Chapter Eight
CHAPTER EIGHT
Just when the world was spinning away in a warm, pleasurable oblivion, the sound of loud, urgent footsteps echoed down the hall and brought Rey upright.
He looked at her with narrow, blank eyes as the sound grew louder. He cursed under his breath and got to his feet, keeping his back to her as he moved to the window, gripped the curtains and stared out at the pasture beyond.
Meredith dragged the bedspread up under her arms, over her clothes, and tried to steady her breathing. When she remembered what she and Rey had been doing, she blushed.
The door, ajar, was pushed completely open, and Leo came in with a tray. On it were a china cup and saucer, with a silver coffeepot, a silver cream and sugar service and a napkin and spoon. On a china plate were some dainty little chicken salad sandwiches.
“I thought you might be hungry,” Leo said with a gentle smile as he put the tray on her lap. It had legs, so it would stand alone over her lap. “Mrs. Lewis came over to fix supper, and I had her make you these.”
“Thank you!” she exclaimed. “And thank Mrs. Lewis, too. I was just starting to feel empty!”
Rey made an odd sound and she reached for a tiny sandwich very quickly, not daring to glance at him after the enthusiastic and unwise remark she’d just made.
Leo turned his eyes toward his brother. “Something wrong with you?” he asked curiously.
“Stomach cramp,” Rey said without turning. “I had chili and salsa for lunch. Heartburn’s killing me!”
“You should go and take an antacid tablet,” Leo advised. “And drink some milk.”
“I guess I’d better.” Rey took a long breath and turned around, feeling more normal, finally. He glanced at Meredith. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“I’ll be fine. Thanks for the conversation,” she said, and wouldn’t meet his eyes. But she smiled shyly.
He just looked at her. Suddenly his dark eyes began to burn. He studied her intently, as if something had just happened that shocked him.
“Are you all right?” she asked impulsively.
He took a slow breath. He was still staring at her, to his brother’s covert amusement.
With her hair around her shoulders like that, sitting up in bed, smiling at him, he felt as if his whole life had just shifted five degrees.
She was uncommonly pretty with her hair down.
She had a warm, kind heart. She’d put her life on the line for a total stranger.
Why hadn’t that occurred to him in Houston, when they first told him that she’d saved his brother from attackers?
“Leo probably owes you his life,” Rey said carefully. “But it bothers me that you risked your own to save him.”
“Wouldn’t you have done that same thing, even for a total stranger?” she mused.
He hesitated. “Yes,” he said after deliberating for a few seconds. “I suppose I would have.”
“See? You have all sorts of potential as a prospective husband,” she added with a wicked smile, which got wider when he reacted. “You’re sexy, you’re rich, you drive a nice car, and besides all that, you like animals.” She began nodding her head. “Definite potential.”
His high cheekbones flushed and he glared at her. “I don’t want to get married.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said soothingly. “It’s perfectly natural for a bachelor to resist matrimony. But you’ll come around.” She wiggled both eyebrows. “If you get me a ring, I’ll let you see my collection of used chewing-gum wrappers and bottle caps.”
He was still glaring.
Leo chuckled. “I’d love to see your used chewing-gum wrappers, Meredith,” he said enthusiastically. “In fact, I may start collecting right now!”
Rey stared a hole through his brother while, inside him, something froze.
“I’ll even consider marrying you,” Leo added wickedly.
She laughed, not taking him seriously. “Sorry. It’s Rey or nobody. My heart’s set on him.” She frowned. “Pity I couldn’t trade you something for him,” she murmured to Leo.
Rey was getting angrier by the second, and uncomfortable at the idea that Leo was trying to cut him out.
“Make me an offer,” Leo told her. “But he can’t cook, and he has a temper worse than a sunburned rattler. Besides that, you can’t domesticate him. He wears his spurs to the dinner table.”
“So do you!” Rey accused.
“I sit more daintily than you do,” Leo said imperturbably.
Rey rammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and glared at Meredith again. “You can’t give people away.”
“I’m not trying to give you away,” Leo said calmly. “I want to make a profit.” He scowled suddenly and his eyes widened as he looked at his brother’s boots.
Meredith was staring at them, too. She pursed her lips and exchanged a look with Leo.
Rey glared back at them belligerently. “What?” he demanded hotly.
Both Leo’s eyebrows went up, along with both hands, palms out. “I didn’t say a word!”
“Neither did I,” Meredith assured him.
Rey looked from one to the other and finally looked down. There, on one of his feet, was a dainty little foot sock with a tassel on it, covering the steel toe of his brown cowboy boot. He’d unknowingly picked it up under Meredith’s bed while he was kissing her.
Rey jerked it off, cursed royally, shot a furious glance at Meredith and his brother, who were trying valiantly not to look at him, and stomped out.
Helpless laughter erupted from the two people left in Meredith’s room, and the sound of it infuriated Rey.
Leo was obviously ready to set up shop with their recently disclosed nurse, and Rey didn’t like it.
Leo was the plague of housekeepers everywhere, but he was also easier on the eyes than the other brothers, and he was charming.
Rey had never learned how to use charm. He always looked uncomfortable when he smiled.
Especially with women like Meredith, who was painfully shy and naive.
He wasn’t used to such women. But what made it so much worse was the dropping sensation in his stomach that he’d experienced when he’d stared at Meredith.
He hadn’t had anything like that since Carlie, who made his pulse race almost as fast as Meredith did when he kissed her.
He could still taste Meredith on his mouth.
She didn’t know much, but she made up for her lack of knowledge with enthusiasm and curiosity.
He thought about carrying the lessons much farther, about baring her to the waist. His heart began to slam into his throat as he tried to imagine what she looked like under her blouse.
He already knew that the skin of her shoulder was warm and soft, like silk.
He remembered her husky moan when he’d kissed her there, the way her fingers had bitten into his back like little sharp pegs.
He’d been away from women for a long time, but he still knew what to do with one, and his imagination was working overtime just now.
Meredith had attracted him when she was just his cook.
Now that he knew about the intelligent, capable woman underneath the flighty camouflage, he was fascinated with her.
She was everything a man could wish for.
Not that she wanted him, oh, no. She’d made it plain. But that teasing speech about marriage had unnerved him. His freedom was like a religion. He didn’t want to get married. Of course he didn’t!
But it was natural to think of Meredith with children.
He could picture her baking biscuits for him every morning and holding a child in her arms at night while they watched television.
He could picture her playing catch with a little boy out in back, or picking wildflowers with a little girl at her skirts.
She was kind and sweet. She’d make a wonderful mother.
There was her job, of course. He knew something about her profession, that it was supposed to be high pressure.
She’d be called upon to make life and death decisions, to comfort the sick and grieving, to make herself involved in the daily lives of her patients so that she should counsel them on how to maintain good health.
Besides all that, she had a college degree.
Rey was college educated, too, with a degree in management and a minor in marketing.
He was the mind behind the business decisions, the coordinator of the labor pool, and the director of marketing for the brothers’ cattle cooperative.
He was good at what he did. He enjoyed conversations with other educated people, and he’d convinced himself that Meredith wouldn’t know Degas from Dali, Domingo from Dwight Yoakam, Hemingway from Dr. Seuss.
Now he knew better, and his respect for her increased.
She’d saved Billy Joe’s life at the gun club. He recalled that she must have known what to do for Leo as well, when she’d found him after he was mugged. Leo really did owe her his life. She was competent, confident, and she wasn’t hard on the eyes, either. She had wonderful qualities.
But he didn’t want to marry her. He wasn’t sure about Leo.
His eyes narrowed as he recalled the way Leo conspired with her.
Leo had known all about her already. Obviously they’d been talking together since her arrival at the ranch, because Leo hadn’t been a bit surprised when she rushed over to manage Billy Joe’s heart attack.
Why hadn’t he noticed that? Leo had called for Meredith when he was in the hospital.
He was obviously fond of her. Maybe he was interested in her romantically, too.
He’d been interested in Tess, before Cag had walked off with her, but Tess hadn’t realized it.
Or if she had, she’d ignored it. Leo wasn’t hard on the eyes, either, and when it came to charm, he had his share and Rey’s as well.