Rodeo Rancher

by Lauren Wood

  Nicole opened up the box and saw the piece of puzzle. She stared at it for a moment and then looked up to him to see that he was holding the very box that held the rest of those puzzle pieces. “I have so many questions. I know that you don’t want me to say anything, but I don’t know if I can keep quiet.” She had found the strength to shake herself from the shock of having that window blow up in front of her face. “I can’t believe that you are my secret admirer. I am glad that you finally came clean, but now I have more questions than answers.” “I don’t want him to go, but he seems a little bit too dangerous to even consider a future with. It might be best that I just cut ties cleanly and walk away before things get too messy.”

  Nicole could feel the cool wind of the night air tickling her skin and making the hairs on her arms rise with that sensation. She looked at him for some kind of explanation, but was bitterly aware that he really didn’t want to talk about it.

  “I’m sorry that I was a little secretive about my affections for you. From the moment that I met you, I knew that I needed to get to know you. I also thought it might be fun to keep you guessing, until the very last moment. It wasn’t fair of your boss to take away that choice for you. I’m not very happy that he kept those letters to himself, until he thought it best that you know about my overtures. I thought the letters were poignant and romantic, but maybe he took them for something else.” Royce had found a way to change the subject, even though Caleb was very much on his mind.

  “I think that you should have been man enough to come to me in person. I will admit that I did enjoy having a secret admirer. Every girl dreams of something like that, but very rarely do they ever get to experience it. You made me feel like I was in a movie and maybe it might be a chick flick, but it starred the both of us.” “I look at the box in his hand and the puzzle is that of two hearts split down the middle. I’m not sure if he’s trying to tell me that I’m destined for heartbreak or if I hold a piece of his heart. I can’t get that image of the gun out of my mind. It scared me and made me tremble and not in a good way. He’s obviously worried about something, but he doesn’t give me the respect of telling me what it is.”

  Nicole didn’t want to believe the worst or that she was wasting her time with a man that couldn’t be tamed. She was kind of thrilled to learn that he was her secret admirer, but the thrill was short lived by the look of the gun and the way that it menacingly moved back and forth in a negative light.

  “I want you to know that I will never let anything happen to you. I will shelter you with my body like a human shield. I don’t want you to think that it will come to that. All I’m saying is that your well being is the most important thing to me. I’ve never felt like this with any other girl and I think that you’re slowly getting an inkling of why I have kept most of my relationships professional. I’m just a little sad that this didn’t happen five years ago.” He still couldn’t believe that five years had gone by like that. He thought that he was flying like those clouds in the sky. He couldn’t even fathom to think that one day all of this would be gone in the blink of an eye.

  “I know what you’re trying to say and I appreciate the sentiment. It’s just that I don’t think that I can handle this kind of drama. I was hoping for something a lot more simple and easy. I’m through playing games and I was hoping that I had found someone that was exactly like me. These puzzle pieces were sweet and had an innocent quality to them, but I see now that you were only trying to mark your territory. It might be best that you take me home.” “I want to tell him that I don’t want to go home. I want to go back to his place and burn the sheets up, until they are twisted around us in a misshapen form. I want to feel his body pressed up against me and to have that bed, as the perfect way to seal the kind of love that we share together. He’s too much to handle and if he can’t be truthful with me, then why am I even bothering.”

  Instead of arguing, he motioned for the driver. He whispered through the partition that they were to return to her place of residence.

  The driver was still trying to shake the cobwebs from having his head slammed into the steering wheel. He had a small gash on his forehead, but it was barely a scratch in relation to how bad it could’ve been. He could’ve easily lost control of the vehicle and flipped over repeatedly. He was glad that he was able to bring the vehicle to a stop without any catastrophic injuries to him or his passengers.

  “I know that I have given you a lot to think about. I would love to say that you have all the time in the world to make up your mind, but I can’t do that. Tomorrow morning, I will return and I hope that you will see things clearer in the light of day. I want this, but I don’t think that the man that you will ultimately end up with is going to be your dream man. I can’t go into detail. I will be able to tell you everything, but not until 24 hours has gone by. I know how strange that might sound, but I’m asking you to bear with me. It will all make sense, but whether you stay with me in another matter altogether.” He took her hand and placed it up against his chest to let her know that the beating of his heart was courtesy of her being with him.

  Chapter 2

  Nicole sat there and wondered what to say. She could tell that he was anxiously awaiting her response. “My head is swimming and I really don’t know what to think. I will give you tomorrow morning to explain yourself. I’ll decide if what you say makes any sense and if I really want to make things work between us. You probably don’t know this about me, but I do like mysteries. I always find myself drawn to those stories that keep me on the edge of my seat. I just never thought that I was going to be living one.” “I want to believe that we have a chance, but everything that I have seen is to the contrary. He has all of this money and all of this power. He thinks that is the only thing that is important to me, but I wouldn’t care if he was a man that couldn’t rub two pennies together. I don’t know why men think that money and power is more important than compassion and love. I guess he doesn’t know everything and maybe it’s about time that I teach him a thing or two about what makes a relationship work. Then again, I really don’t know that answer myself and I was hoping that we could find our way together.”

  “I appreciate your patience and I do hope that I can be worthy of that. You are that woman that every man is looking for. You are that meaning of compassion and of that love that keeps me wondering if I shouldn’t just let you go. I want to, but there’s no way that I can without feeling this ache in my chest. I would lose myself without you. I didn’t know that, until precisely this moment.” He wanted to tell her everything, but he had been sworn to secrecy with a penalty of having a very high price to pay. He may have had only 24 hours to make things right, but that would have to be more than enough.

  “I hope that you don’t think that I’m being difficult, Royce. Learning that you are my secret admirer and having that man threaten us with harm is a little bit more than my mental capacity can take. I will say that the sex was phenomenal. I will be replaying that over and over again in my mind tonight. I doubt very seriously that I will get much sleep and that’s courtesy of you and this insane thing that you have going on.” “He probably thinks that I would leave him, if I know the truth, but I don’t think that there’s anything that he could say that would change the way that I feel about him. He’s that unpolished jewel that just needs the right woman to come along to give him that shine. I want to be that one woman in his life that will make him feel like he’s a better man. I want to be the one to take care of him and for him to take care of me. That is what every person on this planet strives to find.”

  Royce couldn’t let Caleb ruin the one thing that he had found that was better than all these five years. He couldn’t deny that the money and the power was something that he didn’t want to be without. He could only hope that he could talk his way out with Caleb, but he was aware that Caleb was not a man that would do things out of the goodness of his heart. He had always had a motive to his madness, even if it wasn’t completely clear to those that he dealt
with on a daily basis.

  “You don’t know how much I want to be honest with you. It hurts me to think that you would even consider walking away from all of this. My heart breaks knowing that I am putting you through something like this. If I were a better man, I would let you walk out those doors and never see me again. You are my superstar and the one woman that has never been in my life. I’m really not good for you, but that won’t stop me from trying to show you that I can change for the better.” He wanted to believe the words that were coming out of his mouth, but this kind of money had changed him and he wasn’t sure, if he wanted to go back to the man that he was.

  “I have been courted by many men, but only you have made me think that men are not all pigs and only after one thing. I can’t say that I’m not pleased by the attention that you have given me. Your way of seduction is hard to resist and believe me it has nothing to do with the limousine and everything to do with the man.” I wanted him again, but I wasn’t going to do anything, until he shed some light on all of this. He was willing, but something was preventing him from opening his mouth and spilling the beans.”

  “I’m going to leave you with this one thought. I believe that the world is a vampire set to drain the very life from our bones. When someone comes along with a lifeline, it’s hard to refuse. You know that you’re making a mistake and that it will come back to haunt you, but at the time it makes sense. I really don’t know where I would be, if I hadn’t done what I did five years ago. I’m not going to go into a lengthy discussion, because he probably has ears everywhere.” Despite his misgivings, he had given in to something that he knew was wrong. He saw the smug look on Caleb’s face and the way that he held out the pen in his hand. He knew by taking it that he had signed his life away and all for the chance to become something that he wasn’t.

  She stepped out of the limousine taking that walk of fame and wondering if what he had to say would make her love him even more or hate him till the day that she died. She was shaking at the very notion that his words could stain the love that she felt for him. “I feel like I am a rat in a cage with nowhere to go. He dangles a piece of cheese in my face and he expects me to jump when I’m called. I don’t know if I can live like that, but I don’t know if I can live without him.”

  Royce put his hand against her cheek finding her laying back against it with her eyes closed and a sigh of contentment coming from her lips. “Tonight might have made no sense, but trust me tomorrow is another day. I will ask you one favor and that is to give me a chance. I also need you to pack a bag and be ready to leave this life behind in the rearview mirror.” He saw the shock on your face and the very notion of leaving and not looking back was not a promising start to their relationship. “I don’t want to scare you, but that man cannot be trusted, as far as I can throw him. I have this feeling that having relations with him was the worst mistake of my life. Do you think that you can trust me enough to walk away? Do you think that you can come with me on an adventure that will always have you guessing?”

  “I’m not sure that I can give you an answer right now. I will say that I’m not opposed to leaving and starting over somewhere fresh. There is really nothing here that is tying me down. I don’t think that Tony would be very surprised, if I were to disappear one day. He knows that I’m too good to be some bar jockey.” “There are times that I feel like giving up, but this is not one of those times. I will try to keep an open mind and hope that he’s not some kind of axe murderer on the lam from the authorities. There are very few things that can make me forget about who we are together, but there are also those things that are unforgivable.”

  Royce wanted to sweep her up off her feet and carry her into her home. He would lay her down gently and peel away the innocence with her hands handcuffed to the headboard, while he used her, as his own personal playground of pleasure. He could tell that she was open and ready to experience all that there was to the kinky side of sex. Her lust was unbound in the limo and the way that they immersed into the pleasures of the flesh was not for the faint of heart.

  He looked down at his phone and was stunned that this man would have the gall to make this kind of request. He couldn’t say no, but now he had to convince Nicole that she had to see this through to the end. “I told you that I would have some answers, but it would appear that the man himself wants to say his peace. Both of us will be here tomorrow morning and I do hope that you are ready for what he has to say. He wants me to stay out of it and let you make up your mind on your own. You may think that I like to play games, but I don’t even come close to what he’s capable of.” Royce didn’t even wanna say his name.

  “I really don’t want to see him again. If it’s that important to you, then I will begrudgingly agree.” “This guy sounds like a piece of work and Royce is probably right about not trusting him. He obviously has some sort of agenda or maybe he just gets a sick thrill out of playing with people’s lives. I don’t know, but I guess I’m going to find out in short order. I’m kind of looking forward to hearing what all of this is about. I’m putting the pieces together, but they really don’t fit.” “I thought that I might not get much sleep tonight, but now I know that I’m not even going to get a wink. He had laid a lot on my shoulders. If he were anybody else, I would tell them to go to hell.”

  There was a light drizzle and Royce had taken off his coat and draped it over her head. It was over both of their heads and getting wet did not concern Royce. He had more things to worry about than having to take a shower or comb his hair back to make it look like he was more presentable. There was not a hair out of place and that came from a hairdresser that really did know what they were doing. It was a small expense and one that he could afford for now.

  “I can’t get over how beautiful you are in the moonlight. I wouldn’t blame you in the very least to run screaming into the night. I think that it has come, as a surprise to me that you have made me feel this deeply for you. I kind of hate you for that, but I also know that I could never be mad at you for long. I’ve never been one to lose control, but seeing you face to face is a lot more unnerving than I expected. I thought that everything would fall into place. I might have stood a chance had Cal…that man not come back into my life.”

  “I thought that I died alone a long time ago, but then you recharged my heart and made it beat again. You opened up my eyes and made me see that life didn’t have to be this mundane existence. I may have walked away from a lot of money, but I think that I made the right decision for myself. I didn’t need the constant hassle or that feeling of something laying heavily on my chest. I regret to tell you that I have that feeling right now. I hope that tomorrow morning you can take that away.” “It doesn’t have to be this way, but he insists on making it more difficult than it has to be. I don’t know much about this man that I’m going to meet tomorrow morning, but I’m really not looking forward to it. If he is capable of smashing out the window of the limousine and placing the gun inside with the express purpose of scaring us out of our wits, then I don’t really want anything do with him. I’m only doing this for him and I don’t think that I could say that about anybody else.”

  “I know that you said that you won’t be able to get some sleep, but you are really going to need your rest. The bombshell that is going to drop into your lap is something that will shock you. I do want you to remember to take anything that he says with a grain of salt. He likes to embellish and to make you think something that isn’t true. I got caught in his trap and I hope to god that you don’t find yourself in that same position. I actually hope to god that nobody else is subjected to his whims. I have this feeling that I’m not the only one that has crossed paths with him.” He wrapped his hands around her waist feeling her hot body and wanting nothing more than to have a moment in the rain.

  This moment was more PG rated, when he wanted more of an x rated version. He could only imagine what her skin would look like with droplets of water cascading down her body. He wanted to trace each of those dro
ps with his tongue to ignite the fire that had been extinguished.

  “I’ll try, but I’m not sure if I can promise anything. You should also go home and get some rest. I would ask you in, but that would be a guarantee of neither one of us getting any sleep. I’m not sure that would be a bad thing, but I get this feeling I’m going to have to be ready.” “I see the worry on his face and I just hope that he’s making more of this than it has to be. It’s going to be interesting to hear the truth.

  Chapter 3

  Nicole did get about 2 hours of sleep, but it was the caffeine that she was drinking out on a balcony that was making the most difference. There was a chill in the air, but she couldn’t feel it. She was staring out at the horizon and the way the sun was coming up to announce another day. She was anxious to hear the knock on her door, but she was also hesitant to open it.

  The rest of the night had gone very slowly. She’d never had a night go by that way. She had looked at the clock to see that only a minute had passed each time. She tried to occupy her mind with a book or even late night television, but it was to no avail. “I feel jittery and it has nothing to do with the caffeine running through my veins. I feel like I’m about to open up that door and reveal that was Royce has told me was nothing but lies. I know that what he feels to me is real, but everything else is this face that he puts on for the rest of the world. I’ve seen small moments that he lets me in, but then he closes that door, as quickly as he cracks it open. I tried to stick my foot into the opening and to wedge my way into his heart. I think for the most part I have accomplished that.”

  The world that she loved was the one that was with Royce. She believed that communication was the key to any good relationship. Friendship can turn into love, as long as there was trust and honesty amongst those that cared for each other.