His Girl Friday (11 page)

He glared at her. "I'm not frightened of him," he said stiffly. "I just didn't want to rush him, that's al ." She smiled up at him. "He'l get used to you." She paused and cleared her throat. "For the weekend, I mean." He studied her face for a long moment. "I expect to be around longer than a weekend, Danet a," he said quietly. 'Much, much longer than that.'

Her heartbeat seemed unusual y loud as they looked at each other and she felt her knees going weak. "I don't know if I can handle an affair," she whispered.

"I don't know if I can, either," he replied huskily. "I've never had one."

"Never?" she asked, her eyebrows arching.

"Never. The occasional one-night stand, and once I thought I was in love when I was younger." He smiled gently. Then the smile faded. "But I've never felt like this with a woman. I don't quite know how to cope." His hands rested on her shoulders. "And to be blunt, that first time scares the hel out of me." She searched his eyes, puzzled. "Why?"

"I told you I'm not a rounder." His broad shoulders lifted and fel . "I don't know a lot about virgins, and I've never had to hold anything back." His eyes held hers. "Restraint is difficult for a man after a long dry spel , you see." His hands contracted. "That's what it's going to mean if we have each other," he said curtly. "I'l have to hurt you. Deliberately. You understand?" He sighed roughly. "I don't know if I can."

She'd never considered that from a man's point of view, and it touched her that he cared about her comfort. She rested her forehead on his jacket, sighing because of the way he brought her close and held her so tenderly.

"I've always been a lit le afraid of it before," she confes ed shyly. "But if it's uncomfortable, it wil only be that once, and afterward.. " She swal owed, her nails clinging to the smooth fabric of his jacket. "Afterward, you won't ever hurt me again, wil you?"

His hands slid down her back, gently cares ing. "Afterward," he whispered in her ear, "I'l arouse you very slowly and make the sweetest kind of love to you, and you'l go to sleep in my arms."

She shivered with the thought, closing her eyes as she clung to him. "I can't believe this is happening."

"If you want the truth, neither can I," he said gently. His lips brushed her forehead. "But I'm not sorry that it has. Are you?" She looked up at him and shook her head. "No mat er what happens, I'm not sorry."

He was breathing deliberately, his eyes frankly adoring. He let her go and moved back. "You'd bet er get your things together," he said. "They're expecting us by six."

"Al right." She left him pacing the living room while she put what she'd need for a weekend into her suitcase. Then she went into the kitchen to pack Norman's snacks.

"What are you doing that for?" he asked, scowling as she took food out of the refrigerator.

"It's Norman's," she explained. "He likes quiche and spinach souffle. ."

"Oh, for God's sake, you don't need to carry food for him. Just tel Mrs. Fitchens what he eats and she'l fix it," he as ured her. She looked dubiously at Norman. "Does Mrs. Fitchens like lizards?"

"Not a lot," he replied. "My father told me that she went after one of Nicky's with a broom once when it got loose in her kitchen. She's mostly sane, but reptiles upset her. Thank God Nicky only likes lizards and not snakes."

"How old is Nicky?" she asked softly because shesensed the boy was a painful subject for him.

"Nicky is eight," he said quietly. He moved restles ly toward the living room. "Cynthia got pregnant the same year my mother died. It damned near kil ed me."

"I'm sorry," she said, moving close to him. She slid her arms around him and held him, laying her cheek against his hard chest. "You must have loved your mother very much."

"Too much," he said huskily. He wrapped Danet a up against him. "More than I was ever able to love Eugene. When she died, something died in me. Eugene was remarried in no time, and no sooner married than he was an expectant father. He couldn't have loved my mother and done that so quickly after she died."

"What's Nicky like?" she asked softly.

His body moved against hers as he shrugged. "I don't real y know. We're not very close."

So that was what Eugene had meant when he said that Cabe hurt Nicky. Probably the boy worshiped him and didn't understand why his half brother resented him so much.

"But I do know that he likes lizards," he added on a laugh. "And frogs."

"I like frogs, too," she murmured.

"It figures." He drew away from her, frowning. "Why lizards? Why not something sensible, like a cat?"

"I'm al ergic to fur," she said simply. "I wanted a pet and then I found Norman in a pet shop. He had an infected mouth and nobody else would bother trying to feed him. But I did. He must have liked me, because he lived. Mostly sick baby iguanas don't. They take a lot of special care." He brushed back the hair from her face, his eyes soft on her beautiful complexion, her adoring gray eyes. "You're a giving person," he said quietly. "Be careful not to give too much."

"You can't give too much," she said. "Only not enough."

His expres ion began to close up.

"I didn't mean you, Cabe," she whispered, smiling up at him.

His body tingled with a myriad of confusing sensations. She appealed to him far too much. She made him hungry for that special warmth that she seemed to have for everything and everyone.

He took her by the waist and lifted her on a level with his eyes, muscles bulging under his jacket as he held her there with easy strength.

"I don't know if I like having my mind read," he murmured.

"Wel , let me know when you decide," she said, smiling into his eyes. "You're very strong," she murmured, liking his strength.

"Working on oil rigs wil make a man strong or break him." He brushed his mouth over hers. "I like carrying you around, Mis Marist. You don't weigh much, do you?"

"A lit le over a hundred and ten pounds," she protested. "I'm heavy."

He grinned, nuzzling her mouth with his. "No, you're not."

"You taste of cigaret e smoke____"

"Do I?" His mouth hardened on hers and his arms slid around her, pulling her into a long, hungry embrace. She wondered why it felt so strange to be close to him, and then she realized that they'd never kis ed each other standing up before. It had always been sit ing down.

He let her slide down his body, against the arousal he couldn't help, and she moaned at the blatant hunger, at the sudden sharp pleasure she felt in her stomach.

"We haven't done it like this, have we?" he asked huskily, holding her hips to his with both hands, dragging her closer while he watched her react to him. "It's different this way."

"Yes," she groaned, helples to keep her response from him. Her teeth ground together and she gave in to it, let ing her body go limp, let ing him lift her just enough to expertly fit her to the changed contours of his body. She cried out, a moan of helples sound, and his hands contracted with bruising strength as he shuddered.

"Danet a," he whispered in anguish, his brows knit ing as his mouth ground into hers. His hands lifted her into him rhythmical y, so that the sensations quickly grew unbearable.

"Please," she whimpered into his mouth, shaking with the force of what he'd aroused in her. "Please, Cabe, please, please. .!" He heard her through a fog of helples need. He was almost too far gone to stop. His hands let go and she dropped to the floor, feeling boneles . He caught her in time to spare her a fal , and she looked up into his stony features with dazed wonder.

"We've got to stop this," he bit off. "Inevitably I'm going to lose it."

"If I feel like that when you do, I won't even know if you hurt me," she whispered shakily.

He drew in a slow breath, bristling with pride and delight. "We'd bet er go, lit le one."

"Al right." She moved away from him reluctantly, her face flaming as she remembered how intimate they'd been for those few turbulent minutes. "I'l pack up Norman."

"This I've got to see," he murmured, and moved to the counter to watch.

It wasn't that difficult. Danet a simply picked him up and put him in the cage on his hot-rock, careful not to catch his elegant tail in the door. He had to lie on the hot-rock to help him digest his food. She fastened it and Norman flat ened on the floor, closing his eyes.

"He goes to sleep when he's been fed," she told Cabe. "Isn't he cute?"

He raised an eyebrow. Cute wasn't a word he thought of in connection with the lizard. "Let's go," he said. He was stil having a few problems with his body, which he hoped he could get under control before he and Danet a got to the ranch.

Eugene and Cynthia lived northwest of Tulsa in Orange County a few miles from Keystone Lake—one of six huge man-made lakes within an hour of Tulsa in the area known as

"green country." Fishing was big busines around there, and bait and tackle shops were prolific, along with the ever-present mule-head oil wel s pumping merrily away.

"Isn't there an old oil field around here somewhere?" she murmured, looking out the window.

"Plenty. We were on top of a pre-World War I field down at Beggs when we talked to Harry Deal," he reminded her. "A lot of dril ers are opening up old wel s with new hopes. Sometimes it pays off. My father's about to open up one of his old ones just for kicks. Not that he needs the money," he added dryly.

"I can believe that." Her eyes caught a sign as they left the city and she smiled. "Why is Tulsa cal ed Tulsa, do you know?" she asked. "I've never noticed, but it sounds sort of odd."

"I was just reading an article about Tulsa in an old National Geographic. They say the name dates back to Alabama, in fact," he told her, taking a draw from his cigaret e as he drove. "Tulsey was what the Lochapoka Indians cal ed their vil age in Alabama. According to some sources it's a corruption of a Creek word for Old Town—Tal as-see. They brought the ashes from their sacred fire to Oklahoma back in the nineteenth century and rekindled the fire under an oak tree—I think I've pointed out the tree to you, it's fenced in. Anyway, that's where the name Tulsa came from."

"There were a lot of Indians here."

"Point of fact, until Oklahoma became a state in 1907, three sovereign Indian nations converged here—the Creeks, the Cherokee and the Osage," he told her. "And the word Oklahoma is Choctaw—it means 'red people.'"

She studied him closely. "I don't suppose you have any Indian blood?"

"Because I'm blue eyed?" he mused, glancing at her. "Don't you believe it. I have cousins who are Osage and Arizona Apache." She looked down at her hands, thinking about children. God knew why. If he had children, they'd have an interesting heritage.

"It would rain today," he murmured, watching the beginning of a storm sprinkle down on the windshield. He turned the wipers on. "Dad has a sailboat. I thought we might go sailing, but if this goes on al weekend, there won't be a chance."

"Downpours and drought and tornadoes," she shook her head. "At least the weather is never boring here."

"That's a fact." He smiled at her. "Dad told Nicky about your ugly friend back there. He's excited about seeing a real live iguana."

"Norman isn't ugly," she defended her pet. "He's. ." She thought for a word.

"Ugly," he supplied.

"To him, we probably are," she said final y. "No doubt."

She let her eyes run slowly over his profile with pure delight. "Do you know how to sail?" she asked. He chuckled. "I learned when I was just a boy. I got wet a lot first," he added, "but eventual y I got the hang of it. I like to fish, too. Do you?"

"Just with a standard rig," she qualified. "I used to go fishing with my granddad when I was a girl."

"This is a great place for it. What else do you like to do?"

"Ride bikes, play basebal , climb mountains," she said shyly. "We lived in the Ozarks. It's so beautiful."

"Indeed it is. I like basebal myself, although I'm get ing to the age where making the bases in a hurry isn't quite as easy as it was." He scowled faintly as he crushed out his cigaret e in the ashtray and then gave her a brief, intent scrutiny. "Those thirteen years may mat er to you one day." Her heart skipped, but she didn't avert her eyes. "They'l never mat er to me," she said quietly. "Not ever, Cabe." He reached over and caught her hand, holding it tightly in his. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to. The look on his face said it al . The ranch was near Keystone Lake in a sparsely wooded area with plenty of pasture for Eugene's horses and purebred Santa Gertrudis cat le. It was close enough to the main highway, but far enough back that the traffic wasn't a nuisance. The lake was a silver streak in the distance, over the undulating pasture. Eugene came out to meet them! Behind him was a big gray, modern house with lots of windows and a balcony, and two huge decks leading off the sides. Oak trees shaded it. There was a swimming pool visible in back of the house, as wel as a garage and tennis court.

"It's very pret y," Danet a sighed.

"The house is only a few years old," he told her, his expres ion becoming hard as he added, "he tore down the other one where I was born, and put this one up instead." Her fingers tightened on his. "Maybe he thought a clean break with the past was best for Cynthia."

"So it was. But not for me. I don't find it that simple to give up my memories."

Eugene was wearing jeans and a checked shirt, and he was al smiles as Cabe opened Danet a's door and helped her out. The old man clearly approved of her lavender dres , even with the faint wrinkles.

"Glad you could come," Eugene told her. "I'm sorry about the circumstances," he added quietly. "Cabe told me you'd had a break-in."

"Find out anything?" Cabe asked his father as he took Danet a's suitcase out of the car and propel ed her toward the house.

"Not yet," Eugene said. "I've got my feelers out. We'l find the culprits. Enough about that. Let's get in out of the rain."

"Mist more than rain," Cabe remarked as they walked up onto the front porch. "It was pouring when we left Tulsa."

"It's spring," Eugene reminded him. "Thank your lucky stars you didn't run into a tornado along with the rain. They've had two already down around the state capitol." Eugene opened the front door just as Danet a remembered another case that Cabe had left in the car. "Norman!" she exclaimed. "We forgot him!" "I was trying to," Cabe began.