Montana Sky

a long way following someone who knows where he’s going.”
    He swung her around so it was either move her feet or fall on her butt. She felt miserably clumsy, embarrassingly spotlighted. And held herself rigid as a board.
    “Relax,” he murmured in her ear. “It doesn’t have to hurt. Look at Lily there. Pretty as a picture with her face all flushed and her hair mussed. Brewster’s having the time of his life teaching her to two-step.”
    “She looks happy.”
    “She is. And Jim Brewster’ll be half in love with her before the dance is over. Then he’ll partner up with another woman and fall half in love with her.” Because she was thinking about that and forgetting to pull back, he eased her a little closer. “That’s the beauty of dancing. You get your hands on a woman, get the feel of her, the scent of her.”
    “And move on to the next.”
    “Sometimes you do. Sometimes you don’t. Look here a minute, Willa.”
    She did, saw the flicker in his eye, and barely had time to blink in shock before his mouth was on hers. He kissed her slow and deep, a stunning contrast to the quick moves of the dance. Her heart circled giddily in her chest, then seemed to plop over and thud to bursting.
    She was moving with him when he lifted his head. “Why did you do that?”
    The answer was simple, and he planned to be honest. “So all the men eyeing you know whose brand you’re wearing these days.” And he wasn’t disappointed in her reaction. Her eyes went wide with shock, then narrowed with fury. Her skin went rosy with it. Even as she hissed, he clamped his lips to hers again. “You might as well get used to that, too,” he told her. Then he stepped back. “I’ll get you a drink.”
    He figured by the time he got back with it, she wouldn’t be tempted to throw it in his face.
    Willa was thinking more about shredding his face, layer by layer, when Shelly bustled up to her. “You and Ben. I didn’t have a clue. That man can keep secrets from God.” As she spoke, she steered Willa toward a corner. “When did all this start? What’s going on?”
    “It hasn’t. Nothing.” Temper percolated dangerously. She could feel it, physically feel it, bubble under her skin. “That son of a bitch. Branding me. He said he was branding me.”
    “He did?” A romantic through and through, Shelly patted a hand to her heart. “Oh, my. Zack never said anything like that to me.”
    “Which is why he’s still breathing.”
    “Are you kidding? I’d love it.” She burst out laughing at Willa’s stunned gape. “Come on, Will, macho arrogance is sexy in small doses. I get all gooey inside when Zack flexes his muscles.”
    Willa shifted, looked hard into Shelly’s eyes. “How much have you had to drink?”
    “I’m not drunk, and I’m not kidding. And sometimes he just scoops me up and tosses me over his shoulder. With the baby it’s not quite as spontaneous, but boy, does it work.”
    “For you, maybe. I don’t like pushy men.”
    “I know. It was horrible the way everyone just stood around while you were beating Ben off.” Shelly drawled it out, dipped a finger in her wine, licked it off. “Anyone could see how much you detested being kissed brainless.”
    Willa searched for an intelligent, pithy response. “Shut up, Shelly” was the best she could do before she stalked off.
     
    “T HE COWGIRL ’ S GOT A BUR UP HER BUTT .” TESS commented.
    “Ben likes to irritate her.”
    Tess raised an eyebrow at Nate. “I think he’d like to do more than that.”
    “Looks like. Speaking of doing more than that.” He leaned down and whispered a suggestion in her ear that made her blood pressure spike. “Lawyer Torrence, you do have a way with words.”
    “We could slip out, go to my place, and see the new year in more . . . privately. Nobody’d miss us.”
    “Um.” She turned so that her breasts nestled against hischest. “Too far. Upstairs. My room. Five minutes.”
    His eyes widened. “With all these people in the house?”
    “And a nice sturdy lock on the door. Top of the stairs turn left, make the first right, three doors down on the right.” She skimmed her fingertips over his jaw. “I’ll be waiting.”
    “Tess, I think—”
    But she was already gliding away, with one smoldering look back over her shoulder. He could have sworn he heard his brain cells die. He took two steps after her, stopped, and tried to be sensible.
    The hell with it. He hadn’t been sensible since she’d