She looked miserable and resigned—a rarity for her. “We’ll find another ranch hand, Travis. Maybe even a lady wrangler, if it will make ‘the ladies’ happy.”
He threaded his fingers through her hair. Tilted her head back and waited until she looked directly at him again.
“And I’ll still want you.... And you’ll still want me, no matter how much you deny it.”
Liz shook her head sadly and splayed her hands across his chest, forcing distance between them. “What you’re going to want to do,” she corrected, “is resign from your job on the Four Winds and resume your career.” Determination lit her eyes. “And I’ll support you in that decision, because it will be the right thing.”
Selflessness had gotten her exactly nowhere. Travis knew, because it had landed him in the very same place. He backed her to the bed and fell down onto it with her. Deciding that talking was useless right now, he kissed her again, sliding his hands beneath her hips and lifting her until she was arching against him.
“I’m not going back to Houston,” he said with a calm he wasn’t close to feeling.
Liz bit her lip. “Maybe you will and maybe you won’t,” she replied, even as she wrapped her arms around him. “The point is, you’re a talented attorney and you will land somewhere, Travis. When that happens, you’ll leave Laramie County and this ranch. And our affair will be all over.” Her breath hitched. “But I’m okay with that.”
He lifted a mocking brow. “You are?”
She nodded. “I have to be.” A mixture of sorrow and acceptance laced her voice. “We both do.”
“Because…?” he prodded, ignoring the thudding of his pulse.
“We’re grown-ups. And adults deal with the way things are, not the way we wish they were.” Liz smiled briefly and slid her fingers through his hair. “But that doesn’t mean, since we’ve started this—” she tenderly kissed a corner of his mouth, then the center “—that we can’t enjoy each other now....”
LIZ TOLD HERSELF she was diverting him, distracting them both, really, for fear that he would discover how much he meant to her. Yet everything she’d told Travis was true.
They couldn’t fall in love. They could take the risk of being together and enjoy each other—for now.
Beyond that it was foolish to think.
So she gave their lovemaking her all. When they were done, she lay spent, wrapped in his arms. “I’ve got to go....”
“I know.” He held her tighter.
“And I will.” Just as soon as her breathing slowed…and her heart resumed a normal beat.
The next thing Liz knew, sunlight was streaming in through the windows. She jerked awake. “Oh, no. No, no, no!”
Travis swore. Sat up and looked around, as disoriented and disheveled as she.
“I can’t believe I spent the whole night here!”
Momentarily, Travis looked pleased. Then he grasped the ramifications of what they had done and swore again.
Liz glanced at the alarm that hadn’t gone off—probably because it hadn’t been set, she noted wryly. “Seven o’clock.” She clapped a hand to her forehead. “That means they’re all up!”
“They’re going to be upset?”
“I’m upset!” Liz vaulted from the bed and scrambled to find her clothes. “I haven’t had to do a walk of shame since…well, since never. I like keeping my private life private, and that goes double for my mother and grandmothers.”
Travis got up and began to dress hurriedly, too. He grimaced, all chivalrous male. “This is my fault.”
She put her shirt on. Realized it was inside out and tried again. “You didn’t cause me to fall asleep.” She looked down as she buttoned.
He sauntered closer, pulling his own shirt on. “I made love with you until we were both exhausted,” he pointed out with a hint of a smile.
Liz slapped at the hand he ran down her hip. “Stop distracting me.”
He grinned, not all that repentant. “Sorry.”
Liz sat on the bed and thrust her feet into her boots. “I don’t know what I’m going to say.”
“Say nothing.”
Liz’s head snapped up. “What?”
“You stay put,” he ordered firmly, already striding for the exit. “I’ll go.”
“What?” Liz did a double take. “Why would you want to do that?”
Guilt flashed in his eyes. “Because if there are consequences from our tryst, they should be mine.”
Giving her no chance to protest, he took off to handle it the way he thought it should be handled.
IT WAS AS BAD AS LIZ had feared it would be. As he approached the ranch house, voices floated out of the open window over the kitchen sink. “Maybe we should look for her at the homestead…”
“Her car is still here.”
“And her bed hasn’t been slept in.”
So they knew that, too.
Bracing himself, Travis walked in. All three women turned to look at him. Too late, he realized it might have been better if he had shaved or combed his hair. Tucked in his shirttail. But since he hadn’t…
He lifted a hand. “There is no cause to worry, ladies. Liz is fine. She’s at the homestead. We were working late last night. She fell asleep and I didn’t bother to wake her.”
“Don’t go parsing any words or playing those lawyer tricks on me, young man,” Faye Elizabeth said. “You’ve been romancing my granddaughter!”
No use denying it. They were all intuitive enough to sense how he felt. “Yes, ma’am. I have,” he said, and left it at that.
At his admission, Tillie flashed an encouraging smile. She walked over to slap him on the shoulder. “Atta boy. You go after my great-granddaughter with all you’ve got.”
Travis dipped his head respectfully. “Yes, ma’am.”
Reba studied him a long silent moment. “Given the fact I’d do anything to have a grandbaby, I hope you weren’t too careful!”
“Mom, please!” Liz exclaimed as she walked in the screen door, looking only slightly less disheveled than Travis. All eyes turned to her. She blushed to the roots of her hair, and Travis decided she looked prettier than he had ever seen her.
“You don’t have to suffer through this. I’ll take it from here,” she told him.
“We’re in this together,” he said.
“I like the sound of that even more!” Reba declared.
“Well, I don’t.” Faye Elizabeth waved a finger at Liz. “There is no reason this gentleman’s excess of testosterone should be your problem. Let him sow his wild seeds elsewhere!”
Liz tossed her hair. “I’ve got testosterone, too, you know. All women do.”
Were they really talking about male hormones?
Travis didn’t find out, because just then the phone rang. It was for Liz. J.T. was about to be arrested again. She looked around for her purse and keys. “I’ve got to go,” she said. “None of you discuss any of this in my absence!”
An order, Travis found out, that was easier said than done.
LIZ HAD NO TROUBLE finding her client. He was standing in the street holding a big sign attached to a wooden stake. She rushed toward him. “J.T., you cannot picket city hall.”
A deputy watched from a distance.
J.T. scowled. “Why not?”
She took his arm and guided him into the shade next to the limestone building. “You need a permit. You do not have one.”
His shoulders sagged, and he looked at her in misery. “I want that pool. I don’t see why it’s taking so long for the zoning commission to come up with a plan. It’s all I can think about.”
Liz soothed, “These things take time. They’re working on it as we speak, I promise.”
J.T. looked skeptical.
“In the meantime,” Liz said, as her next idea hit, “what do you know about donkeys?”
Her client peered at her suspiciously. “Is this a roundabout way of calling me a jackass? Because if it is…”
She shook her head. “It’s a round
about way of asking if you would be amenable to helping my mother go pick out a couple of donkeys to guard the angora goats we just bought.”
J.T. took a moment to digest the request. “Isn’t that Travis’s job, since he’s your hired hand?”
Liz made a face. “If you want to know the truth, Travis is not all that keen on goats or donkeys. He’s more of a cattleman. Besides, I have some other things I need him to do. So what do you say?” She stepped closer, appealing to the retired gentleman’s softer side. “Can the ladies and I count on you?”
J.T. rubbed the back of his bald head. “I guess I do owe you-all for that nice dinner the other night,” he said finally.
Liz smiled. “Then how about coming back to the ranch with me right now?”
To her relief, he agreed, and half an hour later they were both at the Four Winds. Liz situated J.T. in the kitchen with the ladies, so a search for two donkeys could be made via phone and internet. Then she went looking for Travis.
She found him in the south pasture, in a brand-new utility tractor with a bulldozer bucket on the front and a grader on the back. She parked the ranch pickup and got out.
He cut the engine, climbed down and came toward her. Stubble lined his handsome jaw. His shirt clung to the muscles of his chest and sweat dripped from his brow, under the brim of his hat.
“That doesn’t look like our tractor.” It had the Double Deal Ranch logo on the side, which meant he’d borrowed it from his folks.
Travis shrugged. “The Four Winds tractor can’t handle a job like this one.”
No kidding. Liz surveyed what he’d done with an admiring glance. “You’ve already cleared half the pasture.” She’d had no idea they made tractors this efficient. Or from the looks of it, so easy to use. But then, she hadn’t done much investigating about what kind of equipment they could get to help the ranch run more efficiently.
“What are you thinking?”
“One, that I have to figure out what kind of rental fee we’re going to give your parents for the use of this utility tractor. And two, that I haven’t exactly done my part in trying to figure out how to help keep the Four Winds in our family for the next generation of women, and the one after that.”
He tipped back his hat and flashed her a flirtatious grin. “You say that as if you think there won’t be any men here.”
Awareness sizzled through her. “It is tradition.”
“A tradition that needs to be broken.”
Liz pretended to misunderstand. “You really think J.T. and my mother might be a good match?”
Travis caught her by the waist and hauled her close, sweat and all. “I think you and I are a good match.”
He spread hot, openmouthed kisses along her throat, then her jaw, testing the sweet spot beneath her ear before finally ending up at her lips. Liz leaned into him, savoring the salty taste of him, the dampness of his shirt, the hard male feel of his body and the minty taste of his tongue.
“You are,” she breathed, amazed at his ability to get her off track, even with the hot sun bearing down on them, “so bad for me....”
Travis grinned. “Actually, we’re good for each other.” He delivered another deep, soul-searching kiss. “Really good.”
Much more, and they’d be taking it to the max, right here in this field. Liz splayed her hands across his chest. “Travis…”
He lifted his head. “Don’t worry. I’ll get these pastures cleared.” Gently, he caressed her face.
Another spiral of desire wound through her. Liz cleared her throat. “I don’t question that. In just two hours you did…” She paused, looked around admiringly.
“What it would take those goats a month to do,” he finished.
Liz scoffed. “You make fun, but goats do clear the land if you don’t have the budget for a big, new tractor like that.” Which would, she knew, cost thousands and thousands of dollars.
For the moment, anyway, they were just going to have to make do, and Travis would have to accept that. Not that he would be here for long, anyway.
“Speaking of guard donkeys…”
He quirked his lips. “Were we?”
Liz looked at him archly. “I’ve got some good news about that. My mother and J.T. are going to purchase them and bring them back in the livestock hauler. Unlike with the goats, all you’ll have to do is help unload.”
Travis shook his head. “Then let’s hope they’re friendly jackasses.”
Indeed. Liz promised, “I’ll find out what we need to do to keep from getting kicked.”
He looked as if he wanted to kiss her again, so she stepped back. “Meanwhile, I need you to construct a time line and put together any supporting evidence regarding your relationship with Olympia Herndon.”
Travis’s smile faded. “I’ll see what I can do to come up with a paper trail,” he said gruffly. “But I won’t be able to get to it until later this evening.”
“That’s okay.” Liz paused, knowing they had one more item to discuss. “About this morning and the brouhaha with the ladies. Thanks for trying to save me, but it really wasn’t necessary.”
“You’re my woman.” He hauled her into his arms, all signs of teasing gone. “You’ve earned my defense, and a whole lot more.”
Chapter Eleven
“You haven’t heard a word we said,” Reba said that evening.
Liz looked up from her plate. Everyone else was nearly finished with dinner. She had barely made a dent in hers.
“What are you thinking about, dear?” Tillie asked gently.
“Work,” Liz fibbed. And the man sitting opposite her, in the ranch house dining room. Was she Travis’s woman? Was he her man? She knew he wanted to be, at least for now. But what did she want…?
Peace of mind, for starters. Assurance that he would stay in her life this time, if—and it was a big if—she ever gave him her heart.
Right now, they should be focused on building his defense and on working the ranch, and instead they were having sex.
Along that path lay disaster. She knew it. He knew it. Even her family knew it. The only person at the table who was unaware of the jeopardy Liz and Travis were in was J.T.
After a day spent chasing down leads on guard donkeys, the widower looked happier than he had for ages. Even though no decision had been made.
“Speaking of work,” Travis said, “I’ve got a lot to get done tonight, too. And frankly, Liz, I could use your help organizing the papers you asked me to produce.”
The idea of spending time alone with him caused a riot of sensations inside her. Not a good idea, she knew, when she was still trying to sort out her feelings.
On the other hand, the deposition was on Friday.
She toyed with her last bite of barbecued chicken. Travis cocked an eyebrow, waiting for her response. “What about the goats?” she said finally.
“If you’ll lend us the dogs to help round them up,” Reba said with a coy wink. “J.T. and I will bring them in from the pasture.”
Travis’s head dipped in easy acquiescence. “Sure thing.”
“Anyone want dessert?” Tillie asked, eager to get the show on the road.
“If it’s okay, I’ll take mine to go,” Travis said.
Of course you will, Liz thought, eyeing the luscious desserts her great-grandmother brought to the table.
Tillie picked up the server. “Pecan pie or apple dumpling?”
“How about a little of both?” he suggested.
“You got it. Liz?”
“No, thanks. I’m on a diet.” A no-more-sex-until-I-straighten-out-the-rest-of-my-life diet.
Travis looked at her, then pushed back his chair and rose. “I’ll bring the dogs over. Ladies? The meal was delicious as always.” He flashed Liz another grin, then left.
She released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, then got up to help clear the table, not at all surprised to find her knees were wobbly.
“How is his situation coming along?” Tillie asked sympathet
ically.
Not as good as it would be if I was less emotionally involved. Careful not to violate client confidentiality, Liz said, “Okay. But he’s right…we have a lot of work to do.”
Liz looked at her other client. “Which isn’t to say I haven’t done a lot for you, too, today, J.T. If all goes as promised, we should have a proposal to show you by tomorrow afternoon.”
“I’ll look forward to it,” J.T. said agreeably.
Rising, he pulled out her mother’s chair and held the back door open for her. The two walked out after Travis, their movements perfectly in sync despite Reba’s lingering sciatica.
Liz did her best not to visibly react. His gallantry probably meant nothing, since J.T. was of a different generation. He’d been lamenting his wife’s passing just the day before, and couldn’t possibly be feeling anything for her mother. Nothing that wasn’t strictly in rebound territory, anyway.
Liz wondered if her mom knew about rebound romances.
Tillie tsked and swatted Liz’s hand when she tried to clear more than her own dishes. “You go on and help Travis, honey. Don’t want to keep a good man waiting.”
Faye Elizabeth tightened her lips, concerned as always. “A little waiting might be good for that fellow.”
Liz winced as telltale heat spread across her face. Deciding to take this particular bull by the horns, she looked into her grandmother’s worried eyes. “You don’t have to be concerned, Gran. I can handle whatever comes my way.”
“You be sure of that.” Faye Elizabeth patted her arm. “Because like I said this morning, his hormones aren’t your problem, and vice versa.”
Yes, but the way I want him, and no longer want to be without him, is my problem.
“THAT WAS FAST.” Travis let her into the homestead.
In the distance, Liz could see her mother and J.T. headed in the direction of the pasture where the goats had spent the day, the two dogs trotting at their sides.
Shrugging, she walked through the door. The cabin that had been hers until recently now was thoroughly a man’s domain, with a Texas Rangers baseball game playing on the TV. Clothing tossed everywhere. The smell of soap and aftershave lingering in the air.
The Reluctant Texas Rancher (Harlequin American Romance) Page 12