Silver River Romeo (Western Cowboy Romance) (Rancher Romance Series #1) (8 page)

              “Nothing. It’s just that you only seem to take advice from my brothers so maybe I’ll send one of them over with the memo that if you don’t take care of your tack, you’re throwing money down the drain.” Cole stood up. “Or are you too busy with unpacking and decorating?” He’d noticed more than a few pretty, feminine touches in the old Carson place. He’d actually liked them but this wasn’t the time to admit it. If she thought he was a jerk, then he’d really show her what it looked like.

              “I haven’t just been sitting around decorating,” Emma said, stung by the accusation. “I’ve been out here working with all of you this whole time!”

             
“Yeah, and you think this is hard?” He gestured to the mostly empty barn. “What are you going to do when this ranch is at full capacity? How are you going to handle it when we aren’t here to hold your hand?”

              “You don’t have any idea how hard this is!” Emma shouted. It didn’t exactly answer his accusation, but it was all she had. The truth was, she had no clue how she was going to handle it when they weren’t there to help her every day.

              “I don’t have any idea how hard this is?” Cole repeated sarcastically. “I don’t know how you figure that, sweetheart. I’ve been running a ranch all my life and now I’m running two!”

              “What?” she demanded, turning toward him with her dark blue eyes blazing even in the fading light of the barn. “Just what exactly are you talking about? Marshall helped with the horses! Darrell helped with the stable! Everyone helped with the hay! All you’ve done is stand around and insult me! I don’t know how exactly you think that’s helpful, but here’s a newsflash Cole McKenna! It’s not!”

              “I’ve done more than stand around and insult you! I harvested just as much as Darrell and Marshall and they sure as hell didn’t handle all those horses alone! Also, I doubt you realize this, but someone had to take care of all those things at Silver River, too. Do you think we just told the cows to take a vacation? That we politely asked the hay not to grow?” Cole crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow in what he knew was an infuriatingly superior look.

              Emma was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know!” she finally yelled. “What do you want from me? Do you want me to say I don’t know what I’m doing? Fine! Fine, I don’t! I don’t have a clue! I don’t have any real world ranching experience! All I know is Grandpa Hank wanted me to have this ranch and I’ve been doing my best!”

              Cole hated himself suddenly when tears gathered in her eyes and spilled down over her flushed cheeks. She swiped them away angrily and winced when the rough cowhide of her glove scraped her sensitive skin.

              “I read all I could about it and I lost everything I had to come here and do this. Grandpa’s letter said that if I needed anything, I could always call on the McKenna boys. I guess he forgot to warn me that I should only call on two out of three!”

              Cole was still standing there open-mouthed when she turned and stomped away. The slamming of her screen door woke him from his daze. What did she mean she’d lost everything?

             
Even though he hadn’t been invited and he probably wasn’t welcome at this point by any means, Cole walked across the scrubby front yard and pushed the screen door open.

              “Hey,” he called into the quiet house. “I’m sorry, all right?”

              There was no answer. Where the hell could she have gone in such a short time? He hadn’t heard any other doors open or shut, so she had to be in the house somewhere.

              “Emma? Where you at?” he called a little louder. “Listen, I’m saying that I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I said.”

              Still no answer. He sighed and walked further into the house, through the kitchen and down the hall. Gradually, he began to recognize the sounds of water running. At least that would explain why she hadn’t answered him. He guessed she was one of those women that liked to cry in the shower.

              He banged on the bathroom door anyway.

              “Go away!” Emma yelled.

              “No. I came to tell you that I’m sorry. Can you hear me?” he demanded when she didn’t answer.

              “I hear you,” she said grudgingly.  “Just go.”

              Cole leaned his forehead on the oak door and listened to the muffled sound of the shower going full blast in the bathroom.

              “I’m a jerk, okay?”

              “No,” she answered back, leaning her forehead against her side of the door to hear him better. “It’s not okay to be a jerk.”

              “Well, I know that,” he answered in frustration. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

              “How would I know what you mean?” Emma snipped back. “You never talk to me.”

              “How do you figure that?” He ran his hands through his hair and exhaled in frustration.

              “You talk
at
me, not
to
me. You tell me things, but we never talk. I...” she sighed and finally admitted what she’d been doing her best to hide. “I like you, Cole.” Now he would do what all the men she’d loved did. He’d make some excuse and leave and this would be over.

              “Hell, I like you too,” he answered. “So what are we doing on opposite sides of the door?”

              “If you like me then why have you been so mean?” she asked as she rested her fingers on the doorknob, her heart pounding so loudly she could hear it in her ears. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. She was almost tempted to pinch herself again just to make sure she was really still awake.

              “We just talked about that. I’m a jerk.” Cole was suddenly aware of a change in his pulse rate. Was she hinting at something here? “And I was jealous. This was always my favorite ranch and I was scared you were going to let it go to hell.”

              “You were jealous?” she asked in surprise.

              “Green as a bullfrog,” Cole said with a half laugh. “I had no right to take it out on you though. I’m sorry. That’s all I came to say.”

              When there was no response, he turned to go. When she heard the hardwood floor creak under the weight of his boots, she made her choice. It didn’t make sense and she probably shouldn’t be doing this considering what a jerk he really had been...but she knew he was a good guy underneath all of that. And she really needed to see if he was anything like he’d been in the dream.

              She turned the doorknob, and in a breathless voice that had nothing to do with the fact that she’d been near tears less than five minutes ago, she called his name.

              Cole turned to see her framed by the bathroom door, wearing nothing but a slate gray towel. Steam from the hot water billowed around her. He swallowed hard.

              “Emma?”

              She crooked one finger and beckoned him closer. “I forgive you, Cole McKenna,” she whispered just before she stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.

              When his lips parted in surprise, she took full advantage and soon her eager mouth had him groaning in shocked pleasure.

              “God, Emma,” he managed to say when she pulled back. “Don’t stop just when we’re finally getting along.”

              She chuckled and tugged him into the small, steamy room.

              “Who said anything about stopping?”

              She tucked the towel tighter around her and reached up, taking Cole’s black Stetson off and setting it gently on the counter top. His sandy brown hair was unruly and sticking out in places. Emma grinned and threaded her fingers through it, her fingers combing until it lay as flat as it was going to. Cole gave her a grin.

              “Look better to you now?”

              “You’ve always looked good enough to me,” she said honestly.

              “I always thought you were sexy as hell,” he admitted. “First time I came over here to help you out, all I could think about was how good you looked in those jeans.”

              “Want me to put them back on or take yours off?” she asked, looking up at him with a wicked gleam in her pretty blue eyes.

              “I’m no fool,” Cole assured her. “And neither are you. I think you know which one gets my vote, sweetheart.”

              Emma began unbuttoning his shirt. She’d seen him shirtless before, in the field and in her dream. However, that was nothing compared to having him there in the flesh. She couldn’t resist pressing her lips to his chest as each button came undone. His skin was tanned golden brown and he was deliciously warm under her fingers and lips.

              When she got to it, Emma traced her fingers over his tattoo. It was simple, but oddly elegant, the brand of Silver River Ranch. She’d seen it on Marshall and Darrell too, the black ink letters SF with a black river dividing the letters up but she hadn’t wanted to press her lips to it on either of them. Now, she couldn’t resist it.

Emma swirled her tongue over the tattoo slowly and thoroughly, enjoying his taste and the wicked sensuality of the act itself. His hand moved up to cup the back of her neck and she felt his fingers tighten in her hair. She moved down slowly, trailing kisses over his chest and down his tight stomach. She couldn’t help but trail her nails over the rigid muscles in his abdomen, which only made them flex tighter as he caught his breath.

              She fumbled a little with his belt buckle, but Cole was happy to help by that point. She could see a very promising bulge pressing against his jeans and when his pants slid past his hips, her dreams came true.

              Cole couldn’t hold back a purely male grin of pride when Emma looked into his eyes and said, “Well, well, Mr. McKenna.”

              “Impressed?”

              “Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked honestly as she traced his manhood with the tip of her index finger.

             
He shivered at the light touch and she traced her way back up. She bit her lip in pure anticipation. He was all hers...at least for the moment. She glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow.

              “I believe I’m overdressed,” she pointed out.

              “I’m afraid I have to agree,” Cole said as he tugged the towel down. He wanted to say something about how beautiful she was but all that came to mind was, “Damn, Emma.”

              She was perfect. He cupped her face in his hands as he swept her body with one heated gaze. She caught her breath as his rough hands moved down, making her skin come alive under his touch. He was devastatingly thorough.

              He cupped her breasts, rubbing his thumbs over her perky nipples until they stood stiff. Then, when she thought he might move down, he dipped his head and gently closed his teeth over one of them.

              “Cole!” she gasped out, clenching her fingers in his hair.

              “Like it?” he asked.

              “Oh, God, yes,” she moaned.

              “Good,” he said in a low voice. “Because you taste as good as you look.”

              His tongue swirled around the rigid peak as he pinched her other nipple between his thumb and forefinger. Emma squealed as he pressed her back to the glass shower wall and Cole laughed against her skin.

              “It might be warmer inside,” she said between gasps of pleasure.

              Her knees were going weaker with each flick of his talented tongue and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could go without knocking him down and riding him until they were both too tired to move. Cole shoved the shower door open and they stumbled under the heated spray together. Emma had thought she couldn’t possibly find him any more attractive than she already did, but that simply wasn’t true. With the water sluicing down the hard muscle of his upper body and forming droplets on his broad shoulders, he looked even better.