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“I wouldn’t think of it.”
“Not much you wouldn’t.”
He was tall, broad-shouldered and a very sexy male. Having him hold her wrist made her nervous, even though his grip was light. When she had tried to get free, he had held her without effort, but she knew that wasn’t what bothered her. It was the physical contact with him, however slight, that set her pulse racing.
Maybe if she humored him until he locked her in a room—and she was certain that’s exactly what he would do sooner or later—then she could try to escape. Once they were in the kitchen, he released her wrist. While he pulled a cold beer out of the refrigerator, Meredith studied the windows and latches, which looked quite ordinary. And she had watched when he had turned off his alarm, so she could remember the series of numbers he had punched in. She was certain Jason wouldn’t think she’d try to escape, especially since they were so far from town. He had left his pickup near the back door and if she could get outside to his pickup, she would be on her way.
“Want some pop?”
“I am not drinking or eating with you.”
“Suit yourself,” he said, and turned to open the bottle of beer. They returned to the sofa where he sat too close for comfort. She could detect his aftershave, see the faint dark stubble on his jaw.
He set his beer on a coaster on the large cherrywood table standing in front of the sofa. He pulled off a boot and set it aside and then pulled off the other one. “We might as well get comfortable.”
She was half tempted to say she wanted to go to jail, but his house was cozy and there weren’t any bars on the windows and she stood a far better chance of escaping from this ornery Texan than she would from a jail.
“Now tell me why you want to cause Dorian grief.”
“He’s a wicked man. But I know you don’t believe a word I’m saying because he’s in your good-ol’-boy group.”
“Let me decide that.”
“One of my sisters was engaged to him.”
“He denies that. Do you have any proof?”
“Proof of their engagement? No, I don’t.”
“Did he give her a ring?”
“He told her that he was having his grandmother’s diamond ring reset. He kept putting off why it wasn’t ready and at the time, he sounded convincing. He can be charming and he’s good-looking and he’s clever. Everything sounded logical, so I didn’t doubt what my sister was telling me. Twice I had dinner with them, and I had him at our house,” she said. As Merry talked, she had to constantly gaze into those sexy eyes and she could hear how lame her story sounded. There wasn’t a flicker of emotion in Jason’s expression, so she had no idea what he was thinking.
“Our house? Are you married?”
“No, I’m not. I live in an apartment in Dallas, but I go home often to the house where I grew up. My mom is a Dallas news anchor and I grew up in Dallas.”
“Another well-known family member.” He tilted his head to study her. “Your mom isn’t Serena Dunstan, is she?”
“Yes, she is. Her real name is Therese Silver, but Serena Dunstan is her professional name. How did you guess?”
“She’s the right age and she’s done some controversial reporting—and won awards. Hank Silver, Serena Dunstan—you’re from a whole family of feisty daredevils.”
“My sister Holly isn’t. She’s a little on the shy side.”
“I would have to see it to believe it,” he remarked dryly.
“Mom’s certainly more well-known than my brother. I’m really close to my three younger sisters, so I’m at our house most of the time. My youngest sister, Claudia, is in high school now, but she graduates this spring.”
“I hope she’s not the one Dorian was supposedly engaged to.”
“It isn’t supposedly,” Merry said darkly, knowing he was friends with the creep and wasn’t going to believe a word she said. “Dorian was engaged to Holly, who finished college early and has a great job as an engineer.”
“Do you have pictures of them together?”
“No, I don’t,” Merry answered flatly, realizing how flimsy her accusations were beginning to sound up against Jason’s practical questions. “There was always a reason why Dorian did or did not do something. When I wanted to take their pictures, he’d put me off and then we’d forget all about it.” The more she talked, the more her anger built again. “I thought Dorian just decided all of a sudden to dump her, but now that you’re asking all these questions—reasonable questions—he must have planned to do this from the very start. She really was in love with him,” Merry said, remembering Holly sobbing and shaking and refusing to eat far too many times. For the past few months she had watched her sister lose weight steadily.
“Holly believed Dorian and was taken in by him. She had bought a wedding dress—”
“No ring, but she bought a dress?” Jason asked doubtfully, as if Holly were lost in fantasies.
“I can’t tell you how believable he made it all sound.”
While blue-green eyes studied her, she wondered what was running through the lanky Texan’s mind.
“Men can be very convincing when they want to. Even in the biggest of lies,” she added.
A shuttered look altered Jason’s expression slightly. “I don’t think you should limit that to men,” he said in a cynical tone that surprised her.
“I can’t believe any woman ever hurt you. I’ll bet you draw them like flies to honey.”
The twinkle returned to his eyes. “Whatever makes you think that?” he asked with great innocence.
“Stop fishing for compliments! You know you’re a good-looking and sexy stud.”
“Son-of-a-gun, darlin’,” he drawled. “You will turn my head. So you think I’m a sexy stud?” The words rolled out like soft velvet sliding across her skin, and Meredith wished she hadn’t said anything. When would she learn just to keep quiet? But then, how could she sit in silence when he was looking at her with an eagle-eyed intentness that made her nervous and made her want to chatter?
“Why don’t we go out to dinner tomorrow night? I can drive to Dallas,” he said.
“Thank you, but I have other plans. And I’m not leaving Royal.”
“You have friends here in Royal?”
“No, I don’t know anyone except Dorian, and now you. I’m staying right here in Royal. You can’t make me leave town.”
“You plan to slash Dorian’s tires again?”
“No, I won’t,” she said, annoyed with him and trying to ignore the little nagging voice inside that wanted to accept his offer of a dinner date. “I wouldn’t tell you anyway, but I don’t have other plans. I just don’t care to go to dinner.”
He grinned, a full-fledged, heart-stopping grin with perfect white teeth, and she tried to catch her breath and not stare. With an effort she shifted her gaze to her fingers laced together in her lap. She had just turned down a date with that grin. Just sitting there doing nothing, the man was handsome, but when he smiled, he was to-die-for gorgeous. His smile could melt the coldest heart. She just knew it had better not melt hers. And she knew he had an ulterior motive in asking her to dinner because he was trying every which way to learn her plans about Dorian and to keep her away from him.
“I’m sure you’re unaccustomed to any female turning down an offer of a date with you, but I’m not interested.”
“Well, in that case, we’ll sit right here at my house. You can go with me tomorrow to pick out a computer and we’ll have dinner at home and you can help me set up a new computer—”
“You’re kidnapping me!”
“No, I’m not. You’re free to go. You want to leave, I’ll take you straight to the sheriff. After all, I caught you in a criminal act.”
She glared at him. “I don’t want to go to jail. I’ll think about it tomorrow.”
“I wouldn’t want to go to jail, either. My house is far more comfortable, and I’m better company that any of those deputies and you can have something to eat or drink whenever you want.” He gave her a speculative look. “You know, men have been breaking women’s hearts and vice-versa since the beginning of time. Your sister got jilted by a low-down lying rascal—as you would say—but that happens. When it does, you pick up and go on with life.”
She bristled. “How easy that is for you to say! You’re a playboy and I’m sure you’re incredibly experienced at breaking hearts. I’ll bet you’ve left a path strewn with them back to when you were just out of elementary school.”
“Grade school? I don’t think so!” he said and rewarded her with another fabulous grin.
“And I’ll bet no female has ever broken your heart. So don’t even talk to me about how unimportant a broken heart is!”
He tilted his head. “Another swift punch—somewhat undeserved, I think. I’ve always made it clear that I’m not a marrying man. I’m not into commitment and I always state that up front. I have never been engaged to anyone and never hinted at engagement. So don’t lump me in with broken promises of engagement. There’s a difference. Anyone who dates me knows exactly how I feel about marriage. I’m very open about it. Most of the women I date feel just the way I do.”
“Why aren’t you a marrying man, if I may ask?”
Again, she caught that brief shuttered look and a muscle working in his jaw. He had some touchy point, something that had happened to him that had soured him on marriage.
“My brothers have had disastrous marriages that have torn apart their lives and hurt their children. I don’t ever want to go through that.”
She suspected there was more to the story than he was telling her, but they were little more than strangers and she could understand why he would be reluctant to tell her about himself. As he talked, he unbuttoned his shirt and rolled up his sleeves. She didn’t think he was aware of what he was doing, but she was certainly aware of the slight glimpse of a tanned, well-sculpted chest.
“Those sweats may be rather warm for this time of year. Want something more comfortable?”
“That would be nice,” she said and he stood, reaching down to take her wrist.
“You don’t have to hold me.”
“Only your wrist. I can keep up with you better this way,” he answered lightly, but it made her stand closer to him than was comfortable. He had to be a couple of inches over six feet tall. The top of her head reached his shoulder and she felt as if tiny currents of electricity were jabbing her when she was close to him. The prickly awareness put her on edge because it was so uncustomary for her. What was it about him that caused the sparks? Surely not just his movie-star looks. She shouldn’t be susceptible to bedroom eyes and a high-wattage grin. Something about him had her heart skipping way too fast and she could just imagine the broken hearts he had in his past.
They entered a large hallway decorated with Western art and he directed her back across the kitchen to another hallway. “The east wing of the house has spare bedrooms, my office and a workout room. We don’t use these bedrooms unless everyone is home.”
“Who is everyone?”
“My brothers and their families. They’ve remarried and have kids. We spend a lot of time here,” he said switching on lights and she entered another large, comfortable room with leather-upholstered furniture. A pool table was in the center of the room with a Ping-Pong table in a far corner and an immense stone fireplace along one wall. A wide-screen television stood at one end and one wall was lined with shelves filled with books. Two large gun racks were against another wall with an antique sword mounted over the fireplace.
“I can see why. You have everything you need here at home.”
“Not quite,” he drawled, and she knew he was referring to a woman companion.
“Don’t you get lonesome here?” The moment she asked, she knew it was a ridiculous question, and she answered before he could. “I know you don’t get lonesome anywhere. I’m sure I’m keeping you from some woman’s company tonight, and I’ll bet she’s quite unhappy about it.”
“No, I told you. There’s no one in my life right now.”
“If there’s not, she must be only a day away. I can’t imagine you going ten minutes without a woman close at hand.”
“Tonight I’ve got you, darlin’,” he drawled lightly, and she knew he was teasing her.
“And I know full well you didn’t want me.”
“I didn’t say that. I’m just assigned to keep you out of trouble.”
“To keep me away from Dorian is the truth. You can’t watch me forever.”
“Nope, I surely can’t, but for tonight I can do my assignment.”
She was acutely aware of his fingers still circling her wrist. Moving close at her side, he led her to another large room where he switched on a light. “Here’s my office.”
“What a beautiful desk.” When she wriggled her arm, he released her. As soon as he did, she crossed the room to look closer at the satinwood-and-ebony desk. “This looks old.”
“It is. My grandfather brought it home from Europe on one of his travels. I’ve tried to add some antiques to this home since I’ve had the house.”
“This is a beautiful desk,” she said, running her fingers along the smooth wood. Antique glass-fronted cases held books, but before she could read the titles, he took her arm lightly and led her back through the kitchen toward the center of the house and the west wing. “We’ll be staying in this end of the house.”
While they sauntered down the hall, Meredith considered escape. Maybe if he drank a few more beers, he would sleep dead to the world and her escape would be even easier.
“I’m surprised you don’t keep a dog out here.”
“There are several dogs on the ranch, but they’re down at the bunkhouse with the men.”
“Don’t tell me dogs don’t like you.”
He glanced at her with amusement in his eyes again. “I get along fine with the dogs. They’re just shut in the bunkhouse at the moment. Want me to get one of them up here?”
“Heavens, no! I just found it unusual to be out in the country and not see a dog.”
“Well, city girl, the dogs are here. I’ll show you tomorrow. Right now, I’ll show you around the house. Here’s the dining room.”
She looked at a large room with a Texas-size carved, mahogany table that held ten chairs on each side and two arm chairs at each end. A sparkling crystal chandelier caught the light and silver gleamed on the buffet. Another brick fireplace was at one end of the room.
“Do you actually eat in here?”
“Sure. The table is over one hundred years old and my great-great-grandfather had ten kids. The Windover descendants are all over Texas. We have big family get-togethers, and each of my brothers has four kids, so that’s at least twelve people when they come home. There’s a guest cottage in back for the overflow.”
“What about your parents?”
Again she caught the briefest shuttered look before he turned his head away and switched off the dining-room light. They moved down the hall. “My parents were divorced. I haven’t seen my mother since childhood, and my dad died last year.”
“I’m sorry you lost your father. My dad died when I was eleven.”
“I miss my dad,” he said gruffly. “Eleven must have been a rough age to lose your father.”
“It was, but my parents were always very involved with each other and not as much with us kids. Particularly my mom. My mother was just not meant to be a mother. I was always mother to my sisters and that was all right with me and good for Mom. Dad helped with the girls.”
“So you were mother to your sisters. Was your brother Hank the second dad?”
“Hardly,” she answered dryly. “Hank’s wild. When Dad died, Hank got more wild. He’s in trouble half the time and he’s out of touch with the family. I haven’t seen him in over a year.”
“I sort of remember that he’d been in some scrapes,” Jason said politely, and she could imagine that if he knew her brother, he knew some of the predicaments Hank had been in.
“If you know Hank, you must ride in rodeos.”
