by Katie Lane
Which was why when Logan had called and said Chester and Lucas needed help, Holden didn’t hesitate to send money to rebuild their house after it had burned down. He’d had no idea that the contribution would prompt Lucas and Chester into deeding him a piece of the Double Diamond Ranch.
He hadn’t wanted the land . . . until he found out if he didn’t take it, Chester and Lucas planned to sell it to someone else. And Holden couldn’t stand the thought of someone else owning that particular piece of land.
“Hey, Holden, you aren’t leaving, are you?”
He turned to see Cru Cassidy walking towards him. Cru had been the teenage Don Juan of the Double Diamond boys and had spent the entire summer chasing after Evie Gardener. And yet, somehow, he’d ended up marrying Evie’s sister, Penny. Why anyone would want to get married, Holden didn’t know. After witnessing his mother’s failed marriages, he had no plans to get married himself. But he had to admit that Cru looked happy. Or maybe it was all the champagne he’d consumed.
He slung an arm around Holden’s shoulders. “You can’t go, man. The party is just starting.”
Holden glanced at his watch. “It’s close to midnight.”
“Don’t tell me that you’re going to turn into a pumpkin. You were the one who talked the rest of us boys into sneaking out at all hours of the night.”
“I was sixteen. At thirty-one, I prefer sleep.”
“Come on. Logan and I are getting ready to toss the garters.”
Holden glanced back at the dance floor where Logan was dancing with Evie. Logan looked truly besotted as he stared down at the beautiful bride in his arms. “Logan doesn’t look like he’s going to throw anything—except maybe the guy who interrupts his dance with Evie.”
Cru laughed. “You might have a point. Logan has mellowed since getting back with Evie, but he still has a temper. So maybe we should forgo the garter toss. I don’t want some yahoo keeping my woman’s garter anyway. But at least stick around and have a beer with me.”
“How about we have that beer when you get back from your honeymoon?” Holden said. “It looks like you’ve had enough to drink tonight.”
Cru sent him a drunken grin. “When you marry the prettiest girl in Texas, that’s cause for celebration.” He pulled Holden in for a quick hug and hearty slap on the back. “Thanks for coming to celebrate with us, Hold. And thanks for sticking around to keep an eye on Chester and Lucas while Logan and I are away.”
Holden didn’t really want to stay in Simple. He’d left a pile of work on his desk and, even with all the good memories, the Double Diamond Ranch also held some bad ones. But Cru and Logan had done more than their fair share of taking care of Lucas and Chester now that they were older. It was his turn.
“No problem.” He glanced around. “So where are Chester and Lucas?”
“I think the last line dance wore them out. They already bedded down in the bunkhouse. Penny and I will drop them off at the Double Diamond in the morning on our way to South Padre.”
Holden shook his head. “You have an entire world to choose from for your honeymoon and you and Logan stay in Texas.”
Cru flashed a cocky grin. “Hey, there’s no place better than the Lone Star State.”
Since the Double Diamond Ranch was right next door to the Gardener Ranch, it didn’t take Holden long to get there. He parked his old Jeep next to the porch and got out. As nice as the new house was, he missed the old one with its scarred wooden floors and the scent of Lucas’s famous chili permanently sealed into the walls.
Of course, things could’ve been much worse. He could’ve lost Chester and Lucas in the fire. Cru was convinced it was a miracle that he, Chester, and Lucas had been outside when the gas stove Lucas had left on exploded. Holden didn’t believe in miracles. If God refused to hand one out to a sweet little girl taken before her time, he figured He wouldn’t hand one out to two old cowboys. They just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Once inside the house, Holden slipped off his boots and hung his hat on a hook before making his way down the hallway to the guestroom. The room was similar to the one he had slept in when he’d been sixteen. But now there was a double bed instead of two twin beds. When he’d first arrived at the Double Diamond, he’d demanded a private room with a view. Instead, he had gotten a room that looked out at the woodshed and a roommate.
Marvin Valentine had been an overweight teen who hid candy bars under his pillow and spent most his free time writing stories in spiral notebooks covered in drawings of creepy monsters. When they first met, Holden wanted nothing to do with the odd kid. Which, of course, prompted Chester and Lucas to make them roommates.
It was the best thing that could’ve happened. Val, as Holden renamed him, hadn’t been weird at all. He’d just been a nice kid who had been bullied at school and had turned to writing as a way to release some of his anger and pain. Since Holden knew all about needing to release anger and pain, he and Val had become fast friends and still were. Val had helped Holden get through a difficult time in his own life. For that, Holden would always be grateful.
He wished Val could’ve made it to Cru and Logan’s wedding. But Val had become Valentine Sterling, bestselling writer of psychological thrillers, and was on a book signing tour in Europe. He planned to stop by to see Chester and Lucas when he got back to the states. Holden would be in Houston by then, but maybe he could drive back for a few days. Maybe he could even talk Lincoln and Sawyer into coming and they could turn it into a Double Diamond boy reunion.
He fell asleep thinking about all the good times he’d had at the ranch. What felt like only moments later, he startled awake. Unsure what had awakened him; he rolled onto his back and glanced around the dark room. The sound of knocking on the front door answered his question. Chester and Lucas must’ve decided they didn’t want to stay at the Gardener Ranch after all and didn’t have their key to get in. He got out of bed and padded down the hallway. But when he flipped on the porch light and pulled open the front door, it wasn’t Chester and Lucas standing there.
It was Devlin McMillian.
Or her slutty twin sister.
There was no way the woman standing in front of him could be the same woman he’d left at the wedding. This woman’s hair was loose and hung around her shoulders in a mass of thick, dark waves that tempted a man to go surfing with his fingers. She wasn’t wearing glasses and had on enough makeup to accentuate her large hazel eyes, prominent cheekbones, and full lips. But it was the skimpy hot pink dress that grabbed Holden’s attention and held it. The slinky material clung to the woman’s tall, slim body like a second skin—defining firm breasts, a small waist, and hips with just enough curve to whet a man’s appetite.
And Holden couldn’t deny that he suddenly felt very hungry. Especially when his gaze took in her long legs.
He had always been a leg man, and before him were the best set of legs he’d seen in his life. They were toned and slender and looked like they could wrap around a man’s waist at least twice. Sexual desire flickered to life, but before it could take hold, he noticed the woman’s shoes. Turquoise cowboy boots that Devlin had on every time he saw her. They were the one article of clothing that didn’t go with her usual librarian look.
Desire died a quick death as his gaze swept back up to her face. “What are you doing?”
Her cheeks flushed a bright pink. “I know. I look ridiculous. I didn’t quite understand what a Lulu makeover entailed.”
“A what?”
She shook her head and all that dark hair shifted around her face and shoulders. “It’s not important. I know it’s late—I got a little lost on the way from the wedding—but can I please come in and talk for a few minutes?” She glanced down at his body and her cheeks got even pinker. “After you put on some clothes.”
He suddenly realized he was standing there in his boxer briefs. If she had been any other woman, he would’ve apologized for answering the door half naked. But a woman who showed up at your door w
ell after midnight didn’t deserve nice manners.
“I don’t know what kind of ploy this is, but it’s not going to work.” He started to close the door, but she placed a hand on it. On her wrist was a beaded bracelet that said X SEX. While he was trying to make sense of that, she spoke.
“It’s not a ploy.”
He pulled his gaze away from the bracelet. “Really? Then what is it?”
She blinked those big hazel eyes. “Okay, so maybe it started out as a ploy. But once you opened the door, I realized that swapping sexual favors for the right to survey your land was a ridiculous plan.”
She continued on as if she hadn’t just stunned the hell out of him. “Firstly, I’ve never been attractive enough to make a man wild with lust, and no amount of cosmetics or hair products or tiny clothing will change that fact.” She glanced down at his body. “Especially when the man I’m trying to seduce is as perfect as you are. Do you swim? Or do daily sit-ups? I’ve never seen abdominal muscles that pronounced.”
Holden couldn’t answer the question when he was still stuck on her reason for being there. “You came here to seduce me? To offer me sex in exchange for letting you survey my land for oil?”
Her gaze lifted from his stomach. “I wasn’t actually going to have sex with you.”
“So you were just going to work me up into a sexual frenzy until I gave you what you want and then give me nothing in return?” He could read every emotion that played over her features: confusion, uncertainty, and finally stubborn determination.
Her chin lifted. “I’m going to give you something in return. I’m going to make you a lot of money.”
“I don’t want money.”
“Then what do you want?”
If she could play games, so could he. Maybe if he stopped being so nice and became the aggressor, she’d leave him alone. “Maybe I want what you came to offer, sugar.”
Her eyes widened, and for a moment he got lost in the deep golden brown with vibrant splashes of green. “B-B-But that doesn’t make any sense. I m-m-mean, wouldn’t you rather have millions of dollars? I’m not what you would call sexually experienced. I’ve had one lover and he didn’t know any more than I did. And the sex manuals I read were a little confusing, as were the pornographic movies I rented. I didn’t realize there were so many positions. I’m really only good at one. Not even good. Mediocre at best.”
Did the woman not know the meaning of TMI? He had never met a woman who confessed to sucking in bed. Of course, maybe it was all part of her game. A game he was tired of playing. If Devlin wanted to play with fire, she was going to get burned.
“Practice makes perfect,” he said as he slid a hand through her thick mane of hair and pulled her closer. He only planned to kiss her long enough to make his point. But she had the softest lips he’d ever touched, and once he tasted them he couldn’t help taking a deeper sip. He expected her to react with shock and push him away. He did not expect her arms to come around his neck and those soft lips to part and offer up all her sweet heat.
Suddenly, Holden forget what point he was trying to make.
Chapter Three
Once again, Devlin was perplexed. And once again, Holden was responsible. When he had opened the door and she’d seen him standing there in nothing but his underwear, it had dawned on her just how foolish her plan was. How could she entice a man who resembled the Greek god Apollo? And yet, here she stood in Apollo’s arms with his heated lips making her feel like she was being scorched by a thousand suns.
When Alfred had kissed her, she’d experienced a mild heart rate increase and enjoyable tingling sensations. But with Holden, all those feelings were amplified to the nth degree. Her heart felt like she was about to go into cardiac arrest. Her lungs couldn’t seem to draw in enough air. And her body wasn’t tingling as much as burning. Burning like magma deep in the earth’s core, building pressure and looking for a way to erupt in a shower of red-hot lava.
Being a scientist, she couldn’t help wanting to know what would happen next—what the conclusive result of all these unfamiliar sensations would be. She wasn’t thinking about his land or his oil or making her family proud. She was only thinking about this man and what his lips were doing to her.
She tightened her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, wanting to slip inside his hot skin and hard muscles. A primal sound escaped from deep in her throat—a sound she had never made before. Like an animal calling for its mate. Holden answered the call by sliding his hands to her buttocks and pressing his rigid erection to the aching spot between her legs.
The muscles in Devlin’s legs completely stopped doing their job of holding her up. When he moved his pelvis in a slow back and forth slide, Devlin’s entire body went limp. He caught her and held her in place with strong hands and the mind-altering heat of his mouth as he continued to kiss her. The molten feeling inside her grew and grew until soon she was rubbing against his rigid length in an effort to alleviate the aching need.
Her orgasm hit with an intensity that had her pulling away from the kiss and burrowing her face into his neck where she expressed her release in soft hums and throaty moans. When it was over, she felt like a deflated balloon that had released all its air in a loopy, foolish display.
What had she done?
The answer seemed obvious. She had just reached orgasm with a man she barely knew after only one kiss. If she hadn’t been so embarrassed, her scientific mind might have been intrigued by how that had happened. But she was embarrassed. She was completely humiliated. Of all the awkwardly weird responses she had given people over the years, this had to be the worst. He must think she was some pathetic undersexed woman to reach orgasm from just a kiss. Some sad, deprived geek who had let a few well-meaning women in town convince her that she could seduce someone like Holden who had probably been seduced by women much more attractive and experienced than she was. The only reason Holden had kissed her was to scare her off.
And he had done a good job.
Oil or no oil, she couldn’t face him again. She couldn’t even face him now. She tried to push away, but he still had a tight grip on her bottom. When he finally released her and she was standing again on her own two wobbly legs, she smoothed down the dress Raynelle’s son’s girlfriend had loaned her and kept her gaze focused on the toes of her turquoise cowboy boots.
“I guess you think this is pretty funny. An awkward geoscientist shows up at your door looking like a clown and thinks she can seduce you into letting her survey for oil.” Her cheeks heated. “I’m sure you’ll laugh about it for years to come. Congratulations, Mr. Lancaster. You got what you wanted. I won’t be pestering you anymore.”
Refusing to even glance at the smug look that was surely on his face, she turned and hurried down the porch steps. She should’ve known that she couldn’t make a graceful exit. In her hurry, she missed the last step and ended up in a tangle of legs on the ground. Before she could even start to get up, Holden was there, placing an arm around her waist and helping her to her feet.
She gasped as pain shot through her ankle, but she refused to let a little pain keep her from being further humiliated. She pulled away and hobbled to her car. Before she could get there, Holden scooped her into his arms.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine. Now put me down.”
“Sorry, but I don’t trust your judgment.” He carried her up the porch steps and inside the house, kicking the door closed. It was dark inside, but he knew his way. He carried her down a hallway to a bedroom. He shifted her to flip on the overhead light before he set her on a mussed bed.
She watched as he pulled a neatly folded pair of blue jeans out of an open suitcase and tugged them on. She couldn’t help noticing that he still had an impressive erection. Her body immediately reacted to the sight and she felt flushed and breathless. She was relieved when he left the room so she could have time to get her strange hormonal reaction to him under control.
He returned only moments later with a first aid kit. Placing the white box on the bed next to her, he opened it, then knelt on one knee in front of her. She had never been one for fairytales, but she couldn’t help feeling a little like Cinderella with a golden-haired prince knelling at her feet. The image vanished when he pressed an antiseptic wipe to the abrasion on her knee.
“Oww!”
“Sorry.” He leaned closer and blew on the scrape. Just like that, desire replaced pain. While she sizzled, he efficiently and thoroughly finished swabbing off her knee before applying ointment and a large Band-Aid. The entire time, Devlin tried to keep her gaze anywhere but on his bare chest and her mind on anything but how those hard muscles flexed as he worked. It was impossible. Even the brush of his fingertips as he pressed the edges of the bandage to her knee made her feel all hot and needy.
He glanced up. “You okay?” With her every nerve ending on high sensual alert, all she could do was nod. Once he finished tending to her knee, he lifted her injured foot and lightly pressed on the boot leather that surrounded her ankle. When she grimaced, he lowered her foot and took a pair of scissors out of the first aid kit.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m cutting off your boot.”
She pulled her feet closer to the bed. “Absolutely not. I love these boots.”
“It already looks like your ankle is swelling. We need to get the boot off.”
It did seem to be the case. The boot on her left ankle felt much tighter than the right one. “Then just pull it off.”
He shrugged and took the heel in his hand. He gave it a gentle pull and the pain that shot through her foot and ankle quickly changed her mind.
“Fine. Cut it off.”
He picked up the scissors again, but the ones in the first aid kit weren’t sharp enough to cut through the expensive leather and he had to get a bigger pair. When the boot was lying open like a gutted butterfly, Devlin felt like crying. The boots had been more than just articles of clothing. For some reason, they had made her feel like less of an outcast. When she had them on, she felt like she belonged. Like she was just an ordinary cowgirl in a cute pair of boots.
