Czytaj książkę: «Her Torrid Temporary Marriage»

One

“I wouldn’t want to lose a wife—that’s really rough. But otherwise, I wouldn’t mind having your problem,” Bear Holcomb said as he leaned against the bar and looked at Josh Brand.

“No, in my circumstances you wouldn’t want it,” Josh said to the hulking man who fit his nickname. “I’m not ready for a woman in my life. I just want a nanny for my baby, not an affair. I’ve had three nannies in less than two months. I wanted a nanny, and they wanted a husband.”

“Stop advertising locally where they know who you are,” Tom Shellene drawled, leaning back in a chair with his booted feet propped on a table and a beer in his hand, his shaggy blond hair hanging over his eyes. “These women know you’re an eligible bachelor.”

“I tried that,” Josh replied, glancing around the barroom at the empty, scarred tables. Afternoon sunlight streamed through the one narrow window that gave a limited view of the main street of Latimer, Texas. “I got ten replies— only two were worth interviewing. One woman talked two hours straight. The other one had child-rearing ideas that weren’t compatible with what I want for my daughter.” He took a long drink of cold beer and placed the bottle on the bar. “What happened to the little rosy-cheeked, gray-haired grannies like the one I had?”

“They’ve got careers or their own families,” Bear drawled.

“So it seems.” Josh smoothed errant wisps of blond hair on the six-month-old baby sleeping in a carrier at his elbow on the bar. He picked up the carrier. “I better clear out before Brad sees us and raises a fuss about a baby in a bar in his jurisdiction. See you guys. C‘mon, Li’l Bit.”

They mumbled goodbyes, and Josh stepped into warm Texas sunshine. The sun blazed high above the quiet main street. Light reflected off the chrome trim on pickups parked around the town square. The two-story sandstone county courthouse was bathed in a rosy hue, and tall mulberry trees shed circles of dappled shade over the courthouse lawn. Usually Josh loved the town, his ranch and springtime, but this year had turned into one nightmare after another, and now he barely noticed his surroundings.

He fastened Elizabeth Mary Brand’s carrier onto the back seat of his black pickup and went around to climb behind the wheel.

“We’re going home, Li’l Bit. Maybe this week’s ad will find just the right nanny for you.” He drove along the wide main street of the small town in Clayton County, on the edge of the hill country. In minutes they were heading northwest along the highway on the way to his Triple B ranch.

His thoughts churned, and he glanced at the sleeping baby, feeling love wash through him. She was so tiny, so fragile, yet he loved her fiercely and didn’t want to give her up. His mother in Chicago would take Elizabeth, but he couldn’t bear to part with her. Frustrated, he struck the steering wheel with his fist.

An hour later as he neared home, he swung around a curve and saw a blue pickup up ahead, pulled off on the wide shoulder beneath the shade of a cottonwood. The pickup was jacked up, a tire lying on the grass beside it He put his foot on the brake to slow down. Turning to the baby, he said, “Li’l Bit, I may have to help my fellow man.”

Then Josh noticed the driver, who was bending over, the faded jeans pulling tautly across her backside as she pulled the tire up onto its tread and rolled it to the wheel. Instantly he recognized the yellow pigtail and the longest pair of female legs in Clayton County.

“Well, Li’l Bit, I guess I don’t have to offer my help. If I do offer, that self-sufficient cowgirl will take my head off.” About fifty feet away he pressed down on the accelerator and watched his neighbor, Mattie Ryan, squat down and put the spare tire in place. Tossing her long blond braid over her shoulder, she started to replace the lug bolts.

“Oh, hell. Old habits die hard,” he grumbled, and stomped on the brake to slow beside her and lower his window. “Hey, Mattie. Need help?”

She slanted him a look over her shoulder, her thickly lashed green eyes gazing at him solemnly. “Hi, Josh. No, thanks.”

“Okay,” he said, closing the window and accelerating once again. Down the road a ways he glanced in his rear-view mirror to see her pick up the flat tire and toss it into the bed of the pickup. “Now there’s a lady, Li’l Bit, who wouldn’t want an affair.”

His eyes narrowed as he pictured Mattie Ryan in his mind. Almost six feet tall, she was full-bodied, long-legged and as independent as a barn cat. And sour on men. He remembered vague rumors about her getting dumped by a boyfriend in college, but he wasn’t certain about details.

He and Mattie had grown up on neighboring ranches, established by their geat-gandfathers. Josh’s dad and Old Man Ryan were always battling each other, but they were civil to each other when out in public. Mattie’s mother died when she was ten years old, and Frank Ryan had raised Mattie like the son he never had. Mattie had to be around twenty-eight or twenty-nine. She had two younger sisters who had long ago left the area and never returned.

Now Frank Ryan was dead, and Mattie had her grandmother to care for and the Rocking R ranch to run. And he heard she had been having financial troubles lately because of her father’s illness and death.

Josh drove home mechanically, plans and possibilities involving his neighbor revolving in his mind.

Later that night he decided to give at least three weeks of thought to his ideas while he scrambled around trying to work and help his cook, Rosalie Benson, take care of Elizabeth at the same time. At the end of a week and a half, feeling desperate, he called and made an appointment with Mattie, telling her he wanted to discuss business.

As she was replacing a harness in the tack room of the barn, Mattie heard a car motor. She strode out of the barn in time to see a shiny black pickup approaching the house, a plume of dust dancing in the pickup’s trail. Her heart missed a beat while she clamped her jaw grimly. It was Josh Brand’s pickup. And Gran was in town and wouldn’t be in the house to let him in.

Feeling her long braid flop against her back, Mattie jogged toward the house as Josh’s pickup swept around the curve in front and disappeared from view.

With each step anger pulsed in her, because she could guess why he had come. His would be the fourth offer to buy her out since Dad died. She clenched her fists. She could run this ranch! Her daddy had raised her to take over when he was no longer able to run it As long as Gran was alive, she wasn’t going to sell, and she wasn’t going to lose her home because of bad weather or diseased cattle or a big loan. And not because of any man trying to coax her into selling. The day would come when she would sell, but it wasn’t now.

When she rounded the corner, Josh Brand stood on her porch with his hands on his hips while he waited for her to answer the door. Her pulse skittered, and she mentally swore. At twenty-eight she was six years younger than Josh Brand, and in all the years she’d known him he had never once seemed aware of her as a female. Nor were most other males in the county aware of her as a female. Which was quite all right. She had grown accustomed to the hurt when she had been thirteen and towered over all the boys her own age. But she hadn’t towered over Josh, and he had set her pulse racing in a manner she couldn’t control and didn’t like. Still did. He might not be aware of her, but she was too aware of him.

His black hair was caught behind his head with a strip of rawhide, and his wide-brimmed black hat was pushed back on his head His Kiowa heritage showed in his dark hair, eyes and skin, his prominent cheekbones, his imperious straight nose. Her gaze ran across his broad shoulders and down the length of his lean body. “Josh!” she called as she jogged toward the house.

Josh turned to watch Mattie,. She was graceful in a coltish way, her long legs stretching over the ground, her breasts swinging beneath the blue cotton shirt. He felt queasy, his stomach churning. The woman was an unknown quantity and formidable. Half the men in town were scared of her. She could be as forceful as her ornery dad, and for the hundredth time Josh wondered whether or not he was doing the right thing. His gaze ran over her in a practiced assessment. She was a lot of female and looked as healthy as his best horse.

Mattie took the steps two at a time, glanced up to see Josh’s eyes raking over her. Her anger rose another notch while a flush burned her cheeks. Self-conscious about her dusty work clothes, she clenched her fists. “Did you want to see me?”

At the top step she paused and looked up—a unique experience. She knew Josh was taller than she was, but she hadn’t been this close to him before and hadn’t realized exactly how much taller he was. His dark eyes studied her with an intensity that took her breath. The Brands were a tough bunch, and she suspected he was going to try to pressure her into selling the place by making her an offer that would be damned tempting.

She lifted her chin and stared back at him without blinking, wondering which one of them would blink or look away first. “Shall we go inside?” she asked.

“Any tune.”

They stood in silence, and she realized he was as aware of the contest of wills as she. She inhaled deeply. When his gaze dropped to her bosom, her anger soared, even though he had been the first to look away. She met his dark gaze again and thought she could detect a flash of amusement, but it was gone in seconds.

She reached for the door, and he bent down. For the first time she saw the baby carrier, a diaper bag and a sleeping baby. She knew he had a child and that he had lost his wife in a car wreck this past year, but she supposed he had someone to care for the baby. It startled her to see him carrying the baby with him.

“That’s yours?” she asked, and then realized how ridiculous the question was. “Well, of course, I guess it is.” She felt rattled and more annoyed than ever with him for causing her discomfort. “You wouldn’t have someone else’s baby.” She couldn’t remember whether it was a boy or girl. Judging from the pink dress, she assumed it was a girl.

“Come inside,” she said, leading the way into the cool hallway. The floor shone with polish, and their boots clicked against the bare wood as she led Josh and his baby past the living room with its bulky, dark furniture. They passed the large family room, and she led the way into the small room that was her office at the southwest corner of the house.

She motioned to a straight-backed chair and walked around her oak desk, hoping to keep things as businesslike as possible and get him out of her house as quickly as she could. Her gaze ran over the familiar glass-fronted bookcases, the hat tree, the green leather chairs. “Have a seat. Would you like something to drink?”

“No, thanks.” He set the carrier on the chair next to him and sat down, dropping his hat and the baby bag on the floor. As she sat behind the desk, she was disconcerted. Josh’s piercing dark eyes made her feel nervous, female and vulnerable. And she hated feeling that way. She glanced around the room again, her gaze pausing a moment on the large map of the ranch hanging on the east wall. She reminded herself that she was owner of one of the largest ranches in the area and that the man across from her shouldn’t intimidate her. She tried to ignore the fact that she found him handsome as sin, and she wished her pulse would quiet to a normal rate.

“Now, what did you want to see me about?”

“You get nght to the point, don’t you?” he asked. This time there was no mistaking the amusement in his voice.

“Why on earth would we do otherwise?” she snapped, annoyed that he made her uneasy. He was too masculine, too appealing. “We don’t have much to chitchat about.”

“We’re neighbors, Mattie. We should get to be friends.”

“I think it’s three generations too late for that,” she said, still flustered by him and annoyed with herself. What was it about Josh Brand that made her come unglued? With other men she could stay cool and collected. Embarrassed, she realized how unfriendly her statement sounded and added, “Well, I guess we could try to be friends.” Knowing men had no interest in striking up a friendship with her, she tilted her head to look at him. “But I don’t think that’s why you called me.”

“No, it’s not,” he admitted, still studying her as if she was a prime bit of horseflesh that he was considering purchasing. He placed one booted foot on his knee. He looked relaxed as if this were his office and she was the visitor. “My wife was killed four months ago in a car wreck,” he announced gruffly.

“I remember hearing that, and I’m sorry,” she said, shocked to see the pain in his eyes. She knew how much the loss of a loved one hurt, but Josh Brand had always seemed invincible. She was startled that he was still so obviously suffering from his loss. “At least you have your baby.”

He nodded and glanced at the sleeping child. “I want to keep Elizabeth,” he said, and his voice became more gravelly. His dark gaze returned to Mattie. “That’s why I’m here.” As he stared at her, she had a premonition of disaster. She couldn’t imagine why or what his loss had to do with her. Maybe he wanted to sell his place to her. The thought startled her, and her mind raced. With a sinking feeling, she knew she could never buy it. She was strapped for money as it was, and worried about how she was going to keep the Rocking R going. Josh Brand had a marvelous ranch In her mind she pictured the rolling fields and the cattle she knew he owned.

“Mattie, I’ve tried to hire nannies and I can’t find one who is remotely satisfactory.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, puzzled. The man had lost his mind if he had come to hire her as a nanny.

Josh stared at the woman across the desk. Reluctance held his tongue. He knew once the words were out of his mouth, he couldn’t take them back. He clenched and unclenched his fists and looked again at Elizabeth who was blissfully sleeping, unaware of the turmoil and anguish of her father.

His gaze swung back to Mattie. Big green eyes stared at him, and the fleeting thought crossed his mind that the woman’s face was pretty. He inhaled, realizing the train of thought and knowing that it didn’t matter whether she looked like Attila or Cleopatra. Her looks were beside the point.

“How do you feel about children?” he blurted, wondering when he had lost all finesse.

She blinked, looking startled, then glanced at Elizabeth. “They’re nice,” she replied cautiously, sounding curious and staring at him intently.

“Yeah. Mattie, I can’t find a nanny, and I’ve come to make a proposition to you.”

“Oh, if you think I would hire out as a nanny—oh, no! I couldn’t ever—”

He held up a hand and shook his head. “Of course not.”

Startled, she bit her lip and stared at him. “If you’re not suggesting I be a nanny, what are you suggesting?” she asked, her curiosity running rampant because he looked as if he was going to faint. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he was ashen in spite of his dark skin. She had seen Josh Brand in fights when he was young and she had seen him bronc riding in rodeos. He was as tough as her father, yet he looked as if he was coming apart right before her eyes. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” When his compelling dark eyes met hers, she felt threatened, as if whatever this man wanted from her, she was going to have the fight of her life to keep from giving in to him.

“How are your sisters?”

“They’re fine,” Mattie answered, becoming more puzzled.

“I understand Carlina is married and lives in Denver and won’t come back home.”

“That’s right. Neither she nor Andrea will ever come back here to live,” she said. “Pardon me for asking but aren’t we drifting from why you’re here?”

“Not exactly.” He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, his feet squarely on the floor. “Our ranches adjoin. As I understand it, your sisters won’t be returning to live here and don’t want the ranch. You don’t have any heirs, no husband.”

“I’m not selling,” she announced frostily, drawing herself up, feeling icy inside. “My sisters have said I can deal with the ranch as I see fit. I can manage their shares. I run this ranch, and it’s not on the market. Not now, not tomorrow, not because I’ve lost my dad.”

“I’m not buying.”

She opened her mouth to continue, realized what he’d said and snapped her mouth closed. More confused than ever, she stared at him. He gripped the arms of the chair and his knuckles were white. “Then what do you want?” she asked.

“I want you to marry me.”