LITMIR.BIZ

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pet. The border collies were working dogs, of course, and used to help herd cattle on the vast plains. But Mack adored them, and it was mutual.

      Natalie leaned against the doorway of the barn with her arms folded and smiled at the picture he made with the pup.

      As if he sensed her presence, his head rose. She couldn’t see his eyes under the shadow of his wide-brimmed hat, but she knew he was probably glaring at her. He didn’t like letting people see how very human he was.

      “Slumming, Miss Educator?” he drawled, rising gracefully to his feet.

      She only smiled, used to his remarks. “Seeing how the other half lives, Mr. Cattle Rancher,” she shot back. “Vivian says you won’t let the love of her life through the front door.”

      “So what are you, a virgin sacrifice to appease me?” he asked, approaching her with that quick, menacing stride that made her heart jump.

      “You aren’t supposed to know that I’m a virgin,” she pointed out when he stopped just an arm’s length away.

      He let out a nasty word and smiled mockingly, waiting to see what she’d say.

      She ignored the bad language, refusing to rise to the bait. She grinned at him instead.

      That disconcerted him, apparently. He pushed his hat over his jet black hair and stared at her. He had Lakota blood two generations back. He could speak that language as fluently as French and German. He took classes from far-flung colleges on the internet. He was a great student; everything fascinated him.

      His bold gaze roamed down her slender body in the neat, fairly loose jeans and soft yellow V-neck sweater she wore. She had short dark hair, very wavy, and emerald green eyes. She wasn’t pretty, but her eyes and her soft bow mouth were. Her figure drew far more attention than she was comfortable with, especially from Mack.

      “Viv’s would-be boyfriend got the Henry girl pregnant last year,” he said abruptly.

      Her gasp made his eye narrow.

      “You didn’t have a clue, did you?” he mused. “You and Viv are just alike.”

      “I beg your pardon?”

      “Pitiful taste in men,” he added.

      She gave him a look of mock indignation. “And I was just going to say how very sexy you were!”

      “Pull the other one,” he said with amazing coldness.

      Her eyebrows arched. “My, we’re touchy today!”

      He glared at her. “What do you want? If it’s an invitation to supper for Viv’s heartthrob, he can’t come unless you do.”

      That surprised her. He usually couldn’t wait to shoo her off the place. “Three’s a crowd?” she murmured dryly.

      “Four. I live here,” he pointed out. He frowned. “More than four,” he continued. “Vivian, Bob and Charles and me. You and the would-be Romeo make six.”

      “That’s splitting hairs,” she pointed out. “You’re suggesting that I come over to make the numbers even, of course,” she chided.

      His face didn’t betray any emotion at all. “Wear a dress.”

      That really surprised her. “Listen, you aren’t planning any pagan sacrificial rites at a volcano?” she asked, rubbing in the virgin sacrifice notion.

      “Something low-cut,” he persisted, his gaze narrow and faintly sensual on her pert breasts under the sweater.

      “Stop staring at my breasts!” she burst out indignantly, crossing her arms over them.

      “Wear a bra,” he returned imperturbably.

      Her face flamed. “I am wearing a bra!”

      His black eye twinkled. “Wear a thicker bra.”

      She glared at him. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you!”

      He lifted an eyebrow and his eye slid down her body appraisingly. “Lust,” he said matter-of-factly. “I haven’t had sex for so long, I’m not even sure I remember how.”

      She couldn’t handle a remark like that. They shared such intimate memories for two old sparring partners. She couldn’t fence with him verbally when he let his voice drop like that, an octave lower than normal. It was so sensuous that it made her knees weak. So was the memory of that one unforgettable night they’d shared. Warning signals shot to her brain.

      He sighed theatrically when her cheeks turned pink. “So much for all that sophistication you pretend to have,” he mused.

      She cleared her throat. “I wish you wouldn’t say things like that to me,” she said worriedly.

      “Maybe I shouldn’t,” he conceded. His hand went out and pushed a strand of hair behind her small ear. She jerked at his touch, and he moved a step closer. “I’d never hurt you, Natalie,” he said quietly.

      She managed a nervous smile. “I’d like that in writing,” she said, trying to move away without making it look as if she was intimidated, even though she was.

      The barn door was at her back, though, and there was no way to escape. He knew that. She could see it on his face as he slid one long arm beside her head and rested his hand by her ear.

      Her heart jumped into her throat. She looked at him with all her darkest fears reflecting in her emerald eyes.

      He searched them without speaking for a long moment. “Carl would never have made you happy,” he said suddenly. “His people had money. They wouldn’t have let him marry an orphan with no assets.”

      Her eyes darkened with pain. “You don’t know that.”

      “I do know that,” he returned sharply. “They said as much at the funeral, when someone mentioned how devastated you were. You couldn’t even go to the funeral.”

      She remembered that. She remembered, too, that Mack had come looking for her in her aunt’s home the night Carl had died. Her aunt was out of town shopping over the weekend, and she’d been all alone. Mack found her in a very sexy pink satin gown and robe, crying her eyes out. He’d picked her up, carried her to the old easy chair by the bed, and he’d held her in his lap until she couldn’t cry anymore. After a close call that still made her knees weak, even in memory, he’d stayed with her that whole long, anguished night, sitting in the chair beside the bed, watching her sleep. It was a mark of the respect he commanded in the community that even Natalie’s aunt hadn’t said a word about his presence there when she found out about it on her return. Natalie inspired defense in the strangest quarters. Her tenderness made even the toughest people oddly vulnerable around her.

      “You held me,” she recalled softly.

      “Yes.” His face seemed to tauten as he looked at her. “I held you.”

      She felt him so close that it was like being lifted and carried away. Little twinges of pleasure shot through her when she met his searching gaze. The sensation was so intense as they looked at each other, she could almost feel his bare chest against hers. Five years had passed since that night, but it seemed like yesterday. It was like stepping into space.

      “And when I lost my sight,” he continued, “you held me.”

      She bit her lower lip hard to stop it from trembling. “I wasn’t the only one who tried to nurse you,” she recalled.

      “Vivian cried when I snapped at her, and the boys hid under their beds. You didn’t. You snapped right back. You made me want to go on living.”

      She lowered her eyes to his chest. He had the build of a rodeo cowboy, broad-shouldered and lean-hipped. His checked shirt was open at the neck, and she saw the thick, curling hair that covered him from his chest to his belt. He wasn’t a hairy man, but he was devastating without a shirt. She’d seen him like that more often than she was comfortable remembering.

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