LITMIR.BIZ

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remembered so well the agony her stepfather and Antonia Hayes had suffered over malicious gossip. Dawson must be remembering as well. There was really no way to answer suspicious looks and whispers. He seemed to have had a bad enough time from just the gossip. How would it be for him if everyone knew for certain that he wasn’t capable of having sex?

      “Barrie?” he prompted curtly.

      She sighed. “Only for a week, you said?” she asked, lifting her eyes to surprise a curious stillness in the expression on his lean, handsome face. “And nobody would know about the ‘engagement’ except Mrs. Holton?”

      He studied his boots. “It might have to be in the local papers, to make it sound real.” He didn’t look at her. “I doubt it would reach as far as Tucson. Even if it did, we could always break the engagement. Later.”

      This was all very strange and unexpected. She hadn’t really had time to think it through. She should hate him. She’d tried to, over the years. But it all came down to basics, and love didn’t die or wear out, no matter how viciously a heart was treated. She’d probably go to her grave with Dawson’s name on her lips, despite the lost baby he didn’t even know about, and the secret grief she’d endured.

      “I need my mind examined,” she said absently.

      “You’ll do it?”

      She shrugged. “I’ll do it.”

      He didn’t say anything for a minute. Then the box came out of his pocket. “You’ll have to wear this.”

      He knelt just in front of her, where she sat on the sofa, and took out the engagement ring.

      “But it might not fit…”

      She stopped in midstatement as he slid the emerald gently onto her ring finger. It was a perfect fit, as if it had been measured exactly for it.

      He didn’t say a word. He had her hand in his and, as she watched, he lifted it to his mouth and kissed the ring so tenderly that she stiffened.

      He laughed coldly before he lifted his eyes to hers, and if there had been any expression in them, it was gone now. “We might as well do the thing properly, hadn’t we?” he asked mockingly, and got gracefully to his feet.

      She didn’t reply. She still felt his warm mouth on her fingers, as if it were a brand. She looked down at the ring, thinking how perfect the emerald was. Such a flawless stone was easily worth the price of a diamond of equal size.

      “Is it synthetic?” she asked absently.

      “No. It’s not.”

      She traced around it. “I love emeralds.”

      “Do you?” he asked carefully.

      She lifted her eyes back to his. “I’ll take good care of it. The woman you originally bought it for, didn’t she want it?” she asked.

      His face closed up. “She didn’t want me,” he replied. “And it’s a good thing, considering the circumstances, isn’t it?”

      He sounded angry. Bitter. Barrie couldn’t imagine any sane woman not wanting him. She did, emotionally if not physically. But her responses had been damaged, and he hadn’t been particularly kind to her in the aftermath of their one intimacy.

      Her eyes on the emerald she asked, “Could you, with her?”

      There was a cold pause. “Yes. But she’s no longer part of my life, or ever likely to be again.”

      She recognized the brief flare of anger in his deep voice. “Sorry,” she said lightly. “I won’t ask any more questions.”

      He turned away, his hands back in his pockets again. “I thought I might fly you up to Wyoming today, if you don’t have anything pressing. A date, perhaps.”

      She stared at his back. It was strangely straight, almost rigid. “I had the offer of a date,” she admitted, “but I refused it. That’s who I thought you were. He said he wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer….”

      Just as she said that, an insistent buzz came from the doorbell. It was repeated three times in quick succession.

      Dawson went toward it.

      “Dawson, don’t you dare!” she called after him.

      It didn’t even slow him down. He jerked open the door, to reveal a fairly good-looking young blond man with blue eyes and a pert grin.

      “Hi!” he said pleasantly. “Barrie home?”

      “She’s on her way out of state.”

      The young man, Phil by name, noticed the glare he was getting and the smile began to waver. “Uh, is she a relative of yours?”

      “My fiancée,” Dawson said, and his lips curled up in a threatening way.

      “Fi…what?” Phil’s breath exploded.

      Barrie eased around Dawson. “Hi, Phil!” she said gaily. “Sorry, but it only just happened. See?” She held out her ring finger. Dawson hadn’t budged. He was still standing there, glaring at Phil.

      Phil backed up a step. “Uh, well, congratulations, I’m sure. I’ll, uh, see you around, then?”

      “No,” Dawson replied for her.

      Barrie moved in front of him. “Sure, Phil. Have a nice weekend. I’m sorry, okay?”

      “Okay. Congratulations again,” he added, trying to make the best of an embarrassing situation. He shot one last glance at Dawson and returned down the hall the way he’d come, very quickly.

      Dawson muttered something under his breath.

      Barrie turned and glowered up at him. “That was unkind,” she said irritably. “He was a nice man. You scared him half to death!”

      “You belong to me for the duration of our ‘engagement,’” he said tautly, searching her eyes. “I won’t take kindly to other men hanging around until I settle something about that tract of land.”

      She drew in a sharp breath. “I promised to pretend to be engaged to you, Dawson,” she said uneasily. “That’s all. I don’t belong to you.”

      His eyes narrowed even more, and there was an expression in them that she remembered from years past.

      He looked as if he wanted to say more, but he hesitated. After a minute, he turned away.

      “Are you coming with me now?” he asked shortly.

      “I have to close up the apartment and pack…”

      “Half an hour’s work. Well?”

      She hesitated. It was like being snared in a net. She wasn’t sure that it was a good idea. If she’d had a day to think about it, she was certain that she wouldn’t do it.

      “Maybe if we wait until Monday,” she ventured.

      “No. If you have time to think, you won’t come. I’m not letting you off the hook. You promised,” he added.

      She let out an angry breath. “I must be crazy.”

      “Maybe I am, too,” he replied. His hands balled into fists in his pockets. “It was all I could think of on the spur of the moment. I didn’t plan to invite her. She invited herself, bag and baggage, in front of half a dozen people and in such a way that I couldn’t extricate myself without creating a lot more gossip.”

      “There must be other women who would agree to pose as your fiancée,” she said.

      He shook his head. “Not a one. Or didn’t the gossip filter down this far south, Barrie?” he added with bitter sarcasm. “Haven’t you heard? It would take a blowtorch, isn’t that what they say? Only they don’t know the truth of it. They think I’m suffering from a broken heart, doomed to desire the one woman I can’t have.”

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