The Invitation (Montgomery/Taggert 19)

“Peacemaker? Do you mean a gunslinger? A killer?”

Cole’s face was very serious. “Mrs. Hunter, would you please listen to the assignment? The lesson is in charm, and so far you haven’t convinced me you know the meaning of the word.”

“Oh, yes, I do. It means lying.”

That threw Cole for a loop. “Charm means lying?”

“Rowena practices charm by lying.”

“Please give me a demonstration.”

Dorie started to say that she couldn’t possibly show him what she meant by Rowena’s lying, but then she realized she had spent a lot of time watching her sister. She should be able to pretend to be Rowena.

Her elbows on the table, she leaned across her plate so her face was close to his and batted her lashes at him. “Oh, Mr. Hunter, I’ve heard so much about you. I’ve heard of your wisdom, how you settle disputes and save entire towns single-handedly. My goodness but you are an important man! I do hope you don’t mind my staring. It’s just that I’ve been looking for a sapphire just the color of your eyes, and I can’t find that deep a shade of blue anywhere. Perhaps the next time I visit my jeweler you’ll come with me so I can show the man just what I mean.”

Dorie leaned back from the table, her arms crossed over her bosom.

For a moment Cole couldn’t speak. She had been making fun of him and of her sister, of course, but, damn it anyway, he liked hearing what she’d just said. He had an almost uncontrollable urge to pick up the knife and look at his eyes in it.

What made him control himself was the look in her eyes that said she knew just what he was thinking. That’s two for her, he thought.

“Lies,” he said. “They are terrible. You know that men lie too, don’t you?”

“Not to Rowena. They don’t have to. What can they make up about her beauty that is a lie?”

“True charm contains no lies.”

“Ha! Rowena is an expert at charm, yet all she does is lie.”

“Then it is not true charm. What wins the men’s hearts is her beauty. But what will happen to her when her beauty fades? No man is going to fall for her lies when they come from lips that are no longer beautiful.” He could see he had her interest now. Obviously she liked lies that sounded as though they were true.

“Here, let me show you what real charm is. Give me your hand.”

She kept her hand where it was, folded close to her body. “If you

tell me lots of really dumb lies about my magnificent beauty, I won’t like it.”

“Could you give me credit for a little sense? Now, give me your hand!” Damn, but the woman got to him. He was sure there wasn’t another woman on the earth who would refuse a lesson in seduction. Especially when the man trying to seduce her was her husband.

Gently he took her hand in his. With another woman he might have worried about scaring her, but he wondered if anything scared this little creature. Holding her hand, he raised it to his face but didn’t kiss it. Instead, he pressed the back of her hand against his cheek. “You know what I like about you, Mrs. Hunter?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “I like your honesty. All my life I’ve heard compliments. Men have been too afraid of me to say much of anything that wasn’t nice, and women have so much liked the look of me that they purred when they were near me.” At the word “purr” he rolled his r in a soft, silky way that made Dorie’s eyes widen.

“It is refreshing to meet a woman who is honest with me, who tells me that I have things to learn. And it is invigorating to have my mind challenged. You make me want to work hard around you; you make me want to show you that I can do the work, even though you think I can’t.”

He brought her hand to his lips and began to kiss her knuckles one by one. “As for beauty, there is a sparkle about you that your sister cannot match. She is a rose, full blown, lush, and showy, but you are a violet, sweet and shy, gentle but strong. Yours is not the kind of beauty that a person sees merely by looking. Your beauty is gentler. One has to search for it, and it is therefore worth much more.”

Dorie sat still, her eyes widening with every word he said. Little prickles of feeling ran from her hand up her arm, then spread throughout her body.

Abruptly he released her hand. “There,” he said. “That’s what I meant. Charm without lies.”

Dorie had to shake her head to clear it. “Charming lies. That’s what I think,” she said.

“And what do you think is the truth?”

“You think I am a pest and a nuisance. I am, however, a rich pest, and you need money.”

Cole didn’t know when he had ever felt more insulted. She was saying that he had married her for money and money alone, which of course wasn’t true. He had married her because…Damn it! He wasn’t exactly sure why he had married her, but it wasn’t only for money. A man who married for money was…was…What was that word? A gigolo, that’s what. He didn’t mind being called a killer, but he wasn’t going to be thought of as a man who took advantage of women.

Abruptly he stood up. “Let’s get something straight right now. I married you because you needed protection, and you’re paying me for that protection. I’m a bodyguard of sorts for you. When my arm is healed and your sister is out of the country, we’ll shake hands and part company and that’ll be the end of it. Agreed?”