Teaching the Cowboy (7 page)

She gasped, shuddered, then apparently came to her senses because she pushed him back. When he gave her a demanding stare, she explained, “People will see. I haven’t been here that—”

Fine.

Not that it was that big of an inconvenience to focus the bulk of his attention on her lips. He tickled the seam with the tip of his tongue until she opened her mouth for him and groaned as he tasted her, tangled with her, damn near gnawed at her.

This time, he pulled himself back.
Steady, boy
. Her face was flushed, her breathing erratic as she stared wordlessly at him, and suddenly he had a very good mental image of what she would look like after he’d made her call out his name. Oh, yes, and he wanted that badly, and
now
.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and lowered her back to the sofa. He straddled her hips and then, conscious of the growing erection in his jeans that would either arouse her or either terrify the hell out of her, pressed his body flat against hers. Her eyes widened, ostensibly at the dull jab of his cock at her thigh, but she didn’t push him off.

God, what am I doing?

He hadn’t felt so sprung since his wedding night, at which point he’d found that waiting had been a highly overrated thing. He wasn’t going to wait again. Screw that.

He dug his fingers into the hair at the back of her head, giving not one single damn about the state of her tidy bun, and brought his lips down to hers again. She was a mighty good kisser for a schoolteacher. When she wrapped her right leg around his waist and rubbed her crotch against his zipper, he damn near creamed his pants at the friction.

He stopped kissing her long enough to force a hiss through his teeth, and went right back to it. He didn’t really have a plan. In an ideal world, he wouldn’t be doing her on the sofa, but he had no doubt in his mind that if things were to escalate to the point of nudity, they wouldn’t make it down the hallway before he was inside her. But, fuck, the kids. They could walk in on them any minute. What would they think about their teacher then? The thought did nothing to douse his arousal.

“You smell so good, Ronnie.” He kissed her chin again and licked down her throat, forcing a shudder from her narrow shoulders. He paused at the second button of her shirt and flicked it open before she could react. By the time he got to the fourth, she’d wised up and grabbed his hands.

“John—”

“Shh.” Lacy little peach-colored bra. Everything about the woman was out of place on his ranch. She was too damned fancy. Oh, well. At least she’d come to him that way and hadn’t been made that way by his wealth. She wasn’t a lump of coal he needed to turn into a diamond. She was the diamond already at work filing off his rough edges. She was out of his league.

He peeled the top of her bra down to reveal brown areole with nipples that seemed to be perked right up, waiting for his lips. He’d hate to disappoint the little things, so he lowered his head and traced around one with the tip of his tongue. He cut his gaze up to her and found her eyes wide, lips parted. Her hands were still clamped around his, but her dismissal had been so weak and ineffectual she might as well had not even tried.

He licked the other one. There, a matching set, slick from his tongue, and hard as pebbles. He imagined she must have been feeling a little bit like he was at the moment. He squeezed her breasts together and admired the cleavage for just a moment before returning his mouth to its new favorite place. He took one areola in wholly, letting his teeth drag against her skin as he pushed it back out with his tongue and laughed when she squirmed and clawed her fingers into his jean-covered backside. Thank God for denim.

He flicked open the remainder of the buttons and pulled her shirttails out. “I want to see more of you.” He kissed down to her navel and paused at the waistband of her jeans. He had his thumb on the button, ready to push it through the hole when that goddamned ringtone sounded from his back pocket.

Rufus, I’m going to kill you
.

He thought about ignoring it. From where he was sitting, he could smell her arousal and knew if he could get her panties off she’d be wet and would offer his stiff cock no resistance as he probed her entrance. He hissed again and fondled the button.

The phone kept ringing.

He held one finger up to her and sat so he was straddling her legs when he answered. “Someone died or there’s a fire. Which is it?”

He flattened his palm against Ronnie’s belly and rubbed up her body to the bottom of her bra, where he splayed his fingers and massaged the soft flesh beneath.

She flattened her lips into a line. Her glow was wearing off.

Fucking Rufus.

His own mood started to sour the longer he listened to his ranch manager talk.

She tried to sit up, but John put a hand on her shoulder and eased her back down. Maybe it was something he could talk Rufus through and get back to the matter of giving the schoolteacher a bit of a cowboy education.

John closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. Nope. Not gonna happen.

“Rufus, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Don’t let ’em leave. Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about it.”

He swallowed hard and let Ronnie up as he shoved his phone into his pocket.

She just shook her head, telling him to
save it
, as she refastened the buttons of her shirt.

“I’m sorry, Ronnie. Two of my best ranch hands threatened to quit over some bullshit. I need to go talk ’em down.”

She put up her hands in a
Do what you gotta do
gesture and straightened her shirt. “It’s fine. This is probably, no,
definitely
, a bad idea anyway.”

“I don’t agree.”

“John, I’m sure there are going to be many more things we don’t agree on. Should probably get used to it.” She stood and started patting her hair back into place the best she could without aid of a mirror.

He wrapped an arm around her back and drew her in so close she had to tip her chin up to meet his eye contact. “You seemed to like it when it was happening.”

“I liked it a lot. You’re a handsome man, and you have a lot going for you. Sexy. I’m flattered. That’s not the issue here.”

“Tell me what the issue is so I can make it not be one.”

She laughed and that pink tint flooded her cheeks. He wanted to kiss the cute right out of her, but restrained himself in that one thing. He did have
some
self-control, after all. Took him years to develop it.

“I’ve been teaching since I was twenty-three, and I’ve never once had an inappropriate relationship with the father of one of my students. Don’t plan on starting now.”

“There isn’t anything inappropriate about this.”

“I beg to differ.” She wormed her way out of his embrace and fastened the buttons on her jean jacket. It was like she was throwing the deadbolt on. The symbolism wasn’t lost on him.

“You’re a teacher. You should be familiar with multitasking.”

“I don’t think this counts.”

“Sure it does,” he said as he fixed his pants. “You can be a teacher and play nice with me at the same time.”

“Play nice? Is that what we’re doing?”

“Would you rather me call you my girlfriend? Seems a little premature for that. Shit, I’ve only known you for a couple days.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and opened her mouth to make some retort, but before she could get it out, he clamped his mouth unto hers again.

“Jackass,” she said against his tongue, but she didn’t fight him off. Nope. She teased him right on back. After about thirty seconds of tongue wrestling, he let her go and hurried toward the kitchen at a clip. He called over his shoulder before walking through the door, “Make sure you lock your doors at night. Wouldn’t want any drunk ranch hands over at the Erickson place stumbling in on you while you’re sleeping.”

“I can take care of myself, John.”

“Mm-hmm.” He closed the door and jogged toward his truck, hoping those ranch hands hadn’t already fled.

Goddamn that stubborn woman.

Chapter Five

S
even o’clock the next morning, Ronnie lay in her bed with her pillow over her face to block out the morning light, phone to ear. “Phil,” she whispered, voice hoarse from the low humidity that had started dehydrating her body. “I think I got branded by a cowboy last night.”

“Jesus, you need supervision at all times. You couldn’t wait a day before getting yourself into trouble? What happened?”

“Well, nothing. Not exactly.”

“Okay, who did you do this
nothing
with? Was it the ranch hand with the deep tan and turquoise eyes? He was nice to look at.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen that particular character. I’ve been busy. Haven’t met much of the staff.”

“So who?”

Beat around the bush? Nah, why bother? You called him, after all.
“John Lundstrom.”

Phil was quiet for so long she wondered if he was still there.

“Phil?”

“Hold on, honey. I’m processing this. I’m trying to understand how the prudish schoolmarm managed to lure the owner of one of the largest ranches in Wyoming in a day.”

“How do you know it’s one of the largest?”

“I’m not just pretty, you know. I actually do ask questions when I’m sitting around sipping my free alcohol. Don’t you dare change the subject. What exactly happened? Spare no details.”

She rolled her eyes, which was a pretty ineffectual move on her part as there was no one there to see it. Besides, even if someone was there, they couldn’t see through the pillow. “He damn near screwed me through my pants.”

“So, why didn’t you take off your pants? Boom. Easy solution.”

“I don’t know why I talk to you.”

“Because I’m a goddamned oracle. Tell me, was he just looking to borrow a cup of brown sugar, or was he interested in buying the whole sweet shop?”

She cleared her throat. “Listen, I’m going to have Landon e-mail you. He’s interested in State.”

He was quiet for a moment again, but this time she knew he hadn’t hung up. “Normally I’d be pissed about that diversionary tactic, but you know how much I love giving State advice.”

“Mm-hmm.” She slipped her free hand under the pillow and dismantled the bun she hadn’t felt like bothering with the night before.

“What’s on your agenda for today?”

“Going to try to get a plan put together for Peter Lundstrom. I’m supposed to meet John for lunch tomorrow.” She groaned.
Oh, that should be the most relaxing thing I’ve ever done
. “And I have a bunch of research to do. Need to get Landon registered for college testing and all that. Maybe do some Internet shopping. Apparently I don’t fit the Storafalt dress code.”

“Gonna buy a pair of pink cowboy boots, too?”

“Yup. For you.”

“I know you mean that to be an insult, but I’d make them the next big trend, sweetheart.”

She tried to roll her eyes again. “Bye.”

After figuring out how to work the small coffee maker she found inside of the cabinets, and giving the long-neglected thing a good cleaning, she drank twenty-four ounces of coffee while standing and ate the remnants of the sausage casserole one of the Erickson kids had brought over the day before. Why buy groceries if they were going to just keep bringing her food? She wondered briefly if the Ericksons fed the rest of their staff so well. She shrugged, topped off her coffee, and shuffled across the great room to her computer. She’d just set her coffee cup down on the coaster when someone knocked on the door.

Anna offered her a blasé look when she pulled the curtain.

Ronnie pulled the door open a crack. “Hi?”

“Have you eaten?” Anna pushed the door in a smidge and extended a picnic basket to Ronnie.

“I had some leftovers. What is that? Smells divine.”

Anna pushed her way in and made a beeline for the kitchenette counter. She did a cursory glance of the accommodations and Ronnie could have sworn she turned her nose up a bit.

Ronnie sighed.

“Orange rolls. You got the second batch. Got some bacon and hardboiled eggs in there, too.”

“Landon got the first batch,” a little voice said. “Ate them all before I got my clothes on.”

Ronnie turned around to find a small blonde bird nest-topped person leaning into the doorway. “Come in, Liss,” she said, waving the child in.

Liss scrambled for the kitchen table and climbed up into the one chair Ronnie didn’t have buried beneath paperwork.

Ronnie turned her attention back to the surly Lundstrom housekeeper. “You really didn’t have to bring me food. The Ericksons have been—”

Anna gave her a silencing look, so Ronnie clamped her lips together.

Oh-kie dokie then.

“Come on, Liss. We need to get back to the house to get that last batch out,” Anna said, sliding her basket onto her forearm.

Liss pouted and slid off her seat with the dejected pallor of a street urchin being denied an extra serving of gruel.

Oh.

Ronnie edged to the largest plate and uncovered it.
Oh, my. Glaze.
She swallowed hard and steeled her restraint with thoughts of cellulite. “Liss, do you want a roll? No way I’m going to eat them all by myself.”

Liss nodded.

“Now, Liss, don’t go bothering Miss Silver,” Anna chided. “She’s got a lot of work to do. We need to get back so you can do your chores.”

Liss turned sad blue eyes to Ronnie.

Crap
.
Please, not tears again. Between her and Becka, I can’t deal.
She extended the plate.

Liss took a step forward, eyeing its contents.

“What kind of chores does she have? How long would they take?”

Anna shrugged. “’Bout an hour. Not much to do today, really. Supposed to be hot. John doesn’t want her outside. Asthma.”

“Can she do them later? I don’t want to screw up your routine, I swear, but she can hang out for a little while.” Ronnie eyed the stack of books beside her inadequate desk and walked as close as she dared to the older, gruffer woman, letting Liss take a roll as she passed. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’ve got an assessment I need to do with her. It may be easier to do it now while there’s only the two of us in the room.”

Anna looked at Liss, who was pacing with her half-eaten roll, then Ronnie. She nodded. “I’ll let her daddy know where she is.”

Ronnie raised her voice to its normal volume. “I’ll take her home for lunch.” She snapped her fingers. “Oh. I’m supposed to have lunch at the Ericksons.”

Anna narrowed her eyes, but whatever thoughts were cycling through that mysterious head of hers, she kept to herself. “You behave, Liss. Don’t give Miss Silver any problems.”

Liss nodded.

Anna left.

Ronnie closed the door and turned around to wriggle her eyebrows at the girl.

Liss giggled.

“Let’s get you a plate. I shouldn’t eat another bite, but I can’t resist anything with glaze.” Krispy Kreme could vouch for that. Ronnie had certainly given the donut company a lot of her paychecks over the past five years.

While Liss ate, Ronnie scanned her e-mail, responded to her daily check-in from the agency, and placated her overseas father with some not-quite-lies about how she was spending her summer. She was just about to pick up the stack of workbooks next to the desk and sort through them for the paperwork she’d set aside for Liss when the phone she had strapped to her waist buzzed. Only two people knew that number, and Landon was probably more likely to just drive over.

“Hello?” she answered.

“Anna said Liss is over there. I hope she didn’t beg.”

“No. I told her she could stay. It’s hardly a problem, remember? I’m used to thirty-five at a time.”

A cow near John lowed. When he didn’t say anything else after a while, she asked, “So, anything else?”

He must have been putting some distance between him and the cow, because the next thing he said was “Whoa, Sandy,” and there was wind blowing in his mouthpiece. “We still on for lunch tomorrow or have the Ericksons hatched some elaborate scheme to get you over at their place?”

“My schedule is as it was. I’ll meet you at your house at eleven.”

“Good. Listen, Ronnie, about yesterday—”

She cut her gaze toward Liss who was still happily munching. The roll dish seemed a lot less mountainous, however. How many had the child eaten?

“I can’t really have this conversation right now.”

“I understand that, but you can hear my side without responding.”

As if. “Lay it on me.”

“I will. I’m not going to apologize for what happened.”

Not what she expected to hear, but she held her tongue. She walked to the door, pulled the curtain aside, and looked out at the pastureland in front of the unit. Stark didn’t even begin to describe it.

“I don’t regret it. I’d do it again.”

“Oh?” His candor was refreshing, but she was a bit frightened to see how far he’d push it.

“Don’t talk, just listen. I’m not a man of whims, Ronnie, but you just flipped some switch in me I didn’t know I had. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t see anyone else while you’re here.”

She startled. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“Look, I don’t know where this will go, or if it’ll go anywhere at all, especially with you trying to stage a quick retreat east. I just think if you’re going to take a chance with anyone, it should be me.”

She let the curtain fall back over the window and moved across the floor to her bedroom. She turned on the bathroom light and rooted around under the cabinet inside her cosmetics case.

“Should be? Why’s that?”

“You know as well as I do, Veronica. You were there. You felt it. Besides, nobody’s going to take care of you the way I will. I guarantee that.”

Oh, ho ho. There we go.
She was going to dislodge a filling if she kept grinding her teeth. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me.”

“Don’t give me that liberated woman bullshit. It’s not about that, and you’re just trying to muddle the issue.”

“I’ve got to go.”

“Oh, I know you do. You’ve got my princess there. Take your time with her. Want me to send Peter over after he’s done with the horses?”

Ronnie jerked to attention and stood too quickly, butting the top of her head against the cabinet as she scrambled to her feet. “Ow.” She rubbed her head and loosened her bun. “You jerk. You planned this? Me being babysat by a baby?”

“Nope. Can’t say I don’t like it, though. Hey, let me know what they’re serving at the Ericksons’ for lunch. I bet Becka will pull out her second-best china for you. Bye, Ronnie.” He clicked off.

“Damn him.” She returned the phone to its clip and picked up the spray bottle and wide-tooth comb she’d gone into the bathroom to fetch.

“Hey, Liss?” She crouched down next to the girl’s chair where she had finally given up her consumption of sweet bread and was now wiping her hands on a napkin.

“Yes?”

“Do you need some help with combing your hair?”

Liss flinched.

Uh-oh. What’s that about?

“You know, I find it’s easiest if I detangle my hair in the shower. When I don’t do that, I sometimes mist my hair.” She held up the spray bottle. “And do it in front of the mirror. Makes getting the comb through less of a chore.”

“I don’t like combing my hair.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “Hurts.”

“Oh.” Ronnie nodded and drummed the fingertips of her free hand against her knee. “Well, sometimes it does. Do you think maybe it’d be better if you did just a bit at a time and took a break?”

“How much is a bit?”

“Hmm.” Ronnie made a circle by joining one thumb to the adjacent index finger. “That much.”

Ronnie watched a lump travel down Liss’s throat.
Oh-kay
.

“Maybe later.”

“You got it.”

Ronnie put the tools away and returned to the kitchen table, hands free. “Hey, you want to play some games with words and numbers?”

Liss smiled wide to expose her snaggletoothed grin and nodded.

“Super.” Ronnie cleared the junk off the tabletop and transferred it to the counter. She fetched her pile of paper and some writing tools and returned to the girl. “Okay, let’s see if you’re as smart as I think you are.”

Sidney Darrow crawled out from under her long wooden work table and uttered an oath as she stood. “Where the hell is it?” She scanned her studio, checking all the usual places for the third, no
fourth
, time while propping her hands on her narrow hips.

“Kitty,” she shouted into the adjoining living area of their loft condominium.

“Yeah?” the teen called back.

“I’m missing a pattern approval.”

She heard nothing for a while, then a dramatic sigh, followed by the padding of socked feet across the wood floor.

Kitty poked her blonde head into the doorway but didn’t step in. She never stepped in, and Sid couldn’t really blame her. Between the nearly invisible straight pins that littered the floor and hazardous scraps of slippery paper strewn about, Sid’s quilt studio was a lot like the inside of a pharaoh’s booby-trapped tomb. It was chock-full of fabric, notions, batting, edging, and equipment, and she needed every bit of it. At least she thought she did.

“Why don’t you keep that important stuff on the order ticket carousel where you can find it?”

Sid shifted her gaze to the metal rotating stand currently draped by lengths of ribbon on her stainless steel desk. She’d salvaged the thing from the old diner when it closed down, and when she’d brought it home, Kitty had turned her nose up at it.

“I’m going to use it.” Sid had promised.

Kitty, thirteen at the time, had mumbled, “Yeah, right,” and put her earbuds in.

“I’m obviously not that organized. Say—” Sid wriggled her brows at the young woman. “Why don’t you help me clean up? I’ll pay you. You know I’m good for it.”

Kitty closed her eyes and shook her head. “Nope. I’m past due for a tetanus shot.”

“Aw, what are you good for?” Sid sighed and crouched in front of her desk, pulling out this drawer and that.

“Gossip,” Kitty said.

“Oh, yeah? What do ya know?” Sid stopped shuffling papers and raised her gaze toward her daughter.

Kitty leaned against the doorframe and raised one shoulder in a shrug. After giving her gum a few satisfying chews and then popping it, she said, “Heard the Ericksons got a new staff member.”

Sid blew a raspberry and went back to sorting. “How’s that newsworthy? Ranch hands come and go all the time.”

“Not a ranch hand.”

“What, Becka finally have a mental collapse and hire a housekeeper?”

“Nope.”

“Spit it out, kid. Not getting any younger.”

Damn sure didn’t feel like it, either. At thirty-five, her fingers and wrists were becoming arthritic from the constant repetitive motions of cutting, sewing, and pressing. Her back ached from bending over the work table while she pieced her designer quilt mock-ups together. Her head continuously throbbed from dehydration, because when she was working, she let nothing distract her from her task. Some days she thought about calling it quits, finding some other profession that wouldn’t be so hard on her joints, but then she remembered she wasn’t really good at anything else. What was she going to do, move back to the ranch and seize her inheritance? No way.