The Claiming

The Claiming

Jordan Silver

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 Alison
Jordan

All Rights Reserved

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Why did I wait until the last possible
minute to leave school for the holiday? I knew something like this
would happen but I just had to put myself in this
predicament.

I had a last minute paper to turn in,
something that I had finished days earlier but thought I could do
better on and so instead of leaving like the other ninety nine
point nine percent of the student body and faculty, I stayed behind
to tweak the paper, putting me two hours behind
schedule.

Now I'm caught in a
snowstorm, my car is about to die and I'm caught half way between
home and the Cade ranch. Yeah me.

It wouldn't be so bad if
Denise was home but my best friend was in Europe for a semester and
her parents were off visiting with her, which left only her crabby
older brother, who for some unknown reason couldn't stand
me.

I felt a slight pang in my heart at the
thought.

I have no idea what it was about me
that he found so revolting, but every time I was around he would
get this sour look on his face and leave the room.

If I laughed too loud with one of the
others he would sneer at me, once I think he even growled before
storming off.

I'd only met him the year before when
he'd come back home to help out on the ranch, he'd moved away a
long time ago after school to make his way in the business
world.

According to Denise and
Maryann he was some hotshot tycoon who had taken his maternal
grandfathers shipping company and turned it from a dying dinosaur
into one of the premier companies in the country.

Could've fooled me, all I saw was a
grouchy opinionated tyrant, though with everyone else he seemed to
be human, he saved all his acerbic remarks for me, that's when he
deigned to acknowledge my presence that is.

I was so lost in thought I didn't see
the snow drift until I was on top of it.

"Shit, no no no, not now, don't do this
to me please." I pounded the steering wheel in frustration before
screaming out loud.

All around me was a blanket of snow as
far as the eye could see, there was a sliver of light a ways up
across the field, if I got out now and started walking I just might
make it about halfway before hypothermia kicked in, then the high
and mighty Braxton Cade could find my carcass when the snow thawed.
Wouldn't that be a feather in his cap?

I would only be proving him
right since I'd once overheard him telling his sister what a clutz
I was.

Who cares?

I checked my cell for the off chance
that my life wasn't doomed from birth and there was a signal, no
luck, my reign as the unluckiest person in the universe was yet
unchallenged.

The knock at my driver's side window
almost gave me a heart attack. I looked out the window, heart
racing in fear and could barely make out who or what was out
there.

I did recognize the big bay
that the rider was on though and my heart sunk even
lower.

I looked up to the roof of my car
facetiously.

"Really, him, you couldn't let me
freeze to death in peace?"

He knocked again until I rolled down
the window.

"You can talk to the Almighty another
time, it's freezing out here let's get a move on."

"Wha....."

"You're stuck aren't you? And there's
no way you're getting to your father's place tonight so you might
as well come on home with me."

I grumbled under my breath because I
knew the pain in the ass was right, what I didn't understand was
why these things always happened to me, it's like I had a dark
cloud hanging over my head or something.

I grabbed my bag and made to get
out.

"Leave it."

"But..."

"Duke can barely make it through the
snow with the two of us on his back and you want him to carry your
luggage as well?"

"Oh alright."

I threw the bag back in the back seat
and got out of the car.

He was kind enough to give
me a hand up in front of him.

My body was frozen in two
minutes flat; my teeth started chattering, my limbs
trembling.

"Geez what the hell are you wearing,
you idiot, don't you have any sense?"

I ground my teeth and bit my tongue, he
was doing me a service after all, it wouldn't be polite to tell him
to go fuck himself, and besides, I only thought those things but
never said them out loud, if I did I would've given him a piece of
my mind a long time ago...like the first time we met, when we'd
been introduced and he'd acted like he smelt something
rotten.

He opened his huge parka and wrapped it
around me, pulling me back closer to his body heat. His body was
like a furnace. Don't think I didn't suck up all that nice warm
goodness.

He guided old Duke at a nice
steady gait back towards the ranch house; neither of us said
another word until we reached the porch.

"Go on inside and get warm, you might
as well put on a pot of coffee I don't think either one of us is
going to get any sleep tonight."

"Speak for yourself I could sleep for
the next twelve hours easy." I grumbled under my breath but he
somehow heard me.

"What was that?"

"Uh nothing, nothing at all, just
talking to myself."

I rushed into the house
after shaking off the excess snow from my boots and light jacket;
I'd only been wearing it because it was more comfortable to drive
in than my bulky winter coat, which was in the trunk of my car, but
if course Mr. Know-it-all had to call me stupid. Sometimes I wished
I had the nerve to call him on his bullshit.

Heading straight for the kitchen I got
the water ready and measured out the coffee so his majesty could
have something hot to drink after he had seen to his
horse.

That was his only redeeming quality,
his love for that old horse, a horse he'd had since his early teens
and refused to trade up, he cared for that horse like it was his
child, it's the only thing that told me he was human, that and the
way he treated his little sister.

I was sitting next to the fire he had
going in the hearth when he finally came in, his golden russet, who
knows what color hair, was all mussed, his jaw was a little
shadowed and his face was red from the cold, still he was the most
beautiful man I'd ever seen.

See, I was cursed from birth, it was
just my luck that my one and only crush made Ebenezer T Scrooge
look like the tooth fairy.

"Let me see your hands."

He walked over and took my hands in his
before I could protest. The shock of his touch went through me like
a hot knife through butter and I almost jumped out of my
skin.

"Would you be still, why the hell are
you always so skittish?"

"I don't know, sorry, I
don't mean to be..."

Talk about ice water on a hot libido, I
wish I could get over this foolish high school dream, you would
think after a year and more of this type of treatment those
feelings would've died, but nope, no such luck.

"Where are your gloves
Jade?"

"I lost them." I finally found my voice
after enjoying the sound of my name on his lips, I don't think I'd
ever heard him call me by name before, and he need not say it again
either, unless he wanted me in a puddle at his feet. Sweet merciful
heavens, wet panty alert.

He rubbed my hands between his to bring
back the warmth, I guess he figured if I got too close to the fire
to warm them I might burn them or something, seeing that I was such
a ditz.

He got up and took down two mugs when
the coffee was ready.

"I prefer hot chocolate...."

He huffed before turning away and
getting the chocolate out of the cupboard.

I'm no fool, I've heard
stories about his hot chocolate though I had yet to taste it, and I
wasn't going to let this opportunity pass me by.

He chopped chunks of chocolate, heated
the milk and added a stick of what smelt like cinnamon and some
other things he seemed to add randomly. He was too quick for me to
see what they were but it smelled heavenly.

I sat like a mute feeling
very self-conscious all of a sudden, what the hell were we supposed
to do for the next few hours?

From experience I knew this storm
wasn't letting up anytime soon, poor dad would be worried sick as
there was no way to contact him, phone service both landline and
cell were a joke in these parts in weather like this.

"My dad's going to be so
worried."

"Your dad's not home, he was called out
on a missing person's report, seems some hikers have been missing
off the trails for a couple days and they called him in since he's
the best tracker in these parts. He called me before him and his
team headed out and asked me to keep an eye out for
you."

"Oh..." Well that sucks, I
guess I would be spending another thanksgiving alone
then.

I felt very tired and very alone all of
a sudden, something must've shown on my face because the ogre gave
me a gruff, "Don't pout, your father has a job to do, you
should be proud of him."

"I'm not pouting."

"Yes you are, now here, drink your hot
chocolate like a good girl and get warmed up."

I did as I was told.

"Damn...."

"Good?"

I nodded my head like a bobble head
doll, good wasn't the word, it was ambrosia. Sweet and creamy and
hot.

I blushed when I thought of what else
might fit that description. Dammit why was it that he could do that
to me, make me think and feel this way, when he obviously saw me as
nothing but a nuisance, it was so unfair.

"What are you thinking so hard about
over there?"

I started guiltily.

"Who me, nothing." I felt the heat in
my face as the lie left my tongue.

He studied me like a bug
under a microscope until I started to squirm in my seat.

"So...how is school."

What? He was actually
talking to me? Well hell, it only took a snowstorm and about four
feet of snow give or take.

"Schools good, um, yeah,
it's good." Real smooth Jade, tongue-tied much?

"What is it you're studying
again?"

"Um, the sciences, I want to be a
vet."

"Tall order for such a little
girl."

"That's so sexist."

"You think so, I just don't see you
doing that that's all."

"Oh yeah, what do you see me
doing?"

"I don't know, kindergarten
teacher maybe?"

"Huh, never thought of that, I guess
ever since I moved here with my dad I fell in love with animals,
now I want to take care of them."

"So you plan on staying around here
after schooling and working on the ranches in this
area?"

"Something like that, your dad promised
to help me out with that when the time comes."

"So you're as good as got it made then
I guess."

"If I do well in my classes, but I have
along way to go yet."

"Why not the local college? They have a
good program there."

"I know but dad wanted me to spread my
wings a little so we made a deal, if I stick it out for one year I
can choose to change schools next fall if I still want
to."