“All right. I’ll bed down in one of your guest rooms.”
“No. Here. With me.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Don’t care. Please.”
She sighed. He had stayed with her that first night and held her when she needed him. “Fine. You’ll be passed out within ten minutes anyway. Then I can turn the blasted channel to something other than sports.”
He chuckled into his pillow. “A romantic comedy I bet.”
“Action I think. Something with Bruce Willis or Arnold. Better yet, Gerard Butler. He was hot in 300.”
“Annalisa,” he said softly.
“I’m here, Cowboy. Right here.” She kissed his forehead lightly.
“I should have never seduced you. Wasn’t right.”
“Ha. What makes you think you did the seducing?” Annie pulled a crisp cotton sheet over his body.
“Shouldn’t have. Wasn’t gentlemanly.” He yawned, his jaw opening farther than Annie thought possible. “I don’t do things like that. Never before. But I wanted you so much. Couldn’t control myself. Still want you. Annalisa.”
“It’s okay, Dallas. I understand.” She didn’t, but he needed comfort right now, not an argument. “Sleep now.”
“Annalisa,” he said again. “So pretty. Annalisa.” He sighed lightly and closed his eyes, his ebony lashes settling against his cheeks. “Annalisa,” he whispered. “I love you.”
Chapter Fourteen
Annie sat, mesmerized by his steady slumberous breathing. A lone tear trickled slowly down her cheek. She locked her gaze on his handsome face. The tear fell from her face to his and began meandering through the stubble of several days’ growth of beard. She lowered her lips and kissed it away.
He wouldn’t remember saying the words, and she wouldn’t fool herself into thinking he’d actually meant them. But oh, she wanted to believe it. She so wanted to believe it.
Because she loved him.
She would do what she had to do to be with him. She’d tell him the truth tomorrow. All of it. Every last horrible detail. When he was sober. If he turned his back on her, so be it. She’d be no worse off than she was this very moment.
Forgetting about her desire for an action adventure movie, she clicked off the television, snuggled under the covers, and smoothed her hand over Dallas’s shoulder, down his arm, over his hip and thigh. His skin was warming. She cuddled into his back and kissed his shoulder.
“Good night, Cowboy,” she whispered.
* * *
Dallas was still out cold when the sun rose. Annie stretched and got out of bed. She went to the bathroom, took a quick shower, and fetched her clothes from the dryer. Once dressed, she made a tummy-healthy breakfast of scrambled eggs and hash browns, left some for Dallas, and headed in her car to the herding site to check on the sick cattle.
After saying hi to the hands, she examined the stock and breathed a sigh of relief when she found no new sick animals. It must be the grain then. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed the clinic to check for messages. Nothing yet. She administered doses of sodium thiosulphate to the recovering steers, but before she could get to her car, Doug Cartwright drove up in his police car with Chad in the passenger seat.
“Hey, Annie,” Doug said, the sun casting glints in his red hair. “You’re up with the birds.”
“Just checking on the stock,” she said. “No new sick ones today, which is good.”
“That’s great,” Chad said.
“I tried calling Dallas, but he’s not answering,” Doug said.
“I’m not surprised.” Annie rolled her eyes.
“What do you mean?”