Unlikely Lover (2 page)

He stared across the pastures at the oil rigs as he eased his elegant white Chrysler onto the highway near Ravine, Texas. His rigs. He’d come a long damned way from the old days spent working on those rigs. His father had dreamed of finding that one big well, but it was Ward who’d done it. He’d borrowed as much as he could and put everything on one big gamble with a friend. And his well had come in. He and the friend had equal shares in it, and they’d long since split up and gone in different directions. When it came to business, Ward Jessup could be ruthless and calculating. He had a shrewd mind and a hard heart, and some of his enemies had been heard to say that he’d foreclose on a starving widow if she owed him money.

That wasn’t quite true, but it was close. He’d grown up poor, dirt poor, as his grandmother had good reason to remember. The family had been looked down on for a long time because of Ward’s mother. She’d tired of her boring life on the ranch with her two children and had run off with a neighbor’s husband, leaving the children for her stunned husband and mother-in-law to raise. Later she’d divorced Ward’s father and remarried, but the children had never heard from her again. In a small community like Ravine the scandal had been hard to live down. Worse, just a little later, Ward’s father had gone out into the south forty one autumn day with a rifle in his hand and hadn’t come home again.

He hadn’t left a note or even seemed depressed. They’d found him slumped beside his pickup truck, clutching a piece of ribbon that had belonged to his wife. Ward had never forgotten his father’s death, had never forgiven his mother for causing it.

Later, when he’d fallen into Caroline’s sweet trap, Ward Jessup had learned the final lesson. These days he had a reputation for breaking hearts, and it wasn’t far from the mark. He had come to hate women. Every time he felt tempted to let his emotions show, he remembered his mother and Caroline. And day by day he became even more embittered. He liked to remember Caroline’s face when he’d told her he didn’t want her anymore, that he could go on happily all by himself. She’d curled against him with her big black eyes so loving in that face like rice paper and her blond hair cascading like yellow silk down her back. But he’d seen past the beauty to the ugliness, and he never wanted to get that close to a woman again. He’d seen graphically how big a fool the most sensible man could become when a shrewd woman got hold of him. Nope, he told himself. Never again. He’d learned from his mistake. He wouldn’t be that stupid a second time.

He pulled into the long driveway of Three Forks and smiled at the live oaks that lined it, thinking of all the history there was in this big, lusty spread of land. He might live and die without an heir, but he’d sure enjoy himself until that time came.

He wondered if Tyson Wade was regretting his decision to lease the pastureland so that Ward could look for the oil that he sensed was there. He and Ty had been enemies for so many years—almost since boyhood—although the reason for all the animosity had long been forgotten in the heat of the continuing battle over property lines, oil rigs and just about everything else.

Ty Wade had changed since his marriage. He’d mellowed, becoming a far cry from the renegade who’d just as soon have started a brawl as talk business. Amazing that a beautiful woman like Erin had agreed to marry the man in the first place. Ty was no pretty boy. In fact, to Ward Jessup, the man looked downright homely. But maybe he had hidden qualities.

Ward grinned at that thought. He wouldn’t begrudge his old enemy a little happiness, not since he’d picked up those oil leases that he’d wanted so desperately. It was like a new beginning: making a peace treaty with Tyson Wade and getting his crotchety grandmother out of his hair and off the ranch without bloodshed. He chuckled aloud as he drove back to the house, and it wasn’t until he heard the sound that he realized how rarely he laughed these days.

Chapter Two

M
arianne Raymond didn’t know what to expect when she landed at the San Antonio airport. She knew that Ravine was quite a distance away, and her Aunt Lillian had said that someone would meet her. But what if no one did? Her blue eyes curiously searched the interior of the airport. Aunt Lillian’s plea for her to visit had been so unusual, so…odd. Poor old Mr. Jessup, she thought, shaking her head. Poor brave man. Dying of that incurable disease, and Aunt Lillian so determined to make his last days happy. Mari had been delighted to come, to help out. Her vacation was overdue, and the manager of the big garage where she kept the books and wrote the occasional letter had promised that they could do without her for a week or so. Mr. Jessup wanted young people around, he’d told Lillian. Some cheerful company and someone to help him write his memoirs. That would be right up Mari’s alley. She’d actually done some feature articles for a local newspaper, and she had literary ambitions, too.

Someday Mari was going to be a novelist. She’d promised herself that. She wrote a portion of her book every night. The story involved a poor city girl who was assaulted by a vicious gang leader and had nightmares about her horrible assailant. She’d told Aunt Lillian the plot over the phone just recently, and the older woman had been delighted with it. Mari wondered about her aunt’s sudden enthusiasm because Lillian had never been particularly interested in anything except getting her married off to any likely candidate who came along. After her father’s death, especially. The only reason she’d agreed to come down to Ravine was because of poor old Mr. Jessup. At least she could be sure that Aunt Lillian wasn’t trying to marry her off to him!

Mari pushed back her hair. It was short now, a twenties-style pageboy with bangs, and it emphasized the rosy oval of her face. She was wearing a simple dropped-waist dress in blue-and-white stripes and carrying only a roly-poly piece of luggage, which contained barely enough clothes to get her through one week.

A tall man attracted her interest, and despite the shyness she felt with most men, she studied him blatantly. He was as big as the side of a barn, tall with rippling muscles and bristling with backcountry masculinity. Wearing a gray suit, an open-necked white shirt and a pearly gray Stetson and boots, he looked big and mean and sexy. The angle of that hat over his black hair was as arrogant as the look on his deeply tanned face, as intimidating as that confident stride that made people get out of his way. He would have made the perfect hero for Mari’s book. The strong, tender man who would lead her damaged heroine back to happiness again…

He didn’t look at anyone except Mari, and after a few seconds she realized that he was coming toward her. She clutched the little carryall tightly as he stopped just in front of her, and in spite of her height she had to look up to see his eyes. They were green and cold. Ice-cold.

“Marianne Raymond,” he said as if she’d damned well better be. He set her temper smoldering with that confident drawl.

She lifted her chin. “That’s right,” she replied just as quietly. “Are you from Three Forks Ranch?”

“I
am
Three Forks Ranch,” he informed her, reaching for the carryall. “Let’s go.”

“Not one step,” she said, refusing to release it and glaring at him. “Not one single step until you tell me who you are and where we’re going.”

His eyebrows lifted. They were straight and thick like the lashes over his green eyes. “I’m Ward Jessup,” he said. “I’m taking you to your Aunt Lillian.” He controlled his temper with a visible effort as he registered her shocked expression and reached for his wallet, flashing it open to reveal his driver’s license. “Satisfied?” he drawled and then felt ashamed of himself when he knew why she had reason to be so cautious and nervous of him.

“Yes, thank you,” she said.
That
was Ward Jessup?
That
was a dying man? Dazed, she let him take the carryall and followed him out of the airport.

He had a car—a big Chrysler with burgundy leather seats and controls that seemed to do everything, right up to speaking firmly to the passengers about fastening their seat belts.

“I’ve never seen such an animal,” she commented absently as she fastened her seat belt, trying to be a little less hostile. He’d asked for it, but she had to remember the terrible condition that the poor man was in. She felt guilty about her bad manners.

“It’s a honey,” he remarked, starting the engine. “Have you eaten?”

“Yes, on the plane, thank you,” she replied. She folded her hands in her lap and was quiet until they reached the straight open road. The meadows were alive with colorful wildflowers of orange and red and blue, and prickly pear cacti. Mari also noticed long stretches of land where there were no houses and few trees, but endless fences and cattle everywhere.

“I thought there was oil everywhere in Texas,” she murmured, staring out at the landscape and the sparse houses.

“What do you think those big metal grasshoppers are?” he asked, glancing at her as he sped down the road.

She frowned. “Oil wells? But where are the big metal things that look like the Eiffel Tower?”

He laughed softly to himself. “My God. Eastern tenderfoot,” he chided. “You put up a derrick when you’re hunting oil, honey, you don’t keep it on stripper wells. Those damned things cost money.”

She smiled at him. “I’ll bet you weren’t born knowing that, either, Mr. Jessup,” she said.

“I wasn’t.” He leaned back and settled his huge frame comfortably.

He sure does look healthy for a dying man,
Mari thought absently.

“I worked on rigs for years before I ever owned one.”

“That’s very dangerous work, isn’t it?” she asked conversationally.

“So they say.”

She studied his very Roman profile, wondering if anyone had ever painted him. Then she realized that she was staring and turned her attention to the landscape. It was spring and the trees looked misshapen and gloriously soft feathered with leaves.

“What kind of trees are those, anyway?” she asked.

“Mesquite,” he said. “It’s all over the place at the ranch, but don’t ever go grabbing at its fronds. It’s got long thorns everywhere.”

“Oh, we don’t have mesquite in Georgia,” she commented, clasping her purse.

“No, just peach trees and magnolia blossoms and dainty little cattle farms.”

She glared at him. “In Atlanta we don’t have dainty little cattle farms, but we do have a very sophisticated tourism business and quite a lot of foreign investors.”

“Don’t tangle with me, honey,” he advised with a sharp glance. “I’ve had a hard morning, and I’m just not in the mood for verbal fencing.”

“I gave up obeying adults when I became one,” she replied.

His eyes swept over her dismissively. “You haven’t. Not yet.”

“I’ll be twenty-two this month,” she told him shortly.

“I was thirty-five last month,” he replied without looking her way. “And, to me, you’d still be a kid if you were four years older.”

“You poor, old, decrepit thing,” she murmured under her breath. It was getting harder and harder to feel sorry for him.

“What an interesting houseguest you’re going to make, Miss Raymond,” he observed as he drove down the interstate. “I’ll have to arrange some razor-blade soup to keep your tongue properly sharpened.”

“I don’t think I like you,” she said shortly.

He glared back. “I don’t like women,” he replied and his voice was as cold as his eyes.

She wondered if he knew why she’d come and decided that Aunt Lillian had probably told him everything. She averted her face to the window and gnawed on her lower lip. She was being deliberately antagonistic, and her upbringing bristled at her lack of manners. He’d asked Lillian to bring her out to Texas; he’d even paid for her ticket. She was supposed to cheer him up, to help him write his memoirs, to make his last days happier. And here she was being rude and unkind and treating him like a bad-tempered old tyrant.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a minute.

“What?”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated, unable to look at him. “You let me come here, you bought my ticket, and all I’ve done since I got off the plane is be sarcastic to you. Aunt Lillian told me all about it, you know,” she added enigmatically, ignoring the puzzled expression on his face. “I’ll do everything I can to make you glad you’ve brought me here. I’ll help you out in every way I can. Well,” she amended, “in most ways. I’m not really very comfortable around men,” she added with a shy smile.

He relaxed a little, although he didn’t smile. His hand caressed the steering wheel as he drove. “That’s not hard to understand,” he said after a minute, and she guessed that her aunt had told him about her strict upbringing. “But I’m the last man on earth you’d have to worry about in that particular respect. My women know the score, and they aren’t that prolific these days. I don’t have any interest in girls your age. You’re just a baby.”

Annoying, unnerving, infuriating man,
she thought uncharitably, surprised by his statement. She looked toward him hesitantly, her eyes quiet and steady on his dark face. “Well, I’ve never had any interest in bad-tempered old men with oil wells,” she said with dry humor. “That ought to reassure you as well, Mr. Jessup, sir.”

“Don’t be cheeky,” he murmured with an amused glance. “I’m not that old.”

“I’ll bet your joints creak,” she said under her breath.

He laughed. “Only on cold mornings,” he returned. He pulled into the road that led to Three Forks and slowed down long enough to turn and stare into her soft blue eyes. “Tell you what, kid, you be civil to me and I’ll be civil to you, and we’ll never let people guess what we really think of each other. Okay?”

“Okay,” she returned, eager to humor him. Poor man!

His green eyes narrowed. “Pity, about your age and that experience,” he commented, letting his gaze wander over her face. “You’re uncommon. Like your aunt.”

“My aunt is the reincarnation of General Patton,” she said. She wondered what experience he meant. “She could win wars if they’d give her a uniform.”

“I’ll amen that,” he said.

“Thanks for driving up to get me,” she added. “I appreciate it.”

“I didn’t know how you’d feel about a strange cowboy,” he said gently. “Although we don’t know each other exactly, I knew that Lillian’s surely mentioned me and figured you’d be a bit more comfortable.”