Cowboy Crush

“Why are you going to therapy?” she asked.

He rubbed his hands against the worn denim of his jeans and stared out at the sun hovering over the horizon. “Shattered some bones in my left shoulder. Had surgery mid-May to fix it.”

“That sounds painful,” she said, wanting to peer around him to look at his shoulder as if she could see through the cotton fabric. “Was it a wreck?”

“Actually it was.” He smiled. “But it wasn’t in a car.”

“Motorcycle?” He’d look fine straddling a hog. She could see him riding with mirrored sunglasses and a badass smile. No clue how he’d manage to keep the cowboy hat on, though.

“Nah. Bull.”

“Bull? You ran into a bull?”

“More like it knocked me out cold and then stepped on me,” he said.

“Were you working with it? Like on a ranch?” Maybe he’d been a ranch hand. Or a real cowboy who drove cattle. But where did they drive cattle these days? From field to field? She hadn’t a clue. Another thing she needed to learn.

“Actually I was riding it,” Cal said, clasping his hands together between his spread knees.

“As in a rodeo?” Maggie asked, turning toward him. “That’s, like, superdangerous.” And it explained why he lived in a trailer on his mother’s land. She didn’t know much about rodeo, but she knew the cowboys who went town to town in search of rides didn’t have much money. She’d listened to Garth Brooks’s songs when she was a kid. Rodeo was a hard life.

“Yeah, it’s dangerous. I’ve been gored, tossed, stepped on, and I’ve had stitches. Look—” he pulled off his cowboy hat and showed her a white puckered scar near his hairline “—that came from Nitro II. Threw that big head back and nailed me good.”

“So you ride the bulls?”

“I ride the bulls. Well, some of the time.”

“Huh,” she said, lifting herself from the step. “I guess I shouldn’t ask if you’re any good after looking at those injuries. You want to join me for supper?”

He looked up, blue eyes amused. She hadn’t a clue why. He was the one who admitted to doing a completely asinine thing like climbing onto the back of a huge beast with horns. “What you having?”

“Well, you can have a ham sandwich, a turkey sandwich or Kraft mac and cheese. The Stop-N-Go had very little to offer in way of variety, though I did consider the wieners on the wiener-go-round.”

Cal stood. “Wiener-go-round?”

“You know, that little thingy that rotates the wieners,” she said, holding open the door.

“Is this sexy talk?” he asked, his eyes moving down her body.

“You sure you didn’t get kicked in the head? ’Cause I’m pretty sure overcooked hot dogs are not sexy. Never have been, never will be.”

Cal moved toward her. His previously damp T-shirt had been replaced by a short-sleeved polo that hung up on his biceps, and she’d be willing to bet he’d showered somewhere because his dark hair curled beneath the cowboy hat, glinting clean in the sun like a new penny. He moved like a man who was accustomed to taking what he wanted. A flare of something ignited in her stomach and suddenly she couldn’t take her eyes off his mouth. He had a thin upper lip, but that bottom one was so sensual. Gave her an urge to lick it, maybe bite it.

“I know, but you know what is sexy?” he asked, stopping right in front of her.

Could he hear her heart beating? Or maybe smell how turned on she was? Because she was. Like a light switch flicked. “You’re defining sexy now?”

“I think we should,” he said, shifting even closer. She could see the buttons on his polo had four holes. He smelled vaguely of lemon and, yeah, some kind of liniment. Even that turned her on.

He dragged one finger across her lips. And just like that, the smiles were gone. Because that was the single sexiest move she’d ever experienced. “These lips.”

Maggie swallowed hard. “Uh...”

“No, don’t say it,” he said, running his finger lightly back across her bottom lip. “I know you think it’s a bad idea to mix business and pleasure, Maggie. Thing is, I don’t really care.”

He slid his hand across her jaw and cupped the back of her head, his fingers tangling in the hair pulled tight in the ponytail. Tilting her head back, he studied her face.

And she studied his. Long dark eyelashes totally wasted on a man framed eyes the color of a Caribbean surf. His broad cheeks angled down and she bet his nose had been broken more than once. Lean jaw, firm chin and those damn lips she wanted to feel on her body...everywhere.

“I don’t need this job, Maggie.”

She inhaled deeply. “So why did you take it?”

“For this,” he said, lowering his head, his lips covering hers.

4 (#ulink_884397c0-c10d-5f2e-9624-af9c484956dd)

HE HADN’T MEANT to kiss her.

But after .008 seconds he was happy as hell he did. Because kissing Maggie was like raindrops falling on the parched earth. Exactly what he needed.

She tasted like spearmint gum and sweat—an oddly potent combination.

He held her firmly, but there was no need because she didn’t pull away. A soft sigh escaped against his lips as if she’d been waiting for him to do exactly what he’d done—take control of the situation. And that thought stoked his ego.

So he reached for her with his bad arm and hauled her against him, ignoring the pain because her soft body against his overshadowed the twinge in his shoulder. His hand cupped her ass, pulling her hard against him and she opened her mouth, letting him inside.

Make no mistake, Maggie could hold her own, but after a few seconds of heaven, he pulled back.

Her topaz eyes widened. “You kissed me.”

He grinned. “Couldn’t help myself. Those sexy lips begged me to.”

“You’re blaming my lips?” She swiped her hand over her mouth and stepped back. “We can’t do this...uh, that. I’m your boss. You can’t go around kissing your boss.”

“Why not?”

“Because we have to work together. That’s the first thing you learn in the corporate world.”

“Do you see a corporation out here?”

“Look, I need this ranch completed so I can list it and move on with my life. I can’t have you running out on me because we screw up by getting...physical.”

“I wasn’t planning on screwing anything up except maybe y—”

“No,” she interrupted holding up a finger. “We’re not going there.”

But they already had. Her breathing was labored, her eyes slightly dilated and the nipples beneath the tank were hard. Her body said yes no matter what her mouth said. Her body’s reaction told him all he needed to know. This would take patience. “Okay.”