Kyle

by Jennifer Ashley

  Kyle’s lips parted in bewilderment. “But you’re a terrific vet. Whenever you leave our ranch, the animals break down and cry. And they all get well. You know what the hell you’re doing.”

  “Yes” The word held quiet confidence, no boasting. “And you know what the hell you’re doing with bull riding. Karen’s boy toy needles you because he knows you’re better than he is and won’t get out of his way. It’s easy to let people tear down our confidence, to reach the part of us that thinks we’re frauds and fears someone will find out.”

  Kyle picked up his fork and returned to the mushroom stew.

  She had a point. Kyle had strived all his life to be as good as Ray at ... You name it. Bull riding, horse training, running the ranch, impressing women. Kyle had won plenty of belts, trophies, and cash in his own right, proving he was good at his sport, but a tiny voice in the back of his mind had always told him he wasn’t as good as Ray and never would be.

  Ray had never treated Kyle as though he was lesser than him, but Kyle’s younger-brother brain didn’t always think logically.

  “You mean we both have to tell the world to fuck off,” Kyle said. “And concentrate on what we do.”

  “Exactly.”

  They ate in silence for a while, Kyle digesting her words. Across the room, Karen laughed merrily, Deke’s stupid “haw-haw” ringing over her voice.

  He must be good in the sack. Only explanation for Karen putting up with him.

  Kyle finished his excellent vegetable stew and patted his mouth with his napkin. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

  Anna’s eyes flickered. “Can I refuse to answer?”

  Kyle shrugged. “If you want. Why don’t you have a guy following you around like Deke does with Karen? Or did you have someone in San Angelo? That a reason you came back to Riverbend?”

  “Why am I single, you mean?” Anna slid her fork through the sauce left from her carrots. “Because guys don’t want a woman who runs off at three in the morning to help out a calf or a horse, or a dog that’s been hit by a car.”

  She answered readily, but Kyle sensed there was more to it than that. Many men also didn’t like women who were smarter, more successful, and possibly stronger than they were. Anna didn’t put up with much shit.

  “Why shouldn’t women be single if they want to be?” Anna asked, getting pissed off again. “Maybe we’ve had it with assholes.”

  Kyle lifted his hands. “I was only curious. You don’t talk much about San Angelo.”

  “It’s a dusty town on the edge of West Texas. Some fun stuff to do there, but I mostly worked.”

  “And put up with assholes?”

  “One or two.” She looked him full in the eyes. “I promise you, Kyle, I didn’t run back to Riverbend after some big drama. No bad breakup, no guy who broke my heart. I went out with exactly three men in five years, and each relationship never lasted longer than a few months. We didn’t break up after something dire—we drifted apart and it didn’t work out. I also left because I got tired of people giving me a hard time for not choosing small animal work or finding a nice man to marry me—mostly both. Same thing happens to me here, but at least here I have friends, a cute house, a decent income, and good memories.”

  “Okay.” Kyle sat back. “I get it. You do your thing, and you’re content with that. This is just me trying to get to know you. The reason I’m surprised you don’t have a boyfriend is because you’re smart, funny, and seriously gorgeous.”

  Anna’s blue eyes fixed on him in surprise. She took a breath, as though to shoot him a rejoinder, but one of their waiters chose that moment to dart in and remove plates while another slid a dessert card to the table.

  “I’ll try the salted caramel apple tart,” Anna said without looking at the menu.

  “Make it two,” Kyle said.

  The waiter beamed at them, whisked the cards away, and glided off.

  Anna leaned across to Kyle, her dress’s neckline giving him a tantalizing glimpse of rounded bosom.

  “Are you trying to get into my pants?”

  Yes. “Because I said you were gorgeous? That’s only the truth. Besides, you’re wearing a dress.”

  “Not funny.”

  “I promise, I can think a woman is pretty without it being a ploy to get her into bed.” Kyle could fantasize about it though. He would about Anna all night. “For example, I think Karen is a pretty woman, but no way. She chased me a little when she first moved to Riverbend, and it scared the shit out of me.”

  “Karen is pretty scary,” Anna agreed.

  “Doesn’t mean she’s not attractive, but I do not want to go to bed with her. Just because I’m a guy, with active male hormones, doesn’t mean I’m a growling Neanderthal chasing women to drag back to my cave. I have other things to do. Ray would never put up with that anyway. He expects me to work on the ranch from time to time.”

  Anna’s hard look softened. “I guess we both have misconceptions about each other. You’re supposed to be a drooling Neanderthal, and I’m supposed to be followed by admiring men who want to propose to me.”

  “Kind of what we were raised to do, right?”

  “Fuck us.”

  Kyle blinked. “Did you just say …”

  “I mean, we should be who we want, no matter what you think, and no matter what I think? Deal?”

  She reached a hand across the table, but before Kyle could take it, the waiter returned with the apple tarts.

  The tarts were tiny things, but smothered in great-smelling caramel and topped with a chocolate sculpted doo-dad that started melting when Kyle touched it.

  Anna dove right in. “Mmm,” she said, her face relaxing into pleasure. “In spite of her fixation with infant cowboys, Karen has great taste in food.”

  They stopped talking then, ending the tricky conversation to enjoy the dessert. The taste of it pretty much alleviated the bitterness caused by Deke, and by Kyle’s boot in his own mouth.

  Anna didn’t relax as they left the restaurant. Kyle insisted on bringing the car around so she wouldn’t have to walk the ten feet across the parking lot to it, and she waited awkwardly at the door, other patrons giving her knowing looks.

  Kyle was moving much better now, Anna noted, with a spring in his step. No more hobbling or growling about his walking stick.

  The car slid smoothly to the entrance. Anna thought about Karen’s gleeful smile when she’d told Anna the back seat was roomy, and she went hot.

  Kyle said nothing as he opened the car door for Anna, and the silence continued as he drove out of the parking lot and started down the road to Riverbend.

  At least, in the restaurant, they’d had the food to talk about, plus conversation about Karen, or their career choices. Now they had darkness, an empty road, and the end of their evening together—however that would go.

  “Too bad we can’t eat food like that all the time,” Anna said to break the quiet. Her voice came out scratchy.

  “We’d get tired of it.” Kyle rested his hands lightly on the wheel. “And overweight.”

  Anna nodded. “There’s that.”

  “It’s a good thing Grace left home. She’s such a good cook me and Ray would be enormous by now.”

  “You two must be starving with no one to make dinner for you.” Anna tried to sound teasing.

  Kyle shrugged. “Ray grills a decent steak. And my chili isn’t too bad.”

  “Not a vegetable in sight, right?”

  “Not usually. But that mushroom thing I had tonight was really good. I think I will ask Grace if she knows how to make it.”

  “Good.”

  Words died into darkness. They were groping for light conversation, not wanting to talk about real things. Such as, would they see each other after this? Would they become friends? Or only speak when they ran into each other in passing, or when Anna came to treat the Malorys’ animals?

  The twenty minutes to Riverbend had never dragged so much—or gone by so fast.

  All was quiet
when they reached Anna’s house. Mrs. Kaye’s windows were dark as before, but this time Anna had left her porch light on.

  Anna had the car door open as soon as Kyle pulled to a halt. Her hurried Thanks, Kyle. See you died away as he turned off the engine and jogged around the car to usher her out and shut the passenger door for her.

  He walked her up to the porch. Last night, Kyle had kissed her—or at least responded to Anna’s kiss—but it had been dark, and they’d hidden in the shadows. Tonight, the light blazed, illuminating them as though on stage for any passer-by to see.

  Anna unlocked her door. She’d left the living room light on as well, Patches snoozing on the armchair. The cat blinked open one eye, regarded Anna sleepily, then closed the eye again.

  She should say something, Anna thought in panic. Well, this is it. Thanks for the nice dinner. Let me know how Chocolate’s foal is doing. Something.

  But words stuck in her throat. If Anna said good night, she knew this would be over, and she and Kyle would go back to being … whatever they had been. Acquaintances who argued about the ethics of bull riding, or about whose job was harder and more dangerous. Or not speaking at all.

  Kyle said nothing. He looked down at her, his cheekbones stained red.

  He was a nice height, not overly tall or bulky, just solid. He stayed on bulls by balance, skill, and understanding his abilities. Anna knew that now.

  He gazed at her with green eyes every girl in Riverbend had wanted upon her. Kyle was much handsomer now than when they’d been teenagers. His body had filled out, his face square, his expression firm with confidence. Faint lines from smiling feathered the corners of his eyes, pale against the tan.

  Anna wanted to know if his body was as solid all the way down, if his muscles were as defined as they looked through his tight T-shirts. If he kissed as expertly lying on her couch as he had standing on her porch.

  She wanted to know all these things, and she knew that if she said good night now, she never would.

  Taking a deep breath, she grabbed Kyle by the lapels of his coat, yanked him into the living room, and slammed the front door.

  Chapter Eleven

  Anna felt Kyle start, before her heel snagged in the carpet and she stumbled.

  Kyle caught her in hard arms. His smile warmed as Anna gaped up at him, then he kissed her.

  His mouth was hard, skilled, as kissable as Anna remembered. She steadied herself on him, sliding hands to his hair, finding it warm and silky.

  If she broke the kiss, would he say thanks but no thanks, back out of the house, and disappear in the night, laughing at her? Maybe.

  She’d better keep kissing him, just in case. Anna parted her lips, and Kyle deepened the kiss, opening her mouth, hands strong on her back. He kissed her thoroughly, warming her with the expertise she’d admired last night.

  Anna wanted his coat off. She wriggled her hands under it and shoved it over his shoulders. Kyle shrugged it down his arms, letting it fall to the floor.

  The thin shirt beneath let her feel the contours of his body, muscles so hard she couldn’t make a dent in them. Kyle’s injury might have slowed him down, but it hadn’t weakened or softened him.

  A tendril of worry broke through Anna’s frenzy. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Kyle rumbled with laughter. “Damn, Anna. You are the sweetest woman I’ve ever known.”

  “No, I’m not. Not sweet. I don’t know how to be.”

  She had no idea what she was babbling. Kyle laughed again. “You’re amazing. You can rip off my clothes all you want.”

  “You too,” Anna whispered. “Only—I like this dress.”

  Kyle’s sinful look melted her bones. “I’ll be careful.”

  He had the back zipper down in a swift glide. Her dress, loose, fell from her shoulders, baring her satin bra. She was glad she’d put on the bright thing tonight instead of the sports bra she usually wore.

  Kyle gazed down at her in appreciation. He cupped her elbows, eyes half-closing as he leaned to her.

  Anna wasn’t thinking clearly, but she knew they needed to get out of the living room. She’d closed the curtains before she left, but the wide window gave onto the porch, very close to the street, and they might be silhouetted against the drapes for Riverbend to see.

  The bedroom was behind the living room. That meant that all Anna had to do was pull Kyle with her through the door, and the bed was right there, the lamp glowing on the nightstand.

  Patches lifted his head from the living room chair to watch them go, yawned, and went back to sleep.

  Kyle wanted to take things slow, but slow wasn’t an option. He was with Anna, her compact curves snug behind the blue bra, hips filling out matching panties.

  He wanted her so bad it was killing him. Kyle hadn’t been needy in a while, as both pain and meds had kept him sedated.

  He’d woken up when Anna had come to shoe Ray’s horse that day. His interest had stirred hard when she’d bent over her forge in her snug jeans, proving he wasn’t dead yet.

  Now he was wide awake in all senses of the word.

  Anna’s skin was silken under his hands, her muscles tight from the work she did. The labor hadn’t hardened her, though. Her curves, her touch, were all softness.

  The bed was only a few steps from the door. Anna had made it cozy with a thick quilt and lots of pillows.

  Kyle noted this distractedly as they fell on to it, scattering pillows everywhere. Anna lay beneath him, arms outstretched, her smile warm.

  He took a moment to study her—blue eyes, shining hair spilling across the quilt, sweet breasts encased in satin. The moment lengthened before Anna pulled him down to her, parting her lips for a long kiss.

  “Caramel,” Kyle murmured when they came up for air.

  “Hmm?” Her eyes were half-closed, languid.

  Kyle licked the corner of her mouth. “From the dessert. You have a little caramel just there.” He touched his tongue to the forgotten drop on the crease beside her mouth.

  Anna rubbed at her face self-consciously, but Kyle moved her hand. “It’s gone. And don’t worry. I don’t mind sugar-flavored Anna.”

  Her smile faded. Any minute now she was going to ask what they thought they were doing, or say they should talk about it first. Kyle’s heart was beating fast, his blood hot.

  He’d stop this, leave right now if she wanted him to, because he wasn’t an asshole, but he hoped to hell she didn’t want to stop.

  Anna brushed his hair back. She touched his face, skimmed her fingertips over his jaw. No talking, no questions.

  She lifted herself, arms going around him while she sought him in a kiss. Kyle smoothed his hand down her side as the kiss continued, no longer questioning or tentative. Their hunger was mutual, and the kiss became devouring.

  Anna’s foot brushed Kyle’s leg, and he realized he wore too many clothes. She was already mostly naked, her legs so great she didn’t need stockings on this warm night.

  Kyle rose from the bed and half-tore off his shirt, then the T-shirt beneath. His pants slid down with ease once he unzipped them—an advantage dress slacks had over jeans. Shoes wedged off and flung aside, pants kicked after them.

  He fell back down to the bed, gathering her into his arms. They kissed again, exploring with touch. Anna skimmed her fingers down Kyle’s back to his butt, his thighs, then returned to his neck and hair. She liked his hair, it seemed, as she ruffled it, smiling.

  Kyle lifted her hair in his fists, bringing it to his lips. Warm silk touched his face, and he took a moment to enjoy the feel against his cheek.

  This was not how Kyle had imagined romancing Anna. He’d envisioned rose petals and soft lighting, champagne and background music.

  Reality was the bedroom light on full blast, and silence except for the occasional car passing on this quiet street.

  But it didn’t seem to matter. This was here and now, and they were together, whatever it meant.

  Somehow he got Anna’s bra unfastened and o
ff, and she was bare against him. She had gorgeous breasts, round and firm, the tips dusky.

  He traced one nipple with his forefinger before he leaned down and ran his tongue around it, the point rising to his mouth. He played there, as Anna’s breath came faster, her nipple the softest thing he’d ever had in his mouth.

  She grappled with the waistband of his underwear, and Kyle decided it was time to make it disappear. He slid the boxer briefs down his legs, kicking them off his feet.

  There. Exposed.

  Anna studied him with flattering intensity before she wrapped her hand around his cock. Kyle dragged in a breath, the spike of pleasure acute.

  “Let’s,” Anna whispered.

  Kyle nodded readily. Only … He hadn’t really expected the evening to lead this far.

  “Nightstand,” Anna said, understanding. “In the drawer.”

  With a blink, Kyle rolled over and slid open the drawer next to the bed. Inside was a small box of condoms, neat and unopened.

  “You’re prepared,” Kyle said with a grin.

  “Callie bought them for me.” Anna sounded shy. “When she heard about the bet.”

  Kyle stifled a laugh. Callie was full of surprises. He opened the box and turned back to find Anna’s panties falling from her fingers to the floor beside the bed.

  He could only gape like a fool, the wrapped condom he’d extracted dangling from his hand. A swirl of blond hair decorated the space between her legs, her belly curving sweetly.

  “Do you know how beautiful you are?” he asked, his mouth dry.

  She flushed. “You already know how hot you are, so I’m not going to say.”

  Kyle’s blood burned. Beautiful and unique Anna thought he was hot. He’d walk on air about that a long time.

  He tore open the packet with comical rapidity and slammed the condom over his very ready cock. Anna rose on one elbow, sexy as hell, watching him.

  Everything stopped when Kyle came over her. Everything he was and had been was finished. What he’d be after this would be entirely new.