Page 32 of Texas Honor

When he helped her into the saddle, his eyes were dark and possessive, his hand lingering when she was seated. “You look good on a horse, honey,” he said quietly.

She looked down at him and smiled, feeling the warmth of his chest against her leg. “Do I?” she asked gently, her voice soft with longing.

“I want you, Marianne,” he said half under his breath. “I’ve thought about nothing else all night. So go slow, will you? I want to talk today. Just talk. I want to get to know you.”

That was flattering and a little surprising. Maybe even disappointing. But she had to keep it from showing so she kept smiling. “I’d like that,” she said.

He didn’t answer her. He felt the same hunger she did, but he was more adept at hiding his yearnings. He didn’t want to frighten her off, not before he made a stab at establishing a relationship with her. He didn’t know how she was going to react to what he had in mind, but he knew they couldn’t go on like this. Things had to be settled—today. Business was going to suffer if he kept on mooning over that perfect young body. Physical attraction was a damnable inconvenience, he thought angrily. He’d thought he was too old to be this susceptible. Apparently he was more vulnerable than he’d ever realized.

He swung into the saddle and led the way down the long trail that ran around the ranch. His men were out working with the cattle, getting them moved to summer pasture, doing all the little things around the ranch that contributed to the huge cow-calf operation. Fixing machines. Planting feed. Cleaning out stalls. Checking supplies. Making lists of chores. It was a big task, running a ranch even this size, but Ty Wade’s, which adjoined it, was huge by comparison. The oil business was Ward’s main concern, but he did like the idea of running cattle, as his grandfather had done so many years before. Perhaps it got into a man’s blood. Not that he minded sinking wells under his cattle. He had one or two on his own property, and Tyson Wade’s spread was proving to be rich in the black gold. His instincts hadn’t failed him there, and he was glad. Ty would never have let him live it down if he’d been wrong and the oil hadn’t been there. As it was, the discovery on that leased land had saved Ty from some hard financial times. It had worked out well all the way around.

Mari glanced at him, curious about that satisfied look on his hard, dark face. She wondered what thoughts were giving him such pleasure.

He laughed out loud, staring ahead. “Those old instincts never seem to let me down,” he murmured. “I think I could find oil with my nose.”

“What?”

He looked over at her. “I was thinking about that oil I found on Ty Wade’s place. It was a hell of a gamble, but it sure paid off.”

So. It was business that made him feel so good, not her company. “Is business the only pleasure in your life?” she asked gently.

He shrugged. “The only lasting one, I guess.” He stared toward the horizon. “There were some pretty hard times around here when I was a kid. Oh, we always had plenty of food, you know—that’s one of the advantages of living on a ranch. But we didn’t have much in the way of material things. Clothes were all secondhand, and I wore boots with holes in the soles for most of my childhood. That wasn’t so bad, but I got ragged a lot about my mother.”

She could imagine that he had. “I guess I was pretty lucky,” she said. “My parents were good to me. We always got by.”

He studied her quietly. “I’ll bet you were a tomboy.”

She laughed, delighted. “I was. I played sandlot baseball and climbed trees and played war. There was only one other girl on my street, and she and I had to be tough to survive with all the boys. They didn’t pull their punches just because we were girls. We had a good time growing up all the same.”

He fingered the reins as they rode along to the musical squeak of saddle leather. “I spent a lot of time working rigs when I was younger,” he recalled. “Had my own horse.”

She’d noticed how tan his skin was when he’d stripped off his shirt the night before and let her touch him. Her eyes went involuntarily to the hard muscles of his torso and lingered there.

“You don’t do much sunbathing, do you?” he asked unexpectedly, and his eyes told her that he was remembering how pale she was.

Her face colored. “No. There’s no beach nearby, and I live upstairs in an apartment building. I don’t have any place to sunbathe.”

“It isn’t good for the skin. Mine’s like leather,” he commented. “Yours is silky soft....”

She urged her mount ahead, embarrassed because she knew what he was seeing in his mind.

His mount fell into easy step beside her. “Don’t be shy with me,” he said gently. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I guess I seem grass green to you,” she commented.

“Sure you do,” he replied and smiled. “I like it.”

Her eyes went to the flat horizon beyond, to the scant trees and the long fence lines and the red coats of the cattle. “I never had many boyfriends,” she told him, remembering. “My dad was very strict.”

“What was he like?”

“Oh, very tall and stubborn. And terrific,” she added. “I had great parents. I loved them both. Losing Mama was hard, but having both of them gone is really rough. I never missed having brothers or sisters until now.”

“I suppose it makes you feel alone.”

“I’ve felt that way for a long time,” she said. “My father wasn’t really an affectionate man, and he didn’t like close ties. He thought it was important that I stand alone. Perhaps he was right. I got used to being by myself after Mama died.”

He studied her averted features. “At least I had Grandmother and Belinda,” he said. “Although with Grandmother it’s been a fight all the way. She’s too much like me.”

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