To Love and Cherish Page 6

  Instead of going straight back to the house, she went down by the river and sat down under one of the huge oaks at the water’s edge, leaning back on the grassy bank to listen to the hushed roar of the river.

  She crossed her legs in their well-fitting jeans, pushed at the sleeves of her blue print cotton blouse. She loosened a button to let the breeze get to her heated skin and stretched back out on the grass, with her hands under her head. Her eyes closed with a sigh. It was so peaceful here. So quiet and green and cool. In seconds, she was asleep.

  She heard her name called a first time, and then a second and third. She thought she was dreaming until she felt the hand on her arm.

  She opened her eyes quickly and found Kate Brannt standing over her with relief in every line of her aging face. Around her, the sky was a dusky orange.

  “Thank goodness you’re all right,” Kate sighed. “Danny said you’d started back toward the house when he and Mary Kate went riding, and then when you still hadn’t come home after King got here, we sent out the search parties.”

  Shelby scrambled to her feet, brushing off bits of grass from her slacks and the back of her blouse, her heart tumbling as she picked up on what Kate had said.

  “King’s home?” she asked apprehensively.

  “Oh, my dear,” Kate said compassionately, “King’s very much home, and turning the air blue, and he’s already jumped all over Danny. He’s cancelled his Georgia trip.”

  “Jumped…on Danny? What about?”

  “You, Shelby,” Kate smiled. “He was furious because my youngest went off with Mary Kate and left you behind to get lost. Not that he isn’t mad because you’re lost. He and his ranch hands have been combing the ranch,” she added with a grimace, “and when I decided to play a hunch and look down here, he was fixing to change horses. I think we’d better get home fast before the fireworks get any worse.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Shelby said genuinely, her face ashen as she dreaded seeing that temper of King’s unleashed at her. She was really going to catch hell now. “I’m sorry, I didn’t sleep last night and I just meant to close my eyes for a minute…I never meant to fall asleep and cause so much trouble.”

  “Not so much,” Kate said with a secretive smile. “I had a feeling you’d be here. I saw your light on early this morning. Early last morning, too. You don’t sleep at all lately, do you, my dear?”

  “It really isn’t Danny’s fault…” she began.

  “I know.”

  “You do?” she blinked.

  “Never mind, Shelby, you’ll understand it all one of these days,” Kate told her. “But right now, we’ve simply got to get King calmed down.”

  “Do you think it would help if I wore sack cloth and ashes down to the barn?” Shelby asked tremulously.

  “I think it would help more if you didn’t go near the barn until my son has a chance to cool down,” Kate laughed. “King in a temper is a force to behold.”

  “I know,” she said miserably.

  “Yes, I suppose you do.” Kate glanced at her. “He does get upset over you, doesn’t he?”

  “Only for Danny’s sake,” she murmured. Her eyes happened to catch a glimpse of movement out of one corner and she felt her knees going weak. King was walking toward them with that slow dangerous stride she remembered so well from her last visit here. His hat was pulled low over his eyes, and even at the distance, she could see the set of his jaw, the anger that lined his dark face.

  She stopped at the entrance to the garden, her fingers nervously clutching at a big white rose on its thorny stem.

  “Now, King,” Kate began as he came up to them.

  “Goodbye, Mother,” he said curtly.

  Kate looked at Shelby apologetically, but she was too wary of King’s temper not to do as he asked. She went into the house and closed the door gently behind her.

  “You scare everybody, don’t you?” Shelby asked nervously. She spoke to the front of his half-open tan shirt, not his face. She couldn’t bear to meet his eyes.

  She swallowed nervously when he didn’t answer. She studied the soft, cool petals of the rose, tracing them with her fingers.

  “Well?” she whispered unsteadily. “Aren’t you going to yell at me?”

  He still didn’t say anything, and she licked her lips nervously as she finally mustered enough courage to lift her eyes up to his. She winced at the expression in those furious dark eyes.

  “You might as well let it out before you explode, King,” she said softly.

  “Damn you, Shelby!” he growled, and his lean hands shot out to grasp her upper arms painfully as he shook her once, hard. “Do you know how big this ranch is? Do you realize how long we could search until we found you if you got yourself lost for real? Where in hell were you?”

  “I…I fell asleep by the river,” she said unsteadily. “Oh, please, you’re hurting me!”

  His jaw clenched, but he loosened his tight hold and took a harsh breath. “You little fool, I could beat you!”

  “Yes, I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry,” he scoffed. “I had half my men on the range hunting you, after they’d put in a twelve-hour day already, and you’re sorry!”

  Tears rolled down her cheeks as she lowered her eyes to his chest, the brown print shirt blurring in front of her.

  “Don’t do that!” he growled.

  But his harsh voice made the tears run all the harder. A sob broke from her lips.

  “Shelby,” he bit off, “oh, God, honey, don’t cry!”

  He brought her up close to his arms and held her, rocked her against his hard body, soothing her with words she didn’t hear, his hand gentle in her hair. The action surprised her so much that suddenly all the frustrated longing poured out. With a sense of wonder she felt the crush of his arms and pressed even closer.

  “You little fool,” he murmured at her ear. “We didn’t even know where to look, Shelby!”

  “I’m sorry, King,” she whispered like a disobedient child.

  He buried his face in her silky neck, his lips hard and warm against it. “It’s one hell of a big ranch, Shelby,” he said in a strange, deep voice. “We lost a hand once, during the floods. It was three days before we found his body.”

  Chills swept over her. “I didn’t realize…Oh, King, I didn’t mean to upset everybody. I was just so sleepy…”

  “Don’t you sleep at night, little girl?”

  “No. Yes,” she corrected quickly. But not quickly enough.

  He drew back and looked searchingly into her eyes. His own were bloodshot, and there were weary, worn lines in his hard face, as if he hadn’t had much sleep himself.

  His gaze dropped to her mouth and his hands, where they rested on her back, became subtly caressing. “I didn’t sleep last night, either, Shelby,” he said quietly.

  She flushed at the memory and pressed her cold hands against him.

  “What is it?” he asked deeply.

  “Danny…”

  “Let Danny look out for himself,” he said gruffly. “He’s so damned wrapped up in Mary Kate, he can’t see you for dust, and you know it. Why the hell don’t you give him back the ring, Shelby?”

  With a thrill of pleasure she felt his arms contract around her, and she lifted her head to look into his deep-set dark eyes.

  His glance flickered over her face and then down to her mouth again. “You burned for me,” he whispered sensuously. “Like a candle flame touched by wind.”

  Her face reddened, but she didn’t lower her face. “You…Danny said you were going to Austin.”

  “I turned around and came back,” he said. He glanced over her shoulder and back down at her again. “I couldn’t stay away from you.”

  Her eyes widened. “From…me?” she whispered.

  “From you,” he murmured. “You missed me, didn’t you, honey?”

  She met his level gaze shyly. “Yes,” she admitted breathlessly. “King…”

  He drew her body relentlessly agains
t his. “Don’t tell me,” he said softly, “show me.”

  He teased her lips apart with slow mastery, building the pressure until she moaned with hunger, until she went up on tiptoe to tempt him into increasing it even more, her body arching, aching, as it sought his, her mouth hungry and trembling, her voice breaking on a sobbing moan as it echoed the deep pleasure he was giving her.

  King tore away abruptly and lifted an eyebrow as he looked over her head. His face was as hard as ever, completely unmoved by the hunger in the kiss they’d shared. That registered somewhere in the back of Shelby’s whirling mind even as she heard his voice as if through a great distance.

  “Did you want something?” he asked conversationally.

  Danny’s smooth voice replied, “Only my fiancee.”

  Shelby felt her heart stop. She pulled shakily out of King’s embrace and turned, darting a shy glance at Danny, who looked for all the world as if he was trying to keep from laughing. But he composed himself quickly and moved closer.

  “Are you sure she wants to go with you?” King asked arrogantly.

  Everything began to make terrifying sense as she saw the glitter of triumph in King’s dark eyes. All of this was for Danny’s benefit. It was hitting below the belt, but it seemed he’d go to any lengths to keep her from marrying his brother, even if it meant making her fall headlong in love with him. And she’d done exactly that, she realized with a cold chill. She’d fallen into a carefully baited trap before she ever realized it.

  Gathering the shreds of her pride, she lifted her head proudly. “Tell him, Danny,” she said gently. “If you don’t, I will,” she threatened when he hesitated.

  Danny sighed heavily, as if the timing didn’t suit him. “All right.” He met his brother’s puzzled eyes. “Shelby and I aren’t engaged, King.”

  King’s hard face grew even harder. His eyes narrowed. “You’re what?”

  “Not engaged.” Danny stuck his hands in his pockets, looking faintly sheepish. “I engineered it to keep you people from flinging Mary Kate at my head. I thought that if you thought I was already engaged, you’d get off my back. Mary Kate’s okay, but I’m not ready to get married yet.”

  King looked as if he wanted to hit something. His eyes flashed fire. “Why the hell didn’t you say so, then?” he demanded fiercely.

  “What’s wrong, brother mine?” Danny taunted. “Frustrated because I didn’t throw a punch at you for kissing my girl?”

  “From where I was standing,” King said tightly, “It looked as if she was doing the kissing.”

  A muffled sob broke from Shelby’s lips. “Oh, you beast,” she whispered achingly, her eyes accusing and hurt as they met King’s.

  “What’s the matter, honey, does the truth hurt?” he asked mockingly, his smile more an insult than the words.

  “King!” Danny growled.

  “Stay out of it,” the older man said curtly. His eyes pinned Shelby. “Why don’t you go the hell back to the city where you belong? The joke’s over, and it’s on you, honey. I’m just grateful I don’t have to waste any more time on you to make Danny come to his senses!”

  With a gasp of shame, she turned and ran into the house. Danny glared at his brother.

  “Was that really necessary?” he asked gruffly.

  “What the hell were you trying to do, Danny?” King demanded, ignoring the question. “You’ve been halfway in love with Mary Kate for years. What was this charade in aid of, to draw my attention to Shelby? I don’t want her! I never did! So why the hell don’t you mind your own damned business, and keep your nose out of mine!”

  “King, let me explain…” Danny began.

  “Go to hell,” was the cold reply. King turned on his heel and stalked off.

  Six

  It was Saturday afternoon when Shelby walked into the apartment, tired and haggard, her eyes red-rimmed from crying. Edie was in the kitchen and came out smiling into the living room, but one look at Shelby’s worn face wiped the smile clean.

  “Oh, Shelby, not again,” her friend wailed sympathetically, and threw her arms around Shelby. “I’m sorry!”

  “So am I,” Shelby wept. “I wish I’d listened to you.”

  “What happened?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “I’ve got nothing but time,” Edie said. “Come have some coffee and tell me all about it.”

  It did take a long time, because Shelby couldn’t stop crying in between. And when she was through, Edie was muttering to herself.

  “That horrible man,” Edie grumbled.

  “He’s that,” Shelby agreed tearfully. She dabbed at her eyes with a paper towel. “I never knew I could hate anybody so much!”

  “Well, from now on, you let Danny come here, or you go to see him at the office, but don’t go back to that ranch.”

  “I never will. I swear I never will,” Shelby agreed miserably. “Oh, how could he!” she groaned, and the tears started all over again.

  The phone rang suddenly in the silence that followed, and Edie patted Shelby’s shoulder as she went to answer it. “You just sit there, honey, I’ll get it. It’s probably just Andy wanting to know if he can come over tonight. We kind of had a date.”

  “I can go out….” Shelby offered quickly.

  “No, you can’t. We’ll work it out. Just drink your coffee, okay?” And she left her friend sitting at the table, looking lost and forlorn.

  Edie was back in scant minutes, her face troubled. “It’s for you, Shelby,” she said. “Sounds like long distance.”

  Shelby sat erect with a jerk. “It’s not King?”

  “No. But it is a man,” came the quiet reply.

  Puzzled, Shelby went to the phone and sank down on the sofa as she put the receiver to her ear. “Hello?” she asked tentatively.

  “Shelby? It’s Brad. Your stepfather, remember?” he added kindly. “I…I don’t exactly know how to put this.”

  “Is it mother?” she asked quietly.

  “Yes.”

  “Is it bad?” she persisted, feeling something heavy inside her.

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me, then,” she said gently. Her eyes darted to Edie, who was standing quietly in the doorway, watching.

  Brad hesitated, and Shelby pictured him—a tall, graying man with an inherent dignity who found her mother beautiful but just a little too flighty at times.

  “She took an overdose of sleeping pills,” Brad said heavily.

  “She…died ten minutes ago. Can you come?”

  Shelby’s fingers tightened on the receiver. Her mind whirled with memories. Her dark-eyed mother smiling in front of the cameras, a flash of black hair and olive skin, and dripping diamonds. Parties that never seemed to end with an ever-present glass in her mother’s hand and angry glances directed toward the little girl who was always in the way. That last fight…

  “Died?” Shelby repeated softly.

  “Can you come, Shelby?” Brad repeated, his voice suddenly breaking. “I…we need to make some arrangements. There are reporters all over the place.”

  “Do you know why she did it?” Shelby asked huskily.

  There was a harsh sigh on the other end of the line. “They canceled her contract. The studio said she was too old and too temperamental to stomach any longer. They’d offered her the role of a grandmother in some new film, and she threw a fit in the studio head’s office. She forgot that the old days of the star system were long gone. They simply dropped her. She couldn’t take that. She wouldn’t even talk to me about it. The hurt went too deep.”

  How like Maria Kane, Shelby thought miserably, to put her own interests first. Her beauty had been shallow like her personality. There’d been no strength in it, no steel to temper that delicate beauty. All of it had been surface. But in spite of that, she was Shelby’s mother, and Shelby still cared.

  “I’ll be on the next plane. Are you at the house?” she asked Brad.

  “Yes.” He cleared his throat. “I’ll meet you at th
e airport.”

  “I’ll be on the next flight out. I’ll call you from this end and let you know which flight I’ll be on. Brad…thank you for calling.”

  She placed the receiver down gently, and new tears replaced those she’d cried over King.

  “Your mother?” Edie asked.

  She nodded. “Suicide,” she whispered, admitting it, hating the word, hating the implication of it. “I’ll have to go.”

  Edie put a comforting arm around her. “You poor kid,” she murmured. “All at once…Shelby, I’ll come with you.”

  But Shelby shook her head. “This is something I have to do alone. I don’t need anyone,” she lied convincingly. “Thank you, anyway, but I’ll go by myself. And don’t tell Danny,” she added. “He’d want to come, and just being connected with me right now could destroy his career. The reporters will have a field day. A scandal like this isn’t the best publicity for an up and coming conservative young lawyer. Even his monied background wouldn’t save him, and you know it.”

  “Don’t you ever think about yourself?” Edie grumbled. “Danny wouldn’t mind.”

  “That’s why we’re not going to tell him,” she smiled. “I’m right, Edie. You know I am.”

  “Knowing it won’t make Danny any happier.”

  “He won’t know until he reads it in the papers, and then it’ll be too late. And when King reads about it, he’ll stop Danny from going.” She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice. “He won’t let his brother get mixed up in that kind of scandal. It might damage his merger with the Culhanes.”

  “His what?”

  “Never mind. I’ve got to get my suitcase. How lucky,” she added quietly, “that I hadn’t unpacked.”

  Brad met her at the airport and took her to the palatial estate outside Hollywood, in the hills that overlooked the city. He carried her suitcase inside, leaving her alone in the blue and white decor of the living room, with its chrome furnishings. It was like her mother somehow. Stark and lifeless. She closed her eyes briefly.

  “I’ve moved into town, into my old apartment,” Brad said quietly. “I thought you might rather have the place to yourself, and there are two daily maids, Melissa and Gerrie—you saw them as we came in. Melissa’s the little blonde, Gerrie’s the brunette. They’ll take care of you. Melissa’s been doing the housekeeping, too, since Mrs. Plumer quit. She’ll see you get meals while you’re here.” He perched himself on the edge of the sofa. “There are things we need to talk about. Burial…”