Page 2 of Taking Charge (Lone Star Burn 4)
He’d taken her acceptance of money from him as a sign that she wanted more, also.
She was already feeling guilty that she felt nothing toward Ted.
David has to go.
Before I hate myself more than I already do.
If that’s even possible.
A short time later, David returned with a bag of groceries. Lucy offered to take it from him, but he insisted that she sit and relax at the kitchen table while he put the soup, saltines, Popsicles, bread for toast, and ginger ale into the fridge and cabinets. He placed a bottle of ibuprofen on the counter along with a box of tissues and then said, “You look like you’re feeling a little better.” His eyes fell to the wound she’d inflicted on her leg while rushing to shave. Lucy glanced down and saw that it had started to bleed again. He handed the box of tissues to her. “Do you need me to pick up anything else for you?”
Just my pride from the floor. Lucy ripped the box open and held a tissue to her cut. “Thank you. I am feeling better. I appreciate you getting food for me.”
“Sarah said you were going through a tough time.” He looked at her with sympathy.
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
“You don’t have to weather this alone. I’ve managed Carlton’s ranch for a long time. If you need someone to help you look over your books or come up with a plan for how to repay the bank . . .”
Lucy’s face burned at the humiliating idea of her situation being discussed by people who didn’t even know her. “The bank is no longer an issue, but I appreciate your concern. I’m sorry you came all this way. I have everything under control now. I should have called Sarah and told her I’d found a solution, but I didn’t know she’d send someone here.” Lucy smiled sadly. “She’s a good friend.”
“Yes, she is. She speaks highly of you, too. She said you two met in college.”
The mention of college brought back memories of happier times. “We did. Although that feels like a lifetime ago.” Lucy pushed herself back to her feet. Part of her wanted him gone now, but she was also grateful that he’d driven all the way from Fort Mavis to check in on her. “It’s a long drive home for you, isn’t it?”
David shrugged. “I rented a room in town.”
Of course you did. Sarah probably made you promise to stay until I’m okay. Go home, David. Lucy swallowed hard. “If I felt better, I’d show you Mavis.”
“My schedule is open. I don’t mind hanging around until you’re back on your feet.”
Lucy’s breath caught in her throat, and she swayed. There was something heady about the idea of a man like David taking care of her. What would it feel like to rest her head on those broad shoulders? To have those strong arms close around her? Her gaze went to his lips. To feel any part of him on any part of me.
If I were actually sick, you could be my cure. Rub yourself all over my chest, like Vicks.
She pressed her lips together. But I’m not sick. I’m fucked.
And apparently delusional now.
“That’s a kind offer, but, really, I’m fine.”
There was a stubbornness in his beautiful blue eyes. “I told Sarah I’d make sure you’re okay. I wouldn’t feel right about leaving before I can say you are.” He picked up a pen and a piece of paper from the counter. As he wrote, he said, “This is my phone number. Get some rest today, and I’ll take you to lunch tomorrow. If you need anything before then, call me.”
He handed the paper to Lucy. The brush of his hand against hers sent unwelcome shivers of desire through her. Passion lit his eyes, and everything else faded away. For a moment, she was just a woman who wanted a man. Sexy. Young. Alive.
And he wanted her with the same intensity.
I can’t do this.
How would this make anything better?
All it would do is hurt Ted. Even if I don’t feel this way about him, he has been kind to me. He deserves better. I’ll find a way to pay him back and break it to him gently that I’ll always care about him, but I don’t want more than friendship.
“I probably won’t feel much like eating tomorrow or seeing anyone, either.” Lucy sighed. Nothing about where she was or what she was doing felt good.
His eyes held hers, and Lucy’s heart began to pound wildly. “I’ll call you. You might feel better in the morning.”
Lucy couldn’t imagine how she could, but she found herself agreeing. Really, when he stood there, looking down at her that way, she didn’t have the strength to deny him much.
She paced the downstairs of her house for a long time after David left. She should have said no to him. She should have sent him back to Fort Mavis. Instead, she would likely spend the rest of the day thinking about him, anticipating his phone call, and hoping she hadn’t found the only way to make her situation worse.
That morning, she’d woken up numb, as if she were slowly dying from the inside out. She’d yearned to feel something, anything.
She could have, however, done without the lonely ache that meeting David had left her with.
A week later, David sat at a table in a restaurant in Fort Mavis along with some of the men who worked for him on Tony Carlton
’s horse ranch. There was a time when they used to gather off property to discuss the business side of training and selling horses because the climate on the ranch had been hostile, but that had changed when Tony met his fiancée, Sarah Dery.
A good woman could do that to a man. She could change the way he saw everything. Until he’d met Lucy, David had thought his place was in Fort Mavis, but after spending a day with her, he wasn’t so sure. She was all he could think about.
Lucy was a complicated woman who was going through a difficult time. David admitted to himself that she brought out a protective side of him. He’d never been one to walk away from someone in need, but Lucy’s hold over him was much more than that.
Yes, she was beautiful. She had large dark-brown eyes a man could lose himself in. Her body was rounded in all the right places. And that hair—long, thick, and wild. He’d imagined it spread across his bed while he made love to her again and again.
That part of their relationship would come soon, he hoped. For now, it was enough that she was beginning to trust him. She said she wasn’t ready to see him again yet. If the breathless way she answered his calls was anything to go by, whatever was holding her back wouldn’t for much longer.
His fascination with her hit him on every level. He admired her for coming back to care for her mother after her father had died. She could have sold the family ranch and moved back to the city, but she’d stayed out of a sense of duty to family. The more he learned about her, the more he wanted to make her his. And not just for a night; although that would be a fine place to start.
He smiled down into his coffee. He and Lucy had gone to lunch at a restaurant similar to the one he was presently at. After a tense drive into town, and twenty minutes or so of awkward conversation, Lucy had finally relaxed around him.
They’d sat and talked long after finishing their meal. Two cups of coffee later, they were laughing and sharing childhood stories. It had been hard to reconcile the woman across the table from him with the one who’d answered the door the day before. He’d almost said as much, but stopped himself. He wasn’t sure any woman would see the compliment in that observation.
