Chapter 8
Jesse didn’t know what kind of spell Liberty Holiday had put on him, but he didn’t like it. He didn’t like that he’d been up half the night replaying their kisses. He didn’t like that when he finally did fall asleep, he dreamed of doing a lot more to Liberty than kissing. And he didn’t like that one look from those meadow-green eyes this morning and he’d had only one thought . . . how can I get my lips back on hers?
Even now, as he stood in line waiting to order his muffin and coffee, he couldn’t help glancing out the window. All three of the Holiday sisters were beautiful in their own right, but Liberty stood out like a fiery ruby in a case of colorless diamonds.
She seemed to be embracing her country girl heritage. Today, she wore a T-shirt, blue jeans, and roper boots that looked well worn in. She wore a straw cowboy hat and had braided her hair into two cute braids that hung over the swells of her breasts. It was easy to picture her working the Holiday Ranch in that outfit—mucking out stalls and herding cattle. He bet she was a skilled cowgirl.
Liberty didn’t do things half assed.
Last night when he couldn’t keep the images of their kisses out of his head, he’d Googled her. It seemed Holiday Sisters Events was doing all right for themselves. He knew what went into a successful company and HSE had all the makings of a successful company. They had a great website, a healthy social media following . . . and a determined and dedicated CEO Jesse couldn’t help but admire. In almost every picture of every event, Liberty was pointing and issuing orders to caterers, florists, decorators, and her sister, who was always at her side.
Jesse knew they were twins. When he saw them in photographs together, he was still shocked by how much the two women looked alike. But no matter how identical they were, he had no problems telling them apart. Not only because Liberty was always dressed in power suits and heels while Belle dressed softer in more subdued feminine dresses and lower heels, but also because of the energy they exuded.
Belle seemed to be enjoying every event. Her body posture was relaxed, her eyes soft, and her smile warm as she adjusted veils and fluffed wedding gown trains and calmed nervous-looking grooms. Liberty didn’t look like she was enjoying the events as much as beating them into submission. In every picture, she was always on the move, her eyes full of fire and her expression ferocious.
He knew that look. The need to succeed and prove yourself. Corbin had it. And Jesse had had it too. But now that he had succeeded, he had to wonder what his success had proven. That he could make money? He could take care of himself and live his life without any help from anyone? Including his wealthy family?
His daddy, Billy, had wanted Jesse to be part of C-Corp, but Jesse had refused the offer. He had wanted to make it on his own. He had, but to what end?
His cellphone rang, pulling him out of his thoughts. He turned away from the window and took his phone out of his pocket. It was Corbin and he quickly answered it.
“Hey, Whitty. Where have you been, man? I’ve been trying to get ahold of you.”
“I didn’t pack the right power adapter and I couldn’t charge my phone until today. So I just got your message . . . and Liberty Holiday’s. What was she doing using your phone?”
“She was the one who called the meeting. Not Hank.”
He thought Corbin would be surprised. He wasn’t. “I thought as much. So I guess she’s pissed.”
“I’d say more confused. As am I, after hearing about Rome Remington’s offer to pay off the loan.” He started to ask for more details when he realized that the people around him had stopped their conversations and were listening in. The woman sitting at a nearby table in the brightly colored shirt and Crocs was leaning so far out of her chair he was surprised she wasn’t on the floor. Having grown up in a small town, he had no doubt that whatever he talked about with Corbin would be all over town by this afternoon. He returned to his phone conversation. “Look, I can’t really talk right now. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”
“That won’t work for me. I’m walking into a restaurant to meet Sunny.”
Jesse wished he could step outside and continue the call, but then he’d be right in the middle of the Holiday sisters. Which would be even worse. “Okay, then call me when you get done.”
“Will do.”
When Jesse stepped up to the counter, he had so much trouble deciding which muffin looked the best that he ended up ordering a half dozen. Which made Sheryl Ann beam with happiness as she started filling his order.
“I’m glad you enjoyed the Cocoa Java Junkie so much that you came back. I’m Sheryl Ann, by the way. I didn’t catch your name the last time you were in.”
“Nice to meet you, Sheryl Ann. I’m Jesse Cates. And I couldn’t stay away after the best muffin I’ve ever had.”
Her smile got even bigger. “So where are you staying, Jesse?”
“I’m staying at a friend’s place for a few days and cat-sitting while he’s gone.”
The woman in the brightly colored Crocs spoke. “Corbin Whitlock?”
Damn. He’d hoped to remain incognito. But it looked like that wasn’t going to happen. He pinned on a smile. “Yes, ma’am. Do you know him?”
She and Sheryl Ann exchanged looks. They weren’t good looks. The woman in the Crocs stood and Jesse braced for a cussing out. “I’m Melba Wadley, the one who gave Corbin Taylor Swift.”
Gave was a bad choice of words. Forced seemed more accurate. Corbin had told Jesse the story about how Melba wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“We all know Corbin,” Sheryl Ann cut in. “He used to live here. He seemed like a nice boy back then. Mannerly, hardworking, and honest.” She rang up his order on the old cash register. “But I changed my opinion after hearing about him foreclosing on the Holidays’ beloved ranch. We now refer to him as Corbin Whiplash.”
Jesse couldn’t help but laugh. As a kid, he’d loved the Dudley Do-Right movie with the villain Snidely Whiplash.
Melba shot him a narrow-eyed look. “It’s not funny. If I had known Corbin had become a cold-hearted loan shark, I never would have given him sweet Taylor Swift.”
Sweet? Obviously, the woman didn’t know the kitten well.
Jesse glanced around at all the people scowling at him. He knew enough about loyal small-town folks to know he was seconds away from being tarred and feathered.
He sobered. “There’s no need to worry about Taylor Swift, ma’am. Corbin loves the kitten as much as he loves his sister—and that’s a helluva lot. Pardon my language.”
“Now that you mention it,” Melba said. “I remember how sweet he was to his little sister. He rode her around all over town on the handlebars of that bike Mrs. Stokes gave him.”
“I remember that too,” Sheryl Ann joined in. “I guess a man can’t be all bad if he loves his sister and kittens.” She looked at Jesse. “But kicking a family out of their home is just plain wrong.”
Jesse didn’t disagree. But until he talked with Corbin, he wasn’t about to agree either. “I’m sure it will all get figured out once Corbin gets back into town.” He quickly paid. “Thanks for the best muffins in Texas, Sheryl Ann.” He tucked the box of muffins under his arm and picked up his to-go cup of coffee before he turned to leave.
Melba blocked his way.
“You got a pet?”
“No, ma’am. I travel too much for a pet.”
She scowled. “That’s no reason not to have a fur baby. Small dogs and cats can travel on planes as long as you have an approved pet carrier. Buck Owens is a little overweight, but he’s still under the twenty-pound limit and I know he’d be the perfect traveling companion. If you come on over to the sheriff’s office, I’ll introduce you.”
“I sure do appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid I have to pass.” He scrambled for an excuse. “I have a . . . date with Liberty Holiday.” It wasn’t a lie. He did have to get Tay-Tay back from her.
Melba’s eyebrows shot up. Everyone else in the café looked surprised too. Jesse took their stunned silence as an opportunity to make his escape. Coach Denny stopped him at the door and spoke in a low voice.
“You better buy yourself a sturdy cup, boy, because that little gal is a ballbuster if ever there was one.”
Once outside, Jesse heaved a sigh of relief and looked around for the Holiday sisters. They were gone. And so was Tay-Tay. Damn it! He’d known Liberty’s sweetness was all an act. She’d catnapped his kitten.
He headed for his truck with the intention of searching up and down the street, but stopped short when he saw Liberty sitting in the passenger seat. There was something about her in his beloved truck that made him feel a little lightheaded. It took a firm mental shake and a long gulp of black coffee to get his head feeling normal and his feet moving again.
“What are you doing?” he asked as he opened the driver’s door. The rest of what he was going to say got lost somewhere in his brain when he saw that she was sitting cross-legged on the seat with Tay-Tay sleeping in the nest she’d made of those long, tanned legs. He wanted to take the kitten’s place so badly his hands shook.
Completely unaware of his battle with his libido, Liberty stroked the kitten’s head. “Tay-Tay was not happy being held. I have the scratch marks to prove it. And since I didn’t want to put her down and risk her running into the street and becoming roadkill, I decided we’d wait for you in here.”
“I thought a pet in a hot vehicle was a bad thing.”
“Well, it’s certainly not a good thing.” She changed thing into a sexy Texas thang that made his belly feel all airy as she fanned a hand in front of her face. “So don’t just stand there. Get in and start up this beast. I’m assuming it has air-conditioning. Or is this redneck monstrosity wind cooled only?”
Even though the last thang he wanted was to be enclosed in a small space with Liberty, he set the box of muffins on the seat and climbed in. Once the engine was rumbling and the air-conditioning flowing from the vents, he turned to her.
“What’s going on?”
She lifted a dark eyebrow. “I just told you. Tay was scratching the heck out of me to get down.”
“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about you volunteering to watch Taylor in the first place and no longer treating me like cow dung stuck to the heel of your boot. Last night, you couldn’t get rid of me fast enough and today you’re acting like we’re friends.”
She shrugged. “Maybe I’ve had a change of heart.”
“Oh, really. And what brought about this change of heart?”
She hesitated for only a second before she answered him. “I realized that you might be the only one who can change Corbin’s mind about foreclosing on Holiday Ranch. That’s if you really are friends with him.”
Now would be a good time to tell her the truth about his relationship with Corbin and that he owned a portion of Oleander Investments. But he knew if he came clean now, Liberty would assume the worst and think he was in cahoots with Corbin. He shouldn’t care about what Liberty thought. She was nothing to him. But for some reason, he did care.
He cared a lot.
“So that’s why you’ve decided to suck up to me,” he said. “You need my help.”
“Why else would I be willing to cat-sit this ornery animal?” She stroked the kitten’s tiny ear and Tay-Tay growled low, causing Liberty to laugh.
The transformation that took place when Liberty laughed made heat flood his body. Which was ridiculous. She’d flat-out told him the only reason she was being nice was to get him to change Corbin’s mind, but for some reason Jesse’s mind had latched on to the idea of Liberty sucking up and wouldn’t let it go.
Getting involved with her was a bad idea. A very bad idea. His gut knew this. But the desire pooling inside him like the steaming hot coffee he still held in his hand overrode his gut.
In business, he had always liked to have the upper hand. To have something someone wanted badly was called bargaining power. With it, Jesse had always gotten what he wanted. Even if it wasn’t a good idea, he wanted Liberty. He wanted her with an intensity that scared the shit out of him.
If she hadn’t turned the tables on him and started being nice, he might have been able to avoid her. But when she was sitting right next to him, offering him the power to have her, he couldn’t refuse it.
He wasn’t a stupid man.
“What else?” he asked.
She blinked. “What do you mean?”
“What else would you be willing to do to get me to change Corbin’s mind? Ass kissing usually entails doing more than one thing for the—”
She cut in. “Ass you’re kissing?”
He laughed because he couldn’t help it. He didn’t just desire her. He liked her. “As a matter of fact, yes. So what else are you going to do for this ass, Libby Lou?”
The annoyed look in her eyes said she was only seconds away from telling him to go to hell. But instead, she took a deep breath and slowly released it as the logical businesswoman took over.
“I won’t just cat-sit for a few minutes. I’ll take Tay-Tay to the ranch and cat-sit until Corbin gets back. Mimi has missed having animals around and will love it.”
“Hmm?” He took a sip of coffee. “It would certainly be nice to not have to worry every night about my throat being ripped open by kitty claws. But a little cat-sitting in exchange for what you’re asking doesn’t seem like quite enough.”
He was toying with her . . . and loving every second of it.
Anger flashed in her emerald eyes, but she didn’t concede. He knew she wouldn’t.
“Fine. I’m one of the best event planners in Texas . . . if not the best. If you can talk Corbin into stopping the foreclosure proceedings and letting Rome pay off the loan, I’ll do an event for you for free. I’m talking everything from the tables to the decorations to the invitations to the dessert forks. Everything.”
“I’m not really a guy who likes to host big events. What else?”
She gritted her teeth. “You seemed to love pigging out on my mama’s apple pie. She’ll make you as many as you want until you leave. And dinner. Dinner every night.”
“That’s a nice offer, but that’s your mama sucking up. Not you. I want to know what you’re willing to give for your family to keep their ranch.”
Her fists tightened and he braced for a punch. “Fine,” she said through her teeth. “I’ll make you dinner and apple pie.”
His eyes widened. “You know how to cook?”
“Why do you find that so surprising?”
“Because you’re not really the homemaker type.”
“And exactly what is the homemaker type? Just because I run my own business doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy cooking, baking, and sewing.”
“Sewing? Now you are joking.”
She glared at him. “You are the most insufferable man I have ever met in my life. Yes, I can sew. I’d love to sew a zipper over your arrogant mouth right now.”
He grinned. “I’d just unzip it. I’m a whiz with zippers.”
Her eyes narrowed. “So that’s it, isn’t it? You don’t want apple pie from me. Or event planning. Or cat-sitting. You want to force me into giving you sexual favors.” The thought of Liberty giving him sexual favors had all the blood in his body heading south. But, on the other hand, the force part pissed him off.
“I have never forced a woman into giving me sexual favors in my life and I never will. What a woman does for me in bed, she does of her own free will. I would never push a woman to do something she didn’t want to do.”
She snorted. “You just push them into bets to get what you want.”
“Now, darlin’, you didn’t have to take that bet . . . or cheat.”
“I did not cheat! And even if I did, you ended up getting your kiss and an extra one to boot.”
“So you’re now saying that the only reason you kissed me was because of our bet. And here I thought it was boredom.”
She crossed her arms. “The second kiss was boredom. The first was because I always pay my debts in full. Something you need to point out to your friend, but not if it means I have to hop into bed with the likes of you.”
It was amazing how much this woman could piss him off.
“I wasn’t the one who brought up sexual favors,” he said. “I believe that was you. Which leads me to believe you’re the one who wants to swap sex for the deed to the ranch.”
“As if! A ranch isn’t worth having sex with an arrogant rodeo bum.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Those two kisses we shared said just the opposite, darlin’. I bet if we spent any time together, you’d be the one begging me for sexual favors.”
Her eyes widened. “Like hell I would!”
“You want to bet on it?”
Her eyes flashed fire. “You bet I want to bet on it!”
“Great. If you can keep yourself from falling into bed with this arrogant rodeo bum by the time Corbin gets back into town, I’ll talk him into letting Rome pay off the loan.”
She opened her mouth, but he held up a finger.
“But you have to spend time with me.”
“How much time?”
“As much as I want.”
She studied him for a long moment and he could almost see the wheels of her mind working. The wheels of his mind were working too. What in the hell was he doing? He had decided starting something up with Liberty was a bad idea and now here he was starting something up with her. All because he wanted to prove a point.
Of course, that wasn’t all it was.
He wanted Liberty. He wanted her like he’d never wanted another woman. So why couldn’t he have her? Not forever. Just for a while. It wasn’t like she was a woman hunting for a man to spend the rest of her life with. Like him, she was too wrapped up in making money to want a serious relationship. Which made it a perfect arrangement.
Of course, if she won, he’d have to talk Corbin into letting Rome pay off the loan. Jesse never went back on a bet. And maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Letting Rome pay off the ranch was a smart business move. Not just financially, but also for public relations. For whatever reason, Corbin had an attachment to this town. Otherwise, he wouldn’t still be hanging on to the beat-up trailer his uncle had willed him. If he foreclosed on the Holiday Ranch, the townsfolk were likely to run him out of town on a rail.
That wouldn’t be good for anyone.
Of course, Jesse wasn’t about to tell Liberty about his change of heart and give up this game.
A game he planned to win.
“So?” he said with a slight smirk he knew would goad her. “Is the bet on? Or are you too afraid of losing?”