with him? In reality, she’d had no idea of where her lusting might lead. Having only just read and heard about most of that sexual stuff, she’d never experienced very much of it first hand. So the image of kissing a man she’d just met was odd.
“Yes. This is home. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to see it again,” he told her, while trying to conceal a sigh.
She shook off the images of putting her lips to his and looked through the windshield at the one-story ranch house, surrounded by grass and sitting in the middle of several acres of fenced land. It was much smaller than the house she’d imagined he would live in. And it was certainly smaller than the Danforth family’s mansion, Crofthaven.
As she drove down the paved driveway, past fences and a few grazing animals, she tried to judge the house’s size. With clean lines and stucco exterior, it seemed very suburban for a rich-man’s son. It was probably a three or four bedroom home and it looked fairly new.
Really, she had no business thinking of a three-bedroom house as small. Although not a mansion; compared to the rat-infested twelve-by-twelve room in Atlanta where she’d grown up, this place would qualify as a castle.
“What do you do with all this space?” She’d checked out the sea of grass that was the front yard, enclosed by both chain-link fence and pretty white-wood fence posts, and now saw a building in the distance that might be a garage or a barn in back of the main house.
He chuckled at her question. “It’s not much, I know. But it’s a farm. My farm.”
“You mean you grow stuff here? Like fruit and vegetables that come out of the ground? Really?”
She pulled up in front of the house and stopped. Turning to see why he hadn’t answered her yet, Dana was shocked by the wide grin on his face. It made him look so appealing that she nearly threw herself into his arms.
He chuckled, and she straightened her spine.
“I’ve got a couple of peach trees,” he said cheerfully. “So I guess that qualifies as fruit. Last summer I grew tomatoes and zucchini and tried growing one stalk of corn. Maybe you could count those as vegetables.”
Again he chuckled, but this time it seemed more like he was laughing at himself. “Mostly I raise a few sheep and some chickens. It’s not a very big operation but I’m happy here.” He opened his door and, unfolding his tall frame from the front seat, he stepped out and stretched.
“Oh. Farm animals,” she said, with what she figured was a truly stupid look on her face.
Everything she knew about farming you could put in a teacup. A small one. She never figured that a rich guy like this would like living the country life. All of a sudden her investigator’s instincts kicked in.
In the long haul, she never trusted what she saw at first glance. And over her lifetime, she’d come to realize that rich people couldn’t be trusted if it was a question of making money. So this whole domestic scene made her wary and nervous. What was he really doing way out here in the boondocks?
Dana slipped the key from the ignition and carefully got out of the car. The sunset was casting shadows against the house and shrubbery. Nervous and wondering who else might be around, she turned to lock the car and immediately heard a crazy commotion behind her.
Before she could turn back to see what was going on, Marcus yelled, “Dana! Watch out!”
She swiveled, pulled her revolver out of its holster and grasped it firmly in her hand before she made the full turn.
“No! For God’s sake, Dana. Don’t shoot him.”
The next thing she knew, she was flat on the ground, staring up at a ferocious set of snarling teeth.
Two
“Laddie, heel!” Marcus shouted. “Get off of her, you big lummox.”
Dana rolled out from under the collie and got to her feet. She checked her weapon and reholstered it while the oversize dog sat on his haunches, wagging his tail and breathing hard.
“I’m sorry about that,” Marcus quickly told her. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. What made him jump me that way? Is he a guard dog? I’ve never heard of anyone using a collie for that kind of thing.”
“Laddie? No. He’s a big wimp. But he’s good with the sheep.” Marcus bent low to rub the dog’s head and gave him a quick hug. “Did you miss me, boy?”
Marcus stood and turned back to Dana. “He’s really just a big puppy. I’ve tried to train him not to jump up on visitors, but obviously we have some more work to do.”
She lowered her chin and nodded once. “Right. Well, no harm done.”
He took a second to study her again. Dana was much more than just a bodyguard. Marc was sure of it.
“That was some quick action with the gun, slick,” he chided her. “Where’d you learn to draw like that?”
Dana adjusted her jacket down over the holster again before she answered. “Would you believe anyone can do that with a lot of practice?”
He narrowed his eyes at her.
“No? I guess you wouldn’t,” she sighed. “Let’s just say that handling weapons is one of my many talents.”
“Uh-huh. And driving is another one of your many talents?” The minute he said it, his mind wandered off to what other kind of talents she might possess. Or which ones he could bring out in her…if he had a chance to do all the things with her that he’d been imagining.
“I learned to drive that way in bodyguard training. It’s a good thing to know if you anticipate a potential kidnapping.”
That stopped the images. “Do you anticipate a kidnapping?”
She shook her head. “It’s not something a bodyguard can ever ignore. But in this case, I think that an execution-style killing might be more likely. Either way, we’ll be prepared.” She headed toward the front door.
Man. Talk about throwing a wet blanket on his ardor. “I’ll open up the house for you and give you a quick tour, but then I have to see to the animals,” he finally managed after swallowing hard a couple of times.
Her eyes widened and her brows shot up. “You take care of them yourself?”
“Sure I do. Who else?” He suddenly thought back on the last couple of days. “Well, there is my neighbor who looks after them if I’m gone. He’s a full-time farmer, not a hobby farmer like most of the rest of us around here.”
“I need to stay with you while you tend your animals,” she told him. “If you want to do that before you clean up, then I’ll go with you. What exactly do you have to do?”
She was too much, this tough cookie with curly soft hair and a spine made of steel. Intelligent and athletic to be sure. But she also had a tiny hint of softness behind those big brown eyes.
“You’ll see.” Marc unbuttoned the top button on his shirt and threw his jacket over the little bench beside the front door.
