Page 48 of Wyoming Heart

Cort couldn’t tell him that his particular dream was of Mina Michaels in his bed. He woke squeezing the hell out of a pillow, so hot that he wondered if he’d burned the sheets. He couldn’t get the taste of her out of his memory. He’d as much as told her he wasn’t going to see her again. Now he was wondering how he could find an excuse to go back. She haunted him.

She was so different from the women who passed through his life. He was used to glitter, perfume, flashy couture clothing, nights on the town riding in stretch limos with some of the most beautiful women on Earth. He’d been on the cover of tabloids at least once when a movie star accused him of assault. It went to court. She was lying and Cort produced witnesses to prove that he wasn’t. Instead of his good name being ruined, hers was, and she faced not only jail time but a million-dollar lawsuit filed on Cort’s behalf. It was still going through the courts, and he didn’t feel any sympathy for the star, who apologized on live television, in tears, pleading for forgiveness. The tears were crocodile ones, however, as one astute newscaster mentioned during his broadcast. Cort wished he’d never met the woman. Bedroom skills were hardly worth the misery she’d caused him. Not because he missed her, though. Until she made the accusation, he’d even forgotten what she looked like.

The women in his past were a colorful blur of memory. They were as far away from ranch life as it was possible to get.

“Deep thoughts?” Bart asked, interrupting his train of thought.

Cort looked up. “I was thinking about Stella Hayes,” he said.

“Oh. The woman who accused you of assault.” He chuckled. “We heard about that even up here. She was so shallow that nobody believed her. Served her right to get caught in a lie and sued to the back teeth for lying.”

“She’s still pleading for me to drop the lawsuit.” He shrugged. “I don’t need the money. I just want to make sure her reputation gets the attention it deserves, to save some other poor fool from her lies.”

“It’s a sad thing she did,” Bart agreed. “When women really get attacked—and far too many do—they have to face ridicule because of women like Stella, who lie to get attention. We live in a mad world.”

“Mad and bad.”

“And ‘the night is dark and full of terrors,’” Bart said on a chuckle.

That made Cort smile. “I was talking to Mina about the series. She watches it, too.” He frowned slightly. “It doesn’t seem quite her type of show, does it? I mean, the language and nudity and the gore...”

Bart choked on his coffee. He recovered quickly and didn’t let on how amused he was at Cort’s impression of Mina. If he knew what that woman had done in the past few years to research books. He almost howled at the thought of Mina being shocked by a television show. He glanced at his cousin and thought again that he’d done the right thing, keeping Mina’s profession a secret. One day Cort would find out what she did, and how. It was going to be a shock.

On the other hand, Mina had no idea that Cort was worth millions or that he owned the biggest ranch in West Texas.

“She’s going to Galveston with Jake McGuire,” Cort murmured. “Then he’s flying her to New York City, to another restaurant. Or so he says,” he added darkly. “I hope she’s not being taken in by him. He likes women.”

“So do you,” Bart reminded him. “And he isn’t being seen around town with the happy divorcée.”

Cort made a face. “She’s really not what people think she is,” he said.

“There’s a lot of that going around lately,” Bart replied, and averted his eyes.

“No, I’m not kidding,” Cort said. “Ida isn’t a scarlet woman. It’s a defense mechanism. If she flaunts her scandalous reputation, men leave her alone. They’re afraid they won’t measure up to her expectations. She avoids relationships like the plague.”

“She goes out with you,” he was reminded.

Cort smiled. “We’re friends, and that isn’t a euphemism. I like her. I don’t like most women.”

“Do you like Mina?”

Cort looked worried. He shifted in his chair and refreshed his coffee from the pot sitting on the table. He sipped it before he answered. “She’s an odd mixture,” he said. “She’s nervous around men. I can understand why she’s that way. Her mother should have been in federal prison.”

“A lot of us around here felt that way,” he replied. “Cody tried so damned hard to get anything on her that would get Mina out of her life. He never could.”

“Her father was a piece of work, too,” he murmured. “He could have tried to keep in touch with his daughter. We have all sorts of ways to do that, even snail mail if it came right down to it.”

“If he’d tried, Anthea would have burned any letters he sent while Mina was out of the house.”

“Damn!”

“I understand that he did try to get custody of her, but Anthea made up some false charge—sort of like your starlet did—and threatened him with prison if he tried to take Mina away.”

“She didn’t want the child,” Cort said, frowning.

“No. But she didn’t want her husband to have her, either.”

“I’ve never understood how women like that get away with so much.”

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