That Night With the Rich Rancher (6 page)

“I know what I want,” he said.

She turned to wrap her arms around his neck. He wore another thick navy robe that fell open over his broad chest.

Aware their idyll was about to end, she kissed him passionately. She dreaded stepping back into reality, where she would have to wrangle with him again.

He released her. “Hold that thought and let me put something in the oven so I can feed us.”

“At last...food,” she said, clutching her heart and batting her eyelashes dramatically at him. When she licked her lips slowly as she watched him remove the covered casserole dish from the fridge and nudge the door closed, he placed the dish on the counter and turned to draw her into his arms.

“You were going to get fed until you did that,” he said in a husky voice, pulling her close.

“Did what?”

“You know what,” he said, leaning closer to kiss her, a hungry kiss that ignited fires more swiftly than ever.

In minutes she wriggled out of his grasp. “I think we should eat. Whatever I did, I won’t do again. How can I help?”

He was breathing hard, looking down, and she realized the top of her robe was pulled apart enough to reveal her breasts. She closed the robe more tightly. “As I was saying, what can I do to help?”

He seemed to not even hear her, but in seconds he looked up. “If you want to eat, I suggest you go sit over there on the sofa and talk to me while I get something heated up. If you stay within arm’s reach, I’m reaching.”

She smiled and left him alone, watching him put the dish into the oven and get plates, pour juice, wash berries. Her gaze raked over him. He was a gorgeous man. Sexy, strong, successful. Why hadn’t some woman snatched him up already? As far as she knew from local gossip, there had never been a long-term girlfriend. Just a trail of girlfriends who’d come and gone. Apparently, he didn’t go in for serious affairs.

“Tony, you really should let me help you. I feel silly sitting here doing nothing except watching you work.”

“This isn’t hard work. You stay where you are so I’m not too distracted to get breakfast on the table.”

“I do that to you? Distract you?”

“Lindsay,” he said in a threatening tone, “do you want breakfast or do you want to go back to bed?”

She laughed. “Breakfast. I’m famished. And I’ll help any way I can.”

“You know what you can do, so do it,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” she answered demurely, teasing him. When his gaze raked over her, she became aware of the top of her robe gaping open enough to give a another glimpse of her breasts and the lower half of her robe falling open over her crossed legs. She closed her robe and belted it tightly, glancing up to find him still watching her.

“Show’s over,” she said.

He nodded and turned to finish preparing the meal.

After a breakfast of egg-and-bacon casserole and fruit, he turned on music as they cleared the table, and took her wrist. “Stop working and come dance with me,” he said, moving to a familiar lively rock number.

Unable to resist him, she danced with him, aware as she did that her robe gaped below her waist, revealing her legs all the way to her thighs.

Next a ballad came on and he drew her into his arms to slow dance. He was aroused, ready to make love again. His arms tightened around her and he shifted closer to kiss her. Dimly she was aware they had stopped dancing.

His hand trailed down between them to untie her robe while he continued kissing her. When she reached out to do the same, his belt was tightly knotted and she needed his help, but soon both robes were open. He shoved them aside, pulling her naked body against his.

Her soft moan was a mixture of pleasure and desire as he kissed her and picked her up to carry her back to bed.

It was almost two hours later when he held her close beside him in bed and rolled over to look at her. He wound his fingers in the long strands of her hair, toying with her locks.

“I know you have to go home soon,” he said. “I think it’s time we get to the reason behind this weekend and your incredible bid for me at the auction. You paid a mind-boggling sum to get my attention, so now you have it. What’s behind this? What did you want me to agree to do?”

* * *

Tony looked into her big eyes that were the color of blue crystal. His gaze went to her mouth and he wanted to kiss her again. He stifled the urge, difficult as it was. Their time together had been fabulous, a dream, but it would end shortly and they would go back to their regular lives. How much would it change because of the auction? For a moment a memory flashed in his mind of the second and most direct encounter they had, when a big tree on her property fell during a storm in the night. It had fallen on his fence, taking it down and also smashing one of his trucks, which had stalled in the rainstorm.

One of the men had called to tell him. When he drove out to view the damage, she was already there with a crew working to cut up the fallen tree and haul it away. She held a chain saw and had a battered straw hat on her head with a long braid hanging over her shoulder. He’d known her all his life but rarely paid any attention to her. He knew she was two years younger than he was, but right then he thought she looked five years younger. The noise of chain saws was loud, the ground spongy from the rain when he stepped out of his truck.

Even though she had to pay for the damage because it was her tree, he’d tried to curb his anger that she hadn’t called him first. She saw him and walked over.

“My tree fell in the storm. Sorry about the damage. But I’m insured.”

“Did you call your agent?”

“No, I will. I want to get the fence up as soon as possible so I don’t lose any livestock.”

“Lindsay, that’s my fence and I’ll fix it. You should have called me. Your insurance should cover the damages when a tree falls on something, but only if you have notified your company. They would have sent someone out to see what happened, take pictures and write a report. Now the tree is back on your property, cut up as we speak, and I doubt if you can collect anything.”

She had looked surprised. “I haven’t had a tree fall on anything before. I’ll check with my insurance company, and I’ll pay you for the damage.”

“Stop cutting up the tree. I’m going to call and see if my adjustor wants to come out anyway.”

She’d frowned but agreed.

“And leave the fence alone. It’s my fence and I’ll get it replaced today.”

She had scowled at him. “Today?”

“This morning,” he said. “As soon as we can. If you have livestock grazing here, move them. Don’t let them in this pasture. That’s simple enough,” he said, wondering if she knew how to run that ranch of hers.

“I know that,” she snapped.

“Leave the fence to me. Stop cutting up and hauling away the tree. I’ll get someone out here to look this over,” he repeated, suspecting she was stubborn enough to keep cutting up the tree.

She had clamped her mouth closed as her blue eyes flashed. “Anything else you want to tell me to do?” she snapped, and his temper rose a notch.

“Probably a lot, but I’m not going to,” he answered evenly.

“Why was your truck parked right by my property?”

He had been annoyed by her question, though he tried to hang on to his temper. “It was on my property and we can park the truck wherever we want on this side of that fence. If you want to know, one of the men was headed back in the storm and checking to see if the fences were okay. He’d been driving through high water in several low places and the truck quit running here. Unfortunately, near your tree.”

She’d been silent a moment as if thinking about what he had said. “I know it was my tree on your truck. My word should be good enough for the insurance.”

Impatiently, he shook his head. “No, it’s not good enough. Next time, remember to call your adjustor before you do anything else. You may have a hard time collecting.”

He remembered her raising her chin defiantly and he’d wondered if she would argue, but then she looked around and seemed lost in thought until she turned back to him. “That isn’t a new truck. Get three estimates in Verity for the repairs and I’ll cover the lowest bidder’s charges.”

“Look, I can’t get that kind of damage fixed in Verity. At least not at three different places and you know it. The truck will be totaled.”

“I’m not buying you a brand-new truck.”

“Tell your guys to stop working and then go home, Lindsay, and call your insurance company. They’ll tell you what to do next.”

Her cheeks had grown red and fire had flashed in her eyes, but he hadn’t cared if his instructions made her angry. She had already annoyed the hell out of him.

Yes, Lindsay Calhoun had that unique ability to boil his blood.

Right now, though, as he reined his thoughts back to the present and looked down at her naked body, she had the ability to heat his blood in a different way.

Tony pushed aside the past to gaze into her big blue eyes. He didn’t expect what they’d had this weekend to last much longer because the real world was settling back into their lives.

Last night he hadn’t cared what she wanted from him. He’d been totally focused on her as he adjusted to his new discoveries about her. Now, though, curiosity reared its ugly head and he wanted to learn her purpose behind the evening.

“You should know what I want to talk about,” she said, scooting to sit up in bed and lean back against pillows, pulling the sheet demurely high and tucking it beneath her arms. Her pale yellow hair spilled over her shoulders. She looked tousled, warm and soft, and he wanted to wrap his arms around her and kiss her again, but he refrained. It was time he heard her out and learned what was so important to her that she would pay several thousand dollars just to get his attention.

“Two things, Tony,” she said, and he sighed, trying to be quiet and listen, to be patient and talk to her calmly. He had already given her the solution to her water problem, but she didn’t believe him. He could deal with this in a civilized manner, but underneath all her sex appeal, breathtaking beauty and their dream weekend, there still was the real woman who was mule-stubborn and did not take advice well.

Lindsay was all he avoided in women—stubborn, far too serious and constantly stirring conflict.

The irony of the fact that she was now sharing his bed was not lost on him. But he ignored it as he focused on her.

She continued her explanation. “First and foremost I hope that we have some sort of truce where we can be civil to each other, with no tempers flaring.”

“I’d say we can be mighty civil to each other. You should have some of your money’s worth there,” he said, caressing her throat, letting his fingers drift down lightly over her breast.

“I hope so,” she said solemnly.

“I’m willing,” he said. “So continue.”

She squared her shoulders and fussed with the sheet. Then she cleared her throat and spoke. “My wells are running dry and I figured you’ve replaced your old pumps with bigger ones that are drawing on the aquifer and depleting my groundwater. I can get bigger pumps, too, but that might take water from other neighbors and I don’t want to do that.”

He held up his hand. “I told you, Lindsay, I do not have bigger pumps.”

“Well, for some reason, my water is dwindling away to almost nothing.”

“It’s a record drought,” he said, as if having to explain the obvious to a child.

“I’ve asked Cal Thompson and he doesn’t have bigger pumps. Neither does Wendell Holmes. I figured it was you.”

“It is not. According to the weather experts, this is the worst drought in these parts in the past almost sixty years—before you and I were born, much less before we became owners of neighboring ranches. I told you the solution to my problem. You can do the same. Just dig deeper wells and you’ll have much more water. Then when it rains, the aquifer will fill back up again. If you don’t want to dig deeper, buy water and have it piped in. That’s what Wendell is doing.”

She stared at him thoughtfully in silence for several minutes. It was difficult to keep his attention on her water worries while she sat beside him in bed, naked, with only a sheet pulled up beneath her arms. He couldn’t resist reaching out to caress her throat again, letting his hand slide down and slip beneath the sheet to caress her bare breasts. It took an effort to sit quietly and wait when all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and kiss her thoroughly. Well, that wasn’t all he wanted to do.

The instant his fingers brushed her nipple, he saw a flicker in her eyes.

“You really had them dug deeper?”

Thinking more about her soft skin and where his fingers wanted to go, he hung on to his patience. “Yes, I did. When we get home, come over anytime and I’ll show you my old pumps.”

When she merely nodded, he felt a streak of impatience with her for being so stubborn. She didn’t seem convinced he was telling the truth, and he suspected she wasn’t going to take his advice. With every passing minute he could see her sliding back into her serious, stubborn self, stirring up conflict unnecessarily. Lindsay seemed to thrive on conflict. Except for last night. For that brief time she had been sexy, appealing, cooperative and wonderful. Now they were drifting back to reality and he had to hang on to his patience once again.

“I might do that.”

As his gaze ran over her, it was difficult to think about anything else except how sexy she was and how the minutes were running out on this brief truce. She looked incredibly enticing with her bare shoulders and just the beginning of luscious curves revealed above the top of the sheet. How could she be this appealing and he had never noticed? He knew his answer, but it still amazed him that he hadn’t had a clue about her beauty. In the past, once she started arguing he couldn’t see beyond his anger. He saw now.

He was unable to resist trailing his fingers lightly over her alluring bare shoulder, looking so soft and smooth. If his life depended on it, he couldn’t stop touching her or looking at her. He wanted to pull away the sheet, place her in his lap and kiss her senseless. They were wasting their last few moments together talking about the drought, when he had other things he wanted to do.