KIDNAPPED COWBOY (20 page)

She looked to Dalton for back up, waiting for him to explain to Jimmy and the others that adults weren’t included in the greased pig challenge.

A reassuring smile spread across the rodeo hunk’s face and she sighed in relief.  He would put an end to the kids’ crazy suggestion.  Her hero.

Dalton extended a hand to Jimmy.  “Okay, kid, you’re on.”

He’s on? 
She felt a surge of panic sweep through her.  What did he mean by that?  Hopefully, not what she thought he meant.

“Dalton,” she said with as much composure as she could muster, considering there was a squealing pig behind her and a group of over-excited teens surrounding her, “I’d like a word with you in my cabin, please.”

Bad idea.  Her request only made matters worse.

“Ooooh, she wants you to come to her cabin,” one of the boys taunted.

“What can I say?” Dalton replied with an I’m-the-man grin.  “Women just find me irresistible.”

She gasped.  Of all the things to say!  She was going to strangle him with her bare hands once she got him alone.  “To talk,” she clarified loudly.

“That’s what they all say,” he whispered playfully, loud enough for the teens to hear.

She was tempted to borrow Dalton’s ear-twisting tactic and drag him back to her cabin that way.  But one of them had to behave like an adult and it appeared it wasn’t going to be him.

To make matters worse, Jimmy decided to throw in his two cents, “Mr. Barnes is gonna get lucky!”

No, he’s going to get dead.
  Caitlin shot a warning glance at Dalton.

He shook his head and laughed.  “I’m afraid the only place I’ll be getting lucky will be at the greased pig competition.  Miss Myers here seems to be immune to my cowboy charm.”

Several of the girls giggled and spouted off offers of their own.

Caitlin fought the urge to scowl as the young girls flirted shamelessly with Dalton.  She flexed her fingers at her sides, her gaze zeroing in on his ear.  Just one good twist!

Thankfully, she managed to restrain herself.  Instead, she said calmly, “Okay, kids, we’re getting way off track here.  Mr. Barnes and I work together, that’s all.”

“Unfortunately,” Dalton muttered, this time so that only she could hear.

Ignoring him, she continued, “Head back to your cabins and get dressed.  Breakfast will be ready in about a half an hour.”

“And be sure to put on something old,” Dalton told them.  “We’re gonna be getting a little dirty today.”

More snickers from the group.

“As in messy,” he clarified with a grin.  “We’ve got a fence to put up before we can hold the pig challenge.”

“A whole fence?” one of the girls whined.

“Don’t worry.  We’ll work on it little by little each day, in between your other camp activities.”

“What do we need a fence for?” another girl asked.

He glanced toward the pig.  “You’ve got to keep that fellow corralled during the contest.  Otherwise you’d be chasing him all over the retreat and no one would win.”

“When are we gonna hold the competition?” Leah asked as she began to round up her group of girls.

“Not until the end of summer, before camp officially closes,” Dalton replied as he hoisted himself up into the back of his truck.

“That long?” several teens groaned in unison.

He chuckled.  “Since we won’t be working full-time on the fence, it’ll take a while to finish it.  Consider the competition your reward for good behavior and hard work this summer.”

It was impossible to concentrate on being angry with him, seeing as how her attention was now drawn to the muscles bunching in Dalton’s arms as he gathered up an armload of fence posts.  That sinewy strength that made her wish those strong arms were holding her instead.

“Caitlin,” Kelly said, tapping her lightly on the shoulder.

“Yes, Muscles?” she replied distractedly.

More laughter.

Caitlin’s head snapped around.  “Kelly.  I meant Kelly.”  Heat scorched her cheeks clean through.  Dalton’s husky laughter behind her only deepened her embarrassment. 

It was clear the young counselor was doing her best not to lose her composure at Caitlin’s slip of the tongue.  But the teens weren’t nearly as thoughtful.

“We just work together,” one of the boys mimicked in his best ‘girly’ tone.

“My, what big muscles you have,” another joined in, raising his voice several octaves to in an attempt to imitate her.

Dalton jumped down and deposited the armload of wooden fence posts on the ground at the kids’ feet.  “That’s enough.  We’ve got work to do.”

“Go get dressed,” Caitlin said, wishing she had never gotten out of bed that morning.  “We’ll start on the fence right after breakfast.”

Dalton waited until the young counselors had gathered up their groups and marched them off toward their assigned cabins before turning to flash a toothy grin at Caitlin.  “Muscles, huh?”

“Oooh!” was all she could manage before turning and stomping off toward her own cabin.  Impossible, too sexy for his own good, cowboy!

Grinning, Dalton followed Caitlin down the path to her cabin.  Did she have any idea how sexy the pronounced sway of her hips was when she walked like that?  Sometimes anger was a good thing. 

She yanked open the screen door to her cabin and stormed inside.  The door whipped shut behind her with a bang loud enough to send a pair of nearby squirrels scurrying for cover.

He stepped up onto the porch and peered in through the mesh screen.  “Would you prefer I stay outside?”

“I would prefer to boil you in oil right now,” she shot back.

Laughing, he let himself in.  “Someone get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

“Leave my bed out of this.”

He stepped toward her, backing her up against the wall.  Placing his hands on the wall on either side of her head, he smiled and lowered his face to hers.  “Why?  That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?”

She looked up at him, her green eyes mirroring his own need.  “This is about you letting those kids think there’s something going on between us.” 

“Isn’t there?” he said huskily.

She turned her head away.  “No.”

He reached up to cup her chin, guiding her face back to his.  “So are you telling me you don’t want me to kiss you right now?”

Her knees buckled slightly, forcing her to sag back against the wall.  “No.”

He lowered his mouth until it barely brushed hers.  “Rule number three, Caitlin.  No lying.”

With a groan, she gave in and threw her arms about his neck.  The momentum of her action sent him skittering back several steps on the heels of his boots, Caitlin right with him.

Grasping her hips, he dragged her up against him as their lips met in a hungry, frenzied kiss.

“The kids...” she murmured against his mouth when they finally came up for air.

“Know I’m in here getting lucky,” he teased and then went in for another kiss. 

Unfortunately, Caitlin didn’t find any humor in his teasing words.  Doing a one-eighty in the desire department she pushed him away with a gasp.  “You are
not
getting lucky.  Not here.  Not today.  Not ever again.”

“Never say never,” he teased.  And even though he knew he wouldn’t be getting ‘lucky’ right then, he still felt like the luckiest man on earth just for having Caitlin in his life.  But it was clear she wasn’t ready to hear anything like that at this point in their relationship.  The one he was pushing for and she was running from.  But someday soon...

“Okay, so I got a little carried away out there today,” he admitted.

She turned slowly to face him.  “Yes, you did.”

He forced his gaze to the floor, fighting the urge to kiss her again.

“We both did,” she said much to his surprise.

“What?” he said, looking up to meet her gaze.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve been sending out some sort of in-need-of-your-kiss signals even though I’ve been trying really hard not to.”

To keep from reaching for her, he shoved his hands into his jean pockets.  “Why are you fighting this?”

She walked over to the window to look out.  “I...  No, make that
we
, have a responsibility to these kids.  A duty to set a good example for them.”

“I won’t deny that,” he said with a knowing frown.  “But where in your contract does it say you can’t run this camp and have a personal life too?  Because if it’s in there somewhere I’ll make sure it gets changed.”

“No, it’s not in my contract,” she replied, turning from the window.  “It’s just that my obligation to the retreat is very important to me.”

“More important than us?”  He held up a hand.  “Never mind.  Don’t answer that.”  He already knew what her answer would be.  “I’ll see you at breakfast.”  With that, he turned and walked out the door.

*              *              *

“Are you mad at Mr. Barnes?”

Caitlin turned to Kylie, the oldest of the troubled teen girls staying at Stoney Brook that summer.  “No.” She hoped they would just leave it at that.  But they didn’t.

“If you like him, why are you avoiding him so much?” another girl asked from the back of the beeline they had formed for their late morning hike to the lake.

Dalton, Billy and Zach were off with the boys gathering wood for that night’s campfire.  Since it was the boys’ turn to cook supper, they had opted for a wiener roast.   

She stopped with a sigh and turned to the girls, bringing their steps to a halt as well.  “I don’t like Dalton.”

The girls muttered among themselves.

“What I mean,” she added, feeling the need to explain things better, even if it was a lie of sorts, “is that I do like him.  Just not in the way you are all wanting me to like him.”  Now she was definitely a rule breaker.

“Could have fooled us,” Leah muttered beside her.

Were her feelings for Dalton that obvious?  She had tried so hard to hide them.  Clearly, she had failed.

“He’s like a lemon,” Kylie added with a huge sigh.

“A lemon?” 

The slender blonde nodded.  “Yeah, he makes your mouth water.”

Caitlin smiled and shook her head.  Apparently she wasn’t the only one affected by the sight of Dalton Barnes in those snug fitting cowboy jeans, flashing that sexy smile of his everywhere he went.  “Well, that lemon is far too old for any of you.”

“He’s not that old.”

“I like my men older.”

“Me, too.”

She was surrounded by teenagers with raging hormones, and they were raging in Dalton’s direction.  An emotion she’d never had to deal with before stirred within her.

Jealousy.

“Dalton is one of Stoney Brook’s administrators.  That means he is off-limits.  And let’s not forget rule number four.”

“No sex!” the girls recited in unison.

“Close enough,” Caitlin replied.  That wasn’t exactly how it was worded, but they girls got the point.  She started down the path again with Leah and Kelly bringing up the rear.

Pointing out the various types of plants as they went, she attempted to get the girls’ minds on something other than Dalton.

It worked.  For about five seconds.  That was when Dalton came barreling down the path beside them with a banshee-like howl.  His jeans were undone and he was holding them up as he passed by them, cursing a blue streak.

Caitlin gasped, her head swiveling about as her gaze followed him.  He raced toward the dock, tossing his hat to the grass as he went.  His boots followed as he hopped toward the dock, picking up speed.

“Dalton!” she called out, but it was too late.

He launched himself into the lake with a loud splash.  Water shot like a geyser into the air and across the weathered planks of the old dock. 

“What on earth?” she gasped.

As quickly as he went under, he surfaced, coming up with an animal-like growl.  “When I get my hands on those damned boys...”

His words became nothing more than angry sputters as he went under again.

“Uh-oh.”  Kelly looked to Caitlin.  “You wanna rescue him or should I?”

“He can swim.”

“Not very well by the look of things,” Leah added from behind the group.

“He’s just a little upset.”  More than a little, but she wasn’t going to draw any more attention to Dalton’s theatrics than he had already done himself.  It was clear the boys had done something else to get his goat.  Whatever it was, they had succeeded. 

Caitlin stared at the center of the ripples where Dalton’s dark head shot up out of the water once more.  He was still cursing the boys.  What did they have to do with him throwing himself fully clothed into the lake?

Sure, the boys had pushed the testing of Dalton’s limits a bit too far, putting Vaseline under the handles of his truck, dumping hot sauce in the ketchup bottles, stealing the girls’ bras and stringing them up on the flag pole, but through it all he had always managed to keep his head. 

She looked toward the lake and the dark head bobbing up and down.  It was clear every man had his breaking point and Dalton had finally reached his. 

“Wait here,” she told the girls and then hurried down the path to the lake where Dalton was wading out of the water. 

“If you were trying to startle us half to death, you succeeded,” she told him as she closed the distance between them.

He responded with an angry growl, “The only thing I was trying to do was cool my a..., er, butt off.”

“What?”  Not the reply she had expected to get from him.

“Those little shits,” he huffed, pointing in the direction of the boys’ cabins, “slipped Ex-Lax into my coffee this morning!”

“How do you know it’s not just a stomach bug?”

He grunted his impatience.  “Because I discovered the laxative box in the boys’ bathroom garbage, alongside the empty jar of Icy Hot those delinquents thought would be funny to smear all over the toilet seat in the boys’ bathroom.”  Water ran down his tanned face, spewing from his lips as he ranted angrily.

No wonder Dalton had virtually flew, pants half undone, into the lake.  Her lips began to twitch. 
This isn’t funny
, she told herself.  “Are you okay?”

Was he okay?  Dalton arched a wet brow.  “My innards aren’t threatening to combust any longer, but my ass is still burning.”