Authors: Gigi Moore
Desiree needed something to do to get her mind off of the dinner and Sam’s arrival and abrupt departure. She wandered into the kitchen and joined Maria, offering to help the housekeeper with the cleanup after dinner. The older woman, however, tried to run her out, flailing her dish towel and assuring Desiree she could handle things.
Desiree laughingly ducked and caught the towel on a downward swing, holding firmly.
“You should use your time more wisely and handle your business, as you young folk say.”
“And what business is that?
“Finding out what is the matter with that young man of yours.”
“Sam?”
Maria nodded and Desiree sighed in frustration. What was this, a conspiracy with Maia and Maria heading the plotters? “He’s not my young man, Maria.”
“Tell that to your nipples.”
Desiree gasped and released the towel to fold her arms over the impertinent nipples in question. “Maria!”
The housekeeper shrugged. “I just speak the truth, and I do not remember them making an appearance when that other man was here.”
“You mean Remy?”
“I do not like him. There is something…not nice about him.”
Desiree was usually a good judge of character herself, and she did get a funny vibe from the man, but then she got the same vibe from a lot of businessmen she dealt with on a daily basis, especially the lawyers. The lot of them tended to be cold and calculating, some even cutthroat, but she accepted these as a necessary evil, a part of doing business. This acceptance should have been her first warning sign. Maybe her judgment was off. Maybe she was making allowances for the men with whom she worked. She tolerated their behavior because it was business. If she were dealing with these same men on a personal level, however, she knew she wouldn’t cut them the same slack, at least not anymore.
Maybe that was what Maria meant regarding Remy. She was, after all, used to dealing with cowboys, a lot of men who didn’t come any more down-to-earth and sincere. Maybe it came from them dealing with animals and nature all day. They didn’t have to pretend, hide their feelings or their motives. They could just be themselves, whereas the men in Carpenter-Reynolds’ circle were always on, preening, posturing, and competing.
Some might see this as being a jerk or, as Maria put it, not being nice. Desiree just saw it as par for the course.
She had to admit, however, she envied the cowboys and their way more. She hadn’t felt like she had been or even could be herself again, not in a long time, not since…
He had been a businessman, too, dressed in expensive, tailored clothes and exhibiting impeccable manners—like Remy.
Desiree shook herself and took a deep breath, forcefully staying in the moment and not allowing memories to drag her back to a time when she had felt weak and worthless.
Maria put a hand on her arm. “You should go see about him. He looked about as upset and unhappy when he left here as you do now.”
Desiree cleared her throat before speaking, for she knew her voice would come out in a ragged rasp if she didn’t. She didn’t want Maria to be more on alert than she already seemed. “Maybe I will take a walk and try to burn off some of those jambalaya and pralines calories.”
“You go do that. I will hold down the fort.”
Desiree headed through the living room toward the spiral staircase and headed upstairs to her bedroom to finally get out of the business attire she’d been in most of the day. She looked through her drawers and closets, finally deciding on something simple, at least as simple as she was capable of. She threw on a cream Western shirt, a pair of black jeans, and her cowboy boots.
Looking in the mirror, she decided the tight bun did not go with the rustic gear, so she took out the pins and let her hair fall down around her shoulders. She brushed the copper-brown waves until they shone beneath the light of the room. At the last minute she freshened up her perfume, applying a spritz behind each ear of the vanilla scent she preferred.
Desiree stood from her vanity, headed for the door, and took a deep breath as she grabbed the doorknob.
What was she doing? It wasn’t too late to turn back. She hadn’t gone anywhere yet. She hadn’t made a date, and no one was expecting her. She could stay in and watch TV or catch up on some work without standing up or disappointing anyone, except herself, of course.
Desiree took another deep breath and pulled the door open just in time to see her sister grasp her chest and gasp on the threshold.
“You scared the crap out of me!”
“Up to no good again, no doubt,” Desiree drawled and pulled the door further to allow her sister entry.
Maia looked her up and down and took a whiff of the air as she stepped into the room. “Where are you off to?”
“Nowhere special. Maybe a walk around the ranch, get some fresh air.”
“Good for you.”
“Why good for me?”
“I heard about your little adventure in the Old West town.”
Who hadn’t? Gossip traveled like wildfire around this place. Desiree remained glad that the kiss she’d shared with Carson hadn’t received equal billing with her near trampling. At least she hadn’t heard any whispers about it around the ranch yet, and she was sure if anyone had witnessed the kiss, they would have been yammering about it by now, especially if they had caught that slap at the end.
“I’m just glad you’re taking the initiative to get out and around and enjoy this place the way it should be enjoyed,” Maia said. “The way you deserve.”
“I’m not going out riding or anything. It’s just a walk.”
“One step at a time.”
“How very wise of you.”
Maia grinned and stepped back into the hallway. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, Desi. Give yourself a break. Give them a break.” She started to leave, then paused and turned back to Desiree, brandishing a flashlight. “I almost forgot why I came up here in the first place.”
“Wha—?”
“Just take it, okay? You never know.”
Desiree took the offering and watched her sister leave, wondering how much Maia knew about what had happened to her. Desiree had never told anyone, especially not Maia. With Maia’s gifts, she just always assumed her sister knew. She was the one, after all, who had warned Desiree, not against Jeremy specifically but against danger that night in general, told her to watch herself. Never in Desiree’s wildest dreams had she thought that danger would come from the man she had been dating for the last three months.
Obviously, it hadn’t occurred to Maia, either, not even in her visions.
Desiree shook herself again, hated that she was allowing her past to rear its ugly head now, when she was trying to get back on the horse, so to speak.
She made it outside, feeling lost. She didn’t know where to go or what to do. Sure, it was just a walk, but she needed to have some sort of destination in mind, didn’t she?
It was a shame, considering she’d lived here long enough that she should have been better acquainted with the ranch attractions and hot spots.
The Old West town was closed by now, but there was a bar on the premises, not that Desiree was much of a drinker. The two glasses of wine she’d had at dinner still gave her a slight buzz. Compared to most of these cowboys, she was practically a teetotaler.
She saw a few cowboys scattered here and there in various ranch activities but didn’t notice Carson or Sam among them.
Once the animals were taken care of, how did the men spend their time? It wasn’t like they had to babysit the horses their entire shift, was it? The animals had to sleep, after all.
When did a night wrangler’s shift begin, exactly? It was hard to keep up with Carson and Sam. They were up and around the ranch breaking and shoeing horses and participating in the Old West town exhibitions, among other ranch events, during the day as well as the night.
When did they sleep?
Desiree gathered her courage and on impulse headed toward the tree line and the woods beyond it. Carson and Sam had been coming from that direction, wet and shirtless, the night she had had one of her wolf dreams. How could she forget
that
part? Maia certainly hadn’t let her live it down yet.
What am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing?
If her wolves did exist, this would certainly be the place to encounter them, wouldn’t it, in the woods, marking their territory? Would they dare venture this close to the ranch, and if they did, wouldn’t someone have noticed them by now?
Desiree paused just beyond the tree line, wondering how far in she dared go. She was a city girl at heart, concrete jungle running through her veins, and she hadn’t yet gotten used to all this surrounding nature. She wondered if she ever would.
Maia, Ms. Nature Girl herself, was in her element, loved all the trees and blue sky and mountains. She said it helped her get more in touch with her spiritual self and closer to her art. The girl had done more sketching and painting in the last several months than she had in years living in New York, where she’d pretty much given up her art for her job at a niche boutique that specialized in everything Wiccan, the closest thing she could get to a “suffocating nine-to-five,” as Maia called it. To which Desiree would always remind her, it paid the bills.
“
Leave it to Ms. Practical to make that observation.”
She and Maia would never see eye to eye on anything, and Desiree had given up trying.
Damn, when she took a chance and followed her impulses, she just went hog wild, didn’t she, roaming around out here all alone, at dusk, in the woods. At least Maria and Maia knew where she had gone, well, a general location. It wasn’t like she was leaving the property.
Still, the property itself was sprawling and the woods were dense, a lot denser than she had thought they would be, and dark, even at this hour. Something could be lurking behind any one of those bushes or trees ahead of her.
She was really acting like a TSTL, Too-Stupid-To-Live, heroine from one of the romance novels she loved to read whenever she got a chance, or a slasher-movie scream queen, flashlight in tow and all. Now she understood how some of those characters and heroines got into the predicaments they did. Hormones and lust didn’t make for common sense.
Desiree stepped on a branch at the same instant that she heard a growl sounding from several yards in front of her.
Maybe it was someone else stepping on a branch. Maybe that’s what she had heard, someone else wandering around in the woods at exactly the same time as she.
What about that growl?
Desiree switched on the flashlight and aimed the beam in front of her. The shaft of light was bright, bless Maia’s heart, but not that wide-ranging. “Hello? Is someone there?” Carson was right. She was an idiot.
Time to turn around and rejoin civiliza—
Desiree froze. Something rustled in the trees just up ahead. Her first instinct was to run, but she didn’t want to turn her back on whatever was behind that tree to do it. Wasn’t that committing some sort of fatal error in the presence of a predator, turning one’s back? Sounded familiar, like something she’d heard and seen on one of her favorite nature shows on Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel.
Now she understood why some of the ranch hands carried the .22 caliber “varmint” rifle. She’d heard it was for hazards like rattlesnakes, coyotes, or rabid skunks. When ranch hands were closer to the wilderness they carried higher caliber rifles to fend off larger predators like mountain lions.
Hmm, which did she prefer being attacked by—mountain lion, wolf, or coyote? Or better, a poisonous snake or rabid skunk? If she did survive the latter, she’d have to get a series of vaccinations to make sure she didn’t die an agonizing, slow death, unless some brave soul caught and tested the offending critter and got a negative result from a lab.