Chapter Three

 

 

 

Olivia tried not to show how desperate she was as she sat down on the loveseat next to Cody and pressed indecently close. If anyone with an ounce of class could see her, she’d be shamed for the rest of her life, but she had to get through to the man somehow. And if that somehow required nakedness and brazen attempts at seduction, then so be it. Olivia had a business, a ranch and a family to save.

So many futures rested squarely on her shoulders.

“See? This is the original building.” She put her fingertip on the faded, blurry photograph and traced the single-room structure.

“I’ve seen this before. My grandfather’s got a tintype of it somewhere around here.”

Olivia leaned in harder, squashing her breast against Cody’s arm. Feeling like she was in over her head, she wished she had more feminine wiles at her disposal, but she wasn’t a hearts and flowers kind of girl. If she ever had been, a lifetime of nose-to-the-grindstone financial struggles had beaten all thoughts of romance out of her.

Her father hadn’t been as successful as she might have implied to Cody. The rest of her forefathers had broken their backs making the family ranch a success, but her father had been raised with too much to appreciate the work that had gone into it. Or perhaps he really was the lazy son of a bitch her mother claimed him to be. Either way, he’d gone through money like their spring welled up with cash, rather than water.

“Your bunkhouse is just as old as the main house,” she whispered. “A little worse for wear, but it was built to last.”

“It doesn’t look like it.” Cody stiffened a little when she inched closer—definitely invading his personal space now—and he glanced down at her with an unreadable glint in his wide-held eyes. “Looks like it’ll fall down any day. Is that what happened to the barn?”

“Eugene tore that down and sold the timber at a premium. You know that sometime in the early Forties Opal O’Neal had the bunkhouse and this home jacked up and new foundations laid for both, right? The storm shelter under that bunkhouse rivals the one at the school.”

“Yes, I knew. Opal had been scared of storms. Grandpa wasn’t fond of them, either. He told me he’d once been caught out in a dust storm that had almost killed him, and after that Opal was bit…paranoid.”

“During the drought.” Olivia nodded and leaned farther over Cody’s lap to swipe her fingertip across the photo adhered to the opposite page of the album. “Before that, the Double O was a working ranch, running cattle and breeding horses, as you can see here.”

Peeking up through her lashes, she watched Cody’s face soften as he surveyed the image. A small group of men stood by a handful of horses whose quality couldn’t be hidden by the graininess of the ancient photograph. The beasts held their heads high, a small pack of ferocious-looking dogs lay around their feet and a stream carved a path just behind them.

“That stream was quite the source of tension between our families back in the eighteen-hundreds.” Olivia laughed softly. “I don’t know the whole story, but I do know that Offer O’Neal didn’t pay what was owed to my ancestor. But, eventually, some deal was struck that transferred rights to your family and horses to mine. We still have the descendants of your forefather’s stallion in our stables.”

“And they need the water too. I get it.” Cody slammed the album shut and tossed it onto the table. Olivia knew he would have jumped to his feet, except her weight kept him pinned to the loveseat cushions. Gripping her shoulders, he half-turned and lifted her off him. “What are you doing?”

She widened her eyes and prayed she looked innocent. “What do you mean?”

“Would you rather just sit on my lap?” he asked scathingly. “I can put my feet up and you can crawl right over me, if you’d prefer.”

Her face felt as if it had caught fire, but she lifted her chin and said, “Yes.”

“What?”

Olivia was no shrinking violet. She’d been raised to go after what she wanted, because Lord knew she wouldn’t get it any other way. Her mother was a strong woman, opinionated and bold, and she’d raised Olivia primarily by herself and in her own image.

She had learned her lessons well. Olivia lifted her chin, pressed closer to Cody in spite of the way he tried to hold her back and nodded. “I’d love to crawl on top of you. It’s been a while since I saw any man worth bothering with, but you’re handsome enough and the guilt in your eyes when you finally paid a visit to Eugene lets me know you regret not being there for him. That’s a mark in your favor.”

Olivia wriggled until Cody’s grip on her arms loosened. Taking quick advantage, she pushed forward and threw her leg over his lap.

He cursed and stiffened, but Olivia ignored him. She was desperate and growing more so as the days went on. Wiggins had been harassing her and it was only a matter of time before he descended on Cody to twist his arm and sucker him into signing his soul away. Olivia had to do something, but the longer she sat on Cody’s lap, the deeper she stared into his eyes and the farther she thrust her fingers into his short, dark curls, the more raw, selfish excitement swept through her.

“Are you serious?” Cody shook his head. “You can’t be serious.”

She’d had hours to think about it. She’d have found a different way to get what she wanted, except that flash of guilt she’d seen in his eyes at the hospital had made this alternative tolerable. Cody was attractive, her body responded to his nearness and he had a spark of compassion inside him. Somewhere beneath his aloofness, hidden under the testiness he’d cloaked himself with earlier, was a good man.

Of course he was. He was Eugene’s grandson, after all, and Eugene had spoken very highly of him.

“I don’t just fuck anybody,” she said. “I look for good people—someone I can respect, at least.”

“Wow. I can’t believe you actually just said that.” Cody closed his eyes while his chest inflated with the breath he took.

“Look. I’m a strong woman. I go after what I want and that’s why I’ve been successful in my business.”

He cracked one eye open. “And you want me to hold on to the water rights.”

“Ideally, I’d rather you gave me the Double O, but that’s your family’s legacy. I wouldn’t sell my ranch, either.”

“So, you’re trying to seduce me into a bargain?”

She was, but she wasn’t about to admit it. Too much was at stake, not least of which was the famous O’Neal pride. A shaft of guilt tightened her facial muscles, but Olivia still managed to speak without a quaver in her voice. “I simply appreciate a well-made man, Cody. And I’m a sucker for dark curls like yours, especially when they’re paired with blue eyes.”

“Like mine.” He pursed his lips. “Except I can’t help but think you’re trying to get something else out of me.”

“Something more than a good time? You’re not staying and I’m not looking for a permanent relationship.”

She meant the words when she said them, but then Cody grabbed her hips and every secret desire Olivia held concerning a real relationship swamped her. A career woman focused on her job… But there had been too many lonely nights when Olivia had wished for a warm body in bed next to her, a man to come home to who would wrap her in his arms and listen to the events of her day, maybe even a man who could save her from the worst aspects of her job. There were plenty of times when she’d wished to be held and comforted, where she’d have loved to have joked with someone with a better sense of humor than her mother or watch a movie with someone who liked to cuddle.

It didn’t matter that it felt like he was pushing her away. To her senses, Cody’s hands were big and warm, comforting as they closed on her hips with a pressure that had her thighs tingling. She rocked toward him. “When’s the last time you got laid, Cody? You don’t have a girlfriend.”

“How do you know? You’ve never met me before.”

“Eugene tells me everything. I know all about you, your father and mother. I know about your life and your job and how it keeps you from getting out.”

“But you thought I owned the school. No, I won’t listen to your lies and let you manipulate me—”

“It was the way you phrased it.” She focused on his mouth and leaned in. “How about a kiss, then? What harm could a single kiss do, Cody? Why are you so resistant?”

“Why are you so eager? Most women don’t throw themselves into a sexual situation like this.” His fingers tightened on her hips. “I mean, you don’t know me, no matter what my grandfather might have told you, and yet we are connected enough that this could prove really awkward for our family’s relationship.”

She offered a salve to his ego with a portion of the truth. “That’s part of what I find attractive. The knowledge of you, the built-in relationship between yours and mine. Awkward or not, it doesn’t feel like we’re strangers.” She rocked over his lap. “Does it?”

“You’re manipulating me.”

“It’s a kiss.” She tilted her head and whispered her next words right over his parted lips. “Just a kiss.”

But the lie soured in her mouth the moment her lips met his. Theirs wasn’t just a kiss. It was a battle of wills, and Olivia’s entire spine seemed to catch fire for an instant. The way her nape prickled warned her that she might have lost the war in the first skirmish, but a primal, hidden intuition clawed its way from the back of her eminently rational mind to whisper that she could win something greater.

She pushed the half-formed thought away. She wasn’t there for hearts and flowers. Olivia needed strategies and advantages. The hardest fight of her life loomed and she’d use any weapon at her disposal—including her body—to win. She leaned forward and pressed her breasts to Cody’s chest.

Immediately, her nipples beaded. Lungs locking, she rubbed her breasts over him, loving the sensation radiating out from the hardened peaks. It had been too long since they’d felt so good. Her torso tingled and ropes of need looped down farther and farther to connect with her clit as she pressed to Cody’s groin.

With a small grunt, he opened his lips. Olivia surged in, licking gently before thrusting boldly. She tasted him and teased, thrilled when he surrendered to her invasion and kissed her back, just as thoroughly, just as heatedly. A luscious, intoxicating joining… She reached for more.

The muscles between her thighs clenched. She moved over his growing erection, but Cody pushed her back again. For one exciting moment, their minor tussle had her desire spiking and her pussy flooding, but then Cody ripped his mouth from hers.

Tipping his head back, he said, “That was a kiss. Now, it’s late and you should probably go.”

Olivia twisted his curls around her fingers. “I could stay.”

“No.” He took a massive breath, then his biceps hardened beneath his shirt sleeves and he pushed her off his lap. Cody quickly stood, no less unsteady than she was. “I’m tired. This has been…an interesting day, Olivia. I…think I just need some time to process everything.”

Eugene always grew exponentially more stubborn when he was tired. Considering the little she really knew about Cody—in spite of what she’d told him—she had to assume he would react the same way, and she’d already spent a huge portion of the evening ramming facts, figures and cute anecdotes down his throat in an effort to gain his sympathy.

Deciding the best tactic would be to let the man stew in his own lust for the rest of the night, she nodded. “Will you come over to the Raines Ranch tomorrow? I’d love to show you the property.”

“I’ve got…some stuff to look over, then I’ll be going to the hospital.”

“Come in the evening, after Eugene’s therapy. I’ll take you around a little, show you the pond where the stream crosses onto your land and the back scrub acreage Eugene lets me use. Then I’ll feed you dinner and you can meet some of the people who work for me.”

“We’ll see,” he hedged.

She wouldn’t take no for an answer. One way or another, Olivia vowed to garner Cody’s support in protecting her dreams.