Kissed by a Rancher

by Sara Orwig

  Josh smiled at her. “I’m a man of many facets—stick around and you’ll see.”

  “I don’t doubt you for a minute,” she said. “Even so, that amazes me. I’m very impressed,” she added, realizing Josh was not only appealing, helpful, fun, sexy—but also a very nice person. Once again, she thought that she should stop spending so much time with him because she could quickly and easily fall in love with him—a love that definitely would not be reciprocated.

  “Well, now, that is satisfying. Interestingly, I’ve done some business with one of Edwin’s sons in Dallas and see all three of his sons at parties. They have a successful business that Edwin started.”

  “I know he has five grandkids and he misses all of them.”

  “He likes it here because he has old friends here, but he’s beginning to think about moving to Dallas. To my way of thinking, he would be better off near his family, but that’s Mr. Hickman’s business. My folks are in California, so I’m in about the same situation, only younger. My parents are younger than Mr. Hickman, and they’re very busy.”

  “He should have a wonderful time going fishing.”

  They sat in silence while Josh sipped his beer.

  “Were your stories true tonight about the people you’ve known who have kissed in that shadow?”

  “Yes, they were true,” she said, surprised he would ask such a question. “Why would I make them up?”

  “It’s good for business. Sort of a special touch for this inn.”

  She laughed. “Goodness, no, I wouldn’t make them up for business. I never know if that shadow will appear. We can go years when it doesn’t. A lot of things have to be just right and shadows change as the earth turns, so it’s very fleeting when it happens.”

  “Have people ever kissed in that shadow when they met each other barely twenty-four hours before?”

  “No one whom I’ve known about.”

  “Has anyone you know about ever kissed in the shadow, married and then separated?”

  “No. All of them stayed married, so see, you tempted fate. But take heart. We don’t know each other, so I doubt if we would count. I expect our kiss to be meaningless.”

  “My kiss, meaningless—that’s the first time I’ve been told that. I’m slipping. I used to get a better reaction,” he said, his brown eyes twinkling. She had to fight the temptation to look at his mouth.

  “You know you did get a better reaction,” she flung back at him, even though she had intended to stop flirting with him.

  “Did I really now?” he asked.

  “Don’t act surprised,” she said, then decided to change the subject to one that would keep her from kissing him again. “Tomorrow or the next day, the roads will be plowed and you can go on your way. And my brother and sister will be here to help.”

  There was a knock at the open door, and a guest stepped into the room. “I’m sorry to disturb you.”

  “We were just talking. Can I help you with something?” Abby asked.

  “Do you have the old movie The African Queen?” the short blonde asked.

  “Yes, we do. You can’t find it?”

  As she shook her head, Abby stood. “I’ll come look. I’ll be right back, Josh.” She left the kitchen, leaving Josh sipping his beer, his eyes still twinkling.

  * * *

  Josh thought about their kiss. Her kiss had almost knocked him off his feet, and he hoped her reaction to him had been as intense. He’d thought she wasn’t his type, but kissing her had changed his view of her. Her kisses melted him. There was no way he was flying out of Beckett without the certainty of coming back to be with her, to kiss her and to make love with her. As far as he was concerned, seduction was on his schedule.

  He liked being with her. Maybe it was the laid-back atmosphere—no business, no calls, a different world for him—but he wanted to be with her. She had a big job running the inn and keeping people happy in this storm when they were stranded, and she did it with ease.

  She returned to the kitchen, and he watched her ponytail swing as she walked across the room. She had a jaunty walk as if life were delightful and she intended to enjoy it. His gaze rested on her mouth while he thought about their kiss again.

  “Did you find the movie?”

  “Oh, yes. Someone had slipped it under the sofa.” She smiled. “Pretty easy task.”

  “Do you ever take time off?” he asked, still studying her. What would she look like with her hair down and makeup on?

  “I get someone in the family to cover for me if I need to take time off, but there are quiet days and times we only have two or three guests and some days when there are none, so it evens out. This is my life—always has been. I started helping my grandmother when I was about ten, maybe younger,” she said.

  “You don’t ever want to go somewhere new? New York? Paris? London?” he asked, thinking there was nothing they had in common. “Is there something you’d like to do that you’ve never done?” He was certain he had never really known anyone with so few demands or wishes about life. He didn’t date women who led the type of life Abby did. She was a homebody and shouldn’t hold an instant’s worth of attention from him, but all he had to do was think about kissing her and he got hot, shaken and lost in memories of their only kiss.

  “I can’t think of anything that I long to do.”

  He looked at her as if he had suddenly discovered someone from another world. “Surely there’s something.”

  She smiled at him. “Sometimes I used to wonder what it would be like to go to Vienna to a castle or a palace. When I was little, I would imagine that I was in a palace at a ball. The music was always a waltz. I wore one of those beautiful dresses. I probably saw a movie with that scene, and I love music and particularly a waltz. Somehow at local dances, they never seem to play a waltz. Lots of two-steps, lots of square dances, no waltzes,” she said, looking beyond him as if she had forgotten his presence.

  He thought of the castles he had seen, the waltzes he had danced, thinking how waltzes were old-fashioned and not his favorite dance.

  She smiled at him, focusing on him again. “No, I don’t plan to go to foreign places. I see movies and it looks fun, but I don’t really yearn to travel.”

  “You lead a simple life, and you’re damn easy to please.”

  “Like I’ve said, my life is tied up in family and people here.” She glanced around. “Want something to drink?”

  “I still have my beer. What would you like?”

  “One more cup of hot cocoa if I have any left. If not, just a glass of milk with a little honey in it.”

  “I can start another fire in my room—which is really your room,” he said, wanting to be alone with her. “Why don’t we sit there to talk? No one should need you the rest of this evening.”

  “Sure,” she said as she poured her hot chocolate.

  They finally settled on the floor in the living area of her suite with a blazing fire in the fireplace, cold beer, hot cocoa and a bowl of popcorn. Josh had pulled a coffee table near the hearth as a table for the drinks and popcorn.

  They sat in silence a few moments. She watched the fire, her profile to him. His gaze traveled over her smooth skin, long, light-brown eyelashes, a straight nose and full, heart-shaped lips. He paused, looking at her lips while desire built and he fought an inner battle. She wasn’t his type of woman and he wasn’t her type of man—in all ways except one. One that he couldn’t resist as he thought about their kiss.

  He could not stop wanting to kiss her again. Kiss her and more, so much more. She was sexy, responsive, plus a bundle of nice and capable traits. So many that she was beginning to seem like a very special woman with a lot more substance than some women he’d spent a great deal of time with.

  “Tell me more about your family,” she said, breaking into his thoughts. �
�Do they all live near you in Dallas? Do they work with you?”

  “My brother Mike is a rancher. He just married a woman who is a neonatal nurse, although she’s not working now. She’s expecting, and Mike has a little boy, Scotty. Mike’s first wife died of cancer.”

  “I’m so sorry to hear that. It’s nice that he’s remarried.”

  “He seems very happy, and so does Scotty. I think the marriage has been great for my brother and my nephew. It was good for Savannah, too, because she had a broken engagement and that ex-fiancé is the father of her child, although Mike will adopt the baby.”

  “That’s a blessing for all concerned.”

  “My brother Jake is in the energy business and married to Madison Milan, an artist.”

  “I’ve met her. She stayed here once, and she’s very nice. She wouldn’t remember me.”

  “She is nice, and they’re happy. It’s a good marriage because for generations our two families have had a nasty feud, beginning with the cattlemen after the Civil War. The feud is fading, especially with Jake and Madison’s marriage. And a distant relative of ours, Destiny, married a Milan—Wyatt Milan, the sheriff of Verity.”

  “Sounds as if the feud is over.”

  “Unfortunately, it’s not. My sister, Lindsay, is neighbors with a Milan, and those two fight like two bears with one piece of meat. Since Wyatt became sheriff, he’s been able to tone it down a little, but not much, so the old feud is alive and well.”

  “You have quite a history, and your Texas ancestors go back as far as ours do,” she said, smiling at him. “Do you stay at your ranch often?”

  “I don’t. I’d like to, but I’m too busy. That’s the life I really love, and I’ll move to the ranch to live someday.”

  “The future has a way of becoming the past very quickly. Perhaps you should take more time for your ranch if you really like that life.”

  “Right now that day seems mighty far in the future.”

  “My family is close—as you can guess since Mom lives next door and my grandmother lives here at the inn, although she stays at Mom’s house a lot of the time. That’s where she has been a lot this winter, and right now she’s gone to visit another relative.”

  “Is your mom okay in this storm? Does she need anything?”

  “No. I checked, and she has groceries. Right now with everyone snowed in, she doesn’t need the drive shoveled. I talk to her every day on the phone. This snow keeps her out of work, which is probably a much-needed rest for her. She has a hair salon and is usually busy.”

  “What about your siblings?”

  “My brother and sister are both on spring break—and it’s a good time to be gone. The snow is keeping them from getting back home.”

  Of all the women he had known, why was it a nurturer like Abby who set him on fire with her kisses? The most unlikely female he had crossed paths with attracted him—and she must be attracted to some degree to him. He couldn’t imagine why she would give him five seconds of attention, because she had already told him she avoided men who traveled or reminded her of the type of life her father had—but she did give him attention.

  It was after one in the morning when she stood and picked up the tray of dishes. “It’s late. I’ll turn in now.”

  “I’ll carry the tray,” he said, taking it from her.

  “I need to lock up and turn off lights. People leave them on.” They walked down the hall to the kitchen.

  “If the forecasts are correct,” she said, “we should have better weather by Tuesday. Maybe they’ll open the roads and you’ll get to go home.”

  “Don’t sound so hopeful,” he said, teasing her, and she smiled at him.

  “Believe me, I’ve always been aware that when the snow goes, you will, too. That’s the way of all my guests, no matter how good a time they’ve had here.”

  “I’m guessing a lot of your guests have been here before or will come back again.”

  “You’re right, fortunately. People like staying here. They do come back, and a lot of them keep in touch with us. We get Christmas cards from all over the United States, which makes me happy.”

  “I’ll send you a card.”

  “By next Christmas, you may not remember me, much less remember to send a card,” she said, sounding amused.

  He turned to face her, blocking her way. “I’ll remember you,” he said in a husky voice, knowing that he would. He wondered how long it would take for him to forget her or if he ever really would, a thought that surprised him.

  Her faint smile faded as her eyes widened. Heat streaked like lightning across his loins. He stood holding the tray of dishes with his hands full. He set the tray on the counter and turned to take her into his arms. “This is why I won’t forget you for a long, long time,” he said and kissed her, pulling her tightly against him as he leaned over her.

  As before when he had kissed her, she held him just as tightly, pressing against him, kissing him in return, another hot kiss that blasted him with desire. He wanted her in his bed. Kisses to die for—the description flitted through his mind.

  “Josh,” she whispered, stepping out of his embrace. She was as breathless as he was, and her lips were red from his kiss. He wanted to wrap his arms around her again, but knew he shouldn’t. She needed to lock up and turn off lights, and she would stick to that agenda. He placed the dishes in the dishwasher while she went to the sitting room to switch off lights. When she returned, she checked the back door.

  “I think everything is off and locked, so with no more chores, let’s go to bed,” she said, switching off the kitchen light, leaving only the hall light.

  “Oh, darlin’, I am definitely ready,” he drawled.

  Glancing over her shoulder at him, she laughed. “Cool it—poor choice of words on my part. I’m going to bed—alone. You do as you please and cool your overactive—” she paused “—imagination.”

  He grinned as he strolled down the hall beside her. “You can’t blame me. Hope springs eternal and all that.”

  “I might as well start planning tomorrow’s activities, because I’m guessing it’ll be a busy day.”

  “You’re changing the subject.”

  “As fast as I can,” she said as they walked into his room. She kept going to the adjoining door to the rest of her suite. She turned to face him. “It’s been a fun and interesting day.”

  As he walked over to her, she opened the connecting door to her room. He caught her arm, turning her. “It’s been an unforgettable day and night. We kissed in a shadow that is supposed to change our lives. Now we wait and see.”

  “It’s a legend. That doesn’t mean it comes true. I think it probably makes a difference if you’re already in love when you kiss,” she said. Her voice had softened and had a breathless quality now, a reaction to their conversation or to his touch or to his standing so close—he didn’t know. All he knew was that she always had a response to him.

  “We can’t end this day without another kiss,” he whispered. Before she could answer him or try to walk away, he placed his mouth on hers.

  He stood kissing her until she finally moved out of his arms.

  “I don’t know why we have this effect on each other,” she whispered.

  “We do, and I find it fascinating and irresistible.”

  “Watch out. It may be as risky to your way of life as it is to mine. You tempted fate tonight, and you’re still doing it.”

  “How am I still doing it when I’m just standing here?” he asked in a husky voice.

  “Good night, Josh,” she said a little more forcefully and stepped into her room, closing the door.

  “Good night, Abby,” he said, certain she stood close enough on the other side of the door to hear him. “You didn’t answer my question,” he added.

  He was hot, aroused,
aching with desire. He wanted her, and he wanted to hold her and make love for hours. He did not want to tell her goodbye yet.

  Later, as he lay on the sofa, he stared into the dark and tried to avoid thinking about her in bed only mere yards away with a door between them. In addition to the hot chemistry, she had jolted his busy lifestyle, moving him into a slower pace, making him think more about his life as a rancher. It had always seemed something in the far distant future when he was older, but was he missing out on life, as she had said? He definitely thought she was missing out on life in many ways, yet in others, she might have a happier lifestyle than he did. That thought shocked him.

  He rose slightly to see if there was a light beneath her door. It was dark, so she was in bed. That thought was not conducive to his sleep.

  What would happen if he knocked on the door? Some women would tell him to come in, but he was certain Abby would tell him to go away and she would see him in the morning.

  He sat up and wondered if sleep would come. The firewood was ashes with a few glowing orange embers, and he watched them sparkle while he remembered holding her until he groaned and ran his hand through his hair. He looked at the door between them again. Was she on the other side sleeping peacefully without a thought about him?

  * * *

  As she pulled on flannel pajamas and then laid out her blue sweater, a fresh pair of jeans and thick knee socks with her suede boots for tomorrow, Abby could only think of Josh. She ached with wanting him. She wanted his arms around her, his kisses, his lovemaking. But that was hopeless and the way to big heartbreak.

  She wanted to go on with her routine life when he left, as happy as she was before she met him. She had the feeling life as usual wasn’t going to happen again. Josh had come into her world and changed everything.

  She had known Lamont’s kisses were not exciting, but she had thought perhaps no man’s kisses would ever seem exciting to her. She enjoyed Lamont, but on a whole different level and to a lesser degree than she did Josh. Lamont had never sent her pulse galloping or kissed her until she shook with desire. She never sat talking and laughing for hours with Lamont. They were comfortable, but sometimes they sat together for an hour or more without saying ten words to each other.