“I am? I disturb you?”
“You’re not adding me to your list of broken hearts, Jason, so just move back and give me room.”
“All those challenges,” he said quietly without moving an inch, placing his hands on the cabinets on both sides of her and moving even closer. “Now do you really expect me to ignore them?” he asked softly. “You’re the one who brought them up.”
“I didn’t mean any of them as challenges to you. I’m not impressed. I’m not interested. I don’t want to go to dinner or anything else with you.”
“You might hurt my feelings.”
“There’s no way I can do that,” she said, finding every word more difficult to get out. He stood entirely too close and he was entirely too handsome. And she was being far less than truthful when she told him she wasn’t impressed. Oh, my. She’d bet the house that his kisses would melt any recipient into a bubbling blob.
“I have a heart that can be broken just like anyone else’s.”
“I think your heart is locked away behind impervious armor and no woman will ever get to touch it.”
He ran his finger along her throat, a faint touch that sizzled. “I’m not invincible.”
“I don’t care to find out. I think you said we were going to drink something,” she reminded him, trying to look away and glancing first at his mouth, fleetingly wondering what it would be like to kiss him. Why would she wonder something like that about a man like Jason Windover? Had her brain gone completely to mush?
“Oh, sure,” he answered as if that were the last thing on his mind. “What would you like?”
“Just some pop.”
He moved away, and she could breathe again. Watching him as he walked around the kitchen, she was thankful his attention had shifted from her. He brought her pop poured over ice in a tall glass, and he carried another beer and she hoped it would knock him out for the night, yet he had a way of slowly sipping them that made them last.
Finally they were settled back on the sofa in the family room. Jason sat too close with one arm stretched on the back of the sofa and one leg bent, his knee on the sofa only inches from her thigh. He offered her a sandwich which she declined. He helped himself.
“I think you should forget about Dorian and go home,” he said, taking a bite of his cheese sandwich.
“Maybe so.”
“You don’t mean that. You’re just patronizing me until I’m out of your sight. You can’t change him. You can’t accomplish anything. You’re just a fly buzzing around his head annoying him.”
“Maybe that’s all, but he deserves to be annoyed.”
“Merry, I said it before and I’ll say it again. Women have jilted men and broken their hearts. Men have jilted women and broken their hearts. When it isn’t a deep commitment, you just pick up and get over it.”
“I’m sure that’s the philosophy of your life,” she said, becoming aggravated with him again. “My sister is losing weight. She’s broken-hearted. Her work is getting neglected. Her life is suffering.”
“She’s got to get over him. Introduce her to new guys,” he said, finishing his sandwich and taking a sip of beer.
“She doesn’t want to meet any guy right now.”
“I’ll repeat, when there hasn’t been too deep and too lasting a commitment, then broken hearts mend.”
“Thanks, Abby, for that bulletin.”
“It’s the truth. They weren’t married. They hadn’t known each other for years.”
“That’s so easy for you to say! She’s heartbroken and I want him to know he can’t walk all over someone and then turn his back and walk away. I want to cause him some grief. He’s hurt her and taken her money—”
Jason turned to look at her. “Dorian took money?”
“Yes. Holly didn’t have a lot, but she’s very thrifty. She has a good job and she’s saved quite a bit for having just been out of a college a few years.”
“Are you certain he took her money?”
“Now you’re interested,” Merry said, once again annoyed with him. “Money’s important to you, but Holly’s broken heart isn’t.”
“There’s a difference. If he took money, he may have broken the law,” Jason said quietly, and she realized she had his undivided attention now.
“Tell me exactly what Dorian did,” Jason said.
Three
A broken heart was one thing—but missing money was quite another. All of Jason’s cold, negative feelings about Dorian returned. Suppose he had been right about the man all along? Money was missing at Wescott Oil and some of it had turned up in an account in Sebastian’s name. Someone had taken that money and tried to frame Sebastian for murder. A man had been killed, and the guilty party was a cold-blooded murderer.
Jason realized Merry was studying him intently. “What?” he asked.
“What’s going through your mind? Dorian taking Holly’s money disturbed you.”
“We’ve had something going on here in Royal,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “You’ve met some of the Texas Cattleman’s Club members,” he remarked dryly, and she did have the grace to blush.
“I just wanted to find out where Dorian was. I’m sure it was a dreadful shock to have a woman violate the inner sanctum of your precious club.”
“You weren’t exactly quiet about it,” he said, thinking that was all he’d heard about the day after Merry had burst into the club demanding to know Dorian’s whereabouts. Merry was a fiery, feisty, Texas tornado, stirring people up everywhere she went. Was she that way at home in Dallas? He found it difficult to keep his mind on the conversation, on Dorian, on problems, when she was sitting close and looking so enticing.
Since her shower, Merry’s hair was silky, springing free to curl slightly around her face and spill onto her shoulders. Its deep auburn color held highlights of gold and fiery orange. In the kitchen he had wanted to kiss her. And he had almost tried because he thought she wanted him to, but the moment had passed. Now he wanted to stretch his arm out about three more inches and touch her. He resisted the urge, focusing on their discussion.
“Do you remember meeting Sebastian Wescott?” he asked.
“Dorian’s half brother. I thought he was nicer than Dorian.”
“Ahh, we agree on something,” Jason said, having resisted touching Merry as long as he could. He wound locks of her hair around his fingers, letting her soft curls slide over his hand. There was a flicker in her smokey eyes and pink tinged her cheeks, so she had noticed and she wasn’t objecting. Was the lady feeling the same sparks that he was?
“Sebastian inherited the Wescott Oil empire and when Dorian arrived in Royal and let his presence be known and that he was a long-lost half brother, Sebastian took him in and got him a job at Wescott Oil in computer services.”
“Sebastian Wescott should know that he has taken in someone who is deceptive and unscrupulous. Dorian is a real snake.”
“We’ve inducted Dorian into the Texas Cattleman’s Club because he’s Sebastian’s half brother. He seems to have fit himself into life in Royal.” Only half thinking about Dorian and Sebastian, Jason talked while his thoughts were on Merry, her big eyes, her soft hair that he was winding around his fingers. She