Des Was The Only Thing On Her Mind, And She Couldn’t Get Him Out.

All Kit’s instincts were shouting at her that earlier this morning, with very little effort, her encounter with Des could have turned from anger to passion. And if it had…

So much had happened today that was bewildering. Someone had killed Cody, and the sheriff was looking at her as a suspect. Even stranger was the fact that Des, whom she had avoided for years, had declared himself her lawyer, her defender.

She could cope with the sheriff, but Des was a different matter. She could well understand why for years women had made fools of themselves over him. At seventeen, she would have made a complete fool out of herself if he hadn’t stopped their kiss. She groaned at her thoughts.

And this would have been a perfect night to relax—except she couldn’t get her mind off the murder. And Des…

Dear Reader,

Happy New Year from Silhouette Desire, where we offer you six passionate, powerful and provocative romances every month of the year! Here’s what you can indulge yourself with this January….

Begin the new year with a seductive MAN OF THE MONTH, Tall, Dark & Western by Anne Marie Winston. A rancher seeking a marriage of convenience places a personals ad for a wife, only to fall—hard—for the single mom who responds!

Silhouette Desire proudly presents a sequel to the wildly successful in-line continuity series THE TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB. This exciting new series about alpha men on a mission is called TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: LONE STAR JEWELS. Jennifer Greene’s launch book, Millionaire M.D., features a wealthy surgeon who helps out his childhood crush when she finds a baby on her doorstep—by marrying her!

Alexandra Sellers continues her exotic miniseries SONS OF THE DESERT with one more irresistible sheikh in Sheikh’s Woman. THE BARONS OF TEXAS miniseries by Fayrene Preston returns with another feisty Baron heroine in The Barons of Texas: Kit. In Kathryn Jensen’s The Earl’s Secret, a British aristocrat romances a U.S. commoner while wrestling with a secret. And Shirley Rogers offers A Cowboy, a Bride & a Wedding Vow, in which a cowboy discovers his secret child.

So ring in the new year with lots of cheer and plenty of red-hot romance, by reading all six of these enticing love stories.

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

The Barons of Texas: Kit
Fayrene Preston

www.millsandboon.co.uk

FAYRENE PRESTON

published her first book in 1981 and has been publishing steadily ever since. This is her third novel for Silhouette Books, and she is delighted to be on board. Fayrene lives in North Texas and is the mother of two grown sons. She claims her greatest achievement in life is turning out two wonderful human beings. She is also proud to announce the arrival of her first grandchild: a beautiful baby girl. Now she has even more to be thankful for.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue

Copyright

Prologue

Des.

The name of her stepcousin broke the peace of the cold winter morning and eased its way into Kit Baron’s consciousness.

She didn’t even flinch. As much as she hated the fact, Des Baron was never far from her thoughts, especially when he was in residence at the ranch, as he was now.

Like an apparition that haunted, Des—his dark eyes, his enigmatic smile, his long, lean body—seemed to hover, waiting for an opportunity to infringe upon her thoughts. It was crazy, and she had no answer for it. She simply had learned to endure until he once again left the ranch and she was able to breathe more freely.

As she continued toward the saddle barn, the gravel crunched beneath her feet and she forced her thoughts elsewhere. The dawn was just beginning to break over the horizon. All over the ranch, activity had been going on for hours. There had been a freeze during the night, but the day would warm up with the sun, and in the meantime, she didn’t mind the cold. It cleared her head.

She loved winter mornings on the Double B, but then, she couldn’t think of a day or a season she didn’t adore. She had been born on it, and despite the harsh way her father, Edward Baron, had raised her and her sisters there, she had fallen in love with the land at an early age. Tess and Jill had gone in other directions, eager to be gone from the place and make their fortunes elsewhere. But now that their father was dead and Kit had had time to put her own personal stamp on the ranch, it was more than her home, it was her life.

Its wildness and unpredictability suited her down deep in her bones. She identified with the land that remained untamed, despite man’s best efforts. It was her own personal kingdom.

As she drew closer to the barn, her steps quickened.

The saddle barn was a constant in her life. As a child, it had served as a place to hide from her domineering father, a place to dream of a happier life.

But even there, Des had managed to imprint himself on her memories. One summer evening, when she had been seventeen, she had fled to the barn after her father had verbally torn her to shreds over something so inconsequential she couldn’t even remember what it had been. But she did remember Des Baron.

Coming into the barn, he had heard her crying. Following the sound, he had found her up in the loft in the farmost corner. Without a word, he had gathered her into his arms. But soon the comforting strokes had turned more urgent, and murmurs had turned into kisses. Soon heat was coursing between them. If he hadn’t finally torn away from her…

But he had. And that night she had learned that Des was a danger to her like no other. With incredible ease he could make her want him to the point that nothing else would be important, make her fall beneath his spell until he was her entire world.

She couldn’t allow it to happen.

Living under the heavy thumb of her father had made her vow she would never again allow herself to be dominated by a man. Once in a lifetime was more than enough.

And so, in public and on the surface, she had competed in an idiotic contest with her sisters to win Des’s agreement to marriage. She and her sisters had each wanted to marry him because of business reasons that had to do with their father’s will and, ultimately, control of Baron International, the family business. Privately, though, she had remained extremely wary of Des.

Damn the man.

Why wouldn’t he stay out of her mind?

Just inside, she flipped on the light and started down the wide hall between the stalls. Immediately the scent of the sweet hay and straw, and the commonplace smell of saddle soap, leather and horses, enveloped her. Since childhood, she had equated the smells with comfort, with home, with safety.

She could hear Dia already moving restlessly in his stall, kicking out and whinnying nervously. Something had upset him.

With a frown, she made a fast stop by the tack-and-feed room, snatched an apple from the refrigerator, grabbed his halter off a peg and hurried to him. His head came up, his neck stretched out of the stall, and he nickered a greeting.

“Mornin’, Dia,” she said softly, giving him the apple and reaching up to stroke his neck. “What’s wrong, boy? Did one of the barn cats get in your stall and spook you? Or are you just overly anxious for our run this morning?”

She knew she was. Whenever Des was home, she remained constantly on edge. And he had come in last night.

She rubbed Dia behind the ears, trying to soothe him with her presence and their well-known routine.

A sorrel quarter horse stallion with a blond mane and tail, Dia had been named Diablo by his former owner, who had cautioned her against buying the “crazy devil.” Early in his life, Dia had been put into bad hands that had left him traumatized, with a hatred of all men. His former owner had been about to put the horse down. When she had found him, she bought him immediately.

She had spent two-thirds of her life under the thumb of her father, who had been a devil of a man. In comparison, Dia was a lamb, though no one else on the Double B thought so. But then, no one else understood him as she did. Some men had the ability to crush a person’s soul. Dia’s soul had been crushed. She had restored it.

She opened the stall door and walked in. Dia practically pranced in place with eagerness. “I know, my beauty,” she murmured as she slipped the halter over his head.

He loved their early morning ride as much as she did. It was their one guaranteed hour together, when no one bothered them and they could be alone with each other, the wind and the land. But it was more than eagerness for their ride that had him going this morning. Something else was up.

She cast a critical eye around the stall, then went outside again for a shovel. Turning the straw over, she failed to see anything obviously wrong.

She walked Dia out into the hall and crosstied him in the aisle. He pawed the sand beneath his hooves, and the other horses, sensitive to his mood, moved and nickered restlessly.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

The gruff voice sent a chill down her spine. She whirled around as Cody Inman stepped out of an empty stall three doors down. Suddenly Dia’s nervousness made sense. “What are you doing here?” If there was a choice, no one ever entered the barn before she took Dia out.

“Like I said, I’ve been waiting for you. We need to talk.”

Cody was a compact, muscular guy with dark curly hair, somewhere in his late twenties. He had been working on the ranch for about eight months. A couple of times he had been in the group she had gone dancing with. But last night it had inadvertently worked out so that it had been just the two of them.

With Cody at her side, she had flown one of the ranch helicopters into the nearest town, where she had heard there would be a good band playing, and for a short while she had enjoyed herself. But he had ended up drinking too much and had come on to her. As a result, she had been forced to cut the evening short.

Now she studied him, irritated that he had intruded on her private time. From the rumpled look of him, he hadn’t been to bed, and from his slurred words, he had been drinking ever since they had returned.

As head of the Double B and everything on it, she was in charge of what was basically a man’s world. She sometimes walked a fine line between boss and woman, but she was in no position ever to forget who she was. And she never did.

She had two rules. She played only with those who knew she was playing, and she never allowed the situation to get serious. She had thought Cody understood her rules. She had thought she could use their night of dancing as a shield to protect her from dwelling on Des and speculating on the reason he was home. She had been wrong.

Yesterday morning she had received an unexpected message from Des, saying he was flying in and wanted to see her. She had panicked and set about to make sure she was busy.

Trying to avoid Des was a knee-jerk reaction with her, one she should have outgrown years ago. Still, going out dancing was something she had done a hundred times before with a hundred different ranch hands.

But no more.

No more.

If nothing else, this situation with Cody had taught her it was not a wise thing to do.

“Back away, Cody. You’re making Dia nervous.”

“Everything makes that devil nervous.”

“I don’t know where you’re supposed to be working this morning, but it’s not here.” Though there were always exceptions, generally speaking only the ranch’s longtime, most trusted hands were allowed to work around the main homestead, which was comprised of the main two homes and their support buildings. “Go sober up, then get to work.”

She strode to the tack room and returned with a bucket of grooming tools.

He caught her elbow. “No way, sweetheart. I’m taking the day off. Besides, I’m with the boss. No one is going to get too bent out of shape over it.”

His grip hurt. “Cody, you’re drunk. Go do as I say.”

“Don’t tell me what to do! I’m not some common ranch hand. You and I clicked last night, and I’m not going anywhere until we’ve settled a few things.”

She jerked away and went to Dia. At her touch, he calmed, but his skin twitched and the white rims of his eyes showed. “There’s nothing to settle. Last night was fun, until you began to drink too much, but it’s not going to happen again.”

“Last night was special, you know that. But then you gave me the brush off, and that’s not right. There can be something really sweet between us if you’ll just let it happen.”

She gave a sound of exasperation. “Tell me something. Am I speaking a language other than English? Pay attention. Nothing is going to happen between us.”

“Come on, baby. You’re a wild one, but I’ve made up my mind—I’m going to be the one who tames you.”

“Tame me? Are you for real?” She used both brushes on Dia’s back in an effort to hurry his grooming.

“Look, Kit, all I want is to go out with you again. What’s so bad about that? We can have some more good times, get to know each other better.”

“Do yourself a favor, Cody. Get out of my sight—now.

Even though she had done her best to keep her tone level, Dia must have heard something in her voice. He reared, kicked his hind legs out, then returned to pawing. “It’s okay, boy.”

She was able to get Dia’s blanket and pad on without incident, but when she returned from the tack room with the saddle, Cody intercepted her.

“Come on, honey,” he said coaxingly, blocking her path and grasping her shoulders. “We were hot last night. You were hot.”

At his touch, true anger flashed through her. “Get your hands off me or you’re going to be very sorry.”

She pushed against him, using the weight of the saddle to throw him off balance. He staggered backward but quickly recovered. She turned away, but then heard him give a yell of anger. Before she had time to respond, his weight hit her back and she fell forward onto the saddle, hitting the ground and knocking the air out of her.

Dia gave a scream of fury and reared, but there was nothing she could do about him now. She rolled off the saddle just as Cody came down on top of her.

“Get off me, you bastard.”

“No way, Sugar. You’re mine now.”

His lips crushed down on hers with bruising force, and she tasted blood.

She forced herself to relax for a moment, until she felt him loosen his grip and shift his legs. Then she jerked her knee up into his groin. He gave a loud groan and fell off her.

She scrambled to her feet and wiped the blood from her lip. “Collect your pay and be off the ranch by noon. You’re fired.”

Cody groaned again.

She quickly saddled Dia and led him out of the barn. By the time her weight settled into the saddle, Dia was moving forward. She reined him in, attempting to hold him to a walk. “Easy, boy. Let’s warm up first.”

She flipped her hair free of her jacket collar, and as they passed the next barn, she saw Tio, one of the ranch’s longtime cowboys, and lifted her hand to him.

“Kit?” he called out. “What’s wrong? You’re lookin’ like thunder this mornin’.”

“Just a guy who can’t take no for an answer.”

“Well, now, that ain’t right, no sir. You want me to handle him for you?”

“Don’t bother. I took care of him.”

Free of the outbuildings, she eased Dia into a lope, then gradually into an easy gallop. When she thought he had warmed up enough, she let him run flat out.

The whole unpleasant scene with Cody could be traced back to her reaction to the news that Des wanted to see her. How incredibly stupid of her.

Des.

Where was he?

What was he doing?

Why did he want to see her?

One

Careful of her split lip, Kit took a sip of the hot coffee, leaned back in her rocking chair, propped her booted feet atop the porch railing and scanned the lake. The breeze rippled across its surface as the sun lit the water silver.

She hadn’t meant to ride as far as the lake this morning. Normally she let Dia run for only a quarter of a mile, then slowed him to a lope for perhaps another quarter of a mile, after which they would head back to the barn.

But this morning neither one of them had seemed to want to return home just yet. So she had given in to the need to lengthen her time away from the waiting ranch business and turned Dia in the direction of her small cabin, which sat atop a bluff, overlooking the Double B’s largest lake. She was glad she had.

Truthfully, Dia never wanted their morning ride to end. As for her, she was still upset about Cody. She cast her mind back on the few times she had been with him. For the life of her, she couldn’t think of a thing she had done to lead him on.

But… Cody was a relatively new hire and didn’t know her well. And they had been alone….

She sighed. In retrospect, it had been a mistake to invite him to go with her, but it was over now. Hindsight was a wonderful thing and, in this case, totally useless.

She took another sip and refocused on her surroundings. The lake cabin was one of her favorite places. As soon as her father had died, she’d had it built, along with a corral and a small barn. It had been one of her dreams. Here there were no phones. Here no one ever bothered her. Often she and Dia would ride out on a summer evening. She would swim and spend the night, then, the next morning, after another swim, she would head back to the house.

She scanned the lake. Unfortunately, it would be much too cold to swim this morning, and it was time she returned to her work.

A faint roar disturbed her musings. Curious, she got up and walked to the corner of the long porch so that she could peer around the side of the cabin. The roar was coming from the south, which meant it was coming from the direction of the homestead.

She shielded her eyes and picked out a vehicle, speeding toward her at what she estimated to be well over fifty miles an hour, raising a cloud of dust behind it.

She stiffened. Surely it wasn’t Cody. Surely their encounter in the barn had been enough to discourage him. But no…

It was a truck, she realized, as it drew closer. And it looked like the one her Uncle William had given his stepson, Desmond Baron, when he had graduated from law school.

Her pulse quickened, and her brow crinkled.

If it was Des, why would he seek her out here? His message had said he had wanted to talk to her. Was it so important he had felt the need to come after her?

It had to be him. No man on the Double B would dare abuse a ranch vehicle by driving it that fast over what was little more than a track. But with her Uncle William’s death four months ago, Desmond Baron now owned fifty percent of the entire Baron empire. He could do anything he wanted to.

With a sigh, she sat her coffee cup on the railing and went down the steps to meet him.

If Des had been raised in a city instead of on a working ranch, his appearance might have stopped at classically good-looking. But he had been raised on a vast ranch and had conquered most of its jobs by the time he was fourteen. With time, the rough, outdoor life had branded him with a ruggedness and sexuality that seared as hot as the West Texas sun. His thick, dark brown hair was styled away from his brow and in short sideburns in front of his ears. His brown eyes were as sharp and all-seeing as a hawk’s.

With the force of his intelligence and personality, he had the ability to dominate any situation, whether it was in the courtroom, where he had earned a reputation as one of the toughest, smartest defense lawyers in the country, or on the ranch, where every hand viewed him with respect. He was as hard as the plains on which they had both been reared, so what did he want with her?

As he climbed out of his car, her heart somersaulted. She hadn’t seen Des since the reading of the will, which had occurred right after Uncle William’s funeral. Now his jeans wrapped his lean hips and long legs like a Christmas present. His boots were well worn, and beneath a sheepskin vest was a beautiful pine-green sweater. It looked hand-knitted, and she couldn’t help but wonder if a woman had made it for him. The home where he’d been raised sat less than a mile from hers, and she’d had countless opportunities to watch him from afar, starting when she first became aware of him as a little girl. There had always been women in his life. Gorgeous women who seemed willing to do anything for him. She’d never liked any of them, not that it mattered.

His scent of leather and spice came to her on the breeze as he stopped in front of her. Funny. From the first time she had been this close to him, though she had tried her best, she had never forgotten the way he smelled. Or anything else about him, for that matter. “Good morning, Kit.”

“Good morning.” His sharp brown eyes seemed to cut to her very heart, and his deep voice resonated inside her. No wonder he won the majority of his cases. Just last week she had read that his latest trial had ended with a victory for his client. Most of the trials he conducted ended the same way. Opposing lawyers rarely had a prayer against him. “What are you doing out here?”

He paused, his gaze touching on her red hair.

“You really should have a phone installed out here.”

It didn’t escape her that he hadn’t answered her question. “Usually I’m not here that long.”

“Still, in case of an emergency, you should carry a cell phone.”

His tone was mild, not dictatorial or judgmental. Nevertheless, she instinctively defended herself. “It’s not like I’m out here all the time.” She swung an arm to indicate her surroundings, causing her jacket to shift partially open and reveal her sweater. His gaze dropped to her breasts, and she silently cursed as she felt her nipples harden. “Besides, the ranch isn’t going to fall apart if I’m gone for a few hours now and then.”

“Actually, I wasn’t thinking of the ranch. I was thinking about you. What would happen if you had an accident and needed help?”

She slipped her hands into the fleece-lined pockets of her jacket. “My managers know where the cabin is, along with my routine. If I was missing for more than a few hours, they’d come straight here.”

“What happened to your lip?” he asked, causing her to take a quick mental left turn.

Her hand flew to her mouth and the split lip that remained slightly swollen. “I must have bitten it.”

“Must have?” His gaze roamed her face, searching. “Don’t you know for sure?”

“I bit it.” She didn’t want to tell him the truth. Despite her reassurances to herself, she still couldn’t help feeling that she could have handled Cody better.

“It must have been a hard bite.” He reached out and gently touched the spot. “And it looks like a fresh wound.”

Heat flashed through her. She recognized the feeling from that long ago summer night when he had taken her in his arms. Why couldn’t she forget? She moved her head slightly, dislodging his touch. “It’s fine.”

In a casual move, he shifted the lapel of her jacket aside, baring the portion of her sweater he had seen when she had gestured. “Is this your blood?”

She glanced down at her sweater. She hadn’t realized her lip had bled so badly. That damn Cody. “What’s brought you all the way out here? If you had just waited, I would have been back soon.”

With a quickness that nearly took her breath away, he stepped forward and slid one hand along the side of her jaw, tilting her face up. “Kit, would you tell me if you were in trouble?”

His move and question took her by surprise. His touch warmed her skin. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“Are you in trouble? Because if you are, I’ll help.”

With his hand on her, she could barely think. Could he have heard about her argument with Cody? But no, that didn’t make sense. For better or worse, she had taken care of the matter. “Why are you here, Des?”

He let his hand drop away. “You’re needed back at the homestead.”

“Why? I don’t have any appointments scheduled until this afternoon.” She didn’t have a clue what he was thinking, and instinct honed over time kept her from trying to find out. With Des, it was better if she kept her distance. “Oh, never mind. I was about to head back anyway. I’ll just close up.”

“Wait.”

His grim tone halted her as she was about to turn. She eyed him cautiously. Because of her father’s cruelty in keeping her and her sisters under his thumb, and later, because of her wariness of Des, she’d never been close to him. But even she knew he wasn’t acting normally. “What is it?”

“Someone’s been killed, Kit.”

“Oh no! Who?”

Death on the ranch wasn’t a complete shock. Working with large animals, as well as heavy machinery and equipment, offered too many chances for accidents. But she always hated to hear about it.

“Cody Inman.”

She stiffened. How could that be? After she had left, he hadn’t even been supposed to go to work, only draw his check from the paymaster and leave. “Cody Inman?” she repeated to make sure she’d heard correctly. “But I saw him right before I rode out this morning.”

“That’s what Tio said. A little while after you left, Tio went into the barn to start his work and found the body in one of the empty stalls. Since you weren’t around, he came to me. I called the sheriff, then drove out here to get you.”

She nodded. “Of course.” How had Cody managed to get into an accident on what should have been his last few hours on the Double B?

“How awful.” However Cody had acted toward her, she felt a deep pang of sadness for him. Just last night he had been so alive, dancing and laughing with her. But then he’d begun to drink and come on to her, and then this morning…

Questions raced through her mind as she tried to grapple with the fact that a man she had argued with mere hours before was now dead.

“How did he die?”

“You don’t know?”

Confused, she stared up at him. “How would I know?” He didn’t answer. “Des? How did he die?”

“It looks like a blow to the head with a blunt object. Perhaps a shovel.”

The air went out of her. “Are you saying Cody was murdered?”

“That’s right.”

“But I don’t understand. How could such a thing have happened?”

“That’s what the sheriff wants to question you about.”

“Okay, I’ll close up here and be there as soon as possible.”

“No. Just leave Dia here and come with me. We’ll have someone bring a horse trailer out for him.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“The sheriff will be waiting to talk to you.” He paused. “So, now do you want to tell me how you got that split lip?”

She hadn’t told him. And for the most part, Des didn’t say much on the drive back to the homestead, which was fine with her. She’d given him the general outline of what had happened, but no details. Her morning encounter with Cody was still not something of which she was proud. It had been a situation she had let get out of her control.

Thoughts of Cody and the way he had died kept her busy. She kept trying to come up with scenarios for what could possibly have happened, but for the life of her, she couldn’t come up with one that made sense.

But then, Des also occupied a large part of her mind. She attempted to ignore him by fixing her gaze on the passing landscape, but time and again his nearness drew her thoughts and senses back to him. Despite her attempts to ignore him, it had always been like that. With resignation, she wondered if it always would.

When he finally pulled up to the saddle barn, she breathed a soft sigh of relief.

She didn’t recognize several of the cars and trucks parked there, but she did recognize the sheriff from a picture she had seen in the paper, put there when he had first come to their area nine months earlier. A tall, lanky man in his late thirties, he stood beside one of the trucks, speaking on a cell phone, but as soon as he saw them, he hung up and waited expectantly.

“Have you had any dealings with this sheriff?” Des asked quietly as he cut off the engine.

“No. Any problems we have with the men we try to handle ourselves.” Her hand went to the door handle.

“Wait a minute.” Des leaned over and clasped her wrist, and his arm pressed against the softness of her breasts.

Heat filled her lungs and, uncontrolled, her nipples hardened. No matter what, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from responding to him.

“Listen to me, Kit. The sheriff’s name is Moreno, and his reputation is that he’s ambitious. So I want you to say as little as possible, and when in doubt, let me answer for you.”

“What are you talking about?” She pushed against his arm.

He straightened away, but the severity of his tone didn’t lessen. “Don’t volunteer anything he doesn’t ask. And if I tell you not to answer a certain question, don’t.”

She glanced through the windshield at the sheriff, whose gaze was now trained on her. “He just wants me to tell him what happened.”

“Actually, he wants you to make his job easy by confessing. Right now, you’re the only suspect for Cody Inman’s murder.”

Her mouth dropped. “Suspect? Confess? But that’s ridiculous.”

“It’s also the truth. So just be careful what you say.”

“This is absurd.” Suddenly she felt as if she were suffocating. Cody was dead, and Des was focusing his entire attention on her. It was too much. Her legs were shaking as she climbed out of the truck.

“Ms. Baron.” The sheriff touched the brim of his hat in greeting.

“Sheriff Moreno.” Her nerves were strung tight, but there was no point in taking her mood out on him. It wasn’t his fault. “Sorry to have kept you waiting, but I didn’t realize anything was wrong until Mr. Baron came to get me.”

Des stepped up beside her, and the sheriff’s gaze shifted to him, then back to her again. She wouldn’t have been surprised to see a hint of intimidation enter his expression. After all, Des had an international reputation as a lawyer, and she ran one third of Baron International, specifically the massive ranching division. But the man’s demeanor remained businesslike and aggressive.

“I’ll get right to the point. I understand you were the last person to see Cody Inman alive.”

“No. The person who murdered him was the last person to see him alive.”

“Of course.”

Des was standing so close to her that the warmth from his body filtered through her clothes to her skin. She supposed it was his way of supporting her, but she didn’t need his support, and she certainly didn’t want it—at least, not this kind.

The sheriff once again glanced at Des, then back at her. “Let me put it this way. It looks as if you were the last person to see Cody Inman before he was murdered. In fact, one of your hands—”

“That would be Tio.”

He checked his notes and nodded. “Tio Rodriguez. He indicated that you and Mr. Inman had had a problem this morning.”

She nodded. “In fact, I fired Cody right before I left for my morning ride.” Beside her, she felt Des stiffen.

The sheriff’s brows shot up so high they almost disappeared beneath his hat. “You fired him? Was that because of something work related?”

Slowly, as if it were a perfectly natural gesture, Des reached out, circled her wrist with his long fingers and lightly squeezed. She felt something lurch near her heart. The questioning didn’t bother her. Des, however, did. “No,” she said, impatient to get away from both men. “It was personal.”

“How so?”

“You don’t need to answer that, Kit.”

Des’s sharp tone tightened her nerves, making her response even quicker. “We went out last night and—”

“You and Mr. Inman? Just the two of you?”

“That’s right.”

“And what happened?”

“To put it as simply as possible, Sheriff, Cody wanted our relationship to go farther than I did.”

“Kit—”

“And did you and Mr. Inman fight over this?”

“Kit! Stop answering.”

She glanced at him again. His jaw had tensed, and his eyes had darkened. “I’ve got nothing to hide. Cody and I definitely fought. But did I kill him? No, I did not.”

“I see.”

The sheriff didn’t believe her, she realized with a small shock. On the Double B her word was law, and she wasn’t accustomed to being doubted. Slightly shaken, she scanned the faces of the men who had gathered around him. Several of them looked confused, even skeptical. Great. Just great.

The sheriff nodded toward her lip. “Did you get that injury in the fight?”

“He kissed me.”

“And the kiss split the lip?”

“That’s right. He wasn’t exactly gentle.”

“Uh-huh. Made you mad, did he?”

“He made me very mad.”

“That’s enough.” The authority in Des’s voice cut between the sheriff and her. “If you need any further information, Sheriff, make an appointment with Ms. Baron through me. Kit, I’ll see you back to your house.” His strong hand on her back quickly turned her and headed her back to the car.

“Wait a minute!” the Sheriff yelled. “Ms. Baron, I’ll need to ask you to come down to the office. We’ll need your fingerprints, and I’ll want to question you further.”

“She’ll come in later,” Des said, raising his voice, but not stopping until he had her in the truck and they were driving away.

Two

Kit slammed the front door shut in Des’s face.

Damn the woman. A muscle clenched in Des’s jaw as he opened the door and went in after her. He found her in the living room, lighting a fire.

“What were you thinking about, talking to the sheriff like that?”

She wheeled on him. Her green eyes flashed, vivid with anger, and her long red hair curled like flames against her shoulders. “Don’t ever do that again to me.”

“Do what? Save you from incriminating yourself?”

“Don’t ever again tell me what to say or not to say. And don’t ever give me an order in front of my men. You may own fifty percent of this ranch, but I run it.”

“Listen to me, Kit. You can’t tell the sheriff everything you did without expecting to be arrested. Not in this case. Why didn’t you do as I said?”

The logs began to burn behind her but she barely noticed. “Do as you said?”

All of his career, he had faced hostile clients, lawyers, judges and juries. Part of his success was that he was always able to remain cool under fire. Staying calm and above the fray was one of his trademarks. No one ever got to him.

Kit got to him.

He wanted to shake her. Worse, he suddenly realized, he wanted to kiss her. Lord help him, where had that come from?

“Whether you realize it or not, Kit, you’ve gotten yourself into a serious situation. And just because it was me who gave you the advice, doesn’t mean you had to go against it.”

“That’s not what happened.” She stripped off her coat and threw it across a chair.

“That’s exactly what you did. Admit it. You hate for anyone to try to tell you what to do, but this case is different, and you need to realize it. In this case, you don’t know what’s best. I do. And believe me when I say, you told him entirely too much.”

She threw up her hands. “For heaven’s sake, get over yourself. The women you go out with must not have any brains, but I do.”

“You’re not hearing what I’m saying. Dealing with men like that sheriff is what I do for a living, and I know what I’m talking about. Let me do my damn job.”

“This isn’t a job you need to concern yourself with. Whatever happened, happened in my realm. I’ll take care of it.”

He shook his head. “Trying to defend yourself is the worst thing you can do.”

“I’m not trying to defend myself.”

“Then tell me what you think you’re doing.”

“Telling the truth about what actually happened.”

He gave a sound of disgust. “Prisons are filled with people who told the truth. At this stage of the game, everything you say is important. Even how you say it. You have to be careful, and you weren’t.”

“What are you talking about? The sheriff didn’t indicate he suspected me.”

“If you believe that, you weren’t listening.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Cody’s body was just found. It’s way too early for the sheriff to suspect anyone.”

“Granted, it’s early, but have you ever heard of quick arrests?”

“Of course, but—”

“Ideally, authorities like to make an arrest within the first twenty-four hours of a crime. After that, witnesses can go foggy, crime scenes can be tampered with, or any number of other things can happen. Kit, face it. That’s exactly what may happen here, because, unfortunately, it looks as if everything so far points to you.”

“That’s not true. They haven’t even found the murder weapon yet.”

“Are you telling me that if the murder weapon turns out to be a shovel, or any one of the implements used in that barn, your fingerprints won’t be on it?”

“No. They probably will be—” Abruptly she broke off and swiveled back to the fire. “I don’t have my own silver-plated shovel, Des. At one time or another, I’ve probably used and touched everything in that barn.”

She was electric, all fire and fury. But he also saw the fragility there. He had always been able to. He had often heard his adoptive father, William Baron, grumble about the stricter than strict way his brother Edward was raising his three daughters. He hadn’t seen Kit on a daily basis or even a monthly one, but rather over time and at various stages of her life.

Living on the same ranch, he’d had a unique perspective from which to watch her grow up. As a little girl, she had tried in vain to battle against the tyranny of her father. As a teenager, she had become subdued and resigned to living beneath her father’s thumb.

Her father’s death when she was twenty had finally given her the freedom to come into her own, but that had also been when her rebellion kicked in. It had seemed to him that during those years she had been all flash and fury, yet she had also taken the reins of the ranch. Now she had everything she ever wanted, including power. The problem was, she now seemed to be rebelling against him. Worse, he felt the effects much more than he should.

He took a steadying breath, but it didn’t have the desired effect. He couldn’t seem to hold on to his objectivity. Deep down, he was frightened for her. Even more frightening to him, he was coming to realize he badly needed to keep her safe. Where had that come from? And when? “I’ll put an investigator on this Cody Inman and find out about him.”

“Don’t be stupid. You won’t find anything unusual about him. He was just an ordinary ranch hand.”

“He was a man who hurt his boss, a woman. He tried to force himself on you, or have you forgotten?”

“Of course not.”

“Odds are good that somewhere he’s got a bad history, and I need to find out what it is. It could make a difference in the trial.”

“Trial?” she practically sputtered. Her hair flew out around her as she spun around. “There’s not going to be a trial—at least, not with me as a defendant.”

“Calm down. I’m just thinking ahead. It’s what I do.”

Her brow furrowed with anger. “Who asked you?”

“Damn it, Kit—” He stopped himself and forced another deep breath through his lungs. He wasn’t going to be able to help her unless he could regain his composure. Unfortunately, his temperature was rising by the minute.

She affected him way too deeply.

For most of his life he had deliberately stayed away from her and her sisters. Their father’s will had stipulated that unless Kit and each of her sisters made his idea of a fortune within ten years of his death, they would lose their thirty-three and one-third percent portion of Baron International. Even though she was the youngest, Kit had already met the first condition of the will, earning that fortune plus more. Her sisters Tess and Jill had, too.

In addition, they had all known that his step-father, their father’s brother, would leave his fifty percent of the corporation to him upon his death, which would essentially give him control of the company, unless the three of them voted together at all times, leading to a stalemate.

The sisters had quickly come up with the theory that if one of them could obtain control of his fifty percent of the Baron empire through marriage, she could thus control Baron International. So, like her sisters, Kit became caught up in the mad game of trying to get him to succumb to her charms. She and her sisters had actually competed to get him to the altar.

Most men would have reveled in the attentions of three beautiful women, but under the circumstances, he had decided reticence was the intelligent response. Fortunately for all concerned, the game had come to an abrupt halt when Tess and then Jill had married. In effect, they had given up everything for love and left the path to him wide open for Kit.

But then, suddenly, she had started to shun him. It didn’t make any sense to him, and anything that didn’t make sense bothered him.

She had always intrigued him, and now that he was no longer preoccupied with his father’s health or a trial, he had vowed that this was the trip home when he would find out why she was going out of her way to avoid him.

But now, just when he had decided to seek her out, fate had stepped in before him. A murder had put her in peril, and he wanted, needed, to help.

But she continued to confuse him.

She made his mind veer away from the subject at hand and on to the fact that she was the most desirable woman he had ever seen. At the moment she was practically vibrating with anger at him, yet all he could think about was how much he would love to kiss her.

The knowledge was a shock to his system.

He shrugged out of his vest and carefully placed it on the back of a sofa. “Let’s go at this a different way. You told the sheriff that Cody had wanted to take your relationship farther than you did. What exactly was he to you?”

“Just a guy to go dancing with.” She wrapped her arms around herself and began to pace. “I never meant it to be serious.”

“Then why did you go out with him in the first place?”

She fixed him with a straight gaze. “Do you plan to take every woman you go out with to the altar. Or even to bed?”

“I’ve never dated a woman who ended up dead the next morning.”

“Then obviously you’ve been lucky and I was unlucky. But believe it or not, I didn’t know Cody was going to be murdered.”

He shook his head, frustrated beyond belief with her, with himself. And he knew what the problem was. He was letting himself get too involved, something he never allowed with clients. Yet even armed with that knowledge, he couldn’t stop himself. “Your flirtations have always been within inches of getting out of hand and you know it. It’s called playing with fire, and sooner or later it was bound to get you into trouble.”

She made a sound of anger. “You know nothing about how I handle my personal life.”

“I know enough. I’ve seen you on the dance floor with one guy after another, and, honey, let me tell you something. The way you dance is an invitation to every red-blooded male in the state.”

“That’s not true.”

She looked as if he had struck her, but at least she was finally listening. “It’s true all right,” he said, his tone grim. “The last time I saw you at a party, you were wearing a little nothing of a white dress, and every man in the place was salivating.”

She stared at him, her green eyes wide and gorgeous. “You remember what I was wearing?”

He frowned, as surprised at himself as she was. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s get back to Cody. What happened when you were out with him last night that made him think he could have a future with you?”

Years ago, he’d had firsthand experience of how easily she could melt against a man. Even now, just looking at her made him want to grab her into his arms and make love to her. In fact, he couldn’t get the idea out of his mind. So he didn’t even want to think of her in another man’s arms. The very idea infuriated him.

She made a vague gesture. “Nothing extraordinary happened.”

Nothing extraordinary. She would probably classify the kiss they had shared in the barn all those years ago as nothing extraordinary, too. Hell, she probably didn’t even remember it. But he did. He always would.

He crossed to her and gripped her arm. “That’s where your faulty thinking comes in. You are extraordinary. You turn those green eyes on a man, you press that sweet body of yours against him, and I guarantee a man’s going to feel something.”

He couldn’t help himself. He pulled her against him, and his throat went tight. He hadn’t felt her body against his since she was seventeen. Then he had kissed her and hadn’t wanted to stop. Now he felt the same way. It was completely inappropriate. It was totally astounding. “Exactly how hot and heavy did you get with him?”

She twisted, trying to free herself. Her breasts and thighs rubbed against him, making him hard. What little control he had left was about to disappear. Suddenly he was quite sure he was about to do something irrational, and abruptly he let her go. He needed to help her situation, he reminded himself, not harm it. He needed to remain clearheaded.

Looking shaken, she rubbed herself where he had gripped her and moved away. “Hot and heavy? Charming phrasing, Des. Really charming.”

It was a clumsy phrase, but his vaunted word power had deserted him. He drove stiffened fingers through his hair. He knew better than anyone the need to keep personal feelings out of this, but the thought of her in danger made him crazy. “You know what I mean.”

“No. In no way did I lead him on. Furthermore, nothing hot and heavy happened. At the bar, he forced a kiss on me and I brought the evening to a quick halt.”

“And after that, what happened? Did he just accept your decision?”

She shrugged. “He got a bit sulky. After we got back to the ranch and I went to drop him at the bunkhouse, he tried to kiss me again, but he didn’t get very far.”

“How did you manage that?”

“I had one of the guys at the hangar secure the helicopter for me, I dropped Cody off, then I came home.”

“And do you know what he did after you left?”

“I don’t have a clue. Except…”

“Except what?”

“Well, it was obvious this morning that, whatever else he did, he went off and began drinking heavily. When we were together, he had two beers.”

“How many did you have?”

Resentment flared in her eyes. “None of your business.”

“Someone’s going to ask, Kit. It might as well be me.”

“I had one. Okay? I had one.”

“Is that usual for you?”

“What are you getting at?”

“To your knowledge, has anyone where you were last night ever seen you drink a lot? Or even get drunk?”

“No.” Her eyes darkened with her anger. “Do you honestly believe I would have had more than one beer when I was flying home?”

He studied her for a moment, believing her and wondering how his planned quiet talk with her had turned into this angry confrontation. Then he silently answered himself. He had just realized that he cared too much. “Okay. You said you dropped Cody at the bunkhouse. Did anyone see you drive off in your car alone?”

“Probably. What difference does it make? I was dropping him off at the bunkhouse.”

“When you’re involved in a murder case, you have to backtrack and look at every single detail. For instance, the person who saw you two drive away from the hangar together could have thought that you were bringing him here. He could have assumed you two were lovers, and if the sheriff heard that, he could have decided you two had a lovers’ quarrel and you killed him in a fit of rage. It happens a lot.”

“But it didn’t happen in this case.”

“Had you slept with him, Kit?”

“No.”

The relief he felt was out of all proportion to what it should have been. “When you’re involved in a murder case,” he said quietly, “you have to look at everything.”

“But I’m not involved.” She started to pace again, her long legs eating up the ground behind the big sofa, her hair gleaming in the light.

“You’re involved, Kit. You were the last person to see Inman alive, and you admitted having an argument with him. You admitted to a physical fight with him. Lord…” He wearily ran his hand through his hair. “You’re a smart woman, Kit. You’ve run this entire ranching empire by yourself for nine years. So why can’t you see that you’re in trouble?”

“And why can’t you leave me alone?”

She grimaced, as if she didn’t like what she had just said. He didn’t like it, either. As a matter of fact, he hated it, because he didn’t have an answer. He tried to find one that made sense. “Because, Kit, you need advice of counsel. You don’t realize how serious this is.”

She halted and directed a level gaze at him. “Contrary to what you may think, I do see this as serious. Someone, while in my employ, has been killed on the Double B, which is my land. I take that very personally and will help however I can. But the sheriff needs to get his focus off me and look somewhere else.”

“That’s just it. He doesn’t have to look somewhere else. Not if his mind is made up. And think about something else. Wouldn’t it be a coup if he were to arrest the well-known Kit Baron and make it stick? The local district attorney would be drooling. The publicity would shoot them both into national prominence. There would be the possibility of book deals and interviews and maybe made-for-TV movies. It’s happened before.”

“But I didn’t do it.”

He waved dismissively. “I know you didn’t.”

She blinked. “You do?”

“Kit, you’re incapable of intentional cruelty or a cold-blooded killing.” She was so beautiful, so stubborn. He felt an aching near his heart. He was in serious trouble. How was he going to help her when it was all he could do just to contend with the new feelings for her he had just discovered?

“Worst-case scenario,” he said absently, trying to figure out answers to the questions he was asking himself, “we could plead self-defense.”

She picked up a vase and threw it at him as hard as she could. He ducked as it whizzed by his head and crashed against the wall behind him. “Damn you, Des Baron!”

A deafening silence descended between them, and it grew in intensity and volume until Des wanted to put his hands over his ears to drown it out. Instead, he fought to regain his composure.

“You know,” he said calmly, “if anyone but me had seen you throw that vase, they might just believe you could lose your temper at a man who made you angry, maybe even do him bodily injury. Maybe even kill him.”

He saw her shudder as if a cold chill had slid down her spine. At last one of his points had hit home.

“Get out,” she said softly.

“I’ll leave. For now.”

Three

Des.

Kit groaned softly. For the last ten minutes she had been rereading a paragraph in a romantic suspense book she had started earlier in the week, and she still didn’t have a clue what it was about.

She thrust it aside. It was useless to try to concentrate on anything tonight. Des was the only thing on her mind, and she couldn’t get him off.

All her instincts were shouting at her that earlier this morning, with very little effort, her encounter with Des could have turned from anger to passion. And if it had…

The potential for instant passion between them had always been the thing that, deep down, she had feared. Yet for some odd reason, the charged sexual tension between them had taken her totally by surprise.

It had seemed to take Des by surprise, too, though she couldn’t really be sure. She couldn’t begin to guess. His father had understood him, but since Uncle William’s death, she doubted anyone did. He was a brilliant enigma.

She pushed herself up from the couch and walked to a window. Outside, sleet had begun to fall, but inside her home, it was warm and cozy, just as she liked. But tonight, even the surroundings she had worked so hard to achieve couldn’t soothe her.

So much had happened today that was awful and bewildering. Someone had killed Cody, and the sheriff was looking closely at her as the person who had done it. If it wasn’t such a bizarre tragedy, she might have laughed. Even funnier, stranger, was the fact that Des, whom she had avoided for years, had declared himself her lawyer, her defender.

She could cope with the sheriff, but Des was a different matter. She could well understand why for years women had made fools of themselves over him. At seventeen, she would have made a complete fool out of herself if he hadn’t stopped their kiss. She groaned at her thoughts.

She had wrapped up business earlier this evening and treated herself to a long soak in a bath. Then she had slipped on a pair of big socks, a pair of silk pajamas and her cashmere robe. It would have been a perfect night to relax, perhaps even finish the novel she was reading, except she couldn’t get her mind off the murder. And Des.

Des.

If he had kissed her this morning, she would have responded. She knew it in her bones. She wouldn’t have been able to control herself. Worse, her response would have been so easy, so automatic, so natural. And what if it had gone even farther?

If nothing else, her musings on what, in reality, was nothing more than a kiss that hadn’t happened told her she had been absolutely right to avoid Des for all these years.

The doorbell chimed, startling her and breaking into her thoughts. For a moment she simply gazed toward the sound. No matter who it was, she was in no mood to see anyone. She would love to simply ignore whoever was there, along with whatever problem they were bringing with them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in her to shirk any kind of responsibility.

Reluctantly, she went to answer it and found Des standing under the light on her porch. Her heart leapt, and her hand flew to the neck of her robe, pulling it tight in a protective gesture.

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