A Cowboy For Christmas (14 page)

“
You’re serious about this,
aren’t you?” She murmured and took a step back. She crossed her
arms, grabbed the bottom of her shirt, and pulled it up and over
her head in one motion.

Have mercy! She let him
stare at her white satin bra for about ten seconds. Then with a
spin, she left for the bathroom. “Did you want to join
me?”

“
You little tease!” He
reached the bathroom in five fast steps.

She giggled. “And you love
it.”

She had him
there.

“
Maybe I should do some
teasing.” He grabbed her and turned her to face him. “With my
tongue.”

He didn’t look away from
her pleasantly surprised face when he kicked the bathroom door shut
with his foot.

* * * *

Lying in Brent’s bed with
him, she couldn’t believe how satisfied she felt. He’d shown such
care while rubbing the towel over her and taking her to his bed.
Before she met him, she wouldn’t have thought the same man could
match her need in the bedroom, then be patient and caring to her
once their passion was spent.

“
Seems you’ve decided to
stay on,” he said, low and quiet. That’s what he’d been thinking
about? She lay on her back with the sheet pulled up to keep her
warm. Under the sheet next to her, he leaned up on his elbow so he
could trace his finger down her neck.

“
I knew I would from the
beginning,” she corrected. “I said I would prove myself, and I knew
I could make it.”

He shook his head, a half
smile coming and going. “I did, too. I knew you could make it, but
I didn’t know if you’d want to stay.”

Why else would she go
through all this trouble? Just to leave? Something happened in his
past, but what? “Brent?”

“
I didn’t know what would
happen here. If you stayed or went on your way . . . we were short
a worker.” He kept his gaze off her face while he spoke, and only
glanced up now as he paused. “I didn’t want to replace Ben, and I
couldn’t hire anyone. So you had more power than you
knew.”

“
I didn’t think of it as
power. I wanted to make it here, to show I could.” And she had,
hadn’t she? Pride filled her. It hadn’t been easy to come here,
stay and learn how to share in the work.

He’d been teasing a finger
over her skin, but now he pulled his hand back. “Are you staying
now that you’ve proved you can do it?”

For the first time, she
heard uncertainty in his voice, and he lacked the hard confidence
he’d displayed since she met him. This wasn’t about the ranch. She
asked, “Haven’t I proved that?”

She couldn’t hear him
breathing. What was going on with him?

“
Is that your answer?” he
asked.

She felt him tense next to
her. “I’m not going anywhere. But I can’t make promises about you
and me. We don’t know what we want from each other, if this will
turn into anything else.”

She couldn’t let it become
something else yet. Russ had whispered sweet things to her, made
promises, and he’d been wearing a mask. Even while she felt her
trust for Brent grow, she didn’t trust herself to recognize a lie
anymore.

“
Are you afraid it will?”
He broke into her thoughts, touching her arm again.

She was sleepy and didn’t
want to talk about this. “There’s no point in trying to predict the
future.” Right as she spoke the words, she felt a jolt. The future
had been so uncertain for her when she came here. Was it
still?

She just wanted to be held,
but he wouldn’t do that now. Her own words made her realize that
while she wanted to have plans, she was afraid of setting herself
up for another crash. She’d come to love life here. When she
thought about risking it for a relationship with Brent, her stomach
went flipping over in circles.

After a silence, he said,
“I think you’re afraid of a lot of things. Sometime, I want to know
what those things are.”

That couldn’t happen, she
wouldn’t let it. She sat up and said, “I should get going before I
fall asleep.”

* * * *

First things first.
Brent stood outside the passenger side door of his
truck at daybreak. In one hand, he held a lighter. In the other, he
held the will Ben had started to put together. Ben hadn’t been the
type to think ahead. That had been Brent’s part in this venture, so
he never expected Ben to have a will.

It gave Missy only a
one-fourth interest in Ben’s share, while the remaining
three-fourths went to him.

Last night, Missy had shown
him she wasn’t ready to put her roots down here. Why was she
unwilling to plan? To talk about their future? He sure as heck
wouldn’t give her a reason to take off.

Holding the will at arm’s
length, he lit it.

Ocean View Stables had been
his dream, one that he’d made into a reality. He still planned on
directing it, choosing where they’d go. And Missy would be a part
of it.

He dropped the flaming
document and watched as it burned down to a crinkling paper before
he stomped it out.

Missy wouldn’t be up this
early, so he went back to his place for breakfast. He was lost in
thought, waiting for his toast to pop up, when someone
knocked.

Missy stood outside,
looking sleepy still in sweat pants and a big coat.

“
You could have stayed
here, you know,” he reminded once again, shaking his head at the
woman. Why bother taking off during the night if you’re coming
right back in the morning?

She yawned and came
in.

“
Toast?”

A nod.

“
Coffee?”

Another nod. She sat on a
stool at the counter and laid her head down on her arms. Since she
looked asleep, he let her be. Why had she come back instead of
sleeping? It didn’t make sense, not after she’d wanted to take off
the night before. He dropped more bread in the toaster and started
fresh coffee. She hadn’t moved.

That couldn’t be
comfortable. If she had drifted off, he intended to move her to his
bed, whether or not she liked that when she woke up. “Are you
asleep on my counter?”

“
No.” She rolled her head
and opened her eyes. “You get up this early?”

“
Why didn’t you just stay?”
He didn’t get it, and that made him mad.

“
I don’t do
that.”

“
You always sleep with guys
and take off?” That went over the line. Turning his back to her, he
grabbed the fresh toast and buttered it.

“
I don’t sleep with guys.
So I didn’t know what to think.”

His hands stilled. Her
words and tone told him he’d come on too strong, asked too much of
her. Now what could he do about it? He didn’t want to back
off.

Bringing two plates of
toast over, he sat opposite her. “I just made a jerk of myself. I
don’t do that kind of thing, either. Haven’t in a long
time.”

She looked awake after that
comment. They chewed on toast for a minute before he grabbed two
mugs and poured coffee. “Sugar? Cream?”

“
Please. Lots of
both.”

He dumped them in, added
just cream to his, and sat again. He wasn’t ready to let go of
their conversation. “I could help.”

“
With?”

“
You’ve asked about plans
for the stables, but you won’t talk about our future. You take off
after we make love. I think there’s something I should
know.”

“
No,” she said and looked
down at her mug and took a quick, jagged breath. “Unless you want
to talk about Ben. About Ben’s horse and why you avoid
him.”

Jarred and unprepared, he
said. “One topic at a time, sweetheart.”

“
Don’t you think they’re
related?” She raised her gaze finally, and he saw fire in her eyes.
Why did she care about that? It didn’t affect their relationship,
not like her secrets did.

He wanted to answer, but
didn’t know how to say anything that could end this. They stared
each other down as unease settled over them like the fog outside
the house. Were they in too deep?

She downed the last of her
coffee and stood. “Listen, we’re great in bed together. Why mess it
up? Obviously, we’re not ready to share the other parts of our
lives.”

Turning, she went to the
front door and left. He wished he could run after her. He did want
to share everything. The ranch. Their lives. Their
secrets.

But he didn’t know how he
could tell her about his part in Ben’s death.

Chapter Nine

He’d give Missy her space.
They both could use time to think.

He just missed her, and
didn’t want to consider his reasons for clamming up.

Because two boarder horses
were leaving that day, he couldn’t talk to Missy in the morning.
After loading the horses into the trailer, he paused outside the
driver side door. He didn’t think anyone had noticed how hard it
was on him to drive the truck with a trailer behind it.

It was the one moment when
he couldn’t push it away.

After that dark moment
passed, he climbed into the truck and started it. What would Missy
think if he told her?

He transported the horses
back to their owners, who had returned from vacation, then picked
up more hay while he was out. He wished, as he looked over at the
passenger seat, that she would have come along.

He wanted to slip over and
see her for lunch, like they’d done many times now, but he needed
to think about what he’d say. So he went back to his own place when
he was done working. After heating up leftovers, he chewed without
tasting, wondering how he’d gotten so lost.

After lunch, he ventured to
Missy’s door. Maybe she wanted to forget about last night. While
taking her porch steps, he brushed off any lingering hay, before
looking up to find her standing in her open door.

“
We sure complicated things
before,” he said. Maybe that was why she’d left instead of staying
with him.

The soft skin around her
eyes wasn’t red from crying, but her face looked gloomy today, and
her brown eyes dark. She stepped inside and let him follow her
in.

When she stopped and turned
to him, they were inches apart, and her eyes grew heavy with need.
The change threw him, but only for a second, because he always
needed her.

He swept her into an
embrace, barely getting the door shut behind them while he hungrily
kissed her.

“
You look good,” she said,
pulling off his coat to see his thick, cotton shirt
underneath.

“
Work clothes.” He gently
pulled the band from her ponytail to set her long hair
free.

“
You look good when you
work.”

He tugged on her shirt, but
she made him wait till they were in the bedroom to pull her clothes
off. Both were naked in minutes.

They fell onto the bed in a
rush. Her body was made for his hands, the curves and dips, the
swells. Their tense words were forgotten in their kisses. She
seemed to need him as much as the first time. When she arched up
against him, it sent him over the edge.

“
Sorry,” he gasped against
her neck. “You got the better of me.”

She laughed under him,
shaking them. He ran his fingers through her hair, pulling it to
his nose to smell her lavender shampoo.

“
Missy.”

“
You sure like saying my
name in the bedroom.” She said with a smile, gazing into his
eyes.

Did he? What else did he
say while making love to her?

“
Because you like having me
in your bedroom so much.” He rolled so they lay stomach to stomach
and skimmed his hand over every inch of her. “Do we have time for
round two?”

“
What else do we have to do
today?” She followed his lead and flattened her hand on his chest
before running it all over his bare skin. While he’d been nice and
touched her sensitive places, she teased and ran around
his.

With a sly smile, he said,
“The new horse will be here in an hour.”

“
Oh!”

“
Did you
forget?”

“
Not until you showed up at
my door.” She continued to tease him. “A lot can happen in an
hour.”

His body responded to her
hands. What if the owner brought the horse early? Didn’t matter, he
couldn’t move. “Do I make you forget things?”

“
Let’s find
out!”

* * * *

Forty minutes later, they
were scrambling to make it to the stables in time. Brent would have
never guessed he would enjoy watching her dress. She’d yanked on
her jeans and a sweater and pulled on a navy coat to protect her
from the biting cold outside. A cold front had interrupted their
mild weather, but at least it wasn’t below freezing.

As they walked together
down to the road, Brent heard a truck rolling toward them on the
gravel.

“
We made it just in time,”
Missy said when the truck pulled up with the horse trailer behind
it.