Pamela Ingrahm - Wedding Planner Tames Rancher!

Any more “easy” tasks and she might just scream.

She calmed her wayward thoughts as Wade led her to the car, keeping a solicitous hand on her elbow. The evening sky was filled with a billion twinkling diamonds, and the quiet wrapped around them, incongruously making the parking lot seem intimate after the music-filled evening.

She wasn’t expecting the thrill that raced through her veins when he stopped and turned to give her an inscrutable look.

“Would you like to go for a walk on Town Lake before I take you home?”

Years of practice allowed Leah to keep her astonishment hidden. No, their meeting hadn’t been a date by the usual definition, but she probed her memory and found many real dates which hadn’t been this enjoyable.

Why did she find Wade’s interest in her companionship so hard to believe? Why was she looking for ulterior motives when the man might simply wish to spend some time with her? They’d had a pleasant evening, and all he wanted was to go for a walk by the lake.

Perhaps most surprising of all, she wanted to accept the impromptu invitation.

“That sounds lovely.”

The short drive down Lamar Boulevard was companionable. Leah congratulated herself on being able to put Wade a bit more at ease, and hoped she was building a good foundation to work from when things got dicey. For now, she decided to follow Wade’s example and enjoy the moment.

She matched his slow pace as they strolled along the Town Lake trail. The moon, pregnant with summer promise, reflected off the Colorado River. Pecan and cypress trees held hands over their heads, flirting with the night wind.

The occasional lap of the water against the bank, the crunch of gravel under the wheels of a passing bicycle, and the muted sound of traffic from the street only made the solitude seem safer, more comfortable. When they reached the rock overlook departing from the trail, it seemed entirely natural to lean her arms on the railing beside Wade’s and watch the lights from the power plant dance on the water. If it were earlier in the day, they’d be visited by the ducks and swans in search of a handout, but they had all found their nests, leaving the humans to enjoy the evening in relative peace and quiet.

Leah shivered when a gust of wind chased down her spine.

“Are you cold?” Wade asked, concern coloring his voice.

“No, just goose bumps. I’ve lived in Texas all my life, so you’d think I’d be used to the scorching hot days and cool nights of early summer in these parts.”

“Or maybe a rabbit hopped over your grave.”

She tilted her head. “Now there’s a pleasant colloquialism!”

Leah looked back out over the water. On the surface, Wade seemed content to stand in companionable silence, but she sensed a controlled hunger in him. It was her business to read people, and her instincts said his confident bearing was hiding something. Maybe she simply recognized a kindred spirit, a soul not yet fulfilled, a yearning for something ineffable.

Those thoughts making her want to reach out to him also awakened the little voice that had served her well over the years. And the voice reminded her to tread carefully. Wade had not invited an intimacy with her, and in fact, the very idea was illogical to contemplate. If anything, Leah knew better than to mix business with...anything else.

“Wade, it’s been a nice evening and all—”

“But...”

“But I’ve had a long day and my nap is wearing off.”

One side of his mouth tipped upward. “That’s an awfully roundabout way of saying you want to go home.”

“In my business, you learn subtlety.”

“Meaning you have to fib to get what you want?”

“Not fibbing, exactly. More like...redirecting.”

“So instead of telling the groom’s mother she looks like a purple sausage in the outfit she’s wearing, you’d do what? Give her a gift certificate to a dress shop?”

Leah was losing the fight against a grin. “I’d probably mention to her how lovely she’d look in peach, with her hair and complexion, and ask her if she’d seen the new collection by a designer I think would flatter her.”

“Very good!” Wade took his hat off and set it on the flat rocks off to his right. “So if I told you I wanted to haul you into my arms and kiss the daylights out of you, you’d say...?”

Leah’s jaw worked silently for a second or two before she realized she probably looked like a fish out of water. Heaven knew she shouldn’t be this flustered, but he’d managed to blindside her yet again.

She cleared her throat and said, “I’d probably say...um...something like I was flattered but it wouldn’t be a good idea. Yes! I’d tell you it would be foolish for you to kiss me since I’m going to be working so closely with you and your family and...uh...kissing, as it were, would be inappropriate since—”

Her words were cut off as his mouth closed over hers, a warm, firm pressure that served effectively to silence her.

As he pulled her into the steely strength of his arms, she was forced to wonder again if she were dreaming. She felt the wind snatch away the scarf Wade had dislodged, the slide of silk against her sensitized skin almost harsh.

She tried to think, tried to concentrate. She never lost control. Ever. And she wanted to deny her will was being drained so easily. Not her, no-nonsense Leah, who never wasted time in hopeless moments of pure whimsy. She simply couldn’t be standing on the Town Lake trail kissing a man she barely knew.

Surely it wasn’t she, melted against a rugged cowboy’s length, feeling the cool smoothness of his buttons slide provocatively against her breast...feeling the hardness of his sex pressed intimately at the apex of her thighs and the gentle scratch of his callused thumb against her throat, sending tremors down her spine.

Leah gasped softly as his kiss deepened and his hands moved against the fabric of her dress, pulling her just the slightest bit closer. Her awareness of him increased, if that were possible, making his chest feel like a granite wall against her softness, making her fingers clutch the bulging muscles of his biceps, making her swear she’d have a denim pattern stamped on her thighs for a week after this.

Oh, but it would be worth it. She felt vibrantly alive and thoroughly desired, feelings she couldn’t ever remember feeling.

With a shuddering breath Wade abruptly set her away from him and turned back to the railing, clenching the cool metal so tightly his knuckles showed white.

“Leah, I apologize. I’ve never been quite so...impulsive... before.”

Impulsive? She was still standing there like a dazed idiot and he was worrying about being impulsive?

Somehow she forced a brain cell to work and stepped back one more pace. With an unexpectedly even tone, she said, “Please don’t apologize. You’ve only proven my point. We need to maintain a proper relationship if we’re going to work together to make Myra Jo’s wedding a success.”

Wade pushed off the rail and picked up his hat. He seemed inordinately preoccupied with brushing away nonexistent particles of dust. “That might be good.”

He straightened then and walked a few steps down the trail to retrieve her scarf. His eyes seemed drawn against his will to the skin exposed by the vee of her dress, but he forced himself to look away. A shiver that had nothing to do with the breeze shook her. His gaze had flowed over her like warm, gray smoke, and combined with his citrusy aftershave still in her nostrils, it was overwhelming to her still-dazed senses.

She accepted his offered arm, and they walked to the car as if nothing had happened, but she was glad he couldn’t see the hand holding the strip of silk. The fabric would never be the same from being clenched in her fist.

During the ride to her house, Wade was as congenial as a woman could hope a man to be. And she amazed herself by responding in a normal voice.

“I’d like you to come out and meet my folks,” Wade said as he took the turn into her neighborhood. “If you think Myra Jo wants you to groom me a bit—”

“She didn’t say—”

“Leah,” he said shortly, “I’m nobody’s fool.”

This was not new information to her. “Certainly. I can come out anytime,” she said as they reached her condo and Wade walked her to her door.

“Well,” she said a shade brightly, all too aware of the dreaded end of the evening. “Would you like to come in for a nightcap or cup of coffee?”

“No, thank you. I’ll be headed back to the homestead. Do you think you could come out tomorrow and meet my folks?”

Tomorrow was Sunday, and for once her calendar was free. Spring and summer months usually had her at some church or hall every weekend, but her new executive assistant was taking the Baker affair, leaving Leah the illusion of having one whole day to laze around the condo.

“Don’t you think I should call first and set an appointment?”

“Heck no! You go all stiff and formal on my dad and he’ll be a pain in the—” Wade cleared his throat quickly. “I mean, he’ll be difficult to deal with. Myra Jo’s terrified of what her grandfather’s going to pull in a roomful of politicians and their cronies.”

“It’s a wonder she doesn’t elope,” Leah muttered under her breath.

“And please don’t come all citified,” Wade warned, ignoring her comment, if he’d even heard it. “Take your hair out of that knot and put on a pair of jeans, for God’s sake.”

A short laugh burst from her lips. “Yes, sir.”

Wade looked annoyed, but Leah wanted to believe the distracted look meant he was upset with himself, not her.

“I apologize,” he said. “It’s just nearly driven me crazy all evening to see that beautiful hair of yours all mashed back. I’ve been imagining it would look like liquid chocolate and feel like silk. It’s been all I could do to keep my hands off.”

Her face flushed hotly. She always wore her hair up, unless she was at home or in an extremely casual situation. Without thinking, she put a self-conscious hand to her ear.

“I’ll do my best tomorrow.”

“Good. I’ll see you then.” Leaning forward, he placed a kiss on her cheek. “Good night, Leah.”

She had the foolish urge to turn her face so their lips would meet.

“Good night, Wade.”

As she closed the door behind her, the silence of her professionally cleaned and decorated apartment surrounded her. She walked into the dimly lit living room and glanced around. For some silly reason, all she could think of was Wade going home to his daughter and the excited greeting of a beautiful collie. She, on the other hand, would say good-night to an expensive painting and curl up in bed with the printout her accountant had dropped by yesterday.

Yep, she decided as she headed for her bedroom, she had it all.

Wade settled into a comfortable cruising speed, noting absently that Highway 290 wasn’t crowded this time of night. It was too late for commuting traffic and too early for the drunks headed home. But Wade’s mind was bumper-to-bumper with jumbled thoughts.

He couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. He didn’t think he’d ever acted so irrationally with a woman before. The need to kiss her had just overwhelmed him, and he’d been helpless to resist the urge to pull her into his arms.

He called himself a thousand kinds of fool. And the foolishness had to stop. There was too much at stake for him to be acting irresponsibly. His daughter’s happiness was more important than his hormones.

But he couldn’t deny that that not-so-simple kiss had been a soul-rocking event, something of a shock to a man who thought spontaneous combustion was mere theory. Lord help him if he had been in a position to go any further. He doubted he would have come to his senses until he’d buried himself inside her and found release.