Capturing the Cowboy's Heart (6 page)

Lacy pushed
the strands of windblown hair
away
from her face
.  “Well, t
hat didn’t take long.”

“Not nearly as long as it would have in my old
pickup
truck.”

Grabbing his hat from the seat,
she
dropped it onto her head.  “How about another spin?”

“
You don’t have to twist my arm
.”  Instead of turning onto the road that led up to the ranch,
he drove on
.

She
clutched the hat to her head as the wind threatened to sweep it away.  She hadn’t had this much fun in...forever.

This was a whole different side of Cade.  Relaxed.  Smiling.  Fun.  Maybe her stay there wouldn’t be so bad after all.

The cell phone inside her purse rang.  Cade slowed the car
and turned the volume down on the radio
as she brought
the phone
to her ear.  “Hello?
...
Yeah,
no problem getting here
.
..Don’t worry, Mac, y
ou’ll get your story.”

She snapped the phone shut and shoved it back into her bag. 
When she looked up she met
Cade’s narrowed gaze.  “My editor,” she
said
with an apologetic smile.

“I already figured that much,” he said stiffly
before turning his focus onto the road ahead.
  “Time to go home.”

Talk about bad timing.  Why couldn’t Mac have waited to hear from her as they’d agreed on?  One glance at Cade told her t
here would be no recapturing the
fun they had shared only moments before. 
H
is posture was ridged.  His long fingers curled in a death grip around the wheel.  A
clear sign that h
e’d drawn the protective
walls
back up.
  Which put her right back to where she started – the hated journalist.

“Stubborn cowboy,” she muttered as she let herself into the house and pulled her suitcase down the narrow hallway.  Her head was pounding and she was ready to drop.  The long drive from
Denver
was finally catching up with her.  All she wanted to do was collapse on a nice soft bed and close her eyes for a little while.  Rejuvenate.

She passed by the kitchen entrance, and a little further down the hall on the opposite side was a bathroom.  The next room on the right was the one Cade said was hers.  She opened the door and stepped inside, reaching for the light switch.  She flicked it on but
the only thing that turned on was the overhead ceiling fan
.  Apparently, the
light had been turned off, or it had burnt out and C
ade hadn’t taken the time to change it. 

Despite the shadows cast about around her,
Lacy surveyed the room, taking in the faint scent of cedar and leather. 
Nothing frilly. 
No bright colors.  No knickknacks of any sort.  She crossed the room to the window and drew open the dark brown curtain panels.  Sunlight streamed in, casting the room in muted shades of gold.

Turning, her gaze was drawn to the long wooden beam that ran across the wall above the bed.  It served as a display shelf for an assortment of trophies and plaques.  Cade’s no doubt. 

Lifting her suitcase up onto the bed, she
set to unpacking
. 
She hadn’t planned to stay more than a few days, but she would make do with what she’d brought.  Maybe even pick up a few things in town next time she was there.

She
gathered up
her
lingerie and
the
thin cotton sleep shirt
she’d brought to sleep in, carrying them
over to the antique oak dresser by the door.

The top drawer was empty, except for a few shirts that had been pushed to one side, obviously to make room for her things.  She quickly deposited
the armful
inside
a
nd then returned to the bed to get more of her clothes.

When she finally finished with her unpacking, Lacy shoved her empty bags under the bed and dropped down onto it with a tired sigh.  A glance at her watch told her there were still a couple of hours left before dinner.  More than enough time for her to rest her eyes.  Twenty minutes or so and she would be as good as new.

She sank back
in
to the comforter with a soft moan.  It felt heavenly beneath her tired limbs. 
Her gaze shifted to the
window
and the fading day outside
.  She ought to be out there getting the scoop on Cade before he had time to change his mind again, but he was off somewhere repairing a broken fence.  She couldn’t very well interview the man if she had no idea where to find him. 
So for now she would res
t her tired eyes. 
If only for
a few minutes... 

*
             
*
             
*

Cade peeled off the thick leather gloves he’d worn while repairing the fence.  “It’ll hold for now, but you’d best check it again tomorrow.”

“Will do,” Burk replied with a nod.

After tucking his gloves into the back pocket of his jeans, Cade checked his watch.

Burk chuckled as he pushed back his hat and dragged the sleeve of his shirt across his damp brow. 

“What’s so funny?”

“Do you realize you’ve checked your watch at least ten times in the past hour?” his friend asked with a grin.

Cade turned to his friend.  “What?”

“You wouldn’t be getting a little anxious to head back to the house and check on Miss God-Gave-Her-A-Bod Dalton, would you?”

“Never gave it a thought,” he replied, irritated that Burk could read him so well.  “And as for Miss Dalton’s body I didn’t notice.”  They both knew he was lying. 

“Then you’ve been without a woman for far too long, my friend,” Burk said as he climbed into the cab of his truck.  “There’s not a man I know who wouldn’t take notice of that pretty little reporter’s shapely behind.”  He gave a low whistle.  “They just don’t make’em like that anymore.”

“I thought you preferred women with legs that went on forever.  Like Katie’s.”

This time it was Burk who grew flustered.  “Me and Katie are just friends.”

It amazed Cade just how stubborn two people could be.  Katie liked Burk.  His friend liked her.  Yet neither of them did anything about it. 

“
So you say
,” Cade muttered as he headed for his
own
truck.  When he reached it, he called back, “And for your information Miss Dalton and I have a business arrangement, nothing more.”

Burk leaned his head out the open driver’s side window.  “You sure about that?”

Cade started the engine and threw his truck into gear.  “I’ve got enough on my plate already without letting some troublesome female get under my skin.”

“I think she’s already there,” Burk hollered as Cade drove away.

The accusation stuck in Cade’s craw.  Burk was wrong.  Lacy wasn’t under his skin.  Nowhere close, despite the fact she had him feeling things again.  Things he really didn’t want to feel.

Cade pulled up to the house and sat in his truck, arms slung over the wheel as he stared at the front door. 
Dalton
was in there.  He never thought he’d have a woman in his house again after Karen.  And he sure as hell never expected to have a reporter staying there.  How had that happened? 

Burk pulled up beside him.  “
Someone was in a hurry to get back.
”

“
Can I help it if you drive like an old woman?
” he said gruffly as his gaze shifted back to the house and the cherry red convertible parked in front of it.  “
Come on, let’s
go check on Dalton.”

“As in both of us?” Burk said with a chuckle as he stepped from his truck.  “I’m sure you can handle it without me. 
I need to look in on the horses.”

The last thing Cade wanted was to be alone with Lacy Dalton for any length of time.  “She’s your responsibility
,” he argued.  “
You
tricked her into coming here.
  Not me.
”

“For a good cause,” his friend pointed out.  “What’s wrong, Cade?  You afraid to be alone
with the
Dalton
?
” 

“Hell, no,” he snapped as he
slid out of the cab of his truck. 
“I used to ride bulls for a living.  Why would I be scared of some pint-sized
female
?”

“I reckon that’s something only you can answer.”  That said, Burk walked away, heading for the barn.

Shaking his head and cursing a blue streak under his breath, Cade started around the house.  He’d show Burk that he wasn’t afraid of some meddling reporter with a great bod.

Great bod?
  Damn his friend for putting that thought into his head.

He stepped into the kitchen and removed his muddied boots.
  Then he straightened, taking in the silence.
 

“Lacy?”

Nothing.

Her car was
still parked
outside so she hadn’t gone back into town. 
Knowing the curious nature of reporters,
she’d
probably
taken
a walk
to get the lay of the land
. 
All the better for him. 
He
could
grab a quick shower
before she got back
. 

Hanging his hat on a peg by the door, he started for his room.  Two steps into his room,
he
stopped.  Something was something different. 

Light. 

He looked toward the window. 
Domino
must have been looking out it again.  The curtains were pushed aside, letting in the red-gold hues of dusk.

He
crossed the room to c
lose them, to put them back to the way he’d kept them ever since his wife died, but
something stopped him.  Turning
slowly, his gaze
came to rest on the tro
phies lining the shelf above
his
bed.  Karen had put them there.   

Tearing his gaze away, Cade peeled off his dirty work shirt and tossed it onto the floor by the door.  Then he pulled open the top drawer of Karen’s old dresser and reached in for a clean shirt.  His hand
came to rest
atop something soft and silky. 

“What the—”

Looking down, he found an assortment of bras and panties lining the drawer.  That is, if one could call the scant strips of silk and lace scattered inside panties.  Cocking a brow, he picked up one of the bras by its strap and stared at it blankly.

It was then he became aware
of
the
soft
, even breaths
behind him.
He
turned, bra still dangling from his fingers
, to find his
houseguest
lying in
his
bed
. 

“Dalton?”

She muttered something he couldn’t make out, before her long lashes fluttered open. 
She pushed up onto her elbows, her sleepy gaze meeting his. 
“Cade?”

“I...uh...”  He couldn’t seem to get the words
to make the transition from
his brain to his mouth a
s he stood staring at her
.  There hadn’t been a woman in his bed since
his wife
. 

Lacy shot up, fumbling for the switch on the bedside lamp, gasping as its light spilled across the room. 
Her gaze moved over his bare chest and then snapped back up. 
“You...you pervert!”

Cade
glanced
behind him
in confusion and
then back
to
Lacy.  “Me?”

“Yes, you!  Wh
y else would you be standing there
naked
holding
my bra
in your hands
?”

“Wh
y
?” he snapped indignantly as he eyed the lacy red contraption hanging from his hand.  “
For your information,
I was
grabbing a clean
shirt, or
attempting
to, when I came across this...this thing.”

Lacy flew from the bed and snatched it from his grasp. 
“
I’ll thank you to keep your hands off my things and get out of my room.”

He
lowered his face to hers
, his words coming out a low growl,
“
This
happens to be
my
bedroom, Dalton.”

Her whiskey-colored eyes widened. 
“Yours?”

“Yes.” 

Color seeped
into her cheeks.
 
“I...I’m sorry.  I thought you said the second room on the right.”

“I said left.”  Hadn’t he? 
S
he’d had him so flustered
when he’d said it that
he wasn’t really sure what he’d told her.

She spun around and began pulling her things from his drawer.  “I’ll
get my things and you can
point me to
the room I’m supposed to be sleeping in
.”

Much to his surprise, her composure was crumbling right before his eyes. 
“
It’s
directly across the hall
,” he said, fighting the urge to grin at her unease.

She
gathered her clothes
and stuffed them into the crook of her arm.
  Then she spun around, nearly knocking him over.  “I could pack a lot faster if you weren’t standing in my way.”

His gaze was
drawn to the bundle she clutched to her. 
All those
silk and satin underthings were n
ot at all what he would have expected a hard-nosed reporter to wear under her clothes.
  Then again, Lacy Dalton was unlike any reporter he’d ever met.
 

She
shot him a reproachful glare
before stepping around him to the bed
.  “Do you mind?”

Her irritation had the
corners of his mouth r
iding
up in a slow grin.  “Nope, not at all.”

She dropped her things onto the comforter and bent to pull her bags out from under the bed.