My chest disturbs you?” he asked with great innocence.
“You know what you’re doing,” Marissa snapped. “Go without your sweater. I can resist your chest,” she added, and he grinned, snaking out his long arm to grab his sweater and pull it over his head. He raked his fingers through his hair and it sprang back in thick waves. Marissa knew it didn’t matter a whole lot whether he had on his sweater or not because everything about him stirred her hormones.
“So if we go out—” she said.
“You said yes. When we go out—not if,” he reminded her.
“When we go out, who is taking care of Autumn?”
“I have that all worked out,” he replied smoothly, his fingers caressing her nape as he shifted a few inches closer to her. “I have a neighbor and fellow Texas Cattleman’s Club member and friend, Jason Windover, and his wife, Meredith. They have a little boy who was born in June of this year. We’ll take Autumn to their house. Meredith is great, and Jason is ex-FBI so Autumn will be safe. How’s that?”
“Ex-FBI? Autumn needs an FBI or Special Ops person around? Is she in danger?”
“She could be. No one knows because we don’t know anything about the mother,” he replied, letting strands of Marissa’s hair slide through his fingers. She found it difficult to keep her focus on their conversation. Tingles and aches tormented her while her attention was drawn like a magnet to David, and even though his chest was covered by his sweater, she knew it was there, temptingly close to touch and kiss.
“But you do know something,” she pressed.
“Yes, a little,” he replied, and related all the incidents of the night Autumn and her mother came to town.
“Half a million dollars! David, someone is probably after that money!” Marissa tilted her head to study him. “Out of the goodness of your hearts, you guys are guarding her, caring for her baby, safeguarding the money and trying to find out her identity?”
“Something like that,” he answered solemnly.
Memories flitted to mind, dredged up from the past as she studied him. “I remember some rumors about Texas Cattleman’s Club guys helping people in trouble. It’s true, isn’t it, David?”
“That’s what we’re trying to do here.”
“You don’t have any idea how much danger Autumn is in?”
“No, we don’t. Chances are, someone is after the mother and the money. Unless she kidnapped the child and took the money. Then that’s different. But I think it’s probably the mother who is in the greatest danger.”
“Well, I’m glad you told me,” Marissa said, wondering what she had gotten herself into.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “You’re safe here on the ranch. I have alarms all around the house and the outbuildings. I have dogs.”
“I met two of the dogs last week, and they’re as ferocious as pudding,” Marissa pointed out.
“They bark and they’re good about strangers,” David replied. “And I have six dogs on the place. The guys who work here have been alerted and Gertie is always cautious. My Dad wanted this ranch to be a shelter from the world and he started all this security stuff. Then, when I was in the military, I added to it.”
“You might have warned me.”
“You’re not in danger, or I would have. Besides, I’m close at hand.”
“You may be my greatest danger,” she replied breathlessly, because he was lightly caressing her nape.
“I’m no threat to you,” he replied blandly. “Wait until Saturday night and you’ll see that all your fears were for naught.”
“Right,” she replied, suspecting she was going to regret her Saturday night date with him for a long time. “And regarding Saturday night. Will we pick Autumn up on the way home?”
“Yes,” he replied, leaning a little closer and letting his fingers skim across her back and shoulders as he twirled long strands of her hair in his hand. “Or, Meredith said we can leave Autumn all night.”
“No way. We pick her up,” Marissa said firmly, trying to ignore the effect he was having just playing with her hair and lightly touching her. She was aware of each little tug and pull, aware when his hand stroked her. “Autumn is too little. I want to bring her back here.” She did not add that she also didn’t want the temptation of being alone with David.
He smiled. “I think I picked the best nanny in all of Texas. You’d think you were her mother.”
“She’s too little to leave with someone else all night long.”
“I won’t argue about it. As long as we have Saturday night, I’ll be happy to pick her up. As far as leaving Autumn with someone else—she’s here with us, instead of being with her mother, and she spent one night with just me, a totally inexperienced male, which was not the greatest for her. But if you want to bring her home Saturday night, that’s what we’ll do,” he said, and smiled at her.
“Thank you. It’s definitely what I want to do.”
“She’ll be in good hands, I assure you.”
Marissa stood and picked up the black dress and held it up. “This is beautiful,” she said. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I did what I wanted to do.”
“I’m sure you did!” she exclaimed, laughing and he shrugged. “I haven’t opened my other presents.”
Returning to the sofa, she picked up another box and opened it to find a pair of black pumps. She looked at him quizzically. “How’d you know what size to get?”
“Do I have the right size?”
She studied the pump. “Yes, you do.”
“My special magic.”
“Yeah, right,” she said, eyeing him and wondering when he had peeked at her things. “Well, they’re perfect. Now, what’s this?” She opened a fancy small box tied in a pink bow.
She opened the tiny box and lifted out a shimmering gold bracelet. “David, it’s beautiful! You shouldn’t have done all this.”
“I wanted to,” he said, taking the bracelet from her in his large fingers. “Hold out your arm.”
She did as she was told and he fastened the bracelet on her wrist. It caught glints of light from the fire as she twisted her wrist back and forth. “It’s beautiful!” She looked up at him. “Thank you for everything,” she said, deciding she would stop arguing with him about keeping his gifts.
“Wear it all Saturday night. That’s what I bought it for.”
“If you have seduction in mind, I can tell you now—”
Once again he stopped her, placing his hand on her lips.
