Donavan

“You don’t look it.”

She studied his hard, suntanned face and his unruly hair. With a little trimming up and proper dressing, he might be rather devastating. “Are you from around here?” she asked.

“All my life,” he agreed.

“Do you…work?”

“Child, in this part of Texas, everybody works.” He scowled. “Most everybody,” he amended, letting his eyes linger pointedly on her diamond tennis bracelet. “Wearing that into a country bar is asking for trouble. Pull your sleeve down.”

She did, obeying him instantly when she was known for ignoring anything that sounded like a command at home. She flushed at her instant deference. Maybe she was drunk already. Sure, she mused, on two sips of beer.

“What do you do when you aren’t giving orders?” she taunted.

He searched her green eyes. “I’m a ranch foreman,” he said. “I give orders for a living.”

“Oh. You’re a cowboy.”

“That’s one name for it.”

She smiled again. “I’ve never met a real cowboy before.”

“You aren’t from here.”

She shook her head. “Georgia. My parents were killed in a plane crash, so I was sent out here to live with my uncle.” She whistled softly. “You can’t imagine what it’s like.”

“Get out,” he said simply. “People live in prisons out of choice. You can always walk away from a situation you don’t care for.”

“Want to bet? I’m rich,” she said curtly. “Filthy rich. But it’s all tied up in a trust that I can’t touch until I’m twenty-one, and my uncle is hoping to marry me off to a business associate in time to get his hands on some of it.”

“Are you for real?” he asked. He picked up the whiskey glass and took a sip, putting the glass down with a sharp movement of his hand. “Tell him to go to hell and do what you please. At your age I was working for myself, not for any relatives.”

“You’re a man,” she pointed out.

“What difference does that make?” he asked. “Haven’t you ever heard of women’s lib?”

She smiled. At least one person in the bar had heard of women’s lib. “I’m not that kind of woman. I’m wimpy.”

“Listen, lady, no wimpy girl walks into a place like this in the middle of the night and orders a beer.”

She laughed, her green eyes brilliant. “Yes, she does, when she’s driven to it. Besides, it was safe, wasn’t it? You were here.”

He lifted his chin and a different light came into the pale, silvery eyes. “And you think I’m safe,” he murmured. “Or, more precisely, that you’re safe with me?”

Her heart began to thud against her ribs. That was a very adult look in his eyes, and she noticed the corresponding drop of his voice into a silky, soft purr. Her lips parted as she let out the breath she was holding.

“I hope I am,” she said after a minute. “Because I’ve done a stupid thing and even though I might deserve a hard time, I’m hoping you won’t give me one.”

He smiled, and this time it was without mockery. “Good girl. You’re learning.”

“Is it a lesson?” she asked.

He drained the whiskey glass. “Life is all lessons. The ones you don’t learn right off the bat, you have to repeat. Get up. I’ll drive you home.”

“Must you?” she asked, sighing. “It’s the first adventure I’ve ever had, and it may be the last.”

He cocked his hat over one eye and looked down at her. “In that case, I’ll do my best to make it memorable,” he murmured dryly. He held out a lean, strong hand and pulled her up when she took it. “Are you game?”

She was feeling her way with him, but oddly, she trusted him. She smiled. “I’m game.”

He nodded. He took her arm and guided her out the door. She noticed a few looks that came their way, but no one tried to distract him.

“People seem to know you in there,” she remarked when they were outside in the cool night air.

“They know me,” he returned. “I’ve treed that bar a time or two.”

“Treed it?”

He glanced down at her. “Broken it up in a brawl. Men get into trouble, young lady, and women aren’t always handy to get them out of it.”

“I’m not really handy,” she said hesitantly.

He chuckled. “Honey, what you are is written all over you in green ink. I don’t mind a little adventure, but that’s all you’ll get from me.” His silvery eyes narrowed. “If you stay around here long enough, you’ll learn that I don’t like rich women, and you’ll learn why. But for tonight, I’m in a generous mood.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

He laughed without humor. “I don’t suppose you do.” He eyed her intently. “You aren’t safe to be let out.”

“That’s what everybody keeps saying.” She smiled with what she hoped was sophistication. “But how will I learn anything about life if I’m kept in a glass bowl?”

His eyes narrowed. “Maybe you’ve got a head start already.” He tugged her along to a raunchy gray pickup truck with dents all over it. “I hope you weren’t expecting a Rolls-Royce, debutante. I could hardly haul cattle in one.”

She felt terrible. She actually winced as she looked up at him, and he felt a twinge of guilt at the dry remark that was meant to be funny.

“Oh, I don’t care what you drive,” she said honestly. “You could be riding a horse, and it wouldn’t matter. I don’t judge people by what they have.”

His pale eyes slid over her face lightly. “I think I knew that already,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry. I meant it as a joke. Here. Don’t cut yourself on that spring. It popped out and I haven’t had time to fix it.”

“Okay.” She bounced into the cab and he closed the door. It smelled of the whole outdoors, and when he got in, it smelled of leather and smoke. He glanced at her and smiled.

He started the truck and glanced at her. “Did you drive here?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He paused to look around the parking lot, pursing his lips with faint amusement when he saw the regal blue Mercedes-Benz sitting among the dented pickup trucks and dusty four-wheel-drive vehicles.

“That’s right, you don’t need to ask what I drove here in,” she muttered self-consciously. “And yes, it’s mine.”

He chuckled. “Bristling already, and we’ve only just met,” he murmured as he pulled out into the road. “What do you do when you aren’t trying to pick up strange men in bars?”