Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (72 page)

“So, hire people and take
some time off.” She was brilliant, and her smile told him that
she was sure that she'd figured it all out. He smiled in return.

“I have over a hundred
ranch hands, but most of them only work from Spring until Fall. The
dozen or so that I have through the winter only help with the cattle,
I have to do the rest.” Morgan began to understand, at least
about the lonely part. He spent his winters alone, at least void of
female companionship, but he was probably quite the opposite in the
summer when he had more help than he could possibly need.

“So, I'm here to get you
through a... hmmm... dry spell?” Morgan leaned back in her own
chair, taking in a sip of her sweet coffee.

“Something like that. Are
you going to quench my thirst?” He leaned forward, propping his
arms on the table. Morgan, yet again, was caught off guard and Colton
laughed as her cheeks turned red. “Oh, be right back,” he
announced, saving her from having to reply. A knock at the door
caught his attention and he was across the room in seconds. She
turned in her chair, hoping to see who the morning guest was, but
Colton took his business outside, closing the front door behind him.

“Mr. Secretive, eh?”
Morgan picked up her last piece of bacon and tore it into a few
pieces as she waited for her client to return.
If you're thirsty,
I'll wet your whistle.
Morgan giggled at her own thoughts,
thinking that would be perfect on a business card.
I'll have to
tell Angel that one...

“Sorry about
that,” Colton announced as he came back into the home. “It
was just a package.”

Morgan scanned his hands,
nothing there. “What did you get?”

“Oh, it was for my
brother. I told him to send it across the way,” he explained,
pointing to where she assumed 'across the way' was and obviously
where his brother lived. He walked past Morgan and into the kitchen,
grabbing himself a plate and served another helping of eggs and
bacon, then sat back at the table.

“Wow, and I thought I had
a bottomless pit!” She blurted out, surprised at the amount of
food he was putting away.

Colton laughed, but it wasn't
quite the same laugh she'd heard all morning. Morgan wondered if he'd
really talked to the mailman. Maybe something was wrong and he wasn't
telling her? “I'm just extra hungry this mornin'.” His
accent, was it thicker? “So whatcha wanna do today?”

It is different. Maybe it
comes out stronger when he's more comfortable?
She didn't think
much of it, but she told him exactly what she wanted to do. “Well,
I'd like see to what else you've got in that barn.”

“We can do that,”
he nodded, taking another large bite of his eggs. “I hope
you've got some boots.”

Morgan brought her eyebrows
together in confusion from the information she'd had from that
morning. “What about the boots I just wore up to the barn?
Well, I have my own boots too, if you'd rather me not wear the...”

“Oh, that's right. Yeah,
ya can wear those. What am I thinking?” Colton looked at his
plate, then back up to her. “I hope you don't mind getting
dirty.”
“Nope. I don't mind. But, I'm going to change
into something... a little more... comfortable.” Morgan excused
herself from the table and found her way back to the bedroom. Once
there, she changed into her least favorite pair of jeans and threw a
hoodie over her long sleeved tee shirt. It wasn't the cutest, most
flattering thing in the world, but it was chilly out. Comfort won
over cute, at least on that day.

Chapter Five

Morgan walked behind the man as
they made it past the first barn, and looked ahead at another
building that was even bigger than the first. She knew from her
earlier visit that only part of the first barn held chickens, and she
made a mental note to ask to see the rest of it before they went back
to the house.

“I think they heard us.”
Colton turned around to tell her what she had already noticed.

“Oh! They're beautiful!”
At least a dozen heads peeked out from their stalls. “What
kind are they? Can we ride them?” Morgan had already ran to
the first stall and began to stroke the thick soft neck of the first
guy that she came to. Colton joined her and worked the other side of
Razzle's neck.

“No, we won't be riding
any 'a these guys.” Morgan looked the horse over, and she
certainly wasn't an expert on the beautiful animals, but he seemed
sound enough for a rider.

“Is there something wrong
with him?” She stood up on her tip toes, at least as much as
the oversized boots would allow, and was still checking him out when
Colton began to laugh.

“Sure, he'll be happy to
have you ride him. The trouble is, he'll buck you in two seconds or
less. He thinks it's fun, although I doubt you would get much
enjoyment out of it.” Morgan fell back to her flat feet and
gave the horse a narrow eyed look, but Razzle just stared back at
her.

“So, it's funny to buck
riders, is it?” She ran her hand between his ears and gave him
a good scratch. Colton grabbed her hand and led her the length of
the barn to show her the rest of the bucking beauties.

“All horses have the
desire to buck, but most are trained and worked with until they're
able to ride, work, or race. But some... well... they just can't get
the buck trained out 'a them, and that's where we come in.”
The two spent the better part of an hour talking about the calls they
get from all over Texas, and other states as well. Owners, mostly of
quarter horses, who are at their wits ends trying to train a horse
that just won't be trained. Colton takes them in, gives them a
wonderful home, and even allows them to be ridden in rodeos now and
then.

“I've been to a few
rodeos, it seems as if the horses have more fun than the riders.”
Morgan laughed at the memories she had as a teenager at her first
rodeo in Ohio. The horses bucked their riders off then pranced away
as if they were actually laughing at the pitiful man on the ground.

“Ah, they have a blast
doing it. It's what they love, and it's what they'll never stop
doing.” The tour ended far too abruptly for Morgan, as she
still wanted to see the rest of the first barn, but Colton insisted
that they head back to the house before the second wave of the storm
hit them.

“Is that what you were
doing this morning when I was sleeping, taking care of the horses?”
They were almost back on the porch when Morgan remembered that he
had already been up and dressed before she got out of bed. Colton
nodded slowly as they climbed the front stairs.

“Yeah, I'm up pretty
early to take care of things here. But, since you're here this week,
I'll try to keep the work to a minimum so that we can spend some time
together.” She was happy to hear that he was willing to give
her so much of his time, but it would have been just as nice to help
him around the ranch. Morgan was just about to tell him as such when
he told her that he would be right back.

“I need to make sure I
shut all the stall doors, the horses get a little spooked during a
storm.” He opened the front door and led her into the house
before running back up to the barn.

“Me too,” she spoke
to herself, in reference to being spooked. Ever since the storm in
Australia, she wasn't sure she'd ever look at rain the same again.
She'd always loved storms. The sound of the rain hitting the window,
lighting flickering in the sky, but the real dangers of it would
always linger in her mind.

Morgan easily stepped out of
the big boots and made her way back to the kitchen to get herself
another cup of coffee. Only a few minutes after she found a
comfortable spot on his sofa, the second wave of the storm had rolled
in. “Well, at least it didn't rain in California,” she
thought out loud. “And at least it's not snow...” Morgan
turned around on the couch, her knees on the cushion, and rested her
head on her arms as she looked out the window. The view showed the
side of the ranch she hadn't seen yet, which proved to be not much
more than land, as far as she could see. Off in the very, very far
distance, the same direction Colton had pointed earlier, Morgan
thought she saw a speck of a house, but she couldn't be sure.
Hmm.
I wonder what his brother is like. Then again, I still can't quite
figure out who you are.
Colton had money, lots of it, but like a
few of her clients, nobody would ever know.
Kind of like me,
she
thought when she remembered the flight attendant on the plane.

When Colton went out, he
blended in with any good 'ol country boy out there. One would look at
him just the same as a man worth a million or a man worth the three
bucks in his wallet. He wore old jeans, tee shirts, and would rarely
ever be seen without a hat. In the past, if she had seen a man like
Colton out in public, she would have walked right past him. Gorgeous,
yes. Funny, definitely. Intelligent, yep. Why would she pass him up?
Because he wasn't an asshole.

But that's not me anymore.
Morgan sighed into the window, making a circle of fog in front of
her on the cool class. She wondered how many good guys she'd passed
up. One came clearly into mind. His name was Jeremy. Morgan had
really liked Jer, they'd even dated for a few months, but he wasn't
her
type.
She'd broken up with him for a guy just like Jack
Dalon.
Man, I was stupid.
She smiled though, because things
would never be like that again.

“Now,
that's
a
view I wouldn't mind looking at all day!” Morgan turned her
head to see Colton shutting the front door behind him. When he faced
her again, she playfully shook her ass back and forth. “You
have a really nice ass. I'm just going to put that out there. Really.
Do that again.” He smiled and took a few steps closer and
Morgan swayed her hips back and forth, then ran her hand up her thigh
slowly as she looked over her shoulder.

“I can't be sexy when
you're making me laugh,” she scolded, then laughed at the faces
he was making.

“Girl, you don't need to
be anything. You're damn sexy. Let me show you something,” he
told her, laughing as well, then nodded his head to the side so she'd
follow him. Morgan climbed off the couch and met him halfway down the
unexplored hallway.

“You're just now showing
me this? Holy shit!” At the end of the hallway, there was a
door that led out to a room, similar to a patio, but fully enclosed
in floor to ceiling windows. Even the ceiling was glass, leaving her
to see the storm clouds right above her head.

“It's my office,”
he joked. “It was kind of a treat to myself, I guess. I can
relax here and look out at everything that's brought me here.”
What he meant by that was the ranch. He could sit in the huge hot tub
and look out onto his land, even see the horses or rogue deer that
made their way to his back yard.

“This is amazing!”
Morgan walked over to the hot tub that was sunken into the wooden
deck and dipped her hand in the steaming water. “So, tell me
we're going to be spending time out here?” she asked, flicking
the water off her hand. She quickly scanned the rest of the room to
see what else it offered. There was also a sauna, which she thought
was odd to have in Texas, but actually made sense for days like that.
There was a treadmill, a stationary bicycle and another piece of
equipment that Morgan had no idea what it was used for. Hanging from
a mount in the corner was an enormous television and in every other
corner, there were speakers.
Scary movies while in the hot tub?
Yes, please.

“If you'd like,” he
nodded and her eyes went back to the cowboy. “But before we do
that, we're going to dinner. If you're up for it. I'm not sure you
got enough sleep.”

Morgan rolled her eyes, then
laughed. “I think I'll be alright.”

*****

An hour of bliss spent in a hot
bubble bath was exactly what Morgan had needed after spending much of
the morning and afternoon tramping through mud. It wasn't as if
she actually had gotten dirty, but it felt better nonetheless. She
had also spent much of that time wondering what she would wear to
dinner. Was it casual? Casual enough for jeans? She still didn't
know, even after asking Colton several times. All he had offered her
was to wear whatever she felt comfortable in.

“I'm comfortable in a
dress, shorts, jeans...even my pajamas.” She had to laugh at
that one, showing up for a dinner out with her client in her pj's
would be hilarious. “Talking to myself isn't going to get me
dressed.” With a quick wrap of an extra large fluffy green
towel, she left the bathroom in search of something
comfortable.
“Yes.... this is quite comfortable.” Morgan smiled at
her white denim mini skirt, and searched through her bag to find her
off-the-shoulders thin black sweater. “I'm sure there are no
rules to wearing white in the winter in Texas.”

She took a little longer on her
hair than she wanted, but in the end, it was worth the wait for
Colton. “Damn!” He already knew how pretty she was, but
to finally see her out of old jeans and an oversized hoodie brought a
whole new level of beautiful. “Maybe we should stay in.”
The handsome man that Morgan was sizing up as she walked into the
living room was also quite impressive. He was still wearing jeans,
but they weren't old work jeans, and she could see the muscles flex
in his legs as he shifted his weight from one black boot to the
other. He wore a black button down shirt, and had obviously traded
his well worn tan cowboy hat for a new black one.