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She aimed a kick at his shin that almost connected.
He sidestepped, overbalancing her so that she fell heavily against him. She felt good in his arms, warm, delicate and sweetly scented. His breath caught at the feel of her soft skin under his hands where the dress was low-cut in back.
“Harley will… be missing me!” she choked.
“Damn Harley,” he murmured huskily and the words went into her mouth as he bent and took it hungrily.
His arms swallowed her, warm under the dark evening suit, where her hands rested just at his rib cage. His mouth was ardent, insistent, on her parted lips.
He forced them apart, nipping the upper one with his teeth while his hands explored the softness of her skin. He was getting drunk on her perfume. He felt himself going taut as he registered the hunger he was feeling to get her even closer. It wasn’t enough….
His hands went to her hips and jerked them hard into the thrust of his big body, so that she could feel how aroused he was.
She stiffened and then tried to twist away, frantic at the weakness he was making her feel. He couldn’t do this. She couldn’t let him do it. He was only making a point, showing her that she couldn’t resist him. He didn’t even like her anymore. He’d brought her best friend to the most talked-about event in town!
“You… let me go!” she sobbed, tearing her mouth from his. “I hate you, Leo Hart!”
He was barely able to breathe, much less think, but he wasn’t letting go. His eyes glittered down at her. “You don’t hate me,” he denied. “You want me. You tremble every time I get within a foot of you. It’s so noticeable a blind man couldn’t mistake it.” He pulled her close, watching her face as her thighs touched his. “A woman’s passion arouses a man’s,” he whispered roughly. “You made me want you.”
“You said I made you sick,” she replied, her voice choking on the word.
“You do.” His lips touched her ear. “When a man is this aroused, and can’t satisfy the hunger, it makes him sick,” he said huskily, with faint insolence. He dragged her hips against his roughly. “Feel that? You’ve got me so hot I can’t even think…!” Leo broke off abruptly as Janie stomped on his foot.
“Does that help?” she asked while he was hobbling on the foot her spiked heel hadn’t gone into.
She moved back from him, shaking with desire and anger, while he cursed roundly and without inhibition.
“That’s what you get for making nasty remarks to women!” she said furiously. “You don’t want me! You said so! You want Marilee. That’s why you’re taking her around with you. Remember me? I’m that gossiping pest who runs after you everywhere. Except that I’ll never do it again, you can bet your life on that! I wouldn’t have you on ice cream!”
He stood uneasily on both feet, glaring at her. “Sure you would,” he said with a venomous smile. His eyes glittered like a diamondback uncoiling. “Just now, I could have had you in the rosebushes. You’d have done anything I wanted.”
He was right. That was what hurt the most. She pushed back her disheveled hair with a trembling hand. “Not anymore,” she said, feeling sick. “Not when I know what you really think of me.”
“Harley brought you,” he said coldly. “He’s a boy playing at being a man.”
“He’s closer to my age than you are, Mr. Hart!” she shot back.
His face hardened and he took a quick step toward her.
“That’s what you’ve said from the start,” she reminded him, near tears. “I’m just a kid, you said. I’m just a kid with a crush, just your business associate’s pesky daughter.”
He’d said that. He must have been out of his mind. Looking at her now, with that painful maturity in her face, he couldn’t believe he’d said any such thing. She was all woman. And she was with Harley. Damn Harley!
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Dad that you tried to seduce me on the patio with your new girlfriend standing right inside the room,” she assured him. “But if you ever touch me again, I’ll cripple you, so help me God!”
She whirled and jerked open the patio door, slamming it behind her as she moved through the crowd toward the buffet table.
Leo stood alone in the cold darkness with a sore foot, wondering why he hadn’t kept his mouth shut. If a bad situation could get worse, it just had.
Chapter Four
Janie and Harley were back on the dance floor by the time Leo made his way inside, favoring his sore foot.
Marilee was standing at the buffet table, looking as miserable as he felt.
“Harley just gave me hell,” she murmured tightly as he joined her. “He said I was lower than a snake’s belly, and it would serve me right if Janie never spoke to me again.” She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Do you think your brother would mind dropping us off now? He could come right back…”
“I’ll ask him,” Leo said, sounding absolutely fed up.
He found Cag talking to Corrigan and Rey at the buffet table. Their wives were in another circle, talking to each other.
“Could you run Marilee home now and drop me off on the way back?” he asked Cag in a subdued tone.
Corrigan gaped at him. “You’ve never left a dance until the band packed up.”
Leo sighed. “There’s a first time for everything.”
The women joined them. Cag tugged Tess close. “I have to run Leo and Marilee home.”
Tess’s eyebrows went up. “Now? Why so early?”
Leo glared. His brothers cleared their throats.
“Never mind,” Cag said quickly. “I won’t be a minute…” “Rey and I would be glad to do it…” Meredith volunteered, with a nod from her husband.
“No need,” Dorie said with a smile, cuddling close to her husband. “Corrigan can run Leo and Marilee home and come right back. Can’t you, sweetheart?” she added.
“Sure I can,” he agreed, lost in her pretty eyes.
“But you two don’t usually leave until the band does, either,” Leo pointed out. “You’ll miss most of the rest of the dance if you drive us.”
Corrigan pursed his lips. “Oh, we’ve done our dancing for the night. Haven’t we, sweetheart?” he prompted.
Dorie’s eyes twinkled. She nodded. “Indeed we have! I’ll just catch up on talk until he comes back. We can have the last dance together. Don’t give it a thought, Leo.”
Leo was feeling the liquor more with every passing minute, but he was feeling all sorts of undercurrents. The women looked positively gleeful. His brothers were exchanging strange looks.
Corrigan looked past Leo to Cag and Rey. “You can all come by our house after the dance,” he promised.
“What for?” Leo wanted to know, frowning suspiciously. Corrigan hesitated and Cag scowled.
Rey cleared his throat. “Bull problems,” he said finally, with a straight face. “Corrigan’s advising me.”
“He’s advising me, too,” Cag said with a grin. “He’s advising both of us.”
All three of them looked guilty as hell. “I know more about bulls than Corrigan does,” Leo pointed out. “Why don’t you ask me?”
“Because you’re in a hurry to go home,” Corrigan improvised. “Let’s go.”
Leo went to get Marilee. She said a subdued, hurried goodbye to Cag and Rey and then their wives. Leo waited patiently, vaguely aware that Cag and Rey were standing apart, talking in hushed whispers. They were both staring at Leo.
As Marilee joined him, Leo began to get the idea. Corrigan had sacrificed dancing so that he could pump Leo for gossip and report back to the others. They knew he was drinking, which he never did, and they’d probably seen him hobble back into the room. Then he’d wanted to leave early. It didn’t take a mind reader to put all that together. Something had happened, and his brothers—not to mention their wives—couldn’t wait to find out what. He glared at Corrigan, but his brother only grinned.
“Let’s go, Marilee,” Leo said, catching her by the arm.
She gave one last, hopeful glance at Janie, but was pointedly ignored. She followed along with Leo until the music muted to a whisper behind them.
When Marilee had been dropped off, and they were alone in the car, Corrigan glanced toward his brother with mischievous silvery eyes and pursed his lips.
“You’re limping.”
Leo huffed. “You try walking normally when some crazy woman’s tried to put her heel through your damned boot!”
“Marilee stepped on you?” Corrigan said much too carelessly.
“Janie stepped on me, on purpose!”
“What were you doing to her at the time?”
Leo actually flushed. It was visible in the streetlight they stopped under waiting for a red light to change on the highway. “Well!” Corrigan exclaimed with a knowing expression.
“She started it,” he defended himself angrily. “All these months, she’s been dressing to the hilt and waylaying me every time I went to see her father. She damned near seduced me on the cooking table in her kitchen last month, and then she goes and gets on her high horse because I said a few little things I shouldn’t have when she was eaves-dropping!” “You said a lot of little things,” his brother corrected. “And from what I hear, she left town in a dangerous rush and had to be slowed down by our new assistant chief. In fact, you called and asked him to do it. Good thinking.”
“Who told you that?” Leo demanded.
Corrigan grinned. “Our new assistant chief.”
“Grier can keep his nose out of my business or I’ll punch it for him!”
“He’s got problems of his own, or didn’t you notice him step outside with Judd Dunn just before we left?” Corrigan whistled softly. “Christabel may think she’s her own woman, but Judd doesn’t act like any disinterested husband I ever saw.”
“He’s got a world famous model on his arm,” Leo pointed out.
“It didn’t make a speck of difference once he saw Christabel on that dance floor with Grier. He was ready to make a scene right there.” He glanced at Leo. “And he wasn’t drinking,” he emphasized.
“I am not jealous of Janie Brewster,” Leo told him firmly.
“Tell that to Harley. He had to be persuaded not to go after you when Janie came back inside in tears,” Corrigan added, letting slip what he’d overheard.
That made it worse. “Harley can mind his own damned business, too!”
“He is. He likes Janie.”
“Janie’s not going to fall for some wet-behind-the-ears would-be world-saver,” Leo raged.
“He’s kind to her. He teases her and picks at her. He treats her like a princess.” He gave his brother a wry glance. “I’ll bet he wouldn’t try to seduce her in the rosebushes.” “I didn’t! Anyway, there weren’t any damned rosebushes out there.”
“How do you know that?”
Leo sighed heavily. “Because if there had been, I’d be wearing them.”
Corrigan chuckled. Having had his own problems with the course of true love, he could sympathize with his brother. Sadly, Leo had never been in love. He’d had crushes, he’d had brief liaisons, but there had never been a woman who could stand him on his ear. Corrigan was as fascinated as their brothers with the sudden turn of events. Leo had tolerated Janie Brewster, been amused by her, but he’d never been involved enough to start a fight with her, much less sink two large whiskeys when he hardly even touched beer.
“She’s got a temper, fancy that?” Corrigan drawled.
Leo sighed. “Marilee was telling lies,” he murmured. “She said Janie had started all sorts of gossip about us. I’d kissed her, and liked it, and I was feeling trapped. I thought the kiss gave her ideas. And all the time… Damn!” he ground out. “Tess knew. She told me that Marilee had made up the stories, and I wouldn’t listen.”
“Tess is sharp as a tack,” his older brother remarked.
“I’m as dull as a used nail,” Leo replied. “I don’t even know when a woman is chasing me. I thought Janie was. And all the time, it was her best friend Marilee.” He shook his head. “Janie said I was the most conceited man she ever met. Maybe I am.” He glanced out the window at the silhouettes of buildings they passed in the dark. “She likes Harley. That would have been funny a few months ago, but he keeps impressive company these days.”
“Harley’s matured. Janie has, too. I thought she handled herself with dignity tonight, when she saw you with Marilee.” He chuckled. “Tira would have emptied the punch bowl over her head,” he mused, remembering his redheaded sister-in-law’s temper.
“Simon would have been outraged,” he added. “He hates scenes. You’re a lot like him,” he said unexpectedly, glancing at the younger man. “You can cut up, but you’re as somber as a judge when you’re not around us. Especially since we’ve all married.”
“I’m lonely,” Leo said simply. “I’ve had the house to myself since Rey married Meredith and moved out, almost a year ago. Mrs. Lewis retired. I’ve got no biscuits, no company…”
“You’ve got Marilee,” he was reminded.
“Marilee sprained her wrist. She’s needed me to drive her places,” Leo said drowsily.
“Marilee could drive with one hand. I drove with a broken arm once.”
Leo didn’t respond. They were driving up to the main ranch house, into the driveway that made a semicircle around the front steps. The security lights were on, so was the porch light. But even with lights on in the front rooms of the sprawling brick house, it looked empty.
“You could come and stay with any of us, whenever you wanted to,” Corrigan reminded him. “We only live a few miles apart.”
“You’ve all got families. Children. Well, except Meredith and Rey.”
“They’re not in a hurry. Rey’s the youngest. The rest of us are feeling our ages a bit more.”
“Hell,” Leo growled, “you’re only two years older than me.”
“You’re thirty-five,” he was reminded. “I’ll be thirty-eight in a couple of months.”
“You don’t look it.”
“Dorie and the babies keep me young,” Corrigan admitted with a warm smile. “Marriage isn’t as bad as you think it is. You have someone to cook for you, a companion to share your sorrows when the world hits you in the head, and your triumphs when you punch back. Not to mention having a warm bed at night.”
Leo opened the door but hesitated. “I don’t want to get married.”
Corrigan’s pale eyes narrowed. “Dorie was just a little younger than Janie when I said the same thing to her. I mistook her for an experienced woman, made a very heavy pass, and then said some insulting things to her when she pulled back at the last minute. I sent her running for the nearest bus, and my pride stopped me from carrying her right back off it again. She went away. It was eight long years before she came home, before I was able to start over with her.” His face hardened. “You know what those years were like for me.”
Leo did. It was painful even to recall them. “You never told me why she left.”
Corrigan rested his arm over the steering wheel. “She left because I behaved like an idiot.” He glanced at his brother. “I don’t give a damn what Marilee’s told you about Janie, she isn’t any more experienced than Dorie was. Don’t follow in my footsteps.”
Leo wouldn’t meet the older man’s eyes. “Janie’s a kid.”
