Ryan straightened the cover out beside them and with a gentle touch pushed Keena to her back. He threaded a thigh between hers, which sent chills all over her that had nothing to do with the night air. On the outside of her thigh, she felt his hard-on and knew he was ready to make love again. Deep inside her, desire for him unfurled.
“Come, let’s forget them and everyone else,” he whispered, “and let’s take from this night all it has to offer. Open yourself to me, Keena.”
Keena raised her chin and closed her eyes while spreading her legs. Ryan filled her and began a slow stroke, which between that and his kisses, drove all thoughts of Steven and China out of her head.
* * * *
On their way back to the ranch, Annabel, following Ryan’s horse, loped along with Keena on her back. For the hundredth time, she pressed the back of her hand over her mouth to cover a yawn. All she wanted to do was sleep for a solid week to make up for getting little the night before. Every time she opened her eyes after a brief doze, she found Ryan watching her as if he never slept. Then this morning, the man had the nerve to look refreshed.
Irritable and missing her coffee, she waved him off after he dropped her at her cabin with an offer to take Annabel back himself, and trudged inside to fall flat on her bed.
By the time she woke four hours later and showered, it was nearing lunchtime. Her growling stomach was grateful. Keena left her cabin to the noise of excited chatter extending up from outside the main lodge. She rounded the slight bend in the road to see guests carrying food and supplies out to the picnic tables. A section in the same area as the picnic tables, but some feet away, was reserved for the sizeable grill the ranch put in use on days like this when lunch would be barbecued. The scent of ribs hanging in the air made Keena pick up her step.
When she reached the tables, she glanced around for Ryan, but he was nowhere in sight. She spotted an older man who she was sure she hadn’t seen before around the place. He carried himself with authority yet had a kind face, and she wondered if he was the ranch’s owner. He stood speaking to Mirabelle near the grill. Keena joined them.
She smiled. “Hello, sir, Mirabelle.” Their conversation halted. Keena took a step back. “Oh, sorry, am I interrupting something?”
Mirabelle chuckled, and if Keena wasn’t mistaken, it seemed a bit forced. Had they been talking about her? No, she was being paranoid. Then again, she had spent the night in the woods with Ryan, and although he said he wouldn’t get into trouble, Mirabelle had admitted the staff liked to gossip.
“No, of course not,” Mirabelle assured her. “How are you this morning, Keena? Heard you didn’t go with everyone to the campout yesterday.”
Her mention of it was so pointed, Keena picked up on the subtle attitude. Was she pissed because she thought Keena was chasing Ryan because she wanted to protect him, or her? Either way, it was none of her business. They were both adults, and if they decided to become lovers, it did not involve the entire ranch.
Keena reared back on her heels and crossed her arms. “Yes, my understanding was that every activity is voluntary. We can participate or not.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” the man rushed to say. He stuck his beefy hand out. “I’m Jeb. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to greet you when you arrived. I was away on business. The livestock side of things, buying, selling. You understand.”
Keena nodded. So he was the owner. She remembered from the ranch’s Web site that they weren’t just a guest ranch but a working ranch. Some of the guests got involved with all the work of running a ranch, including tending to the longhorns. Something about it appealed to her. With the grit and dirt that stuck to everything, being outdoors with the fresh air and the jingle of harnesses in the distance or the clop of horse’s hooves, it seemed right.
When Mirabelle excused herself to get back to preparing lunch, and Jeb had said he had business to attend to, Keena wondered what she could do to distract herself until it was time to eat. Mirabelle was still irritated with her and refused assistance.
Keena wandered down toward the general store and remembered that her time was drawing short here and she still hadn’t bought Aunt Delores a souvenir. She stepped up onto the porch leading to the building but paused when Jeb, Ryan, and Jade came strolling around the corner of the next building. Jade was saying, “Daddy, stop checking up on me, for fuck’s sake. I’m a grown woman.”
Shocked by the slut’s words, Keena darted inside the store before they could spot her, and stood just out of view, watching them pass. As usual, Jade’s clothing stretched too tight and revealed too much, but at least right now, she clung to her father’s arm and not Ryan’s. Keena chewed her lip. What was Ryan doing with them? Was the witch lying on him, trying to get him in trouble, or had Mirabelle told him about Ryan shirking his responsibilities by being with her all night? She considered going out there and setting things straight, but hesitated.
If Ryan wasn’t afraid to get into trouble because he knew all he had to do was charm the owner’s daughter, then that left Keena feeling like a fool for sleeping with him. Talking to him yesterday had made her believe that he wasn’t that type of man, but then men who were good at seducing women never revealed what they truly were. That’s why they were considered good.
As they passed, Ryan glanced up to the door as if he knew she was there, although Keena was well hidden behind a rack of clothing. Ryan’s expression showed confusion, but then Jeb caught his attention, and he turned to answer something the older man had asked him. When they were out of sight, Keena relaxed. She browsed the collection of Native American jewelry. She’d thought the last time she was in here that she might buy her aunt the turquoise toggle watch made as a bracelet, but the price was steep, and her mind was too filled with thoughts of Ryan.
They were lovers, nothing more, and she didn’t want to jump to conclusions. After all, she’d seen nothing just now to make her suspicious of his actions, his motives. She should ask him straight out and make it clear that, for the time she was there with him and having sex with him, he shouldn’t sleep with Jade as well. After she was gone, he could do what he damned well pleased.
She nodded. Yeah, that’s what she would tell him. And yet, the thought of leaving and going back home made her ache all over again. She didn’t want him to want Jade, let alone touch her. Gripping the side of the counter with her eyes shut, she considered what the feelings meant. It didn’t take a lot of thought to figure it out. She was not the kind of woman who could get involved with a man for physical reasons alone and have it stay that way. If she broke it off now, before she left in a week, no one would get hurt, most of all her.
A hand slid down over her ass and squeezed. She yelped and looked to her right. Ryan stood beside her pretending interest in one of the Stetsons. This one was coal black as opposed to his usual dusky grey. The description read “full grain, oiled cowhide.” The brim had wire running through it to make it shapeable. Even with her limited knowledge, what she’d observed in the few days she’d been here and reading up on the cowboy lifestyle before she came, she could spot a sweet hat—that and the fact it cost almost a hundred dollars. Keena winced at the price.
Linda started over. “Everything okay?”
At Ryan’s curt nod, she stopped, gave a slight smile, and turned away. Keena looked from one to the other, and again the doubts rose in her mind about Ryan’s position at this ranch. These weren’t olden days or a foreign country where people were promised to each other. He had no obligations to Jeb to take his skank of a daughter off his hands, did he? Or owe him a lot of money?
Ryan took the hat down from the hook, strolled behind her, and brought it down over her head. He leaned around to whisper in her ear. “Come with me somewhere private.” The suggestion in his eyes told her exactly what was on his mind.
She smiled and ducked her head so he couldn’t see her face. “We just got back, and lunch is going to be on soon. Didn’t you get enough wearing me out all night?”
He nibbled
on her ear. “Never enough.”
She wiggled away from him and put the hat back. Even though she used her savings for this trip, extending the trip to two weeks rather than one like most people, she couldn’t bring herself to blow the money it would take to buy the hat, one she’d never use again. Deciding she wasn’t ready to get the watch yet either, she moved on down the counter to see if there were cheaper items, but Ryan grasped her hand. He threaded his fingers between hers, and she looked back at him.
“We won’t do anything. Come, walk with me.”
She followed him out, not daring to catch Linda’s eye when she passed by, and they fell into step side by side. Keena did disentangle her hand from his once they were out in public. “You didn’t get in trouble, did you?”
He cast a confused glance in her direction.
“Jeb. I met him today, and I was wondering if someone turned you in, told him that you had disappeared with a guest when you were supposed to be working.” She laid a hand on his arm. “I’ll talk to him if you want me to, tell him I forced you or something.”
He grinned. Since she and he had been spending more time together, he’d been doing a lot more of that, had warmed up and was less the cold, quiet observer. She liked to think she’d influenced him in that way and that he had been able to let go of some of the pain Anne had caused him. She hoped he had done the same for her. Only when she was back home and that fool Steven showed up would she know for sure. Right now, her feelings seemed jumbled between the two men.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be okay.” When they came to an opening between two buildings, Ryan snatched her into the narrow space and dragged her close to his chest. He kissed her briefly. “However, you can make it up to me by easing my pain.”
He placed her hand over his erection. Desire snaked along Keena’s belly. “You’re insatiable. And you promised we were just going to walk, not have sex.”
He groaned. His eyes had grown dark, but she forgot about them as her eyes drifted closed at his nibbling kiss on her neck. Ryan’s hand came up to cup her breast. He pinched at her nipple, kneaded it until she was ready to come hard right there. Her breath caught in her throat, and she struggled against her need.
“Ryan, not here. Please.”
Sighing in disappointment, he drew back. “Then let me come to your cabin tonight. I have something to do before then, but say midnight? How about that?”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine, but behave yourself until then, or you’ll get no nookie from me.”
His eyes flashed. He smacked her ass once and turned her toward the street. After they had joined the others for the barbecue, Keena realized he’d never promised to behave at all.
Chapter Nine
Keena got a late start a couple days later since Ryan hadn’t come to her cabin until two in the morning and hadn’t let her sleep the entire night. She ended up sleeping until well after breakfast and had to beg Mirabelle for food. She was well and truly out of the woman’s good graces, that was for sure, but she still hadn’t confronted Mirabelle on her attitude. Keena knew how she was. She let things go until she exploded, and the end result was worse. As she strolled down toward the stables, she promised herself she would talk to Mirabelle before the day was over. She might not have long here, but that didn’t mean she wanted things to end on a sour note. And who knew, maybe she could come back again.
The thought of picking up with Ryan again next year appealed if he wasn’t attached, although leaving him did not. She pushed all of those thoughts, one way or another, out of her head and picked up her pace. She hadn’t ridden in two days because she was so sore, but now she felt much better and had even brought Annabel a treat. She hoped the horse missed her as much as she missed the horse.
The stables came into sight, and Keena couldn’t stop the grin on her face, but when she heard the screech and the alarmed whinny, dread rose inside her. Jade came cantering around the side of the stables, from where Keena couldn’t imagine, but she rode Annabel with all the inexperience of someone who had never ridden a horse.
“What the hell?” Keena shouted and ran to catch the reins without thinking. Annabel danced wildly. “Stop it, Jade. Let go of the reins. You’re tugging too hard on her mouth.”
“What do you know!” Jade countered. “You think you’re something special because Ryan showed you some interest. Let me tell you something, you’ll be gone soon, and he and I will be right back where we always are—in each other’s arms.”
Keena gritted her teeth. What Jade and Ryan did or didn’t have wasn’t important. What was, was the fact that the bitch was ill treating Annabel, and Keena wasn’t having it. Without a second thought, she reached up and yanked the skank down off the horse. Jade screamed and flew at Keena, but Keena shoved her away. She turned to calm Annabel, but the horse galloped away from the nut who had abused her.
“Now look what you’ve done,” Jade groused. “I was going for a ride.”
Keena got in Jade’s face. “The only reason you were riding Annabel was because Ryan picked her out for me to ride.”
Jade wasn’t intimated by Keena in the least, although Keena outweighed her by a good forty pounds, to her disgust. Jade put a hand on her hip, flipped her pale hair back over a shoulder, and narrowed her eyes at Keena. “The only reason you ride that horse is because you’re trying to impress Ryan. Why don’t you go back to the city where you belong?”
Keena leaned back on her heels and crossed her arms. “Why don’t you?” She gave Jade a scathing look from head to foot. “It’s clear to anybody looking at you that you’re just as much city girl as I am and that you’ve never sat that skinny ass on a horse. I mean, the cowgirl clothes are a joke, seriously.”
“Bitch!”
She flew at Keena a second time, but from nowhere, Ryan stood there and grabbed Jade by her wrists, keeping her sharp nails from connecting with Keena’s face. Jade fought and shrieked in outrage in his hold until she realized it was Ryan, and then Keena couldn’t believe how the woman did a one-eighty. She sagged against Ryan’s chest while whimpering about Keena attacking her and yanking her off her horse. “I could have been killed with the horse galloping along like that.”
Pouting, she looked up at him through long, curled lashes. Keena thought her breakfast would come spewing up at such a disgusting act. She had to control her anger to keep from ripping out a few locks of Jade’s hair.
When Ryan called a command to have someone go after Annabel, Keena realized they had an audience. Several people stood around gawking, most with knowing expressions on their faces, looking from Jade to Keena and back again. Shame filled her. She had never been in a fight or gotten loud like she did just now as an adult. From the way she acted and the way these people were taking it, she was no better than Jade, wild, loud, and getting into a catfight over a man.
Leaving Ryan standing there holding Jade and trying to calm her, Keena hurried back to her cabin. She wasn’t there ten minutes before someone knocked on the door. With a sigh, she rose from the chair she occupied and crossed to the door to open it. Mirabelle stood on the porch with something in a mug. “Can I come in?”
Keena didn’t step aside. “Look, it’s been plain to me over the last couple of days, Mirabelle, that you aren’t happy with me, and you can rest assured I’m not happy with what just happened. I don’t need a lecture about it.”
Mirabelle handed her the mug, which Keena found was coffee, heavy on the cream and sugar like she enjoyed it. The older woman patted her hand.
“I’m not here to judge. I just thought you might want someone to talk to, someone to help you put things in perspective.”
Keena raised an eyebrow at that wording but stepped back to let Mirabelle in. “Please have a seat.”
Mirabelle sat and laced her fingers in front of her. When that didn’t satisfy her natural need to stay busy, she straightened the doily on the table beside her and began to restack the magazines Keena had left haphazard. She didn’t raise her eyes from her task
as she spoke. “You may not know this, but Jade is Jeb’s daughter.”
Keena nodded. “I gathered. I guess she’s like the princess of this place being the owner’s daughter and all.”
Confusion clouded Mirabelle’s eyes when she looked up at last. “Owner? Oh, no, sweetie. Jeb manages much of the business having been in the field for years, but he’s not the owner of Luna Mountain Ranch.”
That surprised Keena. So Jeb wasn’t the owner, but manager, and still Ryan’s boss. He had something of an influence over Ryan, being able to fire him if he felt like it. Keena glanced at Mirabelle with her head down as if she was avoiding looking Keena in the eyes. “Why did you come, Mirabelle? To protect Ryan from me? I assure you it’s no big deal for two people to be . . .” She stopped, not wanting to admit they had progressed to lovers. “I already feel like an idiot for getting into that argument with Jade, drawing a crowd, her acting like I tried to kill her. I was more concerned about Annabel.”
Mirabelle’s face had reddened when Keena almost said “lovers.” Keena could guess, no doubt, from the way they behaved around each other, and if Linda had gossiped about Ryan grabbing her ass in the general store, it was probably all around the ranch. She sighed, rubbing a hand over her eyes. And then the truth of it hit her.
“Wait a minute. He’s the boss, isn’t he?” Keena demanded. “Ryan is. You’ve been protecting him as your boss. That’s why he can prance about like he has nothing to do but entertain me, why he can decide to come and go as he pleases. I can’t believe it’s taken me all this time to figure it out.”
Mirabelle jumped to her feet, fidgety, like she was the one who had let Ryan’s secret slip out. “I have to get back to the kitchen. I just came to say, whether Ryan is the owner of Luna Mountain Ranch or not, the reason you need to leave him alone is . . .” She swallowed.
Rein in the Night Page 7
