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“In a way, it is. We’re practically self-sufficient with our own water supply, an auxiliary generating station, sewer system and all the utilities. There’s two small fire trucks, a garage for repairing vehicles, not to mention a grade school for the younger kids, a veterinary facility, a totally equipped first-aid station, and a commissary.”
“I’d like to see all of it.” She sighed and snuggled closer. “It’s cooler out here than I realized. Why don’t you put your arm around me and keep me warm?”
“Why don’t you go inside and get a jacket?” But Ty didn’t object when she shifted his arm to curve it around her and buried herself deeper into his side.
“This is better, isn’t it?”
“Stop it, Tara.”
“I’m glad you came home tonight.”
It was not the words so much as the way she said them, as if she had already made it her home and she would always be here waiting for him. Her upturned head made an invitation of her glistening lips. The urge was too strong and the habit of kissing them too deeply embedded in his memory. Before his mouth ever reached her lips, she was turning into him.
The heated contact jolted him and Ty started to pull back, but her slim hands were around his neck, their insistent pressure not letting him go. Her lips were all over his, breathing their drugging sweetness into his mouth and eating him until the blood was hammering so loudly in his brain he couldn’t think.
He was suddenly angry, hating the weakness that made him putty in her hands. He gripped her wrists and pulled them down from his neck, breathing hard as he broke the kiss. But his anger didn’t stop the need that trembled through him.
“No games,” he insisted.
“Why must you be so dense?” Impatience broke through her before she made one of her lightning changes of mood. “You leave a girl no pride.” Her drawling voice was provocative and gay. “I’ve come nearly halfway across the continent to tell you I was wrong—to try to make up for the mistake I made. What do I have to do before you’ll ask me to stay?”
“For what purpose? To torment me all over again?” Muscles snapped along his jawline, tension running rampant through him.
“No.” She tipped her head, looking at him in a way that both promised and withheld. “I know words aren’t enough, Ty. But give me a chance to show you that I mean them.”
He listened, beaten by the knowledge that he was unable to deny he wanted her to stay. “You have your chance, but I won’t be batting at any more strings.” He’d not give her an easy time of it.
She saw that. For a moment, she saw beyond that to a point in time where she would have to offer herself and accept his terms. Instead of dreading that moment of absolute surrender, she was stunned by the pleasurable rush of anticipation. She had stepped so carefully around her emotions for so long it was an exciting thought to let them take over just once.
“We’ll have fun together. You’ll see.” Her dark eyes gleamed with knowing secrecy.
Ty didn’t know what was going on in her head, but the look in her eyes, so confident and alluring, made his blood run hot. “We’d better go inside before you get chilled.”
“Tell me, Daddy.” Tara strolled along, linked arm in arm with her father as she escorted him to the waiting plane. She permitted a playful smugness to enter her expression when she looked at him. “Would you still like it if I became Mrs. Calder.”
His stopover at the Triple C had been brief, not allowing any private moments between father and daughter until now. Dyson’s look was proud and amused.
“Ty’s come around, has he?”
“Not completely, but he will.”
Tara surveyed her surroundings with a proprietorial air. Beyond the airstrip with its hangared aircraft and squatty helicopters, she could see the many roofs of the headquarter buildings and the stately Homestead, plus all the vast, open land that encompassed them. Dyson observed her expression with a dry smile.
“You’re already visualizing yourself as lady of the manor, aren’t you?”
“Someday I will be.” She was certain of it, all confidence. Then she swung around to him, gay and bright. “You can stay away longer than a month, can’t you? Surely you can find some excuse to delay your return.”
“I could, but I have a couple of important meetings that I’m not going to postpone—even for you.”
“Here? Who with?”
“A couple of Calder’s neighbors. Actually I’ll be back in about three weeks, but I’ll be staying in Miles City, then fly up from there when I’m finished.”
“If they’re neighbors, why aren’t you staying here?”
“Because I don’t like to conduct deals in the house of a third party,” he replied evenly. “Besides, I don’t believe Calder would approve of my plans. It’s better if he doesn’t know what I’m doing until after it’s done. He might try to influence his neighbors not to accept my deal, and I’d just as soon not lock horns with that range bull.”
“What are you and Stricktin after?” He was being mysterious again, the way he always was when they were planning some big, new venture.
