Beauty and the Wolf / Their Miracle Twins (13 page)

“Hot pink?” Eli lifted his eyebrows in disbelief. “You have a hot-pink phone? Geez.” Eli clearly was speechless. Nonetheless, he started scrolling through her menu.

As Eli concentrated on her phones, the three younger Wolf brothers regaled her with stories of the hours they’d spent in the bar and the musicians who’d appeared on the small stage—some already famous, some who had gone on to become famous. They took turns teasing each other about the women they’d met, won and lost within the four walls.

The waiter interrupted them to slide plates of sandwiches with pickles and chips on the table in front of Frankie and Eli. He deposited a large pizza, loaded with cheese, meat and veggies, in the middle of the table and set plates in front of Ethan, Connor and Matt.

Eli handed Frankie her phones.

“Are you done already?” she asked, startled.

“Yeah,” he told her. “I’ll explain how I did it later.”

“Great.” She smiled at him with delight. “Thanks so much. I have no idea when I would have had time to sit
down and figure out how to transfer everything. I owe you.”

The slow curve of his lips set her heart pounding.

“I’ll think of a way for you to pay me,” he murmured so only she could hear.

Flushing, Frankie darted a quick look at the others around the table as his smile widened, his eyes gleaming with amusement at her reaction to his flirting. Thankfully, the others were busy loading pizza onto plates.

“Hey, Frankie, do you have any sisters?” Matt asked, his expression hopeful.

“Yes, I do.” She sipped her drink, making him wait. “Three, to be exact. But one just got married, the other is in a relationship, and only the third is single. Unfortunately—” she picked up a chip and nibbled “—she’s moving to New York City soon.”

Matt’s face fell. “Damn.”

Frankie glanced at Eli. The amusement in his blue eyes echoed her own and when he winked, she laughed.

The evening flew, Eli looking on indulgently as his brothers tried to coax Frankie to introduce them to her friends, teasing her when she demurred and arguing over which one of them should be allowed to take Eli’s place and drive her home.

Time flew and all too soon, it was after nine-thirty.

As promised, Eli led Frankie out of the pub early and drove her home.

“I’d love to ask you to come in,” she told him after
unlocking her condo door. “But if I do, I won’t want you to leave.”

“I make a mean omelet,” he told her, bracketing her against the closed door panels by planting his palms on each side of her shoulders and leaning close. He brushed a kiss against the corner of her mouth. “And great coffee. I’ll feed you breakfast in bed before you leave for work.”

Frankie closed her eyes, tilting her head back to give his warm, seductive lips better access to her throat.

“Tempting,” she managed to get out. He nudged her coat collar aside and explored the juncture where throat met shoulder. She shivered with longing but planted her palms against the soft fleece covering the hard muscles of his chest, keeping him from pulling her into his arms. “But I really do have to be at work early in the morning.”

“I’ll drive you to work early,” he murmured, lifting his head to look down at her. His eyes were heavy-lidded, the blue irises darkened to navy.

“If you come in and stay, neither one of us will get any sleep tonight,” she told him, smiling at the reluctant acceptance she read on his features.

He drew a deep breath, expelling it in a rough sigh.

“You’re right. Kiss me, and I’ll go home,” he growled, pulling her close.

Lips curved in a smile, Frankie wound her arms around his neck and went up on her toes, meeting his mouth with hers, quickly swept away by the passion that flared between them.

When he set her back on her heels, she was dazed, her knees like jelly.

He tucked her hair behind her ear. “Connor and I have an early flight in the morning, but I’ll call you from Vegas. The conference lasts through Friday, but we’re staying to play a little blackjack and flying home late Sunday.”

“I’ll miss you,” she told him. “Be safe.”

“I’ll miss you, too. Don’t run off with any other guy while I’m gone,” he teased. Then he took her mouth in one more swift, hard kiss before he pushed open the door behind her and gently shoved her inside. “Lock the door,” he ordered softly as he pulled the door shut.

Frankie twisted the deadbolt closed and slid the chain into its slot. Listening, she didn’t hear Eli walk away until after the locks snicked closed. Smiling at his protective patience, she turned and strolled toward her bedroom, dreamily reliving those heartstopping kisses while she got ready for bed.

And when she fell asleep, she dreamed of Eli.

Eli and Connor flew out of Sea-Tac the following morning to attend the contractor’s conference in Las Vegas. Although he called Frankie each night, he missed seeing her. Months earlier, when they’d booked the conference, he and Connor had planned to spend the weekend in Vegas after the conference ended on Friday. He wasn’t slated to fly back to Seattle until Sunday evening, but on Friday he changed his flight and flew home on
the red-eye, reaching home in Seattle just after two in the morning.

The following morning, he was awake by nine, but Frankie didn’t answer her cell phone when he called. Fortunately, he reached her sister Tommi at her restaurant and learned Frankie had driven to Arlington, north of Seattle, to spend the day volunteering at a rescue horse stable.

Eli scribbled the directions Tommi gave him on a napkin and headed north up I-5, toward the farm.

He remembered Frankie had briefly mentioned her volunteer work at the barn while telling him anecdotes about her childhood with Cornelia and her sisters. Cornelia had sat Frankie down on her eighth birthday, discussed the responsibility of individuals to contribute to the larger community and asked her to pick a cause to which she would commit her time and energy. Frankie loved horses and had chosen an organization that rescued abused and damaged horses.

That early exposure had become a lifelong devotion to the rescue operation in Arlington. Tommi had told him earlier that Frankie usually left her cell phone in her car when she was at the barns. While disappointed that he couldn’t reach her, Eli decided that surprising her in person would be even better.

He left the freeway just past Arlington, turning onto a two-lane road that wound through the countryside, where rolling acres of green pastures held horses and the occasional cow. After twenty minutes of driving past farms and fields, he reached a complex of big barns and
fenced pastures. He turned into the wide lane, jolting over bumps and avoiding holes in the graveled road before parking in a large dirt lot.

A huge wooden barn, a round pen with green metal pole fencing and a long low stable were set in a semicircle around the dirt parking lot.

Eli left his car and walked to the open barn doors, following the sound of voices as he stepped inside. To his left, a flight of stairs led upward, and, hearing voices, he climbed the steps to the second floor. But the office there was empty, as were the bleacher seats that lined the outer walls. He peered over the waist-high divider and down into a huge arena with a soft dirt floor. An older woman in boots and jeans stood in the center of the arena, directing a young girl wearing a riding helmet and snug pants tucked into high boots. She sat atop a rangy thoroughbred that looked too tall and much too big for the small girl. Nevertheless, she handled him with easy confidence.

Eli retraced his steps down the stairs and turned left, following a hallway until it turned sharply right. Ahead of him stretched a wide alley with stalls opening off each side. He started down the alley, stopping to stroke his palm over muzzles as horses looked out over the top of open half doors to nicker and call.

“Back up, Daisy. Stop being so stubborn. You know you can’t go outside.”

Frankie’s annoyed voice reached Eli’s ears. He searched the barn ahead of him but didn’t see her. A side alley opened to the left just two stalls ahead, and
several thuds and bumps sounded as if the noise came from there. Hoping to surprise her, his stride lengthened and he rounded the corner.

Frankie stood at an open stall door only feet away, a halter rope in one hand while the other hand and one shoulder pushed against the side of a massive draft horse.

The huge horse was clearly winning the argument as she took a step forward, her hooves big as dinner plates and planted too close to Frankie’s boots.

Cold fear iced Eli’s heart. He reached Frankie in three long strides, lifting her out of the way with an arm around her waist.

“W-what on earth …!” Frankie sputtered in surprise.

Busy muscling the big draft horse back into the stall, Eli didn’t look at Frankie until he’d slammed the door on the massive horse. Then he turned to face her.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he roared.

She stiffened, surprise giving way to anger that flushed her delicate features with color, her brown eyes snapping. “My job,” she said succinctly. “What are you doing?”

“Saving your pretty butt,” he snapped. “Did you not notice that horse outweighs you by a thousand pounds?”

“More than that,” she shot back. “And I fail to see what concern that is of yours.”

“Are you crazy? You were about to get stepped on.”

Frankie waved a hand at the big horse, who watched them with interested brown eyes from her stall. “I was
not.
Daisy has never stepped on anyone in all the years she’s been here. She tries to get out into the paddock whenever someone opens her stall door, but she’s perfectly docile. She’s never hurt anyone in her life.”

“She’s so big she wouldn’t know if she hurt you,” Eli told her, his voice just barely below a roar. “You could have been killed or badly hurt. You’re too little—you can’t handle a horse that big.”

“You don’t have the right to tell me what I can or can’t do,” she told him, fingers curled into fists at her sides.

“Well, someone has to. You clearly don’t have sense enough to know you’re too damned small to muscle around a horse that’s twenty times your size and weight,” he growled, anger fueled by the terrifying sight of her pitting her fragile frame against the huge horse.

Her brown eyes shot sparks. “I’ve been making my own decisions since I was eighteen,” she informed him, her voice dripping ice. “And if I was going to give someone permission to interfere in my choices, it would
not
be you. Especially since you clearly know
nothing
about horses,” she snarled.

“I don’t need to know anything about horses to know this horse—” he jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the stall “—is too damned big for you to push around.”

“It’s got nothing to do with her size,” Frankie yelled, planting her fists on her hips, the air fairly sizzling around her. “She’s a Clydesdale and so gentle Ava could
handle her. Oh, what’s the use? You’re impossible.” She threw up her hands and turned on her heel.

“Where are you going?” Eli yelled after her.

“Home,” she shot over her shoulder as she strode away, her boots kicking up puffs of dust. She stopped abruptly and spun around to glare at him. “And don’t follow me. I don’t want to talk to you. Not until you realize what an ass you’ve been and are ready to apologize—and maybe not even then.” She spun on her heel once more and stalked off.

Fuming silently, Eli watched her until she disappeared through the door at the end of the alley lined with stalls. He didn’t care how mad she was; he was right about this.
And it’ll be a cold day in hell before I apologize for trying to keep her safe.

Thoroughly disgusted and out of sorts, he left the barn. Frankie was nowhere to be seen when he reached the parking lot and drove away.

I should have stayed in Vegas,
he told himself as he headed back to Seattle.
I could be sitting at a blackjack table, enjoying myself, instead of wasting my time trying to reason with an irrational woman.

The first drops of rain hit his windshield. Eli looked at the sky and realized that while he’d been in the barn, the sunny morning had turned dark and cloudy.

“Great,” he muttered. “Just great.”

Frankie dashed away tears of anger as she drove south toward Seattle. The fact that she was tearing up infuriated her. She’d missed Eli more than she’d thought
possible over the last few days and had looked forward to seeing him when he returned.

Then he’d stalked into the barn and like a typical domineering male, assumed she was acting foolishly and set out to save her from her own stupidity.

“Arrogant jerk,” she muttered, fingers tightening on the steering wheel.

He hadn’t even bothered to ask her—no, he’d all but
told
her she was an idiot for handling Daisy.

“As if I didn’t know how big Daisy is,” she grumbled to herself. “As if I haven’t been shoving Daisy around since she was three months old. But did he ask me anything about her? No, he did not,” she answered her own question. “Men,” she snarled, eyes narrowing at the windshield. “They’re impossible.”

A few fat raindrops splatted against the windshield.

Frankie switched on the wipers.
Perfect,
she thought,
just what I needed.

Traffic slowed with the sudden downpour, taillights winking red as drivers braked.

Frankie groaned and wished she were home, impatient with the delay that gave her far too much time to contemplate how much she wished she’d taken more time to tell Eli Wolf how wrong he was about her ability to handle Daisy. And she should have added how annoying she found it when someone prejudged a situation without first asking questions and gathering facts.

And men think women act irrationally,
she thought with a humph of disbelief.

She refused to think about how much she’d been
looking forward to his return from Las Vegas—and how disappointed she felt that anticipation had turned into anger.

With a quick twist, she turned on the radio, filling the car’s interior with the sound of upbeat bluegrass music.

The bright music failed to lift the leaden weight that pressed on her chest but she ignored it, determined not to mope because she and Eli had argued.