The Ranch Stud

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “HAS GOLDIE ever had puppies?” Patience asked as she and Josh tugged on their boots.

  “No. She has a heart condition that would make giving birth dangerous for her.”

  “Poor Goldie,” Patience said. How sad, she thought, to go through your entire life never knowing the joy of giving birth to a new life. If she wasn’t careful, that could happen to her, too. Not because of any physical condition that prevented her from having a child while she could, but because she had been foolish enough to let her biological clock run out. And at thirty-six, Patience knew she did not have many childbearing years left.

  “Unfortunately,” Josh continued, “I’ve been unable to spay her for the same reason. The anesthetic necessary for such a procedure poses too much of a risk for her.”

  “So she knows what she’s missing.”

  Josh nodded grimly. “And her biological clock is driving her crazy.”

  Much as mine is driving me crazy, Patience thought.

  “But it’ll be over soon,” Josh continued as he put the retriever in the utility room, where she continued to bark and whine and beg to be let out. And they were out the door. “And then the window of opportunity for Goldie to get pregnant will be gone, too.”

  Just like mine will be gone, if I don’t take advantage of the situation crazy Uncle Max set up for me and Josh, Patience thought.

  Once outside, Josh whistled for Wrangler, but the collie refused to come. Instead he stayed just out of reach of Josh, darting back and forth and barking his head off.

  “I think he knows you want to take him home,” Patience murmured, not sure whether to be irritated or amused. There was a Romeo and Juliet quality to the two pets’ attraction that she appreciated. Maybe because she had once been in a similar situation herself.

  “Wrangler is right. I do want him back where he belongs before he rouses everyone in the bunkhouse and guest quarters, too.” Josh turned to Patience and handed her the leash. “We’re going to have to work together to round him up.”

  Anything to shut the lovesick pup up, Patience thought with a beleaguered sigh. “What do you want me to do?” she asked, more than willing to cooperate if they could only get some sleep!

  “Go inside and bring back some sort of treat. A morsel of meat will do. I’ll tempt him. When I collar him, you come up from behind with a leash and snap it on.”

  All too willing to work in tandem with Josh, Patience slipped back inside. When she returned, Wrangler had at least stopped barking. He was down on his haunches, face resting on his front paws, as Josh stood on the porch and spoke to him quietly. Patience handed over the beef. Having gained Wrangler’s trust, Josh approached him and hunkered down in front of him about two feet away. Still talking softly, he held out the beef. Wrangler, who had apparently worked up an appetite while courting Goldie, wiggled forward on his tummy, and snatched the morsel from Josh.

  Thus befriended, the collie allowed Josh to pet him, then take hold of his collar. Patience snapped on the leash and handed it to Josh. “Time to go home, Wrangler,” Josh said firmly.

  Wrangler looked up at him with liquid black eyes and let out another bark.

  “Mission accomplished,” Josh said some twenty minutes later as he and Patience drove away from the neighboring Lickety-Split Ranch.

  Patience settled down in her seat and looked out at the passing landscape and velvet black sky, sprinkled with stars. A gentle summer breeze blew in through the open windows of the pickup. Maybe it was the beautiful star-filled night, maybe it was the company; she only knew she had never felt more content, not even in the days and nights she had been seeing Alec. And that was strange. Up until now, she hadn’t thought anyone would ever be able to take Alec’s place in her heart, yet Josh was quickly and effortlessly doing just that. Maybe Max was right, Patience thought on a wistful sigh. Maybe it was time for her to move on and “dance with the one that brung you.”

  “This is my favorite time of night,” Josh commented after a while.

  Patience resisted the urge to scoot closer to him and lay her head on his shoulder while he drove. She knew she was getting far too romantically involved as it was. Yet, as she looked at him, he seemed smitten with her, too. And in an unexpectedly romantic mood. “You’re out often after midnight?”

  Josh grinned. “I’m out any time there’s an animal emergency around here,” he said.

  “So I’ve been noticing.” Patience turned toward him as much as her seat belt would allow. Her heart taking on a slow, heavy beat, she studied the rugged contours of his face and wondered once again how and why he had those tiny scars above his brows and the half-moon scar at the center of his lower lip. Had he been in a barroom brawl? she wondered with a journalist’s curiosity. Or was there something else nefarious in his past? Something that to this day kept him moving on.

  AN ODD AND UNEXPECTED feeling of contentment swept through Josh as he drove through the dark and silent Montana night toward home, Patience curled up in the passenger seat beside him.

  Taking the lovesick Wrangler back to his owners had been a good idea. Sleeping in the same bed—perhaps “trying to sleep” would be a more accurate description of what had gone on between them earlier—had not.

  Josh wasn’t even sure why he had suggested it.

  Sure, it was practical. No one wanted to get up all stiff and achy, and sleeping on one of the sofas would have guaranteed just that. But it had also been a test. Of his mettle and hers.

  And it had been a long-held dream.

  From the first time he had laid eyes on Patience, that one autumn years ago on the Yale campus, Josh had yearned to have her. No matter that she was out of his league, coming from such a wealthy Montana family. No matter that they had little in common. He had wanted her then. And he still wanted her now. To the point that for the first time in his life, Josh had an inkling of how it would feel to be in heat. Only in his case, Patience, not an overabundance of hormones and not the riches he stood to gain if he met the terms of Max’s will, had inspired those feelings. Every inch of him was aching and yearning, not just for the physical release but for the soul-shattering feeling of completion that came with making love to someone you desired with every fiber of your being. And he did desire Patience.

  The only question was, Would it ever happen?

  Would Patience ever allow him to realize his long-ago dream of having her in his life?

  More to the point, Josh thought as he turned the truck in the lane and headed toward the house, was the possibility even viable, considering all he could not— would not—ever tell her? About the past they had shared and the past they hadn’t….

  HE WINCED as he was hauled roughly out of the van and pushed into the passenger compartment of the waiting car. More disturbing than his own pain was the utter stillness of the body they were simultaneously shoving behind the wheel.

  “This’ll teach you to cross us,” the thugs said, laughing maliciously as they shifted the car into gear, slammed the doors and gave it a shove.

  He and his companion were over the cliff and airborne an instant later, plummeting slowly, inevitably down into the ravine—the car he’d had his first date in cartwheeling end over end. Swearing fiercely, he instinctively tried to shield his face, and praying hard for a miracle, he did his best to brace himself and his companion for the impact still to come.

  “YOU REALLY ENJOY your work, don’t you?”

  Patience’s low, sensual voice came at him as if through a fog. Glad to be home again, Josh parked the truck at the rear of the house, near her studio, and shut off the engine. He released the latch on his seat belt and turned toward her, in no hurry to go back inside. “Yeah, I do.”

  Patience released her seat belt, too. Lifting one foot to the seat, she linked both her hands around her ankle. Resting her chin on her raised knee, Patience regarded him curiously. “How and when did you decide to become an animal doctor?”

  Josh rubbed a strand of her silky blond hair between his fingers. “It
was shortly after I started college. I had to quit school for a while unexpectedly—money problems and so forth—and I ended up working at a humane society shelter in the interim. I wasn’t a logical candidate for the job. I was a real city kid and had never even had a dog of my own. But I liked it. So much so that when I could afford to pick up my schooling again, I concentrated on veterinary medicine.”

  “It’s funny how we fall into things sometimes,” Patience said softly, leaning close enough for him to get a whiff of her perfume.

  How well he knew that, Josh mused, his thoughts drifting back to the events he had just skimmed over. If not for a few hideously unforgettable days, he could have remained in school. Near Patience. But those days had happened and all he had to do was close his eyes to recall the stark horror he’d experienced….

  “I mean,” Patience continued, bringing him back from the horror of the past and into the bittersweetness of the present, “I always knew I wanted to write. I just never imagined it would be advice.”

  He smiled at her, unable to help but think how beautiful she looked in the soft green silk, her eyes wide and soft, her hair shimmering pale gold in the moonlight. Looking at her was enough to make him forget. “You have a knack for it,” he said gently, knowing it was true. Patience had a way of cutting right to the heart of the problem and offering solutions that pushed people forward, into the future, instead of keeping them locked into the unhappy present.

  And the future was where he most definitely wanted to go. With her.

  Patience climbed out of the cab of the Silver Spur Ranch pickup truck, as did he. She circled around the back of the truck, meeting him at the tailgate. “You’ve been reading my column,” she teased.

  Josh smiled down at her, knowing he wanted nothing more than to make love to her, again and again and again. “I think the question is, Who hasn’t read your column? You’re syndicated in papers all over the country.”

  “One hundred and fifty-two, at last count.”

  “Max was very proud of you for that.” As was Josh, who knew from everything her uncle had told him that Patience had earned every success through years of hard work and the expense of her personal life.

  Patience ducked her head shyly. “Uncle Max admired ambition.”

  That he had. Wanting to see her smile again, Josh took her hand and playfully tugged her close. “You know what he told me? He said you had moxie.”

  Patience tilted her chin at him, mischief slipping into her answering grin. “He did, did he?”

  Josh let his glance rove her face, memorizing every beautiful inch of it. “He also said he worried about you when you were a kid. He had a hard time reading you.”

  Unbidden, sadness crept into her vivid blue eyes and she tightened her hold on his hand. “Not always,” she corrected softly. “For a while I wore my heart on my sleeve.”

  “And then?”

  Patience drew a deep breath and adapted the I-canhandle-anything attitude he so admired. “I realized, about a year after my parents’ death, that the guys in the family were really counting on me to hold it together. So I began acting a lot braver than I felt and giving out advice on everything under the sun to kind of prove I knew what I was doing. Before long, I felt like I was absolutely in control. And my confidence grew.”

  “Enough to get you into Yale,” Josh recalled.

  “Yes.”

  “Max was proud of that, too. You were the first and only McKendrick to go Ivy League.”

  Patience’s expression grew wistful, as did her tone. “I just wish he were here to see me take on the challenges of parenthood, too. He would have made a great granduncle.”

  Josh thought so, too. He hadn’t expected it when he arrived at the Silver Spur, but he’d gotten close to Max, too. He would miss him. He took a moment to get a handle on his emotions, then said, “Speaking of Max…how do you think his plans for us are going so far?”

  AT THE MENTION of her uncle’s matchmaking, some of the levity returned to Patience’s blue eyes. “You mean aside from the fact my cat Tweedles—who could deliver any day—has disappeared, your dog Goldie is in heat and hopelessly lovesick for Wrangler, and you and I are stuck together like glue until the wedding?” she recited, wrinkling her nose at him playfully.

  To her mounting pleasure, Josh wrapped his hands around her waist and tugged her near. “Aside from all that,” he said in a low, sexy voice rife with amusement.

  “Aside from all that, we’re doing fine,” Patience remarked, splaying her hands caressingly across his chest.

  “My findings exactly,” Josh said meaningfully. And just that simply, he crushed her against him in a long, hot, searingly possessive kiss. She gave him back everything he expected, everything he wanted. Her lips pressed against his, her kisses whisper-soft at first, then ever more aggressive until the pleasure was sharp, stunning.

  Patience hadn’t expected him to kiss her again, but she was glad he had. Overwhelmed, she clung to him and kissed him back until she didn’t want to think, until she wanted only to lose herself in the strength of his arms and the seducing tenderness of his kiss. Her hands crept up his chest to link around his neck as his hands kneaded their way seductively down her back.

  With a groan of pleasure, she tangled her fingers in his hair and dragged him closer yet. It had been such a long long time since she’d felt this way. If she had ever felt this way. And still the sultry kiss continued, until they were trembling and straining toward each other, until it became apparent they had a decision to make.

  Finally, he lifted his head so their eyes met. Even through the haze of passion, she could see the depth of his desire, the fierce determination to have her in his bed. Not just once. But again and again. She knew once made, the step taken, the decision would be irrevocable. There would be no backing up. No going back to being just on the verge of being friends. And though she readily admitted she wanted to be a lot more than friends with Josh, was she ready for anything more at this point? Never mind such a gargantuan step!

  “What was that for?” Patience asked breathlessly, figuring, if nothing else, she could stall for a little time to figure things out.

  His glance unexpectedly affectionate and unrepentantly sensual, Josh tucked a strand of silky hair behind her ear. Leaning closer, he touched his mouth to hers and tangled both his hands in her hair. “For being a good sport. You could have made us both miserable for the duration of our engagement, you could have ruthlessly used me to gain what should by all rights be yours even without Max’s eccentric demands, and you haven’t done either. I think that deserved a simple thank-you, and that,” he said, a little more huskily than she sensed he intended, “was it.”

  She didn’t want to see the adoration in his eyes. Didn’t want to fall prey to her Uncle Max’s plans, because that was just too easy, and she had learned the hard way that life was never that easy. When it was, something was bound to go wrong. Swiftly. Tempted to surrender to the desire they were both feeling anyway, she rested her hands on his chest and pushed away from him. “Don’t get too cocky, Josh,” she warned seriously. “Our betrothal is young yet.” There was still so much that could happen…and that scared her, so much.

  “And yet we’re getting on.” He brought her close again, their bodies melding together effortlessly, touching in one electrified line. “So much so that…” He cut himself short, abruptly looking as if he’d said too much.

  “What?” Patience prodded. Dangerous or not, she needed to know what he was feeling and thinking every step of the way. It was the only way either of them would survive such a crazy situation with their hearts intact.

  Gently, he cupped her chin in his hand. “Has it occurred to you that maybe Max was right?” he asked in a soft, serious voice. “That maybe we should throw caution to the wind and have a child together?”

  Chapter Six

  Dear Patience,

  Should I marry my boyfriend just because we want to have a baby together? He says it’s not necessary. Wh
at do you think?

  Signed,

  Unsure About Matrimony

  Dear Unsure About Matrimony,

  In this instance, two parents are better than one.

  Lasso that beau and reel him in.

  Rootin’ for You,

  Patience

  Patience stared at Josh in stunned amazement, her lack of an immediate comeback showing a weakness for the idea that she could only pray he hadn’t noticed. “Making babies with me was not a part of your job description, Josh.”

  His sensual lips curved in a slow, seductive smile. “But it is part of Max’s will.”

  Needing some physical space if she was going to be able to think clearly, Patience stepped out of the warm circle of Josh’s embrace. She folded her arms beneath her breasts. “I loved my uncle dearly, but Max was pushing it, even bringing that up.”

  He remained cavalierly unperturbed. “Still, the subject has been broached.”

  “And you’re willing.” She didn’t know whether to laugh or exult at the unexpected turn her life was taking; she just knew she felt as if she’d hopped on a carousel of fortune—good and bad—that would not stop.

  “I would like to have a child. Like you, I’m not getting any younger. Like you, I have yet to find a mate to settle down with.”

  “Nor are we sure, at this point, that you can stay in one place,” Patience pointed out coolly, knowing the one thing she could not bear was to be left in the lurch again by the man she loved.

  He gave her a slow, unsettling smile that set her pulse to racing. “I could. With the right motivation.”

  “The right motivation being a child,” Patience guessed.

  “And a wife,” he added with a resolute glance, letting her know that for him there was no other way. It would be all or nothing.

  His proposition sounded good on the surface, but Patience knew there was much to consider. “You should love the person you marry, Josh.” We both should.