Texas-Sized Temptation (6 page)

“I've told you that we'll talk, but I want to think about it first.”

“It seems incredibly simple to me. Sell me a small chunk of the ranch. Deal done. You'll never miss it.”

“Maybe.”

“Surely you don't want me out of this area. I have never done anything to hurt you,” she said, carrying her dishes to the sink in spite of what he'd said.

He caught her wrist as she set down the dishes and reached for the faucet. “I told you, no cleaning. And no, you've never done one thing to hurt me, nor has your grandmother. It's your father and Will that I have strong feelings about.”

“Oh, surely, you can't mean that you would hold that land just because I have the same name as Will.” She looked into unfathomable blue eyes and wondered how strong his hatred was.

“No, I don't, Caitlin,” he said quietly and something inside her unclenched.

“I'm glad,” she said, realizing in first one way and then another, he was gaining her liking and her respect. He already
stirred desire. It was becoming a potent and frightening combination because she didn't want to care about Jake Benton or have her heart race when he looked at her. Scariest of all was admiring and liking him.

“With oil hanging in the balance, I just want to give some thought to my decision.”

“We both have old demons to get past,” she said.

“I agree. We've spent a lifetime hating each other's families. It's difficult to switch that off instantly. You rode over here angry with me all the way, didn't you?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. I've told you why—all those messages I left for you ignored by your employees.”

“I'll have to talk to someone about that. Maybe they need to find out a little more about the person before they turn them away. On the other hand, I don't think anyone would have reported to me that a very gorgeous woman was being told she couldn't even have a phone conversation with me.”

“Don't be ridiculous.” Caitlin smiled.

He turned her to face him. “I'm not being ridiculous. You wouldn't have stood a chance at getting me to sell any land back to you if we hadn't met in person, I can truthfully tell you that. I've always lumped you in with your father and half brother.”

“Big mistake,” she said. “But then Grandmother didn't like your family, so there you are. I didn't, either.”

“Hopefully, that has changed forever for you.”

“Time will tell,” she said.

“That's a reserved answer, Caitlin,” he said, studying her.

“My guess is, you feel the same way. You can't expect me to be overjoyed with you if you turn me down and I'm definitely not saying that as an ultimatum.”

“Let's not get into conflict when it isn't necessary,” he said.
His cell phone buzzed and he answered to talk briefly before placing it in his pocket again.

“The car, trailer and horse are waiting. Shall we go?” he asked. As they left the house, they emerged into a clear day with water still dripping from trees and the rooftops.

They reached the truck and Jake held her door while she climbed inside. In a short time they were on the highway and she thought of the long ride to his ranch on horseback and how angry and determined she had been to see him.

As they sped toward her ranch, she studied his profile. His stand toward his father's unreasonable demand, his care for his sister and brother—she envied that slightly because she had never had any love or even much kindness or attention from Will. Those things softened her harsh feelings toward the Bentons. Plus the wild unwanted allurement that had captured both of them.

Jake was turning out to be so different from the man she had imagined him to be. Much more appealing. Yet beneath all the good things lay their past history. He was a Benton who had done unacceptable things to Santerres. Will's dislike of Jake and competition with him in sports and school was legendary. Maybe both had excelled simply because they were each trying to outdo the other.

Soon they were on what had once been Santerre land, and she grew more tense with each mile. She wanted to keep her house, keep the people who had worked for her grandmother. Damn Will and his selfish ways and the ultimate cruelty in selling all this to Jake without giving her any chance to buy part of it.

“In a way, I'm surprised Will would sell you the mineral rights.”

“I wouldn't have bought the ranch otherwise, but Will told me there's no oil. His father had geologists study the land,
even leased it at one point, but they gave up and said there was no oil.”

“What about natural gas?”

Jake smiled at her. “As far as Will's concerned, if there's no oil, there's no gas. Will is into buildings and cities and finance, not oil, gas and wind. Or even water rights. There's a lot of water on your ranch.”

“I can't believe Will's lawyers let him do this without giving him a lot of advice that was solid.”

“Your brother doesn't strike me as the type to take advice well. Not even from men he hires to give it to him.”

She nodded. “You're right. Will is supremely confident. It helps him in many ways, but sometimes it blinds him.”

“You're so much younger. I'm surprised you were around him often.”

“I wasn't, but we had family gatherings because my father was the darling of my grandmother.”

“What about you?”

“Oh, yes. She was wonderful to me. I'm a granddaughter, the daughter she never had. But she loved my father with all her being. He loved her, too, so we were together on holidays where Will made his presence felt. I hated being with him because when I was little, he was mean. He'd pinch me or thump me. When I'd cry, he'd deny he had done anything. He'd say I was pretending until Grandmother lectured him. With someone checking on him, he left me alone, but he was never nice, never a brother. Since she passed, he's barely spoken to me.”

“Will is something else,” Jake said with disgust in his voice.

When they topped a hill, a tall three-story Victorian house came into view. Trees surrounded it and shaded the steeply sloped rooftops, gables, balconies and wide bay windows.

“See, Jake, it's a beautiful old house built by the first Santerre.”

“That wasn't the first house,” he said.

“There's a tiny log house that was the first, but in time, this house was built. The family considers it the first real ranch house.”

She wanted Jake to see the house, meet the people who worked for her and had devoted years to her grandmother. It should be much more difficult for Jake to displace them if he knew them, rather than faceless, nameless entities.

They drove to the corral where a wiry, sandy-haired man with streaks and sideburns of gray came forward to greet her. His weathered face was tan from years in the sun.

“Jake, meet our foreman, Kirby Lenox,” she said when she stepped out of the truck and greeted Kirby. “Kirby, this is Jake Benton.”

She watched the two shake hands and Kirby size up Jake. She saw no reaction from Jake except a friendly greeting, but she suspected he was taking in everything he saw to help him make his decision about her place.

“I'll get the horse now. It won't take long and then you two can go on to the house,” Kirby told them.

As he backed the horse out of the trailer, Jake watched. “That's a fine horse,” he said, looking over her bay.

“This one's a dandy. Caitlin has a keen eye for a horse.”

“That's because I learned from you,” she said, smiling at Kirby.

He grinned as he patted the horse. “He's a fine one. He's Caitlin's favorite. Nice to meet you, Mr. Benton.”

“It's Jake, Kirby. We'll see each other again,” he said easily as he held the pickup door for Caitlin.

She felt as if she were walking on broken glass, treading carefully, hoping Jake would appreciate the old house and the people or at least like them even half as much as she did.

“Thanks,” she said. In minutes Jake stopped in front of the house and walked around to open her door. He took her arm in a light touch that was a blistering contact.

“Come look around,” she said, gazing with satisfaction at the porch with wooden rockers, swings, pots of blooming flowers. Lacy gingerbread spindles formed the posts and lacy curtains were pulled back inside the bay windows. Caitlin sighed, wondering how anyone could resist the house's charm.

“This is too beautiful to bulldoze,” she said as they crossed the porch. “I don't think a Benton has ever been in this house,” she added, knowing this was another twist in the history of the family feud.

When he didn't answer, she became silent. The door swung open and Caitlin faced Cecilia whose big brown eyes went from her to Jake and back to Caitlin. “I'm back. Cecilia, I want you to meet Jake Benton.”

“Mr. Benton, welcome to Caitlin's home,” Cecilia said warmly, extending her hand to Jake who smiled as he took her hand.

“Jake, this is Cecilia Mayes. I've told you about her,” Caitlin said, studying the two of them. Jake sounded incredibly polite, not the least a hard-hearted owner who would evict them. He towered over Cecilia who was only five feet tall, small-boned and thin. She wore a flowered cotton housedress and sandals. Her gray hair was fastened behind her head in a bun. She looked as sweet as she actually was to everyone and Caitlin loved her deeply and wanted to protect her from harm.

“I'm glad to meet you, ma'am,” Jake said politely. “Please just call me Jake.”

“Certainly,” she said. “Come in, please. We can sit in the front parlor and I hope you'll stay for lunch with us. I told Altheda to plan for that.”

“Thank you, but I should get home before then. I can sit a minute and visit.”

“Fine,” she said.

“Cecilia, I want to take Jake to meet Altheda and show him a little of the house. Then we'll join you in the front parlor.”

“Of course,” Cecilia said.

“I want you to see some of the inside of this house,” she told Jake when she was alone with him. “The original house is over a hundred years old. Grandmother made changes, had closets built in, added a wing, a deck and pool, an entertainment center. I've added an office. Even so, a lot is still the same.”

Fresh flowers from the garden were on the dining room table, visible from the wide hall when they walked through the open door. Jake's Western boots scraped the polished plank floor. Tempting smells of baking bread wafted in the air and Caitlin was pleased by the appearance of the house.

Deep red velvet chairs circled the mahogany dining table. Cut glass and silver filled a breakfront.

“This room was off limits to me as a very small child unless I was invited to eat in here with the family. We had holiday gatherings fairly often when I was small. There won't be any now or anytime in the future.”

“I remember our family get-togethers, tedious to mind my manners, yet fun in teasing Brittany and Gabe when they couldn't get back at me.”

“Will did that anytime he was here. The first few times I told on him, he denied everything and I got in trouble, so I just learned to endure his mischief. Only he was mean, pinching me during the family prayer when he knew I wouldn't yell, mean tricks he could get away with.”

“The bastard,” Jake said.

“That's what Will called me far too often when no one else could hear him. If he got a chance, he reminded me that
I was born out of wedlock and neither of my parents wanted me enough to keep me.”

She hoped she kept emotion out of her voice, but it was difficult even after all these years to be unemotional about Will's accusations that actually were on target.

“Thank heavens for my grandmother,” Caitlin added.

“She gave you almost as much as your father could have given you. If he had taken you in, you would have had to live under the same roof as Will and you would never have known your grandmother as well as you did.”

“I've thought of that many times. Were I given a choice to live my life over with Dad or again with Grandmother, I would pick my life with Grandmother. It was a happy time growing up and she was loving and wonderful to me.”

“She didn't have the same charitable attitude toward my father.”

“Definitely not. She disliked him enormously because of the beating he gave my dad.”

“Our families have a long and violent history,” Jake remarked.

“I don't know if either of us can ever view the other without thinking about our bloodlines,” she said.

“I definitely can look at you and forget,” Jake said softly. “When I am near you, that old feud is the last thing I'm thinking about.”

“I'm not pursuing what you are thinking about,” she stated with a laugh. “Let me show you more of the house.

“Here's the kitchen,” she said, entering a room she loved with a high ceiling and glass-fronted cabinets. Floor-to-ceiling glass gave a panoramic view of the pool and a decorator-designed deck.

Two ceiling fans slowly revolved. A woman in a black uniform with a white apron turned to smile at them. In her
hand she held a tray from the oven with tempting-looking brownies.

“Jake, this is Altheda Perkins who has worked here since she was seventeen. Altheda, meet Jake Benton, the man who now owns the ranch.”

“Glad to meet you Mr. Benton,” she said politely, her smile fading slightly for a brief moment and then returning. Her white hair was a mass of curls framing her face. “Would either of you care for a brownie and milk? I can bring them to the front parlor.”

Jake declined at the same time Caitlin did. “We both just finished breakfast. Perhaps later this morning, we might enjoy a bite.”

To Jake she said, “The cabinets in here are the originals. The glass fronts are more trouble to take care of, but Altheda is willing and I love them.”

“Nice kitchen,” he said, looking around. The appliances were as up-to-date as his own, yet the kitchen retained the charm and appearance of another century and Caitlin loved every inch of it.