Who Wants to Marry a Cowboy?

by Abigail Sharpe

  “Hello, Jewel.” Damn. He masked his disappointment and ran his fingers through the long fronds of the tree. He shook it gently before nodding in satisfaction and stepping away from his failure of a hiding place.

  “I didn’t expect to see you again until tomorrow. What are you doing here?” She took him in with her large brown eyes. A blue clip kept her hair off her face and she had changed her clothes into something that encased her body like paint. All she needed was a crossbow to shriek that she’d been hunting for him.

  “Hearing Molly talk about the greenhouse made me realize I hadn’t been in it for a while. I thought I’d come see how it was doing. It’s as much a part of the appeal of the Crescent Ridge as working the ranch,” he said.

  “Well, come show me what you’re looking at,” she said. “What’s behind the tree?”

  Absolutely nothing. “I was seeing if the leaves were healthy.” He turned down the main aisle of the greenhouse, Jewel trotting along beside him like an eager colt.

  “I’ve been loving my time here,” she said. “I’m not used to such wide open spaces. My hometown is filled with cars, people, cars, buildings, and more cars.” She giggled at her joke and put a hand on his arm.

  The door whooshed. Riley’s first panicked instinct was to hide Jewel so Ainsley wouldn’t see her touching him. He didn’t want her to find him with another woman, showing her he couldn’t be trusted. This relationship should start with some level of trust even though it wouldn’t end that way. No relationship did.

  He wrapped an arm around Jewel’s shoulder to guide her into another aisle, but she didn’t budge. Instead, she turned into him, molding her body against his and caressing his arms. He heard the door close and listened intently for approaching footsteps, but he only heard the echo of his breathing and Jewel sighing in his arms. No vanilla scent filled the air around him, no soft southern voice greeted him. His lips met something wet and solid and he jolted backward, pressing his lips together to prevent another kissing attack.

  “I’ve been dreaming about this since I saw you,” Jewel breathed, curling her fingers in his hair. She stood on her toes to get a better lock on him.

  The pit of his stomach sank like an overgrown basset hound. He couldn’t abide unfaithfulness. Kissing another woman wasn’t the impression he wanted to give Ainsley. He cleared his throat and took another step back, breaking all contact. “I—”

  “You don’t have to speak.” Jewel put a finger on his mouth. “I knew you felt this too, Riley. This connection. It’s real. It’s powerful.”

  The only connection he felt was the one between his abandoned libido and the green-eyed woman who’d left. “We should go. More of you ladies are on the paths around here. I don’t want to subject you to their whispers and pointing,” he said. Had he managed to be with Ainsley, he would have recommended leaving the greenhouse and going to a more private place. This would take some explaining.

  “Oh, let them point,” She smoothed his shirt across his shoulders. “It’s not like we’re stopping them from joining us.”

  “Still, I have to get up early.” He barreled through the aisle to get to the door.

  “What’s on our agenda for tomorrow?” she asked. She wound her arm through his, reminding him of a spider spinning its web around a hapless fly about to be dinner.

  “More of the same as today,” Riley said. They brushed by the plants in his haste to get out of the greenhouse. Jewel practically jogged to keep up with him.

  “Then tomorrow night you say good-bye to some of us,” she pouted and lowered her chin. “I’ll tell you, Riley, I’m really nervous.”

  “Why?” he asked in spite of himself.

  “I’m scared you’ll send me home. I’m afraid you don’t see what we have together.”

  “I… uh… see something.” But not with you. With a fiery-eyed, light-haired angel who’s probably mad as hell right now. He didn’t know what else to say.

  “I’m so glad,” Jewel said, turning into his arms. She stroked his cheek, her mouth curled up at the corners, her gaze darting to his lips.

  Riley took her hand and clasped it with his own. “Good night, Jewel,” he said, then gave it a solid shake before he released it and left the greenhouse. He kept his pace quick so she wouldn’t follow and headed toward the big house, keeping his ear on her movement. When she turned down the path to her own cabin, he cut across the grass and headed toward Ainsley.

  * * *

  Of all the sneaky, manwhore things to do! Anger made it hard to see and Ainsley tripped over uneven ground, tree roots, and her own feet in her haste to get away. Did he have them all scheduled in fifteen-minute increments? Give their lips a test ride to see if their kissing was passable enough to keep them on?

  She flung open the door to the cabin, stalked to her room, and yanked the suitcase from under her bed. She grabbed her clothes from the closet and threw them in. How could she have been so stupid to think that their connection fixing the sink and with the lamb was anything but an audition for him? Bastard.

  I can’t go home yet.

  Shirts and jeans sprawled on her bed, making it hard to sink into it when the adrenaline spurring her to leave wilted. Cecelia’s cruise wasn’t due to return for another couple of days and Ainsley needed to be where their mother wasn’t. But she could get a hotel room instead. Socks rolled under her bed while she searched the room for a phone book.

  A tapping at the window startled her out of her concentration on getting the hell off the Crescent Ridge, but she ignored the sound and crawled under the bed for her socks. The tapping became more insistent, and she stalked over and pushed back the yellow curtains. Riley stood in the shadow of the trees, arms folded across his chest, scowling at the pane.

  He was scowling? He was scowling! Ainsley snapped the locks on the window and raised it. “Go away!” She slammed it back down, rattling the glass.

  “It’s not what you think,” his muffled voice came back to her.

  She raised the window again. “Did I imagine you asked me to meet you?”

  “No. I wanted to see you, Fairfax. Alone and…”

  She held up her hand to stop him. “And were you lip-locked with Jewel when I got there?”

  “She was kissing me!”

  She cocked her head to the side. What a jerk. “I’ve heard that before with Daisy. These women all just start kissing you? Please. You’re not that charming.”

  She started to close the window again, but Riley’s rough, deep voice stopped her. “Ainsley.”

  She paused, his single word prickling through her resolve like a thorn. She had to be insane to even be considering this, but his soft insistence wound its way beneath the barrier of her skin. “Okay, wait.” She closed the window and grabbed her light blue robe, stuffing her arms through the sleeves to hide how she’d dressed up to meet him and muttering to herself about being an idiot. She made her way through her cabin and slipped out, hoping Meagan was sleeping soundly.

  “I didn’t ask Jewel to meet me,” Riley said when she rounded the corner. “She found me while I was waiting for you.”

  “Uh-huh.” Ainsley continued to glare.

  “I couldn’t get her to leave.”

  “So you kissed her to convince her? That always works for me.”

  “No.” A hot gleam surfaced in his eyes and her breath got lost somewhere in the back of her throat. “Maybe I could explain it better if I showed you.”

  He stepped closer. She wanted to back away from his unspoken challenge but held her ground even as her heart rate kicked up a couple of notches. He leaned down and his warm breath fanned her cheek. She swallowed her nerves and anticipated the heat. His lips pressed against hers in a kiss so flat and unimpassioned that a haze of confusion fell over her. What had happened to the pulse-pounding passion from last night?

  “That’s what Jewel’s kiss felt like,” he said. “This is you.”

  He nibbled her lips, tasting and teasing and probing until her mouth opened
and her breath hitched. He didn’t stop, gently gliding his tongue around hers like a twisted vine. His large fingers captured the back of her head. His other hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her to mold to his body and she felt how much this kiss affected him. The intense pressure drained the blood from Ainsley’s legs and she went as limp as a wilted flower. He pressed against her with the perfect amount of pressure, one hand kneading her head while the other massaged the tight muscles in her back.

  “Don’t leave,” he whispered.

  She nodded against him, unable to speak. His fingers stroked her hair, flaming the desire that wove its way down her spine and into her belly. A small moan escaped from the back of her throat. Riley released her suddenly and stalked away, his body rigid.

  She released her breath and sank against the cabin as his solid form disappeared from view. Had she really just fought with him? Not squashed her own emotions for the sake of avoiding an argument? And it had been exhilarating. Freeing. Her true self. He’d responded in kind, matching her heated anger with his own, not controlling his feelings for appearances.

  And that soul-blowing, toe-curling, hair-straightening kiss. That one ranked pretty high on her scale of wow. But it was a mistake. A complete and utter mistake, and she would tell him that as soon as she could move again.

  * * *

  Riley twisted his legs as he approached the house, hoping to stop the uncomfortable friction of his jeans before he saw any of his family. His whole body felt drained, but there was a spark of optimism that maybe she had been convinced being with Jewel hadn’t meant anything.

  That moan had jolted him out of his insanity. He wanted her in his bed, but he needed to be clear there was no wedding ring involved. If that didn’t suit her, that would be it. He would respect whatever she decided. His good mood was interrupted by a flash of irritation when footsteps crunched the grass behind him, but the steady gait was too heavy to be one of the aspiring Mrs. Cowboys.

  “Riley.” Cookie’s low voice broke the nighttime silence. Shadows hid the older man’s face and he held his hat in his hands.

  “What can I do for you, Cookie?” Riley asked, leading him into the kitchen. “Something wrong with Scarlet?”

  “No, both she and Montgomery are fine,” he answered.

  “Coffee?” Riley asked.

  “No, thanks.” Cookie stood beside the table, gripping his hat like a lifeline. He rubbed his hand over his hawkish nose and tight lips, then opened his mouth to talk but closed it again. Several times.

  “Something stronger?”

  Cookie paused for a moment. “Yeah.”

  Riley fished around the cabinets and pulled out some whiskey. Cookie swallowed the shot in one gulp and stared hard at Riley, his brown eyes intent.

  “I need to know your intentions toward Miss Donnelly,” he said.

  Who the hell was Miss Donnelly? Riley scrunched his eyes and racked his brain for the woman to go with the name.

  “Meagan,” Cookie clarified.

  “Meagan?” Riley grasped at something else to say. “What should my intentions be?”

  His foreman mumbled something to his feet, shifting his hat between his hands. Riley wondered how much it would take to give it a permanent curl.

  “What was that?” He leaned forward to hear Cookie better.

  The older man flushed, but lifted his chin. “I don’t think she’s what you’re looking for in this singles research your sisters planned for the ranch,” he stated.

  “Well, that’s hardly a fair thing to say,” Riley defended Meagan, though there hadn’t been any chemistry between them. She was nice enough, but she had spent all her time talking about… oh. He didn’t know if he should feel slighted by Meagan or amused.

  “She’d be better for someone else,” Cookie shifted his weight from foot to foot, his eyes darting toward the door as if he was a mouse and Riley an owl looking for dinner.

  “Should I send her home tomorrow, then?” Riley asked.

  “No.” The slightly raised voice was as good as a shout for the man. “I mean, she’s been enjoying her time here so much. It would be a shame if she had to leave so early.”

  Riley studied his friend and picked his words carefully. “Meagan would probably make someone else a better wife, but I like her company. She can stay.”

  The foreman’s lips lifted slightly at the corners; for him, that was a big smile. “Thank you,” he said. He nodded goodnight then left. Riley waited until the mudroom door closed before allowing himself to laugh. At least something good would come out of this singles rodeo. Meagan didn’t seem the type to string a man along for the sake of playing with his emotions. He climbed the stairs to his room, treading lightly so he wouldn’t wake anyone.

  Molly’s bedroom lights flickered on when his weight landed on the creaky floor in front of Seth’s room. Damn. He had hoped she’d fallen asleep waiting for his stupid list of women.

  “Is that you, Ry?” her voice came through her door.

  “No.”

  She snorted and opened her door. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.” They went into the study and sat, Molly at the large wooden desk and Riley in the opposite chair. She took out her notebook and got out a pen. “First one?”

  “I’ve got them all decided already,” he said. A slight tremor of fear ran through him. He hadn’t known that until he said it out loud. It hadn’t crossed his mind, but now he knew. This wasn’t good. He calmed himself by picturing Ainsley naked, her long, lean limbs maybe wrapped around his waist. His hands feeling the weight of her round breasts, her nipples pressed against his palms. The tremor changed to a completely comfortable streak of lust.

  “Great. We can do this quickly and then I can go back to bed. Who are they?”

  “Ainsley, Ainsley, Ainsley, and Meagan.”

  Molly had started writing after the first name but stopped and slumped back in her chair. “Come on, Riley.”

  “Okay. You can add Daisy, too.”

  “The one who left? Great. This isn’t a joke, Riley.”

  It had been a joke since it started. He cleared his throat and rose from the hard chair. “Ainsley and Meagan are my choices. The rest can be up to you.”

  * * *

  Elimination Day. And if Ainsley heard one more flirty giggle, she was going to pull someone’s hair really, really hard. Ditto for the innocent touches and made-up needs for help. Have some respect for yourselves, she wanted to shout at the other women. No man is worth demeaning yourself like this. Not even one as beautiful as this cowboy. Stress lines formed around Riley’s eyes at the constant attention the women plied upon him. Maybe she should pretend to find another lamb just to give him a break.

  The tension that had filled the air all day continued at dinner. It was so much like that first breakfast with women stalking Riley around the common room and like then, Ainsley stayed on the sidelines. Either she would find a flower in her cabin or she’d leave in the morning. Nothing about her behavior would change that now.

  She and Meagan approached their cabin after dinner, stopping in front of the wooden door and clutching each other’s hands in the nighttime darkness. A small breeze surrounded them, bringing with it a chill, but they didn’t move, the only sound some chirping and flitting insects. Meagan inhaled a deep, bracing breath. “We have to go in there eventually.”

  Ainsley nodded. Neither woman moved. Her mind raced the metronome of her rapidly beating heart. If she went home tomorrow, her mother would never know about this trip. Her shop would be safe, but nothing would have changed. She could look forward to more threats and more confrontations until she wed the man of her mother’s dreams. If she stayed, the uncharted territory of her life might become disastrous.

  She realized she didn’t care. Finally, finally, she chose for herself. Not for her mother, not to avoid unpleasant situations, not because agreeing was easier. If she stayed, her mother might make good on her threat and take her shop away. But being at the ranch had loosened the g
rip of being the good girl. A fresh sense of determination filled her. She could face whatever was waiting for her inside. But she still didn’t want to find out. “One of us should open the door.”

  Meagan nodded. Neither woman moved.

  Her roommate broke the silence. “The outcome will be the same regardless of how long we stand here.” She placed her hand on the knob and squared her shoulders, then pushed the door open. Ainsley turned on the lights. Two small bouquets sat on the coffee table. The vibrant yellow daffodils bore her name, while the purple hyacinths had Meagan’s.

  “Whew.” Ainsley released a breath she didn’t know she’d held and her limbs turned rubbery. So he must like her at least a little. She picked up her flowers and inhaled, the petals of the trumpet tickling her nose. They were the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen. Meagan stared at her bulbous plant, her eyes wistful and filling with tears. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know. Nothing.” She managed a small smile. “I really hope he knows what he’s getting into.”

  Even though her roommate hadn’t been very forthcoming about her nighttime ventures, Ainsley had a pretty good guess the he in question wasn’t the man with flecked hazel eyes and a bad attitude. She took Meagan’s hands in her own. “I’m sure he knows exactly what he’s getting into.”

  Meagan let out a quick breath and squeezed Ainsley’s hands. “You don’t think it’s weird? I mean, he’s so…” she shrugged and let go, picking up her bouquet. “He’s not what you’d expect.”

  “Who cares?”

  “You’re right.” Meagan smiled. “I’m glad you’re staying, too.”

  Ainsley took both bouquets and brought them into the small kitchen to put them in some water, giving her roommate time to settle herself. She yawned when she returned to the common room. “I wonder who else Riley picked. And who gets to go on the first date tomorrow.”

  “I suppose we’ll find out when we go to the main house for breakfast.” Meagan glanced at the clock and chewed her lower lip. “I don’t know if I can stand the anticipation.”