in a tight voice, “We haven’t known each other long, Carter.”
“A year isn’t long enough?”
“Not with you living in Wild River and me living in Dallas. We haven’t seen that much of each other.”
Raw, ego-deflating pain gutted his insides. The flat-out rejection worked a number on his pride and made him look at Jocelyn in a new light. One that wasn’t flattering. A steady tick began to eat away at his jaw.
“The ring is a stunner, really.” The diamond that would never see her finger sparkled against incandescent candlelight. “But I can’t accept it.” She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t love you.”
In one fell swoop, he gripped the plush black ring box and clicked it shut before shoving it into his pocket. He didn’t want to look at the damn thing anymore. “Can’t be clearer than that.”
“Well, I’m…sorry.”
She didn’t sound all that sorry.
“Hell, your apology fixes everything. I suppose you want to be friends now?”
His ego was taking a big hit, but his heart hurt, too. He’d wrapped his future dreams around spending his life with Jocelyn. How had he gone so wrong? He’d known Jocelyn was a high-maintenance woman, but he figured he could make her happy. Now, he felt like a sap.
Her chin angled up, and when she spoke it was as if she were speaking to a dog that should obey. “Don’t be mad, Carter.”
Was she kidding? Anger was only one of the emotions torpedoing his belly. “Don’t tell me how to feel, Jocelyn. Even you’ve got to realize this is a blow to me.”
“You had it wrong. You made a lot of assumptions about our relationship.”
“I made…” Carter kept his anger contained. He spoke quietly, through clenched teeth. “You tempted me into a relationship, in case you’re forgetting. From the first day we met, you were all over me. Remember the Wild River County Fair? You brushed your body up against mine so many times, I needed a dunk in the river to cool myself off. You came after me, as I recall. And we’ve been together ever since. So excuse me if I’m pissed off. Excuse me if I don’t understand.”
And what about all those nights she’d screamed his name and told him he was the best lover she’d ever had? Or the midnight rides they’d take on horseback at the ranch? Or the way she clung to his arm whenever they were out in public, as if he was the most important person in her life? Was it all an act?
“You don’t understand. I wasn’t after you.”
“Like hell you weren’t.”
“You really don’t get it. I thought I was transparent. Clear as glass.” She rose from the table, clutching her small beaded purse. She shot him an unflinching gaze. “I’m in love with Brady. I was trying to make him jealous.” She gestured with a swipe of her hand. “All of this was for Brady’s sake.”
Carter sank back into his seat, his eyebrows denting his forehead. He hadn’t seen this coming. “My cousin?”
Carter had met Jocelyn one day when she was visiting her grandmother, Brady’s neighbor. She’d come by Brady’s place and the three of them, Brady, Carter and Jocelyn, had driven out to the county fair.
He stood abruptly and towered over her, pinning her with a glare. A bitter taste formed in his mouth. “So all this time, you were trying to make Brady jealous? How’s that working out for you?”
She stiffened and her gaze narrowed to two eye-lined slits. “Shut up.”
She made a move to pass by him, to escape his wrath, but he wasn’t through with her yet. He took hold of her arm, garnering her full attention. “You played me for a fool.”
She straightened her stance, holding her head high, like a member of royalty. “You are a fool. You’re a dumb stupid hick who let me string him along.”
His teeth ground together and his words came out low, from deep in his gut. “I’ll make sure to tell Brady you said that. Being as we’re related, that means he’s a dumb stupid hick, too. He was right about you. Yeah, the dumb stupid hick doesn’t think too highly of you. And this time, I’m not disagreeing.”
She flinched. His victory was small consolation, and while he knew better than to speak that way to a woman, he couldn’t stop himself because her indiscretion had been much worse.
He released her at the same moment she yanked her arm free. “Leave.”
She did. She walked away, and Carter didn’t bother to watch her exit. He headed for the bar, unnerved and feeling like hell. He needed to soak his sorrows with a double shot of whiskey. Jocelyn wasn’t the woman he thought she was. She’d been using him all along. Yeah, but he had to admit, she had him good and fooled.
No woman would ever fool him again, and after his liquor arrived, Carter downed the drink in celebration of escaping the hangman’s noose.
Thirty minutes later and fortified with the best whiskey money could buy, Carter stepped out of the restaurant and was hit with a blast of humid August night air. It was the only thing about New York that reminded him of Texas—cloistering humidity. The heat crept up his collar and made him sweat.
All of a sudden a crowd emerged, swarming a woman who was trying to enter the restaurant. Bulbs flashed, the rush of footsteps sounded on pavement, shouted questions flew through the air. More than a dozen paparazzi crammed her as she made a feeble attempt to push her way out. Her shoulder was bumped once, twice. She swiveled right, then left, trying to break away. Questions were leveled at her like grenades. When her eyes met his, in that brief moment, Carter saw a caged animal struggling to get free. She was trapped.
Recognition struck him smack between the eyes. She was the woman he’d glimpsed at the auction yesterday.
Someone yanked at the scarf hiding her jet-black hair. Long, luxurious curls spilled down her shoulder, and she reached behind her head to put the scarf back in place. Carter had seen enough. He muscled his way through the crowd, giving a few well-placed shoves himself to get to her. When he finally faced her, he gripped both her hands in his, firm but gentle. She gazed at him with desperate, deep lavender-blue eyes. Carter had no time to dwell on her beautiful face. He blocked a cameraman’s shot with his body, and the Stetson riding low on his forehead lent another measure of concealment. Use everything in your arsenal, he’d learned in the marines.
He leaned in real close. “I can get you out of here. But you have to trust me.”
Two
Fraught with panic, Macy faced the man from the auction, certain she was hallucinating. It couldn’t be him. She’d dreamed about him last night, and this morning, when she should have forgotten all about him, he’d still marched into her thoughts during quiet moments.
Shouted barbs, flashbulbs snapping and body heat from tabloid junkies brought her back to the here and now.
“Got yourself a cowboy,” shouted a photographer from the back of the pack.
“Are you doing nude scenes with him, Macy?” another asked.
The
