To Have a Wilde (Wilde in Wyoming) (4 page)

She slowly nodded, her gaze focused on him. He had her right where he wanted her to be.

“And you’ll sign on for a second season, Keanu?” she asked, her gaze direct.

The way she said his name again forced a reaction from his body, one he was struggling to keep in control.

Although he wasn’t ready to make that final concession, he knew he had to give her something. He nodded.

“I think it will make for a good show. And it’s all about the show, right, Ms. Brandon?” he asked, avoiding a direct answer. When her gaze narrowed, the slightest bit, he knew she’d caught the way he’d sidetracked answering.

He’d have to be careful around her.

Beauty, killer body and a sharp mind...it all added up to trouble.

Chapter 4

W
hat in the world did he want her to make of
that?

Sonia gnawed on her bottom rip, her eyes fixed on Keanu, her gaze running over his tall lanky form as he leaned negligently against the railing.

He’d dropped her hand before it had even registered that he’d held it and turned, his face now in profile.

Even as he was making his demands, or odd requests, annoying her to the nth degree, Sonia couldn’t help admiring the man he was. She knew that he was only looking after his family, but each time he said some of the things he did to her, it set her teeth on
edge
. It wasn’t always what he said, but the way he said it.

She refused to admit it, but deep inside his obvious mistrust of her...hurt.

There was something in his eyes that told her the request went beyond a need for her to understand his love for the land. She had always known he loved his home, his birthright. She’d also known from day one that he simply tolerated her presence, as well as the crew on his land, for the sake of his mother’s foundation. So...what else was it? What had changed his mind? she wondered.

After approaching his brother about the possibility of a second season, she’d been surprised when he’d shot her down before the request had fully escaped her mouth.

“Well, as much as I’d like to oblige you, and the show, I’m going to have to say you stand as good as chance as a monkey’s balls in hell of that getting past my brother,” he’d said, and despite herself, she’d laughed.

“Uh, okay. Not really sure what that means,” she said, shrugging. “But can I ask why?” she’d said, going for broke. She knew that if she couldn’t at least get Nick to be on her team, there was slim to no chance of his more obstinate brother agreeing to the second season.

Although she didn’t know if they had a close relationship, Key and his brother were as identical as two people could be. Both were tall—at a guess she’d place them around six foot three or four. Both had the same startling blue eyes and slightly olive complexion, high cheekbones, aquiline nose and chiseled chin.

Both men even sported the same slight bump in the centers of their noses. She’d thought when she’d met Nick, that it had been acquired by way of sports; however, she’d wondered if that were the case after she’d met Keanu and seen that both men shared the exact same imperfection, in the exact same spot.

She knew they were what people referred to as mirror twins, after hearing one of the interns mention it, but to have injuries in the same spot seemed a bit odd to her.

Both had thick, jet-black hair, given to curling on the ends, if left too long. But, as much as they looked alike, Sonia knew the brothers apart. For her it had been no question who was who.

Keanu...did it for her. She stopped trying to pretend that he didn’t affect her, long ago. She simply had learned to deal with it, grateful that no one else knew how badly she had it for the sexy rancher.

Well, that was everyone except her assistant.

When Sonia had easily identified them, at first the staff had been surprised, wondering how she could when no one else could. She’d shrugged it off, inwardly embarrassed. She hoped her secret remained, that the reason she could differentiate between the two men was because she was so attracted to Keanu.

She’d caught her assistant observing her, keenly, as she’d laughed it off. But then she found out Patricia wasn’t the only one. Once Nick learned that she could tell him and his brother apart, after hearing her crew laughing about it, she’d caught him on more than one occasion watching her, as well, particularly if his brother was anywhere around.

Sonia felt unnerved by Nick’s stare. Not that it was overtly sexual; in fact, it was the opposite. She would have preferred the playboy flirting a lot better, she thought. That one she could handle. From the time she’d hit adolescence, she’d been dealing with men hitting on her. Besides, Sonia wondered about the over-the-top playboy role he played—how much was real and how much was simply for show.

He flirted and played with every woman under the age of eighty and seemed to have every one of them eating out of his hand. Yet for all of his flirting, she’d never seen Nick take any one of the many, many offers she’d seen thrown his way, usually from those women who visited the ranch hoping to meet the sexy Dynamic Duo.

But as much as she believed it was a role he played, he and his brother couldn’t have been more different. Whereas Nick flirted with the women, from the crew to those who hung outside the ranch gates hoping for a peep inside, Keanu avoided them all like the plague. Especially Sonia.

Keanu. She sighed. Sonia knew he was the reason for his brother’s reaction.

She felt like mentally screaming. Keanu turned her on, infuriated her and confused her all in equal amounts.

She covertly ran a gaze over him as he casually leaned back against the wrought-iron gate and crossed his big arms over his chest, staring out at the waning sunset. Although his face was away from hers, Sonia knew he was waiting for her reaction.

She got the feeling that her calm demeanor unnerved him, just as the standoffish, mistrustful vibe she’d gotten from him from day one did to her. But, again, she refused to let him know just how much he did affect her.

She wasn’t sure when it had happened as they’d been speaking, but during the course of the conversation they’d left the stable and were now standing near one of the small corrals, alone, the dying rays of the sun fading behind the majestic mountains beyond the sea.

She drew in a breath and kept her glance on him. Head to toe, he was the epitome of sexy cowboy. Confidence poured from the man, from the way he spoke to his men to the way he handled the ranch.

From the first moment of filming, Sonia had known they had something special on their hands. Both Keanu and Nick, along with their father, were as authentic as they could have hoped for.

Not in the least excited about the crew, neither were they intimidated; in fact, if anything, it had been the crew that had initially been intimidated by the men. Although Nick was definitely a playboy, charm and ooze pouring from every fine inch of him, he worked his land just as hard as his brother and their men. Usually when filming reality shows the effort to keep the “real” in reality had been a dicey point, and was one of the reasons she’d always found them distasteful. And cheesy. The cheesy part was
the worst,
for Sonia.

It went down one of two ways. Either the ones being filmed were hyperaware of the camera and were stiff and unnatural, or they were over-the-top wannabe TV stars. Neither one had work for Sonia, so she’d always stuck with scripted shows. But, when the filming of the ranch had started, surprisingly the cowboys who worked the ranch had, after initial hesitancy, continued on with the job at hand, completely ignoring the crew.

Although most of the ranch hands were seasoned cowboys, there were also younger men, and they too had gone on to work as though the cameras weren’t around. She knew the reason for that was the leadership. After meeting Nick, she’d realized that although he played the part of playboy to the hilt, behind the easy smile lay a completely different man, one who took his ranch seriously. After meeting Keanu, the complete puzzle had come together.

And when she’d first laid eyes on him...Sonia had known on that level of feminine intuition located deep, deep inside of every woman that she was in trouble.

“Who the hell is making all of this damn noise, scaring the crap out of my new horse?” The deep, booming baritone’s ringing question stopped everyone, Sonia included, dead in their tracks as they’d gathered inside the massive stable to go over the production schedule.

It had been the first day of filming and everyone, including Sonia, was hyped and excited. She had arrived before both the crew and Patricia to get a feel for the direction she wanted to go. It wasn’t that she wasn’t prepared; in fact, whenever she approached any job, she was usually over prepared. This time was different for her.

Doing a reality series was different—something that, although it was supposed to be reality, she knew, like everyone else who watched it, that the shows were as scripted as any given Hollywood sitcom. But she’d been determined that hers would be as unique as the Kealoha Ranch was itself. After spending time with the ranch hands, time the owners had allowed, without interference, she’d known her ideal of being natural and real was the best way to go.

And after meeting Keanu, she’d known her decision was sound. One look at the tall, breathtakingly handsome cowboy had literally taken her breath away.

Although she’d not managed, during the week she was at the Kealoha Ranch before the crew, to see Keanu, as he’d been away the first days of her arrival, she’d spoken with and met his brother and identical twin, Nick, and had already been impressed with his twin’s good looks and natural charm. Identical in every way on the outside, both men possessed the type of looks that she knew a camera would eat up.

When her director of photography had openly stared at Keanu, her camera dangling at her side, whispering “hot damn,” she’d turned to face the man attached to the booming voice.

And from that moment on, she’d been hooked.

Her glance fell to him now as he silently stood next to her.

She couldn’t really tell anyone the whys of it. Yes, he was one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever laid eyes on, but it was more than that.

Normally he wore the typical cowboy hat worn by most on the cowboys, low on his head, covering his hair. But of course, on Keanu it was anything but typical. The way the hat sat low, obscuring most of his face, with only the lower half showing sent goose bumps over her flesh when she’d catch him eyeballing her whenever he was near.

When she’d once seen him take it off and wipe a handkerchief across his forehead, cleaning off the sweat, she had felt her heart nearly pound out of her chest.

After removing the hat, his mop of shiny black strands were mussed over his head, looking as though he had just gotten out of bed. Immediately the image came to mind of a woman’s hands being the one that caused the muss.

And, of course, those hands doing the mussing were hers.

He reached up to remove the hat, allowing it to dangle in his big hands as he turned to her. At that same moment heat completely engulfed her.

Piercing blue eyes seemed to stare a hole directly into her soul.

She felt her cheeks warm and was thankful for both her brown skin complexion and the sun’s dying rays that hid it from his piercing gaze.

Thick and unruly, his hair fell in discordant silk waves over his head. Although he kept his hair short it was long enough to show that if he allowed it to grow longer, the silken waves would turn to curls.

As if she needed to see that. She thanked God for small favors.

His piercing eyes were the first thing that caught her attention. His skin, a light olive tone due to his Hawaiian heritage, was deepened to golden with the long hours spent in the Hawaiian sun, made for an uncommonly handsome face. The perfection of his features could have been carved from marble they were so precise.

Thick dark lashes framed emerald-blue eyes, and a long nose and sensual lips all completed the picture of a near masculine perfection. A bump on the bridge of his nose, which gave his nose a slightly crooked appearance, prevented his face from being perfect.

But even imperfection made him that much more appealing to her, giving him a more rugged appearance. When one of the women had remarked upon their blue eyes, she’d seen Nick shrug it off with a grin in place, reminding the woman that his and his brother’s mother had been half Hawaiian and half white. Although her eyes had been brown, someone, somewhere, had been blue-eyed. DNA had a way of sneaky way of showing up in everyone’s family tree.

As Sonia stared up at him, his heritage didn’t matter. She only saw the man in front of her. And besides, his DNA made up for a man who was sinfully handsome.

His wide shoulders blocked out the horizon and the setting sun.

Rugged man. That summed up Mr. Keanu Kealoha to a T.

“I’m waiting...Sonia.”

Her startled gaze met his. It was the first time in six months of correspondence and three months they’d been filming the show at the ranch and working together that he’d called her by her first name. For nine months he’d called her Ms. Brandon.

He obviously caught her surprise. A slow grin split his face, transforming the normally austere but handsome face into one so breathtaking Sonia feared she would be in serious trouble if he knew his effect on her.

“Sonia?” she asked, putting on a fake careless, teasing smile. “You’re sure you can handle calling me by first name?” She could tell her teasing threw him off guard, but he played it well.

He lifted a shoulder. “I figured if you agree, it was about time we called each other by our first names, as we get to know each other better,” he said, and brought his hand out for her to shake.

* * *

Sonia was looking at his hand as if it was a damn rattlesnake, Key thought, irritated by her reaction. He refrained from his natural inclination to pull back after her obvious distrust, her reaction one he should have expected.

He was not going to allow one small woman to think he couldn’t handle her. He kept his hand extended, calmly waiting for her to shake it.

It was way past time that he actually sat down with the woman, got to know her. She was no different than any other woman he’d had to do business...or pleasure with. Although with her, he’d keep it to business.

Despite the way his cock jumped in response whenever she was within “sniffin’ distance,” as his twin called it. It wasn’t as if he was new to dealing with the opposite sex. Whenever he needed an itch scratched, there had never been a shortage of women willing to do the scratching for him.

But that’s all he’d ever indulged in. Although his needs ran high, sexually, he made sure any woman he indulged in any...scratching...with knew the score. He did not want a relationship.

Growing up on the ranch had taught him a few things. One was that ranching and the long hours involved to see the ranch a success didn’t always work well with trying to have a relationship. But with this woman, he would continue to keep it business as usual.