Hitched to the Horseman. Stella Bagwell

of the corner of her eye. He was a tall devil, shaped like a wedge with strong broad shoulders and narrow hips. His jeans and Western shirt were probably pieces of clothing that he wore to work every day. Yet he wore the casual garments with so much class that he made all the other men seem ridiculously overdressed.

      Mercedes’s lips pressed together as she watched Alice place a hand on Gabe’s arm. “Then he’d better stay away from Alice. She’ll try to devour him.”

      Lex chuckled. “If you’re so worried about the man, why don’t you go to the rescue and ask him for a dance?”

      Mercedes stared in thoughtful surprise at her brother. Back in high school, she’d been bold enough to ask a guy for a dance, or even a date. But once she’d grown older, once she’d loved and lost, her courage with men had faltered. Then later, when she’d learned the hard way that trusting a man was equal to rolling a dice, her desire to be close to one in any circumstance had dwindled down to nothing.

      “Me?” she asked. “No. I’m not the type to ask a man to do anything.”

      “Getting a little haughty, are we?”

      Haughty? If she told her brother how insecure she really felt, he’d be shocked. But she didn’t want him to know that his once fearless sister had changed to a cautious soul, that she saw men as things that could hurt her rather than give her pleasure and companionship. “No,” she said curtly. “More like getting smart.”

      With a roll of his eyes, Lex shook his head at her. “Coward.”

      Why was it that her brother had always known exactly how to push her buttons? He could have said anything else and it would have rolled off her back. But being home on the ranch reminded her that being a Saddler meant facing a challenge head on. Mercedes wanted her brother to see she was still worthy of the family name.

      With a toss of her head, she gave Lex a cunning smile and then started off in Gabriel Trevino’s direction. After all, the worst the man could do was turn her down. And even if he did, it was only a little dance. She wouldn’t let it bother her.

      Alice saw her coming first and Mercedes watched a plastic smile form on the other woman’s face.

      “Mercedes, have I told you tonight how fabulous you look?” Alice asked as Mercedes edged up to the table where the pair were sitting in folding metal chairs. “The Air Force must be getting lax, ’cause you look as if you’ve spent the past month in a spa. ‘Course, it wasn’t as if you were toting a gun through the jungle or anything.”

      Mercedes merely looked at the woman, and Alice, sensing she’d just chewed on her own foot, began to giggle nervously.

      “It’s great to see you, Alice. I’m glad you could make it tonight,” Mercedes said politely, then turned a questioning gaze on Gabe. “Would you care to dance with me, Mr. Trevino? When the band starts playing Bob Wills, I can’t keep my feet still and Lex is all tuckered out.”

      “Yeah, Lex looks plumb beat,” Alice said mockingly.

      Ignoring the other woman’s jab, Mercedes watched Gabe’s gray eyes flicker with surprise, but then slowly he rose to his feet and reached for her arm.

      He said, “Excuse me,” to Alice, and the woman made some sort of reply, but Mercedes didn’t hear it. Her ears were roaring with her own heartbeat as the two of them walked toward the elevated dance floor.

      “What was that all about?” he asked once they were a few steps away from Alice. “You have a grudge against that woman?”

      “Not really. I just thought you ought to know she’s a maneater. She’s already been through two husbands and she hasn’t celebrated her thirtieth birthday yet.”

      To her surprise, he chuckled.

      “Do I look like a man who can’t take care of himself?”

      He looked like a man who could take care of anything. But she’d only just met the man; she was hardly ready to give him a gushing compliment.

      “I don’t know. Can you?”

      “I’ve survived thirty-five years,” he said curtly. “I’m doing okay.”

      By the time they reached the dance floor, the western swing number had finished and the lead singer began to sing a slow ballad about lost love. It wasn’t the sort of dance she’d intended to have with Gabe Trevino, but there wasn’t much she could do about it now except step into his arms and move to the music.

      “Why did you ask me to dance?” he asked bluntly as his hand settled at the back of her waist.

      His arms were rock-hard and though she tried to keep space between the front of her body and his, her breasts brushed against his chest and her thigh slid between his. In spite of their slow pace, she felt a desperate need for oxygen as her body began to hum with excitement.

      “Actually, Lex challenged me to ask you,” she said honestly. “You see, I was worried about you and Alice. He thought I ought to rescue you. So did I.”

      “I don’t know whether to feel flattered or insulted.”

      And she didn’t know why, after several years of celibacy, this stranger had woken her sleeping libido. “I wouldn’t bother with either,” she said as casually as she could. “It’s just a dance.”

      Even though her head was turned to one side, she knew he was looking down at her. She could feel his gaze examining the side of her face, then dropping to the V neckline of her dress. At the same time, the hand at the back of her waist slid upward until his fingers splayed against her bare back.

      From somewhere deep inside her, a flame unexpectedly flickered, then burst into an all-out inferno. Dismayed that she was reacting to him so strongly, she could only thank God that it was dark and he couldn’t see the droplets of sweat collecting on her upper lip.

      “I thought maybe you were just feeling generous,” he said close to her ear. “Wanting to give the hired help a dance with royalty.”

      Easing her head back, she glowered at him. “Look, just so you know, I don’t think of myself as a princess or you as hired help. You have a chip on your shoulder or something?”

      Gabe had never felt sorry for himself or his position in life. He was proud of who and what he was. Maybe he needed to make that clear to her. “I just don’t need for you to feel sorry for me, Ms. Saddler. I like myself.”

      She surprised him by laughing. Not just one short sound of amusement, but a long laugh filled with joy. Yet instead of feeling annoyed with her, the infectious sound put a grin on his face.

      “Please, call me Mercedes. And just to set your mind at ease, Gabe, you’re the last person I would think needs sympathy.”

      She felt like a dream in his arms, he thought. A soft warm dream where one pleasure seeped into another and every spot he touched thrilled him just that much more.

      He struggled to control himself. Hell, just because it had been a long time since he’d had a woman didn’t mean this one was supposed to turn him into a randy buck, he thought with self-disgust. So what if she was as sexy as sin? That didn’t mean he needed her any closer than she already was. No, sir, he’d already learned the hard way the price he’d have to pay for a woman like her.

      “I heard Alice say something about the Air Force. Is that why you’ve been away from the ranch? Because you were in the Air Force?”

      “Eight years,” she answered. “My job was intelligence gathering.”

      It just didn’t fit, Gabe pondered. A woman like her didn’t need to work, much less go into the strict, disciplined life of the military. He had to admit that he admired her ambition. Even more, he had to admit that he wanted to know what was really behind those deep blue eyes staring back at him.

      “What made you decide to enter the military?”

      One of her shoulders lifted and fell with