she replied. “How’s your head?” Better to sound natural, she decided, and she even smiled.
“It was bad enough before I buried it in dust and bleating calves,” he muttered. “Come in here a minute. I have to talk to you.”
She knew her heart had stopped beating. With a sense of awe, she felt the warmth of his lean, strong hand around her upper arm as he guided her back into the house and shut the door. He let go of her almost reluctantly.
“Look, Pepi, this has got to stop,” he said.
“W-what has?” she faltered.
“You chasing me down on my yearly binges,” he said irritably. He took off his hat and ran a grimy hand through his sweaty jet hair. “I’ve been thinking all day about what could have happened to you in Juárez last night. That part of town is a rough place in broad daylight, never mind at night. I told you before, I don’t need a nursemaid. I don’t want you ever pulling such a stupid stunt again.”
“There’s a simple solution. Stop drinking,” she said.
He searched her uplifted face quietly, scowling. “Yes, I think I might have to. If my memory’s as faulty as it was last night…”
She had to exert every ounce of will she had not to give anything away. “Your secrets are safe with me, C.C.,” she said in a stage whisper, and grinned.
He relaxed a little. “Okay, squirt. Go do your shopping.” His dark eyes slid over her body in a way they never had before, and she felt her knees going weak.
“Something wrong?” she asked huskily.
His eyes caught hers. “You kick around in jeans so much that I forget occasionally that you’ve even got legs.” His gaze dropped to them and he smiled in a sensual kind of way. “Very nice legs, at that.”
She flushed. “My legs are none of your business, C.C.,” she informed him.
He didn’t like that. His sharp glance told her so. “Why? Do they belong to the carrot-topped vet already? He acts more like a lover than a friend, despite your constant denials.” His expression seemed to harden before her eyes. “You’re twenty-two, as you keep telling me. And this is a permissive age, isn’t it? No man can expect virginity in a wife anymore.”
The mention of the word “wife” made her face pale. But she couldn’t let him see how shaken she was. “That’s right,” she said. “It is a permissive age. I can sleep with a man if I like.”
He looked briefly murderous. “Does your father know about that attitude?”
“What my father doesn’t know won’t bother him,” she said uneasily. “I have to go, C.C.”
His eyes mirrored his contempt. “My God, I thought you were old-fashioned, in that respect at least.”
That hurt. She lowered her gaze to his shirt. “As you keep telling me, my private life is no concern of yours,” she said in a tight voice. “You and Edie probably don’t play bingo on your dates, either, and I don’t make nasty remarks about your morals.”
“I’m a man,” he said shortly.
She lifted her eyes defiantly. “So what? Do you think being a man gives you some divine right to sleep with anybody you like? If men expect chaste women, then women have the right to expect chaste men!”
His thick eyebrows lifted toward the ceiling. “My God, where would you find one?”
“That’s my point exactly. Sling mud and it sticks to your fingers. Now I’m going.”
“If you aren’t meeting the handsome vet, who are you meeting, dressed like that?” he asked curtly.
“It’s just a skirt and blouse!”
“Not the way you fill them out, little one,” he said quietly. His eyes made emphatic statements about that before he lifted them back up to capture hers.
“I’m overweight,” she got out.
“Really?” He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, but his eyes had hers in a stranglehold and he wouldn’t let her avert her gaze.
Her heart raged in her chest, beating painfully hard and fast. Her lips parted on a shaky breath and she realized that her hands were clutching her purse so hard that her nails were leaving marks in the soft leather.
He moved closer, just close enough to threaten her with the warm strength of his body. He was so much taller that she had to look up to see his eyes, but she couldn’t manage to tear her gaze away.
The back of his forefinger touched her cheek in a slow, devastating caress. “I thought you were a total innocent, little Pepi,” he said, his voice at least an octave deeper. “If that’s not the case, you could find yourself in over your head very quickly.”
Her lips parted. She was drowning in him, so intoxicated that she didn’t even mind the smell of calf and burned hide that clung to him. Her eyes fell to his hard mouth, to its thin chiseled lines, and she wanted it with a primitive hunger. It occurred to her that she could entice him into her bed, that she could sleep with him. They were legally married, even if he didn’t know it. She could seduce him. The delicious thought made her breath catch.
Then came the not-so-delicious thought of what would happen afterward. With the experience she was pretty sure he had, he might know that she was virginal, by her reactions if nothing else. Besides that, it might hurt, which would be a dead giveaway. And he didn’t know they were married. All sorts of complications could arise. No, she thought miserably, she couldn’t even have that consolation. Not even one night to hold in her memory. She had to keep him at arm’s length until she could decide how to tell him the truth and what to do about it.
She backed away a little, forcing a smile. “I really have to go,” she said huskily. “See you later.”
He muttered something under his breath and opened the door for her, his dark eyes accusing as they watched her go. She was getting under his skin. It made him angry that her body enticed him, that he was hungry for her. It made him angrier that she was apparently experienced. He didn’t want other hands touching her, especially the vet’s. She’d been his caretaker for so long now that he’d come to look upon her with the same passion a wine maker felt for his best vintage. But he’d thought she was virginal, and she’d as good as told him she wasn’t. That realization changed everything. He’d placed her carefully off limits for years, but if she wasn’t innocent, then he didn’t have to worry about his conscience. Odd, though, he thought as he watched her go, she could still blush prettily enough when he looked at her body. Maybe she wasn’t very experienced, despite the redheaded veterinarian’s attentions. C.C.’s black eyes narrowed. Brandon didn’t have his experience, so that gave him an edge. Yes, it did. He lifted the cigarette to his mouth and smiled faintly as he watched Pepi climb into her father’s old Lincoln and drive away.
Blissfully unaware of C.C.’s plotting, Pepi managed to get the car out of the driveway without hitting anything. Her hands on the steering wheel were still shaking from her unexpected confrontation. That was the first time that C.C. had ever made anything resembling a pass at her. Perhaps she should have been less emphatic about her experience—of which she didn’t have any. But she’d felt threatened by the way C.C. had looked at her, and her mind had shut down. For one long second she agonized over the thought that he might take her off the endangered species list and start pursuing her himself. But, no, he had Edie to satisfy those needs. He wouldn’t want an innocent like herself. And then she remembered that she’d told him she was no innocent. What would she do if he made a heavy pass at her? She loved him to distraction, but she didn’t dare let things go that far. If the worst came to pass and they were really married, she could get an annulment without much difficulty. But if she admitted him to her bed, it would mean getting a divorce, and that would take much longer. She couldn’t afford to give in to temptation, no matter how appealing it was….
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