Free Rawhide and Lace by Diana Palmer Page B

left them.
     
    "It's Mr. Jessup's dog?" she, asked Ty, watching him reach into the closet for his sheepskin jacket and the familiar old Stetson he wore when he was working.
     
    "That's about the size of it. Part shepherd, part wolf. I've told him about that dog, but he won't pen it up. I've lost my last calf to it."
     
    "But what if he sues you?" she asked.
     
    "Let him. I like a good fight." He buttoned the coat and studied her in the tight leotard. "Get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, you and I have to talk."
     
    He came close then, framing her face in his lean hands. "I may be late. Don't wait up."
     
    He bent and put his mouth softly against hers, with a new tenderness. She smiled against his lips and bit at the lower one.
     
    He jerked back, frowning. And then he repeated the tiny caress on her own lip, smiling slowly at the reaction.
     
    "How do you know so much about kissing?" he murmured.
     
    "Because up until you came along, that was all I ever did with boys," she replied, and searched his eyes. "Be careful out there."
     
    "Worried about the enemy?" he asked mockingly.
     
    She touched his cheek. "Who would I fight with if something happened to you?" she asked noncommittally.
     
    He brushed his finger against her mouth, brooding. "Erin...No. I can't talk about it now. Good night."
     
    He left her without a backward glance, taking his rifle and ammunition from Jose on his way through the hall. She heard the front door slam behind him, and felt chilled to the bone.
     
    What, she wondered, had he been about to say to her?
     
    Chapter Six
     
    Erin felt haunted that night. She couldn't help remembering Bruce and Ty and the way things had been. She recalled vividly one particular day, when she and Bruce were going for a ride in the chill of the early morning.
     
    Ty had been working with one of his horses that day, and he'd stopped just long enough to tell Bruce which horse to saddle for Erin...
     
    Bruce had bowed low, then glared up at him, all boyish and defiant. "I do know how to pick a horse," he'd drawled sarcastically. "I won't let her get hurt, either. After all," he'd added pointedly, "she is my girl, not yours."
     
    Ty hadn't said a word. But he'd looked at Erin, and his silver eyes had been faintly hungry, possessive. Even in memory, the intensity of his gaze made her tingle. Up until that moment, Ty had been openly hostile, taunting her at every opportunity, picking at her, mocking her. But on that cold morning, there had been something in his eyes that had excited her, attracted her.
     
    He'd held her gaze until she'd wondered if her heart could stand it. It had been like holding a live wire in wet hands. Her lips had parted, and his narrowed eyes had gone to them hungrily. If Bruce hadn't chosen that moment to reappear with Erin's mount, anything might have happened.
     
    She'd relived that look all through the ride. When they'd returned, Bruce had been sidetracked by one of the stable boys.
     
    Erin had spotted Ty, standing all alone by the corral, staring into the distance. And for some reason that she still didn't completely understand, she'd run to him.
     
    Even now, she could see the expression on his hard, homely face, shock mingling with pure pleasure as she'd come toward him, her long black hair flaring behind her, her eyes alive with the joy of living. She'd darted up onto the lowest rail of the corral fence, beside him, and talked enthusiastically about the ride and the ranch and how much she was enjoying her visit.
     
    Surprisingly, he hadn't been sarcastic or ridiculing. He'd smoked his cigarette calmly and answered all her curious questions, even seemed to enjoy them. But there still had been that hunger in his eyes when he'd looked at her. And it hadn't been very much later that Bruce had gone out on business and Ty had made one cutting remark too many.
     
    She could still remember the feel of his hard cheek under her flashing hand, the shocked amusement in his face as he'd