Chance McCall (8 page)

He’d been at the Triple T for almost half his life, and for the first time since his arrival he was giving serious thought to leaving. He’d stood just about all of the torment he was capable of absorbing. He was thirty years old and the foreman of the Triple T. But, in
his
eyes, he was nothing more than a glorified hired hand with secrets that were eating him alive.

He tripped over a loose length of lariat and then turned and kicked it, sending a cloud of dust flying as his curses echoed. A flock of roosting pigeons took to the air with a flutter of wings and feathers.

Jenny was speechless as she watched him lose his temper. For the past week, he’d been trouble waiting to happen. The first time she’d seen him really mad had been years ago when Melvin Howard had made a pass at her. She remembered he’d threatened to break Melvin’s arms and legs.

That was just about the same time Jenny had admitted to herself that she was in love with Chance McCall. No one else had ever measured up to the man who’d become her friend and champion.

“Son-of-a-bitch,” Chance muttered, leaning his forehead against the rough wall of the stable hallway. He had to get a grip on himself.

“Chance! What’s wrong?” Jenny asked softly.

“What are you doing out here?” he snapped at the unexpected sound of her voice. “Surely your…guests…haven’t already left?”

“What do you care? You’ve made your decision regarding us…or lack thereof,” she said. “Whatever happens to me now is my business.”

That wasn’t exactly what he needed to hear. He knew he’d more or less given her free rein. But it wasn’t what he wanted…. It was just what had to be.

Jenny sauntered around in front of him until she was less than inches away from his face, pinned between him and the stable wall with a look on her face that would melt angel wings. She was daring him. He could feel it. Something stirred inside him. Something wild…and demanding. She refused to move…and then it was too late to ignore.

“You shouldn’t have come out here, Jennifer Ann,” he growled, just before he swooped down on her.

Jenny’s mouth opened to respond to his warning. But his lips demanded more from her than words. His groan of defeat was nothing compared to the swell of elation that swept through her as Chance lifted her off her feet and into his arms.

Nothing in her life had prepared her for the demand of his mouth as it swept across her face and neck. She sighed in supplication and wrapped her arms around his neck. Chance’s body shuddered beneath the touch of her hands and the feel of her belly brushing against the ache behind his zipper.

He turned and caught the tip of her finger between his teeth. Eyes locked, breathing slowed and then quickened as he sucked the tip of her forefinger into his mouth and rolled his tongue around it.

Jenny moaned softly and leaned against him as she lost control of her body.

“Hell,” he said softly. He started to pull away, dimly realizing that he’d just stepped over a boundary he shouldn’t have, when her whispered plea sent his sanity flying with the rope he’d just kicked.

“No, Chance,” she said. Her lips burned across his mouth and neck. “Don’t you dare stop now. Not now! Please make love to me.”

It was a plea he could not resist. His arms tightened around her. He stared at the passion on her face. Her body was soft and pliant, curving against him. Pain shot through him, marked by the swell of his anatomy demanding relief. Chance responded to her mouth with his as he turned, taking them both into the shadows of the empty stall behind them.

“This is wrong,” he muttered, as he gently pushed Jenny onto the sweet-smelling hay and tested the fabric of the dress she was wearing. It was delicate and pink, and it made him ache. “You weren’t made for cowboys and haystacks, Jenny. You were meant for furs and diamonds and more money than I’ll ever see.”

“No, Chance. You’re wrong. I was meant for you. From the first day when I put bandaids on your face, to the day you saved me from Melvin, I’ve known. It’s just taken you longer to find out.”

Her voice curled around his heart and stopped his breathing. He couldn’t think past the clear blue gaze and the open trust on her face. She didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. She couldn’t have loved him that long ago, she’d only been a kid. And then she moved, fitting herself against the swell behind his zipper, and sighed.

He rocked against her, unable to resist what she offered. She moved with the thrust of his body and moaned. Chance shuddered. His movement was exciting her. Her mouth fell open slightly as her neck arched, spilling a dark curtain of hair across his arms and onto the hay. It was more than he could take.

“This is wrong, Jennifer Ann. But, God help me, I can’t stop.”

Her sleepy smile gave him permission as his hands slipped beneath the neckline of her dress. They brushed across the crests of her breasts and then she kissed him, capturing the sigh that slipped out of his lips.

He was lost. His fingers slid across her shoulders, moving the dress straps down and off. His hands shook as his palms cupped and caressed her bare skin. Nubs hardened and peaked beneath his touch, taunting him by their presence until he could no longer resist a taste. They were sweet and soft, then at once achingly hard beneath his tongue. He shuddered and moved above her, lost in the feel of so much woman beneath him.

Jenny’s fingers tore at his shirt, needing the feel of his skin against her body, the heat growing between them. The snaps of his shirt popped apart. She sighed as her hands came in contact with flesh and blood…and the man himself. The muscles she discovered came to life beneath her caresses as she moved across his back in a foray of discovery. She was at once elated, and then fearful of the unknown awaiting her.

“Jenny, slow down!”

His command was lost as passion fed the mounting ache between her legs. She moaned, whispering his name quietly into the silence, needing more than he was giving, unwilling to give up what had begun.

Her lower body shifted and he fell into the valley she’d dug into the hay, allowing him access to a part of her that had previously existed only in his dreams.

“Sweet Jesus!” His voice rasped as an ache swelled into a pounding fury. The need to bury himself in her was fast becoming a reality. His hands slid up the bare skin of her legs, moving of their own accord as they swept across her belly, fingering the lacy wisp bordering the nylon barrier that lay between him and heaven.

She shuddered as his fingers slid lower. And then the gasp and moan that slipped past his ear told him more than words could ever have revealed. He was in virgin territory in more ways than one. He’d bet his little finger that Jennifer Ann had never made love to a man. The thought was sublime torture. It was a justification of every dream he’d ever had that she’d know only him, and a fear that he couldn’t be the one to take her when he knew he’d never be the one to keep her.

His head dipped as he rested against her breasts. It was torture to breathe and not move. But finally…slowly and surely…he regained control of his passion. He couldn’t have Jenny in the way that he wanted, but he’d damn sure make certain that he’d be the first to show her what passion meant.

“What are you…?” Jenny’s question was lost in the gasp that followed as Chance’s hands slid beneath the nylon barrier. Her eyes widened as she stared up into the face of love. “No…” she began. Then he sent her sanity spinning out of control.

His fingers stroked and pulled, rubbing slowly at first, back and forth against her hot, swollen flesh until Jenny thought she was going to die. Her hands dug into his shoulders as he gave her love in a way she’d never imagined, and would never forget. Her bones melted beneath his touch as his lips swooped, coaxing away, with soft words and sweet touches, the last of her inhibitions.

Tears blinded Jenny’s view of his face as a fever swept through her body. Everything within her seemed to swell and pulse toward the point in her body that Chance had possessed. Suddenly she lost control and cried aloud, frightened by the overwhelming need to be carried away by the touch of the big man above her.

“Let it go, Jenny,” he pleaded, “ride with the feeling, baby. I can’t go with you, but let me take you away.”

His name was a chant as she arched beneath his fingers. Light burst behind her eyelids in an explosion of colors as heat spilled in her body. She moaned as Chance wrapped her in his arms and buried his face against her neck. She felt his tears, and even in her innocence, knew the strength of mind and character that it had taken for him to give her joy and deny himself fulfillment.

“I’ll never forgive you for not being inside me when this happened,” Jenny whispered, blinking back tears from the overwhelming passion she’d just endured.

“And I’d never have forgiven myself if I had,” he said. “This shouldn’t have happened, and I can tell you it won’t happen again.”

He crawled to his feet and then stopped short, unable to walk for the pain. He leaned over and grabbed his knees, taking deep, harsh gulps of air as he tried to regain control of his rebellious body.

Jenny shakily pulled herself up. Tears streaked silently down her face as she methodically picked hay from her hair and clothing.

Chance took a deep breath and straightened just in time to see her shutter her expression. He’d hurt her, but the pain inside him was infinitely worse. She didn’t know that he wanted to go out and shoot the next man who even looked at her twice. In Chance’s eyes, she’d become his woman. But he couldn’t have her. All he had were ghosts and a monthly paycheck. Not enough to take and keep the heir to the Triple T.

“Go back to the house, Jennifer Ann. And don’t ever come out here alone again.” The harshness in his voice was all she heard. She was too blinded by the pain to see the shattered expression in his eyes.

“Go to hell,” she said softly, as she walked past him.

“I already have, Jenny. I already have,” he whispered, as he watched her walking away.

She walked into the sunlight and out of his life.

The next two months
were
hell. Jenny darted from one beau to the next with butterflylike persistence. Frenzy seemed the norm.

But Juana knew differently. She’d seen Jenny’s face the day she’d come back from the barns. She’d picked the last bit of straw off her back as she’d passed through the kitchen. The bitter, sardonic smile that had been on Jenny’s lips had shocked her. Whatever had happened between her girl and the foreman was obviously over.

Juana also heard complaints from the men about the quiet anger that Chance was letting fester. He was at once swiftly critical of everything and everyone, and then instantly furious with himself for losing control. Everyone was walking on eggshells and Marcus Tyler seemed to be the only one oblivious to the reason.

It was Marcus’s weekly meeting with Chance that stopped their cycle of self-destruction and nearly erupted in chaos. It took every ounce of dignity and self-control Chance had left, not to kill the man Jenny walked in with just as the meeting was coming to an end.

“Marcus,” Jenny said, “Nelson and I are going riding and we thought you might…” She stopped short.

The look of total devastation came and went so quickly that only Chance saw her pain. It was inevitable that this meeting would happen, but it was more than bad luck that she was with this man when it did. He was the only one who’d managed a return engagement in the constant string of men who’d been paraded through the Triple T. His mere presence was a threat to Chance’s sanity.

“Sorry,” she said as her world shattered quietly into tiny pieces, “I didn’t know you were busy.”

“It’s okay, Jenny,” Marcus said, unaware of the tension. “We were just finishing our weekly update. And as for the riding invitation, I’ll have to pass. As soon as Chance and I are through, I’ve got to fly into Dallas for a meeting. I won’t be back until tomorrow.”

Chance saw the look of expectation that swept through Nelson’s eyes when he realized that Jenny would be alone. His fingers curled into fists and he actually took a step forward before the silent plea on Jenny’s face stopped him short.

“Oh hell,” he said softly, not caring who heard him or what interpretation they made of the remark. “I’ll be outside if you have anything else to say to me, boss. I need some air.”

Chance walked past Jenny without saying a word, and left the men staring at each other in stunned surprise.

Pain twisted and coiled around Jenny’s heart.
I can’t take much more of this
, she thought, sinking limply into the chair beside the doorway.

“I wonder what’s wrong with him?” Marcus mumbled, and then shrugged. His foreman was an enigma he’d long since given up trying to understand. What he cared about was performance, and Chance McCall was one of the best. The Triple T had never run so smoothly.

“You two run along and have your ride. I’ll see you tomorrow, Jenny,” Marcus said, as he began shuffling papers on his desk. “Nelson, you come back soon, you hear? It’s real nice having a young man like you around the place to help out.”

Jenny couldn’t believe it. Nelson Turnbull didn’t know steers from heifers, and barely knew the ass end of a horse. Why couldn’t her father see what was staring him in the face? She had been coming apart for months, and he thought she was having the time of her life.

But Jenny knew it was partially her own fault. She hid her feelings very well. Suddenly her frenetic rebellion of the past few months caught up with her. She sighed, looking up with barely disguised distaste at the man who’d been sniffing at her heels as if she were a bitch in heat. She buried her face in her hands, ashamed of her behavior, and knew that Nelson Turnbull’s time was fast running out. After today, she’d tolerate no more unexpected visits from Marcus’s “friends.”

If he wanted to expand his properties, he could buy more land. Chance didn’t want her and Marcus didn’t know what to do with her. For two cents, she’d move out, take her marketing degree, and put it to use.

“Come on darling,” Nelson urged, “let’s go get our horses. We’ve got several hours of good daylight left before I need to leave.”