Keeping Christmas Part 10

"Right."

"I'm just glad that Dixie is all right."

Whatever was going on, Dixie didn't seem all right. And Bonner seemed worried about what Dixie might tell him.

"By the way, have you gone over to her house?" Chance asked. "She says it was ransacked."

"Really? I can send someone over to check."

"Why don't you go yourself?" Chance suggested. "Maybe it will clear some things up."

"Things are clear enough," Bonner said. "Your job is to just make sure she's at the plane. There's a bonus in it for you if you get her there without any problems."

"I can't imagine why I'd have any problems, can you?" Chance asked facetiously.

"She's my daughter. That should tell you something." Bonner hung up before Chance could respond to that.

When he turned, he saw Dixie standing in the middle of the room. If looks could kill, he would have been dead as a doornail before he hit the floor.

"You called my father while I was in the shower," she said, her voice low and furious. But what cut him to the quick was her betrayed expression.

"It didn't really matter what I was going to tell you, did it?" she said, advancing on him. "You'd already made up your mind that you were going to help ship me back to Texas one way or the other because that's what Daddy's paying you to do."

"Dixie, I wanted to let your father know you were all right."

She shook her head, smiling ruefully. "I heard you make arrangements for a jet."

"The plane isn't coming for forty-eight hours."

"How much is he paying you?" She raised a brow. "Knowing Daddy, Daddy, he's even promised you a bonus, right?" She smiled as she must have seen the answer in his face. "How much?" she asked as she stepped to him, her body brushing against his in a way that told him what was coming next. he's even promised you a bonus, right?" She smiled as she must have seen the answer in his face. "How much?" she asked as she stepped to him, her body brushing against his in a way that told him what was coming next.

She smelled good. Her skin was flushed from her shower, her hair pulled up to expose her long slender neck. "Dixie-"

"I don't have as much money as my father, but now that we both know you can be bought, let's decide exactly what your price is," she said as she shoved him backward. He stumbled and dropped into one of the overstuffed chairs.

She bent over him.

"Don't." The word didn't come out with as much force as he'd hoped. "You don't want to do this."

She raised a brow. "You think this is worse than selling out to Beauregard Bonner?" She laughed and shook her head. "This is child's play compared to that."

"Dixie." A single lock of her hair brushed across his cheek as she bent closer, the movement emitting the sweet scent of her. Eyes locked with his, she brushed her lips over his. Just a promise of a kiss. It had been so long and his pain so deep, he'd thought no woman could ever arouse desire in him again.

He was wrong.

"Come on, Chance. What's it going to be?" she asked in a soft whisper near his ear, her warm breath caressing his neck.

It would have been so easy to let her seduce him. So easy. He grabbed her shoulders a little harder than he meant to and held her away as he pushed up from the chair, driving her back until they both stumbled into the living room wall.

He was breathing hard and one look in her eyes told him that she knew the effect she'd had on him. There was triumph in all that blue and yet he could feel her body trembling under his palms.

His gaze traveled over her face, lighting on her lips. How easy it would have been to kiss her. Not a light, teasing kiss like the one she'd just given him but a real honest-to-goodness kiss.

The thought shocked him because he wanted to kiss her senseless. He wanted to bury his fingers in her hair and to pull her to him until his body...

He let go of her, turning away, trying to hide the conflicted emotions that boiled up inside him. She wasn't just a job, she was Rebecca's little sister.

"I'm not my sister, Chance," she said, as if she knew what he was thinking, what he was feeling. "I know know you," she said, stepping in front of him to block his escape. you," she said, stepping in front of him to block his escape.

He shook his head. "I'm not the man you think I am."

She c.o.c.ked a brow at him. "You think putting me in a private jet and sending me back to Texas is any different from what the other men my father hired would do to me?"

"Dixie-"

"No, if that's what you want to do, then you're right. You aren't the man I knew. Or one I want to know."

"Your father believes that the only place you're going to be safe is Texas."

"Then you should listen to my father," she said, eyes blazing with anger before she spun around and headed out the deck door, slamming it behind her.

He swore as he watched her walk to the edge of the railing, her back to him. The light breeze stirred her hair. He could see her breath coming out in small white puffs. Forty-eight hours. Hadn't Bonner warned him not to let Dixie get to him? Just find her and take her to the plane. Period. Bonner had said it was a family matter. Let them work it out. It had nothing to do with him. h.e.l.l, what were the chances that anyone was really trying to kill her anyway?

He shook his head. He couldn't let himself get caught up in this little rich girl's fantasies. She was running a scam on her father. Upping the stakes to a million and a half. No wonder Bonner wanted Dixie stopped. He'd been through this with her before.

Not that any of that rationale helped the situation right now because Chance was caught in the middle, feeling guilty when it wasn't his fault that Dixie had purposely involved him by coming to Montana.

He groaned. Come to Montana because she'd said she thought he was the one person she could trust to help her.

He looked out on the deck. The sun had dipped behind the Big Belt Mountains. He swore and opened the deck door. Cold darkness had settled in the pines, the shadows growing long and black beneath them in the snow.

Quietly opening the deck door, he stepped out, joining her at the railing. He knew she had to be cold. She stood, her arms wrapped around her. As he looked over, he saw that her eyes were closed and she seemed to be breathing in the cold evening air as if gasping for breath. As he watched, two tears rolled down her cheek.

She seemed to sense him standing there. Her blue eyes came open. She turned away, brushed at the tears and took a moment before she looked at him.

He saw that she was embarra.s.sed that he'd caught her with her defenses down. The men chasing her were enough to scare anyone. He leaned against the railing next to her and looked out at the snowy land. Ice crystals danced in the air like glitter.

"I should have told you I was going to call your father," he said quietly.

She made an angry sound. "Is it true you haven't married because you never got over Rebecca?"

His gaze flew to her. "Where did that come from?"

"Is it?"

"No." He looked back out at the valley. "I just haven't found anyone I wanted to marry. Do you always ask such personal questions?"

"Yes."

He realized she preferred seeing him him off balance than the other way around. "What about you?" off balance than the other way around. "What about you?"

"What about about me?" me?"

"Why aren't you married?"

"I'm too young." She grinned, her c.o.c.ky att.i.tude back.

"You're what? Thirty?"

"Twenty-nine and you know it." She shivered, wrapping her arms tighter around her. "It's cold out here." She started to turn to go back inside.

On impulse he grabbed her arm to stop her. "It's okay to be scared. It would help if I knew what you had to be afraid of, though."

She met his gaze and held it. "Yes, it would help, wouldn't it? But then you said you weren't interested. Your job was just to get me to that jet back to Texas." She pulled free and strode into the lodge, hips swinging, head high, the door slamming behind her.

Chance watched her go, cursing under his breath. Bonner had warned him that Dixie would play him. So what if she told him her side of the story? That didn't mean she'd tell him the truth.

But even as he thought it, he knew he'd let her get to him.

Chapter Eight

As Dixie heard Chance come in from the deck, there was a knock at the door. She'd told herself she wasn't hungry, but the smell of food made her stomach rumble as a young man from the lodge served what they called the Montana Special.

"Food," Chance said, as if offering an olive branch after the young man left.

She was still furious with him, but the food smelled too good and she caught sight of what looked like pie. She did love pie. And he knew it.

They consumed buffalo burgers, cattleman fries and moose-tracks chocolate milkshakes in silence.

"I thought you might like this," Chance said, handing her a piece of the pie. "It's huckleberry. A local favorite."

She took a bite. The food had taken the edge off her anger. That and the fact that Chance seemed to be trying to placate her.

"Bring your pie in here," he said, and got up to go into the living room area to sit in one of the plush recliners. His dog plopped down at Chance's feet to sleep off the two burgers he'd devoured. "So tell me what's going on, really," Chance said when she joined him.

She forked a bite of pie and ate it.

He leaned back, all his attention on her. "Dixie, talk to me. Why is someone trying to kill you?"

She told herself, why bother telling him? Even if he believed her, he was getting paid to take her to a jet in forty-eight hours because her father apparently was bound and determined to get her back to Texas-one way or another.

She looked into Chance's handsome face and feared she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life.

But at least it would be her last mistake.

CHANCE WAITED, remembering how stubborn she'd been as a kid. She hadn't changed that much, he realized. She was furious with him. Not that he could blame her.

"Let me make it easy for you," he said. "Who was the guy chasing us on the highway?"

She bit at her lower lip for a moment. "Roy Bob Jackson. He works for my father."

"And? Come on, I know there's more to it. He seemed to want to talk to you about something."

She glanced away and sighed. "He probably just wants his engagement ring back."

Chance let out an oath. "He's your fiance? fiance? And you didn't think to mention that while the guy was chasing us?" And you didn't think to mention that while the guy was chasing us?"

"It's a long story."

"I bet it is," Chance said with a shake of his head. "So much so that you forgot to mention you were getting married."

"I'm not marrying marrying the b.a.s.t.a.r.d." the b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"He gave you a ring!"

"No, he put it in my Christmas stocking."

Chance frowned. "You already looked in your stocking?"

Dixie mugged a face at him. "You know I could never wait until Christmas Day."

He'd forgotten how she was always snooping around the tree, shaking packages. "So the guy left a ring and a note asking you to marry him? Romantic."

"He couldn't look me in the eye and do it."

"So you never told him your answer?"

"My life got a little complicated right after that."

He shook his head in disbelief. "Now you won't even talk talk to him?" to him?"

"He works for my father. He lied to me. I'm sure Daddy Daddy set him on me, deciding I needed a husband," she said, looking away as if embarra.s.sed that she'd been played the fool. set him on me, deciding I needed a husband," she said, looking away as if embarra.s.sed that she'd been played the fool.

Bonner just never learned. Is this what was going on between father and daughter?

"Where is the engagement ring now?"