The Ranger's Rodeo Rebel

“Hold on.” He zipped up his jeans and glanced back inside his apartment for a shirt. He’d been extremely sleep deprived when his brother had dropped him off at three this morning, and he wasn’t sure where anything was. His bag sat by the door, but he saw no sign of his shirt, not even on the floor of the tiny kitchen to the left of the door.

“Seriously,” he called. “Come back up. I’m dressed.”

She slowly faced him, her eyes looking anywhere but at him. When she peeked up and noticed he was shirtless, she immediately glanced away, her face turning red.

He laughed. “All right, I’m half-dressed.”

“I just need to use the phone,” she repeated.

“Feel free.” The woman with twin blond braids took a deep breath, apparently weighing her options. Chance didn’t mind. It gave him the opportunity to study her. She was slight of build and wearing jeans and a black shirt that hugged her curves and displayed the narrow width of her waist. He had a pretty good idea who she was. Carolina Cruthers. He’d seen her picture on his brother’s website. Trick rider. His new employee.

She must have made up her mind, because she slowly climbed the stairs, her boots clunking up the wooden steps, the sound echoing off the roof of the covered arena a few dozen feet away.

“Need to call a tow company,” she muttered on her way by.

He swung the door closed behind her. “If you’re having car problems, I can take a look.”

“No, thanks.” She’d clearly been to the apartment before, because she walked straight to the phone in the kitchen.

“Thanks.” She turned away from him, dialed a number. “Hi,” he heard her all but whisper into the white handset. Curious, he followed her. Her gaze met his and she half turned away. “This is Carolina Cruthers. I—” She slapped her mouth closed and, judging by the way her full lips pressed together, she wasn’t happy about what someone said on the other end. “Actually, yes, I did.” She lowered her voice even more. “I’m at work.” She gave an address, one he instantly recognized as his own. Well, it’d been his when he was a kid, growing up on Reynolds Ranch. He still owned fifty-plus acres to the east, part of his inheritance when his dad died. One day he would build there, but for now, he was ensconced in his brother’s fancy barn.

“I’ll be waiting.” She hung up, lifted a hand in apology. “Sorry to bug you.”

“How long before they get here?”

Her eyes dipped down, but not before he spotted the way they lingered on his chest. He supposed he should feel self-conscious standing in front of her half-naked, but he hadn’t spent the last eight years of his life in the military, four of them as an Army Ranger, without learning how to be comfortable in his own skin.

“Half hour, they said. Maybe more.”

“Locked your keys in your truck again?”

Her eyes widened in surprise, and he caught his first good look at their color. Light blue. The color of the sky first thing in the morning. The ring around the pupils so dark it made the lightness stand out. Some men might find her twin braids, worn jeans and dirty boots attractive, but he liked his women far more feminine.

“I guess Colt told you about me.”

He’d been told the woman had been through a lot. He scanned her arms and her face. No sign of the bruises his brother had mentioned. He did notice, though, that for someone who tried to project toughness, she had a very fragile-looking face. Tiny chin. Small nose. High cheekbones, and skin as pale as the fresh snow that sometimes fell in the desert.

“He told me you were in a spot of trouble.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” she said before tipping her chin up. “Thanks for letting me use your phone. I’ll wait outside.”

“No need.” He spotted his shirt on the floor near the couch, up next to the wall. He must have shed his clothes on his way to bed. “Sit down and relax.”

The words brought to mind a different image, one that had no business slipping into his thoughts, especially given what she’d just been through. Especially given where he’d just come from. Behind enemy lines. Fighting insurgents. Trying to survive. He still couldn’t quite grasp he was home again.

Home to babysit the woman in front of him.

Because that’s what it boiled down to. Truth was, his brother had been worried about his rodeo trick rider. Really worried. Concerned enough that he’d put Chance in charge of the rodeo act. Carolina had been acting funny, too, Colt had told him. Like locking her keys in her truck and forgetting portions of her routine. His brother had a feeling there was more to the breakup with her ex than she let on. He was pretty sure she was being stalked, not that she’d tell anyone anything. Typical cowgirl. They thought they could handle anything without a man’s help.

“Thanks, but that’s okay.” She took a deep breath, and though she was tiny, she tried to make herself look ten feet tall by standing up straight. “I can wait outside.” She turned to leave.

He cleared his throat. “I bet I can open the door of your truck long before a tow service gets here.”

She paused with her hand on the door. “No, you can’t.”

“Yes, I can.” Breaking into vehicles had been part of his military training. That, and a few other things she didn’t need to know about. “Sixty seconds, maybe less.”

“You think?”

“Just give me a knife.”

“A knife?”

“That’s all I need.”

She didn’t look convinced. “There’s some utensils in the kitchen drawers, I think, if you really want to give it a try.”

Try? Army Rangers didn’t just try. They did.

He moved forward. “Chance Reynolds.”

She wiped her palms on the front of her jeans before saying, “Carolina Cruthers.” She shook his hand.

She couldn’t take her eyes off his chest, and the sight of her blushing, embarrassed and so clearly uncomfortable, gave him an odd sort of pleasure. It shouldn’t. He wasn’t back in the States to get involved with anyone. In a short time, he’d be back over there—the Middle East again—as a private contractor. Besides, relationships with cowgirls weren’t his thing. He’d gone that route before, during his high school rodeoing days, but they were too independent for their own good. Drove him nuts.

“I’ll meet you downstairs.” She backed away, spun and exited the door like a horse bolting for the barn, which he supposed in a way she was.

Carolina Cruthers.

He tasted the name on his lips. She wasn’t what he’d expected at all. The Carolina from the website had looked pretty enough, but he’d figured she’d be loud and crass and obnoxious. A cowgirl in overalls, a cowboy hat and with a piece of straw hanging out of her mouth. This Carolina was shy and innocent and, yes, pretty.

And as he listened to her feet fly down the steps, he couldn’t decide if that was a good thing...or bad.

Chapter Two (#ulink_550c62f5-65bc-5c9a-92d1-63c2353ad10d)

Please let him find a shirt. Please let him find a shirt. Pleasepleasepleaseplease.

“You ready?”

She jumped.

He stared at her with concern. “Easy there, sparky.” He smiled, his big strong jaw with its ridge of muscle along the bottom jutting out. “You’ll give yourself a heart attack.”

He wore a shirt. Thank God he wore a shirt. But for some reason, the sight of him with clothes on wasn’t any better than the sight of him half-naked. Damn that Colt Reynolds. Why hadn’t he told her he’d come home? Then again, maybe he had. Maybe she’d been so distracted by James’s latest text she’d missed that tiny tidbit of information. It wouldn’t surprise her. Not that it mattered. Nothing could have prepared her for the sight of Chance Reynolds in the flesh. Something about the man made her want to melt into the ground. Maybe it was his eyes. Or maybe it was his height and the way his bearing and short hair had the stamp of a military man. He was taller than Colt. His face was shaped differently, too. Chance was one of those guys who could easily be in films, with his sweeping brows and thick lower lip. He had scruff on his chin, too, and along the ridge of his jaw, a stain of color that turned his tan skin a darker brown. She’d taken one look at him and turned as stupidly speechless as a starstruck teen.

“Sorry.” She forced a smile. “I’m a little jumpy today.”

He gave her a look that she didn’t quite understand, maybe because she had turned away too quickly. It had almost seemed like sympathy, although he had no reason to feel sorry for her...unless. Goodness, he didn’t know about James, did he?