Against the Rules Read online

  “Hey!” Ricky squealed as Cathryn slung her around to the door. “What do you think you’re doing? Have you gone crazy?”

  Without a word, so angry that she couldn’t say anything else, Cathryn dragged the other woman through the door and slammed it shut behind them, not hearing Rule’s hoarse cry for her to come back.

  The banisters of the staircase beckoned madly and the temptation was sugar sweet, but at the last moment a small piece of sanity returned and Cathryn refrained from simply dumping Ricky down the stairs. Ladies didn’t do things like that, or that was what she told herself as she forced Ricky along the hall at a trot, handling the young woman with as much ease as if she were only a child. Ricky was yelling and wailing loudly enough to wake the dead, but Cathryn drowned her out with a roared, “Shut up!” as she rushed her into Ricky’s own room.

  “Sit down!” she bellowed, and Ricky sat. “I warned you! I told you to stay away from him. He’s mine, and I won’t tolerate you crawling all over him for another minute, do you hear? Get packed and get out!”

  “Get out?” Ricky looked dazed, her mouth falling open. “Where to?”

  “That’s your problem!” Cathryn opened the closet and began hauling suitcases out. She threw them on the bed and opened them, then began pulling open drawers and dumping the contents into the bags, helter-skelter.

  Ricky sprang to her feet. “Hey, don’t blame it all on me! I wasn’t exactly raping him, you know! One woman has never been enough for Rule—”

  “It will be from now on! And don’t try to make me believe that he invited you, because I don’t believe it!”

  Ricky glared at the tangle of clothing. “Damn it, quit throwing my clothes around like that!”

  “Then pack them yourself!”

  Abruptly Ricky bit her lip and tears slid down her cheeks. Cathryn stared at her in mingled disgust and amazement, wondering how anyone could cry and still look so lovely. No red and streaming nose, no blotched face, just diamond-bright tears sliding gracefully down.

  “But I really don’t have any place to go,” Ricky whispered. “And I don’t have any money.”

  The door opened and Monica came in, frowning her annoyance. “Must you two brawl through the house like wrestlers? What’s going on?”

  “She’s trying to make me leave!” Ricky charged hotly, her tears drying up as if by magic. Cathryn stood silently, her hands on her hips and her expression implacable.

  Monica glanced quickly at her stepdaughter and said in exasperation, “It’s her house; I imagine she has the right to say who lives here.”

  “That’s right, it’s always been her house!”

  “Stop that!” Monica said sharply. “Feeling sorry for yourself won’t help anything. You must have known that eventually Cathryn would be coming back, and if you lacked the foresight to prepare yourself for the future, don’t blame anyone else. Besides, do you really want to spend the rest of your life listening to the pitter-patter of someone else’s kids?”

  Evidently Monica observed a lot, even though she always seemed disinterested in anyone’s concerns except her own. Cathryn pulled in a deep, calming breath. Of course! Life wasn’t so complicated after all. It was really very simple. She loved Rule, she loved the ranch, and she wasn’t about to give up either of them. Why tear herself up worrying about the depth of Rule’s feelings? Whatever they were, they were there, and that was all that mattered.

  With that thought full sanity returned. She sighed. “You don’t have to leave right now,” she told Ricky, rubbing her forehead to ease the tension that had begun to throb there. “I lost my temper when I saw... Anyway, you can take your time and make some plans. But you can’t take forever,” she warned. “I don’t think you want to stay around for the wedding, anyway, do you?”

  “Wedding?” Ricky turned pale; then two spots of color appeared on her cheeks. “You’re awfully sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

  “I have reason to be,” Cathryn replied evenly. “Rule asked me to marry him before he broke his leg. I’m accepting.”

  “Congratulations,” Monica inserted with smooth precision. “I can see that we’ll really be in the way, won’t we? Ricky, dear, I’ve decided to take Cathryn up on her offer to use her apartment in Chicago. I suppose we can get along well enough for you to share the apartment with me, if you’d like. It does have two bedrooms, doesn’t it?” she asked Cathryn hastily.

  “Yes.” It seemed a good idea to Cathryn. She looked at Ricky.

  Ricky chewed her lip. “I don’t know. I’ll think about it.”

  “Don’t think too long,” advised Monica. “I’m making arrangements to leave by the end of the week.”

  “You said I was too old to live with Mommy,” Ricky mimicked with a flash of resentment.

  “Neither the arrangement nor the offer is a permanent one,” snapped Monica. “For God’s sake, make up your mind.”

  “All right.” Ricky could look as sulky as a child when she tried, and she was really trying now, but Cathryn didn’t care. She heaved a sigh of relief. When her temper cooled she would have felt guilty if she had thrown Ricky out of the house without giving her a chance to make some sort of arrangements. Now that she knew the time limit on Ricky’s presence she felt better able to cope with it—so long as she didn’t catch the woman touching Rule again.

  Rule. Cathryn took another deep breath and prepared for the last battle. Rule Jackson’s days as a bachelor were limited. It didn’t matter if he didn’t love her. She loved him enough for two, and she wasn’t going to run away ever again. She was going to stay right there, and if he wanted the ranch he had to take her, too. One thing was certain: She couldn’t bear the thought of any other woman thinking that he was unattached and jumping into his bed! She planned to attach him as soon as possible, and do it up right.

  With the determination of a charging cavalry brigade, her dark eyes intent, she went down the hall to his room and thrust the door open.

  She looked automatically at the bed and was stunned to find it empty. A chill ran down her back. She stepped into the room and at a movement to her right she turned her head. Aghast, she stared at him, a terrified cry of “Rule!” bursting from her throat.

  He was out of the bed, struggling with the cast on his leg as he pulled on a pair of jeans. Somehow he had managed to tear open the seam of the left leg of the jeans so he could get them on over the cast. He was wavering precariously as he battled to dress himself, cursing between clenched teeth with every breath he drew, damning his own weakness, the cast on his leg, the throbbing of his head. He swung around clumsily at her cry and she nearly choked when she saw the raw despair that twisted his face, the tortured tears that streaked down his hard cheeks.

  “Rule,” she moaned, as he turned a look of such agony on her that she wanted to hide her eyes from it. He took a step toward her and lurched suddenly to one side when his broken leg was unable to take his weight. Wildly, Cathryn leapt across the room and caught him as he started to fall, holding him up with desperate strength.

  “Oh, God,” he groaned, wrapping his arms around her in a death grip, crushing her against his hard body. He bent his head to hers and harsh sobs shook him. “Don’t go. God, baby, please don’t go. I can explain. Just don’t leave me again.”

  Cathryn tried to stiffen her legs, but she was slowly collapsing under the burden of his weight. “I can’t hold you,” she gasped. “You’ve got to get back in bed!”

  “No,” he refused thickly, his shoulders heaving. “I won’t let you go. I couldn’t get out of that damned bed, couldn’t get my clothes on fast enough...I was so afraid you’d be gone before I could get to you, that I’d never see you again,” he muttered brokenly.

  Her throat closed at the thought of him battling his pain and injuries to reach her before she left. He couldn’t walk, so how was he going to get to her? Crawl? Yes, she realized, he would have crawled if he had had to. The determination of this man was an awesome thing.

  “I won’t leav