At the Rancher's Request

“You’ll miss your family. I would miss mine since we’re fairly close. If you’re here long enough, you’ll probably meet some of my family. We see each other often.”

“I don’t plan to be here long. Hopefully, my car is fixable.” She took a sip of her cocoa. “So tell me about your rodeos. You mentioned them as something you like.”

“Have you ever been to one?”

“Yes,” she answered. “Arkansas isn’t that far from Texas in more ways than one.”

Mike leaned back against a chair, pulled off his boots to set them aside and crossed his long legs at his ankles. She sat cross-legged facing him while they went from one subject to another.

“Don’t you get lonesome way out here by yourself?” she asked.

He gave her a lopsided grin. “I’m not exactly by myself.”

“I know you have Scotty.”

“I have a lot of employees, some have been with my family before they came to work for me, so we’ve known each other for years. Ray’s one of them. We have close, good relationships. I see some of them almost daily. I have a cook, a nanny, a housekeeper, my house staff actually. I see my brothers and my sister fairly often. I do okay. Sometimes it’s lonesome, but that just goes with losing Elise. When I was single, I used to go out a lot, honky-tonks, friends, stay in Dallas, go out of town. With Scotty, life has changed and I’ve become a homebody. It’ll change again—it always does, but that’s it for now.”

“I’m glad you’re not as alone as I thought. If I hadn’t come along, you and Scotty would have been home alone tonight. He goes to bed early, so what do you do with your evenings?”

“Different things. Sometimes I take care of my personal expenses. Each day I’m up before dawn, out on the ranch with the others and work until dusk or later, depending on what we find. I have an accountant for the ranch and business. At night I’m with Scotty until he goes to bed. Then I read and work out—I have a gym here.”

“That’s impressive,” she said.

Finding Mike good company as they talked, she lost track of time. Occasionally, she glanced beyond him and saw big snowflakes swirling around the outside lights. She felt warm, cozy and fortunate to have found Mike. Stretching, she glanced at her watch. “Mike, it’s past one and that’s late for me.”

“Sure,” he said, standing and picking up the bowl and mugs.

“Now it’s just snow coming down. Our fire has about died,” she said, looking at the glowing orange embers.

“Snow on top of ice. Not a good combination. I imagine everything will be closed today and maybe Monday, too. Depends on the temperature. You may have to wait a little longer for your car,” he said as they walked out of the room. “You’re welcome here as long as you need. There’s room and a staff and I don’t have any big agenda right now.”

“Thank you. I hope I can get on with my drive.”

He left the bowl and mugs in the kitchen and they headed down the hall. “If you want anything—that door at the end of the hall is mine. Don’t hesitate to come get me,” he said as they reached the door to her suite. She turned to face him. He stood only a couple of feet away and his proximity made her breath catch.

“Thanks for everything today. You were the knight to the rescue, burning car and all.”

“I’m glad I was. Today’s Sunday, so my cook, Millie, who usually watches Scotty when my nanny is away, is off. But because of the earlier sleet and the fresh snow coming down, the guys will need help first thing. We’ll have to get feed to the cattle, break ice for the livestock. Thing is, when the sun comes up, so does Scotty.”

“If he doesn’t mind being with me when he barely knows me, I can take care of Scotty and his breakfast. You go do what you have to do. I get up early and I can fix my own breakfast and his,” she said, looking at Mike’s dark eyes that were fringed with thick, curly black lashes. “I hope I didn’t make you miss your workout tonight,” she said.

“No. I worked out yesterday morning and it doesn’t hurt if I miss sometimes. There’s a track if you run. Just head in the opposite direction—the gym is at the other end of this hall in the opposite wing and downstairs.”

“I won’t be working out. Maybe later tomorrow, I’ll walk around the track—how many times around for a mile?”

“Eight.” Taking a step closer, he placed his hand beyond her on the jamb of the door and leaned toward her. “We’re together this weekend and then we’ll say goodbye and never see each other. Neither of us are at the point of complicating our lives, but I have to admit that I want to kiss you. Believe me, I haven’t felt that way about any woman since I lost Elise.” He leaned slightly closer and his voice dropped to almost a whisper. “We’re not going to fall into complications from one harmless kiss.”

“Why do I have the feeling that your kiss, even one, will not be—harmless?” she whispered, finding it difficult to get her breath. In the silence her heart drummed.

For a moment they gazed into each other’s eyes and she felt immobilized by his dark gaze.

“Savannah, we’re going to kiss. It might as well be now,” he whispered, slipping his arm around her waist and drawing her the last few inches to him.

She placed her hands on his chest, ready to voice her protest when his lips brushed hers lightly and her heart thudded.

At that moment she wanted his kiss with all her being. She couldn’t think about what was best or if she shouldn’t or that he really didn’t want this, either. It was impossible to walk away. Closing her eyes, she leaned into him and his arm tightened, his mouth coming down on hers as he kissed her hungrily in a driving force that took her breath.

His kiss drove away worries. Longing transformed the moment and she would never again view Mike in the same disinterested way.

Standing in his embrace, she kissed him back passionately, for the moment wanting his kiss, wanting to feel desired. She sought release from the tensions of the night as much as from the hurts of her past. Hoping to stir Mike out of his daily life of grief even if it happened only for seconds, she lost herself in kissing him. An intense need consumed her to an extent that shocked her.

The stubble on his jaw scraped her skin slightly while his warmth and strength, his lean, hard body heightened her pleasure. She wanted this. His kiss rocked her, stirring dormant responses. Time ceased and she had no idea how long they kissed, but it wasn’t long enough.

Finally, as she paused, he released her slightly.

“I guess we sort of lost it there,” she whispered. Both of them were breathing hard while she stepped away from him. “We can get back where we were.”

“Savannah,” Mike said, in a husky tone of voice and she turned to look at him. He hadn’t moved. He had one hand on his hip as he studied her. “We’ll never get back where we were.”

Startled, she blinked and her heart thumped faster. “We have to,” she said. “There’s no place in my life for you and there’s no place in your life for me.”

“A kiss isn’t a binding commitment,” he said, more as if to remind himself than inform her. “It was only kisses, Savannah. Warm kisses on a cold winter’s night—even beats hot chocolate.”

She suspected he attempted to make light of the moment, but that was impossible. He had a slight frown and she had complicated her stay at his ranch. They both had kissed away wise decisions.

“Savannah, we won’t fall in love—I promise you.”

“You can’t promise any such thing. No one can,” she said, realizing he had his heart locked away from any deep emotional involvement. “We’ve each had heartbreak and are vulnerable. I don’t need to make another emotional mistake on top of the huge one I’ve already made,” she said, feeling she should beware and guard her own heart because Mike was clearly warning her he would not fall in love.

He shook his head. “You won’t have even a tiny wrench to your heart because of one meaningless kiss. I’m not ready for anything serious and neither are you. We’re strangers who’ll be together only a day or two and never see each other again. Chalk it up to a stormy winter night and two vulnerable people. It was just a kiss that helped each of us on a cold winter’s night.”

Relieved that the moment was getting less intense, she shook her head. “What a line, Mike.”

Something flickered in his dark eyes and he shrugged. “Sounded good to me,” he said, continuing to make light of the situation.

“Well, maybe it put things in the proper perspective.”

“I think you did that,” he said.

“Let’s forget that kiss. Good night, Mike. See you in the morning and I’ll take care of Scotty if you’re out,” she said, shaking her head.

She stepped into her suite and closed the door, letting out her breath while she thought about his kiss. For just a few minutes Mike had made her forget her engagement, Kirk, everything else. Mike had made light of their kiss, but he had shaken her. His kiss had been sexy, spectacular, totally consuming.

She didn’t want any other complication in her life right now. She definitely didn’t trust herself to want to get to know any man better at this time. She had made a colossal mistake in judgment with Kirk, a man she had known when they were kids and yet she hadn’t really learned what she should have about him. She couldn’t know anything about Mike Calhoun, a man she had known hours when she had misjudged a man she had known well for years.

He certainly didn’t know the most important thing about her.

Frowning, she thought of what lay ahead. She placed her hand on her stomach and focused on the baby that she carried.