Flirting with Love (12 page)

So
. Sniff. Sniff.
Unfair
. Could he stop being attractive just for a second while she wallowed in her unhappiness?

He stroked her back and rested his cheek on the top of her head.
Why?
Why wasn’t he pushing her away, or telling her to buck up and deal with it? Why wasn’t he rushing her to leave, or worried about his expensive dress shirt? Any LA man would have done all those things. This warmth, this allowing her to steal his calmness, take refuge in the comfort of him, those were things her aunt would have done, and they were things Elisabeth had connected to Trusty. In her mind, this is what Trusty was—comforting, safe, open arms at the ready.

She’d been wrong.

This wasn’t Trusty at all.

This was Ross Braden.

Knight nosed his way in between Elisabeth and Ross’s thighs, which made her laugh a little through her tears. She pushed back, still clutching Ross’s shirt, and glanced up at him. God only knew how awful she looked with wet, puffy eyes and probably a pink nose. Ross was looking at her like all he wanted to do was take away her sadness. He looked at her with the same deep concern as when he’d fed her hungry piglet. For a guy who was used to comforting animals, he was doing more than okay with her. He gently cupped her cheeks. His hands were strong, sure, and warm. She closed her eyes as he wiped her tears with the pads of his thumbs. Comfort had never felt so good.

When she opened her eyes again, Ross had a different look in his eyes, one that caused her body to flash hot despite her sadness. She had the urge to go up on her tiptoes and press a soft kiss to his beautiful lips—but maybe she was making that look up, too. Maybe her mind had romanticized not only Trusty, but Ross.

Oh God
.

“Walk with me.” Ross took her hand like he’d been her best friend forever.

The funny thing was, Elisabeth didn’t really have a best friend. She had friends back in LA, but not close friends. She’d always felt a little out of her element around LA girls, which was probably why she’d surrounded herself with animals. Animals didn’t judge people. They appreciated love and gave it back in spades. They didn’t care if you were the type of woman who slept around or the type who held out hope for true, heart-stopping love, because they were programmed to be loyal and they believed in heart-stopping love, too. Something told her that she wasn’t barking up the wrong tree with her attraction to Ross. She had the feeling he was just as loyal and his love would be just as unconditional as any pet’s.
Just as wonderful as I’ve always dreamed love would be
.

Talk about jumping the gun
. She tried to push the thought away, but it lingered, chasing away the unhappiness she’d felt.

They walked toward the setting sun. His property went on for acres and acres of pastureland, and in the distance, the Colorado Mountains stood sentinel over this tiny piece of paradise. The sun peeked between the tall mountaintops, threading the last bit of daylight across the horizon. The dogs fell into step behind them, rustling through the thick grass. With every step, a little of Elisabeth’s stress fell away. Ross was quiet, looking thoughtfully into the distance, and that was probably a good thing. She felt a little silly for having cried like a baby, and though her tears had stopped, she felt on the verge of them again. Whether they were from being overwhelmed by reality or by Ross’s kindness, she wasn’t sure.

They walked through the grass and entered a sparse forest. Elisabeth had no idea where they were going, but she would go anywhere with Ross. She worried about her animals needing to be fed, but surely another few minutes wouldn’t hurt.

Leaves and twigs cracked beneath their feet. The dogs sniffed at the earth and at just about every hole they passed. It was darker, cooler under the cover of the trees, and as the sun dipped lower, crickets began to sing. The last bit of sunlight streamed through the forest as they broke through the other side, arriving on the far side of her aunt’s property.

My property
. She hadn’t realized their land connected. The dreamer in her whispered,
This is fate.
Then reality of the day’s events tumbled forth and stole the idea before it could take hold.

“We should make sure the animals are okay.” It wasn’t a question. She’d found that Ross didn’t really ask questions. He offered them up, waited a minute, and if she didn’t answer, he moved on. She liked that about him, and she liked that he thought of her animals and had headed there while still holding her hand, offering her the walk she hadn’t realized she so badly needed.

Elisabeth had always thought of herself as being totally in tune with her mind and body, but now she wondered how she’d missed the need for this brief respite—and how Ross had seen it.

He stopped at the barn doors and placed his hands on her shoulders. With dusk at his back, he looked powerful and safe. He gazed down at her looking very handsome and in control, and when he spoke with his strong, sensual tone, her mind and body were in perfect sync. She knew just what she needed and what she wanted.
Ross
.

“Feel better, Lis?” He slid his hands across her shoulders and settled them at the curve of her neck. His thumbs grazed the underside of her jaw. It was erotic and sweet at the same time, and it made her legs go weak.

“I’ll check on Dolly and the goats. Are you okay to check on the piglets and chickens?”

No. I want to kiss you, and lie in the grass beside you with your arms around me and let the stars carry us through until morning. I want to look into your eyes and know what you’re thinking—the sexy stuff and beyond. I want to feel our hearts beating as one and make the rest of the world disappear. And when the morning comes, I want to face it with you.

“Lis?”

She blinked away her thoughts, and his concerned face came back into focus.

“Yeah…Of course.”

His hands slid higher on her jaw, cupping it gently, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Whatever’s going on, it’s all going to be okay.”

Just like that, with no warning and no pretense, he waylaid her worries. How in the hell did he do that? Since he simply walked toward the paddock afterward, she assumed he once again had no expectations. While she was daydreaming about Ross, he seemed to be able to simply move on, without expecting any sort of repayment for his kindness. Not even a single kiss. Maybe she’d waited so long for true love that she was just fabricating everything in her mind. Maybe this was just another neighborly thing he routinely did. Make women feel like they hadn’t given up everything they’d worked so hard to build for nothing.

She tried not to let hope carry her forward. After the day she’d had, she should know better, but when Ross paused at the gate and looked back to check on her with compassion in his eyes, her next breath carried hope so thick she knew it had not only come in, but rearranged her insides as if redecorating a room. It had claimed her and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

And she wasn’t sure she’d try to escape even if she could.

THERE WERE ONLY a few things that threw Ross for a loop, and women’s tears had always been one of them. An animal suffering at the hands of cruelty was another, and third on his list of things that knocked him off balance was the idea of his mother being treated so poorly by his father before his father had left them. He didn’t allow himself to think of that often, but even those painful memories weren’t as cutting as seeing Elisabeth standing before him silently weeping. Walking with her was about all he’d been able to do. Give him an animal and he knew exactly what to do. Women? They were a different story. And Elisabeth? She’d tugged at his heart from the moment he’d laid eyes on her, which probably made him pathetic, but what power did he have over his heart?

Exactly none.

No matter how much he tried to ignore the pull that drew him to her night and day, he was unable. He’d begun to wonder if his belief in love was a fantasy built in opposition to his father’s leaving. He’d wondered if he’d ever feel as drawn to a woman as Luke and Wes were to their girlfriends, or Pierce was to Rebecca. Now he knew it wasn’t only a dream. He was every bit as attracted to Elisabeth, taken with her personality, infatuated with her goodness—hell, he wanted to climb beneath her skin and become one with her.

He walked far out in the pasture and checked on Dolly, and he found Chip and Dale, always nearby, playing king of the mountain on the play equipment Cora had put in the yard for them.
Give a goat a boulder and they’re happy
, he’d told her.
Yes
, she’d said.
But give them play equipment and they know they’re loved
. Who was he to argue with that logic?

He stroked Dolly’s back, taking his time, trying to work through his feelings. He didn’t know how long he stood with Dolly, twenty minutes, thirty? Still he remained, thinking of the way Elisabeth had clung to him. The feel of her heart beating against his chest. Hell if it hadn’t taken every ounce of restraint to restrict his lips to her forehead, where he’d breathed in her scent and lingered a moment longer than he should have. He had no business kissing her forehead at all, much less lingering, but if it hadn’t been her forehead, it would have been those luscious lips, and he wouldn’t have stopped there.

He turned back toward the barn and saw her standing in the moonlight, kicking at the dirt with the toe of her boot, her fingers in her pockets, elbows out. She looked adorable in cutoffs that barely covered her ass. Then again, he had a feeling that Elisabeth could make a potato sack look sexy. Her hair curtained her face, and his dogs stood beside her.

All three of them.

His dogs usually stuck to
him
like glue.

Why on earth had it taken him this long to realize they weren’t with him?

The answer was kicking up tufts of dirt about a hundred feet away.

He pushed away his desires as best he could, and after taking care of the animals, they walked in silence back to her car in his driveway.

Sarge and Ranger ran ahead to the back of her car. Knight stuck to her like metal to magnet. Ross and Knight had a lot in common.

“Did Kennedy take the bottle okay?” he asked to cut through his need to touch her.

“Yeah. He’s the cutest little thing.”

“I brought you home something.” He went to his truck and retrieved the book on cows that he’d brought her. “I didn’t have time to get to the library, but this is one of mine. I think it’ll have just about everything you’ll need, and I’m here if you run into any more problems.”

She took the book and clutched it to her chest. When she smiled up at him, the urge to kiss her was so strong that he had to shift his eyes away. He focused on the dogs and cleared his throat to try to clear the mounting desire from his body.

“I think you made a few friends today.”

“That would make me a lucky girl. Thanks for letting me take them to the park. I’ve really missed spending time with dogs and cats.” She rubbed her arms against the dropping temperature.

Ross draped an arm over her shoulder and she leaned against him in that casual way friends did. That little nudge shouldn’t have sent fire through his veins, and when she gazed up at him, he shouldn’t have felt like an inferno, but he would be shocked if he didn’t have smoke pouring out of his ears.

“Thanks for being there for me, Ross.”

“Want to talk about it?” That was better than what he wanted to ask.
Want me to kiss you until you can’t feel anything but a full-body shudder?

“I just need to figure out a new plan.” She pressed her palm to his abs and leaned against him as she rose up on her toes and kissed his cheek.

In the space of a breath, he debated turning in to her lips and taking her in a greedy kiss, but in that split second, she said, “I really needed a friend. Thank you.” It stopped him cold.

A friend
.

Fuck
.

How could he have totally misread her?

HOT, BOTHERED, AND upset with herself for being a wimp, Elisabeth paced her kitchen. If she’d been any other woman, she’d have pressed her lips to Ross’s and shown him exactly how much she appreciated him. The problem was, she didn’t just appreciate him. She
liked
him.
A lot
. She’d been attracted to plenty of men, but liking
who they were
was a whole different ballgame. And Ross…Ross made her body go ten different types of crazy.

She had to do something with all that sexual energy before she marched over to his house to see what else he could make her body do.

Focus, Elisabeth
.

With a sigh, she thought about the predicament that had sent her tears flowing earlier in the evening. She went upstairs and slipped on her favorite fuzzy slippers and pulled on her favorite hoodie. She needed comfort as she pondered her quandary. She went back down to the living room and paced the hardwood floor. If she was going to fit in to this place, she had to show them just how much it meant to her. There was no way she was giving up on her dreams—any of them. There was more than one way to make her mark, and she’d just have to adapt. When she first opened her business in LA, she’d done all the same things she did in Trusty, only it was easier. In LA pampering pets went hand in hand with owning them, at least in the higher-income areas. There weren’t really higher-income areas in Trusty. She’d already checked that out. There were no elite developments, and there was no bad side of town, or any sort of divide at all, which was probably one of the reasons she’d always loved it there. When she and her aunt had gone into town, everyone said hello and took the time to chat with them. Why was she such a pariah now?

I’m not Aunt Cora. I’m not a real Trusty girl.

She rubbed her temples and glanced out the window in the direction of Ross’s house. It was pitch-black outside, but if she squinted, she could make out a faint light in the distance. Her mind drifted to his protective arm around her shoulder, the feel of his thumbs wiping away her tears.

Focus. Focus. Focus
.