Heart's Desire

by T. J. Kline

  Maybe she’d never cared about him the way he thought she had; maybe she’d moved on. Maybe she’d never even thought twice about the fact that he’d never called. If she’d held a grudge, she never would have allowed Justin to reach out to him at all. He tried to convince himself this job would be easy. If he could pinpoint the issue quickly, he could be back in New York before the weekend. And maybe this was all wishful thinking.

  Chapter Two

  JESSIE HEARD THE crunch of tires on the gravel driveway and stepped onto the porch of the enormous log home. Her parents had raised their family here, in the house her father had built just before her brother was born. The scent of pine surrounded her, warming her insides. Even after her brother and sister had built houses of their own on either end of the property, she’d remained here with her parents, helping them operate the dude ranch and training their horses. She inhaled deeply, wishing again that circumstances hadn’t been so cruel as to leave her to figure out how to make the transition from dude ranch to horse rescue alone.

  Leaning against the porch railing, she sipped her coffee and enjoyed the quiet of the morning. When a teen girl walked toward the barn to feed the horses, she lifted her hand in a wave. The poor girl was spending more time at the ranch than away from it these days, since her mother had violated parole again, but Jessie loved having her here. Aleta’s foster mother, June, had been close friends with Jessie’s own mother, and she understood the healing power horses had on kids who needed someone, or something, just to listen. Now that Aleta was living with June again, she was spending a lot of time at the ranch.

  Jessie looked down the driveway as Bailey drove her truck closer to the house. She could just make out Nathan through the glare on the windshield. The resentment in her belly grew with each ticking second at the sight of him. Clenching her jaw and squaring her shoulders for the battle ahead, Jessie walked down the stairs to meet Justin’s former best friend and the man who’d broken her heart.

  The truck pulled to a stop in front of her, and Bailey jumped from the driver’s seat wearing a shit-eating grin. Jessie narrowed her eyes, knowing exactly what that meant—she was in for a week of hell from this pain-in-the-ass, penny-pinching bean counter.

  She didn’t understand why he’d insisted on returning to the ranch. If Justin hadn’t begged her to give Nathan a chance to help, she would have been perfectly content never to speak to his lying ass again.

  She watched him turn his broad shoulders to her as he removed his luggage from the back seat. When he faced her, Jessie was barely able to contain her gasp of surprise. After he left, she’d avoided any mention of Nathan Kerrington like the plague, going as far as changing the channel when his name was mentioned on the news. She’d been praying that the past eight years had been cruel, that he’d gained a potbelly, or that he’d developed a receding hairline. She pictured him turning into a stereotypical computer geek.

  This guy was perfection. Well, if she was into muscular men who looked like Hollywood actors and wore suits that cost several thousand dollars. Every strand of his dark brown hair was combed into place, even at six in the morning, after a flight from New York. There wasn’t a wrinkle in his stiffly starched shirt.

  His green eyes slid over her dirty jeans and T-shirt before climbing back up to focus on her face. Memories of stolen kisses and lingering caresses filled her mind before she could cast them aside. His slow perusal sent heat curling in her belly, spreading through her veins, making her feel uncomfortable. Was he just trying to be an ass? If so, it was working. She felt on edge immediately, but she wasn’t about to let him know it. She crossed her arms over her chest and kicked her hip to the side.

  “Nathan Kerrington. You’ve got some brass ones showing up here.”

  A smile slid over his full lips, as if he’d expected this reaction from her. If she wasn’t so irritated by his mere presence, she might have thought it was sexy, but under these circumstances, it only made her palm itch to smack him more than it already did. He probably wasn’t lacking when it came to female attention, but he must have forgotten Jessie didn’t fawn over him the way most women did. She didn’t care how much money he was worth, what family he came from or how attractive he was. As far as she was concerned, he’d shown her his true colors a long time ago. She hadn’t stroked his ego before and she wouldn’t now.

  “Hi, Jessie.” She narrowed her eyes as he covered the few steps separating them, holding out his hand. His eyes slid over her again but this time she felt the heat rise to her cheeks as his gaze lingered on her lips. Her body responded to his nearness without her brain’s permission, warming instantly as he moved closer. She felt the butterflies in her stomach wake at the thought of taking his hand.

  “You look . . . amazing. It’s been a long time.”

  “Not nearly long enough.” Ignoring his outstretched hand, she turned her attention to Bailey. “Can you show him to the cabin? I’m sure he’d like a chance to change and freshen up.”

  She eyed his suit and wondered at his choice of apparel. He knew as well as anyone how dirty the ranch could get. Unless he was just trying to flaunt how much he’d accomplished since walking out on her. Nathan arched a tapered brow, and she saw annoyance simmering just below the surface, a state she was sure was foreign to him but that she was thrilled to trigger. He took a deep breath and met her gaze with an animosity she hadn’t expected.

  What did he have to be annoyed about? She was the one being forced to be hospitable. She would have preferred this entire matter be done via e-mail or a conference call. He and Justin were the ones who’d insisted on Nathan coming back to point out her failures in person. As if she didn’t already know her many shortcomings. Let him be irritated. She was, too.

  “Jess,” he began, taking a deep breath. “I’d like to get started right away. I was hoping to remedy your predicament as soon as possible and get back before this weekend.”

  Jessie glared at him, allowing herself the luxury of a momentary fantasy where she walked down the steps and slapped the arrogant smile from the bastard’s face. She hadn’t wanted him here in the first place. He was more than welcome to turn around get on the first plane out of Sacramento.

  She reined in her whim and mimicked his self-important tone. “Mr. Kerrington, please don’t feel any obligation to stay at all. In fact, in light of how much work I have to do here on Heart Fire Ranch, I’d suggest you stay with Justin, a hotel in town, or simply to head to where ever it is you plan on going next. I didn’t ask for your help with my predicament, and I don’t want it either.”

  Jessie glanced at Bailey, who was pinching her lips together in an effort to hide a smile, before looking back at Nathan. His eyes flashed with indignation, but the emotion disappeared just as quickly, as if her tirade was only a minor annoyance. The slick smile and formal speech were back on his lips in the blink of an eye.

  “While I appreciate your candor, your brother did invite me, and as a vested party in the success of this ranch, he does have the right to request my intervention.”

  It rankled her that, from the sound of things, Justin had divulged the details of their parents’ will to this man already. She’d specifically told him to wait until they could discuss it together. She didn’t understand why Justin refused to figure this out as a family. Nathan had already proven he couldn’t be trusted. Just because Justin forgave Nathan didn’t mean she had.

  “Then by all means, discuss his vested interest all you want, with him. I have work to do and a ranch to run. Bailey can show you the way to your cabin. Lunch is at one sharp. Be there or go hungry.”

  Jessie spun on her heel and headed for the barn, not giving him a chance to respond. She wasn’t about to give this pompous, arrogant city slicker the satisfaction of having the last word. Not this time.

  It didn’t matter that her body was practically aching to be touched by him again. She had locked her heart away a long time ago, and she wasn’t about to let Nathan near it again.

  JESSIE HUR
RIED TO the barn, intent on getting as far away from Nathan as possible. She wasn’t sure what to think about the reaction his presence had stirred in her. She hated Nathan. At least, she thought she did. But how could you hate someone who made your insides quiver and your entire body weak with just a look? She looked up as Aleta led one of the older, very pregnant rescue mares into the aisle way and clipped the crossties to both sides of her halter.

  “Hey, Jess. What was that all about?” Aleta jerked her chin toward the barn door.

  Jessie turned to see Nathan heading toward the biggest of the log cabins on the other side of the barn. Cabins once filled with paying clientele now sat empty, like a miniature ghost town, reminding her of how she was failing her parents. What would her father say if he could see what she had done to his ranch? Jessie glanced toward the hay room, where the supply was dwindling and she had no money to replenish it. The grain and supplements were getting low as well. At least when her parents had been here, they’d been able to run the ranch and bring in the income to support her attempts to rehabilitate the horses. Soon she would have several ready to be sold to new homes, but she just needed a little more time. If Justin had already spoken with Nathan, it was unlikely that she’d get it. They’d probably turn the ranch back into a resort in a week, and that would be the end of her dream.

  “New guest? He’s a hottie!” Aleta’s comment broke through the worries swirling in her head like wasps.

  “Just a nuisance.” She brushed her hair back over a shoulder. “And he’ll be here for only a few days, I hope.”

  Jessie grabbed a currycomb from the caddy and began to rub down the other side of the mare as they groomed her together. She was trying hard to ignore Aleta’s comment about how attractive Nathan was.

  She glanced up as he walked past the barn, carrying an expensive leather bag slung over one shoulder as he chatted with Bailey. His green eyes glimmered with humor, and his smile seemed genuine. He was still just as good looking as he’d been at twenty-two, but he was too clean-cut now for her taste. At least, that was the story she vowed to repeat to herself until she believed it.

  When Nathan had first stolen her heart at eighteen years old, he’d had a five o’clock shadow coloring his jaw, and his dark good looks had practically melted her in her cowboy boots. When he turned those green eyes on her, she could almost feel the sizzle between them. It had taken every bit of self-control she had not to drag him into one of the empty cabins and find out what she’d been holding out for. She’d flirted with him, trying to get his attention, but he’d ignored her, pushing her away in some misguided sense of loyalty to Justin. At first.

  That first kiss from him nearly set her on fire.

  She didn’t see anything left of the mischievous boy who’d stayed on the ranch to help that summer. In his place was an overconfident, arrogant ass. She hated that she was only fueling his ego by asking for his help.

  Still, she thought, he did fill out that expensive suit nicely. And if those broad shoulders and trim waist were any indication of what lay below the material . . .

  “Nuisance, huh?” Aleta’s eyes twinkled with merriment.

  Jessie tossed the currycomb back into the grooming caddy, embarrassed at being caught fantasizing about the jerk. “Don’t you mess with me, young lady, or I won’t let you stay here tonight. I’ll call June to come pick you up now instead of after breakfast.”

  Aleta laughed off Jessie’s threat. “Sure you will. We both know you’re a softie. Besides”—Aleta shrugged a narrow shoulder—“you love me too much to try to get rid of me.”

  Jessie stuck her tongue out at the teenage girl. Aleta had seen too much of the shady side of life in her short fifteen years, but in spite of her mother’s drug use and her own run-ins with the law, she had a sense of humor and a sweet, feisty spirit that she showed when she was at the ranch and working with the horses. It was at Aleta’s suggestion that Jessie had begun to invite other troubled teens out to the ranch to help out in exchange for riding lessons.

  A smiled tugged at the corners of Jessie’s lips. “Well, you don’t have to be so cocky about it,” she teased. “I’m going to go get lunch ready. We have a couple more horses coming in late tomorrow, so can you get three stalls ready?”

  “Sure. Want me to turn Gilly out with the other mares?”

  “Yeah.” She patted the mare’s shoulder. “Put her in the nearest pasture, and we’ll bring her back in as soon as I evaluate the others tomorrow. Once I know what sort of temperament I’m dealing with, I’ll know how many stalls we’ll have left.”

  “You got it, boss.”

  Jessie laughed at the girl’s enthusiasm. One of the things she loved and envied most about Aleta was her ability to ignore the garbage life had thrown at her and let it fall from her too-thin shoulders. Jessie hoped she could learn the same lesson. Since her parents’ accident, life had thrown nothing but refuse her way, and she was having a hard time wading through it. Dealing with Nathan Kerrington was going to be just one more stink pile to get past in order to move forward with her dream.

  Chapter Three

  NATHAN WASN’T SURE what he’d expected from Jessie’s lunch invitation. Maybe pork and beans flung at his head as he walked through the kitchen door? Whatever assumptions he’d made, he hadn’t expected to see Jessie rocking out in the kitchen to music pumping through her earphones, as she made enough sandwiches to feed a small army. She cut into another and laid the halves on a tray to her left as she belted out a country song he’d never heard before. Something about a woman going home to load her shotgun. A nervous tremor coursed through his belly. It sounded too much like a personal anthem, and he worried, with their past and her attitude upon his arrival, the song might prove prophetic.

  She hadn’t noticed him yet, so he leaned against the doorframe, enjoying the show. He didn’t remember ever hearing her sing before. She had a great voice, rich and smooth, mellow yet seductive. She twisted her hips, gyrating in time with the song, and he had to admit, what she lacked in height, she made up for in sex appeal. Jessie was a tiny thing, petite but athletically built, with curves that could make a grown man cry. His eyes traveled down her back to her narrow waist and rounded hips. Nathan couldn’t help but notice how well her rear filled out the denim of her jeans.

  He felt the desire he’d buried years ago reawaken. He pushed himself from the doorway, trying to cast the feeling aside. If her ice-cold welcome was any indication, his chance at wooing Jessie was long gone. He tried to be grateful for her noticeable animosity. If nothing else, it made it easy to remember the only lingering feeling on her part was loathing.

  Besides, he tried to console himself, Jessie Hart isn’t your type—at least not anymore.

  His last girlfriend, a sleek, waifish model, was the type of woman he’d grown accustomed to spending his nights with—a woman who could stay on his arm at any function, engaging and beautiful but demanding nothing more than a good time and a few connections to further her career. No emotional risk there.

  He couldn’t deny that had always been a problem with Jessie. She left him feeling too much. His father had seen it and exploited it, demanding Nathan to help him doctor his campaign finances or else see Jessie’s family business ruined. While there was something irresistible about this feisty cowgirl dancing around the kitchen, he couldn’t allow himself the freedom to explore it. Nor did she seem to want him to.

  “There you are!” Nathan spun in surprise as Justin smacked his shoulder and walked past him to grab one of the sandwiches, tugging the cord to Jessie’s headphones. “Hey, Jess. Can’t stay too long. Nathan and I have an appointment right after lunch with Brendon Gray.”

  She pulled the other earpiece out and smiled up at her hulking brother. “Already? Sit and—”

  As soon as she saw Nathan standing in the doorway, her eyes changed. The deep blue he’d lost himself in for a whole summer instantly hardened to ice.

  “Please, have a seat.” Her formal tone left Nathan certain
where he stood.

  Jessie carried the tray to the table, her eyes sliding over him judgmentally. It wasn’t a foreign exchange. In his line of work, people often evaluated his qualifications and likelihood of success by how expensive his suit or the watch encircling his wrist was. But he’d never felt lacking while wearing a Rolex and Armani. Jessie’s appraisal made him feel inadequate, as if she pitied him. It irked him that this cowgirl could get a rise from him when millionaires hadn’t been able to. Even after changing into a casual outfit of Balmain jeans and a polo shirt that probably cost more than this ranch grossed each month, she still had a way of making him feel like he was lacking. He arched a brow, daring her to comment, and saw her lips pinch together into a thin line.

  Jessie looked away from the doorway, ignoring Nathan. “Where’s Julia?”

  “Waiting for one of her dogs to get picked up by its new handler, a little boy with autism. She told us not to wait to eat because she’d be late.” Justin reached for a second sandwich, oblivious to his sister’s annoyance with Nathan’s presence at the table. “What are you waiting for, Nathan? Dig in.”

  Nathan reached for one of the sandwiches, wondering again what sort of hell he’d just gotten himself into. He was used to catered meals, expensive wine, and high-rise buildings, not ham sandwiches in the kitchen of a log cabin.

  “Want a beer?” Justin asked him, and Jessie eyed him expectantly, ready to pounce regardless of his answer.

  “Water is fine.”

  She stood and reached for a glass from the cabinet, filling it from the faucet. No ice, and she didn’t even bother to turn the faucet to cold.

  He reached for the glass as she slid it in front of him, and when his hand touched hers, he felt a tingle of electricity. She jerked her hand away from his as if he’d just shocked her, spilling water on the table.

  “Sorry,” she muttered, narrowing her eyes and watching him warily as she slowly eased back into her seat.