The promise was easy. “Of course I won’t have sex with him.” Attraction and innocent snuggling was one thing. Sex? That was different. Mira knew her too well. “I promise not to have sex with Zane. Ever.” And she meant it.
***
She wasn’t going to have sex with him? Ever?
Zane stopped dead in his tracks, his hand suspended in the air just above Taylor’s shoulder, her words stopping him in mid-motion. Sex? She and Mira were talking about whether she was going to have sex with him?
Yeah, he thought she was appealing and intriguing, and he’d thought more than once about what it had felt like to have his hand on her hip while he’d been at the barn, but to be discussing it in broad daylight took all the spontaneity out of it.
Plus, she’d said no.
His brother’s low chuckle jerked him out of his stupor, and he glared at Chase, who had stopped next to him. “Shut up,” he growled.
“Don’t mess with my fiancée’s best friend,” Chase said in a low voice, as the women kept walking, so caught up in their discussion that they hadn’t even noticed the men approach from behind. “She wants your hands off Taylor, so keep them that way.”
Zane shoved his hands in his pockets. “Since when do women define the rules between us, bro?”
Chase’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t try to bring Mira between us. It’s about basic human respect. This place is yours, and you know it. You’ve got a hundred and twenty acres waiting for you any time you want to claim it.”
Zane watched Taylor walk up the driveway. Her jeans were snug and fit her curves just right, and she looked like sin and temptation in her hiking boots. In his youth, cowboy boots would have been even hotter, but he’d had enough of women in cowboy boots. “I’m not staying around,” he said. “Give that part of the ranch to someone else.”
“Everyone has a part. That one’s yours.” Chase slammed a hand down on his shoulder. “Someday, you need to give me a different answer, and tell me you’re staying.”
Zane jerked his eyes off Taylor and looked at his brother. “You got it all now. You got a woman and a kid, you’ve got Steen and Erin setting up roots. You don’t need me or any of the rest of us here. Let go of the fantasy.”
Chase met his gaze. “We went through hell as kids. The only thing that got us through it was each other. Those roots are important. Life is going to get shitty again sometime, for all of us, and it matters to me that we can count on each other. This place is the Stockton ranch, which includes all the brothers, even you.”
“You want to know why I don’t come around more?” Zane’s bad mood from yesterday came back with a vengeance. He’d come to the ranch to get away from stuff he didn’t want to deal with, but he was right back into the full pressure situation with Chase. “Because every time I set foot on this property, you ride my ass to move back here. I’m not coming back. I haven’t lived with you guys since I was a baby. It’s not my thing. Stop pushing it on me, or at some point, I’m not going to come back at all. Just back the hell off. This is what I am. Nothing more. I can’t play house with you and the rest of them. It’s just not my thing, so let it go.”
Chase dropped his hand from Zane’s shoulder. His jaw tightened, but he inclined his head. “Understood. I won’t ask again. You know the deal, if you ever change your mind.”
“Yeah, I know it.” Relief settled through Zane at Chase’s capitulation. No more pressure from Chase about setting up shop at the ranch.
Silence settled between the brothers for a moment, and Zane felt a twinge of guilt at shutting his brother down. But at the same time, he couldn’t go there, and he knew it. “We good?” He held out his hand.
Chase grabbed and shook it. “We’re good.” He yanked Zane over for a brotherly hug that Zane managed to endure, and then released him. “You want some grub? We have a lot to do today. I want to ride out to the far pastures and show you some fence work that needs to be done.”
“Yeah, you got it.” Zane fell in beside Chase as they headed up toward the ranch house. As they walked, he couldn’t help but contemplate the fact that Mira and Taylor had disappeared through the front door a few moments ago. He didn’t like women in his space or on the ranch, but having Taylor at the breakfast table made it a hell of a lot more interesting. He was actually kind of looking forward to it.
“I don’t think she’s going to make it to the wedding,” Chase said as they neared the house.
Zane shot a sharp glance at his brother. “What are you talking about?” Did he think Mira was going to bail on him?
“The baby. I think he’s going to come early. I’m going to be counting on you to hold down this ranch while we’re at the hospital, and the first few days.” Chase looked at him. “I want to be a good dad. A real dad. I want to be there from the first minute. I don’t want to be running out to deal with a sick horse when my kid needs something. I want to be there.”
Zane tipped his cowboy hat at his brother. “I got you covered. I’ll take care of everything until you’re ready.”
Chase nodded, tension flexed in his jaw as he looked toward the house again. “It scares the shit out of me that this kid is going to count on me,” he said softly. “What do I know about being a good dad? Or a good husband? All I know is hell.”
Zane didn’t have a lot of words of advice for his brother. He knew exactly what Chase’s childhood had been like, what all their childhoods had been like. But Chase was waiting, and he had to say something. “You took care of all of us as kids. Just do the same thing and it’ll be good.”
Chase glanced at him. “Same thing? That’s it?”
“Same thing, bro. You did good.”
“I can do that, I guess.” Chase let out a deep breath that Zane hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Okay, let’s go eat.”
“You got it.” As Zane followed Chase up the stairs, he considered Chase’s confession. He’d never really thought about being a dad or a husband. It was so far from his realm of possibility, that he’d never bothered to waste a thought on it. But Chase was facing it now, and Zane had to admit that if he were in Chase’s boots, he’d be pretty damn terrified too.
In a way, he already was in Chase’s boots, and he’d already failed, and the funeral he had to attend in three days was damning proof of it.
Chapter 5
Taylor had never realized exactly how pathetic she was until spending a day with her hugely pregnant friend, who had completely shamed her with energy and cheerfulness. Taylor was fit, healthy, and wasn’t packing around a watermelon under her sweatshirt, and she hadn’t been remotely capable of keeping up with Mira’s frenzied activity. By the time dinner was over, she was toast.
With a groan, Taylor flopped face-first onto the bed in the bunkhouse, not even bothering to take off her boots. She’d always known Mira was tireless as a caretaker when her mother was so sick for so long, but she’d had no idea exactly what a powerhouse she was.
The woman was weeks away from giving birth, and it hadn’t slowed her down one bit. She’d been on a relentless mission in the basement, unpacking all the boxes of stuff she’d brought back from home. Mira had unpacked like a woman possessed, claiming it was the nesting instinct of a pregnant woman. Whatever it was, it had turned the day into a whirlwind of heavy lifting that had made every muscle in Taylor’s body ache.
“I think I liked her better when she sat around on the couch and ate ice cream with me,” she muttered to herself, not even bothering to open her eyes. It was only nine o’clock, but she was completely done for the night. She was pretty sure she was going to fall asleep in her boots. Even the mere thought of peeling them off her feet was exhausting.
She’d hoped to catch glimpses of her favorite eye-candy on the ranch, but she’d been buried in the basement all day and seen nothing but boxes, family heirlooms of dubious value, and Mira. According to Mira, Chase and Zane had been riding the pasture fences all day and had taken lunch with them. The men hadn’t even appeared for dinner, which,
in retrospect, was probably a good thing.
A day with Mira had reminded her that she was here to support her friend, not to indulge in stupid fantasies with short-term men. She’d met Erin, Steen’s fiancée, briefly when she’d stopped by to steal some coffee filters, and Taylor had liked her immediately. She’d been a little jealous of the apparent friendship between Mira and Erin, a bond that had once included only Taylor and Mira, but Erin had been so lovely that Taylor hadn’t been able to stay cranky and feeling sorry for herself.
Steen and Erin were apparently wrapped up in the construction of their new home and Erin’s vet clinic on the south side of the ranch, but she’d invited Taylor by to see the progress. She’d been glowing with happiness, just like Mira, and their excitement had been contagious, but it had also made Taylor feel like a crotchety spinster aunt.
Either way, she was glad for the privacy of the tiny bunkhouse and a night off from having to socialize in a world she didn’t quite fit in.
“Nice view.” Zane’s low voice slid over her as the door creaked open. “Is that an invitation?”
Excitement rushed over her, and she scrambled to a sitting position, depriving Zane of the view of her backside sprawled across the bed. As she righted herself, Zane strode into the tiny bunkhouse, using the heel of his boot to kick the door shut. He was covered in dust and grime, and he was wearing leather chaps over his faded jeans. His cowboy hat was tipped back, and his cowboy boots thudded on the wooden floor. Whiskers shadowed his jaw, and he looked every bit the rugged frontier cowboy, and nothing like the clean-cut starched-shirt businessmen she worked with every day. Zane was dangerous, elemental male, and just the sight of him made her stomach do flip-flops. “Of course it’s not an invitation,” she said, “I didn’t think you were coming back here.”
He unfastened his chaps and hung them on a hook by the door, showcasing exactly how well his jeans fit over his narrow hips. “Where else am I going to stay? The house is full, my bike isn’t great for sleeping, and I’m too old to sleep in the barn with the horses.”
“You’re sleeping here? Again? With me?”
Zane looked over at her, his eyes dark and moody as he took off his hat and hung it on the wall. He ran his fingers through his hair, fluffing the indent from his hat as he strode across the room toward her.
Taylor stiffened as he bent over her, setting one hand on either side of her hips. His face was inches from hers, and the scent of leather and man slid through her like an intimate caress. “Darlin’, I’ve spent the entire day working on a ranch doing things I swore I’d never do again, and all day, the only thing that’s kept me going was the thought of wrapping myself around you in that bed all damned night. So, yeah, I’m sleeping in that bed, and if you drag out one of those old mattresses from the back room, I’m going to burn the damn thing up so you have nowhere else to sleep.”
Her heart leapt, and she lifted her face to his. “Nothing’s going to happen if you sleep here,” she said. “I’m not going to have sex with you.”
A lazy, dangerous smile drifted across his face. “I know you’re not. I heard you guys talking. But you never said a damn thing about wrapping that fine little body of yours around me all night.”
She blinked at the image of being wrapped around him all night, and tried to force it out of her head. “You heard us talking?” She quickly replayed their conversations from the day, trying to figure out what else he might have heard. “When?”
He winked at her as he stood up and began unbuttoning his faded plaid shirt. “Can’t remember.” He stripped off the shirt, revealing a tight, black tee shirt that showcased biceps and pecs that strained against the fabric. “But I remember admiring your butt in those jeans.” He tossed the shirt on his duffel bag, and then ripped off his tee shirt.
She knew she should avert her gaze, not simply because he was trying to get her to look at him, but also because, well, she wasn’t going to do anything about the fact that she was completely captivated by everything about him. She tried, she really tried not to gawk, but when he walked over to the bed and stood in front of her, there really wasn’t anywhere else to look except at him.
She cleared her throat and pinned her gaze to his face, trying not to gape at his bare chest or the washboard abs, or the scar on the front of his right biceps. “What?”
He narrowed his eyes, and said nothing. It was as if he were waiting for something.
She held up her hands in a gesture of confusion. “I’m sorry, Zane, but you’re kind of like a dog, staring at me like you want something and expect me to read your mind. You want a walk? A bone? What?”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”
Did he have a dimple? He almost had a dimple. How could a rugged cowboy biker with five o’clock shadow and layers of ranch dust have a dimple? That was just too endearing for a man like him. “I have a lot to say as a general rule. I just have no clue what it is that you’re expecting me to say.”
“She didn’t tell you?”
“Who didn’t tell me what?”
“Mira didn’t tell you who I am?”
She frowned. “Aren’t you Chase’s brother?”
“Yeah, not that.” He gestured impatiently. “The whole bull riding thing. That.”
“You ride bulls?” Wow. He’d just gone from rugged to hardcore. “Is that what the scar on your arm is from?”
“I used to ride. Not anymore.” He narrowed his eyes. “I was the world champion for three years in a row.”
“Um…congratulations? Is that what you want from me?” Tension was vibrating fiercely through his body, making his muscles strain beneath his taut flesh, making her pretty sure that kudos wasn’t what he was waiting for. “Seriously, Zane, I’ll be honest, I have no clue where you’re going with this, and I’m too tired to guess. I can tell you’re upset, but I’m totally clueless about what’s going on. So, great job on the championship. I’m impressed.” She held out her hands in a gesture of surrender. “Or…should I ask to see your trophy? I don’t know what you’re getting at, or why you look so angry with me.” She supposed she should be nervous with all his simmering hostility, but she wasn’t afraid of him at all. She somehow knew he’d never hurt her. She was confused, however.
He stared more intently at her. “You don’t care,” he said softly. “You don’t care, do you?”
She sat up straighter. “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think? I mean, yes, I barely know you, but I’m not callous enough not to care when someone accomplishes their dream. Seriously, what do you think I am—”
“No.” He crouched in front of her, his hands on her knees. It was the exact same position that Mira had been in with her, but it was a completely different experience when Zane did it. He seemed to take over the space between them, trapping her. She didn’t want to run, though. He was dangerous and irritated about something, but she wanted to stay right where she was. The same feeling of rightness filled her, that same wonderful sensation of awakening in his arms. There was simply something about him that made her want to stop running and stand still, not forever, but for a little bit. “You still see me, don’t you?” he said softly.
She narrowed her eyes, searching his face as she tried to understand what he was saying. His eyes were turbulent, and his jaw was tense. His hands were warm on her knees, dwarfing her leg. “Yes,” she said slowly, trying to figure out the issue.
He moved closer to her. “I want to have sex with you tonight,” he said, his voice a low rumble that seemed to ignite everything inside her. “I want to kiss every inch of your body, and give you the best damned night of your life.”
Heat flooded between her legs, and her heart started to pound at the completely unexpected change in topic. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” He slid his hand behind the nape of her neck. His touch was seductive and amazing, sending chills down her arms. “Kiss me, Taylor. Just one kiss.”
Oh, God. This was way out of cont
rol, especially given the fact that she wanted desperately to say yes and lose herself to him. But there was no way. She’d made a promise to Mira, and it had been the right promise. “I can’t.” She put her hand on his chest to push him back. “Don’t get me wrong. I think you’re…um…well, you tempt me and no one else has tempted me for a long time, but I can’t do that with you.”
He didn’t back up, or let her go. “One kiss, Taylor. Just one.” He moved closer, and for a split second, she considered letting him kiss her. It would be so incredible to be kissed by a man she was so entranced by. How wonderful would it be to once, just once, let herself go with a man and not worry about the consequences.
Except there were always consequences. “I can’t.” She pulled her legs back from between his knees, swung them to the side, and vaulted off the bed. By the time she’d landed on her feet and managed to get her hands in a position of sufficient defiance on her hips, Zane was standing as well, staring at her with an expression of absolute disbelief.
His shocked expression irritated her. “What? Are you that surprised that I could turn down a bull riding champion? Did you think that just because you’re some famous hottie that all the women want, that I’d fall for it too? That’s why you told me, wasn’t it? So I’d have sex with you?” God, she was so disappointed. She hadn’t expected that of him at all. “I can’t believe you used that ploy with me.” She pointed at the door to the back room. “You can get yourself an old musty mattress, because there’s no space in that bed tonight.” Suddenly, she didn’t feel safe with him. Last night had been perfect, and he’d made no move to seduce her. She hadn’t expected that to change, and now that it had, she felt uncomfortable. She was also kind of crushed. He’d seemed like such a good guy, dangerous and sexy, but honorable. And now he’d tried to use his bull riding thing to get her to have sex with him? She was so bummed. She’d totally misjudged him, as well as her ability to see who she should have faith in. “Or sleep on your bike. Not here.”
A Real Cowboy Rides a Motorcycle Page 5
