Shawna Delacorte – Wyoming Wife? (страница 2)

“My name’s Jace Tremayne and this is my ranch. We’re here because the storm was closing in around us and I needed to get home before we were cut off and forced to land in the middle of a pasture.” He blatantly looked her up and down. “I think you’d better get out of those clothes.”

She felt her eyes widen in shock. Had she understood him correctly? Had he brought her to an isolated ranch just so he could tell her to take off her clothes? She swallowed the nervousness that tried to climb out of her stomach as she took a step backward. “Uh...excuse me?”

“Your clothes...they’re wet and you’ve been out in the cold air. You need to get dry and warm or else you’ll end up sick.” He pointed down the hallway. “The second door on the right is a guest room with a private bathroom. You might want to take a hot bath, too. It’ll help you warm up. You’ll find clean towels in the cupboard.”

He seemed oblivious to the momentary anxiety his comments had caused her. Perhaps she had read far more into what he said than was really there. The logical assumption would be that she had simply overreacted to his specific words due to the uneasiness caused by her sudden and unexpected attraction to him. Yes. that had to be it. She felt a desperate need to bring some type of logical control to what was happening, and felt satisfied with her assessment of the situation. Unfortunately her physical attraction to him did not fit as comfortably as her rationalization did.

His comment about her wet clothes had been correct, though. “That’s...uh...very generous of you, lending me your guest room.”

The first thing Jace had noticed about her was that her clothing wasn’t suited to cattle country and was totally inappropriate for the weather. There was no question that she was completely out of her element. There was also no question that despite her disarray she was a pleasure to look at. He was even willing to admit that she was beautiful, an honest beauty that reached out and grabbed him.

He could also admit that he found her an incredibly desirable woman, if he were willing to be that honest with himself. He shoved the thoughts aside. He did not have time for idle speculation of a personal nature. Besides, the direction of those thoughts made him decidedly uncomfortable.

“I certainly appreciate the offer of a hot bath, but I don’t have any dry clothes to put on. My suitcase is still in the trunk of my car.” She wasn’t sure whether to be angry with him for literally abducting her without even one word of explanation or grateful to him for rescuing her from what was obviously a bad situation. She tried to suppress her irritation. “You grabbed me and forced me into your helicopter so quickly that I didn’t have an opportunity to get it.”

“You were obviously in trouble, so I did what needed to be done. There wasn’t time to debate the issue.”

Her moment of concern no longer seemed appropriate. She did not sense any feeling of personal danger, at least not physical danger.

“Wait here.” Jace turned and walked away. Now she really didn’t know what to do or think. A couple of minutes later he returned and handed her a thick terry cloth bathrobe. “Here, you can put this on until your clothes dry.” She accepted it, folding it across her arm.

A stern look crossed his face, and his voice took on a hard edge. “I have lots to do before the brunt of this storm hits, but when I get back you can tell me what the hell you were doing driving around the back roads in a snowstorm dressed like you were going to some uptown art gallery. Didn’t you even bother to listen to a weather forecast before you took your leisurely drive through the countryside with your common sense stuck up your CD player? You’re lucky I spotted you, otherwise you’d be in real serious trouble.”

“What?” His unexpected—and what she considered unfounded—verbal attack slapped across her senses and brought out her defensive anger. “I was hardly taking a leisurely afternoon drive in the country. I—” If the truth were known, that was pretty much what she had been doing. She had been mindlessly and blindly driving without any thought to where she was going and no purpose to her actions. She was not even sure when or why she had decided to get off the interstate. She had been totally oblivious to her surroundings. It was something she had never done before and was not about to admit to this very disconcerting stranger.

He stood tall with his arms folded across the front of his heavy jacket. He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow, but maintained his stern expression. “You were...what?”

She rubbed her hand across the back of her neck as she tried to calm her inner jitters. “I...had gotten lost. I was disoriented by the storm and was trying to find my way back to the main highway.”

He displayed a smug why am I not surprised expression that carried over into his tone of voice. “Humph! Just like a woman—no sense of direction.”

Her temper flared. “Exactly what do you mean by ‘just like a woman’? What are you, one of those chauvinistic types who think the womenfolk should stick to the cleaning and cooking and not try to do anything complicated like compete in the world of big business because that’s men’s work?”

He blatantly looked her up and down again. “I can only go by what I see standing in front of me...woman dressed in a silk suit with fancy shoes and a lightweight jacket in the middle of a snowstorm who doesn’t even know where she is.”

She felt herself losing the battle, but had to give it one last try. “I knew where I was before you grabbed me off the road and took me somewhere in a helicopter. You didn’t even bother to ask me if I needed help. You simply took it upon yourself to decide that you knew best!”

“I thought you just said you were lost and trying to find your way back to the main highway.” Again the smug look covered his features. “I guess I must have misunderstood you. So, just where were you headed when your superb sense of direction put you on a country road and buried you in the snow?”

“I don’t think it’s any of your business!” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew she should not have said them. They sounded too harsh, too defensive. They also sounded downright rude and very ungrateful. After all, she had been stranded on a back road and stuck in the snow. She should be thanking him for saving her, not being antagonistic.

She glanced down at the floor, took a calming breath, then recaptured his gaze. “Look...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you like that. This whole thing has been a very unnerving experience for me. I’m not accustomed to dealing with chaos and disorder. I don’t like being forced into making snap decisions. I prefer to have things carefully planned out. I had been visiting...uh...a friend and...well, things didn’t—”

She felt the shiver across her nape. Again she was certain that it had nothing to do with being wet and cold. Everything about this Jace Tremayne—his words, his decisive actions, even his body language—said he was a very dynamic man. Overbearing, arrogant and chauvinistic, but very dynamic. He also radiated a tantalizing sex appeal that he did not seem to even be aware of.

His attitude softened a little bit. “Do you need to call anyone to let them know you’re all right? Any family members who might be worried?” He hesitated for a moment before continuing. “The friend you were visiting... or perhaps your husband?”

A couple of days ago she would have called Jerry Kensington. But now... “No, there’s no one I need to call.” She tried to shake away the sudden feeling of despair that threatened to overwhelm her. She looked up at him. Once again his silver eyes seemed to be attempting to penetrate through to her inner soul. She glanced down at the floor, unable to hold his gaze any longer for fear he could read her every thought and feeling.

He pointed down the hallway, once again indicating the guest room. “The second door on the right.”

Samantha opened her mouth to speak, but his actions stopped her words when he turned and walked out the front door. Just what had she gotten herself into? She certainly had not made any provisions for this strange turn of events when she had originally formulated her travel plans. A cold shiver darted through her body, reminding her of her wet clothes and need of a hot bath.

She carried the robe with her as she headed toward the guest room, pausing for a moment to look out a window. Large snowflakes filled the air and the wind had picked up considerably. She saw Jace disappear across the yard toward the barn. She pursed her lips, and a slight frown wrinkled across her brow as she turned away from the window. He had certainly pulled her out of a very precarious situation, but had he deposited her into an even more perilous one?

She was acutely aware of the totally out-of-character thoughts and feelings he stirred in her. She found him aggravating, he and his snap decisions made without benefit of proper thought and planning. But there was more, much more. She was far from being a prude, but the way he made her insides quiver with excitement was something beyond her logical reasoning. She had certainly never experienced that same type of excitement with Jerry Kensington. She glanced out the window again.