Chapter Five #2
Every pulse point in her body responded in a manner she hadn’t expected.
Fire shot from the tops of her thighs and tracked up her spine to ignite the base of her skull.
Her knees lost their purpose in life. Yes, she could see how that might prove unsettling.
Especially if he’d reacted to Taryn the way she was reacting to him.
Her brain gnawed on that. He’d caught her by surprise. Why not see how he responded to one? “Yes, but did she also do this?”
She made a move she didn’t put a whole lot of thought into, but rather ran with her instincts, and put her hands on his hips, above his belt, then pressed her body to his for full frontal contact.
They were close to the same height. She tipped her chin so she could see his face, then wondered how she could extract herself with her dignity intact, because things were now happening below both of their beltlines that she hadn’t predicted.
The half-lowered lids of his eyes didn’t indicate indifference on his part either.
They gazed at each other. He had to feel her heart pounding, because there was a good chance it was going to beat its way out of her chest.
Then his hands were on her, and so was his mouth.
He smelled of grease, which wasn’t unpleasant, and he tasted of caramel, a flavor she loved.
The tip of his tongue tested the line of her lips, which parted, all on their own, because her brain had given her up as hopeless and left.
She gasped a little, taking hold of his belt in both hands and hanging on for dear life while one of his palms eased under her blouse and made its way to her breast. The cup of her demi-bra—not its most useful feature—slid aside, leaving her nipple exposed to his thumb’s administrations. Traitorous flesh vibrated with joy.
She’d never been shy, and since her body was already along for the ride, she might as well enjoy it.
She pried her fingers off the worn leather belt and tugged the hem of his T-shirt free of his jeans.
The hard abs she found underneath were well worth the journey.
His mouth, however, was creating a further diversion, as well as the knee that parted her thighs.
When this cowboy kissed, he went all in.
She almost missed the sound of footsteps on gravel, but her brain hadn’t left the building entirely, because it began boxing her ears, trying to get her attention.
Nix, too, must have heard something, because they had six feet of air between them in less than a second, and without any help on her part, because her voluntary muscle control was on a picket line somewhere.
The footsteps approached the open shed doorway. An inky silhouette manifested against a backdrop of dwindling twilight and peered into the shed.
“Hey, Nix,” the shadow said. “Your wife’s on the phone.”
*
Nix
Nix might be inclined to wonder if Handy was deliberately trying to sabotage him, except he already knew the guy didn’t have to work very hard at being destructive—it came naturally to him.
“Ex-wife,” he said, although the distinction appeared not to matter.
Why should it when he couldn’t figure it out for himself?
Peggy insisted on treating him as if they were still married, and he had years of bad habits yet to break, because he honest to God felt as if he’d just been caught cheating on her.
Having Shauna look at him with that same suspicion in mind ranked up there with her thinking he’d be interested in a seventeen-year-old girl.
Why he cared about her opinion—why he liked her enough to forget she was out of his league—were questions best saved for the therapy he so obviously needed.
She’d been joking around, just yanking his chain, and he’d dived in with less self-restraint than that teenaged, hormone-addled, idiot Remi possessed.
Handy shrugged. “Wife, ex, whatever. She said it’s urgent and for me to get you on the line asap.”
Everything was urgent with Peggy. And while Nix knew—he knew —that he was under no obligation to run when she called, he’d been programmed to respond.
“Taryn seems to have her mind made up about bull riding,” Shauna said to Nix. Frost coated her tone. “I’m afraid you’re just going to have to find some way to deal with her on your own.”
Great. Perfect. Now that he’d proved exactly how much he preferred women, right down to cheating on his wife— ex -wife—Too Good planned to dump Trouble on him without giving him a chance to explain. To top it off, he had a woody the size of a fencepost and no hope for relief.
Not that he would have gotten any relief on that last part from Too Good. Not in a machine shed. She was better than that. Unlike himself, because in his head he’d already had her undressed and braced against the tractor tire sidewall before Handy walked in.
“She said she’s calling long distance,” Handy added helpfully, not being helpful at all.
Nix had to take the phone call. They’d been married ten years. There’d been good times along with the bad, and his conscience gave him no choice.
After he spoke to her though, it might be time for him to return to discovering America and living out of his backpack and duffel and showering at truck stops. This job at the Endeavour Ranch was never meant to be permanent. Trouble and Too Good—Peggy, too—simply sped up his plans.
If only he hadn’t promised Levi and Miles that he’d run the clinic for the ranch so they wouldn’t have to. He didn’t care if he disappointed Ryan. That was business. Levi and Miles, however… They were his friends. Good ones were hard to come by.
“Okay. Tell her I’ll be there in a second,” he said to Handy, who didn’t know how to take a hint, because he stayed right where he was.
“Tell her yourself,” Handy replied. Then he grinned at Shauna, who tried to straighten the blouse Nix had mussed up. “How’s your little sister liking Grand?”
“She hasn’t complained about it, so that’s a good sign.
But it’s only been a few days.” Shauna edged toward the open door.
“Superhero movies aren’t really my thing, but I’d better get back and catch the ending, so we have something to talk about in the car on the drive home. ” She took a few steps into the night.
“Don’t worry about the bull riding,” Nix called after her. “No one says Taryn has to ride a bull just because she shows up. Either way, at least she’ll have a dozen or so boys to keep her company for a few months.”
The little hitch in her stride said he’d hit his mark. He should feel mean, and a part of him did, but if he wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight, then neither was she. He hadn’t asked for Trouble. Or Too Good either.
And he’d really thought his ex-wife was no longer his problem, but now she plagued him, too.
While Shauna set off for the main house in a snit, he headed for the bunkhouse in the opposite direction. Handy trailed behind him, not wanting to miss out on the next act of the evening’s entertainment.
The phone’s receiver dangled by its cord from the wall, because in the age of cell phones and wireless communication, these young guys didn’t know how to deal with landlines anymore. They did, however, know how to make a bad situation worse.
There were six bunkmates altogether, including Handy and himself, and the other four sat at the kitchen table next to the dangling receiver, pretending to play cards. In reality, they were discussing Nix’s nonexistent sex life in lurid and grossly embellished detail.
Nix grabbed the receiver and stretched the cord as far as it would go, wrapping it around the corner of the wall that led to the bathroom, to at least gain a pretense of privacy.
“Hey, Peg. What’s up?”
She sniffled and his heart pinched itself. If there was one thing he hated, it was a woman in tears. Then came a long stretch of silence that he didn’t fill. Stay strong. He had his own problems to deal with.
The sniffles turned into gut-munching sobs. “Mitch left me. You have to stop my parents from coming here. I don’t want them to find out. Not like this.”
Damn.
He didn’t have it in him to rejoice or point out how she got what she deserved because he had no regrets that their marriage was over. If they’d had a good one, she’d never have cheated.
“They’ll find out eventually,” he said. “They found out about us.”
Peggy got the sobs under control, since those didn’t appear to be working for her, although she sniffled again—but discreetly, to let him know how stoic she was. “I want to come home.”
Now he knew the real reason she’d called.
Her new boyfriend left her because the money had run out, leaving him with a moral dilemma, because he couldn’t leave her stranded in Switzerland, or wherever she was.
He wished he could, but he couldn’t. Not when he had money saved that he wasn’t using.
Not when he lived at the Endeavour Ranch and had no expenses.
Not when he had no backbone to speak of.
“How much do you need?” he said, then braced himself for the blow.
“Just enough for airfare and to settle a few bills.”
“How much ?”
She named an amount that made his brain curl into a tight ball and bounce around inside his skull.
He’d have to borrow against his wages to come up with that much, which wasn’t a serious problem, because Ryan was generous when it came to loans.
The downside was that he’d also own Nix for the next two years or more, and he’d get his money’s worth from him.
With interest. Ryan might be generous, but he was also pragmatic.
Nix sighed, then relinquished ownership of his soul. “Hang on while I grab a pen and paper so I can write down your bank information.”