The Cowboy Lassos a Bride (Cowboys of Chance Creek) (2 page)

“I’m impervious to unsavory elements,” she made herself say, but her voice sounded weak. Unsure.

He stopped dancing for a moment. Started again. “Impervious?” He dipped his head lower so that his lips were near her ear. “Are you sure?”

Not when his breath tickled her neck like that. “Absolutely.”

One of his hands slipped down just a fraction of an inch on her waist, but it was enough to make its position almost indecorous. His other arm wrapped around her to make it entirely clear who was in charge here. Hannah was aware of every inch of his body that pressed against hers. Her heart was beating strong and fast. She clung to him, so off-balance as to be dizzy.

Jake swayed with her to the music and Hannah wondered if everyone could see the way desire was setting her nerves alight. She now knew just how intimate a simple dance could become when one partner was determined to seduce the other.

Because that’s what Jake was doing. Seducing her. Reeling her in until he was the only thing she could think about. It was working, too.

“Let’s test that theory, shall we?” Suddenly he was pulling her back through the tables, across the reception hall and out into a corridor. He traced its length, trying the handles of the doors they passed to storage rooms, smaller meeting rooms and the like. Hannah stumbled after him, not caring who saw them or what they thought. She just wanted to be with Jake. Anywhere he wanted to be.

Finally one opened. Hardly bigger than a closet, it appeared to be a break room for the staff. Jake spun her back into his arms, backed her up against a counter and kissed the daylights out of her.

Hannah only had a fleeting thought of Cody at home on his rundown couch, in his boxers and a T-shirt, a six-pack and a bag of chips on the coffee table, television remote in his hand. Then she could think of nothing else but Jake. The man’s mouth on hers, devouring her, kissing her until she had to gasp for breath, his hands smoothing over her waist, almost dipping down over her ass, but hesitating, not crossing that threshold.

Not yet.

Hannah knew this could go as far as she wanted to take it. Knew too that Jake was too much a gentleman to push for more than she was willing to give. How much was she willing to give? She wasn’t sure. Except with each passing moment she felt closer to wanting to give him everything. The champagne she had drunk lent a warm glow to the workaday room. Jake’s arms around her, his mouth on hers made her forget everything else.

She wondered briefly who this wanton woman was. It couldn’t be her—safe, quiet Hannah who’d supported herself since she was barely eighteen. She’d never done something so reckless, so out of character. But she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want to.

As she twined her arms around Jake’s neck, he lifted her suddenly and placed her on the counter. Never breaking off the kiss that was searing her straight down to her soul, he pulled her tight against him and she reflexively wrapped her legs around his waist, her gown riding up over her thighs.

“Hannah,” he groaned as he trailed kisses down her neck. “Hannah, you drive me wild.”

Hannah blinked, but surrendered to his ongoing sensual attacks. This was news to her. She would have bet he’d never noticed her in his life.

Sure, they’d been thrown together last week at one of Ethan and Autumn’s poker nights. She’d asked him some questions about an article she’d read—something about sustainable ranching. Apparently she’d hit on one of his favorite topics and they’d discussed it at length—as acquaintances at a get-together. Then the poker game had started and that had been that. She hadn’t given it another thought. Having a crush on Jake would be like lusting after your older brother’s best friend—completely safe because its outcome was completely predictable.

Except now Jake was kissing her. As if he couldn’t get enough. And she was kissing him back just as passionately because she’d never liked kissing a man this much. Was it the champagne? Or the unexpectedness of it? Whatever the reason, the more they made out, the more she wanted him.

Jake kept one hand at her waist to hold her firmly against him. He slid the other one higher until he almost cupped her breast, but hesitated. Hannah knew he was asking for permission. She didn’t think about the consequences. She leaned forward until her breast pressed into his hand. She caught her breath as he ran his thumb over her sensitive nipple. Heat throbbed between her legs. Jake groaned and pulled her even closer. She could feel his hardness through their clothes.

How far would they take this? Would she stop him? Could she?

A sudden tumult in the distance had them both stiffening. There was a clamor of voices. “The bride and groom are leaving,” someone called to someone else.

Hannah looked at Jake. Saw regret in his eyes. Knew he’d see the same in hers. “I have to go—I’m the maid of honor!”

Jake backed away. She hopped off the counter and straightened her dress.

“Do I look okay?” she asked as they approached the door.

“You look… amazing.” Jake bent down and kissed her again. “Hannah…”

“We’d better hurry.”

“All right.”

Jake went first. She waited a minute, then followed, joining the crowd that had erupted from the main reception hall to escort the bride and groom to the waiting limousine. She joined her voice to the ones wishing Bella and Evan well. Got a quick hug from both bride and groom. Waved until the limo was out of sight. Then she turned to search the crowd.

And saw Jake bending down to talk to Tracey Richards, a waitress at Linda’s Diner who helped Autumn with her guest ranch business from time to time, too. As she watched, Jake tugged a lock of Tracey’s hair. Tracey blushed and laughed.

Hannah flushed hot, then cold as realization overtook her. No miracle had taken place here tonight. The hottest, sexiest cowboy around hadn’t fallen head over heels for her. He hadn’t acted on a long-standing desire. She had no future with him, either. They’d probably never even kiss again. Jake was drunk, horny and out for a good time. That was all. The fact that she’d nearly lost her head with him told her she had drunk too much herself. She wasn’t even single. Which Jake knew all too well.

He obviously wanted a one night stand tonight. He’d picked her because he’d counted on her running back to Cody as soon as their tryst was over. One hand pressed to her mouth, Hannah hurried to the ladies’ room where she locked herself into a stall and blinked back tears. The night was ruined. She’d never be able to look Jake in the eye again.

Thank God they’d been interrupted before things had gone too far. Thank God she was about to make huge changes in her life, anyway. She wouldn’t have time to have a serious boyfriend.

But damn it, why did he have to play with her like that? He’d been so far off her radar she’d never wasted time mooning over Jake before. Now she knew his mouth on hers would haunt her for months. No one had ever kissed her like that. No man had ever made her want to tear off her clothes and present her body to him on a platter.

If Jake walked in this bathroom right now she’d do the same damn thing again. He was like crack cocaine, like heroin, like…

Hannah gave herself a mental shake. She was at a wedding—her best friend’s wedding. She was lonely and overwrought. She’d go home, go to bed and forget Jake. Tomorrow she would get on with her life and those big changes she planned to make.

But Hannah knew she was lying to herself. This night would stick in her memory for a long, long time.

‡
Chapter One

Late November, six weeks later

I
t was never
easy to get out of bed several hours before sunup on a cold November morning, but Jake Matheson didn’t mind that. Born and raised on the Double-Bar-K ranch in Chance Creek, Montana, he’d known since he could walk that one day this spread would be his and he loved every inch of it. He especially loved these early morning moments when he was alone with his thoughts—before he caught up with his father and brothers and got to the real work of the day. For now he could pretend he was his own man; that the place was all his. Soon enough the others would intrude.

As usual, his thoughts were on Hannah Ashton. Their interlude at Bella and Evan Mortimer’s wedding was never far from his mind these days. He’d taken a chance that night, dancing with her when Cody was a no-show, and an even bigger chance pulling her into the break room at the reception hall and kissing her as if he had a right to. But he’d wanted Hannah for months and Cody was an ass who didn’t deserve her. He was afraid if he didn’t do something she’d marry the idiot and he’d lose his chance forever.

As things turned out, he nearly had lost his chance. When they’d split up to leave the break room and see Bella and Evan off, Tracey Richards had accosted him. They’d known each other a long time, since he often ate at Linda’s Diner, where Tracey had worked for years. Their friendship, such as it was, was overly flirtatious. It didn’t mean anything, which Tracey knew. But Hannah didn’t.

He’d looked up too late and seen Hannah’s eyes widen as she watched him tug Tracey’s hair in fun. A minute later she’d dashed away. He hadn’t been able to push through the crowd fast enough after her, and he’d never found her again that night. Since he didn’t want to expose her to talk—she was still with Cody—he couldn’t ask around or enlist anyone else’s help. When she didn’t reappear, he left the wedding, furious at himself for blowing it.

She showed up the next week at Ethan and Autumn’s poker night with Cody on her arm and he’d struggled not to take the man outside and kick his ass. It turned out he didn’t have to. Cody had soon ruined things with Hannah in a way that set Jake up as a hero in her eyes. He’d arranged to hunt a bison and had taken Hannah to view it before the hunt. When it turned out the animal had been hand-raised and was kept in a pen barely large enough for it to turn around, Hannah flipped her lid.

She went back a few nights later, stole the beast, and tried to hide it in a corral she’d built in Carl Whitfield’s woods outside town. That hadn’t gone well—in fact, that night would go down in Chance Creek history as disastrous—but the upshot was that the next day Jake helped Hannah round up the bison she’d named Gladys, and now Gladys lived on the Double-Bar-K.

And Hannah came every morning to see her.

They hadn’t spoken yet about what happened at the Mortimer’s wedding, but Jake planned to, soon. With Cody out of the picture it was time to make his move. He was determined to ask her out on a date today and he hoped she would say yes. Hoped they could work their way back around to picking up where they’d left off in that break room. Once he had her in his arms again, he wouldn’t let her go a second time.

Because he figured Hannah was the one.

As he got to work in the hayloft of the largest of the barns on the property, preparing to fix a leak under the eaves before it allowed any dampness to ruin the hay stored within it, he heard the creak of the barn door as it opened far below him, and his father’s voice cut across the stillness.

“Why the hell are those cattle still in the far pasture?”

Jake’s jaw tightened as he felt along the top edge of the wall to find the location of the leak. So much for peace and quiet. Someday he’d inherit the Double-Bar-K, and even now he was nominally in charge of the herd, but as long as Holt Matheson walked this earth, he’d remain a glorified field hand. As his fingers traced over the rough wood high above his head, he told himself to rein in his temper and stick with the job at hand.

“I told you we were supposed to move the cattle,” his brother Ned chimed in.

Jake stifled an urge to bang his head against the wall. Ned’s voice often acted like nails across a chalkboard in his mind. This was one of those times. And it was a reminder that while someday Jake would inherit the Double-Bar-K and finally get to take charge of how it was run, he would still have to contend with his brothers—including Ned.

“We’ll move them tomorrow. Today we fix the barn,” he shouted down to them, as if he actually held the authority to make such decisions. Which he should.

But didn’t.

“I told you last night to move the cattle!” Holt’s craggy face appeared through the trap-door entrance to the hayloft.

“And I told you there’s a leak in this barn and I mean to fix it today.”

“Those cattle aren’t going to move themselves.” Ned’s voice drifted up from below.

Jake fought back a familiar urge to chuck something at him. Like a pitchfork. Ned always sided with their father. Always. They were like two peas in a pod: ornery and stubborn as mules.

“You want this hay ruined?” Jake squared off with Holt.

“You want those cattle frozen when the weather turns overnight?”

“The weather won’t turn overnight.”

“Tell that to my knees.” Holt swore the aches in his knees could predict everything from thunderstorms to drought. Jake didn’t see how his knees could get any less accurate. He tilted his head down to address them.

“The weather’s going to hold.”

“Ha, ha. Very funny. Get out there and move that cattle.”

Ned’s head and shoulders appeared through the trap door as his father paced across the loft to check the leak. “Told you we should move the cattle.”