Roping the Rancher (Harlequin American Romance) (8 page)

“Even more reason to toss you in jail. You should set a better example for your daughter.” Chief Parsons shook his head. “If I don’t haul you in every hothead in town will think he can use his fists to settle a problem.”

“If you arrest Colt, I’ll contact my lawyer immediately and the press. I’m sure TMZ would love to do a story on this.”

“Is that a threat?” Parsons asked.

“It’s a statement of fact.”

Colt placed his hand on her arm, pulling her attention from the lawman. A shudder rippled through him. “It won’t come to me getting arrested. I’ll go to the station and get this sorted out. What I need from you is to take Jess home. Stay with her until I get there.” He had to get Stacy out of here before she made a scene. This was his home and he had to live here once she returned to California. “Please?”

She nodded, thankfully picking up on his unspoken plea. “But if charges are filed, I want to know.”

* * *

O
N
THE
WAY
back to Colt’s house with Ryan and Jess, Stacy tried to minimize the situation. She explained how Colt agreed to go to the police station to give a formal statement. She chose her words carefully and emphasize that he hadn’t been arrested.

By the time they arrived at the house exhaustion set in. Even the kids looked weary. When they mumbled something about waiting up for Colt, Stacy said, “Taking statements and sorting things out could take a while. It’s silly for us to wait up. You can get all the details in the morning, Jess.” When the teenager looked as if she wanted to protest, Stacy added, “Ryan can crash here on the couch and I’m going to sleep in the chair. I’m exhausted.”

“If you’re sure I don’t need to worry about Dad.”

They’d finally hit the problem. How could she have failed to realize how concerned Jess was? The girl hid her emotions well. “I promise there’s nothing to lose sleep over.”

She’d call in favors and threaten to blast the story from coast to coast if she had to in order to keep Colt out of jail.

Some of the panic left Jess’s gaze. “Ryan can use the guest room.”

“Great.” He turned to Stacy. “Then you can take the couch.”

After the teenagers headed upstairs, Stacy turned on the TV and curled up on the couch. What a night. She still couldn’t believe Colt defended her. Not once, but twice. For once in her life someone stepped up and handled something for her.

His actions still left her a little tingly inside. True gentlemen, especially in her business, were as rare as an exotic dancer with real breasts.

The little voice inside her said she was being foolish. She’d watched enough Westerns to know about the cowboy code and protecting womanhood at all costs. Plus, Colt was a military man. Didn’t they all have that black-and-white sense of right and wrong ingrained in them during basic training? That’s what brought about his actions tonight. He wasn’t standing up for her because he cared for her. He would’ve done the same thing for any woman.

But what if he’d stood up for
her?

No, she refused to think about that possibility. If she considered dating anyone, he’d be someone who’d never been married before. He definitely wouldn’t have children, much less a teenager. He’d probably be a man who was in the entertainment industry. One who could understand the demands of her career. One who would be comfortable accompanying her to movie premiers or the Academy Awards. She couldn’t see Colt putting up with the red carpet pomp and circumstance.

But she kept coming back to how he’d stood up for her. She’d felt protected and safe. Something she hadn’t felt since her father died. And what did he get for his efforts? He got hauled off to jail.

A couple of hours later, cowboy boots clicking across the wood floor woke her. She opened her eyes to find Colt towering over her.

“Thanks for staying with Jess.”

“I’m not sure if I told you, but thank you for that what you did tonight. If I didn’t seem grateful, it was because I was a shocked.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m not usually the kind of guy who gets into a bar fight.”

“It wasn’t that. I was surprised because you stepped in. I’ve learned to be pretty self-sufficient over the years.

“That doesn’t say much about the people in your life.” He sank into the chair to her right and pinched the bridge of his nose.

That was for sure. “I’m sorry helping me got you into trouble.”

“Do you stir up this much trouble everywhere you go, or am I just lucky?”

He turned toward her, and she noticed his swollen and cut lip. “You’re hurt.”

He shrugged. “When Travis landed that sucker punch, his damn college ring cut me.”

“You should put some ice on it to keep the swelling down.”

She jumped off the couch, took a couple of steps and realized she had no idea where the kitchen was located. “Where’s the kitchen?”

“I don’t need any ice. I’m fine.”

That he was. Absolutely fine with a capital
F.

“At least let me clean the blood off and put some antiseptic on your cut.” She reached into her purse sitting on the floor, pulled out her little first aid kit and located a foil packet with an antiseptic wipe. When she stood beside him, she leaned over and dabbed the white square to the cut that started on his lip and extended about an inch onto his chin. His spicy scent floated over her, igniting her senses. The stillness in the house created an intimacy she hadn’t felt in a long time. “I feel like I should be doing more to make this right. If I had handled things better with Travis...I should’ve been able to get rid of him. What can I do to make this right?”

His crystal blue gaze darkened. “You could kiss my sore lip and make it all better.”

At first she thought he was joking, but then she looked into his eyes. No mistaking the desire shining there. Blood pounded in her ears. She shouldn’t kiss him. She knew that, but she wanted to. Desperately. She wanted his arms around her. She wanted to pretend he’d protected her because he cared. That he cared about
her.

Common sense told her to jump off the couch and run as fast and as far from Colt as possible.

Instead, she leaned forward and touched her lips to his jaw. Then she kissed him lightly on his lips.

Chapter Six

Colt tossed out the “kiss and make it all better” comment expecting Stacy to toss a joke right back at him or put him in his place. His heart nearly stopped when she didn’t do either of those things. Instead her lips covered his, and his body shifted into overdrive.

Her hands clutched his shirt and he wrapped his arms around her tiny frame. Her sweet floral scent floated over him. He felt alive. The need to be closer to her overwhelmed him. He missed having a connection with a woman. Sure he had friends and his brother, but there was something about having a woman in his life. They saw things, they understood on a different level, offered a comfort a man couldn’t find anywhere else. A soft place to fall.

“Better?”

“My lip’s better, but certain other parts ache like crazy.”

He lifted her onto his lap. His hands framed her face as he kissed her. He could lose himself in her so easily. She slipped her hand under his shirt, warm and searching. His breath hitched. Her seeking fingers brushed over one of his scars. “What happened here?”

“I got hurt.”

“No kidding. It’s a scar. Did you get it in Afghanistan?”

He didn’t want to remember how Sanders had been blown apart and pieces of his buddy’s bones had slashed through his chest. To distract both of them, he nibbled on the sensitive skin below her ear. Her groan rippled through him.

“Never mind.” She leaned forward and kissed his puckered flesh. His hands buried in her hair, the silky texture teasing his fingers as heat blasted through him. Unable to bear more of her tender exploration for fear of embarrassing himself, he pulled her face to his.

His lips covered hers again, hungry and almost desperate. Her hands fisted in his shirt as she clung to him. Through a haze, he heard a door creak upstairs, followed by the click of dog nails and the slap of bare feet on the wooden floor. The sexual fog surrounding him evaporated. He lifted Stacy off him and dumped her on the couch. Her hair mussed from his hands, her skin flushed from his touch, her hands shook as she adjusted her blouse. Much longer and her shirt would’ve been on the floor.

How could he have forgotten his daughter and her younger brother slept upstairs? The woman, her intoxicating kisses and her magic hands could make a man forget to breathe.

A minute later Jess stumbled into the living room, her dog Thor trotting behind her. She glanced between him and Stacy.

He was busted. How the hell was he going to get out of this mess?

* * *

S
TACY
WANTED
TO
run for the front door the minute she saw Jess, but running would only make her look guiltier. Nothing to do but straighten out her big girl panties, or in this case her twisted blouse, and bluff her way through the situation. That was it. She was an actress. She’d pretend nothing happened. Play it cool, and Jess wouldn’t realize a thing.

Right. Even Meryl Streep couldn’t pull off that performance.

Jess glanced between her father and Stacy. A knowing grin spread across the teenager’s face. “I guess I interrupted something.”

“No, I just got home,” Colt muttered as he shifted his stance like a kid caught in a lie.

“I was asleep on the couch. I woke up when the front door closed. I’m a light sleeper. Then I wanted to talk to your dad about what happened at the police station, so we were sitting here talking.”

So much for playing it cool. Shut up, Stacy. You’re rambling and making the situation worse.

“I’d have to be blind to believe that bunch of BS.”

Stacy cringed and refused to meet Jess’s gaze.

Great acting job.

“What was or wasn’t going on here is none of your business.” When Jess opened her mouth to say something else, Colt shook his head. “Don’t push me. My patience is wearing thin.”

“I can’t believe this, Dad. After the lecture on dating you gave me the other day? I guess this is one of those ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ moments.” Then she walked over to her father, kissed him on the cheek and darted out of the room, her dog trotting behind her.

“I didn’t think there was anything more embarrassing than my parents catching me making out with my first girlfriend. I was wrong.”

“I can’t believe—” Stacy paused, wanting desperately to fan her heated face.
I can’t believe we acted like a couple of horny teenagers.
“You’re right about that.”

He shoved his hands in his jean’s pocket and shuffled his feet. She stood, not knowing quite what to do now. Finally she said, “I’ll wake Ryan so we can go home.”

“Let him sleep. Not point in closing this door now that the horse has gotten out of the barn. You can either sleep here on the couch, or I can bring Ryan home when he wakes up.”

This time she listened to her common sense. “Dropping him off tomorrow would be great.”

* * *

A
S
S
TACY
PARKED
by the Healing Horses barn, she told herself she could do this. She could face her fear of horses. Then she almost laughed. Today facing Colt seemed scarier than facing a horse.

She’d kissed him last night. Not he kissed her. Well, not at first anyway. No, she’d been the aggressor.

How would she face him? Pretend last night never happened.

Like you pretended nothing happened when Jess caught you two making out? Because that worked so well.

When she walked into the barn, instead of finding Colt, she discovered Jess.
Please don’t let her bring up the other night.
“Where’s your dad? He agreed to train me to be a sidewalker so I can help with Ryan’s therapy. I don’t want him thinking I’m late.”

“Yeah, that’s one of his pet peeves.” Jess crossed her arms over her chest, and Stacy braced herself and resisted the urge to squirm. This was not good. “What are your intentions with my dad?”

She’d known whatever Jess had been going to say would be something she didn’t want to hear, but never in her wildest nightmares had Stacy’s thoughts gone to “What are your intentions?”

Beam me up, Scottie. Where was a good Chief Engineer with a transporter when a girl needed one?

Stacy’s tongue stuck to the roof of her dry mouth and her mind raced to come up with a plausible answer. Intentions? As in for the future? Damned if she knew. While she might not know that, she’d sure known what her objective had been last night. She wanted to get hot and heavy with Colt.

She couldn’t exactly tell his daughter that.

Honesty. They say it’s the best policy. She could tell Jess the truth about the future at least. “I’m not sure what’s going on between your father and me. We’re so different, but when you and Ryan were in the game room last night we talked. I enjoyed his company. He’s a nice guy, but we barely know each other.”

“That’s not what it looked like in the living room.”

“It’s not—”

“I’m not stupid. You two were getting pretty cozy.”

Anyone over the age of five could’ve figured that out. “I won’t lie to you. We were kissing, but that was it.”

Only because you showed up.

“He hasn’t dated anyone since my mom died almost three years ago.”

“Her death had to be hard on you both.”

“You have no idea. You can’t tell him I told you, but I think you need to know. My mom didn’t like it when Dad was in the military. She said she was sick of moving all the time. So he left the Air Force, joined the National Guard Reserves and we moved back here where he grew up.”

“But he went to Afghanistan recently, didn’t he?”

Jess said he’d been in the National Guard Reserves until a year ago. “Him joining the Reserves was their compromise, but Mom wasn’t happy with that, either, or with living here. Then one day she left me a note. She said she was in love with someone else. She said she was sorry to leave me, but she had to take this chance to be happy. She hurt Dad so bad. He tried not to let me see, but I could tell. He was different. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Colt’s wife had an affair and ran off with her lover?

Stacy’s heart cracked for both the teenager and the man. The woman had left not only her husband—from what she’d seen at Halligan’s, a wonderful, caring man—but her child, as well? A daughter who needed her, who loved her, who counted on her mother to be there for her. Didn’t she have any idea of the pain and trauma that caused?

Jess stood there, her arms crossed over her chest, her brown eyes hard as she fought to hold back her tears.

I thought my mother was bad, but she at least stuck around.
The woman was a fool and didn’t deserve Jess and Colt. She’d been given two precious gifts, and she’d thrown them away with the wrapping paper.

“It wasn’t your fault she left.”

“I know that.” Tears sparkled in Jess’s eyes. She bit her lower lip. “The last thing I ever said to her was what a terrible mother she was and that I hated her. Then she died in a car accident.”

Jess would never have the chance to take back those angry words. She’d never be able to repair her relationship with her mother, or even find closure. Such a huge burden for such a young woman.

The crack in Stacy’s heart widened as Jess’s pain reached out to her. She wrapped her arms around the teen, but Jess stiffened and pulled away. “I know you feel guilty about what you said to your mother, but I’m sure she knew it was the anger talking—anger you had every right to feel, by the way—but you’ve got to let it go.”

“But how?” Tears now rolled down Jess’s pale cheek.

Damn Jess’s mother. How could she do this to her child? How could she choose a lover over this wonderful young woman? “I wish I could tell you. All I can say is that my mother and I haven’t always gotten along, but she knows I love her. I’m sure your mom knew that, too. Focus on the good memories you have of her, of the special times you had together.”
Please, Lord, let there be some good ones this dear girl can hold on to.
“Your mom wouldn’t want you to be feeling guilty. You’ve got to forgive yourself for what you said. Don’t let what happened between you rule the rest of your life.”

Like my mother’s ruling mine.

No. Don’t think about that. Focus on Jess.

Jess swiped her sleeve over her eyes. “Because of what happened with my mom, I’m a little protective of my dad. That’s why I asked about what’s going on between the two of you. I don’t want him getting hurt again.”

Which was exactly what Stacy would do if she and Colt got involved. There was no avoiding it since she was only here for a few weeks. On top of that, she couldn’t handle a romantic relationship. Hers invariably ended badly, and she was barely staying sane dealing with her current responsibilities. Even if they agreed up front to keep things casual and fun, she wouldn’t risk them getting attached—either her to them or them to her. She refused to leave him and Jess like his wife had.

“You’re a pretty great young lady. Your dad’s lucky to have you.”

“Yes, he is, and if you hurt him, you’ll answer to me. Got it?”

“Message received. I have no intention of hurting your dad. We come from such different worlds. All I can ever see between us is friendship.”