“Oh, and Fred, I have a favor to ask.”
“Yeah?”
“The real Brian Hastings is a cowboy star.He knows how to ride and rope and everything.Quinn’s the greenest greenhorn you’ll ever run across.”
Quinn stood up straighter.“Hey, I wouldn’t go that far.”
“I’m telling you, Fred, he doesn’t have the foggiest idea about that stuff.He doesn’t even have the right clothes.I’d like to turn him over to you for...”She smiled at Quinn.“For cowboy school, I guess you’d call it.”
Quinn’s stomach felt as if he’d eaten cement, and he didn’t trust the gleam of relish that flashed in Fred’s eyes.Didn’t trust it one bit.Fred looked Quinn up and down like he might be sizing him for a coffin.
Finally the big man spoke.“I think he’ll fit into Benny’s duds.As for the rest—” He grinned, showing tobacco-stained teeth.“Leave him to me.”
A shiver of dread ran down Quinn’s spine.
“Now if you’ll keep an eye on Clarise, I’m gonna head down to the bunkhouse and get my whiskey.”
“Could you bring an extra glass?”Quinn asked.He had a feeling he needed some fortification.
Fred smiled again.“Real cowboys don’t need no glass,” he said.“They drink straight from the bottle.”
After Fred left, Quinn leaned against the stall door, which still separated him from the delectable Jo.Jo the turncoat.“I thought you were going to teach me how to be a cowboy.”
“I was.”She looked disappointed.“I was really looking forward to it.”
“You weren’t the only one.”
“But then, while Clarise was giving birth to her foal, I started thinking.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
“About what?”
“You first.”This didn’t seem like the time to tell her he’d started thinking how nice she’d look pregnant.
“Here’s the deal.”She moved a little closer to him.“I like you.I like you a lot.”
“Is that why you’re turning me over to Grizzly Adams?Because, gosh darn, you sure do like me?”
“Yes.”She trailed a finger along his forearm.“Because if I did all the teaching, I’m afraid we’d get involved.”
“And what a disaster that would be.”So what if her touch affected his breathing?He could work around that.The one bright spot in this whole episode had been wiped out, almost as if Fred had hit it dead center with a stream of tobacco juice.
“It would be a disaster.”Jo’s expression was sweet and serious as she continued to draw imaginary lines over his arm.“Now that you’re going to be Brian Hastings, you have to play your part and hightail it out of town before anybody’s the wiser.You can never set foot in these parts again.It’d be too risky.”
He was beginning to get her point.He didn’t like it, but he was getting it.He captured her hand.She had strong hands, but warm and so soft.She must slather them with lotion to keep them that way.“And you’re not the kind of woman who wants a fling with a guy who can never set foot in these parts again.”
“I wish I could be, Quinn.If I could be that kind of woman, you’d be the very guy I’d choose to have a fling with.”
“That’s such a comfort.”He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles one by one.
Her eyes darkened to the color of chocolate.“Are you the kind of guy who would have a fling with a woman you could never see again?”
Under the glow of that gaze he began to fidget.He looked away.His conscience wasn’t as clear on this score as hers apparently was.There was that time in Rio, when both he and the woman had known the relationship would go nowhere, yet they’d had a damned good time for a few days.And then there was the woman he’d met on the subway.She’d come to New York for a convention and had flown home to Paris three days later.Even though the time together had been great, neither of them had felt committed enough to uproot their lives to be with each other.Both times he’d suspected the women were pretending he was Brian Hastings, but that was another matter.
“I guess you are that kind of guy,” Jo said quietly.She tried to pull her hand away.
He held it tight and met her gaze.“Okay, I’ll admit I’ve been willing to do that in the past.Not often, but it’s happened.I’ll also go out on a limb and say that I wouldn’t want that sort of arrangement with you.”
