Hallie's Hero

“Damn! Damn that good-for-nothing, smooth-talking—ouch!” Hallie yelped as the sharp pricks of cactus needles pierced the seat of her pants. She couldn’t help blaming Dakota for this even though for all she knew he was still back at the ranch.

After her confrontation with him, she’d galloped her horse hard across the open grassland, relieved when she’d gotten to the edge of the cliffs to look back over her trail and find herself alone. After checking the grazing herd of cattle, she’d walked her horse along the rough path below the cliffs, taking a more leisurely pace back to the barn.

But as she’d started to turn the stallion toward the pasture again her horse had suddenly whinnied and reared back, throwing her bottom-first onto a patch of prickly pear. Stunned, Hallie didn’t see the rattlesnake until it slithered off the path in front of her into a crevice in the rock. Grano she couldn’t see at all.

Sucking in a shaky breath and letting it go in a whoosh, Hallie shifted slightly, then froze as pain sliced at her bottom.

All at once everything—the fall and her throbbing backside, Ben, Pa’s death, losing the ranch—seemed too much.

“This is all your fault, Jack Dakota!” she said out loud. “Everything is your fault!”

Except it wasn’t. No matter how much she wanted it to be. Angry tears stung her eyes. She was nearly as mad at herself as she was at him. How could she have let this happen, all of it? How could she ever put it right?

By getting yourself off this cactus for a start, she told herself. Sitting there sniveling wasn’t going to change things. And it wasn’t going to get the cactus spines out of her behind.

Hallie braced herself and pushed upward, jerking herself up onto her knees. For a moment, she hardly dared breathe for fear any little movement would make the pain unbearable.

Then, bent over in what felt like the most undignified position a woman could get herself into, she pulled off her bandanna, wadded it up and put it between her teeth to bite if the pain got too bad.

One by one, she began plucking out the cactus needles.

After the first three, she wanted to lie down and cry. But all she had to do was picture that roguish grin on Jack’s face if he ever found her in this position, and it made her bite down and yank harder.

The sixth one stuck hard and Hallie let out a yell when she finally managed to yank it out.

Absorbed in her task, fighting the pain, she didn’t hear the approach of a horse and rider coming fast across the open ground. Only when she lifted her face and found herself staring at a familiar pair of black boots did she realize she had an unwelcome audience.

She spat out the bandanna and looked up into Jack’s face. “You!” Jerking to her feet, she gasped as the cactus needles sank deeper.

Jack knelt in front of her at once and grabbed her by the shoulders, preventing her from moving. “Keep still or you’ll kill yourself before you get your shot at me.”

“Just go away!”

“Right, and leave you by yourself, full of cactus needles. What were you trying to do here?”

“Oh, hush up. And leave me alone! I don’t need your help.”

“Oh, I can see that.” Jack considered the situation and decided she’d been in the best position possible to get the needles out when he’d found her. “I think you’d better just bend over again and let me pull them out.”

“I said I don’t need your help!”

“Stop being so damned stubborn, woman. If you don’t get rid of those soon, you’re going to be begging me to shoot you just to end your misery.” Picking up the bandanna, he rolled it tightly and offered it to her again. “Here, you’re going to need this. Now turn around. You can plot my murder while I’m pulling them out.”

With fury, loathing and humiliation swelling in her until she swore she’d explode, Hallie ground her teeth against the bandanna and bent over. Even accepting Jack Dakota’s help had to be better than this pain.

Ignoring her provocative position and the small, heart-shaped curve of her backside, Jack forced himself to concentrate solely on the task at hand. One by one, with tender force, he tugged the needles from the seat of her pants.

At first she muttered curses in his direction, but by the time he finally wrested the last needle free, her anger had muted to whimpers.

“Okay, that’s the last of it, sweetheart,” Jack said.

Gently, he helped her straighten. Something twisted in his chest when he saw the unshed tears in her eyes. She held them back, keeping her pride intact. But he could see what the effort cost her and how much she was hurting.

“Hallie, I—”

“I hate you, Jack Dakota,” she said, her eyes narrowed, her fists clenched. “I wish I’d never laid eyes on you. I wish Redeye had shot you when he had the chance.”

“I never intended for you to get hurt.”

She didn’t know whether he meant the cactus or him buying her ranch, and she didn’t care. She ignored the throb of pain in her backside and faced him squarely. “Well, you’ve said the words. Now get back up on your horse and ride off. I don’t need you.”

She started to turn away from him, but Jack caught her arm and pulled her to face him again. “Not without you.”

For a moment they stared at each other, locked in a silent battle of wills.

Jack looked at her closely for the first time and realized she’d lost her ugly hat. Her braid had come undone and a wild riot of waist-long hair, a light honey-brown in the sunlight, fell over her slender shoulders, making her look more like a vulnerable young woman than the rough-riding ranch woman she pretended to be.

The intent way he looked at her only made Hallie feel more agitated. “Don’t you ever listen to anything I say?”

“Every word. But I’m not leaving.”

“I need some privacy to tend to myself. Go back to the ranch. I’ll be there soon enough.”

“Sorry, darlin’,” Jack said, “but I can’t do that.”

Before she could protest, he slipped an arm around her waist, guiding her to a place in the rocks where she could rest her weight without leaning on her bottom.

Hallie glared at him. “What does it take to get rid of you?”

Jack only grinned and began rolling up his sleeves. “You might as well get used to having me around. One day you might even like it. Now—” he eyed her with a glint in his eyes “—let’s have a look at those holes the cactus left behind.”

Hallie stared. He couldn’t be serious. One thing was for sure, he was crazy if he thought she’d ever let him touch her again. Especially not there. But looking at him, Hallie knew he would.

And the worst of it was, right now she had neither the will nor the slightest idea how to stop him.

In fact, she almost said yes. That voice of his, deep, expressive, with laughter running underneath, and the way he looked at her, as if she mattered—it almost persuaded her.

Then he flashed a grin, as if he knew she was going to give in, and it jolted Hallie to her senses. What was she thinking to consider letting him see her half-naked, and then let him put his hands on her?

“I know that look,” Jack said.

“Then you know I plan on tending to myself,” Hallie retorted, pulling away from him.

Jack seemed as if he was about to argue with her, but after a few seconds he held up his hands and backed up a step. “You might try a mud pack with sage leaves. It’ll help the pain enough to get you back to the ranch.”

“You get stuck with cactus needles often?” she asked, eyeing him doubtfully.

“Once is enough, so don’t get any ideas, Hal. Here…” He handed her his canteen. “Take a swig and I’ll get you some sage leaves.”