Tina Leonard - Branded by a Callahan

He wondered if Ana would rescind her offer to have his child now that his sister had so nicely illustrated the family’s views of him. Jace had certainly thrown himself at the nanny bodyguards, but they’d seemed to treat him as everybody’s favorite beta-male brother, fun and nonthreatening. “Yes, I’m going to share my new recipe for blackberry pie and drop-stitch knitting tips I got from Mrs. Adams with Aunt Fiona as soon as I get home.”

“Oh, don’t get your feelings hurt, brother. We love you, you know,” Ash said.

“I’m fine. I really got a recipe from Mrs. Adams, and she shared some knitting tips.” He smiled, not caring if he did sound too sweet to be a retired SEAL.

Ana turned to look at him. “Her blackberry pie was excellent.”

He nodded. “It sure was.”

“How did you get clothes for me, and a great recipe and knitting tips out of her?” Ana asked, and he shrugged.

“Dante’s a chatterer,” Ash chimed in. “He can talk the ears off a rabbit.”

“I told you,” he said, ignoring his sister. “She liked me. I think she really wants me to come back and check out her daughter.”

The smile slipped off Ana’s face. “I thought you were just bragging.”

“No.” He shook his head. “She’s a really nice lady, too. I like older ladies. She reminded me of Aunt Fiona. You can learn a lot from sitting around listening to folks who have more than six decades on them.”

“You certainly seemed to learn a lot about her daughter,” Ana said.

“Not too much. She’s twenty-seven, can cook like a dream, has a goddess body, and Mrs. Adams swears she’s not exaggerating, and won a pageant of some kind. I can’t remember which one,” he said, thinking hard. Pageants weren’t something he’d had a whole lot of familiarity with. Ash wasn’t the type who’d ever enter a pageant. She probably wouldn’t score very well—too ornery.

“Mrs. Adams was fishing for you to ask out her daughter while you were with me?” Ana demanded.

He shrugged. “I told her you were my sister.”

Ashlyn laughed out loud.

Ana frowned. “I thought she said that you were to come back and meet her daughter if I ever kicked you to the curb.”

“She didn’t really say that. I was just trying to get your goat.”

“You’re getting my goat now,” Ana said, and he could hear Ashlyn snickering.

There. That was better. The spotlight was off him. He liked it better when his little doll was worried about him going off with a pageant winner with a mother who made melt-in-your-mouth blackberry pie. “It probably is time to hunt up Uncle Wolf and explain to him that we don’t want to hear a peep out of him over the holidays,” he told Ashlyn. “Or we’ll bury him in a canyon with only a cactus to mark the spot.”

“I thought you were a pacifist,” Ana said, and Ashlyn shook her head.

“Be careful, Ana,” Ashlyn told her, “my brother is a spirit that moves on emotion.”

“That’s right,” Dante said. “How far are we from Hell’s Colony, Ash?”

“About thirty minutes. Why?”

“Because we’re being followed. Don’t turn around. Don’t speed up.”

“How do you know?” Ana asked.

“I can see the truck we were tossed in. Look in your side mirror, Ana.”

“He’s right, isn’t he?” Ashlyn said. “He’s always right. It’s like he has a freaky sixth and seventh sense combined.”

“He is right,” Ana confirmed. “I hadn’t noticed.” She sounded depressed about her lax bodyguard skills.

“What’s the plan, brother?” Ash asked.

“You’re going to bypass the road to Hell’s Colony. We’ll head toward Rancho Diablo instead. How much gas do we have?”

“Half a tank.”

“Should be good enough to get us to the border.” He reached up to rub Ana’s shoulders. “Didn’t I say I’d take care of you?”

“Yes,” Ana said, “but I should have seen it first.”

He grinned. “You girls were too busy chatting to be looking out for such things as rogues and rascals.”

“Here it comes,” Ash said, “the crowing of the man who wants applause.”

Dante leaned back, completely satisfied that he was the hero once again, and not the hen. Well, sometimes the hen, but mostly the hero. “They’re following us,” he said, “because I left them a note with Mrs. Adams. I had a feeling they’d show up there.”

“What are you talking about?” Ana demanded, turning to stare at him, outrage lighting up those fascinating peepers he loved to admire. “Why would you do that?”

“I like to keep my enemy close,” Dante said. “Makes every day a bit more exciting.”

Ana looked at Ash. “Has he always been insane?”

“Yes,” Ash said, “certifiably. I did try to warn you. Now my brother Jace is more of a Steady-Eddy. If that appeals to you.”

He grinned at Ana. “In the grand scheme of things, you’d probably prefer excitement to predictable, beautiful.”

Ana looked so annoyed he couldn’t help laughing. He was so tempted to lean up and give her a hot kiss right on those heart-shaped lips, but the window shattered behind his head, and Dante yelled, “Down!”

“I don’t need this much excitement,” Ana said from the floorboard, checking the firearm Ash shoved at her from the glove box.

Dante slapped a clip into the gun he grabbed. “I read that women get pregnant more easily when they’ve been under stress.”

“Who told that lie?” Ash demanded, jacking the truck up to about eighty miles an hour. “And who’s getting pregnant?”

“No one,” Ana said. “I had a momentary lapse in judgment.” She glared at Dante before she fired a shot out the back window. A tire blew on the truck, and it veered off the road. A few bullets sprayed after them, but they were too far away for anything to hit.

“Nice,” Dante said. “I like a woman who can shoot straight.”

Ana looked at him, locked the gun and stored it away again. “Well, I prefer a man who isn’t crazy.”

“Ah, an impasse,” Ashlyn said. “I’m so glad love hasn’t come my way yet.”

“No, you’re not,” Dante said, and Ana said, “Who said anything about love?”

He grinned at her. “You know you want me. And I want you. We don’t have to bring up love just yet.”

“It won’t matter.” Ana turned back around. “You’re free to stay in the wild.”

She was miffed. He smiled. That was all right. She’d only stay miffed until he kissed her, and then his little baby-seeking darling would be only too happy to let him charm his way into her bed.

Guaranteed.

* * *

DANTE WAS CRAZY. Ashlyn had tried to warn her in the beginning, but blinded by—well, lust didn’t sound quite appropriate but definitely desire—what a sexy devil he was, and her hope to have a baby, she’d ignored his sister’s warnings.

Now that she’d learned just how wild ’n’ woolly Dante was, she realized the error of her ways. Such genes could only lead to her having a wild child of her own, and nothing good could come of that.

She went to the kitchen at Rancho Diablo and found Fiona frowning at a cookbook. Fiona looked up with a smile when she saw Ana.

“Just the person I wanted to see,” Fiona said pleasantly, snapping the cookbook closed. “And right in time to give me a break from trying to raise a Yorkshire pudding.”

“Raise a Yorkshire pudding?” Ana glanced over the assembled pots and pans Fiona had scattered around her kitchen. “I don’t know what that is.”

“I’m determined to have Yorkshire pudding for Thanksgiving. A roast with carrots and potatoes on the side, and an onion,” Fiona said, hustling her up the stairs. “But it takes the right touch to raise a pudding properly, and my concentration is shot these days. This will help.” She smiled as Ana followed her to a closet in the attic. The attic was a huge room, more of a well-loved storage area and extra living space if needed. There were shelves on practically every wall. Plump cushions sat on window seats. “Now,” Fiona said, sitting down, “what’s this I hear about you setting your cap for my nephew?”