Page 17

The hotel room still made her nervous.

It was past midnight, yet Ellie couldn’t fall asleep.

She should have listened to Jake and moved to a room on the next floor, but she hadn’t wanted to be that far from Clay.

Of course, she couldn’t tell Jake that.

Nor could she tell him she’d never forget the way Clay had come to her rescue, how protected she had felt when he’d held her.

Ellie checked the door and windows a second time and climbed back in bed, but every sound, every creak and moan, had her eyes shooting open.

She read for a while, Slow Heat in Heaven , a steamy romance by that made her think of Clay and did nothing to put her to sleep.

There were no noises coming from his room.

Either Clay wasn’t at home, or he was sleeping soundly.

After her attack last night, he’d been solicitous, saddling Jube for her, riding with her a while to be sure she all right.

Finally, at her insistence, he had left her to finish her morning routine.

She’d worked Jube for a couple of hours, lungeing him, doing some work on the flat, taking a couple of fences.

While Clay was busy putting Max over some Cavalletti, she and Gerry took off for a quick bite of lunch.

When she returned, Clay was almost hostile.

“Have a nice lunch?”

he asked sarcastically as he rode up to where she stood watching him with her elbows propped on the fence rail.

Max was so big and Clay so tall, she had to tilt her head back to see the dark forbidding expression on his face.

“You were working Max.

I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“So you disturbed your groom instead.”

“We just went down the street.

There’s a little café—“

“I’m sure you were well-entertained.

Now if you’ll excuse me, Max is tired and so am I.”

He nudged the big bay forward with a nearly imperceptible pressure on the heel of his boot.

“I’m sure Gerry will see you safely back to the hotel.”

Max brushed past her, blowing a little, glad to be finished for the day.

She watched Clay and the stallion disappear into the stable, wondering what she had done to displease him.

They’d been getting along so well and the trip to the flower market had been lovely.

Surely Clay wasn’t jealous of Gerry? She thought about the time Gerry had discovered them in the tack room.

Clay had been angry, furious, in fact.

Ellie had assumed it was because she hadn’t jumped at his command.

Now she wasn’t so sure.

That night she went to bed early, but still had trouble sleeping.

Sprawled on the bed, she kicked off her blankets, lifted her heavy hair away from her neck and thought of Clay.

Her heartbeat quickened as the usual fever began to heat her blood.

Was Clay sleeping alone next door? Or was he with Linda Gibbons or some other woman?

Ellie touched her lips.

She could almost taste Clay’s mouth over hers, remember the exact scent of his expensive cologne.

What if she knocked on his door and he invited her in? How would it feel if he made love to her? How would she feel the next day?

You’re a woman.

You can do anything you want.

But she didn’t go next door.

She didn’t go to sleep either.

She tossed and turned and thought about Clay and knew if he took her to bed, she’d be glad.

At first light, feeling exhausted and out of sorts, Ellie got up, dressed in her riding clothes, and headed out the door.

She stopped in the lobby, asked the desk clerk to call her a cab, then went outside to wait on the curb.

She’d almost reached the street when a taxi pulled up at the curb in front of the hotel.

Clay opened the door and got out of the cab, swaying on his feet.

Dressed in an expensive blue blazer that hung open and a little askew on his shoulders, his striped tie hanging like a noose around his neck, Clay reached down to help a tall brunette in a backless sundress out of the cab.

A giggling blonde in a white leather mini slid out behind her.

Teetering on her high spiked heels, the blonde crossed the sidewalk and snuggled beneath Clay’s arm.

Clutching an open bottle of champagne, his other arm draped across the brunette’s bare shoulders.

There was no place for Ellie to go, no way to avoid a confrontation.

She lifted her chin, trying to ignore the anger and disappointment that bubbled inside her.

She could feel the heat in her cheeks and the back of her neck.

I should be used to Clay’s indiscretions by now, she thought.

But she wasn’t.

How could she even consider sleeping with a man like Clay?

“Well,”

he said as he approached, “if it isn’t little Ms.

Untouchable.

Only she isn’t really so untouchable, is she?”

He tilted up the bottle of champagne and took a long pull.

Some of the amber liquid trickled along his jaw.

Strands of his thick brown hair slanted across his forehead.

He needed a shave, but the night’s growth of beard only made him more attractive.

“How was dinner?”

he asked, wiping the champagne away with the back of his hand and passing the bottle to the blonde.

“As pleasant as lunch?”

Ellie didn’t answer, just walked past him.

He released the girls and rounded on her.

“Wait a minute!”

he called after her.

She heard his heavy stride on the concrete behind her.

Catching up with her easily, he grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him, his dark eyes mocking as they slid over the curves of her body.

“Why don’t you forget your damnable horses and have a little fun for a change? I’m sure the girls wouldn’t mind if you joined the party.”

“Leave me alone, Clay.”

“What’s the matter? My friends aren’t good enough for you? Or is it just that you don’t like to share your men?”

“You’re drunk and obnoxious.

Go back to your little playmates and leave me alone.”

“I’ve been leaving you alone.

That’s where I made my mistake.

I should have come into your room like that bastard the other night.

I have a feeling you’d have been a little more cooperative with me riding you instead of him.”

Ellie slapped Clay’s face.

His eyes turned even darker, and he set his jaw.

Ellie started to say the words on her tongue, but Clay pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

It was a hard kiss, demanding, almost punishing. Ellie didn’t fight him, just held her temper and remained passive, letting her arms dangle loosely at her sides.

Clay kept kissing her, but his anger had died.

The kiss turned gentle, the hand at her waist sliding up to caress the nape of her neck.

“Ellie...”

he said softly, the word spoken with what sounded like longing.

With a sob of defeat, Ellie’s hands clutched the front of his coat and for an instant she kissed him back.

“You’re driving me crazy,”

he whispered against her ear.

“I need you, Ellie.”

Ellie pulled away, fighting to ignore the yearning she heard in his voice.

With a glance from Clay to the girls and back again, humiliated by her own behavior, she blinked back tears, but they spilled down her cheeks.

“How can you be so wonderful and so horrible at the same time?”

Brushing away the wetness, she waved at the next cab pulling up to the curb and raced in that direction.

Without looking back, she opened the door, climbed in, and instructed the driver to pull away.

Clay stared after the taxi until the car rounded the corner out of sight.

Feeling suddenly sober, he turned back to the girls, who were giggling, drinking from the bottle of champagne and apparently oblivious to what had just happened.

He pulled his alligator wallet from the breast pocket of his blazer and took out several crisp hundred-guilder notes.

“Here.”

He handed each girl a wad of money.

“Go into the lobby and have the desk clerk call you a cab.”

“ Niets meer? ”

the brunette asked, her eyes big in her porcelain-like face.

“English,”

Clay reminded her.

“I thought we were going to—“

“No.

Goodnight,”

he said, though by now it was morning.

Clay handed the keys to the valet and left the women standing on the curb.

“ Goedenacht, ”

the blonde called after him with a wave.

Clay didn’t wave back.

His head pounded from the liquor he’d consumed, and he was disgusted with himself.

How could he have said those things to Ellie?

Because in a way he meant them.

Ellie wanted him.

He knew women.

Yet every time the two of them got close to having some sort of relationship, Ellie went off with Gerry Winslow, or Flex McGrath. Maybe even Jake.

She’d slept with them when he felt certain he was the man she wanted.

Clay cursed himself for a fool.

He should have taken her out to dinner tonight, brought her back to his room, and taken her to bed, would have, if she hadn’t had such a bad experience the night before.

When he’d seen her at the show grounds with her groom, he’d gone off half-cocked, gotten drunk, and picked up the girls in the bar on Rochussenstraat.

By the time they headed back to the hotel it was almost morning.

Now he’d driven another wedge between him and Ellie.

Was Ellie Fletcher worth all the trouble?

The voice inside him continued to answer, yes.

Jake spent the next two days trying to think of a way to convince Maggie to take Sarah and go home.

None of his rehearsed speeches sounded convincing.

In the end, he decided to say whatever seemed right at the time.

By Thursday, he realized Maggie was doing everything in her power to avoid him.

She didn’t go to any team dinners, went to the show grounds as rarely as possible, and generally stayed out of his way.

Maggie was doing the same things to him that Jake had been doing to her ever since she arrived in Europe.

It was only by chance he spotted her through his hotel room window, standing on the curb out in front, helping Sarah and her nanny into a cab.

The little girl must have been looking up at his room.

Through the rear window, Sarah waved good-bye as the cab drove away.

Jake’s stomach tightened.

He glanced at his Rolex.

Seven p.m.

The sun was still shining, but copper tinged the evening sky. As Maggie walked back into the hotel, Jake stepped away from the window.

He’d just showered and changed after a long day of competition at the Rotterdam show, during which most of the team had done well.

Ellie had taken a first and second.

Flex had won a first and a third.

Shep had done passably well, winning a third. And Clay hadn’t shown up.

Typical Clay.

When he wanted to be, he was brilliant.

When he wanted to be, he was an ass.

Jake glanced at his reflection in the mirror above the dresser.

His eyes were lined with worry, his skin less swarthy than usual.

After Ellie’s attack, he’d made a point of finding out where Maggie and Sarah were staying.

Since then, every evening before he went to bed, he quietly checked that wing for anyone who looked suspicious.

Long strides carried him down the hall.

He turned left into an empty corridor and stopped outside Maggie’s room.

With a steadying breath, he rapped lightly on the door.

There was movement inside the room, the scrape of a chair being pushed back, soft footfalls, then the door opened a crack.

Gentle blue eyes widened as she spotted him on the other side of the door.

“I need to talk to you, Maggie,”

Jake said.

She hesitated a moment then slid back the chain to let him in.

The room, a duplicate of his own, was orderly, a Danish modern chair next to the table, clothes all put away.

Only Sarah’s Peanuts comic book, strewn carelessly on one of the twin beds, betrayed the child’s presence.

Maggie’s gaze followed Jake’s.

“Sarah went to dinner with Flora.”

“I know.

I was looking out my window when they left.”

His gaze drifted over her.

She looked beautiful in an elegant dove gray skirt that fell softly over her slender hips.

Her embroidered silk blouse outlined the peaks of her delicate, upturned breasts, and Jake felt a tightening in his groin.

She’d kicked off her shoes, but still wore her stockings, showing off her long, shapely legs.

He wanted to pull her into his arms, bury his face in her hair, and never let her go.

“Thanks for letting me in,”

he said a little gruffly.

“Why don’t we sit down?”

Her blond brows drew slightly together.

“Maybe we should go downstairs to the café.”

Jake ignored the suggestion.

“How’s Sarah?”

he asked, trying to ease into the conversation.

“She’s fine.”

Maggie flashed him a nervous look that said she wanted to know why he was there, but politeness won out.

“She loves traveling, wants to see everything everywhere we go.

Thank heaven Flora is here.

I’d never be able to keep up with her.”

“She’s got plenty of energy, all right.”

Jake forced a smile he didn’t feel.

“What about you, Maggie, how are you getting along?”

Maggie’s shoulders tightened.

“Work keeps me busy.

There’s plenty to do.

More than I would have dreamed. In the morning I join the dressage team in Belgium for a couple of days.”

“I wasn’t asking about work.”

“What are you asking, Jake? Is this a personal visit, or a professional one? Because if it’s personal, I think you’d better leave.”

To make her point she started for the door.

“Please sit down, Maggie.

This is difficult enough as it is.”

Casting him an uncertain glance, Maggie walked back and sat down in the chair.

Jake sat down on the edge of the bed.

“I know you have every reason to distrust me.

I led you on, led you to believe we had a future.

At the time I thought we did.”

“I see.

Then somehow you discovered you were wrong.”

“I can only tell you that I had no choice.

There were...other considerations.

The team, Pleasant Oaks,”

he added lamely.

“But you and Sarah mean a lot to me.

That’s why I’m here.”

“It seems to me Sarah and I mean very little to you.

Your coaching job and your precious stable are what you care about most.

Or was I just another conquest?”

“It wasn’t that way.”

“It wasn’t? Maybe I wasn’t good enough in bed.

Or maybe you’re the kind of man who needs a different woman every few months to keep his...interest...from lagging.”

“Dammit, Maggie!”

Jake surged to his feet.

“You know that wasn’t the way it was! I had reasons—things I can’t discuss.

I wanted to tell you.

I still want to, but I can’t.”

“Can’t Jake? Or won’t?”

He released a slow breath, trying to stay calm.

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“Then tell me the truth.

What happened to us, Jake?”

“I did what had to.

That’s all I can say.”

“Then why are you here?”

Jake clamped down on his emotions and sat back down on the bed.

“There have been some problems.”

Maggie sat up straighter in the chair.

“Has something happened to the team?”

“That’s just it.

I’m afraid something might.”

He ran his fingers through his hair, determined to remain in control.

“There have been a couple of incidents...so far nobody’s been seriously injured, but—”

“What kind of incidents?”

“One of the horses was drugged.

Someone broke into Ellie’s room and attacked her.”

Maggie eyes went wide.

“Oh, my God, is she all right?”

“The guy roughed her up pretty good.

Clay Whitfield played knight in shining armor and came to her rescue.”

“I think Clay’s more chivalrous than he suspects.”

“Maybe.

But things could have turned out differently.

She could have been hurt very badly, maybe even killed.

That’s why I came. I want you to take Sarah and go home.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Dammit, Maggie, you know as well as I do, the international climate isn’t good.

That airbus the Navy accidentally shot down last week could be the fuse that sets off the dynamite.

I’d feel a whole lot better if you and Sarah were somewhere safe.”

Maggie just shook her head.

“You must be out of your mind.

I have a job to do—an important job.

The team needs me. I’m not about to go home. I can’t believe you’re even suggesting it.”

“What about Sarah? It isn’t safe for her here.

She’s just a child.

She’d be better off at home.”

Maggie’s gaze fixed on his face.

“What’s this about, Jake? Something’s going on.

Tell me what it is.”

“I just told you.

Surely, for Sarah’s sake you’ll consider what I’m saying.”

Maggie watched him closely.

His face looked drawn and tired, the skin taut over his high cheekbones.

“This isn’t about the international climate, is it?”

“Of course, it is.”

“This is about you, Jake.

Something’s wrong and you’re involved.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.

It’s just that things are heating up, and I think you’d be better off back in the States.

You shouldn’t be here by yourself in the first place.

Evelyn was supposed to come with you.”

“Evelyn is in the hospital having back surgery.

I’m her assistant.

The fact that she isn’t here only makes my job more important.

This isn’t like you, Jake. I want to know what’s going on.”

His anxiety was almost tangible, his fists clenched as tightly as his jaw.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Listen to me, Maggie.

I don’t know what’s going on.

I only know I want you and Sarah safe. I want you to go home.”

“Why, Jake?”

Maggie whispered, her heart beginning to pound with a strange feeling of hope.

“Why should you care?”

Jake reached out and touched her cheek, his hand calloused and as strong as she remembered.

“I care, dammit.

The why doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me.”

“Maggie, please.”

“I’ve got to know, Jake.

You owe me that much.”

Maggie swallowed past the lump in her throat, but she couldn’t stop the tears welling in her eyes.

“You lied to me, didn’t you? You said you didn’t have time for us, but it wasn’t the truth.

There was some other reason, something you’re afraid to tell me.

I wasn’t wrong about you—tell me I wasn’t.”

“I’d better go,”

Jake said, his voice gruff as he rose and started for the door.

Maggie rose and touched his arm and that single contact stopped him.

“Tell me, Jake.

Tell me the truth.”

She raised a trembling hand and cradled it against his cheek.

Jake leaned into the warmth and closed his eyes.

“Maggie, don’t,”

he whispered.

“It isn’t safe for me to be with you.

You’ve got to forget about us and go back home.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks.

“I want to know why you left us.

I want to know if you loved me.”

“Maggie...”

For a moment he just stood there, his beautiful blue eyes filled with despair.

Then he reached out and pulled her into his arms.

“I loved you then, I love you now.

I’ll always love you, Maggie. That’s never going to change.”

Jake...”

Longing speared through her.

Maggie kissed his mouth, his cheeks, his eyes.

She wanted to say the same words to him, but the tears clogging her throat made it impossible to speak.

Jake pulled her down on the bed and kissed her hungrily, kissed her as if he couldn’t get enough. It was a kiss of possession, of longing and love, a kiss that tried to make up for the time they’d been apart.

“I love you,”

Maggie whispered, and felt his lips on her cheek, kissing away her tears.

Jake unbuttoned her blouse and slipped his hand inside to gently cup her breast.

Maggie moaned and tore at the buttons on his shirt.

The first two popped free, the next one didn’t.

Jake grabbed hold of the fabric and tugged so hard the button tore loose and the shirt fell open. Maggie helped him pull it off over his head and he tossed it away. Her fingers played over the familiar lines and sinews, tangled in the curly black hair on his chest.

Jake slipped the blouse off her shoulders, worked the zipper on her skirt.

A short, sweet buzz and the skirt joined the clothes on the floor.

His mouth moved along her throat as he whispered her name, telling her he loved her, touching and caressing, healing her with his hands and his kisses.

She could feel his care in every touch, and love for him blossomed inside her.

“Tell me you aren’t just saying the things I want to hear,”

she said softly.

Jake pressed his lips against her bare shoulder.

“I mean every word, Maggie.

I love you.

We don’t have to do this. We can stop now, if that’s what you want. Holding you is enough.”

He was telling the truth.

She could hear it in his voice, see it in his face.

The last of her heartache fell away.

“I want you, Jake.

I’ve never stopped wanting you.”

Jake kissed her and kissed her, unhooked her simple cotton bra, baring her breasts.

His lips skimmed along her throat and shoulders, covered her hard, dusky nipple, sucked the rigid tip until she trembled and arched against him.

Her hands shook as she reached for the buckle on his belt, then unbuttoned and unzipped his pants.

Jake stopped kissing her long enough to pull off his boots and remove the rest of his clothes.

Both gloriously naked on the narrow twin bed, Jake covered her body with his, pressing her down in the mattress.

She loved the way it felt to have him there, loved the warmth of his mouth moving over her skin as he kissed his way down her body.

He knew just what to do, just how to touch her, exactly what pleased her.

Heat rolled through her, and a burst of wild, fiery passion that had her clutching his shoulders, then tipping into climax.

The world spun and she drifted, drifted, finally returned to the world to find Jake watching her.

She reached out to him, touched his cheek.

“I need more of you.

I need all of you, Jake.

I need to know you’re really here.”

Jake pressed a kiss on the flat spot below her navel.

“I’m here, Maggie.”

Coming up over her, he kissed her hard and slid himself inside.

She moaned at the feel his arousal, his hunger as he started to move, slowly at first, letting her absorb the weight of him, then faster, deeper, harder.

She could hear his ragged breathing, feel the pounding of his heart.

Jake drove into her, his movements more and more urgent, his control slipping, along with her own.

A tight knot hummed inside her.

She felt Jake’s muscles bunch, knew he was close to release, and the feeling sent her over the edge.

Jake’s climax followed, the two of them clinging together as if they were afraid to let go.

“I love you,”

he whispered.

“No matter what happens, I’ll never lie to you again.”

Tears threatened.

“I love you so much.”

They lay together for a time, spiraling slowly back to earth, Maggie curled on her side, Jake behind her spoon fashion.

His warm breath tickled her shoulder while his arm wrapped protectively around her.

Maggie knew a feeling of contentment she had only experienced with Jake.

Then she remembered his words.

No matter what happens....

Fresh fear slipped through her, which Jake must have sensed.

She rolled onto her back to look at him.

“I can’t tell you what’s going on, Maggie,”

he said.

“I can’t tell you it will all work out and things will be the way they were.”

“I’ll send Sarah home with Flora.

Don’t ask me to go with them.”

Jake kissed her hair.

“We can’t be together—not for an hour or even a minute.

Not until this is over—one way or another.

You’ve got to promise me that.”

She managed to nod.

“I’ll do whatever you say.”

Now that Jake was there, she could handle whatever lay ahead.

Jake kissed her, slow and deep, and desire rose hot and greedy inside her.

Grateful to be back in his arms, Maggie stoked the flames.