Vixen In Disguise. Kara Lennox

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СКАЧАТЬ Lawyers have to know how to talk, right? Damn, I never would have guessed.”

      “The woman you met at the Mesquite Rodeo,” she finally said, “that wasn’t me. She—”

      “I thought we covered that territory earlier.”

      “I mean, physically she was in my body, but she wasn’t the real Anne Chatsworth.” She paced, a caged lioness looking for a crack she could squeeze through.

      Abruptly she stopped and faced him squarely. Though she still wore the conservative clothes from earlier, some of her hair had worked itself loose from her knot and squiggled around her face. Her eyes were large and luminous, and she’d lost that tight, controlled expression he’d seen at the fair.

      “I was studying for finals and having a real hard time,” she continued. “The pressure, the doubts, the stress—you can’t imagine what that’s like unless you go through it.”

      “You’re right, I wouldn’t know anything about stress. I’m just a simple cowboy. Is that it?”

      “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sure you’ve had stress in your life at one time or another. I’m just trying to explain where my mind was.”

      “Okay, I’ll agree, you were under pressure. Go on.”

      “That Friday I kind of lost it. I’d been studying nonstop for hours, days, and I just…snapped. I needed a break. No, I needed more than that. I needed to get away from everything—forget everything, including myself.”

      “Enter Annie the slow-talking rodeo girl.” She looked at him, her face pleading with him to understand.

      “I’ll be damned,” he said. “So I was nothing to you but Cowboy Valium?”

      She sank onto a rickety wooden bench. “I guess you could put it that way, although at the beginning I certainly had no intention of…of…”

      “…picking up some guy and sleeping with him,” he finished for her.

      “Exactly.”

      “But that’s what you did. Any particular reason you picked me?”

      “You make it sound so premeditated. I recognized your name when the announcer said it. I remembered you, although I’m sure the reverse isn’t true. Last time we saw each other, I was twelve and you were sixteen, so I probably didn’t register on your radar screen. I used to hang out at the Livestock Exchange arena and watch you practice with Traveler when he was just a colt.”

      She was right, he’d been focused on other matters. Getting Traveler up to competition speed so he could get the hell out of Cottonwood had been the only thing he could think about back then.

      “Anyway, after you won your event, I went back to the chutes to find you so I could say hi, you know, a friendly voice from back home. But I sort of never got around to mentioning Cottonwood.”

      “You never even told me your last name. So you could make a clean getaway after you seduced me?”

      “Hey, come on. There was a lot of mutual seducing going on, if you’ll recall.”

      Oh, yeah, he recalled. And so did she, judging from the way she was breathing, quick and shallow, and the flare of heat in her eyes.

      “You know, this doesn’t sound much like an apology,” he said.

      “I’m getting there. Let me finish.”

      “I’ve got all night.” He couldn’t be sure, because the light was so dim, but he thought she blushed. That was something he loved about redheads, about Annie in particular. It was so easy to make her blush.

      “Going to bed with you wasn’t a premeditated act. It just happened. And afterward I knew I should go home and forget about it, get on with my studies, but I couldn’t make myself leave.”

      He remembered that. He remembered how she’d talked about getting home, how he’d actually walked her to her car, but then they’d started kissing again, and she’d forgotten all about leaving. Somehow she’d ended up staying with him all night—then all the next day, then through the weekend.

      They hadn’t been able to get enough of each other. He’d been crazy about her, unable to think of anything else—even his upcoming rodeo events. Nothing had ever before distracted him from his obsession.

      “I guess I needed that time away from my studying more than I knew,” she said. “It felt like a drug in my system. The longer I pretended to be Annie, the less I wanted to go back to reality.”

      “Did you ever think that maybe Annie is your reality? And the other is just an elaborate personality you’ve invented?”

      She looked at him sharply. “Annie isn’t real. I’m not like her. I don’t flirt and I don’t dress that way. I’m a very serious person who is pursuing a very demanding career. Practicing law has always been my dream, and I’m almost there.”

      Well. She’d told him. “Did you flunk your exams?”

      “No. I left you early that Monday morning because I had a test at ten o’clock.”

      “You could have woke me up and told me that.”

      She shook her head. “I was afraid you’d talk me into staying. I was really scared by what I’d done, Wade. I panicked. I ran back to the world where I belonged. You and the rodeo—that was a fantasy.”

      He stood up, angered by her words, and made a mock bow. “Glad I could oblige. But next time you need to blow off steam, try racquetball.”

      “I didn’t think it would matter to you. We both knew it was a temporary thing. You were on the road. I figured you slept with a different girl in every town, that you’d be glad I left without all those uncomfortable goodbyes.”

      “Yeah, well, you’re right. It stung a little, waking up in that empty bunk, not even a note, but it wasn’t all that hard to find a replacement.” Big lie. He hadn’t slept with anyone since Annie. Too busy, too focused on the competition. Anyway, every time he looked at an attractive woman now, he compared her to Annie and found her lacking.

      Annie had spoiled him.

      “That’s what I figured.” Her voice cracked, making Wade wonder if his barb had found its mark. Did she have any feelings about what happened between them?

      “What you did wasn’t very nice,” he said. “Even if it was just a casual affair.”

      “I’m sorry I didn’t handle the situation better. I was out of my element. I’d never had a one-night stand before.”

      “Three nights.” Three glorious, earth-shattering, life-altering nights of the steamiest lovemaking he’d ever experienced.

      “Three nights,” she agreed. “It was a wonderful weekend, the best—Oh, hell, I’m going to blow it now.”

      “I don’t think so. Finish what you were saying. My ego could use a boost.”

      She turned away СКАЧАТЬ