by Em Petrova
She could drive herself, but he was practical. Might as well save on gas.
While he was at it, he’d like to share a shower and a bed too. Conserve water and body heat.
“Got your list?”
She tapped her temple, eyes shining. “Right here.”
“Last time didn’t you forget something important?”
Her face fell. “Oh yeah. You got pen and paper?”
“In there.” He pointed to the glove compartment. She struggled with the faulty lock for a minute before he leaned over—over those gorgeous legs—to pop it for her. When he straightened again, he carried her tormenting scent in his head.
He cranked the key in the ignition so hard he feared it might bust off and then blew down the driveway. Wynonna bounced in the seat. She freaking bounced. And she definitely wasn’t wearing a bra.
Hell, by the time he got her home, he’d deserve sainthood. Keeping his hands off her was always a struggle, but now…
She bit into her plump lower lip, and he nearly veered off the road. “I’m forgetting something.”
“More dog food.”
She slowly turned her head and pierced him in her blue stare. “You’re grumpy about me bringing home that puppy.”
“Got nothing against a dog, as long as it earns its keep.”
“You’re all about the bottom line, aren’t you?”
“Your family pays me to make the ranch profitable, so yeah.”
“If he turns out not to be a herding dog, then I’ll pay for it out of my own pocket.”
He didn’t say anything, and she went back to writing her list. The cab felt too hot, and he rolled the window down a crack. By the time they got to town, his shirt was clinging to the sweat on his back, though. He got out and didn’t wait for Wynonna. “Meet you out front in a half hour.”
“Okay.” As soon as she stepped from the truck, she was mobbed by people who recognized her from the rodeo and the show.
He took in the situation, looking for any dangers. But no one seemed to be a threat. “You all right?” he asked.
She waved him away and started dashing off autographs using the pad of paper from his truck. He shook his head and went inside. In ten minutes flat he had all he needed, but half an hour came and went and she wasn’t outside. He leaned against the side of the building and thought about hunting for her, but decided standing in the sun was preferable to dealing with her crazed fans or buying women’s supplies.
“Hey. I’ve been waiting for you.”
He stared at Wynonna, in front of him. She hadn’t come from the store. “Where’d you come from?”
“I came out that door.” She pointed.
“Did you get all your stuff?” She wasn’t holding any bags.
“It’s already in the truck.”
“Oh.” He pulled away from the wall and gathered the big bag of chicken feed he’d set down.
“Look, isn’t that your ex?”
He followed her where she was looking. He groaned. Not only did he not want to see the woman he’d dated for a few months, but he didn’t want Wynonna anywhere near her.
“Why’s she just standing there?” he asked.
Krystal wasn’t moving. She just stood rooted in front of the glass door.
“She’s waiting for the doors to open,” Wynonna said.
“Why aren’t they? Are they broken?” He’d just used those same doors.
“They’re not automatic.” Wynonna drew so close to Mav that he felt the whisper of her arm against his sleeve and her amused tone tickling his neck.
He hitched the feed higher on his shoulder. “Don’t say a word, woman.”
She tossed her head back and laughed, which had everyone looking. “But she’s soooooo pretty, Mav.”
“I mean it.” He headed into the parking lot.
“I’m just sayin’ she’s pretty.” She matched his strides with those long legs everybody had gotten a big old eyeful of.
“It’s not what you mean.”
“How do you know what I mean?”
“I know you.” He dumped the bag into the bed of the truck and went to the driver’s side. They got in at the same time and their gazes met. Fuck, she was beautiful even when she was being a pain in his ass.
“I can’t see why you aren’t still dating her.”
He yanked his hat lower. “You have no room to talk. Look at your pretty boy.”
She stiffened her spine. “Who?”
“Your fiancé. How’s it feel when he touches you with those soft hands, Wynonna?” He reached across the console and snagged her wrist. Her eyes flared wide and bright—and filled with that longing he’d seen so many times in the past few years since that kiss in the barn.
He could have her. He’d known it for a while but held back.
He rubbed his thumb over her wrist where her pulse pounded. Rather than see her with some asshole, maybe it was time to intervene. Her dad would rise from the grave if he knew his one and only daughter, a cowgirl at heart, was about to waste her life on some jerk who’d never make her happy.
Or never satisfy her like she needs to be satisfied.
She pulled her wrist free, breaking the moment. He started the truck and navigated the way from the parking lot onto the road home. Neither of them spoke the entire way.
* * * * *
What the hell had just happened? Wynonna dumped all the bags on the kitchen table for her sisters- in-law to go through and went to the refrigerator. The pitcher of cold sweet tea beckoned. She poured herself a glass and drank it off. The second glass she sipped more slowly while resting against the counter.
Thinking of Mav. That touch on her wrist. He never touched her—except for the kiss. But she’d convinced herself he’d been comforting her when she was most upset. Now she wasn’t so sure. He was getting mighty personal lately, asking if Austin could satisfy her. If he’d sealed the deal with sex after giving her the ring.
If he was getting touchy-feely, why now? She’d pined for him for years. Flaunted her abilities on horseback with stunts that would have paralyzed a less skilled rider. She’d worn her skinniest jeans and sexiest tops. He’d never looked at her twice.
And now that she was engaged?
She issued a low growl of frustration and put her half-full glass back into the fridge. She stomped out of the kitchen and found a pair of discarded gloves in the mudroom. They weren’t hers, but she didn’t care. She just needed to work out her frustrations. And collect her thoughts.
She was as straightforward as women came—what you saw was what you got. But right now, she couldn’t figure out which end was up.
She was engaged but her heart was racing for Mav.
Maverick James Stonewall. A man who didn’t talk about where he’d come from or where he was going. She only knew bits and pieces of his story, and maybe that mystery was part of her fascination with him.
She hit the porch and leaped the stairs, landing easily in the yard. A few free-ranging chickens shied from her. Maybe she should clean out the chicken coop to busy herself. Her first instinct was to jump in a saddle, but riding would give her mind too much time to roam, and she needed busywork.
But after striding into the barn and looking around, she impulsively grabbed a bit. When she neared Zodiac’s stall, the horse moved against the door, making it rattle.
Oh yeah, he was eager for a gallop, and he was just wild enough for her right now. She popped the latch and Zodiac burst out. Bit forgotten, she gripped his mane and swung onto him bareback.
They hit the yard at a trot and by the time they’d passed the house, they were in full gallop. The horse stretched to gain more ground with its long forelegs, and the wind washed over Wynonna’s hot face.
Actually, she was hot all over. Mav’s firm grasp, his callused fingers and the look in his eyes had cylinders firing that shouldn’t be.
She set her heels into the horse’s sides and raced faster. Faster still. She clung to Zodiac’s back and let the rush
hit her full force.
Suddenly something hit her out of nowhere. She barely registered the hard chest before they hit the ground rolling. All the air in her lungs burst out, and she couldn’t suck air again.
“Wyn! Dammit, the air’s knocked out of you. Calm down and let it back in.” Mav hovered over her, looking like some damn sun-kissed god.
She cocked her fist and swung. Connecting squarely with his jaw and rocking him. She jackknifed onto her side, gasping as blessed air filled her lungs again.
“Are you okay? Hon?”
She wheezed and ignored him. What the hell had happened? She didn’t remember falling off Zodiac. That meant—
“You knocked me off! What the fuck?”
“He was racing out of control, and you were barely holding on. What the hell possessed you to ride him bareback?”
She lay there glaring up at him, and his eyes shot bullets right back. Fury dumped enough adrenaline into her system to help her sit up. “You thought I was on a runaway?”
His eyes cleared and he searched her face. “Yeah.”
“I was going so fast you could have killed me if…” If he hadn’t cradled her like a fragile egg in his arms. He’d done this to protect her.
She ran her tongue over her dry lips, and he tracked the movement. Then he slowly reached up and cupped her face in his big hands. Leaning closer and closer. Her mind couldn’t function and she sat there dumbly until his mouth met hers.
A sharp rasp of desire left her, and she parted her lips. He swept his tongue into her mouth, questing, a kiss that was anything but gentle. She moved her tongue aside to make room for his, and he groaned. The vibration sent shocks of want through her nipples.
She threw her arms around his neck and raised another noise from him, this one more guttural. She angled her head to give him access, letting his flavors infiltrate her head.
“Shit. No.” He ripped his mouth away and jumped to his feet.
She exploded to hers too, pissed off, turned on and irritated as hell. “What the fuck’s going on with you, Mav? You’re losing it.”
His eyes narrowed, and then he jammed his hat on hard, pulling it down over his ears. Without a word, he walked over to his horse and mounted.
What? He was fucking leaving?
As the hooves kicked up dust, she screamed at Mav’s infuriatingly sexy back. She threw her arms out and screamed, “What the fuck was that?” Her voice carried for a long way, but there was no answer.
Chapter Three
Mav tucked the thick binder under his arm and headed across the yard. He tossed out his senses, prepared for an ambush, but this time not from enemy fire. From Wynonna. The woman was a caliber all her own, and she definitely was pissed off enough to shoot him.
The sun was falling, and he’d seen Zodiac tucked up in his stall with a coat gleaming from a rub-down and fresh oats in his trough. Wynonna was back and lurking around somewhere. If he didn’t have a meeting scheduled with the Calhouns about what had been going on the past months they’d been caught up with rodeoing, he’d lock himself in his quarters and hide.
When he reached the driveway, Buck was just getting out of his truck. Buck Jr. hopped out the passenger’s side and then scrambled up onto the tailgate and launched himself over the side of the bed. There were several bumps as the little boy searched for something.
Mav tipped his jaw toward the bed. “What’s he up to?”
“Trouble.” Buck shook his head.
A cameraman swooped in as Buck Jr. popped up holding the puppy.
“Hey, that’s where my puppy went. You little turd, did you take my puppy home with you?” Wynonna appeared at the side of the truck, her hair tousled. Mav could still feel the silk of it under his hands as he’d kissed her.
He shot a glance at her, but she wasn’t paying attention to him. She was pretending to give her nephew hell while the cameras caught it on tape. She reached under Buck Jr.’s chin and gave it a tickle. He squealed and the pup squirmed to escape. Wynonna neatly one-handed the puppy and hooked her arm around her nephew. She plucked him out of the truck and set both on the ground.
“Is this your pup, Aunt Wyn? Where’d you find him?”
“Down at the general store. Have you been taking good care of him?”
Whenever she interacted with the young’uns in the family, Mav had a hard time looking away from her. She was a wild little filly right now, but someday she’d make an amazing mom.
The boy nodded, cowboy hat slipping up and down on his head. “I fed him and tried to teach him to fetch, but he doesn’t bring the balls back.”
“Not yet, but he will if you keep working with him.”
“Oh no, you don’t. We can’t keep him.” Buck stepped in. “Channing was already having a fit about the dog in the house. He chewed up one of Addy May’s shoes and the leg of the coffee table.”
Wynonna’s cat-shaped eyes crinkled up with her laugh, and Buck gave her a dark look.
“That’s what dogs do. You can’t deny the boy a dog, Buck. We musta had five dogs at Buck Jr.’s age.”
“Yeah, and they lived in the barn.”
“So build him a doghouse, because you’re keeping him. Jr., do you wanna keep this puppy?”
His eyes flew open wide and he bobbed his head again. “Can I, Dad?” He turned pleading eyes on his father. At that moment, Wynonna looked over at Mav and caught him smiling at the exchange. Electricity zapped between their gazes, and he jerked his free before she could let on that anything had happened between them. In a game of poker, Wynonna was an instant loser. She wore every emotion right on her pretty face, and especially when she was irritated.
Like she was with him.
Somehow, he had to find the words to discuss what had happened, to tell her that he’d made an error and he was sorry. Besides, dammit, she was engaged.
But she sure as hell kissed back like a free woman.
Guilt slayed him, and he held up the binder. “I’ll let ya’ll work out the pet adoption. I’ll be inside.”
The family’s voices trailed behind him, but he headed straight to the long kitchen table. The oak was scarred from the abuse of so many kids over the years. The very first time he’d sat at this table and talked to their father about running this ranch, Wynonna had been sitting at the end, hair in long red pigtails, coloring.
Mav had been fresh out of the service and terrible at civilian life. For several years, he’d drifted from job to job, trying like hell to find his place in a world that wasn’t war-torn. A world filled with people who hadn’t seen the shit he’d seen. After a while he’d found ranch life suited him and he could do much of it alone.
Then the child Wynonna had looked right at him and started bombarding him with questions.
“Are you gonna work for my daddy?”
“I hope to.”
“Have you ever worked on a ranch before?”
“Yep. Just left one down south o’ here.”
“Why do you have that scar on your cheek?”
He fingered it now. Then it had been fresh and pink. Now it was hardly noticeable other than it didn’t tan as well as the rest of his skin.
Ridge and West walked in, along with Lane.
“Hey, how the hell are ya?” Mav clapped Lane on the back. The youngest brother lived a few hours away with his own small ranch, his wife and a new little hellion child named Shiloh. From what Mav heard, the little girl didn’t sleep well, and the rings around Lane’s eyes said she still wasn’t.
“Tired. Glad to be home for a little while. Damn, I feel awful even saying that. I hate leaving Delaney with the baby all night, but I couldn’t face the drive back tonight. Good thing we only hold these meetings once a month, or Delaney might tell me not to come back.” Lane offered a crooked grin, and Mav returned it.
“Good to have you.”
The three brothers sat, but Mav felt too keyed up. With Wynonna just outside and the feel of her tongue sliding over his still fresh in his mind, he needed
to stay alert.
Ryder burst into the kitchen. “Buck and Wyn are still at it. They might be a while.”
“I see being engaged hasn’t settled our sister down at all,” Lane cracked. “Who’s the guy? Isn’t Austin that dude she spent two days holed up with in San Antonio?”
Ryder cocked his head in thought. “You know, you may be right.”
“No, San Antonio was the ropin’ pair. The newbies… What are their names?” West asked.
Even Mav’s back teeth ached with the urge to punch something. Two days with a team ropin’ duo? Jesus, that woman knew how to flip the bird to convention. Best of luck to Austin. If he could tame her, he was a better man than so many others.
“Adrian and Gonzalez,” Ridge and Ryder said at the same time.
Images of the cowboys flashed into Mav’s mind. Fuck, now he was pacing, unable to sit still long enough for the idea of them sharing Wynonna to take root in his brain. As he made the return circuit, he caught Lane and West exchanging raised brows at him.
“At least they’re good guys, Mav. Unlike this Austin. He’s seedy, from what I remember,” Ridge said.
Mav stopped in his tracks. “What’s it matter to me?”
Looks were passed from one brother to the next. Fuck, had Wyn said something to them about Mav kissing her? It was obvious they suspected something was going on—that Mav gave a coyote’s ass that she’d had two men at once.
For two days.
He clenched his jaw so hard it popped.
“For years I’ve been saying I need to invent brain bleach. Now I know I have to.” The female voice filled the kitchen. They all reeled around to see Mrs. Calhoun in the doorway, eyes wide.
“Shit, Momma. You didn’t hear—” Lane was half out of his seat and walked across the room to hug her.
“I most certainly did.” She gave a quick shake of her head like a cattle dog just kicked by a bull.
Ridge opened his mouth to say more, but she held up both hands. “Don’t say a word. I don’t need to hear it, but I do need a strong brandy.” She crossed the room to the cupboard.
