The Rough and Ready Rancher (6 page)

He looked over the top of her head and in the distance watched Ryan enter the house. He'd be inclined to deck whoever had the nerve to doubt
his
honesty. But he wasn't the one in question.

“You used your initials on our contract, knowing full well I'd think you were a man. That's the same as fraud, darlin'.”

“Would you have hired me otherwise?”

“No.”

“It's men like you who force me to use J.J., instead of my full name. And it's not fraud. Those are my initials.” She poked his chest. “And let's get something else straight, cowboy. No matter what you think of me, I don't have affairs.”

“Darlin', just because a beautiful woman's integrity is in question, that doesn't keep a man from wanting her.”

“I've calmed down,” she said suddenly. “You can let me go.”

Flint felt the fight go out of her. Loosening his hold, he reluctantly let her slide off the horse.

“I'm flattered you think I'm attractive, McCray.” She started toward the house. “But I happen to believe it wouldn't be called lovemaking, if love wasn't supposed to be involved. As far as I'm concerned, one won't happen without the other.”

 

Jenna had just finished running the brush through her recently dried hair when Ryan raced into the room. “Are you going with us? I'll let you hold my puppy.”

“But what about supper? Won't Whiskers be upset if we aren't here to eat?”

Ryan's expression brightened. “Oh, Daddy said we'd get some hamburgers and stuff at Heartburn Heaven before we go to the dog place.”

“Where on earth is that?”

“That's what Whiskers calls all the hamburger and taco places. He says if we're boneheaded enough to eat there, we oughtta get sick.” The child shook his head. “But we don't. He just says that.”

“Don't tell Whiskers,” she confided, “but I eat at places like that quite a bit when I'm traveling.”

His face eager, Ryan asked, “Does that mean you'll go?”

Jenna hesitated. After their talk on the way back from the creek this afternoon, the prospect of spending an evening with Flint might not be wise. “Does your dad know you were going to ask me?” she stalled.

“Oh, yeah.” The child nodded so hard his hair flopped on his forehead. “Daddy said I could. Are you ready to go?”

“I guess so,” she said not wanting to disappoint the child. She did need to pick up a few things, and it would save her a trip later.

Ryan grabbed her hand and when they walked into the kitchen, Flint stood by the door, a surprised expression on his face.

Jenna stopped short to look at the child still tugging her along. “I thought your dad knew you were asking me to go.”

“He said I could.” Ryan turned to Flint. “Didn't you, Daddy?”

Flint searched his memory. Excited about getting a dog, Ryan had chattered from the moment Flint entered the house. He'd even followed Flint upstairs and tried to talk to him while he took his shower. But with the water running, and preoccupied by his conversation with Jenna, he hadn't understood much of what Ryan had been asking and answered with “Fine,” “Sure” and “We'll see.”

He'd learned a lot about parenting in the few months since Ryan came to live with him, but Flint still had a long way to go. Evidently, paying closer attention when he agreed to something was to be his most recent lesson.

“Of course I told him to ask you,” Flint lied. In truth he wished he'd thought of asking her himself.

Jenna looked doubtful. “Maybe I should stay here.”

“Please, Jenna,” Ryan pleaded, tugging on her sleeve. “I want you to come.”

“Go on and have a good time, gal,” Whiskers called from the pantry. He limped into the kitchen. “This past week you've been busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kickin' contest. You deserve some time away from the ranch.”

“I don't want to impose.”

Flint could tell by her wary look that she had her doubts about going anywhere with him after their talk this afternoon. Leaning close, he whispered, “I never figured you for a coward.”

He laughed out loud when she brushed past him and headed for his pickup truck.

 

Several hours later Flint couldn't help feeling dazed as he pulled away from the animal shelter and drove toward home. Whiskers had agreed to having one dog in the house. But what would he do now that Flint had adopted three?

Somewhere along the line, and not exactly sure how, he'd lost control of the situation. But when Ryan couldn't decide which puppy to choose, and Jenna turned pleading eyes to him, he'd caved like an aluminum can in a vise.

He shook his head. He must be getting soft in his old age. If they'd asked him to, he'd have adopted the whole damned canine population of Texas rather than disappoint either one of them.

“Jenna, will you hold me?” Ryan asked. “Betsy used to hold me when I got sleepy.”

She glanced at Flint.

He nodded. “We're on Rocking M land now. There won't be any more traffic.”

Jenna released the catch on Ryan's seat belt and took him into her arms.

“I like you a lot, Jenna,” Ryan said, snuggling against her breasts. “You're soft.”

She treated Flint to a withering glare when she heard his choked laughter. “Watch it, cowboy.”

Glancing down at the now-sleeping child, she kissed the top of his small head. “Was Betsy his nanny?”

Flint shook his head.

“Betsy was their maid. She was a decent woman, but she didn't have a lot of time to give Ryan.” Jenna noticed all traces of amusement disappear and his grip tighten on the steering wheel. “I doubt Nicole held Ryan more than a dozen times in the four years she had him.”

Jenna gazed down at the cherubic face lying against her breasts. “But she was his mother.”

Flint cocked a brow. “You've been around ranching enough to know that just because a female gives birth doesn't mean she'll mother her young. I've seen more than one cow reject her calf, no matter what tricks you use to get her to accept it.”

“Yes, but people are supposed to be different from cattle.”

She watched his expression harden. “If the instinct to nurture isn't present, there isn't much you can do about it.”

Jenna swallowed hard. It was something she knew all too well from personal experience. “Then why didn't you—”

“Try to get custody of Ryan before Nicole's death?”

She nodded.

“Until my ex-wife died in that accident, I didn't even know I had a son,” he said, his tone bitter.

Jenna looked at Flint, but he stared straight ahead, his face tight with anger. No wonder he had a deep distrust of women. “How could she do that?”

Flint laughed, but the sound held no humor. “If you'd known her, you wouldn't ask that. Nicole had a vengeful streak a mile wide. When we divorced, she tried to hurt me by getting part of the ranch. It didn't sit well when the judge ruled in my favor. The last thing she ever said to me was that one day she'd get even.”

“So she kept her pregnancy a secret?”

Flint nodded and steered the truck onto the long drive leading up to the house. “One of the things that came between us was the fact I wanted children and she didn't. Keeping Ryan from me was the ultimate revenge. And the longer she deprived me of time with my son, the sweeter it became.” He turned his head to look at her, his eyes reflecting how deeply he'd been hurt by his ex-wife's de
ception. “I was cheated out of precious years with Ryan I'll never get back.”

The thought of anyone using a child in such a callous way made Jenna feel ill. Quiet tears slipped down her cheeks as she touched Ryan's baby-soft cheek. She felt a kinship with the child. Although her own mother hadn't ignored her children before leaving them, she hadn't loved them enough to stay.

Flint parked the truck and came around to take Ryan, but Jenna hugged his son close. When her eyes met his, the anguish in their pearl-gray depths, the shimmering tears, rendered Flint speechless.

He swallowed hard as he wiped a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb. He hated to see a woman cry, but Jenna's tears tore at his insides. “What's wrong, Jenna?”

“Ryan will never understand why his mother treated him that way,” she said, her voice cracking.

Flint cupped her face with his hands. “How do you know that, darlin'?”

Another tear slipped down her cheek. “When I was nine, my mother walked away and never looked back. She was there to put me to bed one night, and the next morning she was gone.” Her voice caught on a sob. “I grew up wondering if I'd done something to make her stop loving me. For a long time I thought that if I'd been different in some way, she might have stayed.”

“It wasn't your fault, darlin'.”

She nodded. “It took me a long time to realize that I'd done nothing wrong. That it was my mother's way of getting back at my father for traveling the rodeo circuit and not settling down in one place.”

Flint helped her from the truck, put his arm around her, and they silently walked to the house. He wanted to take
her into his arms, wanted to erase the pain. But when they reached the house, Jenna placed Ryan in his arms.

“What your ex-wife did to you was deplorable, and you have every right to be bitter about it. But what she did to Ryan was worse. She used him as a pawn in her game of revenge.” Her hand trembled as she touched Ryan's cheek. “The innocent are always hurt more by vengeance than the intended victim.”

Long after he'd put Ryan to bed and settled the puppies down for the night, Flint thought about what Jenna had said. Ryan had been the one to suffer the most in Nicole's quest for revenge.

Why hadn't he seen that? Had he been just as blind when it came to seeing other things as well?

It appeared he had. Otherwise he would have recognized that Jenna never had been, nor would she ever be, anything like his ex-wife.

J
enna released a contented sigh as she leaned on the fence and watched Black Satin run across the pasture, tail held high, master of his domain. But when a set of muscular arms eased around her midriff from behind, she tensed. She'd been so preoccupied with appreciating the stallion's beauty, she hadn't heard anyone approach.

“You'd better back off,” she warned. “I've got a gun in Daisy that can turn you from a stud to a gelding faster than you can blink. And I damned well know how to use it.”

“You wouldn't do that to the guy who gave you that gun and taught you what to do with it, would you?” the man whispered close to her ear.

“Cooper!” Jenna turned in his arms. Overjoyed to see her brother, she hugged him close. “Where— How…”

“Slow down, little sister,” he said, laughing. “I stopped by Cal Reynold's place in Houston, and he told me where to find you.”

Jenna hugged him again. “I'm so glad to see you. How long can you stay?”

Cooper shrugged as he stared off into the distance. “You know me. Always headed to the next rodeo.”

Happy to see her brother for the first time in months, she refused to let anything dampen her spirits. “I don't want to think about that. You're here now. That's all that matters.”

When they turned to walk to the house, Cooper asked, “Do you think the foreman of this spread will mind me putting up in the bunkhouse for a couple of days?”

She hesitated. Brad wouldn't have any objections, but the way Flint had been avoiding her since their trip into Amarillo a week ago, it was anybody's guess. “I don't think it will be a problem.”

Cooper stopped, his stance rigid. “Has somebody been giving you a hard time?”

“Nothing I can't handle.”

“Just say the word, little sister.” Cooper playfully chucked her chin. “I'll straighten them out.”

Jenna grinned as she stepped back in an exaggerated stagger. Some things never changed. Older brothers the world over had certain rights. They could pick on, tease and even ignore their younger sisters, but let someone else try it and the end results were always the same—a free-for-all.

She heard the door slam and turned to see Flint coming across the yard like a charging bull.

“Is he the one causing you trouble?”

“Well, not exactly—”

His stance ready for battle, Cooper shoved her behind him. “Let me take care of this.”

“You got business here?” Flint asked, storming up to them.

“Maybe I do,” Cooper drawled. “What's it to you?”

“Around here we don't hit women.”

Cooper shrugged. “Where I come from we don't give women a hard time.”

Jenna looked from one man to the other. The situation was explosive. Flint was as mad as a grizzly with a tail end full of buckshot, and Cooper had his Rambo look firmly in place. If she didn't do something soon, all hell would break loose.

“Settle down—”

“Stay out of this,” both men ordered at the same time.

Before either man could land a punch, Jenna wedged herself between them. “Stop it! Both of you!”

She placed a hand on each man's chest to keep them apart. “Do either one of you know who you're about to fight? Or why?”

Neither man answered as they stood glaring at each other over the top of her head.

“I didn't think so.” She turned to Cooper. “In case you'd like to know, this is my
boss,
Flint McCray.” She treated Flint to the same scathing look. “And I'd like you to meet my
brother,
Cooper Adams.”

Stepping from between them, Jenna threw her hands in the air. “Now, if you'd like to continue, you can beat each other senseless for all I care.”

Both men watched her march to the house like a four-star general on field maneuvers, then eyed each other carefully.

Now that he'd calmed down, Flint could see the resemblance. Though his eyes were blue instead of gray like Jenna's, Cooper Adams had the same dark-blond hair, the same stubborn chin.

“I didn't recognize you,” Flint said. “You can't tell much about a man's looks from the seats of an arena, and when I saw you clip her on the chin—”

“Don't worry about it.” Cooper grinned. “It's nice to
know somebody's looking out for my kid sister when I'm not around.”

Smiling, Flint stuck out his hand. “Welcome to the Rocking M.”

 

“Still upset, little sister?” Cooper asked, walking up to the corral to drape his forearms over the top rail.

Jenna finished brushing Satin's ebony coat before turning to face him. “Yes and no.”

Cooper gave her a lopsided grin and pushed his tan Resistol back with his thumb. “You're still mad at me. But you forgive me because I'm your brother and I'm as lovable as an old teddy bear. Right?”

“And you're starting to push that.”

She led Satin through the gate to the pasture, unsnapped the lead rope, then slapped him on the rump to let him know he had the freedom to run. Walking over to where Cooper leaned on the fence, Jenna eyed her brother. His voice sounded a little too casual, his smile forced.

“Why are you
really
here, Cooper?”

All traces of humor gone, he couldn't quite meet her eyes. “Maybe I just wanted to see my kid sister.”

“Yeah, right. Now why don't you put on a tutu, wave a magic wand and tell me a fairy tale.”

When Cooper finally looked at her, his blue eyes had turned bleak and his shoulders slumped. She'd only seen her brother this way once before. The morning he had to tell her their mother had left.

“Cooper?”

“Is there somewhere we could go to talk?”

Thirty minutes later Jenna watched Cooper tear off blades of grass, then throw them into the lazy current of the stream while she waited for him to tell her what was troubling him. It had always been this way with them. When life dealt them a blow they found difficult to cope
with, they'd always sought out the other's council. But they never pushed, never pressured the other to speak before they were prepared to share their feelings. When Cooper was ready, he would tell her. Until that time, she simply waited.

“Have you ever wondered what you'd do if you couldn't train horses anymore?” Cooper finally asked.

“I haven't really given it a lot of thought,” she answered. “But I suppose I'd try to stay involved with horses in some way.”

Her hopes rose as she anticipated what he was about to tell her. She'd prayed the day would come when Cooper stopped competing, stopped gambling with fate. He'd been a successful rodeo cowboy for a long time, but the odds were stacking up against him. Fast. Riding the rough stock took its toll, and at the age of thirty, he was considered a seasoned veteran.

He propped his forearm on his bent knee and stared out across the open prairie. “I've never thought much beyond getting to the next rodeo, paying my entry fee and making the eight-second whistle. Riding bulls and saddle broncs has been my life for over twelve years. It's all I know.” When he turned to face her, his eyes mirrored his anguish. “I'm going to have to quit, little sister.”

Her brother had lived and breathed rodeo all his life. It was a part of him—who he was. To take that from him would remove a vital part of his identity. It had to be devastating.

“How did you come to your decision, Cooper?”

“I've lost my edge.” He stared out across the prairie. “I've had a few close calls lately.”

“Oh, God!”

Cooper put his arms around her. “It's all right, honey. I shouldn't have said anything. It still bothers you, doesn't it?”

“It always will.” She pulled away from him, her eyes anxious. “When do you plan to quit?”

“I'll make my last professional ride next week in Amarillo.”

“You're not waiting until the end of the season?”

Cooper shook his head. “I'm too far down in the standings to make the finals this year, and it's getting harder to scrape together the entry fee.” When he tried to smile, it looked more like a grimace. “No sense blowing money on a lost cause.”

All rodeo cowboys had a competitiveness few other sports matched, and Jenna knew what this confession cost her brother. For years he'd pitted physical strength and mental capabilities against the most rank bulls and wildest horses the stock contractors could deliver. Now to admit he'd lost his edge was like admitting defeat. He had come out the victor in a few battles, but the war was over. The beasts had finally won.

“I think you made the right decision,” she agreed. “Only a fool continues to play when he knows the game is over.”

“That's what I figure.” Cooper plucked another blade of grass and thoughtfully chewed on the end. “Are you going to come watch me take my last ride?”

It was Jenna's turn to stare off into the distance. “You know I can't do that, Cooper.”

They remained silent for several minutes before Cooper spoke again. “You can't keep blaming the rodeo for all the things that have gone wrong in your life. Mom left because she always wanted bigger and better. It wouldn't have mattered where we lived or what Dad did for a living. She never would have been satisfied.” He threw the blade of grass into the stream. “I think Dad always knew she'd take off one day. He just didn't know when.”

“But if it wasn't for rodeo, he and Dan would still be alive,” she said, suddenly angry.

Cooper shook his head. “You don't know that. Accidents happen. They could have been hurt crossing the street or falling down a flight of stairs.” He captured her chin between his thumb and forefinger, then forced her to meet his eyes. “Fate plays a big part in whether or not your number's up, little sister. If it's meant to happen, it will. And there's not a whole lot you can do about it.”

 

Small puffs of clouds skittered past the sliver of moon hanging low in the inky sky as Flint watched Jenna walk along the oak-lined drive leading away from the house. They hadn't talked since the incident with her brother. In fact, this was the first Flint had seen of her since this afternoon.

And if he had any brains, he'd make himself scarce now. The more he was around her the more he wanted to get to know her and the more he wanted her to get to know him.

But when he moved away from the porch rail, Flint found himself descending the steps and walking straight toward her. He tried to tell himself he only wanted to discuss Black Satin's progress.

Falling into step beside her, he searched for something to say. Damn! Had he forgotten how to make small talk? He grinned. He wanted to make something with Jenna all right, but small talk wasn't it.

“Did you have something on your mind, McCray?”

Oh, yeah.
“No. I just thought I'd explain about—”

“You don't have to. I know you and Cooper couldn't help yourselves.” She shrugged. “Jackasses are jackasses. Plain and simple. Dye their coats a different color, weave flowers in their manes, stick a hat on them, it doesn't change a thing. They're still jackasses.”

He stopped walking to stare at her a moment before he laughed. “I guess I had that coming.”

“Damned right you did,” she said, grinning back.

They stood staring at each other. Without warning, the atmosphere suddenly became charged with anticipation, the dark shadows of night breathtakingly intimate, and the warm breeze a whispered voice of sultry promise.

Jenna shivered when she saw the deep hunger in Flint's eyes, his fierce need. “Flint, I don't think—”

“I don't, either,” he whispered. “Not when I'm around you.” He reached out to pull her to him. “Right now, all I want to do is feel, darlin'.” He brushed her lips with his. “You.” Again his lips caressed hers. “Me.” Yet again. “Together.”

Her arms encircled his narrow waist, her hands splaying across his broad back. How was a woman supposed to resist words like that? Flint's mouth moved across hers with such infinite care, she found she didn't want to resist. She wanted to feel his arms around her again, taste the desire on his lips, hear his heart beat in time with her own.

Her body heated as Flint kissed her like she'd never been kissed before. Worshipping her lips, he outlined them with his tongue, nipped at them with his strong white teeth, then soothed them with nibbling little kisses.

“Open for me, darlin'.”

With no thought of protesting, Jenna did as he commanded. His gentle stroking sent a frenzied surge of excitement racing to every nerve in her system, and hot, enticing desire settled in the pit of her belly.

For the first time in her life Jenna cast aside her inhibitions and gave herself completely to Flint's kiss. Boldly she allowed her tongue to meet, then dance with his. A heady sense of feminine power came over her when the deep, rumbling groan of his pleasure echoed across her sensitive lips.

The fever of Flint's need burned higher, hotter, brighter than anything he'd ever imagined, when Jenna's inexperienced tongue played a game of advance and retreat with his. His hands traveled the length of her back to grasp her hips and pull her to him, letting her know how she made him want her.

He reveled in her softness warming his arousal, the way her body molded to his. “Feel what you've done to me?”

Her breasts were crushed to his chest, her nipples were branding him with their pebble hardness. He felt a fire building in his soul. He knew that when they finally came together, it would be sheer perfection. Two halves of a whole, unequivocally complete.

As he stood staring down into her passion-glazed eyes, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He had the distinct feeling they were being watched.

To hide her from the prying eyes, Flint held her close and glanced around. They had walked well out of sight of the house, so it couldn't be Whiskers or Ryan. Besides, the eyes watching them now were sinister, filled with hatred. He could feel it in his bones.