Wyoming Rugged

“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.