In the Arms of the Rancher. Jan Colley
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snorted derisively as she pressed the elevator button. Handsome, cultured and charming was an act hiding Jeff’s true nature.
As Kate stepped inside the elevator, an old adage of her mother’s came to mind. Handsome is as handsome does. Well, for Kate, handsome had proved to be a nasty jerk when things didn’t go exactly the way he wanted them to go.
“Hi,” Hawk said as the elevator doors parted. “You look lovely.” His eyes held a teasing gleam. “How did you know the Black Watch was my favorite of the clan plaids?”
Kate laughed. “I didn’t. It just happens to be my favorite, too. And hello yourself.” She grinned.
“Where are we going this evening?”
Shaking his head, Hawk cupped her elbow and led her to the car. “I thought we’d pick up where we were, before we were so rudely interrupted. Do you avoid all casinos or just the one we almost went in last night?”
“Just that one,” she said and buckled her seat belt. “But I don’t go to casinos very often.” She smiled. “As the old song goes, I work hard for my money. But I do play occasionally.”
“Table games?” He arched his brows.
“No, I play the machines only.” Kate arched her brows back at him. “What about you?”
“Poker, Texas hold ’em,” he answered, shrugging. “And some blackjack now and again. Ready to go?”
“Whenever you are,” Kate said, and he pulled out of the lot.
He was quiet for a moment as they drove. “I don’t know what scent you’re wearing but I like it…a lot.”
Kate grew warmer and more tingly. “Thank you, Hawk. It’s the only scent I wear.”
“Whenever or wherever I smell it, I’ll think of you.” He flashed a smile at her.
Kate was certain everything inside her was melting. She told herself she had better be careful, because this man wasn’t merely dangerous, but he was dynamite. Compared to Hawk, she thought, Jeff wasn’t even a firecracker.
Playing with firecrackers was one thing, but playing with dynamite…Kate shivered.
“Are you cold?” Hawk asked, noticing her shiver even though he never took his eyes from the road. “I can turn on the car heater.” He reached to do so.
“No…no.” Kate shook her head while offering a weak smile. “I’m fine, really, and we’re almost to the strip.” Jeez, she thought, if he turned on the heater, she’d melt right there in front of him.
“It does seem strange,” he said. “In October here in Vegas in the afternoon, the temp can go into the seventies and even the eighties, yet in the evening it can drop down into the fifties and forties.”
“It’s different where you live?” she said, wanting to know every little thing about him, about his life.
He grinned. “It depends what part of the state you’re in. In Denver it can get very warm during the day and cooler in the evenings. But in the mountains where I live, while we might get some warmth in the daytime, it can get damned cold at night.”
“I like the mountains,” she said, unaware of the wistful note in her voice.
“You’re not from here originally?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m from Virginia, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. My father runs a small horse farm.”
He slanted a quick smile at her. “There you go. We have something in common.”
“Horses?” She laughed.
“Hey, don’t knock it. It’s a start.”
Kate couldn’t help wondering exactly what he meant by a start. A start of what? He was only going to be in Vegas for a while, wasn’t he?
Hawk surprised her by avoiding the Strip, driving to one of the older hotel casinos in town, one she had never been inside before. That is, old in comparison to the unbelievably expensive palaces forever under construction.
Kate liked it even better than the much more elaborate pleasure palaces with which Vegas abounded. For one thing, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the others.
“So,” Hawk said, “what do you want to do?”
Kate was quiet a moment, glancing around her. “I think I’ll wander around a bit—” she flashed a smile at him “—until one of the machines calls to me.”
“Fine,” he said. He paused before adding, “I think I’ll wander to a blackjack table. Suppose we synchronize our watches and meet right here in, say, an hour?”
Grinning, Kate looked at her wristwatch. “Right. If I don’t see you before, I’ll see you then.”
They had no sooner separated than Kate began to feel lonely. Silly, she chided herself, checking out the lines of machines as she strolled around.
In a bid to distract herself from thoughts of Hawk, she sat down at a machine at the end of a row. She spent several minutes studying the instructions on the three-coin machine before feeding a twenty into the money slot. She racked up eighty credits in the credit window.
Kate had played the machine for almost the full hour when she became aware that someone new had taken the machine beside her. She did not spare a glance at the person.
“Hello, Kate.” Jeff’s smooth voice gave her a start. “I saw you sitting here all alone and came to keep you company.”
Jeff, here? Kate could hardly believe it. This casino was not the kind he frequented; he preferred the glitzy new ones that drew all the celebrities. The thought that followed sent a chill down her spine.
Was he following her, stalking her?
Scared but determined not to reveal her fear to him, Kate turned a cold look on him. “I’m not alone. I have company, and even if I didn’t, I would never want yours.”
“Now, Kate, we both know you don’t—”
That was as far as she allowed him to go. “You know nothing, Jeff, but I’ll enlighten you.” She drew courage from the cool tones she had achieved. “If you aren’t gone from my sight within the next few seconds, I will begin screaming for security.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” he said. “You forget I know you hate making a scene.”
“Perhaps,” she admitted, “but I’ll gladly make an exception in your case.” She made a show of glancing at her watch. “You have exactly two seconds to disappear.” She didn’t look away from her watch. “One…two…”
He was off the stool and moving away from her, swearing a blue streak. Shaken by the encounter, she drew a calming breath, and the minute he was out of her sight, she hit the pay-out button and walked away with five dollars more than she’d started with.
She was hurrying back to the place where she’d agreed to meet Hawk when she spotted him at a blackjack table. She hesitated a moment but then decided to approach him, certain Jeff wouldn’t try anything again so long as Hawk was near.
Coming up behind him, Kate laid a hand on his shoulder to let him know she was there. “Hi. I see you’re winning.” There were several stacks of chips in front of him.
“Yeah.” He turned to smile at her. “You ready to leave?”
“No hurry,” she said. “I’d like to watch awhile, if you don’t mind me standing in back of you as you play.”
“Not at all,” he said, managing to keep an eye on the play of cards at the same time. “I’m not superstitious. Fact is, I like you there.”
Feeling inordinately pleased and warmed by his comment, especially after that unpleasant encounter with Jeff, Kate lightly flexed