Unbiddable Attraction

“Even if it is a downpour, it probably won’t last long,” he answered. “We get a lot of pop-up thundershowers this time of year. They move through, dump a little water on us and move on.”

Noticing a covered area at one end of the enclosure, she nodded. “I’m glad to see there’s shelter for them if it does start raining.”

“Cattle don’t usually mind being out in the rain during the summer months,” he said, smiling. “It’s one of the ways they cool off.”

“What’s another?” she asked, watching the little black calf venture away from her mother.

“If there’s a pond or a river, they like to wade out and just stand there.” He grinned. “Sort of like the bovine version of skinny-dipping.”

“I can’t say I blame them,” she said, laughing. “I would think it gets rather hot with all that hair.” When the calf got close to the fence, Fee couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe. “She’s so pretty. What are you going to name her?”

He chuckled. “We normally don’t name cattle.”

“I guess that would be kind of difficult when you have so many,” she said, thinking it was a shame for something so cute not to have a name.

He nodded. “If they’re going to be kept for breeding purposes, we tag their ears with a number. That’s the way we identify them and keep track of their health and how well they do during calving season.”

“I don’t care,” Fee said, looking into the baby’s big brown eyes. “She’s too cute to just be a number. I’m going to call her Belle.”

“So before we take her and her mother to rejoin the herd, I should have her name put on her ear tag instead of a number?” he asked, grinning as he reached out and caught her to him.

She placed her hands on his chest and started to tell him that was exactly what she thought he should do, but she stopped short when several fat raindrops landed on her face. “We’ll be soaked to the bone by the time we get back to the house,” she said when it started raining harder.

Chance grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her along in the direction of the barn. “We can wait it out in there.”

Sprinting the short distance, a loud clap of thunder echoed overhead as they ran inside. “That rain moved in fast,” she said, laughing.

“Unless it’s a big storm front, it should move through just as fast.” He stared at her for several seconds before he took her by the hand and led her midway down the long center aisle to a narrow set of stairs on the far side of the feed room. “There’s something I want to show you.”

When he stepped back for her to precede him up the steps, she frowned. “What is it?”

“Trust me, you’ll like it,” he said, smiling mysteriously.

“I’m sure that’s what a spider says to a fly just before it lures him into its web,” she said, looking up the stairs to the floor above. She didn’t know what he had up his sleeve, but she did trust him and smiling over her shoulder at him, climbed the stairs to the hayloft. When they stood facing each other at the top of the stairs, she asked, “Now, what is it you wanted to show me?”

He walked her over to the open doors at the end of the loft. “We’ll have to wait until it stops raining and the sun comes back out,” he said, taking her into his arms.

A shiver coursed through her and not entirely from her rain-dampened clothes. The look in Chance’s eyes stole her breath and sent waves of goose bumps shimmering over her skin.

“Chance, I don’t think this is a good idea,” she warned. “I’m not interested in an involvement.”

He shook his head. “I’m not, either. All I want is for both of us to enjoy your visit to the ranch.”

“I need to talk to you about the PR campaign,” she said, reminding him that she wasn’t giving up on him being the family spokesman.

He nodded. “I promise we’ll get to that soon. But right now, I’m going to kiss you again, Fee,” he said, lowering his head. “And this time it’s going to be a long, slow kiss that will leave both of us gasping for breath.”

Fee’s heart pounded hard in her chest when his mouth covered hers and a delicious heat began to spread throughout her body as she raised her arms to encircle his neck. True to his word, Chance took his time, teasing with tiny nibbling kisses that heightened her anticipation, and when he finally traced her lips with his tongue to deepen the caress, Fee felt as if she would go into total meltdown.

As he explored her slowly, thoroughly, he slid his hand from her back up along her ribs to the underside of her breast. Cupping her, he lightly teased the hardened tip with the pad of his thumb and even through the layers of her clothing the sensation was electrifying. A lazy tightening began to form a coil in the pit of her stomach and she instinctively leaned into his big, hard body.

The feel of his rigid arousal nestled against her soft lower belly, the tightening of his strong arms around her and the feel of his heart pounding out a steady rhythm against her breast sent a need like nothing she had ever known flowing from the top of her head all the way to the soles of her feet.

Her knees wobbled, then failed her completely as he continued to stroke her with a tenderness that brought tears to her eyes. She had been kissed before, but nothing like this. It felt as if she had been waiting on this man and this moment her entire life.

The thought frightened her as little else could. Pushing against his chest, she took a step back to stare up at him. “I’m not good at playing games, Chance.”

“I’m not asking you to play games, Fee.” He shook his head. “We can have fun while you’re here, and when you go back to L.A., you’ll have the memory of the good time we had. As long as we keep that in mind, we should be just fine.”

She stared at him for several long seconds as she waged a battle within herself. He wasn’t asking for anything more from her than the here and now. But there was one problem with his reasoning. She wasn’t entirely certain she could trust her heart to listen. Lowering his head, he kissed her again.

“I do believe, Fee Sinclair, that you have the sweetest lips of any woman I’ve ever known,” he whispered close to her ear.

Another tremor of desire slid through her a moment before he pulled back and pointed toward the open doors of the loft. “This is what I wanted you to see.”

Looking in the direction he indicated, Fee caught her breath. A brilliantly colored full rainbow arched across the bluest sky she had ever seen.

“It’s gorgeous,” she murmured.

“Did you know that in some cultures the rainbow symbolizes a new beginning or a new phase in a person’s life?” he asked, kissing her forehead as he held her to him and they watched the vibrant prism fade away.

She swallowed hard as she turned her attention to the man holding her close. What was it about being wrapped in Chance’s arms that made her feel as if she was entering a new phase in her life—one that she hadn’t seen coming and was powerless to stop? And one that made her extremely uneasy.

Five

Standing at the ice-cream counter in Buckaroo Billy’s General Store on the outskirts of Cheyenne, Chance glanced through the window at Fee and his niece seated under a big yellow umbrella at one of the picnic tables outside. Cassie was talking a mile a minute and it seemed that Fee was somehow keeping up. That in itself was pretty darned amazing. The kid usually had him confused as hell by the speed she changed subjects. He loved her dearly, but sometimes Cassie had the attention span of a flea and hopped from one topic to another faster than a drop of water on a hot griddle.

Paying for their ice cream, he juggled the three cones and a handful of paper napkins as he shouldered open the door. “A scoop of chocolate fudge brownie for you, princess,” he said, handing Cassie the frozen treat. Turning to Fee, he grinned. “And mint chocolate chip for you.”

“Uncle Chance!” Cassie exclaimed, pointing to his vanilla ice cream. “You were supposed to try something new this time.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure, Mr. Lassiter?” Fee asked, laughing.

“I like vanilla,” he said, shrugging as he dropped the napkins onto the table and sat down. He should have known Cassie would remember he was supposed to try a new flavor. The kid had a mind like a steel trap. Grinning, he added, “But next week, I promise I’ll leave what I get up to you two. How does that sound?”

Cassie’s red curls bobbed when she nodded her approval. “I like that. I’ll ask Momma what you should have when she gets home.” True to form, she looked at Fee and took the conversation in another direction. “My mommy and daddy are on their moneyhoon. That’s why I’m staying with Grandma Marlene.”

“You mean honeymoon?” Chance asked, winking at Fee. He could tell she was trying hard not to laugh at Cassie’s mix-up, the same as he was.

“Yeah. They went on a boat.” Cassie shook her head. “But I don’t know where.”

“After much debate, Hannah and Logan went on a Caribbean cruise,” Chance explained to Fee.

She smiled at his niece. “That sounds like a nice honeymoon.”

“They’re going to bring me back a present,” Cassie added as she licked some of the chocolate dripping onto her fingers. When she started to touch her tongue to the ice cream in her usual exuberant fashion, the scoop dislodged from the cone and landed on the top of her tennis shoe. Tears immediately filled her big green eyes and her little chin began to wobble. “I’m sorry. It...fell...Uncle Chance.”

“Don’t cry, princess,” he said gently as he reached over and gave her a hug. “It’s all right. I’ll get you another one.”

While Fee used the napkins to clean off Cassie’s shoe, he went back into the store to replace her ice-cream cone. By the time he returned a couple of minutes later, Cassie was all smiles and chattering like a magpie once again.

His mind wandered as his niece and Fee discussed the newest version of a popular fashion doll—and he couldn’t help but notice every time Fee licked her ice cream.

“Chance, did you hear me?” Fee asked, sounding concerned.

“Oh, sorry.” He grinned. “I was still thinking about doll accessories.”

She gave him one of those looks that women were so fond of when they thought a man was full of bull roar. “I said I’m going to take Cassie to the ladies’ room to wash her hands.”

He nodded. “Good idea.”

As he watched Fee and his niece walk into the store, he shook his head at his own foolishness and rose to his feet to walk over to his truck to wait for them to return. If he and Fee didn’t make love soon, he was going to be a raving lunatic.

But as he stood there thinking about the danger to his mental health, he realized that making love with Fee wasn’t all he wanted. The thought caused his heart to pound hard against his ribs. He wasn’t thinking about an actual relationship, was he?

He shook his head to dispel the ridiculous thought. Aside from the fact that neither of them was looking for anything beyond some no-strings fun, he was hesitant to start anything long-term with any woman. His father had been the most honorable man he had ever known and from what he remembered and everything everyone said, Charles Lassiter had loved his wife with all his heart. If his father couldn’t remain faithful, what made Chance think that he could do any better?

“Uncle Chance, Fee said we could play fashion show with my dolls the next time she’s at Grandma Marlene’s house,” Cassie said, tugging on his shirtsleeve. “When will that be?”

He’d been so preoccupied with his unsettling thoughts that he hadn’t even noticed Fee and Cassie had returned. “I’ll talk to Grandma Marlene and see what we can work out,” he said, smiling as he picked Cassie up to sit on his forearm. “How does that sound, princess?”

Yawning, Cassie nodded. “Good.”

“I think someone is getting sleepy,” Fee said when Chance opened the rear passenger door and buckled Cassie into her safety seat.

“She’ll be asleep before we get out of the parking lot,” he said, closing the door and turning to help Fee into the truck.

When he got in behind the steering wheel and started the engine, Fee smiled. “After she goes to sleep, we’ll have some time to talk.”

“About the campaign?” he guessed, steering the truck out onto the road.

“I’d like to hear what your main objections are to being the spokesman,” she said, settling back in the bucket seat.

“Being the center of attention isn’t something I’m comfortable with and never have been,” he said honestly.

“But it would only be some still photos and a few videos,” she insisted. “We could even cut out the few personal appearances unless you decided you wanted to do them.”

“Yeah, those are out of the question,” he said firmly. As far as he was concerned those appearances she mentioned had been off the table from the get-go. “Like I told you the other day at lunch, I don’t intend to be a monkey in a sideshow. What you see with me is what you get, sweetheart. I wouldn’t know how to be an actor if I tried.”

“What if we filmed the video spots on the ranch?” she asked, sounding as if she was thinking out loud. “I could have a cameraman take some footage of you riding up on your horse and then all you would have to do is read from a cue card.” She paused for a moment. “We could probably even lift still shots from that.”

He could tell she wasn’t going to give up. “I’m by no means making any promises,” he said, wondering what he could say that would discourage her. “But I’ll have to think a little more about it.”

“Okay,” she said slowly. He could tell she wasn’t happy that she hadn’t wrangled an agreement from him.

Reaching over, he covered her hand with his. “I’m not saying no, Fee. I’m just saying I need more time to think it over.”

When she looked at him, her expression hopeful, he almost caved in and told her he would be her spokesman. Fortunately, she didn’t give him the opportunity.

“That’s fair,” she said, suddenly grinning. “But just keep in mind, I’m not giving up.”

“It never occurred to me that you would,” he said, laughing.

* * *

Fee sat in the middle of the bed with her laptop and an array of papers spread out around her on the colorful quilt. She was supposed to be working on the Lassiter PR campaign. But in the past hour, she had found herself daydreaming about a tall, handsome, green-eyed cowboy more than she had been thinking about ways to restore the public’s faith in his family.

Watching him interact with his niece that afternoon had been almost as eye-opening as witnessing his skill at helping a cow give birth to her calf. Both times she had seen him interact with his niece, he had listened patiently when the child spoke and always made Cassie feel as if everything she said was of the utmost importance to him. Someday Chance was going to be a wonderful father and Fee couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy for the woman who would bear his child.

Her heart skipped a beat and she shook her head to dispel the unwarranted thought. What was wrong with her? Why was she even thinking about Chance having a child with some unknown woman?

It shouldn’t matter to her. By the end of her month’s stay, she would be back in Los Angeles scheduling commercial spots for the family campaign and working toward her goal of becoming Lassiter Media’s first female public relations vice president under the age of thirty. And unlike being in Wyoming, she would enjoy the convenience of not having to drive forty miles just to reach a town where she could shop or dine out.

But as she sat there thinking about her life back in L.A., she couldn’t seem to remember what the appeal of living there had been. Her condo building was filled with people she didn’t know and didn’t care to know. And for reasons she couldn’t put her finger on, the job promotion didn’t seem nearly as enticing as it had a week ago.

As she sat there trying to figure out why she was feeling less than enthusiastic about her life in California, there was a knock on her closed door. Gathering the papers around her to put back in the file folder, she turned off her laptop and walked over to find Chance standing on the other side of the door.

“It’s a clear night and the moon is almost full,” Chance said, leaning one shoulder against the door frame. “How would you like to go for a ride?”

“On a horse? Surely you can’t be serious.” She laughed as she shook her head. “I’m not that experienced at riding during the day. What makes you think I would be any better at night? Besides, don’t wild animals prowl around more in the dark? There’s probably something out there with sharp teeth and long claws just waiting for me to come riding along.”

“Slow down, sweetheart. You’re sounding a lot like Cassie,” he said, laughing. “We won’t be going far and other than a raccoon or a coyote, I doubt that we’ll see any wildlife. Besides, you won’t be riding Rosy. You’ll be on the back of Dakota with me.”

She gave him a doubtful look. “And you think that’s an even better idea than me riding Rosy?”

He grinned as he rocked back on his heels. “Yup.”

“I’ll bet you even have a cozy little saddle made for two stashed in the tack room,” she quipped.

“You’re so cute.” Laughing, he straightened to his full height and took her by the hand to lead her downstairs. “No, they don’t make saddles for two people. We’re going to ride bareback.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s even safer than me riding Rosy at night,” she muttered as they left the house and started toward the barn.

“It is if you’re a skilled horseman and you know your horse.”

“Just remember, I’m counting on you to be right about that,” she said, unable to believe she was going along with his scheme.

When they reached the barn, he led Dakota out of his stall and put a bridle on the gelding. Then turning, he loosely put his arms around her. “Thanks for going with me and Cassie today,” he said, kissing her temple. “I know she enjoyed talking to you about her dolls.”

“She’s a delightful little girl. Very bright and outgoing,” Fee said. “I had a wonderful time talking to her.” Grinning, she added, “But I’m really surprised that you didn’t join in the conversation when we were discussing the latest doll accessories.”

“I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know diddly-squat about dolls.” He chuckled. “But if you want to talk toy trucks or action figures, I’m you’re guy.”

“I’ll take your word for that, too,” she said, staring up into his eyes. “But all joking aside, I really did have fun chatting with your niece.”

“What about me?” he whispered, leaning forward. “Did you have a good time talking with me?”

A quivering excitement ran through her body at the feel of his warm breath feathering over her ear and she had to brace her hands on his biceps to keep her balance. The feel of rock-hard muscle beneath his chambray shirt caused heat to flow through her veins.

“Yes, I always enjoy talking to you,” she answered truthfully.

“I like spending my time with you, too.” Lowering his head, he gave her a kiss so tender her knees threatened to buckle before he stepped back, took hold of the reins and a handful of Dakota’s mane, then swung up onto the horse. “Turn your back to me, Fee.”

When she did as he instructed, he reached down and effortlessly lifted her to sit in front of him on the gelding. Straddling the horse, she was glad Chance was holding on to her. “Whoa! This is a lot higher than sitting on Rosy.”

Chance’s deep chuckle vibrated against her back as he tightened his arm around her midsection and nudged the gelding into a slow walk. “I promise you’re safe, sweetheart. I won’t let you fall.”

She knew he was talking about a fall from the horse, but what was going to keep her from falling for the man holding her so securely against him?

Fee quickly relegated the thought to the back of her mind as Dakota carried them from the barn out into the night and she gazed up at the sky. Billions of stars created a twinkling canopy above and the moon cast an ethereal glow over the rugged landscape.

“This is gorgeous, Chance.” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen so many stars in the night sky before.”

“That’s because of smog and too many lights in the city to see them all,” he answered, his voice low and intimate. He tightened his arms around her. “Are you chilly?”

She could lie and tell him that she was, but she suspected that he already knew her tiny shiver was caused by their close proximity. “Not really,” she admitted, leaning her head back against his shoulder. “It’s just that something this vast and beautiful is humbling.”

They rode along in silence for some time before she felt the evidence of his reaction to being this close to her against her backside. So overwhelmed by the splendor of the night, she hadn’t paid attention to the fact that her bottom was nestled tightly between his thighs. But it wasn’t his arousal that surprised her as much as her reaction to it. Knowing that he desired her caused an answering warmth to spread throughout her body and an empty ache to settle in the most feminine part of her.

“Chance?”

“Don’t freak out,” he whispered, stopping Dakota. “I’m not going to deny that I want you. You’re a desirable woman and I’m like any other man—I have needs. But nothing is going to happen unless it’s what you want, too, sweetheart.”

Before she could find her voice, Chance released his hold on her and slid off the horse to his feet. He immediately reached up to help her down, then wrapping his arms around her, gave her a kiss that caused her toes to curl inside her boots before he set her away from him.

Disappointed that the kiss had been so brief, she tried to distract herself by looking around. Something shiny caught her attention and taking a few steps closer, she realized it was the moon reflecting off of a small pool of water. Surrounded on three sides by cottonwood trees, she could see wisps of mist rising from its surface and the faint sound of running water.

“Is that a natural spring?” she asked.

“It’s actually considered a thermal spring even though the temperature never gets over about seventy-five degrees,” Chance said, walking over to stand beside her. “I used to go swimming in it when I was a kid.”

“It’s that deep?” she asked, intrigued. Even with just the light from the moon, she could see a shadowy image of the bottom of the pool.

“It’s only about four feet deep over by the outlet where it runs down to the river.” He laughed. “But to a ten-year-old kid that’s deep enough to get in and splash around.”

Fee smiled as she thought of Chance playing in the water as a child. “I’m sure you had a lot of fun. I used to love going to the beach when I was young, and my grandmother’s house had a swimming pool.”

“We always had a pool up at the main house,” he said, nodding. “But it’s not as much fun as this. Have you ever been skinny-dipping?” he asked.

“No.” She laughed. “Besides not really having the nerve to do it, I would have hated causing Mr. Harris next door to have a coronary, or scandalizing his wife to the point where she refused to go to the senior center with my grandmother to play bingo.”

He gave her a wicked grin and reached down to pull off his boots and socks. “I will if you will.”

“Skinny-dip? Here? Now?” She shook her head. “Have you lost your mind? Aren’t you worried someone will see you?”

He tugged his shirt from his jeans and with one smooth motion released all of the snap closures. “Sweetheart, it’s just you, me and Dakota out here. And since he’s a gelding, all he’s interested in is grass.”

She glanced over at the horse. “What if he runs away and leaves us stranded out here?”

“He’s trained to ground tie.” He reached to unbuckle his belt and release the button at the top of his jeans. “As long as the ends of the reins are dragging the ground, he’ll stay close.” His grin widened. “Are you going to join me?”

“I don’t think so.” She wasn’t a prude, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to abandon years of her grandmother’s lectures on modesty, either.