B.J. Daniels - Honor Bound

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to leave,” the nurse said, glancing from Sarah to Russell and back again. Russell was visibly upset.

Sarah nodded. Russell was still frowning at her, looking scared since his last memory was going to her funeral all those years ago.

“I was just leaving.” She forced a smile. He didn’t remember her. She’d heard about head injuries where there was memory loss. His had apparently wiped out everything they had been to each other since she’d returned.

She thought of her own loss of memories due to Dr. Venable eradicating them. At least for Russell, forgetting her was a blessing. “I’m so glad you’re better,” she said, her heart breaking.

* * *

AINSLEY PLAYED THE conversation over in her head, mentally kicking herself. She still couldn’t believe that she’d actually gone skinny-dipping—again! It was so not like her and yet... She smiled to herself. She’d felt a sense of freedom like none she’d ever experienced. And Sawyer had been a man of his word. He’d behaved like a perfect gentleman.

So what had made her say she would have dinner with this cowboy? He’d caught her at a weak moment, she told herself.

“I thought you might enjoy getting away from here for a while,” he’d said. “I feel like I’m in a fishbowl up here, you know what I mean?”

She knew that feeling only too well. But then she’d felt like that for months. “Not much goes on out here that someone doesn’t witness. That’s why there is so much gossip.” Fortunately, she hadn’t heard anything about her and Sawyer, given his early-morning exit from her cabin.

Ainsley had been ready to leave it at that. Going into town with him would only get tongues wagging. She had opened her mouth hoping a good excuse would come out.

“Unless you’ve gone back to being the old Ainsley Hamilton, the one who isn’t allowed to have fun...”

She had groaned. Did he really think he could dare her into having dinner with him? “Last night I was—”

“Drunk?”

“A little overdramatic.”

“So you don’t think going into town with me to the local café would be living too dangerous for you?”

Right then she couldn’t imagine anything more dangerous. There was something about this man beyond his good looks, his obvious charm, his way of making her feel safe.

“You’re making fun of me.”

“Not at all. Like I told you, I like both the old and the new Ainsley. It will be interesting to see which one comes out with me tonight.”

She’d laughed. It had felt good. It also felt good to be asked out by this handsome cowboy. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken a man up on an offer for dinner. No way was she going to let that Ainsley Hamilton from last night out, but what would it hurt to let down her hair just a little?

“Okay, cowboy,” she’d said. Only later back in her cabin did she worry. Sawyer brought out a woman in her she didn’t know. It scared her, but it also excited her. Something told her that she should keep her distance from the man.

* * *

SAWYER HAD MADE up his mind that he would tell Ainsley the truth at dinner tonight—if she went out with him. He feared she might change her mind. He didn’t like keeping the truth from her, now that he’d met her.

But at the same time, she’d made it clear that she prided herself on her independence. As she’d said, she could take care of herself. The rock slide yesterday, though, had shaken that solid foundation she’d built her life on. She seemed to think she’d contained that urge she’d had to do things she’d never done. He wasn’t so sure about that, given that he’d talked her into going into the spring with him.

Truthfully, he’d love to see the new Ainsley come back. Had she been sober, he would have gone skinny-dipping with her last night. But then again, had she been sober, it would probably have never crossed her mind.

On the ride back to the stables, Ainsley had asked, “I’m curious. What do you do when you aren’t playing a cowboy extra?”

He’d avoided the truth. “I was raised on a ranch, so me and horses are a given. But I promise to tell you anything you want at dinner.” He made an x over his heart with one finger. “Scout’s honor.”

Ainsley had seemed to relax a little. He knew she was still suffering from a bad hangover. He had no idea how much alcohol Kitzie had put in the drinks, but enough to down an elephant, he was betting. Kitzie. He pushed all thoughts of her away.

He wished he wouldn’t have to tell Ainsley the truth until he’d found her stalker. That was why as soon as they got back to the stables, he’d set out to find the person who’d left the note on her cabin door last night. He had it narrowed down to the security guard, Lance Roderick. He fit the profile.

The rest of the crew seemed okay, since, according to Kitzie, almost all of them were from California and had been on the road during the months that someone had been following Ainsley in Montana.

He wondered again what assignment Kitzie was on but told himself it apparently didn’t have anything to do with Ainsley’s stalker. That was all he had to concern himself with. If Kitzie needed help, she knew where to find him.

* * *

THE TRAMP! WHAT HAD happened to the woman he’d adored from afar? From the shadows, he watched Ainsley and the cowboy ride back from wherever they’d been for hours. She laughed at something the long, tall cowboy had said, her laughter coming to him on the breeze.

He felt bile rise in his throat. She was flirting with the man as if she had no morals at all. Look at how she threw her head back when she laughed. Look at how she touched her hair. Look at how she gazed at the cowboy shyly from under her lashes. How could she behave like this? Wasn’t last night bad enough?

The thought of her standing naked by the creek filled him with a burning anger. To take off her clothes with a man she didn’t even know? He’d been so disappointed in her, but last night he’d excused her behavior. While staying back in the blackness beyond the campfire, he’d heard her talking about her life passing before her eyes because of the rock slide. He had attributed her lack of decorum to her near accident—one he had caused.

So he had excused her even when the cowboy had bundled her up and taken her back to her cabin. He had waited outside, counting the minutes. But the cowboy hadn’t come back out. He’d moved closer. Ainsley had been drunk. If that cowboy laid one finger on her...

But at the cabin window in the back where the bedroom was, he’d heard only Ainsley’s faint snores. He’d stayed there, listening. He’d learned how to move around the place without anyone paying him any attention. No one had been able to see him in the trees behind the cabin, and if the cowboy had tried anything, he would hear it and wake up, should he doze off.

Nothing had happened. Not that he was happy about the cowboy spending the night in Ainsley’s cabin. What if someone else had seen the cowboy come out of there this morning? Her reputation would be ruined. People would talk. He thought of his mother and shook his head. She would not have approved. She would have demanded that Ainsley be punished.

The thought made his heart beat faster.

This morning he’d asked the girls in the kitchen about him. Sawyer Nash was nothing but an extra, some dumb cowboy who had a couple of ride-on parts in this ridiculous commercial.

Still, he’d been willing to let last night be forgotten if Ainsley came to her senses today. She had seemed to be her old, proper self this morning when he’d watched her with the director. He’d been cheered by that, and forgiving. Whatever she’d done last night, it wasn’t her fault, so he would overlook it.