Cowboy Take Me Away (9 page)

Hope might have good intentions, but even she wasn't that strong. She let him caress her lips, matching his every move until his mouth opened wider and his tongue touched hers.
So much for self-control.

A loud voice from outside, muffled laughter, and a bang jolted them both from the moment. Chase looked pissed, moving sideways and flinging open the door.

“Sorry! Didn't mean to disturb ya.” A loud voice and some drunken laughter followed.

“And that's my cue,” Hope said, putting out a hand to stop Chase coming any closer. “You're a bad influence, Chase King. This is me saying no a second time, and meaning it.”

“Hey, I behaved myself around you for years.” He was in full charm mode, one eyebrow raised as he grinned. “Now it's time to misbehave.”

“No, you were
always
a bad influence,” she corrected, clasping her purse to keep her fingers busy. If they weren't, she didn't trust them not to go wandering back to Chase. “I just resisted your charms.”

“Our problem,” he said, sliding closer, a wolf seducing its prey, “is that now we know what we were missing out on.”

She shook her head and slid in the opposite direction, pushing open her door and stumbling out, trying hard to stay in control.

“Good night, Chase,” she said.

He leaned over, a devilish smile kicking his dimple into life. “Can I at least get a cab for you?”

“No,” she said, “because you'll only end up in it and I need to get home. Alone.”

Chase held his hands up in the air but she wasn't going to fall for his smooth words, not now that she'd extracted herself.

“I'll see you soon,” she said, checking she wasn't about to get run over by a car moving out of the lot as she called out to Chase. “We'll have our results in a couple of days and we can talk plans going forward.”

Her head was starting to spin from all the tequila, not used to so much alcohol after so long not indulging.

“You know where to find me if you need me before then.”

She gave Chase a final wave and laughed, shaking her head as she tried her hardest to walk in a straight line on her super high heels back toward the bar. Oh, she needed him all right, but the sensible part of her brain had taken over and she wasn't going to give in to any of her feelings again. Chase was a gorgeous man; he was sexy, strong, and confident. But her life was already complicated enough without diving headfirst into her past and getting tangled up with the one man she'd vowed never to end up in bed with again. The past year had shattered her dreams, put an end to the future she'd thought about since she was a girl. But just because she'd lost her family's ranch didn't mean she was defeated, and she wasn't going to let it define her. It was the very reason she'd left everything behind, to prove to herself and the world that she was someone in her own right.

*   *   *

Chase let himself into the apartment that Nate kept in town, kicking the door shut behind him and dropping his keys onto the hallstand. He groaned and shook his head.
What an idiot.
Since when did he make out with a woman in the backseat of his vehicle?

In college, that's when
. He strode down the short hallway and into the kitchen, yanking open the fridge and staring in. Chase reached in for a carton of orange juice, checked the best before date and guzzled some down. This was why he didn't date moms—or at least it was why he wasn't going to date moms in the future. Interruptions didn't sit well with him.

A noise made him jump. Chase spluttered the OJ, spinning around as he choked and finding his big brother holding a handgun. “Fuck, Nate, I thought you were a burglar.”

“Sorry.”

“Dammit, Nate! Stop pointing that thing at me.” He gestured at the gun now hanging causally from his brother's right hand. “What the hell are you doing here anyway?”

“This is my apartment.” Nate shrugged. “I ended up stuck in meetings all day. I'm wheels up in the morning now.”

Chase grunted and put the juice back in the fridge. “You frightened the fucking life out of me.” Nate kept the place because it was close to the King offices, and because he never liked to bring women back to the ranch, but they all had keys and if they drank too much he and Ryder used the place too.

“Where've you been?” Nate asked.

“Out with a friend?”

“You grab a few beers?”

“Dinner.”

Chase undid a few buttons on his shirt and crossed the room, flopping down onto one of the two sofas. Nate was only wearing boxer briefs, clearly disturbed from bed, but he claimed the other couch and kicked back, too.

“Hold up, you just came home from a date on your own? Man, you're losing your touch, little brother.”

“Maybe I didn't want to bring her back.” Or maybe he wished he'd been a bit more forceful about them coming here instead of settling for the back of his truck.

Nate chuckled. “Did you meet her online? Was she not up to her profile picture?”

“Fuck off.”

“Oh, I get it. This wasn't just a fun night out, this was…” Nate sat up, arms resting on his knees as he stared straight at him, eyes narrowed before he howled with laughter. “You've been hiding someone from us, haven't you? Someone so goddamn
special
you haven't even spent the night with her yet. Oh, this is good.”

Chase glared back at Nate, not about to let his brother get the wrong idea and tease him mercilessly.

“This is why I don't tell you shit.”

“No, this is exactly why you
should
tell me shit,” Nate countered. “Now come on, spill. I can't believe you've been living in my house all this time and you haven't said a word.”

“We had the AI specialist come around today,” Chase said, wondering why the hell he was even talking to Nate about Hope. He still couldn't figure it out in his own head, which meant he should probably be keeping it to himself. They'd had fun tonight and he wanted her,
damn did he want her
, but she was still different. Things between them were way more complicated than they should be.

“I don't want to talk about getting our heifers pregnant, I want to know about the girl,” Nate replied with a chuckle, getting up and going over to the fridge. He returned with a bottle opener and a couple of beers. “We can talk shop in the morning before I go.”

Chase frowned, taking the opened beer from his brother and swallowing it down. “That's the problem. I was out with the AI specialist tonight.”

Now it was Nate frowning. “You know we don't mix business with pleasure.”

Chase scowled. “I know the rule, you don't need to remind me. But this was different.” Their granddad hadn't been strict about a lot of things, but he never made exceptions to the few rules he did have. No screwing anyone who worked with you or for you; never raise a fist to a woman; always remember those who've helped you, and never forget those who've spurned you.

“Different how?” Nate asked.

“It was Hope. I had no idea it was her until she arrived, and we went out for dinner to catch up. I haven't seen her since we graduated from A&M.”

Nate stared at him, beer bottle in his hands as he leaned forward. “So let me get this straight,” Nate said, his brows drawn together. “You're talking about Hope, aka hot Hope, who you spent like four years lusting after in college?
She
was the specialist vet who turned up today?”

“We were just friends,” Chase corrected, worrying his thumb across the label of his beer bottle. “And I wasn't lusting after her through
all
of college.”

“Bullshit,” his brother muttered. “You might have played friends but you wanted her the whole time. You'd have been crazy
not
to have wanted her in your bed.”

“Yeah, well, look where that got me.” Chase took a pull of beer and then changed his mind. He wanted a whiskey instead. He needed something stronger to try to get the image of Hope flushed and rumpled in the back of his car tonight out of his head. “We were good as friends.” He stood and collected two glasses and the whiskey bottle.

“That still what you think?” Nate asked, nodding when Chase offered him a glass. “You going to try telling me that you'd like to be buddies with her instead of something more?”

“Fuck no.” Chase grimaced as he swallowed the liquor down. “But we already screwed our friendship up. And besides, I know what she looks like naked now.” The mental image of her body was like a red-hot poker burned into his memory banks. He'd never forgotten, but after tonight? He wanted her skin beneath his hands again, his mouth tasting her,
all of her
. He was getting hard just thinking about it.

He scowled as Nate sat back and chuckled. Chase hadn't thought about Hope in a long time, but now that he'd seen her she was
all
he could think about. Naked that night five years ago in the motel room. Starting to get naked in the backseat of his SUV tonight. He doubted he'd be able to shut his damn eyes without imagining her, which meant he needed to get good and drunk before he even thought about calling it a night.

“So you
did
sleep with her?”

Chase grunted. He hadn't talked about Hope to his brothers back then because the whole thing had pissed him off, that something had finally happened and then everything had fallen apart, and he wasn't exactly going to brag about it. She'd been his best friend, and he'd ruined their friendship because he hadn't been able to keep it in his pants.

“So what you gonna do about it?” Nate asked.

“Jack shit.”

“Don't be an idiot. You want her, go get her.”

Chase groaned. “She's different now.” Besides, did he want more? Did he want to go there again? He balled his fists. Of course he fucking wanted her, he just didn't want to admit it. Or maybe he didn't want to admit that he felt bad thinking about her as just fun—he didn't want anything more than a good time, but he also didn't want to hurt her. And that's why they'd kept to just friends at college, because he didn't want serious and she wasn't the kind of girl out screwing around for fun. She was a take-home-to-your-mom kind of woman.

“Different how?”

“She's a mom, for starters,” Chase told him. “It makes things more complicated.”

Nate howled with laughter. “You're scared of her because she's a mom? No one's asking you to be stepdad of the year. You know that, right? And FYI, moms can have a sex life if that's what you're worried about.”

Chase glared at his brother. He wasn't going to go into details about what had happened and how it had complicated things between them tonight. “She's not just some woman, Nate. She's…”

“The one who got away, I know.”

“Fuck off.” He knocked back the rest of his whiskey and reached for the bottle, then changed his mind and stood up. “I should never have said anything. Just forget it.”

“You're a douchebag,” Nate said, finishing his drink and stretching. He poured himself another, then raised an eyebrow at Chase before filling his glass, too. “This is the only time I've ever seen you all het up over a woman. You want her, do something about it or shut the hell up.”

Chase stalked across the room, ready to slam his fist into something to get rid of his frustration. He stared out into the darkness then marched back and snatched the glass, drinking the lot in one gulp. “It's fucking easy to say and damn hard to do.” He'd tried—tonight had been fun and they'd ended up almost naked—but the way she'd left told him that they weren't necessarily going to have a repeat performance.

“There's your answer right there.”

Chase set his glass back down and leaned on the table, palms open against the timber top. “I'm not following.”

“She's under your skin, brother.” Nate grinned, leaning back on the sofa and resting his feet on the table. “If she was easy we wouldn't be having this conversation.”

Chase grunted and turned around to go. He needed sleep and he sure as hell didn't want to talk about Hope any longer. Maybe lying in bed thinking about her wouldn't be such a bad thing. “Night,” he called out.

“Sweet dreams.” Nate was laughing as he said the words.

More like wet dreams
. Chase trudged up the stairs and tried to think of anything but Hope. Trouble was, their night together was still like a fresh memory—her long hair curled around his fist as she'd sat astride him, the fullness of her breasts, the curve of her ass when he'd cupped it with both hands.
Fuck!
Making out with her hadn't taken the edge off at all. It had only made him want her all the more.

What he needed was to get Hope out of his system, find someone or something else to distract him. Because until he did he doubted he'd get a decent night's sleep ever again. Only problem was he didn't want anyone else. He wanted Hope and he wanted her real bad,
mom or not
.

He contemplated calling some of his friends to see if they were out, but changed his mind. Going out and drinking more wasn't going to help him any, especially when he had a herd of cattle to move in the morning and he'd already consumed a whole lot more than he should have. Which meant he had a date with his pillow, whether sleep found him or not.

 

Chapter 5

Hope stretched out in bed, keeping her eyes shut tight as sun bathed her body. She loved having an upstairs bedroom and not having to worry about pulling the blinds, letting the sun wake her every morning. Although after being up so late the night before … Hope groaned and opened her eyes, staring at the white ceiling.
Chase
.

She dragged her body up, head foggy and starting to pound, but nothing changed the memories playing through her mind on fast-forward. Why had she kissed him? What had possessed her to jump in the back of his car and …
Oh my God.
Letting him touch her bare skin,
touching him
like she was a horny teenager.