Chantilly’s Cowboy (3 page)

She giggled and nuzzled his neck. “Don’t you worry ’bout Daddy. I can handle him.” Her lips trailed along the sensitive skin on his neck and below his ear. “Mm…I like your cologne. All manly and—”

“Sh…darlin’.” He growled. Her tongue made contact with his neck and pleasure shocked him to attention. “I’m not wearing anything.” He once again managed to open a door without losing his hold on Chantilly.

With her mouth nibbling on him and her hand clutching the front of his shirt, he miscounted the steps. A loud creak echoed in the stairwell.
Oh shit.

He froze and held his breath. He wouldn’t run away and leave her if her father came, but if someone aimed a double-barrel shotgun at his head, he’d like to have a little warning first.

Finding the coast clear, he skipped the next step and climbed to the second-floor landing. Out of breath and near to panting, he realized it wasn’t the physical act of carrying Chantilly up the stairs that had him breathing heavier than normal.

Chantilly had sucked his earlobe into her mouth and set about caressing it with her tongue. He clenched his teeth and bit back a groan. If he had two wishes right now, it would be that she was sober and they were anywhere but inside her father’s house.

“Chantilly?” His eyes closed momentarily as her hand slipped into the opening of his shirt and rubbed his chest. Shaking his head, he hefted her higher in his arms, displacing her mouth. “Which one is your bedroom, darlin’?”

She pointed to the left. He frowned. There were four half-opened doors on that wing of the floor alone. His chance of escaping the house without waking up her father became slimmer by the second. How was he supposed to know what room was hers?

It would probably be his luck that he’d pick Stuart’s room and get caught red-handed with his daughter. He could forget about the job, the money and enjoying the time he spent working alongside Chantilly.

“Chantilly?” He tilted his head to the side, out of her reach. “Which room?”

She gave a rather loud, exasperated sigh and flung her arm behind her. “Last one, but I don’t wanna stop yet. Do you know how long I’ve wanted to touch you the last coupla weeks?”

He marched past the other doors without peeking inside. The hallway light lit the two of them up for anyone inside the rooms to see. If Stuart was awake, there was no way they’d get to her room without being caught.

Stepping inside her bedroom, he used his elbow to hunt for the light switch, flipped it on and stepped over to the frilly bed in front of the window. He blew out his breath.
We made it.

“No.” Chantilly clutched his shirt.

“Sh…Chantilly.” Jack set her down on the bed and hurried back across the room to shut the door. At the sound of the click, he dropped his chin to his chest and sucked in air.

“Jack?”

He raised his head. “Yeah?”

“Stay with me.” She scooted farther up on the bed and lay down. Her eyes were closed, but she patted the bed. “Hold me.”

Jack stepped over to the bed, pulled off one of her boots and then the other. A patchwork quilt lay across the foot of the bed, and he spread the blanket out over her legs. “One of these days, Chantilly. I would like nothing more than to cuddle you in my arms and spend the night with you. Not tonight. You need to sleep, darlin’.”

She sighed and snuggled deeper into the blanket. He gazed down at her. The stress from the night melted away and for the first time in a long while, he wished…He rubbed his jaw and turned away.
I ain’t wishing for nothing.

The main house seemed too quiet this time of the morning for a household that ran on farm hours. Jack lingered outside the office door with his hat clutched in his hands. He shouldn’t put off his morning meeting with McDougal, but he wasn’t quite ready to deal with Chantilly. He’d hoped last night would have shown her he wasn’t the bad guy she thought he was, but the headache she was bound to have wasn’t gonna help put her in a good mood. He’d rather remember how she curled against him than face her snarling.

No conversations came from the kitchen, no banging around in another room and the radio in the living room sat quiet. A cough and shuffling of paper from inside the room spurred Jack forward. He tapped a couple of times on the wooden door.

“Jack. Come in.” Stuart motioned him forward. “It’s gonna be a scorcher today. We might as well get busy and head out.” He wiped his kerchief across his forehead.

“It appears you might think ’bout letting me handle the chores today.” Jack raised his brows. “If I have any questions, I can ask Chantilly. No reason you should go out and get tired, ’cept your stubbornness on handing over more responsibility.” He lifted the corner of his mouth to soften his words. He’d enjoyed the quiet talks in the evenings that he’d shared with Stuart. The man was a legend.

Stuart leaned back in the chair. “You’re right, Jack.” He clasped his hands over his rotund stomach. “Matter of fact, I want Chantilly to help you this morning with the horses. It’s time to start training three of ’em for next season’s roundup. Chantilly will know which ones I’m talking ’bout.”

Adrenaline kicked in and Jack sat up. He nodded. “Okay.”

“Besides, it’ll serve her right after the bender she put on last night. She takes after her momma that way. Shannon couldn’t hold her liquor either. Damned if I know why the other girls let her drink. Val knew better.” He chuckled. “Knowing my girls, they had a good laugh on her.” He winked at Jack. “The girl is downright hilarious after one beer.”

Jack cleared his throat. “Sir?”

Stuart waved his hand, shrugging Jack off. “You’re a good man, Jack. You probably won’t hear thanks come outta Chantilly’s mouth, but I’ll say mine. That daughter of mine needs someone tougher, stronger and more determined than her…and he better have the balls to fight every roadblock she puts up or he doesn’t deserve a McDougal woman.”

“Stuart, I—”

He shook his head. “Go on and start the day. I’ll send Chantilly out.” He stood up and grabbed his black hat off the corner of his desk. “Remember, I don’t want anyone else knowing where I’m going. Tell ’em I’m going to the grange hall.”

“Yes, sir.” Jack nodded and stood up.

“And Jack…” Stuart reached across the desk. “Thank you, son. Feels good to know one of my daughters is in good hands.”

He shook Stuart’s hand and nodded. Heading toward the front door, he couldn’t help but feel like someone had taken a bat to his gut. McDougal had thrown out a direct challenge, and he’d be stupid to let this chance slip away.
If I can get Chantilly without losing my job, hell no, nothing is stopping me.

Raindrop ran in a wide loop staying to the edge of the round pen and showing the whites of her eyes. Chantilly pulled her hat down farther on her forehead to block out the sun. It was bad enough her insides rebelled at the motion of walking around in a circle but the heat also forced her to swallow too often. It was Jack’s presence on top of the fence for the past half hour that had her in her own personal hell.

How could one man make her so mad, yet make her imagination take her into the most pleasurable fantasies? She tightened the rope looped around her back to encourage the horse to come closer. Last night, she could have sworn she’d come on to him.
That’s what I get for drowning my sorrows. I know better than that.

If she survived the rest of the morning, she’d call Val up during lunch to find out what happened at the bar and why she remembered Jack carrying her up the stairs. She glanced sideways at Jack underneath the brim of her hat.
Dang it.

Jack sat there with a cat-that-drank-the-cream expression. Lifting her chin, she tried to hide her curiosity. She’d let the horse run two more turns and then she’d put Jack in the hot seat. Maybe she’d find out what she really did last night and what was merely a fantasy she’d dreamed up.

“Hey, Jack!” She looped the horse around. “Your turn.”

Raindrop continued to beat the ground and Chantilly turned her back on Jack. She’d not give him the satisfaction of knowing she really wanted to watch his muscular legs as they stalked toward her.

How many times had he flashed a grin at her when he’d caught her staring at him while they were supposed to be working? Her nipples hardened despite the sticky heat.
Ignore him, ignore him—

Jack’s hand landed on her back, and the fingers of his other hand trailed down the length of her arm, taking the rope out of her grasp. She jumped back out of the way as if he’d caressed the very core of her. After darting behind the horse, she hurried over to the fence to get out of the way of the twelve-hundred-pound animal.

Safe outside the round pen, she leaned her elbows over the top rail and tried to catch her breath. Her body reacted to every touch, word and glance he gave her and she was stumped on how to stop it. Even putting the blame on Jack for being hired by her daddy didn’t distract her from the man who left her in a puddle of nerves with a single look.

Jack was just doing his job. A job she wished her daddy knew she could do perfectly well. Her daddy often had a foreman working the ranch when all of them were still in school and he was trying his hardest to raise her and her sisters all alone. That stopped after she graduated high school and she’d shown Stuart she could hold her weight, plus more, against any man around the ranch. Hadn’t she kept up with him for the last four or five years better than anyone who’d ever worked the ranch?

She studied the way Jack took control of the green broke horse and lifted her brows. The man definitely knew his way around horses. He had a soft touch but never slipped out of that tight control he seemed to always possess.
He loves this.

Jack’s legs bent and he leaned back and let the rope hold him up. His guide hand stayed relaxed yet unrelenting. Her gaze swept from his feet to his shoulders and settled on his face.

His lips, so full and enticing, moved slightly with the steady stream of sweet talk he directed toward Raindrop. Chantilly sighed. What she wouldn’t give to have a man sweep her off her feet with sweet words.

She’d witnessed the same contentment wash over him around the cows, riding the fence, repairing tack. He was a cowboy inside and out.

“Hey, Jack.”

“Yep.”

It helped that he kept his attention centered on handling the horse and not on her. Chantilly inhaled a lungful of air that only served to make her head spin. This might be the only chance she had to find out what happened between them…really happened, and what was a figment of her overactive hormones.

“’Bout last night…” She wrinkled her nose.
Great. Now he’s gonna know I can’t handle more than a half a can of beer and the second I down a full one, my clothes start coming off and I’m dancing on the bar.

“Thank you for bringing me home.” She held her breath. There, she said it. If she did something embarrassing last night, he’d have a snappy comeback and she could die in shame.

He glanced over his shoulder, turned back to the horse and nodded. “The pleasure was mine, darlin’.”

Chantilly’s head fell onto her arms and she groaned. It was worse than she had thought.
Dammit anyhow. Why did the man have to make the simplest comments sound like a caress?

It was bad enough she fooled around with Daddy’s new right-hand man, but she didn’t even remember it. Her stomach rolled. If she had done something with him, she sure in hell’s fire wanted to remember every little juicy detail.

“Hey, um, Jack.” She climbed up on the top rail and swung her legs to the other side. “Can I ask you somethin’?”

“Shoot.” He tightened the rope around his waist and stepped toward the horse.

“Did I do…?” She stared at his back. “What exactly did we do last night?”

Jack crept closer to the horse. “Whoa. Whoa. Easy.” He held his hand out.

Raindrop whinnied and backed away from Jack, pulling taut on the rope. “Stay…Good girl.” He stroked her neck, unclipped the lead from the halter and stepped away without turning his back on the animal.

Her fingers dug into the fence the closer he came and she swung her legs back over the rail. Having him so close unnerved her, and when she received his full attention, she turned to complete mush. Her insides fluttered and her heartbeat accelerated in such a way she wanted to rub her hands all over that hard body of his.

With Raindrop settled against the opposite side of the round pen, Jack turned and leaned against the fence. “You don’t remember what happened last night?” The side of his mouth twitched.

She stared at the way his mouth softened and curled at the edges. She licked her lips, trying to come up with a nonchalant line about how it was no big deal, but words escaped her.

“Chantilly?” He skimmed his hand on the top of her thigh. “What’s wrong, darlin’?”

She snapped out of her lust-filled zone and hopped off the fence. Having a barrier between them didn’t help the way her body became aware of every detail about him. The way his voice lowered had her losing her thoughts. The gentle way he touched her when he wanted her to look at him sent shivers down her arms. It was his eyes, though, that had her forgetting her place in their relationship. She was supposed to be his boss, but when he gazed into her eyes and gave her his full attention, she was a goner.

“I’m not known to hold my liquor…” She fiddled with her hat. “Did I do anything last night that you’ll throw back at me?”

“Hell no!” He stepped on the fence, hurled his body over the top and had his hands on her arms faster than she could step back. “You tied a good one on, I’ll give you that, but why in the hell would you think I’d throw it back in your face?” He stepped back and glanced away. “I ain’t that kinda man.”

Her shoulders sagged. She made no move to step out of his hold. “So, I didn’t do anything embarrassin’?”

“Come here.” He folded her up in his arms, and her body relaxed. “To tell you the truth, I kinda liked the way you didn’t spit and hiss on the way home.” He stroked the back of her head. “I also found out something ’bout you…”

“What?” She rubbed her cheek against the exposed bare skin at the opening of his shirt.

“You ride a bull better than me.” He chuckled.

She leaned back and cocked her head. “I do, don’t I?”

Jack cupped her face. “You surely do, darlin’.” He lowered his head and claimed her mouth. He skimmed his lips over hers, soft, gentle, undemanding. “We’re like two sparks igniting when we’re together, aren’t we?”

“I don’t understand what’s happening with me.” Her back arched. “I’ve tried something hard to ignore you, but you’re here…you’re always right here.”

A tremor weaved up her spine to her nape and her body melted under all the attention. Her leg brushed his and she moved forward. She’d received a delicious nibble of what Jack could give her if she only let go and kissed him back.

Pressing closer, she raised her hands to his waist, but he stepped away from the kiss. She lowered her arms, her jaw dropped and her breath came in little pants. Why was he stopping?

“Whoa, darlin’.” He whipped off his hat and ran his hand through his hair. “If you’ve decided you wanna play nice and see where all these flames is a’going, let’s do this right.”

She frowned.

“Go out with me tonight.” He winked. “I have too much respect for you and your daddy to throw you over my shoulder and carry you back inside the barn for a quick fix. Although, if you stand here much longer with that bottom lip of yours sticking out, I might go back on my decision to wait.”

Chantilly shook her head. “What are you talking ’bout?”

“A date. Tonight.” He walked backward toward the barn. “It’s up to you, Chantilly Lace. If you wanna find out why your body purrs every time we’re together, you walk out of the house and meet me at my truck…say six o’clock.”

“I…That’s not…” She kicked the dirt. “Damn you, Jack Grady. I’d sooner walk by a grasshopper without stomping it during harvest time than give you the satisfaction of going out with me.”

He smiled, stepped forward, sank his hands into her hair and claimed her mouth again. The fight inside of her melted away. She moaned. Her lips relaxed and she kissed him back with everything she had.

His tongue teased and tasted. Her eyes closed and she let him thoroughly bring her body to attention.
Oh. My.

Jack pulled back, turned around and waved in the air. “Remember…six o’clock. Don’t be late, darlin’.”

Chantilly laid her fingers on her lips.
What the heck just happened?

A nervous laugh started low in her belly. One kiss and she’d forgotten her anger over having her position on the ranch taken away.
Oh no, I think I’m gonna like having him around.

She clamped her lips together and squealed. Turning, she hurried to the house. Whisking her hat off, she sailed through the doors. “Daddy!”

Chantilly kicked off her boots, flung her hat on the bench seat and strode to the office. “Dad?” She pursed her lips. The office sat dark and empty.

She leaned against the wall, closed her eyes and sighed.
Just dandy. Every time I wanna talk with him lately, he hightails it out of here for hours without a goodbye or leaving a note.