“Christian!” she gasped.
“Mrs. Shirley! Am I misunderstanding? Is there some reason you don’t want Tiana working here?”
Rose clamped her lips tight together. She was not going to argue with him when he was like this. He rarely raised his voice and if he was doing so now, it meant the topic was important to him. But something about the beautiful, olive-skinned girl bothered her. She was going to have to watch them more closely from now on because the last thing she wanted was for her dearest Christian to fall in love with some girl only to get hurt. Besides, the girl had a son, there was bound to be some husband or boyfriend lurking around somewhere.
A slight knock at the door announced Tiana’s entrance.
“You wanted me, Sir,” she began. Her voice trailed off when she saw the man seated behind the huge oak desk.
“Yes, come in,” he said briskly, enjoying her surprise.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, stalking right across the room and up to the table, without noticing Rose Shirley sitting in a chair nearby and gaping at her. “Are you stalking me? Is that it? I heard the ‘Head of the Ranch’ wanted to talk to me. What are you doing in his chair?”
“He asked me to meet with you instead. He’s a bit of a recluse.”
“Well, I'm not interested in meeting with you.”
“Why not?” he asked innocently. “What have I done wrong?”
“You. Kissed. Me,” she enunciated furiously, leaning her balled fists against the top of his desk as she leaned across it to glare into his face.
“You’re right, I did, but you enjoyed it,” he reminded her reasonably.
“I didn’t. It was despicable, irritating...”
He rose to his in one fluid motion, his eyes flying to Mrs. Shirley’s as he said in his most authoritative voice, “That will be all, Mrs. Shirley.”
Tiana jerked as though he had slapped her and turned around, her distressed gaze clashing with Mrs. Shirley’s antagonistic one as the woman levered herself up and began to exit the room.
“You did that on purpose,” Tiana accused hotly the moment the door shut behind the other woman. “What you hope to gain, I’ll never know.”
“Lie to me, lie to yourself,” Christian interrupted just as if she had not spoken, “But never tell me you did not enjoy the kiss.”
As he spoke, he slowly made his way around the desk to stand in front of her.
Tiana’s breath hitched. Slowly, Christian raised a hand and cupped her cheek then gently began to caress the smooth skin of her cheek.
“I have a child,” she began in protest as wondrous sensations began to curl in the pit of her stomach just from his slight touch.
“I know. I like him.”
“I mean, I can’t do this.”
“Do what?” he murmured huskily, his eyes taking on a sleepy, heavy-lidded quality as he lowered his head and inexorably covered her lips with his.
Tiana groaned, clinging to him as her skin began to flame under his tender assault. Every vein in her body sang as he kissed her. She arched against him, molding her soft curves perfectly to the hard contours of his long, sinewy, body.
His hand tangled in her hair, holding her in place as he loved her with his mouth. His tongue stroked hers in long, delicious strokes that made her cling harder to him.
Christian’s hand wandered down her back to cup her buttocks and he groaned with excitement as his hand finally closed over the soft mound of flesh that had been driving him crazy for weeks.
Tiana moaned and strained closer, her hands encircling his neck and caressing the hair at his nape as she returned his kiss. One large, warm palm trailed slowly to her breast and as the hand closed it, she lost all sense of time and place.
All her inhibitions fell away as she deepened the kiss, plundering his mouth with an urgency borne of desire. He cupped the mound of flesh between her legs with one eager, questing hand and she gasped and arched against him.
“Tiana,” he moaned against her neck, “What are you doing to me?”
Tiana was lost in a sea of sensation as she pressed harder against him, unable to respond.
“Mom?” a small piping voice called down the hallway.
It was like being doused with a bucket of cold water. They sprang apart guiltily, breathing harshly as she hastily began to straighten and rearrange her clothing. The library door opened and Jamal peered around the edge of the door.
“Mom?”
“I’m right here, honey. I was just talking to Mr. Langfield. You remember him right?”
Jamal looked up at Christian, his big eyes round as he measured the older man. He looked back at Tiana and shouted, “The Cowboy!”
“That’s the one,” she said dryly. “We’ll be leaving now, Mr. Langfield, if it’s all the same to you.”
Christian’s silver-grey eyes glinted at her as he grinned and said, “We have not finished our discussion, Ms. Walker. Please sit,” he suggested mildly but it managed to sound more like an order.
Tiana grudgingly sank onto a seat wondering why he wielded so much power on the ranch. She had thought he was just a cowboy but he might be a foreman or something.
“You are welcome to wait in here too, Jamal. Mommy will just be a few minutes.”
Christian marched around the desk and sat down in one smooth motion. “I’ll be quick, Tiana,” he began formally.
She nodded, her heart in her throat. Had she been so bad that they were not even going to keep her on temporarily?
“We were pleased with your efforts in the kitchen today and we would like to offer you a more permanent position.”
Her heart soared.
“You have to leave Tiny Tim’s” he added.
Tiana’s heart skidded in her chest as she considered what he had said. Leave Tiny Tim’s? Well she was not particularly attached to the place, she reasoned, so in her book, that was no great loss.
“What are my wages?”
“Fifty dollars per hour with two days off each month. You also get Sundays off each week.”
Tiana blinked; that was more than generous.
“We have a deal then. And just so you know, I intend to be so damn good at my job that I’ll impress whoever the boss is. I intend to have him so happy he’ll toss you out on your ear if I ask him to.”
Christian’s grin was pure evil as he rose to his feet and towered over her. “I’d like to see you try,” he drawled as he presented the contract to her.
With a barely a glance, Tiana scrawled her signature at the bottom of the offer and handed it back to him, watching as he also appended his rather bold and appealing scrawl beside hers. She shook her head. Everything about the man was sexy; even his signature; either that or she needed help!
Christian’s voice stopped her as she turned to leave, “Tiana? When are you moving in?”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s a condition of your employment. When do you move in?”
She gasped, “I'm not moving in! I have a house of my own where I just put down two months’ rent and you better believe I intend to get my money’s worth.”
“Did you bother to read the fine print? An accommodation on site is one of the ‘perks’. Besides it will save you the rent.”
“I just paid for two months.”
“You’ll be fully reimbursed,” he assured her smoothly.
“I’m doing an online degree program in Business” she announced desperately. She had started a year ago, but she rarely told anyone; it was her secret.
Respect gleamed in his eyes as he looked at her. “That’s very admirable. Think how much more money you will have to pay for tuition if you don’t have to add rent to the list.”
She looked down, biting her lip as she considered his suggestion. It was reasonable but she couldn’t quell the butterflies in the pit of her stomach.
“Oh don’t worry, Tiana, I’m not going to ravish you,” he said, hitting on her greatest reason for hesitation. Then just when she was going t
o relax, he added with a wolfish grin, “Unless you ask me to, of course.”
She gasped, looking up in time to see his eyes boldly roving over her curves revealed by her tight t-shirt and skin tight jeans.
“I have a child,” she reminded him again, as she watched the gleam of desire grow in his eyes.
He smiled into her eyes and said in a low, dangerous voice that annoyingly sent thrills up her arms, “As I said before. I know. I like him.”
Shooting one last glare over her shoulder, she led Jamal towards the door. As she reached for the knob to open the door, Christian’s amused voice stopped her.
“By the way, Tiana, I’m the boss! And just in case you were wondering, you’re welcome to impress me anytime.”
“Let’s get something straight, cowboy,” she said in a low voice that didn’t carry to Jamal who was waiting impatiently in the corridor just outside the library door. “I’m not looking for a tumble in the hay!”
“Who said anything about hay?” he asked, smiling wickedly at her.
Tiana looked over at the tall handsome man standing across the room and gulped. Boy, was she in trouble!
CHAPTER SIX
Tiana stretched as she rolled out of bed. It had been a long week, what with having to say goodbye to Tiny Tim’s, move out of her own house and settle in at Faraday Ranch. Luckily, Jamal had taken the second move in stride. Heck he had been completely excited what with the prospects of seeing cows and horses first hand. She had seen the basketball court Tracy, the maid, had offered to show Jamal the other day; she saw a little lake at a far corner of the property; there were acres of rolling fields of green spread out in every direction and she had learned that some of that was pasture for the farm animals and some were crops.
In her mind, the best part of the move was that Jamal was so unbelievably excited these days; ever since they had moved onto the ranch, he had shaken off any lingering sadness about their departure from New York.
Tiana had enjoyed being shown around the beautiful vast estate but part of her enjoyment had been dulled by Christian’s absence. She wasn’t sure why but she had subconsciously been hoping that he would show them around. In the five days since she had gotten settled in, she had neither seen him or heard from him and she was starting to miss him, although she was reluctant to admit that to herself.
Automatically, she peeked into the next room, “Jamal, honey? Rise and shine,” she called.
Her heart bumped in her chest as she noticed the empty bed. Wildly, she ran into the room, searching frantically around; no Jamal.
Hastily, she removed her nightgown and tugged on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, without any thought for underwear. Her heart was in her throat as she ran downstairs, screaming for Jamal.
“Jeez, what’s all the yelling for?” Rose Shirley asked, frowning as she glared round a door at Tiana.
Tiana wondered absently how it was that the woman was fully dressed already at six o’clock in the morning.
“I’m looking for my son!”
“That little terror? Christian took him out riding, and a good job too! I was getting ready to strangle the little one myself; he’s always up to something,” Rose concluded sharply.
Tiana’s eyes filled with anger as she glared at the older woman. “Well did you manage to learn what direction they went riding in or were you too busy contemplating murdering a four-year-old to notice?” Tiana asked acidly.
Reluctant respect gleamed in Rose’s eyes as she gazed at the young woman and then she turned away without any response, waddling as though she did not have a care in the world.
“Have you seen Christian?” Tiana barked, grabbing the first ranch hand she saw as soon as she cleared the doorway.
The man blinked stupidly, blatantly taking her in.
“Answer me, dammit!” Tiana screamed, shaking him, oblivious of the reason for his confusion.
He seemed to gather himself with effort before he pointed vaguely northeast. Tiana released him with a roar and grabbed the nearest horse she could find which was tethered to a pole. She struggled into the saddle, almost falling off until someone assisted her into the saddle.
She looked down and was surprised to see that it was the same cowboy who had reluctantly pointed her in the direction Christian had taken.
An unholy gleam lit his eyes as he asked, “You know how to ride, Miss?”
It was Tiana’s turn to be confused. “Uh, not very well.”
“Don’t worry your head none about that, sweetheart,” he crooned in a voice that made her want to retch.
He was holding her reins or she would have ridden off before he said anything else because she had a feeling she was not going to like what he said next.
He didn’t disappoint her.
“You have just the hips for it. You can come on over tonight and I’ll show you a few tricks,” he offered, smiling once more to reveal tobacco-stained teeth. “I’m Rick by the way,” he offered airily.
Tiana’s face froze in anger as she glared down at the pervert. He was not talking about riding a horse at all, she thought as her skin crawled.
“And I’m someone who’s gonna maul you right down if you don’t take your hands off my damn horse!” she spat between gritted teeth.
His grin evaporated and then with deliberate slow motions, he removed his hands from her horse.
Tiana grabbed the reins, tightened her knees and spurred the horse into a gallop as she had seen people do in the movies and winced as the seemingly docile animal turned into a powerful beast beneath her. The horse’s hooves pounded the ground beneath her and she shut her eyes in fright as the trees sped past in a dizzying rush.
“I swear I’m going to kill that cowboy once I set my eyes on him,” she muttered.
As if on cue, she spotted a horse on a ridge a short distance away and even from the distance, she could make out the arrogant set of the rider’s shoulders which told her that was Christian.
“Hey,” she yelled, trying to get his attention as she waved frantically. The horse chose that moment to pick up on her fear and neighed wildly, before rising on its hind legs.
Sheer survival instinct made her tighten her grip on the reins and clamp her knees tighter around it as she fought to stay on the animal. She saw Christian shout something to her but she was too preoccupied to hear what he said. The horse began to gallop wildly in his direction, bucking every second to throw her off. Tiana held on for a few more precious moments before the wild momentum of her steed’s movements tossed her right over the head of the horse to land in a heap atop of a blessedly soft pile of hay lying close to the path.
Tiana gasped, trying to catch her breath as thundering hooves announced Christian’s arrival. He was positively breathing fire from his nose as he bore down on her.
“Are you alright?” he screamed, leaping off his horse and kneeling down beside her almost in the same fluid motion.
Tiana grinned, inordinately pleased with the concerned expression on her face.
He cradled her head gently as he said, “Where does it hurt, sweetheart?”
“My pride?” she said cheekily.
“Huh?”
“I’m perfectly fine. It’s just my pride that’s bruised. Where’s Jamal?” she asked, voicing her most urgent concern.
“Over there, picking flowers for you,” Christian told her, waving vaguely in the direction of a sweeping slope of vibrant wildflowers.
Tears of relief sprang into her eyes as she made out the tiny, wiry figure moving from one spot to the other.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked earnestly, eyeing the tears in her big brown eyes.
Tiana looked over at him; at least the panic was beginning to fade at last. “I’m perfectly fine. If you’ll just let me up, I’ll prove it.”
He finally released her and leaned back and she gratefully sat up.
“Now we’ve established that you’re fine, would you care to tell me what the hell you were thinking when you took off al
one on horseback for the first time in your life?”
Tiana blinked, amazed at his abrupt change of mood as he glared down at her where seconds before he had been all concern.
“What makes you think I can’t ride?” she bluffed.
“The way you sit a horse is a dead giveaway. Now what possessed you to come tearing up here?”
“What possessed me?” she sputtered furiously, rising to her feet with less grace than she would have liked. “You took Jamal riding without asking me! How dare you? What, in all of creation, could you have been thinking of?” she yelled.
“I didn’t set out to take him riding, Tiana, he asked to come,” he told her evenly rising to his feet to tower above her.
Tiana was not impressed by that explanation. Why would he take Jamal riding without letting her know? Her mind had gone a million places when she had walked in and found her son missing. She had feared that he had taken Jamal; she wouldn’t put it past him which was why she had left New York in the first place!!!
She didn’t realize she had spoken aloud until Christian asked with a confused frown, “Who’s this he that has got you so terrified?”
“I uh... I don’t know what you mean. I’ll just take Jamal home now,” she said, slowly stepping backwards.
“You will do no such thing. We’ll all walk home together. Are you in trouble? Who’s this he you were referring to?”
Tiana backed up a few more steps. His eyes had taken on a hard, almost frightening quality that told her Christian was someone she would not want to meet in a dark alley. He had always exuded a tough quality but right now, she sensed that he could be a very dangerous man if the situation called for it.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“So you don’t deny it? There’s someone you’re running from? You’re not in trouble with the law are you?”
“Look it’s nothing like that. Jamal! Come on honey, we’re leaving,” she called desperately.
Christian shook his head, walking closer to her until he was so close that the soft fabric of his shirt brushed against her chest.
“Let me help you, Tiana. You know you can trust me. I would never let anyone hurt you or Jamal.”
The Love Ranch (BWWM Romance) Page 4
