Karen Kelley - How to Seduce a Texan

He didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her.

Not when he knew the story was all that mattered to her. He had the upper hand and planned to keep it. He didn’t care how she dressed or how much she flirted-he wouldn’t fall for her tricks.

If she’d done her research, Nikki would know that she wouldn’t get her story that easily. He was a hell of a lot tougher than that.

He strolled to the pickup, grabbed a sack of feed, and slung it over his shoulder before carrying it toward the barn. By the time he got there, he was back in complete control. As he set the sack just inside the door, he could hear Nikki mumbling.

“Well, that’s just great!” Nikki jumped from the stool, taking her milk bucket with her.

He leaned against a bail of hay and listened.

“You couldn’t wait to go to the bathroom? It’s not as though you had all the time in the world before I sat down. I saw you and you were just standing at the fence doing nothing.”

A slow grin spread across his face. She didn’t really sound angry, just put out. Damn, she was cute.

“In the future, I’d appreciate it if you’d see to your bodily functions prior to being milked. Just because you’re a cow doesn’t mean you can’t have any manners.”

Cal barely contained his laughter. She’d call it quits now. She might be The Barracuda, but this ranch didn’t have an ocean for her to swim in and it didn’t look like it would be that long before she’d go looking for bluer waters.

But she didn’t leave.

He quickly sobered when she repositioned the stool and sat back down. She had mettle, he’d give her that. There was no way she’d last, but yeah, she did have mettle. Odd, but his grandfather always told Cal that you could judge a person by how much spirit the person had.

Well, she may have spirit but it was for all the wrong reasons.

“Ugh! You stink.”

Bessie turned her head and looked at Nikki, mooing an apology.

“Those big eyes won’t get you anywhere, and I’m not going to forgive you-at least not for a while. You should be down here inhaling this obnoxious odor.”

Cal grinned as he went back to his pickup for the other sack of feed. It was already proving to be an interesting day. And he had to admit, she was kind of fun to have around. He hadn’t minded kissing her, either. No, he hadn’t minded that at all.

“At this rate, you won’t finish in time to start the evening milking,” Cal said as he came up behind Nikki.

She jumped, almost knocking over the milk bucket, and she’d worked hard for that cup of milk.

She stopped long enough to look over her shoulder and give Cal her freeze-you-in-your-tracks glare. He had the nerve to grin. A lesser man would’ve turned and run away as fast as he could. Now that she thought about it, that might explain why she hadn’t had sex in a while.

Then his words sank into her brain. “What do you mean, evening milking?” she asked. Surely, he was joking. She looked at the cow’s bag. No, it wasn’t possible that it would fill up again that fast.

“Bessie needs to be milked twice a day,” Cal said, confirming her worst fear.

Well, hell.

She glanced inside the bucket. “I thought I was doing pretty good,” she grumbled. She had enough for a tall latte, except now she thought she might start drinking her coffee minus the milk. It was a lot different when you actually saw where the milk was coming from.

He motioned for her to get up. “Let me show you how a pro does it.”

Gladly, and she didn’t even care that he was apparently better at it than her. Not that she thought he would get much more milk out of the cow.

She stood, flexing her fingers, and moved out of his way. She would think on the bright side. If she had to milk the cow twice a day, she would probably drop a ring size by the time she had her story and was out of here.

She eyed the three-legged wooden stool. On the other hand, her butt might get broader from all the sitting. Not a good trade-off. But when Cal pulled the stool under him, she noticed his butt looked pretty darn good from this angle. Not bad at all.

“Sah, Bessie,” Cal spoke softly when Bessie turned to look at the newcomer. The cow quickly settled down as Cal began to milk her.

Milk immediately pinged against the sides of the bucket. Okay, so he was better at milking than she’d been. She frowned. But that wasn’t all. Bessie seemed more content that Cal was the one doing the milking. It would seem he was good with animals, and women.

Well, except Cynthia. Which reminded her that she was here to get a story.

“You’re a lot faster,” she told him.

“Years of practice.”

“Are you partners with your brother?” she asked, keeping her words casual. For a moment, she wondered if he was going to answer or if he had even heard her. He seemed pretty intent on finishing the milking.

“No, I’m just visiting a few weeks,” he finally spoke.

Had the pinging of the milk against the side of the bucket gotten a little faster? Maybe he’d been asked so many questions in the past that he was leery of answering more. But then, she was good at making people feel at ease. It usually didn’t take long for them to open up to her.

“It’s good that you can visit him.” She casually leaned against the fence. “Do you live in Texas?”

“All my life.”

That told her absolutely zip. Again, something still didn’t feel quite right. It was as though he was evading her questions. She wondered again if he knew her real reason for being here.

“I play football,” he said.

She breathed a sigh of relief. Of course he didn’t know she was trying to get a story. She really had to stop being so paranoid. Being out of her element was really doing a number on her, and she was so out of her element here in the country.

“Football?” she asked.

“Professional. Do you watch the games?”

“No, sorry. Do you enjoy tossing a ball around?”

“It’s a living.”

Her ears perked up. “You don’t like it?”

“I still enjoy the thrill of competition, but the hard knocks I can do without.” He stood, bucket in hand. “That and the nosey reporters. They have a way of taking things out of context. They look at one part of my life and blow it out of proportion.”

Yeah, she felt much more confident about prying a story out of him. He needed to look at it from her angle. She was reporting what people needed to know: the dirty politicians, corporations skimming from their shareholders, corruption and fraud in the government.

Except that wasn’t exactly the case this time. Not even close, and guilt didn’t sit well with her.

“But then, I don’t have to worry about reporters out here,” he said, drawing her attention back to him.

She couldn’t meet his gaze. Instead, she glanced inside the bucket. Her eyes widened. Okay, now he’d impressed her. Frothy white milk came up to the rim of the bucket. “How did you fill it so fast?”

“It just takes practice. I was raised on this ranch and I grew up milking cows.”

This was much safer than talking about reporters and she could get a little background on him. “Your parents owned it?”

“No, they were killed in a car wreck when my brother, Brian, was just a baby.”

“I’m sorry.” And she meant it. She couldn’t imagine growing up without her parents. They were great, even though time with them had been at a premium, but the moments they’d shared together had been quality time.

Even now, they made a point of meeting once every two months on the second Saturday. They always went out to eat at her favorite restaurant and caught up with each other’s lives. It worked out well all around.