The Rancher's Seduction

by Catherine Mann

  He read loud and clear the boss/employee boundaries she was keeping in place, and he respected her for that. And still...he was tempted.

  Nudging the burgers on the grates and judging them nearly done, he knew full well there was no tofu or sprouts blended in since he didn’t keep any in stock. Still, she’d made him laugh. Something he didn’t do often.

  Through narrowed eyes, he watched her arrange lettuce, pickle wedges and tomato slices on a small platter. She had a smooth way of moving, each motion blending right into the next.

  Had they met a month ago, he would have pursued her like gangbusters. But with his broken arm and the taste for alcohol simmering just below the surface, he was reminded how tenuous sobriety could be.

  He couldn’t afford change, not now.

  She set a lone place at the table.

  And somehow it seemed to be making a bigger deal out of the attraction not to do the obvious and invite her to join him. “Tally, set a place for yourself, too.”

  She glanced at him quickly, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth before nodding slowly. “We should plan out my work schedule.”

  “Now?”

  “If you’re too busy watching those burgers—” she stared at him pointedly with those alluring hazel eyes “—then just let me know when would be a better time.”

  There she went, making him chuckle again. “Now’s fine. Let’s plan.”

  “Thank you. I need to let the hospital know when I’m available.”

  “Hospital?” he asked. Keeping up with this woman’s conversational diversionary paths could make a man dizzy. Then he thought of her “all natural” quest. Was she ill? She likely didn’t have much of a financial cushion to take time off.

  He thought of his sister Naomi’s teenage battle with cancer. Her return to health had been draining. He couldn’t imagine someone managing such a major health crisis while working full-time.

  Tally folded napkins alongside the silverware, deep red hair feathering down her back. “I volunteer in the NICU—neonatal ICU—holding babies that are there for extended stays.”

  A sigh of relief left him. He also wondered how he’d let himself jump to such a dire conclusion so quickly. This woman had him off-balance with her sexy confidence and curves to match. “Aren’t their parents there to hold them?”

  “The parents stay as much as possible, but they often have jobs or other children that make it impossible to be at the hospital twenty-four/seven. Touch is so important to any baby, and even more so for a struggling preemie building up their immune system.”

  His admiration for her grew. She had a fiery crusader’s spirit to go with that fiery red hair. This was the kind of woman a man admired, the kind of woman a man married. And he wasn’t in the market for happily-ever-after.

  He would wager money she wasn’t the affair type, even if he wasn’t her boss. Even if this had been a month ago, even if his life wasn’t teetering on the edge. His broken arm and the frustration from the restrictions of his recovery had him longing to pass the time with a drink.

  The last thing he could do. He’d worked too hard for his sobriety. He picked up the small platter. “Keep your volunteer schedule in place. If you could just give me a copy, we can work around it here.”

  Her hazel eyes sparkled with appreciation. “That’s very kind of you.” Then the spark turned to something else. Suspicion, perhaps? “Don’t think you’re getting rid of me so easily. I’ll still be working at least a forty-hour week for you.”

  “I’m sure you will,” he said. She seemed as tenacious as Nugget. “There’s plenty of flex when those hours can be, since I have business to attend to as well.”

  “Thank you.” She wiped her hands on the apron tied over her khaki pants. “You’re entirely too accommodating, you know. I would be a much tougher boss.”

  “And since I guessed that about you, there’s no need for me to be a hardnose.” He slid the burgers from the grill onto the platter. He’d always found, as one of the middle children in the Steele clan, there were better means for getting his way than the open bullheadedness of his siblings and father. “Well, unless you put sprouts in my burger.”

  “Message received, boss.” She sliced fresh sourdough rolls, then gestured to the table. “Supper is served.”

  He held out her chair for her, his eyes meeting hers. The air crackled with awareness, so much for someone he’d just met, but undeniable.

  Without question, the woman beside him was far more enticing than any feast, no matter how appetizing.

  * * *

  Cradling a premature baby girl in her arms, Tally still felt guilty for taking a half day off only twenty-four hours after beginning her new job. But Marshall had insisted he didn’t care if she shuffled tasks into the evening and that he had a business meeting with his uncle, anyway. Having her out of the way would actually be helpful.

  She suspected he’d made up the last part, but she had a list of tasks to accomplish after she finished at the hospital. Dusting was the least of her concerns for getting the house ready for Christmas.

  Marshall’s place could seriously use a woman’s touch. She’d acknowledged that much in the cleaning she’d finished before she left for the hospital.

  Toe tapping the chair into motion, she rocked with the baby girl—Stella Rae—mindful, always, of the monitors and tubes hooked up to the little one.

  Despite the gravity of the NICU ward, despite the hardships these babies and their families all faced, the hospital staff went above and beyond. It came out in the way the nurses fussed, lingered past the end of a shift, and the pool of dedicated volunteers. Everyone who was part of this community dedicated time and emotion in ways that made it slightly better for the suffering families.

  Which was why she smiled sadly at the Christmas decorations in the ward. The holiday wouldn’t be the same for families struggling with a hospitalized child. But there were touches here and there, attempts to bring some normalcy, and yes, joy, to this ward.

  A nurse in reindeer-themed scrubs with a Santa pin passed by Tally. A squat artificial Christmas tree twinkled at her from the corner of the sitting room, minor touches of Christmas cheer.

  She had her work cut out for her on more than one front with Marshall Steele. Now that she’d started her job and met her enigmatic boss, she wondered what she’d been thinking.

  How could she ever expect there to be peace over her father’s role in the plane crash? Seeing Marshall Steele made the family feel so much more, well, real. Which should have been obvious.

  Her plans to help them, to let them know her father wasn’t a bad man, had seemed so attainable before, and now? Far too simplistic.

  Regardless, there was no backing out at this point. She had signed on for the job, and she needed the work. If an opportunity presented itself to discuss the past, she would take it.

  For now? Her best bet was to focus on the present, starting with the sweet weight in her arms as she rocked back and forth, humming “Away in a Manger” under her breath.

  A door swept open, and a local social worker strode through. Felicity Hunt had become her friend over the past month. In the case of a child entering foster care, a representative was assigned to stay with the child at all times until the little one left the hospital.

  Working with Felicity recently had made Tally revisit some of her own past. When she, too, had sat in a similar position, with a baby of her own. A baby she’d given up in order to ensure her son had the best life possible.

  Felicity made people feel comfortable as soon as she flashed her smile. In her early forties, the woman had a natural beauty and an effortless air with her understated style. Her straight brown hair was clipped back with a simple gold clasp.

  Above all, her genuine kindness and caring radiated from her.

  How different Tally’s life might have been if a woman like Fel
icity had been the one to guide her through the lonely process of giving up her baby for adoption. Or perhaps even help her find ways she could have kept her baby while building a secure future.

  The what-ifs of such a scenario gut-punched Tally. She did her best to swallow the thoughts down, focusing on the fact that she did have Felicity in her life now. And for that, she was eternally thankful.

  Tally had spent a lot of hours rocking infants alongside Felicity. They’d learned a lot about each other while cradling fragile little lives. Felicity had been in the foster care system as a child, changing homes frequently at first until landing with a wonderful family, where she stayed until graduating from high school. She considered them family still.

  Tally admired her strength and how she’d powered ahead in spite of all the strikes against her.

  The sleek brunette adjusted the hospital gown over her red sweater dress and scooped up a tiny baby boy, cradling him in her arms and settling into a rocker beside Tally. “Hey, friend. How’s the new job working out?”

  “My boss is very...accommodating.” She eyed the fragile little boy in Felicity’s arms and thought of her own son.

  “That’s rather vague.” She raised a delicately arched brow. Felicity had a way of appearing cool and collected, ready for a board meeting, even with hospital wear tossed over her clothes.

  “He has been completely flexible with my volunteer hours. But that could be because he really doesn’t want me around.” Could she have mistaken the interest in his eyes at the pool, and then again in the kitchen? “His family insisted on hiring me.”

  “Ah, he’s an independent sort of man. That can be a good thing, you know.” Felicity had shared her history of divorce from a spoiled mama’s boy who’d lost job after job.

  “True, but I found him walking into the indoor pool to fish out his dog.”

  “With a cast on.” Sighing, Felicity shook her head and cradled the baby boy. “Males. I understand them better at this age, for sure.”

  “The dog was so small, Marshall probably could have gotten the tiny mutt out with the cleaning net.” Tally chewed her bottom lip, remembering how frantic the precious little dog had been.

  “But that would have been obvious.”

  And she could see he hadn’t been willing to leave anything to chance. The pup was important to him, and she couldn’t deny that touched her. “Luckily I arrived so he didn’t end up in the deep end.”

  “You both were in the pool?” A slow smile spread.

  “Not my most professional entrance to a new job, but it seemed wise at the time.”

  “Hmm.” Her smile twitched. “How old is your boss?”

  Tally stayed silent for a moment, unwilling to rise to the bait. Workplace romances? Nope. Especially not with this man. “Let’s talk about your love life.”

  Felicity winced, tapping the rocking chair back into motion. “Point taken.”

  “Exactly. At any rate, my time’s up here today. I need to get back and inventory the Christmas decorations to calculate how many hours to allot for setup.”

  “I wish some of my coworkers had your organizational skills,” Felicity said, her lips thinning with exasperation.

  The door opened with a clutch of doctors and medical students entering to conduct rounds, cutting off further conversation for now. Tally finished her volunteer shift, kissing the sweet Stella Rae goodbye before bundling up to head out into the December cold. She walked through the hospital, past the entries for a wreath-decorating contest, each one created by a different department.

  What would her life have been like if she’d been able to train for a career field like Felicity’s? Regrets were a luxury and waste of time. Holding her coat tighter around her in the chilly garage, Tally found her sedan and settled behind the wheel. She fished her keys from her purse, a mermaid charm dangling from the ring, a fairy-tale token her mother had given her as a child.

  Three unsuccessful cranks of the engine later, she rested her head on the wheel. She’d prayed her old car would make it through another year. A repair would deplete what she’d managed to save so far.

  And now, on her second day in her new job, she would be late returning. So much for impressing her new boss. She thumped the dash with her hands, tears close to the surface, as they sometimes were when emotions got the best of her after time with the babies.

  A tap on the window pulled her from her self-pity. She looked up, surprised to find Felicity outside her car. Tally rolled down the window. “Yes?”

  “Need a ride?”

  A wave of relief swept through her. “If you don’t mind terribly. It’s forty-five minutes away, and that’s if the weather and roads cooperate.”

  “I don’t mind at all. It’s a joy to do something for you for a change. I owe you for all those cups of coffee you’ve brought to help me through a long day.” She nodded. “I’m parked over here.”

  Grateful beyond words, Tally gathered her purse and locked her car. She climbed into the passenger seat of Felicity’s SUV, the heater blasting a welcome warmth.

  “Thanks, Felicity. I really would rather not have to bother my new boss if I can avoid it.”

  Felicity’s brows shot up. Tally could see questions dancing in those deep brown eyes. They’d shared a lot during countless hours rocking babies. But today, Tally had held back in discussing her boss, and she could see Felicity had picked up on that.

  Keeping her friend’s curiosity at bay had been tough enough in the hospital. It would be downright impossible to keep her attraction to her boss a secret from Felicity once he was right there in front of her in all his charismatic glory.

  Three

  Parked on the sofa in front of the fireplace, Marshall glanced at the window to check for Tally’s sedan—for what seemed like the tenth time. What was keeping her?

  He should have been able to lose himself in work today with his uncle. Conrad had been accommodating in coming out to the ranch so Marshall didn’t have to deal with the seat belt around his broken arm.

  Flames crackled in the river-stone fireplace, a blaze he’d started in anticipation of Tally’s return. Where was she? Concern picked away at him even as he tried to lose himself in work.

  The day had already begun to wane, the antlered chandelier providing a dusky yellow light as he and Uncle Conrad continued talking through options for the company’s newly formed charitable foundation. He’d signed on to the board, offering his accounting skills. He’d always been all about the quiet of crunching numbers, riding, hiking, the logic of counting steps and weighing odds.

  Leaning back into the burgundy sofa, he rubbed his eyes. For the past several hours, he’d been staring at figures and documents on his tablet. Relentless strategizing, feeling the weight of the company’s new image on his shoulders.

  Of course, not all his thoughts lingered on the spreadsheets. Somehow even when Tally wasn’t here, she managed to permeate the space with her personality. Even now, he found himself looking around his living room, his gaze sweeping up to the open-tiered second level—a reading nook complete with panoramic views, his place to unwind with a good book.

  Had it really been as dusty in places as Tally suggested? The thought of his new, fiery employee also served as a distraction he could ill afford, especially now with his sobriety tougher to hold on to because of increased stress in his life.

  Tapping the phone on his leg, he glanced at the security feed, since looking out his front window a dozen times now wasn’t gaining him any traction. Still no sign of her.

  He held back a sigh that would have caught his uncle’s attention. To many, Conrad seemed like a happy-go-lucky sort, always rolling out the charm. But he was more than that. He was the kind of person always there in a time of need. He’d been more than an uncle. He’d been a second father to the Steele children.

  Especially after the plane crash.r />
  The family had been stunned to its foundation by the accident that claimed the lives of Marshall’s mother—Mary—and his sister Breanna. He, his father and his remaining siblings had retreated into a world of grief. Uncle Conrad, their father’s brother, hadn’t been a part of building the Steele oil business. He was fifteen years younger than Jack, and had been brought into the company after finishing grad school with an engineering degree. He’d been a part of the North Dakota expansion. The Steeles had started in Alaska and moved toward the Dakotas, and the Mikkelsons had grown in the reverse direction, each trying to push out the other. Looking back, Marshall was struck by the fact that his role in the family and in the business couldn’t have been as easy as Conrad made it look. Perhaps they’d taken advantage of the fact he was a bachelor.

  Turning the screen off, Uncle Conrad gestured to the living room, reading glasses spinning loosely in his hand. “I don’t know where they found this new housekeeper for you, but I can already see a difference.”

  “And that’s just from minimal time working before she went to the hospital to volunteer. She’s a spitfire full of energy, that’s for sure.” He looked sidelong at his uncle, face tight as he remembered the way she’d flung herself into the pool to save his dog. From across the room by the floor lamp, Nugget stretched lazily, then moved to settle beneath Marshall’s feet, head resting on his paws.

  “Spitfire, huh?” He scratched his chin. “I’m sure she’ll be a great help preparing for Christmas and the charity shindig.”

  Marshall grunted in response, his mind still filling with images of Tally soaking wet, every curve outlined and calling to his hands.

  “Yeah, I’m on the fence about this whole bachelor auction.”

  “A bachelor auction?” He pulled his thoughts away from those tempting memories of Tally in the pool, memories that must be messing with him. He couldn’t have heard his uncle right. “Please say you’re kidding about them planning to parade us around on a stage.”