Seducing the Bachelor (The Bachelor Auction Returns Book 3) (4 page)

She liked him
sexually aggressive. He could tell by the flare of her pupils. Her eyes were blue. Deep blue like a fall Montana sky just before twilight descends. Also the way she watched him gave her away. She didn’t try to hide her appraisal of his body. She was embarrassed by her desire, but not hiding it. And that kept cranking him up. He wished he’d rented a car so he could take her somewhere. See if the smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose dipped any lower.

He didn’t think she was wearing a bra, and it was driving him nuts because he wanted to get the hell out of here with her and not resurface until he’d buried every ghost that had risen now that he was back in his hometown, feeling once again alienated, lonely, frustrated, and edgy, just like the awkward teen who’d slunk around his high school hallways always wanting to say something to a girl to get her attention but coming up empty.

He loved,
loved
the way she moved. He could watch her all night, that rolling gait, pelvis tucked under, back straight, shoulders dropped and fluid. She was so symmetrical, athletic with just a hint of sex in her hip sway. Definitely out of his league, but he was going to step up to the mound and take a swing anyway. He liked his chances, and he wasn’t ready to walk away.

She broke eye contact first. Moistened her lips again, and it took a lot of his restraint not to dip his head to taste her. Nick, Gavin, and Code were nowhere in sight, which meant he had no wheels. Stupid not to rent a car.

“I don’t know,” she said, “what I want to do.”

Yes, she did. But she wasn’t ready for that. That was his sign to move on immediately. But something about her held him and it wasn’t just the obligation. She nibbled on her lip.

“I…I have to go,” she said.

“Name?”

That was so not a question he asked unless it was offered. And now he was going to ask for her number so he could plan a date. Definitely a night of firsts for him.

“Talon,” she said.

She pulled a huge wad of bills out of her apron pocket, looked at it, her expression closed and then she carefully tucked it into the large tip jar that stood at the end of the bar.

The bartender, who’d looked pissed off all night, his face set in stone, asked her something. She smiled and her face lit up, and Colt felt something strange stir inside him. It made him uncomfortable.

She had a beautiful, open smile. Like the sun coming out, and he couldn’t think of a name less appropriate for her. There was nothing sharp or deadly about Talon.

“Donation?” he asked.

She nodded. “I volunteered to help out tonight. Usually, I waitress the dinner shift at The Main Street Diner. I’m finishing my bachelor’s degree. I’m going to be a vet. Starting school in the fall. I also have an associates and am a vet tech.” She clapped her hand over her mouth again. “Sorry. TMI. And I blab when I’m nervous. Obviously. I don’t think I’ve ever won anything.”

His heart squeezed at her look of wonder. He’d never been anyone’s prize.

“I guess this is where we say goodbye,” she said, her voice a bit sad and she held out her hand.

To shake?

“Lady’s choice.” He reminded her, feeling like a dumb ass because obviously spending time with him was going to be more of a chore than something to look forward to, and he was stupid to care. He should blow out of here. Good deed done. Only it wasn’t. And for the time that Coach D had been there for him. And Nick, Gavin, and Code. He couldn’t quite walk away like he’d planned.

“Did you have something in mind?”

“If I had, I would have told Rowan for the program.”

She laughed. Again, her eyes lit up and she looked even prettier, carefree in a way he couldn’t imagine feeling. He guessed it was funny, but he’d been serious. He should probably laugh too but couldn’t manage the right reactions sometimes. Most times. The silence pulled, stretched. He waited.

“Can I think about it?”

“Sure.” Disappointment was a nagging bitch, but what had he expected, really?

“Do you need a ride to one of your friends’ homes?” she asked. “I know where Code’s uncle’s ranch is. I’ve been out on a couple of calls when one of his horses was in trouble with her labor.”

“Yes,” he said to the ride. “No to Code’s.” He was so antsy to get out of here. He didn’t spend this much time indoors hardly ever. He’d be better staying on his own in a motel.

“Where to?” She headed back to where she’d come from, indicating that he should follow so he did. “Your family’s then?”

He hated this. The whole getting to know him. This was what he didn’t do. He watched the crowd in the bar. Read the room. Picked the woman who’d be ready for action without too many questions. Repeat different bar, different town, different woman.

That couldn’t be the play tonight.

“No family,” he said.

“Oh.” She turned around and he had to stop abruptly to keep from crashing into her. She touched his arm, her eyes dark with sympathy, and something coiled in his gut so tightly, raised its ugly head and stirred. “I’m sorry. I know what that feels like.”

His jaw clenched.

“I didn’t have a family growing up either. Mostly foster homes and group homes. That’s why I love this town so much. It’s so welcoming. I feel like the people of this town are my family. Everyone has been really kind to me and to Parker.”

She was so open. Christ, it was like she was inviting the hurt. Wincing for her, he followed her to an office not sure if Parker was a dog or a kid. A kid. No ring. What dumb ass made a kid with her and walked away from that sexiness coupled with kindness and a strong work ethic? Or maybe Parker’s father had been a soldier and had died. Maybe that was why his intensity, his curtness didn’t throw her. Women definitely propositioned him. None of them seemed prepared to get to know more than one part of him, and that totally worked.

But he was up for his third enlistment. He was thirty and he had nothing. No house. No wife. No dog. The few things he had were in a storage locker on a Texas base. He had bought a beautiful truck a couple of years ago that he’d tricked out and had stored it at another ranger’s house, but David had been killed, and his wife had moved with her kids back to Florida to be with her parents, and she’d called his uncle about the truck.

He’d probably junked it for spite.

“Where’s Parker’s dad?” Couldn’t hold that one in. Kids definitely complicated things. Not that he should be thinking along those lines. He wasn’t here long enough for a complication.

“Aaaaah…I don’t really know. Jenna didn’t tell me. Only that he was rodeo. She’s dead. Killed in a car accident. I adopted Parker three years ago.” She crouched next to the sleeping child, who was wrapped in a purple down parka. “Jenna was my best friend. We lived together in a few fosters and then lit out together after I graduated early.” She smoothed the hair back from her son’s small face. “So I’ve been with Parker since he was born.”

She stood up and gathered up a tote that had boxes in it, kids’ books, and a few other things.

“I’ve been in Marietta now over a year and a half. Longest I’ve lived anywhere.”

Her expressive eyes shone as if Marietta were the center of the universe. And he had always hated it. Hated the town. The gossip. The judging. His uncle’s isolated life and all the work. Football and study had been his only reprieves.

“Jenna found it. She and I had gone to the Copper Mountain Rodeo once where she met Parker’s dad, but I had to study so I didn’t stay for all the events, but I fell in love with the town and when she…” She trailed off, her eyes tearing up.

“Sorry.” He said quickly, mentally kicking himself for asking her anything personal. Not that he’d known he’d get the novel version of her life. “Want me to carry him to your car?”

“He’s seven and solid. You can’t pick him up.”

A challenge. This he could deal with. Tenderness rubbed him raw. So did sorrow.

He scooped up the kid, tucking the jacket, probably hers around him. Talon blinked at him with her strange, deeply blue eyes—almost purple in some lights, like pansies, and her lashes were long and curled up, making her always look searching, and he had to resist the urge to rock back on his heels away from her discerning gaze.

“Can.” He taunted back. “Where’s your ride?”

“Well, it’s not really mine.” She pulled out the keys and let him out of a side door. “I’m sort of borrowing it right now because my car’s giving up the ghost again, and the person who owns it hasn’t come looking yet, and I just renewed the tags so that’s kind of like I’m leasing it and…” She continued to walk quickly across the small parking lot and down a couple of blocks. “I’m sorry. Parker is tall and definitely not a skinny kid and…are you okay?”

“My gear weighs twice this and I climb at high elevations and run with it, so I’m not even breaking a sweat here.”

“Oh, sorry. I’m totally impressed by your manly fitness level. Feeling deliciously weak and swoony now. Must join a gym.”

She definitely had a mouth on her. Better and better.

Why did he have to be playing hero, carrying the sleeping kid when he’d rather be carrying her off somewhere so he could finally get to live his dream of ripping off a cowgirl’s shirt and making her come by playing with her breasts while she still stood up in her jeans and boots? He didn’t think she was wearing a bra and he felt like his fingers were crawling out of his skin in order to find out for sure.

“I can think of better ways to work out,” he said.

“You can tell me all about it on the ride.”

“Rather show you,” he said low in her ear, easily keeping pace with her quickening steps.

She stumbled and he easily caught her elbow even with the kid’s dead weight. Yeah. She was definitely interested, kid or no kid. Maybe Lady’s Choice hadn’t been such a sucky date idea after all.

H
ard to walk
when she was pressing her legs together so tightly. This was crazy, but she was loving every second of it. She felt so alive and so wet and swollen down there, and he hadn’t even kissed her yet. And why was she flirting with him, because he was so clearly out of her league, it was a different game. And she didn’t care because she wanted this man however she could get him, which was stupid because she had Parker and her own dumb heart to think about. As much as she’d like to pretend that she was a woman who could have a one-night stand or a weekend stand since tomorrow was Sunday, she had a niggling feeling she would want more.

She cried during Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day commercials. No way was she a sophisticated woman who could jump into bed with a hot man and walk away with a smile.

Colt was not a man any woman would forget anytime soon. She couldn’t be dragging around her bruised and empty heart and still hold it together enough to be Parker’s mom, and a good employee and student, and work with Noah to try to learn as much as she could hands-on because she learned better that way than from her classes.

She was just talking herself into behaving when he had to go whisper that suggestive comment in her ear about showing her how to work out. He was so ripped it was all she could do to keep her hands off him.

Back and forth her mind seesawed—make a move on Colt or listen to her wiser, safer self and ignore her suddenly wide-awake hormones, so it was a relief to get to the truck. It was a thing of beauty, but a bit masculine. She washed it every week because the owner of it had obviously spent some serious dough. Top of the line and upgrades. She felt guilty driving it, especially on most of the rutted ranch roads where she interned with Noah, but trucks were built to be tough. All the ads said so.

She knew she was on borrowed time. Mr. Meizner had died several months ago, and his lawyer had contacted her that the son had been notified. He could show up any day demanding that she leave Talon reminded herself, but she was really starting to settle into the ranch, relax a little. Dream.

“This is it,” she said, pushing the lock on the remote. “Parker’s booster is on the right side. I know he seems big for one, and he’s already complaining about it, but the truck is big, and the law says…what’s wrong?”

Colt walked around the sleek, shiny black Dodge Ram truck with the custom tires and rims.

“It’s a beauty, isn’t it?” She said.

“Where’d you get it?” The question was like a shot.

“I told you.” She pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling. It was late. They were alone on Main Street, and he was holding Parker, and all of a sudden she realized that she’d been taking a lot for granted. She didn’t know him. Normally she would never have left a bar with a stranger, let him hold her son. But Colt was a home town boy. A hero. Who’d been gone twelve long years. Meghan had told her that. She swallowed, feeling a little sick and scared like she hadn’t felt since she’d been a teen trying to assess yet another new situation.

“I’m borrowing it.”

“Borrowing it how?”

She tried to gulp in some air so she wouldn’t sound so breathy, afraid. It was almost as if he could sense her fear because he suddenly looked up, that narrowed, focused stare of his, and tilted his head toward the door. “You need to push it again to open the door. I’ll put Parker in his booster seat.”

She nodded and pushed the button twice. The door opened and he carefully put Parker inside along with her tote and strapped Parker in. Then he stepped back from the truck, closed the door, and took another step back from her. By that time she could breathe again.

“Tell me about the truck.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s mine.”

*