A Rancher's Dangerous Affair

As David and Jillian left the bar, Eliza turned to him, still crying. Brandon took her into his arms, all his conviction to stay away from her vanishing. She buried her head against his chest and cried while everyone in the bar watched. In grade school some boys had bullied her and he’d comforted her after chasing them away. Now she was a grown woman with grown-woman tears pouring out of her.

Would she be this upset if she didn’t love his brother? He hoped she did. How terrible would it be if David was right about them? Seeing her for the first time in years had struck him intensely. More intensely than he’d anticipated. He thought he was long over her. Seeing her stirred up too much old chemistry.

Sparing her any more of this public display, Brandon guided her outside. At his truck, he lifted her onto the seat, her legs over the side. He brushed her heavy, silky dark brown hair away from her face. It fell back down, swooping across her face. He tipped her chin up a bit.

She sniffled and those sad eyes met his. “He doesn’t think our marriage is real.”

Was it? Brandon would have guessed not. But Eliza obviously had believed it was. Despite her unspoken motive to make Brandon jealous or otherwise regretful for ever letting her go, she’d intended to stay with David. Maybe she really did love him.

“He’s been drinking. People say things they don’t really mean when they drink.”

“I should have known better,” she said. “I shouldn’t have married him.” She wiped tears from one cheek and then the other.

He wished she hadn’t married him. None of this would be happening if she hadn’t. “It was a little impulsive.”

She wiped another tear with the back of her hand. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”

Was that why she was crying? Her sweet sincerity cracked his resolve. He was tall enough to be eye level with her. He touched her damp cheek and let his hand rest on her shoulder, wanting to comfort her.

“I’ll talk to him tomorrow.” He’d set him straight.

With his deep murmur, Eliza’s sniffling stopped and she blinked away the last of her tears. “You will?” Her gaze drifted softly over his face.

“Of course.”

She was his brother’s wife, and he’d do all he could not to get between them. Looking into her blue eyes, the energy shifted. He slid his hand to the base of her head. In the warmth of the moment, she leaned closer. Relentless desire made him close the distance.

Their lips melded together, slow and tender. She ran her fingers into his hair, and he both heard and felt her breath.

He wrapped his free hand around her waist and pressed her torso closer. She responded by parting her legs to make more room for him. He kissed her harder, fisting some of her hair and tugging her head back so that he could kiss her neck.

“Brandon.”

He wanted her so much. Kissing her mouth again, he drank in the sound of his name.

Headlights shone as a car passed in the street.

Brandon pulled back. Eliza’s beautiful eyes were droopy with desire. Her breasts were crushed against his chest. His hardness lodged against the heat between her legs.

“Damn it,” he hissed, pushing back and walking to the front of his truck, where he paused to pound the hood and lean over with his hands braced there, head bent, furious with his loss of control.

How could he vow to talk sense into his brother one second and get between the same brother’s wife’s legs the next? This persistent attraction had to stop. And yet he felt powerless in its grasp. When he was kissing Eliza, the world retreated to an untouchable place.

He lifted his head and saw Eliza watching him, her hand over her mouth, equally appalled.

Having showered and dressed more than an hour ago, Eliza sat curled in a chair near one of the windows in the guest room. There was a beautiful view of a rolling, tree-lined pasture through the giant bedroom window. Cattle grazed beneath a partly cloudy sky. The scene of such peace clashed with the confusion singeing her on the inside.

David hadn’t come back to the ranch last night. It was after lunch already. He was probably still with Jillian. Punishing his wife and brother.

And how could she fault him? Twice now she’d kissed Brandon. She hadn’t been back in Vengeance three days and already she was carousing with another man. David didn’t know what she’d done. He didn’t have to. He accused her of being stuck on his brother. She was, in a way, but things were different now. And then not. Brandon still wouldn’t want her, but Eliza wasn’t an over-the-moon adolescent anymore.

While she didn’t fully understand why Brandon had allowed the second kiss to happen, the way he’d looked at her through the windshield of his truck would be permanently scorched into her memory. One more to add to the fantasy that was Brandon. He desired her. Passion had never been their shortcoming. But what they’d done was wrong. David was Brandon’s brother.

Would David even care? He wanted an annulment. Their marriage hadn’t meant enough to him to call it a divorce, and she had no right to be angry with him.

Their marriage was going sour because of her Brandon fantasies. For years she hadn’t been able to keep them away. Every once in a while they transported her to a fictional world, one where he was with her. She secretly yearned for him. Everybody wanted what they couldn’t have, right? That was her only problem. Had it truly led to the poor state of her marriage? She found it difficult to accept.

There had to be more to it than just her. David had cheated on her. The disrespect he’d shown her by having sex with another woman less than six months into their marriage hinted at deeper problems. Eliza hadn’t had an affair with Brandon and she wouldn’t.

Even as the thought came, the truth taunted her. Both times she’d kissed Brandon, the invitation for sweet passion had ruled. David had not entered her conscience, not even the peripheries of it. And his declaration to seek an annulment hadn’t pained her much. Her failure in marriage had. So had the cause of David’s change of heart.

Other than an ego wound, his infidelity didn’t hurt her. What hurt her was the truth behind why she’d married him. She’d entertained the possibility that doing so would get back at Brandon for rejecting her. It hadn’t seemed so big back then, just an innocent triumph, one only she would enjoy. Now it rocked her, how shallow she’d become. That she would minimize marriage so much. Six months ago, she’d rationalized that it was better than loving someone who didn’t love her back. And David had the added bonus of being Brandon’s brother, the next best thing to perfection. Except he’d turned out to be far less.

That pained her. She truly hadn’t meant to hurt him. She hadn’t really believed her feelings for him mattered that much. As long as he loved her it would be enough.

She’d been mistaken. Kissing Brandon proved it. The deep, raw feelings he stirred were so much more powerful than they had been years ago. That frightened her like nothing else could. Love had to be reciprocated, and Brandon would never feel the way she did for him, now or ever. He wouldn’t allow it.

She was in a loveless marriage, still yearning for a man she could never have. It was disheartening, not having the ability to lock him out of her heart, move on without him, forget him forever. Be happy. As always, happiness eluded her. Her company filled that void. Her success. Her popularity. Marrying David was supposed to be fun, like running her company was. What a fool she’d been.

Despondent, she got up from the chair. She had to do something. She couldn’t keep waiting for David to return so that she could face the pitiful demise of her faux marriage.

Outside, she headed for the stable. She’d been gazing at this beautiful land all morning. It was time to explore.

The stable was empty, but there were horses in separated corrals. A pretty palomino whinnied and bobbed her head, white-streaked mane flowing. Eliza brought the communicative mare into the stable to saddle her. When her father had been alive, they had lived on a farm. Eliza missed those hardworking days when nothing plagued her, when the world was full of optimism and death was something that happened to other people.

As she climbed atop the big horse, it dawned on her that she hadn’t been riding since her father had died. Reining the well-trained palomino out of the stable, she headed for the emerald hills of Brandon’s ranch.

When the ranch buildings disappeared from view and she topped another hill, she stopped the palomino. In the valley below, Brandon finished closing a pasture gate; the cattle he’d just herded with two of his ranch hands were inside. The clouds overhead were gathering into what might develop into a thunderstorm. Eliza considered turning back.

Brandon saw her just before he mounted his big red horse. Saying something to the two other men, he reined his horse in her direction. The two other men rode away in another direction. It was probably too early to quit for the day, so he was probably going to catch up with them after he talked to her.

Eliza wasn’t sure how he’d feel about her taking the liberty of riding one of his horses without asking. She was too impulsive to wait for permission.

Watching him send his horse into a gallop as he approached, Eliza felt a surge of anxiety. It wasn’t wise to be alone with him in any setting. as he drew nearer she saw his flat-lined mouth. Was he annoyed? Had he approached her out of courtesy?

His horse blew out a long breath of air as he stopped beside Eliza and her horse. The way his gaze wandered all over her wasn’t deliberate. It seemed involuntary.

“I forgot you grew up on a farm,” he said.

He’d forgotten her, so that didn’t surprise her. “I’ll take care of her when we get back.” And had he said that to cover up his unwanted interest?

“Willow is one of my best horses. She loves to get out and run.”

Eliza smiled. “I can tell.” She patted the mare’s neck and received an answering bob of her head along with a nicker.

He watched her, fondness for her practiced ease on a horse smoothing out his mouth into an ever-so-slight curve of amusement. “You look good on her.”

“Minus riding pants.” She extended her leg a little to show him her fashionably holey jeans and expensive loafers.

He chuckled, at home on his land and at peace. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him this relaxed before. Riding in nature did that for her, too. It had been too long.

“As long as you’re out, I might as well show you around.” He turned his horse.

Ignoring the nagging voice in her head that warned of the temptation driving them both to do something they’d regret, Eliza prodded Willow forward to walk beside Brandon. “What’s there to see other than a bunch of cows?”

He feigned insult. “Those are prime-grade Wagyu and Angus cattle.”

“I’ll remember that the next time I eat steak at the Prime House.” The restaurant was the kind that would meticulously age the meat bought from ranchers like Brandon.

Nothing but the sounds of the horses walking leisurely along, the squeak of leather saddles and chirping birds passed for a few strides.

“Where’s David?” Brandon finally asked. “I didn’t want to wake him this morning.”

“He isn’t back yet.” She was careful not to look at him, instead trying hard to stay immersed in the beauty that surrounded her.

“He’s not?” Worry laced his tone.

Maybe she should be, too. “He must still be with Jillian.”

Brandon took some time to think. “I’ve never known him to cheat on a woman.”

Only now had he taken up that pastime. With her. “That’s nice. He cheats on me and no one else.”

“He’s never been married before.”

“Oh, well there you go… . That explains it.” She let her hand slap gently down onto her thigh, the motion triggering Willow into a trot. “Whoa.” She pulled on the reins, slowing the frisky palomino into a walk.

“You both rushed into it.”

A blunt explanation and an accurate one. She almost thanked him for including David. “It would have worked if he’d have stayed faithful.”

“Maybe.”

“I was committed.”

He glanced at her, doubtful and then not. Uncertain. Because of their kisses. She hadn’t been committed then, had she? If she could kiss Brandon the way she had, how could she say she was committed to a marriage with his brother? Is that what he’d concluded after last night?

“He would have stayed closer to home if he had a wife who wanted the same,” Brandon said.

“I did.”

He didn’t believe her.

“Everything would have been fine if we hadn’t come here,” she told his frowning profile.

“Stay away from his family? That’s no marriage.”

That made her mad. She wasn’t the only one to blame for this. “I didn’t ask for a cheating husband, and I wasn’t the only one involved in our kissing.”

“No, but you didn’t want commitment, either.”

Her jaw dropped down. “You’re not being very nice.”

“You didn’t. You never did.”

“Commitment? Of course I did.” He had gall saying that, the king of isolation.

She listened to the horses’ hooves crunching over a dry, rocky patch. Anything to keep her cool.

“You’re committed to event planning. A husband is only a prop to you.”

She couldn’t believe this. “Not everyone finds true love. You of all people should know that.”

He turned his head toward her, more of a pounce with that direct gaze. “Your events are a surrogate to true love. You never give it a chance.”

“I gave you a chance,” she shot back. And look at the reward she got for that.

“I didn’t have a chance in hell with you.”

Taken aback, she stared at him, unable to zero in on just one comeback. What was he saying? That he’d have loved her if she hadn’t put so much energy into event planning? That was ridiculous.

“If I hadn’t walked away, you would have,” he said.

Once again, his words rang true. At the time he’d walked, their relationship had reached a feverish pitch. Overwhelming, powerful emotion had gripped them. She could never get enough of him and could sense him struggling with the same. It had frightened her as much as it had frightened him. They were young and didn’t know what to do with so much feeling.

But he attributed her partying to their demise. “What was I supposed to do? Not make a living?”

“I’m not saying it didn’t work well for you. It did.”

Work well for her?

“I just wish you would have chosen someone other than my brother to fill the void in your personal life, what there is of it.”

The way he said it came across as harmless, the sound of his casual voice, the way he looked out across the land, a satisfied man on a ride. All the while his meaning hit hard. She was about to lay into him, then stopped herself. That note had been painfully accurate. So had David when he’d said he wanted an annulment. They’d both made a mistake getting married.

“You don’t know anything about my personal life before I married David,” she said quietly.

“I don’t mean to judge you. I just call it the way I see it.”

And for the most part he was right. The irrational side of her unwilling to agree, she faced forward. He termed it wrong. Filling a void wasn’t what anyone aspired for when seeking a life partner. Some found love with less trouble than others, stumbled into it. Some searched doggedly and found it. No matter how, they found it. Eliza hadn’t been so lucky. She’d thought she’d found her true love the first time Brandon had kissed her. To discover Brandon hadn’t felt the same had been the shock of her life. She’d been so sure. And He’d turned on her. He’d abandoned her.

She had no animosity toward him. He’d been totally honest back then. He’d told her the truth. She’d dated many men after him. It was the ones who lied to escape a relationship that were the worst experiences, the ones she wished she could erase from memory. Men like that were too conceited. They treated her as if the truth would hurt more, as if losing them was so terrible. What was wrong with just saying they weren’t interested? It happened. She’d had no interest in some of the men she’d dated, too. That’s why men and women dated. To find the perfect match.

Maybe that was why she could never get over Brandon. He had a true, pure heart. He had honor and integrity. Even when he was fooling himself into solitude, he was a man to respect.

She looked over at him, her gaze drifting down his trim and muscular shoulders and arms, to flat abs and thick thighs straddling the horse. The candy that was always out of reach, denied her. She was denied her perfect match. All the men she’d wanted hadn’t wanted her. Brandon had been one of those men, one who didn’t want her. That was why she’d agreed to marry David. Didn’t he see that?

“I was ready to share my life with a man when David came along,” she finally said. She’d given up on finding her perfect match.

“Were you?” In her peripheral vision she was aware of him turning his head, waiting patiently for her to respond.

“Yes.”

“You married my brother.” Disbelief dripped from his tone.

She’d married David to fill a void and to spite Brandon. Because she wasn’t over him. She’d never be over him. So, yes, parties were a surrogate to love. If he couldn’t see the real and true reason for that, then she wasn’t going to explain it to him.

Lightning flashed and thunder followed not long after.

“I think you’re running from it,” Brandon said, briefly noticing the lightning.

From love? She returned her gaze to him. “That’s priceless coming from you.”

“I’m not confused over what I want.”

“Yeah, well, love isn’t what you want.”

“I’ll take love—if it’s right.”

“What’s right for you, Brandon? Someone who doesn’t challenge you? Someone who won’t pry you off this land, even for a night out?”

“I go out.”

“You’re so quick to ridicule me for making a career out of party planning—look at you. You’ve made a career out of being a loner. There’s no bridge over the moat around your cold heart. No wonder Jillian turned to your brother. I bet she wasn’t the first one!”

“Jillian didn’t turn to him.”

“Why was she with him then?” She was probably still with him. “She doesn’t have to sleep with him, or even love him, to use him to get to you.”

“Sounds just like you, except you slept with David.”

Eliza stopped arguing, stunned that he’d voiced his jealousy.

“Yeah, it bothered me that you married him.”

“Why?”

He scowled at her as though she should know.

She didn’t. How could she? Unless he still had feelings for her. And Eliza could not allow herself one crumb of hope that he did. She could not endure another heartbreak over him. The original one was still wreaking havoc on her life.

An outbuilding came into view. It was a yurt, and not just any yurt. It was designed much like a cottage, a warm and welcoming refuge in bad weather. With a quick check on the sky, she wondered if they were going to need it. There was even a small barn for horses. The charm went against her perception of Brandon. To her he was a hard worker with a great capacity for love that he shut himself off to. Why did he shy away from love so much? There had to be a reason.

She dismounted near the stream and let Willow drink. Brandon did the same.

“How come you never got married, anyway?” Willow’s ears twitched with the sound of her voice and her whiskers moved as she drank.

“I haven’t met the right one.”

Such a simple answer, one that stung but also didn’t dig deep enough into the truth. “Have you ever thought you were close?”

“Why do you ask?” he sounded wary.

Thunder rolled in the sky again. Willow lifted her head and perked her ears.

“You accuse me of using parties as a surrogate. I’m just curious as to what your excuse is.”

“I have none.”

When he didn’t meet her eyes and instead scanned the land ahead, Eliza was sure she was onto something. Something about love scared him. It made her think of the day her dad had died.

She’d been a sophomore in high school. Ryker had come to her classroom and interrupted the teacher, telling her it was an emergency. Several possibilities sprang to mind, none of them involving her father in a tractor accident. Their dog had died. A horse had been seriously injured. One of her grandparents had fallen to old age. Never had it crossed her mind that either of her parents had died.

She’d gone with Ryker to the hospital, only to find their mother hysterical and in tears. She’d had to be sedated. The next week had been surreal. The funeral. Her mother’s grief-stricken lethargy. her sorrow had been all-encompassing. Eliza and Ryker had talked about their concern. Would she die, too?

Ryker had stepped in and taken care of her from the start. He’d taken care of his little sister, too. She could imagine the burden that had caused. She also had seen how the deepest love could destroy a person. Seeing the destruction of her mother’s heart and soul, Eliza had feared falling in love. After Brandon had rejected her, she’d sworn off it altogether.

Had Brandon experienced something similar in his past? Remembering his mother had committed suicide when he and David were young boys, she wondered if that had played any kind of role in influencing him as a man. He’d grown up with only a father, one who’d gone to prison. What had his mother’s life been like in those early years?

“Why did your mother kill herself?” she asked.

He swung his head to look at her, no doubt wondering where that question had come from. That brooding look that was his trademark descended. “Any woman who was married to my father probably would have killed herself.”

She felt raindrops on her skin. “She did it because of him?” Talk around town had painted Brandon and David’s father as a 24/7 drunk. The hit-and-run that had sent him to prison had confirmed it. “Because he drank?”

He mounted his horse. “Come on. Let’s go into the yurt until this passes.”

Scowling up at the sky for the interruption, she climbed up onto Willow and followed Brandon across the stream. At the yurt, they put the horses in the barn. The anticipation of being alone with Brandon kept her edgy and a little too excited. If her cavorting with him had ended badly in her teens, it was sure to end worse now if she allowed anything to happen. As easy as that kiss in the driveway had been, waiting out a thunderstorm in a remote yurt was pure folly…and enticement.

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