Hawk's Way Grooms (5 page)

“I'm going in to town today,” he said, realizing he'd better get away for a while and cool down.

“Perfect! I need some things from the hardware store. Could you give me a lift?”

Thank God she wasn't looking at him, or she would have known something was wrong. He opened his mouth to refuse and said, “Sure. Why not? Give me a chance to change into a shirt and jeans and some boots first.”

She gave him a blazing smile that made his groin pull up tight. Hell. He'd better find himself a woman. And soon.

 

N
O DOUBT ABOUT IT
, J
EWEL THOUGHT
. Mac had been acting strange all day. Every errand he had run had taken him to the opposite end of town from her. Although they had made plans to meet for lunch at the Stanton Hotel Café, he hadn't arrived until she was nearly finished eating. She was sitting on one of the 1950's chrome seats at the lunch counter when he finally showed up, grabbed a cup of coffee, said he wasn't hungry, remembered something else he had to do in town and took off again.

If Jewel hadn't known better, she would have said he didn't want to be anywhere near her. But that was silly. They were best friends.

They had agreed to meet in the parking lot near the bank at four o'clock where Mac had parked his extended cab Chevy pickup and head back to Hawk's Pride. Jewel was sitting on the fender of the truck when Mac finally returned.

“You could have sat inside,” he said. “It wasn't locked.”

“It was too hot with the windows rolled up, and I needed a key to get them down,” she said, lifting the hair at her nape to catch the late afternoon breeze. She heard him suck in a breath and had turned in his direction when a female voice distracted them both.

“Peter? Is that you?”

Jewel rose and turned at the same time as Mac to find a red-headed, green-eyed woman standing beside the bed of the pickup.

“Eve?” Mac replied in tones of astonishment that rivaled the woman's.

She ran toward him, and Jewel watched in awe as Mac dropped his cane to surround the woman with his arms. Jewel hurried to pick it up, certain Mac would lose his balance and need it at any moment.

Only he didn't.

Either he was stronger on his feet than he had been two days ago, or the petite redhead was stronger than she looked.

“Peter. Peter,” the woman said, her gaze searching his face.

“Eve. I can't believe it's you!” he replied, his eyes searching her face with equal delight.

He suddenly looked around for Jewel and reached out a hand to draw her closer. “Jewel, this is Evelyn Latham. Eve and I dated for a while in college. She's the only person I ever let get away with calling me Peter.”

Eve simpered. “It's because you have such a big—”

“Yeah,” Mac cut her off. “Eve, this is my friend, Jewel Whitelaw. I'm spending some time at her parents' ranch.”

Jewel saw Eve take one look at her plain face and her unshapely clothes and dismiss her as no competition.

Eve then gave Mac a quick, but thorough, once-over. “You look
purrr
fectly fit to me.”

Jewel cringed at the way the woman drew out the word with her Texas accent. Eve obviously appreciated Mac's assets—one of which she had apparently seen up close and personal—and the sexual invitation she extended was clear, at least to Jewel.

Mac must have heard it, too. “What are you doing with yourself these days, Eve? I haven't seen you since…when was it?”

“Graduation day from UT, two years ago.”

He looked for a ring on her left hand, but didn't find one. “I thought you were going to marry Joe Bob Struthers.”

“I only told you that because I was mad at you for dumping me after only three dates…just when we were getting to know each other so well.”

He's probably slept with her,
Jewel thought. She couldn't fault Mac's taste. The woman was gorgeous. She wore a clingy green St. John knit dress, with a fashionable gold chain draped across her flat stomach.

Mac gave Eve a look that suggested he would be happy to pick up where they had left off. “So you're not a married woman?”

“I'm free as a bird,” Eve confirmed.

“I thought you were a Dallas girl, born and bred. What are you doing out here in the far reaches of northwest Texas?” Mac asked.

“My dad bought the bank here in town. I've been the assistant manager for the past year.”

“I never expected any less of you,” Mac said, “graduating the way you did at the top of the class.”

Pretty
and
smart. That was a lethal combination, Jewel thought. Not that Jewel was competing in any way with Evelyn Latham for Mac's affection. She and Mac were just friends. But she couldn't help thinking that if Mac got involved with Eve, she would see a whole lot less of him, and she did enjoy his company.

“What are you doing here?” Eve asked Mac in return. “Aren't you supposed to be off playing football, or something like that?”

Jewel couldn't believe the woman had dated Mac but had no idea when the football season began and ended.

“It's the off-season,” Mac said with an indulgent smile. For the first time it must have occurred to him that he didn't have his cane. He looked around for it, and Jewel handed it to him. He took it and leaned on it. “I'm here visiting friends and recuperating from a football injury.”

“You were hurt?” Eve asked.

Jewel rolled her eyes. Mac gave her a nudge with his hip, and she straightened up.

“You could say that,” Mac said. “I guess you didn't hear about it.”

Eve turned her mouth down in a delightful moue. “As you very well know I never cared much for football, only for the way you looked in those tight pants.”

The sexual innuendo was even more blatant this time, and Jewel felt uncomfortable standing there listening to it. “Sorry we can't stay,” she said. “Mac was just giving me ride home.”

The pout that appeared on Eve's face would have looked right at home on a three-year-old. “Oh, Mac. I was hoping you'd have dinner with me.”

“I still can,” Mac said. “I'll take Jewel home and come back. What time and where?”

“How about eight o'clock? My house.” She gave Mac an address in the newest condominium complex in town.

Mac grinned. “I'll be there.”

“Don't dress up,” Eve purred. “I want you to be comfortable.”

“You got it,” Mac said.

With Jewel standing right there, Eve went up on tiptoe and gave Mac a kiss right on the mouth. Jewel noticed Mac's arm went around her waist quick enough to draw her close, so the kiss wasn't unwelcome. It went on a long time, and from the way their mouths shifted, their tongues were involved.

Jewel stood frozen, unable to move. At last the kiss broke, and Mac shot her a quick, embarrassed look. It was too little, too late. He should have thought of her feelings before he practically made love to another woman right in front of her.

Only it shouldn't have mattered if he kissed somebody else. They were only friends.

“See you at eight,” Mac said as he backed away from Eve.

“I'll be waiting,” Eve said in a sultry voice.

Mac went around to his side of the truck without stopping to open Jewel's door. Not that she needed her door opened for her. She got in and sat near the edge of the seat, opening the window as soon as Mac started the truck and sticking her elbow out.

“Sorry about that,” he said after a few minutes. “I shouldn't have embarrassed you like that.”

“I wasn't embarrassed,” Jewel said. “Kiss all the girls you want. It doesn't make any difference to me.”

“All right. If that's the way you feel. Just so you don't worry, I may not be back tonight.”

“Thanks for telling me,” Jewel said. “I won't wait up for you.”

She really didn't care. He was just a friend. He'd had another girlfriend most of the time she had known him. This was no different. Except, the whole time she had watched Mac kissing Eve the most stunning thought had been running through her head.

I wish it were me.

M
AC WENT TO
E
VELYN
L
ATHAM'S HOUSE
with one purpose in mind: to get laid. Eve opened the door wearing a clingy red velour jumpsuit that sent a wake-up call to his body. He was sure all it would take was one kiss to get the old machinery back into action. So he pulled her into his arms and kissed her and…nothing. Not a damned thing happened.

He worried about the situation all through supper and all through the glass of merlot they enjoyed by the fire he started for her in the stone fireplace. When they ended up entwined on the couch, he willed his body to react to the feel of her lips against his, to the feel of her body beneath his hands. He felt the sweat pop out on his forehead. But…nothing.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Just because he hadn't made love with a woman didn't mean that he didn't want to. He wanted to, all right. His damned body just wasn't cooperating! He made up some excuse for why he couldn't stay—his aching leg had come in handy for once—and bolted.

He drove around for two hours wondering if he was going to spend the rest of his life a virgin. What the hell had gone wrong? He hadn't been able to figure it out but had finally conceded that driving around all night wasn't going to give him any answers.

Then he remembered he had told Jewel he would probably be out all night. What was she going to think if he came back early?

That you don't take your time.

Yeah. Probably she'd just think he'd gotten his fill of Eve already. He couldn't imagine getting his fill of Jewel in bed. The thought of touching her skin, the feel of her hair against his body, the smell of her.

His body stirred in response.

It's too late, buddy. You already missed the party. You have to do that when there's a flesh-and-blood woman around.

And when it was some other woman besides Jewel. It wasn't going to do him any good getting aroused by thoughts of her, because she was the last person he could have sex with.

Hell, his leg
was
killing him. He had some exercises he was supposed to do at night that he hadn't done to relax the muscles. He needed to lay his leg flat in bed. He needed…he needed to know he could function as a man. The situation with Eve had been disturbing because it had never happened to him before. What if something was wrong with him? What if all those operations had done something to his libido?

You don't have any problem responding to Jewel.

He recalled his feelings for Jewel, the ones that had sent him off in search of another woman. They weren't as comforting as they should have been. He had felt the same sort of semi-arousal with Eve before he kissed her, but when it came time for action, his body had opted out.

Mac cut the pickup engine at the back door to the cottage. No lights. At least he'd be spared the ignominy of Jewel seeing him sneaking in at two in the morning. He didn't want to have to make some explanation about why he was home early. He wasn't about to tell her the truth, and he hated like hell to lie.

He eased the kitchen door open—Western doors were rarely locked, even in this day and age—and slipped inside.

“Hi.”

Mac nearly lost his balance and fell. “What the hell are you doing sitting here in the dark?”

He reached for the light switch, but Jewel said, “Don't.”

The rough, raw sound of her voice, as though she had been crying, stayed his hand. He remained where he was, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dark. He finally located her in the shadows. She was sitting with her elbows perched on the kitchen table, her face buried in her hands.

He limped over, scraped a chair closer and sat beside her. He felt her stiffen as he laid an arm across her shoulder. “Are you all right?

“I'm fine.”

“You don't sound fine. You sound like you've been crying.”

“I didn't think you'd be back tonight.”

Which meant she had expected to have the privacy to cry without being disturbed. It didn't explain
why
she had been crying. She tried to rise, but he kept his arm around her and pressed her back down. “I'm here, Jewel.”

“Why is that, Mac? I can't imagine any woman throwing you out. Which means you left on your own. What happened?”

This was exactly the scene Mac had been hoping to avoid. “She…uh…we…uh…”

“Don't tell me Eve didn't make a pass.”

“She did,” Mac conceded reluctantly.

“Then why aren't you spending the night with her?”

“I…uh…that sort of thing can give a woman ideas.”

“I see.”

“You do?”

“Sure. Spend the whole night in a woman's bed, and she tends to think you might be serious about her. Everyone knows you're a love'em and leave'em kind of guy.”

“I am? I mean, I suppose I am. I haven't found a woman I'd want to settle down with who'd have me.” That was certainly no lie.

Eve had wanted him, all right. It should have been the easiest thing in the world to take her in his arms and make love to her. The situation had been perfect: willing woman, intelligent, not a total stranger, attractive—hell, absolutely beautiful. And it had been absolutely impossible.

Mac bit back the sound of frustration that sought voice.

“You should go to bed if you're going to get up early and walk tomorrow,” Jewel said.

“I'd rather sit here with you,” Mac replied.

“I'd rather be alone.”

“Are you sure?”

“I'll be fine.”

Mac leaned over to kiss her softly on the temple. Her hair smelled of lilacs. It reminded him of warm, lazy summer days they had spent lying on the banks of the pond that bordered the Stonecreek Ranch. He resisted the urge to thread his fingers through her hair. It might comfort her, but it would drive him damn near crazy.

“Just know I'm here if you need me,” he said. “You'd better get to bed, too, because I'm expecting you to walk with me tomorrow.”

“I don't think that's a good idea. It would be better if you go alone.”

He stared at her, wishing he could see the expression on her face. Moonlight filtered in through the kitchen window but left her mostly in shadow. “What's going on, Jewel? Why are you shutting me out?”

“I got along fine without you for six years, Mac. What makes you think I need you now?”

Mac was stunned as much by the virulence in her voice as by what she had said. “If you want me out of here, I'm gone.”

She clutched his forearm as he rose, rubbing at her eyes with the knuckles of her other hand. “Don't leave. Don't leave.”

He pulled her up and into his arms, and she grabbed him tight around his neck and sobbed against his shoulder. He rubbed her back with his open palms, aware suddenly that she was wearing a thin, sleeveless cotton nightgown and nothing else.

His body turned hard as a rock in two seconds flat.

His equipment worked all right. At the wrong time. With the wrong woman.

“Damn it all to hell,” he muttered.

Jewel needed his comfort, not some male animal lusting after her. He kept their hips apart, not wanting his physical response to frighten or distress her. “Tell me what's wrong, Jewel. Let me help,” he crooned in her ear.

“It's too embarrassing,” she said, her face pressed tight against the curve of his shoulder.

“Nothing's too embarrassing for us to talk about, my little carbuncle.”

She hiccuped a laugh. “Carbuncle? Isn't that an ugly inflammation—”

“It's a red precious stone. I swear.”

She relaxed, chuckling, and it took all the willpower he had to keep from pulling her tight against him.

“You always could make me laugh,” she said. “Oh, Mac, I wish you'd come back a long time ago. I missed you.”

“And I missed you. Now tell me what's so embarrassing that you don't want to talk about it?”

She sighed, and her breasts swelled against his chest, soft and warm. His heartbeat picked up. Lord, she was dangerous. Why couldn't this have happened with Eve? Why did it have to be Jewel?

Her fingers began to play in the hair at his nape. He wondered if she knew what she was doing to him and decided she couldn't possibly. She wouldn't purposely turn him on. What she wanted was comfort from a friend. And he intended to give it to her.

But he wasn't any more able to stop his body from responding than he had been capable of making it respond. All he could do was try to ignore the part of him that was insisting he do something. He focused his attention on Jewel. She needed his help.

“Tell me what's wrong,” he urged.

“I wish things were different, that's all.”

“Don't we all?” he said, thinking of his own situation. “But frankly, that doesn't sound embarrassing enough to keep to yourself. What is it? Got bucked off your horse? Happens to the best of us. Broke a dish? Do it all the time. If you broke a heart I might worry, but you can always buy another dish.”

She laughed. The bubbly, effervescent sound he hadn't heard for six years. He pulled her close and rocked her in his arms in the old, familiar, brotherly way.

She stiffened, and he realized what he had done. His hips, with the hard bulge in front, were pressed tight against hers. There was no way she could mistake his condition.

“Damn, Jewel,” he said, backing away from her, putting her at arm's length and gripping her hands tightly in his.

He smiled, but she didn't smile back.

When she pulled free, he let her go. “We can still talk,” he said, wanting her to stay, wanting to confess the truth to her. She was still his best friend. But somehow things had changed. He couldn't tell her everything, not the most private things. Not anymore.

Maybe he had been wrong to expect her to confide in him. Maybe she felt the same awkwardness he did, the distance that had never been there before. A distance he had put there, because he saw her not just as a friend, but as a woman he wanted to kiss and touch.

“I'm going to bed, Mac.”

“Will you walk with me tomorrow?”

“I don't think—”

“Please, Jewel. You're my best friend. I'd really like the company.”

She hesitated so long, he thought she was going to refuse. “All right, Mac. I suppose I owe you that much.” She turned and left without another word.

He waited until her bedroom door closed before he moved, afraid that if he did, he would go after her.

He wondered what had been troubling her. He wondered what she would have done if he had lowered his head and sucked on her breasts through the thin cotton. Blood pulsed through his rock-hard body, and he swore under his breath.

Mac went to bed, but he didn't sleep. He tossed and turned, troubled by vivid erotic fantasies of himself and Jewel Whitelaw.
Their legs entangled, their bodies entwined, his tongue deep in her mouth, his shaft deep inside her. She was calling to him, calling his name.

Mac awoke tangled in the sheets, his body hot, hard and ready, his heart racing. And all alone.

He heard Jewel calling from outside the door. “Mac. Are you awake?” She knocked twice quietly. “It's time to walk.”

Mac groaned. “I'll be with you in a minute.” As soon as he was decent.

From the look of Jewel at the breakfast table, she hadn't slept any better than he had. She was wearing something even less attractive than the sweatshirt and cutoffs she had worn previously. It didn't matter. He saw her naked.

Mac shook his head to clear it. The vision of her breasts, large and luscious as peaches, and her long, slim legs wrapped around his waist, remained as vivid as ever.

“Are you all right?” Jewel asked.

“Fine. Let's go.”

She chattered the whole way to the canyon, but he would have been hard-pressed to remember a word of what she had said or his own responses.

Everything was different. Something was missing. And something had been added.

He wanted their old relationship back. He was determined to quench any desire he might feel for her, so things could get back to an even footing. He figured the best way to start was to bring the subject out into the open and deal with it. On the walk back to the house, he did.

“About what happened last night…It shouldn't have happened.” His comment was vague, but he knew she understood exactly what he meant when pink roses blossomed on her cheekbones.

She shrugged. “I was just a woman in a skimpy nightgown.”

“Jewel, I—”

She stopped and turned to him, looking into his eyes, her gaze earnest. “Please, Mac. Can we pretend it never happened?”