“Okay, my imagination is going wild, so you might as well tell me: ‘

“He… thinks my locks are fine.” Dallas felt herself blushing. How could she admit to Amber that she, who always lectured about caution in relationships, had thrown it to the winds last night?

“Dallas! Something happened between you two last rught, didn’t it?”

You could say that. “Well, after he left he saw Neal’s car parked down the road and-“

“At two in the morning? I told you that guy was dangerous. Then what?”

“Um, Gabe came back and we decided, that is, it seemed the right thing to do at the time, for him to stay on the couch: ,

Amber was so quiet on the other end Dallas thought she might have been put on hold.

“Amber? You still there?”

“You little fox. You slept with him, didn’t you?”

Dallas’s shaky intake of breath was all the answer necessary.

“That good, was he?”

“Amber, I know you must think I’m out of my mind. He’s defirutely not my type. But I guess, with all that’s happened, I got carried away.”

Amber hooted with laughter. “Not your type? Lady, a hunk like that is every woman’s type. I saw you guys dancing together last night, and I kind of wondered if the two of you would get together. But then I decided you were too uptight to let that happen. Guess I was wrong, huh?”

“Amber, I-” She paused as Gabe’s battered truck pulled up outside the gate. “Listen, he’s back. I’ll have to go .”

“What? Is he staying there with you now? Dallas, you caxi t just leave me hanging. Tell me what “

Dallas watched Gabe come inside the gate, pet Gretchen and throw a ball she held in her mouth. Then he started toward the steps leading to her door. “Bye Amber. And please don’t make a big deal of this at work tonight, okay?”

“I can’t even tell Dave?”

“Doxi t you dare tell Dave. Goodbye: Dallas hung up the phone just as Gabe tapped on the door.

Her heartbeat had quickened from the moment his truck appeared outside her gate. His soft rap on her door sounded like a rifle shot, making her jump eqen though she’d expected it. Her sweaty palm slipped on the doorknob and she had to wipe her hand on her jeans before she opened the door.

He stood on her front steps, his worn black cowboy hat shading his mysterious eyes, a gym bag held loosely in one hand and a small cooler in the other. “Coffee ice cream, right? “

She nodded as he held out the cooler. She took it and their fingers brushed, a little flick of awareness that traveled to all the sensitive spots on her body. “I always do that, bring it home in a cooler so it won’t melt ” , she said.

“I figured you did: He held up his gym bag. “Where do you want me to put my stuff?”

“Oh, anywhere : She clutched the cooler with shaking fingers. He was back. Back to spend the day. To spend the night after work. To make love to her.

He met her gaze. The tilt of his hat gave him a renegade’s glance that seemed almost insolent. “I don’t want to clutter things up.”

She swallowed as that glance brought a trembling lightness to her limbs. She didn’t want to wait hours to feel his body entwined with hers. “You won’t.”

“I already have, havexi t I?”

Tension pulsed between them. He’d been gone a mere two hours, and she felt as if she hadn’t seen him in weeks. She wanted to touch him, be touched. “No,” she murmured. “No, you haven’t cluttered anything up.”

He tossed the gym bag to the couch. The hat sailed after it. “Then maybe I should start.”

She read his intent in his midnight eyes even before he took the cooler from her nerveless fingers and set it on the end table. When he reached for her she groaned.

“Was this on your agenda?” he asked, pulling her against him, letting her feel the hardening of his body.

She could only gaze up helplessly as his sculpted warrior’s lips descended on hers. At first his mouth was hard and demanding, but as she returned the force of his kiss with equal frustration, he gentled, skimming his hands over her body as if to connect with every inch of her.

Breathing hard, he lifted his head. “I thought about this every mile of the way back. I told myself you had work to do .”

“Damn the work.” She fumbled with the buttons of his shirt and pushed her hands inside the soft flannel. His heart thumped against the palm of her hand as she pressed it against his chest. She looked up and saw his mask had slipped once again to reveal the passion she stirred in him. Maybe they couldn’t talk without having him close himself off, but they could do this.

The Botcnty Hunter’ll5

She scratched her fingernails lightly across the hair sprinkled contours of his chest, and he drew in his breath. Reaching for her hand, he guided it down past the cold metal of his belt buckle to the straining denim over his erection. As she cupped him, he closed his eyes and shuddered.

Needing him in ways she’d never needed before, she unfastened the buckle and unbuttoned his fly as she gradually lowered herself to her knees.

He grasped her shoulders and started to pull her up. “Dallas, no,

I-“

“Yes: She released him from the soft cotton of his briefs and stroked him with bold insolence. “Yes; she said again, before loving him with lips and tongue until he gasped and told her to stop. This time she obeyed and he swung her up in his arms.

In the bedroom they tore off his remaining clothes and hers. A step ahead of him, she took a condom from the drawer. When it was in place, he lay on his back on the bed and drew her on top of him. As she settled over his throbbing shaft his dark eyes burned into hers, almost as if he resented the sensual power she held over him. She reached down and smoothed the furrows from between his eyes. “So fierce; she whispered “Give in, my warrior. “

His jaw clenched. “I have.”

“No.” She began to move, circling her hips and rocking back and forth. “Not really.”

He moaned and clutched her hips as she pleasured him. He threw his head back as she brought him closer to surrender. The tightening had begun for her, too, but she concentrated on Gabe, on releasing him from the demons that seemed to be driving him. “Let go; she whispered. “Let me take you away.”

The tension grew in her; she closed her eyes against its force. A low sound came from deep in his chest and she opened her eyes to find him gazing at her, desire blazing forth as he thrust upward, deepening the contact

And for that moment, pressed together just before the cataclysm claimed them both, she knew everything she needed to know about him. Then they tumbled together into the abyss.,

THE MAN KNEW his way around a bale of hay, Dallas concluded after Gabe had unloaded her truck, stacked the hay and covered it with a tarp. They’d planned the chores carefully in order to accomplish everything in the shortened amount of time that remained after their lovemaking. They’d gone together to buy the hay, but he’d been assigned to unload it and dig the new fence post while she gave Gretchen her bath and hot-oil treatment.

Gabe had convinced Dallas not to shower until later, so she’d felt sinfully decadent moving through the day with Gabe’s scent clinging to her, a subtle reminder of what they’d shared. Each time she glanced in his direction she wanted to stretch and purr like a well-fed cat. Concentrating on the chores that she’d assigned herself proved difficult, especially when Gabe took off his shirt before starting in on the posthole.

“Pretty sexy there, Escalante; ‘she called over to him as she moved the hose over Gretchen’s water-darkened coat.

He glanced up from the two-handled posthole digger and grinned, his teeth flashing white beneath the shadow of his hat. “Think I should charge extra for the floor show?” “I doubt if I could afford it.”

“For you, senorita, I make a special price; he said, and laughed before sinking the posthole digger into the soft earth. Sunlight reflected off the sheen of sweat on his muscled back as he worked.

Dallas bit her lip to keep from moarung out loud as he pounded the round metal into the ground again and again. This was ridiculous. She was worse than Gretchen panting after the hulking dog down the road. She’d never been at such a fever pitch that everything took on erotic overtones. She forced her gaze back to the dripping dog, who was beginning to shiver as the sun sank toward the mountain-rimmed horizon. “Sorry, girl, Dallas said, turning the nozzle and shutting off the stream of water. “I sure understand your problem a lot better now.”

Later she and Gabe managed to shower without tumbling into bed only because Dallas wouldn’t dream of stranding Amber with a big Saturday-night crowd. Dallas and Gabe planned to eat at the buffet provided by Rowdy Ranch, so they didn’t have to worry about cooking.

“We can have ice cream when we get home, though; she said as they headed out to her truck for the trip to town. “I think it will be refrozen by then.” The ice cream had been another casualty of their passion. By the time they’d remembered it, the carton had been soft and the contents soupy. “I’d also thought we could take a ride today, she said, cast inga longing glance back at Sugar and Spice.

Gabe laughed as he opened the driver’s door for her. “I think we did.”

“Stop talking like that, she said, giving him a warning glance. “Or I won’t be able to do my job tonight , just thinking about : She left the sentence unfinished , suddenly shy.

“Say it; he murmured, glancing up at her, his hand caressing her thigh. “Thinkingabout my hands here , and here, and my mouth-“

“Gabel” She pushed him away, but she was already steaming with fresh desire.

A smile on his face, he rounded the truck and climbed in beside her. “Doxi t forget, Parnell assumes I’m your lover. We wouldn’t want him to think any different , would we?”

“With the way you affect me, nobody in the entire dance hall will think any different : She started the engine

Gabe settled back in his seat, the same contented smile on his face. “Good.”

THEY wALKED into Rowdy Ranch together, Gabe’s arm slung casually around Dallas’s shoulder. She felt like a star arriving at the Academy Awards as heads turned and eyes widened. None of the employees at Rowdy Ranch had ever seen her with a boyfriend. She hadn’t dated much in the eighteen months she’d owned the shop, and she’d never brought one of her dates here. “you’re as tense as a roped calf, Gabe murmured as they walked toward the Cutting Pen.

“That’s about how I feel. I’to not in the habit of parading my personal life in front of the world.”

“Neither am I, toots. Gonna give me a kiss before you start work?”

“My God, Gabe.”

“I spotted Parnell over by the pinball machines. He hasn’t taken his eyes off us. Might as well make this roping look real .”

They neared the pool tables, where Dave Fogarty stood, hold inga pool cue and staring. Dallas couldn’t look at him.

“Would you ordinarily kiss somebody in public?” she asked.

“That depends.” He turned to face her and took off her red Stetson.

“Gabe, I-” “you’re beautiful, you know that?”

And before she could react he had pulled her into his arms. His kiss didn’t take long, but he accomplished a lot in a short time. She was trembling from the passion he’d conveyed as he released her with a smile and set her hat back on her head, giving the brim a tug. “Have a good evening; he said softly. “And get rid of those damn roses.” Then he headed toward the rack of pool cues.

Dallas struggled to reclaim her shattered composure as she walked into the shop where Amber stood transfixed , her manicure tray clutched against her chest. Dallas’s greeting was a little too bright and shaky around the edges.

“Wow,” Amber breathed. “What an entrance.”

“It’s… part of a plan.” Dallas stowed her purse in a cabinet. Then she took the roses from the vase and dropped them in the trash.

Amber watched her with a knowing smile. “Some plan. Wish I could get Vince to make a plan like that.”

“No, I mean, we’re trying to fool Neal into thinking ” she sounded out of breath and paused to take in air “-that we’re serious about each other: Her face felt hot, and she started rearranging bottles in an already neat supply closet.

“Are you saying that wasn’t real?”

Dallas turned to face her. “Well, I-“

“Dallas Wade, you’ve fallen for the guy. It’s written all over you. Go ahead and blather on if you want, but there’s a look in your eye that definitely wasn’t there yesterday. And from the way he just kissed you, I’d say it’s a mutual attraction.”