Tanna’s head fell back, letting his greedy kisses on her skin consume her. When she realized her hands were gripping the booth and not his rock-hard flesh, she reached out and placed her palms on his pectorals.
“I like your hands on me,” he murmured against the upper swell of her breast.
She curled her fingers into his torso, allowing her nails to scrape down his belly to the waistband of his jeans. Then she put her mouth on the salty skin beneath his ear. “Imagine me doin’ that down your back.” She nipped on his earlobe. “At least two times.”
He groaned and then his mouth was back, overwhelming hers with passion. Not sloppy, wet, I wanna fuck you kisses. But hot, hungry kisses that drove her to another level of need. This wouldn’t be a one-off fuck. The first time might be fast. But the second time wouldn’t be. Nor would the third time. The fourth go around would be spectacular.
Looked to be a long, sweaty night.
And she couldn’t freakin’ wait.
She slapped her hands on his cheeks to pull his mouth off hers. When she stared into his face and saw that devilish gleam, she smirked back.
“What?”
“Didn’t you say something about throwing me over your shoulder and getting us outta here?”
“Let’s go.”
Chapter Two
Tanna woke up in a panic, sheet clutched to her naked chest. She looked around wildly until she realized she was in her motel room, not his. She sagged into the pillows with relief when she remembered making her escape after he’d fallen into a deep sleep.
Escape. She’d forced herself to leave because she hadn’t wanted to. It felt wrong lumping the guy in with her other one-night stands. The sex had been fantastic. A little hard and fast wham bam—which she loved—and then he’d switched gears, drawing out their mutual pleasure. Words beyond yes, now and more had been unnecessary. They’d let their bodies do all the talking.
So maybe she wished they’d exchanged names. But it was too late now. She glanced at the clock. Nine a.m. Man, she’d slept in this morning. She headed straight for the shower.
After checking out of the motel, Tanna walked two blocks to the truck stop’s gravel parking lot where she’d ditched her truck and horse trailer. Didn’t appear anyone had messed with it, which was a good thing since all her earthly possessions were contained within the horse bay. She tried not to feel pitiful; a former world champion barrel racer without a horse. A former world champion without a home. A former world champion barrel racer without anything, really. She’d lost so much in the two years since her mother had passed on it still seemed surreal.
Shaking off the melancholy, she climbed in the cab of her Dodge, cranked up the tunes and plugged in the GPS coordinates for the Gilchrist Ranch.
The minute she reached the nicely kept ranch house, Celia Gilchrist opened the front door and stepped onto the front porch to greet her. Celia’s husband Kyle exited the house and stood beside her.
Tanna jumped out of her truck and landed hard on her right leg. She bit back a curse and a cry of pain. She feared she’d never be at one hundred percent again. As soon as she straightened up, Celia was there, hugging her.
“You have no idea how happy I am that you’re here, Tanna.” Celia stepped back and gave her a critical once-over. “Damn, I forget how gorgeous you are. You don’t look like you’ve been through nine months of hell.”
Tanna poked Celia’s pregnant belly. “Speaking of nine months . . . how you feelin’, mama?”
Kyle stood behind Celia, setting his hands on her shoulders. “She’s ornery half the time and crying the other half.”
“Not true.” Celia elbowed him in the gut. “I’m feeling great now. I was damn happy to see the ass end of morning sickness.”
“You look beautiful.” Tanna wasn’t just blowing smoke. Celia had a glow about her. A happy vibe surrounded her and Kyle. Tanna would be jealous except Celia and Kyle’s road to love, marriage and a baby carriage hadn’t been a cakewalk. “So, you’re at what? Five months now?”
“Yep. My due date is the first part of September.” Celia shot Kyle a wry look. “Be interesting to see how it is with a baby during calving.”
“I’m sure you’ll do great.” Tanna looped her arm through Celia’s. “You are up to giving me the grand tour of your ranch?”
“Sure. We’ve made a lot of improvements in the last two and a half years since Kyle inherited it.”
“I can’t believe you guys have been married that long.”
Kyle grabbed Celia’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “Been the best two and a half years of my life.”
Celia made goo-goo eyes at him and Tanna couldn’t resist making gagging noises.
After a quick tour on four-wheelers, they returned to the house and sat in the cozy breakfast nook. Tanna immediately reached for the sugar upon discovering the iced tea wasn’t presweetened.
“When do you start working?” Celia asked.
“Monday. I’ve got orientation on Sunday.”
“If you’ve got tomorrow off, then you can come to the branding.”
“You need help?”
Kyle shrugged. “You know how it goes. The branding itself don’t take long. It’s the rounding up and we could always use more calf wranglers.”
“Sounds like fun. I’ll be here unless I have to start work a day early.” Tanna broached the subject, no matter how loudly her pride screamed to let it go. “How is it that a Texas girl was offered a job at the Split Rock Ranch and Resort in Wyoming?”
Celia fidgeted. Then she looked Tanna in the eye. “I know you struggled after your mom’s death. And then to suffer the type of injury you did nine months ago . . .” Her eyes brimmed with sympathy. “There’s no need to pretend things haven’t been rough on you. After the accident you took that job at Billy Bob’s Texas because you didn’t have a choice. So that means you’ve got experience with retail sales and tending bar, which makes you the perfect temporary solution to the Split Rock’s staffing issues.”
“Why is everyone so vague about why these positions are temporary?”
“Are you lookin’ for something permanent?”
I don’t know.
“All three of the big bosses will be out of commission for a while. My sister-in-law Janie—she’s married to Abe—deals with sales and PR for the resort and she just had her second baby. Harper Turner runs Wild West Clothiers and is set to deliver her second baby any day.” Celia shook her head. “Harper will have had two kids in twenty-two months. Janie had two kids in two-and-a-half years. Tierney Jackson is in charge of the resort’s finances and she’s pregnant with her first baby. She’s fine to do her job, but she can’t pitch in or fill in for anyone else like she’s done in the past. Her husband Renner put his foot down and since Renner is the majority owner, what he says goes.”
“So Janie and Harper will be coming back to work?”
“Be hard for them not to come back since they’re both owners,” Celia pointed out. “They’ve each decided to take a three-month maternity leave and summer is the busiest time at the resort, which puts everyone in a bind. Finding qualified people is hard enough around here and no one wants to take a job even temporarily if there’s no chance the position will become permanent. When they mentioned their staffing problem, I recommended you as a possible hire for the short term. Lainie vouched for you too.”
“I appreciate it. I’ll get used to the funny way y’all talk and that you don’t put sugar in your tea,” Tanna drawled.
Celia smiled. “Tierney’s sister Harlow will be filling in at the resort this summer too.” Then her smile dimmed and she placed her hand on Tanna’s injured knee.
Tanna braced herself.
“I’ve gotta ask. Have you gotten on a horse since the last time we talked?”
Tanna shook her head.
“You need to.”
They’d had this discussion several times and neither Tanna’s mind nor her response had changed.
Celia kept p
ressing her point. “It’s part of who you are. You’re scared. Which is understandable, given what happened.”
Tanna could still hear the horse’s high-pitched whinny echoing in her head. That noise haunted her. “My physical therapist said—”
“That you were fine to resume riding.”
Her eyes narrowed on Celia. “How do you know?”
“You called me after the appointment.”
“I did not.”
“You did too. But I’m pretty sure you’d been drinking.”
Tanna had done a lot of drinking in the last nine months since the accident—although some people didn’t refer to it as an accident. They called it negligence.
God. Even saying the word made her want to throw up. She’d never been negligent with a horse entrusted to her care. Never.
“Tanna?”
She glanced up at Kyle. “Sorry. What did you say?”
“I said I know where you’re coming from. You’ll know when the time is right to face them demons.” Celia opened her mouth to retort but Kyle shook his head. “Leave it be, Cele.”
“Fine. But can I at least introduce you to Eli?” Celia asked.
Tanna said, “I guess.” No point in adding more fuel to Celia’s need to “fix” her by admitting she didn’t believe Celia’s good friend and longtime horse trainer Eli Whirling Cloud could help her—despite his reputation as some kind of magical horse whisperer.
“You still plan on leaving your horse trailer here while you’re workin’ at the Split Rock?” Kyle asked.
“If that’s okay. I took out everything I’d need and packed it in my truck.”
“Let’s get it parked and get you settled in up at the resort.”
When they caravanned down the highway, Tanna couldn’t help but gawk at the diverse scenery. The landscape looked like West Texas for a few miles and then sheer rock cliffs seemed to rise out of nowhere. Followed by miles of sagebrush and scrub cedar. Then miles of nothing.
After turning down a wide gravel road, the topography changed once again to a wooded area with rolling hills and scrubby pine trees. They started up a steep rise and at the top were two stone pillars with a wooden sign hanging between them, denoting the Split Rock Ranch and Resort.
Tanna caught her first look at the place. Wood and stone with metal accents. Bigger than she’d thought. Classy but it had a low-key vibe too. At one time she would’ve stayed in a place like this. Now she was here as an employee.
Even with Celia and Kyle accompanying her inside she was nervous. She had nowhere else to go so she had to make this job work.
She caught a brief glimpse of the great room before Celia cut down the right hallway, with Kyle’s hand in the small of her back. Celia leaned into him and murmured something that caused Kyle to kiss her cheek. Even Tanna’s cynical side, which scoffed at the idea of true love and soul mates, thawed the teeniest bit seeing her friends so attuned to each other.
Celia stopped in front of the office and knocked.
The door was opened by a pregnant brunette. She adjusted her glasses after she looked at Celia’s baby bump and then at hers. “I don’t think we can walk through the door at the same time.”
“Funny.” Celia stepped aside. “Tierney Jackson, meet Tanna Barker. World champion barrel racer, awesome friend and your pinch hitter for the summer. Tierney is the financial guru around here but don’t let that fool you. The girl knows how to shoot tequila.”
“Forever branded as a bad girl by one isolated incident.”
Someone behind them snorted.
Tierney stepped forward and offered her hand. “Tanna, I’m so happy to finally meet you in person. Celia has said the best things about you.”
“Likewise. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work at the resort. It’s a gorgeous place from what I’ve seen.”
After they exited the office, a good-looking guy, whose carriage screamed cowboy, stepped up beside Tierney. He offered his hand. “Tanna. Renner Jackson. We’ve met before. It’s been a while though. I’ve enjoyed watching you barrel race on many occasions.”
“Thank you. So, you’re the big boss?”
“I’m the majority owner but I’d be skinned alive if I copped to bein’ the big boss.” He grinned. “I was smart enough to hire the best and the brightest.”
Tierney hip-checked him. “Don’t you forget it, cowboy.”
Renner looked at Kyle. “You wanna drive Tanna’s truck to the employee lodgings? She’ll be in the fourth trailer. Park in back. We’ll walk down.”
Tanna tossed Kyle her keys.
Renner offered a brief history of the resort and took her back to the main room. He pointed out the various areas with a promise she’d get a more in-depth tour on Sunday.
They cut through the kitchen, which was surprisingly quiet for a Friday. “We’ve only got two rooms booked for tonight and the couples made alternate supper plans so we’re without kitchen staff.”
“You don’t have your kitchen staff cooking for the employees?”
“No.” Renner held open the door for her and Celia and Tierney who were in conversation, walking behind them. “The Split Rock is run like a hotel and not a bunkhouse where the cook is feeding ranch hands twice a day. Most of the employees go home. With a couple of exceptions. The foreman for my stock contracting company lives on-site, as does our jack-of-all-trades, who’ll run my commercial stock-breeding business if we ever get the damn thing off the ground. The head of housekeeping and the groundskeeper are married, so they’re livin’ here too. And now you.”
He’d started down a footpath crafted from flat stones. “There are paths like this everywhere. Most of ’em are marked, with the exception of the way to the employees’ quarters.”
Tanna looked around, immediately calmed by the peaceful scenery. She knew it’d taken a lot of work to make this look natural. They kept walking until they reached a series of high wooden fences. The angle of each section and cut of the pieces of wood gave the illusion of a see-through fence, but all six segments were solid. “Cool fence.”
“Thanks. When guests ask we tell them it’s a windbreak and a sound barrier, which ain’t entirely a lie. But it’s mostly to keep the employee quarters hidden from plain sight. We had a few guests complain early on that they hadn’t paid big money to stay at a pricey resort only to have to look at decrepit trailers. So we remedied that.”
“Should I be worried about these decrepit living conditions?” she joked.
“Nope. We revamped them too. Of course they ain’t nearly as nice as the lodge. But they’re much better than when I lived there.”
That shocked her. “You bunked down with your employees?”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t ask them to do something I wasn’t willing to do myself.”
That was a refreshing philosophy.
They skirted the farthest end of the enormous fence and crossed a gravel path. Six trailers were nestled in a straight line. Each one had a small deck that separated it from the trailer beside it. A covered portico arched over each front door. A planked walkway ran from the first house to the last and it resembled a floating dock. All the structures had the same wood siding and looked more like cabins than trailers. A small set of steps led to the slightly raised platform.
“This is yours, the fourth from the left. Tobin lives in the first one, Hugh the second one, and Dave and Yvette in the last one.”
“Two are empty?”
“Tierney’s sister Harlow was supposed to take one, but she’s moved into our old place.”
“Where do you and Tierney live?”
“In a new house down the road,” Tierney said. “We’d planned to wait until this fall to start building, but Mr. Impatient insisted the house be completely finished before little bean gets here in the next three months.”
Renner placed his hands on Tierney’s belly. “I take care of what’s mine. And it was past time. The cabin was too damn small for us, let alone us and a baby.” He kissed her.
/> “You’re fogging up my glasses.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
All these mushy love vibes were making Tanna’s feet itch with the need to escape.
Kyle walked down the plank. “You want all the stuff from your truck carried inside, Tanna?”
“No, if we could just set it on the deck I can get it inside later. Thanks.”
Renner pointed to Celia and Tierney. “You two stay put. No lifting anything.”
They exchanged an eye roll and resumed their pregnancy complaints.
Tanna was anxious to see the inside of the place she’d be living all summer. Sort of pathetic that at her age she’d never really had a place of her own. She’d lived at home on the family ranch when she wasn’t on the road chasing the gold buckle. After her father had sold the place, she’d returned to life on the blacktop, staying in the cheapest motels she could find or she had bedded down in her horse trailer.
After the accident, which required surgery on her right knee and ankle, she’d spent two weeks in the hospital. Then she was transferred to a physical therapy center that specialized in treating sports-related injuries. She’d chosen the intensive therapy option and two months after the accident her range of motion had returned to ninety percent, although she still had the occasional issue with her knee. She probably could’ve regained that extra ten percent if she’d continued with therapy, but medical bills had depleted her bank account.