Have a Little Faith (5 page)

“He likes you.”

“Yes. It took me months to earn his affection. He doesn’t give it easily.”

“Oh?” Lane lifted a brow.
“Any reason?”

She did
n’t sigh, although she wanted t
o. She didn’t want to be making pleasant conversation with him. Nonetheless, she found herself explaining. “He was abused before I bought him. He was just a yearling and his owner couldn’t break him.
Small wonder.
He’s an
ass
anyway.” Alex shr
ugged referring to Gary Fuller.
“I
gentled
Crazy in four months. The only reason it took me that long is because he was scared to death
anyone touching him
.”

“Sounds to me like that guy has no business owning horses.”

She was surprised by the sincerity
and
hints
of anger
in his voice. He was dressed in jeans with a button up shirt but he still emitted
city
to Alex. She looked up
to find his gaze on her
. “He doesn’t own them anymore.”

“Good. So, back to my original question, why do you want to be thrown off Crazy?” He
had yet to take his eyes off her. She wanted to squirm
,
but squared her shoulders instead. She wasn’t goin
g to let some pompous city boy—with beautiful eyes—
make her feel insignificant.

“It’s our tradition. I usually get thrown off when I try to take him up the hills. He has a phobia.”

“Interesting.”

Why was he looking at her this way? And why wasn’t she aware that he was so close before? Funny, she mused. Now his eyes had darkened. They were the same green as before only now shaded. She wouldn’t recognize it as desire, she simply couldn’t know. But when he started to lean his head toward hers, she straightened abruptly.

“Mr. Tanner,” s
he began uncomfortably
.

“Lane.”

“Lane, I have things to
do
before the sun goes down.”
She
slipped off the fenc
e and started back to the barn trying not to notice the way his muscles moved beneath his shirt as he climbed down as well.

“Alexandra.”

She turned slowly
,
not at all liking the way he drawled out her name. He was standing with the
setting sun to his back, his
hands tucked casually in the pockets of his jeans.
She let out the breath she’d been holding
and said, “Yes?”

“Your mother and I wish to speak with you at your convenience.”

A shiver raced up her spine before she could control it. His voice had taken on a husky quality
.
She swallowed
.
Danger
.
S
he recognized it in Lane Tanner.

“Tell her I’ll be there soon.”

By the time she managed to pry herself away from
the horses
, she knew she was a mess. As she rounded the side of the house, she yanked her hair out o
f the braids and fluffed out tangled mess
. It wouldn’t do any good to look like a naïve farm girl, Alex thought dispassionately.
She pulled the unruly nest into a tail once she had smoothed some of the tan
gles out. She hoped there weren’t
any pieces of straw attached.

Surely he hadn’t meant to kiss her.
That’s just absurd. He doesn’t even know me.
She thought of the way his eyes had held hers. How they
’d
changed from a bright green to dark emerald in a flash.

She stood on the back porch and dusted her clothes off before going in. She followed the
muted sounds of conversations into the den. She realized she hadn’t been in the room since she and her mother had fought the day Linda told her she was thinking about selling Morgan.

She wondered if there would be another fight tonight.

“You wanted to see me
?”

Two pairs of eyes lifted to hers as she walked into the room.

“Yes, Alex. Please have a seat. There’s some business we need to discuss.” Her mother placed her folded hands on her lap.

Alex took her seat across from Lane and her mother and waited.
She tried not to appear anxious
,
but she worried her bottom lip and stared straight ahead.

“As you know,” Linda began calmly,
her voice smooth as honey.
“Tanner Enterprises is interested in buying the ranch. Lane has given me their offer and I’ve decided to sell.”

Lane watched Alex’s face the entire time. He saw a variety of emotions p
lay in her brilliant blue stare;
a
nger to fury to devastation.

“You’ve signed the contracts?” s
he asked quietly with thick emotion coating her voice.

“N
ot yet. I’m sending them to
Tucker
tomorrow. He’s going to have a look at the contracts and we’ll meet there in two weeks.” Linda passed a look to Lane. “Two weeks is how long the bank draft from Tanner Enterprises will take to be transferred.”

Alex’s blank stare switched to Lane’s. He only lifted a brow.

“And what about the ranch?” s
he asked him directly. “What are your plans for Morgan?” She told herself she wouldn’t ask.
It would only add insult to injury, after all.
Now, she found that she had to know.

“Tanner Enterprises is in the business of buying large quantities of land for theme parks, resorts, and other recreational purposes. This is my project and I have some ideas of what I’d like
to accomplish here.”

“Project?”
Alex’s voice was still deadly calm as she rose. “This is nothing but a project to you?” She whirled around to her mother before he could answer and her anger became full fury. “And it’s nothing to you except means to an end! Do you not care that I’ve worked this land my entire life? Do you not care that if I leave this place I will have lost everything that means anything to me?”

“I think you should go lie down Alex. You’re tired and you’ve been skipping meals again.”

“Oh, stop it!” She interrupted her mother’s soft, infuriating voice. “You don’t give a damn about what I do so just stop it. You can’t just throw away our life, Mother. You can’t just sign it away.”

Linda swallowed audibly
,
but kept her composure. “I can. And I will. It’s my decision and my decision only.”

“This isn’t fair.” Alex felt the tears stinging her eyes and fought them back. “You know what I have here.” She
was
speaking of Faith and of her animals. “You know why I can’t lose the ranch. You know how important this is to me!”

“I’ve already told you—”

“For once
will
you at least try to see it through my eyes? Try to see what this is going to do to me?
Please
. Give it time. Give me time, I’ll match their offer. I’ll buy the ranch from you.”

“The offer I’m accepting from Lane is far too high for you to meet.” Linda told her
dispassionately
. “I told Lane you’d be difficult.”

“Difficult? Damn right, I’m going to be difficult! I spent the last six months bringing this ranch back and now you’re just going to sell it to someone who’s going to make a theme park out of it.” Alex bit down on her trembling lips and tried once more to be calm. “I have some
ideas. Would you please just listen to them?”

Linda was
a stony wall of silence
.

Alex whirled around to stare out the wi
ndow and into the now black sky and fought for control.

“The contract is going to
Tucker
Cole’s
office tomorrow,
” Linda
said referring to the town’s
l
awyer. “In two weeks, Lane and
I will sign the contracts for the sale of
the ranch
. You have two weeks to get used to the idea, Alex. It’s final.”

“Then I guess there’s nothing I can say.”
Her voice was low and calm as she shut the feeling out. There had to be something she could do, but now wasn’t the time to plan. She needed to be cold and unfeeling right now instead of burning with anger.

With
the conversation over
, Linda rolled her
wheelchair
out of the room
after a murmured good night to Lane
.
It cracked the last grip of control she had managed.

Lane watched Alex. Her back wa
s still to him and it was rigid and trembling with fury
. He knew when she turned
around,
the color of her eyes would match her shirt perfectly, even if they were shooting fire at him.

He wasn’t disappointed. She whirled around to him
and he felt scorched
. “Have you considered that five men are going to
be out of a job in two weeks?” s
he asked
him hotly.

He understood her passion. He even admired her for it.

“I’m prepared to offer them a job for the reconstruction on a temporary basis of six months. That will give them plenty of time to relocate.
If their work pleases me, a permanent position may be offered.
”

“How considerate
of you,” s
he snapped.
“How completely thoughtful.”
A single tear fell and rolled down her cheek. Cursing it and Lane Tanner, Alex turned toward the window again.

“You may not be able to comprehend this, Mr. Tanner
,
but some people work for what they have. I’ve worked very hard to keep this ranch and I’m not letting you take it without a fight.”

“Oh, I can comprehend,” h
e said silkily. “What I don’t understand is wh
y in the hell you’re blaming me.
”

“You had to call her and put it in her head.” Alex’s fingers dug into her arms as she hugged them.

“It’s my job.”

“Nothing personal?”
With her tone abruptly lighter, she turned around and dropped her arms.

Lane ignored the punch in his gut
that
he knew to be pure lust. That was something he would have to think about later.

“No, it’s nothing personal.
” He raised a brow at the flash in her eyes.

“You’re an imprudent fool,” s
he
hissed.
“And that
is
personal.”

Pleased with her retort, Alex spun around to leave the room only
to find her arm gripped in a vice-
like hold before she was whirled around. She sucked in a breath and looked straight into the furious eyes of Lane
Tanner
.

“Now,” he said in a low
,
snarling voice, “it’s my turn to get personal.”

Her eyes widened in shock seconds before his mouth covered hers. Shock kept her from reacting. His lips were hot and firm as they
bruised
over hers. His
arms
wound around her back, keeping her arms prisoner in between their bodies.

By the time she thought to protest, protest became an
afterthought
. His tongue forced her lips apart so that he could deepen the kiss. New sensations exploded behind Alex’s closed
eyelids
.

A
n
unfamiliar
burn
ing spread through
out her entire body all the way down to her toes. Her knee’s nearly buckled
,
but Lane held her up while he assaulted her senses with his mouth alone.

Oh no, she thought dizzily. This
shouldn’t
feel
so
wonderful
. Not from a man she was supposed to hate. She shouldn’t be coming to life in his arms. She shouldn’t be praying this kiss would never end. It’d been so long since she’d been held, cherished, devoured. And even then…

He pulled her away so quickly it ripped another gasp from her and she stared into eyes that were almost black. All too quickly the quivering feelings in her body faded and desire became
anxiety
when he only continued to stare at her.

Fighting to keep his own needs in perspective, Lane held her at
arm’s
length. What did she do to him? Her taste h
ad hit him like a freight train;
sweet and pure.
The desire he was beginning to feel for her was both unexpected and lethal.
The nebulous feeling began to recede slowly as he brought air into his tortured lungs.
His grip tightened on her arms when he noticed her breaths were coming out in jerks. Her eyes were no longer clouded with passion but glassy with panic.