Texas Tiger

chapter 12





Daniel wasn't certain what he had expected when Georgina came out, but it certainly wasn't this. He could have sworn that the satchel she carried would have contained clothes, but he didn't see much evidence of them now.

Her hair was a silky wet mass falling over shoulders that were decidedly bare. Bare, as in cream and gold and softer than any human skin should be. He had difficulty even noticing that pale cream straps held up some nameless undergarment beneath the blanket.

He didn't dare look past her shoulders, but he was having a damned hard time keeping from it. With each step she took into the room, his gaze kept dropping to see if any part of that blanket moved. He was itching to know what she wore—or didn't wear—beneath it.

He finally summoned enough breath to exclaim, "Hell and damnation, woman, where are your clothes?"

Georgina's big blue eyes blinked and grew wide. "They're wet. I hung them on hooks in there. Was that wrong?"

She wasn't stupid. He knew she wasn't stupid. She was just making him crazy—and succeeding very well. "Didn't you have anything else to put on?" he asked in exasperation.

She appeared to give that some thought. "Well, I brought only the one chemise, the one I was wearing. I didn't see any reason to put on my dry gown and get it all wrinkled before morning. Which reminds me, is there somewhere I could hang it? It will be dreadfully crushed from being folded into that little bag."

Daniel ran his fingers through his hair and wondered if he had somehow misplaced his mind. He couldn't keep his thoughts off bare shoulders and golden curls. He knew he ought to be getting her out of here. There were probably ten dozen questions he ought to be demanding answers to, but he could only stand here and continue this senseless argument over proper attire.

"I would feel better if you would hang the gown on yourself. The rain could stop any minute, and then we'll have to take you home."

Georgina pulled the blanket up more securely and looked around, finally settling on his chair. She snuggled into the cushions and shifted around a little bit until she was comfortable. Daniel almost had apoplexy just watching and imagining what was beneath that blanket, snuggling into his one and only chair, the one he had been sitting in a few million years ago.

It wasn't until she was comfortable that she condescended to reply. "But there's nowhere for me to go. I've run away from home. My father wants me to marry Peter at the beginning of July, and you saw for yourself tonight that we're just not suited. My father will disown me if I refuse him, so I saved him the trouble. Do you think I could have my job back?"

Daniel had a broad imagination and a nagging sense of something not quite right. With suspicion he checked the street below, seeing only the pony munching on some weeds springing from the building's foundation. He contemplated checking the door again, but that seemed a little ridiculous. She was alone. With him.

"Georgina, have you lost your mind? You can't stay here; you'll be ruined. There must be somewhere else you can go until you settle this argument with your family. What if I take you to Mrs. Banks? She seems an intelligent sort."

Georgina smiled at his naivete. "Loyolla would have my father over in five minutes and the gossip around town in ten. Can you just imagine my appearing on her doorstep in the middle of the night with you at my side?" She shook her head, and a few wet curls left damp stains on the thin gown appearing beneath the slipping blanket.

Daniel caught himself holding his breath, waiting for the blanket to slip enough to reveal the shape of her breast. He was growing angry at this charade, but he wasn't certain if it was at himself or at her. He was twenty-eight years old, and while he wasn't exactly a lady's man like his adopted brother-in-law, he'd known his share of women. There was no excuse for this one to addle his mind like this. But there just seemed to be something about those baby blue eyes and winsome smiles that destroyed his reasoning.

He wished for a kitchen and a coffeepot. He found his bottle of whiskey and poured himself a shot. He didn't make the mistake of offering Georgina any. "Well, you can't stay here, so you'd better start thinking. If you can't come up with any better solution, I'll be obliged to take you home as soon as it stops raining."

Georgina sighed and ran her hands through her hair in an attempt to remove the tangles. "I promise not to be a nuisance. I can sleep right here, and you can take the bed. In the morning I'll look for a job. You can't be making very much with that newspaper. I'll pay you rent and help with the expenses."

That left Daniel pretty well speechless for a few more minutes. Sleep? Here? It was hard enough to get past that possibility before contemplating her next suggestion. Job? Where in hell did she think she would find a job? And doing what? He doubted if she could boil water or make a bed. But the idea that she meant to help him pay his expenses left him flat out flabbergasted. No woman had ever offered to pay his expenses. Even Evie knew better than that.

At this prolonged silence Georgina looked up worriedly. "I'm not interfering with your plans, am I? I mean, if you're courting Janice or some other lady, I can see that I'd be a problem. Maybe I could take a room downstairs."

He wished that was a possibility. Shaking his head, Daniel took another sip of the whiskey. It wouldn't clear his head, but he couldn't be any more confused if he were drunk. "The downstairs rooms have rats and spiders. Besides, I couldn't leave you alone. There's all kind of riffraff wandering these streets. I'll have to take you home."

"I wish you'd quit saying that." Georgina picked up a book from the table. "Sense and Sensibility. I loved that book, but I thought it was just a woman's novel."

"Evie sent it to me, said it would make me understand a woman's mind." Finding towering over her uncomfortable, Daniel took a seat on his pallet and leaned against the wall. He could hear the rain pouring down in buckets even though the thunder was moving away.

Georgina adjusted her position so she could look at him. "Evie?"

"My sister." His adopted sister to be perfectly correct, but his brain wasn't in a position to explain the details.

Georgina nodded happily. "I wish I could have had a sister. Does she live with your parents?"

"She lives with her husband and children. Maybe you better turn that lamp off and get some sleep. I've got a feeling this will be a long night."

When she hesitated, he turned her a quick glance. "Having second thoughts?"

"Second and third."

She looked at him with doubt, and inexplicably, that made him feel ten feet tall and stronger than Samson. That look turned him into a handsome scoundrel not to be trusted.

Daniel's laugh was abrupt and curt as he carried the thought to its natural conclusion—it hadn't been strong, handsome Peter she had run to. Peter was the handsome scoundrel. Georgina had run to good old safe, crippled Daniel.

"Well, it's too late now. I suspect we have a long day ahead of us. You'd better get some sleep."

She blew out the lamp, and the room fell into a thick darkness punctuated by the occasional flash of lightning. "Daniel?"

He was still sitting on the pallet, leaning against the wall, wondering if he should take off his shirt. He only had one clean one left. "What?" He didn't try to hide his irritation.

"Have you ever thought about what kind of woman you would like to marry?"

That was a loaded question if he'd ever heard one. Suffering under no illusion that she was interested in him, he answered honestly, "I almost married a shy one once. She liked to read a lot. She had thick black hair and eyes that looked into your soul, and she cooked circles around any one I've ever known. Why?"

"Girls always think about the kind of man they want to marry, but it doesn't seem to work the other way around. A man doesn't seem to care whom he marries as long as he's fed and warm and no one nags him. What happened to the girl you wanted?"

"She married a man with a ranch and a two-dollar smile, said we were too much alike, that I needed somebody different." Daniel pulled off his boots and made himself comfortable on the mattress.

"Do you think Peter and I are too much alike?"

"You're both spoiled brats, if that's what you mean. What kind of man did you have in mind to marry if not him? He's got everything any woman I've ever known would want." The darkness added an air of conspiracy to this conversation that Daniel found himself liking altogether too well. He would like it even better if she were lying on this mattress next to him. He could imagine her curling up to him, spoon fashion. He would slip his hand inside that blanket and test a subject that he had contemplated with curiosity for some time. Did she really fill those bodices of hers so beautifully or was that underpinnings?

"I don't know. I always imagined Peter, but I imagined him better. I wanted him to love me, to do anything for me, to be a hero. I could have loved him blindfolded if he'd just taken the time to listen to me. But considering what kind of man he really is, I suppose I'm lucky that I don't love him."

Suspecting he was about to hear what had precipitated her flight, Daniel asked gently, "What kind of man is he?"

"Selfish and rotten like his father, I suppose. Guess who owns ABC Rentals?"

Daniel groaned and threw his arm over his eyes. He didn't want to hear this. Just as Georgina had harbored illusions about her fantasy man, he wished to hang on to his hopes of the family he'd never known. All the evidence pointed in the opposite direction, but as long as he didn't know everything, he could continue hoping for that one piece that would prove their innocence. It sounded as if Georgina was about to hand him the final nail in their coffins instead.

"Mulloney Enterprises," he ventured.

"You knew! How did you find out? Isn't it awful? I've known Peter all my life. I can't believe he and his father are scoundrels. But I know I can't marry into a family like that. I'll starve first."

She just might starve if Mulloney had anything to do with it, Daniel reflected, but he didn't say anything aloud. Let her think him asleep.

He didn't sleep however. He wondered if he ought to offer her his bed, but she seemed perfectly content in the chair, and he knew his leg would ache like hell if he attempted it. He imagined sharing the bed with her, but his body told him instantly what would happen if she did. He'd been concentrating on his newspaper business these last weeks instead of looking for the kind of woman who would bring him relief. He was paying for that oversight. He needed a woman and he needed her right now. Daniel suppressed a moan of agony and frustration as he covered his face with a pillow on the wild theory that suffocation would exterminate desire.

Maybe it was time that he started thinking about taking a wife. A wife would have saved him from this night of agony at least. He didn't think Georgina would have turned up on his doorstep if he'd been married.

After that one disastrous adolescent encounter with Carmen, he'd decided he wasn't ready for a wife and hadn't given one much thought in years. He knew he needed to set himself up somewhere first, be a productive part of the community, have an income to support a family. Unlike Evie and Tyler, he was the settling-down kind. He didn't want to roam all over creation once he'd started a family. Circumstances just hadn't cooperated yet.

Circumstances, and the matter of his unknown family. Daniel let his body quiet as he considered this last piece of news about the family he supposed he would never claim now. He hadn't really considered taking a wife until he'd had a chance to meet his family. Perhaps madness ran in the blood. Maybe they all had two heads and tails. He'd had to know. And now that he knew, he wasn't certain it was any better than what he had feared.

But he didn't think greed was a trait that could be passed on through the blood. He could pack up, leave town, find a quiet little place to settle, and start looking for a wife to start his own family—a wife nothing like the one sleeping in his chair right now. She was too expensive, too frivolous, too beautiful. He would spend the rest of his life worrying he wasn't good enough for her, worrying she would find someone better. Let Peter spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.

He must have finally dozed. The combined racket of the dog barking its head off and furious pounding at the door jerked him back to consciousness quickly enough.

A rosy dawn sent a pattern of light across the rough wooden boards of the floor. Daniel squeezed his eyes shut and pinched his nose in an attempt to make the day go away. The gesture never succeeded, but habits were hard to break. The furious knocks were now accompanied by loud shouting and the dog's frantic scratching and howling.

He looked up to see terrified blue eyes watching his every movement. Now dry, golden hair tumbled in a sinful cascade of curls over those bare shoulders Daniel had every cause to remember. Damn, but she was the exact opposite of everything he had ever wanted in a woman. He liked black straight hair, thick and smooth as silk, and dark, mysterious eyes that made his soul weep. Georgina Meredith was as open and bright as the day was long. But her terror roused his protective instincts.

With a groan Daniel staggered up, shoving his shirttail into his pants. He was going to have to pay for laundry early this week. Barefoot, he crossed the room, catching the dog's collar before opening the door. He didn't have any need to ask who was there. It didn't take any imagination at all to figure it out.

Georgina was the one who cried out in surprise when the door flew open and Peter shoved through. She had never counted on Peter coming. He looked furious enough to eat nails, and her gaze flew to her father just behind him. She needed all the protection she could get.

Beneath his side-whiskers, her father's face went gray when he saw her. Remembering what she wore, Georgina grabbed the blanket and pulled it more securely around her shoulders. But the damage was already done. Peter's livid expression revealed that he had seen all she had meant to show. She just hadn't counted on anyone coming but her father.

She glanced briefly to Daniel. He was watching her with an enigmatic expression that could have meant anything but almost certainly meant that he had seen what she wore—or didn't wear—beneath the blanket. She felt heat flushing through her at his look, and she turned back to her father.

"You're no daughter of mine," he hissed before turning around and walking out.

Stunned, Georgina stared after him. She didn't know what she had imagined would happen when he found her, but it certainly hadn't been this. How could her father walk off and leave her in the hands of two furious and highly volatile young men? Her gaze swung fearfully to Peter.

She had never seen him look so dangerous. His eyes had grown stone-cold as they gazed on her, and his beard-stubbled jaw tightened menacingly as he turned to Daniel lounging against the door. It was then that she noticed Peter carried a rifle.