Her Rugged Rancher

“Very nice,” he said.

Did he really think so? Or did he think she was just a girl with too much money to spend on things she knew nothing about?

The answers to those questions hardly mattered, she thought. She might have erotic fantasies about Noah, but he’d never be anything more than a ranch employee to her. After six years of ignoring her, he’d made it fairly clear he wasn’t interested.

“Thanks. I’m proud of it.”

It took only a few moments for him to finish unsaddling the mare. While he stored the tack and saddle away, Bella grabbed a lead rope and looped it around Mary Mae’s neck.

“There’s no need to put a halter on her. She’ll lead like this,” Bella explained. “Come along and after we put her out to pasture you can join me for coffee.”

Even though she didn’t glance his way, she could feel his eyes boring a hole in her back. As though she’d invited him into her bedroom instead of her kitchen.

“Uh, thanks, Ms. Sundell, but I’d better be getting on home.”

Impatient now, she said, “My name isn’t Ms. Sundell to you. It’s Bella and furthermore, you know it. As for you getting home, you live not more than five minutes away. And there’s still an hour or more before sundown. What’s your hurry?”

Not waiting to see if he was going to follow, Bella headed down the alleyway until she reached the opposite end of the barn. There, she opened a smaller side door and urged the mare through it.

Once the three of them were outside, walking beneath the shade of the pines, he answered her question, “I have a busy day scheduled tomorrow. I need to rest.”

A loud laugh burst out of her and from the corner of her eye, she could see the sound had put a tight grimace on his face.

“Rest? Right now I imagine you could wrestle a steer to the ground and not even lose your breath. You need to come up with a more believable excuse than that.”

He moved forward so that he was on the right side of the mare’s neck and a few steps away from Bella. “Okay,” he said, “here’s another reason for you. I’m nasty and sweaty. I don’t need to be sitting on your furniture.”

She laughed again. “It’s all washable. Besides, I made a rhubarb pie before I went riding. I’ll give you a piece.”

“I’ve never eaten rhubarb.”

“Good. You’re in for a treat.”

“I don’t think—”

She interrupted, “It would be impolite for you to refuse my invitation. Besides, the pie and coffee will be my payment for the shoe job. Fair enough?”

“I wasn’t expecting payment.”

No. He seemed like the type of man who didn’t expect anything from anybody and it was that cool sort of acceptance that completely frustrated her.

Holding back a sigh, she said, “I realize that.”

Bella hardly thought of herself as a femme fatale, but she figured most any single, red-blooded man would be happy to accept her invitation. For the pie, if no other reason. But Noah wasn’t like most men. She expected if there was such a thing as a loner, he was the perfect example of one.

A short distance away from the east side of the barn, the pines opened up to create a small meadow. After she turned Mary Mae in the pasture to join Casper, she fastened the gate safely behind her.

“How do you water the horses?” he asked curiously.

“In spite of what I just said about water being scarce, I found a small spring with a small pool not far from here on a ledge of the canyon wall. The horses can access it easily and the pasture fence includes it. I try to check it daily to make sure it hasn’t dried up.”

“You’re fortunate.”

Bella knew he was talking about the water supply, but she couldn’t help thinking that he was right in so many ways. After her divorce from Marcus, she’d not been able to see much of a future. Oh, she’d not given up on life by any means, but she’d certainly been bitter and disillusioned. Coming to the J Bar S, and living with her brother, had helped her get past the failure of her marriage. She might not have the family she always wanted, but at least she had a home of her own and a blossoming career as a lawyer.

“Believe me, Noah. I realize that every day.” She turned toward the house. “Come on. Let’s go have a piece of pie and you can tell me whether I can cook or not.”

* * *

A few moments later, Noah followed Bella across a stone patio filled with lawn furniture and equipped with a fire pit. For entertaining her many friends, he thought. Most of them would probably be business people or folks connected to her law practice. He doubted a simple cowboy like him, who spent his days in the saddle, would be sitting under the shade of the pines, sipping summer cocktails.

They entered a screened-in back porch filled with more furniture and potted plants and then she opened a door that took them directly into a spacious kitchen equipped with stainless-steel appliances and a work island topped with marbled tile.

“Sorry for bringing you in the back way,” she said. “But it would’ve have been silly to walk all the way around to the front door.”

It was silly of him to be in the house in the first place, Noah thought grimly. In fact, he felt like a deer tiptoeing into an open meadow. He was just asking for trouble.

“I’m used to entering back doors, Ms.—uh, Bella.”

She laughed softly. “Maybe one of these days you’ll tell me about some of those back doors you’ve walked through.”

Only if he was drunk or had been injected with sodium pentothal, Noah thought.

“That kind of confession might incriminate me,” he said.

Her eyes sparkling, she laughed again and Noah felt the pit of his stomach make a silly little flip. Without even trying, she was the sexiest woman he’d ever met. And her sultry beauty was only a part of the reason. The richness of her voice, the sensual way her body moved, the pleasure of her laugh and glint in her brown eyes all came together to create a walking, talking bombshell.

“You need to remember that information shared between a lawyer and his client is private,” she joked, then pointed to a long pine table positioned near a bay window. “Have a seat.”

He looked at the table and then down at his hands. “I think I’d better wash my hands first.”

Pink color swept over her face. “Oh, I’m sorry, Noah. I haven’t really lost my manners. I just wasn’t thinking. Follow me and I’ll show you where you can wash up.”

They left the kitchen through a wide opening, then turned down a hallway. When they reached the second door on their right, she paused and pushed it open to reveal an opulent bathroom.

“There’s soap and towels and whatever else you need. Make yourself at home,” she told him. “When you’re finished you can find me in the kitchen.”

“Thanks.”

She left him and Noah entered the bathroom. At the gray marble sink, he scrubbed his hands and face with soap and hot water, then reluctantly reached for one of the thick, fluffy hand towels draped over a silver rack. If his hands weren’t clean enough, they’d leave traces of dirt and manure on the towel. It would be embarrassing to have Bella discover he’d messed up her fine things.

Hell, Noah, why are you worrying about a damned towel or tracking up the tile? And why should you be feeling like a stallion suddenly led into a fancy sitting room instead of a barn stall? Bella isn’t a snob. In fact, she acts as if she likes you. Why don’t you take advantage of the fact?

Disgusted by the voice sounding off in his head, Noah hurried out of the bathroom. The sooner he accepted this payment of hers, the sooner he could get out of here and forget all about her and her warm smile and sweet-smelling skin. He could go back to being a saddle tramp. A man without a family and a past he desperately wanted to forget.

Chapter Two (#ulink_fc8b8835-bce3-5e0e-bb33-b3d212b748b9)

When Noah returned to the kitchen, Bella was standing at the cabinet counter. The moment she heard his footsteps, she glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him.