Only Hers (26 page)

Which was crazy. Although he had told her otherwise, she didn’t think anything on earth could scare Matt. Least of all Shannon Johnson.

Loosening her grip on the plate, she continued to
Cleve’s house. There was nothing she could do about loving Matt, except hope he never learned her secret. That would be the ultimate humiliation.

Why did she have to fall in love with someone who couldn’t love her back?

“Daydreaming again?”

Shannon jerked out of her musing to see Cleve sitting on his porch. She grasped at the chance to get her mind off Matt. “Hi, Cleve. I guess I was.”

His booted feet on the step below, he reached for his plate. “If you’re bringin’ that to me, I better take it ’fore somethin’ happens to it.”

Giving him the plate, she sat down beside him and handed him a fork. “In case you didn’t want to wait.”

After removing the plastic wrap, Cleve reached for the utensil. “For that I might put you to muckin’ out the stalls again.”

“Matt has me riding the fence line with Griff.” Bringing up her knees, she circled them with her arms, then held up her face to the gentle evening breeze.

The hand that had been bringing a cake-laden fork to his mouth paused. “You’re a good worker.”

His boss didn’t think so.
“For a woman from the city, you mean.”

“For anybody.” He laid down the fork.

“You don’t like my cake?”

“Just thinkin’.” Carefully, he replaced the wrapper.

“About me teaching you to read?” She had taken a chance and brought up the subject the day they were weeding the vegetable garden.

She had glanced up to see him with a package of seeds in his hand, his thumb grazing over and over the letters for cabbage. “I could teach you.”

His head had lifted, hope glittered in his eyes, then died. Replacing the package on the stick at the head of the row, he began hoeing again.

His not saying a flat out no encouraged her. “If you
ever change your mind, the offer remains. It’ll just be between the two of us.”

Returning to the present, she gently touched his arm. “Cleve?”

Gnarled fingers smoothed the plastic wrap over and over. “I’ve been thinkin’ about it a little, I guess.”

She strove to keep her enthusiasm down. “First we start with what you know and go from there.”

“I know a few letters, but not any words.”

“It’s a beginning. Once you learn the alphabet sounds you’re going to learn to sound the words out. All we’ll need to start is pencil and paper.”

“I already have that stuff and some books, too. I told the saleslady I was buyin’ ’em for my grandchildren,” he admitted softly.

Her heart went out to him. “You can learn, Cleve, I know you can.”

“We won’t have time if you’re out on the range all day.”

“We’ll manage,” she said, then grimaced as she thought of Matt’s reaction to her words and the reason why. She looked at Cleve’s wishful expression and brushed aside any doubts. She couldn’t turn her back on him. If he had enough courage to ask for help, she could get up an hour earlier each morning.

“I promised Octavia to look in on a couple of people in the afternoons, but I could come around seven each morning.”

“The boss would suspect somethin’.” Cleve shook his head. “I couldn’t stand him knowin’ I tried this and failed. I don’t know why, but he’s always thought highly of me, I kinda like him to keep thinkin’ that way. That’s why I never let him teach me.”

“He offered to teach you?”

Cleve looked offended by her startled reaction. “Course he did. Offered again just the other day. Don’t many come finer than the boss.”

Matt cared for his people on the ranch, she just wished he cared for her as well. “Then we’ll just put things in reverse.”

Bushy salt-and-pepper eyebrows lifted. “What are you talkin’ ’bout?”

“Instead of me teaching you how to read, you’ll be teaching me how to make rope,” she told him with growing enthusiasm.

Cleve looked at her as if she had said he’d teach her to belly dance. “I don’t know why I thought you were smart.” He pushed to his feet and stomped into the bunkhouse.

Shannon was right behind him. He reminded her of Matt so much, sometimes she wanted to shake him. “What’s so unbelievable about that? You told me it’s a dying art. Doesn’t it stand to reason you’d want to pass it on to someone?”

“An Easterner?”

Momentarily, she lifted her eyes heavenward. “If I didn’t care about you so much, I’d walk out that door after an unfair crack like that. You just said I was a good worker.”

“Don’t get your feathers all ruffled,” Cleve said, putting the plate on the table. “The boss is too smart to believe you’d want to learn how to make rope.”

“Matt doesn’t pay attention to me except to give orders or ask if I’m ready to leave the Circle T,” she said, unaware of how wistful her voice sounded.

“There you go talkin’ foolishness again.”

Shannon braced her hands on her hips. “As long as I’m there by eight to take orders in the morning he’ll never miss me.”

Dark-brown eyes sparkled as leathery fingers rubbed a stubbled jaw. “A peach cobbler says he will.”

“What do I get?”

“The satisfaction of bestin’ me.”

She extended her hand. “Done.”

“Done.”

“Where’re you going?”

The whiplash in Matt’s voice stopped Shannon in mid-step going down the stairs. “It’s not eight yet.”

Booted feet pounded on the hall runner. Firm fingers curled around her forearm and turned her to him. “I didn’t ask you for the time, I asked you where you were going.”

Her explanation fled as she gazed at the heavy matting of chest hair visible through his unbuttoned red shirt. He must have been dressing when he heard her leaving. The curly black hair looked soft and crinkly at the same time. Her hand lifted toward beckoning temptation.

“Shannon.”

Her gaze flew up to his face, dark and uncompromising. Guilty, she stuck her hand behind her back. “Out.”

A muscle leaped in his jaw. “My patience is wearing thin.”

“You have my time from eight in the morning until my job is done. The rest of the time belongs to me or did you forget?”

Charcoal-black eyes searched her face, noted the way her glance kept sliding away. His sensual mouth hardened. “Who is he?”

“You always think the worst of me. I’ll tell you one thing, if there was a man, he’d treat me much better than you treat me,” she snapped without thinking.

He struck without warning. Both hands lifted her to him so they were eye-to-eye. “Is that a challenge, Shannon?”

The lazy sensuality in his voice curled around her body and held her tighter than his hands. She wanted and couldn’t have. “Matt.”

He shuddered, then briefly closed his eyes. When they opened, his eyes were as devoid of emotions as his voice. “Did I hurt you?”

“No. You could never do that,” she told him softly.

He set her on her feet. “You think the best of people too easily.”

“Only when it’s deserved.”

“Be careful you don’t trust the wrong person. See you at eight.” He left her on the stairwell and started for his room.

Shannon bit her lower lip. He wouldn’t bother her again if he saw her leaving, but she couldn’t stand the thought of him thinking she was sneaking out to meet someone. “Cleve’s teaching me how to make rope.”

He faced her with an expression on his dark face much like’s Cleve when she had suggested the ruse. “Rope?”

“Now you see why I didn’t want to tell you? I knew what your reaction would be.” It wasn’t difficult to look irritated. Cleve would never let her forget this.

“You’re getting up before seven to learn how to make rope?”

“It’s a dying art form,” she unnecessarily reminded him. “I thought I’d make one for a friend back home.”

“So you’ve added something else to do.” His scowl returned. “When did you plan to rest?”

“I’ll man—”

“Manage,” he finished sharply for her. “You get hurt while you’re working because you’re tired and you’ll answer to me, is that clear?”

“I don’t pl—”

“Is that clear?”

“Yes.”

Spinning on his heels, he went back to his room. The door closed with a crisp thump.

Sighing, Shannon continued down the stairs and out the back door. That’s what she got for trying to reassure him, someone else to treat her as if she didn’t have two brain cells. Next time he could think what he wanted.

Going up the last step to Cleve’s house, she crossed the porch. The door opened before she lifted her hand to knock.

Cleve opened the door, took one look at her mutinous expression and laughed. “I like lots of peaches.”

He had acted like a jealous maniac. He had never touched a woman in anger in his life. Not even when he caught his ex-wife in the bar with her body and her lips plastered against her boss’s.

The bastard hadn’t been so lucky.

“Gritting your teeth is bad for them.”

Matt snapped his head up. Shannon sat across the breakfast table from him, her comforting smile firmly in place. He didn’t want to be comforted. “They’re my teeth.”

“The dentist’s drill will remind you of that quite nicely.”

“Now, children,” Octavia chuckled from her chair between them.

Being chastised in his own home was the last straw. His chair scraped against the floor as he rose. “Let’s go.”

Shannon picked up her hat, gloves, and the canvas tote bag and was at the door before he was. “If we’re going, let’s go.” Then, she was gone.

Octavia’s chuckles grew louder. “I prayed for this day.”

“For Wade to saddle me with a stubborn woman who doesn’t have the sense God gave a chicken?” Matt railed, trying to calm down before he followed Shannon.

“For you to meet a woman you couldn’t ignore. A woman who could stand toe-to-toe with you and make you like it.”

Matt scowled. “Lay off the house-cleaning today. You’ve been inhaling too many fumes.” Laughter followed him out the door.

All the hands including Shannon were mounted and waiting for him. He didn’t waste time giving orders. They rode off as soon as he finished. Over the noise of the hoof-beats, he heard Shannon’s laughter.

He caught himself turning his head trying to catch the captivating sound. His hands tightened on the reins. She had to go before he completely lost it.

“Somethin’ wrong with Brazos again?”

Startled, Matt glanced around to see Cleve making his way toward him from the barn. “No. Just thinking.”

Cleve cocked a brow. “Miss Shannon does the same thing sometimes.”

Matt held on to his temper with both hands. “Shannon and I have nothing in common.”

“Try tellin’ that to my ears.” He tugged one earlobe, then the other. “It’s a wonder I ain’t deaf.”

“Don’t you have work to do?”

“We both do,” Cleve said, and started back to the barn. “Ain’t no shame in likin’ a pretty woman,” he called over his shoulder.

“Cleve.”

“Have a nice day, boss.”

Booted heels touched the horse’s flank and he took off. Was everyone around him crazy? He did not like Shannon. He might feel a little sorry for her at times, but he certainly didn’t like her.

He could, however, understand why her parents thought she needed guidance. She took too much on herself. She had let this comforting business get out of hand. If helping the senior citizens wasn’t enough, she had added Cleve to the list.

He had thought she had lied to him at first about learning
to make rope, but the more he thought about it, the more he reasoned she might be telling the truth. It was just like her to help Cleve preserve the craft he loved so much.

Matt would have to remind Cleve to teach her with cured leather instead of sisal or hemp. The amount of strength and tension it took to keep the twisted strands together might be too much for Shannon’s delicate skin if they used anything else. Matt didn’t want to see it marred—

Shannon’s skin was of no concern to him!

He gritted his teeth, remembered what Shannon said about the dentist’s drill and pulled his horse to a halt. No woman had ever gotten to him the way she did. He didn’t know whether he wanted to berate her for being so stubborn or pull her down and bury himself deep inside her.

A trickle of sweat glided down the side of his face. He was worse than a kid. He glanced around, saw the cabin and bit back a groan. He was nowhere near where he had planned to be today.

Beseeching eyes lifted heavenward. “Wade, I never would have thought you’d do this to me.” Whirling Brazos, he headed for the south pasture two miles away.

Sometimes she didn’t understand Matt. And now was one of those times. Honking her horn, Shannon turned into the road leading to the ranch house. The sound was answered by the truck behind her. In her rearview mirror, she watched the vehicle back up, then go back the way it had come.

Her escort had gotten her safely back on Taggart land. Matt’s orders. No one had wanted to admit it at first, until she insisted she didn’t need anyone following her home. No one had listened. Matt had said she needed an escort and that was what she was going to get.

The respect his neighbors had for him gave her a warm glow. There was talk of his financial help in putting a roof on the church, sponsoring a summer camp for teens. He wasn’t a hardcase. She wanted to see him happy
and loved. With all her heart she wished she could be the one to help him discover both. Parking the car, she went inside and knocked on Octavia’s door and told her she was home.

“Good night, child.”

Shannon smiled. No one had waited up for her since high school. Shoving open the swinging doors, she wasn’t surprised to see light spilling from beneath the door of Matt’s study. He worked too hard.

She started in that direction, then changed her mind and continued toward the stairs. He didn’t like to be interrupted. She’d tell him an escort wasn’t necessary in the morning. Absently rubbing her neck, she started up the stairs.

“Kind of late, isn’t it?”

The rich timbre of Matt’s voice sent a shiver down her spine and compelled her to face him. Her breath caught. Silhouetted in the doorway of his study, his powerful body was a study in masculine beauty. “Time got away from me.”