Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right [The Chisholms of Texas 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (3 page)

He let himself be who he was with a couple of women, in Deseo and surrounding towns, with whom he had some longer-term relationships. Long-term meaning more than a couple of weeks. Although the women seemed to like it at first, ultimately, they didn’t seem to want that kind of relationship for the long haul.

He never tried to dominate a woman outside of the bedroom, but he was very protective of what he considered his. He definitely considered Abby and his family to be his. Abby seemed drawn to his intensity if her hardened nipples in response to his domineering personality were any indication. He noticed her reaction several times when they were sparring over some issue in which they had taken different stances. However, he didn’t know how she would deal with it in the bedroom, where he was even more intense.

Outside of the bedroom, she didn’t put up with any crap from him. If he went too far, she let him know it. Would that intensity and need to dominate affect his relationship with Abby negatively? He knew about how her mother had died and that she had grown up with a father who was excessively domineering. With her father, it was more than just protection of his little girl. It was an intense need to control everything around him to a minute degree. Dillon wasn’t like that.

He’d talked to his mother several times about Abby over the past two years. Shortly after Abby came to work for the Ranch as an intern, his mother invited her over for Sunday lunch. Once she saw how Dillon behaved around Abby, his mother pulled him aside and they had their first discussion about the lovely Abigail Barnes. Cassie Chisholm believed Abby was the woman for Dillon and gave Abby her seal of approval by inviting her to Sunday lunches and special family gatherings over the past two years.

During the past two years, Dillon and Abby spent a lot of time together, and he felt he had come to know her very well. He also made sure that she got to know the real Dillon Chisholm. He didn’t want to start over from scratch once he told her he wanted a more personal relationship with her. He wanted their relationship to grow from where it was now. In other words, it was his intent that their relationship move forward rapidly. These past two years had been a sort of platonic courtship with Abby. He wasn’t willing to take a step backward. If he had his way, he would be in her bed tonight.

* * * *

Abby dressed carefully for the coming evening at Chaps & Spurs. As usual, she was meeting her friends at seven o’clock for drinks, conversation, and some dancing. Now that her clinical internship was over and her hours would be more normal, she was going to take one of the cowboys she regularly danced with up on his offer of a date. She needed to get her mind off of Dillon. Hell, maybe she would date a couple cowboys. That should keep her mind off of Dillon.

She’d had enough of pining for a man she couldn’t have. As her employer, Dillon was just as off-limits now as he had been for the past two years. She had landed a plum job with CRE and she was not going to do anything stupid, like getting into bed with her boss, to jeopardize it.

Abby hadn’t had a boyfriend since her second year at law school. Well, she quit during her second year at law school so she could probably refer to it as her last year in law school. She finished out the semester after her father died in March six years ago because she wasn’t a quitter. However, after her father’s death, she quickly decided to take charge of her own life for a change and went back to college for a year to get the required classes. Then, she followed her dream and applied for one of the coveted spots at Texas A&M veterinary college.

Abby had wanted to be a veterinarian for as long as she could remember. Her mother knew about her dream and encouraged her interest by volunteering at the local animal shelter with Abby on the weekends and in the summers. Everything changed when her mother was murdered by street thugs when Abby was eleven years old.

Abby was with her mother when she was murdered and could still remember the smell of the gunpowder after the gun went off. She remembered her mother falling to the concrete platform and not waking up despite Abby’s efforts to rouse her. She sat next to her mother holding her cold, limp hand down in the subway tunnels until one of her father’s friends, another New York City cop, led her away to a nearby bench to wait for her father to arrive. Her father was a police detective with fifteen years’ experience and arrived before they took her mother’s body away. He had crouched down to look at her mother under the blanket someone put over her then simply picked Abby up and took her home.

After her mother died, it was just her and her dad. She knew her dad loved her a lot, but he didn’t really know what to do with a prepubescent daughter traumatized by her mother’s murder. He did the best he could on his own but was determined to see her be a successful lawyer. He scoffed at her desire to become a veterinarian and shamelessly pushed her into college and then law school.

Since it really didn’t matter what she majored in for law school, she majored in premed as a sort of rebellion against her father. He hadn’t cared as long as she applied for law school after college. Abby knew her father was probably yelling at her from beyond the grave for her decision, but she didn’t regret it one bit.

Abby felt Dillon’s presence the moment he entered Chaps & Spurs. Even if Kendra, one of Jessie Chisholm’s childhood friends who was a regular in their Friday night group, hadn’t been counting down the Chisholm brothers’ arrival at the club, she knew she would have sensed him come in. Man, he looked good enough to eat tonight. He was wearing his usual outfit of dark jeans and a concert T-shirt. The jeans were black and his T-shirt hugged every bulging muscle. She could see the ends of the tattoo that went down his biceps and past his elbows, and she felt her nipples harden while her pussy softened and grew damp.

God, she really needed to get laid. She should
not
be lusting after her boss like this. It would bring nothing but trouble. So, when the man himself winked at her on his way to the stairs, she just sat there with her mouth hanging open. Her wits returned to her about the same time as his fine backside disappeared up the stairs. Shutting her mouth, she raised her beer to her lips and took a sip of the ice-cold brew, choking a little when it went down the wrong pipe.

As the other women dragged her into their conversation, Abby found her thoughts diverted from Dillon and his unexpected wink. Kendra was complaining about the antics of her boss over the past week, and Emily was talking again about finding a full-time job.

Emily, who went to high school with Jessie, worked part-time for her brothers over the past several years at their used-furniture store in town. She left Deseo for college in California and started a job in Los Angeles after graduation. However, several years ago she inexplicably returned to live in Deseo and started working for her brothers part-time.

Her brothers, Cody and Cade, were very protective of her and kept the men in town from getting too close. Periodically, she got fed up with their interference in her personal life and threatened to strike out on her own. Abby didn’t think she would ever really do it, but she had fun talking about it and her friends always listened to her patiently. There was a sadness surrounding Emily that nobody seemed to be able to penetrate. Abby didn’t think even Jessie, Emily’s best friend, knew exactly what had caused her to return home with so little explanation.

At 8:00 p.m. the DJ started the first set and the men that were already milling around the women’s table laid claim to several of them for the first dance. Jaime Hernandez asked Abby before anyone else had a chance. Abby really liked Jaime. He was tall, dark, and handsome and had always acted like a gentleman around her. They danced a couple of dances and he got her agreement to dance with him later in the evening. Abby didn’t slow dance with any of the men at the club. For the past two years, she hadn’t wanted to give anyone the impression she was looking for more than a few dances and she didn’t want to be accused of leading anyone on. Maybe it was time to change things up.

The waitress was taking orders when Abby returned to the table and ordered another beer. Several good-looking cowboys hung out at the table talking and flirting with the women. Abby danced with several other men before she saw Dillon come down the stairs from where the pool tables were located.

Abby saw Dillon look over at the direction of their table, and his eyes rested on her as she flirted with two cowboys she had seen in the club the past several weeks named Deke and Mark. They were new to the area and were working out at the Ranch. Most of the cowboys who frequented Chaps & Spurs worked at the Ranch, but people came to the club from as far away as Corpus Christi, a little more than an hour away.

Abby felt her senses go on high alert as Dillon made his way to her as she sat at the table. The chair next to her was empty and she looked on in astonishment as he cut through the men standing around the table like a hot knife through butter. He proceeded to sit down in the empty seat and put his arm proprietarily along the back of her chair. Leaning in closely, he said in her ear, “Come dance with me, Abby.” Absolutely dumbfounded and unable to come up with the words to refuse, Abby gave a jerky nod and took the hand that he offered her.

Dillon led her to the dance floor just as the DJ started a slow song. As Abby made a move to leave the floor, Dillon stopped her with a hand on her arm and a smile. As he took her in his arms to “Must Be Doin’ Something Right” by Billy Currington, Abby tried hard to relax as the sensual song wrapped around them but she could feel her body reacting to the close contact. In contrast, Dillon seemed very relaxed as he pulled her body in closer and rested his chin on the top of her head.

“Are you having a good time tonight, Abby?” His voice caused her to shiver. Her pussy was melting and her nipples were hardening.

“Yes. Did you have a good time with your brothers?” asked Abby stiltedly. She wasn’t comfortable dancing with Dillon, even to the upbeat songs. She was definitely not comfortable dancing to a slow song with him where he pulled her in tightly and just swayed to the music. With one dance, Dillon got past her defenses. She tried unsuccessfully to move away from his hard, hot body again. As the song changed into a faster number, he allowed her to pull away from her so they could move into a slow two-step.

“Do you realize this is the first time we’ve danced together since you moved to the Ranch? Why do you suppose that is?”

“You…You’re my boss. It’s not really appropriate for us to be dancing together, especially to the slow songs.”

“Who says, Abby? Besides, technically I’m not your boss again until Monday.” He lowered his head so that he could talk into her ear causing a shiver to run up and down the length of her spine. He chuckled as if he knew the effect he was having on her.

“Well, I guess, I say. I’m not comfortable dancing with my boss.”

“Good thing we can ease into that over the weekend, because I plan on dancing with you a lot in the future,” he said with an enigmatic smile. He moved smoothly into a fast-moving two-step as the music changed yet again.

“Shit. What are you talking about, Dillon?” She had goose bumps on her arms from when he talked into her ear like that. Shit. He’d never talked to her like that. What was he doing? If she didn’t know any better, she would say he was putting the moves on her. But that couldn’t be. He hadn’t shown a lick of interest in her for two years. What had suddenly changed his mind? He seemed very intent this evening and she didn’t want to think about what he was so intent about.

“I’ve waited two years for you, Abby. Two damn long years. I’m not waiting anymore. I’m coming after you, baby.” There went those goose bumps again as she faltered a bit in the dance from the words and the intense way he was talking to her. She had to get away from him fast before she did something she’d regret like fall on her back in the middle of the dance floor and beg him to take her right there.

“I think I’m done.” When she saw the triumphant smile begin to light up his face, she added, “Dancing that is. I need to cool off and get a drink.” Abby tried to pull away from him as she walked off the floor and back to an empty chair at the table, but he maintained possession of her hand as they went, talking to a couple of people in passing before they made it back to the table.

“Sure, baby. I think I could stand to cool off, too. Looks like we’re just in time to put our drink order in.”

“I think you should cool off, too. Shit!” Abby muttered her favorite swear word to herself as he escorted her back to the table and proceeded to sit in an empty chair right next to her.

“What was that, baby?” he asked with a smile.

“Nothing. Just wondering what was going on with you. Why you’re acting so weird.”

“I’m not acting weird, Abby. I’m just acting different than I used to around you. Better get used to it. Did you get moved into your new apartment all right?” he asked as he leaned into her so that his lips were next to her ear. The loud music prevented them from being able to speak quietly and privately. The moist heat of his breath on her neck caused a shiver to skitter down her spine.

“Yes,” she replied with a nod of her head. “All moved in.” She’d learned to hold her own with this man on the job, but her voice still trembled and stumbled when they talked outside of work. Not that they did that very much. Dillon was very careful to keep his distance since that disastrous night she jumped into his arms after they birthed the colt with the Ranch’s prize mare, Razzle Dazzle, pulling the colt out of the mare and saving both horses’ lives. At least, he had been until tonight.

“Good. I need to talk to you a bit more privately, Abby. Let’s go to your apartment where it’s more quiet.” He spoke in her ear again causing another shiver to run down her spine and lodge into the base.

His words sounded to her like an order and she instinctively bristled. “Can’t this wait until Monday, Dillon? I’m not on the clock now.”

“No, Abby, this isn’t about work. This is something personal. I need to talk to you alone. Let’s go to your apartment so we can discuss this privately,” he reiterated as he stood up and held his hand out to her to help her up, obviously expecting her to go along with whatever he wanted. She was in deep shit.