No man was entirely a safe bet when
alone in the dark with a woman who was
naked; Rose’s deliberate blindness needed
to end. He was safe—mostly—but she
wouldn’t, couldn’t, be so lucky always.
“You’re alone out here,” he pointed out
roughly. “Naked. In the dark. What do you
think could happen, Rose?”
“You wouldn’t hurt me, Cabe.” She was
right, but she shouldn’t make that
assumption.
He let his thumb brush the underside of
her breast where she was so soft. “You so
sure I’m safe, Rose?”
He wasn’t going to hurt her—never that
—but he wasn’t a fool, either. She’d come
up here expecting her inheritance from
Auntie Dee. Somehow he had to tell her
that she hadn’t really inherited property.
She’d inherited a mortgage. He owned the
land, not she. No way that truth wouldn’t
hurt, which was why it would be better all
around if she just took the check he
planned to offer her and didn’t look into
the matter too closely.
“What else would you be, Cabe?”
Some primitive part of him responded
fiercely to the unmistakable challenge in
her voice.
Unfortunately, Rose Jordan had always
loved challenging him, and she kept right
on talking.
“I swam here for years. Why shouldn’t I
now?”
She tried again to twist away from him.
For a moment, he wanted to tighten his
arms around her. Show her just what could
happen when she teased him like that.
Wouldn’t be right, though, so he simply
held on. Somehow, though—and he wasn’t
sure when or how things had changed—
Rose was different. What he felt for her
wasn’t different—if he was being honest
with himself—but now it felt more right.
His dick throbbed in agreement, the cold
water no real deterrent to what she was
stirring up inside him.
She froze—no way she hadn’t felt
that,
and he wasn’t flattering himself on his size.
She was plastered up against him, and his
clothes were soaked through.
“I’m asking again, Rose,” he whispered,
his mouth by her ear, where the scent of
those damned apples was strongest. “You
so very sure I’m safe?”
She shoved at his arm. “Let me go.”
He let go, his unruly dick fighting to
overrule the good manners that had been
drilled into him. He wanted to hang on to
her, haul her up really close until she
stopped asking questions and the only
demands she issued were sensual ones. But
that couldn’t happen.
“You’re the one who started this, Rose.
I’ll be happy to finish it, though.”
She cut through the water with fast, sure
strokes. There was a teasing flash of bare
arms and legs as she hauled herself out of
the swimming hole. She waxed, he
realized, and that little strip of soft, soft
hair on her otherwise bare pussy hid a part
of Rose Jordan he wanted to be kissing
sometime really soon.
She bent down, reaching for her towel,
and his libido exploded. Christ, didn’t she
care what she looked like? What that
luscious body of hers did to him? Was she
deliberately teasing him—or was he still
just
her
friends’
older
brother,
hardworking and sexless?
Treading water, he watched her. His
boots were uncomfortably heavy with
wetness, but he couldn’t just haul himself
out of the water sporting the erection he
had.
Maybe she sensed his impatience,
because she didn’t bother getting dressed,
just scooped up her clothes and beat a
retreat.
“Night, Cabe,” she called, making tracks
for the Honda. Damned if she wasn’t going
to drive away bare-assed naked. “See you
tomorrow,” she hollered back at him.
“Hell, yeah,” he growled, swimming for
the ledge.
Chapter Two
“N
ine hundred feet. I got two, maybe three
gallons per minute.” The driller looked up
from the test hole he’d driven yesterday,
waiting for Cabe and his brothers to weigh
in.
Hearing the driller call off those
numbers was too much like watching three
cherries spin past on the slots when you
were down to your last dollar. Of course,
both of his brothers knew as well as he did
that this had been a long shot.
He fisted his hands on his thighs. Three
gallons a minute wasn’t enough to take a
damned shower, and he had cattle to water.
It wasn’t nearly enough, and they all knew
it. The brothers gave the bad news a few
seconds of respectful silence. The driller
just waited. The man would get paid by the
foot, so he didn’t care much either way
what happened now.
“We’re empty.” Seth hadn’t stopped
restlessly moving since they’d ridden out
to the drill site an hour ago. If he took
those dust-covered boots of his back into
the ranch house they shared, their
housekeeper would be having words with
them all. Again.
“Party’s not over yet.” Rory nodded
toward Cabe and leaned back on his ATV,
one booted foot propped on the bumper.
There were shadows beneath his brother’s
eyes. As Cabe’s foreman, he didn’t
particularly like these answers, either.
“You want to drill deeper, Cabe?”
The ranch belonged to the three of them.
Always had and always would, as far as
he was concerned. Rory and Seth might
leave, but his brothers both knew the door
was never shut. Whatever they needed,
he’d do his damnedest to provide. And, so
far, they’d always come back. Always
been there to lend a hand when the work on
the ranch got to be too much for just one
man.
So his brothers, both of them, knew
protecting the ranch meant everything to
him. He’d carved out an empire for his
family
through
sheer
sweat
and
determination and raw, brute force. Before
he’d taken the reins, his family had run
cattle for decades, scraping out a living
until the beef market dried up once and for
all and forced them to diversify or throw in
their
cards.
Cabe
had
diversified.
Orchards. Horses. Whatever it took to add
to the ranch’s holdings and put by an ever-
growing rainy day nest egg in the bank.
He’d thrown himself into the day in, day
out battle to force the land to yield a living.
Drilling dry holes to nowhere wasn’t a
strategy that won a man battles.
The driller looked over, still waiting for
the go-ahead. The man would drill straight
through to China as long as the checks
cleared. Unfortunately, all the money in the
world couldn’t find water where there was
none.
“Day’s getting on,” Rory suggested
impatiently. “I’ve got work back at the
barn. I’m thinking we’re done here.”
“Someone’s not enjoying the party yet.”
Seth shook his head, still gazing at Cabe
while tugging his fingers through his
tangled hair as he blinked sleepily. His
brother’s eyes made him look like a big
cat, all lazy sensuality as he stretched, but
Cabe could read the question there clearly
enough. How far did he want to take this?
“We’re out of here. Plug the test drill
up,” Cabe said, not ready to answer
questions. Nodding to the driller, he
headed for his own ride. “Let’s head back
to the house.”
He straddled his ATV, considering his
next move. He knew what it had to be. The
answer was as obvious as the solid
presence of the sun-warmed leather seat
beneath his ass. Auntie Dee’s place.
“Sure.” Rory shrugged, his powerful
shoulders flexing beneath a black T-shirt.
The day’s heat already had the fabric
sticking to his back. The temperature was
going to soar today. “Plenty to do back on
the home front.”
Seth was already kick-starting his ATV
as if he was getting ready to hit the arena
on the rodeo circuit where he dominated,
the sound of the motor instead of applause
filling the empty air.
The driller stayed put. Cabe had paid in
advance, as he always did, for a thousand
feet, so the man wasn’t looking to settle the
bill. He was waiting for Cabe’s next move.
“You want me to start the first well on the
old Jordan place? I can do it tomorrow.
Test drills there hit water at nine hundred
feet. Four, five days tops, to get her
flowing good, unless I break a bit.”
“Not just yet.” Cabe needed a little more
time. “Give the place another go-over.
Pick your drill spots, and get your boys
lined up and ready to go. We’ll start next
week.”
The summer heat was already baking the
ranch. Today’s water measurements were
just another wake-up call he couldn’t
afford to ignore. He had cattle to run and a
job to do.
Rory looked over at him. “Heard Rose
made it back last night.” His brother
dropped the name really casually.
“I know.” Cabe set the date with the
drill engineer and let the man get on with
his day. No point in burning more money
out here. There was only one way to fix the
problem. Which meant he’d drive the ten
miles into Lonesome, show up for his
meeting with Rose Jordan at the lawyer’s,
scheduled—again—for that afternoon, and
do what he had to do.
He ran cattle.
That was who he was, what the ranch
had built its reputation on all those years
ago. He couldn’t lose that tradition, not on
his watch and not when there was a
solution at hand. So he’d do what needed
doing, even if part of him wasn’t quite on
board with the plan.
“You think she’ll show at the lawyer’s
this time?”
“She’ll show.”
Rory just nodded, staring after Seth’s
dust cloud. Like he wouldn’t mind running
up that trail instead of driving the distance.
At twenty-seven, Rory had done two tours
with Spec Ops before deciding not to re-up
and returning to the ranch. Rory hadn‘t
talked yet about what he’d seen or done
while he’d been gone, but more than once
Cabe had made the late night walk down
the hallway between their bedrooms to
shake his brother awake from the
nightmares. Next day, Rory would go on
one of his runs, fifteen miles through the
arroyos and along the game trails. Just
running and running until he came on back
and headed out to the range to work.
As if nothing at all had happened.
“We’re square,” he’d muttered when
Cabe had called him on it once in the year
Rory had been home.
“You ever talk to Rose?” Cabe asked.
Seth had to be half way back to the house
by now, given the speed at which he was
taking that trail, and Rory would talk when
he was good and ready.
“Talking
to
her was your thing, Cabe.”
Rory’s slow drawl carried just fine. “But,
yeah, I’ve talked
with
her since she left.
Not as much as I’d have liked, but she
needed the space, had some things she
wanted to work out.”
What could Rose Jordan have to work
out?
As far as Cabe could tell, she’d left
behind an admittedly bad childhood in
L.A. and moved up here to Lonesome,
where she was the apple of Auntie Dee’s
eye. She’d then proceeded to thumb her
nose at every rule and raise merry hell—
with his brothers.
“You ever reach out to her, Cabe?”
Rory’s
eyes
stared
straight
ahead,
examining the ribbon of trail with a rock
steady gaze as he swung a leg over the seat
of his own ATV. The nightmares that kept
him up at night didn’t show in the daylight.
That last tour of duty with Spec Ops had
left a mark.
“She wouldn’t have wanted that.” He
fought the urge to take the ATV off the trail
and into all the wide open space around
them and just open her up. Go somewhere