"No. I like you just fine where you are." He stood between her legs and lifted her up so that she was sitting on the desk. She reached back to brace herself with her hands as his mouth moved on her shoulders and traveled down to her swollen breasts.
Rafe's fingers went to the waistband of his pants. A moment later Margaret heard the rasp of his zipper.
"Aren't you going to at least take off your boots?" Margaret demanded in a husky whisper.
"No need. This'll work just fine."
She look down and saw that it would work just fine. "But what about…about the protection you always use?"
"Got it right here." He reached into his back pocket.
Margaret heard the soft sound of the little packet being opened. "You carry that on you?" she gasped.
"Every minute since the day you arrived. I want to be able to make love to you anywhere, anytime."
"Good heavens, Rafe." She giggled, feeling more daring and wanton than ever. "Isn't there something a bit scandalous about doing it like this—on top of a desk? With your boots on?"
"This is my office, let me run the show, okay?" He caught one nipple lightly between his teeth.
Margaret inhaled sharply. "Yes. By all means, go ahead. Run the show. Please." She sighed in surrender and ceased worrying about decorum.
Rafe eased her down until she lay across the desk in a blatantly sensual pose. Her legs hung over the edge, open and inviting. She shuddered as he moved closer.
Margaret looked up through slitted eyes as Rafe probed her tenderly with his thumbs and then slowly fitted himself to her. She felt the excitement pounding in her veins and wondered at the magic between them. It was always like this. When Rafe made love to her he took her into a different world, one where she was wild and free and deliriously uninhibited—one where she knew she was temporarily, at least, the center of his universe.
Margaret clutched at Rafe as he surged slowly, deeply into her. She tightened her legs around him as he braced himself above her, his hands planted flat on either side of her.
"Maggie, love. Maggie. You're so sweet and tight and, oh, sweetheart I do love the feel of you. Incredible."
She watched the hard, impassioned lines of his face as he drove into her until she could no longer concentrate on anything except the tide of excitement pooling deep within her. She closed her eyes again, lifting her self against the driving thrusts and then she felt Rafe ease one hand between their bodies.
He touched her with exquisite care and Margaret lost her breath. Her body tightened in a deep spasm and then relaxed in slow shivers that brought an intense pleasure to every nerve ending.
"Rafe."
"Yes, love. Yes." And then he imbedded himself to the hilt within her. His lips drew back across his teeth as he fought to control a shout of sensual triumph and release. A moment later he dropped back into the chair behind him and dragged Margaret down onto his lap.
Margaret huddled against him, aware of his open zipper scratching her bare thigh. Rafe's hand slid slowly, absently along her leg and up to her waist. His head was pillowed against the back of his chair, his eyes closed.
"You are one wild and wicked lady," Rafe said without opening his eyes. "Imagine just walking in here bold as you please in the middle of the night when I'm trying to work and seducing me on my office desk."
Margaret smiled to herself as a thought struck her. "You know something, Rafe?"
"What?" He still seemed disinclined to move.
"I couldn't have done that last year when we were together."
He opened one eye. "Couldn't have done what? Walked into my office and seduced me? You're wrong. I'm a sucker for you. I always was."
She shook her head. "No you weren't. We always made love on your schedule and when you were in the middle of some business matter I always had to wait until you were finished. I could never have interrupted you the way I did tonight and expected you to shut down the computer so that we could make love in the middle of your office. Last year if I'd tried anything like that you'd have patted me on the head and told me to go wait in the bedroom until you finished working."
"Are you sure?"
Margaret lifted her head and glared at him. She saw the laughter in his eyes. "Of course, I'm sure. I have an excellent memory."
"I must have been a complete idiot last year. I can't imagine ignoring you if you'd traipsed into my office wearing that light little cotton thing with nothing on underneath. You know what I think?"
"What?"
"I don't think you'd have even tried it last year. You'd have waited very politely until I was finished. Maybe a little too politely. You were a very self-controlled, very restrained little executive lady last year. Cool, sleek and quite proper. I think the career in romance writing has been good for you. It's made you more inclined to make demands on me."
"You think that's good?" Margaret was startled.
Rafe sighed, his eyes turning serious in the shadows. "I think it's probably necessary. You're right when you called me arrogant and bossy and tyrannical."
"You admit it?"
"I admit it. I'm used to running things, honey. I've been giving orders so long it comes naturally. I'm also used to putting work first. My father always did and there's no denying I was following in his footsteps. Mom let him get away with doing that. But somehow, I don't think you'll let me get away with it."
"And you don't mind?"
Rafe smiled slowly. "Let's just say I'm capable of adapting."
"It's not that I'm completely insensitive to the demands you face, Rafe, you must know that," Margaret assured him earnestly. "I spent enough time in the business world to know that certain things have to be done and certain deadlines have to be met. But I don't want your work to rule our lives totally the way it did last year."
He drew his fingers through her tangled hair. In the shadows his eyes were very dark and deep. "It won't, Maggie. And if it ever threatens to, you know what you can do about it."
She grinned in delight. "Walk into your office and seduce you?"
"My door is always open to you, Maggie, love." Rafe kissed her lightly on the mouth and gave her a small nudge.
"I'm being kicked out already?" Margaret reluctantly got to her feet and reached for her cotton shift.
"Nope. We're both going to retire for the night. It's late and you and I are going to get up early to see Mom and Connor off to Sedona, remember?"
Margaret yawned. "Vaguely. Going to walk me back to my room?"
"You're the one whose sense of propriety insists that you wake up alone as long as the parents are around. If I had my way, I'd just walk you back across the hall to my room."
"Going to sneak back here and work on the computer after you've tucked me in?"
Rafe shook his head as he led her back across the hall, through his bedroom and out into the moonlit patio. "No, I saw all I needed to see. I've got an answer for Hatcher."
"It's very sweet of you to not make a fuss about letting me spend the night in my own bed, Rafe."
"Anything for you, Maggie, love. Besides, things will be different when we have the house to ourselves, won't they? I'm a patient man."
Much later Margaret awakened briefly. She automatically glanced through the glass door and followed the shaft of moonlight that struck full into Rafe's bedroom. She couldn't be positive, but it looked as if his bed was still empty.
Connor and Bev took their leave immediately after breakfast the next morning. Margaret stood with Bev in the driveway as the last of the luggage was loaded into the car.
"We'll be gone about a week, dear," Bev said cheerfully. "We're going to stop in Scottsdale first. That's where I live most of the time now. This ranch is a little too isolated for my tastes. At any rate, I have some friends I want Connor to meet. And then we'll drive on to Sedona. It makes a nice break this time of year. Much cooler up there in the mountains. There are several galleries I always like to visit when I'm there."
"Have a wonderful time, Bev."<
br />
Bev searched her face. "You'll be staying on here with Rafe?"
"Do you mind?"
Bev smiled. "Not at all. I'm delighted. I was afraid you might head straight back to Seattle. In fact I told Connor that perhaps we should cancel our plans in order to encourage you to stay here with us a little longer."
"I told her, forget it," Connor said as he walked past with a suitcase under each arm. He was followed by Tom who was carrying two more bags. "I was willing to help Cassidy get you down here but he's on his own now. I refuse to help him with any more of his courting work. I'm too busy tending to my own woman."
Bev's eyes lifted briefly toward the heavens. "Listen to the man."
Connor chuckled hugely as he put the suitcases into the trunk. He looked over at Rafe who was coming through the door with one last bag. "Hey, Cassidy. Tell your mother you can handle my daughter on your own from here on in. She's afraid Maggie's going to take off the minute our backs are turned."
Rafe's eyes met Margaret's. "Maggie's not going anywhere, are you, Maggie?"
Under the combined scrutiny of Bev, Tom, her father and her lover, Margaret felt herself turning pink. "Well, I had thought I might stay a few more days but that decision is subject to change if the pressure gets to be too much," she informed them all in dry tones.
"Pressure?" Rafe assumed an innocent, injured air. "What pressure? There's no pressure being applied, Maggie, love. Just bear in mind that if you take off this time, I'll be no more than fifteen minutes behind you and I won't be real happy."
"In that case, I suppose I might as well stay. As it happens, I have a social engagement here on Monday evening."
That succeeded in getting everyone's attention.
"What social engagement?" Rafe demanded. "You don't know anyone here in Tucson except me."
"That's not quite true, Rafe. I also know your sister and her friend Sean Winters. I've been invited to a showing of Sean's work."
"You're going to some damned art show?"
Margaret smiled serenely. "I thought you might like to escort me."
Rafe's brows came together in one solid, unyielding line. He slammed the trunk shut. "Like hell. We'll discuss this later."
Connor Lark turned to his fiancée. "Something tells me the children won't be bored while we're gone, dear. I think they're going to be able to entertain themselves just fine without us."
Bev glanced curiously from Margaret's cool, deliberate smile to Rafe's thunderous scowl. "Something tells me you're right, Connor."
Rafe stood beside Margaret as Connor drove away from the house. When the car was out of sight he took Margaret's arm and turned her firmly back into the foyer.
"Now tell me what the hell this business is about attending an exhibition of Winters's work."
"It's very simple. Julie and Sean invited me last night before they left. I accepted." She took a deep breath. "On behalf of both of us."
Rafe propped one shoulder against the wall in the negligent, dangerous pose he did so well. He folded his arms across his chest. "Is that right?"
Margaret cleared her throat delicately. "Yes. Right."
"What the devil do you think you're doing, Maggie?'
"Manipulating you into giving your sister's choice of a husband a fair chance?" She tried a smile to lighten the atmosphere.
"Trying to manipulate me is right. At least you're honest about it. But you should know me well enough by now to know I don't like being manipulated, not even by you. And what the hell do you mean my sister's choice of a husband? She told you she's actually thinking of marrying that damned artist?"
"They told me their plans last night. I think they have every intention of following through, Rafe, with or without your approval. You'd better learn to accept the situation graciously or risk alienating your sister."
"Damnation." Rafe came away from the wall and plowed his fingers through his hair. "Marry him? I didn't know they were that serious. I thought Winters was just another boyfriend. Julie's always got one or two trailing around behind her."
Margaret eyed him with a feeling of sympathy. "You've been looking after her for so long you may not have noticed she's grown up, Rafe. Julie's an adult woman. She makes her own choices."
"Some choices. She hasn't even been able to choose a job she can stay with for six months at a time. The guy's an artist, Maggie. Why couldn't she have found herself a nice, respectable…" His voice trailed off abruptly and he slid a quick glance at Margaret.
"A nice, respectable businessman? Someone who wears three-piece suits and ties and travels two weeks out of every month? Someone who needs an attractive, self-sacrificing hostess of a wife to entertain his guests while he closes big deals?"
Rafe winced. "Is that what you thought I'd turn you into? The boss's wife?"
"It's one of the things I was afraid of, yes."
"You should have said something."
"I tried. You never listened."
"I'm listening now," Rafe said evenly. His gaze locked with hers. "Believe me?"
Margaret nodded slowly. "Yes," she said, "I think I do."
Rafe nodded once. "Okay, that's settled. But that doesn't mean I'm going to approve of Winters."
"Rafe, they don't need your approval. They're quite capable of getting married without it."
"You think so?" Rafe's mouth twisted. "What if Winters finds out Julie doesn't come equipped with an unlimited checking account and a handful of charge cards?"
"I don't think he's marrying her for her money."
"How do you know? You only met him once last night."
"I liked him. And even if he is marrying her for her money, there's still not much you can do about it. Your best bet is to stay on good terms with your sister regardless of whether her decision is right or wrong."
"I could always try buying Winters off," Rafe said thoughtfully.
"I don't think that would be a very smart thing to do, Rafe. Julie would hate you for it. Give Sean a chance first before you try anything drastic. Come to the gallery show with me."
"Why? What will that prove?"
"It will give you an opportunity to meet him on his turf, instead of yours. If you're going to have him in the family you should make an effort to learn something about his world."
"Stop talking as if the marriage is an accomplished fact."
"Rafe, you're being deliberately stubborn and bullheaded about this. Give the man a chance. You know you should."
"Yeah? Why should I?" he challenged.
"I thought giving the other guy a fair chance was one of those fundamental tenets of the Code of the West."
He scowled ferociously at her. "What the devil are you talking abut now? What's this nonsense about a code?"
She smiled again. "You know that basic creed you probably learned at your father's knee. The one he undoubtedly got from his father and so on. The one that's supposed to cover little things like vengeance, honor, justice and fair play among the male of the species."
Rafe swore again in disgust and paced the length of the foyer. He stopped at the far end, swung around and eyed her for a short, tense moment. "You want to play by the Code of the West? All right, I'll go along with that. We'll start with a little simple frontier justice. If you want to manipulate me into going to that damn gallery, you've got to pay the price."
Margaret watched him with sudden wariness. "What price?"
Rafe smiled dangerously. "In exchange for my agreement to go to the showing, you agree to let me announce our engagement. I want it official, Maggie. No more fooling around." Margaret took a deep breath. "All right." Rafe stared at her in open astonishment. "You agree?"
"You've got yourself a deal, cowboy." Rafe gave a shout of triumph. "Well, it's about time, lady."
He took one long stride forward, scooped Margaret up in his arms and carried her down the hall to the nearest bedroom. This time he took off his boots.
8
« ^ »
Rafe saddled his best chestnut sta
llion the next morning at dawn. Out of the corner of his eye he watched with satisfaction as Maggie adjusted her own saddle on the gray mare. He took a quiet pleasure in the competent manner in which she handled the tack and the horse. Connor had been right. His daughter knew her way around a barn.
Rafe wondered how he could have spent two whole months with Maggie last year and never learned that single, salient fact about her.
Then again, those two months had passed in a tangled web of sudden, consuming passion mixed with an explosive game of corporate brinksmanship that had involved millions. There had been very little time for getting to know the small, intimate details of his new lover's past. He had been far too anxious to spend what little free time he had with her in bed.
Money and love were a dangerous combination, Rafe had discovered. A pity he hadn't learned to separate the two before. But, then, in all fairness to himself, he'd never come across the two combined in such a lethal fashion until last year.
He knew what he was doing this time around. He could handle both.
"All set?" he asked as he finished checking the cinch on his saddle.
"I'm ready." Margaret picked up the reins and led her mare toward the barn door.
"We'll ride out over the east foothills. I want to show you some land I'm thinking of selling." Rafe walked the chestnut out into the early morning light and vaulted lightly into the saddle. He turned his head to enjoy the sight of Maggie's sexy jeans-clad bottom as she mounted her mare. The woman looked good on horseback. Almost as good as she looked in bed. Rafe nudged the stallion with his knee and the chestnut moved forward with brisk eagerness.
The day was going to be hot, Rafe thought. They all were this time of year. But at this hour the desert was an unbelievably beautiful place— still cool enough to allow a man to enjoy the wide open, primitive landscape. It was a landscape that had always appealed strongly to something deep within him. They had never talked about it, but he'd always sensed the land had affected his father and his grandfather in the same way.
They rode in companionable silence until they came to the point where a wide sweep of the ranch could be seen. Only a handful of cattle were visible. Here in the desert livestock needed vast stretches on which to graze. The cattle tended to scatter widely.