Hazard Ranch Read online

  “Wait. Turn around.”

  “Do you like it?” she asked anxiously.

  How could he describe how beautiful she looked to him? He didn’t think he could find the words. “I love it,” he managed.

  The dress was a vibrant red and made of material that looked soft to the touch. The skirt was full, so it floated around her. The bodice was fitted, crisscrossing in a V over her breasts, so for the first time he could see just how lovely she was. The chiffonlike material fell off her shoulders, leaving them completely bare, but enticed with a hint of cleavage. She’d taken her hair out of the tomboyish braids, and a mass of rich brown curls draped her bare shoulders, begging to be taken up in his hands. She was wearing high heels that lengthened her already-long legs and brought her eyes almost even with his.

  He could see how easy it would be to push the material down from her shoulders, leaving her breasts free to touch and taste. How easy it would be to slip his hands under the full skirt and capture her thighs, pulling her close. That thought pushed him over the edge. He felt himself responding to the wanton images that besieged him while she stood there looking lovely and desirable.

  “Get in the car,” he said in a voice harsh with the need he was struggling to control.

  He hates the dress, Harry thought as she obeyed Nathan’s curt order. She’d known the red dress was all wrong for her when she’d bought it two years ago. Too bright. Too sexy. Too sensual. Not at all like the Harriet Alistair of Williamsburg, Virginia. But tonight, when she’d looked into her closet, there it was. And it had seemed exactly right for the bold and daring woman who’d moved to Big Timber, Montana. The one who was attracted to Nathan Hazard.

  Apparently Nathan didn’t agree.

  On the other hand, Harry thought Nathan looked wonderful. His western suit fit him to perfection. The tailoring showed off his broad shoulders and narrow hips, his flat stomach and long legs. Of course, she had never found any fault with the way Nathan looked. Indeed, she’d wanted to touch the rippled chest and belly she’d seen this morning. Would Nathan’s skin be soft? Or as hard as the muscles that corded his flesh? Harry had even fantasized what Nathan would look like without a stitch on. But she’d never seen a naked man, and the only images she could conjure were the marble statues of Greek gods she’d seen. And a leaf had always covered the pertinent parts.

  Tonight there was a barely leashed power in the way Nathan moved that made Harry want to test the limits of his control. She wanted to touch. She wanted to taste. And she wanted to tempt Nathan to do the same.

  Their personal relationship had nothing to do with the land, Harry told herself. It was separate and apart from that. She could desire Nathan without compromising her stand, because they were in the midst of a truce. So when she sat down in Nathan’s sports car, she let her skirt slip halfway up her thighs before pulling it back down and leaned toward Nathan so that her breast brushed against his arm.

  He inhaled sharply.

  Harry looked at him, stunned by the flood of desire in his eyes. And began to reevaluate Nathan’s reaction to her red dress.

  Nathan didn’t leave her in doubt another moment. He leaned over slowly but surely until their mouths were nearly touching and said, “Don’t do that again unless you mean it.”

  Harry shivered and made a little noise in her throat.

  Nathan groaned as his lips covered hers and sipped the nectar there. Her mouth was soft and oh, so sweet, and his body tightened like a bowstring with need. His tongue found the edge of her lips and followed it until she opened her mouth and his tongue slipped inside. He mimed the stroke of their two bodies joined and heard her moan. He reached up a hand to cup her breast and felt the weight of it in his hand. His thumb stroked across the tip, and he realized it had already tightened into a tiny nub. His hand followed the shape of her, from her ribs to her waist and down her thigh to the hem of her skirt, where Harry caught his wrist and stopped him.

  Abruptly Nathan lifted his mouth from hers. Damn if she didn’t have him as hot and bothered as a high school kid! And she’d stopped him as if she were some teenage virgin who’d never done it before. On the other hand, though he felt like a kid, he wasn’t one. The small car was damn close for comfort. He could wait. Before the night was through he’d know what it was like to hold her in his arms and feel himself inside her. She wanted it. And so did he.

  “All right, Ms. Alistair,” he said through gritted teeth. “We’ll do this your way.”

  Nathan started the car, made a spinning turn and, in deference to his delicate suspension, headed at a slow crawl back down the bumpy dirt road toward the main highway and Chico.

  Harry was stunned. How had one kiss turned into so much so fast? She hadn’t wanted to stop Nathan. But things were moving too quickly. She didn’t want their first time to be in the front seat of a car. They both deserved more than that.

  Nathan was on the verge of suggesting they forget dinner and go back to his place. But from the nervous fidgeting Harry was doing, that probably wasn’t a good idea. He figured he’d better say something quick before he said what was really on his mind. So he cleared his throat of the last remnants of passion and asked, “What was your life like before you came to Montana?”

  “Overprotected.”

  Nathan glanced briefly at Harry-et to see if she was kidding. She wasn’t. “I guess I saw a little of that when your parents were here. They sure don’t think you can make a go of Cyrus’s ranch, do they?”

  “That isn’t their fault,” Harry said, coming to their defense. “I wasn’t exactly what you’d call a roaring success when I lived in Williamsburg.”

  “What were you, exactly?”

  Harry paused for a moment before she admitted, “I had several occupations, but I wasn’t interested in any of them. I managed to do poorly at them, so I could get fired.”

  “Why did you take the jobs in the first place if you weren’t interested in them?”

  “Because I couldn’t say no to my father.”

  Nathan snorted. “You haven’t had any trouble saying no to me.”

  “I turned over a new leaf when I came to Montana,” Harry said with an impish smile. “I made up my mind to do what I wanted to do, my way.” Her expression became earnest. “That’s why I was so upset by your interference. Don’t you see? I wanted to prove to my family, and to myself, that I could succeed at something on my own.”

  “I’m sorry I butted in,” Nathan said curtly.

  Harry put a hand on Nathan’s arm and felt him tense beneath her fingertips. “How could you know? Now that we’ve called this truce, things will be better, I’m sure. What about you? Did you always want to be a sheep rancher?”

  “No. Actually, I had plans to be an architect once upon a time.”

  “What happened?”

  Nathan glanced at Harry and was surprised by the concerned look on her face. He hardened himself against the growing emotional attachment he felt to her. “Things got in the way.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Parents.”

  “You weren’t overprotected, too, were you?”

  “Not hardly. I was the one who did the protecting in my household.”

  Harry was stunned by the bitterness in his voice. “I don’t understand. Are you saying you took care of your parents? Were they hurt or something?”

  “Yes, and yes.”

  But he didn’t say any more. Harry wasn’t sure whether to press him for details. His lips had flattened into a grim line, and the memories obviously weren’t happy ones. But her curiosity got the better of her and she asked, “Will you tell me about it?”

  At first she thought he wasn’t going to speak. Then the words started coming, and the bitterness and anger and regret and sadness poured out along with them.

  “My mother was an alcoholic,” he said. “I didn’t know her very well. But I took care of her the best I could. Dumped the bottles when I found them. Cleaned up when I could. Made meals for me and my da
d. She didn’t eat much. The alcohol finally killed her when I was sixteen.

  “It was a relief,” he said in a voice that grated with pain. “I was glad she was gone. She was an embarrassment. She was a lush. I hated her.” Harry watched him swallow hard and add in a soft voice, “And I loved her so much I would have died in her place.”

  Harry felt a lump in her own throat and tears burning her eyes. What a heavy burden for a child.

  “My father and I missed her when she was gone. Dad wanted me to stay on the ranch—Hazards had been sheep ranchers for a hundred years—but I wanted to be an architect. So I went away to college despite his wishes and learned to design buildings to celebrate the spirit of life.

  “The month I graduated my father had an accident. A tractor turned over on him and crippled him. I came home to take over for him. And to take care of him. That was fifteen years ago. He died two years ago an old man. He was fifty-eight.”

  “Did you ever have the opportunity to design anything?”

  “I designed and built the house I live in now. I haven’t had time to do more than that.”

  She could hear the pride in his voice. And the disappointment. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t pity me. I’ve had a good life. Better than most.”

  “But it wasn’t the life you had planned for yourself. What about a wife? Didn’t you ever want to marry and have children?”

  “I was too busy until two years ago to think about anything but making ends meet,” Nathan said. “Since then I’ve been looking. But I haven’t found the right woman yet.”

  Harry heard Nathan’s “yet” loud and clear. Nathan knew her, therefore he must have excluded her from consideration. Which hurt more than she’d expected. “What kind of woman are you looking for?”

  Nathan didn’t pull any punches. “One who can stand on her own. One who can carry her half of the burden. Ranching’s a hard life. I can’t afford to marry a woman who can’t contribute her share to making things work.”

  Harry threaded her hands together in her lap. Well, that settled that. She obviously wasn’t the kind of woman who could stand on her own two feet. In fact, Nathan had been holding her up for the past two months.

  How he must have hated that, Harry thought. He had taken care of her with concern and consideration, but he’d done it because she was someone who was helpless to help herself. Not as though she were an equal. Not as though she were someone who could one day be his partner. How Harry wanted the chance to show Nathan she could manage on her own! Maybe with this truce it would happen. She would continue to learn and grow. As success followed success, he would see her with new eyes. Maybe then…

  Harry suddenly realized the implications of what she was thinking. She was thinking of a future that included Nathan Hazard. She pictured little Nathans and Harrys—blue-eyed blondes and brown-eyed brunettes with freckles. Oh, what a lovely picture it was!

  However, a look at Nathan’s stern visage wasn’t encouraging. He was obviously not picturing the same idyllic scene.

  In fact, Nathan was picturing something very similar. And calling himself ten times a fool for doing so. How could he even consider a life with Harry-et Alistair. The woman was a disaster waiting for a place to happen. She didn’t know the first thing about ranching. She was a tenderfoot. A city girl. She would never be the kind of partner who could pull her own weight.

  Fortunately they’d reached the turnoff to the restaurant at Chico. The lag in the conversation wasn’t as noticeable because Nathan took the opportunity to fill Harry-et in on the history of Chico. The hotel and restaurant were located at the site of a natural hot spring that now fed into a swimming pool that could be seen from the bar. It had become a hangout for all the movie stars who regularly escaped the bright lights and big city for what was still Montana wilderness. The pool was warm enough that it could be used even when the night was cool, as it was this evening.

  Nathan and Harry were a little early for their dinner reservations, so Nathan escorted her into the bar where they could watch the swimmers.

  “Would you like to take a dip in the pool?” Nathan asked. “They have suits—”

  “Not this time,” Harry said. “I don’t think—” Harry stopped in midsentence, staring, unable to believe her eyes. She pointed toward the sliding glass doors. “Doesn’t that man in the pool look a lot like—”

  “Luke,” Nathan finished for her. “I think you’re right. He seems to be with someone. Maybe they’d like to join us for a drink. I’ll go see.”

  Nathan had grasped at the presence of his friend as though it were a lifeline. He’d realized, suddenly and certainly, that it wasn’t a good idea to be alone with Harry-et Alistair. The more time he spent with her, the lower his resistance to her. If he wasn’t careful, he’d end up letting his heart tell his head what to do. He could use his friend’s presence to help him keep his sense of perspective.

  Of course, knowing Luke, and seeing how cozy he was with the lady, he knew his friend wasn’t going to appreciate the interruption. But, hell, what were friends for?

  Thus, a moment later he was standing next to Luke and the woman who had her face hidden against his chest. “Hey, Luke, I thought it was you. Who’s that with you?”

  After a brief pause, Luke answered, “It’s Abby.”

  Nathan searched his memory for any woman he knew by that name. “Abby?”

  “Abigail Dayton,” Luke bit out.

  “From Fish and Wildlife?” Nathan asked, astonished.

  Abigail turned at last to face him. “Luke and I are just relaxing a few tired muscles.”

  Nathan grinned. “Yeah. Sure.”

  A female voice from the doorway called, “Nathan?”

  The light behind Harry-et made her face nearly invisible in the shadows. At the same time it silhouetted a fantastic figure and a dynamite pair of legs. It irked Nathan that Luke couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the woman in the doorway.

  “Who’s that with you?” Luke asked Nathan.

  “Uh…”

  “Nathan, is it Luke?” Harry asked. “Oh, hello. It is you. Nathan thought he recognized you.”

  This time it was Luke who stared, astonished. “Harry? That’s Harry?”

  Harry grinned. “Sure is. Nathan tried to convince me to take a swim, but I was too chicken. How’s the water?” she asked Abigail.

  “Marvelous.”

  “What are you two doing here together?” Luke asked his friend sardonically. “I thought you hated each other’s guts.”

  Nathan stuck a hand in the trouser pocket of his western suit pants to keep from clapping it over his friend’s mouth. “We called a truce. Why don’t you two dry off and join us for a drink?” he invited.

  Nathan could see Luke wasn’t too hot on the idea. But he gave his friend his most beseeching look, and at last Luke said, “Fine.”

  Luke gave Nathan a penetrating stare, but made no move to leave the pool. Obviously Luke wanted a few more minutes alone with the Fish and Wildlife agent. Nathan turned to Harry-et and suggested, “Why don’t we go inside and wait for Luke and Abby.”

  He took Harry’s arm and led her back inside. “You really look beautiful tonight, Harry-et,” he said as he seated her at their table.

  “Thank you, Nathan.” Ever since she’d come outside Nathan had been looking at her a little differently. She’d seen the admiration in Luke’s eyes and watched Nathan stiffen. Really, men could be so funny sometimes. There was no reason for Nathan to be jealous. She didn’t find Luke’s dark, forbidding looks nearly so attractive as she found Nathan’s sharp-boned Nordic features.

  She was almost amused when Nathan took her hand possessively once he was seated across from her. He held it palm up in his while his fingertips traced her work-roughened palm and the callused pads of her fingertips.

  Harry felt goose bumps rise on her arm. She was all set for a romantic pronouncement when Nathan said, “It’s a shame you have to work so hard. A lady like you shouldn’t
have calluses on her hands.”

  Harry jerked her hand from his grasp. “I have to work hard.”

  “No, you don’t. Look at you, Harry-et. You spend so much time in the sun your face is as freckled as a six-year-old’s.”

  “Are you finished insulting me?” Harry asked, confused and annoyed by Nathan’s behavior.

  “I think you ought to sell your place to me and get back to being the beautiful woman—”

  Harry’s hand came up without her really being aware it had. She slapped Nathan with the full force of the anger and betrayal she was feeling. The noise was lost in the celebration of the busy bar, but it was the only sound Harry heard above the pounding of her heart. “You never wanted a truce at all, did you, Nathan? You just wanted a chance to soften me up and make another plea to buy my land. I can’t think of anything lower in this life than a lying, sneaky snake-in-the-grass Hazard!”

  “Now just a minute, Harry-et. I—”

  She grabbed his keys from the table where he’d set them and stood up. “I’m taking your car. You can pick it up at my place tomorrow. But I don’t want to see your sorry face when you do it.”

  “Be reasonable, Harry-et. How am I supposed to get home?”

  “You can ask your friend, Luke, to give you a ride, but I’d be pleased as punch if you have to walk.”

  “Harry-et—”

  “Shut up and listen! You’re going to have an Alistair ranching smack in the middle of your land for the rest of your life, Nathan. And you can like or lump it. I don’t really care!”

  Harry marched out of the bar with her head held high, but she couldn’t see a blamed thing through the haze of tears in her eyes. How could she have believed that handsome devil’s lies? And worse, oh, far worse, how could she still want a man who only wanted her land?

  Nathan stood up to follow her and then sat back down. That woman was so prickly, so short-tempered, and so stubborn—how on earth could he want her the way he did? It was his own fault for provoking her. But he’d been frightened by his possessive feelings when Luke had admired Harry-et. So, perversely, he’d enumerated to her all the reasons why he couldn’t possibly be attracted to her and managed to drive her away.