Chapter 13
Corbin woke feeling groggy and annoyed.
He hadn’t slept well, and it was his own damn fault. What was he thinking inviting Belle to spend the night? Had he lost his mind?
No, just his guts.
The thought of her staying in a disreputable hotel wasn’t the only reason he’d insisted she stay at the ranch. He was terrified of staying at the ranch without someone who knew what they were doing. Not for himself, but for Sunny.
He was the one who had caused his sister’s injury. The one who insisted on stopping to rest in a nest of pheasants. If Hank or Jesse, or any of the Holidays, had been there, they would have known better and Sunny wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Corbin couldn’t chance her getting hurt again . . . even if he had to put up with Belle until Darla, Hank, and Mimi got back.
Or until he could find himself a foreman.
He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before. Probably because he’d been so tied up in proving he could become the next Clint Eastwood. Sunny getting hurt had been a reality check. He needed help if he wanted to own a ranch. Experienced help. He would start looking for a foreman today.
A whine had him rolling to his other side. A big furry head rested on the mattress only inches away. Soulful hazel eyes, that looked more human than dog, stared back at him. Corbin hadn’t really wanted the dog sleeping in his room. He’d only offered to get Belle to stay. But as soon as they entered the house last night, the dog had streaked up the stairs and stuffed himself into Tay’s condo. The kitten usually slept on a pillow right next to Corbin. But as soon as he’d placed her on the pillow, she’d jumped off the bed and scaled to the top of the condo where she’d spent the entire night.
The cat/dog relationship was weird to say the least. Especially when Gilley seemed to be terrified of the kitten. And yet, he couldn’t seem to stay away. Maybe he just thought it was safer to keep his enemies close.
Corbin reached out and scratched the dog’s head. “Smart dog.”
Gilley whined again. Realizing he wasn’t going to get any more sleep, Corbin got up and pulled on a pair of jeans. Tay was still sleeping peacefully so he left her and headed down the stairs with Gilley.
The sun was just peeking its head over the horizon when he stepped out on the porch. Corbin had to admit it was a pretty sight to see the pink-tinted land—his land—stretched out for as far as the eye could see. After Sunny had gotten hurt, he’d started to worry that he’d made a big mistake. He still worried. But the sight of the sun rising over the ranch caused those worries to fade away.
As Gilley raced down the steps to take care of his morning needs, Corbin raised his arms over his head and stretched, enjoying the feel of the morning breeze on his bare chest.
A soft exhalation had him freezing mid-yawn and turning.
Belle sat on the porch swing in a short white nightie that showed off her long legs. Her hair was mussed and her eyes sleepy like she’d just rolled out of bed. As his gaze wandered over her, he realized that’s exactly what she’d done. She’d just rolled out of bed. A bed that had been only a short walk down the hall from where he’d slept.
“Good mornin’.” Even her voice soundly sleepy and sexy.
Sexy?
Where had that word come from? And once there, it didn’t want to leave. Probably because it was the exact word to describe the woman sitting in the swing cradling a mug in her hands.
Sexy.
Sexy as hell.
His morning erection grew. He lowered his arms and quickly turned his attention to the dog taking a poop in Mimi’s flower garden. Belle must have followed his gaze because she jumped up from the swing and got after him.
“No, Gilley!”
The dog finished doing his business and trampled a row of flowers as he headed up the steps to exuberantly greet Belle, spilling whatever was in her mug in the process.
Concern took over sexual desire and Corbin quickly pulled the dog down by his collar. “Did you get burned?” His gaze swept over the coffee-splashed nightie. Except his attention wasn’t held by the brown stains as much as the shady outline of two nipples. Two very pert nipples.
“I’m fine,” Belle said. “My coffee wasn’t hot.”
Hot?
Yes, he felt hot. It was a struggle to talk, let alone pull his gaze away from those two sweet buds veiled beneath soft white cotton. All he wanted to do was lower his head and take one into his mouth—to wet that thin material until it turned to tissue paper beneath his tongue and he could feel the pout of soft flesh and sweet hardened nip—
Gilley’s cold nose rammed into his stomach, snapping him out of the fantasy, and he quickly lifted his gaze, hoping Belle hadn’t caught him staring at her breasts.
She hadn’t.
Mainly, because she’d been busy staring at him.
Her gaze was burning a hole into his pectoral muscles. Her empty cup dangled from her fingers. Her lips were slightly parted. And her chest, with those tempting sweet nipples, rose and fell with each rapid breath she took.
Talk about being hot.
Corbin felt like he’d just been dropped into a vat of hot coffee and was drowning. The only way to save himself was to reach out and grab on to the woman in front of him.
He started to do just that when the screen door squeaked open and Sunny’s voice rang out.
“Good mornin’!”
Corbin swung around so fast he tripped over Gilley and ended up stumbling back into Belle. She lost her balance and sat down hard in the swing. He followed, sprawling onto her lap and setting the swing into motion. He sat there for a few stunned seconds, enjoying the feel of soft sweet breasts against his back, before he sprang to his feet and turned to her.
“Are you okay?”
Her cheeks were a flaming pink that rivaled the vine flowers that grew on the porch railing.
She cleared her throat. “I’m fine.”
Well, he wasn’t. He wasn’t fine at all. Before either woman noticed the hard-on bulging the fly of his jeans, he turned and headed down the porch steps.
“I’m going to check on the horses.”
“Remember Hank’s rule?” Sunny said. “No goin’ in the barn without boots.”
“That’s true,” Belle said. “Going barefoot to the barn isn’t a good idea.”
Annoyed that not only his sister was telling him what to do, but also Belle, his reply was snappish. “Well, Hank doesn’t make the rules anymore. I do. If I want to go out to the barn without boots, I’ll damn well go out to the barn without boots.”
But he soon realized the reason behind Hank’s rule. While feeding the horses, he ended up stepping in horseshit. As he was trying to wipe his foot off on some straw, he stepped on a rusty horseshoe nail. It was lying on its side and didn’t break the skin, but it still hurt like hell. It was a struggle not to limp back to the house.
Thankfully, Belle had gone inside and Sunny was the only one sitting on the porch. Although he soon realized he shouldn’t be thankful for that.
“So do you want to explain what’s stuck in your craw this morning?”
“There’s nothing stuck in my craw.” He grabbed the garden hose and sat down on the porch steps to wash his feet.
Sunny got up and crutched over to the top of the steps. “Okay, let me rephrase that. What’s going on between you and Belle? And don’t you dare say nothing. Because it wasn’t nothing that was going on when I stepped out on the porch this morning. You two were staring at each other like frostbite victims looking at tubs of warm bathwater.”
Sunny had always been good at analogies. That’s exactly how he’d felt. Like Belle was a bathtub filled to the brim with perfectly warmed water and all he’d wanted to do was sink deep inside her. Of course, he wasn’t about to admit that to anyone.
“You must not have been fully awake if that’s what you saw.”
“Oh, I was fully awake. And what I saw on your face was exactly what I saw a hundred times before. You were looking at Belle just like you used to look at Liberty.”
That got his attention . . . and scared the hell out of him. He might be able to deny what had been happening on the porch to his sister, but he couldn’t deny it to himself. He had felt something this morning. Something similar to what he’d felt the other night when Belle had kissed him. But it wasn’t like the infatuation he felt with Liberty. It was just lust because he’d gone so long without sex. That was it. Nothing else.
“I don’t know what you saw, Sunny, but I’m not interested in the Holiday twins—either one.” He finished rinsing off his feet and got up to shut off the hose. When he turned back to the porch, Sunny was looking at him with concern.
“Are you sure you haven’t taken your infatuation with Liberty and turned it on Belle? Because Belle isn’t Liberty, Cory.”
“I figured that out a long time ago, Sunny.”
“Then why did you insist she stay here?”
He knew in order to get the concerned look off her face he’d have to be truthful. “Because ranching isn’t as easy as I thought it would be and Belle knows her way around the ranch.”
She stared at him for a long moment before a grin spread over her face. “So you talked her into staying because you’re scared?”
“Not scared. I just need her help until Hank gets back.”
The grin got bigger. “Are you admitting you’re not a rancher, Cory?”
He climbed the steps until they were eye level. “I’m not a rancher . . . yet. But I will be with a little more practice.”
“Well, you won’t be getting any help from Belle. She told me she’s planning on leaving this morning.” She hesitated. “Probably because my brother was looking at her like she was a deep-basted turkey and he was a stray, starving dog.”
“Very funny. You have to talk her out of leaving.”
“Me? I’m not the one who’s scared of running the ranch alone.” She sent him a smug smile before she crutched her way into the house, leaving Corbin to follow behind and try to figure out what to do. He would walk across a bed of rusty horseshoe nails barefooted before he told Belle he was scared.
Luckily, while he was getting dressed, Rome called to ask if he wanted to help with the branding and it gave Corbin the excuse he needed to keep Belle from leaving. As soon as he ended the call and finished getting dressed, he walked down the hall to her room. She answered the door dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, and boots. Why had he been hoping for the thin white nightie? He mentally shook the image from his mind and pinned on a smile.
“Great. You’re ready.”
“Ready? For what?”
“Rome just called and says he needs help with the branding. Since he’s family, I figured you’d want to help too.”
“I can’t. I need to find a place to stay.”
There was something about the stubborn set of her jaw that said she was determined to stand her ground. Which meant he needed to try another tactic.
“Okay, well, I guess I can figure out how to get to the Remington Ranch by myself.”
“Wait, Sunny’s not go—oh, of course she’s not. Her ankle.” Her face scrunched up with concern and he knew he had her.
“It’s fine. I can figure it out. You do what you need to do.” He turned to leave, but only got two steps before she stopped him.
“I’ll go with you.”