Blake had warned Jill that he wanted to get an early start out to his ranch Saturday morning, but when he knocked on her door at six-thirty, she was still asleep. Groggy but awake, she walked over and slid open the glass door to let Blake in. He was dressed once again in jeans and a tight black t-shirt, with boots and a large silver buckle glinting on his belt. His hair was still wet from the shower and his face freshly shaven. It was the stuff of fantasies.
Unfortunately, she looked very much like she’d just rolled out of bed. Because she had.
“Good morning,” Blake said, grinning as he looked her over.
Jill put a hand to her hair then yanked on her t-shirt until it was straight. Then she realized that she was not wearing a bra and quickly crossed her arms across her chest with a squeak. “I’m not ready yet.”
Laughing, Blake crossed his arms across his chest, making the sleeves of his t-shirt stretch across his biceps. “I can see that. Can you be ready in fifteen minutes? I have some stuff to load into the truck anyway.”
“Sure. Now, go away.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be sure to bring coffee when I come back.”
It was a little longer than fifteen minutes before Jill stepped out of her bedroom, showered and dressed with her hair in a ponytail. When she came out of her bathroom, Blake was waiting, comfortably settled into one of the arm chairs in the sitting area.
“You look good in jeans,” he remarked. “Too bad you don’t wear them more often.”
Jill knew she looked good in these skinny jeans, and they were more comfortable than the business appropriate outfits she normally wore. “I’d wear them every day if I could.”
“Some people do, you know.”
“Yeah, but not people who tell billionaires what to do with their investments.”
Blake stood and reached for her overnight bag. “For this weekend, you get to be a country girl.”
Jill tossed a few last things in her purse and put her sunglasses on. “I’m ready.”
The drive out to the ranch was quicker than Jill had thought, less than an hour, and once they turned off the highway, it was nothing but two-lane roads and flat, wide fields bordered with scrubby trees. Hayden didn’t say much from the back seat of Blake’s truck, but Jill was glad for her presence. She wasn’t ready for any deep conversations with Blake yet.
“We’re coming up on my place now,” Blake said, pointing off to the right, where a stand of green trees clustered around a narrow driveway.
“I like it already. There aren’t enough trees around here.”
“Luckily, there are quite a few on my property, scattered around the whole sixty acres.” The driveway proved to be more of a long road. Blake drove slowly now, pointing things out as they passed. “There’s the stable and outdoor arena. We have a covered arena too, but it’s out back.”
“Look, Tornado is excited to see us,” Hayden said, pointing off to the left.
Jill looked over and saw a gorgeous black stallion racing them behind a long, high fence. Blake laughed. “He won’t be so excited when I get him out in the training yard later.”
“Whatever. He loves the challenge as much as you do.”
Then Blake slowed down and rounded a bend. Just ahead was a gorgeous house with a high, angled roof and tall, glinting windows. The wide porch was supported with enormous wooden pillars and the facade was covered in natural stone. Bright splashes of flowers spilled out of flowerbeds that were partially shaded by the trees that made the house look like a cool oasis.
“What kind of trees are those?” Jill asked.
Blake pulled up in front of a three-car garage on the side. “Mostly cedar elms and desert willow, but there are a few lemon trees in the back around the pool.”
“Ooh, a pool.” Jill said, releasing her seat belt.
Laughing, Blake got out. “I wouldn’t dare take you anywhere without a pool.”
The next few hours were a whirlwind as Blake and Hayden dragged her all over their property. Clearly, as beautiful as Blake’s mansion in the city was, this was their home. An odd stabbing sensation of jealousy hit her as she recognized the change that came over them. Once they were sure she’d seen everything, every paddock, every horse, every charming view, Blake took her back to the house. Hayden took off for the stables, while Blake got her bag out of the truck and showed her to her room.
The house was cool and dim, sheltered by all the trees around the house. It was quiet too—the kind of quiet that hangs about an empty, waiting house. The furnishings were modern, but touches of Texas pride showed in the decor. In fact, the wall hanging over Jill’s bed was a wooden sign in the shape of the state with the words, “I’m not perfect, but at least I’m from Texas.”
Jill laid her purse on the bed and pointed it out to Blake, who leaned in the doorway watching her. “Are you sure it’s okay if a non-Texan sleeps in this bed?”
Blake shrugged. “Hayden did the decorating, and she’s a Texan through and through.” Then his smile grew. “Of course, if you’re worried about it, there’s always my bed down the hall.”
“Are you offering to switch rooms with me?”
“Not exactly.”
Rolling her eyes, Jill walked over to him. “Your thoughts are wandering into forbidden places. You’d better rein them in.”
Blake received her into his strong arms and pulled her close. “Ooh, horse talk. You’re just making it worse.”
Laughing, she relaxed into him, luxuriating in his nearness. She loved feeling the taut, corded strength in his back as she wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned in. “I thought you said you had a lot of work to do before we could relax this evening.”
“I don’t mind being distracted for a minute or two.”
Jill rose up on her tiptoes and kissed his neck, then pressed a quick kiss on his lips, the shape and feel of which were growing more and more familiar to her. Pulling back quickly, she ran her hands around from his back to slide up his chest before she pushed off from him. “No more until your chores are done.”
Blake sighed. “Slave driver. And I suppose you’re going to relax while I’m working in the hot sun.”
“You bet I am.”
“Okay. You know where the kitchen is. There should be plenty to eat and cold drinks in the fridge. The pool is out back, and you can watch me working with the horses from the porch if you’ve a mind to.”
Smiling at the way his accent was slipping more and more the longer he was home, she nodded. “Don’t worry about me. Go do your thing.”
When he was gone, Jill wandered around his house, inspecting it more closely with no one around to care. The house was still big, but there were signs everywhere that it had been lived in. Really lived in. There were shoes kicked off on the rug by the front door, including several pairs of dusty boots. There was a leather chair in the living room that looked as if it had been sat in for years instead of like the showroom worthy pieces in the rest of the room. There was a shadow box over the mantle that displayed a dozen belt buckles, trophies from Blake’s rodeo days, and an intricately tooled saddle sat on a stand in the corner. She looked at it all tenderly, enormously aware that she was seeing into the very depths of who Blake was.
After a quick peek out at the glimmering pool, Jill saw an enormous swing under the shelter of the roofed back porch. It was the size of a queen bed, at least, and covered in soft pillows. “Um, yeah. That’s where I’m going to spend the next few hours,” she said out loud. Hopefully no one was around to hear her talking to herself.
Five minutes later, she settled into it with a romance novel she’d been carrying around forever but never had time to read, a bag of chips, and an ice-cold bottle of Coke. She sank as deeply in to the fictional world of her book as she sank into the feather pillows at her back, but only until she heard noises coming from the riding arena to her left. Putting her book down, Jill turned curiously to see what was going on.
Blake led the black stallion that Hayden had pointed out to her when they’d arrived. The horse was saddled and even from this distance, knowing nothing about horses, Jill could tell Tornado was not in a submissive mood. He sidled from side to side, stomped his hooves, and even bucked a few times when they went through the gate.
Several of the ranch hands she’d met earlier followed on foot, climbing on the fence to watch, and Jill wished she had their view point. She couldn’t see his face since it was shadowed by his hat, but his posture and control told her that Blake was focused and ready for anything the horse might throw at him. This was a showdown ready to happen, and Jill didn’t want to miss a second of it.
For the next thirty minutes or so, Jill watched while Blake worked the horse. When Tornado bucked or sidled, Blake knew just what to do to bring him around again. By the end of the training session, the horse allowed Blake to rub his shoulder and even stood steady while Blake mounted him. After moving forward a few paces, the horse bucked a few times, and Jill’s heart rose into her throat. Blake, however, was master of the situation and kept his seat. Soon, Tornado submitted, and Blake dismounted before leading him from the arena.
Jill caught herself smiling as he disappeared from view. He was a man who got what he wanted, and despite her doubts and questions, there was a growing part of her that hoped he wanted her as much as she suspected he did.
While Blake worked, Jill read until her eyes grew too heavy to stay open. She lay back, let her book fall closed, and drifted off into a light sleep. For the first few moments, she still felt the light breeze whispering across her skin, smelled the fresh-air scent of the pillows, and heard the occasional clank of metal gates and men’s voices. But soon, she was lost to everything until the swing swayed violently from side to side.
Startled, she woke up and realized that Blake stood on the porch. He must have given it a shove to wake her up.
“Hey! Can’t a girl take a nap around here?”
Blake grinned. “Not unless I can join her. I need to shower first though, so don’t move.”
No longer able to sleep, Jill picked up her book again, but found that none of the words made sense. When Blake came outside, she had read the same page three times with no success. When he laid down next to her, he plucked the book from her hand and opened to a random page. After reading quietly for a moment, he eyed her with a look of reproach. “This is a vampire romance.”
Jill laughed and reached for it. “Your powers of deduction are amazing. Now give it back.” But he held it away from her, his long arm stretching far beyond her reach. She leaned across his chest, trying just the same, then gave up. “Did you come out here just to annoy me?
Blake dropped the book and wrapped his arms around her. “Not only to annoy you. I finished my chores and came to collect on your promises.”
“Oh yeah? I saw you working with Tornado. Why is he so resistant?”
“He was bred to be a rodeo bronc, but he didn’t have a good bucking rhythm and liked to spin, so he got cut from the circuit. Because of that, he wasn’t likely to have a happy ending. I bought him, and I hope to be able to train the devil out of him so he can be ridden. Regardless, he’ll make a good stud for my own breeding program. I may not be in rodeo anymore, but my horses are.
Jill relaxed against his shoulder. “How did a rich kid even get started with the rodeo?”
He chuckled. “Rich kid, huh? My dad took me to the rodeo a few times because some clients gave him tickets. I loved it. I talked him into getting me rodeo lessons, and as soon as I could drive, I made connections with some of my rodeo heroes. They started training me and showing me the ropes. By that time, my parents were divorced and my mom was never home, so I could have been out joining gangs or becoming an alcoholic with the rest of my country club schoolmates.”
“I’m glad you chose this instead.” He smiled and she longed to trace his masculine lips with her fingers.
“My mom wasn’t too thrilled when she found out about it, but by then I was nineteen and able to make my own decisions.”
“Did she ever see you compete?”
“No way. My mom would never be caught dead at the rodeo grounds with all the riff-raff of Texas. She fully expected me to get tired of it and take my place with the family company. I guess when she went to prison, she finally got what she wanted in that way.
“And what about you? Did you get what you want?”
He shifted to look her in the eyes. “I never thought I would like running a business empire, but I do. I get a different kind of thrill out of it, and as you once told me, the money ain’t bad. So, yeah. But now I want something more.”
“What?” Jill asked, both terrified and hopeful about what his answer would be.
“Some of those chips over there. Pass ‘em over.”
She raised an eyebrow and sat up. “Really?”
With a smile that was very nearly a smirk, he said, “Hayden will be heading this way any minute. And you know that’s not what I meant.”
Jill did know, but she also knew what she wanted. With firm decision, she lay next to him again, snuggling into his ready arms. Wrapping her hand around his neck, she urged him to lean over her. He stared down at her, his eyes intense and searching, but neither of them spoke. With rapt attention, she pressed a kiss on one corner of his mouth, then the other. Just as she’d hoped, Blake grew impatient with her teasing kisses and took over. Angling his head, he fit his lips to hers and deepened the kiss. Enthralled with sensation, Jill relaxed, sinking deeper and deeper into dangerous emotions.