by Soraya Lane
He groaned, his mind going back in time, fingers clenching into fists as he remembered the weight of her full breasts cupped in his palms as she’d sat astride him.
“Chase?”
Damn it. “Yeah?”
“I thought you said something.”
He grinned and shook his head. “Not me.” Because that groan was about you, not for you.
“So tell me what you’ve been up to these last few years. Wishing you were a vet or damn happy to be on your ranch?”
“Damn happy,” he answered truthfully. “I wake up every day with a smile on my face. I wanted to get my qualifications to prove myself to Granddad, and prove to myself that if I didn’t have this ranch I could carve out a career without any help from anyone. But the truth is there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than hands-on running this place.”
“So do you have a blonde rolling around beside you when you wake up with that smile?”
Chase chuckled. “And there she goes.”
“What?” Hope’s smile was as innocent as a fox about to steal a hen.
“That girl who used to give me more shit than any of the guys and get away with it.”
“Ha, only because you were too chickenshit to call me out.”
“Or the fact that I couldn’t punch you because you were a girl.”
“Mmmm, there was that.”
Hope turned around before ducking under the railings, eyes flashing. He’d missed her so bad without even realizing it.
“You must be the new vet?”
Chase reluctantly turned away when Randy approached them from behind. He wanted his foreman close at hand—he liked him to be briefed about everything involving their stock, and this was no exception, no matter how bad he wanted to keep Hope to himself. He might be Randy’s boss now, but he still valued his opinion.
“Randy, this is Hope. She’ll be handling everything from start to finish.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Randy stepped forward and held his hand out.
“Pleased to meet you, too,” she said. “I’m going to check them over individually and mark them, make up some charts, and then come back for another visit when they’re closer to being ready for insemination.”
Chase’s phone buzzed in his pocket again and he pulled it out to check the caller ID. Damn, it was his granddad, which meant he had to take it.
“I’ll check back on you shortly,” he told them. “I have to take this.”
Hope nodded and he answered the phone, walking away to the sound of her soft voice as she chatted to Randy.
“Granddad,” he answered. “Everything okay?”
“Just calling in for my daily report,” the aged yet strong voice said down the line.
“Don’t tell me you’re sick of playing dominos and bingo already?” Chase teased.
He received a noise resembling a growl in response. “I’ll have you know I’ve never played bingo once in my life, and I don’t intend on starting now.”
He might be in his ninetieth year, but there was no slowing down Chase’s granddad even if his body was starting to give out on him.
“I have the AI specialist here now. Won’t be long before I put the King name on the map for another reason.”
“I have to give it to you, son, you’re on trend.”
Chase stifled a laugh. The words that came out of the old man’s mouth never failed to surprise him.
“You been Googling again, Granddad?”
He listened to his hearty chuckle. “I’ve been slipping one of the younger nurses a few extra bills to teach me about Twitter and all this trending business. I’m not ready to give up the reins just yet, son. Not completely.”
“Did I tell you I closed the deal on the John Deere franchise?”
His granddad chuckled. “Don’t tell me you bought the goddamn place? I wasn’t even half serious when I…”
“We own all the rights for Texas now,” Chase told him, loving that he’d managed to surprise the one man he always tried so hard to impress. “I looked at how much we were spending each year, how much of our ranching profit went into those stores, and Nate agreed. He’ll have the paperwork for you to sign next week.” Chase paused. “We’ll make a ton of money off every other rancher in the state, Granddad, and we won’t have to pay retail for any of that damn machinery ever again.”
“Now that’s why I trust you boys,” he said, his voice gruff. “You’re a chip off the old block, Chase. I’m proud of you, son.”
“Thanks, Granddad.” His praise meant a lot to Chase, it always had.
Chase walked a few more paces, then turned, scuffing his boots into the dirt before letting his eyes wander back to Hope. She was laughing at something Randy had said, helping him to guide one of the cows in before running a practiced hand down the animal’s gleaming black coat.
Chase grimaced when he heard his granddad saying his name.
“Sorry?”
“I said I’ll let you get back to it,” his grandfather repeated.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll, ah, come by and see you later today.”
“When you boys gonna learn I’m just fine without all this pandering?”
“We love you,” Chase said, his voice gruff. It didn’t come naturally to him to talk about his feelings, but they’d almost lost Granddad once already and he wasn’t going to let the old man die without knowing how much he appreciated him. He’d raised them all when their mom had died and their dad had given up and walked out, and everything they had was because of him. “So you’re just gonna have to learn to deal with it, okay?”
Chase chuckled at his grandfather’s grumbling and said his goodbyes, ending the call and staring at the blank screen for a second. He blew out a breath and scrolled through his missed calls, touching his thumb to the number he’d sent to silent only minutes earlier. He didn’t mind doing it, but he’d be an asshole if he didn’t feel bad for canceling on any woman for another.
“Hey,” he said when she answered.
He listened to her chat for a moment before consciously changing the tone of his voice, talking more quietly and in a deeper register.
“I hate to do this to you, darlin’, but I’m not gonna make it tonight,” Chase said. “Something’s come up.”
She sounded annoyed but he continued, undeterred. He didn’t care if Hope couldn’t find a babysitter—there was no way in hell he was going to sit through a night with one woman and be thinking about another.
“Baby, I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do about it, but I’ll call you, okay?”
Chase cringed. He shouldn’t have said that, although technically he might call her. Maybe if Hope skipped out on him and he needed someone to take his mind off the fact they hadn’t had a rematch.
He uttered a final apology and shoved his phone back in his jeans, standing stock-still for a moment and indulging in watching Hope again. She was bent forward, her long hair tucked behind one ear as she studied something he couldn’t see. It had only been one night. One night that had started out as a drunken tumble and ended up as hours of pleasuring each other, sweaty bodies and tangled limbs, then even longer lying awake and talking until it was morning. And then they’d woken late, and everything had seemed different somehow when reality had hit.
For all those reasons, he should just be happy to see an old friend and forget all about that night. Sleeping together had ruined everything and it would only make things awkward all over again. But he wanted her. Chase wanted one night with her again, to hold her in his arms as he licked and sucked every part of her, rocked into her until she moaned. His memory often let him down, but there was nothing about that night that hadn’t stuck to his brain like glue.
* * *
“Why did this take us so long?”
Chase chuckled, lazily stroking Hope’s arm. “Because we didn’t want to complicate things.”
“Or maybe because we were both too stubborn to be the first to make a move.”
Chase leaned over to kiss
her, staring down into Hope’s eyes. They were naked and sweaty still, lying on top of the bed, sheets strewn around them.
“You sure you won’t stay?”
“Would you leave your family and ranch behind and come to Canada?”
He sighed. “No.”
“Then you know the answer.”
“So this is good-bye?” He didn’t know why he’d asked when he already knew the answer, but he still wanted to hear her say it. Part of him hoped she’d eventually cave in and decide to stay in Texas, but then Hope didn’t do anything she didn’t want to do.
“This is good-bye,” she whispered back, pushing him down, then straddling him, leaning down to press a hot kiss to his lips.
“We better make it count then, huh?” he murmured back, fisting a hand in her messy long hair.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re gonna do.”
* * *
“So what do you think?”
Hope jumped at the sound of Chase’s deep, husky drawl. She pushed her hair out of her eyes, a few strands having escaped the rough ponytail she’d hastily tied it in. She rubbed an arm over her face and tried not to squint into the bright sunshine.
“They’re all in fantastic condition.”
Chase laughed and before she could ask him what was so funny, he’d closed the distance between them, his big body way too close to hers as he reached out and brushed his thumb gently across her cheek. Her lips parted until she forced them shut, her skin tingly all over at having Chase so up in her space. He smelled hot, like he’d been working out in the sun, the masculine scent of him doing nothing to quell the desire flaring within her. Even after all these years, the pull she’d always felt toward him hadn’t eased any.
“You had dirt on your face,” he murmured, brushing another spot on her forehead this time before stepping back.
“Thanks,” she managed.
Hope smiled back at him, wishing to hell he hadn’t just touched her. She didn’t need to remember what it was like being close to Chase, and those eyes of his … enough. She dug her nails into her palm to push the memory away, the other hand hanging at her side as she watched him use his shirtsleeve to wipe his own face. One of the things she’d always loved about Chase was that he wasn’t scared of rolling his sleeves up and doing hard work himself. They’d both grown up with more money than they could count, but they’d been determined to prove themselves no matter what when they’d been in college.
“How is it that you can look so damn gorgeous out on the job?” Chase asked her, blinking those gorgeous thick black eyelashes that framed eyes the color of the darkest brandy.
Hope swallowed, glancing back at the cows for something to do. “So you’ve had these girls organic for how long?” She decided that changing the subject was the easiest way to handle Chase—flattery wasn’t something she was used to dealing with. And that sure as hell wasn’t the kind of thing he’d have said to her in college.
“All their lives,” he said, pushing his hands into his pockets and taking a step closer. “A good percentage of our pasture is certified organic now, and I’ve been raising this herd myself, away from the rest of our stock. It’s been a long-term plan of mine for years.”
“Why’s it taken you so long then?” she asked, surprised.
“Because it’s taken all this time for Nate to believe that organic is worth the investment. It was one thing giving me some pasture to dedicate to it, but he’s always been too tight on the purse strings to indulge me in buying a few hundred organic weanling heifers.”
“So this is you proving him wrong?” she asked.
“Yeah, something like that.” Chase laughed. “It’s a no-brainer, but that old saying that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it? That was kind of the mentality here for a bit, and besides, Nate’s always been more interested in oil than cows. But he couldn’t exactly stop me spending my own money, could he?”
Hope smiled. “How about you? What do think about oil?” She knew a lot about his family—it would have been weird for them to have been best friends for so long and for her not to have known about them, but he’d never talked much about oil.
“Oil has made our family more wealthy than my grandfather could ever have imagined, so it’s always got to come first.” He pushed his shoulders up, shrugging at the same time as he raised an eyebrow and glanced over at her. “But I still love cattle beasts, and ain’t nothin’ gonna change that.”
She nodded. She got it—ranching was in her blood too, and even though she’d never turn down oil money, she couldn’t imagine not having animals in her life.
“So tell me, Hope, when did you become so adverse to flattery?”
Hope almost choked on her own tongue. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I love talking ranching with you, but we both know you avoided what I said.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, a brazen smile kicking one side of his mouth up. “All you needed to say was thank you.”
Hope couldn’t help but smile back at him. “Thank you,” she muttered.
His dimple caught her eye, the expression so sexy it made her hot all over, shoots of desire firing through her body no matter how hard she tried to stamp them out.
“So are we doing dinner tonight?”
Hope stepped back again to put some more distance between them, not needing his body so close, his smile beaming down on her, his eyes like flashes of chocolate—chocolate that she was drawn to like a honeybee to pollen. She bent to collect her things.
“Can I let you know later?”
Chase nodded, but from the way he glanced away she was wondering now if he even wanted her to say yes. Stupid. If Chase didn’t want her to say yes, he wouldn’t have asked her.
“We can catch up any time, Hope,” he said, nodding to his foreman as he passed. “You say when and I’ll be there.”
“Sure.”
Chase handed her a card, the King logo emblazoned across it. She knew his personal details would be on the other side.
“My email’s on there for sending me the results when you have them,” he said, before dropping his voice an octave. “And there’s my number for confirming dinner.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him if it was a date, but she didn’t dare. Instead she stared at his card for a second before pushing it into her pocket.
“Give me an hour or so and I’ll let you know,” she said, knowing full well that she was going to get straight in the truck and try to figure out how the hell she was going to find a sitter. And then second-guess herself the entire drive back about whether she should have even thought about saying yes to dinner in the first place. She’d ask a friend, only she didn’t want to tell anyone that she was going out with a man, let alone an old flame.
The difference between her and Chase was that he thought they were old friends catching up, but she knew they were a lot more than just former college buddies.
“You need a hand with getting anything into the truck?” Chase asked.
“Thanks, but I’m good,” she replied, smiling back at him. In all the time that had passed, she’d never forgotten his grin; that infectious tilt of his lips and flash of his eyes that made everyone around him feel like the most special person in the world.
“See you soon,” he said, raising a hand and heading for the barn.
“Uh-huh,” she murmured, knowing that come hell or high water, she’d no doubt be seated across from him over dinner in only a few hours’ time.
* * *
Chase checked his messages to make sure he had the right address and pulled up outside Hope’s place. It was a modern-looking two-level house, lights illuminating the front door and garage in the almost darkness. He turned the engine off and pushed open his door, stepping out onto the concrete and crossing the grass to walk up the pavers to the front door. There were large trees surrounding the property and he guessed it backed onto the woods.
He knocked at the front door and took another look around. It was a nice pla
ce, nothing too flashy, but it wasn’t what he’d expected. Although he hadn’t exactly picked her for being a mom, so a suburban place with a yard was probably a whole lot more appropriate than a condo.
Chase knocked again, wondering if she either hadn’t heard him or had changed her mind and wasn’t going to come out at all.
“Just a minute!”
He smiled at Hope’s call and stepped back, seeing the blur of her silhouette through the small squares of glass on each side of the front door. It was ridiculous feeling nervous, but if he wasn’t careful his palms would be sweating and he’d have to wipe them on his jeans. This wasn’t a first date and he wasn’t a kid. This was just two friends reconnecting. His trouble was that he hadn’t been on a proper date since … forever. He met women, had fun with them, took them back to his town apartment or their place, and rarely saw them again. Hope was different and she always had been.
“Hey.” Hope swung the door open, her cheeks flushed, breathing hard like she’d just finished at the gym.
“Hey.” Chase grinned back at her, fighting to keep his eyes on hers instead of flitting down her body. She was wearing skin-tight dark jeans and towering heels, her legs long as a filly’s, but they were friends and he was trying to behave … To hell with it. He looked her up then down, raising an eyebrow when he finally met her gaze again. “You look fantastic.”
She rolled her eyes, something she’d done back in college a lot but that looked kind of hilarious now she was all grown up. “You don’t look so bad yourself, cowboy.”
Chase was wearing jeans, his favorite boots, and a clean checked shirt—hardly noteworthy. But he took her compliment with a smile.
“You ready to go?”
She was holding onto the doorframe, leaning into it, and she kept one hand on it as she pulled back, blocking the way.
“I just need to double-check everything with the sitter,” she said. “And double-check Harrison one last time.”
Chase went to walk into the house, to follow her, but she never took her hand off the door. “Can I come in?” he asked.
She made a kind of grimace, like she was about to deliver a blow of bad news and didn’t know how to package it. “Would you mind if I met you at your car? It’s just, I have him settled and I’d rather check him one last time, then slip out.”