Branded by a Callahan
“Pretty sure my fuses are fine.” He was enormously pleased with the turn of events. Ana was awesome, just like he’d always suspected, and the best part was that the woman of his dreams wanted to have his baby.
It couldn’t be denied that he was catnip to the sweet thing. “I’m going to take good care of you, Ana.”
“Keep talking, and you’ll probably find yourself in trouble,” she said sweetly, and he said, “I like trouble. Trouble is a good friend of mine,” before taking her hand in his as they hurried to make their escape.
* * *
THEY FOUND A SMALL, run-down motel in a one-horse town that didn’t look as if it ever had much traffic. They were still in Texas, but hundreds of miles east of Hell’s Colony. The owner was friendly and offered them breakfast in the morning if they were willing to get up early. “I like to start my knitting at eight, and once I start, I don’t like to stop,” she said with a genuinely friendly smile. “If I’m on my quilting, I definitely don’t quit.”
Ana looked at Dante, figuring he’d go for the breakfast over sleep. He shrugged at her, so she said, “I think we’ll be gone by eight, Mrs. Adams. But thank you.”
“I’ll put together a couple of sack breakfasts, then.” She waved them to a room upstairs and told them to sleep comfortably and not to mind any rattling they might hear. “It’s just the air conditioner,” she said helpfully, and Ana closed their bedroom door with a little relief.
“I thought she was going to say she had a ghost,” Ana said. “These small towns always have a ghost, don’t they?”
She pulled off the new moccasins Dante had bought her in a small outpost trading store. They were soft and comfortable, but they weren’t as cute as her cork sandals.
“What have you got against ghosts?” Dante asked, lounging on the bed, hands behind his head. “Rancho Diablo’s got ghosts.”
“So I hear.” She didn’t believe it. Every once in a while Fiona got wound up about the ghosts and spirits that hung around the ranch, and Ana just listened to the tales, not about to give credence to one thing Fiona said. “I’m going to shower.”
“Ladies first.” He grinned, a sexy devil, and Ana wondered why he didn’t seem more concerned about the fact that she had her eyes on him for a baby.
“While I’m in here, you can ask that nice Mrs. Adams if you could use the phone,” she suggested.
“For what?”
“To call home, E.T.” She sighed. “Dante, we don’t want to walk all the way back to Hell’s Colony.”
“Oh. That.” He shrugged. “I’ve got my mobile in my pocket.”
She blinked. “Is there a reason we’ve been walking for miles and you haven’t called for a pickup?”
“I like your company, sugar.”
He was so aggravating that Ana wondered for a split second if she’d chosen the right man to give her a child.
Lord, yes. She had no second thoughts about that. She’d waited over a year to cross her professional boundaries and finally succumb to the die-hard attraction she had for this man. “I like yours, too, Dante,” she said, trying to hang on to her temper. “But I think we’d like each other’s company so much better if we weren’t running from goons.”
“Safer this way.” He shrugged. “We’ll wait another day before we call. I’ve got my mobile when we’re ready, got my wallet, got you, doll.” He grinned. “What else does a man need?”
“Okay.” She went into the bathroom, turned on the shower. Callahans were known to be wired differently, so she couldn’t say she was surprised that he’d choose walking across the state of Texas in dirty clothes preferable to calling for family pickup. She opened the door again. “Do you think you ought to let your family know we’re fine?”
“They know. I texted them immediately once you untied my hands.” He grinned, the biggest rascal on the planet. “You didn’t notice because you were trying to protect me from our kidnappers as we walked. I just let you think you were doing all the work, angel.”
She closed the bathroom door with a bit of force. “The apple didn’t fall far from his brother apples,” she muttered, stripping down.
A knock on the door made her jerk a towel to cover herself. “Yes?”
“Just wondering if I should scope out the bathroom for you this time.”
She glanced around the tiny bath. “Think I’ve got it under control.”
“Good to hear. If you don’t mind, if you won’t be nervous being left, I think I’m going to go scare us up some food.”
Why had he mentioned her being afraid? She was a bodyguard, her job was to protect, and technically, she was protecting Callahans, under which labeling he could be claimed. But he seemed to think she was just a girl, an ornament, and probably figured her main worth was cooking and cleaning.
He’d be really surprised when he learned that she couldn’t cook and didn’t clean a bit. She was a girl who worked, and she hadn’t gone to bodyguard training to jump when a big lug like him snapped his chauvinistic fingers at her.
“I’m fine,” she said, somewhat curious that he hadn’t bothered to slip into the shower with her with some dumb excuse about conserving water for the diligent, quilting Mrs. Adams.
“Be right back.”
There was silence after that. Ana enjoyed a long hot shower, and even considered taking a bath and soaking her feet. After several hours of walking, through some terrain one couldn’t exactly call smooth because Dante was determined that they stay hidden from main roads where they might be seen—her feet weren’t exactly thrilled with the treatment they’d endured.
They’d be home soon enough. She’d go for a manicure and pedicure with River, indulge in some girly maintenance, the kind meant to lure her cowboy into bed since he didn’t seem all that inclined to get there real fast on his own.
Maybe he was more worried about the baby-making scheme than he’d let on.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Ana?”
“Yes?” She hesitated, wondering if he wanted—finally!—in the shower with her.
“Just letting you know I’m back.”
Ana thought about proffering a sexy invitation, decided if he was interested he would have figured out a way to share the shower with her. “Thanks.”
He opened the door a sliver. Laid something on the counter. She peeked around the cloth shower curtain at the pile of clothes he’d placed there. “What’s that?”
“A dress Mrs. Adams thinks will fit you, and some girl stuff she’d just picked up for her daughter. She says the dress is her daughter’s, and should be a close fit. If you hurry and send her your clothes, she’ll wash them for you. For us,” he amended. “She seemed concerned that we’d been walking and didn’t have what she called the basics of life.”
He was thinking of basics and she was thinking about his body. “Thank you, Dante.”
“No problem. Mrs. Adams is really nice. She sent us a tray of salad and cold chicken. You hungry?”
For him, yes. “I could stand to eat.” She shut off the water, got out, toweled off. Glancing over the clothes, she wasn’t crazy about the idea of a dress, but she held it up to her. Actually, the dress wasn’t bad. It was a soft cotton with short sleeves, not stylish, but a cute turquoise blue. Comfy for traveling. Wouldn’t look entirely horrible with the moccasins Dante had bought her. “Mrs. Adams’s daughter must be young?”
“About your age,” Dante said cheerfully. “Mrs. Adams said that if you ever decide to kick me to the curb, I’m to come back and let her introduce me to her daughter, Suz. Apparently, Suz is a helluva cook.”
“That’s just nice,” Ana muttered, slipping on the dress. She rinsed out her under things and laid them out to dry. “I’m taking a shower thinking about you, you ape, and you’re out trolling for girls.”
“Did you say something, cupcake?” he asked through the door.
“No, stud muffin,” she replied, ever so sweetly.
He cracked open the door, looked in at her with a big grin. “I thought I heard you say something about a stud muffin. I think that’s girl talk for hot, sexy guy, and the only one of those around is me.”
“Really.” She had no idea how to puncture his oversized ego. “Zip me, please?”
“Glad to help.” He reached to zip the dress, came to a complete halt.
“Something wrong?” she asked, her voice concerned and innocent—but since her panties were drying on the counter and the zipper just crested the top of her bare fanny, she had a pretty good idea what had him stuck.
“Uh...no. Nothing at all.”
She watched him surreptitiously in the bathroom mirror. He swallowed, then suddenly reached out, zipped her up fast. Jumped out of the bathroom as though he was attached to a rocket. Clapped his Stetson on his head.
“You ready to eat?” Dante asked.
“Sure am,” she said cheerily, knowing he’d have to try to eat dinner with her wearing nothing under a soft, pretty dress. She smiled, and he looked cornered, and Ana almost took pity on him.
But, no. If he wanted to play reluctant prince, she could play unattainable princess. Naked-under-this-blue-dress princess. She walked past him, enjoyed his hangdog face of absolute suffering. “Are you all right, Dante?”
“I’m fine. Thanks. At least I think so.”
He looked stricken. Cast a fast glance over her body, tried to act as if he wasn’t thinking about what he’d just seen. Ana held her breath, enjoying ruffling that famous Callahan ego just a bit.
Maybe tonight this cowboy would overcome his resistance and fall into her arms.
Chapter Four
Ana was going to kill him. Plain and simple, and hardly lifting a finger to do it, Ana St. John was going to give Dante cardiac arrest at the ripe old age of nearly twenty-eight.
Either she was deliberately trying to seduce him, or he just couldn’t think about anything but sex around her. Yet it wasn’t just sex, though he wished it was. He was crazy about this woman, had been for months.
She talked about wanting his child, but he knew she just had baby overload. Ana had spent too much time around Sloan and Kendall’s adorable twins, and naturally—quite naturally, in his opinion—she had decided that a baby was what she wanted, too. A child of her own.
The thing was, she’d settled on him—and granted, he was stocked full of testosterone-charged, baby-making potential—but he really wasn’t in a position to simply scatter his seed to the wind and then have his little baby mama disappear.
No. He needed some commitment, a relationship, yes, a marriage, before any of his swimmers could be set free to do their wondrous thing. Yet he was not a marrying man...at least, he’d never thought much about it. Hadn’t thought about it at all. Ever. Dante sat in the back of Ash’s truck, and Ana sat up front, chatting away with his sister, who’d come to their rescue after he’d finally surrendered and realized he had to call for backup.
He’d had no other option, though he believed it would be safer for his family if he and Ana stayed undercover for a while longer. But he could not spend a night in a bed with Ana and not fall into hot, sweet temptation. He was only so much man where she was concerned, and he had to draw a line between him and her that he wouldn’t cross.
“Don’t you think, Dante?”
His sister’s voice jerked him from studying the slope of Ana’s shoulder as she sat in the passenger seat, blissfully unaware of his heated admiration of her. Ashlyn’s gaze settled on his in the rearview mirror, and he was pretty certain his sister was laughing at him.
“Think what?” he demanded a bit crossly.
“Think that this is all related. Those troublemakers that grabbed you guys are the same ones who did this before. It has to be linked.”
He nodded. “Stands to reason.”
“Then we go find your uncle Wolf and tell him that enough is enough,” Ana said. “No doubt Dante will enjoy beating him to a pulp.”
“Uh—” Dante blinked, considered how macho he needed to appear. “We actually don’t believe in beating our uncle to a pulp. Well, actually, we might, but Running Bear says no.”
“Oh. So you’re using your wits instead of weapons. I admire that.” Ana turned around to look at him, and he felt himself appreciating for the thousandth time her sexy green eyes. Kind of an emerald tone, a bright forest green overlaid with honey, and he—
“Dante,” Ashlyn said, interrupting his heated thoughts, and Ana turned back around. “When’s the last time you heard from Tighe?”
“I don’t know.” He didn’t figure he’d thought much about his twin since he’d been in Ana’s radius. “We’re not joined at the hip.”
“That’s news to me,” Ash said.
“Old news,” Dante said. “Tighe’s like a cat. He’ll come home when he’s ready.”
“But it’s not like him not to check in,” Ashlyn pressed, and Dante finally caught his sister’s underlying message.
“You think something’s happened to him?”
“We don’t know what to think. Tighe can be hardheaded, and with you not traveling with him to be the communicator—”
He scowled at his sister’s reflection. “Tighe has a mouth that works perfectly fine. I wasn’t always the communicator.”
“Yes, you were,” Ashlyn insisted. “It was always you who kept in touch with the family. We always called Tighe The Silent One. In fact, Galen calls him Silent-but-deadly, and he swears it’s because of his work in the military, but it’s still rude and I let him know it.”
Dante could hear Ana giggling in the front seat. “So was I Not-silent-and-not-deadly?”
“We just called you Oprah,” Ash said cheerfully. “We could always count on you to have something to talk about.”
Well, wasn’t it just nice for his sister to air all his dirty laundry in front of the woman he was dying to impress? The woman who now knew that not only was he not a fighter, a tough guy, but he was considered a hen by his family? “Thanks, I think,” he said, and Ana and Ash dissolved in giggles.
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?”
Fiona tapped a velvet-cushioned seat and Ana reluctantly joined her. “I set my cap, but now it’s unset. So there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, now.” Fiona gave her a knowing smile. “A girl doesn’t unset her cap that quickly. Does she?”
“She does if the man in question is too much of a—”
Fiona smiled. “Gentleman?”
How could she tell this kindly soul that her nephew was a devil with an incurable wild streak? “I was thinking perhaps of a different word.”
“I know.” Fiona nodded. “A sweetheart. You feel like you’re taking advantage of him.” She patted her hand. “Dante is such a good boy. He’d make a fine husband, Ana. Don’t feel bad about setting the female trap to catch him. Men really love to be caught, even though they claim they don’t.”
“Oh, dear.” Ana hardly knew what to say. How to explain that since she’d been back to Rancho Diablo—they’d arrived late last night, and Dante had told his brothers of their highway adventure with no great sense of shame for luring their kidnappers right back to them, a story his brothers had enjoyed with great back-thumping and cocky admiration—she realized she’d made a mistake? “Here’s the thing, Fiona. Dante’s just not my type.”
“Not your type?” Fiona looked stunned. “But River says he’s been your type for over a year!”
Ana felt a little blush warm her face for the fib. She wasn’t about to say that had been all sexual attraction. “Two days in a truck with him changed my mind.”
Fiona sniffed. “Ana, don’t be scared of how much you care for my nephew. I know you’re trying to protect yourself, but he really does have a heart of gold.”
And the soul of a wild man. “I’m not looking for a husband. I just wanted a child of my own.”
Silence stretched between them for a second. “Dante will never settle for less than marriage, I feel certain, if a child is involved.”
“That’s completely understandable.” Secretly, she wouldn’t mind a wedding ring from that hunk. Yet with his reputation for staying wild and free, she wasn’t allotting any dreams for marriage.
“So, it’s not that my boy is too much of a rascal for you, it’s that you’re too gidgety for him. That’s a first, I must say.” Fiona rose, paced around the attic for a moment, then stopped and peered at Ana. “You don’t seem like a gidget to me.”
“I don’t know what a gidget is,” Ana said.