by S A Monk
One of the cow dogs wandered over to her, and she went down on one knee to scratch it behind its ears.
Hawk found himself caught in her smile as she looked up and stared across the yard at him while she petted one of Scott’s dogs. Her ponytail fell over the shoulder of her blue stripped shirt and her big brown eyes were barely visible beneath the brim of her USC baseball hat.
It wasn’t the first time Tom’s daughter had captured his attention today. The chaps she was wearing were distracting as hell, and he stared every time she moved her cute little ass in them or bent over to inoculate another calf. He had to wonder why he’d given them to her to wear in the first place. Lord have mercy, when had ordinary work clothing driven him this crazy?
Even after the day’s hard labor, he hadn’t slept worth a damn last night. His dreams had been filled with images of Jennifer Fletcher and what he truly wanted to be doing with her. He reminded himself over and over that she was Tom’s daughter, and that he needed to treat her with respect and a strict business-like attitude, but visions of her in his arms, in bed with him tormented him relentlessly.
When they all broke for lunch, he found her waiting for him outside the temporary horse corral, where he had just left Red Phantom.
“USC Trojans, huh?” he noted as he closed the gate behind him and met her.
“My alma mater,” she explained as she walked with him to the line cabin. “And no, I don’t know anything about their football or basketball or baseball teams. I never even went to a game, much to Dad’s disappointment.”
“I’ll be glad to teach you all about football when the season starts.”
She rolled her eyes. “You sound like Dad. He was always trying to get me interested in watching football with him. You played football in high school, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, Tom got me to join the team. It kept me out of trouble.”
“I’ll bet he went to every game.”
“He did.”
They joined the others on the porch. Since their clothes were splattered with mud and blood, they all ate outside. Everyone had their backs braced against the wall of the cabin or against one of the porch posts. With their legs stretched out in front of them, and a full plate of food on their laps, no one spoke much as they ate. Eli passed the coffee pot around, filling out-stretched cups.
Hawk slumped tiredly near the door of the cabin and invited Jenny to sit between his legs. It was too tempting. She accepted with a grateful sigh and leaned back against his chest. With one arm resting on his bent, upraised knee, it was an intimate position, but it was also a comfortable one. Jenny could tell Hawk was as aware of the warm intimacy of the position as she was. She held her cup out for Eli and glanced at the scattering of men around them. None of them, except Steve, was paying them much attention. Everyone was too tired to socialize.
Hawk shifted slightly, and nearly groaned aloud. With her butt against his groin, he hoped he could get up eventually, without everyone seeing the evidence of his aroused state. He knew he shouldn’t have invited her to torture him like this, but it was a sweet torture, one he was loath to put an end to. Her Trojan baseball hat rubbed the underside of his jaw, and her curly ponytail tickled his throat, slipping inside his open collar, long silky strands sliding deep inside his shirt. He could feel them against his skin, and thought of how erotic it would be to feel all that glorious, unrestrained hair dragged over his naked body. Taking a deep drink of his coffee, he tried not to dwell on thoughts of her naked in his arms, kissing him the way she had kissed him in the rain the other day.
She shifted between his legs. He sucked in a quick breath. Man, she was killing him! His thighs tightened to keep her still, but she shifted again, turning towards him to give him a quizzical glance.
“You okay?”
Her lovely upturned face was a picture of complete innocence. He looked into her big chocolate brown eyes, framed by their long curly black lashes, and knew he’d endure whatever torture she wanted to put him through, just to have the chance to keep her close like this.
“Stiff and sore, but I’ll live,” he responded in a low thick voice that successfully hid, he hoped, how aroused he was.
With the side of her shapely hip now pressing into his denim-restrained erection, she put a hand over the clenched fist he was resting on his knee. Her long fingers were cool and smooth and gentle in their caress. “We’ll be home in a couple more nights,” she reminded him with a soft smile, completely misinterpreting his tension. “Our own beds, a real shower, clean clothes.”
“You’ve had a real bed,” he reminded her. She’d been sleeping in the single bedroom, on the double bed, while he’d been upstairs in the crude loft, sleeping on the hard floor with the rest of the men. He wanted to be sleeping with her. He’d dreamed about it every damn night.
“I know,” she said remorsefully. “I feel awful about it, too. Why don’t you take the bed tonight? I’ll sleep on the couch in the living room. It’s long enough for me, even if it isn’t for you guys.”
He didn’t say anything, simply shook his head no. He didn’t want to kick her out of her bed. He wanted to join her in it, for heaven’s sakes. But he wasn’t going to, unfortunately. He wasn’t going to complicate her unmade decision about whether to form a partnership with him by having sex with her. Women usually invested more emotionally in lovemaking than men did, and while he wasn’t so sure he’d escape emotional entanglement himself if he went to bed with her, he didn’t want her business decision clouded. And he’d also wondered if he could simply have sex with Tom’s daughter, without worrying how Tom would have viewed his behavior. Could he take his friend’s daughter to bed and do the things he wanted to do to her without guilt? Tom had wanted him to look after his daughter and her interests. Having sex with her wasn’t exactly looking after her interests. And yet he couldn’t seem to keep her at arm’s length, either.
Chapter 13
The line cabin wasn’t really large enough for the six people who inhabited it that week. It was a crude accommodation with no shower or indoor toilet. A curtain had been strung across the kitchen area so that, in the evening after dinner, big kettles of water could be heated for cleaning up and rinsing off. The men always let Jenny use the first pot of hot water. While they each waited their turns, they usually played poker, betting whatever change they had brought with them.
Jenny would join them when she was done, and she discovered that she had a natural talent for the game. By Thursday, the men were playing penny poker. By nine, they were throwing in their hands for the evening, flat broke, without even a penny left in their pockets while Jenny had a pile on the table in front of her.
“Since you’re already beating the pants off us, we could play strip poker,” Steve joked. “Might give us more motivation.” His comment was crude and suggestive. It stopped Hank as he pushed away from the table. Scott looked uneasily at Hawk across the table from him.
Seated next to Jenny, he scowled at the grinning wrangler. “You’re out of line, Walker, and you’re finished for the night.”
The tension in the small cabin was tangible enough to slice.
Jenny laughed nervously. “I want to give you all your money back. We just played for fun anyway.” She began to divvy up her winnings, shoving each a handful. Hawk stopped her by laying his hand over hers.
“No one wants their money back, do you?” His narrowed eyes swept the men at the table. Everyone, even Steve, shook his head no.
“It’s time to hit the sack, anyway,” Hank injected with a brief laugh. “We’ve got an early start tomorrow, right, boss?”
“Yeah, we do.” Hawk pushed out of his chair. “I’m going to check on the herd.” At the door, he grabbed his quilted parka off a hook, zipped it up, then slapped on his hat. “See you all in the morning.”
He didn’t even spare Jenny a good night glance, and she was crestfallen.
After everyone climbed the stairs to the loft, she was left alone. Wandering through the now empt
y room, she blew out the kerosene lamps, then sat on the couch and stared into the flames of the potbellied stove through the open cast iron door. With the extra wood Hank had put in before going to bed, the fire would burn all night, heating the entire cabin.
She wasn’t really tired, and she wanted to wait for Hawk. She wanted him to sit with her by the fire, in the quiet hush of the cabin, and have some hot chocolate with her. When the tea kettle whistled, she got up and set the kettle where the water would stay warm. Then she got the cups out of the cupboard and poured packets of instant cocoa into them. With the addition of a few marshmallows, she sat down at the kitchen table to wait.
After a half hour, when Hawk still didn’t return, she went outside to look for him. She could hear the cattle shuffling and making soft noises, but they were just dark shapes in the distance. A coyote howled. It was quickly answered by another. She shivered, then looked up and gasped in awe at the pitch black, moonless night sky. It was filled with thousands of diamond bright stars. Not just the dozens of far-off dim twinkles she usually saw under the city lights, but a glittering array of so many, they seemed to create a lacy blanket across the velvety black sky. And they looked so close. It must be the elevation, she concluded, transfixed by their awesome splendor.
“What are you doing out here?”
Startled, she swung around to face Hawk as he walked up to her. She hadn’t heard him coming, and that surprised her. “Looking for you.” She laughed and tilted her head back again to gaze up in wonder. “Actually, I was star gazing. Look at all those stars. They’re so spectacular! I haven’t seen a night sky like this for so long, I’d forgotten they existed. My God, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Go inside before you freeze.”
He sounded angry. She pulled her eyes from the stars and settled them on his shadowed face.
“Go.” With his hands on her shoulders, he turned her toward the cabin and gave her a little push. “I’ll be in soon. Go get in bed. It’s late. We have a hard day tomorrow.”
“We always have a hard day tomorrow,” she protested sulkily.
“Go,” he repeated.
Hawk watched her stomp off. Even in the dark, he saw the gentle swing and sway of her hips. He took his hat off, raked a hand through his hair, and turned his face to a cold gust of wind. Before he went inside, he made sure he was in control again.
The cabin was completely dark, except for the faint glow from the potbellied stove. Hawk sighed, relieved that Jenny had apparently gone to bed. After disposing of his coat and hat on one of the pegs by the door, he headed into the kitchen, pushing the long sleeves of his quilted white undershirt up to his elbows to wash his hands and face before going to bed.
When he was done, he headed for the staircase that led to the loft. As he came around the stove in the center of the living room, he stopped. With her legs curled up beneath her, Jenny was seated on the sofa, holding a cup of something in each hand. Hawk rolled his eyes in exasperation. Uncoiling in one long graceful move, she stood up, smiled, and handed him a cup.
“I thought you might like a cup of hot chocolate after being outside in the cold.”
He grabbed the cup from her fingers and took a sip. Over the rim, he stared at her. She was standing inches from of him, smiling up at him sweetly, wearing that soft fuzzy lavender sweater that had driven him crazy all evening. It wasn’t tight, but it clung to her figure in ways that seductively revealed the exact shape and size of her well rounded breasts. He’d watched Steve flirt with her and look directly at her breasts every time he said something to her all evening. By the time the wrangler had made that comment about her beating the pants off him, he’d been ready to fire him on the spot.
Of course, he’d been looking at her assets all night, too. And holy cow! Here she was, within arm’s reach, alone with him, tempting him almost beyond his resolve to not touch her anymore until she made her damn mind up about the partnership. Hot chocolate, hell! What he needed was a stiff drink.
He was just thinking how he was going to be up half the night tossing and turning in his sleeping bag, when she lifted her fingers to his mouth.
“You’ve got marshmallow on your upper lip,” she laughed softly. As she went to wipe it off, his tongue curled up to lick it. Her fingertips touched the sensitive underside. A shudder rippled through him.
Grabbing her wrist, more tightly than he intended, he pulled her hand away. “Damn it, Jenny, go to bed.” His directive was short and curt, and he hated the surprise, then the hurt that flared in her eyes. “Thanks for the chocolate,” he added in atonement as she slowly turned, set her cup on the table, and walked away.
After placing the cups in the kitchen sink, he checked the wood in the stove, then headed for the loft.
Jenny was sitting on a wooden chair in the dark downstairs bedroom when she saw his shadow approach her open door. Damn it, she’d had enough of his restraint! She guessed it probably had something to do with her being Tom’s daughter, but she’d made up her mind that she was going to try to change his tonight, although his self-discipline was proving quite an obstacle.
When he passed by her door, she got desperate. “Hawk, could you help me get my boots off? I’m having trouble with them. Damp socks, I guess.” Lame excuse, more like it.
“Jenny....”
“Please.” If he told her no, she was going to throw the damn boots at him!
Instead he came into the room. She breathed a silent sigh of relief and presented him with one booted leg. He pulled. She resisted, but the first boot came off far too easily. She could see the skeptical lift of one dark eyebrow as he looked at her in the dark room. She gave him a quick smile and shrugged.
When she presented him with the second booted foot, she tried really really hard not to let it come off so easily It took a couple of hard tugs, but eventually it, too, slipped off her foot. His long fingers curled around her socks, and she realized he found them quite dry. That discovery, of course, made a complete liar out of her. Luckily, the darkness hid her guilty embarrassment.
With a murmured ‘good night,’ he turned to leave.
Jenny wondered frantically what she could say or do next, short of throwing herself into his arms. “Stay a while,” she tried, sounding much too desperate. “I’m not very sleepy.”
“Well, goddamn it, you should be,” he retorted sharply, casting her a brooding look over his shoulder. “You worked hard today.”
“Thank you.” Encouraged in spite of his tone, she smiled, then got up and took a step toward him. “Hawk....” The needy little catch in her voice mortified her, but it was there, unable to be suppressed.
To her utter humiliation, though, he turned to her and thrust his arm out, as if to ward her off. “Jenny, go to bed.”
She watched him turn away from her, head to the door, and grab the knob. In the utterly dark room, she could only hear the door shut behind him.
Furious with herself for being so forward, and even more angry at him for rejecting her, she walked toward the bed, ran into a small table in the dark, and cursed. Using it for balance, she unzipped her jeans, yanked them off, twisted them into a ball, and threw them petulantly across the room to hit the wall on the other side of the bed.
“Damn you, John Red Hawk Larson!” she swore vehemently. “Damn you, damn you, damn you! I am never ever going to let you kiss me again!”
“Never, ever?” a deep husky voice asked from behind her in the dark.
Jenny jumped and screeched. But before she could spin around, Hawk gathered her in his arms and pulled her back up against him.
“I can’t let you never ever kiss me again,” he whispered against her hair, his nose nuzzling to find her ear. “I want you too much to let you deny me your kisses.” His mouth nudged aside her long curly hair so his teeth could nibble on her earlobe and the gold stud there. After making an erotic swirl with the tip of his tongue, his mouth moved down the long arch of her throat as her head fell backwards onto his shoulder. Gently, h
e sank his teeth into her neck, sucking on her soft skin, licking any sting away with his tongue.
“Can’t you feel how much I want you, pretty lady?” he growled so that she felt the vibration of his words all along the arch of her throat.
While his lips caressed her neck, his hands slid beneath her cashmere sweater and settled over her stomach. His splayed calloused fingers created heat and friction against her sensitive flesh, sending shivers of delight and anticipation along every nerve ending. In an erotic foray, the tips of his fingers slipped just inside the Lacy edge of her low-cut silk bikinis.
Her knees turned to jelly, and she drew in a sharp breath at the sudden leap of desire that surged through her. She heard the ragged increased pace of Hawk’s breathing. His arms tightened around her, then his hands changed direction and traveled slowly up her mid-section to finally reach her breasts. She wasn’t wearing a bra. His work-roughened hands cupped her, then lifted her, testing the weight of her. He pushed her breasts together and molded their full round shape with long sure fingers. A low sweet moan crawled up her throat, parting her lips.
“Oh, Hawk....” The throaty timbre of her voice startled her. She sounded as she felt— a woman in the throes of unraveling passion.
A short laugh rumbled in Hawk’s chest. She felt that, as well as the entire length of his hard body behind her. “Whatever you want, princess. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You,” she confessed shamelessly. “I really want you tonight.”
Her breath caught sharply again as one magical hand gently squeezed her breast while the other traveled slowly downward, into her panties.
His middle finger penetrated slowly, so slowly and deliberately, making exquisite circular motions that drove her wild. “Hawk, you’re driving me crazy!”
With wicked skill, he timed the motion of the hand kneading her breast to the finger moving in and out and around her pelvis.
