Robyn Grady - Unbiddable Attraction

“You have all that going on at one time?” she asked, starting toward the porch steps.

“Sometimes it can be pretty busy around here,” he said, laughing as he opened the front door for her.

When Fee entered and looked around the foyer, she immediately fell in love with Chance’s home. The log walls had aged over the years to a beautiful warm honey color and were adorned with pieces of colorful Native American artwork along with cowboy-related items like a pair of well-worn spurs hanging next to a branding iron. Although the Big Blue’s main ranch house, where she had attended the wedding, was quite beautiful, it had a more modern feel about it. Chance’s home, on the other hand, had that warm, rustic appeal that could only be achieved with the passage of time.

“This is really beautiful,” she said, gazing up at the chandelier made of deer antlers. “Did you decorate it?”

“Yeah, I just look like the type of guy who knows all about that stuff, don’t I?” Laughing, he shook his head. “After I finished adding on to the cabin and modernizing things like the kitchen and bathrooms, I turned the house over to my mom for the decorating. She has a real knack for that kind of thing.”

“Marlene did a wonderful job,” Fee said, smiling. “She should have been a professional interior decorator.”

“She was too busy chasing a houseful of kids.” Before she could ask what he meant, he nodded toward the stairs. “Would you like to see your room?”

“Absolutely,” she said as they started upstairs. She couldn’t believe how eager she sounded about the bedroom, considering the moment they had just shared out by the truck. To cover the awkwardness, she added, “I can’t wait to see what your mother did with the bedrooms.”

When they reached the second floor, Chance directed her toward a room at the far end of the hall and opened the door. “If you don’t like this one, there are four more you can choose from.”

“I love it,” Fee said, walking into the cheery room.

The log walls were the same honey color as the ones downstairs, but the room had a more feminine feel to it with the yellow calico curtains and bright patchwork quilt on the log bed. An antique mirror hung on the wall above a cedar-log dresser with a white milk glass pitcher and bowl on top. But her favorite feature of the room had to be the padded window seat beneath the double windows. She could imagine spending rainy afternoons curled up with a good book and a cup of hot peach tea on that bench.

“Your private bathroom is just through there,” he said, pointing toward a closed door as he set her luggage on the hardwood plank floor.

“Thank you, Chance.” She continued to look around. “This is just fine.”

“I’ll be downstairs in the kitchen if you need anything. When you get your things unpacked, come on down and we’ll see what there is for supper.” He stepped closer and lightly touched her cheek with the back of his knuckles. “And just so you know, I am going to do what both of us want.”

“W-what’s that?” she asked, wondering why the sound of his voice made her feel warm all over.

Her heart skipped a beat when his gaze locked with hers. But when he lightly traced her lower lip with the pad of his thumb, a shiver of anticipation slid up her spine and goose bumps shimmered over her skin.

“I’m going to kiss you, Fee,” he said, his tone low and intimate. “And soon.” Without another word, he turned and walked out into the hall, closing the door behind him.

Staring after him, she would have liked to deny that he was right about what she wanted. But she couldn’t. She had thought he was going to kiss her when he came to get her at the rental house this afternoon and then again when they arrived at the ranch. Both times she’d been disappointed when he hadn’t.

With her knees wobbling, she crossed the room to sit on the side of the bed. What on earth had gotten into her? She had a job to do and a promotion to earn. She didn’t need the added distraction of a man in her life—even if it was only briefly.

But as she sat there wondering why he was more tempting than any other man she’d ever met, Fee knew without a shadow of doubt that the chemistry between herself and Chance was going to be extremely hard to resist. Every time he got within ten feet of her, she felt as if the air had been charged by an electric current, and when he touched her, all she could think about was how his lips would feel on hers when he kissed her. She could tell from the looks he gave her and his constant desire to touch her that he was feeling it, as well.

But she had her priorities straight. She was focused on her goal of becoming Lassiter Media’s first vice president in charge of public relations under the age of thirty. She wasn’t going to risk her career for any man and especially not for a summer fling—even if the sexy-as-sin cowboy had a charming smile and a voice that could melt the polar ice caps.

* * *

“Did you get the little lady squared away?” Gus Swenson asked when Chance entered the kitchen.

Too old to continue doing ranch work and too ornery to go anywhere else, Gus had become the cook and housekeeper after the renovations to the homestead had been completed. If it had been left up to him, Chance would have just had Gus move into the homestead and that would have been that. After all, Gus had been his dad’s lifelong best friend—he was practically family. But Gus’s pride had been at stake and that’s why Chance had disguised his offer in the form of a job. The old man had grumbled about being reduced to doing “women’s work,” but Chance knew Gus was grateful for the opportunity to live out the rest of his days on the ranch he had worked for the past fifty years.

“Yup. She’s in the room across the hall from mine,” Chance answered, walking over to hang his hat on a peg beside the back door.

Reaching into the refrigerator, he got himself a beer and popped off the metal cap. He needed something to take the edge off the tension building inside him.

In hindsight, it might not have been the smartest decision he’d ever made to put Fee in the room across from the master suite. If touching her smooth cheek was all it took to make him feel as restless as a bull moose in mating season, how the hell was he going to get any sleep? He tipped the bottle up and drank half the contents. Just the thought of her lying in bed within feet of where he would be, wearing something soft and transparent, her silky blond hair spread across the pillow, had him ready to jump out of his own skin.

“You still got the notion you’re gonna talk her outta makin’ you a movie star?” Gus asked, drawing him out of his unsettling insight.

“I told you she wants me to be the spokesman for her PR campaign,” Chance said, finishing off the beer. “That’s a far cry from being in a movie.”

“You’re gonna be in front of a camera, ain’t ya?” Gus asked. Before Chance could answer, the old man went on. “I’ve got a month’s pay that says you’ll end up doin’ it.”

Chance laughed as he tossed the empty bottle in the recycling container under the sink. “That’s one bet you’ll lose.”

The old man grunted. “We’ll see, hotshot. You ain’t never asked a woman to come stay here before and that’s a surefire sign that she’s already got you roped. It’s just a matter of time before she’s got you fallin’ all over yourself to do whatever she wants.”

Deciding there might be a ring of truth to Gus’s observations and not at all comfortable with it, Chance changed the subject. “Did Slim check on the north pasture’s grazing conditions today?”

He didn’t have to ask if Gus had seen the ranch foreman. The old guy made a trip out to the barn every afternoon when the men came back to the ranch for the day, to shoot the breeze and feel as if he was still a working cowboy.