The Rancher's Second Chance

by Victoria James

  What the hell was he doing? He couldn’t just sleep with Melanie. She wasn’t just any woman. She would be the first woman since Sarah, and if he were completely honest with himself, there were feelings. Feelings he wasn’t exactly looking for, but were undeniable.

  He took her face in his hands, feeling the softness, reveling in it. The longing in her eyes stirred something in his gut, something that went beyond lust, beyond missing a woman. He stared at her, his thumb tracing the smooth skin of her cheek. He wanted to taste her; more than anything he wanted to taste Melanie. He slowly bent over, bracing his forearms on the bed, on either side of her. He could see the rapid movement of her pulse at the base of her throat. He hovered in that moment, reveling in the strength of his desire for her, in the pleasure of wanting her.

  “Cole,” she whispered.

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you going to kiss me, or make me beg?”

  His heart smashed against his rib cage. “Beg? Darling, I’d never make you beg. You want me, you got me,” he said and lowered his head.

  She met him halfway.

  …

  Cole’s mouth came down on hers with a rough gentleness that robbed her of speech and thought. His mouth moved restlessly, demanding and consuming. Her lips parted on a moan and his tongue delved inside where she welcomed him with everything she had. The weight of his strong body against hers, the feel of his mouth becoming one with hers, made her never want to be without him again. His warm hand grasped her calf gently squeezing and then traveling higher, grasping her thigh, the curve of her bottom, her waist.

  Cole’s dark eyes moved over her body with appreciation and his hands followed suit. His hands were calloused, working hands, large and strong, but capable of the most tender touch. She whispered his name and he lifted his head, bracing himself on his forearms as he looked down at her.

  Her hands trailed over the smattering of hair on his forearms, up over the bunched muscles of his biceps and then over his shoulders until she reached his face. She held him there for a moment, pausing for the briefest of seconds, feeling the stubble covering his strong jaw. She thread her hands into the hair at the nape of his neck and drew him down to her again. He kissed her as though he hadn’t kissed her in forever, with a hunger that robbed her of thought and infused her with passion.

  A fast pounding at the door had them both jumping. Boom, boom, boom. The racket continued, this time followed by Gage’s voice. Cole cursed and shuffled to the edge of the bed, running his hands down his face.

  After a dozen more knocks, he stood and shrugged into his jeans as he hobbled over to the door.

  “Open the damn door, it’s freezing out here!” Gage bellowed.

  Chapter Seven

  “Mrs. H has gone too far. Seriously, she put my damn life in jeopardy, forcing me to come out here looking for you two,” Gage said, standing in front of the blazing hearth.

  Cole wasn’t paying him any attention as he buttoned up his shirt.

  This was probably all for the best. He didn’t need complications. Melanie was a big complication. He should be crunching numbers back in his office. He should be thinking of the deal he was about to seal with Anderson Food Group. He should not be thinking about his loss of self-control only moments earlier. The first loss of self-control he’d had. Ever. A raw, intense desire filled him when he was around Melanie. When they’d been lying in bed together, his only thoughts had been to get closer to her. He wanted to taste, touch, and feel. He wanted to experience and explore that need. He wanted to feel her come undone under him, while he was inside her. And only after she’d pulled away, did he realize the depth of what he felt for her. He had been completely consumed by her. So much that he hadn’t thought of Sarah.

  “Looks like I missed quite the party,” his friend said, surveying the empty bottle of whiskey, jerky wrappers, and clothing displayed on the mantle.

  “Not a party. We had nowhere to go. We just drank and crashed. That’s all.”

  Gage lowered his voice. “Right. So you and Hot Mel…”

  “I told you not to call her that.”

  “Gage, what are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night,” Melanie called out, sitting upright in the bed. Her hair was disheveled, and her full lips were sexy and pouty. No doubt his friend was thinking the exact same thing.

  “Middle of the night? I don’t know what the hell Cole’s been telling you, unless it was all that whiskey, but it’s only nine o’clock. I’m your ride back to the ranch,” he said, leaning against the mantle.

  “Oh that’s great,” Melanie said, standing up and then wincing. She tugged at the hem of his shirt and her eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. “I’m just, uh…going to get dressed.”

  “What’s wrong with your leg?”

  Cole walked forward, frowning. “You sure you’re okay?”

  She nodded. “Fine now, almost better.” She hobbled the long way around the room, in a very obvious attempt to avoid the two of them, to get to the washroom.

  “I also have two steaming travel mugs filled with Mrs. H’s famous hot chocolate,” Gage said to her retreating figure.

  “I love that woman,” Melanie called over her shoulder before closing the washroom door. The minute the water started running, Gage began a litany of questions. Cole held up his hand.

  “Nothing happened. Keep your dirty mind out of the gutter,” he said, tucking his shirt into his pants. He made sure the fire was taken care of and began picking up the mess.

  “Right, of course not. Oh here, you might want to give this to Mel,” Gage said, looping his finger through Melanie’s bra strap as he pulled it off the fireplace stand. “Kinky display you’ve got going on over here.”

  Cole snatched it from his hands and the underwear from the stand along with the rest of her clothes. “You’re like a prepubescent, sex-starved—”

  “I’m not sex-starved.”

  Cole ignored him and knocked on the washroom door. Melanie’s head poked out. He held out the undergarments and clothes. “Uh, thanks,” she whispered, grabbing them and then ducked back inside.

  Cole finished closing up the fire when Melanie emerged from the washroom.

  “All set,” she said, walking back into the room. Again she avoided eye contact with him and started putting on her jacket.

  “Why don’t you make yourself look less scary and then meet us outside,” Gage drawled, jetting out his chin in his direction.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Cole mumbled as he walked to the washroom. Gage’s voice followed him. His friend was yammering about the warm blanket he’d thought to bring along for her and how he’d been dying to try out the sleighs she’d ordered for the wedding. Yeah. Right. Then he heard Melanie decline Gage’s invitation to pick her up and carry her to the sleigh. Her answer made him inexplicably happy.

  Five minutes later he stepped outside and was surprised the winds had died down so quickly. It was still snowing heavily, still freezing, but visibility had definitely improved. Gage had floodlights on the front of the sleigh, and thankfully they were facing the forest and not the porch. Gage was sitting in the front of the sleigh talking some nonsense about the blizzard he’d just braved to get here; Melanie looked about as white as the snow still falling outside and standing nowhere near the sleigh.

  He locked the door and walked over to her and leaned down to look at her when she didn’t turn to look at him. “All right, we ready to go?”

  Melanie nodded, eyes fixed on the sleigh. “Right. Inside the sleigh.”

  Cole waited for her to move and then after a minute, when she showed no sign of motion, took her hand. “You all right? Want help?”

  “No thanks, I’m fine. Hello, horses,” she called out before awkwardly climbing in.

  Cole was frowning. Something was very off. “Everything okay?” he said as quietly as possible when he settled in beside her. Gage was busy turning the sleigh and for a moment too occupied with turning it around in the direction of the
ranch.

  Melanie nodded. “Of course. Just tired,” she said taking a long sip from the stainless steel travel mug. He wasn’t buying it. “Amazing how quickly things cleared up out here.”

  She nodded. “Any word from Cori or Adam?” Melanie asked Gage, leaning forward.

  “Nothing. Mrs. H has been calling nonstop,” he said, shaking his head.

  Cole frowned. Adam was beginning to increasingly bother him. “I’m going to give that guy a piece of my mind when he gets home.”

  “You should,” Gage called out over his shoulder.

  Melanie looked back and forth between him and Cole. “Hey, are you guys holding something back?”

  “Well, no. I guess I might be slightly overprotective. Gage, too. And I do feel better after my little talk with Adam.”

  She inhaled sharply. “You spoke to Adam?”

  He nodded.

  “And what did you say?”

  “I told him that if he ever hurt Cori, he’d better run so I could have the pleasure of hunting him down and making him pay.”

  She choked on her hot chocolate. “When was this?”

  “The day after they announced their engagement. It was my welcome-to-the-family speech.”

  Melanie closed her eyes. “And what did he say?”

  “He gave an acceptable answer.”

  “I take it you didn’t tell Cori about this little chat?”

  “I thought it might be best to keep it to myself.”

  “That was wise,” she whispered. It occurred to him she had craftily guided the conversation away from them, and that he’d actually fallen for it.

  He leaned closer to her, wondering how the hell she still managed to smell so good. “Listen, if something happened or if I did—”

  She was shaking her head. “Not at all. Just too much whiskey.”

  Cole nodded, knowing he was going to have to take that answer for what it was. They couldn’t really get into anything else with Gage sitting right in front of them.

  “So we can just pretend that nothing ever happened. I will see you the day before the wedding,” she whispered.

  “Whoa, wait a second, Melanie. I don’t want to pretend nothing ever happened. Why would we do that?”

  She turned to look at him, her mouth dropped open. He was tempted to lean down and taste her again. If Gage hadn’t been sitting with them, he would have pulled her into him and illustrated why there was no way he could pretend nothing happened. What was she thinking?

  Her eyes widened. “Um, because our little interlude was merely the result of you comforting me.”

  “Wrong.”

  “Right.”

  “Speaking of, did you know that you yelled out something about tyranny and a dictatorship?”

  She inhaled sharply and sank lower in the seat. “You must not have heard correctly.”

  He turned so that he was facing her, his arm around the back of the bench. “I know what I heard. You also said that cinnamon was only for specialty coffee beverages.” He couldn’t hold back his grin when her face turned red. He never knew she was this much fun to bait. “You talk a lot in your sleep.”

  “You’re mistaken.”

  “And you said you hated my horse.”

  “I think you need to get your hearing checked.”

  He burst out laughing.

  “What’s that noise back there? Sounds like some wild, injured animal howling,” Gage said over his shoulder.

  “It’s Cole, he’s laughing,” Melanie said.

  He ignored them. “Mel, I’m on to you,” he whispered in her ear. He felt the faint shiver that ran through her, and he shared it, surprised by the impact of just being close to her had on him. “You’re hiding things from me.”

  She took a sip of her coffee and then looked over at him. “I’m not hiding. We just never talked about it. But there’s no point. I mean, how often will we see each other once Cori’s wedding is over anyway? A few times a year?”

  He didn’t like the sound of that at all. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

  There was definitely something going on with her. Melanie had skeletons, and he wanted to know what or who had done that to her, but he didn’t have any business asking or knowing. Because he was in no position to help her, and he certainly couldn’t ask her about it if he had no intention of being her friend. Or maybe that’s what they could be. Friends.

  But no, because friends didn’t want to kiss each other. Friends didn’t check out each other’s cleavage or legs. Friends didn’t spend the entire night remembering what the other friend looked like in lingerie. Hell, no. And well, the other? No, he couldn’t go to bed with her. She was Cori’s friend. She was complicated. She was a woman that came with strings, which would demand more from him than he was ever prepared to give. He’d given his heart once. He’d been broken once. He couldn’t open himself up again. He wouldn’t come out alive.

  “Really? So what are you suggesting then?”

  He stared at her, not knowing how to answer. He didn’t know. He did know that he wanted more. More Melanie. But he didn’t know what that meant, where they could go…

  “There’s the house in the distance,” Gage yelled out.

  Cole swallowed a curse. “We don’t need a damn tour guide. Be quiet.”

  “Hey, if it weren’t for me, you two would still be holed up in that shack.”

  Cole didn’t answer him.

  “Oh, never mind,” Gage said a moment later.

  Cole turned to Melanie who was holding her phone in the air, completely ignoring them. “Do you think there’s cell phone reception yet? I should really check messages.”

  He snatched the phone from her hand and she frowned at him. “We’re not finished with our conversation. I don’t want to wait until next weekend to see you.”

  “Oh well, actually, I’m probably going to have to drop by midweek. The company that’s installing the lights on the trees outside will be coming on Tuesday, so I’d like to come by and make sure they do a good job.”

  “Melanie, you’re not going back tonight. The roads are closed. Besides, I’m sure Mrs. H has dinner waiting for us.”

  She sank back into the seat, the shadows hiding what he assumed was a disgruntled expression. “Let’s just pretend none of this ever happened. There would be no point in either of us pursuing this.”

  He frowned and took a sip of the hot chocolate. Then he scowled. The hot chocolate was spiked.

  When Gage pulled up in front of the house, the front door swung open and Mrs. Harris was frantically waving at them. “Oh, my dears, you’re back home nice and safe!”

  Melanie stood and then wobbled. He grabbed her forearm until she steadied. “Wow, I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she said. He had an idea.

  “Take it easy; I’ll help you down. Try not to put any pressure on that ankle.” He stepped out of the sleigh, his boots sinking into the deep snow, and then lifted Melanie out.

  “You’re welcome!” Gage yelled at their backs as they climbed the stairs. “Don’t worry about me or the horses. I’ll just go back to my place tonight.”

  “Thanks, Gage,” Melanie called out over her shoulder, the movement almost toppling her over again. “I think I had too much whiskey,” she whispered as she leaned into him.

  “Come inside,” Mrs. Harris squealed, enveloping Melanie in a big afghan.

  He slammed the door shut behind them, not bothering to look at his friend. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew exactly what these two were up, to.

  “Oh you poor thing.” Mrs. Harris was cooing as she ushered Melanie over to the sofa in the great room. Cole scowled.

  He looked around the room. Fireplace was boasting a massive fire. Candles lined the mantle and all the side tables. A buffet of God knew what filled every last inch of the coffee table. “Why aren’t the lights on?”

  “The power went out,” Mrs. Harris said, not looking in his direction. “Now enough questions and come and have some of this deliciou
s—”

  “We have a generator.”

  She frowned up at him. He glanced over at Mel whose eyes looked all glassy. She was toasted.

  “That hot chocolate was delicious.”

  Mrs. Harris looked visibly swelled with euphoria. “Would you like some more?”

  Cole tossed his jacket onto the front bench. “No, she wouldn’t.”

  Melanie frowned at him. “You can’t tell me—”

  “I have a feeling if you have one more cup of that concoction, you’ll be passed out in five minutes.”

  Mrs. H grabbed Melanie’s forearm and practically threw her onto the couch. “Enough about that; why not have some beef stew?”

  “With all this beef you people eat, do you actually have any left to sell?”

  Mrs. H clasped her hands together. He had never seen the woman so animated. By the looks of things, she’d dipped into the hot chocolate, too. “Oh we do. Cole is such a hard worker. Quite a mind for business and up at the crack of dawn. But it’s too much for one man.”

  Cole walked over to her. “All right, we’re done here.”

  Mrs. Harris peered around his shoulder. “I hope he wasn’t feeding you that jerky, dear.”

  Melanie nodded. He sank into the couch beside her while his housekeeper-turned-sloshed matchmaker spooned out a heaping bowl of stew and biscuits, handing it to Melanie. Melanie inhaled and his stomach dropped as he studied her.

  “It’s good jerky,” Cole grumbled as he accepted the bowl Mrs. Harris shoved at him.

  Then she stretched her arms in a theatrical display. “Well, I’m just beat. I hope you don’t mind if I run off to bed?”

  Melanie was shaking her head, mouthful of food.

  Cole smiled at Mrs. Harris. “No, no, you go right ahead. I know how tired you must be, especially with all that hot chocolate running through—”

  “Good night!” she yelled, rounding the corner and then disappearing down the hall.

  “Wow, she seems a little off tonight, don’t you think?”

  “Luckily she can drink and cook,” he said, enjoying the stew.

  “I wasn’t aware she was drinking.”

  “That hot chocolate you’ve been guzzling is spiked.”