Roping Your Heart (8 page)

A horse and rider came around the house and Cat saw that it was Demi. Cat smiled as the blonde girl’s horse trotted to the front porch and she brought the big animal to a stop.

“Hi, Demi,” Cat said with a smile.

“Hi, Cat.” Demi smiled in return but wore a curious expression. “What are you doing here?”

“By day, I’m an accountant.” Cat held up the files. “I took over some accounts and your father’s happens to be one of them. We need to go over some business.”

Demi looked thoughtful and scrunched her freckled nose. “I think he’s in the barn.”

“What a beautiful Quarter horse.” Cat set Blake’s files to the side on the porch and got to her feet. She went down the stairs and to the horse and rider and then stroked the horse’s forehead to her muzzle. The horse bobbed her head then snuffled at Cat’s hand, checking to see if Cat had a treat. “She looks like she’s a good girl,” Cat said.

“She is.” Demi smiled as she looked down at Cat. “Her name is Dandelion but I call her Dandy.”

“I like that name.” Cat continued to stroke the mare. “Do you and Dandy compete together?”

Demi nodded and leather creaked as she shifted in her saddle. “Dandy is amazing.”

“From what I saw at the meeting, you’re pretty amazing, too,” Cat said.

“Thank you.” Demi smiled again and looked over her shoulder. “I’ll check and see if Dad’s in the barn.”

“I’ll go with you,” Cat said.

“All right.” Demi dismounted her horse then gripped Dandy by the bridle.

“How long have you been riding?” Cat asked as she and Demi walked toward the barn, Dandy’s hooves clip-clopping as they went.

“Dad let me ride with him before I could walk,” Demi said. “I had a pony that I was allowed to ride when I was five. I graduated to a full-grown horse when I turned seven.” She looked at Cat. “What about you?”

“I started when I joined 4-H at nine.” Cat brushed a strand of hair from her face. “My family didn’t have any horses but we had neighbors to the south of us who let me ride and race theirs. I used to do all of the barn chores in exchange.”

They reached the barn and Cat blinked as they entered the dimness. It smelled of hay, horses, and sweet oats.

Demi started down the aisle between several stalls. “Hi, Dad.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “Cat’s here.”

Cat’s belly flipped as she saw Blake come toward them. He took off a pair of work gloves and stuffed them into his back pocket before giving his daughter’s braid a tweak. “Hey, kiddo.”

“Dad.”
Demi put one hand on her hip. “Don’t call me that.”

His gaze met Cat’s and he gave her a wink, which caused her belly to flip again.

“All right, honey.” He smiled at his daughter and squeezed her shoulder. “Did you arrange to go to Amy’s?”

“Yeah.” Demi gripped her horse’s bridle. “But I’d rather be home riding.”

He studied his daughter. “It’s good for you to get out and be with friends and not just around your horses.”

“But, I love horses.” She stroked Dandy’s nose. “They’re more fun than people.”

He smiled. “Why don’t you go ahead and put Dandy up and get ready?”

“Okay.” She gave an exaggerated sigh. “If you’re trying to get rid of me.”

With a laugh, he leaned over and kissed her on the top of her head. “Never.”

Demi continued down the aisle to the back of the barn.

Cat watched Blake as he came toward her and she caught her breath at just how sexy he looked. He was dusty and sweat glistened on his skin and his jaws were a little stubbly. The sleeves of his work shirt were rolled up showing the strength in his forearms and molding his powerful biceps.

“You’re early,” he said as he reached her. “I’d planned to take a shower.”

She swallowed. “Didn’t take me as long to get here as I thought it would.”

“Well, come on into the house.” He indicated his home with a nod. “I’ll get you a glass of iced tea and you can enjoy that while I take a quick shower.”

“All right.” She fell into step beside him as they started toward the ranch house.

When they reached it, she picked up his files from the porch and he held the door open as she walked inside before he closed the door behind them.

The living room was roomy with oil paintings of horses and oxblood brown leather furniture. Throw rugs were scattered on the large Mexican Saltillo tiles and a full entertainment center was along one wall.

“I love these paintings.” Cat went up to one of them. Horses ran wild across an open desert in the one she was looking at. “They’re beautiful.”

“Demi picked them out.” He turned to her as Cat raised her brows. “She loves everything to do with horses.”

Impressed, Cat said, “She has great taste.”

He settled his hand on her shoulder. “She likes you, so I’d have to agree.”

Cat felt the strength in his touch and a vivid image rushed forward of him with his hands on her naked body. She could almost feel him caressing her breasts, teasing her nipples, and stroking her curves.

She met his gaze and heat rushed to her face. From the way he was looking at her she felt as if he could read her mind. She cleared her throat. “You mentioned iced tea?”

“I sure did.” He released her shoulder and she let out her breath in a rush. “Come on into the kitchen.”

With some relief, she followed him into a large kitchen with stainless steel and black appliances, cherry wood cabinets, and granite countertops.

“I love your home,” she said, still carrying the files.

“We remodeled the place a year ago.” Blake reached into the fridge and grabbed a clear glass pitcher of iced tea. “Put on an addition at the back of the house, including a sun porch and a guest bedroom. Demi did most of the decorating and helped pick out the cabinets and appliances. She’s a natural at selecting things that look just right, like the horse paintings.” The pride in his voice and on his face was clear.

“And she’s only fourteen.” Cat smiled as he put ice into two glasses. She set the file folders on the countertop as she added, “Although, she would have been thirteen when you remodeled a year ago.”

“Yep.” He nodded as he poured tea over the ice and put the pitcher back into the fridge. He handed Cat one of the glasses, then took a long drink of his own. His glass was empty when he set it down. “Make yourself at home while I take a shower.”

She set her own glass down on the countertop. “Thanks.”

As Blake went to his room to shower, Cat picked up the files and wandered into the living room, and admired the horse paintings again. She casually looked around the living room and at the family photographs on the mantel. Demi was in most of them by herself—a few showing her astride her horse and holding trophies and rosettes. Blake was with her in a couple of the other photographs wearing a smile of fatherly pride.

The front door opened and Cat glanced in that direction. Demi walked in and shut the door behind her.

“You have great taste.” Cat gestured toward the paintings.

Demi’s face lit up. “I love horses.”

“I was like you when I was growing up.” Cat slipped her free hand into a pocket in her short jean skirt. “I lived and breathed horses.”

“That does sound exactly like me.” Demi took off her western hat. Her blonde hair was in a smooth braid that fell down her back. “I need to get ready to go to Amy’s.”

“Be sure and tell her hello for me,” Cat said.

“I will.” Demi headed down a hallway, disappearing from sight.

Moments later, Blake returned. The dust and sweat was gone and his short hair was damp. A white T-shirt pulled tight across his muscular chest and he wasn’t wearing a belt. He hadn’t shaved and still had stubble on his jaws.

“Let’s go to my office.” He gave a nod indicating that she should follow him.

With one hand, she smoothed down her blouse and jean skirt as she followed him, her throat suddenly dry.

When he reached the doorway to his office, he gestured for her to go in before him. As she passed him she caught his clean scent of soap and shampoo.

Inside the office was a large oak desk with a leather chair behind it as well as two chairs in front of the desk. There were wood file cabinets along one wall. She walked up to the wall of bookshelves and saw that books by Harold Bell Wright, Zane Grey, and Max Brand filled them as well as classics by Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and D.H. Lawrence, and more, much more.

He also had books on things like anatomy and physiology, and books related to agricultural subjects. Horse and cattlemen magazines were scattered on a credenza.

When they were young, Blake had always loved to read before he went to bed. He had a thirst for knowledge that she’d never seen in anyone else.

She turned to face him. “Did you go to Northern Arizona University like you always planned?”

He shook his head. “Arizona State for four years.”

“So we’re rivals.” She laughed and he grinned. “U of A and ASU have been bitter opponents for over a century. What made you decide to go to ASU?”

“ASU has a better business degree program.” He moved behind the big oak desk. “Where do you want to start?”

She sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk and crossed her legs at the knees. She opened the file on her lap. “I have the copy of the notice from the IRS here. I guess we’d better start with the first year you’re being audited.”

About half an hour later, Demi walked into the office. She had a duffel bag slung over one shoulder and was holding a present wrapped in light purple with a big dark purple bow. “Dad, Amy’s mom is here to pick me up. She said she’ll drop me off tomorrow afternoon.”

Blake got up from behind his desk and went to his daughter. He gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Have a good time, honey.”

She kissed his cheek. “I’ll try,” she said, but smiled. She looked at Cat and gave her a little wave. “Bye, Cat.”

“Have fun.” Cat returned the wave.

Demi ducked out of the office and a few moments later Cat heard the opening and closing of the front door.

Cat was suddenly aware of the fact that she and Blake were all alone now. A tension seemed to develop in the air between them and their gazes met and held for a long moment.

She looked away, her eyes going to the papers spread out on the desk in front of her. “I guess we’d better get back to work.”

When she met his gaze again, he gave a slow nod. “I guess we’d better.”

Chapter 7

“I guess that will have to do for today.” Cat brushed her hair out of her eyes as she started to organize the papers on Blake’s desk. “We can work on this more another day.” She glanced from the papers to him. He was sitting in the chair beside her now, in front of the desk. “My schedule is still pretty open,” she said. “When is a good time for us to get together again?”

He was studying her, his gaze so intense that she felt the heat of it on her skin. “Friday night at seven,” he said.

“Friday night?” It took a moment to register that he was asking her out. “Oh.” She hesitated and he kept looking at her with that same dark look. “I—sure.”

She felt warning bells going off in her head, but too late. It wasn’t good to spend so much time with the man. She was going to fall head over heels for him again.

If she hadn’t already.

She looked away from the intensity of his gaze and got to her feet. From her peripheral vision she saw him stand, then felt the heat of his body when he moved closer to her.

“I think we made pretty good progress.” Her heart pounded faster and she busied herself with making each stack on the desktop perfectly neat. “We might be able to get everything done in one more meeting.” She rushed her words, feeling like she was babbling.

“KitCat.” His voice was soft and she went still at the low, throbbing quality of it.

Slowly, she lifted her eyes to meet his. He was looking at her intently. Her lips parted, but she couldn’t think of a thing to say.

He took her by the shoulders, bringing her face to face with him. “Damn, Cat. I don’t know how much longer I can be around you without having you.”

Her eyes widened and her lips parted. He wanted her?

He gripped her upper arms tighter, the pressure of his fingers almost hurting her. “Damn,” he said again before he jerked her up against him and brought his mouth hard down on hers.

She gasped as he took control of her mouth, kissing her hard. It was more primal than the night before, almost wild. She didn’t remember him kissing like this before. It was as if the man he had been before had matured, becoming more dominant and decisive. She knew he’d decided he was going to have her. If she said no, he’d let her go, but she didn’t want to say no. She wanted him.

A groan rose up in him and she followed his lead, letting him take the kiss to a level of passion she’d never experienced before. He released her shoulders and slid his hands over her blouse to her waist then cupped her ass and pulled her up tight to him. The feel of his erection against her belly sent fire through her straight between her thighs.