He narrowed his eyes at her in mock anger, but he couldn’t hold the expression and gave it up for a smile. “It’s not my fault she thinks she’s wiser than me just because she’s ten years older than me and is retired from the Army.”
“I thought she only wanted to find you a wife.”
“No, that’s my mother. Thank God, she’s in Arizona.”
They both laughed, and Tucker relaxed. Lorelei had always had a calming effect on him.
At least she did until she said, “Why don’t you move in here?”
He sat bolt straight. “You mean move into the big house--with you?”
With a quirk of her brow, she leaned forward. “Yes, that’s what I mean. I have plenty of room, and I’m here by myself for the next two weeks.” She looked at the remains of their breakfast and gave him a radiant smile. “Now, let’s talk about your salary, then I’ll show you to your office. You can stay here tonight if you want. The room at the top of the steps.”
“Your old room?” The thought of sleeping in her childhood bedroom made a warm bubble form in his chest.
She nodded and a corner of her mouth curved up. “Yeah. Jessica still sometimes uses hers, and Jenna is in the other room. There are towels in the cabinet in the bathroom and plenty to eat in the kitchen. If there’s anything special you’d like, just let Frances know. She can get it when she goes to town. Please make yourself at home.”
“Thanks again for letting me stay here.”
An expression of longing passed over her face, but was gone in a heartbeat. “I’m glad for it. With Jenna away with her dad, the house is just so…”
“Big?” he supplied when her voice trailed off. She nodded, but he suspected the better word would have been lonely. He finished his coffee and poured them both another cup. “I think we have time for another cup before we talk business.”
She picked up her cup and lifted in salute. “Sounds perfect.”
CHAPTER 3
Over the next three days, Tucker and Lorelei settled into a comfortable arrangement. He moved into her old room and though the thought of sleeping in the room across the hall from her kept him wakeful the first night, exhaustion soon won the battle over desire.
This morning, he asked her to go riding with him. He’d driven one of the ATVs over the pastures and out inspected the crops of corn and hay. Cattle and horses wasn’t the only thing Kentland produced. They wouldn’t ride too far. His back still wasn’t up to him spending all day in the saddle, but an hour or so was doable.
He also wanted to talk to Lorelei about her own ideas for the ranch. Over the past few days, they’d discussed his plans, but he had no idea what she wanted.
They stopped their horses and looked out over the grazing cattle. A warm breeze rippled through the tall grass. With the sunshine playing over the rises and disappearing in the falls, the field moved like a green ocean. During the ride, they talked about everything but the ranch.
“Have you ever missed this place?”
At Lorelei’s question, Tucker leaned on the saddle horn and turned to look at her. She pushed flyaway hair from her face as the wind ruffled her ponytail as she stared out at the scene before them. How the hell was he supposed to answer without giving away the reasons he left? When she glanced over at him, he swallowed and slid his gaze back to the Black Angus cattle contently munching grass, black tails switching away flies. “This was my home, too. So, yeah, I’ve missed it.”
“Why did you leave?”
With a snort, he looked back at her. Leave it to her to stab into the center of the boiling quagmire of his feelings for her. “I couldn’t stay. I won’t say anymore.” When she nodded, he shifted in the saddle of his barrowed horse. “Why didn’t you take over management of this place?”
She laughed, but the sound was short, harsh, and bitter. “Right…and run the place into the ground? I don’t think so.” With a sigh, she stared out over the land. “I wish I did know how to run this place, but I don’t. I was too busy with Jenna and my career to ever ask Danny to teach me. I only regret not knowing more about the ranch.” She flashed him a self-deprecating grin, then turned back to the scene before them. “Well, it’s not my only regret, but for right now, it’s the pressing one. I mean, when we were looking over the accounts, and I didn’t even know what they all are.” She pointed toward the cattle. “I believe these cattle are going to market next month and need moved into the paddock, there’s another herd needing vaccinations, but I have no idea what to do.”
“It’s time to change that.” He leaned over and laid his hand on her arm. The sensation of her warm, smooth skin under his work-calloused palm sent a tremor though him and made him ache to touch the rest of her. He pulled away when she looked at him. “I’ll never understand your grandfather’s complete refusal to teach you and Jessica how to run this place.”
She shrugged and patted her mare as she pranced under her. The horses wanted to move again. Turning the mare’s head around to head east, she said, “Me either. At the time, neither Jess nor I thought much about it.”
He brought the gelding he rode up beside hers as they picked their way through the tall grass along the barbed wire fence. “Your grandma didn’t know anything about the ranch either. My dad told me he totally took over after your grandpa died.”
Old Raymond Kent died Lorelei’s second year of college, and her grandmother Gloria passed the year she graduated from medical school. Tucker’s father ran the place until colon cancer claimed his life after she and Danny married. At which time, he took over management of the ranch.
“Grandpa had some really old fashioned ideas about women. He was okay with Jess and I getting a college education. After all, he wanted us well read and able to hold an intelligent conversation, but he would’ve turned over in his grave if he knew we both decided to have careers.” She glanced at him. “You know he hoped you’d marry Jessica, and after Danny married me, you both would take over the ranch. He genuinely loved and respected both of your fathers and considered you both the grandsons he never had. What he wanted was for one of us to give him a great-grandson to continue the Kent legacy.”
He snorted and pushed his hat back a little as they headed into a knot of ponderosa pines by one of the large ponds dotting the ranch and providing water for the cattle. “Yeah, I knew what the old fart wanted. Why do you think I dropped out of college? If I let him pay my way, I’d be indebted to him.” He had eventually finished his degree in agricultural management through an on line program. His rodeo buddies all thought him crazy in spending a lot of his free time hitting the books, but he had a dream of one day having his own place after he quit rodeo.
They stopped at the water’s edge and dismounted to allow the horses to drink from the spring-fed pond. He hadn’t been on a horse for a long time, and tingling numbness shot down his right leg from his back. Adjusting his stance to take the weight off his leg, he leaned against a trunk of one of the pines. “Danny may have been okay with the arrangement, but I sure as hell wasn’t.”
She laughed and pulled two water bottles from a saddlebag tied her mare, then handed one to him. The horses weren’t the only ones who were thirsty. The mid June day had started out comfortable, but had become hot and humid enough to make the devil sweat.
“Danny wasn’t ever okay with it either.” She opened her bottle and took a long drawl on the liquid. “He told me once he didn’t want Grandpa to pay for him to go to college, but his father insisted he take him up on the offer since he was going to marry me anyway.” She shook her head. “He was willing to sell his son’s soul to Raymond Kent to get him married safely to me.”
“For a preacher, my uncle is one greedy SOB.” Tucker never liked his aunt’s husband, even though everyone in the area had loved the man. He guessed his uncle had had his congregation and the upper crust of the county, which had included Lorelei’s grandparents, snowed, but Tucker knew over the past few years, Uncle John was losing favor. His unwillingness to bend with the times tu
rned people off.
Watching him, she took another sip of water. “So, you never had any interest in my sister?”
Her question brought him out of his contemplation like a jolt of electricity. He dropped the unopened bottle onto the ground, straightened, and took a step toward her. The pain in his leg and back completely forgotten. She was close enough to smell her soft flowery fragrance over the harsher, earthy scents of the trees, pond, and the nearby horses. Her breath came rapid as he pulled her to him and gazed into her deep blue eyes. “No.”
* * * *
Lorelei had no idea what possessed her to ask him about Jessica. More importantly, did she truly want to know his answer? She’d never had an overt interest in Tucker. Sure, she thought him handsome and possessing a kind heart. He was a good man, honorable and extremely loyal. He’d been a friend to her since they were toddlers, but he’d never been more to her than just a good friend.
So, why did she suddenly want to know more?
His single word answer and the dark intensity in his olive eyes sent her heart thundering in her chest. She let out a gasp when he pulled her to him and lowered his mouth onto hers. At first, she didn’t respond to the questing way his lips brushed hers, but need blossomed in the pit of her stomach. She let the water bottle slip from her hand and slid her palms along his sides. The muscles under her fingers tensed as he tightened his grip on her waist, pulling her even closer. Heat poured from him and seeped into her, stoking her own fiery response to him.
He increased the pressure on her lips. She opened to him, leaned into him, wanting him. With a groan, he thrust his tongue into her mouth. He tasted sweet, delicious, exhilarating, and she clung to him, kissing him back with a passion she hadn’t felt in years.
When he lifted his lips from her, his breath came fast and shallow like he’d run a race. They’d lost their hats while kissing, and she brought her hands up to run her fingers into his unruly, wavy locks.
The kiss had left her breathless in a way she’d never been with Danny. He’d never kissed her with such feral passion.
Tucker brushed his fingers over her cheek. “There has only ever been one Kent sister I’m interested in--now or then, and it has never been Jessica.”
Her breath caught and her heart fluttered at the implication. Lorelei hadn’t believed Jessica when she’d told her he had feelings for her. She wasn’t sure she believed it now. He was as famous for his being a playboy as he was for his skill as a champion bull rider. But she liked the way he made her feel. Beautiful and desired, especially when the heated way he looked made her temperature increase. Did she dare risk letting things progress any further? She had no intentions of falling for him. So, what would it hurt?
“Tucker…” She swallowed and pulled him down to kiss her again; knowing as she did so, despite her cosmopolitan thinking, she was playing a dangerous game with her already bruised and battered heart.
CHAPTER 4
When she deepened the kiss and her hands went to the snaps of his shirt, he hoped he would have the strength to pull away from her. Despite the privacy of the grove of trees and the beauty of the place, this wasn’t the time nor the place. If he gave into her now, she’d only regret it later.
He reached up to capture her hands as they smoothed over his chest when the sound of music from her phone startled him. She groaned and pulled awa with her lips swollen and dark ruby from his kisses.
“I’m sorry.” She pulled her phone from her back pocket. “It’s the hospital.” Turning way, she answered the call. “This is Dr. Kent, what’s going on?”
While she listened, she nodded her head and a deep furrow puckered her brow. She paced back and forth as she tapped her free hand on her thigh. He went to the horses and gathered up their reins. They’d finished drinking and had stepped away to nibble on the grass growing along the water’s edge. He led them back to the spot where Lorelei stood.
“Yes, I can come in. It will take me about an hour to get there, but I’ll come.” After another pause, she said her farewells and hung up, then looked at him.
The stark fear and horror in her expression had him worried. “Is Jenna okay? Jessica?”
Tucking her phone back into her pocket, she nodded and swallowed. “They’re fine. It was work. There’s been a horrible accident in Waco. An explosion at a factory and possibly a hundred workers are injured. They’re calling in all the ER staff.”
His speeding heart at the thought of Jenna being sick or hurt slowed, and he handed the mare’s reins to her. “Let’s get back.”
They didn’t speak as they hurried the horses across the pastures at a fast canter. When they made it to the stable and dismounted, he took the reins. She paused to look at him. “I have no idea when I’ll be home.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of everything.”
She smiled, relief brightening her concerned expression. “Perfect. I’ll see you in the morning.”
As she headed up the drive to the house, he led the horses toward the barn. At the barn door, he called her name. When she turned, he said, “I’ll be here when you get home. Drive safe.”
She nodded again, before heading for the mudroom behind the house. Once the door was closed, he led the horses into the dim interior of the barn, and began the process of unsaddling and rubbing down.
There wasn’t a question of his desire for her, and from the way she kissed him, she wanted him, but could he follow through? Being with her brought back all of his unrequited love for her. For years, he stood by the sidelines, watching her with Danny, knowing she loved him regardless of what Danny’s feelings were. Now, Danny was gone, but he was no less a part of the equation. Lorelei was on the rebound. Although she’d been hurt, she was still very much in love with her ex-husband. Sleeping with her would break down the very thin wall he’d build around himself, exposing his heart to her. Could he risk the pain if she rejected him? Could he risk never knowing the joy of her love if she accepted him?
* * * *
The low volume of the TV greeted Lorelei as she entered the kitchen from the mudroom. She tossed her keys onto the counter, then dropped her purse and the bag containing her soiled scrubs onto the floor by the door. Had Tucker stayed up?
At three in the morning, it was more than late. She would have been home sooner, but she’d showered and changed into shorts and tank top at the hospital.
Heading for the fridge, she shuffled her feet. She’d worked twelve hours without a break, seeing twenty-five patients. Six of whom were severely burned. She couldn’t do much for them except get them stabilized and on a medevac helicopter to fly to the burn center in Dallas. Fifteen others from the explosion suffered minor burns and abrasions from flying debris. The other patients consisted of the hospital’s normal emergency department intake.
She pulled the opened half-full bottle of white moscato wine from the door of the fridge. The sight of two six-packs of Budweiser, with one of the twelve missing, sent a pleasant shiver through her as she thought of Tucker. He’d made himself at home, which brought a warm bubble of joy to her heart. She wasn’t alone.
The sound of bare feet on the wood floor had her looking up as she poured wine into a glass. Tucker entered the kitchen from the living room from where muffled canned laughter sounded and the dim flashes of the TV danced ghostly behind him.
He only wore a pair of basketball shorts and nothing else. The sight of his muscular shoulders, the textbook perfection of his pectorals, the washboard ridges of his abdominals, and long super toned legs had her jerking the bottle, spilling wine onto the counter. He was a vision of masculine perfection, and scorching, frantic desire coursed through her, making her ache to touch him.
She forced her gaze from him and grabbed a dishtowel to mop up the spill. “You didn’t have to wait up.”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay.” He retrieved one of the beers from the fridge, then leaned a shoulder onto the closed door. The gentleness in his gaze made her heart flutter. “I saw
the news coverage of the explosion. They said hundred-fifty people were injured. They all didn’t come to your hospital, did they?”
Desperately trying to still her thumping heart and cool her irrational response to his state of undress, she closed her eyes and took a sip from her glass. The sweet fruitiness of her favorite wine didn’t satisfy her as it normally did. Instead, she couldn’t stop remembering the taste of his kiss.
Dear God, she had to get a grip. She met his gaze and leaned against the edge of the counter. “Not all of them, but it was a busy night. There was also a multiple car pileup on Interstate Thirty-five.” She shook her head as emotion clogged her throat at the memory of a grieving family. “The driver who caused it was a thirty-five-year-old man who had a massive MI…a heart attack. God, he was only a year younger than us.” This time she took a drink to wash down the memory of his wife and three young children, ranging in age from eight months to four years, when she gave them the news of his passing. “The ambulance crew had revived him, but he arrested again, and I couldn’t bring him back.”
The vision of the little girl, so much like Jenna, turning toward her mother and asking if her daddy would be coming home, broke Lorelei’s heart. She blinked away the burning tears and took a long gulp of wine, draining the glass. “It’s been a horrible day.”
He was there within a step and wrapped her into his strong embrace. She set the glass on the counter behind her with a trembling hand and slid her arms around him. The heat from him seeped into her, warming her chilled soul. Resting her head on his chest, she breathed in his clean scent of spice and musk.
He rested his chin on top of her head. “You have always been such a gentle soul, Lorelei. I remember, when we were kids, you used to nurse all the hurt animals you came across. One memory really sticks out, though.”
“What is it?” she whispered into the indentation of his breastbone. Her cheek fit as if it were meant to lie there.
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