Cowboy Payback (3 page)

Anticipation increased as he watched the corporal hug her parents.

“Have a safe trip,” she told them, before returning to slip her arm around him.

“We’ll see you both at the ranch in two weeks. Do we need reservations?”

The corporal stiffened at her father’s words. Brett was fascinated. The man was too good.

“No,” he replied. “If the guest ranch and cabins are booked, I’m sure we can put you up in the house.”

His mother nodded. “Yes, that would be lovely.”

Trisha’s eyes widened, and she just stared at him. Unblinking. He had all he could do not to laugh. She looked genuinely shocked. And, he had to admit, quite adorable.

Her father stepped to him, hand outstretched. “Well, Captain, I trust you’ll do right by my daughter.”

Brett released his
fiancée
to shake her father’s hand. “Of course, sir.”

“Just remember, Colonel Fisher and I are old friends.” The man’s gaze was suddenly as firm as his grip. “He’ll have my daughter’s back.”

Bravo. Another good play.

Brett nodded again, wondering what in the world her parents had to gain by doing this prank? Were they that bored in their lives?

“I can assure you my son will take good care of your daughter, William,” his mother proclaimed, stepping up to pat the man’s arm, giving Brett a reason to break the handshake.

“I’m sure he will, Rose. Trisha has four older Navy brothers to see to that.” Her father cocked his head and smiled. “In fact, I think my oldest boy, Liam, and your son, Finn, have crossed paths.”

This just kept getting better and better. Another spark of admiration shot through his veins. Who had come up with that one?

“Oh?” His mother smiled. “I’ll have to mention him to Finn.”

“You do that. We’ll see you in two weeks,” Mr. Jennings reminded before he and his wife disappeared from the honky tonk.

Brett watched the door for a few seconds, untapped energy zinging through his body as he eagerly waited for the couple to walk back in and reveal the joke. Ten seconds turned into twenty, and still no Mr. and Mrs. Jennings. He turned to the others who had gone mysteriously quiet. His mother, Terry, Gus, even the two cowboys playing pool all wore matching grins, but no one said a word.

Not one damn word.

He glanced at the corporal. She was still staring at him with that surprised expression on her pretty face.

“Thank you, sir,” she finally said, before body slamming him with a tight hug. “I can’t believe you did that for me.”

And he couldn’t believe how his lower body tightened the instant those delectable curves brushed against him again. Fully. And on target.

He detangled himself from her tempting embrace. That was dangerous territory.
Major danger
. She would always be one of his
men
. His body had no business craving her curves.

He cleared his throat. “Come on, Corporal,” he said, keeping his tone light. “You know I can take a joke. And you all deserve an Oscar. Well done.”

Terry frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Your prank,” he replied, striding to the kitchen door, smile ready on his face. “You can come out now Finn, Cammie. Joke’s over.”

Charging into the kitchen, he was prepared to congratulate the couple on their masterful prank. It was a doozie. A classic. One for the record books. But what he found stopped him dead in his tracks.

An empty room.

Empty? No. No. That’s not right.

He narrowed his gaze. Didn’t help. The couple still didn’t appear. Now, he out-and-out frowned. They weren’t in there? He pivoted around and marched back into the bar, his sights trained on the bartender.

Gus held his gaze. “Cammie and your brother left a half-hour ago, son.” The man’s handlebar mustache twitched ever so slightly.

“Left?” He blinked.

That made no sense. Why would they leave and miss out on the best part? Revealing the prank.

No. Gus had to be mistaken. Finn and Cammie were at the Lonesome Steer. Hiding. He studied the bartender for several seconds before he realized the man was dead serious.

His gut tightened with the mother of all knots, and he broke out into a cold sweat.

If his brother wasn’t present, that meant…

With legs beginning to buckle, he sank onto the closest stool, his thudding heart taking up residence in his left boot.

This wasn’t good. This was
not
good.

Remembering to suck in air, Brett gulped once, twice…
five
times before he slowly raised his gaze to meet the redhead’s anxious face.

Ah, hell no.

He really
was
engaged to Corporal Trisha Jennings.

Chapter Two

Trisha Jennings didn’t know what was worse, facing her controlling father or her formidable, former commanding officer.

Both could be stubborn and make her life a living hell.

She glanced at the silent man
stewing
next to her. Rigid, broad shoulders, muscles flexing in his arms while his knuckles whitened around her steering wheel.

Okay, yeah, the captain wins that one hands down
.

If only Mrs. Brennan and Terry would’ve allowed her to drive up to Royal Pines on her own. She knew the way—she’d visited a few months back for her friend, Cammie’s, engagement party. Granted, the colonel had driven,
and
they’d approached from the west. But still, she had a killer sense of direction. Heck, if she could use a map to find her way across an Afghan desert at night, she could certainly find her way to the Brennans’ Colorado dude ranch from Texas.

But,
no
. They’d insisted she had company. She should’ve
insisted
on Terry.

Twisting forward, Trisha sighed, her insides knotting worse than the Colorado pines they passed at warp speed.

For over two hours now, two long, silent, tension-filled hours, the captain wouldn’t let her say a word. Not a single, solitary word. Every time she opened her mouth and tried, he held up a hand and glared at her, his mesmerizing blue eyes full of so much anger she was afraid to speak lest his murderous gaze was capable of the strangulation hinted in the dark depths.

But she’d had enough. The man confused the heck out of her back at the Lonesome Steer. First he’d been upset, then friendly, then downright undressing her with those incredible eyes. And now, he was furious. What the heck? It wasn’t
her
fault the cowboy only went along with their fake engagement in front of her parents because
he
thought it was a prank.

It really wasn’t her fault.

When she’d called the ranch to warn him of her slip up with her parents, his brother had answered and informed her Brett wasn’t home. Finn had assured her the captain would have her back. She’d foolishly assumed the former SEAL would’ve clued his twin in on the phone conversation. Obviously not. For some unfathomable reason, Cammie’s fiancé apparently used Trisha to pull a joke on her C.O.

I’m such an idiot
.

Still, what’s done was done. Now, they needed to regroup and form a plan.

Which was impossible without talking.

She turned, and once again,
Captain Silent
held up that darn hand. It was getting old. Real fast. Trisha folded her arms across her chest in order to keep from swatting at it.

Friggin’ sexy…

He narrowed his gaze in warning, as if he read her thoughts.

…Cowboy!

And darn him. He never looked so good. Blessed with a strong jaw, high cheekbones, and thickly lashed, sky-blue eyes, which, right now, were flashing under his brown Stetson. Then there was his mouth. Jeez, why hadn’t she ever noticed his lips before? They were full, but not feminine, with a nice chiseled edge and sexy divot she had the sudden urge to lick…making her feel guilty and just a little bit naughty.

And as for muscles? The man was loaded. Muscles bulged out of his slate gray shirt, flexed in his forearms, and she knew there was nothing but sinew underneath. She had always considered her captain to be good-looking, but never realized he was so flippin’ hot.

Mouth-watering hot.

Good parts tingling hot.

Oh yeah
, her good parts had been tingling ever since he’d crushed her against those hard, hot muscles. Heck, she was a healthy female. Of course she was tingling.

Again, it wasn’t her fault. She blamed it on the civilian clothes. They accentuated the fine physique she knew him to possess thanks to their desert gym workouts overseas.

Funny, she’d never felt this flushed by his presence in Iraq.

Get it together, Marine
, she silently berated. It was imperative she continued to think of the man as Captain Brennan and not the sexy-hot-as-sin cowboy she had the uncontrollable urge to lick. Everywhere. Twice.

Darn it
.

After a few deep breaths, her mind cleared and body cooled to a manageable burn.

Enough
.

She unfolded her arms and lifted her chin. The time for silence had ended.

“I’m sorry, Captain.”

He clenched his jaw so tight, a cracking sound echoed through the car. “Save it, Corporal,” he ground out. “We’re almost to the ranch.”

She hesitated, wanting to have it out already, but perhaps he was right. If she waited, then she wouldn’t have to be in such close proximity when she confronted him.
Good call
. She nodded and twisted back to face the front.

Once again, her life was spinning out of control. Why did that keep happening? She needed to take the helm. It was time. Heck, it was past time. Telling her parents she was engaged had seemed like a good idea yesterday.

As a marine, Trisha had done
what
she was told
when
she was told, but she never, ever let anyone push her around. Why in the world couldn’t that apply at home…especially with her father?

Three months ago, she’d arrived back from Iraq on the advance, and her father had already had her future mapped out. Law school, marriage to one of his junior lawyers, and she was sure there were two-point-three kids in his plan as well.

William Jennings, former D.A., struck again.

She hadn’t had a choice. The only quick way to stop his master plan had been to come up with one of her own.

Fresh from deployment, she’d returned with an agenda.
Her
agenda. And darn it, she was going to see it through.

None of her plans coincided with her father’s. She wasn’t going to law school. You had to have a knack for that profession. She did not. But she
was
going back to college. In fact, she’d already been accepted and enrolled at a University in Colorado. In a different state than her parents.

The last deployment had taught her she liked working with children. The young girls had been so happy and eager to learn; it had been a joy to work with them.

Until that damn bomb.

Her gut clenched so tight, the beef barley threatened to make a reappearance.

Now, some of them will never…

A deep inhale helped her mind halt that train of thought. She was in the states, no longer a marine, enrolled at college, and would graduate a…well, a something. Even with an undeclared major, she was determined to pursue a career of her choosing. No one was going to stop her. Not even her well-meaning, but controlling father. All she had to do was stall him for five weeks, until the semester started.

Tossing a fiancé at him had been a blocking move. A good move…had her
fiancé
actually agreed to it first. Why the captain’s brother had led her to believe otherwise wasn’t her concern. She’d needed a quick, fake fiancé, and Finn had supplied her with one.

Captain Brennan had been the logical choice. Tough, smart, and quick thinking. Just the thought of his attributes alone had given Trisha the backbone she needed to defy her father.

She glanced at
the backbone
from under her lashes, noting some of the tension had left his fingers. They were no longer white. A good sign.

She glanced at her own fingers, twisted together on her lap, sunlight glinting off the diamond his brother had miraculously provided. She toyed with the ring. At least it was one less excuse she had to come up with for her father. Her sigh filled the silence of the car. Former D.A. Jennings definitely would’ve grilled them about her lack of jewelry.

The sound of a cracking jaw drew her attention back to her
fiancé
. Gaze trained on her diamond, he resembled a slab of granite with his closed mouth drawn into a tight, thin line. She released the ring.

Great
. Now her C.O. was back to being ticked off.

So was she. The whole thing was getting out of hand. To heck with waiting.

About to break the silence again, she hesitated when he drove past the road she had taken to his house two months back. What was he doing? She glanced at him and frowned, but he stared straight ahead and didn’t say a word.

Where was he taking her?

Anxiety gripped her stomach with unforgiving fingers. Was he going to drop her off in town? Give into that strangulation urge? Take her to a secluded area for hot, wild, angry sex?

Whoa…

Her heart rolled in her chest. Twice. Breathing was no longer easy.
Oh goodie
—now she was damp. And tingling. Tingling and damp because of her hot C.O.

Darn it
. Where the heck had that thought come from?

When this was over, she really needed to get herself a boyfriend and take care of her prior lack of
dampness
. Several times. A lot even.

Sixty seconds later, the captain drove under a large ornate sign.
Royal Pines Dude Ranch
.

Idiot.
Now that her brain cells decided to work, she remembered someone mentioning at Cammie’s engagement party that the dude ranch was a mile down the road from the Brennans’ house.

She drew in a breath and released it slowly, getting her heart rate, and tingling parts, back under control. Excitement chased away a good chunk of Trisha’s anxiety.

The dude ranch.

Sweet
. She secretly hoped she’d be allowed to enjoy a few of the activities the ranch had to offer. The perfect distraction. She needed some time to think, to breathe…to heal after the last tour.