Unleashed: Volume 1 (Unleashed #1) (14 page)

I forced my feet to
continue on to my truck, Bessie, in my cutsie-poo cheerleading outfit
that I suddenly, desperately wished I wasn’t wearing. It screamed
high school. A second ago, I hadn’t cared about that at all. I’d
been focused entirely on getting to our extra practice session to
prep for a couple of end-of-year pep rallies and senior year
farewells. After seeing Declan: mental mush.

So much hard muscle.
That solid jaw, the way he hooked a thumb in his jeans, all cocky,
rugged, masculinity. I climbed into my pickup. I needed the A/C on.
Too bad it had broken a couple of years ago.

“Be back by eight.
It’s still a school night,” Daddy called after me like I was 12,
not 18 going on 19.

“OK!” I smiled
brightly—at my father, not Declan. I still hadn’t met his eyes,
didn’t intend to either.

“I only get to say
that for three more weeks! My baby’s growing up!”

“Yup.” My smile
grew tight as I threw Bessie into gear. The closer I got to high
school graduation, the more nostalgic he got. Again, it usually
didn’t bother me, just old dad having a moment, but now, in front
of Declan? What would he do next, hand me a stuffed animal or a brown
bagged lunch with my name written on it? I knew he babied me,
especially since he’d raised me on his own, but there was a time
and a place.

I couldn’t help it,
like a small piece of metal near a powerful magnet, my gaze drifted
over to Declan. He was watching me, taking me in with his dark eyes,
a smirk I recognized all too well spread across his handsome face. I
gunned the engine and took off.

Still shaking as I
drove down the road, my heart beat out of my chest. I was as
breathless as the president of a teenage fan club who’d just met
the Hollywood heartthrob of her dreams.

I had to get a grip.
What exactly did I think would happen with Declan? The problem was
thinking didn’t much factor into the equation. My stupid heart
played it out like a Nicholas Sparks movie. It would start to rain
late one night and he’d come to me, shirt plastered to his broad,
muscled chest, shaking with emotion as he clasped me in his embrace
and pledged his undying love.

I took a deep breath
and turned up the tunes on the radio. I was a senior about to
graduate. I had a boyfriend. I had things to do and people to see.
From that moment on I wouldn’t even give Declan the time of day.

§

My plan lasted three
days. Then Daddy asked me to bring something out to Bill in the barn.
He was an old confirmed bachelor, set in his ways and independent to
the core. But he was getting on in years, slower than he used to be,
so when my dad asked me to bring something out for him, I didn’t
mind. Especially late in the day when no one was likely to be in the
barn, long past quitting time.

The sun lay low, close
to setting in the sky. Light pink, dark purple, dusky gray, I didn’t
think I’d ever tire of looking at our Montana sky. Not during a
sunset, that was for sure.

“Better watch where
you’re going.” A low, sly voice ruined my reverie.

I looked down and, sure
enough, I’d come real close to tripping over a large tractor part.
I stepped around it, cursing myself for wearing flip flops. A
sundress and casual shoes worked in the kitchen, not out here.

“Shouldn’t wear
flip flops over here,” Declan continued to admonish me. He stood in
the entrance of the barn, working his way through cleaning and
polishing a line of saddles. I hadn’t expected anyone to be there.
I’d forgotten how Declan never quit working.

He didn’t have on a
shirt. He looked like a portrait of rippled, corded muscle. The flat
ridges of his abs, the definition of his pecs, even his forearms
looked sexy with a few veins and a dusting of hair. Declan stood up
and threw on a plaid shirt he had tossed to the side. I must have
been standing there staring, my jaw dropped on the ground. I looked
down in embarrassment.

“What are you doing
here?” He always spoke to me with that tone of voice, like I was an
annoyance, a bother.

I sighed and held up a
package. “Dad asked me to bring this out for Bill.”

“You can put it over
there.” Declan gestured to a workbench.

“I know where I can
put it.” I’d lived there my whole life.

“Don’t get your
panties in a bunch.” I threw down the package. “Careful with
that.” He took a step over, like he needed to catch it from
falling.

“You don’t even
know what’s in it.” I sounded like a petulant child.

“Do you?”

I shrugged. He stood
closer to me now, his shirt unbuttoned, hanging loose over his finely
toned chest. I swallowed and looked away. He returned to the saddles.

“Damn things.” He
flicked a broken strap with a finger. “Lot of stuff around here
needs an upgrade. Place I was at last…” He shook his head.

“Where did you work
last?” A nugget about him! I felt so eager.

“A ranch.”

“Did you like it
there more than here?” He shrugged. “Do you like working here?”

“It’s a paying
job,” he said. “A man’s got to eat.”

“You make it sound
like it’s torture.”

“Only sometimes.”
He gave me a sideways smile. What was he talking about? Why did he
smile at me like that? I felt my cheeks flush.

“What was the last
ranch like?” I couldn’t help asking. I wished I could stop myself
from talking, wished I could walk right out of the barn, but I
couldn’t. I was too fascinated by this man. I had to find out as
much about him as I could, stay near to him as long as he’d let me.

“Nothing special.”

“Really?”

“You’re full of
questions, kid.”

And there was the slap
across my face I’d been expecting. He was such an arrogant bastard.
“I’m not a kid! I’m 18 going on 19!”

“Are you 18 and three
quarters?” he teased.

Even pissed off, I had
to smile, just a bit. I did sound like a little kid, insisting on
counting the fractions of the year. It was his fault, though, always
making me feel like a baby. I paused, readying myself to go when he
surprised me by speaking again.

“The ranch I’m
heading to next seems pretty cool. They’re turning it into a
resort.”

“A resort?”

“You know, for
tourists. So they can come and stay and play ranch hand for a while.”

I’d heard of a couple
of places doing that, catering to the wealthy and powerful who liked
to vacation in America’s wilds. “How does it work, though? Don’t
they mess everything up?”

Declan chuckled and
shook his head. “They don’t actually do any work. You make them
think they are. They ride around on horses, make a big mess with the
hay. The brave ones do some branding.”

“And they pay to do
that?”

“You wouldn’t
believe how much.” Declan grew animated, a light in his eyes.
“Kara, there’s a future in this, I can see it. You give these
people a taste of life out here and they eat it up. They’ll pay
crazy money to live like a cowboy for a week.”

“Really? That’s
cool.” I felt his excitement. Plus it might have been the first
time he’d used my real name. It made me positively lightheaded.

“It is. I’ve got a
bunch of ideas. I’m talking to a couple of other places—” He
stopped his own enthusiasm, looked down and kicked a floorboard.
“Anyhow.”

“Maybe we could do it
here?” I wanted to see him light up again. If I’d thought he was
magnetic before, when he got excited about something he was like a
force of nature. “Do you think we could? Would people pay to come
out here?”

“They would,” he
nodded, more reserved.

“That would be so
fun!” I could see a whole future roll out before me. I’d love
hosting guests at the ranch, new people coming in with stories and
lives to learn about. They could have breakfast up in the big house
with Dad and me. We had the room. “I could bake!” I clapped my
hands.

Declan gave me a
half-smile, looking almost rueful. “You’re quite the little
homemaker.”

“There’s nothing
wrong with that.” This man could put me on the defense as quickly
as he could stoke my fires.

“Not if you end up
with the right guy.”

I looked up, so close I
could see the subtle shades of brown in his eyes, lighter around the
pupil, then a dark chocolate. He looked away first, running a hand
through his hair and then heading back over to the saddles. Putting
distance between us.

“Your father’s not
going to go for it.”

For a second, I didn’t
fully process what he was talking about. For a second, I thought he
might be talking about him and me. Thank goodness I came to my senses
before I started babbling about how my father loved him and his work
ethic and he wouldn’t object to us dating. I really was the
ultimate loser around Declan. He was talking about turning our ranch
into a resort.

“Have you talked to
him about it?” I wasn’t surprised to hear my daddy was set in his
ways.

“Nope.”

That’s all he said.
Hmm. Maybe I could talk to my dad. I’d see. Declan turned his back
to me, focused on his work.

“Guess I’ll head
back to the house,” I said, slightly wistful.

No response. The filter
between my brain and my mouth being broken and all, I found myself
saying out loud, “What are you up to tonight? Are you heading out?
Or are you staying in? Because I just baked some—”

“Run along now,
Kara.”

I turned around and
left real fast. That man knew how to take the air out of my tires
right quick. I didn’t know why I kept insisting on driving right
over the same damn nail over and over again.

§

My truck was super
dirty. It needed to be washed. I had a bikini top and some short
shorts. I decided maybe I’d try something different.

I was tired of how
Declan dismissed me, ignored me, pat me on the head like I was five
years old. It was time for a change. I decided I’d clean my truck
like a music video where you see girls washing cars with super soapy
water in buckets and on sponges, wearing very little. I’d see if
Declan could ignore me then.

In the late afternoon,
I knew he’d be over in the east pasture. The hay there needed to be
cut and I’d overhead him and Bill talking in the yard. Bill had
been planning on doing it but it was going to be real hot again that
day and Declan said he’d take care of it. That was the thing with
Declan, to me he was an asshole but I saw signs of him being a
stand-up guy to everyone else. He saw everything that needed to be
taken care of around the ranch and did it before anyone else even
noticed, let alone thought to do it. He let Bill take it easy while
he took on the toughest jobs. Chivalrous, like a knight in shining
armor.

Except to me. Well, if
he was going to be mean to me then I would try to get back at him. I
had some nice curves. I’d see if I could get his attention that
afternoon. I’d park my truck right along over where he could see
me. My dad was out of town at a cattle convention until tomorrow.
Bill and the other guys were nowhere to be seen. It would just be me
and him.

I pulled up alongside a
shed, stepped out in my cowboy boots, short shorts and bikini top. He
was out on the tractor but he looked up all right and quick.

I gave him a sweet
smile and a wave and called out, “Hi, Declan!”

He shook his head and
turned his attention away. I’d see what I could do about getting it
back.

I took a big white
plastic bucket out of the shed and filled it with soapy water. We had
a hose and a couple of big sponges and rags in there and I brought
them out. Slowly now, having fun, I started to play with the water,
spraying the hose on the truck, then up overhead like a waterfall. It
was a hot day and the cool sprinkles of water felt so refreshing on
my skin. They also plastered my bikini top to my curves.

I bent over the hood of
the truck and swished the soapy water around in big swirls. I wasn’t
going to leave an inch untouched. If it took me a couple of hours,
that would be fine. I was going to give Declan a big, long show.

Ass up in the air, I
bent over and lathered up the grill. I’d never given my truck this
much love and attention. I didn’t know if Declan was watching. I
worked my way around to the side and washed along the door while I
checked in the mirror. Bingo. Mr. Aloof and Too-Cool-for-School was
watching. Riveted.

Unable to suppress a
smile of success, I kept on washing, giving my ass a little wiggle. I
decided it was time for more water. I put the sponge back down into
the bucket and took out the hose. After spraying the truck, I
playfully aimed it up over myself again, laughing in the droplets.

“What are you doing?”
A harsh, angry voice called out to me.

Declan had leapt down
off the tractor, in a hurry apparently as he’d left it running. He
now stood a few feet away from me on the other side of the fence.

“What?” I asked
innocently, water dripping down over my breasts in my bikini top.

He looked so angry, his
jaw locked, his eyes feasting on my wet body. I grew hot under his
gaze, the heat in his eyes. His hands gripped the fence,
white-knuckled, his whole body tense, coiled, pent-up. The passion
blazing in his dark eyes nearly took my breath away. My lips parted
and I found myself starting to breathe raggedly.

“Declan—” I don’t
even know what I meant to say. My voice came out pleading, needy.

“Stop.” He closed
his eyes tight, blocking me out, refusing to see me anymore. “Stop
it and leave. Now.”

“Declan, I—” I
took a few steps toward him, needing to be closer.

“Get the fuck out of
here, Kara. And don’t come back.”

Stumbling back to the
truck, I climbed in, leaving the bucket and sponges behind. Tears
fell freely as I drove back to the main house. What was wrong with
me? Why had I suddenly lost my mind and was acting like a slut? A
pathetic one, too, doing the whole wash-the-car routine, only it
hadn’t worked, had it? He’d just brushed me off again. I was such
a disaster.