Chase the Wind (52 page)

“I just don’t want anyone thinking I’m courting her to keep my
job or anything like that.”

“Who’s going to think that?”

“I don’t know. It’s just that she’s so different from all the girls I’ve known. She’s just so ... I don’t know . . . aggressive I guess is the word.” Ty ran his hands through his hair, making the curls stand up on end. He sat down on a boulder and put his head in his hands, as if he could magically transfer all his confusion into his hands and throw it away.

“Cat just knows how she feels about you, that’s all. I wish someone felt that way about me.” Jenny placed her hand on his shoulder, offering comfort and companionship.

“What are you talking about?”

“I wish someone loved me the way Cat loves you.”

“Are you blind?”

“What do you mean?” Jenny suddenly became defensive at the tone of Ty’s voice.

Ty started to laugh, folding his arms over his stomach as he realized how ridiculous they both had been.

“Chase is madly in love with you,” he finally said through the laughter. “He has been ever since I’ve known him. Jamie hardly ever talked about you, but Chase does all the time. He remembers everything you ever said or did. Haven’t you seen the way he looks at you?”

Jenny felt her world begin to spin around her.
Chase is in love with you, Chase is in love with you
became a chant that echoed through her head. Images flashed in her mind, memories from the mission, combined with her dreams of the lover with the long dark hair, and dark eyes. At last he had a face. She felt her heart explode in her chest, the fragments scattering into thousands of pieces like droplets of water, then coming back together in a rush, but now whole where before something had been missing. “Chase is in love with me,” she said to herself.

“Jenny, are you all right?” Ty was standing before her, concern written on his face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Chase is in love with me?” she asked, her voice a mere squeak.

“Yes, he is, and I think you’re in love with him, too.” Ty took her upper arms in his hands. “I don’t know about you, but I feel like a complete idiot. I mean, Cat loves me, and that’s not something you throw away. Starting as soon as we get back, I’m going to make it up to her.”

“The sooner we go to sleep, the sooner we can get going in the morning.” Jenny turned to walk back to the camp.

“Jenny, wait.” Ty stopped her, concern showing on his hand
some face. “I hope you don’t think I was just using you. It’s just
that. . .”

“When you kissed me you realized that there was nothing between us,” Jenny finished for him. “Don’t worry Ty, I felt it too, or
I guess I didn’t feel it. My momma told me that I would know the
man for me when he kissed me. Now I’m just as anxious as you are to get back and find out for myself if what you say is true.”

“Let’s get some sleep,” Ty said as he wrapped a brotherly arm
around her shoulders and they made their way back to camp.

Chapter Twenty-five

Ty and Jenny were up at the crack of dawn, clearing their camp in record time, leading the mares at a quick pace, their joy at going home soon infecting the horses and keeping them at a trot. They sang and laughed and acted foolishly, both of them grinning from ear to ear as the miles faded behind them. They crested the ridge
above the ranch when the workday was over, dinner had been eaten and the ranch folk were all relaxing. The boys saw them
coming and swung open the gate to the corral, slapping and whis
tling so that the mares kicked up their heels and put on a show for Storm, who was watching from his pen with head held high,
his nostrils quivering in excitement. Cat was sitting on the rail,
studying the mares and ignoring the riders, but she turned when Ty rode up to her and dismounted, taking his hat in his hand as
he leaned against the fence to talk to her. She looked up as Jenny
rode by, her slanted green eyes wide with shock as Jenny flashed
a Duncan grin at her.

Jamie was sitting on the porch of Grace’s cabin, his bandaged
leg propped up on a chair by pillows and quilts, scowling at the
proceedings that he was missing in the corral. “How’d you do?” he asked Jenny when she stopped in front of him.

“See for yourself.”

“I wish I could.”

Jenny refused to feel sorry for him, knowing that he had probably run Grace ragged during the week. “Where’s Chase?” she asked.

Jamie gave her a puzzled look as he turned his head away from the corral and the exclamations over the mares. “I don’t know, check the bathhouse.” He watched her with growing curiosity as she swung off her mount, setting out with determined steps.

Chase was walking towards the bunkhouse, his hair wet and slicked back from his face, his white shirt unbuttoned, revealing a wide expanse of smoothly tanned skin. He smiled when he saw her, then caught himself, his eyes becoming guarded as she walked directly to him.

“You’re back,” he said, wondering why she seemed to be so fascinated with the middle of his chest.

Jenny stood before him, her eyes concentrating on the valley between the muscles of his chest, where she could almost believe she had seen a flutter of movement, as if his heart had suddenly accelerated. Her hands itched to reach out and touch the hardness of him, to feel the smoothness of his skin, to compare her golden color to his bronze. She shook her head as she realized he was talking to her.

“What?”

“I said, you’re back.”

“Yes,” she said with a grin. “I am.”

“And?”

“I wanted to ask a favor of you,” she said as she looked up into his dark eyes, her deep blue ones sparkling with joy, anticipation and mischief.

“What?” Chase became guarded, puzzled by the way she was acting, and wary of being hurt by any revelations she was going to make about her and Ty.

“I want you to kiss me.”

Chase looked around to see if anyone was watching. “You want “me to what?”

“I want you to kiss me. Is that a problem for you?”

“Jenny, what are you up to?”

“Nothing. It’s a simple request—I want you to kiss me.”

Chase stepped around her and started for the bunkhouse. “Find
somebody else. I’m sure Zane is up to the task if Ty isn’t.”

Jenny grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop. “I’ve already kissed
Ty, and Zane tried to kiss me, but I didn’t like it much.”

Chase smiled briefly as he remembered Zane’s limping walk a few weeks past. “I don’t like to play those kind of games, Jenny,”
he said intently, looking down into her shining eyes.

“It’s not a game, Chase. I’m dead serious. I need you to kiss me.”

Chase grabbed her arms and pulled her behind the bunkhouse.
“I am serious too, I am not like Zane or any of the other ones who mess around for the fun of it. When I kiss you, you will know it.”

“Then kiss me now.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Yes, I do.” Jenny smiled at him, her eyes deep and moist as she
gazed up into his handsome face, the face that had haunted her
dreams, regal and fierce with eyes that glinted with silver and pierced her soul. She stood there before him, his hands gripping her arms, knowing that he could snap the bones if he wanted to,
and she just looked at him, sweetly smiling, inviting him to do
something he had only dreamed of.

I’m
dammed,
he thought to himself as he brought his mouth
down on hers. He felt her sharp intake of breath as her lips parted
slightly. Her arms moved up, wrapping around his neck, her hands
tangling in his hair, and he pulled her to him, one hand on the
back of her head, the other moving down her waist, pressing her close as he poured his soul into hers. Their lips moved in a dance that was slow, tantalizing, pulling at the core of each until neither
one could breathe. They finally broke apart, each dragging in air
as Jenny leaned heavily against Chase, who was using the wall
behind him to stay on his own two feet.

“Momma, you were right,” she whispered against his chest, feel
ing once again the flutter of his heart.

“What?” he murmured against the top of her head.

Jenny pulled her hand around, moving it under the tail of his shirt and trailing it lightly across his chest, causing his loins to
tighten in agony. She stopped when she felt the thud of his heart
and left her hand there, raising her eyes to look into his. “I said I
love you.”

Chase closed his eyes to hide the longing, the joy that threatened
to pour forth. He felt he must be dreaming, and tried to make sense
of the last few minutes. Her hand was still there, he felt his heart pounding against it; his own hands were still pressing her against
the hardness that she had to feel, and she was still there. He opened
his eyes, his entire being hanging over a precipice as he looked
down at her.

“Chase, I love you.”

He hesitated for a second, then brought his mouth down again,
finding hers willing and open, taking everything he poured out
and giving back herself.

“Jenny . . . how . . . why .. . oh, God, I love you, I have since the
first time I saw you,” he said into her ear when he could finally
tear himself away from her mouth. “I thought I had lost you. I was going to leave. I couldn’t stay here watching you and Ty together.”

Jenny brought her fingers to his lips to stop the tide of words pouring forth. “If you leave, I’m going with you.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“I just want to know one thing.” She was serious, her eyes dark as she looked into his. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“It wouldn’t have worked that way. You wouldn’t have believed
me. So I had to just wait for you to figure it out for yourself.”

“Actually, you have Ty to thank for that.”

“Why?’

“I told him that I wished someone loved me the way Cat loves
him, and he said that somebody already did. Chase, all those years
I was searching for Jamie, I didn’t realize that I was really searching
for you. I dreamed about you but never saw your face, and then suddenly all the pieces fell together and I realized that you were
the one I was missing. Even after I found Jamie, I was still looking
for you.” Jenny brought her hand back to his heart and tucked her head under his chin. “This is where I belong, and this is the only
place I ever want to be.”

Chase began to laugh, joy erupting from his soul as he realized
that Jenny was indeed in his arms instead of in his dreams. He picked her up off her feet, swinging her around as she began to laugh also, their happiness overwhelming, their world centered on
the two of them, so that nothing else mattered.

A cough brought them back to earth, and Jenny hung against Chase’s chest, her head still spinning as Jason rounded the comer
of the bunkhouse.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” he began, a smile suddenly lighting his
face. Jenny managed to straighten up while Chase began buttoning
his shirt. “I just wanted to let you know what a fine job you did
with those mares.” His eyes glowed as he looked at the two standing red-faced before him. “They were more than I expected. I hope this
will be the beginning of a fine partnership between the Duncans
and the Lynches.”

“I hope so, too,” Jenny managed to say. She felt the rock-hard presence of Chase behind her and took the hand that Jason ex
tended.

“It looks like you had a good trip,” Jason commented.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” Jenny admitted with a
sheepish look on her face. Jason laughed and slapped Chase on the
back.

“I think your brother is wondering where you wandered off to.
He hasn’t been the best company this week, that’s for sure.”

“Maybe we should go talk to him.”

“That might be a good idea.” Jason turned to go back towards
Grace’s cabin, but before Jenny could follow, Chase pulled her back
for another mind-numbing kiss that left her breathless and weak.

“It’s going to be hard to get any work done around here now,
that’s for sure,” he said against her ear when they finally came up
for air.

“We might need to go in opposite directions.”