After they finished eating, Jake watched Rand pick up their dishes and take them over to the sink, admiring the way she moved with lithe, sure grace.
He had almost kissed Rand in front of Red, and he wanted to go back. Go back to before he noticed that Rand had a pretty smile and nice legs. Before the feel of her body pressed against his was seared into his brain.
“So, are we going to go through these letters or what?” Red said, breaking into his thoughts as he held up a couple of envelopes, his lips stretched into an evil grin.
Rand looked over her shoulder, her elbows buried in soapy water. “Just leave them.”
Jake caught Red’s eye and knew he had heard the sad tone in Rand’s voice too.
It was Red who walked across the kitchen and put his hands on Rand’s shoulders. “I was only teasing, Rand.”
“Yeah, this is all a big joke to you. I got that.” She shook off his hands and grabbed a towel. “You don’t get what this is like for me. I never wanted this. I never wanted a husband, and now I have to find one, albeit a temporary one, in three months. Look at me!” She was yelling at the top of her lungs, her voice high-pitched, and Jake stood up. He’d never seen Rand so panicked. She looked like a wild animal caught in a trap. “I have no idea how to deal with men or romance or kissing, and I just want… You know what, I don’t need the ranch. I don’t. I can just get a job somewhere else…”
Jake walked over and grabbed her shoulders, giving her a shake. “Stop it. You are not giving up this ranch. This is just a temporary thing, right? You only have to stay with the guy a year and you’re in the clear. So if you want help hooking a guy, we’re here to help.”
“What?” Red yelled.
“What?” Rand said, staring up at him.
“Red’s got four sisters, and I know what guys like. Between the two of us, we can turn you into a guy magnet,” Jake said, watching her cheeks turn scarlet.
“I don’t want to be a guy magnet. Besides, half the men in town have left offerings on my porch.” She waved to the island.
“Yeah, but they just think they can get a piece of the Double C. Wouldn’t it be better if they wanted you?” Red chimed in.
“No, I already told you, I don’t want a real marriage.”
“So don’t have one, but you could at least give them a little pleasantness as incentive,” Red said.
“What do you mean, pleasantness?” she asked suspiciously.
“Like smile at the guy? Dress up a little so he’ll be proud to have you on his arm at town events,” Jake offered bluntly.
“God, you are such an ass,” Rand snapped, trying to get away from him.
“No, I am realistic. What man wants a woman who can out-man him any day of the week?” Jake countered, holding tight.
“Jake…” Red started cautiously.
For some reason, he was irritated with Rand and spoiling for a fight. “No, she needs to hear this. Men don’t want a woman who doesn’t need them, who can do everything better than them. They want someone who can be independent but lean on them too. Soft and loving. Stop treating the men in this town as though you’re still a ten-year-old girl trying to prove you’re one of the guys. You are a grown-ass woman, and it’s about time you started acting like it!”
“Me?” she shouted. “What about you? You jump around from bed to bed and don’t think about the future at all! Who are you to tell me I’m immature?”
Red tried again. “Okay, I think we all need to take a breath…”
“Shut up!” they shouted in unison.
Red’s face flushed. “Fine, you two idiots can hash it out all you want.”
Red was already out the door before Jake wondered how his friend was going to get home. Then he heard his truck start. “Son of a bitch is stealing my truck!”
Rand jerked out of his hands and pushed him. “Well, don’t think I’m giving you a ride home. You’ve got two good legs and a pair of boots. Get walking.”
Jake was flabbergasted. “You’re kicking me out and making me walk? It’s five miles!”
“And maybe you can take that time to think about what an ass you are.” She walked around the corner.
Jake was furious, frustrated, and all he could think about was how smart her mouth was. She made him crazy with her stubborn pigheadedness and those long legs. He didn’t even realize he had moved to follow her until he was grabbing her arm to slow her down. He pressed her back against the wall. When she tried to smack him, he grabbed her hands and held them above her head. Using his height to look down into her angry brown eyes, he felt the softness of her, the warm lure of her skin. The way she smelled like roses was intoxicating.
His anger dissolved as he noticed the sheen to her eyes. Tears. Rand hardly ever cried, but he had hurt her feelings. Or made her so mad she was crying in impotent rage. Whichever it was, he didn’t want to fight with her. As much as she needled and riled him up, he didn’t like being in a spat with his best friend.
Dropping his forehead to hers, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to fight the hard-on the smell and feel of her caused. “I’m sorry.” Lifting his head, he looked down at her expression. Her confusion was apparent, and he added, “I shouldn’t have said that. About changing who you are. There’s nothing wrong with you.”
She opened her mouth, presumably to say something to contradict his apology, and his gaze dropped to her mouth, the lips full, parted, and begging for him to take them.
Before he could stop himself, his mouth was on hers, and the first taste of her was his undoing. Releasing her wrists, he wrapped his arms around her as he slipped his tongue inside, coaxing hers. When her tongue touched his hesitantly, he deepened the kiss, and she met his thrusts, becoming bolder. He was so caught up in her, he couldn’t remember the last time he had kissed a woman like this, no motive, no plan to ease his loneliness with her warmth. He was just reacting, wanting. It had been a long time since he’d felt this kind of spark.
He slid his hands down farther to grab her thighs and lift her high. Her arms and legs wrapped around him as he rubbed against the crux of her, about ready to carry her down to her bedroom and rip off the rough denim. He didn’t know what he was doing anymore. All he could think about was Rand wrapped around him, and he wanted more.
Moving his hand up her body, he tried to clasp her breast but met some kind of weird barrier.
Pulling away, he asked, “What is that?”
* * *
Rand’s mind was so preoccupied with sensations she’d never felt before, she didn’t even think about her wrap. She had just been praying that whatever Jake was doing, he never stopped.
Who would have ever thought kissing would be so mind-blowing? She’d felt every quivering ripple of pleasure from the juncture of her thighs and up to the place at the back of her neck and everywhere in between. Even her breasts, which had peaked into hard nubs against the layers that bound them. When he had covered one with his large, warm palm, she had wanted to arch, push against him.
But then she’d remembered the wrap.
Humiliated she dropped her legs and arms from around him. “Get off me.”
“Rand, seriously, what is this?” He moved his hand and waved it across her chest as he stepped back.
“It’s nothing.” She crossed her arms protectively.
“Do you bind your breasts?”
Oh God. She had never been kissed, had never thought about what would happen when a man tried to…
But he caught her by surprise. How did she explain that she had started wrapping them when she was a kid? That she was afraid it would change the way everyone thought about her? That they wouldn’t see her as an equal, as their boss, but a pair of boobs?
It was crazy, but she’d been raised around men, had heard the things they said about women. She’d never wanted to be the topic of one of those conversations.
“I’ll drive you home, okay?” She tried to move past him.
He stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Rand, why do you wrap them?”
“To avoid situations like this,” she said sharply.
“Like what?”
“Like men mauling me.”
Jake blinked at her. “You kissed me back.”
She had no comeback. When Jake had kissed her, it had been like a lightning storm, each strike making her quake, and she’d just wanted to get closer to his warmth.
“You know what? Don’t worry about it, Rand. I think I will walk.” Jake spun toward the door without looking back. As he slammed out of the house, she slumped against the wall, staring at the door.
Scout came down the hall, weaving between her legs with loud meows for attention, but Rand paid her little heed. Jake had kissed her. One minute they’d been fighting, and the next he had her pinned to the wall with his hand on her breast.
Why now? He’d had twenty years to kiss her, so of all days to start, why had he chosen today?
Dropping her head back against the wall, she sighed. It had to be the clause in the will. It was ruining her life.