Wyoming True - Diana Palmer Page 0,77
her. That would have to do for now. Perhaps if she worked at it, very hard, he might come to love her back one day.
He paused at the bedroom doorway, his chiseled mouth pulled to one side. “A deal’s about to go awry because the prospective partner has decided that he only wants to do business face-to-face.”
She sat up, her blue eyes curious. “Where is he?”
He made a face. “Texas.”
Her heart jumped. It was a long way away. Her face reflected the sadness she felt.
He sat down beside her, his hand smoothing back her disheveled black hair. “I don’t want to go,” he confessed. “But I’ll have to.”
She almost asked to go with him, but there was something odd in his expression, something that hinted of confused emotions and doubts. She didn’t dare push.
“Okay,” she said softly. Her blue eyes twinkled. “Make sure your pilot is sober,” she said in a stage whisper.
He burst out laughing. It was the last reaction he’d expected. They were newlyweds. She might have felt justified in resentment, because he hadn’t asked her to go with him. But he was uneasy about their suddenly changed relationship and he needed to step back and take a good look at things.
“I won’t be gone longer than a few days,” he said.
“That’s okay,” she replied. “I’ll get out my clay and my tools and make exotic statues or something.”
“Erotic?” His deep voice was amused.
She stared at him and almost saw the wicked thoughts in his mind. “Models of birds and lizards,” she exclaimed and actually flushed. “Exotic wildlife! Not...that!”
He was laughing. She loved the way his silver eyes glittered with humor as he looked down at her.
“You are a bad man,” she said curtly.
He leaned down and kissed her, but on the forehead. “Yes, I am, from time to time,” he confessed. He sighed. “Ah, well, so much for my hopes of having something from the Kama Sutra to put in my office.”
The flush got much, much deeper. He studied it with true fascination. Two marriages behind her, and she was still, in some ways, quite innocent. He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
“Well, I’ll drag out my pilot and be off. Maude will be here in the morning.” He frowned. “Will you be all right, alone, tonight?”
“Of course,” she replied. “The house is wired like a bomb and there are full-time cowboys who live just down the road. I have my phone, and if I call 911, Cody Banks will have somebody out here like a shot. Don’t worry,” she added, confused and pleased that he was concerned about her.
He smoothed her hair again. He scowled. He was worried. He hadn’t realized how much. Her crazy ex-husband was gunning for her, and she could be in danger.
“I’ll be all right,” she emphasized. “Honest.”
He sighed as he got to his feet. “I’ll phone you every night.”
“I’ll keep my cell phone with me. But if I’m sculpting, you’ll have to be patient. I can’t answer the phone with clay all over my fingers,” she added impishly.
He pursed his lips and his silver eyes twinkled. “Why don’t you do a bust of me?” he asked. “Immortalize me in baked clay.”
She laughed. “I don’t do people well,” she replied. “Animals, yes, even flowers. But not people. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.”
“So we do.” He looked down at her and thought without wanting to that she was rapidly becoming one of his own weaknesses. Ridiculous, of course. He was fond of her. He wouldn’t mind having a child with her. She was beautiful. A little girl, he was thinking, with that same black hair and light blue or silver eyes...
“I’d better get dressed,” he said, bringing him back to cold reality.
She watched him go, confused. He’d looked at her as if he resented her. Perhaps he did. If he was still besotted with Mina Michaels Grier, then it was understandable. He wanted a child, but he’d wanted that with Mina. Was he only making do with second best? It was a worry that would haunt her.
* * *
SHE GOT UP and dressed, too, so that she could see him off. They paused in the doorway. Fred sat outside at the wheel of the limousine, waiting, looking all around and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
“He always looks like he’s waiting for the police,” Ida whispered to Jake and laughed softly.
He laughed with her. “I checked him out,” he replied. “He’s clean. Maybe he has dreams of being a