Cowboy Seeks Bride (15 page)

Dewar heard the four-wheeler before it appeared out of the darkness. He’d met with Raymond when he made the trip and got permissions to go across various landowners’ property, but he didn’t know the man or his wife well enough to let Haley go off into the night with Loretta.

Raymond fit right into the group around the fire and after hearing about poor old Eeyore’s plight that day, they told stories about lightning hitting the flat land and bouncing like big round balls. Dewar laughed at the right times and nodded when he was supposed to, but his ears kept tuned to the sounds of the darkness. And he could have shouted when he heard the four-wheeler.

For a minute he thought Loretta was going to drive that damn machine right into the fire, but then it came to a long, greasy stop, sending tufts of grass flying every which way. He’d been away from machinery too long or else that was the four-wheeler from hell.

“Loretta likes to tinker with engines. I don’t know what she did to that thing but it’ll go like a scalded hound set loose from the devil’s furnace. She must like you, little lady, to let you drive it,” Raymond said.

That was when Dewar realized that Haley was driving and Loretta was behind her. Did she have a death wish, driving like that?

“If I buy one of these, will you come to Dallas and soup it up for me?” Haley asked Loretta.

“Damn straight I will. You got my phone number, darlin’. Just give me a call and we’ll do some business.”

Haley’s hair had been let down from its normal braids and shined like copper pennies when she drew close to the fire. Something wonderfully exotic wafted out from her that smelled good enough to eat. His eyes caught hers and she dropped one eyelid in a sexy, slow wink that instantly aroused him. Loretta whispered something and Haley smiled.

All Dewar caught was something about Raymond not having to walk home when she laid a hand on Raymond’s shoulder. “I know you done talked these fellows deaf and they have to get back on the trail tomorrow morning, so we’d best go on home.”

Raymond put his hand over hers. “And I bet that pretty filly has listened to you asking questions until her head is plumb spinning.”

“You got that right, and she’s going to see about letting one or more of the reality show girls come to our house for a bath while you spend some time with the guys.”

Sawyer chuckled. “You mean the men on the reality show don’t get a bath?”

Loretta shook her head. “They can have a bath if they want in any creek betwixt Texas and Dodge City. Boys don’t set such store by a real bathtub as girls do. I raised six girls. I know.”

“You going to jaw with these boys all night or take me home?” Raymond teased.

“I’ll drive,” Loretta said.

Raymond stood up and slung an arm around her shoulders. “If you are, I’m walkin’. You done broke me from suckin’ eggs the last time I rode behind you, woman.”

They were still bantering back and forth when they roared out into the night and the last thing Dewar heard was Loretta’s giggles fading away.

Dewar patted the place next to him in the grass. “Guess you had a real bath?”

Haley smiled. “Yes, I did. And I had several thick slices of homemade bread with something she called whipped honey. It looked like butter and tasted like honey.”

“Haven’t had that in years,” Coosie said. “My momma used to whip up real butter with honey until it looked like whipped cream and we’d slather it on fresh-out-of-the-oven yeast bread.”

Sawyer slapped a hand on his belly and moaned, “I’m jealous.”

“You should be. It was delicious, but it was nothing like that warm bath in a big old claw-foot tub,” she teased. “Now I understand why the cowboys who ran the cattle back in history couldn’t wait to get to Dodge City and into a bathhouse.”

“They still got bathhouses?” Rhett asked.

“They call them hotels now, cousin,” Finn told him.

“And we’re staying at least one night in them, right?” Sawyer looked at Dewar.

He held up two fingers. “If it all goes as planned, we’ll get into Dodge City sometime up in the evening. We’ll help load up the horses and get the chuck wagon ready to go home and then we’ll check into a hotel. There are several so you can choose wherever you want to stay. Next day you can do some sightseeing or sleep all day in a real bed. It’s up to you. The day after that, Haley’s dad is sending a charter plane for us. It will take us to the little municipal airport over in Nocona and there’ll be family there to take us back to the ranch.”

“And from there we’ll split seven ways to Sunday,” Sawyer said.

Dewar nodded, not wanting to think about that day when seven ways to Sunday meant that Haley would be going to Dallas. Not even Eeyore could hold her attention long enough to come back to the tiny town of Ringgold very many times.

“It’s past our bedtime, folks, even for Friday night,” Coosie said.

“Guess we’ll have music tomorrow night.” Finn yawned.

Dewar took off his boots and set them beside his bed. He laced his fingers under his neck and inhaled deeply. In among the night smells of wet dirt and grass and cows, the night breezes carried to his nose that sweet, erotic aroma of whatever Haley used in her bath. He shut his eyes and a vision appeared of her in a claw-foot tub like his grandparents still had in their house. Her red hair was piled up on her head with strands sneaking out to stick to the wet skin on her neck. In the picture, she crooked her forefinger, motioning for him to join her.

Eeyore’s snort erased the image in an instant. His eyes popped open to see the donkey standing between his bedroll and Haley’s. Her eyes were wide open and a smile played at the corners of her full mouth as she stared at him from under the donkey’s belly.

“Guess he missed me,” she whispered.

Dewar propped up on an elbow. “I missed you too. It wasn’t smart of me to let you go off like that.”

“I’m a big girl. You didn’t let me do anything. I went because I wanted to go with Loretta and I’m glad I did. It gave me another idea for the reality show. And that woman is a hoot, Dewar. I want to grow up and be just like her.”

“A ranchin’ woman?” he whispered.

“No, but a sassy one,” Haley said.

“Honey, you already got sassiness cornered,” Dewar said.

Eeyore moved back to the herd, taking time to sniff the air several times on the way.

“Guess he’s going to trust me with you. I really was worried when you rode off with her,” Dewar said. “But not as worried as I was when I thought you were going to drive that four-wheeler right through the fire.”

“Honey, it goes so fast that if I had, it wouldn’t have even left the smell of smoke on my boots. Truth is, I didn’t apply the brakes soon enough and the four-wheeler slid the last several yards. Don’t worry about me, Dewar. I can read people pretty good. Loretta and Raymond are not serial killers,” Haley said. “And Eeyore doesn’t trust you with me. He’s just telling both of us that he’s mad because strangers came into our midst and didn’t even take time to pet him. He’s a selfish jackass, not totally unlike some two-legged ones I’ve known.”

“Don’t be slinging mud,” Dewar said.

“Don’t be taking what I said personally. When I call you a selfish jackass, you’ll know I’m talking to you because I will use your name,” she told him.

He sat up, pushed back his cover, and in two long strides was beside her. She threw back her cover and he slipped into her bedroll, wrapping her into a fierce embrace.

“You smell like heaven and sin all mixed up together. I’ve wanted to touch you ever since you came back,” he whispered.

He ran his fingers through her hair, picking up strands of the silky red tresses and letting them float from his hands to fan out around her face.

“So soft,” he murmured.

Haley curled up in Dewar’s arms, fitting there as if she was born just for that purpose. His hands in her hair set every nerve in her body to purring. His breath on her neck as he whispered something about sin and heaven all bound up together ignited a fire that liquefied desire into an aching pool.

She ran a finger down the faint white scar, following his cheekbone across the deep cleft in his chin and up the other side to his hair. She clasped a fistful of his near-black hair and brought his lips to hers in a hard kiss. Tongue met tongue in a hunger that left them both breathless.

“We can’t, not here,” she whispered.

“I want you, Haley, but…” He let the sentence dangle as he sought out her lips again.

When he broke away that time, she touched the scar again. “I know. There’s not even a mesquite tree in this godforsaken flat land. And you can bet either Eeyore or Coosie would wake up if we breathed much harder than we’re doing now.”

“Tomorrow night we’re camping beside Pond Creek and there’s a thick stand of trees. I’ll be miserable all day with wanting you,” he said.

She stifled a giggle. “I’ll be plumb bitchy after all this making out. I feel like a sophomore in high school.”

She wiggled away from him just slightly so that she could see one Dewar and not a blurry vision of two. “Where did you get the scar anyway?”

“Talking won’t make us less hot for each other.”

“I know, but it’ll take my mind off stripping you down naked and having wild passionate sex with you like a couple of rats in heat inside an old wool sock, like Mark Chesnutt sings about,” she whispered.

He kissed her on the tip of the nose. “Does feel kind of like that all stuffed under this sleeping bag together, doesn’t it?”

“The scar?” Anything to get her mind off what she wanted to do.

“I was fifteen and busting a bronc out in the corral. It was an offspring of Glorious Danny Boy and a particularly mean old mare. She had good lines but she was a real bitch of a horse. Anyway, this stud got his momma’s meanness and it took a long time to saddle break him. He’d bucked me off several times, but I could feel that he was getting tired, so I went back one more time. I broke him and we were riding around the corral when he gave one more buck just to test my mettle. I wasn’t ready for it and I flipped out over the corral fence and hit a post my dad had tossed a bunch of barbed wire around. The wire cut my cheek.”

“How many stitches, and was your momma mad?”

Dewar kissed her on the forehead. “Twelve and how’d you know that Momma was so mad at Daddy for putting that barbed wire there that she didn’t speak to him for a week?”

“If it had been my handsome son, I wouldn’t have spoken to him for a month. Did the girls all come around and feel sorry for you?”

“Hell, no! They all thought Rye was the handsome one anyway and Raylen was the cute one. I was the one with the scar down my cheek,” he said.

She planted twelve soft kisses down his jawline. “One for each stitch. And honey, I’ve met Raylen. He is cute. Don’t know about Rye, but there’s not a cowboy on the earth more handsome or sexier than you.”

“Ah, shucks, ma’am.” He grinned.

“Don’t give me that line. I figure you’ve run from women so long that you’ve got the race down to an art. You ever plan on slowing down and letting one catch you?” she asked.

“Do you?” he answered her question with one of his own.

“No, I don’t plan on a woman catching me.” She giggled softly.

Coosie mumbled something in his sleep. Buddy’s and Rhett’s snores sounded like they’d synchronized them with their watches before they shut their eyes. Haley held her breath, expecting one or all of them to wake up and catch Dewar in her bed.

“Scared you when Coosie talked in his sleep, didn’t it?” Dewar whispered.

She nodded.

“To answer your question honestly, I’d love to settle down and raise a bunch of kids on the horse ranch, Haley, but a woman would have to take me like I am, just a cowboy with no thoughts of changing me into something I’m not.”

Anyone who had a crazy notion of changing Dewar had cow shit for brains. And he was much, much more than just a cowboy. He was a real cowboy: honest, loving, and kind, and it would be so easy to fall in love with him. But that would mean instant heartache. He’d just stated his position and it couldn’t be clearer. He wanted a ranching woman.

Haley was a businesswoman. She thrived on deadlines and researching great stories. She could not even begin to imagine herself living on a horse ranch in a place like Ringgold with a population of a hundred people. After the blistering hot sex played out, she’d be miserable.

But
who
says
it
would
ever
play
out?
that niggling argumentative voice in her head asked.

Nothing lasted forever. Not even the most fantastic sex she’d ever known could last that long. After a few years the flames would wan and then she’d be dissatisfied. Dewar O’Donnell deserved better than she could ever give him.

He sighed and relaxed.

Her head rested on his shoulder. His right arm was thrown around her, his fingers splayed out on her back. She thought she’d shut her eyes just for a minute and then she’d wake him up and send him back to his own bedroll.

When she opened them again, Eeyore was standing at the foot of her bed staring at her with those big old soulful eyes. Coosie crumbled sausage into the heavy iron skillet. Sawyer let out a shrill whistle for his horse. Finn and Rhett looked toward her as they rubbed the sleep from their eyes with their fists.

She sucked in a lung full of air and slowly turned over to wake Dewar, but he wasn’t there. All the air left her lungs in a whoosh as she sat up and looked around to see him beside the back of the chuck wagon. His sleeping bag was already rolled up and he had a cup of coffee in his hands.

“You going to wake up this morning,” he asked, “or did that bath turn you into a pansy? Boys, you think she’d better ride in the buckboard with Coosie today? That bath might have made her too much of a lady to sit in a saddle all day.”

“For a bath in a deep tub, I’d ride on the buckboard,” Finn said.

She stuck her tongue out at Dewar. “All that bath did was wash away the grit. I can ride better and longer now than any of you. Buckboard, my ass!”

“Your ass is not riding on the buckboard with me. I don’t care if he did get shocked by lightning.” Coosie cracked up at his own joke.