License to Love Series:Trilogy (Contemporary Western Cowboy Romance)

by Rose, Amelia

  Shad caught her looking at him and smiled. She felt her pulse race a little beneath her skin, and her breath hitched in her throat. He placed his hand over hers on the console.

  “Woody says he will go pull your truck into the garage tonight, but since it’s the weekend, it could be a day or two before he gets the parts to get it running again.”

  Clara realized she was now in debt to this man more than she could possibly repay him. She pulled her hand away from his and took a deep breath.

  “Thanks, but I’m not sure how I can pay for a new radiator.”

  His eyes lost some of their shine as he looked her up and down, obviously appraising the situation. Out of instinct, Clara reached up and tried to soothe the runaway curls. She knew how she must look, coated in sweat and grease, but that didn’t mean she was the lost little girl her appearance would suggest. After a bit, she started to fidget under his gaze. No matter how badly she needed the truck running, or how good looking he was, she would not allow him to buy her off. She couldn’t afford to be in anyone’s debt, especially if they might expect a sexual favor as trade.

  Just when Clara thought he might stare at her in silence forever, he started to talk, “I need someone who can organize my office into something functional. My sister, Melinda, was helping me, but she’s been doing her own thing lately, and everything’s gone to hell. It’s probably at least a two or three day job, so if you would agree to help me out while Woody repairs your truck, we’ll be even.”

  Clara opened her mouth, then immediately shut it again. She wasn’t sure what to say and even less sure if this man sitting next to her was the real deal or not. But she couldn’t afford to turn down an offer this good. She needed her truck running again.

  “Where would I stay?” she asked, purposefully studying his reaction.

  “There aren’t any hotels for at least twenty miles or more, but I have an extra room you’re welcome to,” he answered.

  He’s telling the truth, she thought. He doesn’t expect anything from you except what he’s offering.

  “The nearest town is twenty miles away?” she asked, both thrilled with the idea of being that far removed from technology and worried about being trapped with a man she just met.

  “No, I didn’t say that. I said the nearest hotel was.” He chuckled. “The nearest town is Stanhope, and it’s just a couple of miles down the road. It isn’t big enough for a hotel. There aren’t more than six hundred people there, and the place is so far off the beaten path that usually no one finds it unless they’re looking for it or are very lost.”

  Curiosity got the better of her. “So why do you live out here?”

  He smiled as he turned off the paved highway and onto a dirt road. “My great grandfather was the one who originally staked the claim on most of the land the town is built on.”

  They pulled up to a large, sprawling ranch house. It looked like it was spread out in a L shape with a regular three car garage on one end and a large scale garage full of farm equipment on the other.

  “So, you’ve been here your whole life?”

  “Pretty much,” Shad replied. As he sighed, there was a faraway look in his eyes for a moment. “I left for a little while after high school, but eventually I found my way back. I guess there was just too much country in me.”

  She laughed a little at the concept of someone being drawn to one place or another. “I’ve never been anywhere that called to me. Houses are just places where my stuff lives.”

  *

  Shad looked at her from the corner of his eye. He could tell every nerve was on edge by the way she couldn’t seem to sit still, her fingers tapping on the car door as her knee bounced up and down. He might have only known her for an afternoon, but he found himself wanting to comfort her, to wrap her in his arms and keep her safe from whatever or whoever had hurt her so badly.

  He grabbed her duffle bag and jumped out of the truck. Trixie, a brindle Mastiff mix, raised her head to acknowledge his arrival, then went back to her nap. Without a second thought, Shad reached down and patted the top of her head, “Having a good nap, old girl?”

  She huffed out a large breath that caused the sides of her muzzle to flap, but she didn’t move.

  “Is it okay to go around her?” Clara asked.

  “Oh, yeah, you’re fine. She may be huge, but she’s a gentle giant; and she’s old. I’m sure it’d take far more energy to get up and inspect you than she’s willing to expend right now.” Shad assured her. Regardless, Clara gave Trixie a wide berth as she walked around the sleeping dog.

  Once inside, Shad took her bag and headed straight back to the guest wing of the house. What looked like a giant L was actually more of a triangle with the middle section containing the dining room, living room, and a set of offices. The master suite and bedroom were on the end of the house closest to the garage, while a separate set of living quarters was on the other end of the house by the farm equipment. The two were connected by the kitchen.

  “The house rambles. There are times I think I might get lost in here, so you’ll need to stay close and pay attention. I’ll put you in the set of rooms closest to this end of the house so you don’t have to travel though multiple hallways.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been in a house with such an odd layout.” Clara commented, careful to heed his warning and pay attention as they rounded first one corner and then another before they came to an odd split in the hallway.

  “And it’s likely you never will again,” Shad chuckled. “The house originally only consisted of the middle section but as our family and the farm grew, we added on. This side of the house is where the seasonal workers lived back when my dad ran the property and it was a lot bigger.”

  “How interesting,” she murmured as she walked into the small suite of rooms Shad had just opened. There was a small living area with two orange chairs, a bare bookshelf, and a stand with a small tube style television. Shad opened the door to the left of the bookshelf, revealing a bedroom. “There is a full set of bedding in the closet and towels,” he told her, dropping her bag on the bed. He pointed to a closed door across the living room, “The bathroom is over there...”

  “Where’s the office I’m supposed to be organizing?” she interrupted him, still overwhelmed at the fact that the house apparently contained several small apartments.

  “That’s back the way we came, where the two sides intersect. Come on, I’ll show you.”

  She nodded and followed him back out down the hallway to the entryway, where a path branched off and up to the office in the middle.

  He opened the door to the office and flipped on the light. “Ta da!”

  “Oh my goodness!” Clara said as she manoeuvred around a box of files labeled Equipment. “You weren’t kidding when you said this was a large job! I thought your sister had been helping you?”

  “Oh yeah, Melinda was handling a lot of the paperwork until she got elected Sheriff a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve just kind of adopted my own system.”

  Clara looked startled for a moment, glancing back and forth between the piles of files and boxes that he had been using in an attempt to keep everything sorted. Just when he thought she might bolt from the piles of paperwork, she started laughing, “What kind of system would that be, toss the papers and leave them where they fall?”

  “Yeah, that would pretty much be it. Do you think you’re up to helping me sort through it?”

  “I’ll do what I can, but you’re right, this is definitely going to be a serious job. I do think you’re going to get your money’s worth,” she joked as she made her way around the stacks of boxes and back to the door.

  This was the first time he had really seen her smile about anything since they had met, and when she glanced up at him with humor in her face and light in her eyes, he realized he wanted nothing more than to kiss her. He turned his attention back to the office to give himself a moment to try and regain his composure.

  “All of this is for yo
ur farm?” she asked, once again surveying the boxes from the doorway.

  “No, only most of them. Some are for the garage, and some are for the mineral rights. Before Melinda, my dad ran everything, but his filing system was just as bad. Chances are, more than a few things got misfiled. Truth be told, I’m pretty sure Melinda decided to run for Sheriff just to get out of doing this anymore!”

  “So, she just ran for office one day?” Clara asked, not looking toward him.

  “No. She’d been a Deputy for ten years. When the old Sheriff decided to step down, she thought it made sense to move up. Plus, she’s always been better suited for that job than dealing with all this.”

  Clara smiled and seemed to be oddly relaxed in the room full of paperwork. “Well then, I guess I’d better get to work.”

  *

  After spending most of Saturday sorting through the office, Clara felt she was finally making headway. The night before, she’d made a list of things she would need to help her get everything sorted out. The main priority was filing cabinets, at least five big ones. He may have liked keeping everything piled together in boxes, but there was no way she could effectively organize them.

  She hadn’t expected him to be able to find them so quickly, but the next morning he brought the first one into the room, surprising her as she was going through the boxes, organizing their contents into stacks. He had set up all five on the far wall while she continued to try and find some method to the madness of the boxes.

  After emptying one box, she looked up, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. Shad had left after getting the filing cabinets lined up. She looked around the room, delighted that she could no longer see loose files lying around on the floor or desk. The room was starting to take shape. She realized, reluctantly, that she was beginning to like being here in this odd home with Shad. There was something comfortable here, a sense of belonging she’d never really felt before.

  Just then Shad came to the door holding a large mug of coffee. “Here, I thought you might like this.”

  She smiled and took the mug from him. “Thanks.”

  “You’re making some real progress here. Another day and you’ll have this thing completely wrapped up.”

  “Yeah,” she paused, trying to suppress the anxiety she was beginning to feel over the idea of having to leave. “It’s not taking as long as I thought it would when I first saw this mess.” She took a drink of coffee and peered at him over the top of the cup. “Speaking of messes, have you heard from Woody on how much longer he’s going to be on my truck?”

  “He’s waiting on a part, but he thinks it will be in by Monday. Why, are you getting in a hurry to leave?”

  She gulped down the coffee a little too quickly and felt it burn going down her throat. There was something about this calm country air she was going to miss, especially when it was accompanied by almost no technological connection to the outside world. There was a time when being so far off the grid would have caused a panic attack, but since that first series of haunting emails, her life had taken a far different turn.

  It had gone from emails to tampering with her utilities to making her bank accounts disappear. When she thought things couldn’t get any worse, someone hacked into the court system and had given her false felony counts. She lost her job, her money, her car, and she was forced to run. She’d criss-crossed the country trying to stay one step ahead of her stalker, but it hadn’t worked. She’d thought moving in with her brother in a remote part of Wyoming would be enough, but he’d found her there, too.

  Running was tiring and she so badly wanted somewhere to call home. She had been on her way to stay with a childhood friend in Wichita Falls when her truck broke down, and even though it had only been two days ago, it felt like another lifetime.

  “I guess that happens sometimes with older vehicles. The parts aren’t as easy to find as they used to be,” she finally said when she got the coffee swallowed. “Isn’t your friend in Wichita Falls going to be worried about you?” Shad asked, walking around the now clean desk and inspecting the files she had neatly stacked on one side.

  “Oh,” she said, setting down her cup next to his on the desk and picking up an envelope from the top of one of the filing cabinets. “Could you mail this for me? It’s a letter telling her what happened.”

  Shad smiled at her. “A letter? You have heard of phones, right? We may be out in the country, but we’ve got fancy things like phones and electricity.”

  “Old school is just how I roll.” She winked and turned away from him, hoping he wouldn’t catch the fear in her eyes. If her experience with the stalker had taught her nothing else, it had made her very aware of the influence technology had over everyone’s life, even technology as basic as a telephone.

  “I’m going to start getting lunch ready. I’ll be sure to come and get you whenever it’s done.”

  “What are you making?” she asked, licking her lips mockingly.

  “It’s a special recipe. You’ll just have to wait to find out,” he told her, winking a little as he headed to the door.

  “You know, as good as you cook, I’m surprised you live in this house alone.” she joked, putting her hands on her hips and smiling broadly. He had cooked all of the meals for the two of them since her arrival. “You’ve put five pounds on me already.”

  He looked her up and down, appraising her, and suddenly Clara felt almost naked in the shorts and button-up shirt she was wearing, as if his eyes were searing into her flesh. “You were too skinny. The five pounds filled you out in all the right places.”

  He reached out and ran the palm of his hand down her arm. She shivered under his touch, but she didn’t take her eyes from his. They had darkened again, and she could see the desire there and knew it was reflected in hers as well. Before she could think about what she was doing, she put her arms around his neck, drew his face to hers, and kissed him.

  His lips were hard at first, but after a moment, they softened, and he returned her embrace. When his tongue slipped into her mouth she groaned low and leaned into him as a fire uncoiled in her abdomen. It had been so long since a man had made her feel this way, and she felt herself slipping into unknown territory.

  For once, she let herself go.

  *

  Shad had not been sure what he had expected when he had touched her, but when she threw her arms around him and kissed him, he felt her barely reigned passion flare up, and it took every bit of restraint he had not to lay her across the desk right there and then.

  He tugged the hem of her shirt up and ran his hands across her bare flesh, his erection already pushing against the seam of his jeans.

  She responded in kind, pulling her hands away from his neck and trailing her fingertips across his chest and down to his belt. Her hands made their way down to the top of his jeans and started tugging at his shirt while she nipped at his lower lip. It was all he could do not to growl.

  He pushed his hand up under her bra and was about to undo the clasp when he heard someone clearing their throat. Pulling away from Clara, Shad turned his head to meet the disapproving glare of his sister.

  Melinda was striking with her long honey brown tresses, high cheekbones, and golden hazel eyes, but it seemed to Shad that she always did everything in her power to make you forget that fact. She was wearing her uniform and had all of her hair pulled back into a slick bun at the nape of her neck. But even without any make-up, Melinda still looked beautiful.

  “Woody told me you had a woman staying with you, though he made it seem like she was just here until her truck got fixed. I didn’t know that she was such an intimate friend.”

  Shad shielded Clara with his body, keeping Melinda’s harsh stare from her. He could feel her straightening up her blouse and hair, and then she stepped out from around him and held out her hand.

  “Hi, we haven’t met. My name is Clara Roberts.”

  Shad had to smile a little as Melinda was caught off balance for the first time in years, and he wa
s a little interested at this different side of Clara. When he’d first come across her, she looked like a frightened rabbit that was ready to bolt at the smallest hint of a problem. He had noticed her relaxing in her time at the ranch, and in this moment, she had the presence of someone who was comfortable in their own skin and used to being taken seriously.

  Melinda took Clara’s hand in her own and gave it a single forceful pump. It was the handshake of someone who meant business. “Hi. Melinda Brandt.”

  “Yes. Shad told me about you, and he had mentioned you were the local Sheriff.”

  “Interesting, because he didn’t mention anything to me, not even the fact that he was letting a complete stranger stay at our house and rummage through the family papers.” Melinda’s voice was flat, but Shad knew there was a storm raging underneath this calm exterior.

  Clara flinched a little at the remark about the complete stranger, and Shad once again stepped forward, putting himself between the two women. “That’s enough, Melinda. I didn’t tell you because I knew this was the reaction I would get. I make my own decisions concerning the family business just as you make your decisions about the Sheriff’s Office.”

  She didn’t move, but he saw the muscle around her eye twitch and knew she was upset. He also knew that even though she put up a harsh exterior, it was mostly a show. She had been forced to act as a mother hen when their mom had died giving birth to Woody. This tough persona she carried around with her was an act she rarely let drop.

  “Fine. I just came by to let you know they’re expecting an electrical storm tonight. You might want to pull in the livestock.”

  “Thanks. I’ll definitely take that into consideration.” He replied, being sure to keep his stance and his gaze straight. Melinda may have been a year younger than him, and a woman, but she knew how to exploit weakness and intimidate. It made her very good at her job.

  She rested her hand on her gun and took a moment to look over at Clara. It was a move clearly designed as a power play, and Shad resented the implications. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around, Miss Roberts.”