“Do your worst,” I throw at him.
It takes him only seconds to tear an admission out of me. “You are the best I ever had.”
“And the sex?” he asks with his tongue poised inches away from my tormented clit.
“The greatest,” I pant. And I wasn’t just saying it either. As Chance would say, “Damn if that shit don’t take you to another place.”
Chapter 42
Cass
While Lars cooks breakfast again, I clean the mess on the floor, saving the bacon and sausages on a plate. Then Lars whistles for the dogs and they come running in to lick the plate clean. After we eat, we agree to go to our separate rooms to shower and change before meeting again in the hall. Lars wanted me to shower with him, but I knew I had to send his photo to Tamara or she would be breathing fire down my neck.
I go to my room, crop the photo, dim it a little with a filter so he doesn’t look so blindingly sexy, and hit send. With a sigh, I put my phone down on the dresser and turn toward the bathroom, but before I get to the door, my phone rings. I turn around and look at it in astonishment. It can’t be. She never calls at this time. I walk toward it and look at the screen. It’s her. This time, I know she isn’t drunk dialing me from a beach.
“Hello,” I answer politely.
A totally photo-shopped version of me fills my phone’s screen. From the background, I can see that it is nighttime and she is propped up in bed. “How’s cleaning up horse dung coming along?” she asks with a big, fake smile.
“Could be worse,” I say lightly. I’m not going to let on that that she can never make me feel bad about being here. I’m having a whale of a time. Far better than she is on her private island in whatever part of the world she is.
She scowls suddenly. “What’s wrong with your face?”
Instinctively, my hand flies to cover the lower half of my face. “Why?”
“You look…red faced and…odd.”
“Oh, I must have gotten sunburned yesterday.”
“Does everyone really think you’re me?” Obviously, she still thinks I’m not anywhere near her level of beauty.
“Don’t worry, there are only a few people here and none of them have heard of you.”
“You’re in Montana, not outer Mongolia. There must be people who’ve heard of me,” she snaps irritably.
It’s like walking on a minefield with her. “What I meant to say is, I’ve only been dealing with ranch hands. They’re not worldly. They spend all their time with animals doing filthy work. God knows if they even know what a celebrity magazine is,” I explain patiently.
That seems to pacify her somewhat. She twirls a piece of her hair on her finger. “What about Lars then? Is he a ranch hand too?”
“Yes, he’s a ranch hand,” I agree warily.
“Well, he doesn’t look very filthy. Maybe he’s filthy in the sack.” She laughs at her own joke.
My belly tightens, but I make a show of pretending to laugh.
“Do you spend a lot of time with him?”
“Not really.”
“Define not really.”
I word my reply carefully. “Well, I guess whatever interactions I have with him are those that happen while carrying out my duties.” Sleeping with him is probably not part of the job, but Tamara definitely doesn’t need to know that little detail.
“You like him, don’t you?” she asks slyly.
“No,” I say, but I must have either taken too long to deny the question or been too emphatic, because she purrs. “Cass, I know that you do. You can tell me. I’m your boss, but I’m also your friend.”
Yeah, right. She must think I fell off a turnip cart to believe that. The mess of baked beans I scooped off the floor and threw in the trash would make better friends to me than her. “You’re mistaken, Tamara. I don’t feel anything for him other than gratitude for teaching me to ride.” I pause, thinking of something that would make sense to her. “He’s just a ranch hand. He has no money or future.”
But she is on to me. “You don’t have to hide from me, Cass. I completely understand how the heart works. It doesn’t matter how much money someone has if you have feelings for them. I’ve been there, you know.”
“I don’t have feelings for him,” I mutter, but Lars chooses that very moment to knock and call from outside my door. Damn.
“You about done, baby?” he asks.
“I’m just on the phone. Can you give me a minute?” I reply, turning away from the phone because I can’t look Tamara in the eye.
“Right, come to the living room when you’ve finished,” he says through the closed door.
“Will do,” I reply. His footsteps move away and I turn back to the screen. My heart is beating like a drum, but I keep my face totally expressionless.
Tamara’s eyes glitter as she moves in for the kill. “That was him, wasn’t it?”
I don’t even try to lie. “Yes.”
“You don’t have to be ashamed. I don’t think having feelings for a ranch hand is a bad thing.” Her tone is both wheedling and conniving.
“I don’t have feelings for him,” I insist.
“Come on, just admit it.” Delicately, she shrugs one shoulder. “It’s not like it’s a crime or anything. You’re a grown-ass woman. So fucking what if you do?”
I realize that she’s not going to give up. She’ll just go on and on until I admit it. Sometimes, you gotta take the bull by the horns. “Okay, yes, I do.”
She smiles triumphantly, a cat-got-the-mouse smile. “There. That wasn’t so difficult, was it?”
“No,” I say softly.
“So, you’re actually happy there?” she says in a wondering voice. “You found yourself a drop-dead-gorgeous man and you’re not miserable even though you’re shoveling shit all day with a bunch of laborers?” To my surprise, a tinge of bitterness creeps into her voice. For all her money and fame, she is a lonely, sad woman.
“I guess so. I enjoy being with horses. Learning to ride is fun and everybody here has been really kind to me.” Maybe I was responding to that wistful tone in her voice. Maybe, I thought I could ignite some spark of empathy in her, but it was a stupid move.
“But you know you can’t sleep with him, right?”
My eyes pop open.
She grins. It’s not an evil grin. Just the kind of smirk you would give someone when their Monopoly token lands on your heavily built up properly. A smirk that says, gotcha. “It’s in the contract you signed,” she says sweetly. “You can’t act in any way that besmirches my good name.”
Her words jar my brain. Who would have thought her name and the words good name could ever be uttered in the same sentence? “What?”
She fake sighs. “Here’s the short version. You can’t fuck him.”
For a second, the image of how wantonly I opened my legs last night and exposed my bits to Lars’ hungry gaze flashes into my mind.
“You’ve already slept with him, haven’t you?” she pounces.
I frown, not knowing where she’s going with this. I can play nice up to a point, but if she ever tries to shaft me, or get out of paying me for this job, she’ll see another side of me. The side that has nothing left to lose.
“I’m waiting for an answer,” she prods impatiently.
I straighten my shoulders and flick my hair. “Yes, I have, actually, but I’m not in breach of my contract. I was categorically instructed by Ms. Moore to act like you, and I figured that if you wanted a man, you would take him.”
She seems to find my outburst funny. She laughs. “That’s the first bit of bitch-spine you’ve shown. I like it. You’re absolutely right. When I see something I want, I take it. And that’s exactly what I intend to do now.”
I look at her in disbelief.
“However, you may carry on sleeping with him. Keep his dick hot and hard until I arrive,” she orders haughtily.
I blink. Is she serious?
“Just remember that you’re not to reveal your true identity to a
nyone, especially him…or you won’t get a cent from me. If that’s not enough of an incentive, I’ll get Daddy to make sure your little fuck-friend loses his job too.”
I stare at her in horror.
She pretends to yawn. “Right. Carry on as you are. I’ll be in touch to let you know what changes there are to the original plan.”
Her face disappears from my screen.
Chapter 43
Cass
Tamara’s call leaves me in a state of mental turmoil. On autopilot, I have a quick shower and dress in jeans and a T-shirt. I don’t know what she can or will try to do. All I know is whatever it is, it will hurt me. I go out to the living room and flash a bright smile at Lars.
He looks at me with narrowed eyes. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head, my smile in place. “Nothing. Everything is just perfect.”
“Something is wrong. Tell me what it is, baby.”
God, I want to confide in him, tell him the whole sordid story, but now I have another sword hanging over my head. Telling him could mean he’d lose his job. I know he loves being here, and the last thing I want to do to him is to part him from his beloved mountain. I walk up to him and rub my hand against the bulge in his pants. His face changes as I knew it would. His cock jerks instantly to attention.
He groans. “Hell, Tamara. You’re going to make me come in my pants.”
I take my hand away. “What have you got planned for us today.”
He gives a slow smile. “We could start by finishing what you just started.”
I put Tamara out of my mind and grin at him. “That’s just to keep you keen and mean for when I show you my cherry pop routine.”
“I am keen and mean.” His eyebrows fly into his hat. “Wait! Your what?”
I wink. “You’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?”
“You expect me to wait after telling me about your cherry pop routine?”
I stand on the tips of my toes and nibble at his earlobe. “Trust me, it’s worth the wait.”
He runs his hand through his hair. “Jesus, woman. You sure know how to drive a man crazy.”
“What’s the plan for today?”
“Come on. We’re taking the horses out,” he says, picking up a bag.
“What’s in the bag?”
“Let me in on what a cherry pop routine is and I’ll tell you what’s in the bag.”
“No way. Only a fool would accept a cow in exchange for magic beans.”
He throws his head back and laughs, the sound warming my heart and saddening it at the same time.
We go to the horse barn to get our horses. If I thought the sexual tension was bad before, it is ten times worse now. I just want him inside me all the time. I force myself to stop thinking about sex and concentrate on saddling Thunder.
I set Thunder’s saddle in almost the same time frame as Lars saddles Devil’s Ride, which makes me really proud. We go through the barn doors and out into the sunshine,
“So, what are we doing?” I ask
“We’re going on a picnic.”
“A picnic? Really?” I feel my heart lift.
His dimples show. “That’s the plan. But we don’t have to if you’d rather show me your cherry pop routine instead…”
“Nope, that’ll keep. I want to go on a picnic,” I say with an easy smile as I prepare to mount Thunder.
“Shame,” he replies, swinging his leg over Devil’s Ride.
Lars leads us beyond the horse pasture where the rest of the horses are roaming freely for the day. Dismounting from his horse, he opens the fence and waits for me to ride through before closing the fence and getting back on Devil’s Ride. We change from a canter to a gallop, but Lars lets me decide the pace I am comfortable with as we cross the open grasslands. The wind tears through my hair and I bend forward and laugh with exhilaration as I urge Thunder to go faster. It is one of the most amazing sensations I have ever experienced. The power of the animal beneath me makes me feel one with nature and fantastic speed makes me feels as if I’m flying.
Soon, Lars gives me a hand signal and we drop to a trot. My face feels flushed as I look at him. He smiles encouragingly at me. I pat Thunder’s neck and start to notice the scenic landscape around me. More than once, I find myself silently praying that one day I will have the chance to live in a place as beautiful as this, doing something as fun as this. Eventually, we arrive at an Aspen grove.
We follow a narrow trail that winds between the majestically tall trees and to my delight it opens out to an enclosure of vibrant green grass. There is a stream running through it with mossy stones at its banks and the air is lovely and cool. Red flowers sprinkle the ground and there are lilies growing in amongst the Aspen.
“Like it?” he asks.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful,” I reply, gazing at my surroundings in amazement. How can one place be so beautiful in so many different ways? I never thought that a ranch would be my favorite place on earth, but it truly is. I haven’t been many places, but this is by far the most magnificent.
We dismount and let the horses drink the fresh, cool water before we tie them to a tree. Lars unloads the bulky bag from his horse and walks to a shady patch. He pulls a blanket from the bag, lays it out on the ground, and signals for me to sit on it. I take a seat and watch as he unpacks the basket he brought with him. Inside, it is filled with food.
“Mini sandwiches and turkey and ham. I also brought the condiments because I don’t know what you like,” he says, unveiling a packet full of small sandwiches and a whole bunch of condiment bottles.
“Chocolate covered strawberries,” he adds, extracting a long Tupperware container of the fruit from his basket.
“And,” he finishes, “a bottle of champagne.”
“My, my,” I murmur, widening my eyes.
Ignoring the sandwiches, I take a chocolate covered strawberry from the bowl. “You could do one more thing to make it better,” I say, taking the entire strawberry in my mouth and biting off the stalk. It is just as juicy and sweet as I expected.
“What?” he asks, leaning back.
“Kiss me.”
“I can do that.” He pushes himself against me, eating the rest of the strawberry from my mouth. I groan and allow him to finish the chocolate flavored kiss with a sweep of his tongue.
“Now it’s perfect,” I whisper.
But it wasn’t truly perfect until I undressed and, unmindful of a couple of peeping tom wild pigs in the grove, showed him the cherry pop routine that I stole from Jesse and he had slurped champagne from my breasts.
Chapter 44
Cass
By the time we return, Emma Jean is in the kitchen preparing dinner. I tell Lars I want to speak to her alone and he goes off down to road to see to some other chores. When I appear at the doorway, she is busy mixing something in a big bowl.
“Hey, Emma Jean,” I say awkwardly.
“Hello, Poppet,” she says with a big smile. If she has heard anything, she certainly is not showing it.
I walk over to the table and lean my hip on it. “What are you making?”
“Chicken pot pie.”
“Oh.”
“I see someone raided the fridge,” she comments innocently.
I blush. “Yeah, we went for a picnic. The strawberries were delicious.”
“I always said Albert’s strawberries are the best.”
I follow the grain of the wood on the table’s surface with my finger. “Uh…I don’t know whether you heard.” I lift my head. “About last night…”
She snorts. “I’m not one for gossip, but I did tell Mabel Hawthorne that just cause some greenhorn troublemaker put his boots in the oven, that don’t make them biscuits.”
I look at her gratefully. “Thank you for defending me.”
“Aww, honey. I wouldn’t mind her. That woman never did know whether to check her ass or scratch her watch.”
I smile. “I just wanted you to know
that I’m not some porn star. I’ve never been in-”
“You don’t have to tell me that, Poppet. I know exactly what you are. You’re a real lady. From the top of your head to the soles of your feet.”
I feel tears start pricking the back of my eyes. “Thank you, Emma Jean, for believing in me.”
“I know what I know, child. Now you run along and go get into something pretty for dinner. I believe you might be having it in the dining room tonight.”
That night I get dressed in one of Tamara’s sexiest outfits and join Lars in the dining room. The plan is to have dinner, but Lars pushes me up against a wall and rips my panties off.
“It’s your fault,” he whispers in my ear. “You wore that damned dress, got me rock hard, and now you can take the consequences.
Our chicken pot pie is cold by the time we get to it, but I must say, the consequences were worth it. Afterwards, I get into my comfy pajamas while Lars makes a big bowl of popcorn. Then we curl up on the couch and watch a horror movie. It isn’t very good and before long Lars stands up and, scooping me up from the couch, carries me upstairs.
I wrap my arms around his strong neck. “I’ve never been carried to a man’s bedroom to be ravished before,” I whisper.
“And I’ve never carried a woman to my bedroom to be ravished.”
To my surprise, Ms. Moore calls me the next morning.
“Can you talk?” she asks.
“Sure. There’s no one here.”
“What did you say to put a bee in Tamara’s bonnet?”
“Why do you say that?” I ask anxiously.
“Cass. Can you please tell me what you said to her to get her all riled up?”
My shoulders sag. “Nothing. I didn’t say anything. She just found out that I like one of the ranch hands.”
Ms. Moore goes silent for a couple of seconds. Then she sighs heavily. “I see. That’s a shame.”
“Why?” I ask worriedly.
“Because there is a change to the plan.”
The Promise Page 58
