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“Damn! Damn that good-for-nothing, smooth-talking—ouch!” Hallie yelped as the sharp pricks of cactus needles pierced the seat of her pants. She couldn’t help blaming Dakota for this even though for all she knew he was still back at the ranch.
After her confrontation with him, she’d galloped her horse hard across the open grassland, relieved when she’d gotten to the edge of the cliffs to look back over her trail and find herself alone. After checking the grazing herd of cattle, she’d walked her horse along the rough path below the cliffs, taking a more leisurely pace back to the barn.
But as she’d started to turn the stallion toward the pasture again her horse had suddenly whinnied and reared back, throwing her bottom-first onto a patch of prickly pear. Stunned, Hallie didn’t see the rattlesnake until it slithered off the path in front of her into a crevice in the rock. Grano she couldn’t see at all.
Sucking in a shaky breath and letting it go in a whoosh, Hallie shifted slightly, then froze as pain sliced at her bottom.
All at once everything—the fall and her throbbing backside, Ben, Pa’s death, losing the ranch—seemed too much.
“This is all your fault, Jack Dakota!” she said out loud. “Everything is your fault!”
Except it wasn’t. No matter how much she wanted it to be. Angry tears stung her eyes. She was nearly as mad at herself as she was at him. How could she have let this happen, all of it? How could she ever put it right?
By getting yourself off this cactus for a start, she told herself. Sitting there sniveling wasn’t going to change things. And it wasn’t going to get the cactus spines out of her behind.
Hallie braced herself and pushed upward, jerking herself up onto her knees. For a moment, she hardly dared breathe for fear any little movement would make the pain unbearable.
Then, bent over in what felt like the most undignified position a woman could get herself into, she pulled off her bandanna, wadded it up and put it between her teeth to bite if the pain got too bad.
One by one, she began plucking out the cactus needles.
After the first three, she wanted to lie down and cry. But all she had to do was picture that roguish grin on Jack’s face if he ever found her in this position, and it made her bite down and yank harder.
The sixth one stuck hard and Hallie let out a yell when she finally managed to yank it out.
Absorbed in her task, fighting the pain, she didn’t hear the approach of a horse and rider coming fast across the open ground. Only when she lifted her face and found herself staring at a familiar pair of black boots did she realize she had an unwelcome audience.
She spat out the bandanna and looked up into Jack’s face. “You!” Jerking to her feet, she gasped as the cactus needles sank deeper.
Jack knelt in front of her at once and grabbed her by the shoulders, preventing her from moving. “Keep still or you’ll kill yourself before you get your shot at me.”
“Just go away!”
“Right, and leave you by yourself, full of cactus needles. What were you trying to do here?”
“Oh, hush up. And leave me alone! I don’t need your help.”
“Oh, I can see that.” Jack considered the situation and decided she’d been in the best position possible to get the needles out when he’d found her. “I think you’d better just bend over again and let me pull them out.”
“I said I don’t need your help!”
“Stop being so damned stubborn, woman. If you don’t get rid of those soon, you’re going to be begging me to shoot you just to end your misery.” Picking up the bandanna, he rolled it tightly and offered it to her again. “Here, you’re going to need this. Now turn around. You can plot my murder while I’m pulling them out.”
With fury, loathing and humiliation swelling in her until she swore she’d explode, Hallie ground her teeth against the bandanna and bent over. Even accepting Jack Dakota’s help had to be better than this pain.
Ignoring her provocative position and the small, heart-shaped curve of her backside, Jack forced himself to concentrate solely on the task at hand. One by one, with tender force, he tugged the needles from the seat of her pants.
At first she muttered curses in his direction, but by the time he finally wrested the last needle free, her anger had muted to whimpers.
“Okay, that’s the last of it, sweetheart,” Jack said.
Gently, he helped her straighten. Something twisted in his chest when he saw the unshed tears in her eyes. She held them back, keeping her pride intact. But he could see what the effort cost her and how much she was hurting.
“Hallie, I—”
“I hate you, Jack Dakota,” she said, her eyes narrowed, her fists clenched. “I wish I’d never laid eyes on you. I wish Redeye had shot you when he had the chance.”
“I never intended for you to get hurt.”
She didn’t know whether he meant the cactus or him buying her ranch, and she didn’t care. She ignored the throb of pain in her backside and faced him squarely. “Well, you’ve said the words. Now get back up on your horse and ride off. I don’t need you.”
She started to turn away from him, but Jack caught her arm and pulled her to face him again. “Not without you.”
For a moment they stared at each other, locked in a silent battle of wills.
Jack looked at her closely for the first time and realized she’d lost her ugly hat. Her braid had come undone and a wild riot of waist-long hair, a light honey-brown in the sunlight, fell over her slender shoulders, making her look more like a vulnerable young woman than the rough-riding ranch woman she pretended to be.
The intent way he looked at her only made Hallie feel more agitated. “Don’t you ever listen to anything I say?”
“Every word. But I’m not leaving.”
“I need some privacy to tend to myself. Go back to the ranch. I’ll be there soon enough.”
“Sorry, darlin’,” Jack said, “but I can’t do that.”
Before she could protest, he slipped an arm around her waist, guiding her to a place in the rocks where she could rest her weight without leaning on her bottom.
Hallie glared at him. “What does it take to get rid of you?”
Jack only grinned and began rolling up his sleeves. “You might as well get used to having me around. One day you might even like it. Now—” he eyed her with a glint in his eyes “—let’s have a look at those holes the cactus left behind.”
Hallie stared. He couldn’t be serious. One thing was for sure, he was crazy if he thought she’d ever let him touch her again. Especially not there. But looking at him, Hallie knew he would.
And the worst of it was, right now she had neither the will nor the slightest idea how to stop him.
In fact, she almost said yes. That voice of his, deep, expressive, with laughter running underneath, and the way he looked at her, as if she mattered—it almost persuaded her.
Then he flashed a grin, as if he knew she was going to give in, and it jolted Hallie to her senses. What was she thinking to consider letting him see her half-naked, and then let him put his hands on her?
“I know that look,” Jack said.
“Then you know I plan on tending to myself,” Hallie retorted, pulling away from him.
Jack seemed as if he was about to argue with her, but after a few seconds he held up his hands and backed up a step. “You might try a mud pack with sage leaves. It’ll help the pain enough to get you back to the ranch.”
“You get stuck with cactus needles often?” she asked, eyeing him doubtfully.
“Once is enough, so don’t get any ideas, Hal. Here…” He handed her his canteen. “Take a swig and I’ll get you some sage leaves.”
The temptation to set him straight about his inclination to order her around warred with the throbbing ache in her bottom. The ache won. Without a word, Hallie limped awkwardly away to find a place among the rocks out of Jack’s view where she could pull down her pants.
She refused to think about him as she jerked the denim over her hips along with her drawers and used some water from his canteen to gingerly sponge the punctures in her tender flesh. All the while she tensed, listening for any sound of his return.
“Hallie?” he called after a few minutes.
“Don’t come any closer!” she yelled, even as she heard the crunch of his boots on the rocky ground.
“Sorry, my aim’s not that good. Here…” Reaching over the rock outcropping, he dangled a red bandanna filled with dirt and sage near her nose. “There wasn’t much sage, but add some water and it should do for now.”
Mixing the concoction with her fingers, Hallie dabbed it against her swollen skin, closing her eyes against the sting. On the other side of the rocks, she could hear Jack pacing, humming a little under his breath, and suddenly she felt hot and prickly all over.
He couldn’t see her, of course. She’d made sure of that. The pacing stopped. She froze. He took a few steps, slower this time. Breathing fast, her heart thudding, Hallie yanked up her pants as quickly as she could, wriggling to get them over her hips and fastened.
When she finally emerged from behind the rocks, Jack looked her up and down. “How are you doing? You seem flushed. You aren’t feverish, are you?”
“I’m fine, just great,” Hallie muttered, wondering how he could say that and look so innocent. In truth, her bottom felt as if it was on fire, and she dreaded even the idea of getting into the saddle. But she’d be damned if she would tell Dakota that.
It would take a blind man not to see how much she hurt. Jack grimaced as he watched her walk slowly and awkwardly toward his horse. How did she think she was going to ride like that?
“Hallie,” he said, taking a few running steps to her side and reaching out to grasp her arm.
She tugged free, glaring at him. “Let me go!”
“Not until we talk.”
“I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“Maybe not, but if we’re going to work together, we’ve got to find a way to keep from strangling each other. I’m only trying to help.”
“Fine, you’ve helped. Thank you,” she added with an effort. “Now I want to go home.”
“Then you’re going to have to ride with me. I don’t see your horse.”
Hallie cursed under her breath. She wanted to refuse. She wanted to say she would rather walk back to the ranch than ride with him.
She did hurt, though, and it was hot and she didn’t think she could walk ten minutes, let alone hours.
Jack saw her wavering. But she was proud and stubborn, and he guessed it would take a lot more than a few cactus needles to overcome that. Gambling she wouldn’t shoot him, he moved quickly and scooped her up in his arms, being careful to avoid the slightest contact with her backside.
“Come on, sweetheart,” he said softly when she started to struggle, “you can’t do everything alone. Besides, if something happens to you, I’ll have to start getting up early to do whatever it is you do at the crack of dawn. And I never get up at sunrise unless someone’s shooting at me.”
He grinned at her and Hallie found herself responding before she could think of a reason why she shouldn’t. “I’ll remember that when I have to roust you out of bed to round up the cattle.”
“Sounds delightful,” he murmured close to her ear as he carried her to his horse and gently put her sideways in the saddle. Mounting up behind her, he shifted her so her bottom was partly cushioned against his thigh.
“It’ll have to do until we get back,” Jack said when Hallie gave an awkward wriggle and winced.
She nodded, not looking at him. She could hardly tell him it wasn’t the pain in her backside making her uncomfortable now, but the closeness to him. With her bottom snuggled up against his thigh and his arm firmly around her waist, holding her against his chest, she was more disturbed by the intimacy of their position than by the cactus pricks, in a way she’d never expected.
The feel of him against her gave her an unsettling sort of pleasure. She liked it. And at the same time, as the horse started a slow lope across the grass, she wanted to get away from him and the rhythmic press and slide of his body against hers. It didn’t make any sense, but right now she hurt too much to try to figure it out.
One thing was for sure, she didn’t need any more trouble, of any kind. But living with Jack Dakota, she had the feeling that was exactly what she was going to get.
Chapter Four
In all Hallie’s memory, the ride back to the ranch house had never seemed so long. With each step Jack’s horse took, a different part of her body reacted.
“Not much farther.” Jack’s low voice rumbled against her ear. “How are you doing?”
Hallie shifted, not sure which demanded more of her attention, the unforgiving saddle leather or the rub of his thigh against her backside. “I never knew sitting in a saddle could feel like torture.”
“Ah, well, try riding for two weeks straight with only a few hours sleep every day.”
“Mmm, that sounds like a story,” Hallie said, glancing over her shoulder at him. “Take some poor fool’s last dollar only to find out he had brothers, did you?”
Jack laughed. “Something like that. Let’s just say it’s hard to live on your luck for so many years without a few close calls.”
Letting herself relax a little, Hallie found it easier on her bottom to lean against Jack’s chest. He made it hard not to like him when he was doing his best to be accommodating. And the new feeling he gave her—of being protected, even coddled a little—Hallie discovered she didn’t mind so much.
She could even get used to it. “Tell me your story, would you?”
“It’s not much of a tale. It happened when I was too green and too full of myself to know when to bury my aces instead of laying ’em down. That was the first time I took Redeye Bill Barlow’s winnings, and if he’d caught up with me it would’ve been my last.”
“You knew Redeye before?”
Jack didn’t realize his arms had tightened around her until Hallie wriggled a bit. He forced himself to relax his hold on her. “Longer than I want to remember.”
She thought about that for a minute, and Jack wondered if she’d push him to say something more. Instead, she surprised him by murmuring, “I hope Serenity doesn’t need help with supper. Standing at that stove doesn’t sound too appealing right now.”
“Don’t worry, Miss Hal, I’ll help her, if it comes to that.”
“You?” Hallie started laughing. “Are you asking me to believe you found time to learn to cook between women and games?”
“Don’t insult my cooking until you taste it.” Jack paused a moment, then added in a voice he deliberately kept light, “My pa wasn’t one to cook for or keep up with a boy he thought was old enough to fend for himself. I’ve got many talents that might surprise you.”
“Rolling dice doesn’t count.”
“I’ll have you know, darlin’, I’ve had my share of respectable jobs in my time.”
“This I would like to hear,” Hallie said, deliberately teasing him because she wanted to know more about him. She’d pegged him as sweet-talking and shallow. But from the few things he’d said about his past, she was beginning to get a different picture of him.
He’d managed to smooth over and bury a good part of himself beneath layers of fine manners and fancy clothes. Except once in a while, the boy in him showed through, and Hallie guessed it was a boy with a rough and unstable start in life, perhaps much like his own son.
She closed her eyes a moment to concentrate on the rise and fall of his chest against her back, a pang of sympathy pricking her heart. There was more to Jack Dakota than met the eye, that was for certain.
“Let’s see,” he was saying, “I worked in a mercantile for a few months, I washed dishes in a restaurant and I played piano in several hotels. You should hear my rendition of ‘Old Coon Zip.’”
“To do that, you and I would have to pay a visit to the Silver Snake.”
