Jester was at the threshold of the attic again, making a noise that sounded like a mix between a growl and a whine. Carolyn honestly couldn’t figure out what it meant. Did he want attention? Did he need to go outside? She’d thought it would be good for Jester to be allowed in the house, and it had taken three days to get Carter to give in, but the dog wasn’t acclimating as quickly as she’d hoped. He mostly seemed to be keeping an eye on her, like she was out to steal their best silver.
And Carter wasn’t much better. Sure, they’d been into town to go shopping twice, they visited Jeremiah together almost daily, and Carolyn felt like they were truly becoming friends. But after the first day Carter had shown her how to use the 9 mm, he hadn’t touched her since. Not even accidentally. And yesterday at the shooting range, he’d suggested Carolyn practice shooting without him standing behind her. After the way her body had reacted to his touch, that was a crying shame. She’d rarely felt this visceral attraction to a man, and she wished he felt the same.
It wasn’t as though Carter shied away from her exactly, but he sure didn’t initiate anything like a man who was interested in a woman might. But as for her, she was most definitely interested. Every part of her body was captivated by every part of his. And sometimes, she would think maybe he was staring at her, but when she looked, his gaze would be elsewhere. She’d been at the ranch for a week and a half now, but both Carter Halston and his father’s dog were still two puzzles she couldn’t begin to piece together.
Carolyn completed her sketch and held up the fabric swatches. These designs should have been in New York three days ago, and she just couldn’t get them right. She filled the trashcan on a daily basis with designs that just wouldn’t cut it for her opening show. And the material she had to work with, it was absurd.
She’d thought she’d brought ample swatches of the best cloth, and she’d since had bolts of her favorite fabrics delivered along with her best sewing machine and her mannequins. But after all her effort, all she was producing was crap. Not worthy of the dusty plains of Nowhere, much less the runways of New York. At least the fabrics she’d ordered online should be here soon.
“I thought this dress might work,” she said to Jester, and he cocked his head. “But I can’t get the colors right. This is going to be a disaster.”
The afternoon sun wasn’t the problem. The design just wasn’t right. Or maybe it was the fabric. She gathered up every shade of white she’d brought with her and walked to the window.
“Cream,” she said to Jester, holding up the first square, and he growled. “I know. It’s ridiculous. And this…floral white. It’s not going to work at all.” When he barked and bowed low, she got the strange feeling that he was really listening.
“You want to help? Okay, come on.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not going to make you wear the dress. These are just sample fabrics. Come on.”
The border collie slunk across the attic floor, his tail and ears low. When Carolyn rewarded him with a pat on the head, he sneezed and shook his head, as though he could erase her touch. “You’re just a big faker,” she told him. “You act cowboy-tough, but I think on the inside, Jester, you’re a fashionista. Why else would you spend your days watching me work?”
He sighed and curled up on the floor, as though totally disinterested. She sat cross-legged on the floor beside him and held up the next swatch. “Old lace. What do you think?”
He chose that moment to scratch at what was hopefully an imaginary flea, communicating flagrant indifference to that special shade of white known as old lace. “Linen? Ivory? Eggshell?” His eyes said, are you kidding me?
She held up the final swatch. “Bone?” she asked, and his ears shot up. “I’m not sure you’re maintaining your objectivity on this one.”
But the damage was done, and Jester had a happy light to his eyes that she’d rarely seen. “You like bone do you?” He rolled onto his side, which was the closest he’d ever come to offering her his tummy. “Well then, we’ll have to go with this color and get some real bones as your salary as a junior designer in my company.”
When she reached out to rub his side, he didn’t shy away this time but rolled onto his back like a puppy, his forearms tucked close to his body. But when the stairs squeaked, Jester’s happy expression turned alert and his head shot up.
“You have a preference on dinner?” Carter asked Carolyn from the doorway, then his gaze fell to the dog. “What did you do to Jester? Drug him?”
There was always an awkward moment when she had to tamp down the flutters in her stomach when she saw Carter. After the time she’d spent with him, she could definitively say he was the manliest man she’d ever known. Her ovaries told her on a nightly basis that he had good genes and his sperm would be highly appreciated. Thankfully, Carolyn could think beyond her body. “No, he’s just relaxing after a long day’s work. You should have seen him before you made the stairs squeak. He was on his back with his paws up like this. Just like a puppy.”
She recreated the scene for Carter and he smiled. “That dog was never a puppy. He came out of the womb a grumpy old man, just like my dad.”
“Maybe he was just in the wrong line of work,” she suggested. “Jester, that is. Not your father. Because I’ve discovered that Jester here has an eye for design. He’s my new junior designer.”
“Hmmm…” Carter answered, glancing from her to the dog. “I’m not seeing it. He looks like a herding dog to me.”
“Well, he’s not. He’s now a Carolyn Ashford Designs employee, and as such, he needs to be compensated.” Carter just stared back at her. “What would you think about taking me into town so I can buy him some bones?”
Carter exhaled deeply. “So far, our trips into town have been less than productive. You did get one pair of work boots, but you mostly seem to come back with dangly lights and other such girly stuff for your office.”
Carolyn looked up at the ceiling, marveling at their handiwork. It was almost ready for the big reveal. “Sorry. You probably don’t have time to be hanging lights in here with me. I didn’t think about how busy you must be without another person around here asking you for favors.”
“Carolyn—no. That’s not what I meant. Of course I don’t mind helping you fix up the attic. I just need to watch how often I’m taking you into town. It’s not as safe for you there.”
She shrugged. “I don’t think anyone recognized me, and I can do a better job with a disguise this time. Plus, I can take my 9 millimeter.” She pulled an imaginary gun from its holster at her hip and blew the invisible smoke from its barrel.
Carter laughed. “You are not taking a gun into town, even though I told you you’d be a natural, and I was right. I taught so many firearms classes in the Marines, I’m never wrong when I spot potential.”
Carolyn blushed. It actually wasn’t all that often she got complimented about anything other than her fashion sense. “Well, I have a good instructor, I guess.” Her mind flashed to that very first day when he’d pressed his cheek against hers. “I’m just wondering what you’d think about…”
He waited but she didn’t finish. “Yeah?”
Carolyn folded the scrap of fabric and didn’t look at him. “Well, I know you’re busy and maybe it’s not a good idea…but what would you think about eating dinner in town tonight?” Oh, please, body. Don’t make a fool of yourself. That man does not want you. If he did, he would have given her some sort of signal in the last week and a half. Her gaze had certainly been burning holes through the back of his jeans every time she thought she could get away with it.
“The men were already planning to eat chicken enchiladas,” he said.
She finally dragged her gaze up to meet his. “And they can. I was thinking just you and me.”
He ran a hand behind his neck. “You’re tired of my cooking already, huh?”
“Never, Carter.” Actually, he was fairly impressive in the kitchen. It made her wonder how impressive he might be in other rooms in the house. “I just want to get out of the house for a couple of hours. Do some shopping. Get some dinner. And maybe…dancing?”
He stared up at the ceiling. “Oh, Lord.”
“What?”
“I don’t dance.”
She snorted. “Technically, I didn’t ask you to. You can just chaperone me. Come on, cowboy. I can’t stop living just because my ex is insane, and I’ve been stranded in this little house on the prairie working at this tiny table so long that my eyes are crossing.”
He seemed to think it over for a long while, then he smiled slowly. “No, you’re right. You can’t stop living. Go get your best heels on. I might not dance, but I’ll take you any place you want to go.”
He rethought his words. Telling Carolyn Ashford, queen of fashion, to get her best anything on was like throwing down the ultimate challenge, and the loser was definitely him. When she’d walked down the stairs that night, seeing her was like getting a horn in the ribs. He’d needed to lock his knees so he wouldn’t lose his balance.
Now, twenty minutes later, he still hadn’t recovered. He pulled the truck up to the furniture warehouse and turned to her. She was so fucking beautiful it was like looking into the sun. He couldn’t risk staring at her too long or he might lose his sight—or at least his self-control. “I thought we could stop in here and check out some tables. The owner is a friend of mine, and he makes everything himself.”
She nodded. “Wonderful. What are you looking for? Dining room? Kitchen?”
“Your attic. You keep cursing that little folding table up there. You need a table that can make magic happen.” He winked when he said it, and her pale cheeks turned a shade of pink he’d thought only existed in a Texas sunset.
“Oh…you don’t need to buy a table just for me. I’m totally fine with the folding thing. It’s great, really. I only snagged two swatches today, so I’m learning to navigate it. I’d hate for you to—”
Carter’s laughter cut her off. “You don’t like people buying you things, do you? Well, I’m mostly doing this for my friend, so stop worrying. Just pick a table, woman.”
She was grinning ear to ear when he helped her out of the truck and into the store. The owner greeted him with a bear hug and a slap on the back. “Hey, Carter! What brings you in?”
“Hey, buddy.” Carter returned the pat and broke away. “Carolyn, this is Todd. We went to school together.”
Carolyn smiled and shook Todd’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” he said.
Carter could see Todd was impressed, thinking Carolyn was Carter’s girlfriend, but he didn’t let it bother him. Actually, it felt kind of good to have her beside him in public. And the fact that Todd could ignore how gorgeous she looked in her dress and keep his eyes on her face just proved he was not only a good friend, but a wood-carving saint.
“We’re looking for a table,” Carter told him. “Something with a big work surface, and I don’t think we need chairs.” He looked to Carolyn. “Do we need chairs?”
She shook her head and her cheeks were still rosy, her smile radiant. “No chairs. Do you have anything like that?”
“I’m just finishing up a table in the back. No chairs yet. I haven’t even stained it yet, so you can choose the color and I can drop it off tomorrow. It’s just basic pine, but that might be perfect for a worktable. Come on, I’ll show you.”
They followed Todd to the back and sure enough, there was a large pine table still coated in dust from just being sanded. Todd ran a brush over it and the dust wafted into the air. Carter imagined Carolyn with her swatches spread out on the table’s surface and thought it looked pretty good. Then he imagined Carolyn spread out on its surface, and that was even better.
“What do you think?” he asked her. “Is it the right height? Are the edges smooth enough for your fabrics?”
Carolyn ran her hand along the wood grain and grinned. “It’s absolutely perfect. Thank you so much, Carter. And thank you, Todd. You are a true artist.”
Now it was Todd’s turn to flush. “Well, I don’t know about that. But after the store closes, I’ll get started on the finish.” He walked over to his work bench, grabbed a ring of stained wood chips and took it to Carolyn. “Just pick the color you want and it’s all yours.”
Carolyn’s eyes went wide in apparent wonder. She took the swatches and held them up to the pine, and Carter could see the wheels turning in her head, trying to figure out the perfect color. This was going to take a while. But it was worth it.
Thirty minutes later, his stomach was growling but “autumn leaves” had been deemed just right for bringing out the true character of the wood, and now they were back in the truck heading to dinner. “So we can eat at the Horizon Grill if you want and then head on over to Charlie’s for dancing. How does that sound?”
At a stop sign, Carter risked a glance at Carolyn’s long legs in her tiny teal dress. He wasn’t sure what the design would be called. All he knew was that it was short and cut just perfectly to wrap around her lush ass, and it was so low in the front, he was figuring every man in the restaurant was going to be spending his evening staring at her cleavage. The thought made Carter’s hands tighten on the wheel. Hell, even her makeup seemed designed to make a man go crazy. How did a woman do that—go from fresh-faced pretty to smoky eyes that begged a man to take her hard?
She fidgeted in the passenger seat. “The Horizon Grill sounds good, but I don’t think this dress is exactly right. My choices were limited.”
“This isn’t New York, Carolyn. No one is going to be judging your outfit here. And besides, you’re gonna be the prettiest one in the place no matter what you’re wearing.” So pretty, husbands were going to get their heads thumped by angry wives when she walked by. But she didn’t look reassured. “Are you okay? You look sort of…off.”
She brushed her hand in his direction. “I’m fine, except for I think my hearing might be going. Did Carter Halston just tell me I was pretty?”
Carter parked the truck in front of the restaurant, shut off the engine and looked over at Carolyn, trying to gauge what she thought about that. He’d been avoiding getting too near her because he’d never been so tempted to grab a woman and press his lips to hers just to see how she’d taste. “I think he did. Does that bother you? I figure you ought to be used to it by now.”
Carolyn swallowed, and Carter could swear the skin over her collarbones went goose-bumpy. She licked her lips and looked into his eyes. “It doesn’t bother me at all. In fact…I could say the same about you.”
Carter suddenly wasn’t sure what was happening. Was she actually flirting with him? “You think I’m pretty?” he teased, trying to diffuse the situation because his cock was already beginning to throb. “Why, thank you, ma’am,” he said, batting his eyelashes.
Carolyn laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. “You’re impossible, you know that? I was trying to give you a compliment.”
“I’m sorry,” he told her, trying to straighten his smile. “Here, try it again. I’ll be better this time, I promise.”
“Try what?”
“Giving me a compliment. Come on, Sleeping Beauty, lay it on me.”
“Sleeping Beauty?”
He simply nodded, watching her cheeks darken in the slanting rays of the evening sun.
“Well,” she said, picking at her fingernails, “not that you need to make a big deal of it, but…I think you’re kind of…manly.”
He laughed. He didn’t know what he’d expected, but that wasn’t it. “I’m manly, huh?”
Her throat worked as she swallowed. “Yes. Very.”
So he was manly. Just how bad did she need to be touched? His guy instincts were picking up clues from the tightness of her breasts to her shallow breaths, and they were telling him she wanted him. Every caveman instinct in him wanted to claim her right then and there. “Do you need a man, beauty?”
Her small hand went out to grasp the handle of the door, but not like she was trying to bolt, more like she was trying to keep from melting off the seat. Dear Lord, he needed to get the hell out of this pickup before he laid Kyle’s sister down right here and showed her just how manly he was.
When she opened her lush lips, he put up a hand. “Don’t answer that. It’s none of my damn business. Now let’s go eat.”
He got out and slammed his door then went around to help her with hers. She had those high heels and short dress on and his truck was too far off the ground for her to get out on her own, otherwise he wouldn’t risk touching her. He wanted her so bad that his stomach muscles clenched. When he helped her down, he looked away when he grasped her waist and let go just as soon as she touched the ground.
This woman did something to him that he’d never felt before, and he didn’t know what to do about that. It wasn’t as if he could have her. The best he could ever hope for with the daughter of Kenton Ashford was a brief time in her bed before she went back to her exalted life. Question was, was a brief time in his bed exactly what she was looking for?
Carolyn felt queasy even after her first few bites of steak. The meal was great, but the taste of her battered pride was bitter. Sure, she’d been trained from a young age on etiquette and social skills in every setting, but she’d never been skilled in the art of seduction. After coming up on two weeks of fantasizing about him, Carolyn had tried her best to get Carter’s attention—and she’d struck out on an epic scale.
After being seated, she and Carter had talked about the weather for the first twenty minutes straight. She now knew more than she would ever need to know about the climate in West Texas. But thankfully, that hardness to his jaw was beginning to ease, as though he was ready to move on and forget Carolyn’s awkward advance.
But just when she thought he might introduce a new topic, he went silent, focusing on cutting his steak like he was a surgeon doing a delicate procedure. Nothing was more awkward than his silence, so she decided to lead the conversation to things she’d been curious about anyhow. “So is it okay for me to ask about your time in the Marines?”
“I guess it depends on what you ask.” He speared a bite of steak and popped it into his mouth.
“I don’t know much about it, so I’m not even sure what to ask. I guess I’ll start with—what rank were you and why did you get out?”
“I got out last year after I turned twenty-nine due to my father’s health. I’m his only son so they let me out early to take care of him. I was a staff sergeant at the time I got out.”
“Is a sergeant under a lieutenant…or is it a captain?”
“No, those are officers. I enlisted straight out of high school, so my track was different than the guys who went to college. I mean, I guess I could have. It’s not like I had bad grades or anything. But after high school, I wanted to go into the infantry so I could bash some skulls together.”
She blinked, and he laughed. “I didn’t think of it like that at the time, but looking back, I figure that’s what was going on in my head. I was an angry teen, to say the least. A self-righteous angry teen.”
“When did you decide you wanted to enlist?” He chewed his steak, and she made another attempt to make a dent in her own. “Did you always know that’s what you wanted to do?”
He shook his head and his forehead wrinkled like maybe she’d stumbled on something she shouldn’t have. “You know how Rayna has her issues…”
“Her agoraphobia?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s doing better and better, you know. Not cured…but starting to heal, from what I hear,” Carolyn said.
He smiled. “Yeah, I know. But did your brother ever tell you about what happened to her?”
“He did.” And since that moment Carter had been a sort of hero to her. She’d wanted to meet him even before Kyle had suggested it. “She was attacked in the high school restroom and you saved her.” Jeez, she hoped she hadn’t actually sighed when she’d said it, but she might have.
“Maybe I did. I don’t know, but I was already an angry kid. My dad…well, he was an asshole. And Rayna was my best friend. When I found that punk on her and beat his ass, something in me just clicked. I felt like maybe that’s what I was meant to do—stop the bad people from hurting the good ones.”
“And did you?” she asked.
He stared at his plate for a long time. “I don’t really like to talk about it, and most of it I can’t talk about anyhow, but I’ll say this…after my first tour in Iraq at nineteen years old, I realized it wasn’t as simple as that. There were days I had to remind myself who the good guys were.”
She just stared into his eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to bring up painful things.”
“Pain is just weakness leaving the body,” he said with a wink. “So what about you, Little Miss Carolyn? Did you always know you wanted to wear nice shoes and carry around scraps of fabric?”
When she glared at him, he gave her a real, honest-to-goodness belly laugh. The sight of it made a strange feeling in her own belly. She took a deep breath, trying to cleanse away her naughty thoughts of Carter. If he’d been interested, he would have let her know. “Well, it may seem frivolous to you, but to me, it’s art. A form of artistic expression through fabric and design. It won’t save the good people from the bad ones, but as odd as it might sound to you, if I can get this company off the ground, it just might help some good people.”
He was really looking at her again, and it made her blood rush through her veins, the sound loud in her ears. “Tell me, beauty.”
“Well, I’m on the board of the local children’s hospital and there are often children with life-threatening illnesses whose families either can’t afford treatment, or can’t afford housing and time off work to be with their children. So let’s say a child has insurance, but his parents can’t afford to take time off work…”
“Go on.”
“The plan is that my company will donate twenty-five percent of its profits to the children’s hospital and help fund their hardship program.”
He laid his fork down. “So can I ask a stupid question?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, repeating his words back to me. “I guess it depends on what you ask.”
He chuckled. “Well…your dad is a billionaire. Can’t you just ask him to fund the program?”
Pain speared through her. She liked to think her father issues were buried, but they were never buried deep enough. “You remember what I told you about my father? I don’t get a large…stipend from him, and he doesn’t ask for my opinion when it comes to his charitable foundation. But I have enough seed money from my mother to start this business, and if all goes well, then I won’t have to rely on anyone else but me. That’s if my ex-husband doesn’t figure out a way to stop me.”
“He doesn’t want you to start the company.” He said it as a statement, no doubt because Kyle had already told him. It was still humiliating.
“He was…how should I say this? Slightly disappointed,” she said sarcastically, “to learn that I didn’t have unfettered access to the Ashford fortune. He was a top executive for my father, and I thought he would have known this—of course, I also would have thought he didn’t care about my family’s money. Apparently, he did. We weren’t married two months before he started making it obvious just how much he cared.” If Carter knew her story, he would know she was talking about the physical abuse. And that was good, because she still couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.
She knew she shouldn’t be ashamed, and yet she’d picked Richard Helmsworth. She’d vowed to stay with him until death did they part. And then once his hands were wrapped around her throat, she’d thought maybe that death would be sooner than later. “So now he’s going after my nest egg in the divorce settlement, and if he gets that, my company will cease to exist, and the children’s hospital will have one less person able to fight back the bad.”
Carter grimaced and rested his forehead in his hand, maybe like he had a headache.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, suddenly concerned.
He shook his head. “Nothing. I just really want to punch that guy.” He looked up at her. “I’m sorry. With what you’ve gone through, I shouldn’t talk like that. I shouldn’t tell you I want to pound his face into the dirt for everything he’s ever done to you and continues to do.”
Carolyn had to admit that a large part of her was still frightened, and these days she couldn’t stomach violence of any sort. Not that she’d ever been a huge fan of sports like UFC, but now if she even saw fighting on screen, she had to quickly avert her eyes. But something in Carter’s proclamation made her feel strong, like maybe she could stop being scared, if only for today.
She grinned at her handsome protector. “You couldn’t want to punch him half as bad as I do. This week, firearms. Next week, I want you to show me how to throw a mean right hook.”
Carter laughed. “You got it, beauty. Now let’s go see how you dance.”