she would never again allow herself to be dominated by a man. Once in a lifetime was more than enough.
And so, in public and on the surface, she had competed in an idiotic contest with her sisters to win Des’s agreement to marriage. She and her sisters had each wanted to marry him because of business reasons that had to do with their father’s will and, ultimately, control of Baron International, the family business. Privately, though, she had remained extremely wary of Des.
Damn the man.
Why wouldn’t he stay out of her mind?
Just inside, she flipped on the light and started down the wide hall between the stalls. Immediately the scent of the sweet hay and straw, and the commonplace smell of saddle soap, leather and horses, enveloped her. Since childhood, she had equated the smells with comfort, with home, with safety.
She could hear Dia already moving restlessly in his stall, kicking out and whinnying nervously. Something had upset him.
With a frown, she made a fast stop by the tack-and-feed room, snatched an apple from the refrigerator, grabbed his halter off a peg and hurried to him. His head came up, his neck stretched out of the stall, and he nickered a greeting.
“Mornin’, Dia,” she said softly, giving him the apple and reaching up to stroke his neck. “What’s wrong, boy? Did one of the barn cats get in your stall and spook you? Or are you just overly anxious for our run this morning?”
She knew she was. Whenever Des was home, she remained constantly on edge. And he had come in last night.
She rubbed Dia behind the ears, trying to soothe him with her presence and their well-known routine.
A sorrel quarter horse stallion with a blond mane and tail, Dia had been named Diablo by his former owner, who had cautioned her against buying the “crazy devil.” Early in his life, Dia had been put into bad hands that had left him traumatized, with a hatred of all men. His former owner had been about to put the horse down. When she had found him, she bought him immediately.
She had spent two-thirds of her life under the thumb of her father, who had been a devil of a man. In comparison, Dia was a lamb, though no one else on the Double B thought so. But then, no one else understood him as she did. Some men had the ability to crush a person’s soul. Dia’s soul had been crushed. She had restored it.
She opened the stall door and walked in. Dia practically pranced in place with eagerness. “I know, my beauty,” she murmured as she slipped the halter over his head.
He loved their early morning ride as much as she did. It was their one guaranteed hour together, when no one bothered them and they could be alone with each other, the wind and the land. But it was more than eagerness for their ride that had him going this morning. Something else was up.
She cast a critical eye around the stall, then went outside again for a shovel. Turning the straw over, she failed to see anything obviously wrong.
She walked Dia out into the hall and crosstied him in the aisle. He pawed the sand beneath his hooves, and the other horses, sensitive to his mood, moved and nickered restlessly.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
The gruff voice sent a chill down her spine. She whirled around as Cody Inman stepped out of an empty stall three doors down. Suddenly Dia’s nervousness made sense. “What are you doing here?” If there was a choice, no one ever entered the barn before she took Dia out.
“Like I said, I’ve been waiting for you. We need to talk.”
Cody was a compact, muscular guy with dark curly hair, somewhere in his late twenties. He had been working on the ranch for about eight months. A couple of times he had been in the group she had gone dancing with. But last night it had inadvertently worked out so that it had been just the two of them.
With Cody at her side, she had flown one of the ranch helicopters into the nearest town, where she had heard there would be a good band playing, and for a short while she had enjoyed herself. But he had ended up drinking too much and had come on to her. As a result, she had been forced to cut the evening short.
Now she studied him, irritated that he had intruded on her private time. From the rumpled look of him, he hadn’t been to bed, and from his slurred words, he had been drinking ever since they had returned.
As head of the Double B and everything on it, she was in charge of what was basically a man’s world. She sometimes walked a fine line between boss and woman, but she was in no position ever to forget who she was. And she never did.
She had two rules. She played only with those who knew she was playing, and she never allowed the situation to get serious. She had thought Cody understood her rules. She had thought she could use their night of dancing as a shield to protect her from dwelling on Des and speculating on the reason he was home. She had been wrong.
Yesterday morning she had received an unexpected message from Des, saying he was flying in and wanted to see her. She had panicked and set about to make sure she was busy.
Trying to avoid Des was a knee-jerk reaction with her, one she should have outgrown years ago. Still, going out dancing was something she had done a hundred times before with a hundred different ranch hands.
But no more.
No more.
If nothing else, this situation with Cody had taught her it was not a wise thing to do.
“Back away, Cody. You’re making Dia nervous.”
“Everything makes that devil nervous.”
“I don’t know where you’re supposed to be working this morning, but it’s not here.” Though there were always exceptions, generally speaking only the ranch’s longtime, most trusted hands were allowed to work around the main homestead, which was comprised of the main two homes and their support buildings. “Go sober up, then get to work.”
She strode to the tack room and returned with a bucket of grooming tools.
He caught her elbow. “No way, sweetheart. I’m taking the day off. Besides, I’m with the boss. No one is going to get too bent out of shape over it.”
His grip hurt. “Cody, you’re drunk. Go do as I say.”
“Don’t tell me what to do! I’m not some common ranch hand. You and I clicked last night, and I’m not going anywhere until we’ve settled a few things.”
She jerked away and went to Dia. At her touch, he calmed, but his skin twitched and the white rims of his eyes showed. “There’s nothing to settle. Last night was fun, until you began to drink too much, but it’s not going to happen again.”
“Last night was special, you know that. But then you gave me the brush off, and that’s not right. There can be something really sweet between us if you’ll just let it happen.”
She gave a sound of exasperation. “Tell me something. Am I speaking a language other than English? Pay attention. Nothing is going to happen between us.”
“Come on, baby. You’re a wild one, but I’ve made up my mind—I’m going to be the one who tames you.”
“Tame me? Are you for real?”
