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“There isn’t one,” he answered. “Most of the year it’s just a little slow-moving stream about three or four inches deep and about two feet wide,” he explained. “But July is the wettest month we have here in Wyoming. It rains almost every day and the stream doubles in size and depth. That little car sits so low it would stall out in a heartbeat.”
“Why don’t you build a bridge?” she demanded. “It seems to me it would be more convenient than running the risk of a vehicle stalling out.”
He nodded. “Eventually I’ll have the road to my place asphalted and a culvert or bridge put in. But I only inherited the ranch a few months ago and I’ve had other things on my mind like cutting and baling hay, mending fences and moving cattle from one pasture to another.”
“Hold it just a minute. Your place?” She frowned. “You don’t live on the Big Blue ranch?”
“I’ve never lived anywhere else,” he admitted. “I just don’t live in the main house.”
“There’s another house on the ranch?” she asked, her tone doubtful.
“Actually there are several,” he said, nodding. “There’s the main house, the Lassiter homestead where I live, as well as a foreman’s cottage and a couple of smaller houses for married hired hands.”
“The only buildings I saw close to the ranch house were a couple of barns, a guest cottage and a stable,” she said, sounding skeptical.
“You can’t see the other places from the main house,” he answered. “Those are about five miles down the road where I live.”
“So I won’t be staying with Marlene?” she inquired, as if she might be rethinking her decision to stay with him.
“Nope. The actual ranch headquarters is where we’ll be staying,” he said, wondering if Fee was apprehensive about being alone with him. She needn’t be. He might want to get to know her on a very personal level, but he wasn’t a man who forced his attentions on a woman if she didn’t want them.
Frowning, she nibbled on her lower lip as if deep in thought. “I was led to believe that the main house was the ranch headquarters.”
Chance almost groaned aloud. Nothing would please him more than to cover her mouth with his and do a little nibbling of his own. Fortunately, he didn’t have time to dwell on it. They had arrived at the stop he’d decided to make when he learned she didn’t have a pair of boots.
Steering his truck into the parking lot at the Wild Horse Western Wear store on the northern outskirts of Cheyenne, he parked and turned to face her. “My uncle built the main house when he and my late aunt adopted Sage and Dylan. That’s where we have our family gatherings, entertain guests, and Lassiter Media holds corporate receptions. The actual ranch headquarters has always been at the home my grandfather and grandmother built when they first came to Wyoming. I renovated it about seven years back when my uncle turned the running of the ranch over to me. I’ve lived there ever since.”
She looked confused. “Why not have the headquarters at the main house? Doesn’t that make more sense?”
Laughing, he shook his head. “Headquarters is where we sort cattle for taking them to market and quarantine and treat sick livestock. A herd of cattle can be noisy and churn up a lot of dust when it’s dry. That’s not something you want guests to have to contend with when you’re throwing a party or trying to make a deal with business associates.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” she finally said, as if she was giving it some serious thought.
“Now that we have that settled, let’s go get you fitted for a pair of boots,” he suggested, getting out of the truck and walking around to help her down from the passenger seat. “How many pairs of jeans did you bring?”
“Two,” she said as they walked into the store. “Why?”
“I’m betting your jeans have some designer dude’s name on the hip pocket and cost a small fortune,” he explained as he walked her over to the women’s section.
“As a matter of fact, I did get them from a boutique on Rodeo Drive,” she said, frowning. “Does that make them unsuitable?”
“That depends,” he answered truthfully. “If you don’t mind running the risk of getting them torn or stained up, they’ll be just fine. But if they’re very expensive, I doubt you’ll want to do that. Besides, they probably aren’t boot cut, are they?”
“No. They’re skinny jeans.”
He swallowed hard as he imagined what she would look like in the form-fitting pants. “We’ll pick up a few pairs of jeans and a hat.”
“I don’t wear hats,” she said, her long blond hair swaying as she shook her head.
Without thinking, Chance reached up to run his index finger along her smooth cheek. “I’d hate to see your pretty skin damaged by the sun. You’ll need a hat to protect against sun and windburn.”
As she stared up at him, her pink tongue darted out to moisten her lips and it was all he could do to keep from taking her into his arms to find out if they tasted as sweet as they looked. Deciding there would be plenty of time in the next two weeks to find out, he forced himself to move. He suddenly couldn’t wait to get to the ranch.
“Let’s get you squared away with jeans and boots,” he advised. “Then we’ll worry about that hat.”
Three (#u7391c32f-7ffc-52c0-aaa9-60dc224e873f)
Fee glanced down at her new jeans, boots and hot-pink T-shirt with I love Wyoming screen-printed on the front as Chance drove away from the store. When had she lost control of the situation? When they walked into the store, she hadn’t intended to get anything but a pair of boots and maybe a couple pairs of jeans.
She had to admit that Chance had been right about her needing the boots. Her sandals definitely weren’t the right choice of footwear if she was going to be around large animals. Even his suggestion about getting new jeans had made sense. She’d paid far too much for the stylish denim she’d purchased in one of the boutiques on Rodeo Drive to ruin them.
But when he had suggested that she might want to start wearing the boots right away to get them broken in, that’s when her command of the situation went downhill in a hurry. She’d had to put on a pair of the new jeans because the legs of her khaki slacks hadn’t fit over the tops of the boots. Then she’d taken one look at her raw silk blouse with the new jeans and boots and decided to get something more casual, motivating her to get the T-shirt. She glanced at the hat sitting beside her on the truck seat. She’d even given in to getting the hat because his argument about protecting her skin had made sense.
Looking over at Chance, she had to admit that a shopping trip had never been as exhilarating as it had been with him. When she stepped out of the dressing room to check in the full-length mirror how her new jeans and T-shirt fit, she’d seen an appreciation in his brilliant green eyes that thrilled her all the way to her toes. It certainly beat the practiced comments of a boutique employee just wanting to make a sale.
She sighed heavily. Now that they were actually on the road leading to the ranch, she couldn’t help but wonder what she’d gotten herself into. On some level, she had been excited about the new experience of being on a working ranch. It was something she’d never done before and although she felt as if she would be going into the great unknown, she had thought she was ready for the challenge. But if the past hour and a half was any indication of how far out of her element she was, she couldn’t imagine what the next two weeks held for her.
Preoccupied with her new clothes and how ill-prepared she had been for her stay at the ranch, it came as no small surprise when Chance drove past the lane leading up to the main house on the Big Blue ranch. They had traveled the thirty or so miles without her even realizing it.
Now as she watched the lane disappear behind them in the truck’s side mirror, Fee felt the butterflies begin to gather in her stomach. It was as if they were leaving civilization behind and embarking on a journey into the untamed wilderness.
She was a born and bred city dweller and the closest she had ever been to any kind of predatory wildlife was in the confines of a zoo. There was a certain comfort in knowing that there were iron bars and thick plates of glass between her and the creatures that would like nothing more than to make a meal out of her. But out in the wilds of Wyoming those safety measures were nonexistent and she knew as surely as she knew her own name there were very large, very hairy animals with long claws and big teeth hiding behind every bush and tree, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on her.
“Do you have a lot of trouble with predators?” she asked when the asphalt road turned into a narrow gravel lane.
Chance shrugged. “Once in a while we have a mountain lion or bobcat wander down from the higher elevations, but most of the time the only wildlife we see are antelope and deer.”
“Doesn’t Wyoming have bears and wolves?” she asked, remembering something she’d read about their being a problem when she’d gone online the night before to research ranching in Wyoming.
“Yeah, but they’re like the big cats. They usually stay up in the mountains where their food sources are,” he said slowly. “Why?”
“I just wondered,” she said, looking out the passenger window.
She didn’t like being afraid. It took control away from her and made her feel inadequate. Fee couldn’t think of anything that she hated more than not being in charge of herself. But that was exactly the way she was feeling at the moment. But as long as the really big, extremely scary wildlife stayed in the mountains where they belonged, she’d be just fine.
As she stared at the vast landscape, hundreds of black dots came into view. As they got closer, she realized the dots were cattle. “Are all those yours?”
“Yup. That’s some of them.”
“How big is this ranch?” she asked, knowing they had been on the property for several miles.
“We have thirty thousand acres,” Chance answered proudly. “My grandparents settled here when they first got married. Then when Uncle J.D. inherited it, he kept buying up land until it grew to the size it is now.” He laughed. “And believe it or not, I’m going to be checking into leasing another ten or twenty thousand acres from the Bureau of Land Management next year.”
“Isn’t the ranch big enough for you?” she asked before she could stop herself. It seemed to her that much land should be more than enough for anyone.
“Not really.” He smiled as he went on to explain. “The Big Blue has around six thousand head of cattle at any given time. Since our cattle are grass-fed year-round we have to be careful to manage the pastures to keep from overgrazing, as well as make sure we have enough graze to mow for hay in the summer to put up for the winter months. That’s why we keep a constant check on grazing conditions and move the herds frequently. Having the extra land would give us some breathing room with that, as well as expanding the herd.”
His knowledge about the needs of the cattle he raised impressed her and Fee made a mental note of the information. Since he supplied beef for the Lassiter Grill Group, it was definitely something she could envision using if she was assigned future promotions for the restaurant chain.
When Chance stopped the truck on top of a ridge, Fee’s breath caught at the sight of the valley below. It looked like a scene out of a Western movie. “This is where you live?”
Smiling proudly, he nodded. “This is the Lassiter homestead. The house wasn’t always this big, though. When I did the renovations before I moved in, I added several rooms and the wraparound porch on to the original log cabin.”
“It’s really beautiful,” Fee said, meaning it. She pointed to two small houses on the far side of the valley. “Are those the cottages you mentioned for the married hired hands?”
“Slim and Lena Garrison live in one and Hal and June Wilson live in the other,” Chance answered. “Slim is the ranch foreman and Hal is the head wrangler.” He pointed toward a good-size log structure not far from the three barns behind the house. “That’s the bunkhouse, where the single guys stay.”
“This would be the perfect place to film some of the videos I’m planning,” Fee said, thinking aloud. She noticed that Chance didn’t comment as he restarted the truck and drove down into the valley. “You do realize that I’m not going to give up until you agree to be the Lassiter spokesman, don’t you?”
“It never crossed my mind that you would,” he said, grinning as he parked the truck in front of the house. He got out to come around and open her door. “You’re here to try to talk me into taking on the job and I’m going to try to convince you that you’d be better off finding someone else.”
Anything she was about to say lodged in her throat when he lifted her from the truck and set her on her feet. She placed her hands on his biceps to steady herself and the latent strength she felt beneath his chambray shirt caused her pulse to race and an interesting little flutter in a part of her that had no business fluttering.
“Why do you keep...doing that?” she asked.
“What?”
“You keep lifting me in and out of the truck,” she said, even though she enjoyed the feel of his solid strength beneath her palms. “I’m perfectly capable of doing that for myself.”
“Two reasons, sweetheart.” He leaned close to whisper, “I’m trying to be helpful. But more than that, I like touching you.”
Her breath caught and when her gaze locked with his, she wasn’t sure if she would ever breathe again. He was going to kiss her. And heaven help her, she was going to let him.
But instead of lowering his head to capture her lips with his, Chance took a deep breath a moment before he stepped back and turned to get her luggage from the backseat. She did her best to cover her disappointment by looking beyond the house toward the fenced-in areas around the barn.
“What are all these pens used for?” she asked.
“We use the bigger ones for sorting the herds during roundup,” he answered as he closed the truck door. “The smaller ones are for sick or injured animals that need to be treated or quarantined. The round one we use for training the working stock or breaking them to ride.”
“You have all that going on at one time?” she asked, starting toward the porch steps.
“Sometimes it can be pretty busy around here,” he said, laughing as he opened the front door for her.
When Fee entered and looked around the foyer, she immediately fell in love with Chance’s home. The log walls had aged over the years to a beautiful warm honey color and were adorned with pieces of colorful Native American artwork along with cowboy-related items like a pair of well-worn spurs hanging next to a branding iron. Although the Big Blue’s main ranch house, where she had attended the wedding, was quite beautiful, it had a more modern feel about it. Chance’s home, on the other hand, had that warm, rustic appeal that could only be achieved with the passage of time.
“This is really beautiful,” she said, gazing up at the chandelier made of deer antlers. “Did you decorate it?”
“Yeah, I just look like the type of guy who knows all about that stuff, don’t I?” Laughing, he shook his head. “After I finished adding on to the cabin and modernizing things like the kitchen and bathrooms, I turned the house over to my mom for the decorating. She has a real knack for that kind of thing.”
“Marlene did a wonderful job,” Fee said, smiling. “She should have been a professional interior decorator.”
“She was too busy chasing a houseful of kids.” Before she could ask what he meant, he nodded toward the stairs. “Would you like to see your room?”
“Absolutely,” she said as they started upstairs. She couldn’t believe how eager she sounded about the bedroom, considering the moment they had just shared out by the truck. To cover the awkwardness, she added, “I can’t wait to see what your mother did with the bedrooms.”
When they reached the second floor, Chance directed her toward a room at the far end of the hall and opened the door. “If you don’t like this one, there are four more you can choose from.”
“I love it,” Fee said, walking into the cheery room.
The log walls were the same honey color as the ones downstairs, but the room had a more feminine feel to it with the yellow calico curtains and bright patchwork quilt on the log bed. An antique mirror hung on the wall above a cedar-log dresser with a white milk glass pitcher and bowl on top. But her favorite feature of the room had to be the padded window seat beneath the double windows. She could imagine spending rainy afternoons curled up with a good book and a cup of hot peach tea on that bench.
“Your private bathroom is just through there,” he said, pointing toward a closed door as he set her luggage on the hardwood plank floor.
“Thank you, Chance.” She continued to look around. “This is just fine.”
“I’ll be downstairs in the kitchen if you need anything. When you get your things unpacked, come on down and we’ll see what there is for supper.” He stepped closer and lightly touched her cheek with the back of his knuckles. “And just so you know, I am going to do what both of us want.”
“W-what’s that?” she asked, wondering why the sound of his voice made her feel warm all over.
Her heart skipped a beat when his gaze locked with hers. But when he lightly traced her lower lip with the pad of his thumb, a shiver of anticipation slid up her spine and goose bumps shimmered over her skin.
“I’m going to kiss you, Fee,” he said, his tone low and intimate. “And soon.” Without another word, he turned and walked out into the hall, closing the door behind him.
Staring after him, she would have liked to deny that he was right about what she wanted. But she couldn’t. She had thought he was going to kiss her when he came to get her at the rental house this afternoon and then again when they arrived at the ranch. Both times she’d been disappointed when he hadn’t.
With her knees wobbling, she crossed the room to sit on the side of the bed. What on earth had gotten into her? She had a job to do and a promotion to earn. She didn’t need the added distraction of a man in her life—even if it was only briefly.
But as she sat there wondering why he was more tempting than any other man she’d ever met, Fee knew without a shadow of doubt that the chemistry between herself and Chance was going to be extremely hard to resist. Every time he got within ten feet of her, she felt as if the air had been charged by an electric current, and when he touched her, all she could think about was how his lips would feel on hers when he kissed her. She could tell from the looks he gave her and his constant desire to touch her that he was feeling it, as well.
But she had her priorities straight. She was focused on her goal of becoming Lassiter Media’s first vice president in charge of public relations under the age of thirty. She wasn’t going to risk her career for any man and especially not for a summer fling—even if the sexy-as-sin cowboy had a charming smile and a voice that could melt the polar ice caps.
* * *
“Did you get the little lady squared away?” Gus Swenson asked when Chance entered the kitchen.
Too old to continue doing ranch work and too ornery to go anywhere else, Gus had become the cook and housekeeper after the renovations to the homestead had been completed. If it had been left up to him, Chance would have just had Gus move into the homestead and that would have been that. After all, Gus had been his dad’s lifelong best friend—he was practically family. But Gus’s pride had been at stake and that’s why Chance had disguised his offer in the form of a job. The old man had grumbled about being reduced to doing “women’s work,” but Chance knew Gus was grateful for the opportunity to live out the rest of his days on the ranch he had worked for the past fifty years.
“Yup. She’s in the room across the hall from mine,” Chance answered, walking over to hang his hat on a peg beside the back door.
Reaching into the refrigerator, he got himself a beer and popped off the metal cap. He needed something to take the edge off the tension building inside him.
In hindsight, it might not have been the smartest decision he’d ever made to put Fee in the room across from the master suite. If touching her smooth cheek was all it took to make him feel as restless as a bull moose in mating season, how the hell was he going to get any sleep? He tipped the bottle up and drank half the contents. Just the thought of her lying in bed within feet of where he would be, wearing something soft and transparent, her silky blond hair spread across the pillow, had him ready to jump out of his own skin.
“You still got the notion you’re gonna talk her outta makin’ you a movie star?” Gus asked, drawing him out of his unsettling insight.
“I told you she wants me to be the spokesman for her PR campaign,” Chance said, finishing off the beer. “That’s a far cry from being in a movie.”
“You’re gonna be in front of a camera, ain’t ya?” Gus asked. Before Chance could answer, the old man went on. “I’ve got a month’s pay that says you’ll end up doin’ it.”
Chance laughed as he tossed the empty bottle in the recycling container under the sink. “That’s one bet you’ll lose.”
The old man grunted. “We’ll see, hotshot. You ain’t never asked a woman to come stay here before and that’s a surefire sign that she’s already got you roped. It’s just a matter of time before she’s got you fallin’ all over yourself to do whatever she wants.”
Deciding there might be a ring of truth to Gus’s observations and not at all comfortable with it, Chance changed the subject. “Did Slim check on the north pasture’s grazing conditions today?”
He didn’t have to ask if Gus had seen the ranch foreman. The old guy made a trip out to the barn every afternoon when the men came back to the ranch for the day, to shoot the breeze and feel as if he was still a working cowboy.
Gus shook his head. “Slim said they couldn’t get to it today. He had to send a couple of the boys over to the west pasture to fix a pretty good stretch of fence that last storm tore up and the rest of ’em were movin’ the herd over by the cutbank so they can start mowin’ for hay next week.”
