Masked Cowboy (Men of the White Sandy) (21 page)

No, not a coincidence, she knew. He’d already said he didn’t leave her at night.

“What made tonight so special, hmm?”

He reached over and she tensed against the expected touch. But instead, he grabbed another cookie.
Oh, I’m going to kill him
.

“The tribe wants to sue McGillis to stop his latest land grab. He claims Elmer Tall Hat’s will leaves him a huge chunk off the edge of the White Sandy, but that’s a load of BS.”

“Elmer didn’t own it?”

“None of us own anything, Mary Beth. We are merely occupiers. The tribe manages the land for our children. That is how it has always been, and that is how it will be, if I have anything to say about it,” he replied matter-of-factly, like it was common knowledge. “Besides,” he continued, eating another cookie, “I knew Kip would be safe with you.”

Mary Beth opened her mouth to rip him a new one but nothing came out, so she shut it again. She couldn’t tell if it was a compliment that he thought enough of her to leave Kip, or if she should still be insulted that she was little more than a combination babysitter and bed buddy.

“And anyway, this almost counts as a date.”

“Jesus, Jacob, you are dense, aren’t you? This isn’t a date. This is a fight that I’m winning, because I’m right and you’re wrong.”

He looked her up and down, and despite her anger, Mary Beth wished she still had on that slinky little top.

“Oh, I don’t know. I like you better like this anyway. You look like you, not some creation of Robin’s.”

“Great. Well, the next time you ask me if I’m free for the evening, I’ll be sure to keep on the shitkickers. I didn’t know that was such a turn-on for cowboys.”

He leaned back, his eye laughing as his mouth curled up into a knowing grin. “Not like red bras and panties are.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter!” she yelped, more to herself than to him as the sensations of their wild rutting during another pounding rainstorm flooded her system.

“You started it. Red panties and shitkickers? On you, that’s a wet dream waiting to happen,” he goaded her, kicking her thigh with his foot.

She almost went ballistic, but as his eye grazed her chest, she froze.
I’m in charge here
. The realization made her feel wicked—but probably not the kind of wicked Jacob had in mind.

“It’s just too bad you won’t get to see what color they are tonight,” she purred with aggression. “I had a nice set all picked out for you, but you blew that chance out of the water, didn’t you?”

He frowned as he shifted, grabbing a pillow from the other side of the bed and pulling it over his waist.

Yup
, Mary Beth almost crowed.
I’m the boss
.

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise,” he started. It almost sounded like he was begging.
Good
.

“I doubt it. You’ve still got to pay me for babysitting and cookies. This requires far more than a nice restaurant in Rapid City.”

“I’m good for it.”

“Well, you’re good for something.” He squirmed again and Mary Beth smiled. She leaned way over, her ponytail brushing against his arm. He stiffened as he watched, waiting for her to kiss him, no doubt.

But Mary Beth kept going and picked up her clock. “12:40. Let’s call it a night, shall we?” She sprang up off the bed, not bothering to shut the bedroom door behind her as she went into the bathroom.

She jumped back from the made-up woman who greeted her in the mirror before she remembered how much glitter Robin had slathered on. Quickly, she washed up, brushed her teeth and changed for bed, trying to focus on anything but what had been under that pillow. God, he made her so mad and so horny at the same time. An enigma wrapped in a riddle inside a mystery—that was Jacob Plenty Holes.

Something about him was completely, compellingly irresistible. Maybe it was the mask or that chest or the way he looked right into her. But that other part— that inscrutable part of him drove her bananas. Unless he was naked, or close to it, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking about her, Kip or anything in this screwy little town.

“Not going to sleep with him,” she reminded her reflection before she headed back out to make sure he wasn’t still in her bed. She opened the door and purposefully strode out into the dark hall.

And right into his bare chest.

“Eep!” she squeaked as she bounced backward. As if he’d been doing it his whole life, he caught her before she fell, effortlessly pulling her back onto her feet—and into his arms.

He practically carried her back into the bedroom. “I’m sorry I bailed on you tonight. It was a crummy thing to do to you, especially when you looked so nice.”

Jesus, this just gets worse
. Mary Beth cringed. Not
sleeping with him
.

“I won’t do that again, and I will make it up to you.”

“There’s always a condition, isn’t there, Jacob? You’ll work for Buck on the condition that you can screw him over like he screws everyone else over. You’ll sleep with me if it’s what you want, when you want it. You’ll tell me what’s going on when it’s convenient for you. Well, it’s not convenient for me. As sweet as Kip is, this isn’t convenient for me. You aren’t convenient.”

His mouth screwed into a knot as his eye narrowed. She could almost see the leather nostrils flaring, but she was sure that was her imagination.

“That’s how it is with you?” His voice was clipped and low. “Convenience first, heart second? Is that what you told all the others when you walked away from them?”

This time, he didn’t catch her hand as she slapped his cheek. He stood there and took the hit, almost daring her to do it again.

“Nothing about you is convenient,
t
hečhí
h
ila
, and you’re just going to have to get used to that,” he growled as he stared her down. She thought about slapping him again but decided it wouldn’t have much impact.

“There are bigger stakes at play here,” he went on, leaning toward her as his eye flashed. “Wanting you, falling for you—that’s not my idea of convenient. Everything was going according to plan before you showed up.”

Whoa
! Her brain screamed.
Did he just say
—?

“I’ve got too much invested here to throw it all away on someone who just wants convenient. I’m sorry I brought Kip here. I clearly misjudged you.”

As Mary Beth sucked in a pained breath, he turned, his hand on the knob as he took a deep breath. “It’s one thing to push me away but don’t do it to Kip. We’re all she has in this crummy world.”

Mary Beth staggered under the weight of his words. He was falling for her, but he was willing to walk unless she put the same faith in him that he apparently had in her. And Kip needed them both.

Mary Beth sat down, dumbfounded. Finally, her mouth moved. “Well then, there you go.”

“Yup. There I go.” He stood and grabbed the comforter off her bed, careful to miss her entirely. “Goodnight, Mary Beth.” And he was gone, the door shutting silently behind him.

“Yeah,” she muttered to herself. “Goodnight.”

Somehow, she didn’t think they’d be there when she woke up.

And they weren’t. He didn’t even leave a note this time.

Gone.

Again.

Only five months and one day until May 1st.

Then she might get a date.

Chapter Thirteen

This time, when Mary Beth rolled up at the ranch, Jacob was ready for her. Or thought he was anyway. He was ready for her to be pissed and mad and probably a few other kinds of angry with him. She’d mouth off and try to kill him with a look.

Unfortunately, that’s not what he got. When she got out of her truck, she seemed…quiet. He’d never seen her quiet before. All of that sparking energy that he found so attractive was sort of drained from her. Hell, she didn’t even look at him.

He decided he liked this much less than her calling him names in Vietnamese. In fact, he didn’t like it at all. “Morning.”

Her back tensed, but she didn’t respond. She just kept organizing her saddlebags of medical supplies.

Shit. This was bad. Getting worse by the second. All of his smooth talk at asking her out on something that might have past for a date abandoned him in his panic. “I got Kip a doctor’s appointment,” he blurted out, knowing it was his only shot in hell of getting her to acknowledge him.

“Did you now?” She still didn’t look at him, but at least she was talking. Quietly.

“It’s at the clinic on the rez. The appointment is Friday afternoon. Tomorrow.”

This wasn’t coming out the way he wanted it to, not even close. He wanted to say, real smooth-like, “and we could get some dinner afterwards. A little night out. An almost-date.”

“That’s good.” Boy, she was giving him nothing to go on. Not even hope.

“I—”
I want you to come with me
. The words were right there, but his tongue got mixed up with his teeth and nothing came out.

She sighed, a weary thing that only made her look more tired. “What do you want from me, Jacob?”

You
. That was what he wanted to say. Hell, it was probably what he should say. He’d wanted her last night and screwed it up. Every time she got under his skin, he stuck his foot so far in his mouth that he about choked on his ankle.

At least he was consistent.

“Because last night,” she went on when he couldn’t come up with anything brilliant to say, “you seemed to make your position pretty clear.”

It didn’t come out right. I messed up
. That’s what he should say—what he needed to say—but he couldn’t. His mouth, in a state of panic, had completely shut down on him.

“I…”Mary Beth’s shoulders sagged, “…I’m not trying to screw up your plans. Hell, I don’t even know what’s going on.”

His mouth didn’t have a freaking clue what it was supposed to be saying right now. But the rest of him had a better idea.

He closed the distance between them in seconds, roughly pulling her into his arms and kissing her. Hard. Her teeth clipped his lip, but he didn’t care. This was what he needed, more than anything else.
Her
. He didn’t care if anyone saw them. What mattered more was that she knew the truth, even if he couldn’t tell her what it was in so many words. He’d always been a man of action anyway.

She was all steel in his arms for a terrifying few seconds, but then she melted into him, tasting of sun-ripened strawberries. The taste of forgiveness.

She pulled away from him, her eyes closed. “You confuse the hell out of me.”

He kissed her again—not as hard, but this time, she let her tongue tangle with his. “I don’t know how to be around you. Every time I try, I mess it up.” She nodded in complete agreement. For some reason, it made him want to smile. So he did. “I do trust you, Mary Beth. Kip trusts you—and that’s saying something. I wasn’t wrong in that. I was wrong in getting my feelings for you mixed up with…everything else that’s going on. They’re not the same, and I’m going to do a hell of a lot better remembering that from here on out.”

She didn’t say anything for a moment, but it didn’t matter. He took the chance to kiss her sweet lips again.

Eventually, she pushed him back. “That was a pretty damn good apology, for you.”

“Been practicing that whole apology thing recently.”

That got him a smart-ass look. “So we’re even then.”

“Even,” he agreed, relieved as hell to see the corners of her mouth curve up into a small, kissable smile. “Come to the clinic with me. With us. I’ll buy you dinner on the way home.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “And after?”

His temperature spiked. What color was her bra today? But, even though Jacob didn’t always know what to say, he did have an idea that asking would be the wrong thing. “I leave that up to you.” He’d prefer to take the comfort of her bed again—perhaps several times—but she’d made it blisteringly clear that one of his many screw-ups last night had been to assume that she’d want to sleep with him. So this was him, assuming nothing.

“We’ll see,” was all she said.

Damn, she was going to leave him hanging—again.

He deserved nothing less.

On the way back to the ranch after a day’s worth of tagging, they made arrangements. Kip’s appointment was at four, the last appointment of the day. Since Friday was her day in the clinic and Mike Nolan hadn’t scheduled any ferret appointments, Mary Beth could leave early and pick Kip up from school. Jacob would meet them at her house. They’d drive to the White Sandy Clinic, talk to a medical professional and then swing up to the highway north of the rez and hit a restaurant in Wall, South Dakota, for dinner.

Something about the plan felt…cozy. Like something normal people did every day. Mary Beth snorted to herself. Assuming, of course, that normal people had albino children or wore a mask. Hell, she was the most normal one in the bunch—and that wasn’t saying much.

“Is it okay if we take your truck?” he asked.

She shot him a scolding look that he couldn’t see. She was on the wrong side, dang it. “I don’t know where we’re going.”

“I can drive.”