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She paused, resting her hand along the horse’s warm sturdy neck. “This is my home and Lane’s inheritance. No one is going to take it from us, especially a man who might jump up and run off with the rodeo—or a woman—at the drop of a hat.”
If Ty thought she’d hightail it back to Oklahoma City without a fight, he didn’t know her at all. If she had to beg, steal or lie to secure her baby’s future, that’s what she’d do. Even if it meant bunking in the same house with the enemy.
The very idea of sleeping under the same roof with Ty Murdock sent shivers running through her, shivers she didn’t understand. Was she afraid of what Ty might do if he discovered Lane was his son? That had to be the reason. She didn’t trust him any farther than she could spit a Volkswagen. And she dang sure wasn’t about to let a man have the upper hand in her life. Not ever again.
Sucking in a cleansing breath of hay-scented air, Kara chuckled softly and hugged the old mare’s neck. Ty had better get ready. He was about to have an unexpected houseguest.
“Come on, Taffy, let’s have a look around and make sure Murdock is taking good care of my property.”
Replacing the comb, she gripped Taffy’s halter and pushed the gate open. The crunch of boots on wood chips had her spinning around before she was halfway out of the stall.
“What do you think you’re doing?” The loathsome cowboy stalked toward her.
She tossed her nose into the air. “Going for a ride.”
“No, you’re not.”
Ignoring him, Kara led the mare forward. Ty’s hand shot out and grabbed her arm with such strength that she halted. She dropped her gaze to the fingers digging into her flesh.
“Get your hands off me.”
She yanked. Ty refused to budge. Instead, he closed the gap between them, forcing her backward into the stall along with the mare. Inside the narrow cubicle, Kara found herself trapped between two familiar bodies, one warm and welcoming, the other hard and unyielding.
“Well, aren’t you the tough guy?” Kara hissed sarcastically. The electricity that sparked between them made her even madder. “Stealing from old men and pushing around women half your size. How impressive.”
Ty relaxed his grip the tiniest bit. He should have known better. Perhaps he didn’t remember as much about her temper as he should have. Kara jerked her hands free, doubled up her fists and slammed them into his chest, letting go with six years of pent-up pain and rage.
“You sorry, low-down, rotten, lying, cheating, thieving…” The invectives went on for a full minute. She lambasted him in every way imaginable. By the time she got to his kinfolk, his intellect and his relationship to lower forms of life, it occurred to her that Ty made no attempt to stop the pummeling of his upper body. His body relaxed, he held her captive against the mare, flinching only when she came too close to his face.
“Kara,” he said in a far too calm and sensible voice when she slowed for breath.
She shot a left hook to his shoulder. “And if you think you can waltz in here and keep me from riding my own horse…”
“Kara,” he said again in that same close-to-laughter voice.
This time she stopped whacking him long enough to notice the quirky grin pulling at his devilishly handsome face.
“What?”
“Taffy has a cut on her left hock. I had the vet out this morning to sew her up, but she’s not fit to ride just yet.”
“Oh.” All the steam seeped out of Kara.
Dang him. Why did he have to make sense? She’d just thrown a wall-eyed fit when he’d only been protecting the horse.
She knew she should apologize. Was trying to swallow her pride and find the words when Taffy and her bad leg decided they’d stood in one spot as long as they could. The mare shifted sideways. Kara stumbled backward at the sudden disappearance of her brace, the now unrestricted pressure of Ty’s body forcing her down. He fell, too, landing atop her in a pile of fresh alfalfa hay.
Ty’s black eyes blinked at her from a mere two inches away. The heat of his breath swept across her cheek like warm sunshine as they lay in a tangle, panting their surprise into each other’s face.
His hat lost in the fall, Ty’s hair lay in damp disarray against his forehead. Kara’s heart did a strange stutter-step. He looked the way he had in every dream that had haunted her sleep since she’d last seen him. Worse than that, he looked like the face that sat across from her every morning. He looked like his son. As if hypnotized, Kara lifted a hand to the errant thatch of hair and brushed it back. As soon as she touched him, the laughter disappeared from his face. Onyx-colored eyes searched hers.
“Kara?” he whispered, sounding as uncertain as she felt.
She knew she should move, should leap up and run out of the barn and off this ranch as fast as humanly possible. But for the life of her she couldn’t budge. She lay mesmerized by the smooth dark skin, the tiny crinkles at the corners of his eyes and the laugh lines bracketing his lips.
Before the next heartbeat Ty’s mouth closed over hers, and Kara felt herself drawn back into time, to a memory as achingly sweet as cotton candy. It was crazy. It was stupid. It wasn’t what she wanted at all. But her body hadn’t forgotten the magic that had blossomed between them all those years ago.
He was wonderfully familiar and tantalizingly different at the same time. A thousand conflicting emotions roiled within her. He felt so right, yet for her, he was so utterly, completely wrong. She’d loved him far too long, then hated him just as passionately.
The hay, the horse, the man all evoked memories of their last night together. She’d been desperate, foolishly believing if she loved him well enough, he couldn’t leave her. But he had. While his baby grew inside her, he was off somewhere betraying her with another woman.
Kara snapped into focus.
What was she doing? She’d come to rid the place of Ty Murdock, not be seduced by him. Hadn’t she already learned that lesson?
Though her heart thudded painfully, and her body ached in a strangely pleasant manner, Kara forced herself to remember the terrible price she’d paid because of Ty’s deceit.
Ty must have sensed her sudden withdrawal, for he stilled and lay with his warm breath puffing against her neck. His heart hammered erratically against her palms. Kara pushed at his chest, wanting him gone before the temptation proved too strong.
Several beats passed before he rolled away, stretching full length beside her, one arm thrown over his eyes, chest heaving. Kara lay in the prickly hay, senses zinging, mind reeling.
Cheeks burning, Kara sat up, brushing at her straw-covered clothes. The crinkle of hay told her he, too, had sat up. She made a motion to escape.
“Kara, wait.” Ty’s husky voice stopped her.
Though fearful of what he might say, she waited. When his strong fingers began carefully picking grass from her hair, an involuntary shudder ran through her. Letting him touch her again was not a good idea. With a jerk she pulled away and stood, anxious to make her getaway. Taffy, relegated to a corner of the stall, turned her tawny head and nuzzled Kara’s shoulder.
Ty stayed where he was, balanced on one elbow, looking up at her. “I’d apologize, but I’m not sorry.”
Fiercely, she scrubbed her moist, tingling lips with the back of one hand. The feel of Ty’s warm mouth wouldn’t go away. “Of course not. You think everything you do is justifiable.”
No doubt the conceited wretch thought a few kisses and a good roll in the hay would soften her, and she’d head back to the city and let him have the Tilted T. But he was wrong. She’d never be a fool for soft kisses and sweet lies again.
“What did you think, Ty? That you could seduce me out of fighting for my son’s birthright?”
“It never even crossed my mind.” His gaze lowered to the rapid rise and fall of her chest. “Especially since I never had to seduce you before.”
Kara stiffened, fists clenched. The truth in his words made them all the more humiliating. “You egotistical piece of—”
Ty held up a hand in a gesture of peace and shook his head ruefully. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.” He reached for his hat, dusting it off against his knee. “Face it, Kara, even if the ranch were yours, you can’t run it from Oklahoma City.”
“I was planning to move home.”
“When? After the place fell apart? Have you looked around lately? Do you know how much work needs to be done here?”
She hadn’t, but he didn’t need to know that. “I could see to it.” Kara’s chin jutted stubbornly.
“Excuse me if I disagree, Miss Taylor, but you can’t run a ranch on the weekends. Anyway, you never cared about this place. You sure couldn’t wait to get away from it.”
“I’ve already told you, I had my reasons.”
“Yeah, right.” He shoved the Stetson onto his head, dark eyes glittering. “Josh Riddley, wasn’t it? The dust had hardly settled behind me when you took up with him. So much for your promises of undying devotion. Both to me and to this ranch.”
She was shocked that he knew her former husband’s name. But that was good, she supposed. As long as he believed the worst of her, the secret would be safe. From the look on his face, he’d never had a single inkling that Josh was not Lane’s father.
“You broke a few promises yourself, cowboy. Not that it matters now.” She jabbed a finger at him. “I’ll just tell you the cold, hard facts as I see them. I’m staying. In my own house, in my own room, and I’m not leaving until you give me back that deed.”
Chapter Three
Ty stood in the corral, arms folded along the top edge of the fence rail, one boot propped on the bottom rung, studying the Tilted T in darkness. Tree frogs set up their mating song, competing long and loud with the katydids, and somewhere a mare whinnied for her colt. A quarter moon spilled light over the acreage so that the buildings and corrals, horses and vehicles all took on shadowy forms in the darkness. The sky above was a black velvet curtain studded with diamonds.
He glanced toward the house and saw the kitchen light come on. Kara, no doubt. His belly growled, a reminder that he hadn’t eaten supper, and here it was bedtime. But after Kara stomped out of the barn, he’d felt it wise to let her cool awhile.
He hadn’t meant to kiss her, but he couldn’t take it back. Didn’t want to as a matter-of-fact. Something had come over him when he’d felt her soft curves beneath his. Desire, he guessed. Any cowboy with a drop of testosterone would desire a woman like Kara. But there had been something else, too. Something he couldn’t quite put a name to. He wrinkled his forehead, trying to get a grip on the nameless emotion Kara stirred in him. Nostalgia. Memories. He and Kara went back a long way, regardless of the rift between them now—a rift so wide he’d need an airplane to cross it.
A door slammed and a male voice carried on the still night air. Pete’s, though he couldn’t make out the words.
Not until he heard the crunch of boots coming across the paddock did he realize Pete was headed his way. Illuminated only by the silvery moonlight, the old guy looked like a specter with a hitch in one leg.
“Knee acting up again?” Ty asked, the words as soft as the night air.
Pete shrugged away the question. “Ah. You know.”
Yeah, he did know. Knew very well that getting kicked, stomped and thrown on a regular basis took its toll on every cowboy. Age just made it hurt more.
“Kara Dean run you out of your own house?” Pete asked, leaving no doubt that aches and pains weren’t on his mind.
Ty stared out over the paddock at the big roan gelding ambling in his direction. “She’s plenty mad about this.”
“Told you she would be.” Pete pulled a can of tobacco from his pocket, took a pinch and stuffed it behind his bottom lip.
Ty dropped his boot to the ground and turned toward his old friend. “What’s happened to her, Pete? She’s the same, but she’s not, if you know what I mean.”
“I do know what you mean. Defensive. Sometimes I think it’s her mama dying so fast like that. Other times, I think it’s because of you.”
“Me?” The notion surprised him. “Wasn’t me she married.” Funny how that still disturbed him.
“Him.” Pete spat.
Ty squinted through the darkness, trying to read the older man’s face. “You didn’t like him, then?”
“Never knew him that well, but I always sensed something wrong between them. Never thought she was happy with him.”
Ty turned that over in his mind. If she wasn’t happy, why’d she up and marry the man? Why’d she have his baby? The obvious answer hurt more than he wanted it to. It wasn’t the first time he’d wondered if Kara had taken up with another guy and gotten pregnant soon after he’d joined the rodeo circuit.
“You think she’ll stay?” Ty gazed toward the house. The kitchen light was still on, and Kara’s silhouette moved past the window. His eyes strained to see her better. “To fight over the ranch, I mean?”
“Nah.” Pete draped one elbow over the rail, letting the fence take the weight off his aching knee. “That girl’s crazy over Lane. Won’t stay more than a day or two without him.”
“Why didn’t she bring him this go-round?”
“Boy’s in kindergarten. But Kara don’t like leaving him long, even with her roommate. She’ll be up and gone soon, you mark my words.”
Ty rubbed a hand over the soft, equine nose poking over the fence. He slanted a glance toward his old friend who stroked the opposite side of the roan gelding. Pete’s fingers, once so deft with a lariat rope, were bent and gnarled along the knuckles. White hair, once as dark as his own, glistened like snow in the moonlight. With a painful shock, Ty realized that his friend and mentor was getting old. One more reason he was eager for someone else to take over the Tilted T.
He wondered if Kara, in all her whirlwind visits, had taken the time to notice. If she had, surely she would give the old man the one thing he wanted most. Couldn’t she see the old cowboy was lonely for family? Permanent family, not someone who ran in and out when the notion struck.
“You’d like her to live closer by, wouldn’t you, Pete?”
“Reckon I would.” The tobacco jutted the old man’s lip as he spoke. “A long time ago Kara promised me a grandson. Had some silly notion that she’d let me down by not being a boy. She didn’t, of course. Why, I wouldn’t trade a hair on her head for a houseful of boys, but now that she has me a grandson, don’t seem right to keep him in Oklahoma while I’m down here in Texas. A boy needs a man’s influence, you know.”
“What about Riddley? Doesn’t he spend time with the boy?”
“Nah.” Pete shook his head. “I don’t know what happened between Josh and Kara, but I do know one thing. She’s mighty bitter about it. Won’t let the man near that child.”
“Did you ever ask her what happened?”
“Figured if she wanted me to know, she’d tell me.”
Ty stroked the smooth, warm horseflesh while his mind absorbed all Pete’s revelations. He knew about young boys needing a man’s influence. Pete had been that man in his own life, a surrogate father throughout his rough-and-tumble high school years. Without Pete he might have become even more like his old man than he was.
Sam Murdock had cheated on his wife for as long as anyone could remember. When Ty was thirteen, Sam went off to a rodeo in Odessa with his latest flame, and Ty hadn’t seen him since. The gossips of Bootlick had predicted that Ty’s good looks and natural charm would lead him down the same path. “Blood will tell,” they liked to say each time Ty was within earshot.
His mother had been wise enough to know that a boy needed a real man’s influence, and she’d asked Pete to put him to work on the Tilted T, where he’d learned to focus all his wild teenage energy into roping, riding and ranching.
He’d fallen in love with Pete’s daughter, too, taken her innocence and left her crying. That act of disloyalty, both to Pete and to Kara, haunted him still, adding to his fear that the Murdock blood in his veins was too strong to overcome.
Yep, Ty owed old Pete a lot more than a place to live and a foreman’s job. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for the grizzled old man at his side.
The seed of an idea began to form in the back of his mind.
Pete wanted Kara and his grandson to come home for good. Kara wanted the ranch for her son. And he wanted to find out if he was man enough to settle down. He could only think of one way to do it all.
“Pete, what if there was a way to give both you and Kara what you want? And maybe me, too?”
Furrows appeared in Pete’s forehead. “You ain’t fixing to tell her about the ranch debts, are you? We had an agreement.”
“No. Nothing like that. But I am fixing to take a little gamble and see how badly Kara wants this ranch for her boy.”
“What ya got in mind?”
“A little proposition that will force her to bring Lane down here to live for good.”
“Ooo-wee, Kara Dean don’t like being forced to do anything. You’re gonna make her mad, I can already tell that.”
Ty laughed lightly, suddenly looking forward to the next encounter with the sizzling Kara. “Yeah, I suppose I will.”
“Then I wish you luck, boy. She’s still as full of spit and vinegar as ever.” Pete laughed and slapped the top rung of the iron fence. The gelding jerked back at the hollow metal sound ringing out over the paddock.
