The Second Chance Rancher

by Kate Pearce

  “That’s Rollo.”

  “Like the chocolate?” Daisy put the dog down, wiped off her boot, and washed her hands.

  “Nope, the Viking.” Jackson pointed at the other dogs. “We also have Ragnar, Floki, Siggy, and Lagertha.”

  “Poor old Lagertha.” Daisy smiled at the black-and-white-spotted puppy.

  “Hey, she’ll grow up to be a renowned warrior queen, so it’s all good.” Jackson pointed at the pizza. “Do you want to eat now or later?”

  Daisy breathed in the siren call of the pizza. “If I eat it now, I’ll probably fall asleep.”

  “Which isn’t good.” Jackson set down the pepper and came toward her. “Because I really would like to see you naked.”

  She allowed him to take her hand. “It’s not worth all this excitement, you know. It’s just a body.”

  “A lush, beautiful female body that makes me hard every time I think about you.”

  “Really?” Daisy halted at the door to his bedroom.

  “Oh yeah.” He leaned in and kissed her so thoroughly, she was almost panting with lust. “You just do it for me. I don’t know why, but I’m not going to argue about it.”

  “Which makes a change,” Daisy murmured against his lips. “Seeing as you like to argue about everything.”

  “I’m naturally inquisitive.” He kissed her again. “I can’t help it.”

  She gently pushed him away and went into the bedroom, which was in its usual immaculate state. Turning to face him, she pulled her T-shirt over her head and undid the zipper of her jeans to reveal her fancy matching underwear. He visibly swallowed, and she allowed herself a quiet moment of triumph.

  “Do you want to help with the rest?”

  He nodded and came toward her, his hands warm on her skin as he undid her bra and helped her step out of her jeans, panties, and socks. Being naked when he was still clothed did all kinds of interesting things to her heart rate.

  “Lie down.” She pointed at the bed.

  “I’m still dressed,” Jackson pointed out.

  “I know.”

  He held her gaze for a second and then complied, easing one hand behind his head so he could still look up at her. She climbed onto the bed and straddled him, allowing the hard ridge of desire in his jeans to settle just where she needed it most. Bending down, she kissed him and enjoyed his groan as her breasts swung forward and grazed his shirt.

  “Daisy . . .” He breathed her name like a prayer.

  “Hmm?” She freed the top button of his shirt and then the next, to reveal the swirl of dark hair on his chest.

  “I really like this.”

  “Good.” She finished undoing his shirt and eased it free of his jeans, making him curse. She fingered the silver clasp on his belt and worked out how to release it, allowing the leather to slide through the loops of his jeans.

  “Daisy?”

  She paused to look up at him. “What?”

  “May I touch you?”

  “No, I have to concentrate.” She frowned at him.

  “On what?”

  “You, you idiot.” She leaned in and bit his nipple, making him start. “Now be quiet.”

  * * *

  Jackson gripped the rail of the headboard with one hand as Daisy carefully eased the zipper of his jeans down. She gave a little satisfied growl, which made his dick leap to attention. The sight of her sitting naked on his lap, her long hair free and her breasts almost in his face was enough to drive a man wild.

  She studied his straining boxers and smiled like a woman with a mission. He tensed as she ran a finger down over the curve of his cotton-covered shaft and then bent to kiss him.

  “Please . . .” Jackson couldn’t stay silent.

  “Please what?” Daisy asked.

  “Don’t stop.”

  “If you didn’t keep interrupting me,” Daisy said, “I would be moving along much faster.”

  Jackson pressed his lips together as she shoved down his jeans and boxers and threw them onto the floor. Now he was as naked as she was.

  She pushed on his right knee, and he obligingly spread his thighs wide enough for her to kneel between them.

  “First things first,” Daisy murmured and eased her hand under his buttock. “Oh! It’s a flower!”

  He shivered as she traced the raised and inked petals of his tattoo. Trust her to remember that right at this moment.

  “It’s a buttercup and a bee.” She slowly looked up at him. “Why on earth . . . ?”

  He shrugged. “I was drunk. My friends told me it was going to be an eagle. It took me days to work out why everyone was laughing at my ass.”

  She chuckled and kissed his knee. “Idiot.”

  “Yeah.”

  Her hair tickled his skin, making him shut the hell up as she slowly refocused her attention, zeroed in on her target, and took him in her mouth.

  “Oh God . . .” Jackson breathed. “That’s—”

  Speech deserted him as she sucked him deep. He fought the need to curve his hand into her hair and hold her there for all eternity. After a while, he couldn’t help but rock his hips into the rhythm she demanded as she used her tongue and teeth to take him to paradise.

  “Daisy . . . I’m going to come if you keep that up,” Jackson blurted out.

  “Mmm.” Her purr of satisfaction reverberated around his shaft, and he couldn’t hold back any longer.

  When she sat back, she licked her lips like a cat and smiled at him.

  “Was that okay?”

  He nodded, too shattered for words.

  “Good. It’s been such a long time since I’ve tried that, I was worried I’d forgotten how.” She grinned. “It was really fun.”

  “Yeah?” Jackson finally regained his voice and reached for her. “Not half as much fun as this is going to be.”

  * * *

  Daisy ate her third piece of pizza, finished her beer, and then burped discreetly behind her hand.

  “Do you want my last piece?” she asked Jackson, who sat opposite her, looking attractively rumpled and bright-eyed after all the sex. She was fairly sure she looked the same, which was why she was happy to delay going home for quite a while longer. No need to draw attention to herself from her brothers.

  He made a face. “Hell no.”

  “You sure?”

  “Anchovies are the devil’s spawn. Wrap it up and take it home with you.” Jackson got up. “I’ll find you something to put it in.”

  Daisy contemplated the remaining piece of pizza. Didn’t sex use up lots of calories? Perhaps she could finish it before Adam spotted it when she finally got home. She could distract him with his own piece of pizza she’d brought him. The thought of moving anywhere right now wasn’t high on her priorities list.

  Jackson came back with a paper plate and a plastic bag and efficiently zipped the plated pizza inside the zip-lock bag.

  “So how long has it been since you did that to a man exactly?”

  Daisy gazed at him reproachfully. So much for enjoying the moment. She’d forgotten he remembered everything and had no qualms about discussing it.

  “Why does it matter? I didn’t bite anything off, did I?”

  He shuddered and fixed her with his usual thoughtful stare. “I was trying to work it out. I don’t remember you having a boyfriend in school, so it has to have been in the last twelve years. And as you haven’t dated anyone in Morgan Valley for three years, that narrows it down to your last two years in high school, when I wasn’t there, your time at college, and in employment.”

  Daisy folded her arms over her chest. “Very clever.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “So when was it? You went to college in California, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Stanford, according to your brother.”

  Daisy wondered which one of her brothers she needed to strangle for giving away that piece of information.

  “And your dad mentioned you bringing some tech guy back to the ranch for a weekend once.” Jackson s
miled. “He didn’t like him much.”

  Daisy mentally added her father to her not-speaking-to list.

  “So what?”

  “Was it him?”

  “Possibly.” Daisy shrugged. “Why does it matter?”

  “Did you date him for long? Your dad said he was some namby-pamby computer guy.” He paused. “His words, not mine.”

  “I didn’t date him for long, no.” Daisy picked up the bagged pizza. “Can we talk about something else now?”

  Jackson studied her for a long moment. “Sure.”

  “Good.”

  “You went to Stanford, and then into IT?”

  “I thought we were changing the subject,” Daisy objected as he put two and two together way too fast for her liking.

  “We are.” Jackson looked affronted. “We’ve moved on from your love life to your employment status.”

  Daisy slowly rose to her feet. “And now I’m leaving.”

  “Why? It’s still early.”

  She put her hands on the table and leaned forward to glare at him. “Because you’re being extremely annoying.”

  “I’m always annoying. You know that.” He shrugged.

  “What in particular did I say?”

  “If you don’t know, I’ll leave you to think about it,” Daisy said sweetly. “Thanks for the pizza.” She put on her jacket as he slowly rose from the table. “And the sex. It was great.”

  Grabbing her bag, she stuffed the pizza in the top and turned toward the door, petting Grace on her way out.

  “Is it because you don’t want me to know you worked in Silicon Valley?” Jackson said from behind her.

  She froze by the door but didn’t turn around.

  “Night, Jackson.”

  In fact, she’d been so busy deflecting his interest in her love life, she’d left herself wide open to his conjectures about her alternate career. She dug in her pocket for her truck keys. It was better he guessed about her job than about the disaster of her love life, so perhaps she’d just have to admit it and hope he’d let it go.

  “Right,” Daisy muttered to herself as she got into the truck. “Jackson Lymond let something go. He’s about as tenacious as bindweed.”

  Chapter Eight

  So Daisy definitely worked in tech . . . Jackson made a pot of coffee and went to bang on Cauy’s door to wake up his brother. She hadn’t been pleased about him working it out, which made him guess her second job was somehow still connected to it. But why was she being so secretive? Tech jobs weren’t exactly something to be ashamed of.

  He poured himself some coffee and toasted two bagels while he microwaved some scrambled eggs. By the time Cauy emerged, he had everything on the table, ready to be eaten.

  “Thanks, bro.” Cauy sat down and yawned. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

  “Doing what exactly?” Jackson asked. “You weren’t very specific last night.”

  “We’re helping the Morgans with their new barn.”

  “Oh, a barn raisin’!” Jackson slapped his thigh. “That’s awesome.”

  “Don’t get too excited.” Cauy gave him a wry look. “We’re not in Amish Country now. The barn’s already in place; they just need help with the interior.”

  Jackson finished his bagel. “And when that’s completed, the Morgans will take their horses back from us, correct?”

  “Yeah.” Cauy sighed. “Which means we’ll lose that income string.”

  “It helped pay for the reconstruction of our barn, all the new fencing, and gave us free labor, so I think we’re good,” Jackson reminded his penny-pinching brother. “And it helped us get on better terms with our neighbors.”

  “I thought I did that by dating Rachel Morgan.” Cauy offered one of his rare smiles. “Wait. Don’t ever tell her I said that, even as a joke.”

  “You can count on me.” Jackson sipped his coffee.

  “Yeah, to drop me right in it.”

  Jackson winced. There was some truth in what his brother was saying.

  “It’s okay,” Cauy answered Jackson’s unspoken thought. “One of us has to be the talker in the family, and it’s definitely not me.”

  Cauy got up to fetch more coffee and then returned to his seat. “There’s a meeting in town tonight I’m planning on attending. I’d like you to come with me.”

  “To do the talking?” Jackson asked. “What’s it about?”

  “It’s a regular community meeting between the town, the ranchers, the sheriff’s office, and the county board. The idea is to keep everyone informed of what’s going on and stop shit going down that no one anticipated.”

  “Sounds like a great idea,” Jackson agreed. “So what’s on the agenda tonight?”

  “The expansion of the town.” Cauy added cream to his coffee. “As you can imagine, it’s a point of friction between the ranchers and the business owners.”

  “If I’m planning on living here, I should definitely show up,” Jackson said.

  “You still going ahead with that?” Cauy asked. “Maybe you could ask the Millers if there’s a job going up at their ranch.”

  “Ha ha. Right, what with all those guys already running the place.” Jackson shuddered. “And Daisy wouldn’t like it either. She wants to get away from them, not live there for the rest of her life.”

  “She told you that?”

  “Not in so many words, but she’s very independent, and she likes her own space.” Jackson considered his answer. “Not that she’d go too far away. She loves her family.”

  “So if you do stay, you’ll need to be in Morgan Valley?”

  “You think I want to leave?” Jackson met his brother’s gaze.

  Cauy shrugged. “I think you’re bored here.”

  “You’d be wrong about that. I’m enjoying myself,” Jackson replied. “It’s interesting to come back and see all the changes and the things that stayed the same.”

  “It’s backbreaking work,” Cauy stated. “With little reward sometimes.”

  “And you think I’m not up to it?” Jackson wasn’t smiling now. For some reason, Cauy’s comments weren’t sitting well with him. “Hell, you’re the one they had to piece back together after the oil-rig explosion, and you seem to be doing okay.”

  Cauy raised his eyebrows. “There’s no need to get all defensive. I’m asking a valid question.”

  “Then maybe you should shut up?” Jackson stood and dumped his plate and mug in the sink. “I’m going to check on the horses. I’ll see you out there.”

  He grabbed his coat, boots, and hat from the mudroom and went on out into the cold brightness of the day. He wasn’t sure why Cauy’s questions bugged him so much, but he wasn’t prepared to sit there and let his brother lecture him about the ranch or his place in the grand scheme of things.

  His breath coalesced in the cold as he marched toward the barn.

  “Hey.”

  He turned as Cauy appeared at the back door.

  “What now? Are you going to tell me to leave?” Jackson asked. “This is your place, isn’t it?”

  Cauy just looked at him, one eyebrow raised. “You left your phone on the table.” He held it up.

  “Oh. Thanks.” Now Jackson felt like a fool, but he couldn’t take the words back.

  Cauy cleared his throat. “Maybe you should rethink your decision to turn down half this ranch and stop being so passive-aggressive about it.”

  “Passive-aggressive?” Jackson scowled at his brother. “Where’d you get those big words from?”

  “Rachel.” Cauy didn’t back down. “But they’re right on the nose about you.”

  “Bullshit. I’m not passive about anything. I speak my mind,” Jackson protested.

  “Not when it’s something close to your chest.” Cauy didn’t give an inch. “You don’t talk about Dad, your military service, or what the hell you intend to do with the rest of your life.”

  “And you do?” Jackson couldn’t seem to shut up. “You’re like a clam.”

  “
I talk to Rachel,” Cauy said. “I try to talk to you.”

  Jackson looked out over the horizon, avoiding his brother’s steady gaze. Why was he arguing again? What gremlin had gotten into his brain and made him sound like a dissatisfied, selfish brat?

  “I’m sorry, Cauy.” He forced himself to meet his brother’s eyes. “You’re right. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do, but that doesn’t excuse me for getting all up in your face about it. It’s my problem. Not yours.”

  It was Cauy’s turn to look skyward. “Look, I don’t need you to apologize. I want to help you, but if you can’t be honest with yourself about what you want and share shit with me—even the bad stuff—I don’t know what to do.”

  “When I work it out, you’ll be the first to know,” Jackson promised. “I’m really grateful you’ve let me stay here and sort myself out.”

  “I don’t want your fricking gratitude. This is still your home.”

  “I know.” Jackson offered his brother a placatory smile. “I’d better get on and see to the horses.”

  The sound of the door slamming behind his brother made him think that perhaps things hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped. Cauy might not talk much, but he wasn’t stupid. Everything he’d said had been dead on, which made Jackson feel like a worm caught on a hook. For the first time in his life, he really wasn’t sure of his direction, and it was killing him.

  He went into the barn and checked in on Rocket before mucking out his stall and feeding him. Physical exercise was usually a great way to avoid thinking too much, but this time it wasn’t working. Did he covet the ranch? Should he accept his brother’s offer of part ownership of the place after all? He’d never gone back on a decision once he’d made it—had prided himself on that choice until now.

  Cauy had the money to do anything he wanted to the ranch but preferred to take his time and get things right. Jackson would want a more direct approach and instinctively knew he and Cauy would clash over it. Having only recently reconnected with his brother, Jackson was reluctant to destroy that new bond. It would be better to start fresh and make his own decisions. But was he simply finding excuses not to follow through on his plans?

  “What plans?” Jackson muttered to himself as he wheeled a barrow load of soiled straw around to the compost heap. “I’m not ready to own my own place yet.”