Wild Revenge

His pathetic attempt at humor hadn’t worked.

“Takes time for everything to function again,” the doc had said. “Not just physically. Emotionally. Trauma takes a toll, Captain, but you’re young. You’re healthy. Give yourself time and, you’ll see, your sex drive will return.”

“Sure,” Jake had said.

But it hadn’t.

Maybe he’d had too many other things to think about. What to do about his future. What to do about his past. How to get through the long days and longer nights.

Whatever the reason, sex—for a man who’d always had his pick of beautiful women—had suddenly become unimportant.

Desire, lust, call it what you liked, had not returned. He hadn’t been with a woman since he’d been wounded, hadn’t wanted to be with one….

Until now.

He took a deep breath. Told himself to look away from the brunette with the silver eyes, but he couldn’t.

Not while she was looking at him.

He searched hard for that oh-you-poor-thing expression half the women in the room had showed him tonight.

It wasn’t there.

She was simply watching him, assessing him with a steadiness that was unsettling.

His jaw tightened.

Now she was smiling, her lips curving in a way that reached deep into his gut.

She mouthed a word.

Hi.

And lifted her wineglass in … what could it be but invitation?

“Her name is Addison. Addison McDowell.”

Caleb’s voice was low. Jake looked at him.

“What?”

“The woman you’re looking at.”

“I wasn’t looking at anybody.”

Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, well, just in case you were—”

“I just told you, I wasn’t.”

“My mistake,” Caleb said calmly. “I only meant—”

“What’s she doing in Wilde’s Crossing?”

His brothers exchanged a quick glance.

“She owns the Chambers ranch,” Travis said.

Jake cocked his head. “What do you mean, she owns the Chambers ranch? The old man always said he’d never sell it. The General tried to buy it a dozen times, remember? And—”

“And got turned down. Well, the old guy died. Pretty much the way you’d expect, still working his skinny butt off, refusing help from anybody, his temper nasty as ever. Turned out he’d mortgaged the place to the hilt. The General found out, told his lawyer to buy it, but the bank had already turned it over.”

“To her?”

“To some old rich guy from New York.”

A muscle knotted in Jake’s jaw.

“And she’s the old rich guy’s wife,” he said flatly.

“The rich guy kicked the bucket right after he took ownership.” Travis jerked his head toward the woman. “She inherited it.”

“So, she’s his widow.”

“No.”

“His daughter?”

“She was his friend.”

Jake looked at the woman again. She was still watching him, her gaze unfaltering.

“Must have been his very good friend,” he said coolly.

“Listen, man—”

“She doesn’t look much like a rancher to me.”

Travis laughed. “The understatement of the year.”

“It doesn’t help that the Chambers place is a disaster,” Caleb said.

“It almost always was.”

“Remember when we were kids and you worked there a couple of summers? You had lots of ideas about how to improve things.”

“Yeah, well, old man Chambers didn’t want to hear any ideas but his own.”

“Addison would.”

Jake looked at Caleb. “Addison?”

“She’s a friend.”

Jake brought his beer to his lips and took a long swallow. Why was the taste of it more bitter than before?

“Woman looks like that probably has a lot of ‘friends.’”

“She is,” Caleb repeated, his tone as cool as Jake’s, “exactly what I said. A friend.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Dammit, Jacob—”

“The point is,” Travis said quickly, “we thought you might help her.”

Jake almost laughed. He wasn’t having much luck helping himself, much less somebody else.

“You know, take a look at the land, the buildings—”

“Here’s the deal, Trav. I’m leaving tomorrow.”

“We figured it would be something like that. Well, no sweat. Check the property for her, leave next week instead. A business deal.”

“Is that what you call your arrangement with her? A business deal?”

Why in hell had he said that? What did his brother’s relationship with a woman he’d never met—and never would meet—matter?

He saw Travis’s eyes narrow and he put out his hand and squeezed his shoulder.

“Sorry.” He managed a quick smile. “I guess I’m not used to talking to people who aren’t wearing cotton nightgowns that leave their butts hanging out.”

“As a matter of fact, the answer is yes. She’s my client. Caleb’s, too. I’m her financial consultant. He’s her lawyer. She’s a smart, tough broad. An attorney, like Caleb, but from New York. If I were you, I wouldn’t underestimate her.”

No. A man would be foolish to underestimate a woman who could pin him with a look.

“No danger of that,” Jake said. “I told you, I’m not staying, so you’d best not recommend me to—”

“We already did. Well, hell, why wouldn’t we? We told her you were the man she wanted. She’s, ah, she’s damn near convinced.”

Jake wasn’t listening. He was watching the woman again. And as he did, she raised her glass of wine to her lips, sipped at the ruby liquid, then ran the tip of her tongue over her lips.

A soft, low sound formed in the back of his throat.

“Jake? You okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, his gaze never leaving her.

“Did you hear what I said? She’s pretty much convinced.”

“Convinced of what?”

“That you’re the guy for her.”

“That I’m—”

Caleb rolled his eyes. “That you’re the man she should hire. See how she’s looking at you? She probably figures we’re telling you about her.” He gave a quick, all-too-cheerful laugh. “We told her she’d have to turn on the charm, come up with somethin’ special to convince you to—”

Travis, watching Jake’s face, said, “Caleb,” in a sharp, low voice.

“Something special,” Jake repeated carefully.

“And she will. She’s one hell of a resourceful female, Jake. If she decides she wants to grab your attention—”

“Dammit, Caleb,” Travis growled. “Will you shut up?”

“Wait a minute, okay? I’m explaining things here. Jake needs to know this is all about business, that Addison’s all about business …” His voice trailed off. “Jake?”

“Jake!” Travis called, but Jake was already shouldering his way through the crowd, anger churning in his belly where, moments before, there’d been heat.

CHAPTER FOUR

AT NINE, Addison had run away from home.

She’d done it before.

No special reason, just the childish hope that somewhere out there was a place where people read books instead of watching soap operas, where your mother didn’t spend hours putting curls in her hair and paint on her nails and then, though you hated it, doing those same things to you.

That time, instead of heading for the highway, she’d cut through the woods that led into the mountains.

Branches had slapped at her face, brambles had torn her shirt and jeans.

At last, she’d emerged into a clearing. And found herself face-to-face with a mountain lion.

The big cat had put back its ears and snarled.

Addison’s heart leaped. She knew a lot about mountain lions. They were fast. They were unpredictable. They were beautiful and intelligent….

They were also incredibly dangerous.

Adrenaline pumped through her muscles. Run, every instinct said.

Fortunately, her head knew better. Showing weakness would be the kiss of death.

So, though she was terrified, she’d held her ground. And—such a silly cliché—time stood still.

How else to describe what happened when predator and prey confronted each other?

Now, almost two decades later, she flashed back to that memory. She hadn’t run and after what had seemed like hours, but had surely been only seconds, the cat had turned and bounded away.

Jacob Wilde was coming toward her, and he looked every bit as dangerous as the mountain lion.

Until a few minutes ago, he’d watched her with an intensity that had been … What was the word? Disconcerting. His brothers had been talking to him. About her, she’d assumed, from the way he, then they, had looked at her.

She’d waited for something to happen.

For Travis and Caleb to bring him over to introduce him. Or for him to acknowledge her with a smile, a nod.

She’d waited. And waited. His stillness baffled her. Annoyed her.

Irritated her.

Was he expecting her to make the first move?

Okay, she’d finally decided, why not? She’d smiled. Raised her glass. She’d done all she could to convey the message, Hello, I’m Addison and you’re Jake, and though I don’t think we’ll really do business together, we probably should at least meet to make your brothers happy….

And then everything changed.

His jaw tightened. His mouth thinned. A hot, hungry look swept across his face.

She knew that look. It was one of pure sexuality.

She hated when men looked at her like that. They always had, from the time she’d first grown breasts.

See that, baby girl? her mother would say. Boys like you. Isn’t that nice?

It wasn’t, not when you knew, even then, that you wanted to make it on your intelligence, not on whatever it was boys liked.

So, yes, she hated that look men got….

Except, this time, a stranger looked at her the way a starving man would look at a steak, and she felt her knees go weak.

It shocked her. Flustered her. She felt breathless.

She’d tried to deal with it by changing focus.

She’d taken a mouthful of wine….

And everything had gone to hell.

His brothers said something. Jacob Wilde swung toward them. There was a fast, obviously unpleasant exchange of words.

And then he’d headed straight at her, and all she could think of was that mountain lion and how she’d felt when it had turned its savage eyes on her….

Except, he wasn’t a lion and she wasn’t a scared kid, and she’d be damned if she’d let him intimidate her.

The thing was, it was all happening in slow motion.

His single-minded approach.

His brothers hurrying after him.

“Jake,” Caleb called. “Jake, wait a minute!”

“Dammit,” Travis said, “you’re making a big mistake.”

By now, heads were turning. People were staring. That was the last thing she needed.

A public scene over who-knew-what when she’d spent the past weeks doing everything she could to avoid public anythings!

Okay.

She took a step back.

Forget facing the lion. Forget refusing to be intimidated. The man was crazy, and she was absolutely not going to permit him to—

Too late.

His hand, hard as steel, wrapped around her wrist.

“Going somewhere?” he said in a low voice.

Addison’s heart was racing. It was difficult to speak calmly, but she did.

“Let go of me.”

“Why? My brothers said you were eager to meet me.”

“Hardly eager.” Her gaze went from his face to her wrist, then back again. “Are you deaf? I said—”

“Deaf as well as blind?” He smiled thinly. “No, Miss McDowell. One disability at a time is my limit.”

She winced. The guy was a nut-job but she had no intention of insulting him.

“I can assure you, I didn’t mean—”

“No. And you can also assure me you didn’t tell my brothers how much you wanted to meet me.”

“Jake,” Travis said in a warning tone.

Addison looked past Jacob Wilde. His brothers had positioned themselves slightly behind him, one on either side. They seemed ready to grab him and march him away.

The idea should have been comforting. It wasn’t. All three Wildes were big and strong and hard-bodied, but she had no doubt that this one’s icy rage would surely give him an edge.

Maybe a calm approach would work.

“I told them I’d agree to meet you,” Addison said. “It seemed to mean a lot to them.”

“You wanted to meet me,” he said coldly. “And when they told you they knew damned well I wasn’t going to be interested in taking you on as a client—”

“A client?” Her eyes narrowed. “What they wanted was for me to give you a job.”

“The hell they did.”

Addison felt her resolve to stay calm slipping.

“They close to begged me to give you a reason to hang around.”

“Right,” Jake snapped. “That’s why you went into that—that routine.”

What was he talking about?

“Look,” she said carefully, “I think there’s been a misunderstanding—”

“The look. The smile. That last little touch, the sip of wine and that sexy lick of your lips.”

“You,” she said flatly, “are a lunatic.”

“Holy hell,” Caleb growled, “Jake. Man, you’ve got this all wrong.”

Jake ignored him.

“Has it ever failed you before, or is this a first?”

Addison stared at him. The ridged scars below the black eye patch were red and angry-looking.

She felt a twinge of compassion.

His visible wounds were brutal. Maybe they went even deeper. Was his behavior yet another indication of what he’d gone through?

He’d sacrificed for his country. For people like her. If he’d come away from the war with some idiosyncrasy, some behavioral tic—

“Don’t,” he said sharply.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Don’t look at me as if I were a dog lying by the side of the road.” His hand tightened on her wrist; he gave a little twist that brought her to her toes and she gave a soft, inadvertent gasp. “I don’t need your pity any more than I needed your come-on.”

So much for compassion.

“Come-on? You think I—” Addison glared at his brothers over Jake Wilde’s shoulder. “Get your lunatic brother away from me,” she said through her teeth, “and do it fast!”

“Jacob,” Travis said, “let’s go outside, okay? Get some fresh air—”

“Jake,” Caleb said, “man, let go of the lady.”

The certifiably insane Wilde brother didn’t respond. Then, after what seemed an eternity, he dropped his hand from hers.

She wanted to look and see if his fingers had left marks, but she’d sooner have let her hand fall off than give him the satisfaction.

“I want to be sure you get the message, Ms. McDowell,” he said. “You can pull out all the stops. I still won’t assess the Chambers ranch.”

“It’s not the Chambers ranch. It’s mine. And I’d sooner see the place dry up and blow away before I’d let you step on it.”

He flashed a cold smile.

“It’s yours because you managed to con a sick old man into buying it for you.”

“You,” Addison said, “are a horrible man.”

“Why? Because I’m not an easy mark the way he was?”

Travis and Caleb groaned. Addison’s gaze flew to them again and seared them with fire.

“My, oh, my,” she said with a deadly calm, “you boys had quite an interesting chat.”

“Addison,” Travis said, “if you’re suggesting—”

“What I’m ‘suggesting,’” she snapped, “is that I’d sooner take advice from Elsie the cow than from this—this all-ego, no-brains brother of yours.”

“Listen, lady—”

“No,” Addison said, “you listen!” She took a quick step forward, lifted her chin, slapped her hands on her hips and glared. “Your brothers spent hours trying to sell you to me. You were a genius. You were brilliant. You—you were in communion with the soil and the grass and the horses—”

“Jake,” Caleb said quickly, “man, we never—”

“One look at my ranch, they said, and, poof, you’d know exactly what it needed.”

“And?”

“And even though I didn’t see any point to getting your assessment of something any fool can see is a disaster, I thought—thought,” she said coldly, glaring at Travis and Caleb again, “that I could trust them.”

“You can,” Travis said quickly. “We never—”

“And,” Addison said, ignoring the interruption, “because I was also foolish enough to believe your brothers were my friends, I said, okay, I’d give the Ranch Guru five minutes of my time.”

Jake wanted to laugh. Ridiculous, when he was so ticked off. Instead, he folded his arms over his chest.

“How generous,” he growled.

“Addison. Jake. You guys are both—”

“Which is why,” Addison continued, with a withering glace at Caleb, “which is the only reason I came to this—this hail-the-conquering-hero party where I endured being hit on by every dumbass cowboy over the age of twelve, and the way the women looked at me, as if my sole purpose in life was to steal their homely, fat, drooling husbands.”

Travis made a choking sound. Caleb rubbed his forehead. Jake had a hard time keeping from doing the same.

“And I waited, patiently, for the main event.”

“The what?” Jake said.

“The main event, Captain. You. I waited and waited, and you finally showed up, but did your sainted sisters or your magnificent brothers introduce us?”

“Our sisters don’t know anything about this,” Travis said. He looked around. “And could we take this in another room? We really don’t need an aud—”

“I watched the three of you standing there, swilling beer—a disgusting beverage but then, what could anyone expect from Texans?”

Dammit, Jake thought, the McDowell woman was some piece of work. Beautiful. Tough. And flawlessly delivering insult after insult, as if this whole thing wasn’t her fault.

It was, of course, and he disliked her intensely, but he had to admire her for her guts.

“Beer, from the bottle,” she added, with a visible shudder. “And you looked at me. Talked about me.” Addison extended her hand, poked Jake in the chest. He jumped in surprise. “Although actually, Captain, you didn’t look. You stared.”

He felt heat rise in his face. “I did not stare.”

“Oh, please! You stared. And when I got tired of it, tired of cooling my heels and waiting for you to come over, you know, do the polite thing, introduce yourself, shake my hand, I thought, okay, if he doesn’t have any manners, I do. So I gave you a little salute.”

Jake frowned. The raised wineglass?

“I even smiled.”

Yes. Yes, she’d smiled, but—then she’d taken that slow, sexy sip of vino …

“You didn’t so much as blink, so I drank a little wine to give you the chance to start moving in my direction.”

Caleb cleared his throat.

“Addison, if you’d calm down—”

“I am calm,” she said coldly. “Very calm. And, by the way, the two of you are fired.”

“Why fire them? I’m the one you’re ticked off at.”

“Your DNA is their DNA. That’s good enough for me.”

“That’s brilliant.”

“It is, indeed.”

“Well, that’s fine. Because if you’ve dumped my brothers, there’s no need for me to hold back.”

Addison barked out a laugh.

Jake’s mouth thinned.

“That ranch you own? It’s worth exactly what you paid for it.” He smirked. “Unless, of course, you put a higher price on what you gave the poor sucker who left it to you than those services were truly worth—”

Addison slapped his face.

Hard.

The imprint of her hand stood out on his cheek in crimson relief.

“Oh, man,” Travis said, but the words were lost in the sound of a hundred shocked party guests dragging air into their lungs all at the same time.

“No wonder your brothers want to keep you where they can see you,” she said. “You can’t be trusted in polite society.”

His dumbfounded expression told her she’d just scored a perfect shot.

Why hang around and ruin it?

Addison turned her back and faced the crowd.

“Move,” she said, and a path opened like the parting of the Red Sea.

She stomped down that path … and stopped, halfway to the front door. What the hell, she thought, and she turned to face him one last time.

“You’re also a nasty, egotistical, despicable jerk.”

The crowd gasped again, then erupted in a frantic buzz of delighted whispers.

She’d given Wilde’s Crossing enough to talk about for the next decade.

So what?

She was out of here. Not just the Wilde house. She was out of the town, out of the state of Texas.

Back home, at least, she knew the enemy. She wouldn’t be taken in by a pair of brothers who looked like they’d stepped out of an old John Wayne movie, or by a man so tragically beautiful he’d made her heart ache.

Someone stepped out in front of her. A Wilde sister, Emma or Lissa or whatever in hell her name was.

“Miss McDowell. Please—”

“It’s Ms. McDowell. And you have my deepest sympathy.”

Addison stepped around the sister, yanked open the door and stepped into the night.

Travis and Caleb watched her go.

Then they looked at each other, grabbed Jake by the elbows and quick-marched him in the other direction, out the French doors that led to the patio.

“You,” Caleb said, “are an effing idiot.”

“You two are the idiots,” Jake snarled. “Thinking a woman like that could use her wiles to keep me in town—”

“Her wiles,” Travis said to Caleb. “He thinks we set it up so Addison would use her wiles.” His dark blue eyes narrowed. “Nobody’s used their ‘wiles’ since the nineteenth century, Jacob. And even if she had wiles, do you really think we’d ask her to use them?”

“Listen, I understand. You want me to hang around. And she’s a hot piece of—”

“She’s our friend,” Caleb said coldly. “At least, she was, until you got your nose out of joint because you realized she wasn’t coming on to you.”

Jake reddened.

“Why would I want her to come on to me?”

His brothers barked out matching laughs.

“Okay, she’s good-looking. But she was only coming on to me to get me to work for her.”

“Not even you can possibly believe that.”

Jake thought about it. And felt his belly start to knot.

“Okay. Maybe I, ah, maybe I overstated it, but—”

“Here’s how it went down, Jake. You wanted her to come on to you. And when you found out she wasn’t, you were too damned ticked off to admit that was what you wanted, so you decided to accuse her of coming on to you.”

“That,” Jake said coldly, “makes no sense at all.”

“It makes more sense than you do,” Travis said grimly.

“Hey. Just because your plan didn’t work—”

“Goddammit,” Caleb said, “she was right. You’re an egotistical jerk.”

Jake opened his mouth.

And shut it again.

His brothers had tempers. Hell, so did he. They’d chewed each other out before….

But never like this. Never with such intensity …

And maybe never with such honesty.

Were they … Could they be right?

“We owe her an apology,” Travis told Caleb, who nodded.

“That’s if she’ll accept one.”

“Let’s go,” Travis said … and Jake held up his hand.

“Wait, okay?” He cleared his throat. “So, ah, so this wasn’t a setup.”

“Lucky for you that you didn’t make that a question,” Caleb said grimly.

“Okay. Maybe I went … overboard. Maybe I read things into things—”

Travis snorted.

Jake ran his hands through his hair. “Ah, man, she’s right. I am certifiable. It’s just … it’s been a while since—a while since …” He shook his head. “You guys don’t owe her an apology. I do.”

“She won’t talk to you.”

“She will.”

“She won’t. She’s tough.”

Jake eyed his brothers. “Trust me,” he said. “I’m not exactly made of spun sugar.”

“You mean,” Caleb said innocently, “you’re not a candy ass?”

Jake grinned. “Ten bucks says she’ll not only accept my apology, she’ll agree to have dinner with me tomorrow night.”

“Twenty,” Travis said, “and you’re on.”

The brothers smiled at each other. Jake started off the patio, toward the side of the house, then turned back.

“I left my car near the creek.”

“Why’d you—”

“He just did,” Caleb said.

“Oh. Fine.” Travis dug the keys to his truck from his pocket and tossed them to Jake. “It’s the black Tundra in the driveway.”

“Remember,” Jake said. “Twenty bucks.”

His brothers grinned. “All talk, no action.”

It was one of their old lines. Jake laughed on cue….

But his laughter died by the time he reached Travis’s Tundra.

For a little while there, he’d almost forgotten.

All talk, no action was no longer a punch line. It was the sad truth. His brothers couldn’t know it but he did.

And, yeah, that was the reason he’d gone ballistic. He’d responded to a woman for the first time in almost two years….

Only to find out that she wasn’t interested.

Definitely, he owed her an apology. As for asking her to dinner …

Jake put the truck in gear and his foot on the gas.

Forget it.

He’d pay his brothers the twenty bucks and write the whole thing off as a mistake.