Surrender to Temptation (13 page)

Nikki knew women, and Libby’s earlier behavior had nothing to do with Dean. The woman wanted Chase and had been laying her claim. Before she could stop herself Nikki added, “Wherever her affections were before, they have been shifted to you, Fitzgerald.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Chase said firmly.

Nikki couldn’t curb her tongue now that she’d started talking. “She sure acted as if you’re hers—signed, sealed, and delivered.”

Chase frowned. “Libby has been through a rough time and needs friends. That is all I am to her—a friend.”

Nikki looked at Chase’s face and sighed. Men were so clueless. A woman had to literally climb onto a man’s lap and start seducing him before he realized her intentions.

She looked up when Libby walked in. Nikki might as well be invisible for all the attention she received from Libby, who headed straight for Chase and pushed her cleavage in his face.

“Can I groom Mystery? I want to ride her and see how rusty you’ve gotten since I left.”

Nikki grinned at the way Chase tried hard not to look at Libby’s magnificent bosom. Instead he smiled into her eyes and said, “I’ll get her, but you must take it easy on her. She’s finally pregnant. We just picked her up from Dean’s.”

Libby laughed. “That’s great. I know you were worried about her. Buttercup?”

Chase shook his head. “At Circle R, but there’s still time.”

“Then I’ll ride Ellie or Royal.”

“Royal. Ellie has a cracked toe.”

“Oh no, poor thing.” She squeezed Chase’s arm, so Nikki wasn’t sure whether “poor thing” meant Chase or the mare. “Do you want me to take care of it?”

“No. Big Joe already did.”

“Then Nikki and I will get to know each other while you get Royal.” The smile Libby gave him was sugarcoated.

“Good! I think the two of you will get along great.” Chase glanced at Nikki and caught her staring at Libby’s hand, which was till caressing his arm. Actually, it looked like Libby was seizing his biceps again. He frowned and stepped away, forcing Libby to drop her hand. He was still frowning when he disappeared toward the stalls.

As soon as Chase disappeared, the woman walked over to Nikki. She pretended to pat Trinity. “So, what’s your plan, Savoy? Shouldn’t you be in the den working on the website he’s paying you to set up instead of being out here? I’ve seen city women like you come and go. The novelty of being on the ranch wears off, and it’s up to us local girls to pick up the pieces.”

Nikki realized that she had the upper hand. Somehow, Libby felt threatened by her.

“For your information, doing all this,” Nikki waved a hand to indicate the barn, “is research. I like to see what my clients are passionate about before I start designing their websites. Chase is very passionate about lots of things, Libby, and I’m trying to figure them out. One at a time.”

The woman studied her as though she was the lowest of worms. “I don’t believe you. You want him. I saw it in your eyes.”

Nikki shrugged. “It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not. It is the truth.”

A calculating gleam entered the woman’s eyes. “Do you ride? Or are you one of those city folks who is scared of falling off a horse.”

The way she said it irritated Nikki. The worse part was it was true. “Of course I can ride. I’m from Texas.”

“We’ll see.” The woman chuckled and turned just as Chase retuned. “Chase, Nikki was telling me how she can’t wait to come out with us. Do you know she’s from Texas and grew up riding?”

Chase frowned and searched Nikki’s face. “Are you sure you want to take Trinity out today?”

She could save face and claim she had work or face her fears once and for all. “I can ride, unless you’re thinking of racing. Then I’ll bow out.” There was just so far she could go to wipe that smug smirk off Libby’s face.

From then on, Libby monopolized Chase’s time. When Nikki needed help putting a saddle on Trinity, she asked Little Joe. The young man was more than eager to show her what to do. A few times she caught Chase watching them. Finally, he walked over.

“You don’t have to ride out today if you’re not ready,” he said softly.

Libby watched them with annoyance.

“No, I’ll be fine,” Nikki said.

He helped her mount, his hand lingering on her thigh. He was really worried for her. How sweet. She reassured him again and watched him walk away to join Libby. She wasn’t a complete novice with horses. As long as they didn’t spook and take off, she was going to be fine.

Libby and Chase were waiting for her in the yard. Winston was with them.

“Why can’t he come with us?” she asked when Little Joe watched them ride away with a long face.

“There’s no horse for him to exercise today,” Winston explained. “Ellie has a sand crack on his hoof, which must be treated. Philly is due any day now and can’t be ridden or she could lose her foal. And Buttercup is still at Circle R Ranch, where she’ll stay until she’s pregnant.”

They rode slowly, all four of them. Instead of using the wide road leading to the ranch house, they used a side gate that led to the pasture. At first Winston and Chase checked the fences and discussed what needed to be fixed.

Once they went through the gate, Chase pointed out the different mountain ranges. They crossed the open meadows bisected with willow-lined creeks, which graded into timber-lined creeks and pastures from the mountains. The land was naturally irrigated by creeks and runoffs crisscrossing the land.

“Do you want to go back?” Chase asked her, but Nikki was aware of Libby watching her with a mocking gleam in her eyes as though waiting for Nikki to prove her right.

Nikki shook her head. “No. What did you say they call the valley?”

“The Big Hole Valley,” he said.

“Or the Land of 10,000 Haystacks,” Winston added.

They explained about harvesting natural hay in the valley. She’d seen the huge mounds of hay when she and Winston arrived at the valley, but he hadn’t explained. As Chase talked about hay stacking, they moved at an easy gait, and occasionally Chase got down from the horse to check on a weed or point out a local wildflower. Libby didn’t look happy by their pace, but she didn’t complain.

The history of Big Hole Valley was rich and the land itself, shaped by space and sky, was an unspoiled and beautiful—the timeless towering mountains, the pristine waters reflecting the vast, clear sky, the gently rolling hills uncluttered by society’s diversion, the lush meadow, and creeks adding colorful contrast, like a painter’s masterpiece. Chase owned quite a spread because they didn’t leave his land until they reached a canyon with trees and a secluded pond. Across the pond was another ranch.

“That’s Dean’s place,” he said.

“I want to show you something, Chase,” Libby said. She turned her horse and headed in the opposite different. Chase hesitated and frowned, his eyes volleying between Nikki and Winston.

“Go,” Nikki said, needing to rest her aching ass without him and Libby around.

Chase’s gaze lingered on Nikki. “How are you holding up?”

Her butt was killing her, but she refused to admit it. “Good.”

With his sunglasses in place, she couldn’t tell whether he believed her or not, but he seemed reluctant to leave. “You two head straight home.”

Once there, she planned to have a hot bath.

“Thanks for showing me around,” she called out as he turned his horse.

Chase nodded. Libby was already racing across the meadow. He took off after her.

Nikki waited until he was gone before she said, “Can we walk a bit, Winston?”

“Yes, miss.” The cowboy got off his horse and helped her down. “That was a long ride for someone not used to horses.”

“It wasn’t bad. The land is beautiful, and I’m happy I had a chance to see it this close.” And there was no way she would have complained with Ms. Perfect Libby around. The woman rode as if the horse was an extension of her butt.

The elderly cowboy entertained Nikki with cowboy stories and legends as they walked, making Nikki forget about her pain. After a while, her feet started to hurt. She stopped, feeling like a total loser. Ride or walk? Either way was painful. The urge to just drop on the ground and refuse to move washed over her. She had truly become a city slicker.

“Do you want me to ride home and get the truck, Miss Nikki?” Winston asked.

“Oh yes,” she wanted to yell, but she would never live down the humiliation. “No, let’s ride.”

Surprise and admiration flickered in Winston’s hazel eyes. He helped her back on the horse and frowned when she hissed as she sat on the saddle.

“Miss—”

“It’s Nikki, Winston. Not Miss Nikki. And I’m fine. Let’s just go.”

She almost cried in relief when they arrived at the homestead. Her butt was on fire. Thankfully, Chase and Libby were not home to witness her knees almost buckle when she stepped on the ground. Little Joe ran to take the horse from her.

“Thank you, Cowboy Joe,” she whispered.

“I’ll remove the saddle and bridle and turn her out for you, Miss Nikki.”

Nikki sighed with relief but felt bad for not taking care of the horse assigned to her. “Thank you. I appreciate your help.”

But when Winston said, “A soak in a hot tub helps the aches, Miss Nikki. Ask Mrs. B for something to use to sooth the soreness,” Nikki flushed with embarrassment.

“I thought I had everyone fooled.”

“Not me and definitely not the boss. We cut across his land instead of going to the boundaries.”

Nikki opened her mouth and then closed it. Was that why he had made them stop several times or insisted that they walk while he studied weeds? Was he also responsible for the times Winston had been by her side to help her down or back onto the horse?

“Thanks, Winston. I think I’ll follow your advice and take that long bath.” She smiled uncertainly at him and walked to the house. Wobbled was more like it.

“A package came for you, my dear,” Mrs. B called out as Nikki passed the kitchen door.

CHAPTER 9

Chase had been having the most erotic dream about his guest. Even now, wide-awake and aware she wasn’t in his bed, he grinned as he savored the details. No matter how much he tried to control his body and his reaction to thoughts of her, nothing worked. A fierce longing sliced through him, his gut tightening and aching with need. The massive hard-on didn’t help either.

In the old days, he would have acted with the swiftness of a predator going after a kill. But Keira had cured him of that. He didn’t do anything without thorough deliberation. Unfortunately, his body refused to listen to him where Nikki was concerned. When with her, reasoning flew out the window.

His thoughts shifted to the day before. For someone who was scared of horses, she wasn’t a bad rider. Or so he had thought until he’d taken a closer look at the way she rode and realized what was wrong. Her bottom had taken a beating with each step the mare took. To give her a rest, he had made them make several stops on the pretense of checking on some exotic plants or a landmark. He shouldn’t have let her take the horse out.

Pushing the matter aside, Chase rolled off his rumpled bed and stifled a yawn. Scratching his belly, he shuffled to the bathroom. As the sharp needles of the shower cleansed his body, his thoughts turned to Ken and his investigation. He wished he could put aside the matter of who burned down his restaurant and move on.

So, the first thing Chase did after the shower was place a call to L.A. He didn’t wait long before Ken came on the line. “Is it too early to call?”

“Would it make a difference if I said it is?” the private investigator said. “I do have a right to relax in bed with my wife every morning, you know.”

Smart-ass. “That’s my cousin you’re talking about, Lambert. Count yourself lucky she chose you. She could have had anyone.”

“Screw you, Fitzgerald.”

“Don’t talk like that to Chase,” Faith said in the background.

“He is being a smart-ass,” Ken complained to his wife while Chase grinned. The rest of their conversation was muffled; then Ken returned. “My wife said she searched high and low and I was the best and only man for her, so deal with it. What do you want? My next report isn’t due for a few more days.”

“You promised to send me some pictures to look over.”

“My people are weeding out those of relatives and friends from work and interviewing others, but I think it’s a dead end. If someone appears suspicious, I’ll mail his pictures your way. On the other hand, I think the other angle I mentioned is promising.”

“If you’re not going to tell me what it is, quit bringing it up.” Chase didn’t mask his annoyance.

“Oh that’s just my way of reminding you that I’m brilliant and will solve this case, so stop calling so damn early in the morning and disrupting our morning ritual. I’ll call you when I have something.”

“You’re still an ass,” Chase said in a calm voice, but inside frustration bubbled.

“And family, Chase,” Faith added, confirming she’d been listening. “Be nice or you won’t be Luc’s godfather.”

Chase grinned. “Really?”

“Why him? Why not Lex?” Ken protested. “He and my sister will not agree on anything, and he’ll teach our son to chase women and never settle down.”

Chase was still laughing when he hung up. He was now godfather to a niece and nephew—Baron’s daughter, Aisling, and Faith’s son, Lucas. Everyone else had one godchild, except Lex, who had three. Maybe it was time he thought of settling down and giving his siblings a chance to be godparents. In his family, godparenthood was taken seriously. It was an honor to be asked.

He left his room and headed straight for the den. Nikki sat behind his desk, her eyes on the screen. To her right was a sketching tablet, on which she was scribbling furiously. “Morning. I see you’ve already started.”

She didn’t even look up. “Morning, Chase. Just trying to come up with a nice logo.”

“Can I look?”

She smiled without looking up. “Nope. In a few hours I’ll have several for you to discuss, dissect, and add your input.”

“Have you had breakfast yet?”

“Yeah, uh, I did,” she said distractedly. “Mrs. B was kind enough to let me rummage through the kitchen. Now, can you let me get back to work?”

She was completely ignoring him, and he didn’t like it. “Would you like for me to check your lovely ass? It won’t take but a minute. We don’t want you getting nasty bruises from your ride. Oh, which reminds me, we need to work on your riding technique.”

Nikki looked up, her cheeks slightly pink. “I’ll agree to take lessons, but I’m not letting you anywhere near my butt. Now quit messing with me, and go play with your horses, cowboy. I need to get some work done here.”

He chuckled as he left the den.

He kept glancing toward the house as he worked, expecting her to come outside. When she didn’t, he focused on finishing the fence he’d started working on yesterday evening.

It was after one when he walked back to the house. The others were already eating, but Nikki wasn’t with them. “Where’s Nikki?”

“I told her lunch was ready, but she shook her head. I assumed she was still full from breakfast.”

Chase found her still busy at work. “Lunchtime, Nikki.”

She frowned and asked, “What is cribbing?”

He doubted she had even heard his comment about lunch. “When a mare fixes her jaws on a solid object like a post and gulps in air. It is an abnormal, compulsive behavior.” He saw that she was typing as fast as he spoke. When she didn’t stop, he walked behind her and peered over her shoulder. “Did you hear what I said?”

“Yeah, lunch,” she murmured. “I just need to finish one last thing.”

Chase reached forwarded to push down the screen of her laptop, but she slapped his hand. “If you don’t quit messing with my work, Fitzgerald, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

“The damn machine will still be here when you get back to it tomorrow. Don’t give me that look,” he added when she glared. “I don’t expect you to slave in here from sunrise until sundown. You’ve got to eat. Take a break.”

“How would you feel if I were to call one of your mares a ‘damn animal’?”

He grinned. “You already did.”

Nikki rolled her eyes in exasperation. “I apologized for the comparison.” This time, she grabbed his hand when he tried to close her laptop again. “I mean, how would you feel if you were forced to take a break from your mares?”

He grinned. “No one forces me to do anything, but I do take a break from my horses to eat. I let them graze, stay in their stalls, eat, drink…”

Nikki rolled her eyes in exasperation. “That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it. You wouldn’t like it if I pulled you away from them while you were in the middle of grooming them or feeding them. I, too, hate to be interrupted when I’m in the zone. It messes with my train of thought, or I’ll forget what figures I put in the database.”

Chase stepped back. “Point taken. But right now, we need to eat.”

“I’ll eat when I’m finished with this page.”

“I hate eating alone.”

She chuckled and went back to typing. “But you won’t be alone. You have Mrs. B and the others.”

“They’ve already eaten. Do you know what time it is?”

“Yeah, time you learned you don’t always get your way,” she said without looking up, her fingers flying across the keyboard.

He chuckled, sat on the chair across from her, and studied her. She chewed on her lower lip as she worked, looking serious, unapproachable, and sexy. She fascinated him. Not just because of her looks.

***

Nikki looked up and frowned. Chase grinned disarmingly, the look in his eyes making her a little wary. What was it he had said about eating alone?

“You waited for me.”

“Naturally.”

“I’ll go with you.”

His grin broadened.

“Because I’m hungry,” she added. “It has nothing to do with your preference or hatred for eating alone. In fact, I wouldn’t care if you...”

“The more you protest, the more I’m convinced that you’re coming to please me.” He got to his feet, his movement smooth and graceful. “I knew my charm would work on you sooner or later.”

“Tell that monster to heel.”

Chase’s eyebrow shot up.

“Your enormous ego.”

He pushed the kitchen door and waited for her to walk through before whispering, “I’m the least egotistical man alive. I just like it when a woman goes out of her way to please me.”

Nikki shook her head when she saw his workers still on the patio. She shot him with pretend gun and mouthed, “Liar.”

After lunch, Chase disappeared outside but not before telling Nikki to stay away from the computer for the rest of the day. She nodded, but as soon as he was gone, she headed right back to the den.

That evening, she agreed to play pool with him in the basement after dinner. While he arranged the balls, she walked to his rack of DVDs. He had a lot of action movies, American and British political satire TV series, fantasy, and sci-fi. “Where’s Star Wars?”

“I’m a Trekkie.”

She laughed. “You’re not serious. You never wielded a stick and pretended it was a lightsaber? Pretended to save a princess?”

Chase laughed. “Of course I did, but I grew up around girls who didn’t need rescuing. They wanted to pilot their ships and become captains. Star Wars was fun and fed my inner child. Star Trek fed my inner nerd. Science, logic, engineering, and endless possibilities trump a boring senseless adventure of a naïve boy more concerned with saving a princess than how his ship moves from point A to point B.”

“Are you kidding me? Who cares about science when we are talking about the power of the Force?” Nikki picked up a cue stick and swished it in the air. “Good versus evil. A hero’s journey as he finds his true worth.”

“It’s long and boring. I mean, it had its moments. You know, when we find out the identity of Luke’s father and Yoda kicks some ass, but that’s it.”

Nikki pointed the cue at him. “Take that back. It has adventure, romance, betrayal, and redemption. It has Darth Vader, the most iconic villain ever.”

He picked up the second cue and tapped hers. “We have Khan.”

“Never heard of him.” She tried to knock his stick. “Everyone knows Darth Vader and Luke and Princess—”

“Helpless. Spock and Kirk, and Scottie, Chekov and Uhura. And don’t let me get started on the New Generation.” He feigned an attack, and when she tried to block, he came from the other side and pushed her stick until the tip touched the table. He moved closer, still blocking her stick. “As a woman, you should support a franchise that shows women in positions of power, not one with a princess that needs to be rescued.”

He was right, dang it. “Maybe I want a swashbuckling hero to come to my rescue.”

He stopped smiling. “Maybe I can be that hero if you tell me what’s bothering you.”

The urge to tell him everything was there, but she squashed it. “Nothing is bothering me. Let’s play pool. I’ll break.”

***

Nikki paced the confines of the study, pausing to check her cell phone to make sure it was working. Today was her sister’s surgery. The final surgery. Total recovery was going to be slow. Like most burn victims, Dee would need physical and psychological rehabilitation starting from the moment she came out of the coma.

Thinking about Dee always reminded her of why she was on Chase’s farm. In the last several days, it had been almost easy to forget—when Chase’s eyes lit up with amusement or a lazy grin curled his sexy lips, when sensual flames flickered in the depth of his eyes as he teased her, or like last night when he’d stood behind her and showed her how to make a clean shot while they played pool. She’d felt his erection as it rose until it nestled between her butt cheeks. There was just so much a girl could take before she succumbed to such a potently seductive man.

Nikki walked to the window and stared outside. It was another beautiful day in Montana. Birds chirping, horses braying, the sky so blue and wide it appeared endless. She loved the outdoors, always had even as a child, and working alongside Chase and his men was fun. Voices reached her, and she smiled, wishing she could push aside thoughts of her sister.

She and Chase had settled into a routine. She worked in the den in the morning, and she joined him and his men in the afternoons and learned more about horse rearing. The men usually welcomed her presence and didn’t mind answering her questions. At times, she visited with Mrs. B and listened to stories about her life with the Fitzgeralds. She’d be lying if she didn’t admit she looked forward to the evenings when it was just her and Chase. She learned a lot about him, his childhood, the dynamics of his large family, but to her disappointment, the subject of the fire never came up.

Was she doing the right thing by not telling him the truth? What would he say once he learned who she really was? What about his workers? Maybe she ought to tell him the truth and get it over with, because she was beginning to feel guilty. The fact that everyone on the farm had welcomed her wholeheartedly only made her feel worse. She felt like she was betraying their trust.