A Cowboy For Christmas (4 page)

“
Darn it!” Not only did
Brent laugh, but his men joined in from their spot by the fence.
She hadn’t been aware they watched her.

“
Ignore them.” Brent rested
an arm against the horse, then rested his forehead against his arm.
He couldn’t be fed up with her already, she worried, before
gritting her teeth and waiting.

“
Let’s just
breathe.”

Did he say breathe? She
crossed her arms, but he straightened up and grabbed her wrists,
pulling them to her sides. He’d trapped her so she had to look at
him. Even with the shade on his eyes, she could see their cool blue
color and knowing look.

“
Just like that, Missy. Now
close your eyes.”

“
What?”

“
Close them.”

They snapped shut. Knowing
he was inches from her face, watching her, made her breathe faster
and faster. She couldn’t hear anything but the air she sucked
in.

“
I want you to stay just
like that until you calm down.” His hands softly squeezed her arms.
She could do this, she could! Sounds of the countryside became
louder as her breathing became quiet. But his strong, quiet voice
still sounded in her head.

She never liked it when men
told her what to do, so she didn’t understand the pleasant chills
his commands sent through her.

Also surprising was the
comfort she felt from his hands on her.

“
Calm now?” His voice
sounded so near. Close enough to tilt her mouth up and kiss him.
No, no, no! Breathe.

She nodded to his question
after several deep breaths.

“
Good, now open your eyes
and try again.” He let go and stepped back, ending the
closeness.

Now steady, she felt riled
for reacting to him that way. But she was back in her
game.

“
Once more, and that’s it?”
She poured on the sugar with that one, just to let him know she
wouldn’t fall prey to his charm. He raised an eyebrow at her, like
he was questioning her cockiness.

“
You sure you’re cut out
for this?” His teasing tone was back as he watched. She swung up
and made it this time.

After the men whooped, she
said, “I’m glad I’m at least giving you some
entertainment.”

Jeffery snorted, but
remained still. She became fully aware now that she had a live
animal under her, one that had a mind of his own.

“
Yup, now you’re in the
saddle,” Brent said from below. “Do you know what to do up
there?”

“
What?” Her concentration
went to crap. Jeffery decided to show her what to do and started
moving slowly around in a circle.

“
Grab the reins!” One of
the men yelled from the fence.

“
I got it.” She declared to
all three men and the horse. “I watched you guys do it, I read how
to do it, and now I’m going to do it.”

“
All right, Missy, do you
know how to lead him?” Brent prompted her and then
watched.

“
Pull in the direction I
want to go, right?”

“
Hope you kept your job
back home,” he joked.

“
I lost it before the
lawyer called me.” She spoke, but kept her mind on her task this
time. “The jackass I worked for sent me packing when I thought we
should cool things.” Her hands gripped the reins like she was
hanging over a cliff, but the horse finally let her lead. She
risked a quick glance over at Brent to grin in victory. “Why are
you looking at me like that?”

He looked displeased about
something.

“
You slept with your
boss?”

“
Huh?” Her horse took the
opportunity to jerk her the other way. She had to twist her head
sharply to look at Brent. “What are you talking about?”

“
What you just said. He
fired you over it.”

“
That’s not what I said!”
She jerked the reins and the horse made an angry noise. Oh, crap.
Jeffery jerked upward again.

Heart flying up her throat,
she bit off a scream.

“
Calm now!” Brent called in
a mellow voice. She remembered, from her reading, to lean forward
to keep on top of the monster.

She sucked in air like she
was drowning. Since she had to keep both hands on the reins, she
couldn’t rub her chest like she wanted. Brent’s laughter sang out,
startling her almost as much as the horse had.

When he was serious again,
he said, “Calm down, take him around.”

On her first trip around,
he walked a few steps from the horse. If he was nervous about her
riding Jeffery, it didn’t show. Thankful for his calmness, she felt
herself relax. They came along side the two men who still
watched.

“
Howdy, ma’am,” one said,
touching his hat.

“
That’s Dale,” Brent
introduced him, “And the tall one’s Ivan.”

She glanced over and
nodded, but that was all she could do at the moment.

Brent told the men, “You
two should be working, not gawking.”

Jeffery moved away so she
didn’t hear their responses. With the sun shining brighter than
before, she grew warm. This was work, but it wasn’t as bad as she
imagined. She’d dreamed the night before that she fell off while
Brent watched. So far, so good.

She rode Jeffery around
again. As she approached Brent, he told her to stop the
horse.

“
Huh?” Yeah, he was being
mean. She tugged on the reins, but as gently as she could. She
didn’t want to tick the horse off again.

Jeffery stopped.

Brent, next to them, nudged
back his hat to look up at her. She gave him a sweet smile. “That
wasn’t hard.”

“
You’re done?”

That was a trick question,
but she did want back down on the ground.

“
Yeah, I want down from
here. Are you going to help me?”

A smile tugged on his lips.
What else could she do? She’d rather ask for help than land on her
butt trying to get off by herself.

“
You want my help?” he
asked as he held her gaze. “That means I’ll have to touch
you.”

The word ‘touch’ rolled off
his tongue as if he’d said ‘caress’. She knew he teased about her
reaction to his rear swatting, but she wouldn’t react this time
around.

She asked, “Afraid of my
cooties?”

She made light of his
comment, but her body was on a completely different wave length as
she thought about his hands on her.
Listen
up
, she thought to herself,
he’s a man, just a regular guy working a
ranch
. A regular guy with a sexy, quick
grin, and a voice that could soothe her rattled nerves back from
the edge.

“
Grab the horn and swing
your leg back over.” He stepped close, ready to ease her down. She
gripped the pommel and pulled her leg over. Just then he pressed
his hand against her hip. “Easy now.”

That was not -
was not!
- the place to
touch a woman while telling her to take it easy. She felt her
traitorous body jerk and could only pray he didn’t
notice.

She slid against him the
entire way down, and fell back into his chest. He hadn’t moved, so
she couldn’t either. Her heartbeat jack hammered into overdrive as
her back pressed into him.

Could be worse.

Could be her
front
pressed into
him.

“
I . . . I, ah, need a
bath.”
I need out of here!
His arms encircled her and she couldn’t look away
from his bare forearms. Lightly tanned. Strong.

“
A bath?” he asked as if
he’d been thinking about it.

She recognized the bedroom
voice. “I’ve never been on a horse before. It tends to make a
person sore.”

He eased back, holding the
reins still, and gave her room to step away.

“
Would you like to see how
to take the tack off and cool down the horse before you go?” he
asked with a hand on her shoulder to guide her back a
step.

“
Sure.” She walked beside
him into the stable yard, glad for the space between them. This
touching didn’t mean anything. At least it shouldn’t.

She didn’t say much while
she helped him, but her mind ran around in self-defeating
circles.

How could she have
accidentally mentioned Russ and what happened at her old job? After
that, Brent had turned on the charm. Now he thought she was
easy.

“
Well, that was fun.” She
nodded and marched outside like she had important things to
do.

* * * *

She didn’t do bad at all in
the end, he thought as he watched her go. So why did she turn into
a stiff greenhorn when he brought Jeffery out? He wouldn’t have
thought he could make her nervous . . . or that he could calm her
down like that.

He’d gotten an aching
erection while he watched her breathe with her eyes closed. As far
as he could tell, no one saw. Boy, he’d never hear the end of
it.

“
That little lady’s got you
already.” Dale’s voice boomed from behind him. Brent turned, giving
the robust man a hard look.

“
I can’t send her away.” He
yanked his gloves off and stuffed them into his jean pocket. “I
explained it to you.”

“
You said she’d be helping
out around here. Looks like she don’t know a lick about horses.”
Dale shook his head like this was one of the worse offenses
committable.

“
She’s learning fast.” Was
he defending her?

“
What about our work?” Dale
pressed.

“
Hey, I’ll handle it.”
After a pause, Brent added, “I saw you and Ivan watching her
today.”

“
Yeah, you aren’t the only
one.” Dale seemed to think it was funny. He had a mustache, black
like his hair, and he always had a half smile on his
face.

It wasn’t that he wanted
her, Brent just didn’t want anyone saying something suggestive
about Missy. “Listen, you’re right about how much work we have to
do around here.”

“
So leave the drooling to
you?”

“
This isn’t funny.” At
least, only in a really irritating way. “I’m not drooling over her.
I’m showing her what we do around here so she’ll see she isn’t cut
out for it.”

“
Oh.” Dale gave him a
conspiracy-style nod before going into a good belly laugh. Brent
turned and strode away, straight for Ben’s house.

But it was Missy’s house
now. Everything felt out of whack with Ben gone. With Missy around.
No joking with Ben, riding together, talking about next year and
their dreams for their ranch.

How was he supposed to feel
about the woman?

He banged on her door twice
and waited, but she didn’t answer. He knew she’d gone inside, so he
cracked it and called her name.

A muffled noise came back.
Irritation made him itch all over as he wavered at the
door.

Cursing himself, he quietly
walked across the front room to the hallway. She’d made a good dent
in the mess, he saw, by stacking boxes and papers in the corner.
“Missy?”

“
Brent?” she called from
the bathroom. He heard either surprise or panic in her voice. “Do
you mind? I’m taking a bath.”

“
Oh,” he tried to remember
why he came. “I need to talk to you.”

“
Now?” She sighed. “Well,
you’re here. Start talking.”

“
For a city girl, you don’t
have much class.” That didn’t sound as funny out loud as it had in
his head.

“
I’ve got a surprise for
you, cowboy. I grew up in a small dirt town.”

She did? She didn’t look
like it, though she didn’t exactly talk like city dweller, either.
“My men spent all day watching you instead of working.”

“
So talk to them, not
me.”

He opened his mouth, an
argument in mind, but just then his mind came up with a picture of
Missy on the other side of the door . . . in the bathtub . . .
surrounded by pretty pink bubbles. A nice hot bath sounded pretty
darn tempting at the moment.

“
Are you still there?” she
asked through the door.

“
Uh, sorry. I was thinking
about what I’d say to Dale and Ivan.”

“
Hmm, I bet.”

Now what? He tried to think
up a comeback, but what could he say to a naked woman in the
tub?
Can I join you?
He spun around and headed out.

Chapter Three

The darkness, the cold, but
mostly the quiet didn’t make for a good evening as Brent stood with
Dale outside the stables. He thought about inviting him up to the
house, but while he thought about it, Dale excused himself to go
home. He wanted to see his girl, Alice.

Brent couldn’t remember the
last time he was alone and actually felt alone. He sighed and
walked through the stables to say goodnight to the horses. Missy
hadn’t asked which ones had been Ben’s, meaning they were hers now.
Seemed odd to him. If she wanted money, she could sell them. He
didn’t like that thought one bit.