come by and get her.”
Without thinking, Fee walked over and wrapped her arms around his waist to give him a hug. She knew he would probably think she’d lost her mind, but she didn’t care. The more she found out about Chance Lassiter the more she realized what a remarkable man he was. He’d suffered through a traumatic loss as a child, but that hadn’t deterred him from following in his father’s footsteps to become a rancher. And from what she’d seen at the wedding a few nights ago, he had gone out of his way to become close to the half sister and niece that he hadn’t even known existed until just recently.
“Don’t get me wrong, sweetheart,” he said, chuckling as his arms closed around her. “I’m not complaining in the least, but what’s this for?”
Knowing that if she tried to explain her actions, she’d make a fool of herself, she shrugged and took a step back. “I’m still amazed that you knew what to do today to save the momma cow and her baby.”
He smiled. “How would you like to take a walk out to the holding pen to check on them?”
“I’d like that,” she said, meaning it. “Gus and I just finished up the dishes.”
Gus nodded. “I’ll see you at breakfast. I’ve a baseball game comin’ on the sports channel in a few minutes.”
As Gus went to his room to watch the game, she and Chance left the house and walked across the yard toward the barn. She glanced up at him when he reached out and took her hand in his. It was a small gesture, but the fact that it felt so good to have him touch her, even in such a small way, was a little unsettling. Was she already in way over her head?
“Looks like we may have to cut our walk short,” Chance said, pointing to a bank of clouds in the distance. “We might get a little rain.”
“From the dark color, I’d say it’s going to be a downpour,” Fee commented as they reached the pen where the cow and calf were being held.
“Even if it is a downpour, it probably won’t last long,” he answered. “We get a lot of pop-up thundershowers this time of year. They move through, dump a little water on us and move on.”
Noticing a covered area at one end of the enclosure, she nodded. “I’m glad to see there’s shelter for them if it does start raining.”
“Cattle don’t usually mind being out in the rain during the summer months,” he said, smiling. “It’s one of the ways they cool off.”
“What’s another?” she asked, watching the little black calf venture away from her mother.
“If there’s a pond or a river, they like to wade out and just stand there.” He grinned. “Sort of like the bovine version of skinny-dipping.”
“I can’t say I blame them,” she said, laughing. “I would think it gets rather hot with all that hair.” When the calf got close to the fence, Fee couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe. “She’s so pretty. What are you going to name her?”
He chuckled. “We normally don’t name cattle.”
“I guess that would be kind of difficult when you have so many,” she said, thinking it was a shame for something so cute not to have a name.
He nodded. “If they’re going to be kept for breeding purposes, we tag their ears with a number. That’s the way we identify them and keep track of their health and how well they do during calving season.”
“I don’t care,” Fee said, looking into the baby’s big brown eyes. “She’s too cute to just be a number. I’m going to call her Belle.”
“So before we take her and her mother to rejoin the herd, I should have her name put on her ear tag instead of a number?” he asked, grinning as he reached out and caught her to him.
She placed her hands on his chest and started to tell him that was exactly what she thought he should do, but she stopped short when several fat raindrops landed on her face. “We’ll be soaked to the bone by the time we get back to the house,” she said when it started raining harder.
Chance grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her along in the direction of the barn. “We can wait it out in there.”
Sprinting the short distance, a loud clap of thunder echoed overhead as they ran inside. “That rain moved in fast,” she said, laughing.
“Unless it’s a big storm front, it should move through just as fast.” He stared at her for several seconds before he took her by the hand and led her midway down the long center aisle to a narrow set of stairs on the far side of the feed room. “There’s something I want to show you.”
When he stepped back for her to precede him up the steps, she frowned. “What is it?”
“Trust me, you’ll like it,” he said, smiling mysteriously.
“I’m sure that’s what a spider says to a fly just before it lures him into its web,” she said, looking up the stairs to the floor above. She didn’t know what he had up his sleeve, but she did trust him and smiling over her shoulder at him, climbed the stairs to the hayloft. When they stood facing each other at the top of the stairs, she asked, “Now, what is it you wanted to show me?”
He walked her over to the open doors at the end of the loft. “We’ll have to wait until it stops raining and the sun comes back out,” he said, taking her into his arms.
A shiver coursed through her and not entirely from her rain-dampened clothes. The look in Chance’s eyes stole her breath and sent waves of goose bumps shimmering over her skin.
“Chance, I don’t think this is a good idea,” she warned. “I’m not interested in an involvement.”
He shook his head. “I’m not, either. All I want is for both of us to enjoy your visit to the ranch.”
“I need to talk to you about the PR campaign,” she said, reminding him that she wasn’t giving up on him being the family spokesman.
He nodded. “I promise we’ll get to that soon. But right now, I’m going to kiss you again, Fee,” he said, lowering his head. “And this time it’s going to be a long, slow kiss that will leave both of us gasping for breath.”
Fee’s heart pounded hard in her chest when his mouth covered hers and a delicious heat began to spread throughout her body as she raised her arms to encircle his neck. True to his word, Chance took his time, teasing with tiny nibbling kisses that heightened her anticipation, and when he finally traced her lips with his tongue to deepen the caress, Fee felt as if she would go into total meltdown.
As he explored her slowly, thoroughly, he slid his hand from her back up along her ribs to the underside of her breast. Cupping her, he lightly teased the hardened tip with the pad of his thumb and even through the layers of her clothing the sensation was electrifying. A lazy tightening began to form a coil in the pit of her stomach and she instinctively leaned into his big, hard body.
The feel of his rigid arousal nestled against her soft lower belly, the tightening of his strong arms around her and the feel of his heart pounding out a steady rhythm against her breast sent a need like nothing she had ever known flowing from the top of her head all the way to the soles of her feet.
Her
