Thinking about what else happened that night made him smile.
“Bet I can guess where we’re going,” she said some minutes later.
“Bet you can.”
“I’m not sleeping with you again.”
“No, ma’am, of course not. I’ll have to be satisfied with the view.” He turned his head so she couldn’t see his grin and accuse him of flirting with her. When they drew rein on the rise of ground where a scant few weeks ago they’d made love under the moonlight, he didn’t even look at Claire. Instead he kept his attention on the meandering river, and the hills far in the distance.
“It is lovely here,” she said.
“I won’t argue with that. All those years at school in Billings I just couldn’t wait to get back.”
“Must be nice knowing exactly what you want.”
“Hmph. You seem to know what you want.” That came out more bitter than he’d intended it.
She took a deep breath, then held it so long he began to worry. Finally she expelled it in a rush. “For now. I want revenge against Daniel. And against you. Then…I don’t know.”
“You don’t need to get revenge against me. You just need to marry me.”
“Don’t start that again.”
“Why?” He couldn’t keep the anger from his voice. “Because you’re still in love with Daniel?” There. He’d said it aloud.
“I hate Daniel’s guts.” Her eyes blazed.
“Then turn your back on him and walk away.”
She pursed her lips. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“You don’t know the whole story.”
“Tell me.”
For a long moment she stayed quiet and he was sure she wasn’t going to tell him anything, but then she scanned the horizon and said, “He stole money from me, okay? A lot of money.”
Walter sidestepped and Ethan got him back under control. “You call the police?” Once more the urge to beat Ledstrom to a bloody pulp pulsed through his veins.
“No.” Claire touched her heels to Storm’s flanks and moved away.
“Why not? What the hell happened?” He urged Walter forward, galloped around her and blocked her way. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“I lent him the money, okay? Without signing anything. I thought he loved me. I thought he was going to ask me to marry him, so I just handed it over. He said he only needed it to secure a deal for a week or two until another property he owned finished up the escrow process. It was no big deal.”
Finally he understood and he reeled from the realization of how Claire must have felt. Robbed by the man you wanted to marry. He forced himself to swallow. She’d wanted to marry Daniel—not him. “Then he ran off with that other lady instead and took your money. How much?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Sure it does. Tell me.” He waited, calming his own racing mind and breathing easily, like he did when he wanted to soothe a horse. He knew his own mood could transfer to the animals. Maybe it would work on Claire, too. He had to know it all. Had to know what he was up against.
“Ninety thousand dollars.”
He whistled low and long. “Damn. No wonder you’re so angry.”
She stroked Storm’s neck, still not looking his way. “There wasn’t anything I could do. We didn’t sign a contract—I just gave it to him. There’s no way to get it back.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why should you be sorry? You’re the one who made it possible for Ethan to buy me out of the ranch. Now I have six times the money I lost. You’re right—I should just walk away.”
“But you want to get back at him.”
“It’s stupid, isn’t it?”
“Nah. That ninety thousand dollars is the money you made yourself, with your own hard work. Of course you want it back.”
“That’s why I can’t let this go—I have to get Carl Whitfield’s contract.”
Jamie looked her over. “If you win the contract, you think you can make peace with the rest of it?”
She finally turned his way. “You mean, forget about Daniel and what he did?”
“Yeah.”
She nodded slowly. “Yes. I think so. I think that would be revenge enough.”
“All right then.” He clicked his tongue at Walter and swung around to head on their way. “Do whatever it takes.”
Chapter Ten
‡
WHAT WAS DANIEL doing right now? Claire wondered as she rode at the tail end of the line of women on their first short ride on the trails around the spread. Her thighs were sore from the unaccustomed exercise and she was sure she’d pay for jumping back into riding so suddenly after so many years away from horses. She couldn’t say she regretted it, though. Storm was a sweetheart and it was all she could do not to throw her arms around the mare’s neck and hug her again and again like a child who’d just received her first pony. Poor Storm; that wouldn’t become her at all and nor would it become an old hand like herself. So she held back, even though it was difficult.
Was Daniel going through her contact list, sucking up to the people she’d cultivated with hard work and great design skills? Was he completing the contracts in progress and stealing more of her money? Her hands tightened on the reins.
Focus, Claire.
She turned her attention to the women and horses strung out along the trail ahead of her. Maddy, the ring leader who’d made all the reservations and whipped everyone into shape when it was time to head out on the trail, had dark brown curls so thick that when she wrapped them into a ponytail holder they almost stood out straight. She was athletic and strong with a pep that made Claire tired just watching her, and she wasn’t surprised to find out she taught physical education at a private school.
Adrienne was tall and thin, almost bony, and moved like a dancer, her blonde hair so white it was practically silver. Apparently she taught cello lessons and managed a city theater in Philadelphia.
Christine was married with a single child and Claire could tell she had some reservations about leaving her toddler behind. Evidently the year before she’d begged off the annual trip because she’d still been nursing and this year the rest of them ganged up on her and forced her to come. Of average height with short brown hair, she wasn’t exactly plain, but she wasn’t exactly pretty, either.
Liz worked for a publishing company and Claire just bet she looked snazzy in her business suits. Shapely, yet model thin, she wore her sleek, auburn hair up in a severe knot, but Claire had a feeling when it came down, the woman would be spectacular. She’d be the one who gave Jamie a run for his money on this trip.
Angel rounded out the group. A plush, sweet girl—Claire somehow couldn’t make herself call her a woman—with wide blue eyes and honey blonde hair, she was obviously the mascot of the group, and the rest of the women seemed to automatically assume she would need extra help navigating her way through the world.
As Jamie assigned each of them a horse, they’d exchanged glances behind his back, biting their lips, widening their eyes and raising their brows to express their appreciation of his fine physique. Claire wanted to slap each of them upside the head, and was grateful she’d had the presence of mind to initiate the no flirting or touching rule. Sure, Jamie had to help the women on their horses, and more than one of them tried to take the opportunity to cop a feel of his muscled arms and broad shoulders, but he was doing his level best not to encourage them and she could feel the effort that took from here.
Would he make it through the week? She followed Christine’s Appaloosa around a bend and ambled on. Maybe the question she really ought to be asking was, why did she hope so?
JAMIE WAS RELIEVED to confirm all five female guests were more than comfortable riding. Autumn had told him their background, but you never knew about a rider until you saw them in the saddle. They each had the easy grace of someone who’d grown up around horses, and Angel was the only one he’d had to switch mounts for. He’d seen ri
ght away she needed the most docile of geldings, and gave her an older bay named Sweetness.
Even the cattle herding had gone just fine. He’d positioned the women carefully and for the most part they’d stuck where they’d been told to be and did just what he asked them. Liz, the hot woman who looked like a model but did something with books, often jumped the gun instead of waiting for instructions, but her instincts were good and no harm had been done. Now he hobbled the horses while the womenfolk whooped and hollered their way into the lazy current of Chance Creek.
“Aren’t you joining us, Jamie?” Maddy called. Spunky girl, that one.
“Be there in a minute,” he called back. Just like the women, he’d worn bathing trunks under his jeans. Strange way to take a swim if you asked him, but then it wouldn’t do to leave the family jewels on display with all these women around. Might start a riot.
When he made his way down to the river’s edge their guests were all swimming in the shallow pool carved out by the bend in the creek. Claire was standing on the bank, just struggling out of her top, her jeans already in a heap by her feet. He smiled at her flushed cheeks when she reappeared. She wore a scarlet bikini with white trim that looked spectacular against her tan skin.
He bit back the flattering words that rushed to his lips. Nope—even compliments counted as flirting this week, and he wouldn’t be caught.
“Last one in’s a rotten egg,” he said and cannonballed into the center of the shrieking women. When he bobbed up to the surface and found himself surrounded by them, he realized he’d made a serious error. Dripping, gasping women eyed him with a mixture of attraction and playful fury and barely a second passed before Liz splashed him full in the face with a wall of water.
“Get him!”
They attacked from all sides. Splashing, shouting, laughing women in the skimpiest of skimpy bikinis vied with all their might to douse him. Jamie defended himself as best he could, smacking his powerful arms down and across the surface of the creek to send tidal waves of water back at them. He glimpsed Claire still on the bank, her hands on her hips and her head cocked, like a coach about to blow her whistle the first time she spotted an infraction.
How the hell did you have a water fight with five bikini-clad women without flirting or touching? Jamie wondered wildly. He locked eyes with Liz and saw the challenge there.
Uh oh.
Sure enough, she moved closer and he read her intentions in her face. She wanted to dunk him, and in the process she’d get her hands all over his wet, slippery body.
Nope. No can do, lady.
Jamie gulped in a breath of air and submerged himself, fought through the tangle of arms and legs of the women paddling in the water around him and came up some ten feet away. He took another breath and stroked to the farthest side of the creek.
“Okay, ladies, give our cowboy a break,” Claire called from the bank as several of the women made to follow him, Liz in the lead.
“Awww.”
Just like children, Jamie thought. Ravenous, man-eating children.
He stifled a laugh, knowing damn well if it wasn’t for Claire’s presence and the hope of being with her at the end of this week from hell, he’d still be in the midst of that water fight, taking advantage of every opportunity those women offered him.
But that was the old Jamie—the man who hadn’t invested in the Cruz ranch, the man who wasn’t building a life for himself here, a life he hoped included Claire.
If he was sleeping with her, he’d never give any of these women a second glance. He floated on the water, already getting cold in this lazy bend in the mountain-fed stream, and watched Claire carefully pick her way in. She was lovely, but far more cautious than she used to be. Her mother’s betrayal had driven her from the ranch and while he read her love for this land in every glance she caressed it with, he also read the fear there. How angry she must have been—how hurt—to leave home, practically abandon her family, and stay away from horses—horses, for crying out loud!—the one thing she loved above all else.
He had to convince her that with Aria gone, it was safe to change her mind and stay.
THAT LIZ WAS a pushy one, Claire thought as she took a few strokes through the water. Now that their fun was over, the women were chatting and laughing, playing in the water like teenagers, but rapidly beginning to get chilled. A couple were already headed to the banks to climb out and lay on their towels in the sun to dry off. Claire kept to herself, barely rippling the surface with a smooth breast stroke. She loved this time of day, when the afternoon wound down and the comfort of a Montana summer evening loomed ahead.
Normally she’d still be hard at work designing interiors and fielding phone calls from clients who needed reassurance that yes, she’d get their projects done before the deadline. But growing up, this was the time she’d be shirking her duties in the kitchen to eke out a few more minutes with the horses before heading up to dinner.
There was no way she could get out of cleaning up the dishes and tidying the kitchen after dinner, however, so she raced through those chores, then joined her father outside on the porch to watch the sun set and the shadows gather first in the valley, then finally on the distant hills. Her father didn’t talk much, but what he did have to say meant something, so she patiently waited for his words, watching him whittle away a stick to pass the time, sometimes with her own pocket knife in hand.
She used to be like Liz—pushing and pushing for what she really wanted, but that had changed the day she found her mother and Mack MacKenzie together. She’d left the ranch, left her family, left her dream of being a rodeo queen and becoming her father’s partner in the business. She was still pushy, but only for surface things—only for things that didn’t really matter one damn bit.
She struck out for the far side with a determined overhand crawl, suddenly needing movement to block out her confusion. She was beginning to think this week of ranch work was the worst idea she’d ever agreed to. Every familiar landmark around here dredged up old emotions best left undisturbed.
When she bumped into something hard, she splashed to a stop and came up for air gasping. Jamie stood chest deep in the water looking down at her quizzically.
“No touching!” she sputtered.
“I didn’t touch a thing, you swam right into me,” he said, holding his hands up.
“You could have gotten out of my way.”
He stepped to the side. “Be my guest.”
Claire turned her back on him and swam the other way. Time for her to join the ladies sunning themselves on the bank. Maybe if she kept herself surrounded by the women, Jamie’s charms would stop insinuating themselves into her like streams of liquid fire into her veins. Even when he wasn’t actively flirting he had to be the sexiest man she knew. In fact, without the shallow flirtation, he was sexier. Because underneath all that smooth charm was a man who loved horses, was as smart as a whip, and who knew what he wanted and exactly how to get it.
Up on the grassy riverbank, she spread her towel near the other women and lay down, tuning in to their conversation.
Liz sat up. “Tell us the truth, Claire—is Jamie a real cowboy or did you hire some model and train him?”
“He’s the real deal,” she said, instantly on alert. She didn’t like the way Liz had set her sights on Jamie like a heat seeking missile locked on its target.
“Autumn’s husband is a knockout, too,” Adrienne said. “Too bad he’s off limits.”
Murmured assents from all around.
“Any more handsome cowboys hidden on this ranch?” Liz asked.
Claire shrugged, then realized they wouldn’t be able to see the gesture since she was lying down. “I guess. We employ about fifteen hands on and off. You would have seen most of them this afternoon.”
“There were some cute ones,” Angel spoke up in her dreamy voice. “They didn’t get too close to us, though.”
“Too busy working,” Claire pointed out.
“I guess. Will they join u
s for dinner?” Liz asked.
Jeez, did the woman never let up? “You’ll have to ask Autumn about that. I just do horses, not dinner.” She’d let Autumn know what the women were saying, though. The hands might not mind hanging around for supper and entertaining the female customers. Although, that might open a whole new can of worms. Would they expect to get paid for their time? She pictured Ethan and Autumn building a bunkhouse for studly cowboys somewhere on the property and running a reverse bordello. Rich eastern women could fly in and pick their man for the weekend. They’d make money hand over fist.
“I wouldn’t mind renting a cowboy for the week,” Maddy piped up, echoing her thoughts. “Especially Jamie.”
“Maddy!” Several of the women pretended to be shocked, but from the giggles all around it seemed like they all had similar feelings.
“Our hands are real people, working real hard to keep themselves and their families housed and fed. You’re all adults and so are they, but we hired them to run a ranch, not to provide… entertainment… for our guests,” Claire said.
“You’re engaged, so you can’t lust after the cowboys,” Adrienne said, pointing at her ring. “But that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t.”
“I’m engaged to…” She shut her mouth with a snap. Had she really been about to say she was engaged to Jamie? Sure, it would keep the ladies from hitting on him—she hoped—but that didn’t make it a smart thing to do. Jamie would take that ball and run with it.
“Who are you engaged to, Claire?” Jamie drawled behind her, and Claire’s cheeks burned. A glance over her shoulder told her he was standing thigh deep in the water near the riverbank. She should have known he’d listen in to their conversation.
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