Date with a Cowboy: Iron Cowboy / In the Arms of the Rancher / At the Texan's Pleasure

“Okay, sis.” He went off toward the fenced pasture where horses were grazing.

Harley excused them and drew Sara along with him to the tables where plates of barbecue and beans and rolls were being served up.

“You sure you’re all right?” Harley asked, concerned.

Sara nodded. “It was a shock, that’s all.”

“I don’t like that smarmy lawyer,” he muttered darkly. “But she and her boss do suit one another. They’re both bad company.”

Sara didn’t answer him. She was remembering the hard look Jared had given Max. He hadn’t liked the woman’s reaction to Sara. That was comforting. But her face still stung.

The Latin music played by the Mariachi band had everyone who could walk streaming up onto the wooden dance floor Cy had built for the occasion. Strings of large Japanese lanterns provided light, after the sun went down, and there was a crowd swaying to the rhythm.

Matt Caldwell and his wife, Leslie, were doing a spirited paso doble while Cash and Tippy Grier looked on from the sidelines. They exchanged mischievous glances, got up, held hands and moved onto the dance floor.

“Bet you can’t do a tango,” Cash chided.

Matt gave him a wicked grin. “You lose. Hey, Paco!” he called to the band leader. “Tango!”

The band leader and his band all laughed, stopped playing, measured the rhythm and then sailed into a Tango number that was all fire and passion.

Everybody except the two couples evacuated the dance floor, expecting a real competition.

They got one. It was a duel, and both couples put on their best form for it. As the music built to a crescendo, both couples stopped at the same time, in lingering poses, as the band finished the number.

But it was a draw, as the dancers had figured it would be. They laughed and shook hands as the audience went wild with clapping and cheering.

“Pity we don’t have trophies,” Cy Parks drawled.

“Next time, we have to have a waltz contest!” Harley called. He’d been studying the dance for months, and he was good at it.

“I learned to waltz in Austria,” Cash called to him.

Harley flapped his hand at the police chief.

The music started again, this time a lazy two-step. Just as Harley turned to take Sara onto the dance floor, he was bypassed.

Jared Cameron lifted Sara gently into his arms, carried her onto the wooden dance platform and eased her to the floor.

“My turn,” he said softly, and he smiled in a way that made her heart race.

She slid her free arm around his neck and looked up at him with her breath catching in her throat.

Harley, for one instant, thought about separating them. But when he saw Sara’s face, he knew it would be almost a betrayal to interfere. Subdued, he went back to the buffet table for a beer.

“I didn’t think you’d be back,” Sara said to his chest. He was so much taller that her head barely came to his chin.

His big, warm hand contracted around hers. “Didn’t you?” He tilted her chin up so that he could see her cheek. “At least it isn’t bruised,” he added quietly. “I’ve never wanted so badly to manhandle a woman. Max needs to take some classes in anger management.”

“She thought I was laughing at her.”

“Tony explained it.” His hand tightened. “You keep your distance from Tony,” he added firmly. “He’s not what he seems to be. He could hurt you.”

“He would never lift a hand to me,” she protested at once.

He stopped dancing for an instant and looked down into her wide eyes. “I don’t mean physically.”

She frowned. “He’s very sweet to me.”

He started dancing again. “You remind him of his sister.”

“Yes. He said she died.”

He made a slow turn, one that drew her very close to his hard-muscled body and made her tingle all over. “Tony has issues you’re better off not knowing about.”

“Cy Parks knows both of you.”

“I’ve lived here several weeks,” he said carelessly.

“That isn’t what I mean.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve known Cy for a while.”

She was really curious now. Most people knew that Cy Parks, Eb Scott and Micah Steele had been professional mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, before they settled down in Jacobsville. She knew next to nothing about Jared Cameron. She wondered what secrets he was keeping.

He saw that curiosity in her eyes and just smiled. “Never you mind,” he told her, drawing her closer. “I don’t plan to waste the evening with walks down memory lane. I’m much more interested,” he added huskily, “in making new memories.”

His hand slid gently up and down her spine in sensuous little forays that made her feel boneless. It worried her that she didn’t want to protest the near intimacy of his hold. If he ever turned up the heat, she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist him. She couldn’t help but remember what Max had told her about Jared’s easy conquests and his indifference to them afterward.

“I had Tony drive Max to the airport,” he said after a minute.

Her heart skipped. “She’s gone?”

“Yes. She’s gone.” He didn’t mention the vicious things Max had to say about Sara and Jared’s interest in her, or the threat he used to get her out of town. Tony wasn’t too keen on leaving Jared alone while he escorted the lawyer to the airport, either. It had been a battle.

“Is Tony coming over, then?” she asked.

He stiffened. “Yes,” he said, but he didn’t sound happy about it. “I meant what I said. You don’t need to start looking at Tony as a prom date.”

“I didn’t go to the prom,” she said absently. “And it’s not your business who I look at. I came with Harley,” she added firmly.

He drew back so that he could see her eyes. “And you’re going home with me,” he said softly.

How she wished that her excitement hadn’t shown when he said that. She couldn’t walk off with another man when Harley had brought her here. It would have been unthinkable …

“Sara,” Harley said from beside them, grimacing, “I’ve got something to do for the boss. It can’t wait.”

“I’ll drive her home,” Jared told the younger man. “No problem.”