CHAPTER THREE
HOPE HADN’T MEANT to copy Josh’s earlier “I’ll show you” kiss, but it was the first thing that popped into her head. And it worked. It shut her mother up, anyway.
Along with shutting everyone else up.
The area around them went silent again except for the thudding, and she soon realized that was the sound of her heartbeat in her ears. A shut-up kiss certainly packed a punch.
Hope didn’t let the lip-lock go on for too long. A few seconds was enough to make her point, along with making Josh look about as comfortable as a bull calf facing a castration knife. Obviously, he had a different view on a pretend kiss in front of two people versus one in front of dozens.
Those dozens included his own parents.
Hope spotted them in the adjacent family room, and like everybody else, they were staring.
“Uh, I’ll just have a word with my folks,” Josh said when his mom and dad started toward him.
Josh wisely thought it wouldn’t be a good idea for this foursome conversation to turn into a six-some. Or rather a seven-some because the Whitlocks were with Dr. Marie Stapleton, the woman they wanted for their son. Hope could see why, too. Marie was beautiful, and it appeared that she’d had a recent pedi for the occasion. Her toes glimmered with a flirty shade of pink.
“I’ll grab us another drink,” her father insisted. “Remember to keep your voice down,” he added to his wife.
“Really?” her mother said the moment Hope’s father had stepped away. Beverly’s voice was an angry whisper. “Was that fake kiss necessary?” As usual, she didn’t give Hope a chance to answer. “You’re twenty-eight, not twelve, and acting out like this is embarrassing—”
“Who said it was a fake?” Hope countered. “I’ve kissed Josh before.” And she could say it with a straight face since it wasn’t a flat-out lie.
Her mother huffed, though, as if it were a whopper. “I knew it was a mistake to let you stay here and try to run the ranch.”
There were so many things wrong with that comment that Hope needed a couple of gulps of wine before she could return fire without including a fit of temper. “You didn’t let me run the ranch. I used my trust fund to buy it. And I don’t try, I do run it. Me and Josh. No matter what you think of him, the ranch wouldn’t be as successful as it is without him.”
Her mother’s scowl intensified when her gaze drifted toward Josh, the doctor and his parents. Actually, Hope was pretty sure she scowled a bit, too, because Marie was flashing Josh a smile, then a laugh before leaning in and whispering something to him. If the doctor got any closer, she’d tongue his earlobe.
“I don’t like to talk about this,” Beverly went on, “but I married down. Beneath my station in life. And it had a huge effect on my family.”
For someone who didn’t like to talk about it, Beverly certainly talked about it a lot. Beverly’s multimillionaire father owned the company where Hope’s dad had been the CFO. When Beverly and he had fallen in love, it had apparently fueled the gossips for a while and cost Beverly’s father some business deals from old farts who thought less of him because he hadn’t been able to keep the socialite reins on his daughter.
Still, her mom and dad had stayed together despite the gossip and lost revenue, so in Hope’s way of thinking, it had all worked out. Especially since she likely wouldn’t have been conceived if Beverly hadn’t hooked up with the hired help. With a different half of a gene pool, she could have turned out like the doctor who was flirting with Josh.
Sheez Louise, the woman had bumped her boob against Josh’s arm.
“You probably haven’t thought about how this is affecting Josh,” her mom continued.
That snagged Hope’s full attention. At least it did until she realized her mother wasn’t talking about the doctor’s boob swipe because she wasn’t even looking at Josh. Beverly had her “I’m about to dole out advice” look nailed to Hope.
“How many other hands do you have working for you?” Beverly asked.
“Four full-time and another two part-time. Don’t worry. I’m not kissing any of them.”
Her mother was the queen of flat looks, squinty eyes and other facial dressing-downs. “They report directly to Josh, and Josh reports to you.” Again, no waiting for a response. “Well, think how those other hands will feel about him if they believe he’s sleeping with the boss. They might question Josh’s authority, and that could hurt the whole operation. A smooth-running chain of command is critical to managing a business.”
Hope didn’t have a comeback for that, and it put a balled-up knot in her stomach to think it might be true. It didn’t help that living proof was standing right in front of her. Well, it was proof if she was to believe her mother’s marriage had indeed hurt her family business.
While Hope was mulling that over and silently cursing the boob-swiping, ear-tonguing doctor, her father returned. He didn’t have wine or beer but rather two shot glasses filled with strong booze that he probably figured Hope could use after the conversation she’d just had with her mother. He handed one of them to her.
“I was just telling Hope why she has to nip this thing with Josh in the bud,” Beverly explained to her husband. “That’s best for—”
“There’s Mark,” her father interrupted. He made a vague motion toward the living room that was jammed with guests. “Beverly, why don’t you bring him over here to meet Hope?”
That got her mom’s gaze firing all around the crowd. “Of course. I’ll be right back.”
“Did you really see Mark?” Hope asked the moment Beverly was out of earshot.
“No, but I thought you could use a break.” He sipped his drink. “Did your mom tell you all about her marrying down?”
Hope winced, hating how that must make her father feel. Of course, he’d likely heard it so many times he was probably numb to it. “I think she got the better deal in this marriage.”
He smiled and brushed a kiss on her forehead. “It’s not so bad. I enjoy reinventing myself every couple of years. Never did want to put down roots, and your mom’s completely on board with that.”
“Yes, I figured that out around the time I realized my roots were growing deep into the proverbial soil of the Applewood Ranch.”
Her father made a sound of agreement. “For whatever reason, though, your mother has decided that our lifestyle should be yours. And that you shouldn’t make your own mistakes, that you should have the perfect life.”
“I already have that,” Hope pointed out. Well, almost perfect. “The ranch is a success and will be an even bigger one when I close the deal with the horse broker I just chatted with.” A sleazy, pervy one, but she’d done business before with men like that and could handle it.
“And Josh?” her father asked.
It was the million-dollar question, maybe literally. Because if she messed things up with Josh, it could lead to not only a broken heart but a whole bunch of lost revenue, as well.
Hope finally caught sight of Karlee, but before she could wave down her friend and yell at her, her dad continued.
“Josh is a good man, on and off paper,” he said. “And yes, I vetted him. Don’t look at me like that. You’re my daughter, and when you told me he was going to be living in the cabin just steps from your back door, I had him checked out. You might be relieved to know that there were no red flags.”
Oh, yes, there was. Josh was hot, a good kisser and had an incredible butt. All red flags to her body.
“You’re lucky to have him,” her father added.
Hope could add another yes to that. The only reason he’d come to her for a job was because of the death of the owner of the ranch where Josh had worked for ten years, and the rancher’s kids had decided to sell—for a whopping ten million dollars. That high price tag had put it well out of Josh’s financial reach, so he’d started over. At her place.
Her father had another sip of his drink and looked at her from over the top of his glass. “So, are you going to take the risk and go after Josh? And before you repeat all the reasons your mom just gave you for why that wouldn’t be a good idea, let me add my two cents’ worth. Life’s short. Be with someone who’s the doodle to your snicker.”
Hope stared at him. “Wh-what?”
“There’d be no snicker without a doodle,” he added as if that explained everything, and she hoped that wasn’t some kind of sexual reference. No way did she want to talk sex with her dad. But someone came her way who might fill the sex-talk bill.
Josh.
But he definitely didn’t seem to be in a sex mood. Or even a good one. “I need to go,” he said, though she wasn’t sure how he could talk with his teeth clenched like that. “Stay as long as you want. I’ll wait for you in the truck unless you want to get another ride.”
Hope didn’t hesitate even a blink before she went after him, saying goodbye to her father as she got moving. “What happened?” she asked when she caught up with him on the porch.
“My mom. She called you a name.”
She frowned and had to keep catching up with him because Josh was walking so fast. This trek would have been a whole lot easier in her broken-in cowboy boots. “What name?”
“Blonde,” he spit out.
Despite the fact her breath was getting a little short from the jaunt across the pasture, Hope felt some relief. “Uh, I am blonde.”
Josh threw a glance at her, and even in the darkness she could see there was still some teeth clenching and face tightening going on. “She didn’t mean it as an observation or a compliment.”
“Oh.” That stung for a second or two, though not as much as her lungs were stinging by the time they reached his truck. “I don’t think Roger meant it as a compliment when he was eyeballing my breasts. What about the doctor?” she tacked onto that.
Josh frowned when he opened the door for her, and she got inside. “Did she eyeball your breasts, too?” he asked.
“No. She...” But Hope waved that off. There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t make her sound jealous. Which she had been. Her mouth had never been that close to Josh’s ear, and she’d known him a lot longer than Dr. Flirt-a-Lot had.
Josh stared at her a moment as if trying to suss out what she’d been about to spill, but he finally gave up and got in the truck. He started the engine but then turned to her.
“I don’t want to fake a relationship to get our folks off our backs,” he said. “Because it could cause problems elsewhere.”
Now she was the one trying to suss out what he meant. “You’re talking about the other hands losing respect for you.”
His forehead bunched up. Obviously, she’d sussed in the wrong direction, though she was certain that possibility had been on his radar. Her mom couldn’t have been the only one who’d come up with that pitfall in the making. But if Josh hadn’t meant that at this exact moment, then that left the other possible snag.
“Us,” she amended. “This attraction could ruin what we have.” Hope paused. “Of course, it could maybe add to it. Sorry,” she quickly tacked onto that. “That’s the lust talking.”
He looked at her, and now the angle of the moonlight was right for her to see the slight change in his expression. The muscles in his jaw relaxed a bit. No relaxation, though, for his eyes.
“I was managing the lust just fine until I saw you in that dress,” he grumbled.
So, that had been the trigger, but she suspected the stuck zipper had helped some, too. “Well, I was managing it just fine until the Pandora’s-box thing,” she grumbled right back. “And also seeing you get out of the shower. No way am I forgetting that.”
This would have been a good time for one of them to smile just to chill the air between them. But no smiles. Their eyes locked, and she found herself staring at that scrumptious face. She also found herself moving, but Hope soon realized it was because Josh had hold of her waist and was pulling her toward him.
It happened so fast, more like a swish of motion, and she was in his arms with his mouth on hers. Mouth and tongue. She’d thought the other kisses were scorchers, but Hope immediately figured out the difference between a kiss for show with Josh and a real kiss from Josh.
This was a real kiss.
Heck, she’d had third-base foreplay that hadn’t generated this much heat. That probably had something to do with Josh putting his whole body into it. Literally. It wasn’t just his mouth on hers or his chest against her breasts. It was the fact that he hauled her onto his lap. With nothing between them but their clothes, the kiss became more like a head-to-toe experience.
She heard herself moan. Pure pleasure. And she especially liked the way his hand slid over her dress to grip her right butt cheek. He was using the grip to nudge and adjust her so that their zipper areas were aligned. But that’s also when Hope remembered that she didn’t have a zipper.
Or panties.
Josh remembered it, too, because he went stiff when his hand landed on her bare skin.
He stopped the kiss, pulled back and looked at her. “Hell.”
Again, not the romantic thing to say, but along with being on his lap, she was also on the same page with him, and Hope knew those missing panties could be the difference between foreplay and full-blown sex. She’d never actually been thankful for a muffin top, but she was starting to see the advantages of it.
“We’re in a truck,” he said, but he seemed to be talking to himself. Forcing himself to remember that he was just one zipper-lowering away from being inside her.
He groaned, slid his hand from her butt to the front of her. Between her legs. And then Hope was the one moaning. He wasn’t actually touching her there—not yet, anyway—but his fingers were dallying on her inner thigh.
“We’re in a truck,” he repeated, sounding a little crazy now.
Hope felt that, too. She was crazy. And hot. And so ready for him to touch her that she moved things along. She shifted herself enough so that his fingers brushed against the most sensitive part of her body, and it wasn’t her thigh.
Her next moan of pleasure was considerably louder and was tinged with an eager urgency.
“We’re in a truck.” Josh, again. But thankfully his reminder-mantra wasn’t working because he moved his fingers. It was a slippery little slide in just the right spot.
“We’re in a truck,” Hope gutted out. She didn’t know why the words came out of her mouth, but perhaps it had something to do with Josh’s fingers making her mindless.
With their gazes still locked, he added a flick to the slippery slide, and Hope knew she was just one index finger away from an orgasm.
In a truck.
Where someone could come walking up at any minute. That reminder should have stopped her long enough to demand that Josh take her back to the ranch and to his bed. Or to her bed. That part was optional. But before she could get her mouth working to demand anything, there were two dinging sounds.
Their phones.
Hope was surprised that sounds so soft could make it through her lust-crazed mind, but they did, and it seemed odd that both Josh and she had gotten texts at the same exact moment. Even with that oddity, Hope could have ignored them, if there hadn’t been a second pair of dings.
Josh cursed and stopped to take out his phone, which caused Hope to curse because he’d stopped. Since her phone would just keep dinging if she didn’t clear the messages, she took out her cell, too, but she was still close enough to Josh that she saw the message on his screen.
Keep your zipper up and don’t give in to your hankerings and have sex in your truck, his dad had texted.
Obviously, Josh’s dad had had a hunch about his son’s feelings if he knew about hankerings.
Josh scowled and moved on to the cause of his second ding. A text from his mother. Bi bwws dir tiy ri fi.
“My mom can’t text without her reading glasses,” Josh added when Hope stared at him. He tipped his head to her phone. “Who messaged you?”
She showed him the screen with the first text from her mom. Get back here and meet Mark. So help me, you’d better not be having sex with Josh in yours or his truck.
Maybe his dad and her mom had binoculars and could see them from the house. Of course, it was just as likely that her mom had noticed Hope’s own hankerings, too.
While Josh was still watching, she scrolled down the screen to the next one she’d gotten. Remember to find the doodle, her dad had texted.
“My dad can’t text without his reading glasses,” Hope told Josh when he raised an eyebrow.
No way did she want to get into an explanation about what her dad was referring to. But it turned out that she wouldn’t have had a chance to do that anyway because their phones dinged again.
Both Josh and she groaned, and they looked at their screens to see what words or gibberish of reason their parents had to add, but it wasn’t from either set of them. It was a message that Roger Hawley had sent to both of them. And unlike the others, this one wasn’t a meddling annoyance and there was no mention of a truck. However, there was a mention of something that got their attention along with cooling down their lust.
Disappointed with our meeting tonight, Roger had texted. I never did cotton to the notion that it was wise for a man to diddle his boss. Have rethought things and I won’t be doing business with you after all.