“You’re so funny,” he retorted, but followed her and the horse down to the grooming pen anyway.
As expected, the yearling put up a good fight. By the time Anna turned off the clippers, Adam had been bitten, stomped and rope burned. His sister tried not to giggle at the look of disgust on her brother’s face, but a few spurts of laughter managed to escape in spite of her efforts.
“I’m sorry, Adam, but I did offer to let you do the cutting while I did the holding.”
He carefully peeled away the loose hide hanging from his forearm. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll survive.”
Her giggles subsided. “Actually, it’s your state of mind that’s worrying me.”
“Well, I apologize for not dancing around with a happy smile on my face. It’s been a hard week, and I have things on my mind.”
Anna thoughtfully tapped a finger against her chin. “And you’re sure it has nothing to do with Maureen York?”
“Nothing,” he barked.
“And it doesn’t bother you that she’s staying here on the ranch?”
“Hell, no! She stays in her room, and I do as I please. We don’t even see each other.”
Anna looked at him with wide, knowing eyes. “Oh, well, no wonder you’re so grouchy.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he growled.
Anna quickly grabbed the yearling’s lead rope and trotted away from her brother. “Nothing,” she called cheerily over her shoulder.
“Anna, you’re crazy!” he yelled back at her.
“That’s better than being lonely.”
Lonely? Hell, what’s she talking about now? Adam grumbled to himself. Just because she was head over heels in love with her new husband didn’t mean he was pining for a mate.
“I realize I’m rushing you,” Maureen said to the real-estate agent, “but I need the house as quickly as possible. I’m willing to pay extra. Yes. Whatever it takes to get the papers finalized.”
For the next five minutes, Maureen listened patiently to the agent’s excuses and promises. By the time she hung up, she wanted to scream with frustration. It was the third time she’d called the man this week and she figured he was probably as sick of dealing with her as she was with him. But Maureen couldn’t help it. She had to get away from this ranch as soon as possible.
Rising from the stuffed armchair, she walked over to the window and pushed back the heavy muslin curtain. Her room didn’t have a privileged view of the courtyard but rather looked out at the distant mountain range to the north.
Which was likely for the best, Maureen thought. Each time she caught a glimpse of the shimmering swimming pool, her thoughts turned to Adam and the night they’d dived into the pool and each other.
All this past week she’d tried to put her attraction to him in proper perspective. She kept telling herself it would pass. She promised herself she was only suffering a fleeting, physical malady that would eventually cure itself. But so far, that hadn’t happened. Each time Adam approached her, everything came rushing back. The kisses, the hunger, the incredible excitement she’d experienced in his arms.
For the first time in years, Maureen felt helpless and scared. She didn’t want any man to have such a powerful effect on her. And to fight it, she’d done the only thing she could think of to do. She kept as much distance as possible between her and Adam. And whenever he’d been near, she’d made sure every word, every look, was cool and professional.
But the strain of acting was beginning to take its toll, and she didn’t know how much more she could take. At work she could make herself struggle through the day. But knowing she had to come back to the Bar M in the evenings and face the risk of running into him each time she left her room was too much for her nerves to bear. She had to get into her own house. And fast.
Still, Maureen was sick of cowering in her room every evening like a timid little rabbit. She couldn’t let Adam control her every move!
With that thought in mind, she changed out of her dirty work clothes and into clean jeans and a white, short-sleeved camp shirt. The French braid hanging down the middle of her back was ragged, so she brushed it loose and anchored her hair away from her face with a white headband. Then she left her room and headed to the kitchen.
It was still too early for supper. Chloe hadn’t yet returned to the house from the stables, much less started preparing a meal.
Content to settle for something cool to drink, Maureen poured herself a small glass of orange juice. As she sipped, she wondered why Adam’s mother didn’t hire a live-in cook and housekeeper. The Sanderses could certainly afford the extra help. Just their gas exploration business alone must be worth a staggering amount. Not to mention the ranch.
But from what Maureen could see, neither Chloe nor any of the family lived as if they had money to burn. Including Adam. The only extravagant thing she’d noticed about him was his ostrich boots, and since he’d taken his pocketknife to one of them, they were hardly anything to flaunt.
A door behind her opened and closed. Maureen turned away from the refrigerator just in time to see Adam entering the kitchen. Her fingers unconsciously tightened on the glass in her hand, and her chin lifted.
“Hello, Maureen.”
The softly spoken words took her by complete surprise. The two of them had already talked earlier that morning at work. Their conversation had been brief, to the point and, for the most part, agreeable. He’d greeted her coolly and she’d returned the brisk hello with an even shorter one. So what did this new greeting mean?
“Hello,” she returned.
He moved into the room, and her heart hammered as her gaze slipped up and down the length of him. His faded jeans were dusty, the thighs spotted with stains. The front of his pale blue shirt was dark with sweat, while the sleeves were rolled to his elbows. A rusty shadow of beard covered his jaw and upper lip. And as Maureen looked at him, she knew she was seeing sex appeal in its rawest form.
“Looks like you’ve been working,” she said.
He opened a cabinet door and took down a glass. As he approached the refrigerator, Maureen moved a few steps aside.
“My mother and sister allowed me to help in the stables this evening,” he said.
“Allowed?”
Seeing the curious arch to her brow, Adam knew his statement had puzzled her. “Maybe no one’s bothered to explain to you that my mother and sister raise and train racehorses. And they’re very picky about whom they let near them.”
“Even you?”
She sounded incredulous, and he grunted with dry amusement. “Yeah. Even me.”
“Aren’t you a horseman?”
He filled his glass with water from the door dispenser and took several long swallows before he answered. “I grew up on a horse. And I suppose I can handle one as well as the next man. But racehorses are a different matter entirely. I don’t have the patience for their hot temperaments.”
“I can believe that,” she murmured.
He shot her a wry glance. “Surely you don’t think I’m high-strung.”
She took a sip of her juice, then carefully licked her lips. Adam’s gaze followed the lazy movement of her tongue and he tried not to groan out loud. There was hardly a minute in the day that didn’t go by without his thinking of making love to Maureen York. And he was beginning to wonder just how much time it was going to take to cure him of the mental torture.
“I think...you’re always champing at the bit.”
In spite of everything, Adam laughed. The sound of pleasure put a tilt to Maureen’s lips, and as he looked at her, he realized this was what he’d missed with her this past week. This personal connection was what he needed most.
“It’s nice to hear you speaking your mind again.”
She studied him over the rim of her glass. This evening, he was wearing an old battered Stetson. The brim was rolled up on the sides and dipped low in the front. Instead of a band, the crown was circled with sweat stains. Maureen decided the reckless character of
the gray hat suited him well.
“What do you mean ‘again’? I always speak my mind.”
“Not with me.”
She studied him guardedly. “I tell you exactly what I think.”
“Yes. About work.”
She needed air, but her lungs unexpectedly refused to work. “Is there anything else...but work?”
He leaned over and placed his glass on a nearby counter, then took a few steps closer to her. Maureen forced herself to breathe deeply and keep her feet rooted to the floor.
“Look, Maureen, I know...” He shook his head, then folded his arms across his chest
At that moment, Maureen caught a glimpse of his forearm, and it suddenly didn’t matter what he’d been about to say. She gasped audibly. “Adam! What have you done to yourself?” Before he could answer, she rushed forward and took hold of his arm.
Her closeness, the touch of her soft hands, was worth the searing pain of the rope burn, he decided. Then cursed himself for being such a fool.
“It’s nothing, Maureen. A yearling got a little rowdy, that’s all.”
“Nothing! This is plowed flesh. And...” She stopped speaking as she bent her head over his arm for a closer inspection of the wound. “It looks like it’s full of dirt and hair.”
Above her head, Adam smiled. After a week of cool indifference, her show of concern was like a soothing balm. “Horsehair and a little dirt aren’t going to kill me.”
“No. But the bacteria will deal that arm some misery if you don’t let me clean it out. Where’s a first-aid kit?”
He could just hear the wranglers and Anna laughing about his needing first aid for a rope burn. “I’ll deal with it later.”
“I know how you’ll deal with it,” she said, leaning back and glancing up at his face. “You’ll turn the tap water on it for a few seconds and say that’s clean enough.”
He grinned, and Maureen wondered why he had to be so damn charming even when he wasn’t trying.
“It’s always worked before,” he said.
“Well, not this time. So where’s the antiseptic?”
“Okay, I give up. I’ll go after the first-aid kit. But no bandages,” he forewarned. “I’m not ready to be the laughingstock of the ranch.”
Maureen was waiting for him at the kitchen table when he returned with a small plastic case of medical supplies. She immediately straightened his arm out on the tabletop and clucked her tongue at the damage.
“This is really awful,” she murmured as she poured a generous portion of peroxide over the wound, then went to work with a cotton swab. “How did you do it anyway?”
“Trying to hold eight hundred pounds of nervous horseflesh while my sister used electric clippers on his mane.”
“Then your sister knows you were hurt?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a shrug. Then deciding it wouldn’t hurt to gamer all the sympathy he could get, he added, “She said she was sorry, then laughed.”
“Laughed! But that’s horrible!”
Adam had to chuckle. “Not really. Anna knows her brother is tough. Besides, it’s just a bad rope burn. Every cowboy gets them from time to time.”
Her gaze lifted to his face. “You consider yourself a cowboy?”
“I was a cowboy long before I ever got into the gas business,” he said easily.
“You like the profession.” she stated rather than questioned.
“Always have. But I like drilling for petroleum, too. The payoff is almost always better.”
She continued to swab the wound. “I didn’t realize money was your main objective.”
“It isn’t. But it’s a nice dividend, don’t you think?”
Maureen thought she’d trade all the money she had in the world to have a home and family as Adam had, but he obviously wouldn’t understand that. He’d never been entirely alone. He didn’t know what it did to a person’s heart.
“You know, Maureen,” he said after a few moments passed, “I’m glad...you’re talking to me again.”
She glanced up from his arm, then wished she hadn’t. His face was so close. Too close for her rattled senses. “I never quit.”
His gaze dropped to her berry-red lips. “You’ve been avoiding me like the plague,” he accused.
“I could say the same about you.” Shaken by the touch of his eyes, she turned her attention back to his arm. “Besides, Adam, we agreed we weren’t... well. that we need to keep things cool between us.”
He sighed. “Yes, I know we agreed. But that doesn’t mean we have to treat each other quite so coldly. I don’t like working that way. I don’t like...being that way with you.”
Her hand stilled on his arm, and for a moment she allowed herself to savor the feel of his warm skin, the fine hair curling around her fingers. All week she’d yearned to touch him. She supposed the injury had been a good excuse.
“I’m not crazy about it, either,” she admitted lowly.
“Then do you think we can be friends again?”
A voice of warning shouted in her head, but she could hardly hear it over the drumming of her heart.
“I don’t believe...”
When she didn’t go on, Adam took hold of her chin and lifted her face up to his. “Believe what?” he prompted.
She swallowed as her senses scattered like dry leaves in a fall wind. “That we can...ever be friends. There’s too much—”
“Chemistry between us,” he finished wryly.
At least he hadn’t called it lust, Maureen thought gratefully. Nodding, she said, “Something like that. And if we try to be friends—”
“We are friends,” he interrupted. “You just don’t want to admit it.”
Maybe he was right. They weren’t strangers. Nor were they simply co-workers. Friends would be the safest label to put on their relationship.
“All right,” she agreed. “We’re friends.”
“Good,” he said, flashing her another grin. “I think we should start all over again.”
“And how do you propose we do that? We’ve already started over once since I broke your ankle.”
He shook his head. “Forget about my ankle. Forget our swim. Forget about this damn burn on my arm. Let’s go down to the barn and find a couple of riding horses. You can ride a horse, can’t you?”
“If it’s docile enough.”
“I can probably find a nag among the bunch.”
She smoothed antibiotic cream over the long patch of raw flesh, then covered the whole thing with three Band-Aid strips.
“And where am I going to ride this nag?” she wanted to know.
“Just out on the mesa. Or we can ride south to the mountains. I’d like to show you some of the ranch. So far, you’ve only seen the house and the ranch yard.”
To get outdoors and enjoy the balmy summer evening would be nice, Maureen thought. And if being alone with Adam was the equivalent of trying to diet in a candy store, then she could view it as a test or preparation of sorts. Because sooner or later, their job would send them off together and she was going to have to be prepared.
“Okay,” she said with a shrug, “I accept your invitation. Just don’t expect me to ride like a cowgirl.”
The corner of his mouth lifted, exposing his straight white teeth. “I don’t expect you to be anything but yourself.”
Chapter Five
The so-called nag Adam picked out for Maureen turned out to be a piebald gray who’d been ridden the day before gathering cattle in the mountains. The work had knocked the “edge” off him, Adam assured her, so he wouldn’t feel like kicking up his heels.
“But I don’t want to ride a tired horse!” Maureen exclaimed. “That’s cruel.”
Adam laughed as he tugged the saddle cinch tight against the animal’s underbelly. “Leo is anything but tired. He’s just burned enough energy yesterday to make him manageable today.” He turned and motioned his head toward the seat of the saddle. “He’s ready. Want me to help you mount?”
“I th
ink I can manage on my own.” She stepped up carefully to the horse and lifted her toe toward the dangling stirrup. “Wasn’t Leo a foot shorter a moment ago?”
“Don’t insult his Thoroughbred blood,” Adam said with a chuckle, then not bothering to ask permission, he planted his palm against Maureen’s rear and shoved.
She squealed loudly and grabbed the saddle horn as the strength of his unexpected boost sent her very nearly over the horse’s back.
“You just had to do that, didn’t you? What would you have done if I’d fallen off on the other side?” she demanded.
Her breasts were heaving and part of her disheveled hair clung to the side of her face. She looked so gorgeous he had half a mind to drag her out of the saddle and do it all over again. “Picked you up, dusted you off and put you back on Leo.”
Maureen rolled her eyes. “Is this the way you treat all your female friends?” she asked, then shook her head. “Don’t answer. I remember now. You don’t invite your women friends out here. Only your female enemies.”
Laughing heartily, he untethered the chestnut waiting a few steps away and swung easily into the saddle. “I didn’t know a scientist could possess a bit of wit, too. You must be a rare breed.”
No. She wasn’t rare, Maureen thought. More like crazy for ever agreeing to go with Adam on this excursion. And perhaps even crazier for coming to New Mexico in the first place.
Yet in spite of her doubts and worries about Adam, something kept on telling her this place was meant to be her home. And she prayed her instincts weren’t leading her to a broken heart.
Wranglers were busy with the evening chores as Maureen and Adam rode through the dusty ranch yard. Several of the men lifted hands in greeting and called to Adam. When they rode past the long white building of horse stables, Anna was outside, hosing down a painted colt. She waved to the two of them, and Maureen waved back.
“Seeing your sister like this, it’s hard to believe she used to be a concert pianist,” Maureen told him.
Adam had chosen to ride along a cattle trail headed south of the ranch and into the mountains. So far, the open ground allowed them to ride abreast, and now that Maureen had spoken, he glanced across at her. “I’ll have her play for you sometime. She can work magic with a piano.”
Millionaire on Her Doorstep Page 7
