Here Comes Trouble (8 page)

"Over by the dresser, please," she told him
and he went over there and sat them down, then smiled at her and
left the room.

Next Sheedy walked in with two more boxes and
sat them down by the others then he left too. Finally, Dylan
brought in the rest and put them down. "You need anything else, you
let me know," he told her then added, "Supper is up at the big
house in an hour. Penny gets mad if we're late, so you might want
to listen for us leaving...."

Terri wondered who Penny was, but didn't
ask...if the woman scared that big strong cowboy, Terri wasn't
going to tempt fate. She pushed up off the bed and walked over to
the boxes. "I better get a move on then!"

Forty-five minutes later, she'd unpacked all
but one box, when she heard boot heels on the wooden floor in the
gathering room in the middle of the bunkhouse. She'd changed into
cutoff blue jean shorts that had seen better days and a button-up
shirt to unload her stuff, and hoped it was good enough for
dinner.

Her feet were bare, so she stomped on the new
cowboy boots she'd splurged on this weekend in Henrietta, then
grabbed her straw hat and patted it on her head. When in Rome,
dress like the Romans, she thought with a chuckle, then walked out
and shut her bedroom door.

All of the cowboys were razzing each other as
they filed out the door. It looked like they'd all cleaned up,
because Dylan had on a new western shirt, and it looked like he'd
changed jeans too.

Terri stopped and grabbed his arm and he
looked down at her. "Should I go change?" she asked
self-consciously.

His eyes traveled down her body then back up
to her eyes and he grinned "Heck no, you look great," he told her
then hooked his arm her way. "Come on before we miss
supper."

Terri took his arm and walked outside and saw
the dust trail of two pickups heading toward the main house. The
other hands evidently were scared of Penny too, because they sure
didn't let any grass grow under their feet getting to
supper.

"Get a move on, Dylan! I'm hungry, man!" The
man she recognized as Matt shouted out the window of the truck that
waited for them. Terri tried to pull her arm from his, so she could
go take her car, but he held on tight.

"You can ride with us, sugar," he said smiling
down at her.

"You already have three people in there, I can
take my car," she said glancing at the truck.

"You're small, you can sit on my lap. It's not
a long drive," he offered and pulled her toward the truck. Terri
couldn't argue without sounding rude. Since she had to live with
these men, she did the only thing she could. She went along, and
sat in Dylan's lap for the drive to the main house. His big
muscular arms tightened around her every time they hit a bump and
held her steady.

Dust filtered up through the open windows and
she coughed to clear it from her throat. "You okay, sugar?" he
asked then rolled up his window. Their driver, Sheedy, didn't roll
his up, he just kept driving.

"Fine," she told him and shifted around on his
lap to get comfortable. That turned out not to be such a good idea,
when she felt him harden against her hip. He shifted her a little
in his lap and shot her an apologetic smile. She wouldn't be doing
this again, she vowed. Her car might be small and not suited to a
ranch, but at least she wouldn't have to sit on a horny cowboy's
lap.

Maybe she should think of trading in her car
for a pickup. Her heart fell, because she loved her car, but it
just wasn't going to cut it on these rutty dirt roads. Tomorrow,
she'd go into town and see if she could make a deal.

"I wonder where the first-aid station will be
set up," she said conversationally.

"I think it's back behind the main house,
there's a shed set up there," he told her and pointed to a shack
she could barely see near the fence line. She saw a window, but no
air conditioner. That would be a necessity in the weather in
Amarillo. She'd need water back there too for sanitation. If it
wasn't possible to get it out there, they'd have to pick another
location closer to a water source. In the morning, she'd check it
out, then talk to Joel if necessary...and only if
necessary.

"So, is there a ranch manager?" she asked and
Dylan looked down at her with a small smile.

"No, ma'am, as far as I know it's just
Joel."

Damn, so much for avoiding the handsome,
confounding man. If she needed something, she'd have to go to
him.

"What about the cooks? Why are there two?" she
asked wanting to get the lay of the land, and figure out what she'd
have to do to put some distance between them. Maybe she'd pick up a
mini-fridge for her room, and just eat in there from now
on.

"Jarvis isn't here yet, he's the cook for the
bunkhouses...should be here by Friday, according to what Joel told
us yesterday. Once he gets here, we'll probably be eating out
there."

Matt snorted beside him, then grumbled, "Yeah,
and I'll bet his damned biscuits aren't near as good as Penny's,
he's a damned trail cook."

"You'll survive, dude," Dylan told him with a
chuckle. "She likes you, so she'll probably slip you a few, if
you're nice to her."

"Says I remind her of her son, that's why she
likes me, and she's a damned good cook, so hell yeah I'm gonna cozy
up to her."

Terri shook her head and chuckled. Men, if it
involved their stomach or their dick, they would pull out all the
stops to get what they wanted. When the truck pulled to a stop by
the other two in front of the house, Sheedy was out of the truck
and headed toward the front door, before they'd even opened their
door.

Terri saw him pass someone in the doorway, so
the front door didn't close behind him. When she realized it was
Joel, she swallowed hard seeing the angry look on his face when he
stepped under the porch light. Dylan pulled the handle on the door
and it swung open, then he kept her in his arms as he slid his long
legs to the ground. He pushed the truck door shut with his butt,
then slid her down his body to the ground.

Joel gritted his teeth as Dylan Thomas led
Terri to the front porch with his arm draped over her shoulders. He
had just been heading out to the bunkhouse to see what the holdup
was. Penny was fussing about being delayed putting dinner on the
table. Those guys knew they needed to be on time. Most had been
here since Monday, so they knew the routine.

From the wood Dylan was sporting when they
stepped into the light on the porch, it looked like the delay had
been with Terri and him out in the bunkhouse getting to know one
another. She'd been sitting in the cowboy's lap on the ride over in
the truck, so they must've gotten to know each other pretty well
already. Putting her out there in the bunkhouse with a bunch of
randy cowboys, to keep her away from him was not a good idea, he
now realized. It was like putting an apple pie on the windowsill
with crows perched in the trees.

"Terri, I need to talk to you before supper,"
Joel told her and opened the door wider. Dylan dropped his arm to
his side and Joel stepped between them. "Tell Penny to set a plate
for Terri, she'll be there in a minute," he instructed Dylan, then
led her through the huge house to the back, where his office was
located. Joel clenched his hands at his sides trying to control the
emotion making his gut boil.

What the fuck was wrong with him? Jealousy was
an ugly thing, and he didn't want to label what he was feeling as
that. That was an emotion he'd never been afflicted by before.
Instead, he tried to convince himself what had him upset was the
problems that fraternization between his employees would cause,
because they all lived at the ranch.

But Rocky his female ranch hand flirted with
the other cowboys, and that didn't bother him. She lived out in the
bunkhouse with them and again, it didn't matter. Seeing Terri
cozying up to Dylan just now upset him. Just like seeing her
dancing with her friend at the bar in Henrietta had upset
him.

Maybe the fact that they'd slept together
before was the problem, as he'd feared it would be when he hired
her. Because of their intimate connection, he was having flashbacks
of being cheated on during his marriage. Terri Cassidy was a
flavor, nothing more and he needed to remember that. But he was not
going to let her start a riot between the cowboys on his ranch. And
he was not going to be subjected to seeing it on a daily basis. He
didn't need that distraction.

Joel was about to nip any ideas she had of
starting something with one of his cowboys in the bud. Terri was
here to work, not seduce men...including him. Even if it was
unintentional, the woman put off signals that any man within
fifteen feet of her couldn't miss. A lot like his ex-wife had
done.

Joel opened his office door, and flipped on
the light then walked behind his desk and sat down. Taking a deep
breath, he waited as she took a seat in the chair in front of his
desk.

"Shut the door," he told her
calmly.

She gave him a look then got up and did as he
asked, before sitting back down.

"We have a problem," he told her. Although it
was really his problem, since Terri was the cause of it, it was now
theirs
.

"Oh, yeah? What's that?" she asked and her
eyes narrowed. He noticed her hand tremble on the handle of the
chair.

"You can't be carrying on with the cowboys on
this ranch," he told her bluntly.

"Carrying on?" she asked and her face
flushed.

"Yeah, hooking up with them, you know what I
mean. It will cause friction, and I can't have that," he told
her.

She cleared her throat then sat forward in the
chair. "Hooking up?" she repeated in a high-pitched voice tinged
with anger.

"You gonna make me spell it out for you?" he
said knowing she knew exactly what he meant.

"I think I get the gist of what you're saying,
Joel...and frankly, it's insulting."

"Didn't look too insulting while you were
giving Dylan a party in his lap in the truck," he told her
abrasively.

"I rode to dinner with them in the truck,
because my car doesn't do well on the ruts you call a road between
the bunkhouse and here," she grated through her teeth. It was
obvious to him she was at the edge of her control, but he didn't
give a damn. This needed to be said.

"Get this clear...you are not to seduce other
employees. If you need to carry on with someone, do it off of the
ranch," Joel told her without sugarcoating his meaning. "I'm moving
you up to a room in the house...tonight. I don't think it's a good
idea that you stay out in the bunkhouse."

"What if I don't want to stay in the big
house?" she asked tilting her head to the side.

A thunderstorm was brewing in her green eyes,
and Joel ignored it. "Then you can find another job, it's simple as
that," he told her then stood up.

Her curvy little body practically vibrated
with her anger, as Terri stood and pushed words past her tight
lips, her eyes glittering, "Contrary to popular belief, I am not
the town whore who rode in on the last stage coach, Joel. I take
offense to you thinking I am. I haven't done a damned thing to
warrant what you just said to me...it's insulting."

"Just get your stuff together, and have one of
the hands bring it up here...if you can manage that without sitting
on his lap to get here," he said and brushed past her, flicking off
the light as he walked through the doorway.

Joel Rhodes was a smug, judgmental
bastard.
He definitely wasn't the charming, but injured man
she'd slept with a year ago. A year ago, he sure hadn't minded
being the first in line for her services. Because she'd given into
the lure of his sad eyes and obvious need for comfort, he thought
she was easy. It was okay for him to have one-night stands, to tell
her she was just a flavor to him, but he evidently judged her by a
different standard.

Terri hadn't had sex in six months or more
before he'd come along. If she hadn't felt sorry for him that night
a year ago, and wanted to help him recover from the sting of his
wife's betrayal, she would never have slept with him
then.

Well, maybe that was taking it a bit far, he
wasn't a charity case. Joel Rhodes was good looking, seemed
charming back then, and her body had definitely been on board with
sleeping with him that night. The signals he'd been sending out to
her had hit all the right notes.

Never again though
, she thought and
mentally put a sledgehammer to her internal radar where he was
concerned. The man had just officially ripped his britches with
her. Avoiding him now wasn't what she planned to do. She didn't
have to, because there was no way in hell she would ever sleep with
him again. Wanting him wasn't an issue either, his opinion of her
had just snuffed out any warm and fuzzies she ever had for
him.

Terri didn't sleep with men who thought so
little of her.

She'd move up to the big house with him, but
he better put on his seatbelt, because she was going to make his
life a living hell. He'd need a cold shower every night to get to
sleep. Payback was hell, and Terri Cassidy was about to get her
pound of flesh from Joel Rhodes.