“He’s a hard man to get close to,” Arabella said quietly. “Nobody gets near him at all now, I imagine.”
“Maybe you can change that,” Coreen said, smiling. “You could make him smile when no one else could. You taught him how to play. He was happier that summer four years ago than he ever was before or since.”
“Was he?” Arabella smiled painfully. “We had a terrible quarrel over Miriam. I don’t think he’s ever forgiven me for the things I said.”
“Anger can camouflage so many emotions, Bella,” Coreen said quietly. “It isn’t always as cut-and-dried as it seems.”
“No, it isn’t,” Mary agreed. “Matt and I hated each other once, and we wound up married.”
“I doubt if Ethan will ever marry anyone again,” Arabella said, glancing at Coreen. “A bad burn leaves scars.”
“Yes,” Coreen said sadly. “By the way, dear,” she said then, changing the subject, “we’re looking forward to having you with us while you recuperate. Mary and I will enjoy your company so much.”
Arabella thought about what Coreen had said long after they left. She couldn’t imagine a man as masculine as Ethan being so wounded by any woman, but perhaps Miriam had some kind of hold on him that no one knew about. Probably a sensual one, she thought miserably, because everyone who’d seen them together knew how attracted he’d been to Miriam physically. Miriam had been worldly and sophisticated. It was understandable that he’d fallen so completely under her spell. Arabella had been much too innocent to even begin to compete for him.
A nurse came in, bearing a huge bouquet of flowers, and Arabella’s eyes glistened with faint tears at their beauty. There was no card, but she knew by the size and extravagance of the gift that it had to be Coreen. She’d have to remember to thank the older woman the next day.
It was a long night, and she didn’t sleep well. Her dreams were troubled, full of Ethan and pain. She lay looking up at the ceiling after one of the more potent dreams, and her mind drifted back to a late-summer’s day, with the sound of bees buzzing around the wildflowers that circled the spot where the creek widened into a big hole, deep enough to swim in. She and Ethan had gone there to swim one lazy afternoon…
She could still see the butterflies and hear the crickets and July flies that populated the deserted area. Ethan had driven them to the creek in the truck, because it was a long and tiring walk in the devastating heat of a south Texas summer. He’d been wearing white trunks that showed off his powerful body in an all-too-sensuous way, his broad shoulders and chest tapering to his narrow hips and long legs. He was deeply tanned, and his chest and flat belly were thick with curling dark hair. Seeing him in trunks had never bothered Arabella overmuch until that day, and then just looking at him made her blush and scamper into the water.
She’d been wearing a yellow one-piece bathing suit, very respectable and equally inexpensive. Her father’s job had supported them frugally, and she was working part-time to help pay her tuition at the music school in New York. She was on fire with the promise of being a superb pianist, and things were going well for her. She’d come over to spend the afternoon with his sister Jan, but she and her latest boyfriend had gone to a barbecue, so Ethan had offered to take her swimming.
The offer had shocked and flattered Arabella, because Ethan was in his mid-twenties and she was sure his taste didn’t run to schoolgirls. He was remote and unapproachable most of the time, but in the weeks before they went swimming together, he’d always seemed to be around when she visited his sister. His eyes had followed Arabella with an intensity that had disturbed and excited her. She’d loved him for so long, ached for him. And then, that day, all her dreams had come true when he’d issued his casual invitation to come swimming with him.
Once he’d rescued her from an overamorous would-be suitor, and another time he’d driven her to a school party along with Jan and Matt and Mary. To everyone’s surprise, he’d stayed long enough to dance one slow, lazy dance with Arabella. Jan and Mary had teased her about it mercilessly. That had started the fantasies, that one dance. Afterwards, Arabella had watched Ethan and worshipped him from afar.
Once they were at the swimming hole, the atmosphere had suddenly changed. Arabella hadn’t understood the way Ethan kept looking at her body, his silver eyes openly covetous, thrilling, seductive. She’d colored delicately every time he glanced her way.
“How do you like music school?” he’d asked while they sat in the grass at the creek’s edge, and Ethan quietly smoked a cigarette.
She’d had to drag her eyes away from his broad chest. “I like it,” she said. “I miss home, though.” She’d played with a blade of grass. “I guess things have been busy for you and Matt.”
“Not busy enough,” he’d said enigmatically. He’d turned his head and his silver eyes had cut at her. “You didn’t even write. Jan worried.”
“I haven’t had time. I had so much to catch up on.”
“Boys?” he questioned, his eyes flickering as he lifted the cigarette to his thin lips.
“No!” She averted her face from that suddenly mocking gaze. “I mean, there hasn’t been time.”
“That’s something.” He’d crushed out the cigarette in the grass. “We’ve had visitors. A film crew, doing a commercial of all things, using the ranch as a backdrop. The models are fascinated by cattle. One of them actually asked me if you really pumped a cow’s tail to get milk.”
She laughed delightedly. “What did you tell her?”
“That she was welcome to try one, if she wanted to.”
“Shame on you, Ethan!” Her face lit up as she stared at him. Then, very suddenly, the smile died and she was looking almost straight into his soul. She shivered with the feverish reaction of her body to that long, intimate look, and Ethan abruptly got to his feet and moved toward her with a stride that was lazy, graceful, almost stalking.
“Trying to seduce me, Bella?” he’d taunted softly, all too aware of how her soft eyes were smoothing over his body as he stopped just above her.
She’d really colored then. “Of course not!” she’d blurted out. “I was…just looking at you.”
“You’ve been doing that all day.” He’d moved then, straddling her prone body so that he was kneeling with her hips between his strong thighs. He’d looked at her, his eyes lingering on her breasts for so long that they began to feel tight and swollen. She followed his gaze and found the nipples hard and visible under the silky fabric. She’d caught her breath and lifted her hands to cover them, but his steely fingers had snapped around her wrists and pushed them down beside her head. He’d leaned forward to accomplish that, and now his hips were squarely over hers and she could feel the contours of his body beginning to change.
Her shocked eyes met his. “Ethan, what are you…” she began huskily.
“Don’t move your hips,” he said, his voice deep and soft as he eased his chest down over hers and began to drag it slowly, tenderly, against her taut nipples. “Lock your fingers into mine,” he whispered, and still that aching, arousing pressure went on and on. He bent, so that his hard, thin mouth was poised just above hers. He bit softly at her lower lip, drawing it into his lips, teasing it, while his tongue traced the moist inner softness.
She moaned sharply at the intimacy of his mouth and his body, her eyes wide open, astonished.
“Yes,” he said, lifting his face enough to see her eyes,