kate centered her attention on the business at hand. Going to the phone, she reconnected the landline and dialed Vic’s home number.

Lisa was happy to oblige with the name of a good attorney, as she had been after Kate to swear out a restraining order against Jeff ever since Kate had thrown him out of her apartment.

Minutes later, Kate had an appointment for the next morning with the attorney Lisa had recommended, an older-sounding man named Edward Bender. It was a start.

Even though she knew the time of Hawk’s arrival, Kate jumped when the buzzer rang from the intercom in the lobby. Fortunately she had just finished swiping her lashes with the mascara wand, or she would have had a very strange black streak across her temple.

Grabbing her purse and a Black Watch plaid wrap that complemented her off-white dress, she flipped the button and spoke into the wall-mounted receiver.

“Hawk?”

“Yes.” His sexy, low voice gave her an all over tingly sensation.

“I’m coming right down.”

Without waiting for a response, Kate switched on a night light, locked the door and headed for the elevator.

She had felt an attraction to him from the moment he had walked into Vic’s, standing there all tall and lean and ruggedly masculine.

On the other hand, even from the beginning Jeff had appeared almost too handsome, cultured and charming. Almost too good to be true. Of course, before long, his real character had come through.

Kate snorted derisively as she pressed the elevator button. Handsome, cultured and charming was an act hiding Jeff’s true nature.

As Kate stepped inside the elevator, an old adage of her mother’s came to mind. Handsome is as handsome does. Well, for Kate, handsome had proved to be a nasty jerk when things didn’t go exactly the way he wanted them to go.

“Hi,” Hawk said as the elevator doors parted. “You look lovely.” His eyes held a teasing gleam. “How did you know the Black Watch was my favorite of the clan plaids?”

Kate laughed. “I didn’t. It just happens to be my favorite, too. And hello yourself.” She grinned.

“Where are we going this evening?”

Shaking his head, Hawk cupped her elbow and led her to the car. “I thought we’d pick up where we were, before we were so rudely interrupted. Do you avoid all casinos or just the one we almost went in last night?”

“Just that one,” she said and buckled her seat belt. “But I don’t go to casinos very often.” She smiled. “As the old song goes, I work hard for my money. But I do play occasionally.”

“Table games?” He arched his brows.

“No, I play the machines only.” Kate arched her brows back at him. “What about you?”

“Poker, Texas hold ’em,” he answered, shrugging. “And some blackjack now and again. Ready to go?”

“Whenever you are,” Kate said, and he pulled out of the lot.

He was quiet for a moment as they drove. “I don’t know what scent you’re wearing but I like it…a lot.”

Kate grew warmer and more tingly. “Thank you, Hawk. It’s the only scent I wear.”

“Whenever or wherever I smell it, I’ll think of you.” He flashed a smile at her.

Kate was certain everything inside her was melting. She told herself she had better be careful, because this man wasn’t merely dangerous, but he was dynamite. Compared to Hawk, she thought, Jeff wasn’t even a firecracker.

Playing with firecrackers was one thing, but playing with dynamite…Kate shivered.

“Are you cold?” Hawk asked, noticing her shiver even though he never took his eyes from the road. “I can turn on the car heater.” He reached to do so.

“No…no.” Kate shook her head while offering a weak smile. “I’m fine, really, and we’re almost to the strip.” Jeez, she thought, if he turned on the heater, she’d melt right there in front of him.

“It does seem strange,” he said. “In October here in Vegas in the afternoon, the temp can go into the seventies and even the eighties, yet in the evening it can drop down into the fifties and forties.”

“It’s different where you live?” she said, wanting to know every little thing about him, about his life.

He grinned. “It depends what part of the state you’re in. In Denver it can get very warm during the day and cooler in the evenings. But in the mountains where I live, while we might get some warmth in the daytime, it can get damned cold at night.”

“I like the mountains,” she said, unaware of the wistful note in her voice.

“You’re not from here originally?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m from Virginia, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. My father runs a small horse farm.”

He slanted a quick smile at her. “There you go. We have something in common.”

“Horses?” She laughed.

“Hey, don’t knock it. It’s a start.”

Kate couldn’t help wondering exactly what he meant by a start. A start of what? He was only going to be in Vegas for a while, wasn’t he?