KIDNAPPED COWBOY

by Lindsey Brookes

Several of the girls giggled and spouted off offers of their own.

  Caitlin fought the urge to scowl as the young girls flirted shamelessly with Dalton. She flexed her fingers at her sides, her gaze zeroing in on his ear. Just one good twist!

  Thankfully, she managed to restrain herself. Instead, she said calmly, “Okay, kids, we’re getting way off track here. Mr. Barnes and I work together, that’s all.”

  “Unfortunately,” Dalton muttered, this time so that only she could hear.

  Ignoring him, she continued, “Head back to your cabins and get dressed. Breakfast will be ready in about a half an hour.”

  “And be sure to put on something old,” Dalton told them. “We’re gonna be getting a little dirty today.”

  More snickers from the group.

  “As in messy,” he clarified with a grin. “We’ve got a fence to put up before we can hold the pig challenge.”

  “A whole fence?” one of the girls whined.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll work on it little by little each day, in between your other camp activities.”

  “What do we need a fence for?” another girl asked.

  He glanced toward the pig. “You’ve got to keep that fellow corralled during the contest. Otherwise you’d be chasing him all over the retreat and no one would win.”

  “When are we gonna hold the competition?” Leah asked as she began to round up her group of girls.

  “Not until the end of summer, before camp officially closes,” Dalton replied as he hoisted himself up into the back of his truck.

  “That long?” several teens groaned in unison.

  He chuckled. “Since we won’t be working full-time on the fence, it’ll take a while to finish it. Consider the competition your reward for good behavior and hard work this summer.”

  It was impossible to concentrate on being angry with him, seeing as how her attention was now drawn to the muscles bunching in Dalton’s arms as he gathered up an armload of fence posts. That sinewy strength that made her wish those strong arms were holding her instead.

  “Caitlin,” Kelly said, tapping her lightly on the shoulder.

  “Yes, Muscles?” she replied distractedly.

  More laughter.

  Caitlin’s head snapped around. “Kelly. I meant Kelly.” Heat scorched her cheeks clean through. Dalton’s husky laughter behind her only deepened her embarrassment.

  It was clear the young counselor was doing her best not to lose her composure at Caitlin’s slip of the tongue. But the teens weren’t nearly as thoughtful.

  “We just work together,” one of the boys mimicked in his best ‘girly’ tone.

  “My, what big muscles you have,” another joined in, raising his voice several octaves to in an attempt to imitate her.

  Dalton jumped down and deposited the armload of wooden fence posts on the ground at the kids’ feet. “That’s enough. We’ve got work to do.”

  “Go get dressed,” Caitlin said, wishing she had never gotten out of bed that morning. “We’ll start on the fence right after breakfast.”

  Dalton waited until the young counselors had gathered up their groups and marched them off toward their assigned cabins before turning to flash a toothy grin at Caitlin. “Muscles, huh?”

  “Oooh!” was all she could manage before turning and stomping off toward her own cabin. Impossible, too sexy for his own good, cowboy!

  Grinning, Dalton followed Caitlin down the path to her cabin. Did she have any idea how sexy the pronounced sway of her hips was when she walked like that? Sometimes anger was a good thing.

  She yanked open the screen door to her cabin and stormed inside. The door whipped shut behind her with a bang loud enough to send a pair of nearby squirrels scurrying for cover.

  He stepped up onto the porch and peered in through the mesh screen. “Would you prefer I stay outside?”

  “I would prefer to boil you in oil right now,” she shot back.

  Laughing, he let himself in. “Someone get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

  “Leave my bed out of this.”

  He stepped toward her, backing her up against the wall. Placing his hands on the wall on either side of her head, he smiled and lowered his face to hers. “Why? That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?”

  She looked up at him, her green eyes mirroring his own need. “This is about you letting those kids think there’s something going on between us.”

  “Isn’t there?” he said huskily.

  She turned her head away. “No.”

  He reached up to cup her chin, guiding her face back to his. “So are you telling me you don’t want me to kiss you right now?”

  Her knees buckled slightly, forcing her to sag back against the wall. “No.”

  He lowered his mouth until it barely brushed hers. “Rule number three, Caitlin. No lying.”

  With a groan, she gave in and threw her arms about his neck. The momentum of her action sent him skittering back several steps on the heels of his boots, Caitlin right with him.

  Grasping her hips, he dragged her up against him as their lips met in a hungry, frenzied kiss.

  “The kids…” she murmured against his mouth when they finally came up for air.

  “Know I’m in here getting lucky,” he teased and then went in for another kiss.

  Unfortunately, Caitlin didn’t find any humor in his teasing words. Doing a one-eighty in the desire department she pushed him away with a gasp. “You are not getting lucky. Not here. Not today. Not ever again.”

  “Never say never,” he teased. And even though he knew he wouldn’t be getting ‘lucky’ right then, he still felt like the luckiest man on earth just for having Caitlin in his life. But it was clear she wasn’t ready to hear anything like that at this point in their relationship. The one he was pushing for and she was running from. But someday soon…

  “Okay, so I got a little carried away out there today,” he admitted.

  She turned slowly to face him. “Yes, you did.”

  He forced his gaze to the floor, fighting the urge to kiss her again.

  “We both did,” she said much to his surprise.

  “What?” he said, looking up to meet her gaze.

  “I’m pretty sure I’ve been sending out some sort of in-need-of-your-kiss signals even though I’ve been trying really hard not to.”

  To keep from reaching for her, he shoved his hands into his jean pockets. “Why are you fighting this?”

  She walked over to the window to look out. “I… No, make that we, have a responsibility to these kids. A duty to set a good example for them.”

  “I won’t deny that,” he said with a knowing frown. “But where in your contract does it say you can’t run this camp and have a personal life too? Because if it’s in there somewhere I’ll make sure it gets changed.”

  “No, it’s not in my contract,” she replied, turning from the window. “It’s just that my obligation to the retreat is very important to me.”

  “More important than us?” He held up a hand. “Never mind. Don’t answer that.” He already knew what her answer would be. “I’ll see you at breakfast.” With that, he turned and walked out the door.

  *

  “Are you mad at Mr. Barnes?”

  Caitlin turned to Kylie, the oldest of the troubled teen girls staying at Stoney Brook that summer. “No.” She hoped they would just leave it at that. But they didn’t.

  “If you like him, why are you avoiding him so much?” another girl asked from the back of the beeline they had formed for their late morning hike to the lake.

  Dalton, Billy and Zach were off with the boys gathering wood for that night’s campfire. Since it was the boys’ turn to cook supper, they had opted for a wiener roast.

  She stopped with a sigh and turned to the girls, bringing their steps to a halt as well. “I don’t like Dalton.”

  The girls muttered among themselves.

  “What I mean,” she added, feeling the need to explain things better
, even if it was a lie of sorts, “is that I do like him. Just not in the way you are all wanting me to like him.” Now she was definitely a rule breaker.

  “Could have fooled us,” Leah muttered beside her.

  Were her feelings for Dalton that obvious? She had tried so hard to hide them. Clearly, she had failed.

  “He’s like a lemon,” Kylie added with a huge sigh.

  “A lemon?”

  The slender blonde nodded. “Yeah, he makes your mouth water.”

  Caitlin smiled and shook her head. Apparently she wasn’t the only one affected by the sight of Dalton Barnes in those snug fitting cowboy jeans, flashing that sexy smile of his everywhere he went. “Well, that lemon is far too old for any of you.”

  “He’s not that old.”

  “I like my men older.”

  “Me, too.”

  She was surrounded by teenagers with raging hormones, and they were raging in Dalton’s direction. An emotion she’d never had to deal with before stirred within her.

  Jealousy.

  “Dalton is one of Stoney Brook’s administrators. That means he is off-limits. And let’s not forget rule number four.”

  “No sex!” the girls recited in unison.

  “Close enough,” Caitlin replied. That wasn’t exactly how it was worded, but they girls got the point. She started down the path again with Leah and Kelly bringing up the rear.

  Pointing out the various types of plants as they went, she attempted to get the girls’ minds on something other than Dalton.

  It worked. For about five seconds. That was when Dalton came barreling down the path beside them with a banshee-like howl. His jeans were undone and he was holding them up as he passed by them, cursing a blue streak.

  Caitlin gasped, her head swiveling about as her gaze followed him. He raced toward the dock, tossing his hat to the grass as he went. His boots followed as he hopped toward the dock, picking up speed.

  “Dalton!” she called out, but it was too late.

  He launched himself into the lake with a loud splash. Water shot like a geyser into the air and across the weathered planks of the old dock.

  “What on earth?” she gasped.

  As quickly as he went under, he surfaced, coming up with an animal-like growl. “When I get my hands on those damned boys…”

  His words became nothing more than angry sputters as he went under again.

  “Uh-oh.” Kelly looked to Caitlin. “You wanna rescue him or should I?”

  “He can swim.”

  “Not very well by the look of things,” Leah added from behind the group.

  “He’s just a little upset.” More than a little, but she wasn’t going to draw any more attention to Dalton’s theatrics than he had already done himself. It was clear the boys had done something else to get his goat. Whatever it was, they had succeeded.

  Caitlin stared at the center of the ripples where Dalton’s dark head shot up out of the water once more. He was still cursing the boys. What did they have to do with him throwing himself fully clothed into the lake?

  Sure, the boys had pushed the testing of Dalton’s limits a bit too far, putting Vaseline under the handles of his truck, dumping hot sauce in the ketchup bottles, stealing the girls’ bras and stringing them up on the flag pole, but through it all he had always managed to keep his head.

  She looked toward the lake and the dark head bobbing up and down. It was clear every man had his breaking point and Dalton had finally reached his.

  “Wait here,” she told the girls and then hurried down the path to the lake where Dalton was wading out of the water.

  “If you were trying to startle us half to death, you succeeded,” she told him as she closed the distance between them.

  He responded with an angry growl, “The only thing I was trying to do was cool my a…, er, butt off.”

  “What?” Not the reply she had expected to get from him.

  “Those little shits,” he huffed, pointing in the direction of the boys’ cabins, “slipped Ex-Lax into my coffee this morning!”

  “How do you know it’s not just a stomach bug?”

  He grunted his impatience. “Because I discovered the laxative box in the boys’ bathroom garbage, alongside the empty jar of Icy Hot those delinquents thought would be funny to smear all over the toilet seat in the boys’ bathroom.” Water ran down his tanned face, spewing from his lips as he ranted angrily.

  No wonder Dalton had virtually flew, pants half undone, into the lake. Her lips began to twitch. This isn’t funny, she told herself. “Are you okay?”

  Was he okay? Dalton arched a wet brow. “My innards aren’t threatening to combust any longer, but my ass is still burning.”

  Several muffled giggles sounded behind them.

  Caitlin opened her mouth, no doubt fixing to remind him of the no cussing rule and then closed it again with a soft sigh. She’d obviously realized that rule was null and void this case.

  He trudged the rest of the way out of the lake, certain the back of his jeans had to be smoking. His butt sure as hell was! He looked up to find Caitlin watching him, her expression one of amusement.

  “Don’t even think about smiling,” he warned.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” She clapped a hand over her mouth in a poor attempt to conceal the upward tilt of her lips. The laughter came despite of it.

  “Gee, thanks,” he muttered.

  “I…I’m sorry,” she said, gasping for air. “What those boys did was horrible. Bad. Bad. Bad.”

  “Caitlin,” he growled.

  “I don’t mean to laugh. Really, I don’t.” She let out a rather unladylike snort in her effort to contain herself. Her gaze traveled downward. “You just look so funny standing there in your sopping wet clothes.”

  “Is that so?” he said, advancing on her

  “Dalton…” She began backing away, her grin wavering slightly. “What are you doing?”

  He zipped and buttoned his wet jeans as his determined stride ate up the distance between them. “I’m gonna see how funny you think it is when you’re the one dripping.”

  With a shriek, she turned and took off running.

  He chased after her, catching up to her in just a few long, soggy strides. “Gotcha,” he said, laughing as he scooped her up in his arms.

  She pushed at his chest. “Dalton, you’re getting me wet!”

  “Get used to it,” he teased. “You’re gonna be a lot wetter.”

  She was laughing. “Put me down!”

  “Nope.” He walked out onto the dock.

  “You wouldn’t dare!” she exclaimed as they neared the end of the dock.

  That’s what she thought.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Caitlin let out an ear-piercing shriek as he dangled her out over the water.

  Dalton winced. “Cripes almighty, Caitlin, are you trying to break my eardrum?”

  “If need be! Now put me down,” she demanded with exaggerated authority.

  “If you say so.” With a grin, he leaned further out over the water.

  “Nooo!”

  And he thought she was loud before. Hell, the woman could shatter a wine glass with her shrieks.

  She squirmed wildly, clinging to him like a cat that had just been treed by a dog. “Don’t you dare let go of me!”

  He didn’t intend to. He just wanted to teach her a lesson for laughing at his discomfort. His teasing grin widened. “Oh, no, you’re slipping.”

  She went into full-blown panic, clamping her arms about his neck in a stranglehold that practically had his eyes popping out of his head.

  “Caitlin,” he gasped as he struggled for air, “you’re choking me.”

  “You haven’t seen anything yet, Dalton Barnes. When we get off of this thing, I’m gonna strangle you!”

  You mean she wasn’t trying to already?

  He shifted, adjusting his hold on her. Light as she was, it still felt as though he had a twenty-foot boa constrictor clamped around his neck. A
not-so-happy one.

  He had just started to haul her back in from over the water when his foot slipped, his wet sock skidding out from under him. “Shit,” he muttered, doing everything he could to regain his footing, but that wasn’t happening. Instead, both he and Caitlin toppled head first off the dock, hitting the water below with a loud splash.

  Dalton surfaced first, dragging in a lungful of air as he looked around the rippling water for Caitlin.

  Just then, her head popped out of the water like a bobber on the end of a just-cast fishing line.

  She whirled around in the water to glare at him, her red-gold hair hanging in sagging curls over her face. “You….you…” she sputtered as she attempted to stay afloat.

  “Don’t say it,” he warned as he swam to her.

  “Why?” she demanded only to get a mouthful of water.

  “Because they might hear you.”

  She pushed her wet hair from her face. “Who?”

  He inclined his head in the direction of the grassy bank.

  Their audience had grown considerably. It was no longer just the girls watching his and Caitlin’s not-so-graceful entrance into the water. Billy, Zach and their groups of prank-playing boys had now joined the other spectators at the water’s edge.

  “Give it to him, Miss Myers!” one of the boys called out, cheering her on.

  “Let him have it!” Clayton joined in.

  It was clear to see whose side they were on. Dalton merely chuckled. “Bloodthirsty little things, aren’t they?”

  “I should,” she muttered, casting a sidelong glance in his direction as she tread water beside him. “You deserve it. But revenge isn’t the answer.”

  As if he didn’t feel bad enough for what had happened. He certainly never meant for her to end up in the lake. “Look, Caitl—” Water hit him square in the face, cutting off his words.

  She smiled and let her arm sink back into the water. “Sorry. Changed my mind about the whole revenge thing.”

  He choked on the water she’d sent surging into his face with one well-aimed sweep of her arm.

  The edge of the lake sounded like the spectator section of a professional boxing match.

  “Lay him out, Miss Meyers!”

  Hmm, now there’s an idea.

  “Take him down!” Jimmy shouted from the water’s edge.