Outsider (12 page)

Colby had been in covert ops for a long time, and he knew Cy from the old days. He knew when he was being conned.

“Just accept what I'm telling you,” Cy said firmly. “Everything will become clear down the road.”

Colby glowered at him. “I feel like a damned mushroom.”

“It's nice in the dark,” Cy mused. “I've been there several times myself.”

Colby shook his head.

They rode down the same wooded path that Colby and Cy had ridden weeks earlier. The foliage was turning to reds and golds and oranges.

“I love autumn,” Colby murmured aloud.

“It's my favorite season, too,” Sarina confessed.

“Rein him in a little, baby,” Colby called to Bernadette. “You don't want him to run away with you.”

“Yes, I do,” she teased, grinning. “If he tries to run away, I'll bend him.”

Colby pulled in his mount and smiled delightedly at the child. “You know how to do that?”

“Sure. I pull him around with one hand and one leg, and bend him when he tries to take off unexpectedly and run away with me. I learned it from one of Cy's men, who used to train horses.”

He grinned back. “And what do you do if he rears?”

“Hold on to his mane with my hands and his back with my knees until he comes down again. Gravity is our friend,” she teased, laughing with her dark eyes as well as her mouth.

“Daredevil,” he accused.

Sarina, watching them, was so aware of the similarities between the man and the child that she had to fight tears. It was acutely painful to see what Bernadette had missed in her young life. Rodrigo was kind to them, and Bernadette loved him. But he wasn't her father. She wondered if Colby realized what a changed man he was when he was around Bernadette. He laughed, he teased, he played. The man she remembered did those things rarely. In the past few weeks, since he'd come back into her life, he'd been a cold, unfeeling stranger. But here, with the child, he was very different.

Colby saw her watching him and frowned. “Something wrong?” he asked.

She forced a smile. “Nothing.” She turned her attention back to the trail.

On the way back to the ranch, Colby and Cy exchanged mischievous glances, dug in their heels, bent over their mounts, and raced to the gate. Before Cy had time to detour around it, Colby had jumped the fence and was reining in at the barn.

“Slowpoke,” he told Cy.

The other man chuckled as he swung down, breathing hard. “And you called Bernadette a daredevil!” he accused.

“I have a friend who'd have jumped the gate, instead of the fence,” he replied, indicating the lack of space between the gate and the logo of the ranch on a board above it.

“You'd have done it yourself a few years ago,” Cy chuckled.

Colby shrugged. “I'm trying to settle down,” he drawled. He gave Sarina a pointed glance as he said it, and noted with delight the faint color in her cheeks.

 

T
HEY HAD AN EARLY LUNCH
with Lisa and Cy and then climbed into the SUV for the drive back to Houston.

The earlier intimacy seemed to have drifted away. Sarina was pleasant, but reserved. He felt the coolness between them and wondered what had caused it.

Sarina was unusually quiet on the ride home. He dropped them off at their apartment. Bernadette grinned at him and thanked him for the trip, rushing off inside to watch a television program she liked.

Sarina stood on the doorstep with him, hesitant and uneasy. He and Bernadette were finding more and more in common, and there was a visible affection between them. What if he asked the right question and the child blurted out an answer? How was Colby going to react? There was one other complication, too. He had no idea what sort of work she did, and she knew already that he wasn't going to approve of it. She was trying not to look back, but he'd hurt her badly in the old days. The new passion between them was dangerous. She didn't want to risk her heart on him again. She'd backed off in self-defense.

She managed a smile as she looked up. “It was a nice day. Thanks.”

He moved close, tilting her face up to his. “I've missed so much,” he said huskily, as he searched her eyes in the porch light. “A family, children.” His face clenched. “Two marriages, and I've still lived alone most of my life.”

“Lobo wolves do,” she said, trying to make a joke of it.

His arms slid around her and pulled her close. “No. Wolves mate and protect their cubs, and their mates.” He bent and kissed her gently. Her mouth was cool and unresponsive. “What's wrong?” he asked quietly.

She swallowed. “Cold feet,” she confessed.

He looked at her long and hard. After a minute he stepped back. “Yes,” he said. “I know what you mean.” He was thinking about all the things she didn't know about him and the life he'd led. He wasn't being honest with her. Perhaps she sensed it. “Well, good night.”

She managed a smile. “Good night, Colby.”

He started off the porch, hesitated, and looked back to find her watching him with a soul-deep pain in her dark eyes.

He went back to her, framing her face in his hands. “Tell me what's wrong,” he said roughly.

She couldn't hold back the tears. They ran silently down her cheeks, into her mouth. He bent and kissed them away.

He folded her close and held her, rocking her gently. His cheek drew against the top of her head. She smelled of roses. They stood that way for a long time. Finally he eased her away from him and looked down at her with quiet, soft eyes.

He didn't say good-night again. He walked away.

She went inside reluctantly, and locked the door.

 

R
ITTER
O
IL
Corporation celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a staff party the next week on Friday night. A live band provided music. Eugene Ritter had rented a banquet room in a local steak house, and a buffet was arranged on a long table against the wall. Children were invited to attend along with their parents. There were lots of kids. Sarina was amused at them trying to mimic the adults on the dance floor.

She nursed a glass of champagne. She had no head for alcohol, so she limited herself to one drink on a full stomach.

Colby joined her at the drinks table, asking for a tall glass of ginger ale. He grinned at Sarina. “I've been on the wagon for almost three years,” he confessed. “I don't want to fall off again.”

She nodded, searching his dark eyes. He was still handsome. Her heart ached every time she saw him.

He looked around for Bernadette and found her excitedly talking to Nikki Hunter and a little boy.

“She mixes easily, doesn't she?” he asked Sarina.

“Not really. She's comfortable with people she knows, but she's shy in groups she doesn't know.”

“I used to be like that,” he mused. “I still am, to a degree.” He kept staring around the room with narrow, cold eyes.

She looked up at him curiously. “What are you looking for?”

“Ramirez,” he said curtly.

She hid a smile. “He said he was going to be late.”

“He must have needed a quick nap,” Colby muttered. “All that tiring liaison work must be hard on a man his age.”

She turned a giggle into a cough and covered her mouth.

He glared at her. “He's too old for you.”

“He isn't,” she replied. “He's just thirty-five.”

His dark brows met. “He looks older.”

She turned her eyes to her drink. “He's had a difficult life,” she said, averting her gaze.

He was going to question that when Bernadette walked up to him trailing Nikki and the little boy she'd been talking to, as well as three other children of comparable ages.

“This is him,” Bernadette told them, pointing at Colby. “He carried us both through the flood to his truck and then he drove us to school! He's very strong!”

The other children followed her rapt gaze and Colby's high cheekbones went a ruddy color.

“He can ride a horse, too, and even jump fences with it!” Bernadette added, her dark eyes wide and soft as they looked up at him. She smiled shyly.

He smiled back.

“Let's go watch the drummer,” the little boy enthused. “He's playing a solo!”

They followed him. Bernadette looked back over her shoulder, grinning at him, as she joined the children.

“You're a hero,” Sarina said amusedly. “You rescued us from the great flood.”

He chuckled. “Well!” Not for worlds would he have admitted how it touched him to be Bernadette's hero. He sipped ginger ale, watching the couples on the dance floor. He glanced down at Sarina. “Do you still dance?”

Her heart jumped. “Sort of.”

“Sort of?” He took his glass and hers and put them on an empty corner of the drinks table.

“I haven't danced in a long time.”

“Neither have I. Maybe we won't crash and burn.” He pulled her gently into his arms and folded her close while they shifted around the floor to the lazy, seductive Latin rhythm of the band.

Sarina was closer to heaven than she'd been in seven years. The feel of his tall, lean body, the warmth of his arms, went to her head a little. She relaxed into his powerful body with a trembling little sigh.

Colby felt it and his body went rigid with desire. It had never happened with any woman that quickly, except with Maureen at the very beginning of their turbulent relationship. It shocked him that he was still so attuned to Sarina, despite their years apart.

She moved back a little, hiding her eyes from him.

“Still shy of me?” he murmured deeply, chuckling. “All right, chicken, I'll try to behave myself.”

He let her shift her hips back from the press of his, but he rested his cheek on her soft hair.

“The music is nice,” she murmured as the music worked on her mood.

“So it is. It's been years since I've been in this sort of situation,” he confessed. “I don't go to parties.”

“Neither do I, as a rule,” she replied. She hesitated. She was remembering Bernadette's birthday the following day. She had to remind Rodrigo to bring the cake with him, because the bakery was on his way to her apartment. She wondered if it would be reckless and stupid to invite Colby. So far, he had no idea of Bernadette's exact age.

“You're very quiet,” he remarked. His fingers curled into hers and his lips moved against the top of her head. “I've been busy this week with internal security upgrades, but we could go down to Cy's tomorrow and go riding, if you like?”

“I can't,” she said softly.

He stopped dancing and looked down at her with intent dark eyes. “Why not? Cold feet?”

She shook her head. “No, it's not that.” She grimaced. “Bernadette's having a party,” she said.

“What sort of party?” he asked suspiciously.

She hesitated.

“Well?” he persisted.

“It's her birthday.”

He was silent for several seconds. “I see.”

“I would have asked you to come, but you and Rodrigo…well…”

“You don't have to spell it out,” he said, but he relaxed a little. She wasn't trying to push him out of her life at all. He looked down into her dark eyes, and he smiled. The arm with the prosthesis drew her gently closer. “Suppose I come late?”

She smiled back, her eyes twinkling. “That would be nice. Bernadette would enjoy having you there.”

He nodded. His gaze fell to her soft mouth and he eyed it with pure speculation.

“Colby,” she protested huskily.

“What?” he whispered, and his head actually started to bend.

A big hand came down on his shoulder. “My turn, I think,” came a Latin accented voice from behind.

Colby stopped and turned, his eyes wide. “How the hell do you do it?” he asked icily. “You're like the creeping fog, you appear out of nowhere.”

Rodrigo smiled icily. “Keep that in mind, won't you?”

He danced Sarina away deliberately, without looking back at Colby, who stood on the sidelines smoldering quietly.

“That was wicked,” Sarina told Rodrigo.

He chuckled. “It keeps him on his toes, doesn't it? What time do you want me there tomorrow?”

“About eleven, and are you going to bring the cake?”

“Certainly.” His dark eyes narrowed on hers. “You're letting the rent-a-cop get too close,” he cautioned. “He's going to start figuring things out any-day now. It's a risk we can't take.”

She grimaced. “I know that. It's just…”

“Don't be a fool, Sarina,” he cautioned, his eyes narrowing with concern. “He's already thrown you over once for another woman.”