Rodeo Rancher

by Lauren Wood

  “Cameron, what is going on with you? Why are we meeting here?”

  I told her about the man at the door and the new manager. I was frustrated and I knew by the look on her face that I was blowing it out of proportion. I wasn’t sure why, maybe it was the way he looked at me, but I knew that it was going to be a problem.

  “So it’s the landlord’s nephew?”

  “Yeah, just my luck.”

  “Well was he cute?”

  It wasn’t something that I was really thinking about. Joel was cute, really cute in a bad boy sort of way. But that wasn’t the point. Carol was a little man crazy, so I figured that she would want to know about him for that reason.

  “I guess he is, if you like that biker sort of look. He is just not my type.”

  As we drove to the club, I sipped on the drink and thought about Joel. He was cute, but I knew that it was going to be trouble. I was already thinking about the heat and what I was going to do about the air conditioner. I could do a lot of things, but fixing mechanical things was not one of them. I was just going to have to find someone else to help me or replace the whole unit.

  “Man, you are quiet. He must be a little more than cute.”

  I looked over at Carol and shook my head. “I wasn’t even thinking about him. I was just, I don’t know.” I wasn’t a good liar, so I stopped while I was ahead.

  “Well stop thinking about it or whatever it is that is making you frown. You know that is just going to give you wrinkles.”

  She was right and I wasn’t sure why I was so worried about him. I was out to have fun and it was something that I needed. “You’re right. I guess he just put me in a bad mood.”

  “Well drink some more of that and we will be there in a minute. There isn’t anything that some liquor and a little dancing will solve.”

  I knew she was right and I tried to do what she said, pushing the man from my mind and not thinking about him anymore. I wasn’t going to think about the dark-eyed man that was now thrust into my life. I was going to focus on the drink and the night ahead of us.

  Chapter 2

  Joel

  There was a racket out in the hallway by the front entrance that woke me up from a deep sleep. I lay in bed with my eyes cracked open and a soft, warm body snuggled up to me. Trying to will whatever the noise was to stop so that I could get back to sleep, I pulled the girl next to me closer. I didn’t remember her name, though I knew that she had told me the night before.

  It had been a longer day than I had expected and with all of the work I had to do the next day, I was sure that it was going to be even longer. Staying up hadn’t helped and now it was clear that a restful night was going to be harder than I thought.

  Finally I sat up because whatever the banging and rattling was, it wasn’t going to stop. It reminded me of my cousin Carlos and how loud he used to be when he was coming in from a night at the bar. If I didn’t know any better, I would have had to guess that someone was drunk in the hallway just like he would be. It brought back memories of Chicago and the old life that I was trying to leave behind.

  Pulling a pair of jeans on, I went out of the apartment to see what it was that was making all of that noise. I was trying my best to get back to sleep, but it was clear that it wasn’t going to happen until I did something about it. My mind went to the blonde in my bed. Maybe I would wake her up when I got back.

  I smiled when I saw what it was that was going on. The person in question was the rude woman from before and since she hadn’t seen me yet there was a moment where I thought about just walking away. It was its own kind of poetic justice.

  When she saw me, her face fell and even though I was right about the drinking thing, it seemed like she wasn’t so drunk as to not have a reaction to me. Walking towards the closed and locked door, I smiled back at her and her face fell. She was not happy to see me and that made my grin a little wider on my face.

  It was a shame she was so difficult because the woman was so beautiful. When I had first seen her, I had thought of Eve, a woman that I had fallen for the year before. I didn’t win her heart, most likely because I was too nice of a guy, but things were different. I wasn’t the same guy that my wife divorced and I wasn’t the same guy that lost the girl. Moving to New Orleans was my change of scenery so that I could be someone else. Taking notes from my cousin Carlos, I had learned that nice guys really do finish last.

  “Fancy seeing you here, on that side of the door.”

  She didn’t smile back at me and I had to chuckle a little at her discomfort. I could tell how much she hated me right then.

  “Do you need help?”

  It was clear that Cameron was trying to get in the building. She had a big keyring in her hand and I wasn’t sure if she was too drunk to get it into the keyhole or if she had forgotten which one it was that she needed.

  “No, I am fine, thanks.”

  “Well you woke me up with all of this racket, so now I am here. I can tell that you are going to be a problem.”

  “Sorry.”

  “I bet. I bet you are wishing that you had let me in before, don’t you?

  The words were slurred and so help me she sounded adorable. What was it about this woman that set me off so much? I shouldn’t help her, not like she had helped me at all, but I wasn’t going to get any sleep if I didn’t. Every time I was around Cameron, she caused me trouble. Someone needed to bring her down a notch.

  Pushing the door open, Cameron almost fell in because she was leaning on it. I had to move to catch her and there was an instant attraction when her body fell into mine. I don’t think that I was very worried about if she fell or not, I was more worried about getting a feel of her soft curves that I hadn’t been able to ignore.

  “Thanks, sorry about that.”

  She was pushing herself off of me and for a moment I didn’t want to let her go. I wanted her against me as she was, but I had a feeling that it would just make things worse between us. There was the surge of curiosity of what she would do if I copped a feel. Pressing off of her, I made sure to brush my hand against her large breasts. She didn’t even seem to notice.

  Watching her start towards the stairs, she was wobbly and it made me nervous. I didn’t want to be responsible if she fell and then tried to sue my uncle. I needed the fresh start and the job that was on offer. I wasn’t going to let her hurt herself because she was too stubborn to get a little help.

  “I told you that I am fine Joel.”

  I liked that she remembered my name, even if she said it in a tone that wasn’t that nice. At least she remembered me. That was how I was going to look at it. I wasn’t going to notice the attitude or the roll of the eyes. Cameron was complicated and I didn’t want to get involved. I reminded myself of that several times before I couldn’t help myself.

  “Let me help you Cameron. You are pretty drunk and I don’t want you to fall down the stairs. I’m sure my uncle wouldn’t approve of me just letting you go up by yourself. My cousin Carlos would have approved, but this was business.”

  She shook her head and insisted that she was fine. Maybe she was and she would make it, but the nagging feeling inside of me was hard to shut off. I tried to think of what Carlos would have done. He would have left her there and told her to have at it. It is what I should have done, but I couldn’t. I was still trying to turn off that part of me, but it was hard to do. It was hard not to care about Cameron, even though I had another woman in my bed.

  Taking her arm, I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. It was clear that she needed help and even if she didn’t want it, I wasn’t going to let her hurt herself. It was going to be easier if I just helped her up there and then I would be able to get back to sleep.

  “Take your hands off of me Joel!”

  I wasn’t expecting the strength of the refusal and I did as she asked. Cameron wasn’t ready for it and she leaned into the wall to stop herself from falling. I was trying to figure out what it was that I was doing trying to help her. It was
obvious that she didn’t want my help, even though she needed it and I was getting more and more irate with her.

  When I tried to help her again, she pushed against me and sent herself into the wall again. It was funny to see, but I knew that I was going to have to do something. Picking her up, I ignored her protests and started up the stairs with her. Even though she was squirming in my arms, I could smell her perfume filling my nostrils. She smelled as good as she looked and I felt a tightening in my pants. Why was I always attracted to the difficult ones?

  “Put me down!”

  We were up the two flights of stairs and she wasn’t that far from her door. I didn’t do what she wanted immediately, when we were in front of her door, I finally put her down. She swayed and I let the wall help prop her up.

  “Do you need any help getting inside?” I was more than willing to help her to bed if that meant I would get to relieve myself of the perceived duty that I had. I was trying to become more like my cousin that just didn’t care, but it was harder than I thought when it came to certain people.

  “I don’t need your help Joel. I told you that I was fine.”

  Not believing her, I waited for her to fumble with her keys and then I just grabbed them and slid the key in for her. Neither one of us was going to get any sleep the ways she was going about it all and it was hard to be around her when I knew that my attention wasn’t wanted.

  “There. Now I am going to go back to sleep now. If you decide to go anywhere, don’t. You are too drunk to be walking around.”

  “You can’t tell me what to do.”

  She was being childish and the slur in her voice made it a little more entertaining to me. I just shook my head and walked away. All I was trying to do was help her and I was learning that no good deed ever goes unpunished and this was one of those times.

  Going down the stairs slowly, I looked up once to see that Cameron had made it into her apartment. I hadn’t seen much of the inside, but it was far more put together than she was at that time. Was I the reason that she was so drunk? Our altercation earlier had bothered me, but I liked the idea better that it may have bothered her as well.

  Stripping off the jeans that I had thrown on when I had thought there was something going on in the hallway I laid back down and stared up at the ceiling. I didn’t want the unnamed woman that was next to me. I asked myself the same question that I had since I arrived in New Orleans. What was I doing here? Was I really ever going to get to start over fresh and if I was, would it be here? I just wasn’t sure and before I could think much more into it, my mind went to Cameron. While it was clear that she didn’t want anything to do with me, I was sure that I was going to be able to change her mind.

  It was just going to take a while to convince her. I wasn’t very patient, but I always got my way and this time was going to be no different. Like Carlos had told me so long ago, if you really want something, you just have to take it. Cameron was someone that I really wanted and I was going to do everything that I had to, to get her. It wasn’t a question of if I was going to get her, the real question was when.

  Chapter 3

  Cameron

  I woke up with a groggy head and I couldn’t even think straight. It took me a minute to remember why I felt this way. I had way too much to drink when I went out with Carol and more than that, my body was sore from all of the gyrating. I didn’t want to think about what all I did, but I knew I was going to have to. Carol was most likely going to tell me about it when I talked to her later. It felt like it had been an embarrassing night for me and I remembered kissing some bald guy that I was dancing with.

  Getting out of bed, I made some coffee and waited for the slow drip to wake me up. I looked at the clock and I at least had woken up in time for work. I hadn’t even bothered with the alarm clock and even though it was Saturday, I still had to go into work for a while.

  The coffee had me feeling a little bit better, but as soon as the night before started to come into focus, I was more aghast than I would have thought. Not only had I kissed some random guy at the club, but if I remembered correctly, the apartment manager had to let me in because I couldn’t figure out which key it was that I needed to get in the front door. Even worse, he had carried me up the stairs like a damsel in distress. In my drunken stupor, I remembered how I felt in his arms and I knew that it was a good feeling. Why had he helped me though? That I just didn’t understand.

  I didn’t have time to worry about it because all of my musing was eating up time that I needed for other things. I jumped in the shower and washed off the body glitter that had rubbed off on me from God only knew where. Getting dressed, my head was still a little weird feeling, but the shower had made me feel a little bit better. I wasn’t looking for everything to be better, so with less pounding in my head, I was just going to take that as a good thing and go with it.

  Leaving the house, I looked around, hoping that Joel wasn’t up on the second floor. While I knew that I was going to see him around, today was not the day that I wanted to see him at all. I was going to have to say something, but right then I didn’t think I could take his verbal sparring.

  Making it out of the building without running into him, I sighed in relief. It was short lived though because the next thing I know, I almost literally ran into him in the parking garage.

  “Sorry.”

  “Are you still drunk?”

  My defenses went up because I was so embarrassed from before. “No, I am not drunk.”

  He put his hands up like I had a gun and backed up a little bit. “Sorry, you just seemed to be a little out of it and most of the time that I have seen you, you were drunk.”

  It was most likely true. I had been so worried about him, that I had literally almost run into him. What was this guy doing to me?

  “No, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to be snippy with you. Thank you for helping me last night. I appreciate it.”

  “Well I am surprised you remembered. You were about three sheets to the wind. If I would have known that you partied like that, you could have come over last night when I had a few people over. There were lots of other women from the area here.”

  The last thing that I would have wanted to do was go to his house for anything. I knew that he was most likely the type to have a party that I would have never been caught dead in. I didn’t live the way he obviously lived. I had seen what or who had come out of his apartment early in the morning. “Thanks but I really don’t drink like that. I don’t know what got into me last night.”

  I was trying to side step him, but the man was not going to budge. He just had this look on his face that drove me a little crazy. He enjoyed making me feel this way, I was sure of it.

  “Thanks again Joel, but I am going to be late for work.”

  “Where does a pretty thing like you work?”

  “Not too far from here at an accounting firm.”

  “You guys work on Saturday? Seems like such a waste to work away your weekend when you could be having fun.”

  I shook my head that we did and looked at my watch. I was going to be late if I didn’t leave soon. There was always something that sidetracked me from where I was going and I hated to be late.

  “Yeah, most Saturdays, though I don’t think I like to have the same kind of fun that you do.”

  He didn’t say much for a moment and I waited to see what it was that was on his mind. You could tell there was something that he was thinking about and I wondered what it was. I felt like I was waiting an eternity for his words, but none came forth.

  “Have a good day Cameron. I guess I will see you around, hopefully it won’t be at the door when you are drunk at two in the morning.”

  I was a little disappointed as he started to walk away. I don’t know why I was, but there was a moment where I wanted to stop him and say something. I didn’t have a clue what to say though and I knew that I shouldn’t say anything, not after what happened the day before. I was just going to be better off steering clear of the
man, no matter how hard it was going to be living in the same building as him.

  ***

  Getting home, it was almost three and I was tired. The drinking from the night before had made me feel tired and foggy most of the day and I was thankful to see the apartment building. My eyes scanned the garage, half expecting to see Joel there. He wasn’t and surprisingly it was a little disappointing when I didn’t see him. I told myself that I didn’t want to see the arrogant man that had picked me up like a sack of potatoes and thrown me over his shoulder the night before, but I did. I wasn’t sure why, but it didn’t change the fact of the matter I felt drawn to him.

  When I saw him inside of the building, I pretended that I didn’t notice him and walked past him without saying a word. He looked good and his shirt was off again. I couldn’t help but see the small trickle of sweat that was coming down the hard, tanned abs. Pulling my gaze away before I was caught, I stopped at the base of the stairs when I heard his voice.

  “How was work Cameron?”

  I shrugged and told him that it was fine. I waited for a heartbeat for him to say something more and realizing that I wanted to keep talking to him, I asked how his day was.

  “Hot.”

  His answer made me look at his sweaty body and I could tell that he was hot. I could also tell that I liked him that way. He was far too handsome for me to ignore and it took everything in me to pull my eyes away again. Did he know how badly I wanted to touch the ripples on his chest?

  “Well you have a good night Joel.”

  “Where are you going?”

  I was already up to the fourth step when I turned around to answer him. It was rather clear in my eyes where I was going. “Up to make some dinner I guess. It is too hot to do much of anything else.”

  “We are going to the beach later to have a bonfire and drink some beer, you want to come with and have some real fun for once?”