Luke (Armed and Dangerous Book 2) (19 page)

As he touched her, she felt nothing. Nothing at all.

“I couldn’t be more astonished.” It was as if she’d lost the ability to smile as Race drew back.

It occurred to her that not only was she sweaty, but her hair was no doubt poking out of her ponytail, and her face probably streaked with sweat and barn dust from her intense workout.

A part of her couldn’t help but analyze the difference between Race’s greeting and Luke’s. Even though she looked like a mess, Luke had made her feel beautiful, sensual, and wanted. If he’d had the chance, she knew Luke would have made love to her right there in the barn, dirt and sweat and all.

Race—Race would want her to shower.

The discomfort she felt no doubt showed on her face and mirrored his, because his smile faded away. “I’ve made a terrible mistake coming here, haven’t I?”

Trinity had to admit she cared about Race a lot, but she wasn’t in love with him, and he wasn’t in love with her. Maybe it had taken him flying thousands of miles and seeing her in a barn to get a grasp on that, but she thought that’s what was happening.

“I don’t think it’s a mistake.” She finally found her smile, now that she was becoming certain he wouldn’t misinterpret it. “We probably should have done this face-to-face before, to make it real.”

“Well, then.” Race’s smile came back, this time a sad one. “Let’s finish it properly, shall we?”

When the Englishman kissed Trinity, Luke gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He had to fight the urge to grab the bastard by his collar and kick his pansy ass back to where he’d come from.

Trinity was Luke’s woman now. If Race didn’t back off, Luke was going to have to get in the middle of things in a hurry. He strode toward them as the man drew away from the kiss. Before Luke reached them, Trinity said something he couldn’t hear and Race smiled.

When Luke came up behind Trinity, the Englishmen glanced at him. “Hullo,” he said as he released Trinity and held out his hand to Luke. “Race Bentham. And you must be one of the, er, cattle herders?”

“Something like that.” Luke shook the man’s hand, surprised by his equally firm grip. “Luke Rider.”

“He’s the Flying M’s foreman,” Trinity said in a rush as her gaze darted from Race to Luke and back. “He, ah, works for Skylar.”

“You two have some talking to do.” Luke’s eyes rested on Trinity, telling her without words that he would do his best to trust her, but it was damned hard. “I’ll be out at the corrals if you need me.”

He gave Race a nod and touched his hand to his Stetson, then strode out of the barn without looking back. His gut clenched and it was all he could do not to turn around, grab that woman, and cart her off by her ponytail like a damned caveman.

Trinity watched Luke walk away, his leather chaps framing his tight ass as he headed out the barn door. Dang but a cowboy in chaps made her hot. Although Luke definitely made her hotter than any man ever had—chaps, or no chaps.

“Would you like to freshen up, my dear?” Race asked, and she caught the note of concern in his voice. “I would like to do the same if you don’t mind me doing so here.”

Trinity snapped her gaze from Luke’s retreating backside and met Race’s warm brown eyes. He was so kind, gentle, and considerate. Everything that Luke wasn’t.

Although that wasn’t quite true. Luke had been considerate in his own way—he had given her time to understand herself, and what she really wanted. He’d tried to protect her, and teach her to protect herself better. And now, even though she knew it was hurting him, he was giving her space to talk with Race.

Race frowned, his brows furrowing. The concern made him look ali the more regal and distant. “Trinity, are you quite all right?”

She clasped her hands together and squeezed them so tightly her knuckles ached. “This is awkward for me, but I feel like I owe you this conversation,” she said so fast she stumbled over the words. “Two years is a long time for me just to end the relationship over the telephone.”

Race’s eyes held hers as he slid his hand into a pocket of his slacks. Sparkles flashed in the barn’s dim interior when he brought out a diamond ring and held it in his palm. “Tell me I’ve still got a chance to change your mind,” he said softly, the rich timbre of his accent lending the plea a special poignancy.

Trinity bit the inside of her lip as the diamond flashed and glittered. It had to be two carats—and the band was probably platinum. Race would choose such a symbol, a concrete statement of her worth—and his.

Emotions rolled through her like bouncing tumbleweeds. She had never come so close to having every material thing she’d ever wanted. Not to mention the one thing she’d never had in her childhood—an even-tempered, safe, dependable man.

In a handful of days, after a few blistering encounters with a man she barely knew, was she truly ready to throw away the security she had with Race?

Race stood before her, holding his ring, clinging to his hopeful expression even as his eyes hinted that he knew the truth. Trinity saw him completely in the prismatic diamond light—a wonderful, kind, and passionless prison of a man.

Regret flooded her and she lowered her eyes to the barn’s dirt floor.

She knew what she needed, and it wasn’t safety or propriety.

No. Not anymore.

Her future lay in risk, in leather, in the desert heat, and a cowboy’s muscled arms.

At least for now.

For the first time in her adult life, Trinity MacKenna felt a real sense of freedom and anticipation for tomorrow. A tomorrow that wasn’t studiously mapped or planned, or confined in the squeaky- clean manners of the corporate world.

She had to hurt this man all over again, probably even worse than she had on the telephone and in her e-mail, and that reality shook her deeply. With her emotions turned loose, she felt the sting of his pain even before she inflicted it.

No guilt, though. The real wrong would be pretending to love Race when she didn’t. Giving him parts of herself that rightfully belonged to another man.

Trinity raised her eyes and met Race’s. “I’m sorry, Race, but no. There’s no chance. I can’t marry you.” With a rattling sigh, she reached up and closed his fingers over the ring. “You’re an amazing man. Somewhere there’s a woman who’ll rock your world, but it’s not me.”

Race hesitated. For the first time ever, Trinity thought she saw a blaze of pure, raw emotion change the man’s features. For a split second, he seemed younger. Fierce and lion-like.

And just as fast, the look vanished. Race had tucked his feelings back in their bottomless box. The corner of his mouth quirked in a resigned smile. “You did a lovely job of that. Rejecting me, I mean.”

Trinity felt her insides coalesce and firm up. She knew she’d made the right decision, and thank God Race was taking it so well. “Your woman-to-be, I mean she’ll really rock you. Not just shake you up a little.”

Her former lover gave a hint of a smile and slipped the ring into his pocket. His expression told her he was hurt... but at the same time was that relief in his eyes?

But as was his habit, he didn’t speak about it any further. The conversation was quite clearly over.

And yes, this felt more real. More final. More right.

Arm in arm, Trinity and Race walked out of the barn in comfortable silence, making the short trek to his red sports car with its rental sticker on the bumper.

“You’re not returning to London,” he said as though the statement were fact as they came to a stop next to the driver’s side door.

Trinity cut her gaze to his and she started to tell him of course she was. But instead she said, “I haven’t made any final decisions. My life, my career’s been in England, but my sister needs me here right now. DropCaps will let me work anywhere—and the Flying M will do fine for the moment.”

“Ah.” He placed a light kiss on her forehead. “But you’ve found much more than your sister and your past here at this ranch.”

“What? No—” Trinity’s protest was silenced with Race’s finger firmly against her lips.

“It’s in your eyes, my dear.” He glanced toward the corrals. “And I do believe I saw it in his.”

Trinity’s entire body tingled as she followed the direction of Race’s gaze and saw Luke leaning against the corral’s wooden railings. He’d folded his arms across his chest and pulled his Stetson too low for her to see his eyes, but she could make out the hard line of his frown. He was still dressed in his dusty clothes and chaps, and to her he’d never looked better.

She looked back to Race as he removed his finger from her mouth. With a smile he brushed his lips over hers then pulled back and winked. “And I’m sure that little kiss will put a twist in the chap’s knickers. He seems the possessive type, as well he should be, this close to winning a rare prize like you.”

Trinity wrapped her arms around Race’s neck and kissed his cheek. He might be wrong for her, but he was one heck of a guy. “Watch out for the local girls while you’re in Arizona.” She released him and stepped back. “That sexy accent of yours is a killer.”

Race smiled as he opened the door to the sports car and climbed in, then shut the door and buzzed the window open. “Dunno about that, my dear. Might have to sample the wares a bit, don’t you think? I’ve always fancied American experiments.”

She smiled, feeling almost giddy as the engine roared and he backed the car out of the driveway and headed down the road.

Trinity did her best to ignore Luke as she watched Race drive away, but the cowboy might as well have been right beside her rather than a hundred yards off at the corrals.

Instead she focused on the car’s taillights and the growl of its engine growing fainter in the distance.

Race. In a little red American sports car. Threatening to sample the local wares. Too funny. Maybe she should give him Nevaeh’s phone number. After all, turnabout was fair play. And Trinity had definitely been turned about. Upside down and inside out. Her entire life had changed, and in seconds, it would change even more.

Risk... leather... desert heat... a cowboy’s muscled arms.

“I’m ready,” she said out loud, wondering if he could hear her, and not even caring if he believed her—because she was damn well about to convince him.

Her heart hammered, and she shivered in the evening’s growing chill. As if to protect herself, she wrapped her jacket tighter.

Who am I kidding? I’m way past protection. Jumped off the damned cliff the day I met Luke, and so far. I’m still flying.

The sunset seeped across the horizon in hues of orange and purple, and the air smelled crisp and wonderful—of winter around the corner and Christmas on its way.

Without looking she knew that Luke was striding toward her. Beneath her jacket her nipples beaded and ached, and a whole swarm of butterflies invaded her belly. Her skin tingled from her scalp to her toes and she felt alive in a way she never had before.

The moment Luke reached her, Trinity whirled to look up at him, a sense of breathless anticipation soaring through her. His eyes were still shadowed by his Stetson, but the tenseness of his jaw and the firm set of his mouth told her that Race’s little show hadn’t settled well with her cowboy.

“Well?” Luke demanded, still just as gritty and sweaty as before.

Dang but she had to have him.

“I want to have a word with you,” she murmured and walked away before he had a chance to respond. She could feel the heat of his gaze on the sway of her hips, on the curve of her ass, almost as though he was touching her with those strong, callused hands.

When she was in the shadows of the barn’s dusty interior she turned and saw Luke still standing right where she’d left him. She raised her hand and curled her forefinger toward herself, telling him to Come and get me, with just that little motion and a teasing grin.

His long legs ate up the ground so fast it made her heart beat like thunder, the sound filling her ears. When he was close enough, Trinity didn’t think twice. She flung her arms around Luke’s neck, climbed him like a tree, and wrapped her legs around his hips.

A sensual grin curved his mouth as he cupped her ass and held her tightly to him. She felt his leather chaps through the thin material of her sweatpants as he pressed his erection against her.

“I’m ready, damn you.” Hunger and need surged through Trinity and she brought her mouth to his in a hard rush, a kiss that demanded he give her everything he’d promised and more. “I’m ready, and you can believe me or not,” she murmured as she bit Luke’s lower lip as he’d done to her, letting him feel the depth of her desire for him, her need. “I want you, Luke. I’m free and I’m ready, and I need you.”

“You’re not free.” Luke kissed her back, fierce and uncivilized. “You’re mine.”

His?

God, he hadn’t been kidding, about taking her, and not letting her go.

It did scare her a little, but she didn’t care. She needed all the wild passion that only Luke could give her.

Holding her tighter yet, Luke groaned and thrust his tongue into her mouth, then pulled away and looked into her eyes. “I’ve got to have you,” he said, his voice rough and filled with need so tangible that she felt the vibrations straight to her core.

Trinity kissed the corner of his mouth, his stubble rough against her lips, causing them to tingle. “I want you, Luke Rider.”

A rumble rose in his chest, a sound of overwhelming need. “We’ll take my truck and head away from here.”

“No.” She moved her mouth closer to his ear and darted her tongue along his lobe, tasting the salt of his skin. “The barn office. Right now.”

Luke didn’t have to be told twice. He was done waiting. Trinity clung to him as he strode toward the office at the end of the barn. She nipped at his earlobe with wild little bites, making purring sounds that about drove him insane with lust.

When he reached the office, Luke yanked the door open with one hand and slammed it closed behind him. He took Trinity straight to the old-fashioned desk, sat her down on one end and eased her arms from around his neck and her legs from his waist. He kept his hips pressed tight between her thighs, though. That much ground he wouldn’t surrender yet. Not until she was good and ready for him.