Chapter Eight
THERE WERE ONLY a few things that threw Ross for a loop, and women’s tears had always been one of them. An animal suffering at the hands of cruelty was another, and third on his list of things that knocked him off balance was the idea of his mother being treated so poorly by his father before his father had left them. He didn’t allow himself to think of that often, but even those painful memories weren’t as cutting as seeing Elisabeth standing before him silently weeping. Walking with her was about all he’d been able to do. Give him an animal and he knew exactly what to do. Women? They were a different story. And Elisabeth? She’d tugged at his heart from the moment he’d laid eyes on her, which probably made him pathetic, but what power did he have over his heart?
Exactly none.
No matter how much he tried to ignore the pull that drew him to her night and day, he was unable. He’d begun to wonder if his belief in love was a fantasy built in opposition to his father’s leaving. He’d wondered if he’d ever feel as drawn to a woman as Luke and Wes were to their girlfriends, or Pierce was to Rebecca. Now he knew it wasn’t only a dream. He was every bit as attracted to Elisabeth, taken with her personality, infatuated with her goodness—hell, he wanted to climb beneath her skin and become one with her.
He walked far out in the pasture and checked on Dolly, and he found Chip and Dale, always nearby, playing king of the mountain on the play equipment Cora had put in the yard for them. Give a goat a boulder and they’re happy, he’d told her. Yes, she’d said. But give them play equipment and they know they’re loved. Who was he to argue with that logic?
He stroked Dolly’s back, taking his time, trying to work through his feelings. He didn’t know how long he stood with Dolly, twenty minutes, thirty? Still he remained, thinking of the way Elisabeth had clung to him. The feel of her heart beating against his chest. Hell if it hadn’t taken every ounce of restraint to restrict his lips to her forehead, where he’d breathed in her scent and lingered a moment longer than he should have. He had no business kissing her forehead at all, much less lingering, but if it hadn’t been her forehead, it would have been those luscious lips, and he wouldn’t have stopped there.
He turned back toward the barn and saw her standing in the moonlight, kicking at the dirt with the toe of her boot, her fingers in her pockets, elbows out. She looked adorable in cutoffs that barely covered her ass. Then again, he had a feeling that Elisabeth could make a potato sack look sexy. Her hair curtained her face, and his dogs stood beside her.
All three of them.
His dogs usually stuck to him like glue.
Why on earth had it taken him this long to realize they weren’t with him?
The answer was kicking up tufts of dirt about a hundred feet away.
He pushed away his desires as best he could, and after taking care of the animals, they walked in silence back to her car in his driveway.
Sarge and Ranger ran ahead to the back of her car. Knight stuck to her like metal to magnet. Ross and Knight had a lot in common.
“Did Kennedy take the bottle okay?” he asked to cut through his need to touch her.
“Yeah. He’s the cutest little thing.”
“I brought you home something.” He went to his truck and retrieved the book on cows that he’d brought her. “I didn’t have time to get to the library, but this is one of mine. I think it’ll have just about everything you’ll need, and I’m here if you run into any more problems.”
She took the book and clutched it to her chest. When she smiled up at him, the urge to kiss her was so strong that he had to shift his eyes away. He focused on the dogs and cleared his throat to try to clear the mounting desire from his body.
“I think you made a few friends today.”
“That would make me a lucky girl. Thanks for letting me take them to the park. I’ve really missed spending time with dogs and cats.” She rubbed her arms against the dropping temperature.
Ross draped an arm over her shoulder and she leaned against him in that casual way friends did. That little nudge shouldn’t have sent fire through his veins, and when she gazed up at him, he shouldn’t have felt like an inferno, but he would be shocked if he didn’t have smoke pouring out of his ears.
“Thanks for being there for me, Ross.”
“Want to talk about it?” That was better than what he wanted to ask. Want me to kiss you until you can’t feel anything but a full-body shudder?
“I just need to figure out a new plan.” She pressed her palm to his abs and leaned against him as she rose up on her toes and kissed his cheek.
In the space of a breath, he debated turning in to her lips and taking her in a greedy kiss, but in that split second, she said, “I really needed a friend. Thank you.” It stopped him cold.
A friend.
Fuck.
How could he have totally misread her?
Chapter Nine
HOT, BOTHERED, AND upset with herself for being a wimp, Elisabeth paced her kitchen. If she’d been any other woman, she’d have pressed her lips to Ross’s and shown him exactly how much she appreciated him. The problem was, she didn’t just appreciate him. She liked him. A lot. She’d been attracted to plenty of men, but liking who they were was a whole different ballgame. And Ross…Ross made her body go ten different types of crazy.
She had to do something with all that sexual energy before she marched over to his house to see what else he could make her body do.
Focus, Elisabeth.
With a sigh, she thought about the predicament that had sent her tears flowing earlier in the evening. She went upstairs and slipped on her favorite fuzzy slippers and pulled on her favorite hoodie. She needed comfort as she pondered her quandary. She went back down to the living room and paced the hardwood floor. If she was going to fit in to this place, she had to show them just how much it meant to her. There was no way she was giving up on her dreams—any of them. There was more than one way to make her mark, and she’d just have to adapt. When she first opened her business in LA, she’d done all the same things she did in Trusty, only it was easier. In LA pampering pets went hand in hand with owning them, at least in the higher-income areas. There weren’t really higher-income areas in Trusty. She’d already checked that out. There were no elite developments, and there was no bad side of town, or any sort of divide at all, which was probably one of the reasons she’d always loved it there. When she and her aunt had gone into town, everyone said hello and took the time to chat with them. Why was she such a pariah now?
I’m not Aunt Cora. I’m not a real Trusty girl.
She rubbed her temples and glanced out the window in the direction of Ross’s house. It was pitch-black outside, but if she squinted, she could make out a faint light in the distance. Her mind drifted to his protective arm around her shoulder, the feel of his thumbs wiping away her tears.
Focus. Focus. Focus.
She forced his image from her mind, and in an effort to get her brain off of Ross and onto finding a solution to her problem, she ran through a list of questions that her mother asked her before she’d moved away. What do you like about that rinky-dink town? The sense of community and the easy pace of life. What makes you think you’ll ever fit in there? She hadn’t answered her mother honestly when she’d told her that it was because she’d fit in so well when she was younger. She hadn’t actually tried to fit in, or if she had, she didn’t remember it. She had no idea why she felt like she’d fit in. She sure wasn’t raised by a farm woman. She wasn’t ever in 4-H, and she had no idea how to country dance, though she did love dancing in general. The more she thought about it, the clearer the answer became. It wasn’t so much that she knew she’d fit in; it was that she wanted to fit in. It was the feel of being here that made her sense that it was where she belonged. The crisp, clean air, the way her aunt woke up wanting to bake the best pies she could for the customers and friends she couldn’t wait to see again, the way her aunt had always made time for friends and had only kind words to say
about everyone.
The complete opposite of how I grew up.
Was she just running from becoming her mother?
No. Trusty was the foundation for all of her dreams. Every time she thought of a future, it included Trusty. She’d wanted to come back after graduating from college, but her mother had talked her out of it, and then she’d thrown herself into establishing her business. She hated that it had taken Aunt Cora’s death to bring her back, but she also felt that Aunt Cora left her the property for a reason. She wouldn’t have left everything she owned to Elisabeth if she didn’t think Elisabeth was supposed to be here.
This will be my community, too. I’m an outsider—Ross was right about that—but in my heart, I belong here. I’ll earn the community’s trust.
And she knew just the way to do it. She needed to give back to the community whose memory had pulled her through more handsy dates and stressful years than she cared to think about. She’d always been a Trusty girl at heart. She’d just have to show them that she really was one. That she deserved to be accepted, even if she wasn’t born there, because despite the rough beginning, she loved the small town as if it were her own.
She glanced out the window at the faint light in the distance, thinking about showing Ross how much she wanted him.
Behave.
She settled in on the couch, put her feet up on the coffee table, and set her laptop across her thighs. Elisabeth hadn’t redecorated the house. She liked having memories of her younger years and her aunt everywhere. Cora’s black-and-white family photos still hung on the walls, her crocheted blankets were draped across the furniture, and a breeze swept through the open window. As Elisabeth set to work creating new flyers, she had a sense that she was on the right track.
At ten twenty, she printed a handful of flyers and was too excited to sit still. She wanted to spread the word! She paced her living room, wishing she had a girlfriend to call and celebrate with. She was certain this was a great idea. Elisabeth glanced out the window. Ross’s light was still on. She didn’t let her reasonable, careful mind overtake her excitement about her newly developed plan for finding her footing in Trusty. Ross was the closest thing she had to a friend right now—even if she secretly wished for more. Her heart was beating so fast she could barely breathe as she grabbed a bottle of wine, snagged her keys, the flyers she’d printed, and ran out the door—all the while whispering to herself, Go, go, go!
Elisabeth knocked on Ross’s door with an armful of flyers, a bottle of wine, and a smile on her lips that she had no hope of squelching. Her body hummed with excitement that had her bouncing a little on the porch. Ross opened the door. His eyes swept over her, and the pooches barreled out to greet her. Elisabeth threw caution to the wind and did a little barreling herself, straight into Ross’s bare chest, where she went up on her toes, slammed her eyes shut, and pressed her lips to his. She felt his arms circle her as he deepened the kiss. Her lips parted and their tongues collided. A hungry, masculine groan of appreciation rose from his lungs and made her hot all over. Knight nosed his way between them, and Elisabeth dropped back on her heels, wobbling backward a little.
Ross caught her with one strong arm around her waist.
“Hi,” she said breathlessly, reeling from the kiss that made her legs go weak and her body go hot. The kiss that made her lips numb and her brain foggy. Exactly the type of kiss she’d always dreamed a kiss should be.
“Hi.” His voice was thrillingly seductive and low.
She trapped her lower lip between her teeth, realizing that she’d just forced herself on him.
“I…couldn’t help it. I didn’t plan on kissing you. I wanted to, but…I was so nervous. Then I was excited about my flyers, and then you answered the door looking at me like that, and shirtless. Oh God, you’re shirtless—”
He pulled her against him and took her in another kiss that stole brain cells with every swipe of his delicious tongue, until she could barely think past the next luscious stroke.
“You saved me a trip,” he said against her lips, then kissed her again, sending pinpricks through her entire body.
It was a kiss like no other. Right out of the movies. That moment, that second, that kiss, was without a doubt the best thing she’d ever experienced in her entire life. When they finally came up for air, her senses slowly returned. Ross’s body was hot and hard. Really hard. He smelled even more virile, and all he wore was a pair of mesh shorts that did nothing to hide his impressive arousal.
“If this is what I get for being your friend, what happens if I try to move into the boyfriend realm?”
“You…” Oh God. Boyfriend realm? You can have anything you want. “You get to share my wine and put my flyers on your counter at the clinic.” She leaned against his bare chest, then pressed her lips to his collarbone because she simply couldn’t resist.
“I like that. The kiss, I mean.” He took the bottle from her arms. “I’ve already shared your wine and agreed to share your flyers.”
“Congratulations. You just gained access to the possible boyfriend realm.” She had no idea where her brazen response came from, but she didn’t fight it. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she felt like she was on the right track on all fronts. She wasn’t worried about what Ross would think of her idea, or the kiss. Oh God, the kiss. The magnificent kiss.
He took her hand and led her across the hardwood foyer to a warm and inviting great room with deep sofas and a see-through fireplace that separated the living room from the dining room. Ranger and Sarge walked by and sprawled on their doggy beds by the couch. Knight followed Ross and Elisabeth through the living room to an open kitchen, separated from the rest of the first floor by a beautiful mahogany and stone bar.
“I was just working out. Sorry if I’m a little ripe.” He grabbed two wineglasses from a glass-front cabinet. “What are we celebrating with wine and kisses?”
In the face of darkness, it was easy to be bold, but in the illuminated kitchen, reality came bearing a blush. Elisabeth laid the flyers on the counter and covered her face with her hand. “Sorry.”
Ross set the glasses down and gathered her in his arms again. He brushed her hair from her shoulder and searched her eyes with his dark brows knitted together, and then he kissed her forehead in the sweet, tender way he had earlier in the evening.
“Don’t be sorry unless it was a onetime thing. In that case, you can be sorry, because it was a damn good kiss, and I’ve been beating myself up for not kissing you earlier.”
“You were?” She breathed a little faster.
“I was.” His hand slid down to the curve of her back, causing her to shiver all over.
Her stomach fluttered. Knight, who hadn’t left her side since she’d arrived, nudged her leg. She reached a hand down and stroked him. “I don’t know what it was, but I hope it wasn’t a onetime thing. I was just so excited that I wanted to tell you my ideas, which now that I’m standing here, seem kind of silly.”
He sealed his mouth over hers, kissing her like she was all he’d ever wanted, holding her body against his so she could feel every inch of his desire. She let her hands wander down his muscular back and back up again. Each time he tightened his grip on her, his muscles bunched beneath her palms. Every stroke of his tongue stole a few more of her brain cells, until it was all she could do to remember to breathe. When their lips parted she longed for them to return.
“If your ideas are anything like your kisses, I want to hear them.” Ross’s voice was husky, his eyes seductively narrow and dark. He took a step back and took all of her oxygen with him.
She reached for the counter for stability. He handed her a glass of wine, then took her hand and led her to the comfiest couch she’d ever sat on. She sank into the deep cushions and slid her feet beneath her.
He nodded at her slippers. “Those are the most adorable slippers I’ve ever seen. If you don’t mind, I want to just go rinse off. I’ll be down in five minutes.”
Can I help? �
�Okay,” she managed. Holy cow. How was she supposed to sit there knowing he was naked in the other room? She imagined him in the shower, washing that hard body, all lathered up…Great. Now she needed a cold shower. She’d been taking so many of them lately, she worried she’d run out of cold water. She hoped that didn’t mean she was being too promiscuous. This had to be more than sex. It had to be. She could feel it in her bones. Who was she kidding? She could feel it from the very tip of her scalp to the tips of her toes.
And in all the glorious places in between.
Oh. Lord.
She tried to focus on her surroundings. Knight had settled onto Ranger’s doggy bed with him. There were pictures of Ross’s family on the end table and pictures of the dogs everywhere. The cream-colored walls were accented with wide, decorative stained-wood trim. The latest issues of Men’s Fitness and Veterinary Weekly were on the uniquely carved coffee table. His house felt homey, comfortable, lived in, even though it was impeccably neat and tidy.
He came downstairs a few minutes later, wearing a pair of low-slung jeans and a T-shirt that hugged his broad chest. There was something sexy and unpretentious about a guy in jeans and bare feet, and she felt her body heat up all over again as Ross smiled and joined her on the couch. He draped an arm over her shoulder in an easy, comfortable fashion.
“I like seeing you on my couch. It’s kind of like finding a rose among weeds.”
Surprising herself, she settled right in against his side. “Thank you for not kicking me out for showing up unannounced. You could have had a date here. I’m sorry, Ross.”
“Stop apologizing. I don’t date women in Trusty, so the chances of you finding me with a woman are nearly nil.”
Nearly nil? She fiddled with the edge of her hoodie. He didn’t date women from Trusty? Why? Did he chew women up and spit them out? Had he gone through all the single women his age from Trusty? He seemed so low-key, and he’d said it so easily—I don’t date women in Trusty.
Flirting with Love Page 10