Dallas could understand why Neal was unpopular with the public. He flaunted his indolence as if it were a virtue. Parnell Motors, a family business for three generations, provided him with a pseudo sales job, but nobody believed Neal put in long hours on the car lot. Yet he drove a black Corvette, ate at the finest restaurants , dressed in the best clothes. Working people had a hard time with that sort of unearned life-style.

Dallas gave him her firm-but-friendly brush-off. “I don’t think so, Neal: She smiled, but her tone didn’t leave room for discussion.

He laughed. “Okay, I can see you’re spooked by this trial business, but people will forget about that, and you’ll be able to relax. In the meantime I’ll hang around.” He touched the brim of his hat. “you’re worth waiting for, ma am.” He turned and headed for the dance floor, where a few people had begun a spirited line dance.

Dallas watched as he inserted himself into the group. He didn’t know the dance, but he quickly coaxed a woman in a short denim skirt into teaching him.

Amber came to stand beside her. “Looks like Rowdy Ranch just landed another regular custom. “

Dallas sighed as she thought of trying to fend Neal off night after night. “

“And I’ll bet he’s not used to being turned down for dinner at the Tack Room: ‘

“Probably not.” Dallas glanced toward her. “Listen , one of us needs to hit the buffet line and get something to eat. I’ll cover the shop if you want to go first “

“Sure. Signal if you need me: ‘

Dallas watched Amber walk toward the long buffet table. Several of the cowboys gathering at the bar watched her, too. Amber was good for business. They both worked Friday and Saturday nights to allow each other breaks during the nonstop activity that would begin in about another half hour. Dallas had hired Amber seven months ago when it became obvious the customer load demanded it. She and Amber traded off weeknights.

Shed chosen Amber primarily for her excellent hairstyling skills, but also for her great legs. Men paid a fair amount of change for a shampoo and haircut at the Cutting Pen and Dallas had found they paid it willingly if the stylist wore shorts to good advantage. She was idealistic enough to wish the world were different, and practical enough to accept that it wasn’t.

“Open for business?”

Dallas snapped out of her reverie. The man leaning against the far side of the wide entrance had approached silently. She glanced at his scuffed ostrichskin boots, worn jeans and faded blue plaid shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbow, and decided that he dressed this way all the time, not just to fit into the atmosphere at Rowdy Ranch.

His skin was darkened by the sun, and beneath the brim of his black hat the strength of his features reminded her of an Aztec warrior she d seen depicted once on a mural in Mexico City. His dark hair curled down past his nape. This man hadn’t seen the inside of a barber shop, let alone a styling salon, for at least three months.

“Have a seat; she said, giving him a careful smile that welcomed, yet drew boundaries around that welcome She allowed herself to be a maxi s fantasy for the time he rested within her chair. Her customers seemed to understand the unspoken rules and she’d rarely had a problem with unwanted advances. Amber hadn’t yet perfected the technique, but Dallas was slowly teaching her.

The man hung his hat on a rack by the door and sat in the chair gingerly. He was probably the sort of guy who paid a bare minimum to a male barber whenever some woman heckled him into gettinga haircut. Dallas wondered why he was here. Maybe to settle a bet or prove he could handle anything. Dallas suspected he’d worked himself up to the experience, possibly even had a couple of drinks to bolster his courage.

She turned the chair to face the mirror. “I’ll need your name. “

He frowned. “Why?”

“For my files, so I can record what we did tonight. Then next time I’ll remember your preferences.” The subtle suggestion there would be a next time was one of her time-honored techniques for getting repeat business

“Gabe: He cleared his throat and looked slightly uncomfortable. “Gabe Escalante: ‘

“What a wonderful name: ‘

He made no response as she copied it onto an index card, but when she glanced into the mirror he’d composed his expression so that he once more resembled a haughty war nor prince from another age. She wondered again what had motivated him to come into her salon.

She accepted his reticence as a challenge. “Just relax ; she said, picking up the massage wand and running it across his shoulder blades. His facial expression didn’t change, but his muscles flexed uneasily beneath the soft shirt. Lots of muscles. “I’ll bet you work outdoors , she said.

“Some: ‘

Dallas smiled. The strong, silent type still existed, but she could usually break them down a lit8e during the time she had them in her chair. “Construction?” The vibrating wand was having an effect and the tense set of his shoulders eased a fraction. She imagined a softening of the flint like dark eyes.

“Not exactly.”

“The mines, then.” She moved the wand in a semicircle beneath his shoulder blades, working through the knots.

“Once upon a time.”

Dallas thought she heard him sigh, which told her she was making progress. Men who had a sensual experience in her salon always came back. She’d consider it a feather in her cap if she captured this stressed-out cowboy. “I have a brother who worked out at Duval. When the bottom dropped out of the copper market he was laid off, like a lot of miners .” Dallas flipped off the switch on the wand and laid it on the counter beside her. “Times are tough.”

“Not for everyone.” He sounded bitter, almost as though he were insinuating something.

Dallas wondered what he could be getting at but shrugged it off. She pulled a cape patter red to look like rawhide around him and lifted up his hair to snap it at his nape. He immediately freed his arms from under the cape and gripped the arms of the chair. He was back on guard, but she’d soon fix that.

She ran her fingers up through the back of his hair, lightly caressing his scalp. The texture was surprisingly silky. He had good volume. He’d take a styling cut well, if he’d let her experiment a little. “How much are we taking off tonight?”

That comment usually brought some harmless joking from her customers, but Gabe seemed at a loss for words. Some powerful energy radiated from him, though, coaxing her to stroke through his hair again,

although she had no professional reason to. “I’d recommend some layering, to show off that natural curl .”

The choked sound he made could have been laughter or distress.

Dallas chose to interpret it as laughter. She met his gaze in the mirror and smiled. “Okay, Gabe. I know you’re not used to this sort of place, but bear with me. You’ll be glad you did.”

The look he gave her was direct and strong, shocking her as if shed stepped from an air-conditioned building into the hot Arizona sunshine. She didn’t often meet a man with such a self-confident gaze. It was a quality she’d nurtured in herself, and for a moment she and Gabe seemed to understand each other perfectly , although no words were spoken. A man who could match her strength. She’d about given up finding one.

GABE STARED at the blond Amazon in the mirror and wondered what the hell he’d gotten himself into. This woman wasxi t at all what he d expected. She seemed so self-possessed and sure of herself he couldn’t picture her stooping to consort with the likes of Parnell. But she d said times were tough, and she was trying to keep a business going. Maybe Parnell had offered her financial help.

It became more difficult to think straight with every moment in this chair. He’d been on a plane for thirty six hours in an attempt to get back to Tucson for at least some of the trial, only to arrive at the courthouse after it was all over. That would work to his advantage because neither Pameil nor this woman could tie him to

Celia. But he hadn’t taken a break since leaving Celia at the courthouse. He was jet-lagged and emotionally whipped. He looked away from the mirror before Dallas could see any vulnerability in his gaze.

“I’m going to tilt you back, so I can shampoo and condition your hair; she said in that sultry voice of hers.

“You doxi t have to do that.”

“It’s part of what you pay for, Gabe.” She moved a lever and he didn’t have much choice except to lean back. Sheslipped a soft towel under his neck to cushion the porcelain basin. “I’ll bet you’re a man who likes to get his money’s worth.”

Well, she had that right. And his tax money hadn’t bought him much when it came to putting away a slimeball like Parnell. He’d better concentrate on why he was lounging in this fancy excuse for a barber shop. Except concentrating wasn’t easy when she ran warm water over his scalp and massaged something creamy into his hair. Nobody had washed his hair since… he couldn’t remember. When he was a little kid on the ranch, maybe, except that had probably been in a horse trough, and designed for efficiency, not pleasure.

And pleasure described what Dallas was giving him. His eyes refused to stay open as her clever fingers worked the lather through in long, kneading motions that nearly made him groan with delight. She leaned over him, her breasts tantalizingly close, her lush perfume filling his nostrils. And he’d wondered why men subjected themselves to this.

The running water subdued the sounds of country music, the voices from the bar and the crack of a cue ball on the tables nearby until they were nothing but inconsequential background noise. Gabe was totally immersed in the experience of having this woman minister to him. She d stopped talking, and for the life of him he couldn’t summon the energy to speak.