A soft kiss brushed her lips. “Morning, Cassie.”
Startled, Cassie blinked her eyes open. Hazy from sleep, she fought to focus, to make sense of it all as quick, dreadful sensations ripped straight through her. She knew those lips, that deep voice, the appealing scent of the man she’d been dreaming about. This was no dream. He was real, and holding her in his arms.
What piece of this puzzle had she forgotten?
She pulled back and away quickly, grasping her pillow tight. “Jake? W-what are you doing here? And w-why are you in my b-bed?”
“Your bed?” Jake chuckled, coming closer, running a finger down her face and tucking strands of her hair behind her ear, sending shivers along her spine. “Sweetheart, did you mix your allergy pills with liquor again last night?”
“No. No, I most certainly did not. This is my bed, Jake. And what on earth are you doing here?” She peered out the bedroom doorway, but couldn’t see the front door. She knew she’d locked everything up tight last night before turning in. She glanced at her bedroom window, as well—still closed. It was way too early in the morning for Cassie to try to figure out this mystery. She narrowed her eyes. “How did you get in?”
“The usual way, with a key.”
Cassie sat up straighter in the bed, dragging the covers to her chin. Her heart pumped overtime, seeing him again, recalling the exquisite feel of his lips on hers just seconds ago, but she couldn’t dwell on those sensations now. She had more pressing things to think about, such as how he’d found her. “But how, I mean—”
“I live here,” he said simply, as though he expected her to know that. “This is my home.”
Baffled, Cassie opened her mouth but no words sputtered out. He lives here? How could that be?
“You’re in my bed, Cassie.” He shot her a sexy grin, as if to say he didn’t know her game but he’d be willing to play, anyway.
“But, but…Mr. Anderson said—”
“What does my father have to do with this?” Jake’s expression suddenly changed. No longer amused, he peered at her with dark intensity. “Tell me, Cassie. What did my father do this time?”
“Your father?”
“Yes, dammit. John T. Anderson is my father.”
“Oh.” She tried absorbing that fact. Mr. Anderson was Jake’s father. Cassie found it hard to believe any of this. Waking up in a strange bed only to find Jake Griffin lying next to her was one thing, but to learn that this was his home, and that her employer was Jake’s father, well, that little bit of information completely blew her mind. She felt as though she’d been time warped into another dimension. “He, uh, he hired me. I work for him now.”
Jake bounded out of bed, letting go a string of curses that would shock the toughest of longshoremen. She resisted covering her ears, but couldn’t resist the view of Jake pacing the floor, nearly naked, wearing only his briefs.
Heavens, the man had a body on him. She hadn’t forgotten how glorious he’d been to touch, the feel of his hot skin or the sultry passion they’d once shared.
Finally, Jake stopped pacing. With contained anger, he stared down at her. “So, you didn’t come here to see me?”
Cassie shook her head slowly.
“And you didn’t know I was John T. Anderson’s son?”
She gave him another shake of the head.
“Wait a minute!” Jake peered at the bedroom, as if seeing it for the first time. His eyes darted from the nightstand to the dresser to the closet. He headed there first, sliding open the mirrored door. Empty. He opened dresser drawers, stuck his head into the bathroom and came out with fury in his eyes. “Sonofabitch! He’s moved me out. He’d do anything to get me to live in the main house! Anything.”
Cassie jumped out of bed, tangling with the sheet and finally giving up. She was decently covered in her pajama tank and shorts. Jake had seen her in less, much less. “Jake, are you saying your father offered me your house to live in?”
With hands firmly on hips, he nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Oh, uh, I truly had no idea. I’m sorry. I’ll leave. I haven’t even unpacked yet. I’ll find another place to stay.”
Jake put up his hands. “Don’t leave, Cassie, and don’t be sorry. This is all John T.’s doing. Hell, it’s not like I’m attached to this place or anything. But he’s gonna get a piece of my mind regardless. This really has nothing to do with you. It’s between John T. and me.”
Jake began dressing, picking up his clothes that were scattered on the floor. With pants on and his shirt hanging from his shoulders Cassie watched him yank the front door open and storm out. Between Jake Griffin and John T. Anderson, she didn’t know which man was the most stubborn. Living here with both of them, she figured she’d soon find out.
That’s if she decided to stay.
Cassie now had major doubts. She’d come here to start a new life, to put the mistakes in her past behind her. How could she do that with Jake Griffin, the source of her recent heartache, living here on the ranch? Yet, Cassie didn’t have any place else to go. She’d given up her job and her apartment back in Los Angeles. She’d signed a contract with Mr. Anderson. As much as she hated to admit it, Cassie’s options were limited. And once she’d given her word, she’d never backed out of a deal.
Small wonder her stomach began its blinking act once more. Seeing Jake again had wiped that contented feeling right out from under her. She still had trouble believing he lived here, on the ranch where she was to be employed. What were the odds of that? Mentally she calculated, her mind clicking away, but she didn’t have the data to produce such odds though she knew it had to be pretty far out there.
She grabbed a pair of jeans, a shirt and fresh underwear from her luggage and headed to the shower. “No time for a queasy stomach, Cassie Munroe. You have too much to do today.”
Now, if her stomach, her head and her heart would only listen.
“Don’t raise your voice to me, boy. Calm down and have a seat.”
Jake continued to pace in front of the desk in the study as John T. sat comfortably in his chair. The man had an uncanny way of manipulating situations. Jake figured it was the key to his success in business. John T. knew the odds and how to play them. “I don’t want to sit, dammit. I want answers. Why in hell did you move Cassie into my house?”
His father’s brows lifted. “Cassie?”
“Yeah, Cassie—the redhead sleeping in my bed.”
“Hmm.” John T. rubbed his jaw. “Exactly what time did you come home last night?”
“Two a.m.”
“Two, huh? Where did you sleep?”
Jake waved him off. He wasn’t about to tell his father he’d slept next to Cassie all night long. He hadn’t gotten but a few winks, too keyed up about her presence in his bed and the staggering, erotic possibilities. It was only by an ironclad will that Jake hadn’t woken her in the night to continue what they’d started that night in her hotel room. “None of your business.”
“It’s my business if you go scaring off the new hired help.”
“I might have startled her this morning, but Cassie doesn’t scare off easily. She’s fine.”
His father blinked and Jake realized he might have said too much. “Are you saying you know this girl?”
“Like I said, it’s none of your business. So why’d you do it?”
“Hell, boy. How’d it look to have a pretty young woman living in this house alone with me? I had no choice but to give her the guest house. Lottie said it was the proper thing to do. Hell, if that woman hadn’t up and retired on me, none of this would have been necessary, anyway.”
“Yeah, well, if you weren’t so dang stubborn, maybe Lottie wouldn’t have taken an early retirement.”
Anger flashed in John T.’s eyes, mixed with keen curiosity. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Forget I said anything.” Jake wasn’t here to reprimand his father on his relationship with Lottie. Though, if he ever had another oppor
tunity, he’d be happy to tell the old man what a doggone fool he’d been in that regard.
John T. let out a long, exasperated sigh. “You weren’t supposed to be home at all this weekend. I was planning on calling you today to give you the details. Hell, boy, if you’d only taken an interest in the ranch business, you’d have known I’d hired on some new help. And seeing as we’ve got twelve rooms in this house, I figured you could just as well bunk here. It’s not as if you’re home much, anyway.”
That much was true. Jake hadn’t ever felt as though Anderson Ranch was his home. He’d never felt he belonged here. Since John T. had brought him to Nevada, Jake had finished out his high school days here then spent the next five years away at college. When he returned, he’d taken up residence in the guest house, but he’d spent most of his time on the road with the rodeo.
“I guess I have no choice now. We both know it’s a thirty-minute drive from town. There ain’t a whole lot of rentals and none as nice as the guest house. I’m not about to send Cassie off packing somewhere. She came here with good intentions. Besides, knowing you, you probably included the living arrangements as part of the deal.”
His father scratched his head. “You do know her, don’t you?”
Jake relented. What difference did it make, anyway? He’d learned from his father’s past secrets that you couldn’t hide much in this world. Sooner or later the truth would come out. “Yes, I knew her in California.”
“That was a long time ago.” His father questioned him further with a long lingering look.
“And I met up with her at the rodeo last month in Laughlin. She was going to her brother’s wedding and it was sort of a coincidence that we met.”
“Sounds more like fate to me,” John T. stated, his mind working overtime. Jake knew that particular expression and he didn’t much like it. When his father twisted his mouth upward, eyes twinkling, Jake knew he probably shouldn’t have given up so much information. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
Jake decided to ignore that look and the tone of his father’s voice. “What room did you have my things moved into?”
“Your old room.”
Jake nodded.
“It’s not the end of the world, Jake. This is your house, too.”
Jake walked out of the study, gritting his teeth. He didn’t have any choice. Cassie would have the guest house. She’d be more comfortable there and she’d have a bit of privacy.
But hell, he didn’t want to move into the main house. He’d avoided doing so for years. Now because of Cassie Munroe, the woman who’d entered his life twice before, he’d have to leave the guest house. Somehow she’d managed to turn his life upside down for a third time. He didn’t want Cassie here. She was a distraction, a complication that he didn’t need.
She was a woman hard to ignore, but once all this was straightened out, Jake was determined to steer clear of Cassie Munroe.
Cassie met up with Jake as soon as she climbed down the steps of the guest house. “I was coming over to see what I should do.”
Jake stated calmly, “Start unpacking. You’re staying here.”
“But how can I when this is your home? I don’t want to uproot you.”
Jake’s expression changed then, a twinkle gleaming in his dark, captivating eyes. He shot her a slow smile. “We could bunk together, Cassie,” he said softly. “If that would make you feel better.”
Heat climbed up her neck, not from embarrassment but from the memory of the “bunking” she’d done with Jake. She didn’t want to give him any encouragement. Heavens, this was where she was going to work. She wanted to make a good impression and to do an excellent job. The last thing she needed right now was to complicate her life again with Jake. She’d examined the issue in her mind, weighing her options and coming up with only one viable choice: to stay. But she could and would distance herself from Jake. “Not a chance, cowboy.”
His lighthearted demeanor didn’t change. “Okay, then let’s get you unpacked. Where’s your gear?”
Cassie opened the garage door with the remote and her car appeared, crammed to its limit with her “stuff.”
“I bet you’ve got a dozen clowns in there, too.”
“They’re hiding under the seat. I put all my furniture in storage. This was what’s left.”
Twenty minutes later, after Jake unloaded all the boxes in her car, Cassie handed him a tall glass of water as they stood in the kitchen. “Thanks for the help. I think I can manage from here.”
Jake opened the refrigerator and shook his head. “Looks like you need some provisions.”
“I was planning on driving into town this afternoon to pick up some groceries.”
“I’m heading that way later. I can give you a lift.”
It was a tempting offer, but Cassie couldn’t accept. She was on her own now. She had to fend for herself and, quite honestly, she didn’t want to get accustomed to having Jake around. Her heart still ached every time he showed up. Better to keep her mind focused on anything and everything but him. “No thanks. I’ll be okay.”
But suddenly Cassie wasn’t okay. A wave of fatigue hit her and her legs nearly buckled. Light-headed, she closed her eyes and found herself swaying.
“Whoa, there.” Jake grabbed her before she fell. He pressed her head into his chest and murmured quietly, “What’s wrong?”
Still floating, she relished the solid feel of his chest and the support of his strong arms. “Dizzy.”
He held her there, stroking her back gently. She heard the erratic rhythms of his heartbeat; the rapid pounding that flashed her eyes open. She looked up into his eyes and her head cleared instantly.
“Better?” he asked, concerned.
“Yeah, better.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. I felt faint for a second. I guess I’m just tired. I’ll feel better once I eat something.”
Jake didn’t release his hold on her, instead his arms tightened around her waist. Cassie’s heart raced like mad. Being in his arms brought back vivid memories of another time, when she’d been mesmerized by his charm, completely taken by his sweet regard. And judging by the hungry look he cast her, Cassie knew he was thinking the same thing. His gaze probed hers and he lowered his head, his lips just inches away. A different kind of dizziness swamped her, one that made her lose all good sense. She lifted up to meet him, but a racket at the front door made her jump back.
“Hello, there! Cassandra, are you in there? It’s Lottie Fairchild.” Soft knocking became a bit louder. “I brought breakfast, darlin’.”
Cassie wiped her brow, feeling steady on her feet now. She didn’t know what had just happened. One minute she was fine, the next she was so light-headed that she could barely stand up. Thank goodness Jake was there to catch her. And thank goodness Lottie Fairchild showed up in time to stop Cassie from making a mistake. She looked at Jake and shrugged. “Yes, I’ll be right there, Mrs. Fairchild.”
Cassie opened the door to a sweet-faced woman she presumed to be in her early sixties. She had light blond hair done up with a little flip at the shoulders, and beautiful amber eyes. Typical Western wear, a plaid shirt, new denim jeans and black boots, made up Lottie Fairchild’s attire. “Hey, darlin’. I see you made it here all right yesterday.” She held a basket filled with sweet muffins, corn cakes and jellies. “I hope you’re hungry. I baked these fresh this morning.”
“Oh, thank you. These look wonderful. It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Fairchild. Come in.”
“It’s Lottie to everyone but the tax collector.” She winked, then noticed Jake standing at the back of the room. “Hey, Jake. I see you two have already been acquainted.”
“Yes, uh, Jake helped bring in my boxes from the car.”
“Morning, Lottie,” Jake said, coming up to swipe two muffins from the basket. “I sure have missed these muffins.”
“You come on over to my place anytime and I’ll bake them up fresh for you.”
Jake nodded and stro
de to the door. “Thanks, Lottie. Gotta run. See you all later.”
Lottie watched Jake leave. “That boy’s forever running off someplace.” She sighed and took a good look at Cassie. “You feeling all right?”
“Yes, just a bit tired. I didn’t sleep well last night.” Liar, she’d slept like a baby. That was why Cassie was so confused. She didn’t understand her bout of fatigue this morning.
“Well, sure. That makes sense. Starting a new job, moving into a new place and all. We’ll just have us something to eat, then if you’re up to it, I’ll show you the books.”
“Oh, I’m up to it. I’m eager to get started.”
Lottie Fairchild’s daily training proved to be a blessing to Cassie. Lottie had come over each morning for the past three days, teaching Cassie about the transactions that went on with a stock contract ranch. She’d sit with her at the computer, but her training went much further than numbers on a screen. She’d relate stories about the animals, how they were acquired, which bucking horses were worth the most, which mare had the sweetest of temperaments, and how she’d been there to witness the birthing of the latest colt or filly.
“You ought to see Pistol Pete. He’s a dandy,” Lottie said once they were through with their paperwork.
“Who’s Pistol Pete?” Cassie asked.
“He’s just the sweetest piebald colt you’d ever want to see. Born a month and a half ago. I’m surprised Jake or John T. hasn’t taken you on a tour of the ranch yet.”
“I haven’t seen Jake all week,” Cassie said, trying for nonchalance. This was what she wanted, after all. She didn’t need Jake interfering in her life. She’d vowed to keep it civil between them whenever they were together, but it would end there. Jake was nowhere to be found these days.
“He’ll be back today most likely. He’s riding rodeo again. That boy’s determined to win the championship. I think he might do it this year.”
“That’s what he wants, right?”
“Right, though he’s probably doing it for all the wrong reasons. But that’s between him and John T.”
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