Rosemary Carter - Cowboy To The Altar

‘What do you want?’

‘I keep telling you—a month on your ranch. I’ll pay for the experience with my cooking.’

The walls of the trap were tightening. Jason frowned as he shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. ‘I believe you know that you’re trying my patience.’

Morgan’s tone was light. ‘Don’t you think you’re being a little unreasonable.’

Jason decided not to dignify the question with an answer.

He saw Morgan take a breath before she went on. ‘I don’t know why you’re so opposed to me, Mr Delaney. Granted, I haven’t had much experience as a cook, but I will learn and I’m not asking for favours. I saw an ad and I answered it. Brent could have asked me any questions he liked and I would have been honest with him. He didn’t have to hire me—but he did, and he had his own reasons. So now I’m here. All I want is to spend a few weeks on your ranch, and I’m not asking for a free ride.’

‘A model,’ Jason said scornfully, his tone lashing her with the force of his contempt. ‘Bet you don’t know much about hard work.’

‘If I were you, I wouldn’t bet my last dollar on that.’ Anger stirred in the lovely face, brightening blue eyes and staining soft cheeks with an appealing flush. ‘You’re obviously one of those people who think that modelling is all glamour. You’re dead wrong, you know. It’s hard work—gruelling.’

‘Is that so?’ Jason asked cynically.

‘It certainly is! Some days, after hours behind the counter and more hours in front of a camera, I’m so tired that I can’t wait to get home. On days like that it’s an effort just to gulp down a bit of food and make it to bed.’

‘Sounds as if you don’t enjoy your career.’

‘Oh, but I do, Mr Delaney. I enjoy it very much. I’m just telling you that I do know about hard work. In fact, there are times when I’m tempted to...’ She stopped.

‘To what?’ he prompted, interested despite himself.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Morgan said curtly. ‘The fact is that I’m looking forward to cooking for your cowboys.’

‘Morgan—’

‘It’s all part of the dream I was telling you about. Please...please don’t take it away from me.’

There was something about her tone. Her expression. The passion with which she said the last words. Suddenly Jason was swept with a great wish to put his arms around Morgan and make life easier for her. To protect her. He took a step towards her.

In that moment he remembered Vera. She had breached his defences, and he had lived to regret it.

His tone turned to ice. ‘You mentioned a contract.’

She seemed to be making an effort to control her emotion. ‘Yes...’

‘I need to see it.’

‘Of course,’ she said. ‘I’ll get it from the car.’

A few minutes later Morgan was handing Jason a folded envelope. As he took it from her his hand brushed against hers. In a second the wish to protect her turned into a strong desire to kiss her.

Wordlessly he looked at her. To his surprise, he saw that her lips were quivering. Their eyes clashed, dark eyes holding blue ones for an interminable moment. Then Morgan was stepping away from him, and Jason told himself that he was glad of the distance she had created.

He looked down at the envelope in his hand. When he looked up again his expression was sombre. ‘All there, isn’t it?’ he said at last.

She was watching him intently. ‘Sounds as if you’re accusing me of something. What exactly do you mean, Mr Delaney?’

‘You put in every damn clause you could possibly think of.’

‘If there’s something you want to say why don’t you just say it?’

Jason gave a short, derisive laugh. ‘Oh, come, Morgan Muir, don’t look at me with those innocent blue eyes of yours. We both know who drew up this contract.’

Morgan seemed to be controlling her anger with some difficulty. ‘You talk as if I’ve committed a crime. I haven’t.’

‘I take it you typed this.’

‘Brent said he didn’t know how. One of us had to do it.’

‘If that was all there was to it. But you did more than type this, Miss Muir. These words...’ Jason tapped the pages impatiently ‘are not part of Brent’s vocabulary. I doubt he could draw up a contract if his life depended on it.’

‘I still don’t know what I’m being accused of.’

‘Getting what you want. In that, you’re like—’ Jason stopped abruptly.

‘Like?’ Morgan asked curiously.

Jason looked away from her. ‘Someone I know.’

‘A woman?’

‘Not that it’s your concern, but yes.’

An odd expression appeared in Morgan’s eyes, one that Jason had not seen until now. He wished he knew what it meant.

After a moment she said, ‘That’s what I thought...from the way you spoke...’ She paused. When she spoke again her tone was defensive. ‘There’s nothing wrong with the contract.’

‘Except that you’ve ensured your stay at Six-Gate Corral for a month.’

‘Sure I did. But the contract works two ways.’ Morgan’s voice was tight now. ‘It’s true that I made certain of my place at the ranch but, as I said earlier, we’re both protected. Brent knows I’ll be doing his work while he’s gone—that I’ll be taking care of things for him. That was important to him, knowing that the men would continue to eat well while he was away.’ Blue eyes seemed to be asking for understanding.

Jason’s gaze raked her face. ‘I hope you’re not expecting preferential treatment.’

Morgan tilted her chin up at him. ‘Of course not!’

‘Just so long as that’s understood.’

‘Absolutely.’

‘You’ll find the hours long.’

‘No longer than the ones I’m used to working.’

‘The heat will get to you.’

‘I like heat.’

‘Not the kind we get here,’ he said grimly. ‘You were wilting outdoors. You asked to go inside.’

‘You have to admit it’s a scorcher.’

‘It is,’ Jason admitted after a moment. ‘The heat will get to you, nonetheless.’

‘If it does it will be my problem, not yours.’

‘And the dust.’

‘I’ve been in other dusty places. Dust does wash off.’

She was spirited—he had to hand her that much. If what she said was true—the experience with Vera had taught him not to take a woman’s words at face value—then she was certainly determined and fearless.

‘You’ll have to be up long before dawn to prepare breakfast.’

‘When I’m modelling my day often starts at that time.’

He was running out of ways to put her off. ‘If there’s a round-up you could find yourself cooking out on the range, preparing food in a chuckwagon. You wouldn’t find that much fun, Morgan Muir.’

‘Oh, but I would! I’m longing to see a round-up! It’s one of the reasons I’m here.’

Her eagerness startled him. ‘You are?’

Morgan smiled at him, the kind of smile that had a way of shafting its way straight to a man’s heart. ‘Cooking in a chuckwagon—that’s all part of the dream, part of the adventure. So stop trying to frighten me, Mr Delaney. Can’t you see by now that I don’t frighten so easily?’

Jason did see; he saw many things. But he still had a challenge left in him. ‘Don’t assume that the fact you’re a woman—and a model—will carry any weight around here. The cowboys are concerned with cattle and horses; they don’t know the first thing about fashion.’

‘If they did I wouldn’t be here.’

‘I’m not interested in your career either.’

She shot him another one of those heart-melting smiles. ‘I never thought you were.’

His eyes sparkled back at her, and for a second his lips curved in a grin. ‘You’ll be treated just like the men.’