Sarah's Surrender (Ranchers of Chatum County 2)

When in hell had a woman ever lied to escape from him? When had a woman ever wanted to escape from him at all?

Anger simmering to boiling point, he walked out of the men’s room, and found Steven, the owner of the honky tonk, and abruptly called in a favor.

Steven sat in a darkened booth with a woman under his arm. John didn’t waste time mincing words. “I need to borrow your office for a few minutes.”

Steven gave him a level look and turned to the woman under his arm. “Give us a few minutes, babe.”

The woman looked wounded, but she quickly vacated the booth and Steven turned his attention back to John. “You planning on getting some ass in my office?”

John narrowed his eyes at the other man’s tone. “Need some privacy for a few minutes. But with the amount of money you owe me, I wouldn’t think you’d mind if I had a goddamn orgy in there.”

Steven’s expression went from blank until he very slowly smiled. “Point taken.” He reached down and dug in his pocket and threw a set of keys in John’s direction.

John reached out, grabbed the keys in mid-air, and pocketed them. He turned and left the booth and began looking around for his prey.

His timing couldn’t have been better.

He saw her tottering on those heels as she left her friend who was chatting up a guy at the bar and made her way to the ladies room. Steven’s office was in the same darkened corridor, so John waited until Sarah went into the restroom and then he followed in her steps, stopped at the office, and unlocked the door.

****

Sarah’s mind was in turmoil as she took a much needed respite in the women’s room. She couldn’t call it a lounge because the room was little more than three stalls and three sinks crowded into a small rectangular space.

But it was impeccably clean and she rested against the sink on hands that shook.

What were the odds?

What were the odds that she would see the same guy from the gas station and that he’d induce the same kind of feelings in her as before?

She admitted that what she felt was excitement burning through her system. Unwanted excitement laced with quivering fear. A conversation from earlier in the day came to memory. The kind of man who could cream her twinkie, and with just one look, have her salivating for him.

As she admitted to herself that he was the kind of man who had the ability to do exactly that, she also admitted the other emotion that was running through her bloodstream.

Fear. She recognized the fear she felt. The fear that said he would be the kind of man who would win. The kind of man she’d be powerless to resist and who would hurt her in the end.

Damn.

She hung her head. All she wanted at this moment was to stay away from him.

Yes, for sure, she tried to convince herself. She should stay away from him. Her very careful, very sane self knew that she should stay away from him. She liked what she had with Randall. He was safe. The distant memory of her ex-husband cheating on her when she was pregnant with their child, and the absolutely gutted way she had felt from his defection blasted through her brain. She hadn’t been able to eat or sleep and whether or not that had anything to do with the miscarriage, she didn’t know. But she had loved that baby, more than life itself. Truthfully, she’d gotten over Greg long before she’d gotten over losing her baby. Maybe she wasn’t over it yet.

And now here she was, hiding in a restroom, trying to stay away from a man who made her feel even stronger things than even her ex-husband had induced when she had first met him.

This man John radiated something she couldn’t explain, but she understood it was something elemental in her psyche that made her respond to him. The way he looked at her, the way his eyes swallowed her whole as if she already belonged to him. There was no doubt whatsoever in her mind that he hadn’t forgotten their meeting at the gas station.

The memory of him reaching out and kissing that other woman in such a blatant, sexual manner was still causing a slight feeling of nausea within her.

Jealousy.

Oh God. She was jealous. The black and green emotion hit her square in the stomach when she finally understood what it was she had felt when he’d kissed the other woman.

But she couldn’t be jealous. She wouldn’t let herself. She was engaged to Randall. ‘John’ meant nothing to her.

The image of him taking that woman in his arms screamed through her. But there was no denying he’d looked Sarah in the eye when he’d pulled the other woman in his arms. Looked her straight in the eye and given her an intense stare filled with what had looked like recrimination. He’d also pushed the other woman away and turned and left, leaving the poor woman alone. It was a telling action on his part. He’d done it to punish Sarah for being engaged to another man. He had turned to another woman in an attempt to show her what he was feeling, to shove it in her face that she had all but turned him down and that he could have someone else. Easily. But then—he hadn’t carried through with it. He’d left the other woman standing alone and turned and walked away from them both. But still, Sarah knew that he and the woman had a past. He was bound to have a past with a million different women.

But she’d be damned if she’d be one of them.

Thank God he’d left.

Now all she had to do was try to convince Jaime to do the same before the headache she felt niggling in the back of her skull developed into something all too real.

With that exact thought in mind, she left the room and began walking down the darkened corridor toward the main area of the dancehall. She hadn’t taken more than ten steps when her wrist was enclosed by a strong, ruthless grip and she was hauled into a room that she hadn’t even realized was there, and the door was slammed shut, trapping her inside. The room was in shadows with only a soft, subtle glow from a small table lamp negating the otherwise darkened interior of the room.

Her spine landed against the closed door, and a hard, masculine hand came up and covered her mouth

and cut off the scream that tried to leave her throat. Fear, vivid and real slammed through her and made her pulse take off so fast and hard she could barely concentrate enough to breathe through her nose. Her mind ran away from her as every nightmare she’d ever had hit her from all sides.

The need for flight kicked in and as her eyes widened in fright, she began struggling against the man who held her.

He controlled her easily, dominating her entirely, and gave her one shake before she felt his hot breath in her ear. “Sarah.”

She recognized that voice easily and went completely still with the shock of discovery. It was especially stunning to her because she had thought he’d left the building. A huge feeling of relief that she wasn’t about to be brutally violated hit her. At least, she didn’t think she would be violated. It was immediately followed by butterflies in her stomach as she realized it was his steely muscles that surrounded her. His hand stayed over her mouth, but he lifted his head from the side of her hair where he had spoken her name, and now he looked into her face.

His eyes glittered down into hers and she could see them smoldering with lethal fire. The sexual significance of the moment hit her deep inside, the aggressive action that dominated her completely had a stark, primal connotation that incapacitated her and rendered her helpless.

“You’re safe. I only want to talk to you.” His voice was firm, his jaw clamped, and she swallowed deeply and managed a small nod of her head.

Her heart was banging loudly in her chest, she breathed roughly through her nose, and excitement that she couldn’t deny laced with fear and panic skittered down her spine.

He continued to hold his hand over her mouth, taking his time to release her as he pressed his torso into hers and tightened the hand that still held her wrist. Her eyes flared and she knew he must see the apprehension and question in them.

“I’m going to take my hand away now. Don’t scream.” His words were rough, resonating deeply in the small room.

She swallowed and remained still.