Runaway Bride (10 page)

"You shouldn't have gone to so much
trouble," she exclaimed, adjusting her pillows so she could sit
up.

"No trouble for me, Mrs. Johnson did
all the work," he said and smiled.

Dear God, that
smile!

"I didn't have to be waited on, you
know."

He eyed her before biting into his pork
chop.

"No problem."

"I'm not very hungry," she protested.
He probably already sized her up as totally incapable. A ditz.
Maybe she was!

"You should eat though."

"Look you've been very kind. But, you
don't have to take care of me. I'm a big girl."

He smiled. "I don't like to eat
alone."

"No, but you live alone, don't you?"
She asked nibbling her pork chop now and realizing that no pork
chop had ever tasted so heavenly.

"Yeah, but Little Bit and I eat
together every evening." He grinned.

"Oh, why don't you invite him in here?"
she said and her glance slid to his lips, that looked moist and
inviting with every bite.

"Sure you don't mind?"

"Not at all."

She was drooling over the man. She had
to get a grip. It made her angry to feel so helpless and so
vulnerable to one man. This was ridiculous, being attracted to
another man only a few days after her planned wedding to Chad.
Especially a man who wanted no part of marriage. Wouldn't she ever
learn?

"So what's the story?" he asked as his
dog joined his side and contentedly waited for a scrap of food from
his master.

"The story?" She moistened her upper
lip, nervously. He wanted details and she wasn't sure she could
provide them.

"Running away from a wedding isn't an
everyday occurrence. What happened?"

"Oh," she blushed, "Chad Huntington II.
He's really a great guy. He actually took it very well, as I was
leaving. Better than I expected. He simply didn't light any fires,
that's all, I recognized it in time. He wasn't for me, and I knew
it." the lie coming from her lips tasted sour. She'd never been
good at lying; it bothered her, caught up with her

"Then why did you accept his
proposal?"

How could she go into this without
telling him the whole truth? She couldn't do that. She promised
Chad she wouldn't say a word to anyone, and she couldn't. No, she'd
have to invent the story as she went.

"When you are accused of being an old
maid, it pushes buttons. My two sisters are married, and have
children. My brother is engaged. It seemed the thing to
do."

"What was wrong with good ole Chad?" he
asked with a chuckle.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. I just didn't
love him, and woke up before it was too late. Our parents thought
it was mutually beneficial to get us together. I'm twenty six years
old and they pushed it."

When he kept waiting for more story,
she twisted her head, "What?"

"Indulge me, start from the
beginning."

"Well," she began but the phone rang
and the Sheriff answered it. He was talking and nodding at the same
time, a frown lining his handsome face. That phone saved her and
she was ever so grateful. After all, why should she burden the
Sheriff with her problems?

"Trouble?" she asked as she finished
the pork chop.

"'Fraid so, John and his wife are at it
again. Never comes to anything, but if I don't show up they get mad
and tell everyone I'm not doing my job, so I go. Sorry, you better
try to get some rest."

"Y-yes, just what I need," she rolled
her eyes. She set the tray away from the bed and snuggled into the
covers, but she couldn't stop the frowning. Darn it she would miss
him, and she shouldn't miss him at all.

He seemed to sense it and before she
knew what he was doing he bent over her, and kissed her tenderly on
the lips. His lips felt like soft butter, much different from the
way Chad had always kissed her. She wanted to explore this new
feeling, but knew better than to go there.

It didn't last long enough to amount to
anything, but Savannah felt like a big ball of mush nonetheless.
She pinked then asked him, "So what was that for?"

He shrugged, "My momma used to say a
kiss made it better."

With that he tipped his hat and left
her.

It was hours before he returned, but he
didn't come into her room. She listened intently as he moved about
the house.

Late that night, she snuck into the
kitchen for a glass of milk and was about to tiptoe back to bed,
when she ran into a big, hard, shirtless, chest.

She gasped; the light from the hallway
lit him into a shadow in front of her.

"I was...just getting a glass of milk,"
she explained. "I'm having trouble going to sleep."

Her hand, the empty one was on his
chest, and it seemed to melt into that hard wall of man. She
couldn't breathe, couldn't think, and couldn't move away. Her
fingers immediately sent a message to her brain. This was another
unexplored territory and best left alone.

Without a word, he took the glass of
milk from her, put it on the kitchen table, then turned around and
took her into his arms.

She wasn't thinking, just feeling as
his lips came down to meet hers. Her body instantly moved towards
him. He seemed to suck in breath between nibbles of her lips and
cheek. "I've been thinking about doing this all day..." he
whispered.

"Me too..." she barely managed between
sighs of contentment. The feelings were so new to her, she knew she
was in over her head, but what could she do?

"You're so damned sweet..." he
murmured.

There it was! That word. Why did
everyone think of her as "sweet". Why couldn't he have said,
"Charming", "alluring", anything besides, "sweet"? It irritated,
and stopped her from making a big fool of herself.

"I think I should go to
bed..."

He stopped dead cold.

She staggered backwards and he caught
her to him again. "Go to bed, Savannah, before I take you
there...." he whispered, his lips grazing her ear, as his breath
blew against her. She shivered.

She stared at him through the darkness
and then slipped down the hall quietly to her room as though
nothing at all had happened.

Falling against the door, she closed it
and held her breath till she heard him close his.

What had just happened?

Had she completely lost her mind? Standing
there in the dark, kissing a man that was nearly a stranger. Not
only that, but responding to his kiss like she had. She felt
clueless to her own emotions. But what must he think of her?

CHAPTER FIVE

The welts had subsided after two long
days without much company, and her car was fixed, so why was
Savannah still dragging her heels the next morning.
Couldn't be that the handsome Sheriff had actually
gotten to her, could it?
No, she chastised herself.
He'd practically ignored her since he kissed her so
thoroughly.

That should tell her something,
shouldn't it? He was no more interested in a relationship than she.
Right? Right! He wasn't the marrying kind, and he had been a
gentleman to let her go.

The Sheriff was merely being nice and
she shouldn't make anything of it, she told herself. But oh those
soft lips lingered in her memory a little longer than the law
allowed. The way he had kissed her....

It had been a mistake! Thank God they
had stopped. Just in time! For had he pursued it, she would have
been willing. This knowledge scared her witless. She'd never let
any man have his way with her. She'd always been completely in
control. So had Chad. Chad never had stirred such feelings. What
did it mean? She had loved Chad, hadn't she?

That one kiss had her re-evaluating her
entire life.

Dragging her camera and suitcase back
to the car, she stowed it in the backseat and turned to find the
Sheriff standing just in front of her. Everything inside her went
to jelly. Oh, she was so attracted to him, she couldn't stand it,
just looking at him made her want him.

"Leaving so soon?"

"I've imposed long enough."

"No imposition, really. Guess you're
headed for that dude ranch now?"

"Guess so, if you're not charging me
with theft, that is?"

He smiled, "I checked your
story."

Her shoulders slumped.

"It's my job, Savannah. Your id
matches, of course. But I had to be sure. It's my responsibility
you understand. You will have to rent a car though. They want
theirs back it seems. They wanted to come out and pick you up, but
I advised them it might be best to give you a little time. I told
them about you staying with your Aunt, so they wouldn't worry about
you. And you need to get your license taken care of as soon as
possible. I've procured a temporary one from the judge here in
town. He, like me thought it best, under the
circumstances."

She rolled her eyes, firmed her lips
and looked at him. "I guess I should thank you." She said reaching
for the paper in his hands. Her fingers grazed his and she nearly
jerked the paper from him. "But I might have known, my parents
would be livid. I'll take care of it today, if there's a rental in
town."

"Sure, just head south on the highway,
you'll see it, on the right. Leave this car there, I'll pick it up
this evening, bring it out here, so no one will tamper with it. A
car like that, draws interest in these parts."

"Thanks. I thought I'd kill a little
time in town, shopping for some clothes."

"You're welcome to stay ..."

"No thanks Sheriff, you've been very
accommodating, and I'd like to thank you for everything. I'll leave
your sister's clothes at the store, if that's okay?"

He nodded.

She couldn't see his eyes for the
sunglasses, and she so wanted to see them. She wanted to know he
wasn't mocking her. Now she'd never know exactly what he thought of
her.

She extended her hand, and he took it.
They shook and she got in the car and drove away from the one man
that made her toes curl, her blood zing, and her mind a total
blank.

Flipping on the radio, she listened to
a country and western station, imitating their twang. She rolled
down the window and let her hair fly. She did everything to
distract herself from the image in her rear-view mirror.

As she ran her hands over the jeans in
the small clothing store in town, she told herself that it was all
for the best. She didn't need the Sheriff. He didn't want a woman
and he made that clear. Still that kiss lingered in her mind. It
wasn't just a kiss, she told herself. He was making love with his
lips. Would there ever be a man that kissed her like that again,
that wasn't marriage shy? She doubted it. Besides, it was only a
kiss.

Had she blown it up, bigger than it
was? Was it her imagination that his kiss was a little more than
interested? Surely she had. It seemed all her emotions had been
going wild lately. Perhaps being dumped by another man did hurt her
ego?

She paid for a stack of clothes,
changed into a pair of tight fitting jeans and western shirt. She
grimaced at the image in the mirror. She filled out her jeans well
enough, but without make-up she looked ever so plain, and just a
little younger.

Then she asked the sales lady if there
was a place to get a soft drink.

"Sure, the "Done That" saloon is just
two doors down."

"Saloon?" She questioned. "Oh, I meant
a café or something."

"Well, it's a bar, honey, but the cafe
doesn't open till five." The saleslady smiled at her.

"I see, well, would you see that the
Sheriff gets these clothes back. They belong to his sister and he
was kind enough to let me borrow them."

"Of course, just leave them in the
dressing room."

"Thanks." Savannah shrugged. The bar sounded
interesting enough to try. She paid for her things and headed down
the boardwalk for the saloon.

The door swung just like an old time
movie saloon, and she almost giggled. The bar was long and solid
oak, a beautiful work of art, Savannah sighed as her fingers ran
over the edge. There were benches lined up and a few cowboys
scattered in a couple of booths. Two men were shooting pool, and
glanced up as she came in.

One winked.

Harmless
, she
thought.

She headed for the bar and tried to
ignore them. But something had her looking again. There went those
crazy emotions again. What had happened last night in the dark,
scared her, and thrilled her all at once. She shouldn't be so
attracted to a man when only days ago she was supposed to marry
Chad. But it also didn't mean a thing. And even the handsome
Sheriff had called her "sweet". That should have been enough right
there to break any spell he might weave. Maybe the Sheriff thought
she kissed men all the time.

If only he knew. He'd have a good
laugh. But she had to forget that kiss, and the man behind it. The
Sheriff wasn't looking for a lady. And the kiss was meaningless to
him. Maybe he kissed lots of women like that. He'd never know that
it was a once in a lifetime for her.