The Durango Affair (12 page)

Although he had decided that Tricia’s and Savannah’s characters weren’t anything alike, he still felt as though he was reliving the past. It had been so quick,
too easy to fall in love with Tricia, and he had done so, proudly wearing his heart on his sleeve. But once she had ripped that sleeve, he had decided it could never be repaired. Under no circumstances would he allow himself to be that vulnerable again.

Durango knew the difference between lust and love and right now what he felt for Savannah was nothing more than lust. She had caught his eye from the first; they had made love, made a baby, and now they were married. But still the very thing that had drawn them together from the start was good old-fashioned lust. And they were taking it to a whole other level. Just the thought of what they had shared over the past few days made his breath catch, and last night, through the wee hours of the morning, had been the epitome of perfection.

He would be the first to admit that during one of those moments, a part of him had analyzed, fantasized, even had gone so far as to consider the idea of more than a year with her. But then that rip in his sleeve, that deep gash in his heart, had reminded him that there were some things in life that a man never got over. The pain he had suffered that one time had completely closed his mind to the prospect of ever loving again.

That’s the way it was and that’s the way it would stay.

Later that night Durango and Savannah sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the fireplace. They had eaten and showered and were ready to relax.

“Dinner tasted wonderful tonight, Savannah.”

She smiled over at him. “Thanks. That’s my grandmother’s favorite dish,” she said of the steak and baked potatoes she had prepared.

“So,” Durango said, stretching out to lie on his side. “How do you suggest we spend the rest of the evening?”

She grinned at him and said teasingly, “I could take more pictures.”

“I don’t think so. Let’s think of doing something else.”

“Something like what?”

“Something like finding out just how hot things can get between us.”

His words made her pulse quicken and she watched his mouth tilt into a very seductive smile. “Um, what do you have in mind?” she asked, meeting his gaze and holding it tight.

“Come here and let me show you,” he said, reaching out and gently snagging her wrist to bring her on the floor beside him. She watched his every movement as he removed her robe. “Aren’t you curious about the next step?” he asked.

She glanced down at his lap and saw the size of his arousal through his robe and immediately, her feminine muscles clenched in appreciation and anticipation. “No, I have an idea how this is going to get played out,” she said, her breath almost catching in her throat.

“Good.”

“But I do have one request,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“What?”

“Let me take off your robe.”

He smiled. “Go for it.”

When she had removed his robe she took her tongue and licked a section of his shoulder before she drew back and looked at him. “You have a beautiful body.”

He chuckled. “You think so?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks, and I think you have a beautiful body, as well, and it’s a body that I want to get all into.”

“Well, in that case…”

He moved closer to her, growled low in his throat as he nudged her on her back. Like a leopard on the prowl, he cornered his prey and when he had her just where he wanted her he whispered softly, “Now it’s my turn to lick.”

And he did just that, starting with the insides of her thighs before moving to savor another part of her.

“Durango!”

Only when he was nearly intoxicated with the taste of her did he ease his body over hers to take her hard and fast, putting everything he had into each mind-wrenching thrust and watching her features glow with the pleasure he was giving her. And when he felt the quivering deep in her womb where his child nestled, he threw his head back and rocked furiously against her the same way she was rocking against him.

It pleased him immensely to know she was on fire, but only
for
him and
with
him. And when she arched against him and groaned from deep within her throat, he felt those same sensations that engulfed her rip through him as one hell of an orgasm slammed into him, lifting him to a place he’d never been before, pushing him high above the clouds, the earth, the entire universe.

And when he drove into her again and then again, he was met with an immense feeling of satisfaction. Knowing she was reaching the same level of mind-shattering pleasure as he was put him in total awe of everything they were sharing. He couldn’t get enough of her. She
was simply amazing. A city girl by day and a mountain wildcat by night.

And as she continued to pull everything out of him, take what he’d never given another female, he could only think of the remaining months they would be together and knew when she left, his life would never be the same.

“Get some rest, baby. I’m going to my office for a while,” Durango whispered in Savannah’s ear. After making love in front of the fireplace, he had picked her up in his arms to carry her into the bedroom and tucked her into bed. Quietly closing the door behind him, he went downstairs to his office.

He immediately walked over to the window. The moon’s light cast a beautiful glow on the mountains, giving him a feeling of warmth, and for a while he stood there thinking that things couldn’t get any better than this. He loved where he lived, he enjoyed his job and for a short while he wasn’t living alone.

Sharing dinner with Savannah had been wonderful and afterward they had showered together as if it was the most natural thing to do. But nothing could top the lovemaking that had come later. It seemed that each and every time they came together was better than the last, and that thought was beginning to bother him.

Deciding he didn’t want to dwell on it any longer, he was about to take a seat behind his huge desk when the phone rang. So it wouldn’t disturb Savannah, he quickly picked it up, not bothering to check caller ID as he normally did. “Hello.”

“What the hell is going on, Durango?”

He leaned back in his chair, recognizing his oldest brother’s voice immediately. “Jared. And how are things with you?”

“Cut the crap and answer my question.”

Durango rolled his eyes. Jared, the attorney, was his no-nonsense brother. Marriage had softened him some, but he was still a hard case. “What makes you think something is going on?”

“You got married.”

Durango smiled. Yes, that would say it all. “It was time, don’t you think? You seemed happy, so I decided to try it.”

“And you want me to believe that?”

“That would be nice.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“Figures.”

“And Ian isn’t talking.”

Durango smiled. “That’s good.”

“Mom’s overjoyed, of course,” Jared Westmoreland went on to say. “I think she e-mailed every single family member those pictures she got over the Internet.”

“Okay, Ian’s not talking, but Mom’s happy, so what’s your problem, Jared?”

“I want to know why you did it.”

“The reason I told you earlier wasn’t good enough?”

“No.”

He wasn’t surprised. Of his five brothers, it was Jared who knew him the best. He could never pull anything over the brother who was nearly three years older and to Durango’s way of thinking, plenty wiser. Whereas other relatives would cautiously buy the story that he and Savannah had fabricated, he immediately thought
of three members of the Westmoreland family who would not. Jared and his cousins Dare and Stone.

The attorney in Jared would put up an argument no matter what Durango said, and because Dare—the current sheriff of College Park, Georgia—was a former FBI agent, he had a tendency to be suspicious of just about everything.

And Durango dreaded the call he knew he would eventually get from his cousin Stone. He and Stone were only months apart in age and had always been close. Durango figured the only reason Stone hadn’t called yet to give him hell was because he and his wife, Madison, were somewhere in Europe on a book promotion tour.

“Are you going to tell me what I want to know, or will I have to take drastic measures and start an investigation?” Jared asked, breaking into Durango’s thoughts.

“Um, what drastic measures would those be?”

“How does catching the next plane to Montana to check out things for myself sound?”

Not too good.
Durango sighed, knowing Jared was dead serious and because of that he decided to come clean. “Savannah is pregnant.”

He heard his brother’s deep sigh. Then for a few moments Jared was silent, evidently taking it all in.

“How far along?” Jared finally asked.

“Going into her third month.”

Silence again. Then Jared said, “It happened Christmas night.”

Durango lifted an eyebrow. “How did you know?”

“For Pete’s sake, Durango, do you think you weren’t missed at the card game that night? Hell, we’d all been counting on winning all your money. And besides that,
I couldn’t help but notice you were attracted to the woman and we all saw you leave the reception to walk her to her room.”

Durango smiled, remembering. “You all saw too much that night.”

“Whatever.” Then moments later Jared asked, “The two of you made a decision to get married for the baby’s sake?”

“Yeah, that just about sums it up. But our marriage is only temporary.”

“Temporary?”

“Yes, until the baby is around six months old. I didn’t want my child born illegitimate and I wanted to be around during Savannah’s pregnancy to bond with it and spend some time with them for a while afterward.”

“And what happens after that?”

“Then we part ways. But Savannah and I have agreed to always be there for the baby. She knows I want to be a part of its life and Savannah wants that, too. It won’t be easy with us living so far apart, but we’ll manage.”

There was another long pause and then Jared asked, “And you’re okay with the temporary setup?”

Durango frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I saw those pictures Mom is so proudly brandishing about town. At your wedding, you and Savannah looked good together, actually happy. If I didn’t know better, then I—”

“But you do know better, which is why you made this call. Don’t let those pictures fool you, Jared. The only thing going on between the two of us is the baby. Six months after it’s born Savannah will go her way and I’ll go mine.”

“And until then the two of you will live together happily as man and wife?”

“More or less.” And at the moment he was thinking more because he was discovering that Savannah was such a giving person, he couldn’t imagine her giving less.

“Be careful, Durango.”

Durango’s eyebrow lifted higher. “Be careful of what?”

“Discovering the fact that your heart isn’t really made of stone and that it might be putty in the right woman’s hands.”

Durango frowned. “Trust me, it won’t happen to me.”

Jared laughed. “I thought the same thing. Although I’m not complaining now, mind you. I discovered the hard way that the worst types of affairs are the pretended kind.”

“What are you talking about?”

There was another pause and Durango thought he heard the sound of his brother sipping something. Probably a glass of the finest wine. He could imagine Jared doing so in that million-dollar home he owned. Jared was a hotshot Atlanta attorney who over the years had made a name for himself by handling high-profile cases involving celebrity clients. Up until a year ago, Jared had been determined to stay a bachelor like Durango, and then Dana Rollins happened, surprising the hell out of everyone in the Westmoreland family who’d known Jared’s stand on marriage. He’d always claimed it wasn’t for him. He was a divorce attorney who ended marriages, not put them together. But now he was a happily married man who didn’t care if the world knew how much he loved his wife.

“My engagement to Dana,” Jared finally said, pulling
Durango’s thoughts to the present then tumbling them back to the past when he remembered Jared’s surprised announcement of his engagement at their father’s birthday party last Easter.

“What about your engagement?”

“There never was one, at least not a real one.”

Durango frowned, wondering what the hell his brother was saying. He was too tired, not in the right frame of mind to try to figure out anything tonight. “What do you mean there never was one? I was there when you announced it.”

“I never announced anything. Mom did.”

Jared’s words made him think. Jared was right. Their mother had been the one who’d made a big fuss about Jared’s engagement. Jared hadn’t really said much. But then he hadn’t spoken up to deny it, either.

“Are you saying you went along with an engagement because Mom put you on the spot?”

“There was more to it than that, Durango. If you recall, soon after that we found out about that lump in Mom’s breast. She’d made it up in her mind I was getting married and the last thing I wanted to do was to burst her bubble, considering everything.”

Durango nodded. “So you pretended an engagement? And you actually got Dana to go along with doing something like that?”

“Yes, but in the midst of it all we fell in love.”

Durango shook his head, thinking how his brother had effectively pulled the wool over their eyes. “Who else knew the truth?”

“Dare. No one else needed to know. The only reason I’m even telling you is that I want you to see how things can happen.”

“Things like what?”

“How you can enter into a situation thinking one way and in the end, your thinking can change. The more I got to know Dana and spent time with her, the more I wanted more out of our relationship. I saw Savannah that night and I sensed the attraction between the two of you. She’s a woman a man can easily fall in love with. I could see that happening to you.”

Durango sat up straight in his chair. “Well, I can’t,” he snapped. “I’m happy things turned out that way for you and Dana, but it won’t for me and Savannah.”