Best of Cowboys Bundle

by Vicki Lewis Thompson, Barbara White Daille, Judy Christenberry, Christine Wenger, Shirley Rogers, Crystal Green, Nina Bruhns, Candance Schuler, Carole Mortimer

  Faith felt a tension headache coming on. Although she wasn’t from Texas, she’d read enough to know that some ranches were spread out over several hundreds, sometimes thousands of acres, and were miles apart.

  “When will that be?” she asked, feeling her life begin to spin out of control.

  He ran a hand over his face before his bluer-than-sin gaze met hers. “In about a week.”

  Her heart skipped several beats. Not good. Not good at all. “If you would be kind enough to take me to Amarillo, I’ll…”

  She’d what? There was nothing for her there, nor was there anything for her back in Illinois. Nothing but small town gossip and the constant reminder of all her failings. Her head began to pound. How could her carefully laid plans have taken such a wrong turn?

  “Ms. Broderick, that’s the biggest part of our problem,” Cooper said, breaking into her thoughts. “When Whiskers drove off in my truck, he took our only means of transportation with him.”

  Faith looked around. There wasn’t a vehicle in sight. Not even a tractor. She glanced at the cell phone clipped to Cooper’s belt. “Use your phone to call someone. I’m sure Mr. West would—”

  “The battery’s dead.”

  She gulped. “Then charge it.”

  He shook his head. “Can’t. The electricity hasn’t been turned on.”

  Her head pounded harder. “You mean we’re stuck here for the next week with no way to leave and no means of communication?”

  He nodded, his grim expression verifying her fears. “That’s exactly what I mean.”

  Faith swallowed her rising panic and rubbed her throbbing temples with her fingertips. Why had Mr. Penn lied to her about owning the ranch? And why had he stranded her here with the sexiest cowboy she’d ever seen?

  Whiskers Penn and her late grandfather had been friends since they were boys, and when her grandmother told Faith about the job, she’d vouched for his integrity. That’s why Faith had contacted him and taken the position. Whiskers had her grandmother’s approval—not an easy thing to obtain—and it had seemed an easy way to leave the past behind and start rebuilding her life.

  But in her haste to do that, she’d apparently repeated her mistake. She’d trusted in basic goodness and honesty. She’d been so desperate to make a fresh start that she’d jumped from one bad situation to another. And once again, she’d been burned. Would she never learn that she had to stop trusting people and taking everything they said as the truth?

  Disgusted with herself for once again being so gullible, she asked, “Why would Mr. Penn do something like this?”

  “Because the old geezer has a streak of mischief in him a mile wide,” Cooper muttered. He folded his arms across his wide chest. “Whether we like it or not, Ms. Broderick, we’re both going to have to get used to the idea of being stuck here for the next week.”

  Cooper glanced at his new home, then back at Faith. The place was way too small for his peace of mind. Hell, every time they turned around they’d be bumping into each other. The thought of his body brushing against hers sent a flash of heat straight to his loins.

  Shaking his head to clear it, he swept his hand toward the house. “We might as well go see what the inside looks like.”

  She gave him one of those you’re-feeding-me-a-line looks, before asking, “If what you say is true—if this place does belong to you—then why don’t you know what the interior of your own home looks like?”

  He sighed heavily. “Because I was fool enough to buy it, sight unseen.”

  “Why would you do that?” she asked, skepticism written all over her pretty face. “Even I’m not that gullible.”

  Cooper shook his head. He’d asked himself the same thing about a hundred times in the last half hour. “After I retired from bullriding, I started doing commentary for a few rodeo companies. But I’m tired of living like a nomad. When I made the decision to find a place to settle down, I was out on the circuit and didn’t have time to get back before the auction. And Flint and my sister were away at a horse show.”

  “So you had Whiskers make the bid?” she guessed.

  He nodded. “Unfortunately, I trusted Whiskers when he said it needed a little work, but that it was a good deal.” Cooper blew out a disgusted breath. “You can bet I won’t make that mistake again.”

  She glanced at the bags around her, then rose from her perch atop one of the biggest suitcases he’d ever seen. Why was it that men could stuff everything they’d need for a month in a single duffel bag, but women needed at least a six-piece set of luggage for an overnight stay?

  “I suppose it would be a good idea to start moving my things,” she said, grabbing a suitcase in each hand. “It looks like it’s going to start raining any minute.”

  Cooper glanced up at the clouds building overhead, then at the monstrous pile of luggage. Hefting as many bags as he could carry at one time, he started for the house. If they hurried, they might get everything transferred to shelter before the sky opened up and poured.

  Fat raindrops suddenly began to raise little puffs of dust as they hit the dusty soil.

  Then again, maybe they wouldn’t, he decided as they jogged toward the house. By the time they covered the distance to the sagging porch, water was coming down in sheets and, instead of soaking into the ground, it started to form little rivulets of mud.

  Dropping the load in front of the door, Cooper turned and sprinted back to what remained of the pile. Scooping up the last three bags, he ran through the downpour and up the porch steps, careful to avoid cracking his head on the sagging eaves of the roof.

  Faith had already entered the house, which was fine with him. The sight of her cute little backside bobbing as she ran to the shelter of the porch had already sent his blood pressure up about fifty points and activated his imagination more than he was comfortable with. Considering their situation, having his thoughts stray in an erotic direction was pure insanity.

  As he stood there trying to figure out how they’d get through the next week without him walking around in a constant state of arousal, a crash, followed by a woman’s bloodcurdling scream brought him back to his senses. The sound sent a chill straight up his spine and made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

  “What the hell?”

  The old wooden screen door suddenly flew open and before Cooper knew what was happening, Faith Broderick came flying out, vaulted the pile of luggage and wrapped herself around him tighter than a piece of shrink-wrap on a hot plate.

  Two

  F aith felt Cooper’s arms close protectively around her a moment before he stumbled back down the steps to sit down hard in the muddy yard. Instantly drenched by the pouring rain, she parted the wet waves of her hair to find their faces only inches apart.

  Time stood still as she sat on his lap, straddling his lean hips, feeling the rock hardness of his thighs beneath her bottom. Staring at him, she felt she just might drown in his deep blue eyes. His firm lips parted and she wondered how they would feel on her own. Would they be hard and demanding, or gentle and coaxing?

  Despite the chilling rain beating down on her, Faith felt an inner heat warm her all the way to her toes. Even soaking wet the man was gorgeous and made her think of things she had no business dwelling on. And that wasn’t good, considering for the next week they would be stranded together on a deserted ranch.

  “Are you all right?” he finally asked, his voice sounding so darned intimate and sexy that her temperature rose another couple of notches.

  His face was so close she could feel his warm breath on her cheek, see the tiny scar just below his right eyebrow that she hadn’t noticed before. His arms held her securely against his broad chest and the feel of his body pressed to her sensitive breasts made her insides feel as if they’d turned to pudding.

  Not at all comfortable with the feeling, she scrambled to her feet. “I, uh…yes. Yes, I’m fine.” She hated her breathless tone and the fact that her knees didn’t want to support her.

 
Water dripped from his tan cowboy hat as for several long seconds they continued to stare wordlessly at each other. “Come on,” he finally said. Rising to his feet, he took her by the hand to tug her along. “Let’s get out of this rain.”

  Faith had forgotten all about the downpour and the fact that they were both soaking wet. She’d been too fascinated by the sight of his soaked western shirt molded to his perfect torso and broad shoulders. Her ex-husband had worked out at the gym for years and never managed to build the type of rock hard muscles that Cooper Adams had. But then, she’d learned the hard way that Eric hadn’t spent as much time at the gym as she’d been led to believe.

  Back under the shelter of the sagging porch roof, she noticed Cooper’s eyes darken to pools of navy as he stared at her. When she realized the exact direction of his gaze, Faith quickly crossed her arms over her breasts, her cheeks burning. Thoroughly drenched, her pale yellow T-shirt might as well have been transparent. It clung to her breasts like a second skin and her flimsy lace bra left little or nothing to the imagination. A fact that Cooper seemed to find quite fascinating.

  He cleared his throat. “What the hell happened in there?” he finally asked.

  It took her a moment to realize what he meant. Remembering the reason for her flight from the house, she shuddered. “There’s some kind of hideous creature in the kitchen.”

  He sighed heavily. “What did it look like?”

  “Well, I…I don’t know exactly,” Faith admitted.

  “You didn’t see it?”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t stick around long enough to find out how horrible it looked.”

  He propped his hands on his hips and stared down at her. “Then what makes you think it was horrible?”

  “Because when I knocked over a box full of pans it made an awful hissing sound.” Irritated by Cooper’s questions and the amusement dancing in his eyes, she glared at him. “I wasn’t about to stand there and let it bite me.”

  His lips twitched, and she had no doubt he was trying to keep from laughing out loud. She wanted to punch him. Why did men feel so darned superior when it came to a woman’s fears of creepy things?

  “Well, we can do one of two things,” he said solicitously.

  She glared at him. “And what would that be, Mr. Adams?”

  “We can either stand here and debate the issue while we freeze our butts off in these wet clothes, or we can go inside and change.” He shrugged and reached for the screen door. “I’m opting for warm and dry. How about you?”

  The temperature had to have dropped a good ten degrees with the onset of the rain and the October breeze had picked up enough to blow water in from the open side of the porch. “But what about…the animal…in there?” Faith asked, her teeth beginning to chatter. She wasn’t about to go back inside the house until the creature had been dealt with.

  He let go a long, resigned sigh. “Where did you see the damned thing?”

  “I told you…I didn’t see it. I only heard it.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Okay. Where did you hear this hideous beast?”

  “In…the kitchen,” she said, shivering as much from the memory of the sound, as from her wet clothing. “By…the boxes in the center…of the room.”

  Cooper opened the door and stepped into the dim light of the kitchen. In truth, he was damned glad to put some distance between himself and Faith Broderick. When she’d come flying out of the house and jumped into his arms, the feel of her soft body clinging to him, her long legs wrapped around his waist, had just about sent his blood pressure into stroke range. But it was the sight of her wet T-shirt that had almost done him in completely. He’d been left with more than a clear image of the size and shape of her breasts, and when her nipples tightened from the chilled air, his eyes had damned near popped out of his head. How was a man supposed to ignore a sight like that? Or forget about it?

  He shook his head. He couldn’t do either. And he had a feeling the next week was going to be sheer hell.

  Glancing around, he decided whatever Faith had heard must have moved on. As he turned to tell her the coast was clear, a movement on top of the boxes in the center of the room caught his attention. He stepped closer and the little lizard let loose with a loud hiss.

  As frustrating as their situation was, Cooper couldn’t help but chuckle at the turn of events and his own foolishness. When he’d first laid eyes on Faith, he’d thought he might like to move a mountain or slay a dragon for her. It appeared he’d get to do both. He’d already moved that mountainous pile of luggage, now he’d get to play the white knight and get rid of her dragon.

  You’ve got to get out more, Adams.

  When a man started suffering the “white knight” syndrome over a lizard and a pile of beat-up suitcases, it was a sure sign he’d been too long without the warmth of a woman.

  “Here’s your ‘hideous creature,”’ he said, pushing open the screen door.

  “What is that thing?” she asked, drawing back as he walked past her to the edge of the porch.

  “It’s just a little old horny toad.” He released the reptile, then turned to face her. “He didn’t mean any harm.”

  “I…I’ll have…to take…your word…for that,” she said, shivering violently.

  She had to be chilled to the bone and damned uncomfortable in those wet clothes. Stopping himself from wrapping her in his arms, he reached for the screen door instead. They were little more than strangers and he had a feeling she wouldn’t buy that he was trying to lend her his warmth any more than he would.

  Placing his hand at her back, Cooper ushered her through the door, then quickly put distance between them before he did something stupid. “Where do you want me to put your bags?” he asked, preparing to relocate Mount Samsonite to its next location.

  “Put them in…the living room for now,” she said, shivering as she looked around the kitchen. “Before I start unpacking anything…we’ll have to clean.”

  Cooper took that to mean she intended for him to do a critter check of the house and get rid of any more unwanted guests.

  Once her suitcases had been moved and he’d located the duffels Whiskers had left for him, Cooper retrieved a couple of towels. Walking back into the kitchen, he handed her one of the plush bath sheets. “You’d better get dried off and put on something warm.”

  She eyed him warily.

  All things considered, he guessed he could understand her reluctance to strip down even with him in one room and her in another. She had no way of knowing he could be trusted not to violate her privacy, or that he was about as harmless as that little lizard he’d pitched out earlier.

  Wanting to put her mind at ease, he squarely met her uncertain gaze. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Faith. You’ve got my word, I’ll stay in here while you change.”

  The sound of his deep baritone saying her name sent a shiver up Faith’s spine and had her scurrying into the living room to find dry clothes. Cooper might not think of himself as the threatening type, but she knew better. Physically, she had no doubt he would keep his promise. How she knew that, she wasn’t sure. She just did.

  But the fact that he practically oozed virility from every pore of his skin was what had her concerned. She didn’t want to find Cooper Adams attractive, didn’t want to think of him as honorable or trustworthy. In fact, she didn’t want to think of him at all. Her peace of mind depended on it.

  But the memory of his body pressed to hers, the smell of his clean masculine skin and the integrity she’d detected in his deep blue eyes wouldn’t allow her to forget.

  She peeled her wet clothes off and vigorously ran the towel over her skin in an effort to rub away a fresh wave of goose bumps that had nothing to do with being chilled, and everything to do with thinking about Cooper Adams.

  Faith selected a black sweatshirt and matching sweatpants from one of her suitcases. Certain her choice would be as appealing to a man as a burlap bag, she pulled them on, along with a pair of thick socks.
Digging around in the suitcase containing her shoes, she slipped on a pair of cross trainers, combed the damp waves of her hair into a semblance of order, then ventured back into the kitchen.

  “At least Whiskers brought something to heat the house with,” Cooper said, looking up as she entered the room. He finished lighting a large kerosene heater, then straightened and started unbuttoning his shirt. “I’ll change, then help you go through the boxes to see what kind of food the old geezer left for us.”

  She nodded. She couldn’t do anything else. As he parted the front of the garment, the sight of well-defined ridges on his stomach and perfectly sculpted pectoral muscles struck her completely speechless. He pulled the sleeves from his arms and she swallowed hard. His biceps were moving in really fascinating ways as he shrugged out of the shirt. She remembered how securely those arms had held her to keep her from being injured when they landed in the yard and how safe she’d felt with them wrapped around her.

  Oblivious to what the sight of all that masculine flesh and sinew was doing to her, he turned and headed for the living room. A long white scar ran down from just below his shoulder blade to curve around his left side, but it didn’t even come close to detracting from the sexiness of his broad shoulders and narrow waist. But when she noticed his tight rear encased in those well-worn jeans, Faith caught her breath. Lord have mercy, except for the scar, the man’s body was absolutely perfect.

  She shook her head to chase away her foolishness. He was nothing more than a good-looking, well-built man. And she’d learned the hard way that men couldn’t be counted on for anything but a truckload of grief.

  If she intended to get through the next week with any sanity left, she’d have to remember that. She’d also have to keep her gaze from straying anywhere below Cooper’s chin, in order to avoid panting over his gorgeous body.

  As soon as he entered the living room, Cooper blew out the air trapped in his lungs and ran a hand over his abdomen. He’d never had a problem with a bulging stomach. But when he’d noticed Faith staring at him like a hungry dog after a juicy steak, he’d damned near suffocated trying to tighten his already flat belly.