Page 6 of Rainwater
He smiled briefly, liking the woman right away, then kept his expressions somber. He didn’t want to make friends. He didn’t want to stay in one place.
“Well, come on in and we’ll get you situated.”
After he registered, he found his room, unlocked the door and pushed it open. “Not bad,” he murmured as he stepped inside. Jennifer had been right. It was clean. So was the bathroom, which smelled faintly of ammonia. Big fluffy bath towels lay over bright silver racks, and he sighed at the anticipated pleasure of being clean.
He stripped down, eager to wash the dust of the road out of his skin and hair.
He’d been riding most of the night and a good part of the day. The nightmares had woken him the night before, and unable to go to sleep, he left the crumpled grass of his camp and sought the peace of the open road on his Harley. His body still hummed from the vibrations of the powerful machine.
A while later, clean, with just a towel wrapped around his waist, his hair damp, he settled on the bed and tucked his hands behind his head. The soft scent of lilac tickled his nostrils, and hesmiled when he saw the freshly cut flowers on the nightstand. He closed his eyes, but sleep eluded him.
His thoughts turned to Jennifer Horn. The woman was in trouble. The man she had called Jay wasn’t going to let up. Corey could tell bullies a mile away, and that guy was hell-bent on hurting Jennifer, maybe even seriously. A sense of uneasiness settled inside him and he swore softly. He didn’t want to care about the woman. Yet, to his astonishment, the rage he had felt at her possible injury flared up again, along with a fierce protectiveness he’d only felt for his mother and sister.
Damn. He couldn’t seem to help himself. He was worried about her. Wondered who she had to protect her, where she lived, and what kind of trouble she was in.
Well, he couldn’t help. Hell, he couldn’t even help himself. How was he going to help her?By being there. You’re stronger and bigger and you need someone, a faint voice he suspected was his conscience admonished him.
He couldn’t fit anyone into his life. He was too busy trying to fit the pieces of his own life back together. Pieces that were almost smashed beyond recognition.
He thought back to the scene in the parking lot. Seeing a woman abused made him see red. He knew about battering. He knew what a woman looked like after a man’s fist had connected with the soft flesh of her face. How split lips looked all swollen and bloody. When he’d stopped to ask the couple for directions, he thought they were arguing spouses until he’d gotten closer and seen the look on the man’s face. Corey had been too little to help his mother, but, by God, he wasn’t now, and there was no way in hell he could have refrained from stepping in to stop that vicious bastard from hitting Jennifer.
He’d wanted to beat the man senseless, but he had resisted the urge, knowing instinctively the woman abhorred violence and would have been horrified if he’d caused it.
But the cowboy deserved it.
Thinking about Jennifer brought back the shock in her eyes when his hand had met hers, the way her soft lips had parted in surprise. His eyes had homed in on that sweet, enticing mouth.Don’t think about her, he warned.
But it was easy to think about the woman. An easy excuse not to dwell on his failure or his shame. His pride had taken a damaging blow and most of the time he felt precarious, as though he were on the edge of a dark abyss losing his balance with no handhold in sight.
He had begun to unravel at the seams, slipping deeper and deeper into that black nothingness. The substance that was his spirit was leaking away like a bucket with a hole in it. Drip by precious drip it drained away until soon there would be only emptiness left. A gaping hole.
Rodeoing had been his freedom, and his ticket out of a brutal life. He had achieved the pinnacle of success and the high from riding bulls had been as addicting as a drug. Right now, though, he never again wanted to feel the surge of adrenaline that came from lowering himself onto the back of a huge Brahman. He never again wanted to experience the dizzying ride, the whirling, the bucking. Because all he remembered was the jarring impact, the searing pain and the terror of looking into two enraged black eyes and coming face-to-face with death.
He turned over abruptly, seeking sleep, and damn if the sheets didn’t smell like fresh, clean air and sunshine.
He closed his eyes, his thoughts drifting back to sweet, brave Jennifer Horn. He hoped she was all right. Maybe he would stay a couple of days and try to find out where she lived and make sure she was okay.
He didn’t think about how dangerous that thought was as his mind closed down and sleep finally stole over him.
Chapter
Two
Jennifer made it back to her truck, though she kept a keen eye out for Jay. She wouldn’t put it past him to wait and then approach her once the outlaw had left.
Fitting the key into the ignition, she put the argument with Jay out of her mind.
She knew he wasn’t upset with her for refusing to allow him to graze his cattle in one of her pastures. He was mad because she’d turned him down countless times. He was mad because she didn’t go out with him.
Maybe dumping that beer over his head two nights ago at Jack’s Trap, the local watering hole, hadn’t been such a good idea. But it had been so satisfying, and it had cooled him off considerably.
He had insisted that she dance with him. In fact, he had pulled her from her chair and dragged her out on the dance floor. She had been furious and had acted without thinking about the repercussions.
Jay considered himself a lady’s man, and his reputation had been blackened and bruised by her actions. He must be taking an awful ribbing from his friends. She couldn’t help getting satisfaction from that thought. Served him right.
Jay had a mean streak two miles wide and he was capable of rape. A shiver traveled down her spine at the thought.
There had been a rumor in town that Jay had raped a Comanche woman, yet the woman had never pressed charges. Jennifer had heard that she’d gotten a settlement. Gray Dove Garrison had made a “deal” with Jay to care for Tucker Garrison, the son she had conceived. In exchange, she wouldn’t tell Jay’s father about the rape.
