A Cowboy To Kiss

The one thing he really liked, however, was sleeping essentially outdoors. There was a roof to shelter him from the rain, and the entire area was screened off in order to keep the flying bugs away. There was a wooden rocking chair in the corner that looked a bit more sturdy to sit in, a single-sized bed ran along the wall and ended under the window, an old wooden dresser stood on the other side of the window, with a hook above it to hang his hat, and a small nightstand was next to the bed for his keys and wallet. The small table also held a digital clock, a glass of water and a small frilly lamp. Everything he needed was in a space no bigger than one of those horse stalls in the barn, and even those were probably bigger.

“Are you going to keep that light on all night?” Kenzie called through the open window.

Trying to sleep on a single bed that was obviously made for a shorter person, and was about as wide as his shoulders, while Kenzie Grant lay about ten feet away from him in a comfortable-looking queen-sized bed—he’d peeked in through the curtainless window—was proving to be more uncomfortable than resting his head on his saddle while lying on the cold hard ground...in a rainstorm...without a tarp.

“I like to read before I go to sleep,” he answered. “It clears my thoughts and puts me in a sleepin’ mood.”

As if that was even possible tonight.

At the moment he was reading a thriller by Steve Berry, only for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what it was about.

Kenzie poked her head through the window. “Do you think you can do your reading somewhere else?”

He looked up from his book just as he caught her gaze slipping over his bare chest like a gentle breeze in summer. He couldn’t help the grin that captured his alley cat thoughts. “Is that an invitation into your bed? Because if it is, I’m sure we can find other things to do besides reading.”

She wore a sleeveless gray T-shirt and from the way her breasts pressed against the fabric, there was no bra restricting their movement. He mentally told himself to calm down, and was thankful for the blankets that covered the bottom half of his body. Her dark hair encircled her face and cascaded off her shoulders. The glow of his lamp highlighted the soft features of her beautiful face.

Oh, yeah, he was ready to sleep all right.

“You’re incorrigible, do you know that?”

No truer words...

She started to pull herself back inside until he said, “I’m just lying here minding my own business. You’re the one causing the fuss.”

She poked her head back out again, and this time she must have knelt on the floor of her room, as she rested her head in the crook of her arm like she was going to stay a spell. “I need it to be dark when I sleep.”

She yawned, then excused herself, her eyes filling with tears as she quickly wiped the salty liquid away with her fingers. Kenzie Grant looked like a dream framed in that window...his dream.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re doing much sleeping hanging out of your window, ordering me around in my own space.”

He couldn’t help himself. He enjoyed teasing her. She was so easily riled up.

“A space I was against my dad giving you, but you’re our guest, at least for tonight.”

She yawned again, covering her mouth with her hand. “Excuse me,” she mumbled again, looking all sleepy and content. He wondered what it would feel like to have a sleepy Kenzie Grant resting her head on his chest rather than her own arm.

He suspected it would feel pretty darn good.

“And as your guest,” he began, trying to get the imaginary sensation out of his head, “shouldn’t you treat me with a little respect?”

“I didn’t invite you here.”

He tried to get a little more comfortable in his bed, but the more he stirred the more uncomfortable he became, the headboard knocking against the wall with each of his movements.

“No, but your father did, so you’re stuck with me.”

He put his book down next to him, careful to keep it open to his page, sat up and added another pillow under his back. Then he snuggled in tight to the pillow.

“Only for tonight. You’re free to go in the morning.”

“Actually, I’m free to go right now.”

She sat up and pulled her arm inside. Apparently, she hadn’t liked what he’d said.

“Then why don’t you?”

He squirmed down farther in his tiny bed. “And leave all this country hospitality? I’m just now settling in.”

His feet popped out of the covers that had been tucked into the bottom of the bed. He felt exactly like an overturned beetle.

She sniggered at his struggle to settle, and he realized it was the first time he’d seen her laugh since he’d arrived, and he liked it...a lot. Her eyes sparkled when she laughed and her face lit up, despite any harsh words that might pour out of her mouth.

“I’m sure you would be much more comfortable in your own bed...in your own house...in Montana.”

“I’m sure I would, but first I have a job to do.”

“Well, do it and leave.”

“I can’t. You refuse to cooperate.”

“If your job has anything to do with my mares, you’re darn right I won’t cooperate.”

The laughter had disappeared from her voice.

“Then I can’t leave. Not until I’ve convinced you that pasture breeding is superior to a cold injection.”

Her face tensed. All the sleepy sweetness was gone. He wished he could get it back but he knew he’d stepped over the sweetness line.

“Fine, be obstinate.”

“I will if you will.”

“If I will what?”

“Be stubborn.”

She was spitting mad now, he could tell...and she looked more adorable than ever...which only caused him more discomfort.

“Jake Scott, you drive me crazy.”

He couldn’t help the smile that seemed to come from somewhere deep within him. She sounded exactly like that little girl he’d fallen for all those years ago. “Kenzie Grant, I sometimes believe that’s my whole purpose in life.”

She let out a little throaty squeak, then abruptly disappeared inside and slammed the window shut so hard the lamp popped off the table and landed on the floor, shattering the bulb.

“Damn,” he cussed as darkness encircled him.

“Thank you for putting out the light,” she cooed through the closed window.

He didn’t respond.

Chapter Three

Kenzie awoke to the smell of luscious, just-brewed coffee. It had somehow wafted into her bedroom and tickled her nose with its delightful, inviting aroma. It was the one scent she could bathe in for hours, the one taste she craved more than anything else in the morning.

Morning!

Kenzie bolted upright in her bed, realizing that the sun was already shining through her windows, which meant it had to be way past 5:00 a.m. When she glanced over at the clock and read nine thirty, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“What? That’s impossible.”

She slipped out of bed, and made a beeline to the bathroom down the hall where the bronze clock that hung next to the mirror echoed the same time.

“Darn!” she scolded out loud.

The night had not gone easy. She couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said to Jake about her making love like an alley cat...as if. What could have ever possessed her to say such a thing? She had no idea.

Sure, she’d slept with a few men over the years, but she could probably count them all on one hand. Okay, on three fingers. Kenzie wasn’t exactly versed in the art of seduction when it came right down to it.

Still, that didn’t seem to stop her competitive edge with respect to Jake Scott. She wanted him to see her as an all-around accomplished woman...even when it came to the bedroom. She only hoped it would never come to that, or she might possibly be in a heap of trouble.

Kenzie couldn’t remember when she’d awoken so late. It had to have been back in her college days. Hopefully one of her hired cowboys had put the mares out or they’d be even twitchier than they already were.

She quickly showered; pulled her hair up in a ponytail; decided to apply eyeliner, mascara and lip gloss; dressed in her usual work attire of jeans and a T-shirt, checked a few things on her laptop and phone and then made her way into the kitchen. All she needed was a cup of that glorious-smelling coffee her mom had brewed and to wave goodbye to Jake as he drove away, and life on the ranch would settle back down...or as much as it could with her mares being in season and her parents’ anniversary wedding moving up closer by the minute.

At this time of day, the kitchen would be virtually empty, and she looked forward to taking a moment to enjoy her first cup of coffee.

As she rounded the corner into the kitchen, not only did Dora and Dolly walk up to greet her, tails wagging, tongues flapping, but her mom sat at the table, along with her dad, her sister Callie, Callie’s hubby, Joel Darwood, and the dreaded Jake Scott. He stood at the counter pouring coffee into a mug. And not just any old mug, but her favorite mug, the one she’d used almost every morning for the past five years, give or take a few weeks here and there when someone in the family would buy her a new one.

The fact that he hadn’t left and had claimed her mug as his own when everyone around the table knew she’d brought that mug home from Paris when she’d gone there for a semester while she attended college was unbearable. His callous behavior, combined with her family’s inability to stand up for her mug rights, caused her agitation...not to mention frustration that was quickly swelling to a bursting point.

And she was just about to blow off some steam when Jake held out the coveted mug. “Coffee?” he asked, looking all doe-like as he offered the mug that now contained her favorite brown liquid.

“Thanks,” she mumbled trying her best to pull in her claws.

She smiled and swiped it from his hand. Then she padded over to the table where the pitcher of fresh milk sat and added a little to her brew.

Okay, so maybe he hadn’t taken her mug, but he was still there, in the kitchen, when he should have been loading his stud horses into his trailer. Or better still, he should have been long gone with just his tire tracks left as a reminder of his short visit.

“Jake brought his own coffee beans and ground them for us,” Callie said, then she looked over at Jake and grinned.

“They’re organic,” her mom crooned, after she took a swig from her own special mug, the one she’d bought at Holy Rollers when they’d celebrated their first year in business...a bright pink mug with a picture of a crispy donut dripping with a white glaze and a halo floating over it. A pink box of donuts, muffins and scones lay open in the center of the table. Kenzie tried to ignore the box of goodies, but right away she spotted a raspberry scone, her absolute favorite breakfast food. Her mouth watered for the scone.

“Joel drove me into town and we stopped at a great bakery,” Jake told Kenzie. “Wish we had something like that in Starlight Bend. Nothing even comes close. Amanda, the owner, told me you liked raspberry scones so I added a couple to the box.”

“I’m not hungry this morning,” Kenzie told him, even though her stomach growled for that yummy scone.

Every fiber of her being cried out, but she didn’t want to give Jake the satisfaction of knowing he’d done something she clearly liked.

She wanted him gone...until she tasted the coffee. It was pure magic. The smooth flavors danced in her mouth and suddenly she couldn’t stop lapping it up. She thought perhaps she’d let him stay long enough to brew another pot of the wondrous elixir, then he’d have to go for sure.

“I take it you like the coffee,” Jake asked Kenzie, looking all full of himself, as if I told you so would pop out of his mouth at any second.

She forced herself to put her mug down on the counter. “It’ll do.”

At this point, she had no choice but to lie through her teeth.

“It’s the fresh cream,” Jake said. “It really adds to the flavor.”

“We stopped off at Bridget’s Dairy Farm and bought a gallon of their milk from grass-fed cows,” Joel offered, his baby blues twinkling. Kenzie really liked Joel...just not at the moment.

“There’s so much cream in that there milk, it makes my coffee taste richer than one of your mom’s cream pies,” her dad added.

She felt as if everyone was ganging up on her, or at least tossing in their support of Jake Scott, the Troublemaker.

She wasn’t in the mood this morning. She’d already checked the tracking number for her shipment of frozen semen and it hadn’t even left Canada yet. It seemed to be stuck in customs for some reason. At this rate, she might miss the window of opportunity for her mares and have to wait until next month. That alone had put her in a sour mood, and now she had to deal with her family’s praise for Jake’s coffee, as if it was the end all of coffees.

And even if it was possibly the smoothest coffee she’d ever held on her tongue, did they have to fall all over him?

“It’ll probably give me a heart attack before I’m thirty.”

Kenzie said a short prayer asking for forgiveness to the coffee gods as she dumped the rest of her perfectly perfect coffee into the sink, then proceeded to make instant coffee with hot tap water. She knew everyone was watching her, thinking she was wacky, but she kept right on going. When she dumped in cold nonfat milk, she took a sip of the awful but familiar swill, made a yummy sound, and looked over at Jake. “I thought you were leaving this morning?”

He crooked an eyebrow, smirked and said, “Whatever gave you that idea?”

“You said so yourself last night.”

He tilted his head, the grin never leaving his face and stared at her. “I don’t recall ever saying I’d be leaving this morning. Not when your parents’ anniversary is a little over a week away. I wouldn’t dream of missing it.”

“There’s plenty of time for you to pack up, drive home and drive back down again, without your stud horses.”

“Not really,” Callie said as she grabbed the last raspberry scone from the box. Her dad had taken the other one. Kenzie’s heart almost stopped. She wanted that scone in the worst way. Didn’t her sister know that? Just because she was five months pregnant didn’t mean she could go around taking other people’s scones.

“Jake’s agreed to help us go over our menu for the reception,” her mom said, a wide grin on her lovely face. “He thinks we can actually save some money, and provide a healthier meal if we incorporate a few organic items.”

“I already helped you with that menu, and we came up with some tasty side dishes. You said so yourself. It’s too late to start messing with the menu now. We’ve already ordered some of the food.”

“It’s never too late to do the best thing for your guests,” Jake mumbled while he poured another mug of coffee. This time he poured it into a travel mug she’d bought several years ago at the county fair: Keep Calm and Cowboy On.

She loved that travel mug.

“So,” he said as he poured. “Joel, your dad and I trailed your mares out to the east pasture this morning, just in case you change your mind about my stallions.”

He added cream to the mug, closed it up tight, smiled and held it out for Kenzie, the logo prominently on display.

She wanted to lay into him for moving her mares, but that dang Keep Calm and Cowboy On logo reminded her that anger was not how she should handle this situation. Obviously, not only was her dad on Jake’s side, but so was her brother-in-law and her sister Callie. She wondered if even her own mother had fallen into the Jake-pit-of-cowboy-charm?

All she had to do at the moment was breathe...in, out...in, out.

“You might want this for later,” he told her, the smirk gone, looking more sexy than a man had a right to. His dark hair had that tousled style she loved, and his once scruffy chin appeared to have been recently shaved. His green eyes sparkled, and his black T-shirt seemed extra tight across his muscled chest. If she didn’t dislike his haughty attitude so much, she could see herself falling in step with this “natural” cowboy.

Just not today.

Not when he’d moved her mares without her consent. She vowed to never oversleep again, at least not until she could get him to leave...which she intended to do...today if possible.

This was war!

“I might,” she answered, grabbing the dang travel mug from his outstretched hand, while she abandoned her own mug of bad-tasting tepid coffee on the counter. “Thanks.”

Then she reached over and filched the raspberry scone off her sister’s plate.

“You don’t even like raspberries,” she told Callie, as she hustled out of the back door with Jake trailing close behind.

* * *

AFTER A REALLY bad night’s sleep due to a number of reasons, one of them being a complete lack of any sort of comfort, Jake thought things couldn’t get much worse. But then what did he know about a woman who seemed to be on a mission to get him to leave as soon as possible?

He’d driven down to the Grant ranch to help out his dad’s best friend, sure, but he had also hoped for some time to reflect and regroup. So far all of those desires seemed to be as elusive as a royal flush in a high-stakes poker game.

He’d gotten the okay from Henry that morning, while Kenzie slept, to move the mares out of the barn. Henry had assured him that it would be all right. The two hired hands were off that morning, so Jake had simply led the mares over. Joel helped out with the move, but he had his own ranch to run, the Double S, where Kenzie’s parents’ anniversary wedding ceremony would be held.

Jake had thought he and Joel were doing a good thing when the mares started getting restless in their stalls. They even cleaned the stalls while Kenzie slept, but none of that seemed to matter to her. Not even the fact that he’d made sure his stallions were secure in the corral before he and Joel walked the mares out to the fenced pasture.

Apparently, Kenzie didn’t appreciate anything that they’d done.

“We have to move the mares back to the corral, and get your horses out of there. I would prefer you put them in your horse trailer and drive them back to Montana, but for now the barn is fine. That pasture is for my heifers. We’re scheduled to move twenty-two heifers tomorrow morning.”

“Then what’s the harm in your mares spending today out there?”

She gazed at him while holding on to her mug, looking mighty good under the midmorning sun. He hoped she would agree because just getting the mares out into those pastures took a bit of doing. Like their owner, none of them were particularly cooperative.

“Fine,” she finally said, “but they can’t spend the night. The terrain might be too rugged for them in the dark.”

“Then we’ll bring them in before dusk.”

“There’s no we about it. You brought them out there, so you can lead them back. I’ll be too busy with...other things to help you.”

He thought by her hesitation that she was simply trying to make it more difficult on him. However, he liked that she wasn’t pushing him off the ranch, either.

“Sounds like an invitation to stay another day.”

She stared at him, took a long swallow from the travel mug and said, “I’ve got work to do. If you’re going to be here anyway, maybe you can do something other than brew coffee and move my mares around.”

“Whatever you need.”

Her eyes went wide and he wondered what went on in that head of hers as she flashed a momentary smirk.

Then as soon as his gaze rested on her lips, the smile vanished. “You can help me clean out the guesthouse, load it all into my pickup and drive it over to my brother Carson’s house in town. He’s been too busy helping plan the upcoming Cowboy Days to get to it. That’s where your parents will be staying once they arrive. I’ve been using it for storage and, I’m afraid, so have my siblings. It might be in pretty bad shape.”

“If I help clean it out, would it be okay if I move in while I’m here?” As much as Jake liked being close to Kenzie at night, just knowing she made love like an alley cat didn’t much help lull him to sleep...nor did the tiny size of the porch bed.

She squinted as they stood out in front of the horse barn, the sun blazing down on them like a spotlight in an interrogation room.

“Let me get this straight. Just how long do you intend to hang around here?”

“As long as it takes.”

“As long as it takes for what?”

“For you to smile at me.”

She flashed him a great big pearly white smile. “How’s that?”

“Pathetic. My horse has a more genuine smile.”

“Your horse doesn’t know any better. You’re the hand that feeds him.”

“Is that what you want? Food? ’Cause if you do, I’m a great cook.”

She stepped in closer to him, narrowing her eyes. “Is there anything you can’t do, Jake Scott? Or are your virtues boundless?”

Teasing Kenzie had always been fun, but now that they were both adults, he had to admit, he liked it even more. His dad liked to tease his mom the same way. He always said it acted like a barometer. If his mom interacted with him, and got all riled up, he knew she still liked being with him. The day she stopped reacting was the day he’d start worrying.

So far, his dad didn’t have a care in the world...except maybe which of his sons would take over the ranch. Jake knew it would most likely be him, but for some reason, he hadn’t really made that clear to his dad...yet. He didn’t want to step on any toes in case one of his two brothers wanted the glory for himself. But so far, neither one had stepped up to the plate.

“Pretty much boundless,” he told her, knowing it was total baloney. Lately, ever since his divorce, he couldn’t seem to do the most menial of chores. He’d burn all his food, pound and poke his fingers whenever he’d try to mend a fence or build something. Forget to order hay and have to buy it locally paying almost twice the amount. The list was endless. He’d been so distracted with his own thoughts that whatever he tried to do wouldn’t get done. Even his brothers had mentioned it to him, and Lucas had tried to pick up the slack.

And his parents...well, they just worried.

But since he’d gotten the phone call from Henry asking him to come on down for a spell, his whole attitude had begun to change.

And sparring with Kenzie seemed to pick up his spirits even more.

She threw him an eye roll. “You really are full of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Just telling the truth.”

“Oh, you always did infuriate me.”

He thought about his dad’s barometer and smirked. “And you always tempted me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Tempted you how?”

“To kiss you.”

He leaned in, thinking maybe all her bluster was a prelude to that alley cat lover hidden inside, but she shoved him away with both hands, and he nearly fell right on his butt in the process.

“Let’s get one thing straight. I’m only tolerating your presence here because my dad invited you. I have absolutely no desire to get intimate with you on any level. Do you understand me? Or is that pig-headed brain of yours too ripe with self-adulation that you can’t understand the truth?”

That barometer was heading up toward the bursting point, and Jake loved every minute of it.

“I hear you loud and clear,” he said, trying his best to avoid showing the smile that tugged at his lips. “Now, where’s that guest cabin?”

* * *

THE CABIN WAS in worse shape than Kenzie had envisioned it to be. Not only was it filled with Carson’s things, but some of the furniture had water damage from an apparent open window and the wooden floor in front of the window had warped.

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