Man Of Ice. Diana Palmer

      

      Ice Man: Dawson Rutherford, our 100th Silhouette hero!

      His scheme: Plan a mock engagement to help secure the land he so desperately needed.

      Only one woman had the power to drive this seemingly heartless cowboy wild, and now he needed her to pose as his bride-to-be! A tempestuous night long ago had forced Dawson to abandon all hope of making Barrie his lawfully wedded wife, but there was not telling what sharing a spread with this hot-blooded woman would do to the man of ice…

       Man of Ice

       Diana Palmer

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

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       Also available from Diana Palmer

      Magnolia Renegade Lone Star Winter Dangerous Desperado Merciless Heartless Fearless Her Kind of Hero Lacy Nora Big Sky Winter Man of the Hour Trilby Lawman Hard to Handle Heart of Winter Outsider Night Fever Before Sunrise Lawless Diamond Spur The Texas Ranger Lord of the Desert The Cowboy and the Lady Most Wanted Fit for a King Paper Rose Rage of Passion Once in Paris After the Music Roomful of Roses Champagne Girl Passion Flower Diamond Girl Friends and Lovers Cattleman’s Choice Lady Love The Rawhide Man Wyoming Tough The Savage Heart True Blue Courageous

      CONTENTS

       Prologue

       One

       Two

       Three

       Four

       Five

       Six

       Seven

       Eight

       Nine

       Ten

       Eleven

       Twelve

       Prologue

      DAWSON Rutherford hesitated on the front steps of the Mercer home. As the butler held the carved wooden door open for him to enter, he was only absently aware of music and voices and the clink of ice in glasses. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so unsure of himself. Would she welcome him? He smiled with cold mockery. When had Barrie Bell, his stepsister, ever welcomed his presence in recent years? She’d loved him once. But he’d killed her feelings for him, as he’d fought to kill all the violent emotions she inspired in him since her mother had married his father.

      He pushed a big, lean hand through his short, wavy gold hair, only barely disrupting its neatness. His pale green eyes were thoughtful as he stood there, elegant and dramatically handsome, drawing the gaze of women. But he had eyes for none of them. They called him the “ice man.” And it wasn’t because he came from a cold country.

      Through the open door he could see her on the steps, her long, wavy black hair curling down her bare shoulders, sparkling in a silver dress. He was all she had left since both their parents had died, but she avoided him. He couldn’t blame her, now that he knew at last about the other casualty of his turbulent relationship with Barrie; one that he’d only just found out about recently.

      He hesitated to go in there, to see her again, to talk to her. They’d argued at their last meeting over the same issue he was going to bring up now. But this time he needed it as an excuse to get her back to Sheridan, Wyoming. He had to undo five years of pain and heartache, to make up to her for what she’d endured. In order to do that he was going to have to face some private demons of his own, as well as the fear he’d taught her to feel. He didn’t look forward to it, but it was time to erase the past and start over. If they could…

       One

      THERE was a cardinal rule that people who gave parties never invited both Barrie Bell and her stepbrother, Dawson Rutherford, to the same social event. Since the two of them didn’t have a lot of mutual friends, and they lived in different states, it wasn’t often broken. But every rule had an exception, and tonight, Barrie discovered, was it.

      She hadn’t really wanted to go out, but Martha and John Mercer, old friends of the Rutherfords who’d taken a interest in Barrie since their move to Tucson, insisted that she needed a diversion. She wasn’t teaching this summer, after all, and the part-time job that kept her bank account healthy had just ended abruptly. Barrie needed cheering up and Martha was giving a party that was guaranteed to accomplish it.

      Actually it had. Barrie felt brighter than she had in some months. She was sequestered on the steps of the staircase in the hall with two admirers, one who was a bank executive and the other who played guitar with a jazz band. She was wearing a dress guaranteed to raise blood pressures, silver and clinging from its diamanté straps at her lightly tanned shoulders to her ankles, with a long, seductive slit up one side of the skirt. The color of her high heels matched the dress. She wore her long, wavy black hair loose, so that it reached almost to her waist. In her creamy-complexioned, oval face, bright green eyes shone with a happy glitter.

      That was, they had been shining until she saw Dawson Rutherford come in the front door. Her sophisticated chatter had died abruptly and she withdrew into a shell, looking vulnerable and hunted.

      Her two companions didn’t connect her stepbrother’s entrance with Barrie’s sudden change. Not, at least, until a few minutes later when he spotted her in the hall and, excusing himself to his hostess, came to find her with a drink in his