One Hot Cowboy (4 page)

No man was entirely a safe bet when

alone in the dark with a woman who was

naked; Rose’s deliberate blindness needed

to end. He was safe—mostly—but she

wouldn’t, couldn’t, be so lucky always.

“You’re alone out here,” he pointed out

roughly. “Naked. In the dark. What do you

think could happen, Rose?”

“You wouldn’t hurt me, Cabe.” She was

right, but she shouldn’t make that

assumption.

He let his thumb brush the underside of

her breast where she was so soft. “You so

sure I’m safe, Rose?”

He wasn’t going to hurt her—never that

—but he wasn’t a fool, either. She’d come

up here expecting her inheritance from

Auntie Dee. Somehow he had to tell her

that she hadn’t really inherited property.

She’d inherited a mortgage. He owned the

land, not she. No way that truth wouldn’t

hurt, which was why it would be better all

around if she just took the check he

planned to offer her and didn’t look into

the matter too closely.

“What else would you be, Cabe?”

Some primitive part of him responded

fiercely to the unmistakable challenge in

her voice.

Unfortunately, Rose Jordan had always

loved challenging him, and she kept right

on talking.

“I swam here for years. Why shouldn’t I

now?”

She tried again to twist away from him.

For a moment, he wanted to tighten his

arms around her. Show her just what could

happen when she teased him like that.

Wouldn’t be right, though, so he simply

held on. Somehow, though—and he wasn’t

sure when or how things had changed—

Rose was different. What he felt for her

wasn’t different—if he was being honest

with himself—but now it felt more right.

His dick throbbed in agreement, the cold

water no real deterrent to what she was

stirring up inside him.

She froze—no way she hadn’t felt
that,

and he wasn’t flattering himself on his size.

She was plastered up against him, and his

clothes were soaked through.

“I’m asking again, Rose,” he whispered,

his mouth by her ear, where the scent of

those damned apples was strongest. “You

so very sure I’m safe?”

She shoved at his arm. “Let me go.”

He let go, his unruly dick fighting to

overrule the good manners that had been

drilled into him. He wanted to hang on to

her, haul her up really close until she

stopped asking questions and the only

demands she issued were sensual ones. But

that couldn’t happen.

“You’re the one who started this, Rose.

I’ll be happy to finish it, though.”

She cut through the water with fast, sure

strokes. There was a teasing flash of bare

arms and legs as she hauled herself out of

the swimming hole. She waxed, he

realized, and that little strip of soft, soft

hair on her otherwise bare pussy hid a part

of Rose Jordan he wanted to be kissing

sometime really soon.

She bent down, reaching for her towel,

and his libido exploded. Christ, didn’t she

care what she looked like? What that

luscious body of hers did to him? Was she

deliberately teasing him—or was he still

just

her

friends’

older

brother,

hardworking and sexless?

Treading water, he watched her. His

boots were uncomfortably heavy with

wetness, but he couldn’t just haul himself

out of the water sporting the erection he

had.

Maybe she sensed his impatience,

because she didn’t bother getting dressed,

just scooped up her clothes and beat a

retreat.

“Night, Cabe,” she called, making tracks

for the Honda. Damned if she wasn’t going

to drive away bare-assed naked. “See you

tomorrow,” she hollered back at him.

“Hell, yeah,” he growled, swimming for

the ledge.

Chapter Two

“N
ine hundred feet. I got two, maybe three

gallons per minute.” The driller looked up

from the test hole he’d driven yesterday,

waiting for Cabe and his brothers to weigh

in.

Hearing the driller call off those

numbers was too much like watching three

cherries spin past on the slots when you

were down to your last dollar. Of course,

both of his brothers knew as well as he did

that this had been a long shot.

He fisted his hands on his thighs. Three

gallons a minute wasn’t enough to take a

damned shower, and he had cattle to water.

It wasn’t nearly enough, and they all knew

it. The brothers gave the bad news a few

seconds of respectful silence. The driller

just waited. The man would get paid by the

foot, so he didn’t care much either way

what happened now.

“We’re empty.” Seth hadn’t stopped

restlessly moving since they’d ridden out

to the drill site an hour ago. If he took

those dust-covered boots of his back into

the ranch house they shared, their

housekeeper would be having words with

them all. Again.

“Party’s not over yet.” Rory nodded

toward Cabe and leaned back on his ATV,

one booted foot propped on the bumper.

There were shadows beneath his brother’s

eyes. As Cabe’s foreman, he didn’t

particularly like these answers, either.

“You want to drill deeper, Cabe?”

The ranch belonged to the three of them.

Always had and always would, as far as

he was concerned. Rory and Seth might

leave, but his brothers both knew the door

was never shut. Whatever they needed,

he’d do his damnedest to provide. And, so

far, they’d always come back. Always

been there to lend a hand when the work on

the ranch got to be too much for just one

man.

So his brothers, both of them, knew

protecting the ranch meant everything to

him. He’d carved out an empire for his

family

through

sheer

sweat

and

determination and raw, brute force. Before

he’d taken the reins, his family had run

cattle for decades, scraping out a living

until the beef market dried up once and for

all and forced them to diversify or throw in

their

cards.

Cabe

had

diversified.

Orchards. Horses. Whatever it took to add

to the ranch’s holdings and put by an ever-

growing rainy day nest egg in the bank.

He’d thrown himself into the day in, day

out battle to force the land to yield a living.

Drilling dry holes to nowhere wasn’t a

strategy that won a man battles.

The driller looked over, still waiting for

the go-ahead. The man would drill straight

through to China as long as the checks

cleared. Unfortunately, all the money in the

world couldn’t find water where there was

none.

“Day’s getting on,” Rory suggested

impatiently. “I’ve got work back at the

barn. I’m thinking we’re done here.”

“Someone’s not enjoying the party yet.”

Seth shook his head, still gazing at Cabe

while tugging his fingers through his

tangled hair as he blinked sleepily. His

brother’s eyes made him look like a big

cat, all lazy sensuality as he stretched, but

Cabe could read the question there clearly

enough. How far did he want to take this?

“We’re out of here. Plug the test drill

up,” Cabe said, not ready to answer

questions. Nodding to the driller, he

headed for his own ride. “Let’s head back

to the house.”

He straddled his ATV, considering his

next move. He knew what it had to be. The

answer was as obvious as the solid

presence of the sun-warmed leather seat

beneath his ass. Auntie Dee’s place.

“Sure.” Rory shrugged, his powerful

shoulders flexing beneath a black T-shirt.

The day’s heat already had the fabric

sticking to his back. The temperature was

going to soar today. “Plenty to do back on

the home front.”

Seth was already kick-starting his ATV

as if he was getting ready to hit the arena

on the rodeo circuit where he dominated,

the sound of the motor instead of applause

filling the empty air.

The driller stayed put. Cabe had paid in

advance, as he always did, for a thousand

feet, so the man wasn’t looking to settle the

bill. He was waiting for Cabe’s next move.

“You want me to start the first well on the

old Jordan place? I can do it tomorrow.

Test drills there hit water at nine hundred

feet. Four, five days tops, to get her

flowing good, unless I break a bit.”

“Not just yet.” Cabe needed a little more

time. “Give the place another go-over.

Pick your drill spots, and get your boys

lined up and ready to go. We’ll start next

week.”

The summer heat was already baking the

ranch. Today’s water measurements were

just another wake-up call he couldn’t

afford to ignore. He had cattle to run and a

job to do.

Rory looked over at him. “Heard Rose

made it back last night.” His brother

dropped the name really casually.

“I know.” Cabe set the date with the

drill engineer and let the man get on with

his day. No point in burning more money

out here. There was only one way to fix the

problem. Which meant he’d drive the ten

miles into Lonesome, show up for his

meeting with Rose Jordan at the lawyer’s,

scheduled—again—for that afternoon, and

do what he had to do.

He ran cattle.

That was who he was, what the ranch

had built its reputation on all those years

ago. He couldn’t lose that tradition, not on

his watch and not when there was a

solution at hand. So he’d do what needed

doing, even if part of him wasn’t quite on

board with the plan.

“You think she’ll show at the lawyer’s

this time?”

“She’ll show.”

Rory just nodded, staring after Seth’s

dust cloud. Like he wouldn’t mind running

up that trail instead of driving the distance.

At twenty-seven, Rory had done two tours

with Spec Ops before deciding not to re-up

and returning to the ranch. Rory hadn‘t

talked yet about what he’d seen or done

while he’d been gone, but more than once

Cabe had made the late night walk down

the hallway between their bedrooms to

shake his brother awake from the

nightmares. Next day, Rory would go on

one of his runs, fifteen miles through the

arroyos and along the game trails. Just

running and running until he came on back

and headed out to the range to work.

As if nothing at all had happened.

“We’re square,” he’d muttered when

Cabe had called him on it once in the year

Rory had been home.

“You ever talk to Rose?” Cabe asked.

Seth had to be half way back to the house

by now, given the speed at which he was

taking that trail, and Rory would talk when

he was good and ready.

“Talking
to
her was your thing, Cabe.”

Rory’s slow drawl carried just fine. “But,

yeah, I’ve talked
with
her since she left.

Not as much as I’d have liked, but she

needed the space, had some things she

wanted to work out.”

What could Rose Jordan have to work

out?

As far as Cabe could tell, she’d left

behind an admittedly bad childhood in

L.A. and moved up here to Lonesome,

where she was the apple of Auntie Dee’s

eye. She’d then proceeded to thumb her

nose at every rule and raise merry hell—

with his brothers.

“You ever reach out to her, Cabe?”

Rory’s

eyes

stared

straight

ahead,

examining the ribbon of trail with a rock

steady gaze as he swung a leg over the seat

of his own ATV. The nightmares that kept

him up at night didn’t show in the daylight.

That last tour of duty with Spec Ops had

left a mark.

“She wouldn’t have wanted that.” He

fought the urge to take the ATV off the trail

and into all the wide open space around

them and just open her up. Go somewhere