“Thanks.”
“With your scores, you finally thinkin’ of jumping?”
Luke hid his sigh. He was asked this every year by almost every cowboy, announcer, stock rep, rodeo clown, even flippin’ bartenders. When was he going to leave the circuit? Jump to the tour? Chase his little brother’s jaw-dropping record?
“No. Good as I am.”
“Yeah,” Dex said, his warm brown eyes searching. “’Course.” He paused. Cleared his throat. “Kane’s kicking ass this year. Flippin’ between first and second.” Dex’s voice held awe.
“Yeah. He’s having a hell of a year. Proud of him. Hope he stays healthy. See you ’round.”
Luke ducked into his trailer and took his shower, expecting Tanner soon. He wished Dex had arrived a little later. Privacy at rodeos was hard to find, and Dex had chosen to set up right next to Luke, and had already invited him for a beer at Grey’s. Twice. He wondered what Dex would say if he heard that Luke had been thrown out of a bar. Of all the cowboys Dex knew on any circuit, Luke was probably the last one anyone would suspect would be thrown out of a bar.
Kane would bust a gut when he heard. No hope of that escaping his notice.
His phone buzzed again and he ignored it, thinking it was his mother for the three hundredth time, but then he remembered he’d given Tanner the number.
“You ready for me, cowboy?” Tanner’s voice was a bit breathless, which seemed to do something weird to his chest and something more powerful down lower.
He smiled. Her voice was like a shaft of light piercing his insides. His aching ribs disappeared along with the stiffness on the side of his face from his bruise. Not good. This was supposed to be business. He was supposed to be focusing on his competitions. He was supposed to be keeping his head in the game so he could jam Sam Wilder’s negative opinions about his daughter and grandson down his throat or up his ass, whichever was more convenient.
“Come on over and find out.”
Okay, he needed to chill with the flirting. He was not Kane, who led women on and then rolled out of town, prize money in the bank.
“You got any fancy flavors to wow me with, cowboy?” She teased.
“I got something I think you’ll like.”
Tanner laughed and hung up without saying goodbye. Luke wiped his hand over his mouth. He had sounded playful like Kane. Borrowing moves from his little brother. How lame was that? He wasn’t a flirt. He was a straight shooter. What he liked about Tanner was that she seemed so natural. He didn’t have to hold parts of himself back or pretend to be something he wasn’t.
So what had that phone flirt been about? And why had it popped out so effortlessly?
His thoughts made him restless and made the vintage Airstream trailer that Kane had tricked out before trading up and selling this rig to Luke, seem smaller than usual, but, instead of heading outside, he did a visual check of his tidy space and flipped on the latte machine, and checked his milk supplies. All unnecessary as he always stocked up before pulling into the grounds before each rodeo.
Still, fresh air couldn’t hurt. He opened the door and came face-to-face with the blonde from earlier this afternoon.
Chapter Five
Tanner tucked her phone in the back pocket of her worn, dusty Wranglers, and tried to hold back her smile. Luke was business, so there was no reason for her tummy to keep flipping every time she heard his warm-honey voice. And each time she looked into his golden eyes she found it hard to breathe.
This was ridiculous. She was a scientist. A business woman. And Luke was most definitely business. When she’d quit her doctoral program to come home and help her dad with the ranch after his catastrophic injury, she’d set a goal to create a top tier breeding program for their bulls. Triple T bulls would be going to the IBR and they’d be in the first tier of competition within five years.
This was her third year in charge, and already she’d had an IBR rep tour her ranch. And she hoped the IBR rep would have the battle of his life trying to hang on for eight seconds on the back of one of her babies. She tried to ignore the burn deep in her core. She’d seen Luke Walker mount a bull and give the signal. Hand raised, like he was casually high-fiving God “I got this,” for eight long, hold his breath, heart pounding seconds. It was a ballet of raw strength, will, and fury. A thing of beauty.
And now he was going to make her a latte.
Parts of her body that had been boringly dormant for years were now whoopin’ it up like it was forever Friday night, when they should be shutting up and taking a long, sleeping beauty nap.
“Business.” She hissed aloud to herself.
“Tanner.” Jorge interrupted her stern, opposite of a pep talk. “I’m heading back to the ranch to hook up the trailer and bring more supplies. You want a ride.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
But Luke could make me better.
“Business!” She yelped.
“What?” Jorge took off his tan Stetson and wiped his sleeve across his forehead.
Oh. She’d said that out loud.
“I got business here. I’ll stay. I got my gear in the truck.”
Jorge looked like he’d say more but instead he nodded and headed out. Usually at least one Triple T staff member stayed the night with the bulls during any rodeo and then usually two or three during the day to help with their care. Some contractors on the IBR tour brought their own vets. She thought of her friend Talon, who was officially starting her veterinary school next week in Bozeman, might eventually be traveling with her sometime in the future. That would be fun. But not likely now that she and Colt looked to be permanent.
That was one case of when her meddling in last spring’s bachelor auction had paid off big. She and a few friends had pooled more money than they could afford and had purchased a lady’s choice date with bachelor number three for Talon and apparently her choice had been Colt in and out of her bed forever.
Happily ever afters did happen. Maybe even to her someday. She mentally kicked herself for the childish thought. The ranch was enough. But still, she had to admit, the little girl who used to dream of some cowboy prince of a guy coming by to sweep her off her feet hadn’t entirely grown up, despite all the times the cowboy had arrived, took one look at her twin, Tucker, and switched allegiances immediately.
She walked through the stock pen aisles that were still mostly empty. Only two ranches had arrived and were unloading their crabby and skittish bulls. She waved and quickened her step not wanting to get delayed by questions about her father’s health and when he’d be running the ranch again full-time or worse hear someone brag about Tucker’s “phenomenal” season, which would inevitably circle ’round to Tanner’s long ago accident that had abruptly and permanently “crushed her dreams of competing in the rodeo”. Like she hadn’t made a new life for herself long ago. Her twin Tucker usually rode the California circuit instead of Montana and, though Tanner wouldn’t admit it out loud, she was grateful for the distance.
She stopped short. Talon stood outside Luke’s trailer twisting her fingers together as she looked up at him. Luke looked up and relief flashed over his face.
“Tanner. Hi. Ummmm…” He looked back at Talon, clearly at a loss, almost as if Talon had arrived and asked him for some kitchen implement he’d never heard of.
“Talon, what’s up?” She hurried forward.
Talon nibbled on her lip and gave Tanner a quick embrace, but Tanner could feel the tremor.
“Colt doesn’t know I’m here.”
Tanner stared at her friend and pondered the non sequitur. She’d only met Colt at the auction in April but couldn’t imagine why he would care that Talon had gone to the fairgrounds.
Oh. She was an idiot. “You’re the blonde. From the bar.”
Talon blushed scarlet and color stained Luke’s sharp cheeks.
“What’s up?” Tanner demanded, not liking the self-consciousness of either of them.
Her bubble of happiness, which had been growing all afterno
on as she’d spent time with Luke, was deflating faster than a darted fair balloon.
“I wanted to apologize,” Talon said, her voice low, her gaze nervous. “Colt misunderstood. I was so… embarrassed and surprised by my mistake I couldn’t get the words out right and he thought that you had grabbed me or something.”
“I’ll catch you later,” Tanner said, feeling like she was totally intruding.
“Stay,” Luke said.
“Not a dog, cowboy.”
“Please.”
“No, I just wanted to…” Talon bit her lip and looked gorgeously indecisive.
Tanner stifled a stab of envy. Talon was so beautiful and so unself-conscious of it and, even though she was madly in love with Colt, Luke was probably sideswiped by Talon’s beauty and sex appeal.
“You shouldn’t be here without…” Luke briefly closed his eyes and ran a hand through his thick, wavy hair that had Tanner totally mesmerized.
He was so sexy with no effort. None.
“Him.” Luke lamely finished.
“I wanted to apologize that he hit you,” Talon said. “He’s very protective of me.” She flushed and looked so pleased that Tanner had the urge to kick her friend to get over it.
Possession was so not an attractive trait, and it was even worse in herself as the thought of Talon groping Luke was seriously pissing Tanner off even though it had been a mistake and Talon was in love with another man.
Hypocrite.
Again the hand in his hair, and Tanner thought if she’d been a dog she would have pounced on him and proceeded to lick him head to toe. Her Australian shepard, Ryder, had licked Luke this afternoon and she’d been seriously envious.
Luke opened the door wide. “Come in,” he said. “Both of you, please, Tanner.”
Like she wouldn’t.
Tanner looked around the trailer. It was very neat and spare but warm. Like the man. The first thing she noticed was the bed in the back. A red comforter with orange, red, and white throw pillows that looked simple but stylish. Not at all a trashed, traveling cowboy bachelor pad. And the bed was not a twin.
She kicked herself for noticing. And the spurt of hooray. She was sleeping in the back of her truck on an airbed and enjoying the stars not the ceiling of Luke’s trailer although… she looked at the light that splashed across his bed. Did he have a… she walked back. He did. A sunroof. That opened. She could see the big, blue Montana sky. Tanner’s eyes darted around and then stayed on the long, supple back of Luke who was steaming milk and the hiss was loud in the small space. Holy shit. He really did have a latte machine.
“What’s up?” Tanner mouthed to Talon.
Talon avoided her eyes, and Tanner felt her heart sink.
Luke turned around and handed Tanner a foaming latte with a leaf shape on top. She stared at it in shock and then at him. The tension in his face eased and he winked.
“Hidden talents,” he said, and she smiled, pleased he’d served her first, but ordering her girly emotions to chill.
Then he handed a mug to Talon and palming one in his large, lean hands he sat in the one chair in the trailer while she and Talon huddled on the one couch.
“Luke Wilder,” Luke said into the silence. Finally.
Sexiest cowboy in the west if not the world Tanner wanted to say, but she couldn’t pull that one off in a teasing voice, but it was getting harder and harder to think of him as off limits. Well, he was, because he was Luke Wilder, a ten plus squared or cubed at least and she was most definitely not. But she was starting to think keeping this just business was going to be her biggest challenge. If she had the opportunity to have one night with him, one night when he could be hers, she’d take it and not look back and not regret all the lonely nights that followed if she could have that memory.
Crushing on a man who didn’t know she existed as a woman sucked and now that she was getting a glimpse of his personality, it was damn near impossible to bear.
Talon just stared at him, her eyes searching his face so intently that Tanner was beginning to get an uncomfortable blend of pissed off and jealous, none of which she had the right to feel.
“Talon Reese,” she said. “Soon, Talon Ewing. If that’s really his name.”
And didn’t that comment just hang in the trailer like a bad odor. Tanner sat forward, wanting to blurt out a question. Okay, at least ten of them, but this was Talon’s story. And Luke’s.
“Do you know each other?” Tanner ignored her own command.
Talon shook her head. “No, I just thought that he looked so much like Colt and he’s in rodeo and in Marietta and I—” She stopped. “I wondered….”
Luke took a sip of his latte, obviously weighing his words.
“You understand as much as I do,” he finally said, “which is nothing.”
“But how could you not know about Colt? About him being adopted? About your brother?”
Tanner clapped her hand over her mouth, afraid she’d interrupt, but what the heck was going on? But she definitely shouldn’t be here. This wasn’t her conversation but leaving was awkward, too. Ugh.
“My mom never said she’d had another kid before me,” Luke said. “Never. I grew up in Phoenix with my younger, half brother, Kane, and my mom. I knew my mom grew up on a ranch in Marietta. That her father had been really strict and controlling and that she’d rebelled. As a teenager she said she fell in love with the ranch foreman’s son from Brazil. He worked the ranch in between rodeos. They ran off together when she was fifteen or sixteen shortly before she’d graduated high school. I wasn’t even two before my dad cheated on her or ran off or went to prison.” He shook his head, his expression darkening. “Water under the bridge.”
“Can’t you just call your mom?” Tanner demanded undone by Luke’s aloofness.
He just sat there, staring at the floor, legs wide, elbows on his knees, and sipping his latte. Talon’s obvious distress was undoing Tanner.
“And ask her about it? Get her to talk to Colt.” Duh!
“Not really on my agenda,” Luke said. “I am not dealing with family drama during a rodeo, or ever, if I can help it. I don’t remember my dad. My mom didn’t keep pictures. And I sure never heard squat about another brother.”
“But—” Tanner broke off.
It was so not like her to interfere, but Talon was mute and desperate and Tanner had to do something, didn’t she?
“But nothing. That guy clearly doesn’t seem to want to know squat about me or mom right now so let’s just leave him and me in peace. Let him process.”
His voice was so calm. But not cold. Kind. Luke Wilder was kind. Tanner’s heart thudded to her boots before kicking into a gallop. Handsome. Funny. Domesticated. Primal and talented on an animal. Hardworking and kind. He was also undone by the news, but was trying to put himself in his newly discovered bother’s place. Damn.
So they sat. Talon searching Luke’s face like he was a famous art painting she’d stood for hours in line to see. Luke sprawled in the chair, mug on one long, lean leg that made worn denim look exquisitely high end, letting Talon stare at him like it was normal and he was totally comfortable with it.
“You have another brother? A big family.” Talon asked.
He looked around the trailer. “Yes,” he said flatly. “Just the three of us.”
“Colt’s been alone.”
He didn’t respond to that and then they all took a drink at once, and Tanner wanted to laugh at how stiff and silly they were. Except she thought Luke was hurting although he didn’t look like it, but there was something so studied in his relaxed posture. And the way his throat worked when he swallowed. Talon looked tense as hell. Tanner wanted to hug her, but she thought that might make it harder.
“I don’t know about my dad,” Luke said. “If he had more kids. If he’s alive or dead.”
“Did he know about Colt? Did he try to find him?”
“I don’t know.”
“And they don’t communicate? Your mom and dad?” Talon
’s voice was small.
Luke flinched so slightly Tanner thought she might have imagined it, and then he was again coolly under control.
“She said he was her heroine. Her kryptonite. More beautiful than an angel. Darker than the heart of a trained assassin. More seductive on her senses than the most aged port or a pheromone-laced French perfume. He was more dangerous than a ninja trained in ancient arts. That she was more alive with him than she’d ever imagined possible and utterly lost and dead without him.”
His voice sounded mocking.
“She said that? To you? To a child?” Tanner was outraged, but also totally turned on, which she didn’t want to examine too closely.
She should have been totally horrified that a man could have that kind of a pull over a woman, but instead that level of desire, the want, the descent into decadent, helpless sensuality with absolute abandon shot a thrill through her body that pebbled her nipples and heated her core. Not good.
Looking at Luke, remembering the way Colt had stared at Talon the night of the auction as if he were a famished lion and she a more than willing gazelle hurtling toward him hell-bent on being utterly consumed, Luke’s mom’s description of the love of her life didn’t seem like complete hyperbole.
“Wow.” Tanner breathed.
Luke got up, pulled a bottle of whiskey out of the cupboard and, without asking permission, put a serious splash in her mug, then Talon’s, and then his.
“You got serious barista skills, cowboy.”
She wanted him. She felt like she could feel him from across the trailer. Taste him, smell him. He had the same charisma of his father, she thought a little wildly. Not so flagrant or flamboyant probably, but the heat and the draw was there, and she really didn’t feel like fighting it.
“What else you got?” She mouthed.
He understood. She could tell from the way his eyes glittered and her body felt warm and heavy and liquid, which was not yet the whiskey talking. She wanted them to be alone. Mentally, she willed Talon to leave, even though that was rude, and Talon was her friend and obviously worried about Colt, how he was handling the news, and knowing Talon, she wanted to understand what she could do to help him.
Want Me, Cowboy Page 5
