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“I saw most of it,” he reminded her.
“Yes, but you weren’t with us in the car. He could say I promised him whatever he wanted and then got cold feet.”
He cursed under his breath. “I don’t like letting him get away with this.”
“He’ll be much too busy explaining his bruises,” she said with a flare of humor. “And when I go back to school, I’ll swear to everyone I know that I gave them to him!” she said with a little laugh.
He chuckled. “He’ll be a legend in his own time.”
“Yes, he will,” she promised. She cocked her head and looked at him curiously. “You don’t look like a man who gets into many fights,” she said.
He shrugged and smiled at her. “My...father—” odd how he hesitated on the word, Niki thought “—founded an oil company. He built it into a multinational corporation and groomed me to run it. But his idea of management was to teach me the job from the bottom up. I started out as a roughneck, working on oil rigs.” He pursed his lips. “The boss’s son wasn’t the most popular guy around. Plenty of other men thought I’d be a pushover.”
“I imagine it didn’t take them long to learn the lesson,” she said, smiling up at him.
“Not long, no,” he agreed. “You’ll have bruises, Niki. I’m really sorry.”
“It would have been much worse if you hadn’t been here,” she said. It began to catch up with her and she shivered. “I’ve been on blind dates before, in high school, but nobody ever tried to...” A sob broke from her throat. “Sorry,” she faltered.
He bent and scooped her up in his big arms. He sat down in an armchair and cuddled her in his lap. “Get it out of your system, Niki. I’m not afraid of tears,” he said softly, brushing his mouth over her hair.
She bawled. It was a rare thing, comfort. Her father had never been a physical sort of man. He loved her, but he never kissed bruises or offered much comfort. Like Blair, he was an oilman, and he’d worked on oil rigs in his youth, too. Her mother had died when she was in grammar school, so it had just been her and Daddy, most of her life, here on the enormous cattle ranch he’d inherited from his father. She was nineteen, almost twenty, and this was the first time she’d ever had anybody offer her a shoulder to cry on. Well, except for Edna Hanes, the housekeeper.
She pressed close to Blair’s broad chest and mourned the loss of him. He was going to get married. She’d had this stupid idea that one day she’d grow up enough for him to finally notice her. That was a pipe dream, and it had gone up in ashes tonight. At least, she thought, he’d saved her from that overly muscled brute.
“Poor little thing,” he murmured against her forehead. “I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t know men could be like that,” she said brokenly. “I don’t date much. I like to live in the past. I’d have been right at home in the Victorian age. I don’t...fit in in the modern world.”
“Neither do I,” he confessed. He lifted his head and searched her wet eyes. “Still a virgin?”
She nodded. Oddly, it wasn’t at all embarrassing to talk to him like this. She felt as if she’d always known him. Well, she had, for several years, if distantly. “Daddy took me to church every Sunday until I went off to college,” she confessed. “Some of the other girls at school say I’m stupid to think any man would want to marry an innocent woman. They say I need experience, so I’ll appeal to a man.” She looked at him like a curious little bird. “Is that right?”
He smoothed the damp hair away from her cheeks. She was almost otherworldly. He ached in inconvenient places and chided himself for that reaction to her. She was a child, compared to him, even if she was in college. “I think innocence is a rare and beautiful thing,” he said after a minute. “And that your husband will be a very lucky man.”
She smiled shyly. “Thanks.” She pursed her lips.
“A question?” he teased. “Ask away.”
“Will your wife be a very lucky woman?” she asked outrageously.
He burst out laughing. “No. Emphatically, no.” He searched her shimmering eyes. “You really are a pain, aren’t you?”
She linked her arms around his strong neck. “I truly am.” She smiled at him. “What’s she like, your fiancée?”
“Black hair, blue eyes, beautiful, sophisticated, very artistic,” he summed her up.
“And you love her very much.”
He smiled back. “She’s the first woman I ever asked to marry me. I’ve been too busy making money to think about a private life. Well, about a permanent one, at least.”
“Is she nice?”
He frowned. “What a question.”
“I mean, will she take care of you if you get sick, and stay home and take care of the babies when they come along?” she asked, because she realized if she couldn’t have him, she wanted happiness for him, above all things.
The questions made him uncomfortable. Elise was uncomfortable with illness. She avoided it like the plague. And she’d already said that if she agreed to have a child, there would be a price, and it would be years from now. Why hadn’t he considered that before? In fact, he’d been so busy that he’d fallen into the engagement without much consideration about compatibility or children. He was so hungry for her that he’d have done anything to get her, including getting married. She kept him at fever pitch, always backing away just in time...
“Do you want children?” she asked.
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yes,” he said, but he sounded troubled.
“Did I put my foot in my mouth?” she prodded when he scowled.
“No. Of course not.” He smiled faintly. “I’d never considered those things. I’m sure she’ll take care of me when I’m sick, though.”
“That’s good, then.” She smiled up at him. “You’ll be a good husband, I think.”
He looked down at the torn dress and winced. “You poor little creature,” he said softly. “I’m sorry you had such a bad night.”
“It ended better than it began,” she replied.
The front door opened and Todd Ashton, Niki’s father, walked in. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his friend and his daughter in the big armchair. Niki was sitting in Blair’s lap. Her dress was torn. And she looked...
“My friend Laura set me up on a blind date with Harvey the Horror,” she told her father, not budging out of Blair’s lap. “He dragged me in here, after I refused to go to his apartment with him, and if Mr. Coleman hadn’t been here to stop him, he’d have...” She stopped, swallowing hard.
“I’ll have my lawyers contact his parents,” Todd said icily.
“I offered to take her to the emergency room and call the sheriff,” Blair sighed. “She wouldn’t.”
“My poor girl,” Todd said, grimacing. “I’m sorry. I should have been home, but this damned budget crunch drew me into an emergency meeting at work.”
“I know how that feels,” Blair agreed. He looked down at the girl in his lap. “Better now?” he asked softly, and he smiled.
“Much better. Thank you for what you did,” she added as she got reluctantly to her feet. It was nice, being held.
He chuckled. “I’m glad to know I haven’t forgotten how to punch a man,” he said.
“You hit him? Good for you!” Todd said shortly.
“I’m going on up,” Niki said wearily. “I really am tired.”
“You shouldn’t have gone back to classes so soon,” Todd said.
“I couldn’t afford to miss finals,” she protested. “I did the last one today. Just before Laura hooked me up with Harvey for a dinner celebration.” She sighed. “Some celebration.”
“When you graduate, Elise and I will take you out for champagne and lobster,” Blair promised.
She forced a smile and tried to pretend that her heart wasn’t breaking. “That won’t be for another year or two, but thanks. That would be nice.”
“Elise?”
“My fiancée,” Blair said with a chuckle. “We’re getting married in two months, in Paris. I’ll make sure you two get an invitation.”
“I doubt we can make it. But I’ll send a present,” Todd said, grinning. “Something tasteful, I promise.”
“Good night,” Niki said.
They echoed the words.
“Damned bounder,” Blair muttered when he and Todd shared snifters of cognac. “I brought him to his knees and made him apologize. She was pretty shaken.”
“I haven’t been much of a father,” the older man confessed. “She’s been on her own a lot. Too much, probably.”
“How old is she?” Blair asked.
“Nineteen. Almost twenty.”
“I remember being nineteen.” The other man chuckled. He put aside the brief hunger he’d felt while Niki was in his arms. She was years too young. And besides, he was getting married. “Back in the Dark Ages. She’s a nice girl. You’ve done a good job raising her.”
“Thanks. And thanks for saving her from the football hero.”
He shrugged. “What are friends for?” he asked, with twinkling black eyes.
* * *
IT WAS A year later when Blair came back to the ranch to spend a few days. He and Todd had seen each other socially on occasion, but he hadn’t come to the ranch since the night Niki had her bad encounter.
He and Elise were having problems. Big problems. He was broody and wouldn’t talk to Todd. But he talked to Niki. It was the Christmas holidays, and the tree was glorious. Despite a few sick days, Niki had managed to do all the decorating herself. The tree was nine feet tall, decked out in red beaded strands and red velvet bows, with every sort of ornament imaginable, especially mechanical ones. There were trains that ran, dancers who danced and starships that made blast-off noises. It was glorious.
“I’ve never had a Christmas tree,” Blair had to confess. “But I’m tempted, after seeing this one.”
Niki laughed softly. “You should have Elise decorate one for you.”
His face closed up. “She’s not much for the holidays.”
She cocked her head and looked up at him with warm, curious eyes. “Aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “I like Christmas. It was my mother’s favorite holiday. She was forever buying decorations. I still have them, in storage.”
“You sound sad,” she said.
“She died over a year ago. It’s been lonely.”
“No brothers or sisters?”
He shook his head. “My...father died ten years ago.” Again, that odd hesitation. “It was just my mother and me.”
“Now it’s Elise and you,” she said, lowering her eyes. “So you still have family.”
“Yes.”
His tone wasn’t pleasant. She wondered why. He’d been so happy the last time they’d seen each other, talking about his upcoming marriage, bragging about his fiancée. And now he was somber, quiet.
“They say marriages sometimes start rocky and end happy,” she blurted out.
He glanced down at her, his black eyes twinkling. “Do they, now?”
“Okay, I’m no authority on couples. You might remember my first and last attempt at that,” she added with a little laugh.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t been out with anyone since,” he said, surprised.
She grimaced. “Well, I was sort of afraid to try again,” she confessed. “I wasn’t sure you’d be around to rescue me when my date brought me home,” she added with a smile. She couldn’t confess that no man in the world could compare to Blair, in her mind or her heart.
He stuck his hands in his pockets. “How did the football hero fare?” he asked.
“He went back East rather suddenly after my father’s attorney had a talk with his father,” she said. “Strange, isn’t it?”
“Very.”
“If he tries it again, I hope the girl’s father belongs to the mob and they find him floating down some river in an oil drum,” she said firmly.
He laughed under his breath. “Vicious girl.”
“You’re right. That wasn’t nice at all. Can you put this on for me? I can’t quite reach.” She indicated a spot high on the tree where she wanted one last red velvet bow.
“You can reach.” He caught her small waist and lifted her easily within reach of the branch. She was so slight, it was like lifting a feather. The feel of her, the scent of her, was disturbing.
She laughed. “You’re awfully strong,” she remarked when he set her down again.
He moved away from her rather quickly. “It comes from wrestling with my board of directors,” he replied drily.
She moved back and looked at the tree. “Will it do, you think?”
“It’s lovely.” He frowned. “Do you and your father have any other family?”
“Not really. He has an aunt, but she lives overseas. He didn’t have brothers and sisters. My mother did, but her only brother died when I was in grammar school.” She looked up at him. “Didn’t Elise want to come with you?” she asked. “I’d love to meet her. I’m sure Daddy would, too.” She was lying through her teeth. She never wanted to meet Elise, if she could help it.
“She’s in Europe with some friends,” he said.
“Oh.” She didn’t really know what else to say. She went back to her decorating.
His voice sounded raspy.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
He drew in a breath and grimaced. “My chest feels a bit tight. I think it’s allergies. I get them this time of year.”
