Chapter Twelve
Fresh from a shower, Travis was zipping up his jeans and buttoning his shirt when Veronica slipped into the bathroom and snuggled up behind him, rubbing her full breasts in a move that enticed him to stay naked. He loved the sweet sound she made, almost like a purr, and he watched in the mirror’s reflection as her graceful hands slid around his waist and upward to his chest.
“Ready to get started on work, Nika?” Maybe thinking about the fact she needed to get started would help to tame his cock. Not.
“Yes. You inspired me, Travis,” she murmured, and he could feel the heat from her cheek between his shoulder blades as she pressed it to him.
“So our getting together has been good for your work?” he asked, the hollow feeling opening up in his chest again. He wanted to be more than research to her but wouldn’t push her. She’d been pushed enough for one lifetime.
She peeked out from behind his arm and he could see the turmoil in her eyes. “It’s more than that to me, Travis. Yes, it’s going to make a huge difference in my stories. You and Hank have opened a whole new world to me. But—”
The crater in his chest deepened, hoping for her next words but they were interrupted by a loud, rapid knocking at the door and the sound of voices, and thumping outside.
Travis frowned and looked at her. “Were you expecting company?”
Veronica shook her head. “No. I was going to search online for our costumes for that race and then I was going to write until the two of you came back tonight.”
Travis helped her into her silky robe, since she was still nude, and she followed him to the front door. Multiple voices sounded on the porch and before he could reach the door, more rapid knocking filled the quiet of the house. He looped an arm around her and slid her behind him and opened the door.
A bevy of women, of all ages and sizes stood on the front porch, all chattering excitedly until their eyes landed on him. Beyond the porch, more stood on the walkway while others were climbing from the cars lined up in front of the house. There had to be at least twenty women, maybe more. Their spokesman, the woman who’d knocked, took one look at him and a pink blush filled her cheeks and she stammered unintelligibly. In the distance, he could see Jack, Angel, and the ranch foreman, Ash Peterson, along with several ranch hands, making their way down to the old foreman’s house.
“Good afternoon, ladies, can I help you?”
“We…Uh. Hi. We—” She finally fell silent.
Another woman came near and put her arm around the shoulder of the stammering woman and smiled from ear to ear, her eyes twinkling. “What my sister Sue is trying to say, sir, is that we hope we’ve come to the right place. My name is Tracy Farmer and we are the admins of the Heart of Texas Romance Reader’s Forum, and these are a number of our group members. Veronica Benedict invited our group to a private meet and greet at this location, complete with driving directions. Is she here?”
Travis heard Veronica’s gasp and felt it when her body trembled against him and she gripped his arms tightly.
The ladies whispered amongst themselves, obviously reacting to the confusion on his face. Veronica tugged at his shirt and he held up his hand for quiet. “Ladies, hold on for just one minute. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”
Miss Farmer nodded and smiled at him, unperturbed, while the other ladies looked confused. He closed the door, silently slid the bolt home, and drew her away from it, relieved the drapes were already all drawn. The shock on her face said it all.
“You didn’t invite anyone out here did you?”
“No, Travis, I didn’t. Oh my gosh. If they see Grace—”
Travis said, “I’ll go talk to them.”
“And tell them what, Travis? Someone obviously intended this situation to turn out bad. I can’t have that. We can’t send them away.”
Travis nodded as she picked up her phone. “Ask them to give me five minutes. I’ll get dressed and then I’ll talk to them.”
“Jack and some of the guys were coming up the drive.”
“Okay, go out there and talk to them privately. Explain what has happened and ask for their help.” She pulled up the reader’s forum on her smartphone browser and looked at it. “I did a chat with these ladies right before my first erotic romance came out. I haven’t been back to the group forum since.” Her jaw fell open and she closed her eyes. “Here’s the invitation.”
He looked over his shoulder. Sure enough. It was there on the group’s home page in bold, colorful lettering. A meet and greet with Veronica Benedict, on that day and at that time. And to top it off the time for the event was all day, so more people might show up as the day progressed.
She tapped on the icon for the member posting the invitation and sighed. “Someone set up an account as V. Benedict and posted it. There’s no profile or contact information.”
Veronica looked up at him, worry in her eyes. “I don’t mind if they know that a troll did this but I can’t disappoint them. I won’t. Those ladies are on Facebook and all over the place promoting my books. I can’t pay them back by doing that.”
Travis nodded and said, “After I talk with the guys, I’ll call Hank.”
“Call Ace and Kemp, too. We need to get to the bottom of this.”
Travis stopped and turned back. “Whoever did this knows your location, Nika.”
She stopped in mid-stride and looked back at him. Fear making an appearance in her eyes before she firmed her lips and shook her head. “As long as I’m with you, I’ll be okay. After we take care of these ladies, we’ll figure out what to do.”
No more chats, for starters. One of those chats had to be how they’d pinpointed her location. And the GPS on her phone needs to get turned off, too.
She hurried down the hallway and he reopened the front door and stepped out onto the front porch. Tracy nodded understandingly as he explained he needed to talk to the approaching men before saying anything. He had the feeling the ladies were beginning to catch on that they’d been snookered.
Two minutes later, he wasn’t the only righteously indignant man on the ranch. Jack, Angel, Ash, and the ranch hands put their heads together and helped him come up with a plan, and then they all went about their tasks, some to take care of ranch business and others to set up an afternoon and evening of fun for the ladies who’d taken time out of their lives on a weekday to some spend time with Veronica.
Travis walked back to the group of ladies, smiling at three who’d just pulled up and were getting out of their car, and then waved to Tracy and Sue to come closer and for the others to gather around. “Okay, ladies, first of all, let me thank you for making the long drive out to Divine. Veronica and I want to welcome you to the Divine Creek Ranch—”
Lord, please don’t let Grace have ever mentioned online that she lives on the Divine Creek Ranch before.
The last thing he wanted to do was out Grace’s location and true identity.
Several ladies nodded and smiled but recognition of that ranch name didn’t flicker in any of their eyes and he was profoundly grateful.
“—but I need to fill you in on some details you aren’t aware of.”
By the time he finished explaining to them, Tracy, Sue, and their loyal group of followers were ready to lynch whoever had pulled that stunt on Veronica. Many of them were moved to tears and apologetic for giving them such a surprise while others wanted to know if it was possible to trace the asshole that had posted the invitation in the group and then disappeared, tricking them into falling for the ploy.
“We thought we were in on something really special,” one of the ladies, a sweet-looking lady in her late forties, said.
Travis grinned and took out his phone. “Well, ladies, it just so happens you are. What one evil person intended to be a bad thing bad is going to turn out good, for those of you who came, and for anyone else who shows up. As we’re speaking, plans are being put into place for the day. If you can be patient a little longer, Veronica is getting herself ready and making a quick phone call or two to marshal the forces, and we’ll have some fun put together in no time.”
Jack nudged him and he turned to his old friend while the ladies talked amongst themselves, and he noticed that Ethan, Adam, and Joaquin Martinez had also arrived.
Ethan said, “Rudy and O’Reilley’s are sending lunch, and Rudy is sending two of his nephews to help serve and clean up. Grace is calling the girls to ask if they’d participate in a talk about ménage relationships. She’s also arranging for other amenities with Divine Rentals. She’s got to stay upstairs though, because there are too many pictures of her from conventions on the Internet. She’s concerned those ladies would recognize her. She wants Veronica to have the limelight so she’s going to communicate with her via the phone. I’ve already contacted Ace and he’s looking into that bullshit invitation and working on tracing the shithead who’s doing this to her. Shit just got real serious when people show up on her damned doorstep.”
“Yeah, I’m grateful at least that it was these ladies and not some individual bent on harming her. I’m sure the two group admins will give them access to the site.”
Jack whispered, “Trav, it’s probably not safe for her to stay here anymore.”
“I mentioned that to her and she agreed, but she wants to deal with that later, after this is over with.”
Right then, Veronica came out of the house and Travis was spellbound. As he glanced around, all the guys were, too. Whoever had planted that invitation had intended to humiliate her, to scare her, and to make her feel unsafe. She didn’t project any of those emotions at all. She fucking
owned
that potential disaster and he got to watch her do it.
She was dressed in cowboy boots, artfully ripped jeans, a sexy top, and had twirled her hair up into a disarrayed knot that looked like she’d spent an hour at the beauty shop to have done, and she graciously greeted and hugged the admins.
She pulled up a chair to seat an elderly lady who’d been standing on the porch without complaint and explained what had happened. She never betrayed the shock or fear that he knew she’d felt earlier at having such a surprise sprung on her.
“Veronica, we’re so sorry this happened,” Tracy said. “We’ll be happy to do whatever we can to make sure something like this never happens to you ever again. Whoever did this needs their ass kicked six ways to Sunday.”
The elderly lady, who looked like a librarian piped up. “Damned sons of bitches. They give online reader chat rooms a bad name.” All of the ladies agreed with her.
Veronica launched into a brief question-and-answer session, putting together an afternoon and evening filled with events that had the ladies crowing with happiness. They were all shocked that she was willing to take time out of her day for them with no notice.
Tracy Farmer raised her hands and hollered, “Ladies, listen to me. We’re going to call an impromptu face-to-face chat right now, amongst ourselves, to give Veronica and these other really…hot…scrumptious-looking cowboys time to get things pulled together. Please, no one post anything online until we agree how to handle this bullshit—I mean—this situation.”
Ash raised his hand and spoke loudly enough for the growing gathering to hear him. “Ladies, if you’ll follow me, we have seating in the covered arena next to Barn Number Two, where you can be in the shade while you hold your discussion. If you’ll all follow me and”—he pointed with a grin at Joaquin, who waved a hand in greeting—“Joaquin Martinez, we’re going to take you on a short tour of the Andalusian stallions and mares housed in that barn and then on to the arena where we’ll get you comfortably seated.”
Travis chuckled when several of the women sighed dreamily as they gazed at the cowboys who’d dropped everything to help Veronica out.
Several of the ladies hugged Veronica, giving her personal apologies and vowing to do what they could to help her in light of the way she’d been victimized.
Veronica came to stand beside him as they watched the ladies follow Ash and Joaquin on the short walk to Barn Number Two. Like tour guides, the cowboys took turns speaking to the ladies as they went, asking them for quiet as they entered the barn, and told them a bit about what responsibilities they held.
Travis glanced at Veronica, who glowed in the dappled sunlight as she watched her readers follow the men. He said, “You know, this could wind up being an expensive day.”
Veronica shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t give a damn. I’m happy to foot the bill. It’s because of ladies like those I’m able to do what I love more than anything else in the world. Grace is working her event planning magic as we speak. I’m amazed by what she already has set up. Whoever did this thought they would hurt me but they’re going to be disappointed.”
Travis fell a little harder as he looked at her. This woman who struggled with panic attacks and online bullying was turning a situation that had been intended to hurt her into something good. Something special. Not for herself, but for others who had been made innocent victims. He’d heard from some of them that they’d driven for more than six hours to get to the ranch. One lady had taken the day off of work and booked a red-eye flight the night before so she could be in Texas for the event.
“What can I do to help?”
Veronica looked at him and his cock tingled at the fierce light in her eyes, before she tilted her head and slid her arms around him, letting out a little sigh as she squeezed him. “Call Hank and let him know what happened. I just want him to know what happened. I know he’ll come when he can.”