Only Hers (10 page)

At least he had been honest enough to tell her beforehand what he thought of her instead of
afterward.
Her cheeks heated. She wasn’t sure what the afterward would have been, but there definitely would have been one if he had returned her kiss. Twice, by the stock tank and in this very bedroom, he had showed more restraint than she had. He hadn’t taken advantage of her.

Finally, she nodded. Matt wasn’t as dangerous to her as she was to herself.

Callused fingers brushed across his hair. She should give up nursing and go into acting. Averted eyes, trembling lips, slumped shoulders . . . she really had mastered the art of appearing the uncertain, sexually awakening virgin. If Shannon was a virgin, he was from outer space.

“We need to talk about the meadow.”

Her head came up. “Yes.”

He wasn’t surprised he had gotten her attention. “The meadow as I told you has the only year-round water on the thousand acres of the Circle T. Yes, the cattle graze there, but if it wasn’t for the alfalfa hay that is bailed in another section of the ranch for winter feed, the ranch couldn’t sustain the large number of cattle we run.

“Since nothing in the meadow is sold, the profits from the ranch have to supplement this house, the wages for the hands, and all the other things needed to make the ranch solvent, including the meadow.”

“I see.”

“I hope you do. The ranch and the meadow are interchangeable. One can’t prosper without the other.”

“You’re asking me to sign over the meadow?” she asked, aware of the slight tremor in her voice.

“I’m asking you how badly do you want the land? Bad enough to sweat and get your hands dirty?” Seeing her stricken face, he rushed on. “After breakfast would you be willing to work for the land you want to claim?”

Shannon watched in stunned amazement as Matt slammed out of her room. Gradually what he had said began to sink into her tired brain. She had just been issued a challenge. Living in St. Louis all her life, she knew nothing about a ranch. She could only ride a horse because her mother insisted she have riding lessons as a child.

Work in Matt’s mind was probably the grungiest, dirtiest job he could find. She’d be crazy to take him up on his challenge. She should call her parents in the morning and have them wire her her money and leave.

Then what?

Shannon sat back down on her bed. If she ran this time, how long before she ran away from another problem? She had run away from her grandfather’s death, her profession, her family, and the man who wanted to marry her. Her head lifted, her shoulders straightened. She wasn’t running a step farther. She was accepting Matt’s challenge.

She’d be less than a Johnson if she didn’t beat him at his own game. A slow calculating smile tilted the corners of her mouth in anticipation of the coming battle. Apparently she had more of her parents’ tenacity than she thought. She was going to make Matt Taggart take back every insult he had ever flung at her.

The arrogant, distrustful scoundrel didn’t believe she had left her money and credit card at home. At the time she hadn’t wanted to believe it either as she had frantically searched through her wallet, her purse, and her suitcase.

Recalling her haste to leave her parents’ home, she
remembered cleaning out her wallet, laying the one all-purpose credit card she always took on trips and the green-and-white bank envelope with five hundred dollars on top of her dresser. And that’s where she had left them.

So, she had run out of gas getting to the only place in town she could get a room for the twenty-five dollars and odd cents she had left. One look at the run-down motel, the slovenly clerk, and she knew what type of place the Paradise was.

Matt might have rescued her, but obviously he had not reversed his opinion of her.

There was something about his handsome, unsmiling face that called to her. She wanted to see him smile. To see him look at her with something other than mistrust in his piercing black eyes.

She couldn’t possibly accept James Harper’s marriage proposal. Not when Matt affected her so.

The two men were alike in so many ways, yet so totally different. James was charming, gracious, and witty; Matt snarled and sniped. Both were handsome, aggressive, and reveled in taking charge.

James usually planned the evening for them. It was “I have tickets for” or “we’re invited to.” To give James credit, he did ask for her preference early in their relationship, but since she didn’t have any interest in most of the social whirl of see-and-be-seen, he usually ended up making the decision anyway.

As he explained once, it was important to his career as a lawyer that he be visible, and since he was going to have to make the decision anyway, why go through the motions of asking her. If his take-charge attitude irritated her sometimes, it wasn’t enough for her to make an issue of it.

She didn’t like arguments. In fact, she usually went out of her way to avoid them. It was the one flaw in her character Granddaddy Rhodes regretted not being able to change.

With the exception of Granddaddy Rhodes, the rest of her family adored James. Not one of them was going to
like the decision she was about to make, but she had made unpopular decisions before. Granddaddy Rhodes was always there to back her up before. Sadness slumped her shoulders. He had always been there for her, with a smile of approval and love.

The two of them had always been closer than he was to her brothers. Her mother often said it was because both Shannon and her grandfather had stars in their eyes. Coming from a family of practical, hard-nosed lawyers, her success in nursing and Granddaddy Rhodes’s in real-estate speculation was something talked about frequently, and always with wonder.

Now those same stars in her eyes had gotten her in trouble with her reluctant partner. In the future she’d have to remember to keep her lips clamped together and her hands in her pockets around Matt.

Walking over to the dresser, she picked up the roast beef sandwich Octavia had brought and took a small bite. Her appetite had returned. Of course Matt expected her to fail. He wasn’t the type of man who liked to lose. She knew that from his reaction when Octavia bested him.

Well, he shouldn’t issue challenges because he was in for the surprise of his life. Obviously he didn’t know the long, grueling hours nurses worked bending, lifting, stooping. This time he was going to lose. She took another bite of the sandwich and smiled despite her full mouth.

“Shannon dear, are you sure you’re all right?” asked George Johnson.

“Perhaps you should come home,” Henrietta Johnson added.

Seated in a chair in the den, Shannon almost regretted calling her parents tonight instead of waiting until morning to reassure them. They had put her on the speaker phone in their bedroom and she could just imagine them pacing the floor, each ready to fire questions at her as if she were on the witness stand.

“I’m fine and I’m not coming home,” she finally said. “I’m old enough to take care of myself.”

The minute the words were out of her mouth she knew she had made a mistake. Her parents were too sharp to miss an opportunity to come back at her.

She was right.

“Leaving your money and credit card is hardly responsible,” they parroted.

Shannon slouched lower in her seat. She had debated whether or not to mention the money and credit card, then decided she had no choice if Melanie, her best friend, was going to pick them up in the morning from Shannon’s parents and send them to her by overnight mail.

“Mother, Daddy. I’m with friends, I’ve just eaten and I’m about to go up to my room and go to sleep.”

“What’s the name and phone number of these friends?” her father asked.

“Where do we send the money? You know how I feel about that,” Henrietta said almost frantically. “I shudder each time I think of what might have happened.”

Shannon smiled. Despite everything, she never doubted her parents’ love. They might disapprove of her actions at times, but their love was constant. Her father as usual wanted to know the who and the what, but her mother, her mother believed a woman should never be at the mercy of fate or a man. No matter how nice or upstanding her date, Shannon always had a quarter in her shoe and a twenty-dollar bill pinned to her bra when she went out in high school.

“I love you both.”

“You know we love you, too, baby,” answered her mother. “So does James.”

Shannon straightened in her chair. “Mother, I don’t want to go into that now.”

“Of course,” her father placated. “Just give me the name and phone number of these friends who helped you and we’ll wire you some money. There’s no need to bother Melanie.”

“Nice try, Dad. You’d also call me every day.” She continued to talk over their protests. “You mean well, but this is my life and at the moment I need to take a good long look at it. If I get into something I can’t handle, I promise, you’ll be the first to know.”

“But, baby—”

“Shan—”

“Please give the money and credit card to Melanie when she comes by in the morning and don’t badger her with too many questions. I love you.” She hung up the phone, then leaned back in the chair and stretched out her legs. Her parents were probably dialing her brothers’ phone numbers now. They’d hook up a three-way and
discuss her life. As always, they thought they knew what was best for her.

Their answer to her emotional upheaval since her grandfather’s death was for her to quit nursing, accept James’s marriage proposal, become a social butterfly and have two beautiful, well-mannered children. The idea had even less appeal now than it did when he first proposed six weeks ago.

James was nice, but he didn’t excite her like—

“What are you doing downstairs?”

Shannon jumped up from her chair. As if she had conjured him up, Matt stood in the den. Bare-chested, jeans unsnapped and perched on his hips, he looked tempting. Muscles rippled as he braced his hands on his waist. The man had one fine body.

“I asked you a question.” His eyes were hooded, but there was a hint of something in them that made her heart race.

She tried to work up some moisture in her mouth so she could speak. “Using the phone.” She held up her calling card. “I hope you don’t mind.”

A dark brow arched. “Reassuring everyone again.”

She smiled. “That’s right. Sorry if I disturbed you.”

“If you’re finished, I’d like to get some sleep.
I
have to work.”

Shannon continued smiling despite the barb. “Good night.” She brushed past him and went up the stairs. If she could control her attraction to Matt, it was going to be a pleasure to teach him a lesson.

“Shannon. What are you doing here?”

Heavy-eyed with sleep, Shannon lifted her head and greeted the housekeeper around a yawn. “Good morning, Octavia.”

“Child, why aren’t you asleep in your bed instead of at the kitchen table? It’s seven-twenty.”

“I got up to fix Matt some coffee,” Shannon explained, stretching her stiff arms over her head.

Octavia’s gaze went to the automatic coffeepot. “Oh, Lord. I forgot to get things ready last night. That boy never could make good coffee.”

Shannon smiled. “So I gathered from all the grumbling and banging I heard when I entered the kitchen. I’m surprised all the noise didn’t wake you up.”

“Once I’m out, I’m out. But my eyes open at seven each morning and there’s no getting back to sleep. Matt comes in from working outside for breakfast a quarter to eight.” Opening the refrigerator door, Octavia took out a box of sausage patties and a package of bacon.

“If I had known you were a deep sleeper I would have cooked breakfast.” Shannon stood. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Hand me that big black skillet from the cabinet under the stove.” Octavia placed the meats on the counter, opened another cabinet and took out a large crock bowl. “You never did tell me why you were asleep at the table.”

Rinsing the skillet under tepid water from the faucet, Shannon smiled over her shoulder. “Showing Matt his partner is no slouch.”

“Would you mind explaining that?” Octavia asked as she folded her arms across her wide girth.

Shannon smiled. Something she couldn’t seem to stop doing. “Last night Matt asked me if I was willing to sweat and get dirty for my claim. He left before I could give him my answer. Getting up with him was my way of showing him that I can hang just as tough as he can.”

Laughter burst from Shannon. “You should have seen his startled expression when I came into the kitchen. I’ve never seen a man so starved for coffee and too stubborn to ask for help.”

“He’s stubborn all right, but he’s tricky, too,” the housekeeper warned.

“I can handle Matt.”

The housekeeper looked at her quizzically. “Seems you and
Matt
got along pretty well this morning.”

Shannon ignored the comment and busied herself with
opening the package of bacon. “How many slices should I put in the skillet?”

“Six for Matt and whatever you want for yourself. None for me, my cholesterol is up again. I sure do miss my bacon,” Octavia lamented. “Some things are hard to give up, but you got to know what’s best for you in the long run.”

Shannon wondered if the housekeeper was talking about her cholesterol level or Shannon’s situation with Matt. Not sure if she wanted to know, she didn’t ask.

Matt had wolfed down four fluffy biscuits before he learned his unwanted junior partner had made them. The hungry side of him said it didn’t matter, the suspicious side of him said this one knew all the tricks to get to a man. Dressed in an oversize bright-red-and-white striped shirt with the collar turned up and a pair of jeans, she shouldn’t have looked elegant and chic in his kitchen, but she did. Well, he was adept at a few tricks himself.

Taking another sip of coffee from the stoneware cup, he pushed aside his plate and rocked back slightly in his chair. He was about to knock that confident smile right off Shannon’s beautiful face. He didn’t even mind Octavia’s glare.

“Ready to work, Ms. Johnson?”

“Since we’re in this together, why don’t you call me Shannon and I’ll call you Matt.” Across the table, she folded both arms. “And to answer your question, I can’t wait.”