Stella Bagwell - The Cowboy And The Debutante

He was so wrong that she didn’t even want to try to correct his thinking. And where was his thinking coming from? It didn’t matter, she told herself fiercely. What Miguel Chavez thought of her was his own problem.

“My mother said you were a good man. Obviously she doesn’t know you.”

Anna turned and stomped away from him. She went straight to the branding pen, climbed the metal fence and jumped to the ground inside. Let Miguel be put out with her, she thought angrily. She was home on vacation. If she wanted to help with roundup, she would.

An hour later sweat was pouring down her face, tracking the fine dust coating her skin. She’d long ago shed her jean jacket, and manure now stained the front of her pink cotton shirt and splotched her chaps. But none of those discomforts bothered Anna nearly as much as Miguel’s earlier remarks had. She was still seething over his attitude, and though he’d been working only a few steps away from her, she’d done little more than grunt in his direction.

“You better watch out, Anna. This one is a strong cuss,” the cowhand warned as he bulldogged the half-grown calf to the ground.

Someone appeared with a branding iron just as she managed to grab the calf’s two back legs. “I’m watching,” Anna assured him, “just hurry and—”

Anna’s next word never got past her lips. The next thing she knew the ground slammed against her back and bright white lights were floating in front of her eyes.

“Anna! Anna, can you hear me?”

The deep male voice persisted, demanding she wake up and open her eyes. Anna struggled to see through the cobwebs floating around in her head.

“Miguel? Is that you?” she asked weakly.

Cool, rough fingers touched her temple, and she realized something was wrong with her head. Pain was zinging through it like bolts of lightning.

“Yes. It’s Miguel,” the male voice answered.

A strong arm slid beneath her shoulders and pillowed her upper body in a half-sitting position. “What...happened?” she asked.

“You’ve been kicked,” he said grimly. “Can you see me?”

Anna tried her best to focus her gaze on his dark face. Her vision was still blurred, but thankfully it was quickly clearing.

“Yes. Was I...kicked in the head?” She brought her fingers up to her forehead. It felt like someone had whammed her with a hammer.

“Right in the temple.”

“She took a pretty good lick, boss,” one of the cowboys that were grouped around them said. “Maybe she should go to the doctor.”

“You’re probably right, Jim,” Miguel agreed. “Can you men go on, while I take Anna back to the ranch?”

“No!” Anna practically shouted and made a sudden move to get to her feet.

“Stay where you are!”

The demanding tone of Miguel’s voice was like a shot of adrenaline to Anna. She shoved herself away from him and stood on rubbery legs.

“I’m okay. I don’t need a doctor!”

Another cowhand retrieved her felt hat from the ground where she’d fallen and handed it to her. Anna jammed it back on her head and tried not to wince as it settled over the goose egg that had already formed beneath her scalp.

“You probably have a concussion,” Miguel warned her.

“I can see, and I don’t have the urge to throw up. I just have an ache in my head. And you would, too, under the circumstances.”

Miguel motioned for the men to get back to work, then, taking Anna by the arm, he led her over to the back of the chuck wagon where the two of them would be out of sight from the others.

“Why are you continuing to argue with me? You were briefly knocked out cold!” he told her, his voice rough with frustration. “I want you to swallow a couple of pain pills, and then I’m going to ride with you back to the ranch.”

“Why? I don’t need to go back to the ranch.”

He glared at her with angry disbelief, and Anna wished she had the strength to knock the know-it-all look off his face.

“You didn’t need to be down in the branding pen, either,” he said, “but you wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Oh, sure, throw that up to me! I’m sure it tickles you to death to be able to say ‘I told you so.”’

At this very moment, Miguel wanted to shake her, then hold her as tightly as he could. He’d never been so frightened as when he’d heard the thud of the calf’s hoof striking her head and then had seen her lying white-faced and lifeless on the ground.

“Nothing about this situation tickles me Anna.”

She tried not to feel hurt by his attitude. After all, nowhere was it written that he had to like her. “In other words, you never wanted me around in the first place. You only tolerated my presence because of my mother. Well, if you must know, I only came out here on this roundup to please my mother.”

“And here I thought all this time you were pining to be near me,” he said sarcastically.

“You really are—” she shook her head “—sickening!”

Suddenly his hand was cupping the back of her neck and his face was dangerously close to hers. “What would you know about me, Anna Murdock Sanders? You’ve been away from this ranch for more than a year. You didn’t even know your mother had hired a new man to run the place. I can plainly see who and what you care about!”

Anger turned her cheeks scarlet and made her head pound just that much worse. “I think your hands and your notions are both misguided,” she said through gritted teeth.

Something flared in his eyes, but before Anna could figure out what it was, pressure from his fingers propelled her forward and a pair of hard lips clamped down on hers.

She groaned a protest in her throat, and her fists came up to push against his shoulders. But that was where her fight ended. Her stunned outrage was suddenly forgotten as her senses gave over to the overwhelming sensation of being in his arms, tasting his hard, warm lips.

Anna was certain an eternity had passed before he finally ended the kiss and looked down at her. By then her legs were trembling even worse than before, and her head reeled with pain and the humiliation of surrendering to the man.

“I’m certain,” he muttered, “that you think entirely too much. As for my hands and my notions—you won’t be bothered by either of them again!”

“That’s the best news I’ve had in years!”

Miguel didn’t know what in hell had come over him. He hadn’t wanted to kiss Anna Murdock Sanders! But he had, and even now he still couldn’t find the strength to put her away from him.

“Can you see straight now?” he asked coolly.

Her nostrils flared daintily as her eyes focused on the tantalizing curve of his lips. She was probably just one of many women that had tasted his mouth, she told herself. What had just transpired between them had meant nothing to him, except an act of punishment.

“Straighter than I’ve ever seen before!”

“Good. Then get on your horse and get out of here before I say or do something I’ll really regret.”

“Believe me, I already have.”

She jerked away from him and strode around to the front of the chuck wagon. The cook searched out a bottle of painkillers for her and Anna quickly swallowed one down with a swig of bitter coffee. By the time she’d untethered Ginger and swung herself up into the saddle, Miguel had already dismissed her and gone back to work in the branding pen. Now all she had to do was ride three miles back to the ranch and try to forget she’d ever met the man!

Chapter Three

“Anna! Anna, wake up!”

This time it was her mother’s instructions rather than Miguel’s and the urgency in the older woman’s voice caused Anna to come awake instantly.

“What’s wrong?” She glanced at the clock on the nightstand and was alarmed to see it was the middle of the night.