Page 17 of Her Boss, Her Rancher: Sunrise On The Ranch

Emma leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes. “Pretend away. I’m going to silently brainstorm ways to chisel guest receipts into stone. I have a good connection at UPS. Maybe I can get a deal on shipping the stone tablets to guests as keepsakes after they’ve gone home.”

Cade chuffed out an involuntary laugh. He admired her grit. Seriously, how could he not?

“Laugh away, chump,” she continued. “I’m going to have you computer literate and making online reservations before I leave,” she groused.

“You’d be better off spending your days teaching a pig to fly as you would getting me to use a damned computer.”

“We’ll see,” she said with far too much confidence for his comfort.

The quiet that fell between them then was comfortable, even easy. It gave Cade a chance to realize he’d been an ass. For all they’d shared, nothing excused his behavior. He’d been mostly responsible for what had gone down between them. He’d tried for suave, tried to come across as somewhat sophisticated, but he was sure even his best efforts were pathetic in the face of Emma’s worldliness. It struck him then, what made them different. The woman hadclass—the kind of polish that couldn’t be manufactured.

The idea they might have a little something together while she was here had been a delusion. What an utter fool he’d proven himself to be.

But he still wanted her. It clouded his mind, made his brain short-circuit. It was annoying, being so out of control over a woman he didn’t really know—even after he’d been so incredibly intimate with her. And yeah, it had been intimate.

He wasn’t the love ’em and leave ’em type. That was his little brother’s MO. Cade was privately referred to as Father Covington by a group of single women in the area because he never got involved with anyone. And here he’d taken a near-perfect stranger over the tailgate of his truck in the middle of a rainstorm. Not just any stranger, either, but one he assumed was far more accustomed to silk sheets and five-star hotels, not the nature experience he’d given her. There was no way she’d be interested in him after that.

Doesn’t stop you from wanting her all over again, his subconscious whispered.

“Shut up,” he muttered.

Emma glanced at him. “Pardon?”

“Forget it. Talking to myself.”And doesn’tthatquite nicely sum up the head case you’ve become in the few hours since you met her?

Cade focused on the road, watching with a growing sense of unease as the shadowy outline of the Bar C’s main gate was revealed in the headlights’ glow.

They were here.

EMMAWISHEDMOREof the ranch was visible. She was curious about where Cade came from. After his very,verypersonal welcome, she was curious about who he really was when he wasn’t seducing the pants—or little black dress—off some wide-eyed, holy-crap-he’s-all-man city girl.

He’d gone from somewhat conversational to absolute silence the moment they passed under the ranch’s sign. The farther down the wide dirt road they went, the thicker the tension in the cab became. She rolled down her window and reveled in the night. Besides the sound and light from the truck, silence ruled supreme out here. Then the forlorn mooing of a cow reached her, eliciting a wide smile.

“What?” The surly question drew her attention away from the window and to Cade’s chiseled face, his expression made all the more harsh by the dash lights.

“Nothing. It’s just...”

“Just what?” he asked in the same tone.

“No need to be a jerk. It’s just that I’ve never heard a cow moo until now.”

He reached up and settled his hat tighter to his head, small wisps of hair flipping out from under the band. “It’s called lowing when they bawl like that.”

“Good to know.” Deflating a little, she peered out the window in time to see a brown body dart away from the truck. A cold chill ran up her spine. “What was that?”

Cade lifted one shoulder in an approximation of a shrug. “Coyote.”

“As in Wile E.?” She hung out the window, trying to get a better look.

“As in ‘kills newborn calves before their mamas can get up to defend them,’” he answered.

Well,thathad squashed the goodwill she’d felt toward her favorite childhood underdog. “Thanks for that happy image,” she murmured, rolling up her window.

“I just don’t want you getting the idea that life out here is all fun and games. It can be dangerous and there are things that might hurt you, things you’d never see coming.”

“What, like you?” The calm of her voice surprised her. She’d imagined the words emerging as a shouted accusation. “Is this your way of warning me you’re going to hurt me before this is all over?”

“No.” He sighed heavily. “I didn’t mean it that way.”