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Cy chuckled. “So you read the cattle journals, do you?”
“All of them. Your ranch has some of the best breeding stock in Texas. In the country, in fact.”
“So does Skylance,” Parks replied. “I’ve bought your own bulls over the years. And your father’s,” he added to Maddie. “Good stock.”
“Thanks,” she said.
“Same here,” Cort replied. He drew in a breath. “Well, if this little fellow’s up for bids, I’ll put ours in.”
“No bids. He’s yours if you want him.” He named a price that made Maddie feel faint, but Cort just smiled.
“Done,” he said, and they shook hands.
On the way back home, Maddie was still astonished at the price. “That’s a fortune,” she exclaimed.
“Worth every penny, though,” Cort assured her. “Healthy genetics make healthy progeny. We have to put new bulls on our cows every couple of years to avoid any defects. Too much inbreeding can be dangerous to the cattle and disastrous for us.”
“I guess so. Mr. Parks seems like a very nice man,” she mused.
He chuckled. “You don’t know his history, do you? He led one of the most respected groups of mercenaries in the world into small wars overseas. His friend Eb Scott still runs a world-class counterterrorism school on his ranch. He was part of the merc group, along with a couple of other citizens of Jacobsville.”
“I didn’t know!”
“He’s a good guy. Dad’s known him for years.”
“What a dangerous way to make a living, though.”
“No more dangerous than dealing with livestock,” Cort returned.
That was true. There were many pitfalls of working with cattle, the least of which was broken bones. Concussions could be, and sometimes were, fatal. You could drown in a river or be trampled…the list went on and on.
“You’re very thoughtful,” Cort remarked.
She smiled. “I was just thinking.”
“Me, too.” He turned off onto a side road that led to a park. “I want to stretch my legs for a bit. You game?”
“Of course.”
He pulled into the car park and led the way down a small bank to the nearby river. The water level was down, but flowing beautifully over mossy rocks, with mesquite trees drooping a little in the heat, but still pretty enough to catch the eye.
“It’s lovely here.”
“Yes.” He turned and pulled her into his arms, looking down into her wide eyes. “It’s very lovely here.” He bent his head and kissed her.
Chapter Six (#ulink_8eecadf0-d644-5624-ab5f-043f791031bd)
Maddie’s head was swimming. She felt the blood rush to her heart as Cort riveted her to his long, hard body and kissed her as if he might never see her again. She pressed closer, wrapping her arms around him, holding on for dear life.
His mouth tasted of coffee. It was warm and hard, insistent as it ground into hers. She thought if she died now, it would be all right. She’d never been so happy.
She heard a soft groan from his mouth. One lean hand swept down her back and pressed her hips firmly into his. She stiffened a little. She didn’t know much about men, but she was a great reader. The contours of his body had changed quite suddenly.
“Nothing to worry about,” he whispered into her mouth. “Just relax…”
She did. It was intoxicating. His free hand went under her blouse and expertly unclasped her bra to give free rein to his searching fingers. They found her breast and teased the nipple until it went hard. He groaned and bent his head, putting his mouth right over it, over the cloth. She arched up to him, so entranced that she couldn’t even find means to protest.
“Yes,” he groaned. “Yes, yes…!”
Her hands tangled in his thick black hair, tugging it closer. She arched backward, held by his strong arms as he fed on the softness of her breast under his demanding mouth. His hand at her back was more insistent now, grinding her against the growing hardness of his body.
She was melting, dying, starving to death. She wanted him to take off her clothes; she wanted to lie down with him and she wanted something, anything that would ease the terrible ache in her young body.
And just when she was certain that it would happen, that he wasn’t going to stop, a noisy car pulled into the car park above and a car door slammed.
She jerked back from him, tugging down her blouse, shivering at the interruption. His eyes were almost black with hunger. He cursed under his breath, biting his lip as he fought down the need that almost bent him over double.
From above there were children’s voices, laughing and calling to each other. Maddie stood with her back to him, her arms wrapped around her body, while she struggled with wild excitement, embarrassment and confusion. He didn’t like her. He thought she was ugly. But he’d kissed her as if he were dying for her mouth. It was one big puzzle…
She felt his big, warm hands on her shoulders. “Don’t sweat it,” he said in a deep, soft tone. “Things happen.”
She swallowed and forced a smile. “Right.”
He turned her around, tipping her red face up to his eyes. He searched them in a silence punctuated with the screams and laughter of children. She was very pretty like that, her mouth swollen from his kisses, her face shy, timid. He was used to women who demanded. Aggressive women. Even Odalie, when he’d kissed her once, had been very outspoken about what she liked and didn’t like. Maddie simply…accepted.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said softly. “Everything’s all right. But we should probably go now. It’s getting late.”
She nodded. He took her small hand in his, curled his fingers into hers and drew her with him along the dirt path that led back up to the parking lot.
Two bedraggled parents were trying to put out food in plastic containers on a picnic table, fighting the wind, which was blowing like crazy in the sweltering heat. They glanced at the couple and grinned.
Cort grinned back. There were three children, all under school age, one in his father’s arms. They looked happy, even though they were driving a car that looked as if it wouldn’t make it out of the parking lot.
“Nice day for a picnic,” Cort remarked.
The father made a face. “Not so much, but we’ve got a long drive ahead of us and it’s hard to sit in a fast-food joint with this company.” He indicated the leaping, running toddlers. He laughed. “Tomorrow, they’ll be hijacking my car,” he added with an ear-to-ear smile, “so we’re enjoying it while we can.”
“Nothing like kids to make a home a home,” the mother commented.
“Nice looking kids, too,” Cort said.
“Very nice,” Maddie said, finally finding her voice.
“Thanks,” the mother said. “They’re a handful, but we don’t mind.”
She went back to her food containers, and the father went running after the toddlers, who were about to climb down the bank.
“Nice family,” Cort remarked as they reached his car.
“Yes. They seemed so happy.”
He glanced down at her as he stopped to open the passenger door. He was thoughtful. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes were soft and full of secrets. “In you go.”
She got in, fastened her seat belt without any prompting and smiled all the way back home.
Things were going great, until they got out of the car in front of Maddie’s house. Pumpkin had found a way out of the hen enclosure. He spotted Cort and broke into a halting run, with his head down and his feathers ruffled.
“No!” Maddie yelled. “Pumpkin, no!”
She tried to head him off, but he jumped at her and she turned away just in time to avoid spurs in her face. “Cort, run! It’s okay, just run!” she called when he hesitated.
He threw his hands up and darted toward his car. “You have to do something about that damned rooster, Maddie!” he called back.
“I know,” she wailed. “I will, honest! I had fun. Thanks so much!”
He threw up his hands and dived into the car. He started it and drove off just before Pumpkin reached him.
“You stupid chicken! I’m going to let Ben eat you, I swear I am!” she raged.
But when he started toward her, she ran up the steps, into the house and slammed the door.
She opened her cell phone and called her foreman.
“Ben, can you please get Pumpkin back into the hen lot and try to see where he got out? Be sure to wear your chaps and carry a shield,” she added.
“Need to eat that rooster, Maddie,” he drawled.
“I know.” She groaned. “Please?”
There was a long sigh. “All right. One more time…” He hung up.
Great-Aunt Sadie gave her a long look. “Pumpkin got out again?”
“Yes. There must be a hole in the fence or something,” she moaned. “I don’t know how in the world he does it!”
“Ben will find a way to shut him in, don’t worry. But you are going to have to do something, you know. He’s dangerous.”
“I love him,” Maddie said miserably.
“Well, sometimes things we love don’t love us back and should be made into chicken and dumplings,” Sadie mused with pursed lips.
Maddie made a face at her. She opened her shoulder bag and pulled out a box. “I want to show you something. Cort bought it for me.”
“Cort’s buying you presents?” Sadie exclaimed.
“It’s some present, too,” Maddie said with a flushed smile.
She opened the box. There, inside, was the hand-painted cameo of the little Spanish lady, with a card that gave all the information about the woman, now deceased, who left it with the antiques dealer.
“She’s lovely,” Sadie said, tracing the face with a forefinger very gently.
“Read the card.” Maddie showed it to her.
When Sadie finished reading it, she was almost in tears. “How sad, to be the last one in your family.”
“Yes. But this will be handed down someday.” She was remembering the family at the picnic tables and Cort’s strange smile, holding hands with him, kissing him. “Someday,” she said again, and she sounded as breathless as she felt.
Sadie didn’t ask any questions. But she didn’t have to. Maddie’s bemused expression told her everything she needed to know. Apparently Maddie and Cort were getting along very well, all of a sudden.
Cort walked into the house muttering about the rooster.
“Trouble again?” Shelby asked. She was curled up on the sofa watching the news, but she turned off the television when she saw her son. She smiled, dark-eyed and still beautiful.
“The rooster,” he sighed. He tossed his hat into a chair and dropped down into his father’s big recliner. “I bought us a bull. He’s very nice.”
“From Cy Parks?”
He nodded. “He’s quite a character.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“I bought Maddie a cameo,” he added. “In that tearoom halfway between here and Jacobsville. It’s got an antiques store in with it.” He shook his head. “Beautiful thing. It’s hand-painted…a pretty Spanish lady with a fan, enameled. She had a fit over it. The seller died recently and had no family.”
“Sad. But it was nice of you to buy it for Maddie.”
He pursed his lips. “When you met Dad, you said you didn’t get along.”
She shivered dramatically. “That’s putting it mildly. He hated me. Or he seemed to. But when my mother, your grandmother, died, I was alone in a media circus. They think she committed suicide and she was a big-name movie star, you see. So there was a lot of publicity. I was almost in hysterics when your father showed up out of nowhere and managed everything.”
“Well!”
“I was shocked. He’d sent me home, told me he had a girlfriend and broke me up with Danny. Not that I needed breaking-up, Danny was only pretending to be engaged to me to make King face how he really felt. But it was fireworks from the start.” She peered at him through her thick black eyelashes. “Sort of the way it was with you and Maddie, I think.”
“It’s fireworks, now, too. But of a different sort,” he added very slowly.
“Oh?” She didn’t want to pry, but she was curious.
“I’m confused. Maddie isn’t pretty. She can’t sing or play anything. But she can paint and sculpt and she’s sharp about people.” He grimaced. “Odalie is beautiful, like the rising sun, and she can play any instrument and sing like an angel.”
“Accomplishments and education don’t matter as much as personality and character,” his mother replied quietly. “I’m not an educated person, although I’ve taken online courses. I made my living modeling. Do you think I’m less valuable to your father than a woman with a college degree and greater beauty?”
“Goodness, no!” he exclaimed at once.
She smiled gently. “See what I mean?”
“I think I’m beginning to.” He leaned back. “It was a good day.”
“I’m glad.”
