New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Diana Palmer is back in Wyoming with a tale of love born in Big Sky Country...

Billionaire oilman Blair Coleman has always taken care of his business. After having been used and cast aside by a woman he thought he loved, his personal life is far from his first priority. He knows only one has ever truly cared for him—but the irresistible blonde beauty is the daughter of his best friend.

Niki Ashton has seen her father’s friend wounded and she’s seen him fight. Blair is the strongest—and most stubborn—man she’s ever known. That very heart and passion makes him the man of her dreams, but whenever they’ve been in danger of getting close, Blair has always pushed her away.

It takes a possible tragedy to strip away all of Blair’s misgivings. Now it’s all or nothing: marriage, baby, family, forever. But will the choice be too much for Niki...or too late?

Praise for the novels of New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author

DIANA PALMER

“The popular Palmer has penned another winning novel, a perfect blend of romance and suspense.”

—Booklist on Lawman

“Diana Palmer is a mesmerizing storyteller who captures the essence of what a romance should be.”

—Affaire de Coeur

“Readers will be moved by this tale of revenge and justice, grief and healing.”

—Booklist on Dangerous

“Diana Palmer is one of those authors whose books are always enjoyable. She throws in romance, suspense and a good story line.”

—The Romance Reader on Before Sunrise

“Lots of passion, thrills, and plenty of suspense... Protector is a top notch read!”

—Romance Reviews Today on Protector

“A delightful romance with interesting new characters and many familiar faces. It’s nice to have a hero who is not picture-perfect in looks or instincts, and a heroine who accepts her privileged life yet is willing to work for the future she wants.”

—RT Book Reviews on Wyoming Tough

Wyoming Rugged

Diana Palmer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

NICOLETTE ASHTON’S FATHER was always trying to get her to go out on dates. She loved rocks. Men, not so much. She was an introvert, shy and quiet with people she didn’t know. She had a lovely face, a complexion like peaches and cream with long, soft, platinum-blond hair and eyes the color of a foggy September morning. Her figure was equally pretty. But she refused dates right and left. There was a man in her life. He just didn’t know it. He thought she was too young. Sadly, that didn’t keep her from longing for him.

Because of that, she kept to herself. She’d avoided dating all through college by going out with her girlfriends. But her friends said she needed involvement. They insisted that she needed to get out in the world and date somebody. They meant well. Perhaps she did need to get out more. It wasn’t as if the object of her affections was ever going to reciprocate them.

So as the end of the semester neared, they set her up with this man. She didn’t know him. He wasn’t from Catelow, Wyoming, where she lived on her father’s cattle ranch. Her date was from Billings, Montana, where she went to college. At the moment, she wished she’d never agreed to the blind date.

He was inconsiderate and frankly rude, especially when she insisted on being brought home to the family ranch, instead of going to her date’s apartment. The ranch wasn’t so far away, just about a twenty-minute drive. But Niki knew what was likely to happen if she agreed to go home with the man. However out of fashion it might be among her fellow college students in Billings, she didn’t go with the crowd. Harvey, her date, refused to believe that any girl would refuse his advances. After all, he was a football star at the college both he and Niki attended, and he was very good-looking. He was used to women falling all over him. But Niki wouldn’t.

“You have to be out of your mind,” the young man, Harvey, muttered as he pulled into her driveway and raced up to the front steps of the grand Victorian mansion. “There aren’t any women left in the country who don’t sleep around these days, for God’s sake!”

“There are some. I’m one,” she said. “I agreed to go to dinner with you, Harvey. Only to dinner.”

He made an angry sound in his throat. He pulled up at her door. He studied her in the light from the front porch.

“Your old man home?” he asked.

“Not yet,” she said without thinking. “He had a business meeting. But a friend of his is coming to stay with us for a few days. He should be here any minute.” It was a calculated lie. There was a friend, named Blair Coleman, who owned a multinational oil corporation. Niki had seen him infrequently when he came home with her father. In fact, she’d had a flaming crush on him since she was seventeen, but he treated her like a child. So Blair Coleman was coming to stay. She just wasn’t sure when. “I have to go in,” she added.

“I’ll walk you to the door,” he said. He even went around the car to open her door for her. There was a calculating look on his face, but Niki was too relieved to notice it. She’d unlock the door, go inside and she’d be free.

“Thanks,” she said.

“No problem,” he said, with an odd, smug little smile.

She put her key into the lock, noticing with a frown that it wasn’t needed. The door was unlocked. Maybe her father was home after all.

She turned to tell Harvey good-night and found herself pushed inside the house. He closed the door behind them.

“Now,” he said menacingly, “you frigid little tease! Girls who date me always give out. Always!”

He grabbed her and wrestled her into the living room, down onto the sofa.

Niki was frail from a hospital visit that had left her weak and breathless. Even though she wasn’t a tiny girl, she was slender, and she had no martial arts skills at all. Harvey was a football player, with the muscle that came with the game. He had her on her back on the sofa, her long blond hair fanned around her oval face with its delicate complexion and pale gray eyes. She was flushed from the illness, and breathless from the aftereffects of it. She did fight him, but she knew she’d never get away in time. He was trying to take something from her that should be her right to give. She was furious. Being helpless made her even more angry.

“Let go of me!” she raged. “You idiot! I am not going to let you...!”

“You can’t stop me,” he panted, ripping the bodice of her dress as he held her down with his formidable weight. “And there’s nobody home who can.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t bet good money on that,” a deep, gravelly voice mused from the doorway.

Niki glanced toward the voice. And there he was, larger than life. The reason she never dated. Blair Coleman.

Harvey was just tipsy enough not to realize how much trouble he was in. At least, not until a man the size of a wrestler jerked him off Niki by his collar and slammed him down onto the floor.

“You can’t do that to me! I play football! I’ll put you through the wall!” Harvey raged as he jumped to his feet and went for the big man.

There was a deep chuckle. Harvey’s rush was met with a fist the size of a ham. It inserted itself into Harvey’s diaphragm and sent him to his knees.

While he was trying to recuperate from that, the big man jerked him up by his collar, drew back his fist and knocked the younger man over the back of the sofa that a shocked Niki was still lying on.

“I’ll tell my dad!” the football star raged. “He’s got all sorts of lawyers.”

“I have a few of my own. Get your butt back here and apologize to this girl for what you tried to do,” he added in a voice like a grater.

“I...will not,” the boy faltered.

“Your choice. I don’t really mind involving the sheriff’s department.” He was pulling out his cell phone as he spoke.

“Nicolette, I’m very sorry,” the boy said at once, his face red as he stared at Niki.

She was on her feet by now, clutching her torn bodice together. Her pale eyes were blazing with outraged modesty. “Not as sorry as you’re going to be when I tell my father what you tried to do, Harvey,” she promised. “He has some good lawyers, too.”

“I was drunk!” Harvey exclaimed. He glared at her. “And you can read about yourself on my Facebook page,” he added with a sarcastic smile.

The big man moved closer. Harvey backed up a step.

“Let me give you some advice,” Blair said quietly. “Don’t think about getting even with her online. I’ll have my people checking, just in case. The first time I see anything posted about her, you’d better be on your way out of the country before any of my security people can find you. Are we clear?” he added, his stance as threatening as his deep voice.

“Y-yes. Very clear. Very.”

Blair jerked his head toward the door.

Harvey took the hint. He didn’t quite run for his car. But he got down the driveway in a hurry.

Niki got a better look at her rescuer when he came back from the window, making sure Harvey left.

He was dressed casually, but in designer slacks that clung to his broad, muscular thighs, and an expensive green knit shirt that outlined formidable muscles. He had a broad face with a big nose and a beautiful, wide, chiseled mouth. His complexion was olive. His hair was wavy and jet-black, with a few strands of silver. His eyes were large and black as jet. They were deep set, under thick eyebrows. His feet looked as oversize as his hands. He was very fit for a man his size. There wasn’t an ounce of fat showing anywhere on him. Niki had adored him from the day her father brought him home to visit, years ago. But since she’d been seventeen, there had been no man in her life at all. This one colored her dreams, made her ache for things she couldn’t quite grasp.

“Thanks,” Niki said in her soft voice. “I couldn’t stop him.” Her breathing was jerky and shallow.

He scowled. “You have asthma, don’t you?”

She nodded. “And I’m just getting over pneumonia.” She smiled at him. “Thanks, Mr. Coleman.”

He smiled gently, and the fierce look left his face. “Just Blair,” he corrected. “It’s nice to see you again, Niki,” he added. “Well, I would have preferred different circumstances,” he amended as he looked at her.

She managed a breathy laugh. “Me, too. I’m just glad you were here when I got home.” She was still clutching her dress.

“Did he hurt you?” he asked gently.

“I don’t...think so.”

“Let’s see.” He drew her down on the couch and his big hands moved gently to the torn fabric. “None of that,” he chided when she flushed, mistaking her reaction for shyness when it was actually excitement at the touch of his fingers instead. “I’m way too old to make a pass at a girl your age. Besides, I’m engaged.”

“Oh.” Story of my life, she told herself, that the only man I’m even interested in thinks of me as a child. And he was getting married. She felt her heart break right in two. But she didn’t let it show. She relaxed her death grip on the fabric. “Sorry. I’ve had a bad night.”

“I noticed.” He drew the fabric away from her lacy little bra. But it wasn’t the undergarment he was looking at. It was the bruises on what he could see of her pretty little firm breasts just above the cup of the bra. She had beautiful little breasts. He clamped down hard on feelings he shouldn’t even entertain, especially now. There were more bruises on her thin shoulders. He winced.

“I wish I’d hit him harder,” he said in a cold, biting tone.

“He was so shocked when you showed up,” she recalled with a laugh like tiny bells. “He’s a football star, you know.” She grimaced. “Goodness, I must be an idiot. I didn’t even realize that he felt entitled to anything he wanted in life.”

“Sadly, some men think that way. Turn around, honey.” He moved her so that he could draw the dress down and look at her back. There were more bruises there.

“Is it bad?” she asked.

He drew in a breath and turned her back to him. His black eyes were glittery. “I think we need to take you to the emergency room, and then talk to the sheriff. These bruises are an outrage.”

“It would be my word against his,” she said quietly, searching this big man’s eyes.

“I saw most of it,” he reminded her.

“Yes, but you weren’t with us in the car. He could say I promised him whatever he wanted and then got cold feet.”

He cursed under his breath. “I don’t like letting him get away with this.”

“He’ll be much too busy explaining his bruises,” she said with a flare of humor. “And when I go back to school, I’ll swear to everyone I know that I gave them to him!” she said with a little laugh.

He chuckled. “He’ll be a legend in his own time.”

“Yes, he will,” she promised. She cocked her head and looked at him curiously. “You don’t look like a man who gets into many fights,” she said.

He shrugged and smiled at her. “My...father—” odd how he hesitated on the word, Niki thought “—founded an oil company. He built it into a multinational corporation and groomed me to run it. But his idea of management was to teach me the job from the bottom up. I started out as a roughneck, working on oil rigs.” He pursed his lips. “The boss’s son wasn’t the most popular guy around. Plenty of other men thought I’d be a pushover.”

“I imagine it didn’t take them long to learn the lesson,” she said, smiling up at him.

“Not long, no,” he agreed. “You’ll have bruises, Niki. I’m really sorry.”

“It would have been much worse if you hadn’t been here,” she said. It began to catch up with her and she shivered. “I’ve been on blind dates before, in high school, but nobody ever tried to...” A sob broke from her throat. “Sorry,” she faltered.

He bent and scooped her up in his big arms. He sat down in an armchair and cuddled her in his lap. “Get it out of your system, Niki. I’m not afraid of tears,” he said softly, brushing his mouth over her hair.

She bawled. It was a rare thing, comfort. Her father had never been a physical sort of man. He loved her, but he never kissed bruises or offered much comfort. Like Blair, he was an oilman, and he’d worked on oil rigs in his youth, too. Her mother had died when she was in grammar school, so it had just been her and Daddy, most of her life, here on the enormous cattle ranch he’d inherited from his father. She was nineteen, almost twenty, and this was the first time she’d ever had anybody offer her a shoulder to cry on. Well, except for Edna Hanes, the housekeeper.

She pressed close to Blair’s broad chest and mourned the loss of him. He was going to get married. She’d had this stupid idea that one day she’d grow up enough for him to finally notice her. That was a pipe dream, and it had gone up in ashes tonight. At least, she thought, he’d saved her from that overly muscled brute.

“Poor little thing,” he murmured against her forehead. “I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t know men could be like that,” she said brokenly. “I don’t date much. I like to live in the past. I’d have been right at home in the Victorian age. I don’t...fit in in the modern world.”

“Neither do I,” he confessed. He lifted his head and searched her wet eyes. “Still a virgin?”

She nodded. Oddly, it wasn’t at all embarrassing to talk to him like this. She felt as if she’d always known him. Well, she had, for several years, if distantly. “Daddy took me to church every Sunday until I went off to college,” she confessed. “Some of the other girls at school say I’m stupid to think any man would want to marry an innocent woman. They say I need experience, so I’ll appeal to a man.” She looked at him like a curious little bird. “Is that right?”

He smoothed the damp hair away from her cheeks. She was almost otherworldly. He ached in inconvenient places and chided himself for that reaction to her. She was a child, compared to him, even if she was in college. “I think innocence is a rare and beautiful thing,” he said after a minute. “And that your husband will be a very lucky man.”

She smiled shyly. “Thanks.” She pursed her lips.

“A question?” he teased. “Ask away.”

“Will your wife be a very lucky woman?” she asked outrageously.

He burst out laughing. “No. Emphatically, no.” He searched her shimmering eyes. “You really are a pain, aren’t you?”

She linked her arms around his strong neck. “I truly am.” She smiled at him. “What’s she like, your fiancée?”

“Black hair, blue eyes, beautiful, sophisticated, very artistic,” he summed her up.

“And you love her very much.”

He smiled back. “She’s the first woman I ever asked to marry me. I’ve been too busy making money to think about a private life. Well, about a permanent one, at least.”

“Is she nice?”

He frowned. “What a question.”

“I mean, will she take care of you if you get sick, and stay home and take care of the babies when they come along?” she asked, because she realized if she couldn’t have him, she wanted happiness for him, above all things.

The questions made him uncomfortable. Elise was uncomfortable with illness. She avoided it like the plague. And she’d already said that if she agreed to have a child, there would be a price, and it would be years from now. Why hadn’t he considered that before? In fact, he’d been so busy that he’d fallen into the engagement without much consideration about compatibility or children. He was so hungry for her that he’d have done anything to get her, including getting married. She kept him at fever pitch, always backing away just in time...

“Do you want children?” she asked.

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yes,” he said, but he sounded troubled.

“Did I put my foot in my mouth?” she prodded when he scowled.

“No. Of course not.” He smiled faintly. “I’d never considered those things. I’m sure she’ll take care of me when I’m sick, though.”

“That’s good, then.” She smiled up at him. “You’ll be a good husband, I think.”

He looked down at the torn dress and winced. “You poor little creature,” he said softly. “I’m sorry you had such a bad night.”

“It ended better than it began,” she replied.

The front door opened and Todd Ashton, Niki’s father, walked in. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his friend and his daughter in the big armchair. Niki was sitting in Blair’s lap. Her dress was torn. And she looked...

“My friend Laura set me up on a blind date with Harvey the Horror,” she told her father, not budging out of Blair’s lap. “He dragged me in here, after I refused to go to his apartment with him, and if Mr. Coleman hadn’t been here to stop him, he’d have...” She stopped, swallowing hard.

“I’ll have my lawyers contact his parents,” Todd said icily.

“I offered to take her to the emergency room and call the sheriff,” Blair sighed. “She wouldn’t.”

“My poor girl,” Todd said, grimacing. “I’m sorry. I should have been home, but this damned budget crunch drew me into an emergency meeting at work.”

“I know how that feels,” Blair agreed. He looked down at the girl in his lap. “Better now?” he asked softly, and he smiled.

“Much better. Thank you for what you did,” she added as she got reluctantly to her feet. It was nice, being held.

He chuckled. “I’m glad to know I haven’t forgotten how to punch a man,” he said.

“You hit him? Good for you!” Todd said shortly.

“I’m going on up,” Niki said wearily. “I really am tired.”

“You shouldn’t have gone back to classes so soon,” Todd said.

“I couldn’t afford to miss finals,” she protested. “I did the last one today. Just before Laura hooked me up with Harvey for a dinner celebration.” She sighed. “Some celebration.”

“When you graduate, Elise and I will take you out for champagne and lobster,” Blair promised.

She forced a smile and tried to pretend that her heart wasn’t breaking. “That won’t be for another year or two, but thanks. That would be nice.”

“Elise?”

“My fiancée,” Blair said with a chuckle. “We’re getting married in two months, in Paris. I’ll make sure you two get an invitation.”

“I doubt we can make it. But I’ll send a present,” Todd said, grinning. “Something tasteful, I promise.”

“Good night,” Niki said.

They echoed the words.

“Damned bounder,” Blair muttered when he and Todd shared snifters of cognac. “I brought him to his knees and made him apologize. She was pretty shaken.”

“I haven’t been much of a father,” the older man confessed. “She’s been on her own a lot. Too much, probably.”

“How old is she?” Blair asked.

“Nineteen. Almost twenty.”

“I remember being nineteen.” The other man chuckled. He put aside the brief hunger he’d felt while Niki was in his arms. She was years too young. And besides, he was getting married. “Back in the Dark Ages. She’s a nice girl. You’ve done a good job raising her.”

“Thanks. And thanks for saving her from the football hero.”

He shrugged. “What are friends for?” he asked, with twinkling black eyes.

* * *

IT WAS A year later when Blair came back to the ranch to spend a few days. He and Todd had seen each other socially on occasion, but he hadn’t come to the ranch since the night Niki had her bad encounter.

He and Elise were having problems. Big problems. He was broody and wouldn’t talk to Todd. But he talked to Niki. It was the Christmas holidays, and the tree was glorious. Despite a few sick days, Niki had managed to do all the decorating herself. The tree was nine feet tall, decked out in red beaded strands and red velvet bows, with every sort of ornament imaginable, especially mechanical ones. There were trains that ran, dancers who danced and starships that made blast-off noises. It was glorious.

“I’ve never had a Christmas tree,” Blair had to confess. “But I’m tempted, after seeing this one.”

Niki laughed softly. “You should have Elise decorate one for you.”

His face closed up. “She’s not much for the holidays.”

She cocked her head and looked up at him with warm, curious eyes. “Aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “I like Christmas. It was my mother’s favorite holiday. She was forever buying decorations. I still have them, in storage.”

“You sound sad,” she said.

“She died over a year ago. It’s been lonely.”

“No brothers or sisters?”

He shook his head. “My...father died ten years ago.” Again, that odd hesitation. “It was just my mother and me.”

“Now it’s Elise and you,” she said, lowering her eyes. “So you still have family.”

“Yes.”

His tone wasn’t pleasant. She wondered why. He’d been so happy the last time they’d seen each other, talking about his upcoming marriage, bragging about his fiancée. And now he was somber, quiet.

“They say marriages sometimes start rocky and end happy,” she blurted out.

He glanced down at her, his black eyes twinkling. “Do they, now?”

“Okay, I’m no authority on couples. You might remember my first and last attempt at that,” she added with a little laugh.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t been out with anyone since,” he said, surprised.

She grimaced. “Well, I was sort of afraid to try again,” she confessed. “I wasn’t sure you’d be around to rescue me when my date brought me home,” she added with a smile. She couldn’t confess that no man in the world could compare to Blair, in her mind or her heart.

He stuck his hands in his pockets. “How did the football hero fare?” he asked.

“He went back East rather suddenly after my father’s attorney had a talk with his father,” she said. “Strange, isn’t it?”

“Very.”

“If he tries it again, I hope the girl’s father belongs to the mob and they find him floating down some river in an oil drum,” she said firmly.

He laughed under his breath. “Vicious girl.”

“You’re right. That wasn’t nice at all. Can you put this on for me? I can’t quite reach.” She indicated a spot high on the tree where she wanted one last red velvet bow.

“You can reach.” He caught her small waist and lifted her easily within reach of the branch. She was so slight, it was like lifting a feather. The feel of her, the scent of her, was disturbing.

She laughed. “You’re awfully strong,” she remarked when he set her down again.

He moved away from her rather quickly. “It comes from wrestling with my board of directors,” he replied drily.

She moved back and looked at the tree. “Will it do, you think?”

“It’s lovely.” He frowned. “Do you and your father have any other family?”

“Not really. He has an aunt, but she lives overseas. He didn’t have brothers and sisters. My mother did, but her only brother died when I was in grammar school.” She looked up at him. “Didn’t Elise want to come with you?” she asked. “I’d love to meet her. I’m sure Daddy would, too.” She was lying through her teeth. She never wanted to meet Elise, if she could help it.

“She’s in Europe with some friends,” he said.

“Oh.” She didn’t really know what else to say. She went back to her decorating.

His voice sounded raspy.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

He drew in a breath and grimaced. “My chest feels a bit tight. I think it’s allergies. I get them this time of year.”

“Me, too,” Niki confessed. “But mine usually lead to pneumonia. I had it in my early teens. I guess it repeats. It’s so unfair. I don’t even smoke.”

“Neither do I,” Blair replied. “People around me do, however. I came here by way of Saudi Arabia. I was coughing before I got on the plane. It’s probably just the allergy.”

She nodded. But he sounded the way she did when she was coming down with a chest infection. Men never seemed to want to admit to illness. Perhaps they thought of it as a weakness.

* * *

BLAIR DIDN’T GET up for breakfast the next morning. Niki was worried, so she asked her father to look in on their guest. She wasn’t at all sure if he wore pajamas, and she didn’t want to walk in on him if he didn’t.

Her father was back in a minute, looking concerned. “I think I’d better ask Doctor Fred to come out and check him. He’s got a fever, and he’s breathing rough. I think it’s bronchitis. Maybe something more.”

Niki didn’t have to ask how he knew. He’d seen her through pneumonia too many times to mistake the symptoms.

“That might be a good idea,” she agreed.

* * *

DR. FRED MORRIS came out and examined Blair, prescribing a heavy cough syrup along with an antibiotic.

“If he isn’t better in three days, you call me,” Fred told Niki’s father.

“I will.”

“And you stay out of his room until the antibiotic takes hold,” Fred told Niki firmly. “You don’t need to catch this again.”

“It might not be contagious,” she protested.

“But it might be. Humor me.”

She managed a faint smile. “Okay, Dr. Fred.”

“Good girl. I’ll be in my office until late, if you need me,” he told her father as they shook hands.

“Okay. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

* * *

NIKI INSISTED THAT her father call Elise and tell her that Blair was sick and needed her. Todd was reluctant, but he badgered Blair until he got the number. He called her.

Niki never knew what was said, but her father came out of his office cold-eyed and angry.

“Is she coming?” she asked.

Her father made a rough sound in his throat. “She said that’s what doctors are for, getting people well. She doesn’t do illness, and she doesn’t want to be exposed to what he’s got anyway. There’s a ball tomorrow night in Vienna. A friend is taking her.”

Niki felt sick to her stomach. What sort of woman had Blair married, for heaven’s sake?

“It’s not our business,” her father reminded her.

“He was so kind to me, when Harvey attacked me,” she recalled. “I thought he’d found a nice woman who’d want to have children and take care of him.”

“Fat chance, that woman ever having a child,” her father scoffed. “It might interfere with her social plans!”

She sighed. “Well, we’ll take care of him.”

“Mrs. Hanes and I will do that, until he’s no longer contagious,” her father emphasized. “I’m not risking you. Don’t even ask.”

She smiled and hugged him. “Okay, Daddy.”

“That’s my girl.” He kissed the top of her head. “Poor guy. If it’s this bad and they’ve only been married a year or so...” He let the rest of the sentence taper off.

“Things might get better,” she said. But she didn’t really believe it.

“They might. Let’s have Mrs. Hanes fix us something to eat.”

“I’ll ask her.”

* * *

EDNA HANES HAD been the Ashtons’ housekeeper for over twelve years. She was as much a mother as a housekeeper to Niki, who adored her. When Niki had her sick spells, Mrs. Hanes was the one who nursed her, even when her father was home. He was a kind man, but he was out of place in a sick room. Not that he’d ever been unkind to his daughter. Quite the opposite.

“She’s not coming, then?” Edna asked Niki about Blair’s wife.

“No. There’s a dance. In Vienna,” she replied with a speaking glance.

Edna made a face. “He’s a good man, Mr. Coleman,” she said, pulling out pans to start supper. “I hate to see him married to someone like that. Wants his money, maybe, and not him, as well, but had to take the one to get the other.”

“He said she was beautiful.”

“Beautiful isn’t as important as kind,” Edna replied.

“That’s what I think, too.”

“Pity you aren’t older, my girl,” Edna said with a sigh.

“Why?” Niki asked, smiling.

Edna forgot sometimes how unworldly the younger woman was. “Nothing,” she said quickly. “I was just talking to myself. How about mincing some onion for me, and I’ll get this casserole going!”

“I’d be happy to help.”

* * *

BLAIR WASN’T DOING WELL. Niki managed to get into his room the next day while her father was out talking to his foreman and Edna went shopping.

His chest was bare, although the covers were pulled up to his diaphragm. He had a magnificent chest, she thought with helpless longing, broad and covered with thick, curling hair. Muscular and manly.

He opened bloodshot, feverish eyes to look at her as she touched his forehead. “You shouldn’t be in here,” he said in a gentle tone. “I might be contagious.”

“I’m not worried. Well, not about me. You should be better by now. When an antibiotic starts working, you can feel the difference.”

He drew in a raspy breath and grimaced. “He gave me penicillin. It usually does the trick.”

“Maybe not this time. I’m calling him right now.”

She went out the door and phoned the doctor.

He was perturbed that she was trying to nurse Blair. “Listen, if you get it again, it might go into pleurisy,” he argued.

“Now, Doctor Fred,” she teased softly, “you know I’ve just finished a course of antibiotics. I’m not likely to pick anything up. Besides, there’s nobody else to do this. Edna has her hands full just with meals, and Daddy’s in the middle of a business deal. Not that he’s a nursely sort of person,” she laughed.

He sighed. “I see your point. Isn’t Coleman married? Where’s his wife? Did you call her?”

“There’s a ball someplace in Europe where she has to go dancing,” she said, the contempt in her voice unmistakable.

“I see.” His tone was noncommittal. “Well, I’ll phone in another prescription, something stronger, and a stronger cough syrup, as well. Try to get some fluids into him. And I don’t want to have you wind up in my office...”

“I’ll be very careful, Doctor,” she promised, thanked him quickly and hung up.

* * *

LATER, SHE SENT one of the ranch’s cowboys into town to get the new medicines, which she’d coaxed out of the poor, harried pharmacist, a friend from high school.

Blair grumbled when she came in with more medicine. “Niki, you’re going to come down with this damned stuff,” he complained.

“Just be quiet and take the nice tablet,” she interrupted, handing him a glass of orange juice with crushed ice.

He frowned. “How did you know I like this?” he wondered.

She laughed. “I didn’t. But I do now. Come on, Blair. Take the pill.” She coaxed his mouth open and dropped the large tablet in.

“Bully,” he muttered in his deep voice.

She only grinned.

He sipped the juice and swallowed. He winced.

“Oh, gosh, it’s acidic. I’m sorry. I’ll get you something less abrasive. Gatorade?” she suggested.

“I’d rather have the juice, honestly. I do wish I had—”

“Some cough drops?” she finished, digging in the prescription bag. “How fortunate that I asked Tex to bring some. And you can have the cough syrup, too.”

She pulled a spoon from her pocket and poured out a dose of the powerful cough syrup the doctor had prescribed.

He took it, his dark eyes amused and affectionate as they met hers. “Your father’s going to raise hell if he catches you in here.”

She made a face at him. “Edna asked me earlier if you’d like something light for dinner. An omelet? She makes them with fresh herbs.”

He hesitated. “I’m not really hungry,” he said, not wanting to hurt Edna’s feelings. He hated eggs.

“I like eggs. We have fresh ones most of the year, when our hens aren’t molting.” She paused, her eyes narrow on his broad, handsome face. “You don’t like eggs, but you don’t want to trouble anyone,” she blurted out. “How about chicken noodle soup instead?”

He laughed. “Damn. How did you figure that out?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly.

“I’d really rather have the soup, if it’s not too much trouble,” he confessed. “I hate eggs.”

She grinned. “I’ll tell Edna.”

He studied her soft face with narrow, thoughtful eyes. “When do you start classes again?”

“January,” she replied. “I’ve already decided what I’ll take.”

“How do you get back and forth when the snows come?” he wondered.

She laughed. “Dad has one of the boys drive me back and forth. We have a cowboy who grew up in northern Montana. He can drive through anything.”

“It might be more sensible to get you an apartment near campus,” he said.

“I don’t like being on my own,” she said quietly.

He reached out a big hand and tangled her fingers in it. “All men aren’t animals, Niki.”

She shrugged. “I suppose not. I keep thinking what would have happened if you hadn’t been here that night.”

His face tensed. So did he. She was so fragile. Like a hothouse orchid. It bothered him that she was in here risking her own health to nurse him while his wife was off having a wild time in Europe and couldn’t be bothered to call him, let alone look in on him.

He’d never told Niki why he’d really married Elise. It had less to do with who she was than who she resembled. He’d just lost his mother, whom he’d adored, and Elise looked just like her. She’d come up to him at a party while he was grieving, and he’d fallen for her at first sight. Elise looked like his mother, but without her compassion and soul. Niki, oddly, reminded him more of her even than Elise, although Niki’s coloring was very different. Elise had the compassion of a hungry shark.

“You’re very quiet,” she commented.

He smiled gently. “You’re a nice child,” he said softly.

“I’m almost twenty-one,” she protested.

“Honey, I’m almost thirty-seven,” he said, his voice deep with tenderness.

“Really?” She was studying him with those wide, soft gray eyes that were silvery in the soft light of the bedside lamp. She smiled. “You don’t look it. You don’t even have gray hair. Don’t tell me,” she mused wickedly. “You have it colored, don’t you?”

He burst out laughing and then coughed.

“Oh, gosh, I’m sorry,” she said at once, wincing. “I shouldn’t have opened my mouth!”

He caught his breath. “Niki, you’re a breath of spring,” he said. “No, I don’t color it,” he added. “My father was from Greece. His hair was still black when he died, and he was in his sixties.” He didn’t tell her that his real father was from Greece. He didn’t know or care where his stepfather, the man who’d raised him, came from.

“I remember my grandfather...”

“What in the blazes are you doing in here?” Todd ground out when he saw Niki sitting on the bed beside Blair.

“Well, darn, caught in the act,” Niki groaned.

CHAPTER TWO

“I DID TRY to chase her out,” Blair told his friend ruefully. “She wouldn’t go.”

“I called Doctor Fred,” Niki told her dad. “Blair wasn’t getting better. By the second day, I’m usually bouncing off the walls. Doctor Fred called in some new meds, and I had Tex go pick them up in town.”

“You’ll get sick again,” her father said solemnly.

“I will not,” Niki replied. “I’m just off antibiotics myself. And it isn’t as if I’m kissing him or anything,” she added indignantly. “I’m only pouring medicine into him. Well, that and orange juice,” she added. She grinned at her father.

Blair, looking up at her, had a sudden stark urge to drag her down into his arms and see if her mouth was as soft and sweet as it looked. That shocked him into letting go of her hand. He must be losing his mind. Well, he was sick. If that was an excuse.

“I’m sorry to stick you with an invalid over the holidays,” Blair began.

Todd cut him off, chuckling. “Niki’s almost always sick at Christmas,” he replied. “We’re used to it.”

He frowned. “At Christmas?”

“Yes,” Todd said with a sigh. “Last year we made sure she wasn’t around anyone who had a cold. She got pneumonia anyway.”

Blair’s dark eyes narrowed. “You have a live fir tree downstairs.”

“Yes. We always do,” Niki said, smiling. “I love live trees. It’s in a ball, so that we can plant it after...”

“A live tree,” Blair persisted. “Some people are allergic to them.”

Niki and her father looked at each other in confusion.

“We had artificial trees until about three years ago,” Todd said. “You wanted a live tree like your girlfriend had at her home.”

Niki grimaced. “I started getting sick at Christmas three years ago. I never connected it.”

“I’ll have Tex come and take the live tree out,” Todd said. “We’ll get a pretty artificial one from the hardware store in town, and you can decorate it again.”

Niki laughed. “I guess I’ll have to.” She glanced at Blair. “Leave it to you to see the obvious, when both of us miss it.”

“Good for me,” he mused.

“I’ll go talk to Edna about that soup,” Niki said. She put the bottle of cough syrup on the bedside table and picked up the spoon. “Want some more juice?” she added.

He shook his head. “I’m fine. Thanks, Niki.”

She grinned and left the men to talk.

“I couldn’t stop her,” Blair said quietly. “She’s formidable when she makes up her mind. I didn’t encourage her to come in here.”

“I know that.” Todd dropped into the chair beside the bed. “Her mother, Martha, was just like that,” he told the younger man. “She’d go out of her way to help sick people. Niki worries.”

“Yes.”

Todd’s eyes narrowed. “I called Elise.”

Blair’s face closed up. “She can’t bear illness.”

Todd didn’t say a word. But his expression was eloquent.

Blair just shrugged.

“She reminded you of Bernice, didn’t she?” Todd asked, because he and Blair had been friends for a long time. He’d been the one they’d called when Blair was going out of his mind after the accident that left his mother first paralyzed, and soon after, dead.

Blair’s face grew hard. “Yes.”

Todd didn’t know what else to say. “I’m sorry.”

“So am I. But I’ll make the best of it,” he added. “No woman is going to be perfect.”

* * *

THE NEXT DAY, Blair was feeling better. He sat up in bed to eat the food on the tray Edna brought him, and he was smiling when Niki peered in to check on him.

“I’m not going to die anytime soon,” he assured her with a grin.

She grinned back. “Okay. Nice to see that you’re better. I won’t have to worry Doctor Fred again.”

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She nodded. “I don’t think I’m going to catch whatever you’ve got. I don’t even have a sore throat.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” he said. “I don’t want to be responsible for putting you back in bed again.”

“Thanks. But I’m good. Want some more orange juice?”

“Please.”

“I’ll be right back.”

* * *

SHE SAT WITH Blair from time to time while he recovered. Once, she brought in her iPad and presented him with a graphic novel from the Alien vs. Predator series, one they both enjoyed.

“This is cool,” he chuckled. “You can carry graphic novels around without having to lug a suitcase full of them.”

“I thought so, too. I’ve got a Calvin and Hobbes collection on there, as well. It’s one of my favorites.”

He nodded. “Mine, too. Thanks, Niki.”

“No problem.” She got up. “I have to help Edna and the two temporary cooks with the breads. We have a huge spread for Christmas dinner.”

“That’s on Thursday,” he pointed out.

“Yes, and today is Tuesday. We start baking breads today for the dressing, and cooking giblets for the gravy and making pies and cakes. It takes a while. We set the big fancy table in the dining room, and we have the cowboys and their wives come by, in shifts, to share it with us. That’s a tradition that dates back to my grandfather’s time here.”

“It seems like a nice one,” he commented.

She smiled. “They work very hard for us all year. It’s little enough to do. We have presents for them, and their children, under the tree. It’s usually a madhouse here on Christmas Day. I hope you’ll be up to it,” she added with a grin.

“I’ve never been involved in Christmas celebrations,” he commented.

“Not even when you were a child?” she asked, surprised.

“My...father was an agnostic,” he said, hating the memory of his stepfather. “We didn’t celebrate Christmas.”

She hesitated. “Was your mother like that, too?”

His face was hard. “She did what he told her to do. It was a different generation, honey. He was old-school. God bless her, she put up with a lot from him. But she missed him when he died.”

“I’m sure you did, too.”

“In my way.”

Eager to lighten the atmosphere, because his face was painfully somber, she said, “We have eggnog on Christmas Eve. I make it from scratch.”

He made a face.

She grimaced. “I see. You don’t like eggs, so you won’t like eggnog, right?”

“Right. I’ll just have my whiskey neat instead of polluting it with eggs,” he said, tongue in cheek.

She sighed. “Are you always such a demanding dinner guest?” she despaired.

He chuckled. His black eyes twinkled at her. “I like pretty much anything except things with egg in them. Just don’t forget the whiskey.”

She sighed. He was very handsome. She loved the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled. She loved the strong, chiseled lines of his wide mouth, the high cheekbones, the thick black wavy hair around his leonine face. His chest was a work of art in itself. She had to force herself not to look at it too much. It was broad and muscular, under a thick mat of curling black hair that ran down to the waistband of his silk pajamas. Apparently, he didn’t like jackets, because he never wore one with the bottoms. His arms were muscular, without being overly so. He would have delighted an artist.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” he wondered aloud.

“That an artist would love painting you,” she blurted out, and then flushed then cleared her throat. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

He lifted both eyebrows. “Miss Ashton,” he scoffed, “you aren’t by any chance flirting with me, are you?”

“Mr. Coleman, the thought never crossed my mind!”

“Don’t obsess over me,” he said firmly, but his eyes were still twinkling. “I’m a married man.”

She sighed. “Yes, thank goodness.”

His eyebrows lifted in a silent question.

“Well, if you weren’t married, I’d probably disgrace myself. Imagine, trying to ravish a sick man in bed because I’m obsessing over the way he looks without a shirt!”

He burst out laughing. “Go away, you bad girl.”

Her own eyes twinkled. “I’ll banish myself to the kitchen and make lovely things for you to eat.”

“I’ll look forward to that.”

She smiled and left him.

He looked after her with conflicting emotions. He had a wife. Sadly, one who was a disappointment in almost every way; a cold woman who took and took without a thought of giving anything back. He’d married her thinking she was the image of his mother. Elise had seemed very different while they were dating. But the minute the ring was on her finger, she was off on her travels, spending more and more of his money, linking up with old friends whom she paid to travel with her. She was never home. In fact, she made a point of avoiding her husband as much as possible.

This really was the last straw, though, ignoring him when he was ill. It had cut him to the quick to have Todd and Niki see the emptiness of their relationship. He wasn’t that sick. It was the principle of the thing. Well, he had some thinking to do when he left the Ashtons, didn’t he?

* * *

CHRISTMAS DAY WAS BOISTEROUS. Niki and Edna and three other women took turns putting food on the table for an unending succession of people who worked for the Ashtons. Most were cowboys, but several were executives from Todd’s oil corporation.

Niki liked them all, but she was especially fond of their children. She dreamed of having a child of her own one day. She spent hours in department stores, ogling the baby things.

She got down on the carpet with the children around the Christmas tree, oohing and aahing over the presents as they opened them. One little girl who was six years old got a Barbie doll with a holiday theme. The child cried when she opened the gaily wrapped package.

“Lisa, what’s wrong, baby?” Niki cooed, drawing her into her lap.

“Daddy never buys me dolls, and I love dolls so much, Niki,” she whispered. “Thank you!” She kissed Niki and held on tight.

“You should tell him that you like dolls, sweetheart,” Niki said, hugging her close.

“I did. He bought me a big yellow truck.”

“A what?”

“A truck, Niki,” the child said with a very grown-up sigh. “He wanted a little boy. He said so.”

Niki looked as indignant as she felt. But she forced herself to smile at the child. “I think little girls are very sweet,” she said softly, brushing back the pretty dark hair.

“So do I,” Blair said, kneeling down beside them. He smiled at the child, too. “I wish I had a little girl.”

“You do? Honest?” Lisa asked, wide-eyed.

“Honest.”

She got up from Niki’s lap and hugged the big man. “You’re nice.”

He hugged her back. It surprised him, how much he wanted a child. He drew back, the smile still on his face. “So are you, precious.”

“I’m going to show Mama my doll,” she said. “Thanks, Niki!”

“You’re very welcome.”

The little girl ran into the dining room, where the adults were finishing dessert.

“Poor thing,” Niki said under her breath. “Even if he thinks it, he shouldn’t have told her.”

“She’s a nice child,” he said, getting to his feet. He looked down at Niki. “You’re a nice child, yourself.”

She made a face at him. “Thanks. I think.”

His dark eyes held an expression she’d never seen before. They fell to her waistline and jerked back up. He turned away. “Any more coffee going? I’m sure mine’s cold.”

“Edna will have made a new pot by now,” she said. His attitude disconcerted her. Why had he looked at her that way? Her eyes followed him as he strode back into the dining room, towering over most of the other men. The little girl smiled up at him, and he ruffled her hair.

He wanted children. She could see it. But apparently his wife didn’t. What a waste, she thought. What a wife he had. She felt sorry for him. He’d said when he was engaged that he was crazy about Elise. Why didn’t she care enough to come when he was ill?

“It’s not my business,” she told herself firmly.

It wasn’t. But she felt very sorry for him just the same. If he’d married her, they’d have a houseful of children. She’d take care of him and love him and nurse him when he was sick... She pulled herself up short. He was a married man. She shouldn’t be thinking such things.

* * *

SHE’D BOUGHT PRESENTS online for her father and Edna and Blair. She was careful to get Blair something impersonal. She didn’t want his wife to think she was chasing him or anything. She picked out a tie tac, a fleur de lis made of solid gold. She couldn’t understand why she’d chosen such a thing. He had Greek ancestry, as far as she knew, not French. It had been an impulse.

Her father had gone to answer the phone, a call from a business associate who wanted to wish him happy holidays, leaving Blair and Niki alone in the living room by the tree. She felt like an idiot for making the purchase.

Now Blair was opening the gift, and she ground her teeth together when he took the lid off the box and stared at it with wide, stunned eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she began self-consciously. “The sales slip is in there,” she added. “You can exchange it if...”

He looked at her. His expression stopped her tirade midsentence. “My mother was French,” he said quietly. “How did you know?”

She faltered. She couldn’t manage words. “I didn’t. It was an impulse.”

His big fingers smoothed over the tie tac. “In fact, I had one just like it that she bought me when I graduated from college.” He swallowed. Hard. “Thanks.”

“You’re very welcome.”

His dark eyes pinned hers. “Open yours now.”

She fumbled with the small box he’d had hidden in his suitcase until this morning. She tore off the ribbons and opened it. Inside was the most beautiful brooch she’d ever seen. It was a golden orchid on an ivory background. The orchid was purple with a yellow center, made of delicate amethyst and topaz and gold.

She looked at him with wide, soft eyes. “It’s so beautiful...”

He smiled with real affection. “It reminded me of you, when I saw it in the jewelry store,” he lied, because he’d had it commissioned by a noted jewelry craftsman, just for her. “Little hothouse orchid,” he teased.

She flushed. She took the delicate brooch out of its box and pinned it to the bodice of her black velvet dress. “I’ve never had anything so lovely,” she faltered. “Thank you.”

He stood up and drew her close to him. “Thank you, Niki.” He bent and started to brush her mouth with his, but forced himself to deflect the kiss to her soft cheek. “Merry Christmas.”

She felt the embrace to the nails of her toes. He smelled of expensive cologne and soap, and the feel of that powerful body so close to hers made her vibrate inside. She was flustered by the contact, and uneasy because he was married.

She laughed, moving away. “I’ll wear it to church every Sunday,” she promised without really looking at him.

He cleared his throat. The contact had affected him, too. “I’ll wear mine to board meetings, for a lucky charm,” he teased gently. “To ward off hostile takeovers.”

“I promise it will do the job,” she replied, and grinned.

Her father came back to the living room, and the sudden, tense silence was broken. Conversation turned to politics and the weather, and Niki joined in with forced cheerfulness.

But she couldn’t stop touching the orchid brooch she’d pinned to her dress.

* * *

TIME PASSED. BLAIR’S VISITS to the ranch had slowed until they were almost nonexistent. Her father said Blair was trying to make his marriage work. Niki thought, privately, that it would take a miracle to turn fun-loving Elise into a housewife. But she forced herself not to dwell on it. Blair was married. Period. She did try to go out more with her friends, but never on a blind date again. The experience with Harvey had affected her more than she’d realized.

Graduation day came all too soon. Niki had enjoyed college. The daily commute was a grind, especially in the harsh winter, but thanks to Tex, who could drive in snow and ice, it was never a problem. Her grade point average was good enough for a magna cum laude award. And she’d already purchased her class ring months before.

“Is Blair coming with Elise, do you think?” Niki asked her father as they parted inside the auditorium just before the graduation ceremony.

He looked uncomfortable. “I don’t think so,” he said. “They’ve had some sort of blowup,” he added. “Blair’s butler, Jameson, called me last night. He said Blair locked himself in his study and won’t come out.”

“Oh, dear,” Niki said, worried. “Can’t he find a key and get in?”

“I’ll suggest that,” he promised. He forced a smile. “Go graduate. You’ve worked hard for this.”

She smiled. “Yes, I have. Now all I have to do is decide if I want to go on to graduate school or get a job.”

“A job?” he scoffed. “As if you’ll ever need to work.”

“You’re rich,” she pointed out. “I’m not.”

“You’re rich, too,” he argued. He bent and kissed her cheek, a little uncomfortably. He wasn’t a demonstrative man. “I’m so proud of you, honey.”

“Thanks, Daddy!”

“Don’t forget to turn the tassel to the other side when the president hands you your diploma.”

“I won’t forget.”

* * *

THE CEREMONY WAS LONG, and the speaker was tedious. By the time he finished, the audience was restless, and Niki just wanted it over with.

She was third in line to get her diploma. She thanked the dean, whipped her tassel to the other side as she walked offstage and grinned to herself, imagining her father’s pleased expression.

It took a long time for all the graduates to get through the line, but at last it was over, and Niki was outside with her father, congratulating classmates and working her way to the parking lot.

She noted, when they were inside the car, that her father was frowning.

“I turned my tassel,” she reminded him.

He sighed. “Sorry, honey. I was thinking about Blair.”

Her heart jumped. “Did you call Jameson?”

“Yes. He finally admitted that Blair hasn’t been sober for three days. Apparently, the divorce is final, and Blair found out some unsavory things about his wife.”

“Oh, dear.” She tried not to feel pleasure that Blair was free. He’d said often enough that he thought of Niki as a child. “What sort of things?”

“I can’t tell you, honey. It’s very private stuff.”

She drew in a long breath. “We should go get him and bring him to the ranch,” she said firmly. “He shouldn’t be on his own in that sort of mood.”

He smiled softly. “You know, I was just thinking the same thing. Call Dave and have them get the Learjet over here. You can come with me if you like.”

“Thanks.”

He shrugged. “I might need the help,” he mused. “Blair gets a little dangerous when he drinks, but he’d never hit a woman,” he added.

She nodded. “Okay.”

* * *

BLAIR DIDN’T RESPOND to her father’s voice asking him to open the door. Muffled curses came through the wood, along with sounds of a big body bumping furniture.

“Let me try,” Niki said softly. She rapped on the door. “Blair?” she called.

There was silence, followed by the sound of footsteps coming closer. “Niki?” came a deep, slurred voice.

“Yes, it’s me.”

He unlocked the door and opened it. He looked terrible. His face was flushed from too much alcohol. His black, wavy hair was ruffled. His blue shirt, unbuttoned and untucked, looked as if he’d slept in it. So did his black pants. He was a little unsteady on his feet. His eyes roved over Niki’s face with warm affection.

She reached out and caught his big hand in both of hers. “You’re coming home with us,” she said gently. “Come on, now.”

“Okay,” he said, without a single protest.

Jameson, standing to one side, out of sight, sighed with relief. He grinned at her father.

Blair drew in a long breath. “I’m pretty drunk.”

“That’s okay,” Niki said, still holding tight to his hand. “We won’t let you drive.”

He burst out laughing. “Damned little brat,” he muttered.

She grinned at him.

“You dressed up to come visit me?” he asked, looking from her to her father.

“It was my graduation today,” Niki said.

Blair grimaced. “Damn! I meant to come. I really did. I even got you a present.” He patted his pockets. “Oh, hell, it’s in my desk. Just a minute.”

He managed to stagger over to the desk without falling. He dredged out a small wrapped gift. “But you can’t open it until I’m sober,” he said, putting it in her hands.

“Oh. Well, okay,” she said. She cocked her head. “Are you planning to have to run me down when I open it, then?”

His eyes twinkled. “Who knows?”

“We’d better go before he changes his mind,” her father said blithely.

“I won’t,” Blair promised. “There’s too damned much available liquor here. You only keep cognac and Scotch whiskey,” he reminded his friend.

“I’ve had Edna hide the bottles, though,” her father assured him.

“I’ve had enough anyway.”

“Yes, you have. Come on,” Niki said, grabbing Blair’s big hand in hers.

He followed her like a lamb, not even complaining at her assertiveness. He didn’t notice that Todd and Jameson were both smiling with pure amusement.

* * *

WHEN THEY GOT back to Catelow, and the Ashton ranch, Niki led Blair up to the guest room and set him down on the big bed.

“Sleep,” she said, “is the best thing for you.”

He drew in a ragged breath. “I haven’t slept for days,” he confessed. “I’m so tired, Niki.”

She smoothed back his thick, cool black hair. “You’ll get past this,” she said with a wisdom far beyond her years. “It only needs time. It’s fresh, like a raw wound. You have to heal until it stops hurting so much.”

He was enjoying her soft hand in his hair. Too much. He let out a long sigh. “Some days I feel my age.”

“You think you’re old?” she chided. “We’ve got a cowhand, Mike, who just turned seventy. Know what he did yesterday? He learned to ride a bicycle.”

His eyebrows arched. “Are you making a point?”

“Yes. Age is only in the mind.”

He smiled sardonically. “My mind is old, too.”

“I’m sorry you couldn’t have had children,” she lied, and felt guilty that she was glad about it. “Sometimes they make a marriage work.”

“Sometimes they end it,” he retorted.

“Fifty-fifty chance.”

“Elise would never have risked her figure to have a child,” he said coldly. “She even said so.” He grimaced. “We had a hell of a fight after the Christmas I spent here. It disgusted me that she’d go to some party with her friends and not even bother to call to see how I was. She actually said to me the money was nice. It was a pity I came with it.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said with genuine sympathy. “I can’t imagine the sort of woman who’d marry a man for what he had. I couldn’t do that, even if I was dirt poor.”

He looked up into soft, pretty gray eyes. “No,” he agreed. “You’re the sort who’d get down in the mud with your husband and do anything you had to do to help him. Rare, Niki. Like that hothouse orchid pin I gave you for Christmas.”

She smiled. “I wear it all the time. It’s so beautiful.”

“Like you.”

She made a face. “I’m not beautiful.”

“What’s inside you is,” he replied, and he wasn’t kidding.

She flushed a little. “Thanks.”

He drew in a breath and shuddered. “Oh, God...” He shot out of the bed, heading toward the bathroom. He barely made it to the toilet in time. He lost his breakfast and about a fifth of bourbon.

When he finished, his stomach hurt. And there was Niki, with a wet washcloth. She bathed his face, helped him to the sink to wash out his mouth then helped him back to bed.

He couldn’t help remembering his mother, his sweet French mother, who’d sacrificed so much for him, who’d cared for him, loved him. It hurt him to remember her. He’d thought Elise resembled her. But it was this young woman, this angel, who was like her.

“Thanks,” he managed to croak out.

“You’ll be all right,” she said. “But just in case, I’m going downstairs right now to hide all the liquor.”

There was a lilt in her voice. He lifted the wet cloth he’d put over his eyes and peered up through a growing massive headache. She was smiling. It was like the sun coming out.

“Better hide it good,” he teased.

She grinned. “Can I get you anything before I leave?”

“No, honey. I’ll be fine.”

Honey. Her whole body rippled as he said the word. She tried to hide her reaction to it, but she didn’t have the experience for such subterfuge. He saw it, and worried. He couldn’t afford to let her get too attached to him. He was too old for her. Nothing would change that.

She got up, moving toward the door.

“Niki,” he called softly.

She turned.

“Thanks,” he said huskily.

She only smiled, before she went out and closed the door behind her.

* * *

“CAN WE HIDE the rest of the liquor?” she asked her father with a grin.

He chuckled. “He’ll leave it alone now. I imagine his head is two sizes too big, and he’s sick as a dog.”

“He certainly is,” she agreed. Her face hardened. “That horrible woman! If she wanted money, why didn’t she just get a job and make her own living?”

Todd looked at her with pride and affection. “That’s you, Niki. Elise is cut from a different sort of cloth. She wanted to have a life in the fast lane. She charmed Blair into thinking she wanted him.” He shook his head. “I think Christmas was the last straw. He was in bad shape, and she didn’t give a damn and made it obvious. She’ll fight him in court for alimony, of course,” he added harshly. “To the death, I imagine.”

“I imagine it’ll only last until she marries again,” she said. “That might not be long.”

He gave her an odd look. “I seriously doubt she’ll ever remarry.”

“Life goes on,” she said.

“Inevitably.” He kissed her on the forehead. “Happy graduation day, sweetheart,” he said softly. “I’m very proud of you. Sorry it ended in such misery.”

“I’m glad we brought Blair here,” she said. “God knows what he might have done, left alone with too much liquor.” She shivered inside. He must have loved Elise greatly. She said the last aloud to her father.

“He was infatuated with her, certainly. He’s not a playboy. He never was.”

“You’ve known him a long time, haven’t you?”

He nodded. “He’s a good man. Best friend I’ve ever had.”

“He’s been my friend, too,” she pointed out, smiling. “I don’t know what I’d have done if he hadn’t been here that night Harvey brought me home after our date.” She drew in a breath. “I’m still afraid to try dating again, you know.”

“Sweetheart, you can’t carry it around like a burden for the rest of your life,” he pointed out. “You’ll never be happy without a husband and children. You know that.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m not in good health,” she said slowly. “It...puts men off.”

“It won’t matter to any man who loves you.”

“You think so?” She had her doubts, but she smiled. “I’m going to help Edna in the kitchen.”

“Okay, Tidbit. I think I’ll watch the news.”

“Will you check on Blair, on your way to bed? Just in case?” she added.

He smiled. “Of course.”

She wanted to do that herself. But that look Blair had given her hadn’t been one of encouragement. She found him attractive, and she couldn’t manage to hide it. She knew it was going to cause problems.

CHAPTER THREE

BLAIR WAS BARELY able to get out of bed the next day. His head hammered, and he was wobbly on his feet.

“Serves me right, I guess,” he said when Niki brought him hash browns and bacon in bed.

“Don’t say that,” she chided softly. “You were entitled. I’m sorry life is so hard for you right now. But it will get better. Really, it will.”

He looked up at her quietly. “You’re an optimist, Niki. I’m not. I see things from a different perspective. So will you, when you’re older,” he added in a faintly bitter tone.

“For heaven’s sake, I’m going on twenty-two,” she burst out. “I just graduated from college!”

“And there’s a big world out there, just waiting for you,” he said. “New people, new places. New men,” he added deliberately.

She wrapped her arms around her chest. “No.”

He scowled, pausing with hash browns on his fork. “What do you mean, no?” he asked.

She bit her lower lip. “How do I know what men are going to be like when I’m alone with them? I know I haven’t dated much, but that was one heck of a wake-up call, you know. If you hadn’t been there...” Her eyes were tormented, and she shook her head.

“Come here.”

She sat down beside him on the bed.

He took her hand in his and held it. “You have to know, very few men ever resort to force. He’d been drinking pretty heavily.”

“I know. I tried to get him to stop. He said I was backward.” She sighed. “I guess I am. I don’t keep step with people in the modern world. I live in the country, I like wildflowers and little children, I don’t drink or smoke or do drugs...” She made a face. “It’s just a pity I wasn’t born a hundred years ago. I’d have been right at home.”

“There are other people like you in the world,” he said softly. “You’ll find them. You have to take chances, Niki. You have to get out in the world to cope with it. You’re hiding here, honey. You’re running away from life. It’s cowardly. That’s not like you.”

Her face flamed. She got up and moved away from him, like a child burned by contact with fire. How could she tell him that she was in love with him, that she wasn’t hiding from life? She was waiting, hoping, praying that one day...

His heart sank when he saw her face. He’d been too harsh. “Niki, I’m sorry.”

She swallowed, hard. He was like an adult with a small child, and it hurt to be thought of that way. She stood up from the bed. “I have to help Edna clear up in the kitchen.”

She was out the door before he could curse himself for bringing that look into her soft face. He felt guilty for the rest of the day, more so when she didn’t come near his room again.

She kept to herself for the rest of the day. She was polite to Blair at dinner, but he saw right through her.

“You’re very quiet tonight, Niki,” her father said, frowning. “Everything all right?”

She toyed with her food. “Of course. I’m just not very hungry, that’s all.” She added a smile so that her father wouldn’t get suspicious.

Blair sipped black coffee. “I thought I might drive over to Yellowstone tomorrow and see the sights. Want to come, Niki?” he added without looking at her.

She felt her heart trying to climb out of her throat. The invitation was unexpected.

“Go with him,” her father said firmly. “You need to get out of the house for a while. It will do you good. Just be sure to take your inhaler with you,” he added wryly. “Everything’s just starting to bloom. You don’t want another chest infection.”

“Worrywart,” she chided.

“I’ll take care of her,” Blair said quietly.

“I know that.” Her father finished his coffee. “Got a minute?” he asked Blair. “I want to talk to you about that new drilling site I’m going to lease.”

“Sure.” Blair got up and followed him into the study.

Niki helped Edna clear away the dishes.

“You can hide it from your father, but not from me, young lady,” Edna chided when they were putting dishes into the dishwasher. “What’s wrong?”

She moved one shoulder a little. “Blair says I’m hiding from life. From men.” She was, but she couldn’t tell Edna why.

“He’s right,” was the unexpected reply. “You’re letting that one bad date tie you up like a knot. Honey, not all men are going to try to force you. It was an unfortunate thing, what happened.”

“I couldn’t have stopped him,” Niki recalled with disgust. “If Blair hadn’t been here...”

“I know.” Edna stopped and hugged her, smoothing her long, soft hair. “But he was. You can’t go through life looking behind you. The future is bright and sweet, my darling. You have to look ahead.”

Niki sighed and smiled against the older woman’s shoulder. “Dad and I are so lucky to have you,” she said. “I don’t know how either of us would have coped. Especially Dad. He loved my mother so much.”

Edna drew in a long breath. “Yes. He was crazy about her.” She smiled sadly. “I loved my husband that way. When he died, I thought my life was over. Then Mr. Ashton offered me a job, and you were in grammar school...” She swallowed, hard. “You see, I was never able to have a child of my own. It was such a privilege, a blessing, to take care of you.”

Niki drew back, her eyes soft and misty as she met those of the older woman. “You’ve been like a mother to me,” she said. “God knows how I’d have turned out if it had just been me and Dad,” she added with a laugh, lightening the atmosphere. “I guess I’d have learned to play poker and drink whiskey and get in fights with the cowboys.”

Edna chuckled as she let Niki go. “He did a lot of that. Got stinking drunk and stayed that way for a whole month after the funeral. Most of the cowboys learned to hide in the barn until he had enough and passed out. To give them credit, none of them resigned.”

“He’s calmed down a bit,” Niki said.

“Not a lot. He and your friend Blair are cut from the same cloth.” She winced. “Hurts me, to see poor Mr. Coleman like that. His wife was a piece of work.”

“He really loved her,” Niki said. “I remember when they were just engaged. When he talked about her, his face almost glowed, like his eyes.” She glowered as she finished rinsing a plate to go in the dishwasher and handed it to Edna. “Imagine a woman who thought going to some stupid party was more important than taking care of her sick husband.”

“She had her priorities,” Edna said curtly. “Money and other men. What a shame. She’s ruined him for marriage. He’ll never take the chance again.”

“He waited a long time to get married,” Niki said thoughtfully.

“Yes. Your father said he took the loss of his mother particularly hard. He was vulnerable. That’s probably how that she-cat got her claws into him. Playing up to him, pretending to be concerned, vamping him.”

“What’s vamping?” Niki asked curiously.

“Tempting him,” Edna explained. “Most men are weak when a woman uses her body blatantly to tempt them. An experienced woman can make a plaything of a man, if he’s vulnerable.”

“It’s hard to think of Blair Coleman being susceptible like that.”

“He’s a man, honey,” Edna chuckled. “They’re all susceptible.”

“I don’t know much about that.”

“You’ll never learn, staying in this house all the time,” Edna continued. “You have to get out into the world and meet people. Meet men. Honey, you were made for a home and children.”

Niki made a face. She couldn’t tell Edna about her hopeless passion for Blair, so she improvised. “I’m sick all the time. What sort of man wants a woman like that?”

“Your mother was sickly, too,” Edna said. “But your father loved her madly. It made no difference to him, except that he spent a lot of time taking care of her.” She smiled gently. “You love people for what’s inside them. You live with the problems they have. That’s what a good marriage is all about.”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever get married,” Niki said. “I don’t mix well with other people. Especially men.”

“You get along fine with Mr. Coleman,” Edna pointed out.

“Yes, but I’m not—what was that word you used, vamping? I’m not trying to vamp him.”

“Just as well,” Edna chuckled. “He’d put you down pretty quick if you tried. He thinks you’re way too young for him.”

“I know,” Niki said, averting her eyes so that Edna didn’t see the flicker of pain in them. “I guess I could get a job. There’s an opening at the company Blair owns in Catelow, that mining office. They were advertising for a clerk.”

“You have a degree in geology,” Edna began. “I heard Mr. Coleman say they had an opening for a field geologist, too.”

“Yes, they do,” she replied. “Can you really see me going out into the field and working? I’d have to wear masks and carry all sorts of inhalers and medications, and I’d probably still get sick.”

Edna grimaced. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s okay. I’m glad you don’t think of me as disabled. But in that sense, I am. My lungs won’t let me do a lot of things. I even have trouble sitting in church next to women who think wearing a bottle of perfume is the way to attract attention.”

“Never have understood that,” Edna agreed. “I have a friend who has migraine headaches constantly. She never sees a connection between the thick perfume she wears and the headaches. She wears a layer of bath powder that’s as bad as the perfume. Even started me sneezing in church last week,” she laughed.

“I suppose we’re all blind to our own faults,” Niki had to agree.

“You going to Yellowstone with Mr. Coleman, then?”

Niki shrugged. “I guess I am.” She didn’t add that she was nervous of being alone with him. Not because she didn’t want to be. But he was experienced, and she had no way to hide the effect he was starting to have on her. She’d have to try, though. It would just be too humiliating to have him know that he was the star in her sky.

* * *

THEY LEFT EARLY the next morning in the luxury car Blair had rented at the airport. He glanced at Niki to make sure she had her seat belt on. He smiled to himself at the picture she made in that soft yellow sundress with its spaghetti straps and long full skirt. She was wearing her beautiful blond hair down. It reached to her waist in back. She was very pretty. Very fragile. He frowned.

“Got your meds?” he asked suddenly.

She grimaced. “Yes.”

“Sorry. I don’t mean to sound like an overprotective parent.”

“It’s okay.” She didn’t mind if he treated her like a child. Of course she didn’t. She worried her shoulder bag in her lap and looked out the window.

“I’m sorry that I said what I did yesterday, too,” he added curtly. “But I meant it, Niki. You can’t spend your life hiding from the world because of one stupid drunken date.”

She drew in a long breath. “I guess not.”

“A man who cares about you won’t be rough,” he added. “He won’t try to force you.”

“I know.”

She didn’t know. He wondered just how much experience with men she really had. She’d told him that she was still a virgin the night he saved her from the overbearing date. But that had been before she graduated, two years ago. He shouldn’t be curious. It wasn’t his business, but...

“Have you ever been intimate with a man?”

Her faint gasp told him everything. His teeth ground together. “Maybe that brooch I gave you was more accurate than I realized. You really are a little hothouse orchid, aren’t you?” he asked through his teeth.

She bit her lower lip. She couldn’t look at him. “I go to church,” she began.

“A lot of people do. It doesn’t mean that you have to live a life of total chastity,” he said curtly.

She frowned. “I don’t...feel things. With men, I mean.”

His heart jumped. “What do you mean?”

She kept her eyes on the passing scenery. Far in the distance were the blue outlines of the Rockies. Closer, lodgepole pines grew in clumps across open pasture. She saw a deer leaping through the underbrush, then disappear into the forest.

“Niki?”

“I haven’t ever dated much,” she confessed. “Boys in my high school teased me just because I went to church at all,” she said. “One boy propositioned me right in the hallway, and he didn’t lower his voice. When I got flustered and blushed, everybody laughed.”

His heavy brows drew together. “That must have been awful.”

“It got worse. He thought it was so funny that he posted it on his Facebook page.” Her eyes closed. She didn’t see the expression on Blair’s face. “My dad found out. He called our attorneys. The post got removed. In fact, the boy had to close down his account. Dad has a really mean temper.”

His hand tightened on the steering wheel. “Good for him.”

“Anyway, that was the only really bad thing that happened. Until I went out with the football player in college.”

“You dated other guys before him, didn’t you?”

“Well, I went to the senior prom with my best friend and her boyfriend, in high school. I danced a lot, but I didn’t have an actual date.” She grimaced. “Word got around school, about the Facebook thing.”

“Damn.”

She leaned back against the seat. “Dad was very protective of me,” she said. “There was an inspector for the cattleman’s association who used to come out to the ranch, and a vet who did vaccinations for us. They both asked me out, but Dad got to them.” She laughed. “He said the inspector was married, and the vet had a reputation that made him blush.”

Blair didn’t comment. Todd had always been protective of her. He would have felt the same way. She was fragile. Beautiful. Sweet. A world away from that vicious, cold woman he’d been married to for two years.

“It’s funny,” she said suddenly.

“What is?”

“How I can talk to you about things like this. I can’t even talk to Edna about them.”

“I’m not judgmental. And I’m old. Compared to you, at least, Tidbit,” he added with a tender smile.

She sighed. “You’re too gorgeous to be old, Blair, even if you think you are. Look, isn’t that a buffalo?” she exclaimed, too occupied to notice the sudden flush on his high cheekbones at what she’d said. No woman in his life had ever talked to him like that.

He glanced out the window and smiled. “That’s a buffalo, all right.”

“I went with Dad to a buffalo ranch one time. There were warning signs everywhere,” she added. “And the area they were kept in was double-fenced. The owner said that they were a lot more dangerous than people thought they were. He was always cautioning guests not to get too close to the fence.”

“They can be dangerous,” he agreed. “But any wild animal can be.”

“And some people, too,” she added.

“Yes. And some people.”

It was a long drive to Old Faithful once they were inside the park. Periodically, cars stopped in the middle of the road and parked while their owners got out and ran to look at one of the park’s residents. Once it was a moose, another time a small herd of bighorn sheep. Another time, it was an antelope.

Niki was laughing, the sun shining out of her, at the antics of a couple of small deer following their mother.

Blair looked down at her radiant face, and every part of his body clenched. She was unspeakably beautiful. That dress fit in all the right places. It was discreet, but the top of her breasts showed. Her skin was creamy. Her shoulders were lightly tanned, her arms softly rounded. He imagined how they might feel climbing around his neck.

“Aren’t they cute?” a man about Niki’s age enthused, joining her. His eyes were eating her up. “I used to work in a wildlife park, taking care of the abandoned babies. I love animals.”

“So do I,” Niki agreed, but she wasn’t responsive. In fact, she moved back against Blair for security, tucking herself against one broad shoulder.

He melted inside. His big hand slid around her waist and pulled her back against him, closer than he meant to.

Niki fought to keep her heartbeat steady. It was sheer heaven to be so close to him.

“We’re on a day trip to see the geyser,” Blair told the young man. He was pleasant enough, but his eyes made threats.

“Are you? I’m here with my brother and his wife. We’re camping for a few days. Well, have fun,” he said, with one last longing glance and smile at Niki as he left.

Blair’s hand rode up her side, to rest just under her breast. He could feel her heart pounding. Her breath was wispy and quick.

“Be careful,” he said in a strange, deep tone.

“Careful?” she asked, fighting the urge to lean back against him, to coax that big hand to move up just a little, just an inch, just a breath higher...

He felt her body arching helplessly. He felt her reacting to him. He was reacting to her, too, but he didn’t dare let her feel how much.

“The cars are moving again. We have to go.”

He let her go at once and guided her back to the car. He put her in, got in himself, and drove slowly behind the line of cars.

She was still trying to catch her breath. She was flushed and nervous.

“Sorry,” she said in a thick tone. “He made me nervous.”

“You’re beautiful,” he said through his teeth. “You can’t expect men not to notice.”

“I didn’t flirt with him!”

“That isn’t what I meant.” He took a deep breath. “This is why you stay at home all the time, isn’t it, Niki?” he added. “Men react to you. You don’t like it.”

She grimaced. “I feel...hunted.” By every man except the one she wanted, she could have added, but she didn’t dare.

It was an odd way to put it, but he understood. He glanced at her. She was fidgeting, uncomfortable.

“I wouldn’t have let him near you,” he said.

“I know that.” She swallowed. “Thanks.”

He was overly possessive of her. He’d wanted to punch the boy just for trying to flirt with her. She was years too young, but he wanted her. God, how he wanted her! “Hell,” he burst out.

Her head turned. His face was rigid. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing. Not a damned thing. There’s the turnoff, if we ever get to it,” he added, noting a sign in the distance that pointed to Old Faithful. “Now all we have to do is hope that we’re in time for the next eruption. They’re spaced hours apart. We won’t be able to wait for it.”

She knew that. It was a very long drive. As it was, it would be dark before they got back home to the ranch.

He pulled into the parking lot and drove around to find a spot near the enormous hotel and gift shop.

“I’d still be driving around half an hour from now looking for a parking spot,” she said with an attempt at humor. “You always hit a great spot.”

“Luck,” he said.

He got out, helped her out and locked the car. They walked to the spot where the geyser was located and read the sign. It gave approximate eruption times. The next one was in a half hour.

Niki looked up at him with a question in her soft eyes.

He got lost in them. His hand smoothed down her windblown hair. His face was impassive. “We can get coffee and look through the gift shop while we wait,” he said.

She smiled. “Sounds great. Thanks.”

“Why haven’t you ever been here before?” he asked on the way inside.

“I have, actually. I took a course in anthropology in college. Our class came here. But we didn’t get to see the eruption.”

“I minored in anthropology, back in the Dark Ages,” he said with cold humor.

She stopped just inside the gift shop and looked up at him. Niki’s slight figure was dwarfed by his height. The top of her head barely came to his nose. He was broad, like a wrestler. He moved with sensuous grace, and she remembered with some embarrassment how he looked without his shirt. She’d wanted so badly to touch him there, when he’d been sick and she’d nursed him.

He reached out and drew his thumb softly over her lips, parting them. Her reaction was arousing. He knew without asking that she was attracted to him. No woman could fake these signs, and they were blatant. His face hardened. He couldn’t afford to indulge her hunger. She was very young, just feeling her power as a woman, and she was innocent. He couldn’t take advantage of something she couldn’t even help. Worse, those years between them were like a stone wall.

He dropped his hand as if her mouth had burned it and turned away. “Let’s have coffee.”

He didn’t say another word until he was halfway through with his coffee.

“You’re brooding again,” she accused.

He looked up, both eyebrows arching.

She made a face. “We can go back now, if you want to. I don’t want to make you wait for the eruption of Old Faithful. I imagine you’ve got things to do.”

“I don’t mind waiting,” he replied. His narrowed eyes were on her face. “I’ve never seen it go off, either.”

Something in the hardness of his face made her curious. “You’ve been here before, haven’t you, Blair?” she asked softly.

His jaw hardened. “I spent my wedding night here.”

She caught her breath and looked guilty. “Oh, darn, I’m sorry!”

“You didn’t know.” He looked away. “It was my idea to come, anyway, not yours.”

That made it worse, somehow. He was reliving a failed marriage. Niki hadn’t known about the connection to Yellowstone. Impulsively, she slid her small hand over his.

“You’re always saying that I’ve let a bad experience lock me up in the past. Aren’t you doing that, too, Blair?” she asked quietly.

His eyes were troubled. He felt the coldness of her hand. He turned it, locking it with his own. “I had great expectations.”

“Did you?”

“She was beautiful, cultured, experienced,” he said, smiling wryly. “She said she loved me. I married her and brought her here—” he looked around them “—to let her prove it.”

She waited, just watching him, curious.

He laughed coldly. “She smiled. All the way through it. The whole time.”

Her lips turned up. “She enjoyed it. Why should that make you unhappy?”

He stared at her. Gaped at her. She had no clue what he was talking about. He swallowed, and averted his eyes. “Drink your coffee. We can look around the gift shop until it’s time to go.”

He’d let go of her hand. She didn’t understand why he was so disturbed. Perhaps it was one of those male things, a broodiness that women didn’t understand. She finished her coffee, waited while he paid the check then followed him out into the huge gift shop.

* * *

SHE FOUND A bracelet she loved, rawhide with a small round piece of deer’s horn attached.

“They have silver and turquoise,” he reminded her, puzzled by her delight with the simple, very inexpensive trinket.

“I like this. It’s elemental, isn’t it?” she added. “A piece of life itself.”

She was a constant puzzle to him. Her father was well-to-do, but nowhere near as wealthy as Blair was. She could have picked the most expensive thing in the store, and he’d have bought it for her. She had to know that. But she was like a child in her desires; she liked the simple things. He remembered his wife and her greed, the way she searched out the most expensive diamonds she could find in a jewelry shop and begged for them when he was dating her. She’d found a very expensive set of turquoise jewelry here, in fact, and demanded that Blair buy it for her. He’d been so smitten that day, just after they were married, that he’d have bought her the entire inventory. Then he’d taken her to bed, and all his dreams had died...

“You’re doing it again,” she said when they were walking out toward Old Faithful.

“Doing what?” he asked abruptly.

“Brooding.”

He stopped and turned toward her. “You don’t really like expensive things, do you?” he asked bluntly.

She blinked. “Well, I’m partial to emeralds and pearls,” she said. “But my jewelry box is full of them. And I really love this bracelet.” She was puzzled.

“My wife picked up a squash blossom necklace, earrings and bracelet set here,” he said, referring to the highly expensive pieces of Native American jewelry, silver and turquoise, that had been in the display case, probably from a Navajo artist even though it was a Wyoming shop. “And had me buy it for her.”

She searched his black eyes quietly. “You loved her very much, didn’t you?” she asked softly.

His face hardened. “Yes. At first.”

“I’m so sorry that it didn’t work out for you.”

He was scowling. His hands, in his pockets, were clenched. He hated the memories, especially how it had been here, in this hotel, with his wife that first night. He hated the humiliation, the crushing blow to his pride, his manhood. He hated how it had locked him up inside himself.

“You have no idea, do you? About life?” he wondered aloud. His face hardened as he looked down at her. “You’re still in patent leather shoes and frilly little dresses, gathering Easter eggs in the park.”

Her eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

He turned away. “It’s going off.”

She followed him to the geyser, adrift. She didn’t understand what he was saying, what it meant. He was sad. She wondered why.

Then she remembered what he’d said about his wife. Why did it make him angry that she’d smiled at him? For heaven’s sake, didn’t he want her to enjoy what happened between them on their wedding night? Men were so odd.

She put it to the back of her mind as the wind blew the spray from the geyser into her face, and she laughed like a delighted child.

CHAPTER FOUR

BLAIR LOOKED DOWN at Niki, at the glorious beauty of her young face, when the spray from Old Faithful hit her and she laughed. She held up her hands, enjoying the mist. She was so young. His heart clenched at the sight she made. Other men, even married ones, were staring at her, their expressions as revealing as Blair’s. Niki was like spring personified.

The spray was making patterns on her bodice. Under it, her nipples were hard from the cool sting of the water. She laughed, glancing at two young men nearby who were staring at her so intently that Blair felt himself bristle. The way they were staring at her was disturbing. One of them started to move closer, smiling like a predator. She stopped what she was doing and glanced at Blair worriedly.

“Come here,” Blair said in a hushed tone, and curved her into his side, holding her so that her soft breasts were pressed gently into the warmth of his broad chest. He gave the approaching man a glare so hot that he went back to his friend, and they quickly left the geyser.

“Why were they staring at me like that?” she asked under her breath.

He looked down into her wide, curious gray eyes. Eyes like a September fog, he thought to himself. Soft and warm, full of dreams.

“Blair?” she prompted.

He bent his head so that his lips were right against one small ear. “Your body is reacting to the mist, but they thought it was them.” He said it through his teeth. He didn’t like other men staring at her. “Especially the one who started to talk to you.”

“I don’t understand,” she whispered, shaken by the feel of his powerful body so close to her own, by the heavy thud of his heartbeat right against her.

He drew back. The black eyes that stared down into hers were narrow and glittery with some undefined emotion. “Don’t you?” he asked, and he moved away from her just a breath, his eyes on her bodice.

She looked down at herself, but she didn’t see anything that should disturb someone. Her wide eyes searched his.

She was so damned innocent that he wanted to throw back his head and scream. She didn’t know. She had no idea what secrets her body was betraying.

He half turned toward the erupting geyser. “I’ll explain it to you when we get back to the car. Watch the geyser.”

His arm contracted. She pressed her cheek against his broad chest, aware of hard muscle and soft, cushy hair under his cotton shirt. She loved the way it felt, being close to him. The people around them vanished. The geyser was erupting, and she hardly noticed it. Blair’s arm was strong and comforting, and just for these few minutes, there were only the two of them in the whole world. It was a moment out of time, out of space, when the impossible seemed possible. She closed her eyes, savoring his breath against her forehead, drinking in the sexy, masculine scent of his cologne, loving the warmth of him against the faint chill of early spring air.

Blair was trying not to notice his own body’s reaction to Niki. She was sixteen years his junior. They were a generation apart. But her breasts were firm and soft, and he wanted to touch them with his mouth. She needed a younger man. Her heartbeat was so strong, she was shaking, he could feel it. She was struggling to breathe normally. He looked down at her pretty bow-shaped mouth and wondered if she’d ever been kissed by anyone who knew how.

“Gosh, that was great!” a young boy exclaimed from nearby. “Can we stay until it goes off again, Dad? Please?”

There was a deep chuckle. “Sorry, kiddo, we’ve got hotel reservations in Billings, and it’s almost an eight-hour drive.”

“Awww, Dad...”

The voices drifted away.

Blair moved back from Niki, averting his eyes. “We’d better get moving, too,” he added. “It’s a long drive home.”

“It really was something to see,” she said, not quite meeting his eyes as she smiled. “I’ll remember it all my life.” Truth be told, the geyser wasn’t what she’d remember, but she wasn’t about to confess that to him.

* * *

HE PUT HER into the car and slid in beside her.

“You said you’d tell me what happened, at the geyser,” she reminded him.

He stared at her quietly, his black eyes narrow and somber. “Niki, what you know about men could be written on the head of a straight pin,” he sighed. “You don’t have a clue what was going on.”

“You could just tell me,” she prompted with a smile.

His big hand touseled her long, pale blond hair affectionately. “It will sound stark.”

“So?” She searched his eyes. “You’re my friend.”

“I am.” He drew in a long breath. “Honey, a woman’s body gives away secrets. The spray hit your blouse, and the tips of your breasts went hard.”

She flushed, but she didn’t look away. “And...?”

“And cold water isn’t the only thing that makes them that way. Desire has the same effect. You were getting some pretty intense attention from two men nearby, especially when you smiled at them. They thought it was a come-on,” he added quietly.

“I...didn’t know!” She averted her eyes and folded her arms across her breasts. “Oh, gosh!” She grimaced. “I went all the way through college, and I didn’t know that, about my own body,” she added miserably.

“I shouldn’t have said anything,” he said roughly. “Niki, I never meant to embarrass you. I’m sorry.”

She shifted, her eyes out the window as she fought down raging self-consciousness. “They never talked about things like that in health class,” she said. “Dad never had that sort of conversation with me, and Edna’s just as repressed as he is. I didn’t know!”

He pulled her into his arms and wrapped her up tight, burying his face in her throat, against her soft hair that smelled of wildflowers.

“You’re so uninhibited,” he groaned. “I love it. Men want you, honey. It’s a very natural reaction. You’re very pretty.”

She drew in a breath, so happy that she could have died of it. She sheltered in his arms, feeling safe, secure. Her face nestled in his warm throat. She had to fight the hunger to kiss it.

She breathed in the male scent of him, heady and delightful. “Does it always happen, when women feel desire?” she asked in a husky, shy tone.

“Yes.”

“Does it happen to men, too?” she asked suddenly.

He chuckled. “Yes. But men swell in other places, as well.”

Her face was flaming. “Blair! I’m not that dim!”

“Never mind,” he mused. “We’ll leave that discussion for another time. Right now,” he said, moving her away, “we need to get home. It will be dark before we get there.”

She buckled her seat belt. “Thanks, Blair,” she said without looking at him.

“For what?”

“Explaining it to me.” She shrugged. “I’m just grass-green.”

“We all were, once, Niki. Don’t sweat it.”

She drew in a long breath, and her fingers went to the bracelet he bought her. “Thanks for my bracelet, too.” She glanced at him. “I’m sorry the hotel brought back sad memories for you.”

“I went into it thinking it would be the perfect marriage,” he sighed.

She smiled. “I remember. You were engaged, and you were so happy. I hoped that it would be a good marriage, that you’d have kids and she’d take care of you...” She stopped when she saw his expression. “Sorry,” she said quickly. “Will there be any more animals in the road to stop and look at, do you think?” she asked, changing the subject.

“Some, perhaps. But we’re going back another way. We probably won’t see many.”

“I’ll keep my eyes peeled for deer, just the same,” she added. “I remember one of Daddy’s friends ran into one on the highway. It totaled his car and almost killed him. The deer ran away, but he found it dead the next day in a ditch near the accident.”

“They can cause serious injuries,” he agreed.

“Do you hunt?” she asked.

He smiled. “I don’t have the time,” he said. “Business takes up most of my life.” His face hardened. “I haven’t had time for a lot of things.”

“If I’m hiding at home, from men, aren’t you hiding in your business from life?” she wondered aloud, then ground her teeth together at having made such a personal remark. “I’m sorry, Blair. I shouldn’t have said that.”

His hand had contracted on the steering wheel until the knuckles were white. But it slowly relaxed. “The one time I didn’t hide, I had my heart torn out of me,” he said coldly. “Never again.”

She winced at the raw anguish in his tone. He’d loved his wife. It must have been pure hell to end up like this, to lose her. But it hurt to hear him say that, about Elise. Niki loved him, and he was never going to love her back.

She swallowed. She hated his wife for the way she’d treated him, but there was no accounting for human emotions. People couldn’t help who they loved. She glanced at him. “Isn’t there a chance that she might come back?” she asked quietly. She wanted him to be happy, even if it wasn’t with her.

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” The way he said it went through her like an arrow. He’d never used that tone with her in all the time they’d known each other.

She started to apologize again and thought better of it. She turned her attention out the window and watched the landscape passing by until darkness fell over it.

* * *

IT WAS A long, silent ride home after that. He pulled up in the driveway of the Ashton ranch. She didn’t wait for him to open her door. She climbed out and went ahead of him through the front door. The television was on in the living room. She had a glimpse of her father’s blond hair before Blair caught her arm and pulled her right back out the door.

He closed it again and looked down at her in the dim light from the windows. “It’s hard for me to talk about her,” he said after a minute. “I’m not used to sharing things, personal things, with anyone. But that’s no excuse for snapping at you the way I did. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she managed. “I won’t do it again.” She forced a smile, moved away from him and went inside. She called to her father before she made an excuse and went up to her room. She managed to hold the tears back until then.

* * *

WHEN SHE GOT up the next morning, after a sleepless night, her face showed the ravages she couldn’t camouflage even with makeup.

She went downstairs and hesitated at the dining room door. Nobody was up except Blair. He was sitting at the table, dressed in gray slacks and a yellow knit designer shirt, sipping black coffee.

He looked up when he heard her. His own face looked worn, as well.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning,” she replied. “Is Edna up?”

He shook his head. “I made coffee.”

“Thanks.” She went into the kitchen and fetched a cup from the cupboard. She was pouring herself a cup of coffee when she felt the warmth of his big body behind her. His hands went to her waist and tightened. She felt his breath at the back of her head.

“You didn’t sleep, did you?” he asked deeply.

She swallowed. “I said stupid things...”

He turned her around to face him. He didn’t let go of her waist. “So did I,” he said curtly. “Stupid, hurtful things. I can’t leave like this. Not with you hating me.”

“I don’t...hate you,” she managed.

He smoothed back her long blond hair, his black eyes intent on hers. “It’s hard for me to share things,” he began. “I keep it all inside. I hate my marriage. I hate remembering it.”

“I know. It was my fault. I should never have brought it up.”

He drew in a long breath. His eyes had dark circles beneath them. He looked so tired. She reached up impulsively and smoothed the frown between his eyes. “Don’t brood so much,” she said softly, her eyes adoring him. “Life is sweet. Every day is a miracle. You have to look ahead, not back, Blair.”

One big thumb smoothed over her soft mouth. His eyes were oddly intent on it. “So they say,” he replied quietly.

“I’m going to apply for that job at your mining company,” she said with a pert grin. “There. How’s that for getting out of the house?”

The frown came back. “Niki, that’s a field geology position. The pollen...”

“No, not that one,” she corrected. “The clerk’s position. You know, filing and stuff in an office.”

“You’re overqualified for it.”

She shrugged. “Hey, it’s a job, right?” she teased.

He drew in a breath. “It isn’t a clerk’s position. It’s a personal assistant position, in the vice president’s office. He hasn’t started interviewing for it. If you want the job, it’s yours.”

“That wouldn’t be fair...”

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