around the kitchen, removing a storage bowl from the refrigerator to heat up leftover food from the afternoon meal for Althea.
The older woman had paused, one hand on the chrome handle of the microwave, and glanced at Althea. She’d held her gaze for such a long time that Althea had immediately regretted her impulse in bringing up the question.
“Baby, did you notice there weren’t any women working on the ranch?” She finally spoke, closing the door and setting the cook time.
Althea nodded her head, slowly.
“There’s a good reason for that,” she’d said, her expression, although light, serious as she turned and fully faced Althea.
“And that would be?”
The older woman turned away, moving toward the stove to pour the boiling water into two mugs she’d set out before tossing tea bags into both.
“Besides me, you’re the first woman in over two years who’s been on the ranch. Let’s just say women living at the Wilde Ranch has never been an…easy thing.”
Before Althea could digest that comment, the older woman had continued. “And if you want to stay for any amount of time, my suggestion would be to lay low, do your job and everything will be fine. Particularly around Nate.”
Something in the woman’s expression warned her not to ask questions, so she simply nodded her head and sipped the tea Lilly placed in front of her, feeling a kernel of apprehension knot in her belly for the first time in the week she’d been on the ranch.
Now she straightened, dusted her hand down the side of her jeans and cautiously extended it toward him.
He glanced down at her hand and hesitated for a fraction of a second before he engulfed it within his large one. Althea did everything she could not to squirm, the electric heat of his hand touching hers, warming her on contact, sparking off a fizzle of awareness down her spine.
“Yes, Mr. Wilde, I’ve heard about you, from your brothers. What I meant was, your brothers told me you were away when they hired me. Not that that was the reason they hired me or anything. I just…” She stopped, took a breath, trying like hell to curb her nervous chatter. “I look forward to working here at the ranch.” She rushed out the rest of the sentence, expelling the breath of air she’d taken as she did.
He held her hand, held it a fraction longer than was necessary before slowly releasing it.
“It’s beautiful here, I’ve already started falling in love with—”
“No offense, Ms…. Dayton,” he broke in, eyes narrowing, cutting Althea off, making her want to bite her tongue for the words she blurted and her crazy inability to stop with the nervous chatter.
She didn’t miss the emphasis he’d placed on her last name. As though he suspected she hadn’t given him her true name.
But his voice, smooth and liquid, distracted her momentarily. He had the type of voice that inexplicably brought out everything feminine in her. Things she thought long buried deep down inside, things she thought she’d never feel, tucked deep.
Her imagination took over as she eyed him. She imaged him roping cattle on a lazy summer day, beads of sweat glistening against his naked, muscled chest, wearing snug low-riding jeans, his Stetson on, the rim low, shading his eyes…
“But as my brothers should have consulted with me before hiring you, I’m not so sure your stay here will be that long. I wouldn’t want you to fall too deeply in love. With the ranch, that is,” he said, breaking into her little fantasy and bringing a flush to her face, dragging her mind away from the unexpected flight it had taken.
Althea withdrew her hand from his and fully faced him, swallowing down her embarrassment.
The noticeable coolness in his tone was in direct competition with the heated way he was looking at her, the way he’d been since the moment he entered the stall. His words said one thing, his eyes something totally different.
Althea focused on what had just flown out of his mouth.
“Well, Mr. Wilde, as your brothers were so kind as to give me three weeks’ pay—” she began, and ignored the look of surprise on his face “—for the next three weeks at least, you don’t have one damn thing to say about that,” she finished, and smoothly turned away from him, giving the horse her full attention.
Before she turned away she saw the flash of irritation on his face and squelched the need to laugh. She had enough sense to know when to walk away from a fight. No sense in pulling the lion’s tail any more than she had today.
“We’ll see about that,” he nearly growled, advancing on her.
Hot and heavy, the tension instantly grew thick; heady and palpable.
Althea, despite the way the last years had shaken out, forcing her into hiding, had never been one to run from a challenge.
“Either I can work off the advance, or I can leave. Either way I’m fine with it. I’m still getting paid. It’s your call.”
So much for not pulling the lion’s tail, she thought with a mental shrug.
With her heartbeat racing out of control, Althea felt his glare on her the entire time as she turned and gave the horse a final pat, pretending a nonchalance she didn’t feel.
As quickly as humanly possible she was out of the stable, not waiting around to see his reaction to her challenge…wondering what in the name of God she’d just signed on for.
Chapter 4
“Either I can work off the advance or leave. Either way I’m fine with it…”
A deep frown settled between Nate’s brows as he drove past the south pasture heading into town, thinking of the words slung at him by the woman.
He hadn’t wanted to go to town. He had enough to do around the ranch to keep him busy from sunup to sundown. But thoughts of the woman—Althea—had plagued him the entire morning.
Hell, thoughts of her and their exchange had kept him up most of the night as well.
Although she’d said it in an “I don’t give a damn” kind of way, he’d seen a look akin to desperation in her eyes. The look, coupled with his reaction to her, had plagued him throughout the night and into the next day.
One time too many while helping the hands mend some critical fence, he’d had to redo a piece he’d fixed. Once he’d nearly hammered off his own finger as he pounded away at the fencing before he decided he needed to get away.
Immediately images assaulted his mind in vivid, erotic detail of just how Ms. Althea Dayton, or whatever her real name was, could work out the debt.
Vivid, mind-blowing images.
The type that even now had his cock rock-hard and ready. Ready to show the smug woman just how she could service him.
His mood had gone from hell to hell-in-a-handbasket when he’d stalked inside the house and caught his brothers before they could make
