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“But you stuck with Garrison.”
“Yeah.” His terse answer didn’t invite further comment.
She laid her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”
He spared her a brief, cold glance as he pulled into a parking spot in front of the grocery store. “Save your pity. I survived.”
She yanked her hand back, feeling chastised. She’d reserve her sympathy for someone who needed it, someone who had a little softness left in him. She just wished her heart didn’t constrict every time she thought of Win’s childhood. At least she understood the aversion to marriage he’d expressed at their first meeting. The man had a reason for distrusting the institution.
Win watched Carlene walk across the grocery store parking lot and couldn’t help admiring the sway of her hips in her snug-fitting denim jeans. She looked back when she reached the front door, and waved him on impatiently. He sighed and obeyed her imperious little wave.
Pulling onto the main road, he mulled over the conversation they’d had in the car.
He didn’t like talking about his mother, but he’d hoped that if he opened up to Carlene a little about his past, she’d be willing to do the same with hers. His was an open book anyway. Anything she wanted to know she could find out from one of Sunshine Spring’s long time residents.
He took her curiosity as a good sign. Women wanted to know about the men they were interested in. Carlene was definitely interested in him, but she’d given a lot of mixed signals. Something was holding her back.
He had a feeling that something had happened to Carlene in Texas that left her skittish as an untried filly. He figured it was his job to help her get over her past and move on. Because he wanted her warm and willing.
CHAPTER THREE
THE next morning, Win came into the kitchen to ask Carlene a question and stopped dead in his tracks. She was bent over pulling something out of one of the low cupboards. She had the sweetest little behind he’d seen in a very long time. Hell, maybe ever. And it was positioned up in the air in a position guaranteed to turn him hard as a rock.
He took a minute just to appreciate the view.
Her jeans weren’t exactly tight but they couldn’t hide the sweet curve of her cheeks. He’d noticed she liked to wear her clothes loose and wondered why. Not that he minded. He didn’t want the hands getting any randy ideas and he had a suspicion that Lonny already had. So far, though, the boy had done nothing overt. He just watched Carlene with hungry, hot eyes and Win didn’t like it.
Along with his own randy thoughts toward the sexy little lady, Win had developed a whole passel full of possessive feelings. The only other woman he felt this protective toward was his sister, Leah, but he damn sure didn’t want to see her naked. Now, Carlene was another story. He figured once he got her into his bed, he wasn’t going to let her out for a good long while.
Thinking about what he planned to spend that time doing sent his temperature spiking. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to fantasize himself right into a state of unrequited lust and, as much as he wanted Carlene, he had a horse ranch and training stables to run.
“You find what you’re looking for yet?” he asked by way of saying hello.
A muffled scream came from inside the cupboard and she jumped. Her head must have hit something because he heard a loud thump followed by a groan. Shimmying backward, she got herself out of the cupboard and turned to face him.
Her glare was as hot as his loins. “You startled me.” She made it sound as if she’d just accused him of horse stealing.
“You didn’t hear me come in?” he asked, knowing good and well she hadn’t.
She never would have remained in such a tantalizing position otherwise. When it came to desire, Carlene acted like an untried filly. He’d seen her looking at him with something hot in her pretty brown eyes and that gave him hope, but she didn’t flirt or encourage him in any other way. She was like a mare going into heat, not sure she wanted to be covered by the stallion and playing hard to get.
He’d let her dance around the corral some, but eventually he was going to corner her.
She rubbed her head, the action pressing her generous breasts against the big white apron she wore from the moment she arrived until she went home in the afternoon. “No. I didn’t hear you. Why didn’t you say something?”
“I did.” Just not right away.
She ignored that. “Those cabinets aren’t very convenient. It’s almost impossible to reach the back without climbing right in.”
He shrugged. “I can reach them just fine.”
She went all squinty-eyed. “Well, I can’t and I’m the housekeeper. Unless you want to do the cooking, you’d better find some way to make the pots and pans stored down there more accessible.”
He thought about it. “Maybe I could have a pull-out shelf installed by one of the ranch hands. Would that work?”
She looked nonplussed by his easy acquiescence. “Yes. That would be fine. Terrific, in fact.” Then her eyes took on a wary cast. “Not Lonny.”
He narrowed his own eyes, trying to read the expression on her face. “Has he said something to you? Made you uncomfortable?”
She turned and picked up the big stew pot she’d been after. “I’d just rather not have him underfoot. I like Shorty. Can he build the shelf?”
She set the stew pot in the sink and turned on the water.
Win didn’t like dropping the subject of Lonny, but he had the impression that Carlene had said all she wanted to. Maybe she’d noticed the way Lonny looked at her too and was embarrassed by it.
With her looks, you might think she was used to that sort of male attention, but Win got the impression that she didn’t like it. “Shorty’s handy, but I need him in the stables right now. Call a carpenter to install the pull-out.”
Turning off the water, she looked at him over her shoulder, a smile of gratitude playing on her lips. “Are you sure?”
“Honey, you can’t be wondering if I can afford it.” Hell, most women were only too happy to spend his money.
She laughed. “No, more wondering if you thought it was worth it. I’m glad you do. I’ll call the carpenter tomorrow. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She went to lift the cast-iron pot and water sloshed over the side. “I forgot how heavy these things are.”
He sidled up behind her and put his arms around her. Taking a firm grip on the handle, he lifted it. “You want it on the stove?”
She stood still, like a rabbit caught in a snare. “Yes, please.”
Her voice came out all breathy and soft. He wanted to lean down and kiss the creamy skin of her neck and see what that did to her voice, but he controlled himself. A mare couldn’t be broken to bit if the handler startled her early on with demands she wasn’t prepared to meet.
He stepped back, using one hand to carry the pot. He set it on the stove for her.
She turned to face him, the skin of her cheeks a rosy hue. He liked this additional evidence that his nearness had an effect on her. Standing so close to her had a pretty strong impact on him too. He’d be walking like a saddle-sore greenhorn, if he weren’t careful. His usually comfortable jeans felt tight enough to do damage right now.
“Thank you.”
“Anytime, honey.”
She busied herself putting the stew together and he just watched. He liked the way she moved, her actions fluid and graceful. When she opened the fridge to pull out the meat, she squatted rather than bending over to get it. Amusement at the action tugged at him. If she thought the view of her thighs pressed against blue denim was any less exciting than her backside, she had a lot to learn about men.
She straightened and put the meat on the cutting block. “What?”
“Something the matter, honey?”
She took in a deep breath and blew it out with her eyes shut, then she opened them. “What are you doing in here? I don’t think you want cooking lessons, so why are you hanging around watching me prepare dinner when you’ve got a stable to return to?”
Her surly tone made him grin. “You’re bossy, aren’t you?”
He could just about hear her teeth grinding together. “You’re the one that told me you want to work uninterrupted—not have to deal with anything domestic. You must have come up to the house for a reason.”
“Yeah.”
“What is it?” She looked as if she’d like to wrap her fingers around his neck, but not with the intention of doing anything nice.
Why had he come up to the house? Oh, yeah. “I was wondering if you could put together a couple of casseroles for the weekend. Rosa used to do it and it helped me out a heap.”
She nodded. “That won’t be any problem.”
“Good.” He turned to leave and then stopped. “Maybe I’ll put that shelf in for you myself, tomorrow.”
“No, really…your idea of calling a carpenter is a good one.”
“If you insist.”
He left the kitchen with the look of consternation on her face fixed clearly in his mind. She noticed him all right. She hadn’t look horrified, just thrown for a loop and he figured that was a good sign.
He’d break that filly to bridle, but first he had to get her used to having him around. Then he’d work on the touching.
Just like a nervous mare and he had a real special touch with nervous fillies, just ask anyone.
Carlene was ready to quit her job as Win’s housekeeper two weeks later. Between Lonny’s glares and Win’s bedroom eyes, she was at her wit’s end.
Win never implied that her job was even slightly reliant on her sleeping with him, but then again he made no bones about the fact that he wanted her in his bed. He hadn’t actually come out and said so, but he watched her with a hot gaze that made her insides melt. It didn’t help that he found more excuses than a student with spring fever did to skip class, to get close to her.
Just yesterday he had insisted on helping her get a large ceramic bowl down from the top shelf in the pantry. That would have been fine except that he didn’t allow her to move out of the way before his strong, masculine body was stretching up and leaning over her to reach the bowl. Again, no problem.
Except that the effect Win’s closeness had on her senses couldn’t be denied. She’d forgotten for one full minute what she’d been planning to do and just stood there, breathing in his scent. He’d noticed. Darn him. And he’d laughed. No doubt he thought she was like a plump peach, ripe and ready to be picked off the tree.
She sighed and cut some more shortening into the flour for the biscuits she was preparing to go with dinner.
She didn’t want to quit.
She liked her new job. Shorty might not know much about cooking, but he was a sweetheart. She liked the rest of the ranch hands as well…except Lonny. She enjoyed cooking for them and Win was a tidy person. Keeping his house clean was a cinch, especially with the help of maid service that came in three times a week. Mondays and Wednesdays and once on the weekend.
She liked everything about working at the Bar G except the way its owner made her feel.
Dealing with an interested male shouldn’t be so difficult. Men had been interested in her since she started wearing a bra, but Win was different. She had an almost overwhelming desire to give in to the invitation she saw in his eyes and that scared her spitless. He’d made it very clear that he wasn’t interested in marriage and she hadn’t changed her mind about an affair. First, because she believed that she deserved more than that and second, because no school board for a small town like Sunshine Springs was going to hire a teacher with a reputation for loose morals. Gossip always got around.
Awareness skittered down her spine and she spun around, dropping the pastry cutter into the ceramic bowl with a clang.
Win leaned against the wall watching her. He did a lot of that, leaning against a wall or something and just watching her. It made her nervous and hot and jittery besides, something she definitely didn’t want to deal with.
She forced a smile to her lips. “Hi.”
He pushed away from the wall and walked toward her. She started getting nervous again as the distance between them closed to less than a few inches.
She backed up, but ran into the counter behind her. “Win?”
He reached out and brushed her cheek. “I thought the flour was for the biscuits.”
“It is.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say. She couldn’t seem to move away either.
“It’s not real attractive makeup, but on you it’s kinda cute.”
“No.” Then understanding dawned. She whipped her hands up and scrubbed at her cheeks, getting rid of any remaining flour Win hadn’t brushed away with his hand. “I didn’t realize I was wearing dinner.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” he said.
“What?” Was it just that his proximity had scrambled her brains, or was he really not making any sense?
His voice dropped to a husky drawl. “I wouldn’t mind you wearing my dinner.”
As the words registered Carlene felt her blood spike with both anger and desire. She forced the anger to the forefront. Placing her hands on Win’s chest, she shoved. Hard. He fell back a couple of paces.
She untied the big white apron she wore to protect her clothes with jerky movements. She yanked it off and tossed it on the table. “That’s it. I quit.”
When Win didn’t say anything, particularly, “I’m sorry and won’t you please stay?” she reached her hand out and poked him in the chest with her forefinger. “Listen here, Mr Bedroom Eyes. I’ve had my fill of you watching me like I’m a mare in heat and you’re the stallion sent to cover me. Do you understand me?”
His smile infuriated her. “I think so.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “Just what do you understand?”
“You don’t want me to look at you like I want you.”
“Well?” she asked.
“Well, what?”
She blew out an exasperated breath. “Are you going to stop?”
He reached out and brushed his fingers down her arm. Desire pooled in her lower belly and she bit back a groan. “I don’t know if I can. I do want you, Carlene. I’m not real sure why that bothers you so much. I haven’t pushed you to do anything about it, have I?”
She had to give him that. “No. You haven’t, but that’s not the point.”
“What is the point? You don’t like feeling like you want me too? I can fix that for you, honey.”
The promise in his voice made her shiver with feelings she did not want to acknowledge or give in to. “Forget it. I’m not interested in a one-night stand and that’s all you’re offering, isn’t it, Win? You don’t want marriage or commitment.”
His fingers curled around her upper arm. “I made my feelings on marriage plain the day I interviewed you, but there’s a whole lot of ground between a one-night stand and marriage. I never said I wasn’t interested in any kind of commitment. I can guarantee you that while you share my bed, no one else will.”
“An affair?” Outrage burned through her and she twisted from his grasp. “You think a no-strings, open ended affair is an appreciable improvement over a one-night stand?”
His eyes narrowed. “You aren’t going to convince me that you’ve married every man you’ve slept with.”
The warmth of desire she had been feeling shifted to a frozen sort of pain. Win was like all the others, making assumptions based on how she looked and not who she was. Wouldn’t he just die laughing if he found out that she was a twenty-six-year-old virgin? She might look like a pinup in a girlie calendar, but she’d fought against the image her entire life.
