Miranda And The Ranch Hand (Domestic Discipline Romance)

Miranda and the Ranch Hand

By

Coleen Singer

©2010, 2015 by Blushing Books® and Coleen Singer

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Singer, Coleen

Miranda and the Ranch Hand

eBook ISBN: 978-1-60968-169-2

Cover Design by ABCD Graphics

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Ebook Offer

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Dylan Wrightman sent his telegram letting his boss know he’d arrived in Austin and was headed out to the Double-R. Since he had no idea yet whom he could trust, it was carefully worded—addressed to “Uncle Tyler,” with no mention of the Texas Rangers. As he mounted his horse, there was no sign of a badge. He was trying to look like just any another ranch hand, but he couldn’t help that he cut a striking figure in a saddle—tall, dark and dangerous.

Silently, he took stock of Austin as he rode slowly through town. It was a quaint town—not nearly as big as Houston, but still thriving and busy. People looked his way—some even nodded a welcome. He imagined that this town was still small enough that people noticed strangers and wondered about them. Especially with the trouble the ranchers were having, a stranger was probably noticed even more now. No doubt he’d be hearing from the local sheriff soon, just a friendly ‘hello and what are doing you in town’ conversation. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even let the sheriff know why he was here—at least not until he had a better idea of who was stealing and killing cattle and horses at the local ranches.

Dylan’s eyes were drawn to Miranda Rollins instantly as she stomped out of the newspaper office. And stomped was definitely the word for it. She was madder than a wet polecat in winter. The fury in her face matched the wild auburn hair that flowed down her back under her wide-brimmed riding hat. She wore a western riding skirt and vest that outlined her tall, shapely figure. This was no delicate Texas rose. She was beautiful, but in a completely natural way, like she was part of this wild, but dangerous landscape. He watched as she balled up a piece of paper in her fist, cursing someone under her breath while she paced back and forth—unsure what to do next, and too angry to make a decision.

Suddenly, she turned and headed out across the road, still completely preoccupied with her anger. Dylan saw the danger she was oblivious to and urged his horse into a run. He scooped up the startled woman onto his horse just seconds before she was trampled by the wagon coming around the corner that never could have stopped in time.

“Put me down, damn it! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Miranda kicked and yelled, but couldn’t get free of Dylan’s vise grip. Dylan’s jaw clenched and his face turned from concern to anger that matched hers.

“I was saving your crazy neck, Miss. Next time, you might want to watch where you’re going, so you don’t end up trampled.” Dylan unceremoniously dropped Miranda to the ground by her horse. Miranda’s biting retort was cut off when John Townsend came running up and grabbed her and swung her around.

“Jeez, Mandy, are you all right? My God, I didn’t even see you. If this man hadn’t whisked you off the road, we would have run right over you.” John was the son of the owner of a neighboring ranch, Towns End. As he turned to thank Dylan, Miranda started to realize the danger she’d been in. She looked over to John’s wagon pulled by the two huge workhorses and the color drained from her face.

Dylan saw her reaction, ignored John for the moment and jumped off his horse. He took her by the arms and forced her to look up at him, “Are you all right?” he asked softly.

Miranda looked up into the deepest blue eyes she’d ever seen and was lost for a moment. His softer touch sent strange shivers through her body, but she attributed it to the shock of realizing she’d almost been killed.

“I… I’m fine,” she whispered, but even she didn’t recognize the weak voice that said it. She broke her gaze at Dylan, shook her head and said in a much firmer voice, “Please, let me go. I’m fine.”

Dylan looked skeptical, but released her. He remained close until he was sure she was steady on her feet. “That was a pretty foolish thing to do—not even looking before you stomped into the road.”

The remark and his patronizing tone brought the color back to Miranda’s cheeks and a flash in her eyes. She stiffly turned her back on Dylan and faced John. “John, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you coming.”

“Hey, I’m just glad you’re all right. Those brothers of yours would have my hide if anything happened to you.” John’s brilliant smile lit up his whole face. “Plus, where am I going to find another date for the barbeque Saturday.”

Miranda smiled back. “John, you’re a gem. Do me a favor, though. Don’t mention this to Marcus or David. You know how they make a fuss over everything—I’ll be explaining myself for a week!” And she thought, probably not sitting comfortably for just as long.

“No problem, I don’t relish the idea of telling your brothers I almost ran over their little sister, anyway. I’ll see you Saturday at the ranch. And Mandy— it’s great to have you back.” John winked at Miranda and turned back to Dylan. “I’m John Townsend, and I’d like to thank you properly for your rescue. If you need work, come out to Towns End ranch, and we’ll find a place for you.”

Dylan took John’s proffered hand. “Dylan Wrightman, and thanks for the offer, but actually I’ve already signed on at one of the ranches around here. The Double-R. Maybe you could direct me there?”

John laughed. “Oh, that’s sweet! Actually, you could just follow Mandy out—” But as they both turned to Miranda, all they saw was the dust kicked up by her stallion. She had mounted and taken off.

“If that brat were my sister, she wouldn’t sit so easily on that horse. She needs a good taste of someone’s hand across her backside,” Dylan said through clenched teeth.

John laughed again. “Wait till you meet her brothers. At least when she was growing up, she was always ending up with a sore behind for some misadventure. And it doesn’t appear that her years back East did much to tame her. By the way, you never got formally introduced. That was Miranda Rollins—youngest of the ‘Double-R’ Rollins. Her older brothers, Marcus and David, run the place. Our ranches border each other.”

Dylan turned back sharply to stare at John—his surprised look gave way to a slight grin. This could be interesting. “Tell me more.”

John was happy to oblige. “Marcus and David have been running the ranch for more than ten years, since their parents were killed trying to save their horses from a barn fire. All three kids were over at our place at the time, and the brothers still feel some guilt over their parents’ deaths. Miranda was only eleven when they passed—she’s almost ten years younger than her brothers. Their aunt wanted her to come out East to upstate New York almost immediately, but they insisted she stay on the ranch where she belonged, and they raised her. She can ride, rope and shoot with the best of them, but you’d never guess it, as protective as they are about her.

“She’s also got an incredible way with the animals, especially the horses. When an animal is hurt, she’s got this sixth sense about what it needs. That’s why, when she turned eighteen, Marcus insisted she go back East to some brand new New York women’s college for culture and training at being a lady. She defied him and somehow managed to become one of the first students at Cornell University’s new vet school. From what she told me—they didn’t even realize they’d admitted a woman till Miss Rollins showed up for class! I guess her aunt tried to turn her into a debutante, but Mandy was just too strong-willed.” John gave a hearty chuckle. “Marcus expected he’d get a ‘lady’ back that he could find a husband for. But Mandy’s still the same wildcat she was when she left... only a little older, and definitely a looker.” John had a wistful look on his face as he made that last comment.

Dylan looked incredulous. “Veterinarians are as scarce as hen’s teeth and you’re telling me that brat is a trained vet? Now I’ve heard it all.”

“Wait till you see her in action—you’ll change your tune. She may never be able to convince the ranchers around here to treat her as their animal doctor, but they still respect her ability. Before she left, she’d trail around after our doc, and somehow she always knew what was ailing almost any critter. She’s been back about a month. The problem is now that she’s got that fancy piece of paper, she wants to be treated like a real vet—and that’s not going to be easy out here. The ranchers just won’t accept a woman that way. And of course we’ve had a lot of trouble lately with cattle and horses being stolen and then mutilated and killed. It’s eating her up that even her own brothers won’t let her near the scenes of the animal killings to help investigate.”

The mention of the animal killings brought Dylan sharply back to reality and his reason for being in Austin. He couldn’t get distracted by Miranda Rollins or anything else. “Thanks for the info, John. I guess I’m going to head out to the ranch now and get to work.”

“Well, even though it would help you out with Marcus and David, if it were me, I wouldn’t mention today’s little rescue. Keep it in your back pocket as something to help keep Mandy in line. It’ll drive her nuts wondering when you’re going to tell her brothers. She knows they have zero tolerance for her putting herself in danger.”

Dylan climbed back up on his horse with a look of bemusement. “Thanks for the advice—I may just do that.”

* * *

Miranda came flying back onto the ranch, as if the devil himself were chasing her. She let her stallion, Windfire, run wide open. She loved the wind against her face and the feeling of true freedom a flat out gallop gave her. As she approached the ranch house, she reined the magnificent animal to a canter and headed to the stables. She let him cool down with a walk around the corral, and then unsaddled him and rubbed him down.

As she vigorously brushed down the horse, he nudged her, as if sensing her confused emotions. She looked the horse in the eye and started speaking softly, almost crooning to the huge animal. “Sorry, boy, if I was a little rough… just trying work off some of this nervous energy... or anger... or I don’t know...”

And she didn’t really know what she was feeling. She was still angry that Mr. Jennings at the newspaper wouldn’t take her advertisement. Men were so infuriating! “I’m not going to take your money little lady,” he had said. “No one round here’s going to hire a woman to tend to their animals. Now, Mandy, why don’t you just find yourself a nice husband and settle down—you wait much longer and you’re going to be an old maid!”

She could have wrung the man’s neck right there. She was good with animals, damn it, and she had worked her butt off at Cornell. She always had to prove herself to her male professors and fellow students. There were only five of them in the third class for Cornell’s veterinary medicine program—and they all did everything possible to make her quit. She really thought it would be different when she got home. These people knew her—they knew how good she was with the animals. Hell, they’d asked her for help many times before she went away. Well, she was opening her clinic in the back barn no matter what—they’d come around sooner or later.

Settle down indeed! She wanted nothing to do with a husband, or any man for that matter. She’d had enough of that kind of hurt at school. She was never going to let another guy into her heart again—especially not one who couldn’t respect who and what she was.

Even as those thoughts passed through her mind, she thought of the stranger who had scooped her up in town. Then she felt a whole range of new emotions—anger at his arrogance and the way he dressed her down mixed with a strange thrill at his touch and concern. She sighed. She knew she had been rude leaving like that without even thanking him—but he was so presumptuous and dominating. Hell and damnation! She’d probably have bruises all around her ribcage where he had grabbed her and held her so tight she could hardly breathe. But she also knew she could have been seriously hurt if he hadn’t come along just when he did.

She was brought abruptly out of her reverie by a sharp smack to her backside. “Hey! That hurt!” Rubbing the slight sting out of her butt, she turned to see David grinning.

“Sorry, sis, I couldn’t resist such a tempting target. Besides, you’re going to wear the hide right off that horse if you don’t let up a little with the brush.”

Miranda looked back at Windfire a little sheepishly and realized she was still taking out her emotions on the animal.

“So what’s got you so fired up? I saw you ride in here like you had bandits on your tail.”

“Oh, it’s men. I’d like to get rid of them all!” Miranda spouted, angry all over again.

“Brothers included?” David gave her a smirk.

Miranda laughed at that. “Sometimes! But not today. Today I’m targeting newspapermen, stubborn ranchers and arrogant strangers! Can you believe Mr. Jennings refused to take my ad for the clinic, saying no rancher around here would ever hire a female vet? ‘Go settle down’ he says. Hah!”

Now David was straining to hold back the laughter. He could just imagine how his sister reacted to that. But he knew if he laughed now, there’d be hell to pay. Miranda could tell he was about to burst out laughing—she punched him lightly on the arm. “Oh, so you think it’s funny.” But she was smiling too.

“Come on, sis, lighten up. They’ll come around when they see what miracles you work around here.”

“Yeah, if Marcus ever lets me take full charge of tending to our animals. I think he’s still pissed about vet school.”

“Mandy, he got over that four years ago. He’s as proud of your accomplishment as I am. But, if you don’t watch your language, young lady, the only thing you’re going to get from our big brother is a good spanking.”

“Oh for crying out loud, David, I’m 22-years old. Don’t you think I’m a little old to still be spanked?”

“As far as I’m concerned, you’re never to old to end up over my knee, Miranda Rollins, and don’t you forget it!”