Wild Montana Nights (4 page)

A tentative knock on the door startled him. Marcus never

knocked. He just barged in cussing about one thing or another. Instead of Marcus, Darla peeked around the door with a shy smile lighting her face.

“Hi, Darla. Do you need something?”

“No, I just wanted to let you know lunch is ready when you are.

Marcus isn’t here yet, but it’s noon.” She rubbed her hands up and

down her thighs in an obviously nervous gesture.

“I’ll be right there. Thanks for telling me. I would have let it pass right by me if you hadn’t.”

She smiled and disappeared behind the door. He watched the door

for a few minutes just thinking about her smile. It warmed his heart to see her mouth curved up and the light dancing in her eyes. One day he wanted to see that and know it was for them. One day soon.

He quickly closed out of the programs he was in and stood up to

stretch. He’d been sitting there without getting up all morning. He did that sometimes when he was working on something particularly

engrossing. He’d missed cooking meals on more than one occasion

when it was his turn, much to Marcus’s disgust. Now he needed to

pay better attention with Darla in the house. He needed to pay

attention to her, which wouldn’t be a hardship at all.

He strolled down the hall to the kitchen but stopped to stare at the

entrance hall. The wood floor gleamed as it never had before. Even

the walls looked as if they had been freshly painted. Randall walked

into the living room to the same magnificent transformation.

Everything gleamed shiny and new looking. The furniture had been

dusted and the floors polished to a perfect shine. The stone fireplace looked as if she had washed down the stones with soap and water. It

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glistened in the light coming through the freshly washed windows.

How had she managed all of this in such a short time?

He found her in the kitchen stirring something on the stove and

couldn’t resist coming up behind her to sniff over her shoulder as

Marcus had done at breakfast. Around the wonderful aroma of stew

her scent wafted to his nose—a delicate mix of cinnamon and

sunshine. He breathed in, deeply holding her scent within himself as

long as possible.

“You smell wonderful,” he breathed out.

Darla jumped. “Excuse me?”

He took a step back and corrected his statement. “I meant that

what you’re cooking smells great.”

“Oh, thanks. It’s beef stew. I thought we would have it and

cornbread tonight. I hope that will be okay.” She bit her lower lip as if in worry.

“Sounds great to me. I’m sure Marcus will think so, too.”

She hurried over to the table and opened the bread. “If you’ll tell

me what you want on your sandwiches, I’ll fix them.”

“I can fix my own. Don’t worry about it. We aren’t helpless,

Darla. Don’t fuss so much,” Randall teased.

She dropped her hands and stepped back. “Sorry. I didn’t mean

to.”

Randall realized he’d hurt her feelings. Shit, this was going to be

harder than he’d thought. Neither he nor Marcus had been around

women much in the last couple of years. They would have to be

careful.

“It’s fine.” He held out his hand, and she took it after hesitating

for a few seconds. He squeezed it than let it drop. She turned away to once again stir the stew on the stove.

“Do you think Marcus is okay, or is he often late getting in for

lunch?”

Randall grinned. She was worried about him. That was a start.

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“I’m sure he’s fine. He’ll be in before long.” He started making

his sandwiches.

Just as he was ready to sit down, he heard Marcus on the back

porch stomping his feet.

“See, there he is now.”

He carefully watched Darla’s face when Marcus strode in grinning

like an idiot. Her eyes brightened, and she smiled. Yeah, she already liked them. Maybe she had felt that spark as they had the first time

she had seen them.

“Damn dumbass cows.” He took off his hat and hung on a hook

by the door.

“What did they do this time?” Randall asked.

“Chased two of them stupid things halfway across the damn

ranch. Then when I finally got them turned around, they didn’t want

to move again.” He strode over to the stove and leaned in to give the stew a good sniff. “Man that smells good.”

Darla stepped back but didn’t turn away. She did smile though,

and that seemed to make Marcus even happier.

“It’s for supper tonight. I’ll cook cornbread to go with it.”

“I sure as hell won’t be late for supper then.” He turned away to

wash his hands at the sink then sat down to make sandwiches.

“Aren’t you eating with us?” Marcus asked.

“Oh. I already ate.” She licked her lips and turned back to the

stove. “I’ve made a grocery list up. It’s on the counter. You might

want to look over it to see if there is something you want to add to it.”

Marcus shrugged his shoulders when Randall looked at him. She

was going to stir the stew out of the stew if she kept up. Randall took a bite out of his sandwich and got up to check the list. He skimmed

down it and smiled. She’d pretty much covered everything. Except

maybe…

“You might want to add shaving cream and soap for me. What

about you, Marcus?”

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“I’m fine. Just got all my stuff last week.” He winked at Randall.

“Darla honey, you might want to stock up on any woman stuff you

need just in case we get a storm early this year.

Randall groaned inwardly. He really hadn’t expected his brother

to go that far. He risked a glance at Darla and noticed she was stiff as a board and no longer stirring. Hell, had they gone too far already? He stuffed the last of his sandwich in his mouth and grabbed the

mayonnaise and mustard to return them to the fridge. Best to act like it wasn’t anything important.

“I noticed you like to read.” He began as he closed the refrigerator

door. “We’ll stop by the furniture store and see about a bookshelf for your room.”

“Oh.” She turned around from the stove. “There’s no need for

that. Really.”

“Can’t have your books stacked on the floor like that. It will ruin

them. There’s plenty of room in there for a bookshelf or two.”

Marcus looked up from his sandwich. “Hell, I’d give you my half

of the office shelves except brother here already took them.”

“If you would rather have those in the office, I can clear some

shelves off for you,” Randall offered.

“Goodness, no. You are both so generous already. I don’t want to

take your shelves, Randall. My books are fine like they are unless you rather there wasn’t anything on the floor in the bedroom.” She rubbed her hands together in a wringing motion.

He walked over to her and took her hands in his, stilling them.

“We’ll get a bookshelf in town. You will need more books when

winter gets here and you can’t go anywhere for a few months.”

She looked up at him and fell silent, then looked down at their

joined hands. He squeezed them gently and reluctantly let go. She

didn’t move, but her eyes followed him back to the table. There was

something in her gaze for a few seconds. Was it longing? Whatever it

was, it was gone just as quickly.

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“Marcus, I’m going to work on the breeder registry this afternoon.

Is everything in the folder, or do you have some of it in your desk?”

“It’s all in the folder. I updated it yesterday.” He finished his last sandwich and stood up. The chair scraped across the floor.

“Darla, I promise I’ll be on time for supper tonight.” He snuck a

kiss on her cheek before she knew what he was about. “See you

later.” Then he grabbed his hat and walked out.

Randall had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing at the look on

her face. Then her hand came up and touched her cheek where he’d

kissed her. He smiled and slipped out of the kitchen. Things were

looking up, he decided. Marcus with his winsome ways and constant

tomfoolery would win her for sure. Now he needed to work on his

part of seducing her.

* * * *

She stood there for several seconds with her hand to her cheek

where Marcus had kissed her. What had that been all about? Was he

flirting with her? Surely not. She was their housekeeper. She pushed it all aside and set about cleaning up the kitchen again. She’d worked

hard all morning cleaning the living room and hall. It fairly shone in the living room, and she was proud of it. Next were the men’s rooms.

They needed a good cleaning and airing. She would do that next week

when she would be home all day to do it. Home. She’d already come

to think of the ranch as home after only one day.

She decided to start on the basement, as it would take several days

to sort out. She checked the stew and turned it off to sit until time for supper. Then she climbed down the stairs to the basement armed with

a bucket of hot water and a plethora of cleaning supplies.

Dust covered everything. She looked around for a few seconds

and decided the best thing would be to start on the shelves with the

canned goods. She located a ladder against one wall and moved it to

the shelving area and climbed up. She moved the few jars off the top

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shelf to the next shelf and then, using a wet cloth, began cleaning the shelf off. She then cleaned each jar and set it back on the shelf. Then she moved down a shelf until she had them all cleaned off and the jars clear enough to see the contents once again.

She stood with her hands on her hips and viewed the shelves. She

checked her watch and found she had maybe another thirty minutes

before she would need to get supper ready. That gave her plenty of

time to rearrange the jars so that they made sense to her. She climbed back up to the top of the ladder and began moving jars back down. A

sudden noise startled her. She turned too quickly on the ladder and

lost her balance. She cried out but found instead of hitting the floor as she expected to do, she landed in warm arms.

“Damn it! You could have killed yourself standing on a ladder

that high up.” Randall held her against his chest.

“You startled me. I was fine until you snuck up behind me.” She

glared up into his frowning face.

“I ought to paddle your ass for getting on a ladder in the first

place. Next time you need something that high you ask me or Marcus

for help.” He still didn’t put her down.

“You can let me go now.” She looked up into his eyes. There was

something about the way he was looking at her now that caused her

heart to speed up.

He let her slowly slide down from his arms. Her body touched his

all the way down, and she felt the bulge of his stiffened cock against her belly. Oh God. He bent down and cradled her face between both

hands.

“I’m going to kiss you. If you don’t want this, say something

now.”

She couldn’t make a sound.

His mouth descended on hers. It was a feather of a kiss that slowly

evolved into a full mouth orgy. He nipped at her lips until she opened her mouth and welcomed him inside. His tongue coaxed hers to play

as he teased her mouth and nibbled on her lips. She pulled away

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gasping for breath. He let her, but didn’t let her out of his embrace. At some point his hands and made their way to her ass and held her tight against him.

She licked her lips and gazed up at Randall. Her face flamed at the

realization she’d returned his kiss. She pushed against him, and he let her go. She didn’t stop until she’d climbed the stairs from the

basement and made it all the way to her room. How was she supposed

to face him again?

There was a knock at the bedroom door.

“Darla?” Randall called.

Her hands went to her lips. She could still feel him there. They felt swollen and hot.

“I’m sorry, Darla. I shouldn’t have done that. I couldn’t help it.

You could have been hurt. I—” he stopped.

She hesitated for an instant then opened the door and peered out.

He stood leaning against the door jam, a worried look on his face.

“It’s okay. Let’s just forget it happened.” She drew in a deep

breath and walked past him toward the kitchen. She still had supper to tend to.

He didn’t follow her, for which she was exceedingly grateful. She

assumed he returned to the office to finish what he was working on.

Thirty minutes later, the sun set and Darla had cornbread in the oven.

She’d just pulled it out when Marcus strode in. He hung his hat on the hook and washed his hands in the sink.

“Hi, Darla. I’ll go grab Randall, and we’ll be right in to eat. It

smells great.” He disappeared through the door.

Several minutes later the two men returned and took their seats at

the table. Marcus looked around and then stood back up and went to

the cabinet and got out another bowl, then silverware and placed it on the table at the head. He frowned at her and sat back down.

“You eat with us,” Randall said without looking at her.

Darla sat down and joined them in passing the stew and then the

cornbread. She managed to eat some of it, but found it difficult to

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