The Rancher's Surrender

“See anything interesting?”

Her gaze jerked up to his laughing one, and she was thankful the room was dim enough to hide her blush. “Don’t count on it. But you’re holding up okay for an old man of...” She considered him with a frown, feigning indifference. “Forty.”

“Thirty-four,” he corrected her. He leaned forward, smelling of rain, wood and one hundred percent delicious masculinity as he tugged a loose lock of her hair. “But I’ll be sure to tell that to the geriatric warden tonight when I check in, thanks.”

Muttering to herself, she whirled away.

One of his hands caught her and held firm as steel. “Wait up.”

His eyes weren’t kind and sweet, the way they were when he looked at Delia and Maddie. They were...hot. “I’m busy,” she managed to say.

“I want to talk to you.”

“About the land?”

He didn’t answer.

“Talk to Maddie and Delia, though their answer will be the same as mine. No, this place isn’t for sale.” Even if she had no idea what they were going to do for cash. “No, no, no.”

His mouth twitched at her adamant tone. “You keep sweet-talking me like this, and I’m going to get ideas.”

“Go get ideas about Shirley.” She fairly choked on the name of his enthusiastic blond ranch hand and reminded herself she didn’t care about him. Not one little bit.

He let out a huge grin. “And jealous, too. That’s so sweet.” His voice lowered, deepened to a rich honey. “Ready to admit it, Zoe? You’re hot for me.”

“Ha!” She lifted her chin. “I’m too hot for you. Now, go home. You smell like a cowboy.”

“I am a cowboy.” His eyes glittered knowingly, as if he could see right through her facade to the secret part of her she liked to keep hidden. “And I want to talk to all three of you,” he said.

And what Ty wanted, he got. No use trying to fight it, he’d probably just toss her over his shoulder and cart her into the kitchen, where even now she could hear her sisters’ voices.

It was pointless to fight with him. So she shrugged in acquiescence and sashayed away.

Ty watched, a slow, appreciative smile crossing his face now that she had her back to him. God, she was so easy to bait, and he loved to see her flash all that fire she struggled to contain.

She was something; that compact, hot little body of hers spitting all that attitude, her wild hair falling around her shoulders. A strand slipped in her face, which she tugged at with a low sound of annoyance.

Oh yeah, she was riled up good now.

And while there were other things he might love to do to her as well as tease, Zoe Martin was off-limits. They’d both set those limits three days ago. He’d done so because, despite her innocence in the whole thing, he resented like crazy that she was holding Ben’s dream. He was far less certain why she held back from their obvious, unfortunate attraction, though he got a feeling it was because she’d been hurt and betrayed far too much in her short life. It did disturb him to watch her hide her natural sensuality and passion, especially when he knew that sensuality and passion were directed at him.

She concealed them behind a wall of indifference that exasperated him. Which was why he so enjoyed the bickering; it pulled her out of her shell and revealed the true Zoe.

But she was a weakness, one he didn’t have time for.

He’d come to a decision. One that would solve this problem once and for all. He was going to do exactly as Constance had asked. He would manage this place for them. It meant getting the ranch running from nothing. It would take money, hard work and grit, none of which he was even sure they had.

Truth was, he was banking on them not having it. As soon as they saw how much was involved, he figured the city girls would be happy to sell—to him—and head back to Los Angeles.

Nobody would get hurt; they’d go home and he would fulfill his promise to his brother. Perfect. Hoping it worked, Ty followed the tantalizing scent of food, and the equally tantalizing scent of Zoe Martin.

* * *

“Go ahead, Ty, you take that last piece.” Maddie held out the pan and smiled at him. He smiled back because it had taken her these entire three days just to feel comfortable enough to speak easily to him, and he felt relieved she’d decided to trust him.

Relieved and guilty, because he didn’t deserve their trust when he wanted them to leave so badly.

The mouth-watering aroma of melted cheese and sausage continued to call to him. But he’d had four pieces already, and he hadn’t come to eat them out of house and home.

“You know you want it,” Delia teased him.

They’d had an instant connection, he and Delia. A brother-sister connection that had them immediately bonded. And now he’d bonded with Maddie as well, their relationship was softer, more gentle than the teasing one he and Delia shared.

He wanted to resent these women, and did. But some of that resentment was fading, no matter how he struggled to hold on to it.

God, he missed Ben. He supposed that would never change. But how to keep his dream alive without hurting these women?

Maddie was a haunting beauty, with huge wide eyes that just made a man want to drown in them and offer to slay dragons. Those eyes held secrets, painful ones, and he wondered at them. Delia was tall and slender, a glamour girl. Intelligent, too, with a wicked sense of humor he got a kick out of. And in her eyes was a need to belong. Well, she belonged now, to the ranch he wanted for himself.

Then there was Zoe. She was different from her sisters, far different. He wasn’t satisfied by anything so simple as friendship, and he didn’t understand it.

“Eat,” Maddie said to him again, gesturing with the box. “You’ve lost weight.”

Zoe snorted.

He ignored Zoe and winked at Maddie. She held the pan patiently.

His stomach growled.

Oh, what the hell. He took the piece, studying the third sister, the one who didn’t easily fit into any simple category.

Did she feel the same way about him? Hard to tell since she hid everything going on inside that head behind a screen of grumpy indifference.

She wiggled uncomfortably under his scrutiny, then finally swallowed a bit of pizza before demanding, “What are you looking at?”

“You.”

She flushed, fidgeted some more, giving herself away. “why?”

He simply grinned and continued eating, undisturbed, relaxing now that he knew the truth...she was secretly crazy about him.

A comfortable silence filled the room as they ate. They were all sitting on the freshly cleaned living room floor, before a warm, crackling fire, eating picnic-style.

That they didn’t have four chairs in the kitchen wasn’t the point. The sisters just loved being together, and they were willing to share that with him—and he wanted their one and only possession for himself.

“I didn’t come to eat,” he said quietly, putting down his pizza.

“Really,” Zoe said dryly, brushing off her hands. “I never would have guessed.” Her eyes sharpened on him. “You being here wouldn’t by any chance have anything to do with you wanting this land, would it?”

Chapter 3

“Zoe, be nice,” Maddie said lightly. She swiveled her head, her short, dark hair flying around her face, her dark, deep eyes warm with affection as she spoke to Ty. “She’s a bully today because that jerk at the bank in Lewiston didn’t hire her.” She looked at Zoe again and reached for her sister’s hand. “He just didn’t recognize a treasure when he found one, that’s all.”

Zoe swallowed, closed her eyes for a long heartbeat, clearly touched, and just as clearly uncomfortable with Maddie’s easy love.

Ty’s curiosity upped a notch, so did a strange sense of protectiveness. The drive to Lewiston was long and never easy in the best of times. “Why did you want a job there? It’s too far for you to drive it every day.”

Zoe recovered from Maddie’s affection in the blink of an eye and looked at him as if he were something she’d scraped off the bottom of her shoe. “It’s funny how expensive this habit of eating is.”

“I wish you wouldn’t, Zoe,” Delia said quietly. “We’ll find a way. We’ll sell something, or get a loan.”

“Delia’s right,” Maddie insisted. “We’ll make it work together or not at all.”

Ty watched the three of them, felt their closeness as a tangible thing.

And it was, he reminded himself. These women were family. They were closer than family, for they’d chosen to be related. He’d chosen to be unrelated to the family he had left. It’d been for a good reason, that reason being survival basically, but the fact remained. He had no one.

God, he missed Ben.

Drawing in a deep breath, he realized the truth he’d only guessed at before. These women couldn’t afford to get the ranch going, but they were too stubborn to give up. They might never leave and sell him the land. There was only one thing to do.

“I came here tonight to talk to all of you,” he said. Zoe frowned, Maddie’s brow wrinkled in worry. Delia sat calmly, waiting. Typical, he thought. The pessimist, the worrier, the cool one. Already, they were worming their way into his affections. He couldn’t stand the thought of any of them being hurt.

That it was him trying to hurt them was unbearable. “I’d like to be your partner,” he said.

That was met with stunned silence.

“You’re already manager,” Zoe said suspiciously.

And how she hated that. “This would be different. I’d be an equal partner. I’d share the losses.”

“And the profits,” she pointed out.

“Well, yes.”

They all stared at him, three pairs of wide eyes, as if he’d lost his marbles.

“Hey, this is a good thing, ladies,” he said, smiling into their pensive silence. “You want a ranch. You don’t have the needed capital. I do. It would give you money to survive on until you got your stock built up through purchases and breeding.”

“Wait a minute. Did you say breeding?” Delia carefully set down her drink. “Here?”

She said breeding as if it were a four-letter word, and it made Ty laugh. Delia was a city girl, born and bred. Los Angeles was her playground. Hell, she probably did think breeding was a bad word.

Once upon a time he had felt stifled in a city, claustrophobic. Chicago was a place where one couldn’t even turn around without bumping elbows with a neighbor, and he had resented that. Ben had, too, and for as long as he could remember, Ty had wanted out.

He needed open space. Fresh air. His own land, lots of it.

What he needed was their land.

“And you have enough money just lying around that you could lend it to us,” Zoe said, with serious doubt.

“Yes.” He hadn’t gotten it by inheritance, that much was certain. His mother had been a whore, his father a career criminal. He didn’t have any relatives who would leave him a time bomb, much less something of value. He’d simply been very successful at raising and training horses, investing his profits wisely, making the most of what he’d earned.

“And how much is this going to cost us?” Zoe asked. “In say...land?”

Trust her to speak so bluntly. “I’m not going to cheat you out of anything, Zoe. Ever.”

Her eyes, the color of drenched moss in the dim light, stared at him warily, unwilling to believe, which hurt in a way he hadn’t expected.

“Well, I for one know you’d never hurt us,” Delia said gently as she scooted around the pizza to put her arm on his shoulders. She squeezed him. “We just don’t want to take your money, that’s all.”

“It wouldn’t be right,” Maddie said, smiling sweetly and patting his knee. “You keep it for yourself, Ty.”

He couldn’t believe it, but his throat actually tightened at their easy affection and trust. He hugged Delia back, and touched Maddie’s lovely face. Something about the heat warring with fear in Zoe’s eyes kept his hands off her, for she wasn’t as simple to show easy affection to as her sisters.

But he wanted to touch her; the need shocked him. “I can help,” he said instead. “You expected this place to be up and running.”

“But, Ty, we hadn’t decided that we were definitely going to...breed,” Delia pointed out.

Ty had spent every summer since he was ten on a series of ranches in “the country,” really just a suburb of Chicago. At first he’d been sent there by the city officials because no one had wanted the trouble-causing boy he’d been. He’d been worked hard, and he had grown to love every minute of it, while still pretending to hate it.

Then later he’d gone willingly, taking Ben, feeling more at home in the great outdoors than anywhere else. He loved horses, loved all animals, and had begged, borrowed and practically stolen to make Ben’s fantasy of ranching come true.

It had to be in one’s blood to make this hard living work. And if it wasn’t in these women’s blood, they’d go away and he would buy the land. Then they’d all win.

“Let me get this straight.” Zoe studied him carefully. “You want to be involved as a partner, not just to manage, but to own a part of it.”

“Yep.”

“You want to control it.”

Her mistrust was palpable, and he couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to her to make her this way. “I wouldn’t even attempt to control you, Zoe,” he said softly, everything else fading away but this woman with the bcautiful and so-unsure eyes. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”

“You couldn’t, anyway,” she said, lifting her chin.

“It snows here in the wintertime,” Delia said shakily.

“Quite a bit,” Ty told her.

“If we had a bunch of animals here, we wouldn’t be able to head south for warmer weather.”

“You’ll love cross-country skiing. I’ll teach you,” Ty said, shocked to discover he meant it. But they were leaving soon. He was counting on it, he reminded himself.

“Oh Lord,” Delia murmured, rubbing her head. “It just hit me. The wilds. We’re really living in the wilds.”

“Eighty-three thousand square miles of wonder,” he confirmed. “That’s Idaho. There’s no place more wild in the U.S., except for maybe Alaska.”

Delia moaned.

“Well, it’s not like we’re camping,” Maddie pointed out in her quiet, infinite wisdom. “You have electricity for your hair dryer, Delia. A tub for your bubble bath.”

Zoe let loose enough to laugh, the sound unexpectedly light and happy. Her tense face transposed, softened...and took Ty’s breath away. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“Skiing,” Zoe murmured a bit dreamily. “I’ve always wanted to try it.”

The yearning in her voice tugged at him. “You’re in, Slim?”

He knew what the stakes were for her; Delia had told him. After years of going to college at night while working full-time during the day, Zoe had finally gotten her business degree. Would she be happy running a ranch when a cool, easy living was all she’d ever wanted?

“And you’re going to stick with us?” she wondered. “No matter what?”

They were still watching each other, so that there was no hiding what flickered between them. Honesty, fear. Need. Startling need. “I’m going to stick, no matter what,” he said.

He saw the moment his response registered. The promise he was making. Saw, too, her fierce disbelief, and he experienced a strange urge to pound whoever had hurt her so badly in her past, whoever had caused Zoe to accept a promise, any promise, with such mistrust.

“Well, I think you’d make a good partner,” Maddie said softly, with a shy smile. “But only if Delia and Zoe agree.”

Delia’s wide gaze whipped to Maddie. She was so uncustomarily ruffled she forgot to pretend she wasn’t.

“I promise to make sure all the amenities run smoothly,” Ty said seriously, though he wanted to sigh in relief. They’d never stay long, and while he might actually miss them, he convinced himself he was doing them a favor. “I’ll even build a Jacuzzi, Delia. Just for you.”

“Oh, really?” She beamed. “You really will?”

“Promise.”

“Okay, but I won’t raise pigs. Or kill anything that makes red meat,” Delia said firmly.

“No problem. We can start with horses if you’d like.”

Delia flipped back her hair and took a deep, calming breath. “Oh God. Okay. I’m in, too. Maddie’s right. You’d be a great partner. Zoe?”

All eyes flew to Zoe, including Ty’s. She looked at him, unusually intense.

And again that strange, inexplicable communication happened between them. She was looking for honesty and he’d claimed to have given it, but he hadn’t, not fully.

He was counting on them leaving and guilt hit hard.

She deserved more, but unfortunately he couldn’t give it.

The room was thick with unspoken hopes and dreams. Ty watched Zoe, waited while that current tugged between them.

Stubbornness set her jaw, and he knew from the sudden disappointment filling him what her answer would be before she even spoke.

“You know what?” she said softly. “We’ll do this, we’ll manage to get this ranch running, but we can do it on our own. We won’t be a burden to anyone.”

“I never said you’d be a burden,” he said carefully. What had given him away? Had she read his guilt for what it was? “I offered.”

“Zoe, I—” Delia pinched her mouth closed at the look of determination on Zoe’s face. “Never mind. You’re right.”

Maddie sighed, then smiled and took Zoe’s hand, effectively disarming the tension. “Thanks, Ty, for offering.” She spoke softly but firmly, sparing one last glance for her still-silent and brooding sister. “But we’ll be fine.”

They were united, together. Reluctant admiration shot through Ty. Seems they had grit after all.

Then he looked at Zoe, who was looking at him with a definite challenging light. He felt his blood stir to meet that challenge. They would still work together. After all, he was manager of their property for the next year whether they liked it or not. It would be interesting, to say the least, considering she was stubborn to the last drop.

So was he.

“But Ty, honey?” Delia smiled beguilingly. “Think I could still have that Jacuzzi?”

* * *

Zoe took a walk after dinner in the cold night, desperately in need of some perspective, which she couldn’t get being in the same room with the enigmatic, sexy Ty Jackson.

Leaving Ty happily and easily charming Maddie and Delia, she stomped along. Why did he do that? she wondered. He certainly didn’t bother with any charm when it came to her, yet with her sisters, he poured it on. It wasn’t fake, either, which also confused her. No, when he spoke to Maddie or Delia his eyes were warm and relaxed, his manner genuine and easygoing yet somehow protective.

But she wasn’t fooled.

Letting her pent-up energy take her where it would, she roamed. In daylight, Triple M was too gorgeous to believe. Behind the house, there were the three peaks, behind them more mountains for as far as the eye could see. The fertile black soil was covered with lush growth. Tall green grass, myriad colors of wildflowers, the azure-blue sky, the deeper blue of the raging river, and interspersed among it all were the two rustic red barns, the ranch house and a series of run-down cottages.

A picture-perfect scene.

Except that the barns were empty and in desperate need of repair. So was the house. Brightly colored wildflowers grew like weeds in the empty pastures.

At night, though, like now, Zoe could walk through and imagine it how it should be.

She gave in to the panic gnawing at her belly. They had savings, but they were small. Too small. God, she thought, leaning against a wooden railing. What would they do? They couldn’t go back, there was nothing for them in L.A.

This was where they belonged, she could feel it, but she was deeply afraid about their future.

For whatever reason, Ty wanted this place, too. But she was every bit as rough and tough as he, and utterly indestructible, despite the broken promises in her past.

She told herself she hardly ever thought about that anymore, her mother’s hastily whispered vow to return as she dumped a terrified three-year-old Zoe in the group foster home.

Good thing for Zoe that home had been so strong, so supportive. There had been some rough kids she’d had to fend off occasionally, but the owners of the house, the Fontaines, had been kind, loving and very warm. Without that base in her life, who knows how or where she would have ended up.

Yet she wasn’t stupid enough to ignore the fact that she had indeed been perversely affected by her beginnings, no matter how much she shoved those beginnings away. She knew she didn’t trust well. She knew she used gruffness and irritability as a shield to keep others at bay. And she protected her wary heart with a grid of iron, never allowing anyone but her sisters too close. Even then, she’d held back a good part of herself, though it shamed her to admit it, for in return they had given her everything.

Fact was, Zoe liked control. A lot. And she went out of her way to ensure she always had it, which included holding tight reins on her feelings. But she didn’t have it here and she didn’t have it with Ty. One look into those sharp, knowing eyes and she knew the truth. Ty Jackson wasn’t the type to be controlled, which was reason enough to steer clear of the man. Not a problem, even if he had the best butt in Idaho and a smile that made her heart stutter. She’d steer clear.

She didn’t need the heartache.

What she did need was to survive, and she was a master at that. All she had to do was turn this ranch around, and fast. As in yesterday.

She could do it. They could do it.

But the little flutter of nerves had her pushing on. She drew in a deep breath of night. Dark in Idaho was unlike anything she’d ever seen in Los Angeles. It was...black. And complete. The sky was littered with stars, the air cold and crisp. It smelled like...camping.

And now it was home. Home.

God, what was she thinking? They were out of her element, there wasn’t a Taco Bell within a hundred miles! There wasn’t even a major city within a hundred miles.

But deep down she knew she wasn’t worried about Boise. Shooting the house a disgusted look over her shoulder, she kicked at some dirt and walked into the night, her inefficient tennis shoes sticking in the mud.

She was worried about her sisters.

And, if she were being honest, she was worried about Ty.

One of them was bound to fall for him. Delia loved a man with a sense of humor hidden behind the body of a Greek god, and Ty definitely fit the bill. And Maddie, she seemed to be such an easy mark for any man, with her low self-esteem and constant need to be...well, needed. Someone like Ty could take advantage of a woman like her in less than two minutes.

Only one problem with the theory of Ty hurting one of her sisters—he wasn’t looking at either Maddie or Delia with that fiery passion hidden behind sleepy bedroom eyes. He was looking at her.

What had that been over dinner, that strange connection between them? For a long, uncomfortable amount of time, she hadn’t been able to tear her gaze from his. Not that the big, lean, muscular man was a hardship to look at, but it unnerved her, this attraction she didn’t want.

Just the thought had her walking faster into the night. Behind the shack of a barn, and nearly a hundred yards away, was another building, a second barn. With all her energy, it was no problem to cover this distance quickly. She was oddly unafraid of the dark, even with all the night sounds echoing around her. In fact, she felt more at home here in the wilderness than she ever had on the crazy streets of Los Angeles.

This barn was much nicer than the one closer to the house, and she knew why. It wasn’t used by Constance’s ranch, it was part of the land leased by Ty. This part of Constance’s land was closest to his, and at certain times of the year, such as now, when it was still cold at night, he kept horses stabled here.

Through a thicket of trees and up a gentle slope she thought she could see the lights of his own ranch house. But because she didn’t want to imagine his life there, she turned away and opened one of the heavy double barn doors.