Branding the Virgin (2 page)

I
stare
up at both cowboys, who look at me like they’ve never seen a woman before. Or maybe more like I’ve got two heads. One starts to smile, reaching out to take my hand, and I immediately know he’s not Ty. Even if they look a lot alike. Ty is the one with the hard look on his face that matches all the pictures I’ve seen. Most of them I could only see part of his face, but looking up at him now, I can see almost every inch of it. The cowboy hat can’t hide him from me at this angle.

Before I shake the other guy’s hand, Ty grabs mine, shaking it first, but he doesn't let go for a second. He looks over at the man next to him, shooting him a glare before finally letting me go. They are clearly related. The other man’s smile only turns bigger and he lifts his hands in the air.

Ty turns back to look down at me. He dark eyes meet mine. They’re dark brown and almost look black around the edges. “You’re not a man,” he bites out through clenched teeth. I didn't even know someone could talk like that. His eyes narrow on me like he’s studying something. Maybe he’s waiting for me to turn into a man.

“Ah. No,” I say simply, unsure how else to respond to that.

“Fucking shit.” He turns his back to me, and I look over at the other man.

“Sorry he’s a dick. I’m his brother, Blake.” He winks at me. “The nice one. And you are?” A dimple forms in his cheek, and I wonder if Ty has one, too. I’m guessing if he did, you’d never see the thing. Then I wonder how cute my little boy will be with that same dimple. It reminds me why I’m here to begin with.

These men are my little boy’s family, and I don’t look to be off to a good start with them. It’s clearly a problem that I’m not a man, and that's definitely not something I can change.

“Mary-Jane,” I say, trying to be polite. “Or MJ.”

“Don’t you have somewhere to fucking be?” Ty barks, turning around and making me jump. I almost lose my footing, but he grabs me right before I can fall, pulling me to him.

“Don’t scare the tiny thing,” Blake jokes, the laughter clear in his voice. At least someone thinks this is funny.

I go to pull away from Ty’s hold, but he only grips me tighter as a string of curses like I’ve never heard leaves his lips. Then he practically jumps away from me from me like I’m on fire. “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” he barks again, making me wonder if he can say one sentence without dropping the F-bomb.

“No!” Blake says, laughing so hard he bends over, slapping his thigh as he howls with laughter.

Ty just turns and storms back into the house, leaving me standing there with my mouth agape.

“I…” I look at the front door he’s left wide open. I wonder if I’m supposed to follow him, but I quickly halt that train of thought. “Maybe I should go and come back,” I suggest. “I think I’m supposed to be at the bunkhouse or something.” Maybe this guy could take me over there. I really don’t want to drive back to town. I feel like my feet are starting to swell a little from the car ride and the summer heat. I really just want to sit down for a minute with my legs out.

Blake just shakes his head as if getting himself under control after his laughing fit. The ball of nerves in my stomach is growing, which isn’t good, because throwing up comes way too easily to me these days.

Seems like the articles calling Ty an asshole might have been pretty spot on. The reality is hitting a lot harder than I thought it would.

“Don’t think you can stay at the bunkhouse.”

“She’s not staying at the fucking bunkhouse,” Ty barks, once again making me jump.

“Would you stop that!” I snap back. My hand goes to my chest as I try to get my heart under control. How can someone so big move without my hearing them?

He just ignores me. “Where’s your shit?”

I have the urge to tell him he can shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, but I stop myself.
This isn’t just about you, Mary-Jane. You have to give this a go. Even if only for a little while.

I point behind me to my SUV, not trusting myself to talk because the knot growing in my throat is so big I’m not sure I even can.

“You get gone,” Ty says, pointing to Blake before making his way towards my SUV.

“He doesn't bite,” Blake says as he moves past me towards a black truck. I’m not sure I believe him.

I take a few breaths and attempt to push down the knot in my throat.

“Why aren’t I going to the bunkhouse?” I finally get out as Ty starts pulling my two bags from the SUV.

He just grunts a non-response, moving past me back towards the door. I follow him because I don’t really have a choice.

When I enter the house, I stop short, taking it in. There is nothing. Not one thing hung on a wall, not a trinket in sight. Just the basics a house would need. Two sofas, a TV mounted on the wall, and a medium-sized dining room table that draws my eye to the equally bare kitchen.

I’m not sure how something could feel cold in this Texas summer heat, but it does.

“This way,” he says looking back at me over his shoulder. I follow him down a hallway. He nods to a closed door. “Office.”

I have to bite my tongue from pointing out he said something without a curse word or bark. He stops at a door and pushes it open to reveal a room that looks just like the rest of the house.

It’s bare, with nothing but a simple, king-sized bed with a night stand and a dresser. It’s painted a soft white, making me think maybe it belonged to a woman at one time. It’s the only soft thing about the house. I follow him into the room, placing my car keys and purse on the dresser.

“Bathroom’s in the hallway, and there is food in the fridge.”

I turn to look at him, but he seems to be looking anywhere but at me. I want to knock that stupid cowboy hat off his head. From this distance I can’t get a good look at him. Not like when I was standing right in front of him outside.

“Where should I start?” I ask, feeling a little lost and even more alone.

“The office. Tomorrow.” He turns to leave.

“Do I need to make you dinner?” I ask, knowing I’m supposed to keep his house up. It was part of the job description. Office work with light house duties.

“No, I’m going out.” He grabs my cars keys from the dresser as he leaves the room, his steps hard on the wood flooring. I stand there stunned, then hear the front door slam shut.

I drop down onto the bed, my head falling into my hands. Even at home I didn’t feel this alone, even though it was just me. The coldness of the house brings back an empty childhood I really don’t care to think about.

I reach down, pulling off my sandals and tossing them to the floor, before I lie back onto the bed and cup my belly.

Again I debate leaving but remember he took my keys for some strange reason. Maybe he needed to move my SUV or something. I absently rub my stomach, knowing I have to give this a chance no matter how much I want to run.

I pray that maybe Ty is just having a bad day, but I have a feeling I’m wrong. He really is just an asshole. The small hope I had about finding something more slips away.

I
go
out of the house and get one of my horses, saddling it up. I had to get out of there before I went crazy. I tuck her keys in my back pocket and head out through the pasture. I use my ranch mostly for a few cattle and training horses. When I was hiring someone new, I wasn’t expecting a woman, and I damn sure wasn’t expecting a little thing like her. As I ride down to the woods and along the edge of the creek, I think about what happened when I touched her.

When I touched her hand I felt it all the way in my bones, and then my cock stirred. Not so much as a twitch all these months, and then I hold her hand for a second and my dick swells up trying to get free. My doctors said maybe one day it could come back, but there were no guarantees. One little touch, however, and it appears I’ve been cured. I was pissed off that Blake was standing there and he knew immediately what had happened. And I was even angrier at myself that I couldn’t do anything about it. I didn’t want this woman on my land, but I wasn’t about to let her go. Not only did I feel my cock get hard for the first time since I can remember, but something in my chest tightened when I looked at her. Something I’d never felt settled in me and it’s got my mind going crazy. I had to get out of that house and get some fresh air.

“Heard your dick works.”

I roll my eyes at the sound of my other brother Trace behind me. Looking over I see him on his horse as he crosses over the creek that divides our property.

“Figured Blake would go run his mouth the second he could.” I give my horse a little nudge with my feet and he walks forward. Trace comes up beside me and keeps pace.

“Oh, the very second he hopped out of his truck. I thought I might find you here.”

“Yeah, well, I think you might need to mind your own fucking business.”

A silence passes between us. We’re normally pretty close, but this situation is somewhat embarrassing, and the fact that my brothers are talking about it makes it worse. I immediately feel bad, so I look over and apologize.

“Sorry. Just been a weird day.”

“Don’t worry about it. Blake just loves giving you shit.” He looks ahead thoughtfully and then back to me. “You think she’ll stay?”

The weight of his words hit me. I had thought of letting her go, but what if she wants to leave? I don’t know a thing about her, so what if she left? How could I find her? How could I convince her to come back? Why would she even want to come back to someone like me? I know I’m grumpy and a foul-mouthed pain in the ass most of the time. But if this woman is the cure to what’s happened to me, and someone I want to get to stick around, then I’ve got some changes to make.

“She has to,” I say, turning my horse around and heading back to my place.

“Good talk, Ty.”

I hear Trace’s sarcastic voice over the clomping of my horse’s hooves, and I ignore him. I’ve got some shit to fix if I want to make this a place she wants to be.

* * *

B
y the time
I get finished with everything, it’s late when I get home. I’d seen the way she looked around the place when she got here, so I went to the store in town and bought some stuff to brighten the place up. Quietly, I haul in all the shit I got and start to work. I filled half my truck bed up with fresh flowers, cleaning out the store. I don’t have vases, so I bought a bunch of mason jars and stuck them all over the house, filling them as I went. I put down a few rugs and some blankets the sales girl said would make any space look “comfortable.” I told her
comfortable
to me was a good pair of boots, but she didn’t think that was the same thing.

I move all over the place, putting out candles and random stuff that I hope Mary-Jane might like. When I finally finish and clean it up, it’s late, and I haven’t heard so much as a peep from her room. Before I go to bed, I decide to check on her, just to make sure she’s all right.

I walk down the hall and stand outside her door for a second, then press my ear to it. I can hear her even breathing and decide to take a chance. I turn the knob and peek in, seeing her on her side asleep. My cock gives a little twitch, and it almost shocks me into letting go of the door. Luckily I catch myself at the last second and hold on to it. I take a moment and just look at her in the moonlight.

Her dark curly hair is laid out on the pillow, and I swear the light makes it look like her skin is glowing. The curve of her hip is shown off in this position, and I have the strongest urge deep in my chest to lie down behind her and spoon. Not even to do anything more with her, just to hold her and feel her sleeping in my arms. My heart gives a little whimper, and I make myself stop looking at her.

After closing the door, I creep silently back to my own room and get ready for bed. Once I’m stripped down to my underwear, I lie in bed and think about her. Reaching between my legs, I feel my cock stir a little, and I can’t help but smile. It’s not all the way there like it was when I touched her, but this is something.

When I close my eyes and roll onto my side, I envision her next to me in bed. And when I dream, it’s of a dark-haired beauty who smiles like an angel.

I
turn to the side
, looking in the mirror to make sure my little baby bump isn’t showing. The peach-colored sundress flares out at the hips, giving me the extra coverage I need. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to hide it. I’m just praying that maybe the men around here have manners and no one will call me out on being pregnant. I’m scared that I might say I’m not and make things all kinds of awkward.

Taking a deep breath, I try to get the swirl of emotions under control, hoping that maybe Ty just had a bad day yesterday and today he’ll be in a better mood. I slip on my flats and make my way out of my bedroom and down the hall towards the kitchen. Part of me wants to get to know Ty, the whole reason I’m here, but other part hopes that maybe I’ve missed him and he’s already out working on the ranch.

I come up short when I enter the open kitchen, the morning light shining in through the windows. Everything looking different from the day before, including the woman standing at the kitchen island. She turns towards me, her wild mass of red hair bouncing with the movement. A smile pulls at her round face, and she looks to be a few years younger than me. Her pale skin is a stunning contrast to her big blue eyes and fire-red hair.

She looks like she fits here. Like she actually belongs on a ranch, with her cowboy boots and blue flannel shirt tucked into her jeans. But she’s not the only thing that’s different. The house has come alive. I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing because I don’t know if the woman in front of me decorated the place. It looks a mess, like someone just threw a bunch of stuff together with no rhyme or reason, but it’s still better than the cold that coated the space yesterday. Only now it’s a decorated mess.

“Hi, I’m Dolly Jennings.” She takes a step towards me, holding out her hand. Of course her name is Dolly. It even falls off her lips with a sweet twang. I smile back, then her last name hits me hard. Oh God, is this his wife? My stomach drops, and I slowly raise my hand to meet hers.

“I’m, ah…” I take a deep breath, trying to get myself under control. I knew this was a possibility, but the reality is so much harder to take. Would this be the other woman in my child’s life? “I’m MJ,” I finally push out. I try to get myself under control, fighting an inner battle I’ve been having for days since I found out about Ty. I’ve always known that I could rip his world apart if he did have a wife, but I try to find the good. That it would just be one more person who could love our child. But it still feels like I’m losing something, and I’m not sure what that something is.

She cocks her head to the side, studying me, before she suddenly pulls me in for a hug, squeezing me tighter than I thought someone her size could. I have to hold my body away from her a little out so she doesn’t feel my baby bump.

“Ah, he’s not that scary. I promise Ty doesn’t bite,” she says as she pulls back from me. That smile is still lighting up her face. This close I can see freckles sprinkling her nose and they make her look even younger than I initially thought. “The big scary ones are always the ones with marshmallow in the center. You’ve just got to…” She makes a hand motion and a pop sound with her mouth. “…Crack them open.”

With that, she goes back over to the kitchen island, picks up her coffee mug, and takes a sip.

“Don’t you have class?” a deep voice rumbles from behind me. I don’t turn to look. I know it’s Ty. He still has the grumpy voice from yesterday, or maybe that’s just how he always talks.

“What happened to this place?” Dolly looks around the kitchen, then towards the living room. “I mean, anything’s better than what is was, but this is still kind of…” She scrunches her face, her distaste for the decor clear. I know now that this wasn’t her doing. “…Weird.”

“Class, Dolly,” Ty grumbles again, and I can feel him move farther into the room. Closer to me. It takes everything in me to not turn and look at him.

“Chill. It’s summer.” She takes another sip of her coffee.

“Where are you staying?” Ty asks. I glance to my side and see him standing there with no shirt on. His eyes are trained on me, but I just look back at Dolly, wondering about his question.

“The little cabin over by the lake.” She raises her hand. “Don’t even start. I own part of the land, and I’m eighteen. I’ll stay there all I like and you can’t stop me. You can’t make me stay here. I mean—”

Ty cuts her off. “I’m good with the cabin.” I can’t help but glance over at him again, and I’m surprised to see his eyes still on me. It takes all my willpower to look away and not down his naked chest.

Dolly’s mouth hangs open like she can’t believe what Ty just said, and I’m just as confused. Maybe they don’t live together. That would explain why the house was kind of bare. Maybe she took most everything with her. I hate that I like that idea a whole lot more than them being under the same roof.

“You don’t like the shit I got?” Ty asks, and I keep looking at Dolly, uncertain who he’s talking to. I’m not going to speak up, just in case. That cliché
if you don’t have something nice thing to say…
rings loudly in my head.

I feel a little tug on my hair, and I look over to see Ty has a strand twirled around his finger. “You don’t like my shit?” he asks again, staring down at me.

“It’s different,” I admit. Somehow I manage to keep my eyes trained on his face. God, he’s even bigger than I remember from yesterday. He’s hard all over, and in my peripheral vision I see that the hair on his chest matches his beard. He looks like he hasn’t shaved in a few days.

“We can get different shit if you want.” He keeps playing with my hair, and I hear a whispered, “
What the fuck?”
from Dolly. Seems everyone has a dirty mouth. My kid’s first word is going to be a curse.

“It’s not my home. I’m fine with whatever.” I mean, I’m only going to be here for a short time. It’s only supposed to be a part-time position, and who knows how things will blow once Ty finds out all my secrets. They’ll be showing sooner rather than later.

He releases my hair and reaches into his back jean pocket, pulling out his wallet. He takes out a credit card and tosses it onto the counter next to him.

Then he turns and leaves back down the hallway. “Do that Amazon shit. Don’t be leaving my ranch,” he throws over his shoulder. Like I could leave. He still has my freaking keys!

“Wow,” Dolly exhales as she walks over to the counter and picks up the credit card. “I’ve never once in my whole life gotten my brother to let me use his credit card. You’re here five seconds and he just hands it to you.”

“Brother?” I ask, feeling relieved. One less obstacle.

“Yep. And there’s more of them. I know you already met Blake—he’s been running his mouth about you all morning—but there’s still Trace. But no worries. Ty’s the only asshole of the bunch.” She laughs at her own joke, like Ty heard it, and that’s when I see the dimple. The one all the Jennings seem to have.

She hands me the card. I take it from her, but I don’t plan to use it. Unless that’s what he wants me to do. He hired me to take care of the house and help with the office. I guess I can get a few things. I think about all my stuff shoved away in a storage unit, things it took years to acquire to make a little home for myself. I feel a stab of sadness.
I still have them,
I remind myself. One step at a time.

“Told you. Those big bastards fall hard.” She winks and polishes off her coffee. “I just wanted to pop in and see if what Blake said was true. I’ll stop by later to poke the bear.” With that, she turns and walks out of the house, leaving me standing alone in the kitchen with no idea what I’m supposed to do.

Guess I’ll go find this office.