In Bed With The Wrangler

Three

Several hours later, eyes grainy from reading ranch paperwork, Amber wandered out of the office. The office door opened into a short hallway that connected to the front foyer and then to the rest of the ranch house. It had grown dark while she worked, and soft lamplight greeted her in the empty living room. The August night was cool, with pale curtains billowing in the side windows, while screen doors separated the room from the veranda beyond.

Muted noise came from the direction of the kitchen, and she caught a movement on the veranda. Moving closer, she realized it was a plump puff ball of a black-and-white puppy. Amber smiled in reaction as another pup appeared, and then a third and a fourth.

They hadn’t seen her yet, and the screen door kept them locked outside. Just as well. They were cute, but Amber was a little intimidated by animals. She’d never had a pet before. Her mother didn’t like the noise, the mess or the smell.

Truth was, she dropped out of dressage riding lessons because one of the horses had bit her on the shoulder. She hadn’t told the grooms, or her parents, or anybody else about the incident. She was embarrassed, convinced that she’d done something to annoy the horse but not sure of what it might have been. When a creature couldn’t talk or communicate, how did you know what they wanted or needed?

The pups disappeared from view, and she moved closer to the door, peeking at an angle to see them milling in a small herd around Royce’s feet while he sat in a deep, wooden Adirondack chair, reading some kind of report under the half-dozen outdoor lamps that shone around the veranda.

Then the pups spotted her and made a roly-poly beeline for the door, sixteen paws thumping awkwardly on the wooden slats of the deck. She took an automatic step back as they piled up against the screen.

Royce glanced up from the papers. “Hey, Amber.” Then his attention went to the puppies. He gave a low whistle, and they scampered back to him.

“It’s safe to come out now,” he said with a warm smile.

“I’m not…” She eased the door open. “I’m not scared to come out.”

Royce laughed. “Didn’t think you were. Shut the screen behind you, though, or these guys will be in the kitchen in a heartbeat.”

She closed the screen door behind her. “Your puppies?”

He reached down to scratch between the ears of the full-grown border collie sprawled between the chair and the railing. “They belong to Molly. Care to take one home when you leave?”

“My mother won’t have pets in the house.” The puppies rushed back to Amber again.

Royce gestured for her to take the chair across from his. “Is she allergic?”

“Not exactly.” Warm, fuzzy bodies pressed against her leg; cool, wet noses investigated her bare feet and she felt a mushy tongue across the top of her toes. She struggled not to cringe at the slimy sensation. “She doesn’t want any accidents on the Persian rug.”

“The price you pay,” said Royce.

Amber settled into the chair. One of the pups put its paws on her knee, lifting up to sniff along her jeans.

“Most people pet them.” Royce’s tone was wry.

“I’m a little…” She gingerly scratched the puppy between its floppy, little ears. Its fur was soft, skin warm, and its dark eyes were adorable.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Not everybody likes animals.”

“I don’t dislike them.”

“I can tell.”

“They make me a little nervous, okay?”

“They’re puppies, not mountain lions.”

“They-” Another warm tongue swiped across her bare toes, and she jerked her feet under the chair. “Tickle,” she finished.

“Princess,” he mocked her.

“I was once bitten by a horse,” she defended. Her interactions with animals hadn’t been particularly positive so far.

“I was once gored by a bull,” he countered with a challenging look.

“Is this going to be a contest?”

“Kicked in the head.” He leaned forward and parted his short, dark hair.

She couldn’t see a scar, but she trusted it was there.

“By a bronc,” he finished. “In a local rodeo at fourteen.”

Amber lifted her elbow to show a small scar. “Fell off a top bunk. At camp. I was thirteen.”

“Did you break it?”

“Sprained.”

“What kind of camp?”

“Violin.”

His grin went wide. “Oh, my. Such a dangerous life. Did you ever break a nail? Get a bad wax job?”

“Hey, buddy.” She jabbed her finger in the direction of his chest. “After your first wax job, we can talk.”

Devilment glowed in his deep blue eyes. “You can wax anything I’ve got,” he drawled. “Any ol’ time you want.”

Her stomach contracted, and a wave of unexpected heat prickled her skin. How had the conversation taken that particular turn? She sat up straight and folded her hands primly in her lap. “That’s not what I meant.”

He paused, gaze going soft. “That’s too bad.”

The puppies had grown bored with her feet, and one by one, they’d wandered back to Royce. They were now curled in a sleeping heap around his chair. The dog, Molly, yawned while insects made dancing shadows in the veranda lights.

“You hungry?” asked Royce.

Amber nodded. She was starving, and she was more than happy to let their discussion die.

He flipped the report closed, and she was reminded of their earlier office work.

“Did you talk to Cheng Li?”

“I did,” said Royce. “He promised to fax the paperwork to the Ryder financial office.”

“In Chicago.”

“Yes.” He rose cautiously to his feet, stepping around the sleeping puppies. “Disaster averted. Sasha’ll have soup on the stove.”

“Soup sounds great.” It was nearly nine, and Amber hadn’t eaten anything since their light snack on the plane around 5:00 a.m. Any kind of food sounded terrific to her right now.

They left the border collies asleep on the deck and filed through the living room, down a hallway to the kitchen on the south side of the house.

“Have you talked to your parents?” asked Royce as he set a pair of blue-glazed, stoneware bowls out on the breakfast bar.

The counters were granite, the cabinets dark cherry. There were stainless steel appliances with cheery, yellow walls and ceiling reflecting off the polished beams and natural wood floor. A trio of spotlights was suspended above the bar, complementing the glow of the pot lights around the perimeter of the ceiling.

“I texted them both before I got on the plane.”

“Nothing since then?” He set a basket of grainy buns on the breakfast bar, and she slipped onto one of the high, padded, hunter-green leather chairs.

She shook her head. “I don’t know how this GPS and triangulating-the-cell-towers thing works.”

Royce’s brows went up, and he paused in his work.

“Crime dramas,” she explained. “I don’t know how much of all that is fiction. My dad, and Hargrove for sure, will pull out all the stops.”

Royce held out his hand. “Let me see your phone.”

She pulled back on the stool and dug the little phone out of the pocket of her blue jeans.

He slid it open and pressed the on button.

“Are you sure-”

“I won’t leave it on long.” He peered at the tiny screen. “Nope. No GPS function.” He shut it off and tossed it back to her. “Though they could, theoretically, triangulate while you’re talking, but you’re probably safe to text.”

“Really?” That was good news. She’d like to send another message to her mother. And Katie deserved an explanation.

He set out two small plates and spoons while she tucked the phone back into her pocket. She’d have to think about how to phrase her explanation.

Royce ladled the steaming soup into the bowls and set them back on the bar, taking the stool at the end.

“Thanks,” she breathed, inhaling the delectable aroma.

Royce lifted his spoon. “So, how long have you known?”

She followed suit, dipping into the rich broth. “Known what?”

“That you didn’t love him?”

Royce knew his question was blunt to the point of rudeness, but if he was going to make a play for Amber, he needed to know the lay of the land. He knew he’d be a temporary, rebound fling, which was not even remotely a problem for him. In fact, he’d gone into the situation planning to be her temporary, rebound fling. She wasn’t going to stay the whole month. She probably wouldn’t even last a week. But he was up for it, however long it lasted.

Last night, he’d known Amber was beautiful. Today, he’d learned she was positively fascinating. She was intelligent, poised and personable, and she could actually speak Chinese. Her reaction to the puppies was cute and endearing. While her fiancé’s and family’s ability to intimidate her made him curious.

Why would such an accomplished woman give a rat’s hind end what anybody thought of her decisions?

She stirred her spoon thoughtfully through the bowl of soup. “It’s not so much…” she began.

He waited.

She looked up. “It’s not that I knew I didn’t love him. It’s more that I didn’t know that I did. You know?”

Royce hadn’t the slightest idea what she meant, and he shook his head.

“It seems to me,” she said, cocking her head sideways, teeth raking momentarily over her full bottom lip, “if you’re going to say ‘till death do us part’ you’d better be damn sure.”

Royce couldn’t disagree with that. His parents obviously hadn’t been damn sure. At least his mother wasn’t. His father, on the other hand, had to have been devastated by her betrayal.

Amber was right to break it off. She had absolutely no business marrying a man she didn’t love unreservedly.

“You’d better be damn sure,” Royce echoed, fighting a feeling of annoyance with her for even considering marrying a man she didn’t love. This Hargrove person might be a jerk. So far, he sounded like a jerk. But no man deserved a disloyal wife.

Amber nodded as she swallowed a spoonful of the soup. “Melissa looked sure.”

“Melissa was sure.”

Amber blinked at the edge to Royce’s tone. “What?”

“Nothing.” He tore a bun in half.

“You annoyed?”

He shook his head.

“Melissa and Jared seem really good together.”

“You do know it’s kinder to break it off up front with a guy.” Royce set down his spoon.

“I-”

“Because, if you don’t, the next thing you know, you’ll have two or three kids, the PTA and carpool duty. You’ll get bored. You’ll start looking around. And you’ll end up at the No-Tell Motel on Route 55, in bed with some young drifter. And Hargrove, whoever-he-is, will be going for his gun.”

“Whoa.” Amber’s eyes were wide in the stark kitchen light. “You just did my whole life in thirty seconds.”

“I didn’t necessarily mean you.”

“What? Are we talking about Melissa?”

“No.” Royce gave himself a mental shake. “We are absolutely not talking about Melissa.”

“Then who-”

“Nobody. Forget it.” He drew a breath. So much for making a play for her. It wouldn’t be tonight. That was for sure. “I just don’t understand why you’re feeling guilty,” he continued. “You are absolutely doing the right thing.”

“I believe that,” she agreed.

He held her gaze with a frank stare. “And anybody who tries to talk you out of it is shortsighted and just plain stupid.”

“You know you’re talking about my father.”

“I know.”

“He’s Chairman of the City Accountants Association, and he owns a multimillion-dollar financial consortium.”

“Pure blind luck, obviously.”

A small smile crept out, though she clearly fought against it. “The No-Tell Motel?”

“Metaphorically speaking. I’m sure you’d pick the Ritz.”

“I’ve never been unfaithful.”

Royce knew he should apologize.

“I’ve dated Hargrove since I was eighteen, and even though he’s not the greatest-” She snapped her mouth shut, and a flush rose in her cheeks as she reached for one of the homemade buns.

Okay, this was interesting. “Not the greatest what?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re blushing.”

“No, I’m not.” She tore into the bun.

Royce grinned. “Were you going to say lover?”

“No.” But everything in her body language told him she was lying.

He gazed at her profile for a long minute.

Eighteen. She was eighteen when she took up with Hargrove. Royce could be wrong, but he didn’t think he was. Amber hadn’t had any other lovers. She was dissatisfied with Hargrove, but she had no comparison.

Interesting. He chewed a hunk of his own bun.

A woman deserved at least one comparison.

“What did you find?” Royce’s voice from the office doorway interrupted Amber’s long day of office work.

The sun was descending toward the rugged mountains, while neat piles of bills and correspondence had slowly grown out of the chaos on the desktop in front of her.

Now she stretched her arm out to place a letter on the farthest pile. It was another advertisement for horse tack. She was fairly sure the junk mail could be tossed out, but she wasn’t about to make that decision on her own.

“You’ve got some overdue bills,” she answered Royce, twisting her head to see him lounging in the doorway, one broad shoulder propped against the doorjamb, his hair mussed and sweaty across his forehead and a streak of dirt marring his roughened chin. She met his deep blue gaze, and a surge of longing clenched her chest.

“Pay them,” he suggested in a sexy rumble, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You going to hand over your platinum card?”

His lips parted in a grin. “Sure.”

“Then you better have a high limit. Some of them are six figures.” Feed, lumber, vet bills. The list went on and on.

He eased away from the door frame and ambled toward her. “There must be a checkbook around here somewhere.”

“I didn’t see one.” Not that she’d combed through the desk drawers. There was plenty to do sorting through what was piled on top. “How long did you say McQuestin had been off?”

“Three weeks. Why?”

“Some of these bills are two months old. That’s hell on your credit rating, you know.”

He moved closer, and she forced herself to drag her gaze from his rangy body.

To distract herself, she lifted the closest unopened envelope and sliced through the seam with the ivory-handled opener, extracting another folded invoice. The distraction didn’t help. Her nostrils picked up his fresh, outdoorsy scent, and his arm brushed her shoulder, sending an electric current over her skin as he slid open a top desk drawer.

Lifting several items out of the way, he quickly produced a narrow, leather-bound booklet and tossed it on the desk. “Here you go. Start protecting my credit rating.”

“Like the bank would honor my signature.” She knew she should shift away, but something magnetic kept her sitting right where she was, next to his narrow hip and strong thigh. She didn’t even care that his jeans were dusty.

Not that it would matter if anything rubbed off. She was dressed in a plain, khaki T-shirt and a pair of faded jeans she’d borrowed from Stephanie’s cache in the upstairs bedroom. She could press herself against Royce from head to toe, and simply clean up later with soap and water.

The idea was far too appealing. She felt heat flare in the pit of her stomach as an image bloomed in her mind.

“I’ll sign a bunch for you.” His voice interrupted her burgeoning fantasy as he flipped open the checkbook.

She blinked herself back to reality. “I assume you’re joking.”

“Why would I be joking?” He leaned over, hunting through the drawer again, bringing himself into even closer contact with her.

She shifted imperceptibly in his direction, and his cotton-clad arm brushed her bare one. She sucked in a tight breath.

He retrieved a pen.

She suddenly realized he was serious, and placed her hand over the top check. “You can’t do that.”

He turned, pen poised, bringing their faces into close proximity. “Why not?”

“Because I could write myself a check, a very big check, and then cash it.”

He rolled his eyes

“Don’t give me that ‘shucks ma’am’ expression-”

‘“Shucks, ma‘am’?”

“You didn’t just wander in off the back forty. You know I could drain your account.”

“Would you?”

“I could,” she stressed. Theoretically, of course.

He twirled the pen over two fingers until it settled into his palm. “And then what?”

“And then I disappear. Tahiti, Grand Cayman.”

“I’d find you.”

“So what?” She shrugged. “What could you do? The money would already be in a Swiss bank account.”

He braced one hand against the desk and moved the other to the back of her chair, bending slightly over. “Then I’d ask you, politely, for the number.”

She was blocked by the V of his arms. It was unnerving, but also exciting. He emanated strength, power and raw virility.

“And if I refuse to tell you?” she challenged, voice growing breathy.

“I’d stop being polite.”

“What? You’d threaten to break my legs?”

He smiled and leaned closer. Self-preservation told her to shrink away, but the chair back kept her in place. His sweet breath puffed against her skin. “Violence? I don’t think so. But there are other ways to be persuasive.”

She struggled for a tone of disbelief. “What? You kiss me and I swoon?”

His grin widened. “Maybe. Let’s try it.”

And before she could react, he’d swooped in toward her. She gasped as his smooth lips settled on hers. They were warm and firm, and incredibly hot, as the contact instantly escalated to a serious kiss.

It took her only seconds to realize how much she’d longed for his taste. His scent filled her, and his hands settled on her sides, surrounding her rib cage as he deepened the kiss. Her head tipped back, and her mouth responded to his pressure by opening, allowing him access, drinking in the sensation of his intimate touch.

She clutched his upper arms, steadying herself against his hard, taut muscles. He flexed under her touch, and she imagined she could feel the blood coursing through his body. She could definitely feel the blood coursing through her own. It heated her core, flushed her skin and made her tingle from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes.

His hands convulsed against her body, thumbs tightening beneath her breasts. Her nipples hardened almost painfully as arousal thumped its way to the apex of her thighs. She gave him her tongue, answering his own erotic invitation. A river of sound roared in her ears as he drew her to her feet, engulfing her, pressing her against his hard body.

His touch was unique, yet achingly familiar, as if she’d been waiting for this moment her entire life. Her palms slid across his shoulders, around his neck, stroking the slick sweat of his hairline as their kiss pulsed endlessly between them.

His hands slipped to her buttocks, pulling her against the cradle of his thighs, demonstrating the depth of his arousal and shocking her back to her senses.

She jerked away, hands pressing against his chest, putting a barrier between them. He leaned in, trying to capture her mouth.

“I can’t,” she gasped.

He froze.

“I’m…uh…” She wasn’t exactly sorry. That had definitely been the best kiss of her life. But she couldn’t take things any further. They barely knew each other. She’d only just left Hargrove. And she hadn’t come to Montana for casual sex.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

She tried to take a step back, but the damn chair still blocked her way. “This is too fast,” she explained, struggling to bring both her breathing and her pulse rate back under control.

He heaved an exasperated sigh. “It was a kiss, Amber.”

But they both knew it was more than a kiss. Then, to her mortification, her gaze reflexively flicked below his waistline.

He gave a knowing chuckle, and she wished the floor would swallow her whole.

“Are you blushing?” he asked.

“No.” But she couldn’t look him in the eyes.

“You seemed a whole lot more sophisticated when we met in the lounge,” he ventured.

She couldn’t interpret his flat tone, so she braved a glance at his expression. Was he annoyed?

He looked annoyed.

She hadn’t intended to lead him on. Nor had she meant for the kiss to spiral out of control.

Surely he could understand that.

Or was he always so quick to leap to expectations?

Then, an unsettling thought hit her. What if Royce hadn’t leaped to expectations in the past two minutes? What if his expectations had been there since their meeting in the lounge?

Had she been hopelessly naive? Did he consider her a one-or two-night stand?

“Is that why you brought me here?” she asked, watching closely, giving him the chance to deny it.

“Depends,” he said, cocking his head and giving her a considering look. “On what you mean by that.”

“Because you thought I’d sleep with you?”

“It had crossed my mind,” he admitted.

Her embarrassment turned to anger. “Seriously?”

He sighed. “Amber-”

“You are the most egotistical, opportunistic-”

“Hey, you were the one who was dressed to kill and insisted on ‘taking a ride in my jet plane.’”

“That wasn’t a euphemism for sex.”

“Really?” He looked genuinely surprised. “It usually is.”

Amber compressed her lips. How had she been so naive? How could she have been so incredibly foolish? Royce wasn’t some knight in shining armor. He was a charming, wealthy, well-groomed pickup artist.

Her distaste was replaced again by embarrassment. She’d proposed paying her way here by doing office work. He’d had a completely different line of work in mind.

She pushed the wheeled chair aside and moved to go around him. “I think I’d better leave.”

She’d have to call her parents to rescue her, head back to Chicago with her tail between her legs, maybe even reconsider her relationship with Hargrove, since, as the three of them so often told her, she was naive in the ways of the real world.

At least with Hargrove, she knew where she stood.

“Why?” Royce asked, putting a hand on her arm to stop her.

She glanced at his hand, and he immediately let go.

“There’s obviously been a misunderstanding.” She’d hang out in the upstairs bedroom until a car could come for her. Then she’d head back to the airport, home to her parents’ mansion and back to her real life.

This had been a crazy idea from beginning to end.

“Clearly,” said Royce, his jaw tight.

She moved toward the door.

Royce’s voice followed her. “Running back to Mommy and Daddy?”

Her spine straightened. “None of your business.”

“What’s changed?” he challenged.

She reached for the doorknob.

“What’s changed, Amber?” he repeated.

She paused. Then she turned to confront him. No point in beating around the bush. “I thought I was a houseguest. You thought I was a call girl.”

A grin quirked one corner of his mouth, and her anger flared anew.

“Are you always this melodramatic?” he asked.

“Shut up.”

He shook his head and took a couple of steps toward her. “I meant what’s changed on your home front?”

“Nothing,” she admitted, except it had occurred to her that her parents might be right. She had been protected from the real world for most of her life. Maybe she wasn’t in a position to judge human nature. They’d always insisted Hargrove was the perfect man for her, and they could very well be right.

“So, why go back?” Royce pressed.

“Where else would I go?” She could sneak off to some other part of the country, but her father would track her down as soon as she accessed her bank account. Besides, the longer she stayed away, the more awkward the reunion.

Royce took another step forward. “You don’t have to leave.”

She scoffed out a dry laugh.

“I never thought you were a call girl.”

“You thought I was a barroom pickup.”

“True enough,” he agreed. “But only because it’s happened so many times before.”

“You’re bragging?”

“Just stating the facts.”

She scoffed at his colossal ego.

“You’re welcome to stay as a houseguest.” He sounded sincere.

“Are you kidding?” She couldn’t imagine anything more uncomfortable. He’d been planning to sleep with her. And for a few seconds there, well, sleeping with Royce hadn’t seemed like such a bad idea. And he must have known it. She was sure he’d known it.

Their gazes held.

“I can control myself if you can,” he told her.

“There’s nothing for me to control,” she insisted.

He let her lie slide. “Good. Then it’s settled.”

“Nothing is-”

He nodded toward the desk. “You organize my office and pay my bills, and I’ll keep my hands to myself.” He paused. “Unless, of course, you change your mind about my hands.”

“I’m not going to-”

He held up a hand to silence her. “Let’s not make any promises we’re going to regret.”

She let her glare do the talking, but a little voice inside her acknowledged he was right. She didn’t plan to change her mind. But for a few minutes there, it had been easy enough to imagine his hands all over her body.