“Damn you," she whispered, now more worried than before about the mess she was in. She could manage him when they were fighting, when he was angry, but not when he was gentle and teasing. Not when he was looking at her with a gaze that seemed to burn through her clothes. She could remember the taste of him, too, and the devastating touch of his hands on her body. She was shaken by the urge to wrap her arms around his neck and press her face against his throat and simply breathe in the smell of him.
"I want you to stay away from me from now on."
"Don't tell me you don't want me to hold you ever again. Or kiss you, or-"
"Never again!"
"You want it right now," he said, smiling at her appalled expression. "Just as much as I do."
"Ben, stop it," she hissed, aware that people were beginning to turn around and look at them. Picking up her skirts, she brushed by the rows of chairs and headed toward the house, discarding her pride in order to beat a quick retreat. Ben was right on her heels. Aware of his presence behind her, the long, measured strides that carried him so much farther than hers, she turned to face him as soon as they reached the veranda.
"You don't make any sense at all, Ben Hunter! All of a sudden you've decided you want me, when you wouldn't have me on a silver platter that day in the barn. What changed your mind?"
"Damned if I know. I haven't bothered to analyze it. "
"Of course not. Like any man, you chase after the nearest female whenever the urge to rut strikes you. I seem like a good prospect this week, is that it? Well, you won't be welcomed in my bed, not ever, so set your sights on someone else."
"If the urge to bed someone was all that concerned me, Addie, I wouldn't look to you to satisfy it. Knowing who you are, do you think I'd be fool enough to wait at your heels, hoping for a quick tumble? I haven't been deprived of a woman's company in a long time. If I wanted to sleep in a woman's arms tonight, I could find one easily. Someone a hell of a lot more experienced than you, and not half as much trouble."
"Then what do you want from me?" she whispered.
His smile was designed to annoy her. "Haven't I made it clear?"
"No," she groaned miserably. "Ben, you've got to stop. You're turning everything upside down. You're making me miserable out of pure meanness. You know any kind of relationship between us is impossible."
"Why?"
She couldn't tell him why. Hastily she racked her brains. "I d-don't know what kind of person you are. I don't know you. I don't think anyone around here does. "
"I could say the same about you. But that's something we can change. We don't have to be strangers. Unless you're afraid of what'll happen if you let me get closer. Is that it?"
She stared at him in confusion, her heart turning over at the soft sound of his voice. "I don't know what to do, or what to tell you-"
"Nothing, for now. Nothing at all." A movement to the left of them caught Ben's eyes, and he glanced at the approaching figure before turning back to Addie with a wry smile. "It looks like we'll have to continue this later."
"Why?"
"Take a look."
May was wearing a distinct frown as she walked toward them. There was no mistaking the perturbation in her voice and on her face. She didn't even look at Ben, but addressed Addie instead, her blue eyes cool and unnerving. "Adeline, I don't like you runnin' off without sayin' a word to me about where you are going. There are people askin' after you, people we haven't seen in a long time. "
"I'm sorry, Mama-"
"My apologies," Ben interrupted. "I shouldn't have taken her aside. Please don't hold Miss Adeline accountable for my selfishness."
"I know what to hold my daughter accountable for," May replied, looking at him with displeasure. "And she knows she's keepin' you from the things you should be doing. You were planning on returnin' to the ranch as soon as the wedding was over, weren't you?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Then don't let us detain you."
Ben nodded respectfully to her and glanced at Addie with gleaming eyes.
"Good-bye," she said in a hushed voice, her pulse racing.
After Ben strode away, May fixed Addie with a suspicious stare. "Why is he lookin' at you that way? Something's happened. Has he made any advances to you? Surely you haven't allowed him to take any liberties, Adeline.'
"I… why… of course not," Addie stuttered.
"We were just talking. Why do you seem so set against him all of a sudden?"
"Because I know what kind of man he is. And if you let him, he'll take advantage of you, of your innocence, your trust, and especially your vanity."
"Mama-"
"I'm going to speak frankly, out of concern for you. I wondered how long it would take before this conversation would be necessary. I knew it would come sooner or later. Ben is a handsome man, and he has a way about him. I understand what an impression he must make on a girl your age. And you're attractive to him for many reasons-your looks, your money, but most of all because you're Russell Warner's daughter. I know Russ likes to fancy Ben as another son, and Ben does his best to take full advantage of that. ',
Addie found herself in the unexpected position of having to defend Ben-she, who should have gratefully welcomed any censure of him! "I don't agree. He doesn't need to chase after me or anyone else for money. He's well-educated, and too proud to take advantage of-"
"For all his education, he was a mavericker before he came to Sunrise."
"So was Daddy, once."
"I want better for you than that. And I won't allow a man like Ben Hunter, a man just like your Daddy, to have my daughter."
Addie stared at her in amazement. There was an undertone of steel in May's voice, a strength in her face Addie had never noticed before. Underneath her blond prettiness, there was more purpose and tenacity in May than she'd suspected.
"There's no chance of anything happening between Ben and me," Addie said slowly. "But why don't you want me to marry someone like Daddy?"
"I promised myself I'd do everything in my power to see that my girls had a better life than I did, that you wouldn't repeat my mistakes. Why do you think I insisted on both of you being sent to the academy? Why do you think I've tried so hard to make sure you have manners and fashionable clothes, and an education? Finally my dream for Caro has come true. She and Peter are movin' out of Texas. But if you're going to be buried here for the rest of your life, away from decent people and civilized places, I refuse to give you away to a man who won't treat you half as well as the cattle he owns. And that's what will happen if you settle for some ranch hand."
"But I don't want a different life from this. I don't want to be pampered and spoiled. I won't care if it's a little bit rougher than folks have it back east-“
"A little bit rougher," May said, her voice catching. "You don't know anything about the kind of life you could have. I was brought up in a beautiful home, among people with gentle manners, in a house with servants. I had my choice of beaus. And I came out here ignorant of the filth, the roughness of these people, the men wearing guns all the time, even at the dinner table. There are times when I still have to work harder than some of the servants in my mother's home. "
"Mama-"
"The men out here won't shelter you from things no woman back east would ever have to tolerate, the crudity and the work, the county swarming with criminals and Indians-"
"It's not exactly swarming with them. Aren't you exaggerating a little?"
"Don't you use that tone with me, Adeline! I've been through horrors you know nothin' about. Just after I had Caroline, I begged your father to hire a nurse to help me look after her. I had to work all the time, cleaning, washing, and cooking, and I couldn't care for a baby every minute of the day. And he certainly did get a nurse-a Tonkawa girl to take care of my firstborn-an Indian. Imagine, after all I'd heard of them stealing white children, and then to walk into the nursery and see one of them holding my baby! A woman of one of the most cruel and merciless tribes-"