Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1) (11 page)

“
I have a lot on my plate,” Dean
replied defensively. He knew he was not the nicest person in the
world. Considering what he’d been through, this was as nice as it
got. And good as it was likely ever to get again. Nice hadn’t
gotten him a damned place except broke in more ways than one.
“Besides I don’t do nice.”

“
You should do nice with your son.
He loves you, and sometimes you’re outright mean to him. I know
your ex-wife is a bitch, but don’t take it out on him.”

Dean loosened his hold on her as anger
replaced the laughter in his soul. “That’s the second time you’ve
challenged me about my son. You’ve been here a total of three days,
and you make assumptions you have no business making,” Dean replied
shortly. He pushed her off of his lap, then stood, leaving her
sitting on the ground staring up at him. “When you’ve walked in my
shoes, make all the assumptions you want to make. Until then, keep
your damned opinions to yourself. I don’t want ‘em.”

“
I am walking in your shoes,” Tina
said as she scrambled up to her feet. “I have a six-year-old niece
whose mother decided she doesn’t want to be a mother, so she leaves
her with me to raise so she can chase cowboys. I don’t treat Laney
like she’s an inconvenience. The kid deserves better. It’s not her
fault,” she said. Taking a step back from him, she put her hands on
her hips and looked up at him with a challenge in her eyes. “I love
her like a daughter, because she doesn’t understand why her mother
doesn’t.”

“
My shoes are a little bigger than
that,” Dean replied, and it was his turn to look off at the trees.
This wasn’t a discussion he was going to have with this woman who
he barely knew.

“
How big then? There’s really no
reason I can think of for you not to be more open and loving with
your son.”

Dean’s gaze swung back to her. His fists
clenched, along with his teeth. “I have my reasons, and they are
none of your business.”

“
Knowing you’re loved is important
to a kid,” Tina persisted.

“
Saying you love someone isn’t
nearly as important as showing them,” Dean countered. “Words are
cheap. Working your ass off to provide for someone shows them you
love them. Making sure they know right from wrong.”

“
Words
are
cheap. Why does
it have to be one way or the other?” Tina volleyed back. “Why can’t
you show him
and
tell him?”

This woman was smart and quick. And this
conversation was over. “We need to get to the pond, so we can get
back to the house before dark,” he said gruffly.

“
Avoiding the issue isn’t going to
solve it,” Tina replied.

“
Neither will beating a dead horse.
I need to get back to the ranch soon. If you want to see the
location, just drop it and let’s get this done.”

That’s what this subject was to him. A dead
horse. Dean put his hands at her small waist and hefted her up into
the saddle, then picked up Blaze’s reins and mounted behind her.
The picnic lunch in the saddlebags wasn’t going to be eaten out by
the lake today. His mood was now as black as the clouds he saw
gathering in the distance. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking
anyway when he asked his mother to pack it for them.

The best thing he could do would be show her
this location and take the damned pictures. The longer Tina
Montgomery stayed at the ranch, the more unsettled he would
become.

She was nosy, intrusive and she asked too many
damned questions.

Dean had worked damned hard to find some shred
of peace in his soul these last three years, and he thought he was
getting close. He was not going to let this little bundle of
questions upset that apple cart. She could take her damned
pictures, then get the hell away from him.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Dean led Blaze onto the narrow, muddy path
that someone might miss if they weren’t paying attention. He was
definitely paying attention, because he was determined to get this
trip over with as soon as possible. Riding double with this woman
had not been a good idea at all. As if her unwanted questions
weren’t bad enough, the entire ride her firm round ass had been
pressed against his fly, sliding up and down as the horse
moved.

The friction had caused his
problem
to
crop up again. He felt like a damned teenager, and was afraid he
would come in his jeans like one if he didn’t keep Blaze at a walk.
Not only had that made the trip to the back of the property twice
as long as usual, it had been slow, agonizing torture. Tina
Montgomery was right, he did need to get laid. He couldn’t wait to
get out of the saddle for a few minutes to walk off the stiffness
in his muscles and behind his fly.

Under the thick canopy of trees, the
temperature dropped and he felt a shiver pass through the woman
riding in front of him. The same kind of shiver he’d felt move
through her body earlier when she’d gotten turned on. That she’d
had an orgasm on this horse was totally amazing to him and still
damned funny. He’d laugh about it later though, because right now
he had other issues of his own to deal with.

Then another thought smacked him in the head.
He’d like to watch her beautiful face as she came. The soft dreamy
look that women got when they found their pleasure always did it
for him too. Knowing he had put that look there was a complete turn
on. Then the realization dawned that all he seemed to think about
when she was within fifteen feet of him was sex.

For a man who had been a sexual camel for
three years now, a man who avoided even thinking about it because
he didn’t want to torture himself, that fact was astonishing. And
it had to stop. Dean had priorities and having a woman in his life
was not one of them. He was doing this shoot for money, pure and
simple. She would give him that money, he would buy the stock or
pay off Hope, and she’d take her pretty little ass back to
Dallas.

Maybe then his life would get back to
normal.

“
How would the crew get back here
with all their equipment?” Tina asked softly, interrupting his
thoughts.

“
There’s an access road on the
other side of the lake. It’s rough going, but you can get back
there by truck.”

“
Good, because I don’t think we’d
be able to get Paulo on a horse,” she said with a laugh and the
light tinkling sound lifted his mood a notch. The image of the
prissy hairdresser on a horse lifted it another notch. “And the
photographer is pregnant, so she can’t get on a horse. Cord would
run me out of town if I even suggested it.”

“
Yeah, my brother is a mite
protective of his wife.” If Dean suggested it his brother wouldn’t
just run him out of town, he would probably beat the crap out of
him.

Tina snorted, and the sound was so damned
cute, Dean couldn’t help but smile. Tina’s stomach rumbled under
his palm, and he didn’t think it was laughter. “You hungry?” he
asked.

“
Starving. It was stupid, but I
skipped breakfast this morning. I was excited about the shoot,” she
admitted.

It looked like they’d be having that picnic
after all. It had taken over an hour to ride back there, and it
would be an hour back to the house. By the time they got back, she
would be gnawing her arm off. Or his. And he had brought lunch for
a reason. If she went back to the ranch hungry and his Mama found
out they hadn’t eaten the lunch she took the time to pack, she was
going to be mad. “Yeah, that was stupid. You’re lucky I had Mama
pack us lunch.”

Dean wasn’t going to call it a picnic, because
that made this sound too much like a date. Picnics by the lake on a
beautiful sunny day like today were his idea of the perfect date.
They hadn’t been Cindy’s idea of one though. She had liked to party
and dragged him down to the Electric Cowboy. That is where he’d met
her in the first place.

He thought he’d probably never go back there
again. He hadn’t even gone there for his brother’s wedding
reception because of the bad memories associated with the place.
Those days were over for him.

Tina gasped, and Dean thought she might have
stopped breathing when he walked Blaze off of the horse path into
the clearing by the lake. He pulled to a stop and waited while she
took it all in. Evidently this place affected her the same way it
did him.

The sun sparkling on the water was almost too
bright to look at. The browns of the cattails on the other side of
the pond in contrast to the blanket of bluebonnets behind them
looked like they’d been painted by God’s paintbrush. Even though
he’d lived on this ranch his entire life, been to this spot
frequently, the sight did the same thing to him every time he came
here.

It was that beautiful. And
peaceful.

Until the other day, he hadn’t been out here
in over a year though. He hadn’t been out here with a woman since
he was a teenager. This was a good necking spot. He brought girls
out here a lot then. The romantic spot was guaranteed to get him
what he was looking for. He hadn’t thought about more than it being
a pretty spot when he suggested riding back here. But now he
realized maybe that’s why he suddenly decided to bring Tina out
here today.

He glanced down at the top of Tina
Montgomery’s head. The bright sun on her dark hair made it appear
like she was wearing a halo. He could just catch the faint hint of
her shampoo. Something fruity. He inhaled, and Dean knew he was in
deep trouble.

“
It’s absolutely perfect,” she said
on a breathless whisper.

Dean kneed Blaze to lead him around toward the
end of the lake. The bluebonnet field would be as good a place as
any for a picnic. For lunch, he corrected in his mind. No picnics,
and no kissing. Kissing her again would make promises his bankrupt
soul couldn’t fulfill. Dean had nothing left to give a woman. Cindy
had sucked him dry emotionally.

Tina Montgomery was one of those soft, flowery
women who would expect hearts and flowers. Dean’s hearts and
flowers days were long behind him.

“
I thought it would be a good place
for pictures,” he said gruffly, as he rounded the row of cattails
and walked Blaze into the field. It would probably be too damp
closer to the lake, so he moved a little further into the field
before he stopped. He swung out of the saddle, then reached up to
lift Tina down. He stepped away from her quickly. As soon as her
feet touched the ground. She looked up at him curiously. Dean
turned his back on her to remove the saddle bags from behind the
saddle.

“
Thanks for bringing me out here.
It will be perfect for the photos.”

It was perfect for a helluva lot more than
that and that seemed to be all he could think about. He felt her
eyes on his back, but he didn’t look at her.

“
No problem,” he said as he brushed
past her to kneel down and unload the bags.

He unpacked the blanket first, spread it over
the ground then laid the sandwiches and fruit out. He yanked two
bottles of water out then tossed the bags to the side.

“
Eat,” he said brusquely as he sat
on the corner of the blanket. She sat on the opposite corner and
Dean realized that the blanket that fit in his saddle bag was
entirely too small. He could still smell that damned shampoo,
because she wasn’t two feet from him.

Maybe if he pissed her off she wouldn’t have
that soft look in her eyes that wonder in her voice and he could
think straight. He knew it was more a reminder to himself than a
warning to her when he said, “Um, don’t get any ideas from me doing
this.”

“
Ideas?” Tina repeated dumbly as
she unwrapped her sandwich.

“
You know. I’m not interested in a
relationship with you. This is not a date. I’m just trying to help
you with the photo shoot, so we can get this over with.”

“
God forbid you should consider
dating a woman, right? That wouldn’t fit in with your tortured,
wronged cowboy persona, now would it? What excuse would you have
for being mad at the world then?” she asked in a sing-song
voice.

His eyes flew to hers. “What the hell are you
talking about?”

“
I don’t think you want to be happy
again. You’re hiding behind your anger. Being so nasty keeps people
from getting too close. That way you don’t get hurt
again.”

“
Thanks for the analysis, Dr.
Phil,” he said sarcastically. “Where did you get your psychology
degree? Latest prize in your box of Cracker Jacks? Or was it a
two-for-one special with your driver’s ed course?” Dean shook his
head, hoping that would shut her up. He gnawed a bite off of his
sandwich, chewed then took a long drink of his water, before he
said, “Again, mind your own fucking business.”

“
You’re hurting your son,” she said
softly and his sandwich stuck in his throat. He glanced over at her
and noticed she wasn’t eating. She was too busy judging him
evidently. Analyzing him. And getting entirely too close to the
mark.

“
Well, you are hurting me with all
your bullshit,” he growled. This woman had some gall that was for
sure. “You don’t know me or my situation from Adam, and you have no
right to judge me. If you want to do this photo shoot you won’t
bring up this shit again.” Dean shoved his sandwich back in the bag
and tossed it onto the blanket. He wasn’t hungry now, he had a knot
in his gut. Because of her. “Now eat your sandwich, I’m ready to
get the hell out of here.”