Wild West Fortune

by ALLISON LEIGH,

  She put her other palm against it and slowly leaned her weight against it.

  No movement.

  The heels on her boots gave her extra height, so it was easy enough to see and reach the car door handle. Getting the door to open, however, wasn’t easy at all. No matter how she pulled or pushed, she couldn’t get the darn thing to open more than an inch. The only solution would be to climb up on the top—

  “You don’t have the right leverage.”

  She snatched her hand back from the car at the sound of the voice behind her and whirled around to see Jayden sitting on the kitchen porch step.

  He was shirtless, and he looked like he’d been sitting there for some time.

  She dropped her hand from where she’d pressed it to her pounding heart. “How long have you been sitting there?”

  “Long enough.”

  Which told her nothing.

  “What’s so important inside the car?”

  “Nothing.” Her heart still pounded. Only now it had a distinctly guilty quality to it that she hated. It was her car, after all. If she wanted to look inside it, wasn’t that her right? “I just, uh, couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t stop thinking about my car.”

  “So you figured you’d go for a drive?”

  She was glad it was dark. It would hide her hot cheeks. Of course, that same darkness hid the expression on his face just as well. “I suppose it’s silly of me, but I never thought to ask my insurance company whether my coverage extends to, well, weather. No pun intended.”

  He stretched out his long legs and crossed his ankles.

  Unlike her, he hadn’t put on boots. Or any other type of footwear, for that matter.

  His feet were as bare as his chest. Logically or not, it made her tend to think he hadn’t expected to encounter her, either. “What’s got you up in the middle of the night?”

  “Couldn’t sleep.”

  Unlike her, he didn’t offer a reason or an excuse and the silence that followed felt awkward. She moistened her lips and swallowed. Then the breeze tugged again at the hem of the T-shirt and she pushed it down. “I must look ridiculous.”

  “My mom’s got shoes in her closet. You could’ve borrowed something better suited to tramping through the mud.”

  “I know.” She really didn’t want to explain her reasoning. “I’m imposing enough already.” He also hadn’t disagreed that she looked ridiculous. Given the circumstances, she had no right whatsoever feeling vaguely offended. “I should’ve given you back your shirt and sweatpants after I got my clothes out of the dryer.”

  “What’s stopping you?” He splayed his fingers across his bare abdomen. “God knows I can’t go another minute without that T-shirt.”

  Heat went from her face straight to her stomach. She wondered what he would do if she pulled it off right then and there and handed it to him.

  But then again, she didn’t really wonder.

  She knew exactly what he’d do.

  And even though there was an aching, soft spot inside her that wanted that very thing, she turned on her heel again and looked at the car. “I thought about climbing up on top of it so I could get the door open.”

  “What stopped you?”

  She propped her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Afraid I’d tip the car over.”

  “I doubt it would tip. When Nathan hauled it away from the cellar door, it dug into the mud pretty well.”

  She hadn’t thought about that. “So, you think I could climb up—”

  He made a sound.

  She looked over her shoulder at him again. “What?”

  He rubbed his hand over his head, then pushed to his bare feet. He braced his arm against one of the thick wooden posts supporting the overhang of the porch roof. “Just because you could doesn’t mean you should. The car’s not going anywhere. The insurance policy or whatever you’re so anxious to look at is not going anywhere. We’ll get the car back on its tires when it’s daylight and then we’ll see about getting it fixed.”

  “Is Paseo even large enough to have an automotive repair shop?” The damage might not have affected her ability to drive it, but she couldn’t go anywhere with the windshield in the state it was in.

  “There’s a guy who does work.”

  She chewed her lip, managing to keep her “Is he qualified?” contained within her own thoughts. She didn’t think she was a snob and she certainly didn’t want to sound like one. Even if she did have some doubts about the availability of services around here. How could she not?

  “You’re right. There’s nothing that can’t wait until daylight. Do you suppose the phone lines might be working again by then?”

  “Might be. We’re remote, which makes a working phone line pretty important to everyone in the area. You have someone you need to call?”

  “Sooner or later. I do have people who’ll wonder where I am.” Her parents. Her work, particularly if she couldn’t deliver her piece about the grand opening of Keaton’s office complex.

  She pushed his shirt back down again when it fluttered around her thighs and walked back toward the porch. The entire house was perched on a stone-covered foundation that was at least two feet high. If she’d bothered putting on her jeans—or the sweatpants he’d loaned her—she could have stepped from the ground straight onto the porch without using the three stairs he was blocking.

  But she hadn’t put on her jeans. Or the sweatpants.

  And the only things she had on beneath the shirt was the skin she’d come into the world with plus a pair of seriously skimpy white panties that she’d be embarrassed for her mama to know she’d ever bought.

  Which he would most certainly see if she took that two-foot-high stretch.

  Instead, she put her boot on the first step. Then the second. The third.

  He still didn’t move.

  She swallowed and had to force the words through her tightening throat. “Excuse me.”

  He shifted to one side, though he didn’t move entirely out of the way. Instead, he lifted his hand and put one finger beneath her chin.

  She froze in place, her nerve endings suddenly fizzing. He stood so close to her that she could feel the warmth emanating from his bare skin. Could smell the same scent of soap on him that was on her own skin.

  “I can think of one thing that can’t wait until daylight,” he murmured.

  She waved her hand a little desperately at the house. “Your brother—”

  “Sleeps like the dead. A skill he learned with the teams. Nothing wakes that guy up these days.” He pressed her chin up an inch.

  She was having the hardest time breathing. If she leaned forward, she could touch her mouth to the hard line of his collarbone. Taste that warm, smooth skin one more time. “Teams?”

  “Navy SEAL.”

  “My dad was in the navy for a few years. Surprised your other brother isn’t air force.”

  He smiled slightly. His fingertip lifted another inch. “So about that thing that can’t wait.”

  Her lips tingled, already anticipating his kiss. “Yes?”

  His finger slid down her throat. It seemed to linger over the pulse she could feel throbbing there, then slid farther, slowly tracing down one side of the V neckline to the lowest point in the valley between her breasts, then even more slowly up the other side and back to her pulse again.

  She shifted from one foot to the other, feeling herself leaning closer to him. If her pulse beat any harder she might well pass out. “Jayden.”

  His head dropped toward hers until his lips were a breath away from hers. “The shirt.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Turns out I can’t go without it after all.”

  She knew he wasn’t serious about the challenge, because she could feel the curl of his smile against
her mouth.

  But it was enough to bring her to her senses.

  At least a little.

  Because she’d rarely been able to resist a challenge. And this one—right or wrong—was too irresistible to ignore.

  She pulled back a few inches and gave him a long look before turning away from him. She reached out and pulled open the screen door. But before she let it close, she tugged the shirt off her head and tossed it over her shoulder at him.

  She heard his muffled exclamation as the door closed between them.

  Chapter Four

  “Sleeping beauty finally awakens.”

  Ariana smiled ruefully at Nathan’s greeting and let the screen door close behind her as she walked out onto the porch. The sun was bright and warm and halfway to noon and the sky was entirely cloudless, as if it were completely innocent of the mayhem it had so recently caused. “I didn’t intend to sleep so late,” she admitted. “I can’t remember the last time I slept until ten in the morning.”

  Jayden’s brother was leaning over the opened hood of her car. Jayden himself, however, was nowhere in sight.

  Considering the outrageous way she’d walked away from him in the middle of the night wearing nothing but her panties and boots, his absence—however brief it might be—felt like a good thing to her.

  She squinted against the sunlight and went down the steps, crossing to her car. “How hard was it to get it back on four wheels?”

  Nathan shrugged. He was wearing a dark T-shirt and disreputable-looking cargo shorts. “Bitty car like this? Not hard. We can be glad the twister didn’t carry it farther than it did.”

  “It was a tornado, then? How’d you find out?”

  “Phone line’s fixed. Neighbors have been calling all morning wanting to talk about it.”

  “I hope nobody was hurt.”

  He shook his head. “But it ran along the highway for a good while. Ripped the heck out of the highway bridge just outside of town. Tore down a farmhouse back the other way.”

  She swallowed.

  “All things considered, we got off lucky.” He focused on the car again. “This thing’s got one of those hybrid engines.”

  She nodded even though it hadn’t been a question. Rather, judging by the face he was making, it was more of a condemnation.

  That was okay. Her father thought her choice of vehicle was ridiculous, too. But then, aside from his four years in the navy right out of high school, he’d spent his life working for a gas company. She made a mental note to check in with her mother as soon as she could and gestured at the car.

  “It’s quite a mess, though.” She stated the obvious. Mud was caked against the passenger side of the vehicle, pressed into every crevice from the wheel wells of the two flat tires to the door handles to the cracked windows. She walked around to the driver’s side. It was cleaner, but not by much. At least the windows and tires looked to be intact.

  She pulled open the door. She’d never had the chance to lock it when Jayden had pulled her to the storm cellar the day before, and it opened easily at her touch.

  She swiped a few inches of dirt off the seat the best she could and sat down behind the steering wheel.

  “Couldn’t find your key,” Nathan said.

  “It takes a keyless remote. I keep it in my purse.”

  “That’s what we figured. We looked.”

  Her nerves tightened. She’d been so preoccupied with her notes. “I hadn’t even thought about my purse.” No purse. No key.

  And how on earth was she supposed to get back home again without her key? Without her wallet? Her money? Her everything?

  “You never know,” he said. “With a tornado? Sometimes things get found hundreds of yards away.”

  “Like my purse?”

  “Stranger things have happened.” He was silent for a moment. “But I probably wouldn’t get my hopes up, if I were you.”

  “Great.” She couldn’t see him because of the upraised hood in the way. She felt under her seat, then the passenger seat and came up with nothing but a crinkled receipt from the coffee she’d bought before leaving Austin the morning before.

  She got out and opened the rear door. There was glass on the seat and the floor from the back window.

  But nothing else.

  Trying not to succumb to the panic bubbling around the base of her stomach, she sat back behind the wheel again and leaned over to paw through the glove box. At least there, among a jumble of receipts she needed for her expense report at work, she found her insurance policy information right where it belonged in its little plastic sleeve.

  It was one sign of normalcy. As was the wrapped chocolate bar also sitting there.

  Coffee was a daily necessity. Just thinking about her lack of it was almost more than she could stand. Which meant if ever there was a time for emergency chocolate...

  She pulled out the candy bar and peeled back the wrapping, took a bite off the corner and let it sit on her tongue to dissolve.

  “Not the healthiest of breakfasts.”

  She jerked upright, banging her elbow on the console, and looked at Jayden, standing next to her opened door with Sugar by his side. Unlike his brother, he was dressed in faded jeans and a white T-shirt.

  For all she knew, the same white T-shirt from the night before. On him, the plain white cotton seemed stretched to capacity across his wide shoulders.

  She swallowed the melting bite and swiped her mouth just in case she’d been oozing chocolate bliss. She broke off another corner and offered it to Jayden while she reached out to let Sugar sniff her fingers and accept a few pats. “Never knock chocolate.”

  “Or accept candy from strangers.” He smiled slightly as he took the small wedge. “But then, can you really be considered a stranger after everything?” His voice dropped a notch and his eyes were wicked. “I mean, I have seen two of your tattoos.” He popped the chocolate in his mouth, seeming to savor it. “Makes me wonder if there are more.”

  She flushed, but figured she deserved to after her behavior the night before. “There aren’t,” she said briskly.

  She rewrapped the chocolate bar and closed it once more in the glove box. But she kept hold of the insurance card and got out of the vehicle. Sugar was working her way around the car, sniffing at the tires. “I’m going to need to use your phone.” She wiggled the plastic-covered card between her thumb and forefinger. “I don’t think they’ll pay for a towing company all the way back to Austin, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.”

  At that, Nathan pushed the hood down and it shut with a noisy bang. “Don’t need to tow it anywhere except to Charlie’s.” He propped his hands on his hips, not seeming to care that there was grease on his fingers.

  Jayden was nodding. “And you don’t need to hire a towing company for that. We’ll just hook ’er up and take care of it ourselves.”

  A mental image formed of her poor car being dragged along behind Jayden’s pickup by a rope. “I don’t want to cause you any more work.”

  “No work,” he assured her.

  She lifted her eyebrows and gestured toward the barn behind them. “Really? So that wall over there on the barn is supposed to look all caved in like that?”

  “She’s got you there.” Nathan started toward the house. “But before we do anything, I need more coffee.”

  Amen to that. Coffee sounded good to her, too. Ariana swung her arm, following Nathan’s progress toward the two-story house with its patchwork of boarded-up windows. “It looks like you and your brother are facing a lot of extra work already without worrying about my car.”

  Jayden’s arm brushed hers as he pushed the car door closed. “Do you know how to make coffee?”

  It wasn’t exactly the kind of response she’d expected. “Of course. Who doesn’t?”

  �
��Nathan,” he muttered. “I don’t know what the hell he does to it.” He wrapped his warm hand around her bare elbow and drew her around the car. “You take over coffee and I’ll be happy to tow your car all over the state if necessary. It’s a fair trade. Trust me.”

  It was a warm summer morning. Much too warm for the sweater she’d been wearing the day before. But at least if she’d been wearing it now, his hand wouldn’t be in direct contact with her skin, setting off all sorts of little fires beneath the surface.

  He evidently took her agreement for granted, because she didn’t even have a chance to respond before he called his brother’s name.

  Nathan had just opened the screen door and he looked over his shoulder at them.

  “Ariana offered to make it,” Jayden said quickly.

  She did?

  She looked from Jayden’s blithe expression to smile brightly at his brother. “It’s the least I can do.” And all of this talk about coffee had her coffee buds jangling more than ever, anyway. She quickened her step and Jayden’s hand fell away before she darted up the stairs and through the screen door that Nathan was still holding open.

  Her shoulder brushed against him as she slipped past him. “Excuse me.” The two men looked identical. But there was zero effect when it came to Nathan.

  To her way of thinking, it was irrefutable proof that physical chemistry wasn’t only about looks.

  One portion of her mind wondered if there could be an interesting blog about that as she stopped in the middle of the kitchen. There wasn’t a coffeemaker visible on the scarred butcher-block counters. “Just point me in the right direction.”

  In answer, Jayden opened a cupboard and pulled down a huge can of ground coffee that he set on the counter. And Nathan plucked an old-fashioned coffeepot from the sink.

  He sniffed the inside, then set it next to the can of coffee. “Go for it.”

  So much for a coffeemaker.

  She eyed the pot. It was tall, white and blue. “My grandmother used to have one like that.” Her grandma’s hadn’t been blackened around the base, though. Nor on the inside, as she saw when she picked it up and looked in. “But then, when she was alive, I wasn’t anywhere close to coffee-drinking age.”