Danger In Oleander: A Cowboy's Heart Novel

by Janessa Anderson

  John…You are definitely something else that I have never thought or planned on coming into my life…but I am so glad that you did.

  No amount of thanking a higher power for letting John enter her world in the way he did could repay them for the decision. There was no way, shape or form that could truly do justice or give enough back to show her appreciation.

  Emily eased her hand closest to the door, and lifted up the handle. She made her way out of the vehicle, and closed the door behind her before her gaze moved to the small, decent sized house that John had brought her to.

  This place looks good to me. It is not big but it is not really too small either. The size is just right for someone living on their own.

  She walked up towards the front of the car while her gaze was focused on the building she was approaching, fixating on the structure that could become her home at the end of her stay at Belle’s farm.

  What do you think, Emily? Her conscience asked, whispering to her in the background. Do you really think that you can live in a place like this?

  I don’t see why not. I mean…I would be living close to my grandmother, and still be able to help her on the ranch, as well as spending as much time as I want with John.

  Well…You will have to make that decision very soon, Emily.

  What do you-

  It hit her suddenly without warning. She only had a couple of weeks left in Oleander, and she had to give him an answer about moving in with him in the next two weeks.

  Perhaps you being here with him will help the decision to move in with him come more easily to you-

  The sound of an animal pawing at a door snapped Emily out of her train of thought, and had her focus move towards the sound’s origins. Her eyes blinked a bit from catching sight of a beautiful dog with piercing blue eyes looking through the screen door at her and wanting to come out to meet her.

  Oh my goodness…He is so beautiful.

  With a smile coming to her face, she approached the back door and stood behind where John’s body was nestled. Her eyes watched him pull open the door, and allow the large, stunning animal to come out, and sit before her.

  “Emily…This is Fang, my guard dog and close companion.”

  She listened to the soothing sound of his voice in the background while her body knelt down before Fang’s furry frame, and one of her hands rubbed against its soft hair on top of his head.

  Chapter Eight

  His heart warmed at seeing the bond forming between Fang and Emily right outside the opened rear entrance to his home, bringing a faint smile across the strong features of his face.

  This is a good sign for me…Fang and her getting along is all I need to see in order to know about my chances of her staying with me instead of moving back to Houston.

  He secretly hoped that this was indeed a sure enough sign from above that Emily would be staying there with him and not leaving all that they had done with one another behind.

  His eyes lingered on her curvaceous form petting Fang’s head for a few seconds longer before he made a step over the threshold of the backdoor, and placed his back against the screen door in a way to keep it propped open. John pulled in a deep breath and let it out with his Texan accent.

  “Come along, you two.” He said. “We need to come inside and get ready for our unwelcomed visitor that will be coming in just a matter of time.”

  He didn’t want to take Emily away from spending time with his beloved companion and guard dog. However, John knew that all three of them needed to move indoors so they could prepare themselves for the oncoming fight with Johnathon once he decided to make his way from the ranch and head down to where his home was.

  His eyes watched Fang move away from Emily, and step across the open doorway with a little pep in his step before he moved his attention back in time to watch her curvaceous, beautiful body rising up, and started in the direction that he was waiting for her in.

  “How are you holding up, Emily?”

  John noticed how his sudden question to Emily caused her to stop in the middle of the doorway in front of him, and look to him with an expression that dripped with all sorts of conflicting emotions that he knew was burning deep inside of her. He kept his gaze towards her angelic face as his ears picked up on the sound of her angelic voice.

  “I am managing as well as I can.” Emily replied. She spoke with her soft voice shaking with nervousness slipping into it. “But, I can’t help feeling uneasy about Johnathon coming here, and, ultimately, getting locked into a fight with him.”

  “Everything is going to be fine, sweetheart.”

  “How can you be so sure about something that is not one hundred percent true? What if he comes here and-“

  “We will worry about that when he shows up on the doorstep, Emily.”

  “He will come with a plan in mind, John. There is no way that he will be unprepared for a fight between him and you.”

  “And I will be ready for him when he brings his ugly ass on my porch steps.”

  * * *

  As much as Emily wanted to be confident in John’s proclamation, she couldn’t let herself experience anything but nervousness and fear about the prospect of her ex-boyfriend and her potential new one engaging in a fight right outside this house with her being the prize that was on the line.

  The idea alone made every muscle in her body ache. On one hand, John could come out the winner and send her former love running off with his tail tucked between his legs. On the other, Johnathon could be the victor and that would mean…

  No…A thousand times no! I will not be going anywhere with that asshole, and I am pretty confident in John’s abilities after the way he manhandled him outside of my granny’s home.

  The sensation of paws on her upper part of one of her legs snapped her out of the dilemma that her mind had found itself under, and had her focus to switch in the direction of where some sharp claws were digging at the fabric of her bottoms.

  Standing upon his hind legs, Fang looked up to her face with a pleading stare, silently begging her to play with him, while his tail swayed side to side with no obvious sign of it stopping at that moment.

  Aww…I can’t say no to a face as precious as that looking up to me, and begging me to give it and the body it belongs to proper attention.

  Pushing any thought of Johnathon overtaking John in a fight to the side, Emily put a smile on her face and knelt down on the hardwood floor of the kitchen, placing herself in front of Fang’s snow white body. She brought her hands up from her sides, and rubbed the palms of them against his soft fur with the most gentle of touches.

  “It seems like Fang and you are bonding quite well with one another, Emily.” John spoke to her with a calm sound to his Texan accent despite the danger that was lurking on the horizon for the two of them. “He normally doesn’t respond so quickly to someone new like he is doing with you at the moment.”

  His words lingered on her mind, and fueled a growing sense of confidence that was blossoming inside of her being. She drew in a breath of air prior to lifting her head, and speaking to him shortly before locking her eyes with his.

  “Perhaps…There is something special about me that he doesn’t see in the others that have come into his life.”

  “I believe it is more of a sign of something that is to come.”

  “What is this ‘sign’ telling you at the moment?”

  “That you don’t need to go back to Houston and to your place where you will be all alone when you could just stay here with Fang and me, and never be alone again.”

  Chapter Nine

  John wanted so much to tell her to just stay there with his dog and him and to not return back to the city. Actually, he really wished to command her to remain there with him and that she was not going to go anywhere else.

  However there was no way that he could do such a thing. It was not in him to be that forceful and aggressive to a woman, especially to someone as wonderful and beautiful as Emily.

  Moving
away from the back door, John made his way in the direction of the living room, letting the screen door close on its own. He walked over to where his white fireplace mantle was, and placed his forearms on the ledge of it.

  You know very well that you can’t let Emily leave Oleander. His conscience spoke to him from within the recesses of his mind with a firm, demanding tone. If she leaves and goes back to her home in Houston…You will spiritually and emotionally die.

  The whisperings of his inner voice brought his head down against the tops of his strong arms. He closed his piercing stare and let out a low groan through the opening of his mouth while responded back to his conscience in the same exact way that he had heard it speak to him.

  Do you think that I am not aware of that?

  Why are you not telling her more bluntly or at least asking her to stay here with you?

  I don’t want to force it on her…That is the last thing I want to do to someone who has brought a side of me back from the edge of death.

  You can’t go on like this, John.

  I want Emily to make the decision on her own, not by me forcing it down her throat and giving her no other choice.

  Just ask her to stay with you for a little while…Maybe for two weeks.

  That suggestion didn’t sound like a bad idea at all. Giving Emily the option to stay for two more weeks at the end of her stay there with him and allow him the chance to show her how good a life could be for them both would be perfect for him.

  I think that you might be right on that…I believe that if I offer her the choice of giving me a couple of weeks that she might be more tempted to stay here with me, and see just how good-

  The mixture of Emily’s sweet voice whispering to him and one of her soft hands moving onto the backs of one of his shoulders snapped him out of the conversation with his conscience, and brought him to turn around, and focus his complete attention onto the southern goddess that stood before him.

  * * *

  “John…” Emily spoke to him with her soft voice lingering its way out of the confines of her mouth. “I know that you want me to live with you at the end of my time with my grandmother with every fiber of your being…but I just don’t know if it is even a possibility at this moment.”

  She moved over to where a beige suede sofa was positioned in a corner of the living room beside a window, and sat herself down close to the middle of it. Her eyes moved down towards her feet while she let the words flow freely from her mouth.

  “I have a job back in Houston, as well as an apartment. My rent will be due at the end of the summer and I won’t have time left at work to take off for me to stay here any longer.”

  She wanted to stay there longer, especially with John. The idea of returning back to her lonely life in Houston didn’t appeal to her at all. Emily wanted to stay there, and not go anywhere else.

  “John, I just…I just don’t know about staying here once the summer is over. It would mean starting over, having to find work and-“

  Her frantic plea fell silent upon feeling his tall, muscular frame sitting down beside her, and easing one of his hands over the top of one of hers with their fingers slipping between one another. She lingered on how their hands looked at the moment before moving her eyes up to gaze upon his gorgeous face. Every muscle in her body tightened with absolute desire from the intense need burning in his eyes and slipping into his deep voice.

  “Emily,” John replied, “there is a way that we can spend some time together for you to find out for yourself if you do indeed want to stay here with me or if you want to go back to Houston.”

  Her curiosity peaked at the suggestion he had made to her. The idea of a solution to the problem tempted her, and caused the inner emotion to slip out and into the open.

  “How…How can I stay with you when-“

  “Spend the rest of your summer with me, Emily.”

  Emily’s body, as well as her voice, froze instantly when she heard the answer that John had to her dilemma: Stay for the remainder of the summer with him, and decide then if she really wants to go back to Houston or stay there for good with him. She struggled to speak out for her voice to be heard, but could only manage a few words out at a time.

  “S-Say that again, John.”

  “I believe you heard me just fine, Emily.”

  “You want me to spend the rest of the summer here with you?”

  “Yes…I would love you to stay longer with him…but this would give you a chance to see for yourself if you can stay here beyond this month with me or if you really belong in the city.”

  Chapter Ten

  You know what…I like the sound of his offer. It would give me a chance to see how living with him for a few weeks is, and if it is something that I can see myself doing in the long run.

  Emily found his suggestion about moving in with him for the rest of the summer to be a very interesting and tempting offer. Not only would she have the chance to see how this cowboy lives, but it would help her to see if there was indeed a chance that this could go on past the summer and become something more permanent.

  Now…Think it through really good before you give him an absolute answer, Emily. Her conscience slipped its opinion in at the right moment, stopping her from what she was about to say to him. This is a really big decision. If you choose to agree to stay with him for the next few weeks, you are going to have to deal with your grandmother. If you choose to say no and stay with your grandmother…Well…I think it is safe to say how John will feel about that.

  Crushed…He would become absolutely crushed and his heart would shatter into a million pieces if she looked him in the eye and told him that she would rather stay with her grandmother instead of living with him. There would be no way she could fix it if she went that route.

  However, if she chose to stay with him…there was something else she would have to face that scared and tormented her as much as the prospect of breaking John’s soul: Belle Withers. The idea of telling her grandmother that she was going to be moving in with her ranch hand made her spirit shake down to its very core.

  What is it going to be, Emily? Are you going to play it safe by staying with your grandmother with the result being John’s heart and spirit being broken…or are you going to take a risk with moving in with your grandmother’s ranch hand and have the consequence of that be a potentially very pissed off old woman?

  To be quiet honest, she didn’t like either option. Both had a negative response despite the choice she went with. If she went with the first option, the man she had come to love would be totally crushed and broken. If she went with the second one, her grandmother would possibly be irate with her for moving out and into John’s home.

  Lifting her eyes to his and gazing deep within them, she found herself overwhelmed by the intense love pouring out of them for her. The visual before her brought the decision to her mind, as well as a sincere smile to her face. Emily moved one of her hands on a side of his face, gently cupping it, and whispered her answer to him.

  “I have made my decision…and I will stay here with you for the rest of the summer to see if there is a chance of something more serious beyond this summer for the two of us.”

  * * *

  John’s heart filled to the brim with joy from hearing Emily’s decision to move in with him for the rest of the summer, causing a sweet and warm smile to dance across the strong features of his face.

  Thank you, Emily…You have no idea how happy you have just made me.

  He slipped her hand down and away from a side of his face while his eyes never left her brown ones. He started to notice something while his piercing eyes continued to gaze upon his curvy angel that was nestled so close to him: His arousal had started to build up inside of the confines of the jeans that were keeping him covered from his waist down to his ankles.

  Right now is not a good time for you to be thinking about having sex with her, John. His conscience spoke to him with a tone that was mixed with authority and sarcasm. You have an
insane ex-boyfriend on his way here to possibly take you out in order to get to her, and I am pretty sure having sex right now with her would be a really bad idea.

  As much as he wanted to argue with his inner voice barking at him to not give in to his more lustful desires, John knew that it was right. He couldn’t let his arousal take over. Johnathon would be there at any moment, and he wouldn’t be able to handle him if he was having sex with Emily when he happened to show up there.

  However, John couldn’t ignore how much he wanted and needed her. The simple touch of her hand on a side of his face had caused his sexual desires to intensify much stronger than what he was prepared for. John wanted her, and he saw a similar look growing in her eyes for him.

  Slipping one of his hands onto a side of her soft, angelic face, he moved his face closer to hers until there were only a few inches between them both. He let his eyes linger over the expression on her face, and discovered her lips to be trembling with need to feel his against hers.

  Just one little kiss…and I will be able to clear my mind for what is to come for the both of us.

  John drew in a breath of air, and slipped his face in the rest of the way to where their lips made contact with one another in a tender kiss. He shook all over with need to feel more of her as he savored the sweet taste of her lips, gradually deepening the kiss with her.

  So much for thinking that you can have one little kiss with her and it not affect you in any other way.

  He chose to not answer his conscience. Instead, John enjoyed more of the addictive taste inside of her mouth. His lips moved along with hers in a tender yet sensual kiss. He lifted one of his hands, and proceeded to place the palm of it against the outside of her jacket, cupping one of her round, firm breasts within it.