by S A Monk
Jenny had a moment of inspiration and smiled at the man next to her. “You may be right, Brad. I think I will get an attorney to help me with this.” Still smiling, she touched his hand. “I hope you don’t mind if it’s not you. You do have a conflict of interest on this.”
He looked surprised and completely caught off-guard by her sudden agreement. In fact, he was speechless, at least until his sister entered the dining room. She waved to him, and he rolled his eyes, obviously unhappy to see her.
“Well, hello, Miss Fletcher— brother dear,” Cindy said sarcastically as she stopped at their table. “Are we plotting Hawk’s demise and downfall again?” The woman raised a delicate eyebrow as she turned her full attention on Jenny. “Actually, I’m a bit surprised, Miss Fletcher. I thought you and Hawk were getting downright cozy living together in that big old house. Guess not, if you’re here plotting with my charming brother.”
Jenny gave the woman a hostile look.
“What do you want, Cindy?” Brad asked his sister curtly.
“A ride home, darling,” she told him, resting a well-manicured hand on his shoulder. “My original ride seems to have disappeared.”
“Wait for me at the bar, then.”
“Don’t be too long,” she warned him with a false smile. Becky walked up to the table, carrying a large bouquet of flowers. Cindy turned to greet her. “Well, if it isn’t the blushing bride. How’s married life, Mrs. Richards?”
“Great! You ought to try it before time passes you by.” Becky made the cut with such a sweet smile on her face, it hardly seemed like the insult it was. “Are you ready, Jenny? We really need to run.”
“Definitely.” She reached for her packages, then turned to Brad. “Good-bye, Brad… Cindy.”
She and Becky walked away from the table biting their lower lips to keep from giggling. Not looking where she was going, Jenny ran straight into Steve Walker. He looked as surprised to see her as she was to see him. It had been four days since Hawk had fired him. This was the first she had seen him since the incident with her horse. She said hello.
“How’s your shoulder?” he asked her.
“A little black and blue. No broken bones, thankfully.”
“I’m sorry....”
Jenny held up a hand. “Forget it. I don’t blame you. My horse was pretty strung out after that long ride from L.A.” She wasn’t going to apologize for his unemployment, though. That was between him and Hawk. She didn’t know him that well, not as well as the men he had worked with at the ranch. Both Eli and Hank had been glad to see him leave, so she figured they must have had some legitimate concerns about him because they were both fair men, not prone to narrow-minded judgments.
“How’s your horse? Dark Shadow, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Now that he’s settled down, he seems to like it here. He’s mountain trail trained, so I know he’s going to love it more once we go for a long trail ride.”
“Steve!” Cindy called out to him and waved. “Come have a drink with me before I leave.”
Steve glanced at the blonde woman, then back to Jenny. “Take care of yourself. Maybe we’ll bump into each other again, soon, huh?”
“Yeah, maybe.” Jenny lifted her hand in a tiny wave as he headed to the bar where Cindy and her brother were now sitting.
“Looks like another notch in Cindy’s belt,” Becky remarked, turning toward the door with Jenny. “That woman just irritates the crap out of me.”
“She dated Scott at one time, didn’t she?”
“Yeah,” Becky snapped. “When he had no taste at all, of course.”
Jenny laughed. “I have a feeling Steve Walker is more than just Cindy’s latest conquest, though.”
She looked back thoughtfully at the restaurant they’d just left. It occurred to her that it might be worth Hawk’s time to ask the sheriff to run a check on Steve’s background. If the wrangler had been working for Caldwell all along, causing the damage they’d experienced, he might have a prior criminal record. If they found fingerprints off the gasoline can and could match them with Steve’s, they might be able to prove a direct connection to Brad.
Jenny kept thinking about what Brad had said. If you don’t get an attorney to represent you, you’ll lose everything. She did feel that she and Hawk were on the verge of losing everything, and that she needed Jack Higgins’ help to make sure they didn’t. Jack was their financial advisor as well as their attorney. The partnership papers hadn’t been signed yet, and if she went to the bank to conduct ranch business, they might tell her she didn’t have the authorization. She had been worried about that. But Jack had the authorization, as their attorney, to transact business with the bank in the name of the Bar F/Bar L. Couldn’t she just give him the money to do what she felt needed to be done?
She agonized over the decision to do what Hawk didn’t want her to do for the rest of the day. She tried to understand his position. The problems at the ranch had begun before she’d arrived, and he didn’t want her burdened with them. And she knew he felt responsible for their very existence because Brad was his adversary; his enemy. She also understood that he was worried about her safety if she got caught up in his problems with Brad. She didn’t think she was or would be in any danger, but Hawk certainly knew Brad better than she did.
She admired Hawk for trying to meet his obligations to her and to the ranch. His strong sense of responsibility made him the man he was, the man she had come to love, but it was also making him inflexible and damn unreasonable. His determination to correct the problems by himself was jeopardizing her home and his.
Later that evening, after eating dinner with Hank and Eli in the bunkhouse, she called Jack Higgins at home and told him what she wanted to do. She made an appointment to meet him at his office the next day to work out all the details. She informed him that she wanted all the transactions completed before Hawk returned from his latest hunting excursion.
In the her father’s office, she retrieved the loan payment coupon books from the desk drawer, double checking to make sure Hawk hadn’t made a recent payment she was unaware of. All night she was plagued by feelings of guilt. She was breaking her word to Hawk. He was going to be furious with her. But she had given him time, and that’s really all she had promised. How much longer could they wait? According to Brad, the bank was close to starting foreclosure and repossession proceedings. Time had nearly run out. She’d just have to make Hawk understand that is was time he let her help him out of this mess.
∞∞∞
“I’m really glad you and Hawk decided to get those loans caught up and paid off,” Jack Higgins told Jenny as they returned from the bank on Thursday morning. “I was getting plenty worried about how much more patient those folks would be. I talked them into giving Hawk more time after Tom’s death, but with Caldwell at the helm, I knew there would be a limit to their kindheartedness.”
“Thank you for all you’ve done.”
Jack didn’t know Hawk wasn’t in favor of what Jenny had just done. Her deception didn’t sit well with her, but she was happy about getting one loan caught up, paying off the other, and putting money into the account to rebuild the barn. Brad had just been defanged, even though he probably wouldn’t know it for a day or two. His threat to their home had been removed and that helped alleviate her guilt somewhat.
“Will you come up for a cup of coffee?” the attorney asked when they got to his office building. Since it happened to be in the same location where Brad Caldwell also had an office, she declined. She didn’t think it was wise to tempt fate too much by risking the possibility of running into the man.
“I think I’ll pass, Jack. Hawk is due home this afternoon.”
“Well, good. He’s been gone so much. You two are still coming in to sign those papers tomorrow, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Eleven o’clock then. I’ll bring a bottle of champagne to toast the agreement— finally,” he laughed. “I know your dad would be thrilled with this decision.”
; Jenny’s thoughts lingered on her dad. She knew that he would be pleased with her decision to form a partnership with Hawk. She hoped he would also approve of what she’d done today to prevent the bank from foreclosing on the Bar F/Bar L. But what would he think of her feelings for his ex-partner? What would he think about her sleeping with Hawk? And what would he especially think of her falling in love with that foster boy he’d brought home so many years ago? Would he approve?
God, she missed her father so much still! She would dearly love to talk to him now; to seek his counsel. She decided to stop by the cemetery on the way home. His gravesite sat next to a large blue spruce. When she walked up to it, she was surprised to find a beautiful new marble headstone with his name, date of birth and death, his brand, and the inscription: Loving Father, Friend, and Partner: You Will Be Missed, But Never Forgotten. The inscription brought tears to her eyes. She knew who had commissioned this. Hawk had told her he had ordered a headstone, but he’d never said a word about the special inscription.
She stood before it a long time and talked to her dad.
CHAPTER 22
“I went to the cemetery today.”
Hawk was stretched out on the sofa, his eyes closed, the back of his hand resting against his forehead. He’d come home from his latest hunting trip this afternoon, safe and sound, but utterly spent. He’d been quiet and distant all through dinner. Eli had managed to get him to talk briefly about his trip and the buck one of his clients had given him as a bonus for their successful expedition, but beyond that he’d had little to say.
Jenny wondered if he was still angry with her. They’d said little to each other before he’d left. They really hadn’t made up after their argument the night of the dinner party. Geez, he’d really be mad if she told him what she’d done today! But he was going to find out eventually. She should just tell him tonight, but she hadn’t seen him or talked to him all week, and she’d missed him desperately. She really did not want to spend their first evening together arguing.
This week she’d finally admitted to herself that she was completely and unequivocally in love with him. It made her feel vulnerable and exposed, so much more open to being hurt deeply. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be in love with him, especially since she didn’t know how he felt about her. She couldn’t ask. She’d never ask. It had to come from him. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel pressured; to feel obligated to her.
“I really liked the headstone you had made for dad. The inscription was very touching. Thank You.”
He had dropped his hand from his forehead to stare at her. His distant expression eased into a soft smile. “I’m glad you like it. I had it ordered before you got here, otherwise, I would have asked you if there was something else you would have preferred engraved on it.”
“You said it perfectly.”
And she marveled at that— that they were so in tune with one another’s feelings and thoughts, at least when it concerned Tom. They had both loved him so much.
She sat on the coffee table, next to him, studying him. His head was resting on a pillow, and his long muscular body was lying lengthwise, stretched from one end of the sofa to the other, his stockinged feet propped up on the armrest, ankles crossed.
The fire cast a warm glow over his body, which was clad in pale blue jeans and a snug white cotton t-shirt. His long black hair was still a little damp from the shower he’d taken. His face and forearms were darkly tanned from spending long hours in the outdoors these past three weeks.
He had returned from his latest hunting trip around four, on horseback, leading a string of horses he’d had at cow camp for his clients. He’d brought down all the gear he’d had up at the line cabin. This was the last of his excursions into the mountains. Hunting season for deer was over. Jenny wasn’t sure if he had anymore chartered flights, but she was relieved he’d be home more.
She watched as his eyes shut almost involuntarily. His long dark lashes robbed her of the magnetism of his laser blue eyes. She sighed at the loss. His lips were parted slightly, his teeth exposed by their sensuous curve, a stark white contrast to his dark bronze skin. She swept her eyes slowly over his long powerful legs, his muscle-defined arms and chest, his flat stomach, his denim clad hips. He screamed virility, strength, and masculinity.
He looked so sexy, so tempting lying there, Jenny physically ached for him. How long had it been since they’d made love, laid in each other’s arms? It seemed like forever. She wanted to touch him, to kiss him, to cuddle up next to him. But she could see that he was wiped out.
Rising, she went in search of a blanket. On the way back to him, she turned off all the lights. The flickering light of the fire was the only illumination in the room. She tucked the fuzzy warm blanket around his shoulders and turned to go upstairs.
“Hey,” his voice echoed sleepily in the darkened room. “Where you going?”
She looked back over her shoulder and shrugged. “To bed.”
“Without me?”
He sounded so disappointed, she came back to him and sat down on the edge of the sofa at his waist. “You’re so tired, I thought I’d let you sleep.”
Hawk caught her hand and tucked it under his on the flat of his stomach. “Not so tired that I want you sleeping alone, without me.” One arm reached out, curved around her shoulder and pulled her toward him. “Come lie down with me. It’s nice and warm here next to the fire.”
They had already divested themselves of their boots, so she slid in next to him on the sofa. They accommodated each other by turning sideways to face one another. Jenny slipped one arm beneath him and one arm around his neck. Hawk held her hips in both hands.
After capturing her her lips in a deep kiss, he kissed her eyelids, her cheeks, one side of her neck. “I’ve missed you.”
She pulled away to look at him. Her lips tingled with a faintly inquiring smile. “You weren’t too happy with me before you left.”
Hawk closed his eyes and quirked his mouth into a grimace. “I shouldn’t have left you thinking I was mad at you. I’m sorry. It’s just the frustration of everything that’s happened. I didn’t mean for it to spill over onto you.”
She placed a finger against his lips. “I understand completely. You’ve been under a lot of pressure. You can’t think you’re alone in this, though. I’m here to help. I’m here for you, if you’ll let me be.”
“I want you here.” He lifted a hand and cupped her jaw, kissing her. “God, I want you here!”
It was the most fervent confession of need Jenny had ever had from a man. She felt giddy with relief. Inching their way beneath his t-shirt, her fingers slipped inside the waistband of his jeans.
It was a tough decision whether to go up or down. She chose an upward exploration of all the deliciously warm bare skin under his t-shirt. One pink frosted nail drew circles around his nipple, then slithered slowly across the broad contour of hard, sharply defined pectoral muscle.
Shifting, she pushed both hands up under his shirt and lifted it over the top of his head. His naked chest was a feast for her eyes and hands, then finally her lips. She was soon straddling him, tangled in the blanket she had put over him earlier.
All traces of sleep had vanished from Hawk’s eyes, though they were now slumberous with heated sensuality as he fit her more snuggly onto his hips and lifted off her own t-shirt in one smooth tug.
Beneath it she was wearing a lacy red bra that pushed her breasts up temptingly high. Hawk cupped their full round shape and groaned. “All week I’ve dreamed of making love to you. My fantasies just don’t compare to the real you. You’re so beautiful, Jennifer Fletcher. You take my breath away.” His hands slid underneath the soft lacy cups and lifted, then squeezed. “Do your panties match?”
Jenny smiled wickedly and rolled off of him. Standing beside the couch, she unsnapped her jeans and pealed them down her legs, watching his expression all the while. “They do,” she murmured. “And there’s no one in the house, but you and me.”
Hawk blew out a long breath. While she stood before him in her incredibly sexy underwear, he reached for the buttons on his jeans. His eyes never left hers as she watched him slip each button slowly from its denim hole.
God have mercy! He had been nearly dead with exhaustion after this final expedition, and now he thought he might be able to love her through the night! She had him tied in knots. One look. One smile. One kiss, and he was lost. She was staying, at least for the immediate future, and he’d been thinking a lot about what he wanted from her.
He knew Tom had secretly hoped that his daughter and his partner might hit it off romantically. Hawk was still wondering if he had fallen in love with her. Lord knew he wanted her; wanted her with everything inside of him!
As soon as his jeans were loosened, he pushed them impatiently down his legs. Stuck around his ankles, he shoved them free. “Come here, you;” he murmured to her, holding out one arm.
The moment she lowered herself onto his magnificently naked body, he made short work of her bra and panties. Then he moved her beneath him on the sofa cushions and ravished her mouth.
“Hawk!” She moved her lips to his neck, then buried her face against the curve of his skin. Her voice throbbed with husky desire as she called out his name. Her arching, wiggling body told him exactly how much she’d missed him.
With her arms locked around his neck and her long slim legs straddling his hips, he drove into her in one sure ravenous plunge. Tight and hot and sweet. He sheathed himself as deep as he could.
Their week’s abstinence made their joining swift and forceful. Jenny climaxed with a sharp cry of ecstasy seconds ahead of his explosive ejaculation. His seed continued to pump into her for what seemed forever. As he waited for his heart rate to subside, he thought that if she wasn’t on birth control, she’d surely be pregnant after this incredibly potent episode of lovemaking. The possibility made him smile inwardly. Maybe that’s what he really wanted; her and a family to share Tom’s legacy with for years and years.