At that moment, Maureen caught a glimpse of his forearm, and it suddenly didn't matter what he'd been about to say. She gasped audibly. “Adam! What have you done to yourself?” Before he could answer, she rushed forward and took hold of his arm.
Her closeness, the touch of her soft hands, was
worth the searing pain of the rope burn, he decided. Then cursed himself for being such a fool.
“It's nothing, Maureen. A yearling got a little rowdy, that's all.”
“Nothing! This is plowed flesh. And...” She stopped speaking as she bent her head over his arm for a closer inspection of the wound. “It looks like it's full of dirt and hair.”
Above her head, Adam smiled. After a week of cool indifference, her show of concern was like a soothing balm. “Horsehair and a little dirt aren't going to kill me.”
“No. But the bacteria will deal that arm some misery if you don't let me clean it out. Where's a first-aid kit?”
He could just hear the wranglers and Anna laughing about his needing first aid for a rope burn. “I'll deal with it later.”
“I know how you'll deal with it,” she said, leaning back and glancing up at his face. “You'll turn the tap water on it for a few seconds and say that's clean enough.”
He grinned, and Maureen wondered why he had to be so damn charming even when he wasn't trying.
“It's always worked before,” he said.
“Well, not this time. So where's the antiseptic?”
“Okay, I give up. I'll go after the first-aid kit. But no bandages,” he forewarned. “I'm not ready to be the laughingstock of the ranch.”
Maureen was waiting for him at the kitchen table when he returned with a small plastic case of medical supplies. She immediately straightened his arm out on the tabletop and clucked her tongue at the damage.
“This is really awful,” she murmured as she
poured a generous portion of peroxide over the wound, then went to work with a cotton swab. “How did you do it anyway?”
“Trying to hold eight hundred pounds of nervous horseflesh while my sister used electric clippers on his mane.”
“Then your sister knows you were hurt?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a shrug. Then deciding it wouldn't hurt to gamer all the sympathy he could get, he added, “She said she was sorry, then laughed.”
“Laughed! But that's horrible!”
Adam had to chuckle. “Not really. Anna knows her brother is tough. Besides, it's just a bad rope burn. Every cowboy gets them from time to time.”
Her gaze lifted to his face. “You consider yourself a cowboy?”
“I was a cowboy long before I ever got into the gas business,” he said easily.
“You like the profession.” she stated rather than questioned.
“Always have. But I like drilling for petroleum, too. The payoff is almost always better.”
She continued to swab the wound. “I didn't realize money was your main objective.”
“It isn't. But it's a nice dividend, don't you think?”
Maureen thought she'd trade all the money she had in the world to have a home and family as Adam had, but he obviously wouldn't understand that. He'd never been entirely alone. He didn't know what it did to a person's heart.
“You know, Maureen,” he said after a few moments
passed, “I'm glad...you're talking to me again.”
She glanced up from his arm, then wished she hadn't. His face was so close. Too close for her rattled senses. “I never quit.”
His gaze dropped to her berry-red lips. “You've been avoiding me like the plague,” he accused.
“I could say the same about you.” Shaken by the touch of his eyes, she turned her attention back to his arm. “Besides, Adam, we agreed we weren't... well. that we need to keep things cool between us.”
He sighed. “Yes, I know we agreed. But that doesn't mean we have to treat each other quite so coldly. I don't like working that way. I don't like...being that way with you.”
Her hand stilled on his arm, and for a moment she allowed herself to savor the feel of his warm skin, the fine hair curling around her fingers. All week she'd yearned to touch him. She supposed the injury had been a good excuse.
“I'm not crazy about it, either,” she admitted lowly.
“Then do you think we can be friends again?”
A voice of warning shouted in her head, but she could hardly hear it over the drumming of her heart.
“I don't believe...”
When she didn't go on, Adam took hold of her chin and lifted her face up to his. “Believe what?” he prompted.
She swallowed as her senses scattered like dry leaves in a fall wind. “That we can...ever be friends. There's too muchâ”
“Chemistry between us,” he finished wryly.
At least he hadn't called it lust, Maureen thought
gratefully. Nodding, she said, “Something like that. And if we try to be friendsâ”
“We
are
friends,” he interrupted. “You just don't want to admit it.”
Maybe he was right. They weren't strangers. Nor were they simply co-workers. Friends would be the safest label to put on their relationship.
“All right,” she agreed. “We're friends.”
“Good,” he said, flashing her another grin. “I think we should start all over again.”
“And how do you propose we do that? We've already started over once since I broke your ankle.”
He shook his head. “Forget about my ankle. Forget our swim. Forget about this damn burn on my arm. Let's go down to the barn and find a couple of riding horses. You can ride a horse, can't you?”
“If it's docile enough.”
“I can probably find a nag among the bunch.”
She smoothed antibiotic cream over the long patch of raw flesh, then covered the whole thing with three Band-Aid strips.
“And where am I going to ride this nag?” she wanted to know.
“Just out on the mesa. Or we can ride south to the mountains. I'd like to show you some of the ranch. So far, you've only seen the house and the ranch yard.”
To get outdoors and enjoy the balmy summer evening would be nice, Maureen thought. And if being alone with Adam was the equivalent of trying to diet in a candy store, then she could view it as a test or preparation of sorts. Because sooner or later, their job would send them off together and she was going to have to be prepared.
“Okay,” she said with a shrug, “I accept your invitation. Just don't expect me to ride like a cowgirl.”
The corner of his mouth lifted, exposing his straight white teeth. “I don't expect you to be anything but yourself.”
Chapter Five
T
he so-called nag Adam picked out for Maureen turned out to be a piebald gray who'd been ridden the day before gathering cattle in the mountains. The work had knocked the “edge” off him, Adam assured her, so he wouldn't feel like kicking up his heels.
“But I don't want to ride a tired horse!” Maureen exclaimed. “That's cruel.”
Adam laughed as he tugged the saddle cinch tight against the animal's underbelly. “Leo is anything but tired. He's just burned enough energy yesterday to make him manageable today.” He turned and motioned his head toward the seat of the saddle. “He's ready. Want me to help you mount?”
“I think I can manage on my own.” She stepped up carefully to the horse and lifted her toe toward the dangling stirrup. “Wasn't Leo a foot shorter a moment ago?”
“Don't insult his Thoroughbred blood,” Adam said with a chuckle, then not bothering to ask permission,
he planted his palm against Maureen's rear and shoved.
She squealed loudly and grabbed the saddle horn as the strength of his unexpected boost sent her very nearly over the horse's back.
“You just had to do that, didn't you? What would you have done if I'd fallen off on the other side?” she demanded.
Her breasts were heaving and part of her disheveled hair clung to the side of her face. She looked so gorgeous he had half a mind to drag her out of the saddle and do it all over again. “Picked you up, dusted you off and put you back on Leo.”
Maureen rolled her eyes. “Is this the way you treat all your female friends?” she asked, then shook her head. “Don't answer. I remember now. You don't invite your women friends out here. Only your female enemies.”
Laughing heartily, he untethered the chestnut waiting a few steps away and swung easily into the saddle. “I didn't know a scientist could possess a bit of wit, too. You must be a rare breed.”
No. She wasn't rare, Maureen thought. More like crazy for ever agreeing to go with Adam on this excursion. And perhaps even crazier for coming to New Mexico in the first place.
Yet in spite of her doubts and worries about Adam, something kept on telling her this place was meant to be her home. And she prayed her instincts weren't leading her to a broken heart.
Wranglers were busy with the evening chores as Maureen and Adam rode through the dusty ranch yard. Several of the men lifted hands in greeting and called to Adam. When they rode past the long white
building of horse stables, Anna was outside, hosing down a painted colt. She waved to the two of them, and Maureen waved back.
“Seeing your sister like this, it's hard to believe she used to be a concert pianist,” Maureen told him.
Adam had chosen to ride along a cattle trail headed south of the ranch and into the mountains. So far, the open ground allowed them to ride abreast, and now that Maureen had spoken, he glanced across at her. “I'll have her play for you sometime. She can work magic with a piano.”
Maureen had first met Adam's twin a couple of days ago at the ranch house and she'd liked the other woman immediately. She was as beautiful and vibrant as her mother. And she seemed extraordinarily close to her brother.
“I can't imagine her giving it up. Some people study all their lives just to get the opportunity to do what she was doing.”
Adam nodded. “That's true. But she hasn't really given up her music. Now she can play when she wants to and for whom she wants to. And believe me, my sister is much happier now that she's left that life behind and married Miguel.”
“Has she always been interested in horses?”
Adam laughed.
“Obsessed
is more the word. She's just like Mom. It's something that's in her blood and she's damn good at it. I think that's one reason why she was never truly happy while she was touring with her music career. She missed the ranch and the horses and the simpleness of it all.”
Maureen had often wondered what her life might be like if she didn't work as a geologist. Would she be happier if she simplified her life with a regular
nine-to-five job? She somehow doubted it. No one was at home waiting for her, wanting her. And as for anyone needing her, she supposed no one ever had. Except her daughter. And when the baby had needed her the most, she'd failed her. But she didn't want to think of that now. She tried not ever to think of it
“Your sister is a lucky woman,” Maureen said. “But even more brave, I think.”
“Why so?” Adam asked curiously.
“Because she followed her heart instead of trudging along the expected course.”
He smiled faintly. “And you think that takes a lot of courage?”
“I'm sure of it.”
The warm rays of the sinking sun caught in her long hair and bathed her skin with a golden glow. As Adam's gaze lingered on the soft profile of her features, then dipped to the generous thrust of her breasts he knew he'd never seen a more sensual woman. She'd been made to love a man and have his children. So why was she alone? he wondered. And why could he not bear to picture any man touching her except himself?
For the next few minutes they rode in silence. Little by little, the trail narrowed and began to climb through a stand of ponderosa pine.
When it finally became impossible to ride side by side, Maureen. was content to let Adam take the lead and allow Leo to follow at a slower pace. Eventually, the forest thickened. Spruce and aspen became interspersed among the tall pines. Chipmunks scurried across the forest floor and more than once deer bolted from the shadows, then bounded gracefully out of sight.
Maureen drank in the quiet beauty of it all and thought how wonderful it was that the Sanderses owned land that would be handed down through generations and never be marred by the progress of civilization.
When the rocky path they were traveling finally became almost too steep to go on, it curved around the side of the mountain and Maureen gasped at the sudden splendor spreading out below her.
A few feet ahead, a break in the cliff widened the trail. Adam pulled his chestnut to a halt and Maureen stopped Leo directly behind him. He twisted in his saddle and smiled back at her. “Beautiful, isn't it?”
“Breathtaking,” she agreed.
“Would you like to get off and stretch your legs?”
By now, stiffness was creeping into Maureen's bottom half. She wasn't sure she'd be able to get off Leo, much less get back on him.
“I don't know if that would be a very good idea,” she said as she tried to draw her feet out of the stirrups. “I thought I was in fair shape until I got on this horse.”
“Riding takes muscles you didn't know you had,” he told her. “Just wait a minute, and I'll help you down.”
She remained where she was while he dismounted and tethered the chestnut to a nearby juniper bush. When he returned to her and Leo, she didn't have much choice but to lift her right leg over the saddle horn and slide into his outstretched arms.
Maureen anchored her hands on his shoulders and he gripped her rib cage as he took the brunt of her weight, then set her gently down on the ground.
“How's the legs?” he asked, his hands lingering on the curve of her waist.
“Like two pieces of rubber,” she admitted with a shaky laugh. “But I'll manage.”
Once Adam was sure she could stand on her own, he took Leo by the reins and tethered him to the trunk of a spindly pinon pine, then came back to her. “Come on,” he said, “let's walk over to the edge of the cliff and take a look. The exercise will help you get your feet back under you.”
She nodded, and with his hand plastered to the small of her back, they slowly made their way over the rocky, uneven ground. If he was using the wobbly condition of her legs for a reason to touch her, Maureen certainly wasn't going to make an issue of it. This evening spent with him had been too nice to spoil it for any reason. And she couldn't deny, even to herself, how good the support of his hand felt against her.
Several feet from the edge of the cliff, Adam warned, “This is far enough. The soil is loamy and crumbles easily. If we toppled over the side of the mountain, it would be days before anyone found us. And by then, the coyotes and buzzards would have picked our bones clean.”
She cast him a sardonic glance. “Now you've ruined the beauty of the place.”
Chuckling, he motioned for her to look at the view rather than at him. “You can almost see all the way to Alamogordo from here.”
“I didn't realize the desert was so near,” she said. “I thought more mountains would be behind this one.”
“You might call that land down there desert. But I call it good grazing.”
Her expression turned thoughtful. “You know, I believe you're just as much a rancher as you are an oilman.”
Adam glanced down at her with mild surprise. “I never thought about it much. But you might be right I wouldn't like my life without land or cows or horses in it.”
She smiled faintly. “Then you're as unique as a scientist with wit. Because all the men I've ever worked with in the oil and gas business are definitely one-dimensional. Their whole world revolves around getting gas or oil from the ground as fast as they can.”
“Hmm. I have to admit you're right. Most of them don't have outside interests. As for me, I like the business and I want to do well in it. But I guess I have too much of my father in me to be just an oilman.”
She glanced curiously up at him. “What do you mean? Your father is an oilman.”
Smiling, he shook his head, then with a nudge against her back, guided her over to a flat boulder. Maureen took a seat on one end and waited for him to join her.
After he'd stretched his long legs out in front of him and lifted his hat to run a hand over his hair, he said, “I guess this will probably surprise you, though it's not really a secret Wyatt is not my real father.”
Maureen's brows shot up, but Adam tugged the brim of his hat back down on his forehead before she could say anything.
“What I mean,” Adam went on, “is that he's not
the man who sired me. Wyatt is actually my uncle and Chloe my half sister.”
She let out a soft gasp. “Your half sister? And uncle? I don't understand!”
He shrugged. “I didn't expect you to. It's all rather complicated.”
Maureen gently placed her hand on his thigh. “If you'd rather not tell me, I'll understand.”
He gave her a sidelong glance and could see in her eyes that she did understand and wouldn't think less of him if he changed the subject completely. Just knowing she felt that way drew him to her in a way he'd never expected.
“It's all right I don't mind talking about it. I'm certainly not ashamed of my heritage. In fact, my birth father is somewhat of a legend in this area. He bought this land more than sixty years ago and built the Bar M virtually by himself. From what my mom and aunts, or maybe I should say my half sisters tell me, Tomas Murdock was a hardworking, boisterous man who liked to drink and gamble. He loved horses even more. On or off the racetrack. When his wife's health failed, he became involved with another woman, Wyatt's sister, Belinda. The two of them had a secret affair and as a result Anna and I were born.”
“So what happened to your birth parents?” Maureen had to ask. “Where are they now?”
His features were suddenly clouded with regret. “I'm sorry to say they're both dead. Shortly after Anna and I were born, Tomas suffered a fatal heart attack. He was only in his mid-fifties, but from what I've been told, they'd been hard-lived years.”
Fascinated, Maureen urged him to go on. “And
Belinda? She must have been much younger if she was able to bear children.”
Adam nodded. “Close to twenty-five years younger. But she had emotional problems, and they were compounded when she believed Tomas had deserted her and the two babies.”
“Had he deserted her and you children?” Maureen asked, surprised at how much she truly wanted to know about this man.
“We don't believe so. My sisters discovered many canceled checks he'd been sending to Belinda. She was living in Las Cruces at the time, and we suppose when the checks and Tomas quit coming to her, she snapped. She left Anna and me in a laundry basket on the front porch of the ranch house.”
Maureen's head swung slowly from side to side as she tried to digest all that he'd told her. It was all so difficult to imagine that this strong, confident, sexy man beside her had come into the world under such circumstances. She'd figured his life had been charmed from the moment he'd drawn his first breath.
“Oh, my, Adam. I can't...I just find this so hard to believe.”
“Well, believe it. She did. Justine found us, and for a good while, none of them even knew we were Murdocks, too.”