She was scared!The fact surprised him.She’d walked into a bar with a roomful of strange men and offered herself up as a golden goat without batting an eye.She’d roused a doctor, a county clerk and a judge out of bed to do her bidding.She’d stared down a roomful of antagonistic relatives and kept a lawyer out of her pants who seemed to have had his own hidden agenda, and she was suddenly scared?And of him?It didn’t make sense.He hadn’t done anything to warrant this.Yet when he might have eased her fears, he found himself letting them grow.
When he got within inches of her stark, white face, he realized why.This woman, who was his wife, was damned pretty.In fact, if a man didn’t get picky about that little bitty mole at the left corner of her lips, she was beautiful.
Sexually, he was a starving man and this woman was legally his wife.Although he’d cut himself off from everyone he cared for, he’d been unable to cut off the emotions of a normal, red-blooded man.Keeping her slightly afraid was a safe way of keeping her at arms’ length.Yet when her eyes widened fearfully and her color rose, he relented.
“Easy,” he said.“All I need to know is how you like it and do you want more than one?”
She would have sworn that her heart shot straight up her throat and she had to swallow several times to work up enough spit to be able to speak.More than one?Oh my God!“I don’t think you understand the situation here,” she stuttered.
“What?Don’t tell me you don’t eat meat!”
Her face flushed as she thought of his lean, bare body.“Eat?Meat?”
“Do you like it hot and red, slightly pink, or hard as a rock?”
Her eyes widened even more and her voice began to quiver.“I don’t do things like that,” she whispered, and put her hand to her throat, unconsciously stifling that scream she’d been considering.
He frowned.Things like what?All he needed to know was if she wanted… And then it dawned on him what interpretation she’d put on their conversation.He stifled a grin and pointed back to the counter.
“Are you telling me you don’t do hamburgers?”
“Hamburgers?”
He went straight past her and out a small side door onto the attached deck above the driveway, opened the lid to a smoking barbecue grill, checked the coals, then let the lid drop back down with a clank.
“The charcoal is ready.”He headed back toward the kitchen, pausing at the package of hamburger.“One last chance.Do you want one hamburger or two, and how do you want it cooked?”
There was a silly grin on her face as she slumped to the floor in a dead faint.
* * *
Ryder sat in the room’s only chair, watching as Casey began to regain consciousness.The sofa he’d laid her on was a small, two-cushion affair, and he’d been forced to make the decision as to whether her head would be down and her feet up, or vice versa.
He’d opted to lay her head on the cushions and let her legs dangle.No sooner had he done so than one of her legs slipped from the arm of the sofa and onto the floor, leaving her in an indelicate, spread-eagled faint.
Ryder stifled a grin.Waking in such a compromising position would embarrass anyone.For Casey, a woman obviously used to nothing but the best, it would be the height of humiliation.In a considerate move, he removed her shoes, then lifted her leg back in alignment with the other.But when it slipped off again, he decided to leave it, and her, alone.
As he watched, he couldn’t help but stare at the woman who was now his wife.He was still a little shocked at himself for going along with such a hare-brained scheme.The Justice men were not impulsive.They had always considered the consequences and then lived with their decisions without regrets.Until now.While it was too late to consider anything, it remained to be seen if there would be regrets.
He kept looking at her, separating her features in his mind.It wasn’t just that she was pretty, though he couldn’t keep his eyes off her thick black hair and those big green eyes.And her skin—it looked like silk, ivory silk.
And Ryder remembered that when she smiled, her mouth had a tendency to curl at one corner first before the other decided to follow.It gave her an impish expression, which he knew was deceiving.If this woman had an ounce of playfulness in her, he hadn’t seen it.The devil maybe, but nothing so frivolous as an imp.
While he was watching, she blinked.And when she groaned and reached for the back of her head, he grimaced.It had been thumped pretty good when she’d fainted.He felt bad about that.She might be touchy as hell, and they might not agree on anything, but he didn’t want her hurt.
Casey opened her eyes.The ceiling didn’t look familiar, and for a moment, she wondered where she was.A whiff of charcoal smoke drifted past her nose and, all too swiftly, her memory returned.
Seconds later, she became aware of the implications of her less than ladylike sprawl.What had that man done to her while she’d been unconscious?Better yet, where was he?
She turned her head and caught him staring at her from a chair on the other side of the coffee table.When he grinned and winked, she swiveled to an upright position, grabbing at her skirt and smoothing at her hair.When she could think without the room spinning beneath her, she glared at him.
“What did you do to me?”
He arched an eyebrow.“Not nearly as much as I wanted,” he replied, and knew he’d scored a hit when she doubled up her fists.He stifled a laugh.“Easy, now.I was just kidding.I’ve been the picture of decorum.I picked you up from the floor, laid you on the sofa, and have been waiting for you to come to.”
Her southern manners forced her to thank him.“I appreciate your consideration.”
His grin widened.“Honesty won’t permit me to accept your compliment.I have to admit it was hunger that kept me waiting for you.I was taught that it’s bad manners to eat in front of people without offering them some, too.And, you never did answer my question.How do you want your hamburger?”
