Rosemary Carter - A Husband Made In Texas

‘It all happened so long ago,’ she said over a dry throat. ‘I don’t see any point in rehashing it.’

But Flynn persisted. ‘You said we had to wait another week, I thought we’d already waited as long as we had to.’

She had wanted be quite certain of his commitment before letting him make love to her. A lifetime commitment. What better time to announce their engagement than on the night of her party? They hadn’t exactly decided on an engagement—at least not in so many words—but they had spoken so often of marriage. Kaitlin had been as sure of Flynn’s feelings for her as she was of hers for him.

‘I remember...’ she said.

‘And then your parents drove up when we weren’t expecting them.’

He came closer still. His lips were temptingly near hers: another half inch and their mouths would be touching. It would be so easy to kiss him. Just in time, she remembered what had happened on her horse an hour earlier, and how humiliated she had been by Flynn’s reaction. She was in no mood for another rejection.

She threw back her head. ‘You made a quick exit that afternoon,’ she taunted.

‘Your father would have gone for his gun if I hadn’t.’

Her father had been possessed of a hot temper. ‘He’d have done just that,’ she agreed.

Flynn’s hand dropped from her chin, leaving a warm spot where it had been. He took a step backwards.

‘The hired help having the gall to make love to the boss’s daughter.’ His lips tightened, and for a moment there was an expression of intense anger in his eyes. ‘What you should know, Kaitlin, is that I’m not the naive young cowboy I was then. It’s been a long time since I’ve been intimidated by anyone. I don’t run any longer.’

The sureness in his tone caught her: it was as unfamiliar to her as the suggestion of arrogance and the striking look of success. This older, tougher, devastatingly attractive Flynn was not the handsome young cowboy who had left the ranch five years earlier, taking her heart with him.

Flynn had always been attractive, but now his sexuality was as much a part of him as a second skin: coupled with that aura of danger which never seemed to leave him, it made for a potent combination.

Kaitlin. lifted her chin in a challenge of her own. ‘You never run, Flynn? Not even when a man comes after you with a gun?’

‘Not even then.’

‘Sounds as if you’ve had your share of adventure. You must have quite a love-life.’ A deliberately bright smile hid Kaitlin’s pain.

He grinned. ‘Put it this way, I’ve learned to handle myself. Men like your father don’t frighten me.’

Looking at the rugged face of her first love—her only love, if she was honest with herself—it was easy to believe that there wasn’t a person alive who could frighten him.

‘I won’t run away next time I want you, Kaitlin.’

Kaitlin—and how many other women? For Flynn had not denied having an active love-life. ‘There won’t be a next time,’ she warned.

‘There could be.’

She increased the distance between them. ‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘No reason why there should be. We live in different worlds, Flynn.’

‘That again—Kaitlin Mullins and the hired man,’ he mocked.

She threw him a fierce look. ‘You’re not a hired man, you’ve made that quite clear. And whatever you choose to believe about me, Flynn, I’m not a snob. I never was. I’d have thought that was one thing you remembered about me. If I wanted you, your status wouldn’t matter.’

‘Isn’t that a relief,’ he said drily. ‘In the circumstances, you might even think again about letting me wash your back. Who knows what it could lead to?’

God, but she was tempted! She took a step towards him—then stepped quickly backwards. ‘What does it take to get through to you, Flynn Henderson?’ Furiously, she threw the words at him. ‘You don’t seem to have heard a word I said!’

‘Think what fun we’d have, Kaitlin.’

‘I don’t have to think about it,’ she informed him loftily, glad that her hands were in the pockets of her jeans, where he could not see their trembling.

‘Why not?’

She gave it to him straight. ‘I’m choosy about the men I associate with.’

But Flynn was not so easily deterred. Once more he reached for her, his fingers going to her throat this time, moving up and down in slow brushstrokes. Kaitlin thought the sensuousness of it would drive her out of her mind.

‘You chose me once, Kaitlin.’

‘I know that, Flynn.’ It was getting more and more difficult to speak normally. ‘But whatever there might have been between us once, it’s all in the past now. We’re no longer even the same people we were then. One brief meeting doesn’t change the fact that we’ve become strangers.’

There was a glimmer in the dark eyes looking down at Kaitlin: eyes that seemed to penetrate the superficialities of hair and skin to the very core of her being. At the same time, the sensuous finger was still continuing its nerveinflaming path.

‘Have your shower then. Alone if you must,’ he said at last. ‘When you’ve finished, we’ll talk.’

Flynn was at the window, beer-mug in hand, when Kaitlin came back into the room. For a long moment she stood quite still, her gaze-riveted on the tall, loose-limbed figure, tough as a mountain lion, sleek as a panther.

There was something disturbingly ominous about Flynn’s unexpected arrival at the ranch. Kaitlin straightened her shoulders as she reminded herself to be on her guard with him. At the same time, she knew already that this wasn’t going to be easy.

‘Flynn...’ she said.

He turned, lips pursed, as if to whistle. But the whistle died as he came towards her.

Not for the first time that day Kaitlin saw his eyes go over her. She made herself stand very still as he studied her. Fair hair, almost gold, had been released from its pony-tail: slightly damp still from the shower, it framed an oval-shaped face and hung in shining waves to Kaitlin’s shoulders. Green eyes shimmered beneath a dusting of eyeshadow, and her lips had been touched with a coral gloss. Kaitlin had discarded her jeans in favour of a white sun-dress with narrow shoulder straps and a skirt that swirled from a tiny belted waist, and on her feet were a pair of open-toed sandals.

The silent examination seemed to go on forever, but apart from a slight flicker of the eyes, Flynn’s expression remained impersonal. She had been a fool to go to so much trouble, Kaitlin thought grimly. How could she have been so foolish when she sensed he was dangerous? Had her brain temporarily stopped its proper functioning?

Briskly, she said, ‘I’m glad to see you got yourself a beer. I’m thirsty, too, so I’ll just—’

Flynn interrupted the flow of words. ‘What happened to the cowgirl?’ he asked softly.

The look in his eyes was all at once far from impersonal. Kaitlin found she could not hold it for more than a few seconds.

‘A cowgirl is still a woman.’ She hoped he did not notice that her voice shook.

Taking a strand of blond hair, he wound it around one of his fingers. ‘A very beautiful woman,’ he murmured.

Something unnerving, purely sexual in nature, crackled in the air between them. Kaitlin had a sense that things were moving a little too quickly. More than ever, she wished she had changed into more unfeminine attire.

She stepped away from Flynn, feeling the slight tug on her hair as it pulled away from his fingers. ‘You haven’t told me why you’re here,’ she said.

It seemed to her that a new expression came into his eyes. ‘I guess I haven’t,’ he drawled.

That expression, as much as his tone, made the hair prickle on Kaitlin’s neck. She could not have explained her uneasiness, the feeling that she was not, after all, ready to hear what he had to say. She decided to play for time. ‘It’ll be dark soon.’