by Angi Morgan
They’d been talking. For hours. They’d known each other their entire lives but still found something else to say. Standing here in front of her, with the most important question clearly ready to be asked, he couldn’t figure out how.
“Bo called. Said you were speeding at the edge of town.”
“That the reason you have the shotgun ready?”
“Just a reminder. I bring it out with me most days I’m here.” Avery traced the initials they’d carved. “I feel Dad’s comfort when it’s by my side. And I can’t help remembering the last time it was used.”
Their years of history, their shared experiences—awkward, good, bad or frightening—were something he never wanted to give up. The first and last images of when he’d held the gun flashed in front of his eyes. “I’ve only been frightened like that one other time in my life. When you pretty much died in my arms.”
“You haven’t really talked about that or given me details.”
Jesse pulled her to her feet. “Promise you won’t do that again, Avery.”
“I can’t. If you’re around I hope to die a little in your arms every night.”
“That, I think I can live with.” He caught a glimpse of the shotgun.
It was sort of like getting permission from Avery’s dad. He pulled the ring from his pocket, keeping it in his fist. No box. No flowers. No bended knee. No prepared, memorized words. No special dinner at the closed diner that evening that he’d arranged.
They weren’t anywhere special as their parents had advised.
“Avery, I love you. You’re a smart woman and I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now. What you might not know is that there’s never been anyone else for me. Life is just better with you in it. Might not have seemed that way when I came here before, but we’re better as a team. Always have been.”
“I—”
“Hold on. Before you tell me it’s a logistical nightmare to have a relationship. I got a transfer to a special unit, so that won’t be as much of a problem. I’ve told you this plenty of times in the last three weeks, but I wouldn’t think of asking you to leave the sheriff’s department. You’re good at your job. They deserve you. No, I’m serious. As long as you like it here, you should stay.”
“Jesse—”
“You gotta let me get this out, babe. Would you marry me and put me out of my misery?” He unfolded his fingers, producing the ring.
“If you’d stop talking long enough for me to say yes.”
Hands shaking like a dog after a dip in a swimming hole, he slid the ring into place, staring at the smile in her eyes.
Kissing Avery was just about everything to him. Someday he might need more, like a kid or two, but he was whole with her. “You did say yes. Right?”
“I did.”
His hands were still shaking. She took them into hers, steadying him. “I have this thing all planned for tonight. You’ll have to act surprised or something. Otherwise, you’re going to disappoint the diner folks or your friends.”
“I can do that. For such a smart man, it sure took you long enough to figure out I’ve been in love with you my whole life.” She admired the simple ring. “Is this...? It can’t be the same one. You went back and found the ring I saw at that antique shop in Austin?”
“I...um...I didn’t have to go back.”
“But that was— Jesse, that was two years ago.”
“Close to it.”
He could kiss on her all day. Right there on the porch, learning every possible way to hold her. But there were also more private holds he was ready to discover. He skimmed his hands up her arms, surrounding her delicate yet capable fingers with his, then moved a step toward the door.
Avery stopped him. “That was a beautiful speech. Did it take you the entire drive up here to think it all out?”
“Straight from the heart, babe. I saw your daddy’s shotgun and forgot every word in my head.”
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted...words from your heart.”
“I probably need to cancel the marching band, then.”
She laughed, dabbing at her eyes. Then she glanced at his face, which must have let her know he wasn’t joking. “You’re not serious.”
“Yeah, but I can call Julie. She’ll cancel.”
She flung herself into his arms, knocking their hats to the porch. “Oh no you don’t. Words and a ring are great—don’t get me wrong. But a marching band? All for me? I’ll take it.” She kissed him, smiling so bright he was certain she was happy. “I’ll also take you.”
* * * * *
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WHAT
HAPPENS
ON THE RANCH
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Delores Fossen
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter One
ANNA MCCORD FIGURED she had committed a couple of sins, maybe even broken a few laws, just by looking at the guy in the bed. He was naked, so it was hard not to have dirty thoughts about him.
Drool, too.
Mercy, he was hot.
Thick blond hair all tousled and bedroomy. Lean and muscled. At least what she could see of him was muscled anyway. He was sprawled out on his stomach, his face cocooned in the fluffy feather pillows of the guest bed. He reminded her of a Viking just back from a good pillaging, minus the bed and feather pillows, of course.
But who was he?
Even though she should have bolted out of there the moment she opened the guest room door and saw a partially exposed butt cheek, Anna stayed put. Someone had obviously glued her feet to the floor. Glued her eyeballs to the hot guy, too.
She glanced around the room and spotted a clue as to who he was. There was a military uniform draped over the back of a chair and a duffel bag on the floor near the bed.
Anna didn’t actually need more clues to know he was an Air Force officer and likely a friend that her brother Riley had brought home. But she also saw the dog tags. The ball chain holding them was still around the hot guy’s neck, but the tags themselves were lying askew on the bed like smashed nickels.
Maybe he sensed she was there, because he opened an eye, and the seconds trickled by before it must have registered in his mind that he had a woman ogling him.
He made a grunting sound mixed with some profanity and rolled over, no doubt because that was the fastest way he could reach the sheet to cover himself. However, the rolling over gave her a view of his front side.
Definitely more dirty thoughts.
“Sorry, I didn’t know anyone was in here,” Anna said, as if that explained the gawking. The drool. The long, heated look that she was giving him.
But both the heated stuff and the drool came to a quick halt when Anna got a better look at his face. “Heath?”
He blinked. “Anna?”
Good gravy. It was Heath Moore, all right. Well, a grown-up Heath anyway. The last time she’d seen him had been nine and a half years ago when he was barely eighteen, but he had filled out a lot since then.
Oh, the memories she had of him came flooding back.
He’d been naked then, too—for part of those memories anyway, since she’d lost her virginity to him. Though she c
ertainly hadn’t seen as much of him during that encounter in the hayloft as she’d just witnessed. He had filled out everywhere.
He sat up, dragging the sheet over his filled-out parts, and still blinking, he yawned and scrubbed his hand over his face. More memories came. Of his memorable mouth. The equally memorable way he’d kissed her.
She fanned herself like a menopausal woman with hot flashes.
“Why are you here?” she asked at the same moment that Heath asked, “Why are you here?”
Anna figured he was going to have a lot better explanation than she did. “I thought I might have left a book in here,” she told him.
A total lie. She had been in search of a book that the housekeeper, Della, had said she’d left in her room on the nightstand. But when Anna had seen the guest room door slightly ajar, she’d opened it and had a look.
She made a show of glancing around for a book that had zero chance of being there since it was all the way at the end of the hall.
“This is your room now?” Heath asked.
“No. But I come in here sometimes. For the view.” Anna motioned to the massive bay window. She wouldn’t mention that every bedroom on the second floor had similar windows, similar views. As did her own room on the first floor.
Heath glanced in the direction of the bay window as if he might get up to sample that view, but his next glance was at his body. Considering he was naked under the sheet, he probably didn’t want to get up until she’d left, and that was her cue to leave. First though, she wanted an answer to her question.
“Why are you here?” she repeated.
“Riley. He saw me at the base in San Antonio and said I needed some...R & R before I left on assignment. He was headed back here to the ranch to finish out his leave, and he asked me to come.”
All of that made sense because Riley, too, was an Air Force officer and had indeed been at the base the day before. Yes, it made sense except for Heath’s hesitation before R & R.
“You weren’t here last night when I went to bed.” She would have noticed Heath, that’s for sure.
“We stopped for a bite to eat, then to visit some mutual friends, and we didn’t get in until late. We didn’t want to wake anyone up so Riley just sent me here to the guest room.” Heath paused. “Riley’s my boss.”
Uh-oh. That wouldn’t play well with Riley if he found out about her lustful thoughts over his subordinate. It wouldn’t play well with Heath, either, since he probably didn’t want to do or think anything—or have her do or think anything—that would cause his boss to hit him upside the head with a shovel.
A threat that Riley had first rattled off nine and a half years ago when he thought a romance was brewing between Heath and her.
If Riley had known what had gone on in the hayloft, he might not have actually carried through on the shovel threat, but Anna would have never heard the end of it.
And there was that whole underage-sex thing.
When Heath had first started working at the ranch, he’d been eighteen. But she’d been only seventeen. Riley and her other brothers had made a big deal about the attraction they’d sensed going on between Heath and her.
The term jail bait had been thrown around.
Since Heath had been making a big deal of his own about going into the military, it was an issue. Heath wanted to go into special ops, which would have required a lengthy background check for a top-secret clearance, and Riley had brought up her age for the sole purpose of scaring Heath into keeping his jeans zipped.
It had worked. Until the day Anna turned eighteen, that is. After that, she’d made the trip to the hayloft with Heath, and she had the memories of the orgasm to prove it.
Heath smiled at her, but it felt as if he’d had to rummage it up just to be polite. Again, the nudity was probably driving that. But the nudity didn’t stop him from looking at her with those sizzling blue eyes. Also bedroomy like his hair. He slid his gaze from her head to her toes, lingering in the middle. Lingering especially on her breasts. Perhaps because she was wearing a T-shirt and no bra.
“Riley didn’t mention you’d be here at the ranch,” Heath said.
“Oh? Well, usually I leave the day after Thanksgiving, but I decided to stay a little longer.” Since it was already two days after Thanksgiving, she probably hadn’t needed to add that last part. “I’m in law school at University of Texas, but I finished my courses early this semester. I’m also planning a transfer. I need a change of scenery...or something.”
And a life.
And perhaps sex, but she’d only gotten that idea when she’d seen Heath naked.
“Yeah, a change of scenery,” he repeated, as if he were aware of what she meant by the or something.
“So, how long will you be here?” Anna tried to keep her eyes directed just at his face, but her gaze kept drifting a bit to that incredibly toned chest. Either he’d gotten very good with contouring body paints or the man had a six-pack.
“Until the cows come home,” he said.
That’s when she realized both her eyes and her mind had seriously drifted off, and she didn’t have a clue what he’d been talking about before that.
The corner of his mouth lifted. A dreamy smile, and he hadn’t had to rummage up this one. It was the real deal.
“I’ll be here about two weeks,” he said. Probably repeated information. “How about you?”
“Two weeks. More or less. I was going to stay until the final exams were over and the campus was less busy. Then, the plan was to talk to my advisor about the transfer.”
“For that change of scenery or something?” Heath made it sound like a question.
Anna pretended not to hear it. No need to get into all that. Instead, she glanced at his left hand, the one part of his body she’d failed to look at during her gawking. No ring.
“I’m not married,” Heath volunteered. “Never have been.” He looked at her left hand, too, where she was still wearing the opal ring her Granny Ethel had left her.
Anna shook her head. “No I-do’s for me, either.” Close, though, but best not to get into that after her change-of-scenery slip. “So, catch me up on what you’ve been doing.”
“Maybe I can do that after I’ve put on some clothes? Or we can talk like this?” Another smile.
He was flirting with her, a ploy she knew all too well since she’d been on the receiving end of his flirting that summer. Well, she could flirt, too.
“I guess I can restrain myself for a quick catch-up,” she joked. “A quick catch-up,” she emphasized. “What are you doing these days? I mean, other than sleeping naked, that is. How’s the job going?”
The smile faded, and she was sorry she’d taken the conversation in that direction. Of course, it was something a normal nondrooling woman would have asked the man who had been her first.
Even though it was a dumb-as-dirt thing to do, she went closer. Much closer. And she sat down on the bed. Not right next to him, though, because she didn’t want to move into the dumber-than-dirt category, but it was still too near him. Six miles would have been too near.
“Sorry,” she added. “Didn’t mean to hit a nerve. And I should have known better because Riley doesn’t like to talk about his assignments, either. I think he believes it’ll worry me, but whether he talks about it or not, I still worry.”
“You shouldn’t. Riley’s been on plenty of deployments and hasn’t gotten a scratch. Some guys are just bulletproof, and Riley’s one of them.”
Maybe. But Anna had a bad feeling about this deployment coming up. A bad feeling she definitely didn’t want to discuss with Heath. Or Riley. If she didn’t mention it aloud, maybe the feeling would go away. Maybe the danger would as well, and her brother would come back with his bulletproof label intact.
“You okay?” Heath asked.
T
hat was a reminder to push aside her fears and get on with this catch-up conversation. “Riley always says if he tells me about his job, he’ll have to hit me with a shovel afterwards. Riley really likes that shovel threat.”
“I remember.” Heath took a deep breath, causing the muscles in his chest and that six-pack to respond. “Well, shovels aside, I can tell you that I just finished up a deployment in a classified location where there was a lot of sand, followed by eight months in Germany where there was a lot of paperwork. That’s where Riley became my boss. Small world, huh?”
Yes. Too small, maybe. “Riley and you are in the same career field?”
“For now.” The short answer came out so fast. As did his hand. He brushed his fingers over the ends of her hair. Even though he didn’t actually touch skin or anything, it was enough of a distraction. “Your hair is longer,” he said.
“Yours is shorter.” And yes, she achieved dumber-than-dirt status by touching his hair, as well. Since it was on the short side, she also touched some skin.
She felt everything go still, and even though Anna was pulling back her hand, it seemed to be in slow motion. The only thing that was in the revving-up mode was this flamethrower attraction that had always been between Heath and her.
“Yeah,” he drawled. No other words were necessary. They were on the same proverbial page along with being on the same actual bed. The flamethrower had had a go at him, too.
“I, uh...” Anna stuttered around with a few more words and syllables before she managed to say something coherent. “This could be trouble.”
“Already is.” He drawled that, too. Hitched up another smile.
The past nine and a half years just vanished. Suddenly, Anna was eighteen again and was thinking about kissing him. Of course, she hadn’t needed vanishing years for that to happen, but it was as if they were back in that hayloft. On all that warm, soft hay. Heath had taken things so slow. Long kisses. His hand skimming over various parts of her body.
Then, into her jeans.
That had been the best part, and it’d all started with a heated look like the one he was giving her now.