Wild Ride Rancher

“It’s that important to you.”

It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway. “Yes. It is.” Her dreams had been systematically flattened by her father, who instead wanted her to marry well, have children and run the various charities he approved of. Not that she didn’t someday want a husband and kids—but on her terms. And no matter what happened here with Liam Morrow, she was never going to surrender control of her life to anyone else.

Chloe took another breath and confessed, “This would be a test case, sort of. If it took off here, the idea could spread to other ranches, heck, other states.”

“Big plans,” he mused.

“You bet,” she agreed, flashing him a quick look and a smile. “At some point, I want to buy land myself. Set up a permanent camp. Buy horses, cattle, hire wranglers, and have a place where girls can go to dream.”

She watched him take her measure and saw that he wasn’t amused by her dreams, her plans. That was a step in the right direction.

“I can see how important this is to you,” he said. “But I’m not convinced yet.” He shifted his focus from her to the computer screen, then scrolled down the images she had posted.

“I haven’t finished my pitch yet,” she reminded him. And he hadn’t walked out yet, either. Good sign? “If you’ll check the map I posted, you’ll see where I want to set up the tents.”

“Tents,” he repeated. “And with all these girls there, what were you thinking of using for bathroom facilities?”

Chloe winced. This was one of the sticking points she was still working out. “I thought they could use the bunkhouse—”

“I don’t think the ranch hands living there would go for that.”

“It wouldn’t be easy, true.” Actually, she hated the idea of the girls using the bunkhouse bathroom. Because it would be awkward along with a host of other possible problems. “But if that doesn’t work, then maybe Sterling would let them use the bathroom off the kitchen.”

“Know about that, do you?” His gaze shifted to hers.

She smiled. “I’ve been to the Perry Ranch many times.”

“Yeah. For parties.”

“You say that like an insult.”

“I don’t have a lot of time for parties.”

“Well, maybe you should make time,” Chloe countered. “It might help you lighten up a little.”

“I don’t do light.”

She sighed. Seriously, the man was sex on a stick, but his personality was so prickly, she wondered if anyone ever got close enough to find out if he was as good in bed as she thought he was.

“All right then,” she offered. “We could bring in Porta Potties for the week.”

He snorted. “And portable showers?”

“These are just tiny details that I can figure out later,” she said, exasperation setting in. “You’re being deliberately confrontational. I wonder why.”

He unfolded his arms and tucked his hands into the back pockets of his faded jeans. “Because it’s my job to look out for the ranch.”

“It’s not like a handful of girls would be there to destroy anything.”

One eyebrow winged up. “Just the working routine for the ranch hands.”

“Briefly,” she reminded him. “I’m thinking camp would be a week long. And I’m sure we could work out the bathroom issue,” she insisted, and made a mental note to talk to the housekeeper at the Perry Ranch. Chloe was pretty sure the woman would allow a few girls to use her shower for a week.

“Look, this would be a test case. To see if there are enough girls interested.”

“And if there aren’t?”

“Then I drop it,” Chloe said, then added quickly, “but there will be. If Sterling goes along with this, we could hold one camp week a month. I could even pay to have a bunkhouse with bathrooms built on the land.” Inwardly she winced at the idea of taking money out of her savings to do it, but it would be worthwhile.

“So when you eventually move your camp somewhere else—”

Chloe shrugged. “Sterling will have a new bunkhouse he didn’t have to build.”

Outside, the world darkened and the wide front window rattled with a gust of wind. The rain against the glass was heavier now, a continuous assault, and pedestrians hurried along the sidewalk, looking for cover.

Liam straightened up, looked down at her and Chloe felt a rush of heat. Amazing that a man who irritated her so much could cause such a reaction.

“You said at some point you’ll be looking for a permanent place?”

“Well,” she said, amazed that he would ask, “yes. This isn’t a one-off thing. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I really believe that girls will love it.”

“Uh-huh,” he answered wryly. “And you think Sterling will be willing to just donate you a piece of his ranch to have children running loose?”

Truthfully, she didn’t know if he would or not. That would be lovely, but she had plans if that didn’t happen. “I can buy land from him or maybe even another rancher not far from Houston.”

He snorted.

She was really getting tired of that sound.

“Of course you can.”

Chloe frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Ranchers don’t often sell their land. They’re more interested in adding acreage to their spread. But, then again, women like you are used to getting exactly what they want from men.”

“Women like me?” Irritation rose up and quickly bristled into temper. Okay, yes, she was wildly attracted to the man, but she wasn’t going to stand there and be insulted. “What exactly does that mean?”

“Hey, hey, rein in your temper. No offense meant,” he said, holding up one hand for peace. “I only meant that nothing comes that easy to most people. But a pretty woman can persuade a man to do most anything.”

“Wow.” She simply stared at him. “You’re not a cowboy. You’re a Neanderthal.”

“Might be, but I notice you’re not disagreeing,” he pointed out.

It would have been hard to, as much as Chloe wanted to let him have it. Hadn’t she seen it for herself most of her life? Heck, her own mother could still play Chloe’s father like a finely tuned piano. And in the social circles Chloe knew best, girls were practically trained how to do the same. Pretty women turned on the charm, and that usually worked long enough for them to get their way.

“All right, there may be some truth to what you said...”

He nodded.

“But,” she added, “pretty doesn’t last. I use my brain, Liam. I work for what I want, and I don’t use my looks or my name to take me where I want to go.”

He studied her for a long couple of seconds. “I can see that. So sorry. Again. Look, I’m not a caveman and I’m not stupid. What you’re trying to do is pretty tough, but if you can convince me that you can run this camp without interfering with the work on the ranch, then I’ll take it to Sterling.” He stopped, looked at her. “After that, it’s up to you and Sterling what you work out between you. But I will say I don’t see him selling you a piece of his spread.”

Chloe took a breath and let it out again. She hadn’t expected him to apologize or to give her respect. She just wished she knew if he meant it or if he was just trying to placate her. Either way, arguing with Sterling’s representative wasn’t going to get her anywhere, and the bottom line was, what he thought of her didn’t matter in the slightest. She’d been alternately dismissed, overlooked and had assumptions made about her for years. Those who stood outside a wealthy family and thought it was all cotton candy and carnivals were invariably wrong, but it was nearly impossible to convince them of that.

Chloe’s life had been easy as far as money went. But a soul could starve even if the body was well fed.

Yet she gave him a bright smile anyway and saw a flicker of something dart across those amazing blue eyes. It was there and gone again so quickly, she couldn’t be sure exactly what it was, but her body reacted anyway. Honestly, it was getting harder to keep her mind on the business at hand—in spite of the irritation he could spike in an instant. Still, she tried.

“Okay, like I said before, what I want to do is introduce the girls to ranch life,” she said, warming to her theme the second she started talking. “Most of them will be from the city and completely unaware of a world where there isn’t traffic and noise and so many lights you can’t see the stars at night.”

He gave her a thoughtful look. “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”

“I grew up in Houston, and the only time I got to see the stars was when I visited my grandfather in El Paso.”

“Is that what fixated you on ranch life?’

“It is,” she said as memories flooded her mind. Smiling to herself, she admitted, “Once my father sold my ‘dream ranch,’ I spent lots of time with my grandfather. I’m sure I got in the way plenty, but I helped the men working for my grandfather whenever I was there. They taught me how to care for a horse, how to ride and that hard work was the only kind of success that mattered.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Your father was okay with that?”

“No, not really,” she admitted. “But my mom was. She’d grown up on that ranch, and wanted me to have the same experiences. Mom died when I was fourteen, so the visits to the ranch ended. My grandfather died a couple of years later, and my father sold that ranch too.”

Nodding, he asked, “So you’re doing all of this as a way of spitting in your dad’s eye?”

Surprised, she had to admit, “No. Well, in a way, that’s true, I guess. Hadn’t really thought about it, but yes. I’m a disappointment to him, I suppose, but my younger sister, Ellen, is exactly the type of daughter he wanted us both to be.”

One corner of his mouth lifted briefly, and Chloe felt a quick rush of heat.

“And what kind of daughter is that?”

“Malleable,” she said with the slightest twinge of sorrow. “I love my sister, but she’s more willing to let our father direct her life than I am. And wow, that sounded terrible, didn’t it?” Guilt roared into life inside her. “We’re not very close and I regret that, but I just don’t...get her, I guess.”

And why was she making this confession to a man she didn’t even know?

“I can understand that,” he said. “I don’t really get you, either.”

Chloe laughed. “Okay, that’s honest. I like honest. But seriously, what’s not to get?” She’d been completely forthright, and actually even more truthful than she’d determined to be. Why for heaven’s sake had she told him about her parents and her sister and her grandfather? That had nothing to do with this meeting. “I don’t know why, but for some reason I’m telling you things I had no intention of telling, so you probably know me better by now than my sister does.”

“All right,” he conceded with a nod, “maybe it’s not that I don’t get you—but more that you’re not what I expected.”

“You mean I’m not talking about manicures and my last trip to Paris?”

He shrugged, and that action made his chest shift and move in a really enticing way. Keep your mind on the camp, Chloe.

So she gave him a bright smile. “Well, then, I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

“You really should,” he told her and his blue eyes flashed again, threatening her concentration abilities. “So show me more.”

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