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Because of the upcoming ride or the man?
“I’ve got to go.” She took a step forward, but he stepped in front of her.
“You can’t enter, Frankie. I mean it.”
How had she missed all the signs that her boss was this bullheaded? “You can’t fire me for being in the rodeo when you’ve got five other employees entering.”
Eyes on the arena, she didn’t want to lose her spot. She started forward again.
“Then I’ll make you a deal,” Xander offered, his voice deep. “If you don’t set foot in that arena tonight, I’ll take you to the gala as my guest.”
She stopped. Turned back to look at him. Gauged his expression.
“Since you can’t fire me, you’ll take me to the gala as your...guest?” She found that hard to believe. Xander Currin could have his pick of beautiful, accomplished women. “Why would you do that?”
Her heartbeat sped in a way that didn’t have a damned thing to do with nerves or the competition about to begin. Her racing pulse had everything to do with Xander’s blue eyes on her. And the potential of what he offered.
“You said you wanted a ticket. I’m offering you one.” He sidestepped her question neatly. “Be my date tomorrow night.”
“What’s in it for you?” She knew better than to think her boss wanted to date her.
“I’ve got two tickets.” He spoke clearly enough, but sure didn’t explain. “Would you like one or not?”
She couldn’t argue. Not when she knew her chance of nabbing that prize money was small with the level of competition here. Furthermore, how many times had she indulged fantasies about this man? An evening with him would be...exciting. To say the least.
“Very well.” She swallowed back the surge of feminine awareness. She couldn’t believe she was going to be her boss’s date at such a huge, important event. “I will go to the gala with you.”
“Good.” He didn’t look happy so much as relieved. “Now let’s get out of here. I’ll take you back to the ranch.”
Disappointment stung a bit, but she told herself to be happy for the unexpected opportunity she’d just won.
“You don’t want to see how the guys do tonight?” she asked, hating to leave and not support the rest of the ranch team. The guys at Currin Ranch were her only family now.
Living on-site at the ranch made the group close-knit.
“I’m not taking any chances you’ll change your mind.” Xander palmed her back, briefly, steering her toward the exit. “My truck is right through this gate.”
The one marked VIP. Of course.
His touch stirred her senses. She tried to hold on to her frustration with him, but it was tougher to do with the memory of that brief caress between her shoulder blades still warming her through her shirt.
“You don’t have to take me home. I can catch a ride with the guys.” She didn’t want them to worry about her. “Reggie will wonder what happened to me—”
“I’ll text him.” He withdrew a phone while they walked out of the fairgrounds into the parking area. He made a few taps on the screen and then shoved it back in his pocket. “There. Done.”
She wondered what it must be like to be a Currin and have the world ordered to your personal preference at all times. She’d fallen right in line, too, unable to argue with someone who could fulfill her wish for a ticket as easily as he had.
All her life she’d struggled. Hard work and grit were her keys to making things happen and getting ahead in life. She didn’t regret that, either.
Still, she wondered how the other half lived.
“I can’t believe you don’t already have a date for the gala.” An awful thought occurred to her. “You’re not canceling on the blonde just to keep me out of the rodeo, are you?”
Although, remembering the way the woman had peeled out of the driveway with no regard to poor Carmen, Frankie found it hard to empathize with her.
“Blonde?” He sounded genuinely perplexed as he gestured toward his big black pickup.
“The one who startled my horse,” she reminded him as he opened the passenger-side door for her. “Not that it’s any of my business.”
She waited to step inside the truck, more curious than she had a right to be about his answer. Surprised he didn’t know who she meant.
“Her name is Kenzie, and no, she was never my date for the gala.” He still held the door for her.
How very interesting. Did that mean he was currently unattached? Not that he ever seemed to date anyone for long. She’d seen a lot of women come and go in Xander’s life in the months that she’d had a crush on him.
“Don’t you think it will be awkward for you to take me? Since I’m—you know—a ranch hand?” A trace of misgiving crept through her.
“Not at all.” He offered her his hand to help her up, clearly impatient to be under way. “There’s enough drama brewing in the Texas Cattleman’s Club without anyone worrying about who I bring to the party.”
Ignoring his hand to pull herself up into the truck cab—mostly because she was extremely aware of the effect his touch had on her—Frankie mulled over his words. She hoped he was right. And yet another tiny piece of her wished that it wasn’t easy for him to brush aside their evening together so casually.
What would it be like to attend the party with him? she wondered. Would it be like a real date? Or would she simply be circulating through the party on her own once he got her through the door?
It was one thing to be brave about riding a bucking bronc. At least then, you knew what you were getting. Facing Xander’s peers at a fancy party had the potential to be more humiliating than landing on her butt in the dirt. What did she really know about him other than his reputation for never staying with any woman for long?
Stealing a sideways glance at him as he got behind the wheel of the truck, Frankie promised herself to keep a rein on her attraction to him tomorrow night. To simply enjoy the event she’d been wanting to attend so badly.
Because letting herself think for a moment that Xander Currin noticed her as anything more than a troublesome employee would only lead to heartache and disappointment. Now that she knew he was prone to chauvinism and arrogance, it ought to be easy to quit crushing on him.
Except the truck hadn’t even pulled out onto the main road before she was already imagining what it might feel like to be in his arms for a dance.
* * *
Crisis averted.
Xander tried to tell himself he’d done the right thing as he steered his pickup onto the highway back to Currin Ranch. He’d ensured Frankie wasn’t competing in a dangerous event, and now he was delivering her safely to her cabin on his family land.
But while the country love song crooning on the radio filled the truck cab, he couldn’t deny that in dodging one disaster, he may have set himself up for another. Because no matter that he’d told her it wasn’t a big deal to take her to the Texas Cattleman’s Club Flood Relief Gala tomorrow night, he knew plenty of people would talk. Not that he gave a rat’s ass about his own reputation, but he didn’t like the idea of anyone giving Frankie a hard time. Rumors spread fast in the tight-knit ranching community.
He wasn’t sure how to address that, so he tried to focus on the positive of what he’d accomplished. He kept his eyes on the road, knowing it was better to concentrate on that and the drive home than let himself think about the undeniably appealing cowgirl in the passenger seat.
“Do you mind if I change the station?” Her voice slid through his thoughts, her hand hovering over the radio dial.
His gaze flickered briefly from her fingers to her profile silhouetted by a streetlamp.
“Suit yourself.” Damn, but she was pretty. Even after he’d returned his attention to the view in front of the headlights, he could still see her dark braid resting on her shoulder and tied with a blue ribbon.
She wore a bright blue Stetson he’d never seen before, and a brown suede vest over her turquoise-and-yellow-plaid Western shirt. The feminine touches didn’t quite soften the proud tilt of her chin or the stubborn set to her jaw, but the contradictory side of her claimed his interest just the same. A ranch hand willing to risk her neck in the arena for the sake of a gala ticket.
“Thanks.” Spinning the radio dial, she found a more fast-paced, rock-inspired country song and turned up the volume.
To avoid conversation? Fine by him. He didn’t want to think too long about what he was getting into by accompanying her tomorrow night. And he sure as hell didn’t want to contemplate the attraction he felt for her. She worked for him and that made her off-limits. End of story.
But she broke the silence between them just a moment later, turning down the volume again as he pulled off the interstate onto the dark county route that would lead back home.
“You mentioned there was a lot of drama in the Texas Cattleman’s Club.” She shifted in her seat to turn slightly toward him, her elbow resting on the console between them.
Close to his.
“Did I?” He’d never had any use for gossip, so he hadn’t paid much attention to the rumors. But his father had been so involved with opening a branch of the TCC in Houston, it was impossible not to overhear things.
“You said no one would think twice about you bringing a ranch hand for a date tomorrow night because there was a lot of other drama brewing.” Her voice had a soft huskiness that made him think of morning-after pillow talk and shared confidences. “What’s that about? Anything I need to be aware of?”
He glanced her way again, her green eyes fixed on him with a warmth he couldn’t ignore.
Better to talk about the TCC than dwell on the spark of awareness growing between them. Besides, he had to admire her quick mind and her willingness to prepare for the social outing.
“I’m sure you’ve read about the badly decomposed body found at the construction site where the Houston branch is being renovated.” He straightened in his seat, putting some more distance between him and the intriguing woman beside him. “Having a murder victim linked to the TCC has everyone...anxious.”
His father hadn’t said much about it, but Xander guessed his dad must have some suspicions. Ryder Currin knew everyone involved in getting the Texas Cattleman’s Club Houston branch off the ground.
“I read all the articles about that,” Frankie mused, her finger tracing the leather stitching along the side of the console. “It seems like they’re not speculating much while they try to identify the body.”
“No one is speculating in an official capacity, but believe me, there’s plenty of talk. Some people think the victim could be Vincent Hamm, an assistant on the executive floor at Perry Holdings, who vanished into thin air right before the flood.”
“Has anyone tried to locate him?” She went still, a note of alarm in her voice.
“Apparently his family told police he’s always been a loner. He hated his job and often spoke of disappearing to a Caribbean island to be a surfer.” He hadn’t meant to worry her. “Maybe he finally did just that.”
She fell quiet again, peering out her window as he passed a slow-moving farm vehicle.
“I did something like that once,” she said after a long moment.
She surprised the hell out of him with the turn in conversation. He needed to stay on his toes around this woman.
“I can’t picture you leaving it all behind to take up surfing.” Although then again, she seemed to have a daring streak.
“Definitely not.” She laughed, the sound bringing a rush of pleasure that made him want to hear it again. “I meant that I took off from home a long time ago and never looked back.”
A chill went through him and he glanced over at her again. “I hope no one hurt you back home.”
“No. Nothing like that.” She brushed aside the worry quickly, and she sounded sincere. “My parents treated me well enough, but they weren’t my real parents, and I always felt like they’d hidden something from me about the day they found me.”
She went on to explain how her parents had found her as a toddler, abandoned on a highway outside Laredo. They’d raised her as their own but had always been cagey about the circumstances of her arrival into their lives and what steps they’d taken—if any—to find her real parents.
“They were kind to me, but something always felt off about it.” She lifted one shoulder in a shrug that looked more pained than casual. “Anyway, your mentioning Vincent Hamm’s possible decision to leave everything behind made me think of my hometown. I wonder what my friends and parents thought happened to me after I took off.”
“I don’t know, but I’m sorry you went through that.” He wondered what had made this driven, fierce woman decide to turn her back on the people who raised her. There was probably more to that story, and he was curious, but he refused to pry when he was only just starting to know her. “I wish you could meet my sister, Maya. My father adopted her when she was a baby, and as far as I know, he’s never told anyone how she came into his life.”
“Seriously? How old is she?” Frankie steadied herself as the truck bounced over a pothole near the turnoff for the main house.
“She’s eighteen and away at college. My dad was supposed to tell her the whole story once she reached adulthood, and Maya is more than a little upset he hasn’t done that yet.”
Xander clicked on his high beams as the truck reached the wooden archway bearing the Currin Ranch sign.
“I hate secrets.” The passion behind her words was obvious.
“That makes two of us.” He’d had his own issues with secrets and surprises, and he sure as hell didn’t plan to tread down that path again. He steered past the bunkhouse where a lot of the younger guys slept and headed toward the cabins. “But I’m guessing my dad has good reasons for keeping his. Maybe your parents are trying to protect you somehow.”
“Maybe.” She didn’t sound convinced. “Anyway, thanks for the ride home.”
She was tugging at her seat belt before he even had the truck parked. Because she wanted to escape his company? Or was she trying to ignore the same spark that kept drawing his gaze over her way?
“You don’t have to thank me. I know this wasn’t the ending you wanted for your evening.” He switched off the truck to walk her to her door.
“It’s fine,” she rushed to say, already opening the truck door. “I can see myself inside.”
He reached across the cab to put a hand on her forearm. “Frankie, wait.”
Touching her had been a mistake—he knew it as soon as soon as his fingers landed on her sleeve. They wanted to linger there, to glide up her arm and around her shoulder to draw her closer. But he could hardly yank his hand back like he’d gotten scalded without revealing just how damned much she affected him.
So he let his fingers rest lightly where they were.
“I was hard on you tonight. Let me at least walk you to your door so I can tell myself I made an attempt to be a gentleman.”
“You’re my boss, not a gentleman,” she argued, then frowned. “That came out wrong. What I mean is—”
“But as you pointed out earlier, we’re not on the clock tonight.” His fingers grazed her bare skin on the underside of her wrist, a surprisingly tender spot where he could feel her pulse thrum fast.
Her green eyes were wide in the glow of the dome light.
“Right.” Her voice was all rasp and no substance. She cleared her throat. “Okay.”
He slid his hand away and stepped out of the truck, walking around to her side.
He reached up to help her down, but she hopped out on her own. Wary of his touch? Or stubbornly proud?
Maybe a little of both. She was an intriguing woman.
“Thank you.” She chewed her lower lip and peered up at him in the moonlight. “What time will I see you tomorrow?”
His gaze zeroed in on her mouth, his own suddenly dry as dust.
“I’ll pick you up at seven.” He was already questioning the wisdom of this bargain he’d made with her.
If she was affecting him this much now, what would it be like tomorrow night when they had a whole evening together? Already, the memory of the feel of her made his hands itch to touch her again. He hadn’t thought this through well at all.
She nodded, her dark braid sliding down her shoulder. “And just so I’m clear, will we be off the clock tomorrow, too?”
