He wondered what she thought about his desertion six days ago. That was certainly how she would view it, as desertion. That would determine the kind of reception he was in for. If she was angry, or even hurt, well, that was just the way it was. He had considered her feelings before his own when it mattered most. That was enough.
Lucas nudged his horse forward. The sack hanging by his leg moved, and he grunted. The cat was still alive then. He still couldn’t figure out why he had bothered with the damn thing. But he had found it on a homestead outside Tucson where he stopped for water, and buying it from the farmer just seemed the thing to do. After all, it wasn’t as if he was bringing the cat for Sharisse. It was for Charley, that was all.
Lucas managed to get his horse settled in the barn without waking Mack. Then he let the cat loose and watched her run off to find a dark hiding place. Well, Charley would sniff her out soon enough. Right now he had his own female to deal with.
Charley growled the moment Lucas entered Sharisse’s room, but it didn’t take him long to smell the female cat on Lucas, and he changed his tune. Sharisse didn’t wake even when he shooed Charley out of the room and closed the door again.
He had time to study her as she lay there unawares, to marvel at her beauty. The effect she had on him was instantaneous, and he didn’t try to fight it. But seeing his ring on her bedside table cooled him off just as quickly.
Disgruntled, he sat down on the bed with a bounce intended to wake her. It did.
“Lucas?”
Was that pleasure in her voice? No. That was the voice of an irate woman. Good. Why should he be the only one upset?
“How’ve you been, honey?” he asked.
“How have I been?” Sharisse gasped. She came off the bed, grabbing her robe, and moved well away from him. “How dare you ask me that after what you did?”
“All I did was take off for a while.”
“I wasn’t referring to that!” she snapped. “You can take off again for all I care. You tricked me, Lucas. I would have thought that ridiculous ceremony was nothing but a dream if Mack hadn’t called me Mrs. Holt!”
“So, that really was panic I detected in you when I introduced you to the preacher. And here I convinced myself you were only surprised.”
His sarcasm gave Sharisse pause. Oh, why did this confrontation have to take place now, when she wasn’t even fully awake yet? She hadn’t meant to reveal her true feelings to him, only to confirm what she suspected—that he had been even more upset than she was when Samuel Newcomb brought them a preacher.
“Itwasonly surprise, Lucas,” she said in a more reasonable tone. “But I don’t like being taken advantage of.”
“I believed the word you used was ‘tricked.’”
“Well, how else should I feel?” she said defensively. “I wasn’t myself that day, for one thing. I had been drinking that foul concoction of Willow’s. I’d been frightened out of my wits by half a dozen Indians, not to mention your brother. And on top of that…well, never mind,” she quickly amended. “Heavens, I can’t even remember half of what took place that day.”
“What difference does it make? There was little choice involved, what with the preacher standing right there. You do recall that, don’t you? Or was the time and place more important than your reputation?” She turned her back on him in a huff, and he said derisively, “No, I thought not.”
Lucas glared furiously at her back. She might not have had any reasonable choice, but he’d had one. He could have kicked Sam and the preacher off his land, as he wanted to. But oh, no, he had thought of Sharisse first, Sharisse and her damned sensibilities. He simply couldn’t bring himself to shame her in front of Sam by refusing to marry her. What a gentleman he was.
Marrying her wasn’t what infuriated him, though. It wasn’t a legal marriage, anyway, unless he chose to honor it. She didn’t know that, of course. He was enraged because he had lost control of the whole situation.
Damn Newcomb and his meddling. The bastard thought he was doing them both a favor by bringing the preacher out to the ranch, but all he’d done was complicate Lucas’s plans all to hell. And after six days of mulling it over, Lucas still didn’t know how to handle things. Damn!
Maybe it would be better if Sharisse just stayed angry with him. It would certainly make it easier on both of them when they finally parted.
“You know, Sharisse, your attitude leads me to believe you didn’t want to get married.”
His speculation, which was all too true, made her simmering temper boil over. “How can you say that?” she retorted, striding toward him, arms akimbo. “Didn’t I come here to get married? Don’t I have the right to get upset when sudden changes occur? You did tell me I would have time to adjust, time to get to know you. You told me that. And I had been here a mere five weeks when we were married!”
“I think you got to know me pretty well in that time,” he taunted.
Her color rose. “That is not the point,” she insisted. “Besides, if anyone’s attitude leaves something to be desired, it’s yours. You can’t deny you were angry that day, Lucas. You were so angry you left right after the preacher did, without so much as a good-bye. And you’re still angry. I would really like to know why.”
Lucas stared her straight in the eye. He could do one of two things. He could placate Sharisse and put their relationship back the way it was, or he could be honest for a change, which would set her against him completely. The one would benefit him, the other her.
For her sake, there was only one choice. With studied indifference, he said, “If I seem a little out of sorts, it’s simply because I never had any intention of marrying you, Sharisse.”
She stared at him in utter, silent disbelief.
“What?”
