what?”
“I think you heard me,” Jack said, looking her up and down with a deliberate appraisal that made Hallie’s cheeks burn. “Though judging from your face, you would’ve thought I’d asked you to be my partner in bed, not business.”
“I’d rather bed a scorpion!”
“Suit yourself, darlin’. But unless you can die from pleasure, my bite isn’t poisonous.”
Hallie fought to keep from completely losing control of her temper. She’d worked with men all her life, but she’d never known any man who, after less than an hour’s acquaintance, could aggravate her with just one look. “This is a home, Dakota, not a saloon. I don’t allow talk like that under my roof.”
“You don’t strike me as the prim and proper kind, Hal.” Jack pushed away from the wall. Pulling off his black Stetson, he tossed it onto a nearby chair with an insolent flip of his hand. “But it’s my roof now,” he said, slowly walking toward her, “and under my roof, I’ll say and do as I please.”
“Why, you low-down, good-for-nothing—!” After everything that had happened, Jack Dakota was one calamity too much. Goaded to the breaking point, Hallie swung a fist in the direction of his jaw.
Jack easily caught her wrist in midmotion, holding her at arm’s length while she twisted to free herself. “If you’ll calm down long enough to think this over, I’m sure you’ll see it my way.”
“Over your dead body,” Hallie muttered at him. She stopped her useless struggle, and the moment he relaxed his grip, whipped her hand out of his grasp. Retreating a few steps, she rubbed her wrist, glaring at him.
Jack cautiously lowered his hands, not fully convinced the little wildcat wouldn’t attack him again. “Look, Hal, before you go for your guns, consider that I could just tell you to pack your bags and get off my ranch.” Fire flared in her eyes again and he held up his palms in warning. “But I’m trying to offer you a deal that’s more than fair, under the circumstances.”
“You expect me to believe you play fair?” Hallie said. She laughed, the sound grating and bitter even to her own ears. “You and I obviously have very different ideas of fair, Dakota.”
Jack shrugged off the insult. “Whatever you want to accuse me of, lady, you can’t call me a cheat. Everything I’ve won and lost, I’ve done so fair and square. I’m making you a straight offer. I’ve got the money to keep this place going, and you’ve got the experience. I’m willing to be your partner, and that’s the best you’re going to get from me or anyone else. But it’s your choice. You can stay or go, but right now, the boy and I are settling in.”
Before she could stop him, Jack strode past her and out the door in the direction Serenity had taken Ethan. Hallie stayed rooted in place and counted to ten, her hands flexing into fists at her sides as she tried to get some control of her stampeding emotions. Then she followed in his wake, catching up with him just as he stepped into the kitchen.
Serenity and Ethan, sitting at the kitchen table with plates of half-eaten squares of gingerbread in front of them, both looked up as Jack and Hallie came in.
“If you’re finished,” Jack said, walking up to Serenity, “I’d be obliged if you’d show us a couple of rooms we can bed down in.”
Serenity’s eyes flitted between Jack and Hallie and finally settled on Hallie in appeal. “Do I…? Where should I put them?”
Hallie almost told her she could send Jack Dakota straight to hell, but for Ethan’s sake, and the fact that Serenity would likely turn and run, she bit back the words.
What could she do? Her own home had been sold out from under her and Dakota was here to stake his claim. She supposed she could put a gun to his head and force him to leave. But she couldn’t do that in front of the boy, and besides, Dakota would only come back with the sheriff. She didn’t want to admit it, but he rightfully owned Eden’s Canyon, and if she kept getting him riled up, he might send her, Ben and everyone else packing.
And they had nowhere else to go.
She had no choice. She had to let him stay. And damn him, he knew it. It was clear in the way he was looking at her now, with that self-satisfied expression in his eyes, a half smile curving his mouth.
Go ahead and smile, Dakota, she told him silently. We’ll see who ends up staying. And it won’t be you.
“Give Ethan the room next to Ben’s,” she told Serenity. “Ben’s been using it to pile up what he doesn’t want to put away, but we can clean it out soon enough.” An idea struck her and she turned to Jack. “I’ll take you to your room.”
Not liking the sudden lift in her tone, Jack bent to take Ethan’s tattered bag, but the boy snatched it up.
“Don’t touch it,” Ethan said. “I can carry it myself.”
Jack opened his mouth to make a comment on Ethan’s manners, but the flash of disapproval in Hallie’s eyes stopped him. He wasn’t going to give her something else to argue with him about.
Instead, he inclined his head and swept a hand toward the kitchen door. “After you, then, Miss Hal.”
“This isn’t a room, it’s a stall.” Unwilling to go through the doorway, Jack glanced around the tiny, cluttered space Hallie had led him to.
“You’ve just been spoiled by too many fancy hotels,” she said, strolling to the window to lift the shade. “It’s fine. It used to be the nursery for Ben and me. Now it just needs a little sorting through and sprucing up.” She yanked the pull cord and the shade flew up, scattering dust motes in the rays of late-afternoon sunlight streaming into the musty, long-neglected room.
Waving away the cloud of dust, she turned and smiled sweetly at Jack. “I wasn’t expecting company.”
Jack sighed. “I’m not company.”
“As far as I’m concerned you are. So don’t get too comfortable.”
A few long strides took Jack across the small room, though he had to dodge a shabby wooden chest and a rocking chair with no seat as he went. He stopped when he stood less than a breath away from her. Meeting her nose to nose, he was pleased to see her false smile quickly fade, replaced by wariness.
He smiled, slow and easy. “Now, I think your joke is real amusing, honey, but it’s been a long day and I’m ready for a shave and some dinner.”
He was so close Hallie was forced to either tilt her head and look directly at his face or stare at his shirt buttons. She chose to meet his gaze squarely, immediately wishing she hadn’t.
His eyes, a warm, golden brown, reflected his smile and the laughter running through it. But she had the feeling he was inviting her to share with him the humor of the situation they found themselves in.
For one crazy moment, Hallie wanted to. He made it so easy and, she admitted, so tempting. She imagined he would be like that with a woman he wanted, and that it would be hard to say no, especially if he touched her.
The instant the thought registered Hallie sucked in a breath, so suddenly she drew in a lungful of dust and started to cough. What on earth was she thinking? She would never let a man like
