Not until Luke stood close enough for her to see that the sun had turned his eyes into clear, deep gold did Carla realize the true extent of her wager – and her risk. What if this didn’t work? What if being close to Luke only increased her longing? What if this turned out to be as big a mistake as her job in West Fork had been?
"Already unhappy at being stuck in the sticks for a few months?" Luke continued, watching Carla closely.
"No. I was thinking about the summer I got a job at the OK Corral."
Luke’s eyes narrowed and his mouth became a thin line. Carla winced.
"You got off easy," he said flatly. "If you’d been my sister, I would have nailed your backside to the barn for a stunt like that."
"Cash is brighter than that."
"Or dumber."
"Maybe he decided that teaching me wilderness skills was better than having me move out."
"Not just ‘out,’ schoolgirl. Into a no-tell motel."
"A what?"
"The OK Corral is the biggest hot-sheet operation this side of Cortez."
"Hot sheet?" she asked. Suddenly understanding dawned. "You don’t mean…?"
"I sure as hell do."
"Oh…my…God."
Carla’s blue-green eyes widened in comprehension. Amused by her own nai’vet6, she shook her head slowly, making light twist through her sun-streaked chestnut hair. Unable to hold back any longer, she let laughter bubble up. She finally understood why Luke had kept her a virtual prisoner on the ranch until Cash had come in from his geological explorations three days later.
As Luke watched Carla, his mouth gentled into a smile. Something that was both pain and pleasure expanded through him. It had been so good during the years when he and Cash had shared between them the radiant freshness that was Carla. She had a way of brightening everything she touched. Luke hadn’t wanted to let Carla go out into the world any more than Cash had. The world could be brutal to a gentle young girl.
So we kept her and then I was the one to teach her how brutal the world can be.
The thought made Luke’s expression harden. The memory of Carla’s frightened, tear-streaked face, the broken sounds she had made as she fled into the night three years before; all of it haunted him.
"Lord, sunshine," Luke said in a deeper voice. "You were so innocent. No wonder Cash wanted to build a fence around you to keep out the wolves."
Carla’s laughter died as she looked at Luke and knew that he was thinking of the night she had thrown herself at him. She felt herself going pale, then flushing beneath a rising tide of embarrassment. She hated the revealing color but knew there was nothing she could do to avoid or conceal it. So she ignored it, just as she tried to ignore Luke’s comment about her innocence, his words like salt on the raw wound of her memories.
Yet if she were to survive this summer – and Luke – the past had to be put behind her. She was a woman now, not a stupid girl blinded by naive dreams of being loved by a man who was years too experienced for her.
"Fortunately, innocence is curable," Carla said. "Time works miracles. Where do you want me to put my stuff?"
For an instant she held her breath, silently willing Luke to accept the change of subject. She really couldn’t bear reliving the lowest moment of her life all over again. Not in front of Luke, with his intense glance measuring every bright shade of her humiliation.
"Sunshine, that night you came and – "
"My name is Carla," she interrupted tightly, turning away, going to the tiny bed of the pickup truck. "Do you want me to park at the old house?"
"No. You’ll be staying at the big house."
"But – "
"But nothing. I’m not having anything as innocent as you running loose after dark. One of my hands is no good around women, and none of them is any better than he has to be. When Cash is here, you can bunk in with him at the old house if you want. Otherwise, you’re in the big house with me.
It’s hard to get men to work on a place as isolated as the Rocking M. I’d hate to have to drive one of my hands to the hospital because he was drinking and saw a light on in the old house and thought he’d try his luck."
"None of your men would – "
"Didn’t you learn anything three years ago?" Luke cut in. "Men drink to forget, and one of the first things they forget is to keep their hands off an innocent girl like you."
"I’m not an inno – "
"Put that suitcase back," Luke said coldly, interrupting Carla again.
"What?" she asked, stopping in the act of taking a suitcase from the truck’s small, open bed.
"I’m not going to spend the summer arguing with the hired help. If you can’t take a simple order you can turn that toy truck around and get the hell off the Rocking M."
Carla stared in disbelief at Luke. Hurt and anger warred within her.
"Would you treat me like this if Cash were here?"
"If Cash were here, I wouldn’t have to worry about protecting you from your own foolishness. He’d take care of it for me."
"I’m twenty-one, legally of age."
"Schoolgirl, when it comes to men and an isolated ranch like this, you aren’t even out of kindergarten. Take your pick – the big house or die road to town."
Carla turned and began rummaging in the truck bed again. She hoped Luke couldn’t see the tiny trembling of her hands at the thought of living in the same house with him, seeing him at all hours of light and darkness, fixing his food, making his bed, washing his clothes, folding them, caring for him. A thousand subtle intimacies, his whiskey-colored eyes watching her, no place to retreat, no place to hide.
Well, that’s what I came here for, isn’t it, to let familiarity breed contempt? And if the thought of that kind of closeness makes my knees turn to water, that’s just tough. I’ll get over him. Ihave to.
With all the coolness Carla could muster, she turned back to Luke. He said something harsh beneath his breath as he saw the pallor of her face and her wide, haunted eyes.
"Don’t worry. I’m not going to jump your bones," he said savagely. "Hell, I wouldn’t have touched you three years ago if I hadn’t been drinking and you hadn’t been offering. Look at you, all pale and trembling every time the subject comes up. You’d think I raped you, for God’s sake."
"No," she said hoarsely. "No."
"Damn it, I’m not going to have you flinching and hiding every time I get three feet from you. Nothing happened that night!"
Hearing her declaration of love characterized as "nothing" stiffened Carla’s knees. Her head came up and she asked in a low voice, "Do you want a cook and housekeeper for the summer?"
"Yes, but – "
She kept right on talking. "Then what happened the summer I graduated from high school is off limits for conversation. It was the most excruciating, humiliating experience of my life. Thinking about it makes me – sick." Abruptly Carla stopped speaking and shook her head, making silky hair fly. "So unless you’re trying to drive me off the ranch, you’ll stop throwing that night in my face."
Being told that the memory of his touch sickened her did nothing to improve Luke’s temper. He looked at Carla’s tight, pale face and swore under his breath.
"It’s too late to be hedging your bet," he said coldly. "I hired you for the summer. If you don’t like what I talk about, get back in the truck and drive. You knew what I was like when you made the bet, so don’t be trotting out excuses for welshing. And you will welsh, schoolgirl. After three solid weeks of the Rocking M, you’ll be champing at the bit to see the bright lights just like the other females who came here."
"West Fork doesn’t have any bright lights worth seeing."
"You should have hung around the OK Corral a little longer," Luke said sardonically.
Carla’s temper frayed. She hated being reminded of how many times she had made a fool of herself around Luke.
"Did it ever occur to you it might have been the MacKenzie men rather than the Rocking M’s isolation, that drove their wives into town?" Carla asked in a sugary voice.