Stone Temptation [Texas Stallions 3] (7 page)

“What about Catherine? Was she someone you’d be embarrassed to marry?”

“No,” Stone quickly answered.

Clay’s booted feet dropped to the floor, and he leaned forward on his desk. His eyes were hot as he stared hard at Stone. “Then why her? Why did you take advantage of her? Why did you break her heart, fuck her, and then walk away as if she meant nothing to you?” Clay rose from his chair, his pulse ramping up once again. If anything, he deserved to punch Stone square in the mouth for treating his kid sister the way he had. “Stone, I can forgive you crashing my car, but hurting her was unforgivable.”

Stone never broke eye contact as he said quietly, “I know it was.”

Clay scoffed, his shoulders rising and falling from his heavy breaths. “Why did you leave without saying a word to me?” He stared hard. “How could you just walk away without talking to me?” 

Stone’s eyes watered.

Never in Clay’s life had he expected to see his old friend resurface, and he certainly hadn’t expected him to seek forgiveness or truly appear remorseful. The young man he once knew would never do such a thing. Stone had been cocky and sarcastic but never apologetic.

“I told you. Besides being a young, adolescent jackass, I was jealous and angry. I hated my life. I wanted a life I could be proud of, and I figured I had to do it on my own.”

Clay’s brows rose up high on his forehead, and the tension pulled at his skin. “So you joined the Marines?” Did he have a death wish? Was his life so bad that he had to run away to war?

“I couldn’t take another moment of being compared to you.”

Clay’s face shifted, eyes narrowing, nose scrunching, and his mouth formed an
O
. He couldn’t hide the surprise of his words. “Who the hell was comparing you to me?”

“Everyone!” Stone barked, his voice jumping up an octave.

Clay couldn’t believe the excuse he was using. Did he really believe such nonsense? “That’s just ridiculous.”

Eyes rolling in his head, Stone made a sound that was something between a laugh and a muffled groan. “You didn’t see it, and that was one of the many reasons I decided to leave without telling you.” Stone slowly sat in the chair beside him. “My good-for-nothing parents abused the shit out of me. If I didn’t make every team you did, I was beaten. If I didn’t make the same grades you did, I was beaten.” He cleared his throat. “Clay, I was a scrawny kid back then who was never going to make any athletic teams, and let’s face it, there was no way I was ever going to make great grades in school. My parents didn’t even have money to buy school supplies for me, how was I ever going to fucking study without the needed materials to do so?” Stone ran a stiff hand over his peach-fuzzed head. “Life in the McGraw household was no Sunday picnic. A blind person could see that.”

Clay’s throat squeezed. He knew his friend’s life had been hard, but he hadn’t realized it had been that hard. Maybe he hadn’t been the best kind of friend as kids, after all. If he had, he would’ve done something. What, he had no idea, but he would’ve, and that’s the point. “If you asked me, I would’ve tried to help you.”

“How could you have helped me? All you could’ve done was confirm that your life was indeed better than mine and that once again the mighty Clay Garrett had to rescue poor little Stone.” He shook his head. “No, Clay, that was not going to happen. I was going to make my own rules, and I was going to save myself. That was why I stole your car, slept with the prettiest girl I could find, and joined the military without saying a word. It was my eighteenth birthday, and I was getting the fuck out as fast as I could.”

Clay studied Stone. The once-scrawny kid was nowhere to be found. Before him was a fierce-looking man full of muscle and strength, but now he was also a man with the need for others. “What took you so long to come find me?”

Stone chuckled. “I had to get blown up and choke down my pride. As awful as it was, being attacked may have saved my life.”

Clay was overcome by the mental images of his friend burning alive. He wouldn’t wish that kind of torture on any human being. “In what way?” he asked softly.

“Lying in a hospital bed, wondering if I was going to live through it all, and not knowing if anyone would care if I lived or died made me very well aware that I caused the pain in my life. I figured out, perhaps a little too late, that the jealousy I felt had nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. I did have the power to change, and I really didn’t have to do it on my own.” Stone’s voice shook as he spoke. Glancing up, he said, “Clay, you were all I thought about. I wanted to find you and make things right. I didn’t want to die alone, not when I still had a brother somewhere out there.” Locking gazes with Clay, he paused a long moment before he finished his thought. “I’d like for you to get to know the man I am today. I’d like a chance to right my wrongs.”

Clay had always been a hard-ass and a stickler for the rules. Even with all that, he’d never been called cold or unfair. Smiling to himself, he heard Delilah’s voice as she described him as, “A big teddy bear with a gun.”

Meeting his gaze head-on, he asked matter-of-factly, “Do you plan on buying me a new car?”

Stone chuckled. “If that’s what it takes, then sure.”

Clay shook his head. “I’m not going to promise you anything, but I’m willing to get to know you again.”

Stone smiled, leaning forward in his chair.

Clay walked around his desk and took hold of Stone’s hand in a fierce handshake, pulling him close as he said, “I hope I won’t have to shoot you.”

Stone grinned, slapping Clay once on his back. “Yeah, me, too.
 That would suck.”

* * * *

Stone studied Clay as he grabbed a file from his desk and walked to the cabinet beside him, yanking it open. Shoving the file inside, Clay asked, “How long are you planning to stick around?”

His stomach swished and rolled. His nerves were still very much alive and kicking. Deep down, he hoped that everything went well and Clay accepted him back into his life, and if that happened, he’d stay until hell froze over. Things had to work out between them. He really didn’t have any other place to go. Sure, he could set up shop anywhere, but he wanted to be close to family, and that meant being near Clay.

He also couldn’t ignore how incredible his afternoon had been with Gracie. She’d been a sweet little temptation that a man could get used to sampling.

Stone cleared his throat. “As long as you don’t pull a gun on me.” He grinned. “I’ll be sticking around for a good long while.”

Clay chuckled, leaning his shoulder against the cabinet. “What are you going to do for work?”

“A lady at the diner said there was a ranch looking for someone to help out.”

Clay screwed up his face. “You want to be a ranch hand?”

He shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
I know absolutely nothing about ranching. They’ll never hire me, but I still have to try.

“Ever rode a horse? Or scooped up shit?” His tone was laced with humorous intent.

“Does human shit count?”

Clay frowned.

Laughing, Stone murmured, “Never mind.” He kicked his boots out in front of him and crossed them at his ankles. “To answer your other question, no, I’ve never ridden a horse. Care to give me a lesson?”

Clay sighed. “Actually, I think my friend Hunter is more equipped to help you with your riding skills. His family owns Paradise Ranch, but now Hunter helps out on Delilah’s ranch.”

Stone practically jumped out of his seat. “Holy shit, Paradise was the name the waitress mentioned.”

“Madeline?” Clay asked.

He snapped his fingers. “Yeah, that was her name.”

“That’s Hunter’s mother.”

Stone huffed out a breath. “Damn, small-town living is going to keep my ass honest. That’s for sure.” He had no doubt that everyone would know he was new in town, and the moment he left the station, everyone would know who he was and why he was there.

“How do you mean?” Clay asked.

“Everyone knows everyone.”

Clay chuckled as if knowing exactly what he meant. “You’ll get used to it.”

Gracie’s face suddenly flashed in his mind. Her sweet jasmine scent lingered on the chair he sat in. A vivid picture of her luscious body splayed out on the table in front of him filled his thoughts, and he quickly found himself shifting in his seat. “Hey, before I forget, did you offer Gracie the clerical job?”
If I’m sticking around in this town, I sure hope she is, too.

Clay narrowed his brows. “How do you know Gracie?”

“We arrived on the same bus, and we…” Stone’s guilty gaze drifted up to meet Clay’s. He hadn’t meant to add that last part that clearly would be understood. One thing he knew was that Clay was not an idiot. He’d comprehend exactly what he meant even if he didn’t speak the words.

Clay’s hands dug into his hips, and a deep, heavy scowl etched across his forehead. “Jesus, Stone, did you sleep with her already?”

He shrugged, scrunching up his face.

Clay blew out an exaggerated breath and shook his head. “Well, that’s gonna leave a mark.”

“What’s gonna leave a mark?”

Inhaling deeply, Clay told him, “It’s really not my business to share. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Stone observed Clay’s body language, and his nervous glance out his office window toward the desk just outside. He didn’t need a road map to follow his directions. “Right,” Stone said, smiling. “I hope he doesn’t have plans of trying anything with Gracie.”

“Who?” Clay asked, trying to sound genuinely unclear.

Stone hiked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the front of the station. “The person who thinks she’s available.”

“So she wasn’t just a one-night stand for you then?” Clay asked with a snicker.

He shrugged. “I’m not sure, we’ll have to see.”

Glancing down at his watch, he noted the time. “I better head over to the ranch before it gets too late.” He rose from his chair, but before he left, he told Clay, “Tell your deputy to keep his hands off Gracie.”

Clay frowned. “I never said it was my deputy.”

Smirking, Stone replied, “You didn’t have to.”

* * * *

Paradise Ranch was massive. The property reached beyond what he could see. Off in the near distance, he saw cattle and horses grazing over lush, green grass, the benefits of a wet Texas summer.

He’d rented a pickup truck earlier that morning, and he was glad he did. He never would’ve been able to walk all the way out here in a day. The amount of land that surrounded him was simply breathtaking.

Maybe it was the number of years that he’d spent living in the desert that had him appreciating the trees and shrubs. Normally, he’d been the kind of guy to want asphalt and cement underneath his boots, but he was surprised at how nice it felt to breathe air that wasn’t saturated with carbon monoxide and to see an array of colors reach from the heavens back to the earth. No wonder Clay had settled here.

It was as close to heaven as he might get without actually dying.

Stepping up onto the porch, he knocked on the front door and waited. Somehow, he’d forgotten to ask Clay who he should ask for when he arrived at the ranch. Groaning, he hated when he got so caught up in the moment he simply forgot the basics. Leave it to him to be unprepared and caught with his pants around his ankles.

He took a step back from the screen door as it swung open. A blond-haired male in his mid-twenties greeted him. His hazel-green eyes made him unnaturally pretty for a man.

“Can I help you?”

“My name’s Stone McGraw, and I heard there was a position available for a ranch hand?” He swallowed the sudden nerves that rode up his throat. He was asking for a job he had no practical training or skills to do.

Now if they needed something blown up or a protection detail, I could do that in my sleep.

The man’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Ever done any roping or riding?”

Stone shook his head. “Nope, but I’ve fired some heavy artillery with the United States Marine Corps.”

“Damn, that’s pretty cool,” he said, grinning. “Ever ridden a bull?”

Again Stone shook his head. “Nope, but I’ve ridden some other things that might have been considered just as dangerous.”
Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that…

The man let out a throaty laugh, slapping his hand against the door frame for effect. “Damn, that’s funny.” He reached out his hand, and Stone took it. “The name’s Hunter Boyd. Welcome to Paradise Ranch.”

“Hunter?” Stone asked, narrowing his brow. “I thought you were no longer working here?”

“I’m not. I just came over to see my niece…and the rest of the family, but really just her,” he teased. “How did you know I was no longer working here?”

“Clay Garrett told me. Actually, I believe it was your mother that first told me there might be a job here, but it was Clay who said you were the one no longer working here, as you were working at his wife’s ranch.”

“His wife?” Hunter laughed. “You mean my wife?” he said with pride in his voice.

Confused, Stone eyed him. “Are you referring to Clay’s wife, Delilah?”

Hunter chuckled. “He likes to think she belongs to him, but really she’s all mine.” He gently punched him in the arm as if they’d been old friends sharing a joke.