The smell of coffee and something delicious met her nose. Jayson was there, as he always seemed to be at six-thirty in the morning. He was off doing chores by five and finished by then.
Celine smiled and got up from her crouch. Thor retreated to his pillow by the refrigerator as she walked toward Jayson. The tile felt cool beneath her bare feet, his robe brushing the tops of her feet. She liked being in his robe. He’d said he never wore it, but she could swear his scent was in the soft terry cloth.
Jayson offered her a mug of hot, steaming coffee before she’d even had a chance to say two words. “Good morning, beautiful.”
He said it so naturally, as if they’d known each other forever. What sounded like an endearment warmed her from head to toe, and she didn’t mind one bit.
The man radiated strength and intelligence, a heady combo. He wore a black T-shirt that fit him oh-so-well, Wrangler jeans that she knew hugged a tight ass, and boots that looked as if they fit him like a glove and that he’d had forever. She’d never felt desire like she felt around this man. The days she’d spent with Jayson had made her wonder if the log hitting her head had done some damage. She barely knew the man and he made her feel like she belonged with him.
Celine, pull it together, she told herself.
She reached him and took the mug of coffee. She inhaled and sighed with pleasure. “Best. Smell. Ever.”
“Almost.” He looked at her in a way that made her feel as if he’d just made love to her. Sexy. Hot. Passionate. But caring and loving and—
Dear God.
Her cheeks grew hot and she drew the knot on the robe tighter. “How’s the road?”
Jayson shook his head. “Still too much rain in the mountains for the county to fix that canyon of a crossing.”
She sipped her coffee. “Is water still in the arroyo?”
“It’s been running non-stop thanks to the tremendous amount of rain we’re getting in the mountains.” He leaned his hip against the counter, his mug in one hand. “We haven’t had rain like this in a decade. Our neck of the woods is saying a great big thank you to the heavens.”
She sipped again and felt peace coming back to her body and brain. “I’m glad it’s good for you. It’s not something I’ve ever had to worry about.”
Jayson tipped his head back and finished the last of his mug before lowering it. “It’s too bad it’s messing up your schedule.”
“It’s only money.” She gave a wry smile. “The way it’s been going out the window, what’s ten or twenty grand more?”
He winced. “Ow.”
“Feel free to say that again.” She shook her head. “Accounting issues, ransomware, expenses, blah, blah, blah.”
“Ransomware?” He frowned. “Are you talking about what’s in the news? According to CNN, the hackers mostly went after big companies as well as hospitals and government agencies, mostly outside the U.S.”
Celine tilted her head to the side. “They must have gone for some small businesses, too. Monty said they got me pretty badly. Twenty-thousand dollars.”
Jayson looked thoughtful then poured himself another cup of coffee.
She tipped her mug and stared at the bottom. “I’m on empty, too. All this talk means I’ll need a whole carafe to myself.”
He poured her another mug. “I’m sorry to hear you got hit.”
“Me, too.” She moved to the kitchen table and sat. “Monty is taking care of it all. Before the attack, he said I have enough money for this and the launch with room to spare. I hope that still holds.” She breathed in the warm smell coming from the direction of the oven. “Tell me that’s breakfast.”
“I threw together some egg, cheese, bacon, and sausage omelet muffins.” He glanced at the timer on the stove. “Three minutes, but I’ll check on them.”
He grabbed a potholder and opened the oven door. “They’re ready. Your nose is right on the button.”
“Yummy.” She left her mug on the table and went to the cabinet to get breakfast plates, then grabbed forks and napkins.
Jayson took out a small platter and loaded it with the omelet muffins. “Enough to feed a small army and have leftovers, too.”
Celine smiled as she got salsa and sour cream out of the fridge. She couldn’t help smiling around Jayson.
When everything was on the table, they dug in.
“This is so freaking good.” Celine gave a little groan of pleasure after her first bite. “You can cook for me anytime you’d like. Day or night.” She looked at him with a teasing look. “Oh, yeah. You have been cooking for me day and night. I owe you a few meals.”
“Do you cook?” Jayson asked.
She hadn’t been well enough to even think of it until now. She gave him a dead-serious look. “I have a phone and I know how to use it.”
He grinned, and she went on. “Seriously though, I can make a few things. Enough that I don’t starve when I’m on my own. And there’s nothing on speed dial.”
“No delivery here.” He inclined his head toward the pantry. “I have plenty of rations.”
“Now there’s a word I haven’t heard for a while.”
The day was clear with a clean rain-washed scent as Celine walked out to the barn.
When they’d finished breakfast, they had taken care of the dishes. Jayson left, riding Starlight to check on things around his property, like fence lines and water troughs. He’d asked Celine if she wanted to go and she had declined. Thor was gone with Jayson.
Jayson had said he could be gone a couple of hours, or most of the day, depending on what waited for him out there.
She wasn’t sure why she was drawn to the barn this morning.
Melting. She was melting…and falling in love with his horses.
Her breath caught in her throat and she came to a complete stop.
“No.” She shook her head. “I can’t fall in love with his horses. I won’t.”
She should run back to the house and never enter the barn again. It was a dishonor to Sky’s memory.
Or was it a dishonor to Sky’s memory to have turned her back on that world altogether?
Sky was a horse…but she’d been more than that. Proud, beautiful, intelligent.
Celine forced her feet to move and keep walking to the barn. Sky had been her confidant. Celine had spilled her heart and soul to that wonderful, precious being. She’d had no friends, and hadn’t been allowed to socialize with “strangers.” Which meant she was entirely alone, because everyone had been a stranger. So how could she have any friends?
Not that her parents cared.
For the most part, she’d come to terms with who her parents were, and her upbringing. But sometimes—sometimes she felt that little girl loneliness and pain, an ache deep in her soul.
She reached the barn door and grasped the handle that felt cool to the touch.
She stood in the open barn doorway, listening to the sounds of the morning. Cattle lowed in the field and horses whickered in the corral.
It was the soft sounds the horses made that did it.
Tears burned the backs of her eyes and her throat filled with a solid ball of pain.
Over fifteen years. She’d held back every single tear since she’d walked away.
She had refused to cry when Sky was poisoned. That same day she turned her back on the world she had known and loved.
A world that had been everything to her, because of Sky.
She had refused to ever acknowledge it again.
Now, as she looked at the robin’s egg blue of the morning sky, everything quieted and she thought she heard the whisper of butterfly wings. Soft. A faintness that brushed her heart.
She raised her chin and pushed the barn door all the way open, letting in the morning sunlight. Her heart thumped a little harder as she walked to the horse stalls. The other horses were outside in the corral and Jayson was off riding Starlight. Celine was alone with Shiloh and Sierra.
Celine looked over the stall door.
Shiloh
walked up to the door.
Sierra peeked out from behind her mother.
Celine’s heart pounded. She wanted to turn, leave, never come back to the barn. She was dishonoring Sky.
You’re honoring Sky.
Celine’s fingertips trembled until they met the coarse hair on Shiloh’s nose. An immediate connection, like a golden rope, shot through her hand and straight to her heart.
The power of it nearly sent Celine staggering backward. She managed to maintain her footing.
She closed her eyes and held her fingers to Shiloh’s face, not daring to do anything. She wished she could go into the stall, but with Sierra in there, Shiloh would probably be protective and not want Celine near the baby.
The horse stepped closer so that her head was over the stall door. Celine raised her eyelids and looked at her. Shiloh’s big, intelligent brown eyes returned her gaze.
Celine wrapped her arms around Shiloh’s neck and pressed her face against the horse’s coarse hair. She breathed in the smell of horse.
She’d loved that smell. It brought back so many memories. The times she and Sky had ridden, free of any constraints. The times they practiced, competed, and won.
But most of all, she remembered moments like this, when she was hugging Sky, not wanting to leave. She’d wanted to stay and feel the unconditional love between them.
Celine drew back and looked at Shiloh. The horse whickered and bobbed her head. Her big soulful eyes seemed to say, “It’s okay. Everything is okay.”
Tears, fifteen years of tears flooded from her. They rolled down her face as her throat opened and she let out the pain in every sob. She didn’t hold back. Didn’t want to hold back. It had been too long and she didn’t think she could ever stop.
Her tears lessened and the chain around her heart snapped.
She braced her forehead against Shiloh’s, feeling the short hair against her skin.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
Jayson returned from his ride on Starlight, bone weary and hungry as hell.
He brushed down the mare, fed her, and did other evening chores before heading into the house with Thor.
The moment he walked into the kitchen from the back porch, heavenly smells hit him square in the face.
Celine stood at the stove, her back to him. She looked over her shoulder when he closed the door and she smiled.
Damn, but she had a sexy smile. A welcoming smile.
“Great timing,” she said. “It’ll be ready in about fifteen minutes.”
He tossed his Stetson onto the hat tree. “Smells downright incredible.”
She laughed. “Let’s see how you like it once you taste it.”
He took the time to watch her as she grabbed a potholder off the countertop. She wore Bailey’s jeans that he’d run through the washer twice. The Wranglers fit Celine’s well-shaped ass perfectly. She had on one of his T-shirts that she’d tied off to the side. This morning he’d noticed how the soft material hugged her breasts, like he wanted to do right now.
Her back was to him as she said, “You have time to get cleaned up.”
He held back a grin. “That bad, huh?”
She faced him, a wooden spoon in one hand, a potholder in the other. “You tell me.”
He raised his hands. “I will get my tail end into the shower and be back within fifteen minutes.”
“Good boy.” She bent to open the oven, that ass of hers looking delicious enough to forget what he was supposed to be doing.
Oh, hell, he had forgotten.
With that image of her in his mind, he headed for the shower.
Fourteen minutes later—who was counting—he was in the kitchen.
“You’re back.” She nodded to the plates and utensils. “Do you mind setting the table?”
“Sure thing.” He’d do anything to get a bite of whatever she’d made. Hell, he’d probably do anything for her.
She gave him the once over. “You sure do clean up good.”
This time he did grin. “As instructed, ma’am.”
She sniffed. “I’m too young to be a ma’am. Don’t you have to be at least forty?”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “Us country boys call every lady ma’am from the time they’re in high school ‘til they’re a hundred.”
She smiled. “In that case, it’s okay.” She went back to stirring a big pan of pasta, with a dark creamy-looking sauce. Nearby was a baking sheet with crusty bread on it.
“What’s for dinner?” he asked as she turned off the heat from beneath the pan. “I recognize the bread, but not whatever smells so good in that pan.”
“Beef Bolognese.” She looked at him. “Trivet?”
“What?” He felt momentarily like she’d thrown him a curveball. Then it clicked. “Oh, one of those things.” He pulled one out of a drawer. “Never had Bolognese. Can’t wait to try it.”
She took the trivet. “You have an amazing amount of supplies in your pantry and freezer. I never expected that on a ranch.”
He raised a brow. “You imagined pinto beans, cornbread, and beef stew?”
“Um.” She paused then laughed. “Well, yeah.”
“I have a new cook.” His stomach rumbled. “She’s excellent and has been keeping me and the boys well-fed.”
“Nice.” Celine took the trivet, a serving spoon, and a spoon rest to the table and set it all on the surface.
Jayson picked up the pan of Bolognese and placed it on the trivet at the middle of the table.
“We’re also having spinach salad.” She went to the fridge and pulled out a large bowl. “With homemade bleu cheese dressing.”
He seated himself at the table after she was settled. “Something is in the oven.”
“Dessert.” She gave him a mischievous look. “I just put it in before you returned from your shower. You’ll have to wait and see what it is.”
Jayson shook his head. This woman never ceased to amaze him.
He filled both their plates and then he dug in. “Holy cow, this is good.”
Her smile broadened. “Thank you.”
He shoveled in another mouthful, chewed and swallowed. “Keep this up and I won’t let you out of the kitchen.”
“As much fun as this has been, I am going to have to get back to work.” She knitted her brows. “I checked Monty’s trailer earlier today and I still can’t find my tote with my laptop and some important papers.”
Jayson frowned. “You’re sure you left it there?”
“Positive.” She nodded. “It was the same morning we met. I went into the trailer, threw my purse and tote on the couch, and searched for the coffee. That was the last time I saw it.”
Jayson studied her. “Do you think someone could have stolen it?”
“I don’t know.” She sighed. “I like to think we can trust all our people. They’re vetted. They go through background checks, we require three references, and we query credit sources, yadda, yadda, yadda. I’ve had nothing but the highest regard for any of them.” She made an expression of frustration. “Charlie is a big pain in the ass, but I don’t think he’d steal. He’s got Monty buying him things like $5,000 drones. Why would he take my laptop?”
“It’s a shame, but I suppose you never know completely about people,” Jayson said. “We’ll just hope someone set it aside a little too much out of the way.”
She gave a self-deprecating laugh before she went on. “And then there’s the tote. I paid as much for it as I did for the laptop, if not more. I have to say, not one of my better purchases. I have enjoyed it, but I spent way too much on the thing.”
“I think we should take a look for your bag and laptop tomorrow.” Jayson glanced outside. “Another storm is building up, and I hear thunder.”
“I agree.” She stared out the big kitchen window, too. “I really need to catch a break, and soon.”
Chapter 8
Revenge. Yes…nothing tasted better.
Monty narrowed his eyes as he loo
ked at Celine’s login screen. “What is her damned password?”
He needed it now.
Monty ground his teeth. Her father, Charles Northland, had taken everything from him. It was only fitting that he should regain his wealth by robbing Northland’s daughter.
The purse he would have won with his horse would have gone toward MERF. But not only was Monty unable to run his horse in the race, thanks to that cheating sonofabitch Northland, Monty’s horse, who he’d run under the name of Merf’s Dream, had to be put down.
Monty had sunk everything into that damned horse, and had ended up with nothing.
Fucking Northland.
Monty might not be able to touch the bastard, but he’d put himself in line to get everything from Celine. He had full access to all her business accounts. Now he just needed her passwords to take everything from the accounts her parents had set up for her. Celine refused to use the money from her parents because she wanted to “make it on her own.”
Yeah, right. Just being a Northland got her places she wouldn’t have made it to before.
And her clothing line—he already had a buyer who would pay through the nose for Celine’s designs.
Who knew why? What was that crap women wore today? Hell, women should all be home taking care of their husbands. His parents’ generation and the generations before that had it right.
Maybe her password was the date he’d killed her horse. He still remembered the exact day. He remembered everything about it.
He punched in the date and growled when it didn’t work.
Monty remembered seeing her as a snot-nosed brat, riding that horse like she was some kind of freaking princess. That her horse got caught up in Monty’s revenge—well, it couldn’t have been helped. And as demanding and bitchy as she’d appeared to be, she’d deserved it.
And now—well, even though she didn’t know it, she was paying for his farm in Belize. He’d just put a bid on it and knew it would be his. The property had been sitting for a while, but he really didn’t care about that.
He’d never be found there. Never. And he’d have peace, solitude, with only the servants to take care of him and otherwise stay silent. A small town with modern conveniences was close, but not close enough to bother him.
Amazed by You (Riding Tall Book 11) Page 9
