The Cowboy And The Debutante

“No,” he said with sudden gruffness. “I don’t think you’ll be in the way. I just thought I’d save you from the nasty work. But if that’s your cup of tea, have at it.”

He jerked his head toward the pens, where already the calves were bawling with loud protests, and the stench of burning hair and hide drifted on the high-desert wind.

It was obvious to Anna that he didn’t want her working in the pens. She didn’t know if his attitude stemmed from genuine concern for her safety or to simply be the boss. Either way it annoyed her. From the time she’d been old enough and strong enough to hold a kicking calf’s hocks together, she’d helped her mother and Aunt Rose in the branding pen. She didn’t appreciate an outsider telling her she was no longer welcome.

“Look, Miguel, the Bar M wasn’t always blessed with as many hands as you have working here for you today. When my twin and I were born, my mother and aunts were taking care of this ranch by themselves. And even years later, when I was a small girl, it wasn’t all that much better. I know how to work, and I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty.”

“Have you thought what would happen if you get your hand or finger crushed or burned? Your career would end.”

Her expression grim, she said, “If need be, I can face my career ending. What I can’t bear is being cloistered. Ever.”

He held his palms up as if to say he wasn’t going to argue with her. “You want to be reckless, go right ahead. I won’t stop you.”

Reckless. Anna wished for once she could let herself really go. Right at the moment she’d take immense pleasure in slapping Miguel Chavez’s jaw. “But you’d like to stop me,” she said crisply.

He let out a rough sigh. To deal with a precocious woman on today of all days was the last thing Miguel needed. “It doesn’t matter what I want. This is your ranch. I’m sure you’re going to do what pleases you, and to hell with my wishes.”

Anna gasped and was totally unaware that her fists had become planted on both her hips. “This isn’t my ranch, either! It belongs to my parents and my aunts and uncles.”

He glanced pointedly away from her, and Anna realized he was annoyed that she was wasting his time with trivial facts. Well, wasn’t that too bad, she thought. He was the one who’d started all this nonsense in the first place.

“Isn’t that all the same?” he asked.

“No! And I don’t like the impression I’m getting from you.”

His dark brows lifted skeptically. “What impression?”

“That you think I’m—some sort of little princess that has to be condescended to.”

His nostrils flared, and something dark and dangerous flickered in his hazel eyes. “If you think you can make me believe for one minute that you’ve ever had to suffer and struggle to make ends meet, you’re sadly mistaken. I’m not a fool, Anna. You were born into wealth, and you wouldn’t know what it was like to be without it.”

He was so wrong that she didn’t even want to try to correct his thinking. And where was his thinking coming from? It didn’t matter, she told herself fiercely. What Miguel Chavez thought of her was his own problem.

“My mother said you were a good man. Obviously she doesn’t know you.”

Anna turned and stomped away from him. She went straight to the branding pen, climbed the metal fence and jumped to the ground inside. Let Miguel be put out with her, she thought angrily. She was home on vacation. If she wanted to help with roundup, she would.

An hour later sweat was pouring down her face, tracking the fine dust coating her skin. She’d long ago shed her jean jacket, and manure now stained the front of her pink cotton shirt and splotched her chaps. But none of those discomforts bothered Anna nearly as much as Miguel’s earlier remarks had. She was still seething over his attitude, and though he’d been working only a few steps away from her, she’d done little more than grunt in his direction.

“You better watch out, Anna. This one is a strong cuss,” the cowhand warned as he bulldogged the half-grown calf to the ground.

Someone appeared with a branding iron just as she managed to grab the calf’s two back legs. “I’m watching,” Anna assured him, “just hurry and—”

Anna’s next word never got past her lips. The next thing she knew the ground slammed against her back and bright white lights were floating in front of her eyes.

“Anna! Anna, can you hear me?”

The deep male voice persisted, demanding she wake up and open her eyes. Anna struggled to see through the cobwebs floating around in her head.

“Miguel? Is that you?” she asked weakly.

Cool, rough fingers touched her temple, and she realized something was wrong with her head. Pain was zinging through it like bolts of lightning.

“Yes. It’s Miguel,” the male voice answered.

A strong arm slid beneath her shoulders and pillowed her upper body in a half-sitting position. “What...happened?” she asked.

“You’ve been kicked,” he said grimly. “Can you see me?”

Anna tried her best to focus her gaze on his dark face. Her vision was still blurred, but thankfully it was quickly clearing.

“Yes. Was I...kicked in the head?” She brought her fingers up to her forehead. It felt like someone had whammed her with a hammer.

“Right in the temple.”

“She took a pretty good lick, boss,” one of the cowboys that were grouped around them said. “Maybe she should go to the doctor.”

“You’re probably right, Jim,” Miguel agreed. “Can you men go on, while I take Anna back to the ranch?”

“No!” Anna practically shouted and made a sudden move to get to her feet.

“Stay where you are!”

The demanding tone of Miguel’s voice was like a shot of adrenaline to Anna. She shoved herself away from him and stood on rubbery legs.

“I’m okay. I don’t need a doctor!”

Another cowhand retrieved her felt hat from the ground where she’d fallen and handed it to her. Anna jammed it back on her head and tried not to wince as it settled over the goose egg that had already formed beneath her scalp.

“You probably have a concussion,” Miguel warned her.

“I can see, and I don’t have the urge to throw up. I just have an ache in my head. And you would, too, under the circumstances.”

Miguel motioned for the men to get back to work, then, taking Anna by the arm, he led her over to the back of the chuck wagon where the two of them would be out of sight from the others.

“Why are you continuing to argue with me? You were briefly knocked out cold!” he told her, his voice rough with frustration. “I want you to swallow a couple of pain pills, and then I’m going to ride with you back to the ranch.”

“Why? I don’t need to go back to the ranch.”

He glared at her with angry disbelief, and Anna wished she had the strength to knock the know-it-all look off his face.

“You didn’t need to be down in the branding pen, either,” he said, “but you wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Oh, sure, throw that up to me! I’m sure it tickles you to death to be able to say ‘I told you so.”’

At this very moment, Miguel wanted to shake her, then hold her as tightly as he could. He’d never been so frightened as when he’d heard the thud of the calf’s hoof striking her head and then had seen her lying white-faced and lifeless on the ground.

“Nothing about this situation tickles me Anna.”

She tried not to feel hurt by his attitude. After all, nowhere was it written that he had to like her. “In other words, you never wanted me around in the first place. You only tolerated my presence because of my mother. Well, if you must know, I only came out here on this roundup to please my mother.”

“And here I thought all this time you were pining to be near me,” he said sarcastically.

“You really are—” she shook her head “—sickening!”

Suddenly his hand was cupping the back of her neck and his face was dangerously close to hers. “What would you know about me, Anna Murdock Sanders? You’ve been away from this ranch for more than a year. You didn’t even know your mother had hired a new man to run the place. I can plainly see who and what you care about!”

Anger turned her cheeks scarlet and made her head pound just that much worse. “I think your hands and your notions are both misguided,” she said through gritted teeth.

Something flared in his eyes, but before Anna could figure out what it was, pressure from his fingers propelled her forward and a pair of hard lips clamped down on hers.

She groaned a protest in her throat, and her fists came up to push against his shoulders. But that was where her fight ended. Her stunned outrage was suddenly forgotten as her senses gave over to the overwhelming sensation of being in his arms, tasting his hard, warm lips.

Anna was certain an eternity had passed before he finally ended the kiss and looked down at her. By then her legs were trembling even worse than before, and her head reeled with pain and the humiliation of surrendering to the man.

“I’m certain,” he muttered, “that you think entirely too much. As for my hands and my notions—you won’t be bothered by either of them again!”

“That’s the best news I’ve had in years!”

Miguel didn’t know what in hell had come over him. He hadn’t wanted to kiss Anna Murdock Sanders! But he had, and even now he still couldn’t find the strength to put her away from him.

“Can you see straight now?” he asked coolly.

Her nostrils flared daintily as her eyes focused on the tantalizing curve of his lips. She was probably just one of many women that had tasted his mouth, she told herself. What had just transpired between them had meant nothing to him, except an act of punishment.

“Straighter than I’ve ever seen before!”

“Good. Then get on your horse and get out of here before I say or do something I’ll really regret.”

“Believe me, I already have.”

She jerked away from him and strode around to the front of the chuck wagon. The cook searched out a bottle of painkillers for her and Anna quickly swallowed one down with a swig of bitter coffee. By the time she’d untethered Ginger and swung herself up into the saddle, Miguel had already dismissed her and gone back to work in the branding pen. Now all she had to do was ride three miles back to the ranch and try to forget she’d ever met the man!

Chapter Three

“Anna! Anna, wake up!”

This time it was her mother’s instructions rather than Miguel’s and the urgency in the older woman’s voice caused Anna to come awake instantly.

“What’s wrong?” She glanced at the clock on the nightstand and was alarmed to see it was the middle of the night.

“Don’t panic, darling, but we’ve had a telephone call from South America. It sounds as though Adam has been involved in some sort of accident out at one of the oil sites.”

Anna bolted upright in bed, and the sudden movement caused her to clutch her head and groan.

Chloe sat down on the side of the mattress and put her arm around her daughter. “I’m sorry I had to wake you up like this. I know your head must be killing you. But your daddy and I are going to be leaving in a few minutes.”

Anna dropped her hands from her temples and stared anxiously at her mother. “Now? Tonight? Is he—” She was forced to stop and swallow as fear knotted her throat. “Is he injured critically?”

Chloe shook her head. “No...it doesn’t sound that serious. The caller said Adam was in the hospital with a broken leg. And that was the only injury he knew about.”

“Thank God for that much,” Anna murmured as thoughts of her brother whirled through her mind. He’d always been like a third arm or leg to her. Even when they were apart, she always felt his presence, as he did hers. She ached for him now.

“Don’t you think I should go, too? I want to see him,” she said, quickly throwing back the covers.

“Not tonight,” Chloe said quickly. “You don’t need to be traveling with that lump on your head. Besides, if it turns out Adam needs surgery on his leg, we might have to stay down there for an extended time. If that’s the case, I’ll need you here to see after the horses for me.”

Anna nodded at her mother’s reasoning. “Of course, I’ll do anything you need me to.”

Chloe hugged her close. “I know you will, darling.”

She got up from the bed and gently pushed Anna back down against the pillow. “Try to rest and don’t worry. We’ll call you as soon as we find out anything. And in the morning please go over to Miguel’s and explain to him what’s happened and that it looks as though we’ll be away for a few days.”

“Go over to Miguel’s? Mother, there’s no need for that! The man will probably be down at the stables by daybreak. I’ll let him know then.”

Chloe frowned at her daughter. “He won’t be down at the stables in the morning. The men are going to be doing roundup without him tomorrow. He was going to Alamogordo to make a deal on some liquid feed.”

“Then I’ll tell him when he gets back.”

Chloe shot her an exasperated look. Anna groaned and scrubbed her eyes with both fists. “I know, Mother. I’m being a pain. It’s just that I’m worried sick about Adam, and I’d rather go see him than stay here with...Miguel Chavez! You might as well know right now that we’ve had...a run-in.”

Chloe made a palms-up gesture as if to tell her daughter so what. “Then the two of you will just have to get back on track. I can’t concentrate on Adam unless I know this place is being taken care of, and that’s going to mean both you and Miguel seeing after things.”

Anna always loved having a chance to help her parents, to pay them back for all the wonderful years they’d given her. But why the heck did she have to do it with Miguel Chavez?

“Don’t worry,” Anna assured her mother. “I won’t let you down. If need be, I’ll murder Miguel and persuade Lester to come back.”

“Fat chance.” She headed toward the door, then paused with her hand on the knob. “By the way, just what did Miguel do to get you so stirred up?”

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